ICFTU ONLINE...

Mikhail Shmakov: In holding this Day of Action, we are putting forward the following demands:

Social reforms

Guarantees of regular payment of wages

Payment of all wage arrears

Wage increases

Repeal of the government's decision to introduce additional taxes on wages and social payments

The adoption by the State Duma and Federal Assembly of a series of bills to protect workers' constitutional rights

Of course! But at the moment we are not calling for Prime Minister Primakov to resign, because previous governments were prepared to negotiate with the trade unions, and we are waiting to see whether he will also consult with us. We are hoping that new government policy will take the social needs of the Russian people into account. If he brings about democratic reforms then the FNPR will support him.

It's no coincidence that the Communist Party as organised its own protests for October 7, and we have just written to their leadership to say that we won't allow them to divert our actions. We will cooperate with any political forces which share our social and economic goals, but we will never tolerate any attempts to use the Russian trade union movement as a driving belt for party political activities, irrespective of whether this comes from the ultra-left or ultra-right.

To avoid this we have to change the whole set-up of political options and the economic course of reforms. It's impossible to have a sustainable economic growth unless it is accompanied by social development. What Mr Primakov said in his initial statement was encouraging, and we hope that he will base his policy on social dialogue and the active participation of social actors, including trade unions.

We are interested in co-operating with all the progressive forces in Russian society, and we are activating our political wing - the Union of Labour - which is a social movement, but which could become a political party. This would be a left-wing social democratic party, which could unite all social democratic and left-wing tendencies.

No, it need not be hopeless. If the government continues to pursue the same policies as before, then it will be hopeless. The previous government made curbing inflation its priority in order to attract foreign loans. That was important, but combating inflation shouldn't be the only target of government policy. There also has to be a functioning economy. If Primakov doesn't change his economic policies then the situation will be repeated again and again.

There are some people who are gaining and making money out of the situation using financial speculation and the fluctuations in exchange rates. I was told that those who helped this crisis to happen had made US$15 billion, and that this money has been taken out of the country. It is public knowledge that more than US$120 billion was sent to the West, which has resulted in a kind of demonetarisation of the economy. There is not enough money to run the economy, and as a result you cannot organise normal financial exchanges between enterprises, which have to resort to barter, which by definition does not produce any taxation.

Corruption is a wide-spread phenomenon in Russia. It was also customary for major companies to practise tax-avoidance, which is why we supported government efforts to get tax from companies such as Gazprom, the gas company. However it was quite wrong of the Kirienko government to try to shift taxation away from big enterprises in September. In his memorandum to the IMF, he and the President of the Russian Central Bank agreed to change the country's fiscal and taxation policy, and to try and curtail pensions and to restrict trade union rights. To make sound economic reforms in Russia you need to move towards a real democracy, which means giving power to the people, to allow those who produce the goods in the country to have their say about the country's economic and political policies.

A country the size of Russia must rely on its own resources and be able to develop its own capabilities. It is significant that US$22 billion was more or less the same sum of money which was taken out of the country during the crisis. This should have been used to help develop our country's resources. We need to create an economic and political climate which will create confidence and stimulate the investment of this amount of money into the economy. If the country receives foreign aid, then it should not have strings attached like the IMF loan. The public at large should have a say. This is why we support the TUAC/ICFTU proposal to the G8 meeting which suggested that a social clause, based on ILO Conventions, should be inserted into economic corporation agreements, which should be monitored by organisations, to ensure transparency and that social needs are taken into account.

We had to lay off 25% of our staff, partly because the bank accounts of organisations are being frozen in Russia, so we did not have access to our own finances. On the positive side, it has made us more efficient, and more effective, and it is necessary for organisations to streamline their structures sometimes.

Trade union support has helped us in a number of ways. First it had a positive influence on the Russian government and the President, and secondly it is a real boost to morale - for example workers in a very remote part of Siberia said that when they received an international message of support for their demands, they realised the whole world was following their struggle. The training of trade union personnel has also helped us a lot as has support at international meetings like the ILO. Just the other day we received the suggestion from the ICFTU headquarters in Brussels about holding an emergency meeting of trade unionists from Asia, Russia and Latin America, whose regions are all facing the same problems. This would help us to work out joint approaches and to work together on some common actions.

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)
Boulevard Emile Jacqmain 155, B - 1210 Brussels, Belgium. For more information
please contact: Luc Demaret on: 00 322 224 0212 - press@icftu.org

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