People's Democracy

Feb 24 Strike: “Response Beyond Expectations”

Addressing a joint news conference on the evening of February 24, central trade union leaders said the response to the strike call was beyond expectations and that it “thoroughly exposes the hollowness of the multi-million crore propaganda blitz unleashed by the NDA government regarding the so-called feel good factor”.

CITU president, M K Pandhe, said though the BJP-affiliated BMS and Congress-affiliated INTUC stayed away from the strike, at grassroots level many of their affiliates and followers joined the strike action in a big way.

Pandhe hoped that the Supreme Court would take note of the strong feelings of the workers against its ruling on the right to strike. He also criticised the prime minister for not honouring his word in calling trade unions for negotiations on this issue and inviting only the BMS. He also pulled up the Vajpayee government for endorsing Tamil Nadu government’s stand on the issue in the ILO.

AITUC general secretary, Gurudas Dasgupta, said the response to the strike was “a fitting rebuff to the feel good slogan of the prime minister. If India is shining, the response to the strike could not have been so massive”, he said.

The trade union leaders said the struggle against the pernicious economic policies would continue irrespective of whichever government comes to power and called upon the working class to prepare for a long drawn out struggle for securing total reversal of the anti-people economic policies. (INN)