The Last Coffin Nail For The Dictatorship

The ILO may block all exports of goods produced in Belarus.

Countless times, Belarusians have pushed for massive sanctions against the Lukashenka regime. Unfortunately, his paws have penetrated so strongly into all spheres of life that these sanctions have to be introduced against almost every enterprise, since they are direct or indirect wallets of the dictator.

But there are sanctions that could be the last coffin nail for the Kolkhoz (collective farm) regime. This is the involvement of the International Labor Organization (ILO). Namely, the application of article 33 of the ILO Constitution, which was applied only once, in 2011, against Myanmar after the coup d'état. This paragraph effectively excludes the dictatorship from the organization and blocks the export of economic outputs. This means the complete isolation of Lukashenka in the international arena. Coincidentally, citizens of only two countries themselves asked the ILO for such sanctions: Myanmar and Belarus.

The very thought of it seriously frightened the Lukashists despite contradictory statements about the effectiveness of this measure. The Lukashists wrote a letter in which the workers were forced to ask not to apply such measures precisely after rumours that the ILO was considering measures under article 33 against the Myanmar junta and the dictatorship in Belarus.

The ILO decided not to impose these sanctions at the request of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BCDU). In their eternal naivety, some leaders thought that the regime would stop, stop repressing the workers, and therefore did not put a bullet through the dictatorship's forehead. They tried to play bureaucracy and bombard them with local papers-complaints instead of one confident request - to impose sanctions and limit exports immediately.

Yes, it is possible that the BCDU was thinking about the fate of the workers, that their financial situation would noticeably worsen. But to live under the Lukashenka regime hated by every Belarusian and not to know when this horror will end is much worse. When colleagues are arrested, when contracts are not renewed on political grounds, when the heroes are serving real terms for a strike.

The BCDU actually rescued Lukashenka, however, he does not remember the good and is afraid of any opponent. Even if it is a trade union whose business is to protect the rights of workers. Therefore, for good deeds, he arrested the leaders of the trade union and actually destroyed the primary trade union organizations. A stab of gratitude in the back showed that sitting on the sidelines will not work.

Now neither the ILO nor IndustryALL, the largest trade union, should have any doubts about the situation in Belarus. The Lukashenka regime is complicit in Russian aggression against Ukraine in addition to daily violations of workers' rights and endless arrests. Therefore, a targeted economic strike against a direct ally of Putin can solve two problems: the liberation of Belarusian workers from the persecution of the regime and serious trouble for Putin. Circles go far from the stone of sanctions thrown into the swamp of the dictatorship.