People's Democracy

INTERNATIONAL TU PROTEST DAY

The Developing Global Protest Against Capitalism

E Balanandan

ABOUT a decade ago, soon after the setback to socialism in Russia and allied countries in Europe, imperialist powers made tall claims about building a crisis-free capitalism using the hi-tech revolution --- the only sustainable system for human progress. These claims are getting thoroughly exposed and discredited today.

What we are witnessing today is a different scenario. The capitalist system as a whole is facing a serious crisis and the intensity of this crisis is on the increase. The crisis which overtook Mexico in 1994 and the East Asian countries in 1997-98 were explained as only temporary phenomena. But today we find that even the mighty economies of the world --- the US and Japan which, put together, account for 46 per cent of the world’s output ---have plunged into a recession. Other developed as well as the third world countries, too, are facing a serious deceleration in economic growth, the only exception being China. The crisis is all-embracing and pervades even the high-tech sector. Millions of workers in the developed countries have been thrown out of employment; retrenchment and closures are becoming the order of the day. The working masses are everywhere facing a serious threat to their livelihood as their achievements and rights earned through bitter struggles are being increasingly curtailed.

Generally, the living standard of the working people is getting eroded everywhere. Besides, poverty and bankruptcies are on the rise while huge fortunes are being accumulated by the giant multinational companies. The prescriptions of the World Bank, IMF and WTO have failed to save the situation; they have only helped to intensify the exploitation of the weaker nations by big multinational corporations of the imperialist countries. This is the background in which new types of protest actions are developing in different parts of the world against the system of capitalism.

The demonstration of 50,000 people at Seattle in November 1999 at the time of the WTO ministerial conference protesting against the discriminatory trade policies, etc. The protest has sustained itself and gathered momentum --- from Washington to Prague, Quebec City, Gothenburg, Papua New Guinea and finally at Genoa (Italy) against the G-8 summit meeting. In inspite of the enormous police and military cordon, more than one lakh people joined the protest march at Genoa.

The composition of the demonstrators is also undergoing changes. At Seattle, NGOs of different types were the main contingent. But the participation of the working class went on increasing and at Genoa the main contingent was of trade unions, together with communists and the NGOs from a large part of Europe. The demands raised at Genoa included that of cancellation of debts of the poor nations. Protest demonstrations took place at each of the places mentioned above, wherever the officials of the IMF, World Bank, WTO and their allied bodies met, or wherever the G-8 met. The slogans raised by the demonstrators also underwent changes. At Seattle, they were against the unequal trade terms imposed by the WTO while "Down With Capitalism!" was the main cry of the people at Genoa.

The latest in this series of protest actions is the decision of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) to observe a global protest day of action against anti-people’s globalisation on November 9, the day of the WTO ministerial conference scheduled to be held at Doha, Qatar. The other international trade union organisations --- World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and World Confederation of Labour (WCL) --- too asked their affiliates to join this protest. The following demands are being raised by the trade unions on the global protest day on November 9 including their national issues:

1) NO to globalisation that drives down workers’ rights and job security;

2) NO to globalisation that undermines education and health care;

3) NO to globalisation that helps the rich and hurts the poor;

4) NO to globalisation that stifles and denies democracy.

This is the first time in the history of trade union movement that all the trade unions of the world have chosen a common day of protest against capitalist globalisation which is against the interests of the working class and the common people. This reflects the growing realisation of the working people from their experience that capitalism and imperialism cannot provide them a peaceful and better life; that is why the conservative trade union leadership too had to join in the global protest action.

The trade unions of India have positively responded to the call and decided to join this global day of action. The AITUC, BMS, CITU, HMS, INTUC, AICTTU, TUCC, UTUC AND UTUC (LS) said, in a joint statement: "We welcome this world initiative and call upon the Indian working class to observe November 9 unitedly in a fitting manner so that the united voice of the working class of India is powerfully heard all over the country. The 5 point demands should be highlighted on this day by holding demonstrations, rallies, dharnas, etc, so that largest mobilisation of workers is achieved on this day. We are confident that workers belonging to all trade unions will unitedly observe the day in a magnificent manner so that we can unitedly protect the interest of the working class and the self-reliant development of Indian economy."

Thus the Indian working class will unitedly raise the demands listed below on November 9 and hold joint demonstrations throughout the country:

1. Against thoughtless privatisation of the profit-making and potential viable public sector units including the defence sector industries.

2. Against the withdrawal of quantitative restrictions on imports as per WTO conditionalities much to the detriment of Indian industry, agriculture and national interest as a whole.

3. Against the move to change the labour laws in favour of employers.

4. For immediate enactment of a comprehensive legislation for agricultural workers.

5. Against the policies leading to severe aggravation of joblessness and unemployment.

The government has decided to go ahead with wholesale privatisation of all the public sector industries. Plans about downsizing the government departments and labour law changes, said to be within a time frame of three months and based on the reports of three committee, are copied from the blueprint of the WB-IMF-WTO trio.

With the new situation arising out of the US war against Taliban, the world economic situation is going to further worsen, including in India. However, the government of India is out to use this as an alibi for "speeding up the reforms," claiming that there is no way out. Besides, they are trying to take steps to curtail democratic freedom to stifle the developing protest. They are unmindful of the world experience of the "reforms" which has been summarised by Joseph Stiglitz, a World Bank economist, and a noble prize winner, who has been relieved because of his critical views of World Bank policies. In a recent press interview, Stiglitz said that, "IMF, World Bank and the WTO are interchangeable masks of a single governance system serving the rich nations of the world." Their ‘four plus’ formula, which is being implemented, will destroy the nation.

1. Privatisation: Stilglitz called it "briberisation" and said politicians and officials have happily flogged off their electricity and water companies, lured by the 10 per cent commission paid for shaving a few billion off the sale price of "national assets."

2. Capital Market Liberalisation: This he says is the ‘Hot Money’ cycle. Along with the flow of investment capital, it channels cash for speculation in markets, currency and real estate, which can disappear equally fast. When that happens, the IMF asks these nations to hike interest rates, in order to "seduce speculators into returning a nation’s own capital funds." He cites the hot money tidal waves in Asia and Latin America as examples.

3. Market-Based Pricing: This is a fancy term for raising the prices of food items, water and cooking gas, leading to what he calls "The IMF riot." Riots broke out in Indonesia, Ecuador and Bolivia over fuel, food and water prices.

4. Free Trade: Stiglitz equates the WTO’s free trade to Opium Wars as it allows the MNCs to fleece the people in poor countries by charging usurious prices for branded medicine and other services.

The experience cited by him above are clear to any student of economics. However, the GOI and its finance minister are hell bent on implementing the prescriptions of the WB-IMF-WTO trio with top speed.

The working class of India has to close its ranks, irrespective of political and organisational differences, to fight back and defeat these policies so as to save the country from a disaster.