80,000 entrepreneurs participate in one-day strike across Belarus

Up to 80,000 entrepreneurs who run their small-size trading businesses on December 19 took part in a nation-wide one-day strike to protest against the president's decree No 760, said Anatol Shumchanka, the leader of the Perspektyva (Perspective) entrepreneurs' union. All the regional centers apart from Vitsebsk joined the protest. Shumchanka put blame on the disagreements between entrepreneurs's unions in this north-eastern Belarusian city for their failure to support the strike.

In the view of Shumchanka, the December 19 strike has been a success, because 80,000 people expressed solidarity with the repressed entrepreneurs and joined the demands of the organizers, reports Belapan.

The entrepreneurs' leader stressed that they had just three weeks to prepare for the strike. Shumchanka called on all the entrepreneurs to sacrifice personal ambitions for the sake of common interests.