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Belarus Factory Workers Hold Mass Walkouts to Back Opposition
It’s not yet clear how the country will emerge from this crisis, but it’s safe to say things won’t go back to the way they were.
"We're not sheep, we're not a herd, we're not little people! We are MTZ workers, we are not 20 people, we are 16,000!"
This is a tectonic political shift in Belarus. If the heavy-industry factory workers strike, it has a domino effect on the national economy.
Related: Belarus Protests Signal the Autumn of Lukashenko’s Regime
It’s not yet clear how the country will emerge from this crisis, but it’s safe to say things won’t go back to the way they were.

"We're not sheep, we're not a herd, we're not little people! We are MTZ workers, we are not 20 people, we are 16,000!"
8/15/20
Crowds of workers walked off the job on Friday at several factories in Belarus's capital Minsk in support of the opposition calling for leader Alexander Lukashenko to step down. Hundreds of workers marched from the Minsk Automobile Plant (MAZ) and the Minsk Tractor Works (MTZ) after the opposition called for strikes against Lukashenko's disputed claim to have won re-election on Sunday. Opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has claimed victory in the polls after raising up a nationwide protest movement. She left for Lithuania after allies said she came under official pressure. The walkouts were highly unusual in a country where Lukashenko has retained a Soviet-style command economy and the tractor factory is seen as a national symbol. The Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko, appointed in June, came to visit the tractor plant but the striking workers left before he arrived. On Friday afternoon they marched out of the factory into the city center, shouting "Long live Belarus" and "Leave!" directed at Lukashenko. One of the strikers, a middle-aged man with a tattoo on his arm denoting support for the opposition, said that he wanted "to bring back Tikhanovskaya, she is our president, we voted for her."
Lukashenko earlier Friday dismissed the walkouts at the tractor and auto plants, saying that "20 people decided to express their opinion, ditched work and went off." He also warned that foreign competitors would benefit from strikes and suggested that workers were being paid to protest. Belarus is regionally famous as a producer of tractors and they take part in a parade on its national independence day. Workers at a major fertilizer plant, Grodno Azot, also protested in the city of Grodno, local media reported. Belarus last saw such large-scale workers' protests and strikes ahead of the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Lukashenko has been in power since 1994.
This is a tectonic political shift in Belarus. If the heavy-industry factory workers strike, it has a domino effect on the national economy.
Related: Belarus Protests Signal the Autumn of Lukashenko’s Regime