Miners' Appeal in the Russian Internet - is SEELANGS' solidarity possible?

[Andrey Shcherbenok]

I would personally be "in" such collective appeal but I am doubtful that
there will be a consensus among SEELANGS users on this matter. This is not
like the previous cases of European University in St. Petersburg or Memorial
because this conflict cannot be put in the familiar story about
freedom-loving liberal intellectuals vs. authoritarian government. Instead,
what we have here is an obviously left-leaning workers' movement against
what they perceive as a right-wing corporate oligarchic state, with
Abramovich (the capital) and Putin (the government) jointly exploiting
workers to maximize their profits. For this reason, I think, any analogy
with the 1980s is rather superficial -- unlike what was going on in
socialist states back then, this conflict is not qualitatively different
from contemporary political issues in the US or Europe, although
quantitative difference is very big indeed. And, since I do not expect
SEELANGers to be unanimous about, say, Detroit, why should they be in
agreement about Mezhdurechensk? 

Andrey Shcherbenok



-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Giuliano Vivaldi
Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2010 9:58 PM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Miners' Appeal in the Russian Internet

Yes, fully agree. Mezhdurechensk to me is more than just a name but a town
where I taught English in  2002/ 2003. I was based in the neighbouring
Novokuznetsk but would go once every two weeks to teach some classes in
Mezhdurechensk. I have extraordinarily happy memories of the town and the
news in the past week has deeply shocked me. I remember that on my first
trip to Mezhdurechensk I was told that this was at the centre of events that
eventually led to the collapse of the Soviet system. It was here, I was
told, that the first miners strikes led by independent trade unions began. 

Unfortunately, the end of the Soviet system has not led to any real
improvements for the miners of this region. Rather the list of mining
explosions in this region and the casualties in the past decade or more
makes horrific reading. Three or four years ago, well over a hundred miners
lost their lives in Novokuznetsk and neighbouring Osinniki was also the site
of another explosion with as far as I remember fifty deaths before that (but
these are only the more significant explosions- many explosions with lower
loss of life rarely get reported with more than a brief news item). I can
only imagine the level of anger this has caused (and the fact that these
explosions are a recurring feature), especially because much of this appears
to be caused by a system in which miners in order to receive a human wage
are expected to work unhealthy amounts of overtime and hence risk their own
safety.

Some reports have suggested that even members of the state duma have been
turned back by the police and couldn't reach the Kuzbass region. 

I, too, would like to add my voice and my full support to the miners of the
Kuzbass in their struggle for social justice and would also like to hear of
any ideas as to how one could express this soldiarity.

Giuliano Vivaldi



> Date: Sun, 16 May 2010 15:18:11 -0400
> From: meersono at GEORGETOWN.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Miners' Appeal in the Russian Internet
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> 
> How can we support these miners? I wish we probably wrote a letter, or
gathered some signatures or something. After all, that is how Solidarity was
born and started thriving, and, in fact, how anything successful about
Perestroyka started as well. If anyone on our list has any idea or venue to
support them, please post it.
> Olga Meerson
> 
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