Workers central in Belarus

Eric Lee’s article in Solidarity 736 explains why Belarus’ government is anti-democratic and anti-worker in particular. It does not, however, answer the question it asks at the beginning: why is Belarus more repressive against its trade unions (going as far as to legally ban them) than comparable allies, most notably Putin’s Russia?

There are a number of potential factors, but one is obvious: the Belarusian working class have posed a greater threat to Lukashenka’s regime than many other comparable working classes. In 2020, strikes in key industries were central to the wave of protests that exploded across the country, forming a movement that briefly, but genuinely, threatened to overthrow Lukashenka’s decades-long rule. It may not have materialised, but the fact that Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya felt it urgent to call for a general strike amid the protests shows the importance of Belarusian unions to the country’s democratic movement. Lukashenka noticed that too.

The period of reaction since 2020 has seen trade unionists heavily persecuted, but even then, workers’ action in key industries became one of the main forms of protest in Belarus against the war in Ukraine. The “railway partisans” were a continuation of tactics used to disrupt trains operating during the 2020 protests, and their arrest came alongside the arrest of several members of the Rabochy Rukh workers’ group.

Workers’ Liberty and Lukashenka may not see eye-to-eye on much, but there’s one thing we agree on: the Belarusian workers’ movement is central to fighting against the dictator’s rule.