Long Live Revolution Workers Peasant,
Student-Youth Intellectuals Unite
Make All India Strike against
Anti-Worker Policy of the Government
On 20 – 21 February 2013
Call to the Working men and women by
All India Federation of Trade Unions (New)
Friends,
As
a consequence of New Economic and Industrial Policy being implemented since
last 21 years by Central and State Governments in our Country millions of
workers, peasants, and other working people are living in dire poverty,
destitution, unemployment, lack of education and healthcare. The percentage of
permanent workers has been reduced to mere 5 – 6 percent now due to outsourcing
and contractualisation of work of permanent nature. Today 94% workmen are engaged
in irregular, contract, casual, self-employment and agricultural sectors. As
per the report of Dr.Arjun Sengupta Committee report 77% of people (nearly 94
crore people) live on Rs.20, or less per person per day on 2004 price level. On
the other hand MNCs, Indian Corporate Houses, Capitalists, Contractors, ruling
class leaders, and bureaucrats are minting money to the tunes of millions and
billions of rupees per year. Congress led UPA and BJP led NDA, along with other
regional parties ruling in different states are serving the interest of handful
of ruling classes, and making the vast masses destitute through different
methods including out-sourcing and contractualisation of work. Even teachers
and doctors are being recruited on contract by the governments and education
and healthcare has been commercialized by encouraging privatization. As a
result education and healthcare has gone out of reach of the common man. On top
of these essential commodities including food has become very costly due to
continuing price rise. On the pretext of giving momentum to economic growth the
Central Government under Dr.Manmohan Singh has recently hiked the price of
diesel, cooking gas, railway fare. As a result the prices of all commodities
have further increased due to increase in freight charges as most things are transported
using diesel. This has further increased the price of food items. Due to this
the life of common man has become even more pitiable and he is being pushed
into debt trap. This crisis has forced lakhs of peasants to commit suicide and
made life of millions of workers and peasants extremely difficult. The decision
of the Central Government to open retail trade for foreign MNCs is going to
endanger the livelihood of millions of people engaged in retail trade. In the
same way large tracks of land belonging to peasants and Adivasis has been doled
out to MNCs and Indian Corporate houses causing large scale displacement of
peasants and Adivasis. It is because of this that millions of peasants and
Adivasis are vigorously opposing acquisition of land in the interest of
national and international capitalists and industrialists. The example of Nandigram
and Singur are fresh in the minds of people. The struggling people of Nandigram
forced the Central Government to amend SEZ law and the effort to grab the land of
peasants by the state government by force was defeated. On the other hand, the
number of the dollar billionaires in India has surpassed Japan, England,
France, Russia and China. The maximum black money stashed in foreign banks
belongs to Indian rich. Such is the dimension of rich-poor divide in our
country.
The
working class has opposed these policies tooth and nail. The working class movements in Honda, Graziano,
Maruti Suzuki, Kanpur Textile Sector are a few examples of this. There are
movements of workers going in different parts of the country. Eight hours
working is grossly violated everywhere in different ways. P.F. money is not
being deposited as per the law by the owners of the companies, on the one hand,
and the government has decreased the interest rate of P.F. on the other. All
the labor laws, which are in workers’ interest, are being violated by the
management openly and regularly. Tea garden workers are forced to work on wages
less than the minimum wage fixed by the government. The government has failed
to reopen the closed textile mills of Kanpur even after making promises to do
it. The textile workers are sitting on dharna from years and their struggle is
going on. New employment in Coal India Ltd. has been stopped since last 21
years, and the essential work of coal production has been outsourced to private
contractors. Privatization of coal mines is also going on full speed in which
India’s largest scam was detected by the C.A.G. Contract and construction
workers have no social security, including job security.
This
situation demands decisive struggle. But the mainstream T.U leadership gets
satisfied by giving on strike call, or a big protest rally in a year. As a
result, the industrialist and capitalist class is snatching the hard won rights
of the workers continuously, and are resorting to repressive measures. So, we
appeal to the working class and the common masses to make all India Strike on
20 – 21 February a grand success, and get prepared for a decisive battle to
safeguard their rights. For this we, the working people, must strengthen our
class unity for further struggle.
Our main demands:
1. Roll
back the policies of Globalization, Privatization and Liberalization.
2. Take
effective measures to arrest price rise and provide food security to all.
3. Labor
laws must be implemented strictly Management found violating labor laws must be
punished.
4. Start
fresh recruitment of labor in all Public Sector Undertakings including Coal
India Ltd.
5. Constitute
Wage Board for Tea Garden workers.
6. Reopen
all closed State sector industries including textile and fertilizer.
7. Declare
Rs.12, 500 per month as the minimum wage for industrial workers.
8. Ensure
social security to all workmen.
9. Stop
disinvestment of shares in PSUs and nationalized banks.
10. Implement
equal pay for equal work everywhere.
11. Scrap
new pension policy and provide pension to all.
12. Formulate
concrete planning and policy to provide employment to all.
13. Pay
minimum 12% rate of interest on P.F.
14. Make
registration of Trade Unions within 45 days mandatory.
15. Make
special arrangement for security of female workers, especially for those who
have to work till late night.
16. Take
effective steps to stop land grab by land mafia and industry.
17. Stop
discrimination against Adivasis, Dalits, Woken, Minorities, and other
vulnerable sections of society. Ensure equality for all.
18. Stop
pro-imperialist and pro-capitalist development policies, and implement people
oriented development polities.
With revolutionary greetings,
All India Federation of Trade Unions (New)
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