People's Democracy

TUs Observe Protest Day on Oct 28

Dharna before Parliament on December 16

                                                                                      Tapan Sen

OCTOBER 28 witnessed all-in unity of the entire trade union movement in action --- throughout the country, irrespective of affiliations. The call for observance of �National Protest Day� on October 28, given by all the central trade unions in the country, viz, the INTUC, BMS, CITU, AITUC, AIUTUC, AICCTU, UTUC and TUCC, received magnificent response from the toiling people of the country, covering almost all the sectors of the economy. The all-in united call by the trade unions of all affiliations created so much enthusiasm that in different parts of the country, even the independent trade unions that are not affiliated to any central trade union organisation or attached to one or another regional or state-level formation, joined in the demonstrations and rallies along with others in a big way. In essence, observance of the National Protest Day on October 28 reflected  a unique and unprecedented show of unity of the working people against the policies followed by the UPA-2 government that have brought untold sufferings and misery to them, particularly in the recent years.

FOR PRO-PEOPLE

POLICY FOCUS

The call for observance of National Protest Day on October 28 emanated from the National Convention of Workers held on September 14 at Mavlankar Hall, New Delhi. The convention took place at the joint initiative of all the national trade union centres, viz, INTUC, BMS, CITU, AITUC, AIUTUC, AICCTU, UTUC and TUCC. It decided to press for a five point charter of demands concerning the working people of the country, and the demands voiced by the unions do not pertain to any economic demands of the workers. In fact, they all are for a change of the policy directions from a pro-corporate pro-trader bias to a people-centred focus --- quite different from the tele-byte friendly �aam-aadmi� rhetoric being frivolously mouthed by those in governance.

The convention also clearly pointed out what concrete steps the government needs to take so as to address the issues of concern to the toiling millions on each of the five point demands.

There is total consensus among the trade unions regarding the present spate of price rise of essential commodities in the midst of a recessionary situation in the industry and service sectors. They say it is not just a problem of demand-supply gap but owes its basic origin to speculative trading in commodities, backed by hoarding and black-marketing by traders and patronised by the market-driven policy regime. The problem of price rise needs to be addressed by universalising the public distribution system to supply all essential commodities of daily living on the one hand and banning the futures trading and all other kinds of speculation in the commodity market. The government must ensure that traders and corporates are not allowed to gamble on the daily necessities and allied items.

Similarly, economic recession must be so tackled that those who are the hardest hit --- more than five million jobless workers besides several millions who faced drastic cut in their earnings --- get some relief. The so called stimulus package to big corporates and traders, funded out of the public exchequer, actually helped the big business to retain their profit or arrest the pace of decline but did not help the least the millions of working people to get back their jobs or arrest the sharp decline of their earnings. The public exchequer is being frittered away to help the miniscule section of corporate entities and big business, neglecting the millions of common populace who really contribute to build the public exchequer. This perversion must end and the stimulus package to the corporates must be made conditional to �employment protection and no-retrenchment stipulation,� the trade unions asserted.     

TU�S DEMANDS

UPON THE GOVT

Any government formed under India�s constitution has the obligation to ensure implementation and enforcement of the laws of the land. But the situation is altogether different in case of the labour laws. Under the neo-liberal format, the central and most of the state governments promote and sponsor the violation of labour laws pertaining to minimum wages, working hours, social security, maintenance of employment registers, contract work, basic labour rights of forming trade union etc, in connivance with the employers. If workers or their unions complain against such violations even at the constitutional forums, they are beaten up and harassed by the police and employers throw them out. The industrial relations scenario across the workplaces throughout the country nakedly exhibits such state sponsored violation of all basic labour laws by the employers. The governments must behave like a government and not as the security staff of the employers, and must strictly enforce all labour laws as per their constitutional obligation for which they are paid.

The government of India has been lavishly patting itself for enactment of Unorganised Workers Social Security Act 2008 which is nothing but an act of deception to 93 per cent of the country�s workforce who are contributing more than 65 per cent to our GDP. The schemes annexed to the act, through which the benefits are supposed to be delivered, are restricted to those below the poverty line as per the official definition. On this definition, even five per cent of the unorganised sector workers, for whom the act is meant, are not entitled for any benefit. The trade unions have denounced such deceitful approach of the government and demanded for removal of all restrictive provisions, so as to cover all the unorganised sector workers by the social security schemes. They have also demanded creation of a National Social Security Fund to ensure a floor level of social security to the entire unorganised workforce. This is what is recommended by the committee appointed by the government itself and also by the parliamentary standing committee on labour.

The trade unions also demanded that the government take appropriate lesson from the global economic crisis which would could have devastated the Indian economy if only there were not in existence a strong and vibrant network of public sector units (PSUs) covering both the industrial and financial sectors of the country�s economy. Yet, however, the government of India is going ahead with its programme of disinvestment and privatisation and already the disinvestment of shares has started in a number of profit making PSUs. That the government must stop resorting to this disastrous path, has been the assertion of the entire trade union movement, The PSUs are already having a huge reserve and surplus, lying unutilised.  Disinvestment must therefore stop and the reserves and surplus of the PSUs must be productively utilised to expand and strengthen them and also revive the sick but potentially profit making PSUs in the interest of the national economy. 

OVERWHELMING

RESPONSE

All the above demands unanimously formulated by the entire trade union movement in the country have touched the imagination of the toiling people and got reflected in the overwhelming response in the observance of the National Protest Day on October 28. Almost all the state capitals, district headquarters and industrial centres witnessed joint demonstrations and rallies made colourful by coming together of all the flags and banners of different trade union centres. In most of the states, the observance of National Protest Day was preceded by well attended joint conventions organised by all the central trade unions as a preparatory exercise for the united action.

In West Bengal, a massive rally was held in the state capital, Kolkata, at Rani Rasmoni Road which was addressed by the state leadership of all the central trade unions. At all the district headquarters and also in the industrial centres at Howrah, Durgapur, Asansole Barrackpur etc massive joint demonstration was organised. In Kerala, the state capital and district headquarters witnessed joint demonstrations, except in a few places owing to the byelections. In Tripura, massive demonstration was reported to be held at Agartala. In Tamilnadu, joint demonstrations were organised in three places at Chennai besides rallies at all other district headquarters. In Karnataka, all the 28 districts witnessed joint demonstrations, dharnas and rallies. At the state capital Bangalore, a joint procession of trade unions submitted a memorandum to the governor. In Andhra Pradesh, the programme was observed through joint demonstrations at all the district headquarters and also at the state capital at Hyderabad. In Assam, a massive rally attended by all the constituent unions was held at Guwahati; joint demonstrations were also held at Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Dibrugarh and other places. In Orissa, demonstrations/rallies were held at the state capital Bhubaneswar, and also in Cuttack, Rourkela, Paradip, Baleswar, Barbil, Berhampur, Jajpur Road and Keonjhar. In Maharshtra, the country�s commercial capital, Mumbai, witnessed a massive demonstration and rally at Azad Maidan which was joined by thousands of workers and addressed by the leadership of sponsoring central trade unions and also by the Bharatiya Kamgar Sena, Kamgar Aghadi and Sava Shramik Sangh, further broadening the platform of unity. Reports of joint demonstrations were also received from Nagpur, Nasik, Solapur and other places in the state.  Reports of massive joint rallies and procession were received from 17 districts in Rajasthan including the state capital Jaipur and industrial centres at Sikar, Jhunujhunu, Sriganganagar, Hanumangarh, Bikaner, Kota, Udaypur, Jodhpur etc. In Haryana, the industrial town of Gurgaon which has been already in the midst of a continuing agitation for labour rights and staged a massive strike action by more than a lakh workers on October 20, witnessed a 10,000 strong militant demonstration. Joint demonstrations were also held in Hissar, Bhiwani, Ambala, Panipat, Kaitahal, Sonepat and other places in the state. Himachal Pradesh witnessed massive demonstrations in all the 11 districts including Shimla. In Bihar, reports of joint rallies were received from Patna and Begusarai. In Jharkhand, joint rallies and demonstrations were held in Jamshedpur, Saraikela and Ramgarh besides in the colliery areas since in other areas the police did not give permission for holding mass rallies. In Uttar Pradesh, massive joint demonstrations were reported at Kanpur, Allahabad, Vanarasi, Sonebhadra, Gonda and Barelly. In Ferozabad, around 20,000 glass bangle workers struck work and staged militant demonstration in the city. In Punjab, joint rallies and demonstration were reported from Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Sangrur, Amritsar, Patankot, Batala, Patiala, Bhatinda, Malout and other places. Reports of massive joint demonstrations were also received from Bhopal, Indore and Jabalpur and Katni in Madhya Pradesh and from Raipur, Bhilai, Rajnandgaon and Korba in Chhattisgarh. Reports are yet to be received from other places. In Delhi, several thousands of workers from the industrial areas of Delhi assembled at Shahid Bhagat Singh Park and moved on a procession to converge in a rally at ITO Chawk. The rally was addressed by the G Sanjeeva Reddy (INTUC), Subba Rao (BMS), Gurudas Dasgupta (AITUC), Tapan Sen (CITU), Umraomal Purohit (HMS) and leaders of other central trade unions.           

ON TO DEC 16

DHARNA

The  call for and response to the countrywide observance of National Protest Day has generated such enthusiasm among the ranks of the working people that many unions and workers not affiliated to the sponsoring organisations also joined in a big way to the observance of protest day and also in preparatory conventions in almost all the states. This demonstrated the urge for unity in action at the grass roots level. As a follow up to that initiative, the leadership of all Central Trade Unions met at INTUC office on October 30 to decide the next course of action. The meeting was presided over by G Sanjeeva Reddy (president, INTUC) and attended by M K Pandhe (CITU), Gurudas Dasgupta (AITUC), Umraomal Purohit (HMS), R K Sharma (AIUTUC), S P Tewari (TUCC) and others.

The meeting decided to hold massive dharna before parliament on December 16, 2009; on the day similar dharnas will be held in the state capitals and industrial centres throughout the country.