Mykhailo Mariupolskyi, USL September 2022
On July 1st, 2010, the last event of the great wave of privatizations in Ukraine took place when the biggest metallurgical plant in Mariupol in terms of staff numbers “Ilyich Mariupol Metallurgical Combine,” which was formally and legally stock ownership to the ordinary workers, who at that time were around 32,000 in number, was “juiced” by the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov. The true manager and true owner of the plant was its then director, now deceased, Volodymyr Boyko. Boyko belonged to the so-called caste of “red directors” who flirted with their emloyees. Formally, the plant did not belong to Boyko, but to the emloyees, the shares of the company where distributed among them. But Boyko and the members of his family received a real administration and profits of the activities of the plant. The workers were paid only a fraction of the immense real profits of the company through the shares, which were concentrated in the pockets of the director. In spite of that, the salaries at the factory were very decent at that moment and the director was beloved in the factory.
However, on July 1st, 2010, the well-known oligarch Rinat Akhmetov quickly started to re-acquire the shares of the company from the employees. To understand what is going on here, we must go deeper:
1990-2010: Mariupol is an industrial and agricultural city. The plants of “Azovstal” and “Ilyich Mariupol Metallurgical Plant” were the biggest competitors. “Azovstal” belonged to the company “Metinvest” of Rinat Akhmetov, and “Ilyich Mariupol Metallurgical Combine” formally belonged to the team of work headed by Volodymyr Boyk. The competition was quite ferocious and all sides had their strengths and weaknesses. But in 2010, a turning point occurred, because Viktor Yanukovych came to power in the country, who before the elections promised Boyko help with energy resources in exchange for the loyalty of the Ilyich Plant workers. Boyko agreed and supported Yanukovych. But after the victory, Yanukovych did not keep his promises and even, on the contrary, began to put pressure on the company. And even later, he began to provide subsidies to “Metinvest” due to the fact that he was always close to the oligarch Akhmetov. In fact, it can be said that Boyko emptied the company, gave Akhmetov the opportunity to buy the shares of his native company from the workers. No one knows what amount he received from Akhmetov for the actual sale of the enterprise, which formally belonged to the workers.
As a result, the plant quickly began to accumulate debts. Eventually, workers began to receive letters informing them that their company’s shares, including their shares, had been sold. “Metinvest. By the end of 2012, “Metinvest” had completely taken over the “Ilyich Mariupol Metallurgical Plant”.
There was a lot of talk in the Ukrainian media about such a massive theft from the Mariupol workers, but the oligarchy managed to do everything and handle everything in the best way for them. Worsening working conditions, disorder and layoffs became a regular feature of life at the “renovated” factory. The introduction of “coordination rules” became a tool to deprive workers of bonuses. And brutal non-compliance with all rules of labor protection, business ecology and safety began everywhere.
In general, it all looks very sad, but, on the other hand, it is vivid proof that in Ukraine any power depends on big capital, because the factory has not yet been returned to the workers. Now it is difficult to understand its prospects, because it has already been largely destroyed by the Russian invaders.
For the Ukrainian Socialist League, it is very important that the workers are not only formally owners of their companies. And it would be realistic to implement industrial self-government and workers’ control over those companies where they work, regardless of their present forms of ownership. If Ukrainian workers learn to manage and control their own companies, they will also learn to manage their Ukrainian state, which will necessarily free itself from the chains of capital. Our task is not to wait, but to work for it!