Belarus: The fight continues ...
ByJan Kryzhkevich
He 26 October, multi-plant workers, Belarusian companies and institutions announced the start of an indefinite strike. The strikers demand the resignation of Aliaksandr Lukashenka, the cessation of police violence and the release of all political prisoners.
The first day, the highest strike activity was observed in such enterprises as Grodno Azot, the Minsk Electrotechnical Plant, the Minsk Motor Plant, the Minsk Automobile Plant, the Minsk Tractor Plant, the Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant, the Minsk Refrigerator Plant, Belorusneft and Belaruskali.
The strike was supported by many students from almost all universities in the country, as well as science workers, culture, art and even schoolchildren. Doctors who have no moral right to stop working, organized unprecedented solidarity actions in support of strikers across the country.
The authorities reacted immediately.. By direct order of Lukashenka, the massive dismissals of strikers from the companies began, students were disenrolled from universities, the solidarity chains of the doctors were dispersed, many of its participants were arrested.
The new round of repressions, with which the authorities attempt to root out the strike movement, sparked even greater outrage and protest in society than before. Certain university professors and administrators refuse to sign expulsion orders for their students, join the protests and resign on their own initiative. Solidarity actions with strikers are being carried out throughout the country, laid off, deregistered and detained. Industrial workers are actively using the “Italian strike” tactic.
The proclamation of a national strike without careful preparation, without the creation of strike committees in the companies and a strike committee at the national level, does not fit into traditional forms of strike fighting. But today there are no other options for resistance under the dictatorship. Any strike committee or workers' committee is instantly arrested and repressed. Thus, an employee goes on strike individually, by your own decision with open notice, which requires courage and determination. A) Yes, he 30 the October general strike was openly supported by the workers of the Belarusian Automobile Plant (BelAZ, Zhodzina).
The decentralization strategy underlying the Belarusian protests has proven its effectiveness. For almost three months the Belarusians have been carrying out their marathon of protests, no leaders or organizers, without stopping and without losing hope of victory. More and more people are involved in the process of nonviolent resistance, joining forces at the level of labor collectives, homes, neighborhoods and cities.
It is not real to resist the army and police armed to the teeth. To preserve your personal power, Lukashenka is ready to drown Belarus in blood and strangle it in retaliation.
From the 29 October, the border with Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine is closed. The authorities are actively creating the calls. "lightning units" (paramilitaries) of the ex-military. Punitive troops have been given carte blanche for the use of violence in any situation. Any citizen who comes into conflict with a government representative can be charged with assault, struck, arrested or killed. By the headquarters of law enforcement entities, more than once public statements have been made justifying the use of weapons of war against the civilian population.
Today in Belarus no one is immune to the arbitrariness of the military junta. The country is in a situation of legal bankruptcy. The famous doctors, despite the need for their participation in planned operations, popular artists, world famous scientists, the great athletes of Belarus, fall under arrest and are subjected to illegal courts. The exact death toll is still unknown., mutilated and disappeared during the protests. The Investigation Committee has not initiated any criminal case for beatings, torture, rapes and murders, but at the same time, there are about seven hundred cases pending against the protesters. More than two hundred people are accused by the authorities of organizing riots and attempts to overthrow the government, face prison terms of up to 10 a 15 years in prison. Lukashenka is trying to turn Belarus into a personal concentration camp, with which the Belarusian people will never agree and will fight until victory.
Peaceful protest is so far the only possible form of resistance in the Belarusian reality. The changes will begin when the protest movement affects all spheres of society, from schools to barracks.
The Lukashenka regime is degrading and disintegrating before our eyes. Not wanting to serve the dictatorship, the military, cops, court officials and prosecution, diplomats, officials of the Presidency, teachers and school principals, university rectors leave their posts on their own initiative. There are fewer and fewer professionals in power, whose growing deficit is being replaced by a poor and incompetent bureaucratic substrate. The fall of the regime is an inevitable prospect. It is a matter of time and the will of the Belarusian people.
What is happening in Belarus is inextricably linked with the dynamics of global processes. Today, the whole world rebels against the cynical lies and madness of the authorities. It would be naive to believe that the leaders of Western countries, who flirted with the Lukashenka regime yesterday and today angrily condemn it, will come to the aid of the Belarusian people. Belarus is just one of the cards in the games of global politics.
The world order that supports dictatorial regimes, justifies police violence and the killing of civilians, has no right to the future.
It only makes sense that the workers trust in their own strength and in international solidarity. Creating our political organizations and uniting internationally, we will be able to resist the global elites that are pushing the world towards a series of wars and an abyss of rightslessness.
Together we will win!
long live belarus!
