The working class movement is facing tremendous challenges as well as opportunities

Tapan Sen
 

There is continuing systemic crisis of the capitalist order and its retrograde reflections on all aspects - political, economic and societal governance; in the authoritarian and divisive onslaughts by the ruling classes powered by corporate-communal nexus in governance in all fronts with clear fascistic intent.

The voice of disapproval and unrest of working people is becoming louder and widespread, bringing forth the reality of determined organised combat. We must vigorously work to bring this reality into concrete action by intensifying the united struggles both at sectoral and national level with continuity. The response of the toiling people in the calls of united struggle, sectoral or national, has been quite encouraging.

But, the opportunities have to be availed and potentials harnessed through conscious organized initiatives and that has to be done by the working class.

In this context, CITU has been adopting three pronged approach of developing united struggles for a determined combat– first, to strengthen independent actions and interventions of CITU; second, to step up the joint trade union movement, both sectoral and general; and third, to widen and deepen the Workers-Peasants unity and intensify their joint countrywide movement up to the grass-root level.

The Workers-Peasants unity in action is the most crucial necessity of the time, which has the tremendous potential of being instrumental in drawing the entire people in the determined combat against the perverse anti-people as well as anti-national design of the corporate communal nexus defeating the diversionary game plan of the ruling class.  This  has already attained a new height, and has to be heightened further. Their united struggles -- both by workers, the peasantry and agri-workers, on their respective demands and mutual supportive actions by each of the segments in support of one another’s struggles has already attained  a common point of culmination. All of them are confronting the onslaught of big-corporate-led governance together with communal divisive machinations affecting the lives and livelihood of the people and the society as a whole; and on the national economy.

In this direction, CITU had been taking the initiative since long to regularly hold joint exercise of CITU-AIKS-AIAWU to develop joint campaign on issues, carrying that initiative to grass root level with maximum participation and visibility. This initiative got a major breakthrough in 2018 when a massive country wide ‘Jail Bharo’ movement was organised on 9 August by these organisations which could reach the majority of the districts. It was followed by ‘Mazdoor-Kishan Sangharsh Rally’ on 5 September, 2018, which was biggest ever workers-peasants militant mobilization in the National Capital in post Independent Period.

The decades’ long working class actions and interventions against the neoliberal onslaughts could maintain continuity even after outbreak of Covid pandemic culminating into series of successful All India General Strikes even during 2020, and 2022 along with umpteen numbers of sectoral struggles and strikes which witnessed massive countrywide active support from peasantry.

And around the same period, different peasant organisations were also active in cementing deepened unity-in-action to assert more joint actions and interventions against the neo-liberal policy regime, which has already been aggravating agrarian crisis to an alarming level. In that context, we witnessed countrywide combative joint struggles by farmers, agricultural workers with the active support of working class movement which could make the RSS-BJP dispensation to kneel and compelled the Government to shelve the retrograde Land Acquisition Ordnance and anti-farmers Farm Laws.

The historic General Strike by working class of 26 November, 2020 also coincided with the beginning of historic more-than-year long farmers struggle against retrograde anti-farmer anti-people farm laws, engineered by the RSS-BJP Government bulldozing the Parliament. Now repealed, these farm laws were enacted targeting the destructions of peasants-agricultural productions to ultimately facilitate complete corporate takeover of the entire agricultural economy. The valiant protracted farmers struggle also demanded withdrawal of Electricity Amendment Bill (2020), designed to put an end to public sector power distribution system and large scale privatization.

The historic more than a year long farmers struggle also witnessed massive active support and solidarity actions by the working class movements countrywide with CITU in the frontline. All the programmes of sit-in demonstrations, agitations, Bandhs, spearheaded by SKM were pro-actively as well as physically supported by the entire working class movement. CITU played a crucial role in solidarity with those struggles.

In this process, in all subsequent occasions, SKM also extended their unfettered support to the struggles and agitations organised by Joint Platform of Trade Unions. These struggles and agitations by the two producing classes further consolidated the workers-peasants unity in action against their common enemy - the corporate-communal nexus in the Government. Every piece of struggles exhibited durable visibility.

The emerging workers-peasants united and concerted initiative, joint agitational activities against corporate loot and plunder of national wealth, corporate assault on lives and livelihoods of mass of the toiling people are becoming a gradual visible reality, which is of crucial importance in raising the united peoples struggle against the destructive anti-national neo-liberal policies together with virulent poisonous communal blitzkrieg on the society. And this tenor of struggles needs to be carried forward to further heights.

In this background, the Mazdoor Kisan Adhikar Mahadiveshan on 5 September 2022 decided to organize a massive Mazdoor Kisan Sangarsh Rally on 5 April 2023 as  the  culminating point of six months long joint  exposure campaign and mobilizations at the grass-root level preceding to that, and this is going to be the beginning of the new phase of relentless united fight of the workers, peasants and agricultural workers, the wealth creators of our country, to change the policies in their favour, not the few big Corporates, domestic and foreign and also the save the national economy from the destructive policies of the corporate-communal nexus in governance.  This is going to be will be the largest ever militant class mobilizations in the history of independent India.

The Rally is for expressing resolve in fighting back and resisting the barbarous regime of loot and plunder on the people reflecting  through – the relentless rise in prices, job losses, unemployment, worsening working and living conditions, rampant privatisation to hand over our national assets to the private Corporates, commercialisation of education, health and all other services, to throw our peasants and workers to the mercy of the monopoly multinational companies, the attacks on the democratic and workplace rights, violation of Constitutional and Parliamentary norms and practices, the cruel oppression of minorities, dalits, adivasis and women. Each and every one of these is linked to the neoliberal regime being adamantly and aggressively carried on by this BJP government; all in a desperate bid to protect the profits and wealth of its corporate masters.

While we make efforts to heighten united struggles against neo-liberalism, we have to simultaneously expose the poisonous divisive and diversionary designs of the corporate-communal nexus behind the present regime and mobilise all sections of the working class and toiling people against this. Hence, the Workers-Peasants joint struggle-initiatives, the united assertion of the two main producing classes of the society, must confront head-on the poisonous Hindutva project, premised on majoritarian communalism, politically and ideologically, at all levels upto the grass root level; while carrying on the struggles against the neoliberal corporate plunder-against their common enemy. We must prepare and equip all our cadres and activists for this combat as an integral part of our task of intensification of joint workers-peasants actions.

These three organisations will conduct massive campaign through distribution of leaflets, posters, wall writings, group meetings, jathas, processions etc on the issues and demands including local demands during the intervening six months, aiming to reach the unreached.

It must be kept in mind that the historic farmers struggle has compelled Modi govt to repeal the farm laws but at the same time govt despondently engaged in to push through privatization and corporatization of agriculture through back door channels. Despite giving firm commitment to farmers’ organisation on putting in place a statutory MSP regime along with an effective procurement machinery, the Govt is going back to gradually finish the MSP system itself, as reflected in the latest budgetary exercise.  It must also be kept in mind that Modi regime has become desperate in pushing through its destructive anti-national agenda on the political, economic and societal governance for their own class interest to facilitate criminal expropriation by the corporates, both foreign and domestic, on the people as well as the national wealth.

It is not the without reason, the Joint Platform of Trade Unions has termed their united struggles programmes not merely for upholding workers rights but also to safeguard the rights and entitlements of the  people and national interests from the destructive fallouts of corporate loot. Similarly, the SKM also, while asserting their demands for statutory MSP and legally guarantied procurement and other demands; trained their guns at big corporate community, which has been actually running the Modi Regime.

During the intervening period, we need to reach the working people in entirety with the call of the more direct combative struggles and the ugly face of the anti-national; anti-people destructive policy regime affecting the people, the society and the democratic system itself needs to be exposed. The intense grass-root level campaign among the workers and the people on the real face of the destructive policy regime and their perpetrators in governance and their poisonous role of creating disunity and disruption of among the people and the society to camouflage the crimes being committed on the people and the national economy needs to thoroughly exposed so that people can identify their real enemy. The 5th April Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally must be the culmination of such countrywide grass-root level exposure campaign and mobilization, paving the way for further heightened struggle against the corporate-comunl nexus in governance.  

The 17th All India Conference of CITU adopted a resolution on 5 April 2023 rally, stressing upon the call of intensive door to door and workplace level intensive campaign given by Mazdoor-Kisan Mahadhiveshan of 5 September 2022. The Conference called upon all its committees and committee members up to the primary unit level to further intensify the ongoing campaign reaching the family members of our members, reaching workers beyond our periphery, that these policies of the government lie at the root of each and every issue of the workers and toiling people and miseries being faced by them; that achieving their most genuine demands requires the decisive defeat of the communal corporate nexus in governance.

The CITU conference planned a concrete time bound action plan of program for the days ahead till the day of the rally. All the State committees of CITU should urgently meet to review the campaigns already undertaken and their coverage, to further intensify the campaign including preparatory steps for mobilization in the Rally and also to monitor their implementation up to the primary unit level.  CITU has chalked out a phased program for another round of house to house campaign followed by area-mahalla level programmes including jatha/padayatra etc followed by area level mobilizations to be undertaken by lower level coordination committees.

The common enemy has been identified by the producing classes of the society and against that a consistent protracted class war must be waged. The poisonous divisive machinations of the BJP regime is not going to get a walkover in the background of united struggles, with continuity, by the working class, the peasantry and the agricultural workers against these policies; and coming together of all sections of toiling people voicing their opposition to this barbarous regime gradually overcoming the poisonous divisive, disruptive and diversionary designs of the ruling classes and their present political agents in governance. People are ready to respond. We must reach them with the hard truth. Let’s make this Mazdoor Kishan Sangharsh Rally 2, the biggest ever militant class mobilization in the history of Independent India.