Russia

Vadim Kuramshin freed after solidarity campaign

Statement by Ainur Kurmanov, Socialist Movement, Kazakhstan 28th August 2012

Today, August 28, Vadim Kuramshin was released from the courtroom in Taraz after the jury’s verdict was announced. The human rights activist was found guilty of only one misdemeanour - "arbitrariness" (under article 327 of the criminal code). For this he receives one year’s probation, but he has been cleared of all other charges originally brought against him.

Workers' leaders under threat of abduction or arrest

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Posted 13th February 2012

Below we publish a statement sent to human rights organisations in Moscow by Esenbek Ukteshbayev and Ainur Kurmanov. Both of them are well-known workers’ leaders from Kazakhstan who were forced last year by the Nazarbayev regime to move to Moscow. In the letter they indicate that they believe that an attempt to abduct or arrest them could be made in the next few days, illegally putting them into the hands of the brutal Kazakhstan regime.Please forward urgent protests to the Russian and Kazakhstan embassies in your country and to:- The Kazakhstan Ministry of Internal Affairs:- This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Moscow:- This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Kazakhstan: We are not rioters – the government must resign

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Posted 20th December 2011 by CWI reporters from Russia and Kazakhstan

Below we carry the latest updates from Kazakhstan from CWI reporters in Russia and Kazakhstan. The regime of Nazarbayev have launched a bloody attack on oil workers and supporters in West Kazakhstan. For all past articles about developments in Kazkahstan on Socialistworld.net then click here. You can also see a video message from Paul Murphy MEP (CWI Ireland) to the striking oil workers posted on the Campaign Kazakhstan website here.

Terror against Kazakhstan oil workers: Act now

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CWI reporters, Moscow 3rd September 2011

Striker’s daughter murdered…Arrest of Socialist activists threatened – solidarity campaign needs stepping up!

For nearly four months, oil workers from Zhanaozen and Aktau in West Kazakhstan have been on strike. This is already the most significant strike, in terms of the numbers involved, the length of the strike, the repression faced by the strikers and the demands that have been raised by the workers that has taken place in the former Soviet Union since a miner’s strikes in the early nineties.

Kazakhstan oil strike

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One thousand eight hundred workers at the Burgylai oil wells at Zhanaozen, Kazakhstan are on strike demanding the nationalisation of their plant and that the government take emergency measures to stabilise the economic situation in the country, stop mass sackings and guarantee the payment of wage arrears.

by Socialist Resistance (CWI Kazakhstan) reporters

Unable to get the agreement to start negotiations on these questions, 14 members of a independent workers' trade union at the plant launched an indefinite hunger strike. The authorities are trying to isolate the strikers and maintain an information blockade. The trade union leaders are being pressured by the local government administration and the 'special police' to end the strike and to prevent it spreading.

Huge pressure is being put on Daniyar Bespaev, one of the workers' leaders. However, workers in another 10 oil fields carried out a one hour solidarity strike on the 26 March in support of the Burgylai workers and sent delegations to meet with them. So far, the only political group that has supported the strikers, apart from Socialist Resistance (CWI Kazakhstan), is the (pro-capitalist) opposition party 'Azat'.

Other political forces and the official trade union federation are silent on the issue and, in effect, ignoring what is potentially a historic strike. For the first time in post-Soviet Kazakhstan, workers have united together from below, around the slogan of nationalisation and are actively fighting attempts to cease plant production. These demands are gaining popularity in Kazakhstan and other workplaces are discussing taking action using similar demands. Socialist Resistance Kazakhstan appeals to all trade union, socialist organisations and activists to support the strike.

Please send urgent messages of support to the Burgylai strikers to