The Kazakh town of Zhanaozen has become part of the increasingly active strike movement of the Kahzakh oil workers.
Since the beginning of July, workers of many companies that were all related to the oil industry laid down work to strike. Lastly, more than 100 workers at the Kazpromtekh transport company, working for the Ozenmunaigaz oil company started the strike on July 22. Eleven companies were hit by strikes in the course of a few days.
The main demand for the workers is an increase in the dramatically low wages and they demand a 50% increase – a good testimony to the confidence of the workers and a deeply justified demand.
News reports that since the beginning of July, workers at three companies in the town, as well as workers at an the ambulance center in Zhanaozen, have had employers meet some of their demands following strikes.
This great example comes after a huge wave of strikes in the end of 2020 in the oil sector (we reported: https://newepochnews.wixsite.com/newepochnews/post/kazakhstan-wild-strikes-of-the-oil-and-mining-workers). This strike wave was heavily suppressed, and workers even threatened with arrests if they were to strike further.The “western” media shed crocodile tears for the attack on the workers rights to “organize freely”, while even cutting out the main demand of an increase in wages and also the protest against the wage cuts because of the “corona-crisis”. All whilesupporting the sinister plans of the US-imperialists and their alliesto encircle Russia, like they do in Ukraine, which was accompanied by a all-around attack on workers rights and mass murder of unionists and antifascists.
This is also true for the masses of Zhanaozen, where in 2011, a previous movement of the oil workers was brutally suppressed with the police killing at least 16 workers in the protests. While the “Western” media blames the “dictatorship” linked to communism, it is clear that the Kazakh workers are struggling against the foreign rule of imperialist financial capital in Kazakhstan, for better wages and living conditions. A deeply justified cause.
It is statement to the heroism and bravery of the struggling Zhanaozenworkersmasses that they continue to rise up knowing the potential consequence from recent history, and goes to show that the repression of the latest strike wave has not managed to silence the strikes.
