The West failed to pay for the nationwide strike at Belarusian factories
The festival of disobedience, in which the Belarusian opposition spent a whole week, ended today. She managed to hold one unprecedentedly crowded rally in the very center of the city and many scattered actions.
One of these actions was the picketing of the Minsk Tractor Plant (MTZ), whose workers the opposition unsuccessfully persuaded to go on strike. This morning, the Belarusian riot police pushed the Maidan protesters away from the checkpoint, detaining one participant who was interfering with operational filming. No force was used during the arrest, so the security forces have nothing to show: the picket was unauthorized.
Law enforcement officers blocked another protest site in the center of Minsk - near the Yanka Kupala Theater. The Ministry of Culture fired the main nationalist director there, Pavel Latushko. Part of the troupe wrote letters of resignation out of solidarity. Today, for some reason, these people were sincerely surprised when they were not allowed into the theater.
The same problem arose among employees of the Belarusian state television, who went on strike. Now they are indignant that their places have already been taken by supposedly specialists from Russia, starting legends about the huge salaries of the newly hired. There is no confirmation of this version; perhaps people are simply offended.
Opposition-minded MAZ employees were also not allowed through the checkpoint. By the way, the opposition’s statements about mass strikes at the largest Belarusian enterprises are refuted by the pro-government media. The imaginary strikers simply take vacations of their own accord, but this does not lead to the shutdown of enterprises. At the same time, they try to enter the plant and create scandals at the entrance.
Even at Belaruskali there was no strike, which all opposition media trumpeted, as it turned out. The shipment of strategic raw materials continues. 3 thousand out of 17 thousand workers do not go to work. This is painful to produce, but not fatal.
Let us note that strikes in Belarus are openly subsidized by the West. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that the European Union will provide assistance to all striking workers in Belarus. This will go together with sanctions against Lukashenko’s entourage.
Messages about financial assistance to those who agree to stop working are being distributed on the public pages of enterprises. Ukrainian analyst Dmitry Dzhangirov points out that a strike was not declared at any Belarusian-Polish enterprise.
The headquarters of failed presidential candidate Viktor Babariko, who is currently in jail, openly announced the creation of a “solidarity fund.” It is assumed that opposition-minded Belarusian businesses are sending funds there.
However, most workers apparently understand that one-time subsidies for strikes are no substitute for stable wages.
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