#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #RUSSIA #ANARCHISM #LIBRARY #News #Journal #Update - (en) #Russia, #avtonom: It was in #Russia: the seizure of the Vyborg Pulp and Paper Mill by workers (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Not so long ago we talked about the seizure of factories and plants in Argentina,

but as our subscribers rightly noted, something similar, but, unfortunately, on a
much smaller scale and with its own specifics, happened in the modern history of
Russia. ---- In the late 1990s, there were several attempts by workers to gain
control over their enterprise in one way or another. We will talk about the most
successful of them - the Vyborg Pulp and Paper Mill, and try to compare it with
the story of the seizure of the Zanon ceramics factory by Argentinean workers.
---- o, the Vyborg Pulp and Paper Mill (hereinafter PPM). This enterprise is
located in the village of Sovetsky near Vyborg. In the late 90s, more than 2,000
people worked at this enterprise, and it was actually a city-forming one. There
was practically no other work in the village. In the 90s, the enterprise was
privatized and, through a simple scheme of contracting firms that supplied raw
materials at inflated prices and bought products at low prices, was brought to
bankruptcy. The beneficiaries of this whole process, of course, were the owners
of the enterprise. They pursued a disgracefully simple goal - to pump funds into
their pockets and then evaporate, as if they were not there.

There were many such stories in those years, the capitalists preferred to play
short, taking off the jackpot, and then moved on to new goals. Workers, on the
other hand, remained for months and even years without wages, and then without
work, as the bankrupt enterprise closed and its assets, including expensive
equipment, were sold. So it would have been in this case, but everything went
according to a different scenario.

"Optimization" in the style of the 90s

The owners of the new company Nimonor Investments, which acquired the Vyborg Pulp
and Paper Mill, wanted to convert it into a sawmill, dismissing half of the
workforce. They replaced the security at the enterprise with their own and,
obviously, they could have just started the sale of "extra" assets, but the staff
of the enterprise formed a people's squad, which was supposed to protect the
enterprise along with the protection of the owners. Further, since people had not
received a salary for months, they organized a general meeting and created a
trade union committee from among the workers and local municipal deputies. About
them, we think, it is necessary to say separately.

Of course, as now, among the deputies there were many who were either themselves
a businessman or represented the interests of some business, but then the
notorious "vertical of power" had not yet been built, the elections had not yet
been completely reduced to fiction, and therefore the deputies could also include
people who were not built into the system and who were ready to fight it one way
or another. So it happened with some municipal deputies. In a sense, having such
people was a blessing. It is quite possible (but not necessarily) that without
them the workers would not have been able to successfully fight the owners of the
enterprise, but here a huge contrast with the situation with the occupation of
factories in Argentina is striking. There, the workers put forward leaders from
among themselves, and although, of course, there were various third-party
activists who helped them, but firstly, these activists were not deputies, and
secondly, the main organizational work at their enterprise was carried out by the
workers themselves. Well, and even more important, in many enterprises taken over
by Argentine workers, the practice of regular meetings of workers was introduced
to resolve all production and management issues. There was nothing like this at
the Vyborg Pulp and Paper Mill. Unfortunately, the habit of relying on people in
positions of power has proved to be very persistent in Russia. As we shall see
later, this will ruin all the good undertakings of the workers. in Russia proved
to be very persistent. As we shall see later, this will ruin all the good
undertakings of the workers. in Russia proved to be very persistent. As we shall
see later, this will ruin all the good undertakings of the workers.

So, the trade union committee gets to work. He is trying to force the authorities
to solve the problem with the lack of livelihoods for workers, to force, again
through the authorities, the owner of the enterprise to follow the agreement
under which he acquired the pulp and paper mill, namely, not to re-profile it and
keep all jobs. When it becomes clear that this is useless, the trade union
committee gathers a general conference of the enterprise's employees and at it a
decision is made to start production independently, without the owner. The
conference elects a new management of the pulp and paper mill and decides to
register the factory in a new form of ownership, as belonging to its labor
collective (ZAO Vyborg PPM). The tax authorities refuse to do this, but the
workers threaten to block the Scandinavia highway connecting Russia and Finland.

Struggle and results

On the day when people go out to block the road, the issue is resolved in less
than ten minutes. The enterprise is registered, and then the working team with
the newly elected management starts production at the Vyborg Pulp and Paper Mill
against the will of its formal owners. Further, in this form, the plant will work
for a little less than 2 years (from March 6, 1998 to January 18, 2000). There
will be several unsuccessful attempts to seize it as a raider from the side of
the new "owners" again (Nimonor Investments will sell the pulp and paper mill to
Alexander Sabodazh).

On the second attempt, the Typhoon special forces took over the enterprise. The
workers stormed the enterprise and forced the raiders to leave it, while the
workers were fired upon, and several of them were injured. We have already talked
about the purchase of weapons and the organization of the defense of the
enterprise, but the new owner, after the first failures, begins to act more
cunningly.

Realizing that it will not be possible to achieve his goal by force, he organizes
an economic blockade with the support of the authorities. All contracts with the
PPM were blocked, transport was not allowed to go there. This caused new delays
in wages. The head of the Vyborg Legislative Assembly, Rubinovich, who had
previously supported the workers, and the head of the trade union committee,
Kiryakov, who was associated with him, defected to the side of the new "masters".
In the end, it all ended in a banal bribery. The new owner began to pay workers
1,000-1,500 rubles each for signing an application form for transferring to work
from ZAO Vyborg Pulp and Paper Mill, and very soon more than half of the total
number of employees turned out to have such applications.

As you can see, reliance on the deputies let down the workers. As soon as they
were repurchased, the whole thing fell apart. Like Sabodage, but nationwide,
Putin has bribed the Russian working class with "stability," and as a result,
recent research shows that the main form of his struggle now is petitions   to power.

So what about in Argentina? The Zanon pottery factory (now FaSinPat) is still
under the control of the workers. Its capture gave rise to a whole movement to
organize workers' self-government at various enterprises. Thanks to this, in
Argentina we see a struggle between labor and capital. And its outcome is still
not a foregone conclusion. With us, everything is, to put it mildly, quite
different. However, nothing prevents us from learning from the lessons of the
past and not entrusting our fate to others. We are sure that sooner or later the
Russian working class will have a chance to correct this mistake. It is important
not to overlook it and again not to entrust the fight for your rights and
interests to someone else.

https://avtonom.org/news/eto-bylo-v-rossii-zahvat-rabotnikami-vyborgskogo-cbk
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