By Sukumar Damle
On October 31, 2020, the AITUC turned 100. Barely a month later, the workers all over India have decided to stop working on November 26, 2020 for a day. This decision was taken at a National Convention of Workers — online for the first time — on October 2, 2020, the Gandhi Jayanti Day. The convention was organised jointly by AITUC, INTUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, AICCTU, UTUC, TUCC, LPF, SEWA. This itself is a strong message of unity. That the convention was held online, shows that the pandemic restrictions are not going to hold the trade unions back. Choosing the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti was also deliberate to show that we value the Mahatma’s message of social harmony.
But why the decision to stop work on 26th November? Why go on strike? Many workers may face retaliatory actions from their employers, governments may turn vindictive, the BJP troll army may start calling the central trade unions, that jointly gave the call for strike on November 26, ‘Deshdrohis’, but all those concerns have been brushed aside and ringing call has been given to resolutely stop work on that day.
The reasons are not far to see:
First of all, the central government absolutely undemocratically passed agricultural laws and three labour codes in an empty Parliament when opposition MPs had boycotted the proceedings because of an undemocratic conduct of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha business. These laws are completely against the farmers community and workers community and are in favour of the Corporates.
Secondly, the central government is privatising public sector units as well as government department such as Ordnance Factories, Railways, financial institutions such as LIC, banks which will impact government’s Consolidated Fund which, in turn, will affect us, the common people in terms of education, health, transport, public distribution system and other municipal services.
Thirdly, the overall effect of government policy of increasing indirect taxes like GST, tax on petrol-diesel and reducing the direct corporate taxes is increasing the gap between the rich and the poor so much that the overall demand is reduced, leading to economic slowdown and consequent high unemployment. (You must have read about contraction of GDP in April-June 2020 quarter by 24 per cent and an all-time high unemployment rate of 23.5 per cent). Economists are saying that the way out is to put money in the hands of the poor people to boost demand and to get the economy running again.
The entire trade union movement has been demanding payment of Rs 7,500 per month, free food grains without insisting on any IDs, to all people who fall outside the income tax net, but the government mulishly refuses to take these steps and instead keeps on announcing loans for the corporates on easier terms, selling PSUs wholesale and so on. This has led to a fall in GST collection, leading to the states not getting their share of funds to run their affairs. The economy is in a terrible shape.
The New Education Policy and the Electricity (Amendment) Bill have not even been placed in Parliament and yet they are being pushed for implementation through the BJP state governments! It is only the resolute action by electricity workers in UP that the UP government had to abandon plans to privatise electricity distribution sector. It was the resolve of the Ordnance Factories Workers to go on strike that made the central government stop in its track to corporatise Ordnance Factories.
But it is not the shabby handling of economy alone that is the reason for calling a strike on November 26. It is also the blatantly divisive policies of the BJP government at the Centre. It is time to say ‘Enough is Enough’. Witness the witch-hunt that is on for anyone who has opposed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). It is to be noted that the CAA has been challenged in the Supreme Court as patently unconstitutional, against the principle of secularism enshrined in our Constitution, long time back, but it is not being heard till now and the government is talking of implementing the CAA across the country.
Anybody who has opposed the CAA is being targeted and jailed on false and flimsy pretexts. The government has used the Tablighi Markaz gathering in Delhi to put the blame of spread of COVID-19 on the Muslims, when it is well known then that plane loads of Modi Bhakts were brought from USA to Ahmedabad when the pandemic had started spreading for ‘Namaste Trump’ Bonanza on February 24, 2020. Even now, Dr Harsh Vardhan, the Union Health Minister, has shamelessly remarked that Kerala has to learn from its mistake of badly handling Onam festivities which has caused a spike in Covid cases! When are you going to learn from Modi’s mistakes, Doctor saheb?
In fact, the working class in India, that set out to form one central trade union of the country, to fight against the British rulers, to improve their wretched working conditions and also to gain independence from them, finds itself back to Square One with the labour law changes made by the Modi government. Those changes dilute the right to form a union, to strike, do away with inspections for compliance with labour laws, etcetera, so much, that the situation may not be very different from what existed in 1920, when there was no Trade union Act at all!
It has therefore fallen on the working class of India, in unity with the farmers, to expose the ‘mistakes’ of the incumbent Modi government. Hence the strike on November 26.