‘Workers, You Are Huge Force That Overthrown Dictators’

In Belarus, more and more people are talking about the possible strike on August 10.

“I was born in the early 80s in the city of Minsk,” writes a reader of the “Basta!” Telegram channel. “I grew up in one of the most difficult areas of the city - the Shabany micro-district. There were different times, different memories, both good and bad: beer from a barrel, ice cream for 20 kopecks, delivery of glass bottles, stagnation, and food for coupons. All this was a consequence of the rule of one party, the times when there was only one opinion, the opinion of the ruling elite, who fattened themselves, enjoying life without any limits.

Does this remind you of 2020?

My parents have worked at the factory all their lives, and are still working. Being now retired, they cannot help but work, since their pension is a pitiful penny, and this is for years worked with dignity, huge length of service, labor awards, and incentives.

My destiny could have been the same if I hadn't gone the other way. Starting my career as a turner, a milling machine operator, an instrument builder, I have reached the post of a director of my own small private enterprise. But this happened not thanks to the “tsar”, but thanks to the first gray hairs at the age of 25, because doing at least some kind of business in our country is another “carousel” of constantly changing rules of the game.

I would like to address the workers of factories. If you don’t want to live like this, then remember history - not a single overthrow of the dictatorship took place without the participation of the working class. You are a huge force that has overthrown kings and dictators.