While Kazakhstan’s dictatorship regime, supported by Russian tanks and troops, executed a final “clean-up” of a broad and heavily repressed uprising, ISA Austria members on January 12th held a protest rally in support of the working class of Kazakhstan — demanding an end to the dictatorship, repression, and exploitation of the Kazakh masses.
Comrades held placards in English and in German in solidarity with the workers and poor in Kazakhstan, against imperialist interventions, also demanding “Down with the dictatorship”. In our speeches we emphasized the pre-revolutionary elements in the uprising which is much more than just a power struggle in the ruling elite — it is clear that the masses are sick and tired of the dictatorship and are willing to go to great lengths to oppose it. Links between the Austrian and Kazakh ruling classes, and Austria’s dependency on Kazakhstan’s abundant resources point to the breadth of the exploitation of the oil and gas workers of Kazakhstan, and to the necessity of an international movement against corruption, repression and exploitation.
The combative uprising in Kazakhstan marks the beginning of the new year. Although it was ignited initially by a sharp and sudden increase in fuel prices, it reflects long-growing rage and discontent with the dictatorship and its brutal neo-liberal attacks on living standards over decades, harsh quarantine measures affecting the incomes of large portions of the population, unbridled corruption and repression of every opposition or resistance. In the context of a country where rich resources and industry exist side by side with poverty and exploitation of the working class, where only last year tens of thousands of oil workers were made redundant, protests initially began in Zhanaozen city, where up to 100 oil workers were massacred by the regime only a decade earlier.
A revolutionary mood spread quickly across towns and cities, and Kazakh President Tokayev made a hasty appeal to Russia and the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) for support in repressing the masses. The same night he gave the police and military a “shoot to kill without warning” order. The ruling class in Kazakhstan and Russia, echoed by the international media, labeled protesters “foreign agents” and even “Islamic extremists” — this was nothing but an excuse for the brutal repression of the working class.
The US and the EU have been calling for “restraint on both sides”, as if the impoverished working masses could be compared to the dictatorship’s belligerent war machine. And from the Austrian government — silence. No wonder! Stability in Kazakhstan is an interest of the European, and the Austrian ruling classes in particular — who are making profits at the expense of the Kazakh oil workers, and entire working class.
Austria is heavily dependent on Kazakhstan’s natural resources, with about 38% of crude oil coming from Kazakhstan, it being Austria’s largest provider. Until 2021 the OMV (of which the state still holds 31,5%) extracted directly in Kazakhstan. But the links of the Austrian elite to the dictatorship go further. Alfred Gusenbauer, former chancellor and head of the SPÖ (Social Democratic Party), has advocated for the former dictator Nazarbayev as well as being an official member of his “International Advisory Board” along with other European social democrats, for annual fees in the seven figures. He then declared in an interview: “I cannot only be interested in the development of countries that already have democracy”. That was in period of Nazarbayev’s brutal repression — and his influence has still not ended with Tokayev not being any better.
Given all this it is not surprising that the Austrian government has not reacted to the horrific and brutal repression of the masses of Kazakhstan but even invited the foreign minister for negotiations next week. But it is also clear why — “stability” and “business as usual” at the expense of oil and gas workers, despite corruption, inequality and the exploitation of the people, is of utmost priority to ensure that profits are made. Under capitalism profit takes precedence — over human rights and the well-being of the working class, just as it is prioritized over the climate and the future of this planet. It is the interest of the working class to end the dictatorship of Nazarbayev and Tokayev, to put an end to corruption, repression and exploitation of the people, and it is our interest to replace the use of fossil fuels with renewable energies to ensure the wellbeing of future generations.
As an international socialist movement we fight for the interests and demands of the working class — we can pressure governments out of supporting dictatorships such as the Kazakh regime, we can fight against climate change, against cuts and the oppression of women, LGBTQI+ people and all minorities, against war and all forms of oppression and exploitation of the working class and for an equal, socialist society.
We demand an immediate end to the repression of the opposition, an end to imperialist intervention, the release of all detained protesters and political prisoners, a reduction in the price of essential goods and utilities, the establishment of a broad and long-term democratic working class movement to plan the struggle, the nationalization of the natural resources and industries under worker’s control — transforming harmful fossil fuel industries into renewable energy for the good of the working class, and the democratic control of the working class over the whole economy and the state.
In London too, members if the ISA picketed the embassy.
They commented:
We are here in solidarity with Kazakh workers and poor facing repression at the hands of President Tokayev and now Vladimir Putin. Already, some 6,000 so called “terrorists”, in reality ordinary workers and youth protesting initially the fuel increases, but now widening it out to removing Tokayev and his murderous thugs have been imprisoned, with sadly at least 164 people being killed. Socialist Alternative stands in solidarity with all those protesting the brutal regime in Kazakhstan and supports the democratic socialist struggle in Kazakhstan! Remove the oligarchy and put the means of production in the hands of those who produce it, and fight for a socialist change in Kazakhstan, central Asia and across the world!
