Unity in Action! :: Charter'97 :: News

On February 15 Minsk hosted a meeting of leaders of the entrepreneurial union of the Republic of Belarus, whose motto was “Unity in Action!” Leonid Malakhov (co-chairman of the “Private Property”), Valery Levonevsky (chairman of the Striking committee of trade unions of Belarus), Anatoly Shumchenko (United council of entrepreneurs) passed a joint communiqué on the support of the People’s March “For Better Life” on March 12 and on holding a national one-day strike on March 12. Leaders of entrepreneurs concluded that under the present-day circumstances it is only common activities, which can be of real effect. And so they ruled that all further events in protection of businessmen would be carried out in unison.

Statement
Leaders of the entrepreneurial movement of the Republic of Belarus

The year 2002 turn a year of survival for all Belarusian entrepreneurs. Officials of all various levels and structures did their best to annihilate small business in Belarus. They stepped up a range of vile legislative acts – decrees, rulings and orders.

On January 27, 2003 they stepped up another attempt at destroying businessmen as social stratum. Decree #3, decree #4 and order #40, signed on January 27, 2003, are but another assault on the small business.

Belarusian entrepreneurs have never hidden away their views and their civil positions. As a financially independent class, they always had an opinion and position of their own. So we consider the passage of the afore-mentioned documents to be officials’ willful policy, aimed at subduing or rather annihilating the small business.

We appeal to all Belarusian entrepreneurs with a call to forget about their arguments and join in a struggle for our rights and better life. Together we are 200,000 and every one of us has family and friends. That means we outnumber one million in total and together represent real force.

We call on all the Belarusian entrepreneurs to join other groups of the population and fight together for the common good. Today all of us face one poignant problem and one enemy, that is POVERTY! And it is only together that we will manage to overcome that foe.

Only our activism can bear forth fruit. And only our activism will make the authorities reckon with our opinion.

We urge all Belarusian entrepreneurs to hold a one-day warning national strike on March 12 and most actively engage in the People’s March “For Better Life!”, due to be held on March 12 in central Minsk and other Belarusian towns.

Our demands:

- cancellation of a decree #18 of 2002, decrees #3 and #4 of January 27, 2003, decree #42 of January 27, 2003;

- moratorium on examinations by controlling bodies, entailing confiscation of property and fines on trumped-up and formal charges.

In the event the authorities don’t start reckoning with our demands, we will embark on the preparation to the unlimited national strike, combined with tax evasion, starting with April 1, 2003.

February 15, 2003
Minsk

Anatoly Shumchenko
Valery Levonevsky
Leonid Malakhov