Vol. 80/No. 27 July 25, 2016
Ukraine workers protest price hikes, demand wage raises
The price hikes are among the conditions the government of President Petro Poroshenko agreed to in exchange for new loans from the International Monetary Fund.
Poroshenko, a billionaire businessman, was elected in 2014 after popular mobilizations toppled the pro-Moscow government of Viktor Yanukovych. The section of the Ukrainian capitalist class Poroshenko represents has held the pipe dream that “association” with the European Union and eventual membership, along with closer ties to Washington, would lead to significant aid and investment. The reality has been spiraling debts to imperialist banks and institutions.
The effects in Ukraine of the worldwide slowdown in production and trade have been exacerbated by more than two years of a Russian-backed separatist war in the industrial southeastern region, and Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in March 2014. The bosses and government have sought to put the economic crisis on workers’ backs.
The march in Kiev under the slogan “European prices — European wages” stretched for several miles. It was sponsored both by the Federation of Trade Unions and the Confederation of Free Trade Unions. The action built on a series of recent worker protests against government cuts in pensions and jobs, the closure of mines and factories, and months of unpaid wages.
Workers at the state-owned coal mine #2 Novogrodivska in western Ukraine started a hunger strike outside Poroshenko’s office June 23, demanding wages that haven’t been paid for eight months.
Disabled miners from across the country held a sit-in and hunger strike June 14 at the Ministry of Social Policy. Among the 100 participants, who demanded increases in pay and pensions and guarantees of regular payment, were members of both the official miners’ union and the Independent Trade Union of Miners of Ukraine.
“The health of these people has been undermined at work and they deserve a decent life and social protection,” said Mikhailo Volynets, head of the independent miners’ union. “But today they are forced to fight for their social and economic rights.”
In addition to making working people bear the brunt of the economic crisis, the government has attacked democratic rights, including banning the Communist Party and two smaller groups. Members of these and other organizations opposed to the government’s course have suffered physical attacks and harassment.
This offensive against workers and farmers aimed at making production and trade more profitable has been reinforced by demands from the IMF, Washington and European imperialist governments as conditions for loans and backing. Ukraine’s debt has more than doubled since 2014 after loans and bailout packages from imperialist financial institutions. The IMF has repeatedly delayed scheduled payouts, claiming that Kiev is not doing enough to battle corruption, enhance “fiscal stability” and overhaul budgets and pensions.
Kiev signed an association agreement with the EU in January. The government had hoped that this would open up markets for Ukrainian exports, primarily of agricultural products, and lead to increased aid and investments.
None of this is on the horizon, though, as the fissures grow among the capitalist ruling classes grouped in the European Union over the smoldering economic depression, the massive influx of refugees from the Mideast and North Africa, and debt crises in Greece and other countries. A proposed agreement for visa-free travel from Ukraine, Georgia and Kosovo to countries in the EU was postponed in early June because of opposition from the governments of Germany, France and Italy.
The Kiev government also faces growing pressures from the imperialist powers using Ukraine as a bargaining chip in relations with Moscow. According to the July 9 Wall Street Journal, President Barack Obama met with Poroshenko at the July 8-9 NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland to discuss the continuing separatist war Moscow is backing in eastern Ukraine. Washington and its European allies have “called for Ukraine to move ahead with political concessions” to Russia, “such as further autonomy for eastern Ukraine,” the paper reported.
Ukraine’s trade with Russia has declined substantially over the last two years. It is now tied to the Russian economy principally through fuel and energy imports.
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