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

[Alina Israeli]

No, what we have here is the pay system of yesteryear: the miners are  
not paid per hour but per amount of coal extracted.

Here's Financial Times on the subject: http://www.inosmi.ru/social/ 
20100514/159927157.html and http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ 
df81acdc-5eee-11df-af86-00144feab49a.html

Miners themselves sabotage the counters in order not to have work  
stoppages: http://www.forbesrussia.ru/ekonomika/lyudi/35630-pochemu- 
vzryvayutsya-shahty?from=button2

They cover the counters with wet cloths or plastic bags: http:// 
www.specletter.com/news/2010-05-13/8146.html

Of course it is known that human life is not very valuable in Russia;  
miners are not valued nor do they put their own safety first.

But if they start writing appeals and ask to change the pay system,  
this is a step in the right direction.


On May 16, 2010, at 6:21 PM, Andrey Shcherbenok wrote:

> 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
>
>

Alina Israeli
Associate Professor of Russian
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington DC 20016
(202) 885-2387 	fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu





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