People's Democracy

Kerala Paralysed By TUs General Strike

P K Gurudasan

THE 24-hour general strike called by the Kerala State Sponsoring Committee of the Trade Unions on July 5, 2005 was a big success with its observance in all the 14 districts of the state. The strike was unprecedented in which workers participated in a massive scale even though the INTUC officially declared not to participate in the strike. Thousands of processions were conducted throughout the state.

The general strike comes in the wake of several agitations of the working class led by CITU against the retrograde policies of the UDF regime, both during Antony’s tenure and now Oomen Chandy’s. The CITU had submitted two separate charters of demands, one relating to workers and employees and another on farmers, to the chief minister Chandy on June 30, 2004. Even within the last two months, CITU independently and other trade unions, including INTUC, BMS and STU (pro-IUML) unitedly launched several struggles for the cause of workers belonging to different sectors.

While calling for the general strike, the sponsoring committee of trade unions, which comprises of nine trade unions – CITU, AITUC, UTUC, UTUC(LS), HMS, INLC, KTUC(J), NLO, TUCA – released a chargesheet against the UDF government. A big campaign was organised in the form of vehicle jathas, united general body meetings of workers, gate meetings etc in the run up to the strike. The chargesheet was widely publicised through pamphlets, posters etc.

The main demands raised before the government were:

1. Stop privatisation of public sector undertakings

2. Protect the traditional sector industries and unorganised sector workers

3. Sanction special package schemes to the poor and marginal farmers who are in distress due to the deteriorating situation of agrarian sector

4. Withdraw the contributory pension scheme proposed by the UPA government

5. Removal of the ban on recruitment in the government sector

6. No downsizing of the workforce

7. Evolve necessary schemes to solve the acute unemployment problem in the state.

8. Withdraw the anti-people, anti-working class policies of the government; Save Kerala and safeguard the working class.

In addition to the above demands, the sponsoring committee raised the demand for the withdrawal of the hike in prices of petrol and diesel saying this will hit the ordinary people.

The functioning of the normal life of the state was totally paralysed due to the strike. The state government employees, public sector workers and teachers also participated in the general strike in solidarity. In most of the central public sector undertakings, participation in the strike was significant with Cochin Port and Shipyard reporting hundred per cent participation. Almost all private sector industrial units were closed due to the participation of the entire workers having different affiliations. The strike was total in traditional industries and unorganised sector.

The sponsoring committee strongly supported the militant struggle of the students in Kerala against the commercialisation of education by the UDF government. Repression on protesting students and youth has become the norm under the UDF government, which was once again evident in the brutal attack on July 4.