Kazakhstan clampdown on oil workers

This is a video about a striking oil workers meeting in Kazakhstan.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Court orders Kazakh Communists to suspend activities

Thursday 06 October 2011

A court in Almaty has ordered the Communist Party of Kazakhstan to suspend its activities for six months on the basis that it co-founded a movement to monitor an ongoing strike by oil company employees.

The court ruled on Tuesday that the 55,000-strong opposition party had violated the law on public organisations by helping to establish the People’s Front movement, which has been monitoring the industrial action in Manghystau province.

Party leader Ghaziz Aldamzharov was found guilty of “participation in an unregistered public movement” and fined 15,100 tenges (£66).

Mr Aldamzharov said he guessed authorities were clamping down on the party’s activities in order to prevent it contesting parliamentary elections scheduled to take place by August 2012.

Thousands of OzenMunaiGaz corporation employees have been on strike in Manghystau since May to press demands for a pay boost, equal rights with foreign workers and the release of a jailed trade union lawyer.

See also here.

A witness in the case related to deadly clashes between striking oil workers and police in the western Kazakh town of Zhanaozen has been found dead: here.