Solidarity with the Kazakh people
increases. increases.
The trigger was the increase in gas. Decades of social needs and lack of freedomsdemocratictics ended up expressing themselves furiously. The government had to back down with the increase and unleashed a brutal repression that continued.a. The workers and youth who were on the front lines need the broadest international solidarity.
by RubI am Tzanoff
At present, above there is reckoning, below persecution and jail. Russian imperialism plays a leading role in the region, while the western powers are silent or endorse the repression for economic interests. We unambiguously stand on the side of the rebellion of the Kazakh people and in their active defense in the face of repression. At a stage where there will be new rebellions, it is necessary to draw conclusions about the challenges facing the most advanced elements of the working class and the revolutionary socialists.
The popular rebellion in Kazakhstan exposed the demands of the great majorities regarding unsatisfied social and democratic rights. It was a protest with mobilizations, clashes with repressive forces, barricades and burning of official buildings. The people rose up against exploitation, looting of natural resources, the dominance of transnational corporations and corruption. The rejection of the increase in 100% of liquefied gas was the fuse that caused the explosion. As a result, street protest pushed back raises, forced the resignation of a large number of authorities and cracked the current institutional framework. Nevertheless, failed to defeat the repression. Social motivations were the main motor of the protest, but not the only ones.
democratic libertiessevered ethics
The current president Kasym Tokayev was placed in power by Nursultan Nazarbayev, a wealthy former Stalinist bureaucrat who ruled for thirty years (1990-2019) and then he was named"Nation's Leader" for life. The mobilization was clear about the location of the real command, that's why he demanded, for the first time, “¡Viejo, haschat!”and forced the bureaucracy to have to remove it. He aimed at the top of the pyramid of the authoritarian regime, of such a dictatorial institutionality that long ago it prohibited independent unions, political parties and eliminated elementary democratic rights.
The usual answers and excuses
The government responded to the protest with the declaration of a state of emergency and a very violent repression. Since the beginning of the protests died 164 people, 12.000 they were arrested, there are thousands of wounded and they opened 300 criminal investigations. Surely the data exceeds what was released as official information.
President Tokayev said that“the wave of riots broke out under the guise of spontaneous protests. It was clear that the main objective was to undermine the constitutional order and seize power. We are talking about an attempted coup." The repression is justified by stirring up falsehoods as internal collusions, outsiders and the accusations of“terrorists”to the protesters.
Various NGOs operate in the country., Islamic nationalist and fundamentalist currents, whom the government strongly accused for what happened. Although they have not been playing a decisive role, It will be necessary to see how they act after the repression of the rebellion; if they run as opposition to the government and the regime, to capitalize on discontent and whether or not they achieve more support from the population.
Reckoning from above...
Put down the rebellion, President Tokayev, try to recover in two ways. The first, attacking Nazarbayev, his mentor, accusing him of having favored the emergence of a“rich caste” based on the principle of giving“everything for friends and laws for others”. Previously, the former head of the secret services, Karim Masimov, had been arrested., very close to Nazabayev, and other officials of the environment. The cynical settling of scores among the elite is a reflection of the cracks that the rebellion caused in the authoritarian regime.. After disappearing for several days, Nazarbayev returned to present himself publicly, to call for unity around Tokayev and ensure that there are no disputes on high.
chase below
The second way of recovery is the use of sophisticated Stalinist methods of defamation and provocation. The dictators of the post-Soviet countries are trying to convince the international community that the popular protest in Kazakhstan is an act of terrorist aggression by some hostile external forces.. Tokayev officially stated that around 20.000 foreign terrorists attacked Kazakhstan, but he could not explain how these armed militants arrived in the country or how they disappeared without a trace.
Mass repressions are intensifying. Security agents break into the houses of democracy activists, they beat them and take them out to an unknown destination. They were given the task of trying“clean" to everyone that, for his civil position, by protest or union activists, They are considered a threat to the government..
Russian imperialism as the central protagonist
Faced with fear of the scope of the protest, the authoritarian regime appealed for the help of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (OTSC) made up of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, increases, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, that they quickly sent in troops to try to re-establish control that the government had completely lost. The call for help coincided with the growing fears of Vladimir Putin, who warned that he will not tolerate"color revolutions" in the space dominated by the former USSR. Adding that Russian troops will not allow their partners to be destabilized either internally or externally.
After the repression with its balance of violence and death, Putin and his Kazakh partners announced the gradual start of the withdrawal of CSTO troops within a period of no more than ten days. We must denounce and demand an end to the foreign military presence and Russian political interference.
Russian imperialism views with growing fear the rise of the masses in the region and the deterioration of the governments that guard its borders in the face of a NATO increasingly on the offensive. This complicates Putin's expansionist plans and has recently forced him to invade part of Ukrainian territory and move large numbers of troops to the border, threatening all-out war if Ukraine joins NATO.. Last year he had to come out in support of the dictator Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus, which for weeks was harassed by the largest mobilization in decades. And now to support Tokayev and Nazarbayev in Kazakhstan, this time putting the CSTO into action and intervening militarily as had not happened in a long time. All this while social discontent grows within its own territory.
crossover of interests
Kazakhstan is on the board of geo-strategic movements of different powers. It is the largest country in Central Asia, with the world's largest uranium reserves and some of the largest oil and gas reserves. It is crossed by different interests, between Eastern Europe and Asia. The country was one of the fifteen republics that were part of the USSR and due to its geographical location it has communicating vessels with Turkey and with the Asian processes. another consequence, a bit surprising, was that instability caused the price of cryptocurrencies to fall, since Kazakhstan is the second country in the world to produce them, behind only the United States. Power and internet outages prevented further production of these digital currencies.
Those who endorsed the repression
Despite the horror of what happened in Kazakhstan, there are new or recycled Stalinists and reformists of all stripes who shamefully refuse to condemn the repression, falsifying the reality of what has happened. Openly defending the Russian and Chinese imperialist interventions by considering them progressive in relation to European and North American imperialism. These sectors have been siding with the counterrevolution against the workers and the peoples who rebel, endorsing the interference of the imperialists falsely considered"less bad".
And there is a relative and reprehensible silence on the part of the so-called"fatherdemocratic sesticos”. the reason is obvious: the interests of transnational capital intersected in Kazakhstan. U.S, China, Russia, Britain, Germany and the Netherlands are extremely interested in preserving the super profits of their companies, who have been shamelessly robbing the Kazakh people for three decades.
The imperialist bloc of the European Union makes propaganda in favor of the Western powers with the typical cynicism of an aggressive foreign policy that seeks to extend its political influence, economic and military by the East, under the umbrella of NATO. US imperialism criticized Russian interference, on the basis of supporting the repression by Kazakh forces. The US Secretary of State, Antony Blink, was very clear when he stated that the authorities and the government of Kazakhstan have the capacity to deal appropriately with the protests, while maintaining law and order.
Solidarity with the workers and the Kazakh people
The International Socialist League published a statement expressing the political proposals before the rebellion. With the continuation of repression and persecution: The International Socialist League repudiates the presence of Russian troops!, of the CSTO and the political interference of their governments, to suppress the rebellion in Kazakhstan! Expressing solidarity with the working people, we demand the unconditional end of repression in all its forms and manifestations!! no arrests, torture and murder! We demand the immediate release of all political prisoners!, union activists and politicians, independent journalists and protesters! We demand the restoration of trade union and political activity on the basis of democratic rights and freedoms!! Let an independent international commission investigate the crimes committed by the State!, they should be punished!
In Kiev, London, Barcelona and other cities repudiation actions were carried out, are examples that need to be replicated. We need to multiply the pronouncements and actions of human rights organizations, union and political organizations. The dissemination of what happened in the networks and the actions that are achieved at the embassies or consulates of Kazakhstan and Russia are a valuable show of support for the Kazakh people. Internationalist solidarity must continue. At the by, it is essential to draw instrumental conclusions to face the strategic challenges that lie ahead.
A stage of new rebellions
Large popular mobilizations such as those in Belarus and Kazakhstan suffered violent repression, deaths and imprisonments by the government and the regime. Even mass actions were paralyzed. They did it based on repression and not on the satisfaction of the most basic social and democratic needs., that will continue to worsen as the economic crisis, crusade for the continuity of the pandemic, forces more and worse adjustments. The contradictions will continue to deepen, as well as discontent over living conditions and the lack of democratic freedoms. With capitalism in its stage of decline, these governments and regimes cannot offer progressive responses to the needs of working people. Beyond the different moments that the fight goes through, more favorable or difficult, it is necessary to show solidarity with the people who rebelled since the last word on what will happen in the future will always be the class struggle.
Conclusions from the past to change the future
Heroic claims in Belarus and Kazakhstan have a limit: the absence of consistent revolutionary leaderships. It is the great weakness to overcome in all the processes of struggle. In order to succeed and prevent discontent with the region's governments from feeding other reactionary alternatives, fundamentalists or pro-Americans it is necessary to help the vanguard of the working class and youth to organize their own organizations of struggle and begin to build revolutionary socialist parties.
To advance a strategic exit, future attacks have the challenge of going beyond the semi-insurrections that are repeated over and over again. In order to succeed, it is necessary for the massive mobilizations and the general strike to be endowed with democratic and independent decision-making bodies, with organized self-defense and with the working class leading the people. Y, fundamentally, with a revolutionary leadership, socialist and internationalist in the command post. Completely far from authoritarianism, the corruption and betrayals of the Stalinist bureaucrats that soiled the banners of socialism. Build organizations that consider the government of the workers - without exploitation or oppression- and socialism, It is the daily task that we face from the International Socialist League and all the parties and groups that integrate it..
