BKDP attends FNV Solidarity Festival in Amsterdam

On September 19, 2025, Amsterdam saw the International Solidarity Festival organized by the Netherland’s largest trade union, the FNV. The event brought together union activists from over 15 countries, including Surinam, India, Uganda, the USA, Kenya, Columbia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Belarus.

The Festival provided a platform for exchanging experiences, discussing global challenges, and developing strategies of joint struggle for workers’ rights. Its workshops and panel discussions covered the topics of labour migration, accessibility of healthcare systems, solidarity with Palestine, problems related to students’ on-the-job training, and other relevant issues.

The Belarusian topic was again prominent at the event. During the opening ceremony, the participants listened to a welcome address from the BKDP President Aliaksandr Yarashuk who had been released from a Belarusian prison not long before the event. He thanked the FNV for its long-time support of independent unions of Belarus and solidarity with Belarusian political prisoners and their families.

Yauheny Denisenka, an activist of the BKDP and the Salidarnast movement, underscored in his intervention that the campaign for the release of Aliaksandr Yarashuk and other imprisoned union leaders was a vivid example of unwavering international solidarity and should continue. Visiting the stand prepared by Belarusian activists, the Festival guests could learn more about the situation in Belarus, the imprisoned unionists’ personal stories, and opportunities for supporting them.

Special attention was accorded to the issue of healthcare workers’ migration. Speaking on behalf of the Independent Healthcare Workers’ Union “Panacea” and the BKDP was Stanislau Salavei who described a crisis situation in the Belarusian healthcare system where up to 40% of the sector’s professionals either leave the profession or find employment abroad.

Yauhen Denisenka and Stanislau Salavei

The Belarusian union representative shared best practices in overcoming staff shortages like the development of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of new technologies including AI-assisted ones. Contacts made during the Festival can help develop new approaches and a roadmap to tackle the issue of healthcare workers’ migration.

The release of Aliaksandr Yarashuk and Gennadz Fedynich, the former President of the REP union is a strong indication of the international pressure’s effectiveness. However, dozens of union leaders and activists still linger behind bars.

The FNV stated that the Belarusian authorities should release all political prisoners without delay and abrogate the repressive laws that hinder free activity of trade unions. In its turn, the international community needs to continue exerting pressure on the Belarusian Government and support the struggle for freedom of association, democracy, and workers’ rights in the country.

The FNV Solidarity Festival proved to be a powerful demonstration of the fact that the Belarusian independent labour movement, despite being banned in its own country, lives on and finds new allies all over the world.

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