SOCIALIZE THE DATA CENTRES!

In: New left review: NLR, Heft 91, S. 45-66

Abstract

I WAS BORN in 1984, in the Minsk region of Belarus, in a new mining town called Soligorsk, founded in the late fifties. More or less the whole labour force was brought in from outside, and there's little sense of national belonging. My father's family came from the north of Russia; my mother, who was born near Moscow, arrived in the seventies with a degree in mining from Ukraine. The town is dominated by one huge state-owned enterprise that mines potassium and produces fertilizers which sell very well on the world market: it's still the most profitable company in Belarus. My entire family worked for it, from grandparents to uncles and aunts. Adapted from the source document.