The Mandate of May 21 General Strike

Swadesh Deve Roy

THE Indian working class movement has earned the distinction of conducting sustained struggles against the Fund-Bank-WTO dictated anti-people, anti-national economic policies initiated by the Congress(I) government and vigorously pursued by the present BJP-led NDA government. It is true that successive governments at the centre have been continuously pursuing the policies of imperialist driven globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation.  But that does not mean that the struggles of the working class against these policies have not yielded any positive result. There are many areas where the disastrous reform moves of the government have been either defeated or at least delayed. Even the IMF has recorded its anger against the trade union movement of India for their ‘stiff opposition to the economic reforms’ initiated by the government.  

FROM NOVEMBER 1991 TO MAY 2003

Since 1991, various struggles have been conducted in different forms and phases. The May 21 countrywide strike was the eighth such action since 1991.  During the intervening period between these one-day general strikes, wide-ranging, innovative and diversified forms of agitation and propaganda were carried out in different phases. The culmination of each such phase was limited to a one-day countrywide general strike. However, at every phase of the struggles new sections of the working class have joined the movement and the horizon of the movement has also expanded.

But it is very important to note that the different industrial sectors have organised many a high-pitch battles during last 12 years against the onslaught of privatisation. We must remember the heroic anti-privatisation struggles of the workers of Dalla Cement Factory, BALCO, NALCO, Coal India Ltd., the different State Electricity Boards, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and many other industries. The unity and struggles of the banking industry workers and the insurance industry workers also deserve mention. The sectoral united struggles have definitely supplemented and complemented the nationwide general struggles. A very important and noteworthy development relating to these sectoral movement is the realisation of the total industry-level unity of the workers of the given industries.

THE 8-POINT DEMANDS

The eight point demands pressed for by the May 21 strike are the most burning issues confronting the entire working class and toiling people of the country. But what is most important to take note is the fact that the entire trade union movement of the country, including the BMS and the INTUC, are also parties in formulating these demands. It is a different matter that these two central trade unions have made common cause by staying away from the strike. But they have not said anything against the issues before the strike. The reason is not difficult to identify. The issues are so deeply impacting the working class that any trade union can openly oppose them at their own peril.

In fact the National Assembly of Workers held on July 15, 2002 at the Talkatora Indoor Stadium, New Delhi finalised the 8-point Charter of Demands and the INTUC participated in the Assembly and signed the declaration containing the demands and programmes of struggle for achieving these demands.

On the other hand, the 102nd Working Committee meeting of the BMS held on April 6-8, 2003 in Maharashtra adopted 8 resolutions and among the demands included -  opposition to disinvestment, against WTO, no retrograde changes in labour laws, problem of unemployment, no reduction in the rate of interest on PF accumulations.  Particularly on privatisation, the resolution demanded a total ban on privatisation of public sector industries, BALCO and Modern Food to be re-nationalised, sick PSUs to be revamped and run by the government. The concerned resolution demanded “to scrap the present disinvestments ministry of the government and debundle the group of secretaries and group of ministers; to announce in unequivocal and clear terms that no profit making PSUs would be disinvested.”

The excuse adopted by the BMS and the INTUC leadership for staying away from the struggles for the cause of the working class is blaming of ‘political motivation’ behind all such struggles. The point is that since the working class is seriously affected by the disastrous policies of the government, it is the political right of the working class to oppose such policies politically. It is our responsibility to expose that by staying away from such struggles of the working class, the INTUC and BMS are espousing the political cause of employers class. Of course, such hypocritical approach of tendering lip services to the working class and rendering actual services to the capitalist class shall not be endured by the people forever.

The Backdrop of May 21 Strike

Faced with the intensified privatisation onslaught launched by the NDA government on even the profit making strategically important public sector companies, the workers in these strategic industries have been, of late, demonstrating their deep determination to fight back the disastrous policies aimed at liquidating these public sector units. To substantiate the point, let us take the case of energy sector as a whole.

The NDA government has placed on top of its privatisation agenda the different segments of energy - coal, electricity, oil and natural gas - industries in public sector in the country. Obviously, the workers of these industries are in the thick of anti-privatisation struggles and have already carried out a protracted round of industry-wise struggles, including strike struggles. The latest such action has been the most successful 3-day strike jointly organised by the 26 trade unions of all affiliations operating in the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation on March 25-27, 2003 protesting the move of the Vajpayee government to privatise these two oil PSUs. Similarly, the several rounds of strike opposing privatisation of the coalmines under the Coal India Ltd, jointly observed by the coal workers throughout the country, has set a shinning example and has become a source of encouragement for anti-privatisation struggles in the country. The mighty united struggles launched by the electricity workers could block for quite some time the disastrous move of the so called reform of electricity industry, which is aimed at privatisation of the entire electricity sector. The enactment of Electricity Bill 2003 in Parliament recently has thrown a serious challenge before the countrymen in general and the workers of the industry in particular because this Bill will play havoc with the people in general and the electricity industry and its workers in particular. The other strategically important sector is the financial sector. The powerful unity of the workers in the public sector banking industry and the repeated united struggles conducted by the united forum of the bank workers have set a shinning example before the trade union movement in the country.  The public sector insurance workers have also conducted one of the best anti-privatisation movement in the country.

Encouraging Response in Strategic Sectors

The following account of the May 21 strike will conclusively show that the financial sector has repeated its record of glorious participation in the previous strikes against the disastrous policies of the government. With the participation of the coal, oil & petroleum and electricity workers, the entire energy sector has witnessed unprecedented strike for the first time since 1991.

The participation of the oil sector workers, both in the refining and the marketing segments, in the strike has been unprecedented. In fact, this is the first time the workers of the oil refineries of all the major oil PSUs – IOC, BPCL, HPCL and their subsidiaries NRL, KRL, BRPL - have gone on strike together on policy issues. All the four unions in the Mumbai refinery of BPCL (there is no affiliated union in the refinery) joined the strike and therefore the strike was total with the 100 per cent participation of the workers. The ONGC workers also joined the strike in large numbers.

The strike in the coalmines of Coal India Ltd (CIL) has been very good. The workers of all the subsidiary coal PSUs under the holding company CIL located all over the country have participated in the strike in full strength. An interesting feature was that in many states where the general trade union movement is rather weak, in those states also the coal workers have been making their strikes a grand success. In fact, in the anti-privatisation struggle the position of the coalmine workers is that of an engine of a train.

Without paying any heed to the long-drawn repeated struggles of the State Electricity Board workers and engineers led by the broadbased united platform, the NDA government has enacted in Parliament the Electricity Bill, 2003. The new statute is poised to play havoc with the poor consumers and the electricity workers, both in the state and central sectors. Obviously the electricity workers in the country are very much aggrieved which found expression in the unprecedented massive participation of the SEB workers in the May 21 strike in some of the states.

The participation of the workers of the financial sector in the strike was as usual massive. Both in the banking and insurance industries the strike was a grand success. But banking industry workers have repeated their shinning past performance in the strike. This fact has been corroborated by the focus the bank strike received in the media.

The other worth mentioning industries where the strike witnessed resounding success are Port & Docks, NALCO, NFL, FACT, MFL, Steel PSUs, BHEL, BEL   etc.

Prioritise the Strategic Sectors

The one day strike on November 29, 1991 marked the beginning of the struggles against neo liberal economic policies of the central governments. This strike was followed by agitations and propaganda campaign at national and local levels in which the working class and toiling people were mobilised through conventions, rallies etc. This was again followed by another one-day nationwide general strike and the same framework continued repeatedly. In the process during the last 12 years we have conducted a number of all India one-day general strikes.

One of the most striking features of the May 21 strike was the massive participation of the workers of some strategically important public sector industries. In fact, their participation in the strike has been far better than in the previous strikes. It is noteworthy that some of them have taken part in such a strike for the first time. Further, as already noted above, the workers of some of these industries have been in the thick of anti-privatisation movement. Therefore for them the May 21 strike has been the continuation of their on going fight to oppose the onslaught of privatisation of their respective industries. Further, these workers have already forged broader unity in their respective industries. The May 21 strike has given the clear message that the anti-privatisation forces are determined to fight back the onslaught of the government.

The present situation is marked by two things - one, the attack on the people through privatisation reaching its peak and two, the simultaneous surge in the united resistance movement to this attack. It is imperative that the central trade unions will have to play a catalytic role to bring together the strategically effective and important sections having the potential to intensify the fight, and take effective steps to launch joint struggles of the workers of all strategic industries. For this the industry-wise united forums which have already emerged in the industries like oil, coal, electricity, banks etc. will be useful.

Moreover, it is also very important to see that the continuity of the current phase of the struggles is ensured. It should be seen that the momentum generated by the May 21 strike is not lost. But above all, it is all the more necessary that the next course of the movement will have to be innovative and higher form of struggles than the past ones. It must not be a sheer repetition of the broad framework, which has been followed since 1991. Such an initiative and steps alone can give a fitting reply to the maligning campaign of the government that these series of strike struggles against the Fund-Bank-WTO dictated anti-national policies are ‘annual rituals’ of the left trade unions.