By FRED WEIR
and CARL BLOICE

Between August 7 and 11, a group of
journalists from socialist countries and
ourselves, Fred Weir of the Canadian
Tribune and: Carl Bloice ‘of the ‘U.S.
Peoples’ Daily World, toured the strike
centres of Kemerovo region in western
Siberia and held talks with workers, trade
union, youth and Communist Party offi-
cials. Of special interest were lengthy,
wide-ranging and bluntly frank dialogues
with workers’ (strike) committees in the
cities of Novokuznetsk and Prokopyevsk.
These committees, formed spontaneously
from the rank-and-file during the strike,
led their communities through the strike
and are now constituted to supervise

implementation of the agreements reached -

- with government, which ended ’the walk-
outs.

Taking part in the discussions from the
journalists’ side, in addition to ourselves,
were reporters from Poland, China, the
German Democratic Republic and Moz-
ambique. There was also a staff member
of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Marina Makarova, present. In the edited
transcript we present here, journalists are
identified by country, for the sake of sim-
plicity, and workers — wherever possible

' — by name and position.

We apologize that constraints of space
permit us only to present excerpts from
those extraordinary and stimulating con-
versations. We also apologize for any
imprecisions that may have resulted from
having to reconstruct — and translate
— them from personal notes and tape
recordings. Journalism, as we hope read-
ers will appreciate, is not conducted in a
laboratory.

Novokuznetsk Workers’ Strike Commit-
tee, Aug. 7: “This is a small part of our
collective here,” deputy chair and spokes-
person, Sergei Karpechenko, began. “The
rest are fulfilling some instructions in
Kemerovo region. At present we cannot
specify the exact number of our commit-

-6 ¢ Pauitic Tribune, September 4, 1989

Stri

By

tee because it is still in process of forma-
tion. The strike committee had exactly 32
members. It was composed strictly of
miners. But all trades and professions of
the city will be represented in the

Workers’ Committee, once-we are fully-

constituted ....”

Poland: On what principles are you
forming your committee?

Karpechenko: When the strike began,
workers in each enterprise created their
own strike committee. They in turn sent
their most active leaders to form the city
strike committee. When the strike ended,
representatives from other industries
began joining us. First they just expressed
solidarity with us, but then they started
joining our committee. During the strike,
we thanked them for their solidarity, but
we convinced them not to go on strike
themselves, in order not to break trade,
supplies, social services, medical care, so
that the residents of the city would not
suffer.

We incorporated the demands of all the
workers, not just miners, and put them
forward as representatives of all the work-
ing people of Novokuznetsk. Even indi-
vidual citizens sent us their demands in
letters. We generalized them, and divided
them into several categories, such as dis-
trict level, regional, and so on, and deli-
vered them to the corresponding authori-
ties. The category that could only be
resolved by the central government
became our negotiating position with the
Moscow government commission headed
by Nikolai Slyunkov.

Poland: What will be your actions if your
demands are not met in due time?

Karpechenko: The authorities not only
made promises to us, they signed an
agreement with a timetable of implemen-
tation. If the agreement is not fulfilled by
September-October, we’ll have to make a
decision. Everything is based on the fact
that we did not stop the strike, we sus-
pended it.

We would like to avoid resuming the
strike. We understand as Soviet workers,

Mais, Oe, Brame

for perest

as citizens of our country, that this is not
the method. Previously, the central
authorities treated us as a colony. We saw
no way to get their attention other than
this extraordinary step. Now the strike
has rolléd over the whole country, and we
think they realize our power. We hope
that now our government, our Supreme
Soviet (parliament), our deputies, will see
that the promises are fulfilled. In future,
strikes shouldn’t last so long, but we do
reserve this right for ourselves.

GDR: Are the trade unions involved in
your committee?

Karpechenko: Well, we are all trade
union members here. But if you ask us
where the unions were when the strike
started, that’s a good question. Our trade
unions didn’t lead us, with the exception
of a few comrades.

Canada: Do you think you can transform
the existing trade union structure into the
kind of organization that can defend your
interests, or will you have to evolve some-
thing new?

Karpechenko: We are not going to
pursue any radical break in all existing
structures. We are going to revitalize
them, make them work. We think they’ve
already got enough rights and powers to
defend workers and our interests. They
need to function properly. That’s why we
will replace the leaders with ones who will
work properly. However, in future, trade
union rights will have to be widened.
There will have to be much more inde-
pendence. This movement is already in
process.

United States: Were the strikes a revolt
against the Communist Party? Against per-
estroika? Against socialism?

Karpechenko: We are not against the
party, or Soviet power and socialism.
That’s bull. We’re against formal, time-
serving bureaucrats. We’re for peres-
troika. Look, we’re meeting here with
you, actually talking about these things.
That’s perestroika isn’t it? It’s working
and we want it to keep working.

United States: Would you say there is a
change in the mood of the people, the com-

munity, as a result of what has happened?
Karpechenko: Sure, a change has taken

« place::"What' drove/us !to'strike?’ Three” ’~

months ago, Prime Minister (Nikolai)
Ryzhkov came here to talk to us. We told
him all our grievances, but no action fol-
lowed. So, people couldn’t see any step
but to go out on strike.

We didn’t know what the reaction to
our strike would be or how it would turn
out. Now we’ve seen that the governmen-

- talcommission came here to meet with us.

Together we worked out some definite
resolutions and people now see that some
efforts are being made to meet their
demands. We have resolved some prob-
lems, such as supplying our region with
foodstuffs, creation of new facilities for
social services, a cultural centre, medical
care. For example, our clinics are now
receiving disposable syringes.

The people have seen that the govern-
ment is working to meet their needs, pay-
ing attention to them. The mood is
changing. If we doubted before, now we
have started to believe that the truth will
be victorious.

Canada: How do you see the strike con-
tributing to making the mines work better,
more efficiently?

Karpechenko: Our first demand is
regional hozraschot (self-management

and cost-accounting) for the Kuzbass and’

independence for our enterprises’so that
we can find the economic forms that suit

- us best. We want to limit the amount of

state orders to 93 per cent of our produc-
tion, so that the rest will remain at our
disposal. What we want is that the more
we work, the more we shall receive. This is

the idea.

Canada: Don’t you fear that radical
reorganization like this might bring on
unemployment?

Several members of committee: No. We
have a big shortage of workers here. You
send us your unemployed.

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