People's Democracy

AS already reported by the national print and electronic media, the Maharashtra bandh of April 25 was an unprecedented success. A remarkable feature of this bandh action was the issues that it raised.

The Maharashtra bandh was essentially directed against the policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation (LPG) being pursued by both the BJP-led central government and the INC-NCP-led state government. The three main issues that were highlighted during the bandh campaign all stemmed directly from the above LPG policies.

These three issues were:

(1) The thoroughly reactionary moves of both the central and the state governments to amend labour laws to suit foreign multinationals and indigenous monopoly capital;

(2) The central government's decision to remove quantitative restrictions on the import of both agricultural and industrial goods, a step that has spelt disaster for the peasantry, the working class and small entrepreneurs; and

(3) The corruption-ridden and anti-national Enron deal, in the making of which both the Congress and SS-BJP regimes at both state and centre levels have played a nefarious role.

With the achievement of an all-in trade union unity on the eve of the bandh in which the INTUC, BMS and even Shiv Sena-led unions participated, considerable confusion is now being spread by certain sections of the media and by incensed proponents of the LPG policies. This requires a clear rejoinder. Firstly, it is necessary to reiterate precisely how, when and by whom the Maharashtra bandh call came to be given.

It was the massive long march organised by the Trade Union Joint Action Committee (TUJAC) in Mumbai on March 15 that first gave the call for a Mumbai bandh on April 25 in protest against the anti-working class policies of the central and state governments, particularly targetting the proposed labour law amendments. In the third week of March, the TUJAC leadership met and decided to extend the scope of this primarily industrial action to a Maharashtra bandh.

The TUJAC, which comprises nearly 30 trade union organisations of workers and employees, has been regularly functioning for over 25 years and has led several joint working class struggles on various issues in the past. It comprises central trade unions like the CITU, AITUC, HMS and HMKP, the Kamgar Aghadi which includes unions that were led by the late Datta Samant, two large confederations of state government and central government employees, railway workers led by another large union NRMU, several unions in the banking and insurance sectors, the union of college and university teachers, and other trade union organisations like the Sarva Shramik Sangh, UTUC, Trade Union Solidarity Committee, and so on. The TUJAC does not include the INTUC, BMS and the Shiv Sena-led unions.

On April 7, the Action Committee Against Globalisation (ACAG), a front of nine Left and secular parties in the state, viz the CPI(M), CPI, PWP, JD(S), SP, RPI (Athavale), LNP(L), SJP and KA, held another massive 50,000-strong statewide rally in Mumbai. This rally involved not only the working class but also the peasantry in large numbers. The Left and secular parties' rally, by declaring its full and active support to the Maharashtra bandh call given by the TUJAC, expanded the ambit of the proposed bandh from the industrial centres to the agrarian countryside of Maharashtra as a whole.

But even before the Mumbai bandh call was first given by the TUJAC rally on March 15, three major actions had already taken place. First, in January and February, 20 large district conventions against Enron and against globalisation were organised by the ACAG. Second, another massive 50,000-strong working class rally was organised by the TUJAC in Mumbai on February 15. Third, at the call of the ACAG, March 1 was observed as Anti-Enron Day by staging militant protest demonstrations of thousands all over the state, including the main action right outside the Enron plant at Dabhol itself.

Later, on March 29-30, over 20,000 peasants and agricultural workers led by the AIKS and AIAWU took part in the "Ghera Dalo! Dera Dalo!" agitation against the central government's agricultural policies, especially its import liberalisation thrust. From March 23 to April 6, a jeep jatha of the CPI(M)’s Maharashtra state committee covered a distance of more than 2000 km over 14 districts as part of the campaign for the ACAG’s Mumbai rally on April 7.

It was this constant three month-long series of mass actions against various burning aspects of the LPG policies that really set the stage for the Maharashtra bandh on April 25. Such was the growing discontent of the people against these policies, and such was the increasing sweep of the sustained statewide campaign led by the ACAG and the TUJAC, that the Shiv Sena-led unions, INTUC and BMS decided in the second week of April to participate in the Maharashtra bandh on April 25. This becomes clear from the fact that the first joint press conference of the TUJAC and the above three unions to support the bandh took place in Mumbai on April 17. In the joint press statement released at the press conference, the other three trade union formations fully supported all the demands that had earlier been made by the TUJAC. With this was achieved a remarkable working class unity in action against the anti-labour policies of both the state and central governments.

The unprecedented success of the Maharashtra bandh was a result of two vital factors. The first factor was the increasing anger of the people against various aspects of the LPG policies that had now begun to directly affect their livelihood in the most adverse fashion. And the second factor was the broad unity in action that had taken shape to oppose the above policies.

On April 25, the state capital Mumbai literally came to a standstill. Mills, factories, offices, banks, insurance, shops, hotels, schools, colleges, courts, cinema theatres --- all downed their shutters. All transport --- BEST buses, state transport buses, taxis, auto-rickshaws, private cars, trucks and tempos --- ground to a halt. Railways were severely affected by rail roko actions at several suburban stations by various political forces. Hundreds of activists of the CPI(M), CITU, DYFI and other mass organisations conducted successful rail roko stirs at railway stations like Andheri, Bhandup, Goregaon, Malad and Chembur, and thus broke the Shiv Sena's monopoly in this field in Mumbai. Both the major ports, the Mumbai port and the Jawaharlal Nehru port at Uran in Raigad district, were closed. Air traffic was severely curtailed with several flights having to be cancelled. The entire metropolis wore a deserted look, the only striking exception being thousands of youngsters merrily playing cricket on the main thoroughfares of the city!

The same picture was replicated in almost all other cities and towns across Maharashtra. Major industrial cities like Thane, Nasik, Pune, Kolhapur, Ichalkaranji, Solapur, Aurangabad and many others ground to a halt. The industrial bandh all over the state was complete, but the bandh went far beyond that to include the transport and service sectors as well. Even tehsil centres in the state remained closed and agricultural operations came to a standstill. In several district and tehsil centres, after making the bandh a success, large processions of thousands of workers and peasants were organised by the Left and secular parties and trade unions, and spirited public meetings were held to castigate the central and state governments for their imperialist-dictated, anti-people LPG policies.

Rail roko and rasta roko agitations were the order of the day all over the state. All the major national highways going to Ahmedabad, Agra, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore were blockaded by the people at several places. In Thane, Nasik and several other districts, such rail roko and rasta roko actions were led jointly or independently by the CPI(M). Tens of thousands of activists of the CITU, AIKS, AIAWU, DYFI, SFI and AIDWA came to the streets all over the state to make the bandh a big success, and they were joined by activists of other Left and secular forces. Several activists were arrested during the bandh and were let off in the evening, but in many instances, police cases were filed against them. The state deputy chief minister and home minister Chhagan Bhujbal himself had to admit that the bandh was total and peaceful. All sections of the print and electronic media also gave this reality wide coverage.

On some rare earlier occasions, the INTUC and BMS had taken part in joint trade union actions on burning working class issues. But the Shiv Sena (SS)-led unions had invariably stayed far away. This was hardly surprising, since the SS has always been unashamedly anti-working class and pro-capitalist. What is surprising now is why, for the first time in its 35-year old history, it chose to take part in a bandh called by the Left and secular opposition against the anti-people policies not only of the INC-NCP-led state regime, but also of the BJP-led central regime, of which the SS is itself an integral part. The answer can be found in a combination of several factors.

First, the current crisis flowing out of the LPG policies has deeply affected its own mass following in the working class and the middle class to such an extent that it can ignore it only at its peril. And so, closely following on the heels of the TUJAC rally in Mumbai on March 15, the SS-led unions held their own rally in the city of March 21. Similarly, its participation in the bandh is an attempt to save its mass base.

Second, ever since the SS was thrown out of power in October 1999, its mass appeal has been on the decline. And now, in February 2002 are due a string of crucial elections. These include elections to the Mumbai municipal corporation, several other corporations and municipalities, and also the zilla parishad and panchayat samiti elections all over the state. It is in preparation for these that the SS has been forced to change its tactical stance.

Third, the SS has perhaps begun to realise that its Hindutva card, which served it well for over a decade, is now running out of steam. In February, under the name of Hindutva and Indian culture, Bal Thackeray himself gave a directive to Shiv Sainiks to disrupt all Valentine Day programmes, but the call turned into a damp squib. Moreover, the SS became a target of ridicule, with people asking the legitimate question as to why the SS had itself earlier organised the Michael Jackson show. Thus, although the SS is by no means about to abandon its hard-core Hindutva platform, it is nevertheless beginning to realise its limitations.

Fourth, the SS and its supremo Bal Thackeray, along with Sharad Pawar, Gopinath Munde, Manohar Joshi and also Atal Bihari Vajpayee, have come under intense public fire in Maharashtra during the last several months on the vexed and corruption-ridden Enron issue. For, it was these leaders who were directly responsible for sanctioning the two phases of the Enron project and also for providing the infamous counter-guarantees. With Enron now hanging like an albatross round Maharashtra's neck, the SS has been thrown on the defensive. Thus, during the bandh campaign, SS-led unions for the first time were forced to take the public position that the Enron deal must be "reconsidered"! The SS, however, fought shy of demanding, as the Left and secular opposition has done, that the Enron deal be scrapped --- for obvious reasons!

Fifth, after the Tehelka bombshells, there are signs that the SS is trying to distance itself from the BJP. The most glaring instance of this came when Thackeray turned down the BJP proposal to hold a joint NDA rally in Mumbai on April 8 to be addressed by Vajpayee himself. With Thackeray's downright refusal, the rally had to be cancelled. Further, in the SS daily Saamnaa, Thackeray loudly proclaimed last week that it was under his pressure that N K Singh had to be shunted out of the PMO, embarrassing the BJP no end. The SS is also unhappy with the persistent rumours of a BJP-NCP bonhomie. With this whole background, the SS participation in the bandh was also meant to rattle and isolate its BJP partners.

Needless to say, the SS participation in the bandh does not in the least mean that it has changed its basic ideological and political positions. On the bandh day itself, an editorial in Saamnaa took special care to pour venom on the communists. The Left leadership is also very clear on this point. In two press conferences a week before the bandh, CPI(M) state secretary Prabhakar Sanzgiri and state CITU general secretary K L Bajaj replied to pointed questions by several correspondents, and made it abundantly clear that while the participation of SS-led unions in the bandh against LPG policies was a positive step from the standpoint of working class unity, the CPI(M)’s and the CITU's political assessment of the Shiv Sena remained unchanged.

After the massive expression of working people's unity through this bandh action, Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had to give a public indication that the state government would not press its move to amend labour laws. He has also invited all trade union leaders for talks on labour-related issues. The Enron issue is now coming to a head and a crucial meeting of the Democratic Front Coordination Committee is due to be held next week. The bandh has put the Enron top brass and their collaborators in the state and at the centre further on the defensive. Prime minister Vajpayee has had to declare in a May Day rally that the centre will refrain from taking anti-labour steps.

However, all such mere statements will not lull the working people into a false sense of security. The people's struggle will have to be further broadened and intensified --- and also radically politicised --- if real gains are to be achieved.