The following report details a dangerous double-hostage situation in progress right now (Thursday 14th Oct), where eight workers (including an injured person) are being held captive by a special armed police unit, which is itself barricaded in the building surrounded by over 500 workers armed with batons, who are supported by the local towns people. The police have already fired on and injured at least eleven workers so far. At 2 am this morning, two coach loads of Spetsnaz "Taiphoon" troops entered the Vyborg Paper Mill, accompanied by several bailiffs, and led by the deputy chief baillif of Leningrad region. Militant Workers drove them from the book-keeping offices which they so-wanted control of, and into the canteen - today's story, below, takes over from here.
Some months ago ISWoR appealed for support for the workers of Vyborg Mill, Sovietskii (near the Scandinavian border), who had courageously beaten off attacks by both police and armed thugs working for their boss, and continued to defend the occupation of their workplace.
The international labour movement must not allow this crime to go ahead!! If we do, it will become a precedent, and a means by which all Russian workers may be beaten down the moment they show the slightest protest, no matter how atrocious the conditions they are forced to endure.
Please send your protest messages immediately to the Governor's address below, with a copy to ISWoR, and stand by for more news and details of further actions you can take in solidarity with Vyborg workers. Below the following report is some background information to the struggle from the July 1999 ISWoR bulletin.
Lisa Taylor, for ISWoR - London
Another Terrorist Attack Against Vyborg Workers Report from Moscow - 14 Oct 1999
On the 14th of October at 2 a.m. a group of gunmen assaulted the administration building of Vyborg pulp and paper mill. The mill is well known as the first peoples enterprise in Russia. Three years ago it was sold to a British firm "Nimonor" [note from ISWoR - the mill today officially belongs to the British-based Alcem company - however it is widely believed to be the same company as before acting under a different name to circumvent various regulations], but the workers, not being paid their wages for months, took over the mill and have been running it since then.
At first tear-gas and truncheons were used. But the mill workers who were on the night shift resisted and the attackers opened gunfire against unarmed workers. Eleven workers were wounded. Eight people, including some women and a wounded worker, were taken as hostages and are still held on the second floor by the group of attackers who turned out to be members of a special police force command. No medical assistance and no journalists are allowed to enter the room where hostages are kept.
Later this morning the region administration spokesman said that the policemen who tried to take over the builidng, who opened gunfire against workers and took hostages, were carring out the orders of the local court who were acting in the interests of the new owners of the mill. Their task is "to cleanse the territory of the mill of those who illegally took over the mill and prevented the true owners from running it" that is to say, to throw out the workers. But the special police command failed to seize the control over the mill and barricaded themselves on the second floor of the administration building. The spokesman has also said that Vyborg strike committee members will be charged with contempt of court.
Vyborg workers are not going to give up and will keep fighting for their mill. Any messages of protest sent to the Leningrad region administration will be of a great help to them. Please stand by for more information - and for any actions we ask comrades internationally to take.
You may e-mail your protest copy directly to Russian campaigners at mgo at aha.ru
Also, please send a copy of your protest letter to us at e-mail ISWoR at aol.com