DELHI: Workers Go On Industrial Strike

 AFTER a long gap, industrial action in Delhi was visible. At the call of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), the industrial workers of Delhi, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and NOIDA went on a strike on March 27, with marches, morchas and processions, braving lathicharges and facing arrests. The response was spontaneous, unlike the hired bus morchas in many Delhi meetings.

The strike was to press for a minimum wage of Rs 5000; end of outsourcing and contract system for permanent jobs; declaration of lock-outs and closures as punishable offences; equal wages for equal and similar work; halt to demolition of jhuggi-jhopdis; and provision of pucca houses for their dwellers.

Along with the CITU, supporters of the Jana Chetna Manch turned out in large numbers. Former prime minister V P Singh addressed several rallies and visited police stations to demand the release of those arrested. He also went to Tis Hazari courts in solidarity and addressed a snap press conference.

The one-month long campaign in preparation for the strike programme also raised the voice of protest against the US-led aggression against Iraq.

The response to the strike call in various industrial areas of Delhi, Ghaziabad, NOIDA and Faridabad has been moderate to high.  Most of the industrial areas witnessed atleast a few hours of strike, and some witnessed complete strike, with impressive rallies and processions by the striking workers and their families. In several areas, traffic was paralysed. In many places, the poorest among the poor from the jhuggis came out in support.

In several places, the police resorted to unwarranted lathicharges in a bid to foil the workers’ strike, causing injuries to dozens of workers including women and children. The trade union movement is not going to allow such atrocities lying down, a CITU spokesman said after the strike. 

The industrial strike at Delhi and in adjoining regions at the initiative of the CITU and other friendly organisations is the beginning of a long-drawn united struggle to resist the onslaught of the employers-government combine on the life and livelihood of the workers, the spokesman said.

In Delhi, big demonstrations were held in Kirti Nagar, Yamuna Pushta, Wazirpur Industrial Area, Jahangirpuri, Ambedkar Nagar, Samaypur Badli, Mahipalpur, Rangpuri, Piragarhi Chowk and Khanpur.

The Delhi state committee of the CPI(M) congratulated the working class and slum dwellers of Delhi for having made the day’s industrial strike and road blockade a big success.  

  The CPI(M) condemned the Delhi Police for brutally lathicharging and arresting workers and slum dwellers in various places. It condemned police action in Kirti Nagar in particular, where a crowd of over 15,000 protestors was lathicharged. Several of the protestors, including women, were injured in this brutal action. Rampal Singh, a former minister of Uttar Pradesh, was also arrested and cases have been framed against him and others. The police  also arrested CPI(M) activists in Ambedkar Nagar. The CPI(M) demanded that the police release all activists arrested in connection with the action and withdraw  charges fabricated against them.

  The CPI(M) demanded that the just demands of the workers and slum dwellers be immediately met, including in situ rehabilitation of slum dwellers, no demolition of jhuggis against the current policy of slum rehabilitation, end to contractor system in electricity supply in slums, no privatisation of water supply, reservation of 20 per cent seats in public/private/government-aided schools for children of industrial workers and slum dwellers, reservation of 20 per cent seats in Delhi University’s colleges for students from government schools, increase in minimum wages to Rs 5000 per month, strict implementation of minimum wages, and equal wage for equal work.

  The CPI(M) warned that unless these demands were met forthwith, struggles of even greater intensity would be unleashed. 

VP Singh Speaks out

  FORMER prime minister V P Singh congratulated the poor people of Delhi for rising in unison to give support to the industrial workers strike and to stress that the poor were also human beings, deserving a right to proper homes, proper education and employment. Today, he said, the strike was visible and roads were blocked. Tomorrow, the poor will unite to give a fitting rebuff to those who have kept them deprived of their rights, he said.

  Speaking to a small gathering of pressmen on March 27, the former prime minister said even the rally preparations were blacked out in various sections of the press. The people have in a way said no to press censorship, he said, adding that  “they made themselves more than visible.”

  “Today it was a half-day strike-cum-jam. Tomorrow it can be anything. If the government does not respond to the demands of the poor and the industrial workers, we will mobilise mass pressure,”  he said.

  “In politics we see two types. On the one side, it is money and manoeuvre. On the other side, it is motivation and the mass coming together.  A new era is beginning,” he said. “I give full support to the rally against war on Iraq on March 31,2003,” he added.

  Later, in a brief chat with INN, he expressed full support for the people of Iraq and regretted that an institution like the United Nations has been demolished by the US in the name of saving ‘democracy.

  “We must stand up against the Iraq massacre. I do not agree, despite my differences with Saddam, that everything he does is dictatorial. But what Bush is doing is definitely dictatorial,” he said. In fact, he said, “I have heard Saddam supporting Kashmir from time to time. The USA tries to play a not so honest broker.” 

  About the Indian government’s stand, V P Singh said, it is dilly-dallying, while the USA violates all norms in an armed aggression which is illegal and unjust. It is in defiance of world public opinion.  Refusing to use the words censorship on the press even on the Iraq question, he said, the press is not being spared either. 

(INN)