Belarusian Sole Traders Call For Nationwide Rally “Time To Change Bald Tire”!

This was an initiative of Baranavichy sole traders.

The protest rally is scheduled to be held on 7th March 2016 from 15 pm till 18 pm on Lenin Square in Baranavichy. Mikalai Charnavus informed Radio Svaboda that the sole traders are going to hold nationwide rallies in several Belarusian cities:

– I submitted an application to the City Executive Committee with a request to sanction a rally on March 7 from 15 pm till 18 pm in Lenin Square. A music band from Krupki city will be performing during the rally to support us, and we will give away presents to unemployed people. The main slogan of the rally – Time To Change The Bald Tire!

Sole traders from Baranavichy and other cities supported my suggestion – that’s what we had agreed upon during the rally in Kastrychnitskaya Square – that the nationwide rallies should be held in all regions of Belarus: Vitsebsk, Barysau, Mahilyou and other cities.

It’s already obvious that the authorities won’t sanction the rally. Today, when I came to the office of the City Executive Committee to submit an application, they shuddered upon seeing me – they hate me. So, I think we will have to sue for the rejection first. Speaking about the rally, we will decide on how to hold it, even if it won’t be sanctioned. Most of the sole traders don’t work. Those who continue to trade at their own risk don’t have customers. People don’t need toys, plastic items and flowers. People need light industry goods - those that we imported from Russia. They are needed because domestic buyers can not afford to buy shoes and clothing, manufactured by the Belarusian industry.

It is to be reminded that since January 1, 2016 Belarusian sole traders stopped trade massively. Since that day, under Lukashenka’s decree, sole traders are not able to sell consumer goods imported from the countries of the Customs Union, without certificates. Since the beginning of January 2016 spontaneous meetings of sole traders are held in empty markets and shopping canters of Belarus.

In January sole traders of Homel, Vitsebsk, Mahilyou and other towns of Belarus held numerous protest rallies near buildings of regional and city administration, demanding to reverse the Decree №222.

On February 15 a large-scale protest rally of sole traders was held in Kastrychnitskaya Square in Minsk.

We remind that the slogan “Time To Change The Bald Tire!” was a campaign slogan of the presidential candidate Andrei Sannikau in 2010.