Kazakhstan: Mass strikes in Zhanaozen and Mangistau following the arrest of oil workers in Astana

Workers' protests in Kazakhstan in 2022.

Kazakhstan is again shaken by events related to mass rallies and strikes, which also began in the oil-producing western region of the country. 

 

The reason for the protests was the mass arrest on Tuesday of a delegation of dismissed oil workers who went to Astana (now Nur-Sultan) to seek the truth from officials of the Ministry of Energy.

Kazakhstan's communists denounce decommunization and the rehabilitation of Nazi collaborators

The Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan notes the strengthening of the state campaign for the total decommunization of the country, which is expressed, among other things, through the "final rehabilitation" of those who were repressed from 1918 to 1953, which now include Basmachi, who participated in anti-Soviet uprisings, terrorists and militants of the Turkestan Legion of the Wehrmacht and Muslim SS units.

It is interesting that Astana is now reporting on 250 thousand rehabilitated, but so far the lists of these have not been made public so that we can make sure who actually got into them. 

KKE MEP asks for the release of Yerzhan Yelshibayev, Kazakh political prisoner

With a written question submitted to the EU Foreign Policy High Commissioner Josep Borrell, the European Parliament Group of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) demands the immediate release of political prisoner Yerzhan Yelshibayev who remains detained by the Kazakh authorities. 

 

It is reminded that a similar question, on the same issue, had been submitted by the KKE on September 2020.

KKE and KNE expressed their solidarity with the people of Kazakhstan

On Wednesday morning, 19 January 2022, delegations of the KKE and KNE held a protest at the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Athens, expressing their solidarity with the fighting people of the Central Asian country, which was recently shaken by mass demonstrations.

“We denounce the bloody repression, the death toll, and the arrest of thousands of demonstrators”, stressed Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos, MEP of the KKE. 

Joint Statement of Communist and Workers’ Parties on the situation in Kazakhstan

Joint statement of Communist and Workers' Parties on the valuable experience of the great strikes and demonstrations of the working class and the people of Kazakhstan:

1.   At the beginning of 2022, Kazakhstan, the former Soviet Republic of Central Asia, has been shaken by mass workers’ and people’s mobilizations, whose cause lies in the sharpened economic, social, and political problems faced by workers due to the restoration of capitalism in the country, 30 years after the counter-revolution and the dissolution of the USSR, when the power and the means of production passed into the hands of capital and the multinational monopolies now control a large part of the mining sector of the economy.

Kazakhstan Protests: Interview with Eliseos Vagenas, head of the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE

The news portal 902.gr has published an interview with Eliseos Vagenas,  member of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and Head of the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE, concerning the developments in Kazakhstan:

— The recent mass mobilizations in Kazakhstan have led to violent conflicts and the intervention of military forces to suppress them. President Tokayev spoke of foreign intervention, of 20,000 foreign militants, which was followed by the military intervention of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) countries. The question arises: Were these mobilizations based on internal developments or was it truly a foreign intervention as in the case of Ukraine a few years ago?

The "petty leftists" and Kazakhstan

The following article (here in Greek) was published in today's "Rizospastis", the organ of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and consists a very accurate comment for all those who rushed to condemn the popular mobilizations in Kazakhstan and side themselves with the bourgeois Kazakh government and its Russian allies:

The "petty leftists" and Kazakhstan

Recently, on the occasion of the events in Kazakhstan, some “petty leftists”, who in their effort to pave the way for a SYRIZA government a few years ago had been distinguished for their anti-KKE passion, “struck again”. 

Kazakhstan's uprising isn't a “color revolution", says Aynur Kurmanov

The ongoing large popular mobilizations in Kazakhstan do not constitute a “color revolution” or another “Maidan”, says Aynur Kurmanov, co-chairman of the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan.

Speaking at the YouTube channel of the Russian Communist Workers' Party (RCWP), Kurmanov made some interesting remarks concerning the situation in Kazakhstan. “The main body of today's protesters in Kazakhstan consists mainly of workers in the oil/natural gas, metallurgy, mining sectors, as well as from unemployed youth”, Kurmanov pointed out and underlined that the starting point of the demonstrations were the strikes of industrial workers. 

Communist Party of Mexico: Solidarity with the struggle of the workers of Kazakhstan

In a statement concerning the ongoing popular mobilizations in Kazakhstan, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Mexico (PCM) expresses solidarity to the struggle of the working class of the Central Asian country. 

More specifically, the CC of the PCM points out:

"The Communist Party of Mexico expresses its solidarity with the working class and the people of Kazakhstan in their just struggle against exploitation, oppression and excruciating misery. 

Statement by the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan on the situation in the country

In a statement about the large-scale mobilizations and protests in the country, the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan calls for international solidarity to the demonstrators and demands the withdrawal of troops from the cities, the resignation of all Nazarbayev officials, the release of all political prisoners and detainees, the legalization of the Communist Party and trade unions, as well as the nationalization of Kazakhstan's entire extractive and large-scale industry.

The statement reads: 

KKE in solidarity with workers' protests in Kazakhstan

Thirty years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the restoration of capitalism, Kazakhstan is in the midst of a large-scale uprising by thousands of people across the country. 

In Almaty police fired stun grenades and tear gas at a crowd of several thousand protesters, but were unable to stop them from storming the mayor's office, AFP reported. 

In a statement published in 902 portal, the International Relations Section of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) expresses its solidarity with the workers' mobilizations in Kazakhstan, demanding the release of all political prisoners and the legalization of the Socialist Movement and the Communist Party of Kazakhstan. 

The Bonapartist regime of Nazarbayev in Kazakhstan

Statement by the Political Council of the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan:

NAZARBAYEV'S BONAPARTIST REGIME WON A "PYRRHIC VICTORY"

On January 10, Kazakhstan held elections to the Majilis and local representative authorities, and even before the CEC announced the preliminary results, Nursultan Nazarbayev hastened to declare the unconditional victory of his Nur Otan party on the basis of pocket exit polls only. This example was followed by the leaders of the puppet satellite parties, who congratulated the main party on its triumph on the night of January 10-11 and admitted their defeat.

Kazakhstan's Socialist Movement denounces persecution of trade unionist by authorities

Yerzhan Elshibayev

In a statement, the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan denounces the persecution and torture of political activist and leader of the unemployed movement Yerzhan Elshibayev by the state authorities. 

The statement is as follows:

On October 18 2019 the leader of the movement of the unemployed Yerzhan Elshibayev was sentenced to Zhanaozen city in Kazakhstan to five years in prison on a fabricated in a three-year-old case. During the trial, the victim and witnesses indicated their complete innocence and refused all claims. However, the court, despite the mass protests of residents, gave him a prison sentence.

Russia: Communists paid tribute to the 102nd anniversary of the October Revolution

The 102nd anniversary of the 1917 Great October Socialist Revolution was honoured by thousands of communists across Russia, during events organized by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) and the Russian Communist Workers' Party of Russia - CP of the Soviet Union (RCWP-CPSU). 

In Moscow, the CPRF organized a gathering and a rally where the major speaker was the President of the Party's Central Committee Gennady Zyuganov. 

What is going on in Kazakhstan? Persecution of workers and trade unionists continues...

On October 17, Yerzhan Yelshibaev, the leader of the unemployed movement of Zhanaozen and the Mangystau region, in Kazakhstan, was sentenced to five years in a fabricated case and arrested in March of this year in a fabricated case about an attack on a passerby, which happened several years ago. 

During the trial, the victim and witnesses did not recognize him as an attacker and refused claims, however, the judge decided to send the famous public figure to jail.

Was the famine of 1932-33 in Kazakhstan a genocide?

The following text is a translated version of an article published on socialismkz.info, the website of the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan and deals with the recently released anti-Soviet propaganda film/documentary "Zulmat":  

At the end of January in Zhanbolat Mamai's "Zulmat" film was shown in Almaty. According to the nationalist-minded Kazakhstani and Ukrainian historians and public figures, the famine of 1931–33 must be recognized as genocide.

Kazakhstan's President Nazarbayev paid tribute to Hitler's ally Carl Mannerheim!

Kazakhstan's current President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, was once a member of the Political Bureau of the CPSU and first Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan. 

Today, almost 30 years since the counterrevolution in the Soviet Union, as the undisputed -multimillionaire- leader of the Republic of Kazakhstan, resorts to various policies of extreme anti-communism. 

Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan: On the political situation in the country

We would also like to present our vision of the current political situation in Kazakhstan in the light of the ongoing market reforms in strengthening the positions of the restored capitalism. 

These processes are accompanied by an intensification of reaction and the curtailment of all democratic rights, as well as the entry into new relations with imperialism of the United States and the EU, despite participation in other blocs and alliances, such as the EEMP, SCO and CSTO. 

Kazakhstan: Socialist Movement and Zhanartu denounce the detention of striking oil workers

With a joint statement, the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan and Kazakhstan's Workers Union (Zhanartu) strongly denounce the detention of two oil workers who were on hunger strike. 

On January 20th, the organizers of the hunger strike among oil industry workers in Kazakhstan, the Chairman of the Union «Oil Construction Company» Amin Yeleusinov and public labour inspectors Nurbek Kushakbaev were arrested being accused of embezzlement of trade Union funds. Accusations then followed as “calling of illegal strikes”. The custody will last 2 months and workers say they have already arrived to Astana. 

KKE: Condemnation of anti-democratic actions by the authorities in Kazakhstan and Latvia

Source: inter.kke.gr.

Regarding the imprisonment of Vadim Kuramshin:

Vadim Kuramshin.

The Delegation of the KKE in the European Parliament, tabled a question to the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy is relation to the persecution in Kazakhstan. The question noted that:

Vadim Kuramshin has been in prison in Kazakhstan for the last 4 years since 2012, when he was condemned to 12 years imprisonment on false and fabricated charges. In reality, he was imprisoned for his activity against the violation of democratic rights and gains by the Kazakhstan regime. It was no accident that his arrest and imprisonment happened immediately after his participation in a OSCE event in Warsaw, where he talked about instances of torture in the prisons of Kazakhstan.

He himself has made accusations that he has been the victim of inhuman treatment in Kazakhstan's prisons.

The current bourgeois regime that emerged in Kazakhstan after the overthrow of socialism and the dissolution of the USSR is constantly showing its anti-democratic and anti-people character, violently and murderously suppressing labour struggles, banning the activity of the CP of Kazakhstan, imposing new anti-democratic laws to control and more strictly manipulate the trade unions and to reduce labour rights and gains, imprisoning defenders of democratic rights.