Among messages of support for the housing campaigners picketing president Nazarbayev’s residence tomorrow, 1 October, is this one from MEP Paul Murphy:-

Dear comrades and friends,

I have learnt from the international ‘ Campaign Kazakhstan’ campaign that the ‘Leave the People´s Home Alone’ campaign is undertaking a protest in Astana on the 1st of October. I am aware that all of you will travel great distances and are taking a personal risk by attending this peaceful gathering outside President Nazarbayev´s offices.

I admire your determination in defending the interests of ordinary working class people across Kazakhstan and for pointing out who has been benefiting from this, namely the banks that have been receiving huge bail out programmes from governments - not only in Kazakhstan but across the world - while ordinary people are literally left in the cold.

I therefore fully support you right to protest and the message you want to send to the government. I subscribe to the demands of the housing campaigners and wish you all the best of luck with your protest on the 1st of October as well as in the future.

I believe that your demands should be met in full and that you should be allowed to return to your homes without hindrance.

If any of the peaceful protesters is attacked, arrested, fined or imprisoned, I will raise my voice in the European Parliament and publicly criticise the repression used by the Nazarbayev regime against anyone daring to express oppostion to his increasingly dictatorial methods. I have done this is in the past and I promise that I will continue to do so in the future.

I reiterate your demands: No to evictions! Yes to free speech and the right to protest! Make the banks and the government pay for the crisis they have created!

Good luck with your struggle.

Yours in solidarity

Paul Murphy

Member of the European Parliament for the Socialist Party, Dublin, Ireland