What The Corporate Media Preaches To The Working Class

Thursday, September 03, 2015

Recently the national media started lamenting on the issue of the working class of the country resorting to the nationwide strike as a medium of protesting and putting up resistance to the neo-liberal economic policies of the BJP led Central Government and its allies. The national mainstream media has been vocal against any form of working class struggle, be it strikes, militant trade union struggle, or mere protest rallies. The corporate controlled media is not willing to tolerate any form of protest of the working class and always advise the workers and employees of the nation to toe the policies of the government, even at the cost of their livelihood for the sake of ‘economic development’, ‘economic growth’ and ‘national growth’.

The question that arises is whose development do the corporate bodies advocate when it talks about ‘national growth’ or ‘economic development’? In the last 15 years, thanks to the neo-liberal economic policies endorsed by subsequent governments led by the BJP and the Congress Party, the Indian economy has surely seen a boom. Despite the economic meltdown that began during the US subprime crisis in the year 2008, India managed to drive across the depression hit world economy, due to immense foreign capital investment in its stock markets, especially in the BFSI, real estate, IT, media and other sectors. India has turned into a safe haven for foreign institutional investors to park their money during troubled time at their home. This makes Indian companies record huge capital gains, despite slow down of economic growth worldwide.

The huge capital investments made by the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) route in several sectors, especially the service sector of the economy, the affluent and rich classes of urban India has experienced a rapid boom, with excessive income that far surpasses the national per capita income. The growth of the nation, as hyped by the corporate media organisations like Times Group, or Hindustan Times Group, both owned by corporate giants, is actually the growth of wealth of the rich, which has driven the poor to the poorer segment and the poorest to the segment of pauperisation and starvation.

To add fuel to the loco of this so-called development model, the corporate bodies lobbied for more access into the hinterland of the country in search of cheap raw materials, land and labour. The corporate groups, funded by foreign monopoly and finance capital were allowed to plunder the nation and its resources, especially the minerals, land, water resources, and cheap labour to burgeon their profit books. The people on the other hand were evicted from their lands, especially the oppressed castes, tribal people; the poorest of the poor were targeted as lambs of sacrifice.

This so called development model has widened the economic difference between two broad sections of the people. On one hand, there are the rich, super rich, upper middle class, the affluent urban society which is accumulating wealth through the organisations blessed with foreign monopoly capital investment, which is causing them to lead a super luxurious life, boosting the luxury apparel industry and foreign monopoly capital owned FMCG industry. On the other hand, there are the broad masses of people, including but not limited to, the workers, peasants, toiled people, urban poor, and lower middle classes. These people are facing constant isolation from the growth trajectory of the rich, as for them the growing consumerist industry and its aggression is causing the problems like inflation, rapid rise in living costs, and ever diminishing real income. 

Therefore, on several occasions these classes, who forms nearly 90% of the Indian population bursts out in protest against the burden of exploitation and oppression levelled upon them by the rich and the government that favours the rich. As a result of this the working class and mass struggles takes the militant form to press the establishment and make it concede by force the justified demands of the people.

However, such acts of open rebellion against the policies of corporate plunder and exploitation by the 90% of the population often draws ire of the 10%, which is expressed by these 10% of the population through their mouthpieces like the corporate controlled television channels, news papers and internet sites. They vehemently oppose the working class, the peasantry, the poor and lower middle class people resorting to militant struggle to press for their justified demands in a democratic country. They call the endeavours of the working class and peasantry, even the most peaceful one, excesses committed by the people.

How do these corporate controlled media and their puppet journalists plan to resolve the problems that the working class faces? They all answer – through the mercy and grace of the mighty capitalist lords they hope that the problems of the workers will be solved. That means that the working class should shed all forms of protests, and plead with the Indian capitalists and their foreign masters for granting them some charity. These corporate honchos want the Indian people to pay lip service to democracy and allow them to enjoy all privileges enjoyed by them through government patronage.

So, we can see that if there is a rally of the workers on the streets, it is despised as a traffic decelerator, causing discomfort to commuters (ie those riding their Benz or Audi). If there is a strike, it is called a spoilsport as it allegedly destroys mandays and cause loss to the corporate account books. If the people resort to voice their protest through meetings, then they are shown the farthest corners of the cities, where no one can hear their concerns, for example, at the isolated corner of Connaught Place, we have the Jantar Mantar, as a venue for all type of protests with no voice reaching the people of Delhi.

In case we see the data released on the Industrial disputes by the labour ministry till 2012, we can find that the number of lockouts, lay off, and closure in the private sector industries far surpass the number of strikes in such industries. However, alike the strikes of the workers, the labour retrenchment and closures of factories which cause immense agony among the working class, is not considered a crime by any court of law of this country. No newspaper editorial or TV anchor sheds any crocodile tear for the agony of the workers and the poor people affected by such arbitrary actions of the foreign big monopoly capital and their Indian lackeys. Rather these very representatives of the foreign capital interest argues in favour of these capitalists, asking the government to provide them ‘more’ leverage and ‘favourable’ conditions for business growth.

The problem is that our middle classes are influenced by such propaganda of the corporate big capital, and their representatives keeps on parroting the lines of the corporate honchos, even unaware of the fact that such policies always goes against their own class interests, and even future survival in a country which is fast turning into a neo colony of foreign big monopoly capital.


We need to think, we need to act, now; otherwise it will be too late very soon.   

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