Supporting The Nationwide General Strike on 2nd September
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
The nationwide strike, on 2nd September 2015, called by the labour unions of all
shades and employees association is a protest movement that we should all
strive to make successful. The strike is a protest struggle against the
neo-liberal policies of the Narendra Modi led BJP government, which is
following the footsteps of the previous Congress government in a very impenitent
manner. The policy of the government that promotes the causes of the big
monopoly finance capital funded corporations is causing grave harm to the cause
of the nation and the interest of the broad masses of the people. The
pro-corporate media is broadcasting these neo-liberal pro corporate policies
with much hype, to build public opinion in favour of the endeavours of the Modi
government, especially among the middle and affluent sections of the urban society,
who benefit the most from such measures at the cost of the distress of the poor
people.
The Modi led BJP government, through an extensive campaign
carried on behest of it by the corporate media, diluted the labour regulations,
thereby snatched the hard owned rights of the working classes to unite and
struggle for better working conditions and wages. In order to impose a
corporate tyranny, the government removed a large section of small and medium
enterprises from the purview of labour unions, denying the workers employed in such enterprises any right
to organise themselves against the employers or place their demands, and turned
them to live in complete dependence upon the generosity of the capitalists.
The previous governments, starting from the Vajpayee regime
to the Manmohan regime, has systematically lifted the conditions like fixed
working hours, bonus, gratuity, pension, and other benefits from the rulebook
to ensure that the corporate houses enjoy a free ride by exploiting labour to
the farthest extreme possible. The establishment of SEZ's and adoption of a so called 'flexible' labour regulations had been a trump card in the hand of the political leadership of the country to serve the interest of the big corporate houses, of which the Gujarat ruled by Modi had been a classic 'model' that BJP wants to replicate on a nationwide scale.
The government of Modi has shamelessly carried
forward the same anti-people legacy of its predecessors to new heights of
corporate appeasement.
These days, the employees of the private firms are at the
worst state, as they are losing job security, right to pension, provident fund,
health insurance and other benefits. The government agencies has embraced a
regime of outsourcing all major functions to the contractors who employ
contract labour at one tenth of the wages of a regular government employee. The business
enterprises are experiencing swelling of profit, with huge investments
happening in new trades and ventures as they are saving significantly in labour
cost. These investments are again failing to generate employment opportunities,
as the governments and corporate media preaches, due to capital intensive
technologies that reduce the dependence on labour.
Working condition in factories and offices are becoming
quite hectic for people, as there are worst working hours, excessive workload,
less work force, and uneven appraisal and salary hike. On the other hand, the
inflation, especially in food items, is skyrocketing every week, and the poor
and lower middle classes are facing tough times to make a living.
Apart from the workers and employees the peasantry is facing
the continuous threat of land grabbing by corporate sharks, especially for real
estate ventures, which is not only threatening the existence of the peasantry
near the urban dwellings, but also threatens the nation with extreme food
crisis in the near future. The government of Modi led BJP is shamelessly
supporting and throwing its weight behind the anti peasants Land Acquisition
Act, which is deployed through ordinances to ensure that the corporate houses
reap huge benefit by acquiring land arbitrarily without doing any
socio-economic impact survey.
Pro corporate policies has even turned the education and
healthcare to the corporate sector with reduction in government investment in
these sectors, which has turned both quite expensive for the common people to
avail. Medicine costs are spiralling due to the dismantling of the price
control mechanism, and private universities are mushrooming in comparison to
new government funded education institutes.
The affluent sections of urban rich and upper middle classes
are able to make a great living during these distressful times, as they are
able to financially back up their endeavours through an ever increasing income,
which is causing a great income gap in the country, lowering the general
purchasing power of the broad masses, which is resulting into declining of industrial outputs, followed by more retrenchment of workforce from the factories.
The radical ‘hire & fire’ system employed in hiring and
firing employees and workers without prior notice or proper compensation has
resulted into a volatile situation in the labour camp. Genuine demands of the
work force are curtailed by citing non-sense reasons and bullying the working
class with the threat of job cuts.
Urban rich, affluent upper middle classes, along with high
and middle ranking corporate sector employees are parroting the lines of the
corporate controlled news media, re-broadcasting the propaganda of the
monopoly-finance capital, that the liberalisation of the economy and more
foreign investment are the only path for economic development of the nation. These
uncritical pawns of the ruling classes never do any critical and objective
analysis of the situation and suffer from subjectivism and metaphysics, a very
peculiar attribution of their class and socio-economic position.
In a nation like India, economic development of one class
means that the other class, in antagonistic relation with the first one, will
suffer from wreckage in its own economic condition. Hence, the economic
development that the rich, super rich, urban upper middle classes welcome so warmly
is targeted to cause immense agony to the poor workers and peasants of the
country, who constitute 76% of the Indian population.
The nation, its resources, its manpower are now constantly
threatened with an ever aggressive corporate honchos and their feudal lackeys.
The government of Modi led BJP is firmly determined to sell off the resources
of the nation at a throw away price to the foreign monopoly capital, arrest and
jail the dissidents by accusing them of being ‘Maoist’ and turn the country
into a communal battleground by inciting communal riots between the majority
Hindus and minority Muslims and Christians.
The strike on 2nd September, called by all trade
unions opposing the anti-people policies of the government, along with the
employees of almost all trades and industries, is a primary sign of warning to
the BJP led government, to cease the anti people activities. If it fails to
heed to the collective demand of the broad masses of working people on the
issues raised, the people will take the course of higher forms of strong
resistance struggle against the autocratic fascist rule of the saffron brigade
and pull it down by uniting all patriotic and democratic forces together.
History teaches us that the powerful, the mighty, the
tyrants, never vacate their throne spontaneously, but are pulled down by the
collective struggle of the masses. India needs a strong democratic struggle of
the people, especially the working classes and the peasantry to pull down the
fascist regime through extensive struggles and build up a fair, responsible,
democratic and patriotic government which will dedicate its resources towards
the economic and socio-political liberation of the poor and downtrodden masses.
I invite you all personally, to be a bandwagon of the
democratic struggle against the fascist Modi government, which has darkened the
shadow of doom on the lives of the Indian peasants and workers.
Let us collectively make the general strike of the working
class and employees of all trades a successful and extraordinary event on the 2nd
September 2015.
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