Sunday 16 July
1pm
Rabbie Burns bar (formerly Alhambra)
Wellington/Waterloo St, near Central Station, Glasgow
speakers: OLEG SHEIN
socialist MP in the Russian Duma and leader of ‘Defence’ trade union
& TOMMY SHERIDAN
Hear a first-hand account of the struggle by Russian workers against the
brutal anti-worker Labour Code of Putin’s capitalist dictatorship. Meet
workers’ leader and socialist MP Oleg Shein, the first Duma MP from the
Movement for a Workers’ Party
The Scottish Socialist Party has organised this meeting for socialist MP and
all-Russian trade union leader Oleg Shein. He will describe the battle to
defeat - President Vladimir Putin’s assault on the Russian working class.
Putin’s new Labour Code, in the words of its opponents: "throws back Russian
workers legally to the time of the Tsarist empire".
This is no exaggeration. The new draft Labour Code abolishes the eight hour
day and the five day week. It allows employers to extend the working day to
12 hours and to make workers work up to 56 hours a week.
Employers no longer need the consent of the trade unions to change work
schedules and norms or to terminate a worker’s contract. Maternity leave is
halved. Workers and unions can now be fined for illegal strikes and protests
or for revealing "commercial secrets" (i.e. their bosses’ illegal dealings).
It becomes legal for employers blacklist militants.
The head of Russia’s largest bank has openly called for Putin to be the
Russian Pinochet and to use "totalitarian force" to crush working class
opposition to neo-liberal policies. Putin has already shown what he is
capable of by launching the brutal war in Chechnya..
The last 18 months Russia has seen a wave of worker militancy, with strikes
and factory occupations which have won some notable victories.
In the Kuzbass region, which has the biggest concentration of industry in
the world, 400 worker delegates met to discuss organising factory takeovers.
Putin’s response was to put through laws allowing the police and army to
seal off any area or region of Russia.
On May 17, 300,000 workers across Russia took part in strikes and
demonstrations against the draft Labour Code, in some cases defying
government bans. Most of the work for May 17 was done by radical independent
unions like Zaschita ("Defence") and the dockers’ union. Zaschita is closely
associated with the Movement for a Workers’ Party (MWP).
The MWP’s only deputy in the Duma, Oleg Shein, who represents Astrakhan, has
played a key role in organising the campaign against the new Labour Code.
Along with ‘Defence’, Shein has advocates an ongoing mass campaign to stop
Putin throwing Russian workers’ rights back 100 years.
Attend this public meeting; hear a unique account of the resistance to the
Russian capitalist nightmare. Show your solidarity on issues that also
affect Scottish workers.