In 1990, I was playing and coaching baseball in the former Soviet Union in its dying days. Baseball was just being introduced as an Olympic sport and a group of us over-the-hill (men and women) jocks called Athletes United For Peace got to relive our glory days, playing exhibition games and holding clinics (with Vodka) with some Soviet college and local sports teams.
In coal dust-smudged Donetsk, in what was then called The Ukraine, thousands of miners had been on strike for months, so after playing an exhibition game, a group of us caught a ride up to strike headquarters, about 10 miles outside the city, and I did this interview with some of the strike leaders.
Rereading the interview now, more than 30 years later, in the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I’m struck by how that miners’ strike foreshadowed the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine gaining its independence, the breakaway movement in Dunbass, and the current war.
USSR IN TRANSITION: UKRAINIAN MINERS WANT INDEPENDENT TRADE UNIONS by Michael Klonsky, Chicago freelance writer.
Donetsk, Ukraine–This interview took place at the office of the Miners’ Strike Committee, on July 28, 1990. The spokesmen for the miners are Aleksander Kolomyitsev and Nikolai Уоlynko, the co-chairmen of the Strike Committee. Included in the discussion are eight other rank-and-file members.
Q: Tell us about your organization. How did the strike movement begin?
Kolomyitsev: It didn’t start here in Donetsk, but rather in Kuzbass in the Urals. The miners were displeased with difficult conditions of work and low living standards and decided to go on strike. They had no experience and were not sure how to do it. One can say that it (the strike) started incidentally.
Q: What were your demands at first?
Уоlynko: They were purely economic. We wanted higher wages, higher prices for coal, better living conditions, higher pensions, higher pay for night work, and better food supplies.
Kolomyitsev: Here in Donetsk, the Strike Committee had been working for over a year. After a number of strikes, an agreement was signed between the workers and the government. The result of this agreement was the decision of the government number 60A which became law on August 3, 1989.
But as we have gone ahead step by step we have realized that the government only signed this agreement because they were frightened and that they didn’t intend to stick by it. This agreement covered many areas and levels of government up through this Supreme Soviet and the President of the country.
Q: Did the agreement cover all miners in the country?
Уоlynko: No, only in Donetsk. But there are committees like this in practically every mining city and separate agreements have been worked out in many of them. However, the government has not been able to fulfill its obligations. As it stands today, the miners will fill the governmental obligations themselves. That means that if we want to get something from the government, we have to fight the law, the bureaucracy, and so on. This made us realize that in order to win our economic demands, we also had to put forth political demands.
On November 2, we went on a 24-hour strike to support other striking miners. In February, we held 3 days of political meetings to force the Donetsk regional Community Party Committee to resign. We didn’t need them to manage Donetsk. This coincided with the national elections.
We then went on a hunger strike in front of the offices of the Party Committee to get them to resign or face a planned strike on the first of March. The Party headquarters didn’t make any decision so the strike took place as scheduled.
Q: What s the situation now?
Kolomyitsev: Well, today in Donetsk, the power belongs to the Soviets, not to the Party Committee. There are not very many cities in the Soviet Union where the situation is like this. The power no longer is in the hands of the Communist Party but in those of the People’s Deputies. The majority of the former Party people who were in the territorial Party Committee failed to get elected.
Rank-and-file Miner: Only two or three were elected. But the Party leaders were not elected.
Q: What is the significance of this nationally?
Kolomyitsev: It means that the Communist Party is now just one of several parties in the country and losing the elections means that it has lost its power and influence.
Q: Tell us about the first Miners Congress.
Kolomyitsev: The first Miners Congress took place here and it was very difficult to arrange. The ministers and the central government were against it and didn’t want it to be held. But it took place anyway. It adopted a resolution that said the government headed by Prime Minister Ryzhkov, being unable to solve the economic problems of the country, should resign. Donetsk miners were the first to put this forth.
This resolution passed on July 24, called for the 24-hour political strike. These thousands of telegrams of support came in from all over the Ukraine (raising a stack of mail). All enterprises in the Ukraine shut down in a show of support for the miners. Out of all these telegrams, only 18 opposed us. People from all walks of life, from professionals to fishermen, supported us.
Journalists and radio stations from Western Europe and the U.S. covered the strike. We went to Kiev and met with the Ukrainian government. We asked the representatives of the Communist Party to leave the meeting. Then someone went and apologized to these representatives.
The official press reported that we had held “constructive talks” with the Party officials. But this was a lie. There was no apology and talks were not held by any member of the miners’ delegation, either from Donetsk or elsewhere.
We have had such a bad experience with the press, distorting our position and doing false reporting. We hope you will be accurate in what you report. We have had journalists stay with us for two or three days only to find out that the information they gathered is not getting into their newspapers. These journalists are not being allowed back to speak with us.
Q: What about American reporters?
Уоlynko: The reporter from TIME Magazine went down into the mine and for the rest of the day, he couldn’t even work because he was so frightened at what he saw there. But his articles didn’t get printed in the mass media.
Q: What is the miners’ feelings about Gorbachev?
Kolomyitsev: In general they’re good. But the president should be elected by the entire people, not just by some people represented at a congress. If Gorbachev wants to provide leadership to Perestroika, his decisions must be made seriously and not just be half-decisions. He has to be more decisive in his actions so we don’t have to go on strike all the time.
Q: What do you mean by decisive? Decisive on what?
Kolomyitsev: He must destroy the bureaucratic system. Because otherwise, nobody is responsible for anything and nobody wants to act. At the last Party Congress, Gorbachev and Rhyzhkov gave interviews. They said that they were trying to find out who is “backing the miners”? This was some kind of intimidation.
People from the central government are trying to persuade the people that there is no alternative to Gorbachev. This shows what a bureaucratic mess we’re in. If something happens to Gorbachev, they say, there is nobody to fill in. We are not satisfied with this situation. If Gorbachev fails, they will find someone else to take his place.
Q: How do you respond to the charge that the miners are out for their own “self-interest” and not for the god of the whole country?
Kolomyitsev: Let me give you an example. Following the strike wave last summer, the agreements we reached led to the government’s decision 60A, which we mentioned earlier. The contents of 60A were reported to be about the immediate economic demands of the miners only. When the people learned about the strike, they believed it was only to benefit the miners.
Nikolai here (pointing to Уоlynko) is a deputy to the Donetsk Soviet. Within the city Soviet, there are many people who don’t know the contents of 60A. When he was asked why the miners are only out for themselves, he answered that if they had read the agreement, they would see that it covered demands for the whole population, not just the miners. It covered pensions, living standards, working conditions, not only for miners but for all the people in Donetsk and the Ukraine.
Уоlynko: Last November when we went on strike, it was the first time we put forward political demands that involved the entire region. It wasn’t until the summer that we put forward a program of purely political demands.
Q: You refer to yourselves as the “Second Strike Committee.” Why is that?
Kolomyitsev: The first Strike Committee went to the U.S., invited by some independent trade unions. Everything that they brought back, that was given to them by American supporters, such as computers, calculators, xerox machines, and other equipment all evaporated upon their return. They were corrupted and the miners no longer trusted them. So let’s put it this way: We are the Second Strike Committee.
Q: This sounds a lot like the history of our own American union leadership.
Kolomyitsev: We are inexperienced and have many things to learn–but we are not naive and don’t live in a dream world.
Q: Gorbachev called your last strike a failure. He said that you failed to get really broad support. (Laughter breaks out among the miners in the room as they all point to the huge stack of telegrams on the desk).
Уоlynko: When the strike began, the evening news program called “Time,” for the first time in history carried information about the true conditions being faced by the miners, such as their high mortality rate. They were showing demonstrations of support from all around the country as a result of these strikes. From Byelorussia to the Ukraine, they showed these actions of support. In Leningrad, the Metro stopped for several hours in a show of solidarity by the workers.
Q: Is there a centralized leadership of the strike movement? Are you strong enough to shut down all the mines in the country in a united action?
Kolomyitsev: We are in contact with all the miners throughout the country but it all depends on the conditions and the demands. There was a strike in the western part of the Ukraine, for example, that was based strictly on local demands. In that case, national support wasn’t necessary and there were no strikes here. We can shut down all the mines in the country throughout our network of personal contacts as opposed to official channels. Without the personal contact, we don’t know who we are dealing with. All our phones are “bugged.”
Q: Have you received support from United Mine Workers in the U.S.? What about support from Solidarity in Poland?
Kolomyitsev: We have very weak ties with those unions and have not received any support. The government has tried to block our opportunities to make contacts in other countries and from what you know about your own press, you are not necessarily getting truthful information either.
Q: What if your actions paralyze the country to such an extent that the government is forced to call out the troops? What will happen then?
Kolomyitsev: Troops against the people? Last summer’s strike proved that it’s not just the miners on strike but the people. The troops would not support the government. The army consists of young boys from this area. We don’t have a professional army.
Q: What if they brought in troops from outside the region, something like in China’s Tiananmen Square?
Kolomyitsev: Let them try. But I don’t think we will have the same situation as they did, for example, in Romania. I think all the questions can be resolved in a peaceful way.
Q: But what if Gorbachev’s government falls because of your actions?
Kolomyitsev: Then another one will come.
Q: What if that brings an end to the reform and the hard-liners make a comeback?
Kolomyitsev: It is possible. But we still don’t believe that there are good alternatives to Gorbachev.
Q: What about independence for the Ukraine? Is that a positive step?
Уоlynko: Figures have been published showing that the Ukraine sends 80% of its production and income to the state, leaving only 20% for Ukraine. We are for the complete political and economic independence to manage their own affairs but within the Soviet Union.
Q: Will there be independent unions in the Soviet Union?
Уоlynko: The present unions are managed by the government. We stand for the formation of independent trade unions throughout the country. The creation of the independent union of the miners will take place at our second congress which will be held in October. We are setting an example for other workers. When I went to Kiev, I met workers going to the first congress of independent agricultural workers.
Q: Do you foresee a day in the future when the miners will directly manage the mines?
Уоlynko: That’s up to the people to decide.
Q: Has this struggle changed your attitude towards socialism? What is your view as a worker and as a trade unionist toward the social system in your country?
Kolomyitsev: What is socialism? (Laughter from the rank and file). We don’t know what it is.
Q: What about a market economy?
Kolomyitsev: We believe that in order to have a market economy, first there has to be a market. What they have done here is to set up high prices without having a market. In general, we welcome moves to a market economy. But people must be protected against the drawbacks of the market economy, such as unemployment, and there’s nothing of the kind yet.
Q: Have you met with many Americans?
Kolomyitsev: At our First Congress of Miners in Donetsk, the representatives of AFL-CIO and some independent trade unionists were here. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Lucinda Thorn who represented Freedom House were present at the Congress. It was very difficult for the miners to get visas for these people.
But we have been working together with some American union leaders for some time as well as people from the American Embassy. We were also invited to the American Embassy for the celebration of the Fourth of July.
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