Malmo, 23.12. Solidarity Action with worker’s uprise in Kazakhstan and Russia

Submitted by Andreas Larsen on 24 December, 2011 - 20:15

Today, on December, 23, when capitalists divert the working class from fighting for their rights through the half-sectarian “Christmas traditions” and consumerism connected therewith, our international “Group of Anarcho-Communists” decided to remind of the sharpening of class struggles in Kazakhstan and Russia, as well as of International solidarity. In the city centre of Malmo, one of the largest cities of Sweden, we unfurled a banner “No to Nazarbayev! No to Putin! No to Capitalism!" on the “Christmas tree” that became one of the symbols of consumerism. Then we flared a fuse. We were also disseminating the leaflets explaining the sense of our action to the passers-by.

The latter responded to the action differently: some experienced a cultural shock due to the ‘desecration’ of the main ‘symbol of Christmas’, while the other expressed their unambiguous support. We believe that no one may hide head in the sand and celebrate, while in Kazakhstan the Nazarbayevite gangsters are shooting the striking workers, and in Russia the authorities are conducting the repressions against social activists and cracking down on the demonstrations of protest. In addition, we reminded the audience that only joint actions of the workers of different countries, united in international solidarity, may lead to victory over capitalism.

The text of the leaflet
On December, 16, the Independence Day of Kazakhstan, the oilfield workers who have been striking in Zhanaozen for more than half a year, gathered for a peaceful meeting of protest. During their action, the police organized a provocation – the column of protesters was run over by a police car at full speed. The workers responded by occupying administrative buildings and the office of the Ozenbunaigaz company. Nearly the total population joined the protest. Zhanaozen has practically been taken over by the rebelling people.

Soon the army (including the elite formation of the marines) entered the city. The workers were being shot to kill. At least 70 people were killed, with more than 800 wounded. There were clashes in the streets of Zhanaozen for about a day. Workers from other cities are joining the movement. There were many actions in solidarity with the workers of Zhanaozen throughout Kazakhstan, with many of them being dispersed in a harsh manner.

The massacre has been accompanied by an unprecedented media hysteria. Mobile phone connection and social networks in Zhanaozen were blocked soon after the beginning of the action. Most of the media, controlled by the bourgeois Nazarbaev’s tyranny, aim to present the workers that demand the settlement of socio-economic issues, end to the terror against independent activists, and release of political prisoners who were arrested for supporting the strikers, as “hoodlums hired by foreign intelligence services”. The information about actual numbers of victims of Nazarbaev’s terror was and is still suppressed.

Nothing will prevent capitalists from conducting crimes for the sake of saving their profits. In the countries where the bourgeois class rules by direct violence, such criminality is practiced almost openly. In Kazakhstan the army is shooting the workers, in Russia the protesters are beaten by special police forces. In “Western” countries the crimes of exploiters are committed in more obscure manner. But we must remember that the bourgeois class will destroy any social guarantees in case of need and will speak with workers in Nazarbaev’s style, using guns and armored vehicles. We, the oppressed, must face the monster of capitalism with our solidarity and fight for our goals together. The rights are not given, but taken!

We don’t need any owners, neither capitalists, nor the state. All the questions concerning the organization and management of production must be decided by the workers through the collective bodies of self-management. All the means of production must be held in collective ownership, everyone should have equal rights.

Today the workers of the whole world are showing their sympathy and solidarity with our Kazakh brothers. It is necessary to start the new period of our struggle against capitalism, exploitation and state. And when the old world is ruined before the new one is built, the people will remind to Putins, Nazarbaevs and other bloodsuckers that nothing is forgotten and no one is forgiven.

Death to capitalism!