Leading Labor: Unions, Politics, and Protest in New Democracies

Abstract

the spring of 1996, against a background of grain shortages, inflation, rising crime, and a dispute over the military's role in the NATO alliance, the Bulgarian Democratic Left government of Zhan Videnov found itself under intense pressure from parliamentary discontent and mass demonstrations led by the independent trade union Podkrepa. To make matters worse, the largest labor confederation, the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria (KNSB), faced with a rising tide of wildcat stoppages, dropped its initial reluctance to join with Podkrepa and cast its lot against the government. Mass demonstrations organized by Podkrepa and the KNSB resulted in attacks with stones and eggs on the headquarters of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) in Sofia. Protest spread quickly to Plovdiv and other cities, with demonstrations lasting for a number of consecutive days. On January 10 violence broke out when demonstrators attacked the parliament building, and many were injured as the police tried to break through to free trapped parliamentarians. After a month of mass demonstrations and civil disobedience, the president-elect, Petur Stoyanov, resolved the crisis by appointing a caretaker government until elections could be held in April 1997.1 On September 29, 1999, the Executive Committee of the General Council of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR) announced that the total debt on wages in the Russian Federation had reached more than 56 billion rubles; more than 17 million employees at 107,000 enterprises were not being paid on time. As a testament to the leading role which the FNPR plays in defending the interests of Russian workers, the press statement went on proudly: In September alone, strikes without time limit were announced by about 7,000 people at 226 education institutions in six regions of the Russian Federation [Altai and Khakhassia Republics, Volgograd, Smolensk, Tver, and Chita oblasts]. Out of 17 million unpaid workers, only 7,000 teachers were on strike, none in the capital or even in St. Petersburg and most in remote republics of Siberia and the Far East.