MARCH TO PARLIAMENT: LET US MOVE AHEAD BY FURTHER STRENGTHENING OUR UNITY - A.K. PADMANABHAN

23rd February 2011 will be etched in red letters in the annals of the history of Indian working class.

A campaign on a set of very important demands of the people of India, yes, of all ‘aam aadmi’, was taken up by the working class of this country. Despite differences of various kinds, the central trade unions and national federations of workers and employees in various sectors could come together on a common platform and take up these demands. It should also be noted that this was not a one time action. Under this common banner, joint activities have continued since September 2009. There have been conventions, demonstrations, rallies, court arrest programmes and above all widest campaigns in all sectors all over the country. The first phase of this struggle ended with the historic all India general strike on 7th September 2010, which saw an unprecedented unity and participation of various sections of workers and employees. Its reach was far wider than the earlier 12 countrywide strikes called by joint platforms like the Sponsoring Committee of Trade Unions and the National Platform of Mass Organisations.

THE MARCH TO PARLIAMENT

The decision to organise a ‘March to Parliament’ was taken in the background of all these struggles and the UPA II government in a hurry to complete their agenda of neo-liberal reforms, striking at the very root of the lives of the toiling masses. This was meant to be the beginning of the second phase of struggles. It was considered appropriate to organise the ‘March to Parliament’ during the budget session. Though the policy declarations as part of the budget speech have lost their importance as they used to be, the budget session still kindles a lot of discussions on policy issues.

The charter of demands raised by the trade unions includes issues that are being discussed in various forums - national and international. Price rise and the connected issues of universal public distribution, ban on futures trading in essential commodities are issues being raised all over the world. So also are the issues of employment, social security and privatisation of public sector industries and enterprises. The question of trade union rights and implementation of labour laws has become a burning national issue for the workers as the MNCs and even `national’ investors refuse to respect our statutes. Even as the ILO and various other International forums are discussing decent labour and the ILO is observing a decade on decent labour contractorisation and the `outsourcing ‘ continue to expand as the most exploitative methods of recruitment of workers.

Thus the issues taken up for the countrywide campaign and the ‘March to Parliament’ are the issues of national importance. Workers and employees from all parts of the country covering all sectors participated in this biggest ever mobilisation by trade unions, for that matter by any organisation, on the streets of the national capital.

However, the ruling classes made all attempts, as reflected in the so called national media, to blackout the event altogether or to divert attention from the basic issues raised by the participants in the ‘March’. For many of them, it was only an issue of traffic disruptions.

A few who wanted to be `true’ to their profession, gave a small space, only in the local edition. None of them - whether print or electronic, found the ‘March’, or the issues raised by it, as of any national importance.

THE CENTRAL BUDGET

Within five days of this huge ‘March to Parliament’ by the workers, the UPA II government presented its budget for the year 2011-12. Except the issue of implementation of labour laws, all the other four issues are part of the `policy’ statements of UPA government.

Yet, what has the government done? What was its response? It unleashed further attacks on the lives of people, with even the existing subsidies being reduced. The Congress led UPA II government is going ahead with its own agenda of targeting and confining the subsidies to the so-called BPL category. The talk of direct cash payment and expert committee reports on subsidies is only meant to cover up the fact of reducing the PDS to a mere farce.

The government of India, which claims of a Tax neutral budget, has set a target of Rs 40000 crores from disinvestment. Employment generation does not find a place in the budget documents at all. While Rs 1000 crores was allotted for social security for the unorganised sector workers in the last budget, this budget provides nothing for it.

NO TO THE WORKERS

The UPA II government has totally failed to take note of the demands of the workers. It has refused to pay heed to the simmering anger of the working class that was evident in the streets of Delhi on 23rd February! It is a virtual `No’ to the tens of millions of workers and employees, whose representatives demanded justice!

The memorandum submitted to the Speaker of Lok Sabha after the ‘March to Parliament’ noted - ‘the government is not only ignoring the overwhelming protest of all sections of working people of the country, but also relentlessly pursuing the same policies which accentuate price rise, like deregulation of petroleum prices, continuing indulgence and patronisation to speculative trade in commodity market and allowing huge stockpile and food grains in FCI godowns to rot”.

WAY AHEAD

Now, it is for the trade unions to take stock of the situation. We have to understand fully the issues that are involved in this struggle. It is a struggle against the policies of neo-liberalism. It is a fight against the finance capital led attacks on the livelihood of the working people. These issues are related to the present capitalist system. The struggle on these demands is a struggle against the policies of the ruling classes. Working people have to be mobilised with this clear understanding.

In this struggle against the policies of neoliberalism, the working people in the country have to be educated to identify their friends and foes. The struggle of the working class can be strengthened only by strengthening all those forces allied to it; the forces who have been relentlessly fighting these policies. Working class and their organisations will have to strengthen their ties with such forces that are in struggle on identical demands.

The unity of the working people who marched together in Delhi on 23rd February, irrespective of organisational, regional, linguistic and other differences has to be developed further. Such unity and united actions alone will ensure that social justice and equity are achieved.

Courtesy: www.citucentre.org/

WORKERS’ STORM DELHI ON 23-02-2011 - A REPORT

It was indeed an event that the national capital has not witnessed so far; an event unprecedented in the history of the trade union movement of independent India. Lakhs of workers – the rickshaw pullers, the auto drivers, the construction workers, beedi rollers, anganwadi employees, ASHAs, mid day meal workers, loading and unloading workers and fishers and others in the many many trades and occupations in the unorganised sector along with the public sector workers in coal, steel, electricity, road transport, railways, ports, workers in several industries in the private organised sector and the office employees in insurance, banks, telecom and defence sectors, state government and central government departments – marched shoulder to shoulder on the streets of Delhi. Significantly, a large proportion of this trade union rally, consisted of women workers who came from far off places in the country leaving behind their children and families, to be part of this historic struggle.

Workers from all over the country stormed Delhi to vent their anger against the apathetic attitude of the Congress led UPA II government against their demands which were continuously being raised unitedly by the entire trade union movement in different forms since the last two years.

They came to Delhi in response to the call of the central trade unions – CITU, AITUC, INTUC, HMS, AICCTU, AIUTUC, TUCC, UTUC and many industrial federations – to ‘March to Parliament’ on 23rd February 2011. They came to Delhi to voice – not any of their pecuniary demands – but issues that were agitating more than hundred crores common people of the country – the burning issues of price rise, employment, social security, implementation of labour laws and protection of our public sector and national sovereignty. They vociferously demanded a reversal of the anti worker anti people policies being pursued by the Congress led UPA II government. Delhi wore a colourful look as the workers, large number of them sporting red caps, colourful aprons with the demands written on them, red sarees, kurtas and T shirts, the colourful banners with the names of different unions in different languages marched on its streets. Workers carrying the tricolour flags marched alongside those with red flags, shouting slogans in different languages. Songs and other traditional cultural forms accompanied slogans. Workers started arriving in Delhi from 20th February itself. What started as small streams, coming in batches of a few hundreds on the morning of 20th February, turned into huge sea of workers packing the broad streets of Delhi and spilling into the nearby lanes and by lanes. Keeping in view the difficulty in accommodating so many lakhs of workers at a single point, the central trade unions decided different places for their workers to collect. While CITU and AITUC arranged camps in Ramlila maidan for a part of their contingents which arrived before 23rd February, the contingents of INTUC, HMS, insurance employees, bank employees etc gathered at different places in the city. All the different contingents then proceeded to Ramlila maidan from where the ‘March to Parliament’ started. Sanjeeva Reddy, president of INTUC, AK Padmanabhan, President and Tapan Sen, General Secretary of CITU, Gurudas Dasgupta, General Secretary of AITUC, Umraomal Purohit, general secretary of HMS and other leaders of the central trade unions led the March. Flotilla of a hundred representatives of each organisation marched one after another in the forefront.

By the time the main procession reached Parliament Street, thousands of workers who could not reach the starting point of the procession, filled up the entire area. The tail end of the procession could not even leave the Ramlila maidan. The massive participation of the workers in the ‘March to Parliament’ reflects the anger of the working class and the people towards the insensitivity of the UPA II government at the plight of the common people. As one old trade union activist commented, the workers were already simmering with discontent at the government policies and the call of the central trade unions gave them the opportunity to express their anger. Many workers who were not members of any trade union welcomed CITU when it approached them with the message of the ‘March’ and came to Delhi.

The administration in several states like Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh etc tried to create problems. The government issued circulars and the Child Development Project Officers (CDPOs) and supervisors threatened the anganwadi employees of removal from service if they participated in the rally.

The ‘March to Parliament’ turned into a big rally of workers in front of the Parliament Street Police Station where the police erected barricades and stopped the workers from proceeding further. A presidium comprising representatives of all the participating central trade unions conducted the proceedings. M K Pandhe, Md. Amin, Basudeb Acharia, Vice Presidents, CITU and A K Padmanabhan, President, CITU also participated in the rally. Addressing the gathering, Sanjeeva Reddy, president of INTUC held the government policies responsible for the deteriorating conditions of the workers and the common people. He strongly criticised the government for not taking any positive actions on the five point charter of demands despite the several meetings with the trade union leaders. Asserting that INTUC will continue to be part of the joint trade union movement, he emphasised the need to strengthen the unity.

Tapan Sen, General Secretary, CITU congratulated the workers for the massive participation despite many difficulties and said that the present attacks on the working and living conditions of the workers were part of the neo liberal policies of which the Prime Minister was an ardent advocate. He castigated the UPA II government for leading the country to disaster by pursuing these policies which have been proved to enrich the rich by looting the poor. He said that the government was taking measures that actually lead to increase in the prices and benefited the traders and speculators. While lakhs or crores of rupees of public money was being looted, the government was not ready to pay minimum wages and social security benefits to the anganwadi employees, ASHAs etc. He appealed to all the workers irrespective of their affiliations to unite at the factory and enterprise level to push back these policies. He called upon the working class to be ready to intensify the struggle if the government continues to act deaf to their just demands. Gurudas Dasgupta, General Secretary, AITUC, Umraomol Purohit, General Secretary, HMS, Abani Roy, Secretary, UTUC and others also speak.

The prelude to the 23rd February ‘March to Parliament’ was set by several rallies and dharnas held at Jantar Mantar near Parliament on 22nd February. Hundreds of fishers from all over the country under the banner of All India Fishers and Fisheries Workers’ Federation (AIFFWF) organised a dharna on their demands. S Ramachandra Pillai, president of AIKS inaugurated the dharna. Along with the leaders of AIFFWF, Sitaram Yechury, Brinda Karat and Mohammed Amin, Members of Parliament, AK Padmanabhan and Tapan Sen, president and general secretary of CITU and several MPs addressed the gathering. The Bhopal Gas victims, defence employees, members of Dakshin Railway Employees’ Union affiliated to CITU, LIC agents etc organised separate rallies and dharnas on their demands. On 24th February, the next day of the mammoth ‘March’, more than twenty five thousand anganwadi employees under the banner of ‘Samyukta Morcha of Anganwadi employees’ Federations’ – a joint platform of anganwadi employees federations affiliated to AITUC, CITU, HMS and INTUC, held a dharna near Parliament on their demands. Several other organisations too held rallies and dharnas.

The 23rd February ‘March to Parliament’ has increased several times the workers’ determination to fight back the policies that were the real cause for their ever increasing exploitation. UPA II government better beware! The workers will convert the ‘Vijay Chowk’ into a ‘Tahrir Square’ if the government continues policies that safeguard the interests of a few US dollar billionaires at the cost of the aam admi.

Courtesy: www.citucentre.org/

THE RALLY OF 23RD FEBURARY, 2011 AT NEW DELHI BY THE WORKING CLASS OF INDIA

G Mamatha

IF you wanted to see real India, you should have been at Jantar Mantar on February 23. If you wanted to know about its diversity-language, culture, dress, you should have been at Jantar Mantar. More than that, if you wanted to understand the problems faced by the working class, aam aadmi and their anger, you should have been at the Jantar Mantar. One need not go touring the entire country to learn about the lives of our country people, as a ‘yuvaraj’ is doing at times to discover India. They could have as well come to Jantar Mantar and chat with some of the participants of the massive rally organised by the central trade unions. There, at Jantar Mantar, had converged hundreds of thousands of the builders of our country, India, without whose labour nothing would exist – neither you, me nor the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the buildings we live, or the vehicles we use for our travel. Forget about our luxuries!

Women from Manipur, with their distinctive attire and language were seen together with those from Bhavnagar, Gujarat. Power generation employees working in projects on Jhelum marched together with the employees of electricity distribution company in Tamilnadu. Bankers and insurers matched their step with the anganwadi workers. ASHAs and NRHM workers who strive to strengthen your body defence mechanisms were seen together with employees of our country’s defence factories. And there were your fisherfolk, building workers, domestic workers, municipal workers, road transport workers, railway workers, miners, steel workers, quarry workers, rickshaw pullers, postmen, telephone linemen, railway gangmen etc. Mind you, there were even retired pensioners – all of them were bound together by common anger against the government policies that are ruining their lives. Interestingly, this rally also saw the participation of the INTUC, whose president happens to be a member of parliament from the ruling Congress party, together with the other central trade unions. This, in itself, tells us the extent of discontent among our working class and common people.

While we were walking, I noticed two young executives with tie, shoes and all, files in hand frighteningly saying, “Oh, Oh, come on let us rush, Ye log hamare piche hi hai, (these commoners are just behind us). Hearing this, an old pensioner replied, “Don’t be afraid babu, hum aapke piche nahin pade hai, hum sarkar ke piche pade hain.” (We are not behind you, we are against this government) and, “Is mein tho aap se aage bhi hai hum.” (And on this, we are even ahead of you).

In the rally, there were many young and middle aged, who understandably are here for their better future. But there were many elderly people too, who were retired from their service. Why? “Arey, it’s not just for our pensions. We might not live for more than a handful of years, but it is for you”, lovingly they said. Yes, how right they are! And I remembered the story of the old man who was planting mango seedlings, not for him to eat, but for us to reap!

Women with tiny babies including infants in their laps were raising slogans against the government policies. I found tribal women from Odisha, who wore nothing else except a saree wrapped around them. I asked them, “Maa, are you not feeling cold?” They replied, “Beti, of course it is cold, but it is not unbearable. What is unbearable is the daily hunger we face in our homes. It is unbearable when my child asks me, “Maa, can you give me some more ganji (gruel) for me to go to school, and I don’t have any”. “I want my child also to be like that”, she said, pointing to some of the children returning from a school adjacent. “And for that, I am ready to bear this cold, and much more”. She is an ASHA worker from a village in interior Odisha who works for the government, but doesn’t get any wages. Of course, she is not a ‘bonded’ labourer, hasn’t the government abolished bonded labour? She is a ‘voluntary worker’ and free to leave her job, whenever she feels like! Now, do you still think that cold bites her? Think again, it is the government that stings!

A little further, I found a woman from Maharashtra, I could easily make her out due to the distinct way the women there wear their saree. I asked her where she comes from. And noticing that she is carrying a three-year child in her arms and luggage on her head, I sympathetically enquired whether it was not too heavy for her to travel from that far with what all she was carrying. Replying that she was from Mumbai, she scorned at me and said one’s child and clothes are never a burden for oneself. Suddenly, I recalled some scenes I see in Delhi, where some mothers are followed by ‘aayas’ carrying their children and also a fact that I read in some newspapers. It seems, now some fashionable affluent women are taking their ‘aayas’ also along with them to holidays abroad to look after their babies. Thank goodness, but for them, many women would not have got employment and also opportunity to fly and travel abroad!

Coming to the women I was talking to again, when I explained to her that I did not mean to offend her and was concerned about the difficulties that she had to endure for coming to Delhi, she said this was nothing compared to what she does everyday in Mumbai, India’s richest city. It seems, she carries two big buckets of water at a time and walks 2-3 kilometres for her home. Yes, there are no typos, she is from Mumbai and carries water from a distance of 2-3 km everyday to her home and it is not just one trip for her but multiple in numbers. She believes that this government is meant for the rich and is extremely corrupt and sneeringly mentioned the ‘Aadarsh’ scam.

Suddenly at a road intersection, a section of motorists were honking their horns. Hearing them, one of the rallyists shouted, “Abey, do not blow your horn, do you know who made your vehicle, I did!” Yes, they were the workers from the Honda plant in Gurgaon, who created ripples in the National Capital Region with their struggle a few months back. But now they are part of a huge human wave assertively marching for their rights. They were telling about how they had interacted with many other fellow workers who too were facing contractualisation, lack of minimum wages, uneven working hours and arbitrary punishments. Though their banner says they are an independent union, they said they are happy to be part of this massive rally, walking shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of others, sharing and learning from their struggles and experiences.

At this point, an electricity lineman from Tamilnadu who was walking a little behind and overheard the other worker, said, “Oh, what a feeling it was, to see all those big cars stop and give way for us! All the other days when we go to work walking or on cycle, these people nudge us away from the road, as if it is their own lives and time that matter and are important and ours don’t!” Ah, isn’t this what is called class perspective? Read the newspapers of February 24 and you would understand. They are concerned with the traffic jams and the investment banker who threatened not to vote for the parties which had mobilised such a huge number of people and thus prevented her car from free passage!

This brings me again to my colleagues in media. It is not that they were not there to cover the rally. There were hordes of them. And cover, they did, with their own class perspective: talking of the traffic jams, missed appointments, students unable to reach their colleges, etc, etc. They published interviews of the executives caught in the traffic jams and their hardships but never bothered to interview the workers who had come from afar, why did they come and what difficulties did they face in their travel.

Media houses sent teams to cover the Egyptian and Libyan people’s protest against their ruling classes. Very good! They covered those protests. They were also about better conditions for working people, against rising food prices, growing income inequalities and of course, asking their dictatorial rulers to quit. They covered Tahrir square but not Jantar Mantar, the reason is simple. They do not want to project the ire of our country people against our ruling classes. Remember, protests in Egypt did not stop even if Facebook and Twitter services along with the internet were blocked.

I felt happy to see my brother channawallah doing a brisk business. For once, he might have earned his two meals for the day. Ah, by the way, I forgot to add, for a change, it was only “we” who were able to eat from our dear channawallah, while the big car babus couldn’t – their favourite Mc Donalds was closed, so was the Cafe Coffee Day, where it seems ‘many things happen over a cup of coffee’. Interesting, while our many hours of work doesn’t give us enough money even to smell coffee, forget about drinking it, these bada babus can make happen, many things, over a cup of coffee! We can also make many things happen in our lives and that of the country – just by strengthening and continuing our protests. The media might not acknowledge today, but the government will be forced to acknowledge. If it refuses, we too will refuse and this means political wilderness for them.

The message from Jantar Mantar on February 23 is quite simple: Ignore at your own peril.

Source: www.pd.cpim.org/

WORKERS’ STORM DELHI ON 23-02-2011 - Hemalata

IT was indeed an event that the national capital has not witnessed so far; an event unprecedented in the recent history of the trade union movement of independent India. Lakhs of workers – rickshaw pullers, auto drivers, construction workers, beedi rollers, anganwadi employees, ASHAs, mid day meal workers, loading and unloading workers and fishers and others in the many trades and occupations in the unorganised sector along with the public sector workers in coal, steel, electricity, road transport, railways, ports, workers in several industries in the private organised sector and the office employees in insurance, banks, telecom and defence sectors, state government and central government departments – marched shoulder to shoulder on the streets of Delhi. Significantly, a large proportion of this trade union rally consisted of women workers who came from far off places in the country leaving behind their children and families, to be part of this historic struggle.

Workers from all over the country stormed Delhi to vent their anger against the apathetic attitude of the Congress led UPA II government towards their demands which were continuously being raised unitedly by the entire trade union movement in different forms since the last two years.

They came to Delhi in response to the call of the central trade unions – CITU, AITUC, INTUC, HMS, AICCTU, AIUTUC, TUCC, UTUC and many industrial federations – to ‘March to Parliament’ on February 23, 2011. They came to Delhi to voice – not any of their pecuniary demands – but issues that were agitating the more than hundred crores common people of the country – the burning issues of price rise, employment, social security, implementation of labour laws and protection of our public sector and national sovereignty. They vociferously demanded a reversal of the anti-worker, anti-people policies being pursued by the Congress led UPA II government.

Delhi wore a colourful look as the workers, large number of them sporting red caps, colourful aprons with the demands written on them, red sarees, kurtas and T-shirts, the colourful banners with the names of different unions in different languages marched on its streets. Workers carrying the tricolour flags marched alongside those with red flags, shouting slogans in different languages. Songs and other traditional cultural forms accompanied slogans.

The workers started arriving in Delhi from February 20 itself. What started as small streams, coming in batches of a few hundreds on the morning of February 20, turned into huge sea of workers packing the broad streets of Delhi and spilling into the nearby lanes and by lanes.

Keeping in view the difficulty in accommodating so many lakhs of workers at a single point, the central trade unions decided different places for their workers to collect. While the CITU and AITUC arranged camps in Ramlila maidan for a part of their contingents which arrived before February 23, the contingents of INTUC, HMS, insurance employees, bank employees etc gathered at different places in the city. All the different contingents then proceeded to Ramlila maidan from where the ‘March to Parliament’ started. Sanjeeva Reddy, president of the INTUC, A K Padmanabhan, president and Tapan Sen, general secretary of the CITU, Gurudas Dasgupta, general secretary of the AITUC, Umraomal Purohit, general secretary of the HMS and other leaders of the central trade unions led the march. Flotilla of a hundred representatives of each organisation marched one after another in the forefront.

By the time the main procession reached Parliament Street, thousands of workers who could not reach the starting point of the procession, almost filled up the entire area. The tail end of the procession could not even leave the Ramlila maidan.

The massive participation of the workers in the ‘March to Parliament’ reflects the anger of the working class and the people towards the insensitivity of the UPA II government at the plight of the common people. As one old trade union activist commented, the workers were already simmering with discontent at the government policies and the call of the central trade unions gave them the opportunity to express their anger. Many workers who were not members of any trade union welcomed the CITU when it approached them with the message of the ‘March’ and came to Delhi.

The administration in several states like Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh etc tried to create problems. The government issued circulars and the Child Development Project Officers (CDPOs) and supervisors threatened the anganwadi employees of removal from service if they participated in the rally.

The weather in Delhi too created difficulties. The Ramlila maidan was filled with puddles of water due to the sudden rain and thunderstorm in Delhi a few days before, just as the tents were being erected for the camp. Even as the water was pumped out, the land was filled and work started again, it rained heavily turning the entire maidan into a big pool of water. The camp could ultimately be erected and made ready for the workers just on time, when the workers started flooding the tents.

The ‘March to Parliament’ turned into a big rally of workers in front of the Parliament Street Police Station where the police erected barricades and stopped the workers from proceeding further. A presidium comprising representatives of all the participating central trade unions conducted the proceedings. M K Pandhe and Mohd Amin, senior leaders of the CITU were also present on the dais.

Addressing the gathering, Sanjeeva Reddy, president of the INTUC held the government policies responsible for the deteriorating conditions of the workers and the common people. He strongly criticised the government and the prime minister for not taking any positive actions on the five point charter of demands despite the several meetings with the trade union leaders. Asserting that INTUC will continue to be part of the joint trade union movement, he emphasised the need to strengthen the unity.

Tapan Sen congratulated the workers for the massive participation, despite many difficulties and said that the present attacks on the working and living conditions of the workers were part of the neo liberal policies of which the prime minister was an ardent advocate. He castigated the UPA II government for leading the country to disaster by pursuing these policies which have been proved to enrich the rich by looting the poor. He said that the government was taking measures that actually lead to increase in the prices and benefited the traders and speculators. While lakhs or crores of rupees of public money was being looted, the government was not ready to pay minimum wages and social security benefits to the anganwadi employees, ASHAs etc. He appealed to all the workers irrespective of their affiliations to unite at the factory and enterprise level to push back these policies. He called upon the working class to be ready to intensify the struggle if the government continues to act deaf to their just demands.

The prelude to the February 23 ‘March to Parliament’ was set by several rallies and dharnas held at Jantar Mantar near parliament on February 22. Hundreds of fishers from all over the country under the banner of All India Fishers and Fisheries Workers’ Federation (AIFFWF) organised a dharna on their demands. S Ramachandra Pillai, president of the AIKS inaugurated the dharna. Along with the leaders of AIFFWF, Sitaram Yechury, Brinda Karat and Mohammed Amin, members of parliament, AK Padmanabhan and Tapan Sen, president and general secretary of the CITU and several MPs addressed the gathering. The Bhopal Gas victims, defence employees, members of Dakshin Railway Employees’ Union affiliated to the CITU, LIC agents etc organised separate rallies and dharnas on their demands.

On February 24, the next day of the mammoth ‘March’, more than twenty five thousand anganwadi employees under the banner of ‘Samyukta Morcha of Anganwadi employees’ Federations’ – a joint platform of anganwadi employees federations affiliated to AITUC, CITU, HMS and INTUC, held a dharna near parliament on their demands. Several other organisations too held rallies and dharnas.

The February 23 ‘March to Parliament’ has increased several times the workers’ determination to fight back the policies that were the real cause for their ever increasing exploitation. UPA II government, better beware! The workers will convert the ‘Vijay Chowk’ into a ‘Tahrir Square’ if the government continues with the policies that safeguard the interests of a few US dollar billionaires at the cost of the aam admi.

Source: www.pd.cpim.org/

CPI (M) HAILS WORKERS’ MARCH TO PARLIAMENT

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) issued the following statement on February 23, 2011.

THE Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) congratulates the lakhs of workers, men and women, who participated in the `March to Parliament’ on February 23, 2011. This march was called by the central trade unions and national federations of employees. This united protest by all sections of the workers and employees is significant and is a powerful manifestation of the working class demanding the implementation of their five-point charter of demands.

The rally has protested against the failure of the UPA government to curb the prices of essential commodities which has eroded the livelihood of the working people. The massive protest is a warning to the Manmohan Singh government not to proceed with the disinvestment of shares in the public sector enterprises. The central government is selling off vital public assets in the name of disinvestment to Indian and foreign monopolists. This is part of the loot of resources which is going on in the corrupt regime of the UPA government. This protest signals the determination of the working class to oppose the sale of precious public assets cheaply.

While the corporates and big capitalists are allowed free rein to circumvent the law, corner resources, evade taxes and make huge profits, the government turns a blind eye to the gross violations of labour laws which provide limited protection to the workers. The rally has demanded protection of the rights of workers in the unorganised sector and of contract and casual workers.

The massive workers’ demonstration is a display of the united will of the working class movement to fight against the neo-liberal and anti-working class policies of the UPA government. The CPI(M) extends its full support to this united movement.

Source: www.pd.cpim.org/

CITU CONGRATULATES PARTICIPANTS IN THE MASSIVE RALLY of 23RD FEBRUARY, 2011 BEFORE PARLIAMENT

The following is the statement issued by the CITU on February 23, 2011.

THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions congratulates the more than five lakhs of participants in the historic March to Parliament on February 23, at the call of central trade unions for making this rally the biggest ever mobilisation in the capital city.

Raising the basic policy issues of the working people and all sections of downtrodden, the trade unions have sent a powerful message to UPA-II government that it should change its policies so as to end the deprivations of the working people.

The rally has seen men and women from all sections of workers – unorganised sector, organised sector which included both private and public sectors, central and state government employees and employees from bank, insurance, telecom and defence production. Largest sections of participants were from the unorganised sector – construction, brickiln, hamalis, autorikshaw, driver, beedi worker, handloom and powerloom workers etc.

The anger among the people in the rural and urban parts of the country was reflected by this great mobilisation demanding justice to the working people.

The CITU congratulates every section for their role in making this programme a great success. The CITU assures the people of the country that it will carry forward the unity of central trade unions and national federations and continue the struggle for our demands.

Source: www.pd.cpim.org/

SEVERAL LAKHS TO MARCH TO PARLIAMENT, FEB 23

Swadesh Dev Roye

THE forthcoming ‘March to Parliament’ on February 23, 2011 is not going to be an ordinary trade union action in the national capital. The country is poised to witness on the day an unprecedented, huge historic gathering of working class men and women coming from every nook and corner of the country. This will be a united action under the joint leadership of central trade unions, viz. the CITU, AITUC, HMS, AICCTU, AIUTUC, UTUC, TUCC and INTUC as well as the national federations of industrial workers and service sector employees.

CAMPAIGN AT HIGH PITCH

Reports of joint and independent campaigns being conducted by the trade unions in various states to mobilise the working people for participation in the proposed March to Parliament suggest that several lakhs of workers would march on the streets of the national capital on the day and thus add a new, shinning chapter to the post-independence history of trade union movement in the country on February 23. Indications are that, surpassing all previous records, it is going to be a gigantic demonstration of the workers.

Keeping in view the fact that it would not be possible for lakhs of marchers to assemble at a single point in and around the Ramlila Grounds before they march in the procession, it has been decided that their march to the Parliament Street would commence from several points like Ramlila Grounds, Rajghat, Samata Sthal, State Entry Road, Ajmeri Gate etc and ultimately converge in the Parliament Street. Additionally, thousands of people are likely to reach directly to the Parliament Street.

The trade union centres have unleashed the best of their organisational capacities to achieve a memorable mobilisation of workers for the ‘Delhi March’ from all over the country. For augmenting the initiative of their state units and industrial federations, the central leadership of these organisations has been addressing innumerable conventions, public meetings and also the general body meetings of cadres through the length and breadth of the country.

LOGISTICS FOR ADVANCE CONTINGENTS

Since it is next to impossible for lakhs of people to travel down to Delhi on one and the same day, people shall start reaching Delhi from February 19 onwards. In order to provide accommodation to the people reaching Delhi in advance, arrangements have been made to erect make-shift accommodation in the entire Ramlila Ground. Further, a few dozen ‘Community Halls’ located in different parts of both Old and New Delhi have been booked. It is expected that more than one lakh people shall be staying in these accommodations. Apart from these advance contingents, lakhs of people from the neighbouring states shall be mobilised on the morning of February 23 by all the participating trade union organisations. Participation of women is going to be eye-catching.

The CITU centre started various preparatory steps since as far back as October 2010. A three-day extended meeting of the CITU Secretariat discussed the various aspects of the March and took appropriate decisions. In that meeting, various state committees were allocated quotas for mobilisation, totalling one lakh and sixty thousand. The General Council meeting of the CITU, that took place at Nashik on January 8 to 11, 2011, undertook a thorough review of the preparations. Reports revealed that most states are certain to exceed the allocated quota. In order to decorate the demonstration with the organisation’s flags, festoons, banners and placards with common slogans, such materials have been produced in big quantities. It is thus certain that the whole march is going to be a most colourful one.

ALL-IN-ONE UNITY CONVENTION

The basis for the current phase of united struggles was laid at a national convention of workers, held at the Mavalankar Hall in New Delhi on September 14, 2009. With the participation of, literally, all the national trade union centres of the country, this convention adopted a five-point charter of demands that is given below.

1) Rises in the prices of essential commodities to be contained through appropriate corrective and distributive measures like a universal public distribution system (PDS) and curbs on speculation in the commodity market.

2) Strict enforcement of all basic labour laws or stringent punitive measures for the violation of these laws.

3) Concrete proactive measures to be taken for linkage of employment protection in the recession stricken sectors with the stimulus package to the industrialists; creation of job by augmenting public investment in infrastructure.

4) Steps to be taken for removal of all restrictive provisions based on poverty line in respect of eligibility of coverage of the schemes under the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act 2008 and creation of a national fund for the unorganised sector to provide for a national floor level social security to all the unorganised workers including the contract and casual workers.

5) Disinvestment of shares of central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) is not resorted to for meeting the budgetary deficits.

POWERFUL ACTIONS

On the basis of these demands, continuous joint struggles have been launched and gradually intensified by the trade unions. In this connection, it would not be inappropriate to recall here some of the major actions conducted by the trade union movement in the recent past.

On October 28, 2009, workers came out into the streets in their lakhs or assembled at factory gates all over the country at the call of the central trade unions to observe an All India Protest Day. Then came a very successful dharna programme simultaneously staged before the parliament, at all the state capitals and in major industrial centres on December 16, 2009. the next action programme was the countrywide Satyagraha/Jail Bharo on March 5, 2010. With the participation of around 10 lakhs people, this programme was a big success.

However, the most powerful action of the current phase was the strike struggle of September 7, 2010. It was really for the first time since independence the country witnessed a joint strike action by all the trade union organisations, including the INTUC. The sweep of the strike was unprecedented and around 10 crore workers from all the sectors and segments of the economy of the country participated in it.

Now, if the strike action of September 7, 2010 is considered as the culminating action of the current phase which began with the October 2009 action programme, the February 23 action may well be regarded as the beginning of a new phase of joint struggles by the working class in the country against the anti-people policies of the UPA-II government.

MOTIVATING FACTORS

It is very important to note that, undoubtedly, one major contributing factor behind the huge response from the people to the joint call of the trade unions is the historic unity of the central trade unions which has generated great enthusiasm among the grassroots workers. But the economic miseries inflicted upon the people due to the anti-people policies of the government have deeply agitated the minds of the toiling people against the government of the day. These are what are going to contribute in a big way to the mobilisation of the people for the February 23 March to Parliament.

Certainly the distinction of the current phase of the united struggles, which took off in September 2009, should not be undermined. But at the same time one must not underestimate, under any circumstances, the role of the Sponsoring Committee of Trade Unions which steered the united struggles of the working class in India for a long period, spreading over almost two decades.

Let us recall that the working class in India have been jointly fighting in a consistent manner against the neo-liberal policies pursued by the successive governments. Under the leadership of a joint platform of trade unions called the Sponsoring Committee of Indian Trade Unions, the Indian working class has been continuously conducting bitter struggles against the neo-liberal policies. While the struggles were conducted mainly at three levels, viz., industrial, provincial and national, the forms of struggle included huge mobilisations, militant demonstrations, court arrest and strike struggles. Now we can say with confidence that, as a result of these struggles, the ruling classes in the country were compelled to exercise restraint in implementation of their disastrous policies of neo-liberalism.

A major highlight of the struggles launched by the Indian trade union movement opposing the policies of imperialist globalisation between November 1991 (year of the introduction of neo-liberal policies in the country) and August 2008 had been the 12 countrywide general strikes with reverberating successes. Every single successive strike in this period surpassed the sweep of the previous strikes. Moreover, numerous industrial and service sector struggles including strike struggles have been taking place on a regular basis. The Indian trade union movement has also been engaged in a grim battle against the ferocious foreign MNCs, braving atrocities including murders, imprisonment and vindictive dismissal from services.

The current phase of widened joint initiative of trade union movement led by the Sponsoring Committee of Trade Unions, conducting united struggles to press the urgent issues of the toiling people and strongly oppose the policies of neo-liberalism, is the outcome of two decades of struggle against the doctrine of market economy under imperialist globalisation. The past united forum and the present extended unity platform must thus be viewed as complementary.

WORKING CLASS VINDICATED

The advocates of neo-liberal policies under imperialist globalisation have all along been criticising us for our opposition to and struggle against neo-liberalism. Now it is time for us to undertake a massive campaign among the masses as to how our understanding regarding the anti-national, anti-development and anti-people character of the neo-liberal policy regime stands vindicated by the current spate of capitalist economic crisis. We must also educate the working class and the people as to how our successful resistance against total financial deregulation in our country could save, to some extent, the Indian financial sector and the economy from the intensity of the crisis and virtual collapse. We have to equip our leadership and cadres to take up this urgent task with topmost priority.

The ideology of class struggle teaches us that, in order to insulate itself from the impact of crisis, the capitalist class takes repressive recourse to shift the burden of the crisis on to the shoulders of labour. True to this ideological understanding, the working class all over the world is confronting a capitalist onslaught in the current situation as well. The crisis-ridden capitalist system has been adopting anti-labour steps one after another. Further, the bourgeoisie have been extracting huge concessions from their pro-capital governments, aimed to protect their profits from erosion amidst severe market stagnation. Such steps are taken in the name of increasing ‘productivity,’ realising ‘cost effectiveness’ and remaining ‘competitive’ in the market. The actual reason behind these avowed anti-labour designs is to protect the interest of the capitalist class from the impact of the economic crisis.

It is but natural that in the conflict-ridden situation, different social forces are acting according to their respective class interests. In this context we have to understand that the huge concessions granted to the capitalist class by the pro-capitalist governments of various nations are in discharge of their class responsibilities. Similarly, the anti-labour character of the governments is clearly manifested in anti-worker measures like imposition of wage freezes, restrictions on collective bargaining, ban on the right to form trade unions and right to strike, enactment of legislations in favour of the capitalist class, and also the anti-labour role of judiciary.

As a measure of introspection, we must admit that our fight against the policies of neo-liberalism has been by and large defensive. But the present situation demands militant offensives from the working class. We must understand that despite the deep rooted crisis of capitalism, the birth of a new social order cannot be spontaneous. The working class movement will have to organise the fight against the system in strict adherence to the ideology of class struggle.

THRUST OF STRUGGLE

It is surely a matter of great encouragement that the unity of the working class in the fight against the anti-people and anti-national policies of the government has been expanding, breaking the barriers of ideological differences. The task of broadening and strengthening the unity platform must be the priority of all the unions. At the same time the forces committed to the principle of class struggle must continuously carry forward the task of changing the correlation of forces in favour of those committed to class struggles.

True, neo-liberalism has been exposed and the crisis has certainly destroyed the credibility of the neo-liberal ideology. The model of imperialist globalisation was drawn by the imperialist powers to address the crisis of capitalism that surfaced in the 1970s. Now with the re-emergence of the crisis, an objective situation has developed providing an opportunity to the working class to carry forward its struggle towards the ultimate goal of establishing a new, people oriented, progressive social order.

Source: www.pd.cpim.org/