Against the Oppression of the Miners
The 2nd World Conference of the ICOR condemns the brutal oppression of the participants and delegations of the International Miners' Conference held in Arequipa last year. Right from the outset, the leading organizers in Peru themselves were subject to different kinds of repression. The coordinator for Africa, comrade Eugène Badibanga Kapongo from the Congo was refused a visa for traveling to Europe, not once but twice. This is an act of political chicanery by the Belgian embassy, which has the right to issue Schengen visas for travelers from the Congo. Comrade Christian Link, one of the delegates of the International Conference and a leader of “Kumpel für AUF”, the miners' organization which supported the conference from Germany, has been banned from entering any underground mine of the RAG group. This is equivalent to depriving him of his livelihood. Three more delegates from Germany were subject to continuing chicanery and discrimination.
It is clear that all these cases of repression are no coincidence, but are conscious acts of repression against the international miners coordination, only disguised in different ways.
We call upon all the member organizations of the ICOR to take up the struggle against such repression and to take steps to arouse the workers' solidarity against such repression. The International Miners' Conference has the full support of the ICOR!
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