KENTAU WORKERS STAGE HUNGER MARCH.

Police and internal troops have stopped a march on Almaty by nearly 2,000 unpaid workers of the Achpolimetall ore-refining plant and their families, who had set out to walk almost 1,000 kilometers from Kentau to the capital. The march has been blocked after only 32 kilometers and a standoff has ensured. Demonstrators have set up a tent camp, and hundreds of them are on hunger strike. They are demanding immediate and full payment of overdue wages; a government bailout of the ailing plant; and talks with President Nursultan Nazarbaev at the scene. Nazarbaev commented yesterday that the plant is neither competitive nor profitable and that it should have been declared bankrupt long ago.

In Almaty, leftist and Russia-oriented political and labor groups opposed to market reforms have declared their support for the protest and called on workers elsewhere to declare theirs. (Russian agencies, October 11-13) Many plants throughout the country are experiencing similar problems. Some are being rescued through privatization and foreign investment — a solution opposed by the leftist groups that seek to politicize the Kentau workers’ protest.

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