Sole traders ready for strike

From 50,000 to 80,000 sole traders in regions can hold a strike.

The forum “Aims and Tasks of Small Business in Belarus” that was held in Minsk on February 16 showed that the authorities will not make concessions to sole traders who will be put on the brink of survival in two weeks. The authorities refuse to prolong the period of selling remaining goods and amend decree No. 222. All market traders will have to work with documents and certificates from March 1, 2015. Businessmen say it is like a death sentence.

How can small businessmen response to the authorities' attempts to eliminate them?

Businessman Viktar Harbachou, the leader of the campaign For Free Development of Small Business, discussed possible further actions of sole traders with Belaruskaya Prauda.

– People are ready to hold a strike if the authorities don't change their decisions. All regions will protest. Market traders in regional centres and smaller towns will definitely protest, but the involvement of Minsk remains a question. Minsk always keeps aloof and take decisions, independent or on command, regardless of what regions think. From 50,000 to 80,000 people in regions can join the strike. It means they won't pay taxes and, partially, rent.

– What position does Minsk take in the confrontation with the authorities?

– Minsk is the capital, the centre of the country. Most money and decision-makers are concentrated there. They arrange and manage issues on site faster than in regions. They think they won't be hit. Minsk is getting poor slower, so it will face problems later. Minsk is lagging behind, though it's time for the capital to become our leader.

– Do you believe that the government can cancel certification procedures and hold a convention of sole traders, in other words, to make a step forward to the “leeches” they have been eliminating for 20 years?

– Further developments depend on the number of market traders who will stop working on March 1. If the strike of sole traders spreads across the country, the authorities will think. It may take time, but they will have to react. For example, they can hold their convention, gather their supporters and vote in favour of decisions of the government and Lukashenka. They also can raise taxes and make “concessions” after that.

The political situation and the upcoming “fair election” of the new but old president make the authorities do something to gain support of sole traders. The authorities set their rules. If they manage to put sole traders on a leash, small business will disappear in Belarus. We need to impose our rules on the authorities and prove that sole traders are not only citizens on paper but also in reality. The current authorities (big businessmen and a few cronies of our permanent authorities) are out of touch with reality. They only defend their own interests. The authorities believe they will meet no resistance, everyone will shut up and obey. But we live only once. Why should we obey?

Eighty percent of sole traders understand that they won't have a normal life with these authorities and this legislation. They can either resist or live like slaves until death. They understand they will be pressed. The authorities will try to liquidate the middle class, which would be ready to raise its head and claim power. Twenty years of pressure and humiliation of sole traders is not the limit. The authorities do everything to exterminate the class of small businessmen as society of free people.

The time of calls, appeals, collecting signatures and pickets has passed. We haven't seen any results. It means we need to look for other forms and methods of defence, beginning from strikes and rallies to the election of a normal president that will not destroy the new economic policy and will adopt stable and clear legislation relating to business issues instead of daily decrees, orders and other papers, which do not guarantee development of small business. If I were a government official, I would think why Belarus's population in 1994 was 10,250,000 people, but it is only 9,450,000 now, though 20 years have passed without wars and disasters. Why did 800,000 Belarusians disappear if our life is so “good”? Perhaps, the measures taken in relation to small businessmen today have an aim to further reduce the country's population.