EUROPEAN and global trade unions are at the forefront supporting independent trade unions in Belarus. 

They are calling for an end to violence and attacks on unions, political opposition and journalists by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and his government.

Opposition leaders, journalists and independent trade unionists have been jailed, among them the former president of the Independent Trade Union of Belarus (BNP) Mikalaj Zimin, together with at least three other union activists. 

Zimin was sentenced to 25 days’ detention after attending peaceful protests in the city of Soligorsk. 

Maxim Sereda was sentenced to 12 days and Jan Roman, a journalist and activist of the Free Metal Workers’ Union (SPM), was beaten and detained at a police station after going to inquire about the fate of colleagues who had been arrested.

Earlier this year leaders from the Belarus Radio and Electronics Industry Workers’ Union were ordered to pay large fines after facing trumped-up charges of tax evasion and were subjected to imprisonment suspended for four year and a ban on holding senior positions for five years.

According to the Belarusian Association of Journalists, the European Federation of Journalists’ affiliate in Belarus, two journalists are still detained. 

Since August 9, 69 journalists have been detained, 36 of them beaten or injured.

Belarus has a reputation for the systemic violation of freedom of association, attacking workers’ rights and the suppression of independent and free civil-society institutions and trade unions.

The TUC has issued a statement saying that Belarus has been ranked in category five in the ITUC Global Rights Index, which means “no guarantee of rights.” 

The TUC said the Belarusian authorities must ensure that the fundamental rights of freedom of association, freedom of speech, peaceful assembly and media freedom are recognised.
 
The European TUC also backed the calls for the release of trade unionists and political prisoners, saying: “The regime was not, and is not, open to any real change. It has continued suppressing democratic institutions, independent civil society and trade-union movement and has violated fundamental rights and freedoms of its citizens. 

“We are in contact with our colleagues of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions [BKDP] and support their longstanding fight for the respect of workers and trade-union rights and freedom in the country.”

Among those global federations and unions supporting independent unions in Belarus and calling for an end to violence and for the imposition of sanctions and a rerun of the election with independent observers are the giant engineering, manufacturing and energy trade union federation IndustriALL Global Union, (to which four Belarus independent unions are affiliated) and its European counterpart IndustriALL European Trade Union.

The Building Workers International also issued a statement, saying: “Whether it is in our unions or in society in general, free and fair election is an essential feature of worker democracy. 

“Thus, when the right to vote is sullied, undermined and circumvented in favour of vested interests, it is incumbent upon all workers to rise up and defend it.”

The International TUC general secretary Sharan Burrow said: “We stand in solidarity with our affiliate, the BKDP, and the working people of Belarus as they organise to shake off the last vestiges of the corrupt regime that has systematically repressed workers’ and other human rights for more than two decades.     

“Governments need to increase pressure on the regime to go, so that democracy can finally prevail.”

Tony Burke is assistant general secretary of Unite.