THE POWERFUL MASS STRUGGLES IN KAZAKHSTAN

Proletarians of all countries, unite!

THE POWERFUL MASS STRUGGLES IN KAZAKHSTAN

”Imperialism’s economic relations constitute the core of the entire international situation as it now exists. Throughout the twentieth century, this new, highest and final stage of capitalism has fully taken shape.”

Lenin, ”Report On The International Situation And The Fundamental Tasks Of The Communist International”

”… the contradiction among the various … imperialist Powers … leads to the mutual weakening of the imperialists, to the weakening of the position of capitalism in general, to the acceleration of the advent of the proletarian revolution and to the practical necessity of this revolution.

[…]
… the development within imperialism of catastrophic contradictions leading to inevitable wars, the growth of the revolutionary movement in all countries of the world-all this leads, not only to the possibility, but also to the necessity of the victory of the proletariat in individual countries.”

Stalin, ”The Foundations of Leninism”

On 1st of January, small protests over doubled gas prices started in Zhanaozen, in the western region of Kazakhstan. Soon combatitative protests flared all over the country, with the masses storming into administrative buildings, banks and stores, even seizing an airport, expressing their anger with the corrupt regime of Kazakhstan, poverty and inequality in the oppressed nationⁱ. The reaction responded with bullets and the most gruesome repression, and as of 10th of January, according to Kazakhstani officials, 160 people have been reported to have died in the protests, hundreds have been injured and 5000 people have been arrestedⁱⁱ. Russian newspaper Izvestija reports that 17 members of the reactionary security forces have been killedⁱⁱⁱ. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has called the rebelling masses terrorists, suggesting foreign influence. He said that the security forces will work hard until ”every single militant is eliminated”, authorising the reactionary forces to shoot without warning^iv.

According to Russian news website Novaja Gazeta the origin of the protests is in the gas-producing region of Zhanaozen, where the wages for the majority stay low as the price of everyday products and fuel for cars and heating keep rising. This region already saw violent repression of protests as the security forces shot protesting oil workers in 2011^v. Kazakhstan is rich in natural resources, such as gas and minerals, and is the biggest economy in Central Asia, and these riches are plundered mainly by Russian imperialism. As the imperialist system keeps plummeting deeper into its general crisis, increasingly expressing its further decomposition, the living conditions of the masses keep becoming more and more dire both in the imperialist countries and in the oppressed nations. So they take on the streets, they rebel and fight fiercely against the heavily-armed reaction, demanding affordable prices, better wages, they express their very justified deep hatred against the ruling class that leads a comfortable life, selling the country to imperialists and exploiting the people. They are not afraid of the security forces, they are willing to defy the lethal force of the reactions’ guns with steel bars, rocks and molotov coctails. The masses raise their demands, their revindications, and all of these demands will be truly fullfilled by the conquest of power, and ultimately, the masses demand the power. And the way to conquest and defend the power is through the people’s war, led by a militarised, marxist-leninist-maoist, principally maoist, communist party.

Already there is signs how the big bourgeoisie of Kazakhstan and the imperialists will use this struggle of the masses in their collusion and contention. Russian imperialism has marched its troops into the semi-colony Kazakhstan, dependent mainly to Russian imperialism, in a ”peace keeping mission”, as the country is part of CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organisation), which includes Russia and the semicolonies which are mainly under its dependency such has Belarus, Kirgistan, Tajikistan and Georgia^vi. The weak regime of Tokayev is crying for its master to come help it out of the trouble. This is the first time this organisation is sent on a such mission. Russian military officials have stated that the troops will stay until ”order is restored” in Kazakhstan, and Kazakhstan has also requested the troops to take part in the ”anti-terrorism operation” directed against the people^vii. This is a direct military intervention, an attempt to prevent Kazakhstan from escaping the clutches of Russian imperialism and to crush the rebellion of the masses by brutal force. It is a direct military intervention for now limited as a bathometer for future major interventions for the defense of its sphere of influence, which it considers its own security zone in Central Asia. That a direct action to solve as quickly as possible the problem in this former Asian republic of the USSR, neighbor of others that can suffer the contagion and destabilize, would aggravate the problem in its sphere of influence and lead to a greater Russian intervention that can transform them into several “new Afghanistans”.

Russian imperialism is facing the growing encirclement of U.S. imperialism through Nato. What is happening in Kazakhstan is bringing unrest right to its border, as it is also answering to NATO’s increasing military presence in Ukraine. At the same time, RIA Novosti, Russian state-affiliated news agency, is noting that even ”the peaceful neighbour of many years”, Finland, is becoming even more welcoming for the Yankee-NATO, and Russian imperialism has demanded NATO to stop its enlargening around the border of Russia^viii. The military intervention of Russian imperialism therefore is an attempt to bring stability by force to its semi-colony, to keep on exploiting, and to make sure mainly Yankee imperialism, or other imperialists such as Chinese social-imperialism cannot use the unrest to displace Russia as the main imperialism oppressing the people of that country. In fact, on 10th January, China ”offered help” to Kazakhstan, saying that they are ready to send troops if Kazakhstan requests it^ix.

The ”western” imperialists, mainly the sole hegemonic superpower USA and the so-called European Union, dominated by German imperialism have warned Russia against military intervention of Russia in Kazakhstan. The Yankee officials say that they are ”closely monitoring the situation” and looking out for human rights violations^x – as if ”human rights” mean anything to the hegemonous imperialist superpower exploiting, murdering and torturing people all over the world, but they still want to potray themselves as on the side of the masses to use this struggle against Russian imperialism.

Kazakhstan was ruled for decades by Nursultan Nazarbayev until 2019, when president Tokayev was ”handpicked” by him as his successor. Nazabayev still remained a powerful figure. In Tokayev’s period, some reforms have been made to make it easier to make new bourgeois parties (of the comprador faction of the big bourgeoisie) and to organise demonstrations^xi. Nazarbayev had started falling out of favour among the ruling class, which is a small handful of people, tied together by loyalty and family ties to Nazarbayev, and from ranks for the “new bourgeoisie” (bureaucratic faction of the lackey big bourgeoisie) risen to power during social-imperialist Soviet Union as well as ”new regional elite”. The bourgeois-democratic ”opposition” forces (compradors) remain very weak as the political system of Kazakhstan is deeply based on semi-feudal system of loyalities and family ties^xii. ”Human rights” activists and government critics have faced harassment, prosecution and violence during many years. Most of the ”opposition” to the president came from this tight-knit elite. However, during the protests president Tokayev has dismissed the leader of the security council, Nazarbayev, as well as the head of intelligence service, Nazarbayev’s ally Kärim Mäsimov. Mäsimov has also been arrested for treason^xiii. The landlord-bureaucratic state in Kazakhstan is sinking in a political crisis, in which the contradictions among the big bourgeoisie are inflaming, and the different sections of the big bourgeoisie are taking advantage of the unrest to conspire against each other.

Corrupt Kazakhstani banker and big bourgeois politician living in exile, Mukhtar Ablyazov, a representative of a different section of the big bourgeoisie in Kazakhstan, has called the ”west” to intervene^xiv. This despicable leech, wanted for embezzlement and fraud in his home country, is claiming himself as an ”opposition leader” and vowing to return to Kazakhstan to answer the call of the masses, while begging the ”west” to ”tear Kazakhstan away from Russia.” One bourgeois expert describes the current situation among the ruling class as ”a fascinating dance” with politicians like Erlan Karin, known as a ”young reformer” and ”post-soviet” leaders like president Tokayev struggling over the future of the country^xv. Among the ruling class the question is about which imperialist to serve and which section (faction) of the big bourgeoisie rules.

Even these ”opposition leaders” who claim to support the demonstrations have in their interest to sell the country to the imperialist that suits them the best. The exploitation and injustice that the masses are protesting will just go on, under new exploiters and new imperialist masters. The situation has similarities to the situation in Ukraine in 2013 and 2014, and it is likely that Yankee imperialism will try to use the situation to further enclose the encirclement of Russian imperialism.

The situation in Kazakhstan shows the further deepening of the general crisis of imperialism: the exploitation and oppression is weighing all the more heavily on the backs of the masses, and they are not afraid to fight. They desperately seek freedom, they demand the power for themselves. Without the correct leadership of the communist party, the imperialists will use the rebellion of the masses, suppress it with force or to pacify it with empty promises of reforms. The rebellion cannot however be extinguished; the mass murder the reaction is committing against the people will not extinguish it – it will spark up again and again, and in this fiery class struggle the vanguard of the proletariat will be forged sooner or later. It is sure that without the communists taking up their task and reconstituting their parties, the masses will be betrayed by reactionary leadership time and time again. The explosiveness of the masses is seen all over the world, especially in the oppressed nations, but also in the imperialist countries, signaling us that we have entered a new period of revolutions – we see how the masses are ready to fight, we see that they have nothing to lose but their shackles, they want the old to burn to give space for the new. They are clamoring for leadership, they are calling the communists in Kazakhstan and all over the world to reconstitute their parties and to lead the people all the way to the ever-golden communism.

We emphasize the role of torch and guide of the current people’s wars and those that are about to begin to show the way and push forward the development of the subjective forces of the revolution in situations such as those in Ukraine. This is how the world revolution develops, each people’s war is to develop the revolution in each country in and at the service of the world proletarian revolution. This is in Lenin’s military program of the proletarian revolution, what corresponds is to apply it to the current conditions of the world proletarian revolution. Moreover, Chairman Mao has explained this relationship as follows:

“World War I shook the whole globe. The Russians made the October Revolution and created the world’s first socialist state. Under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin, the revolutionary energy of the great proletariat and labouring people of Russia, hitherto latent and unseen by foreigners, suddenly erupted like a volcano, and the Chinese and all mankind began to see the Russians in a new light. Then, and only then, did the Chinese enter an entirely new era in their thinking and their life. They found Marxism-Leninism, the universally applicable truth, and the face of China began to change. It was through the Russians that the Chinese found Marxism. Before the October Revolution, the Chinese were not only ignorant of Lenin and Stalin, they did not even know of Marx and Engels. The salvoes of the October Revolution brought us Marxism-Leninism. The October Revolution helped progressives in China, as throughout the world, to adopt the proletarian world outlook as the instrument for studying a nation’s destiny and considering anew their own problems. Follow the path of the Russians — that was their conclusion. In 1919, the May 4 th Movement took place in China. In 1921 , the Communist Party of China was founded.

(…) The vanguard of the Chinese proletariat learned Marxism-Leninism after the October Revolution and founded the Communist Party of China. It entered at once into political struggles and only now, after a tortuous course of twenty-eight years, has it won basic victory.

(…) The Chinese revolution, led by the Communist Party of China, has made tremendous advances both in theory and practice and has radically changed the face of China”

Chairman Mao, ON THE PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC DICTATORSHIP, In Commemoration of the Twenty-eighth Anniversary of the Communist Party of China, 30 June 1949, Selected Works, Vol. IV.

inovayagazeta.ru 4.1.2022: В Казахстане массовые протесты из-за повышения цены на газ охватили всю страну. Главное

iialjazeera.com 9.1.2022: Kazakhstan: More than 160 killed, 5000 arrested during riots

iiiiz.ru 10.1.2022: Число погубших в результате беспорядков в Казахстане силовиков возросло до 17

ivreuters.com 7.1.2022: Kazakh president gives shoot-to-kill order to quell protests

vnovayagazeta.ru 5.1.2022: Отмороженный холодильник

vitheguardian.com 7.1.2022: Putin taking a risk in Kazakhstan and may hope for reward

viiiz.ru 10.1.2022: Токаев указал на окончанение миссии ОДКБ с завершением антитеррористической операции

viiihttps://ria.ru/20220107/kazakhstan-1766842283.html

ixreuters.com 10.1.2022: China offers Kazakhstan security support, opposes ’external forces’

xhttps://euobserver.com/world/154023

xireuters.com 20.12.2019: Kazakhstan to liberalize rules on protests and political parties

xiiglobalsecurity.org: Kazakhstan – politics

xiiireuters.com 8.1.2022: Kazakhstan detains former national security chief on suspicion of treason

xivhttps://news.trust.org/item/20220107104749-evzo3

xvtageschau.de 5.1.2022: “Es wird eine Weile chaotisch bleiben”