Vol. 81/No. 45 December 4, 2017
Russian truckers set strike, presidential campaign
“In addition, the registration of presidential candidates should begin approximately at this time,” Andrey Bazhutin, the union’s leader, told the Russian Independent Nov. 15. In June, Bazhutin announced that he will run for president of the Russian Federation in the March 2018 elections to “represent the interests of working people.”
For two years the truckers have been locked in a hard-fought battle with the government, which refuses to even meet with them. They have persisted through arrests and harassment from cops and National Guard troops, broken through a government-imposed virtual media blackout, won solidarity and joined in other anti-government protests.
Their fight was triggered by the November 2015 establishment of the Platon system — “pay-per-ton.” It imposes a per-mile toll on trucks weighing more than 12 tons.
The December work stoppage will involve drivers in 50 of Russia’s 85 federal regions. The union organized national strikes in November 2015 and March this year. They have held rallies, set up informational pickets and organized protest camps and convoys touring different cities. Truckers hang their rigs with slogans and demands to spread the word about the fight as they make their runs. Over the two-year period, tens of thousands of drivers have been involved, affecting virtually all regions across the country.
During the summer Bazhutin led a road caravan of a few cars and a minibus and held rallies in Murmansk, Vologda, Tver, Moscow and St. Petersburg. When they set up an informational picket in Yoshkar-Ola, 400 miles east of Moscow, several members of the local Popular Movement for Housing joined them, as well as local unionists and supporters of national opposition politician Alexei Navalny.
The previous summer Bazhutin led a convoy to Krasnodar in southern Russia in support of hundreds of farmers who had organized a tractor convoy heading to Moscow to protest the loss of land to large agricultural holding companies. Riot cops blockaded the convoy just outside Rostov, arresting some participants.
The truckers also made contact with miners on hunger strike in the Rostov region, where 2,200 workers were owed a-year-and-a-half’s back wages.
During the March strike, Bazhutin was jailed for allegedly driving without a license and spent five days in jail. The cops then harassed his family and threatened to take his children into custody.
“Of course I was worried about the children. I was worried about my wife and her condition,” Bazhutin told Novaya Gazeta, explaining his wife was seven months pregnant. “But I was immediately bombarded with text messages from all over the country. People were willing to help.”
The truckers point to the support they get from working people and insist they won’t back down in face of government harassment and threats.
A documentary about the 2015 strike won a prize at the Saratov Sufferings film festival in September. The title — “Chronicles of a Revolution That Didn’t Happen” — refers to the news blackout on the truckers’ fight and the government’s refusal to meet with them.
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