Solidarity with Journalists in Belarus
No stranger to oppression and torture, the Belarusian regime continues to attack trade unionists and left activists has now witnessed a further escalation in detentions, as a number of journalists are targeted.
Over the past number of weeks trade unionists have highlighted the detention and imprisonment of journalists while others internationally voiced concerns an escalation of ill-treatment of independent journalists in Belarus.
Mass protests have effectively been crushed as workers organisations and unions alike have openly rejected selective internment, torture and forced expulsions by the state. All of which are designed to silence any opposition or debate within the country.
The working class defends itself when it is united as a class. This class solidarity doesn't stop at national borders. Since its foundation, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) has as an international revolutionary union, sought to unite the workers of the world as a class. In a statement issued in solidarity with journalists internationally, comes at a time when journalists murdered this year alone has dramatically increased.
A spokesperson for the IWW commented on the recent detentions of journalists said: "When any state attacks our class, then we as a class are attacked. Only by being united as a class internationally, can the working class free itself and by freeing itself it liberates humanity as well.
"Recent developments witnessed in Belarus should concern us as a union. The Belarus regime in attacking civil society or labour organisations is clearly a brutal attempt to cling onto power. The regime's latest decision to repress the independent trade union movement in Belarus has been unfolding over the past number of years and it is a worrying sign of desperation. Here in Ireland labour organisations such as ICTU have written to the Minister for Foreign Affairs raising its concern about attacks on workers rights in Belarus. We support that being highlighted as for ourselves, an attack on these workers and the trade union movement or the rights of workers is an attack on all workers, be that in Belarus or here in Ireland."
The Industrial Workers of the World extends its support and solidarity to journalists and all the workers of Belarus. Particularly at a time when labour and its organisations are under increasing attack from the state who will stop at nothing, to protest its own interests. Workers should have the freedom to organise, to unionise, to speak freely or run our unions by and for themselves, without outside control or interference from the state or its agencies. In the name of international class solidarity the IWW stands with all journalists and workers here in Ireland and in Belarus.