Brussels, November 29, 1999

APPEAL OF THE REPRESENTATIVES OF STRUGGLING CLABECQ AND VIBORG

To all the progressive forces of the workers world in the struggle for our rigths, for the right to work, the right to a salary paid on time and the respect of the rights of the collectivity of the workers.

In Russia, the State property has been divided up for years by violating all norms, which led to the bankruptcy and the annihilation of the companies. Many factories have been bought by the foreign capital in order to exclude their competitors from the world market. Thus many workers lost their jobs. The class of the private owners presents itself as the master of the society.

At the present time the collective of the workers has almost taken in hands the Kombinat of Cellulose and Paper of Vyborg. In the hardest economic conditions, the collective of workers has been able to save, restore and carry the production.

In Belgium the working class movement struggles against the consequences of the privatizations. The workers of the union delegation of the Forges de Clabecq, following the declaration of bankruptcy of their factory, have carried an exemplary fight against the closure and the fatalism. They organized on the site of the Forges de Clabecq the March for Employment of Februari 2, 1997, to which 70.000 peoples took part. They organized the March against the Liars of April 5, 1997 in Namur and a series of others actions to defend the Forges de Clabecq and the employment. Today the union-representatives and tens of workers are prosecuted by the police and the justice. The union-delegation has constituted an association to defend the workers and representatives, who are prosecuted.

In these conditions, only the common struggle of the workers can resist the current regime.

We, representatives of the collectives of workers and of the union-delegations,

On behalf of the union-delegation of the Forges de Clabecq in Tubize (Belgium), represented by its representative Silvio Marra and,

For the Council of the Collective of Workers of the Kombinat of Cellulose and Paper in Vyborg (Russia), represented by the president of this Council, Alexandre Borisovitch Nikolaev,

We have agreed :

1. to inform each other as respect to the situation in our factories
2. to exchange our experiences in the realization and defense of the collective agreements.
3. to form groups of self-defense of the workers and to help each other against the illegal attempts of theft of the tools of the factory.
4. to organize common actions of protest.
5. to help creating and supporting political forces, which help and really support the struggle of the collective of workers for their rights.
6. to create lasting relations to coordinate the actions.

Alexandre B. Nicolaev and Silvio Marra