CPI(ML) CC'S STATEMENT ON AMERICA's Racial Opperession.

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)
Central Committee

Statement:

Express Solidarity with Peoples Struggle against
Racial Oppression and Class Exploitation in USA.

     Tens of thousands of people, mainly young and working class of all races, have taken to the streets of American cities to protest the police murder in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Afro-American man, who died with a policeman’s knee on his throat for nine minutes, while horrified bystanders pleaded for his life and recorded the killing in videos that have shocked the world.

    The protestors are now branded as “thugs” and “thieves” -the usual ploy of the ruling classes. This not only meant to covers up US imperialism's failure to end racism, but also to obfuscate its perpetuation of economic and social inequalities existing the US society.  The upheaval taking place across the country is now as much about class as it is about racial injustice and police brutality.

     The long list of Black men shot to death by cops at a staggering rate—2.5 times greater than whites;  20% of the entire Black population, even before the Covid crisis, was living in severe poverty, some 9 million people; The  effects of Covid-19’s massive unemployment, some 40 million; The virus’s death disparity, the continued assault of black lives by the police force -  these are the underlying racial and class dynamics, that led to the countrywide protest.

     There is no doubt that racism was an important element in the murder of George Floyd. But racism is encouraged in a definite social context, of deepening social inequality under the US imperialism, where the ruling class makes every effort to divide and split the working class. More than 1,000 people are victims of police violence in America each year, and while a disproportionate number are black, the largest number are white. What nearly all have in common is that they come from the working class, most from its poorest layers.
 
     The Central Committee of CPI(ML) strongly condemns the use of police and military forces to suppress the people by the Trump's administration. It calls upon the people and democratic forces to express solidarity with the struggle of the American people for social justice and economic equality.

3 June 2020
Vijayawada                                                                 with revolutionary greeting,
                                                                                                 Viswam
                                                                                           General Secretary

JOINT STATEMENT FROM CENTRAL TRADE UNIONS.

          JOINT STATEMENT FROM CENTRAL TRADE UNIONS.
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Stop the War on Workers:

The Prime Minister Modi has once more shed crocodile tears at the loss of lives of 16 workers in the Aurangabad rail tragedy. What Mr. Modi and his BJP do not understand is the cause of this incident – what is it that is pushing this country’s working people to walk hundreds of kilometers by day and make the railway tracks their beds by night ? The government Mr. Modi leads and the party he belongs to do not recognize that the unplanned and poorly planned lock down owning to the corona virus has led to the destitution and desperate working people to the ground and rob them off their dignity. BJP led state governments have decided to completely jettison labor laws and labor rights.

For the BJP and its governments, workers are a mere factor of production, not human beings with feeling, emotions and needs and certainly not deserving of rights. Hence the lock down has caused the greatest economic crisis, the BJP and its governments thinking, working peoples must be placed with fewer rights, lower wages, working long hours with no protection of tenure and of course with no Trade Union Rights at the disposal of capital.

States Compete: who is more Exploitative?

This is what the BJP state governments in Gujarat, Himachal pradesh, Madhya pradesh and Uttar pradesh are setting out to do. The BJP government of Gujarat is seeking to give any new investor in Gujarat a holiday that make an investment that last at least 1200 days of all labor legislation with the exception of the Minimum wages Act and the Workers Compensation Act. The BJP government of Himachal Pradesh has issued an executive order allowing shifts of 12 hours work a day or 72 hours of work a week with no provision of overtime. The less than two months old BJP government of Madhya pradesh  has already gazetted amendments to relieve employers of the responsibility of virtually all provisions of the factories act from provision of water and toilets to basic health and safety while also barring the raising of complaints and dispute under the Industrial dispute act save for on the question of closer for establishments with more than 300 employees all for a period of 1200 days.

The BJP government of Utter pradesh  has promised the most: to completely suspend all labor laws with the exception of the Workers Compensation Act, the building and other construction workers act, clause 5 of the payment of wages act (time of wage payment) and possibly the Maternity Benefit Act and the Child Labor Act with no time limit.

The request for the approval of the all these amendments by the states, since they involve laws passed by the country’s parliament, are now before the President of India. The proposition of changing critical laws upholding the fundamental right to live of working people and their families in a hurry at a time when the parliament and the state legislative assemblies are not in session is indicative of the intent of the BJP government. These amendments apart from being violation of fundamental rights provided under the country’s constitution, these violate the core labor standards on the right against the forced labor, the right to freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining. Now it is also a mater, how non-BJP/NDA Party stand up.

These acts of the BJP state governments are neither random nor individual acts. These are in the spirit of the labor law ‘reform’ that capital has been demanding and has been placed before parliament in the form of the 4 labor code bills of which the Wage Code has already been passed. It is important to note that the BJP government at the center has been regularly writing letters to non-BJP state governments admonishing them for not carrying out ‘labor reforms on a priority basis’ and demanding that the state governments send the union government weekly reports on the steps they are taking including on fixed term employment and a 12 hour working day.

Pandemic : An Opportunity for Capital to  Crush Rights.

For the BJP and its governments the pandemic and its fallout is just the time to take it all out on the working class, to deny working people the slightest shred of democratic or economic rights. And this is so because, for the BJP, the only driver of growth and expansion in the economy can be capital. Hence every factor of production must be placed without constraints at the disposal of capital. The myopic BJP government even fails to understand that it is not just the sweat and toil of working people that keeps the economy moving – they are also required to expand consumption in the economy through higher wages and better rights, to ensure the growth of the economy.

As we call upon the President to reject these applications for amendment, the resistance against these amendments will strengthen our fight against the ruling class.

G Vijaya Kumar                Sudipta Pal                    B. Pradeep
President                           Advisor                          General Secretary
AIFTU(NEW)                  ECLTSAU                      IFTU

Thangaraj                        Gautam Mody                 Sanjay Singhvi
General Secretary            General Secretary            General Secretary
NDLF                                NTUI                                TUCI

Contact : Aravind Sinha - 9430060092, G Vijaya Kumar -9440261004.
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FOREWORD TO THE CONSTITUTION OF CPI(ML).

                        THE CONSTITUTION OF CPI(ML). 
                                                 



( The All India Special Conference held in December 2009 decided to add the introduction to the Constitution adopted by the All India Plenum held in June 2007 as the foreword to the Constitution. Hence the foreword is now added accordingly. CC.)

                                     FOREWORD
                                ==============
New Democratic Revolution in India is taking place in the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution, when imperialism headed by US imperialism is striving for world hegemony. The New Democratic Revolution in India led by the Communist Party, as the vanguard of the proletariat, is an integral part of the World Proletarian Socialist Revolution. The historic task of the Communist Party is to give leadership to the Indian proletariat in this momentous struggle by mobilizing all revolutionary classes, sections and masses of people for it. The CPI(ML) upholds Marxism – Leninism – Mao Tse Tung Thought, fighting against revisionism, sectarian positions and left adventurism. The CPI(ML) is committed to the task of uniting the genuine Communists in our country and paving the way for the building of the communist Party which is capable of leading the New Democratic Revolution in a country of more than 100 crore of people. The CPI(ML) dedicates itself to the great revolutionary cause of building the Communist Party to lead the masses of Indian people in protracted revolutionary struggle to overthrow the present system and complete the tasks of the New Democratic Revolution leading towards Socialism and Communism.

Here are the Common Points of Agreement we arrived on the evaluation of Party History for 1967-72 :
COMMON POINTS OF AGREEMENT. 

1. After Telangana, the Naxalbari uprising and Srikakulam movement provided an excellent opportunity to break free from the chains of revisionism and Neo-revisionism which dominated the communist movement at that time and to take steps to build a genuine party of the proletariat guided by Marxism-Leninism-Mao’s thought.

2. The formation of AICCCR was a correct step in the direction of bringing the CR forces inside the communist movement on a common platform.

3. Soon after the formation of AICCCR, the left sectarian trend gained ground which scuttled the phenomenal growth and expansion the AICCCR as a platform of CRs coming from different parts of the country.

4. As the left sectarian line gained ground, the democratic process was scuttled and important sections of the CRs like APCCCR led by Com. TN, DV, CP and others and sections in West Bengal under the leadership of Comrades Promod Sengupta, Parimal Das Gupta, Asit Sen, Syamal Nandi and others who opposed the left sectarian line, were forced out of it.

5. Manifestations of the left sectarian and anarchist line were as follows:
      a. Adopting the line of of individual annihilation against mass line and people's revolutionary struggle.
       b. Adopting guerrilla warfare as the only form of struggle and rejecting all class/mass organizations and other forms of struggles, and squads as the only form of organization.
       c. Adopting the concept “who ever does not dip their hands in the blood of a class enemy is not a communist”.
       d. Adopting the slogan that “China’s Chairman is our Chairman, Chinese communist party is our Party”
        e. Rejecting the Leninist concept of the era being that of imperialism and proletarian revolution and replacing it with that of a new era of “ total collapse of imperialism and world wide victory of Socialism.”
         f. Adopting the concept of rural based party instead of a party of the proletariat.
          g. Adopting the concept that “ the more you study, the more foolish you become.”
           h. Pursuit of the erroneous concept of “individual authority” of Com.CM.
            I. Adopting the concept of boycott of elections as strategic.

These concepts are alien to Marxism-Leninism-Mao’s Thought.

6. There was a situation favorable for the formation of a genuine Communist Party based on Marxism-Leninism-Mao’s Thought by uniting all the CR forces active in the country at that time and for leading the people’s struggles surging forward in different parts of the country.

7. The CPI(ML) was formed in 1969 in haste, with a sectarian approach and method due to which valuable and influential sections of the CRs, especially of AP and WB were left out. Due to this the efforts of forming a party of proletariat failed to accomplish its objective.

8. The CPI(ML) characterized the stage of revolution as NDR with agrarian revolution as its axis. This generated great enthusiasm among the struggling people through out the country. But very soon, the enthusiasm generated by the formation of the party started waning due to the erroneous line adopted by the CPI(ML). As a result of this, the anti imperialist and anti feudal struggles could not be advanced in the correct direction.
9.The opposition to the wrong political line grew from within the CPI(ML) and by the end of 1971 majority members of the CC, CPI(ML), outside and inside the jails, stood against the dominant left sectarian line in it.

10. The CR forces which were not a part of the CPI(ML) got organized into different organizations and were opposing the left sectarian line in different parts of the country. They characterized the stage of revolution as NDR with agrarian revolution as its axis and adopted the protracted peoples war as the path of revolution and the revolutionary mass line in theory and practice.

11. As the leadership under Com.CM did not rectify its left sectarian mistakes, the CPI(ML) split into several groups.

12. The left sectarian line of Lin Biao which came to dominate the CPC for a short while also encouraged the left trend prevailing in the communist revolutionary movement. But when the CPC representatives pointed out the left sectarian trend of CPI(ML) delegation which visited China after its 1970 congress, the leadership of the CPI(ML) led by Com.CM did not take steps for rectification based on these suggestions.

The communist movement in our country in different phases consisted of CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML) along with APCCCR and other communist revolutionary groups, ideological and political struggles against revisionism , right reformism, right deviation, left sectarianism and terrorism were carried out inside and out side the aforesaid organizations in some way or the other. Our Organization, CPI(ML) is the part of the process of unification of communist revolutionaries comprising of forces coming from CPI(ML), forces never part of CPI(ML), forces who were a part of CPI(ML) but came out of it and formed separate organizations and the forces who were new.  It is neither a continuation nor a reorganization of any of the aforesaid organizations.

We commit to stand by our promise to continue struggle against both the left and right deviations, as these are the twin dangers to Marxism-Leninism.

CENTRAL COMMITTEE
COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA
(MARXIST – LENINIST).

DISCARD 12 HOUR WORKING DAY PROPOSAL.

                                     Memorandum
                              ===============
11th April 2020.

To

The Union Labor Minister
Government of India
New Delhi.

Sir,

Sub: Proposal to make 12 Hour working day by the Government.

A news item appeared in the Hindustan Times today stating that the Government of India is considering changes in the factory act 1948, that will alter the 8 hour working day to 12 hour. This would mean the normal 48 hours work in a week would be hiked to 72 hours. It is also being suggested that since there will be fewer hands to work in these days of Corona Virus as a result of retrenchments, the proposed change in working hours has became necessary. The statement further makes it clear that as there are exceptional circumstance prevailing in the country, exceptional provision have to be made.

We, the undersigned representatives of various Trade Union Organizations strongly oppose this move to increase the number of working hours from eight to twelve as it will put further burden on the workers. In the first place given the present Corona Virus scenario in the country, giving upon the the government to take measures that protect and create employment and not reduce the work force. Allowing employers to resort retrenchments on the one hand and suggesting production on the other are anarchistic and not acceptable. It is true, there are exceptional conditional conditions prevailing in the country and in the world also, but the measures being contemplated by the government run counter to the interest of whole mass of working people and at the same time serve the interests of employers. At this time it is imperative for the government to revive the economy, create jobs and increase wages.

We would also like to remind government that the 8 hour working day is protected by the ILO convention No.1 defining a cardinal labor right.

We, therefore urge government to ensure that the proposed increase of working hours is not consider any further and set aside.

Thanking you.
 Yours sincerely,

G. Vijaya kumar            Gautam Modi
     President                   General Secretary
      AIFTU (NEW)                NTUI.

 B. Pradeep                     S. Venkateswar Rao
     General Secretary            President
       IFTU                               IFTU.                                       
                                             
 Kanhai Aldebaran            Sudipta Pal
  General Secretary           Advisor
    IFTU (Sarvahara)           ECLTSAV.                                             
                                                 
 Kailash
 President                             Somanath
 IMK                                      Secretary
                                                 JSM.

Thanka Raj                        Sanjay Singvi
General secretary                General Secretary
NDLF.                                  TUCI.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
                                       

                     
                                       

CPI (ML) Central Committee STATEMENT ON COVID 19.

     COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MARXIST - LENINIST) central Committee

Statement:

Covid-19 Pandemic and Crisis of Capitalism As Covid-19 is spreading rapidly across the globe, it constitutes the most urgent and serious challenge to both the health of humanity and world peace and development.

The CPI (ML) pays its tributes to all the people, health workers in particular, who devote themselves to saving lives and protecting people's health. We extend our heartfelt sympathies to those who are suffering from Covid-19 infection as well as the bereaved families of those deceased. We also express our deep mourning for the loss of lives in the pandemic.

If the Covid-19 outbreak is not effectively and promptly contained, it will cause greater harm to the lives and health of people, and exert a severe damage on the economic and social development of most countries. The CPI(ML) call on the Government of India to put lives and health of the people above everything else and take resolute measures to put an end to the spread of Covid-19. We call on the people to comply with prevention and mitigation measures as advised by the scientists with a due sense of social responsibility.

CPI (ML) stands firmly against all discriminatory comments and practices against any country, region or ethnic group. There are heinous attempts in India to tamish one community and one country as the cause of COVID-19 outbreak and calls upon the people not to fall prey to these machinations. CPI (ML) call upon government of India to take proactive measures to protect the health, safety and legitimate interests of foreign nationals and students it hosts.

The COVID-19 outbreak exposed the destructive irrationality of capitalist system. It has wasted the natural resources, polluted the environment and created harsh conditions on the earth for the living organisms to exist. Thus mutations in the lower forms of life became imperative. The humans became victims of SARS, MERS and their variants in the recent past. For nearly two decades, it is known to the scientific researchers that there are hundreds of strains of corona virus. Thus the functioning of capitalist system not only led to the creation of COVID-19 but also failed to rational use of available technology in preventing the pandemic.

The joint study and its report by the WHO and China was made available by the last week of February this year. It contained suggestions that are to be followed by all the countries. Yet, the Indian government did not respond as it had to. A crucial one month delay caused wide spread of COVID-19 along the length and breadth of India.

The well-established practice at the time of an endemic or pandemic is the compulsory testing for infection of all suspects and then isolation of confirmed cases. Contrary to this, the government used isolation and selective testing. This is not effective in containing a pandemic of COVID-19 proportion. The lock-down method is useful to gain time for preparation to contain the pandemic. It can be used to blame the people for not observing the lock-down has spread the infection.

The imposition of lock-down by the government is not associated with well-planned strategy. The measures to contain Covid-19, including those of public health, are themselves creating new burdens to the toiling masses. They are left without job and pay. They have nothing to fall back upon.

Millions of migrant workers, separated from their families and livelihoods, have to bear untold miseries. They came to metro cites in search of jobs and leading a wretched life. All of a sudden they find themselves as unwanted entities. These workers are prepared to go back to their far flung villages waling all the way along with their families. They had to face barricades at every inter-district and inter-state border. They were made to wait for days here without food and shelter. When these unbearable conditions made them to proceed forward, they had faced brutal repression, frequent resort by the failed ruler.

The government has no plan to extend a helping hand to them not to mention the promises made by the Prime Minister and Finance Minister. Even after two weeks of lock-down, the government has not yet made arrangements to provide them with financial and other help. The higher ups in the power incessantly talked about the Direct Benefit Transfer. The fact of the matter is that more than half of jan dhan accounts are non-functional. The toiling masses are left to fend themselves, while the Modi gave calls for showing solidarity by clapping and lighting candles,that are nothing but show pieces.

The pandemic also brought to the fore the failure of the privatization of public health and medical services taken up as a part of Neo-liberal dictates. The government run hospitals have to suspend all the medical services to other ailments of people except COVID patients. They are overburdened and in case of any surge in the COVID cases, the fragile system collapses.

CPI (ML) once again calls upon the people to comply with prevention and mitigation measures as advised by the scientists with a due sense of social responsibility.

Viswam

General Secretary C.P.I. (M-L)

Vijayawada

5th April 2020.
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‎

TODAY,23rd MARCH, IS THE 10th DEATH ANNIVERSARY OF COMRADE KANU SANNYAL.

TODAY, 23rd  MARCH, IS THE 10th death ANNIVERSARY of COMRADE KANU SANNYAL.

We are remembering him with unending Revolutionary Sprite and declaring we, the CPI (ML), will discharge all its efforts to complete Indian New Democratic Revolution.

Comrade Kanu Sanyal Zindabad .
Marxism-Leninism-Mao thought Zindabad.
CPI (ML) Zindabad.
Indian New Democratic Revolution Zindabad.

CPI (ML) Kerala State Committee.
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MODI PREPARES TO WELCOME TRUMP

Modi Prepares to Welcome Trump

President Trump is expected to swoop into India for a full-fledged visit in the last week of February. Hectic preparations are going on to finalize the tour details as well as the trade deal, which is considered as the precursor of free Trade Agreement between the two countries and pegged at $ 10 billion. Both the leaders are meeting at a time when both are facing political turmoil in their homes. Trump is facing impeachment proceedings and Modi is troubled with nationwide protests of people against the policies of his government.

On the trade front India wants restoration of benefits under Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) under which certain products like textiles can enter the US duty-free. The benefits were withdrawn in June 2019. According to the New York Times, the Trump administration is obsessed with the overall American trade deficit and wants India to buy more American goods. Before granting any concessions under GSP, the US wants India to buy billions of dollars of American turkeys, blueberries, apples, pecans and most importantly genetically modified animal feed. India has tentatively agreed during the talks between the delegations to end price caps on imported medical devises like heart stents, artificial knee replacements. The finance Minister reduced tariffs on import of medical devices in the present budget.

The prospects of improving foreign trade for India are bleak. After coming out of RCEP talks, Indian government tries to renegotiate bilateral trade agreements with members of ASEAN and Japan. But they did not materialize as Japan and some of the ASEAN members sought India’s joining RCEP as a precondition to start bilateral talks. Modi’s ‘look east policy’ seems to be faced with road block. Facing a slowdown on exports front for several years, India is desperate to sign a trade deal with the US and consequently succumbs to the US pressures.

The genetically modified (GM) animal feed emerged as a major point in India’s trade talks with the US. This is not a small business for US. The Indian market is estimated to reach Rs.9000 crore by 2024 as the demand is rising. On the other hand, according to the animal Husbandry department the area under cultivation for animal feed is at 4% of cropping area and has remained constant for the past four decades. Many US companies have already applied with Indian authorities for clearance of GM animal feed like alfalfa. They have yet to get a green signal.

There is a stiff resistance to the introduction of GM seeds in India. The regulatory mechanism of GMOs is very week and we have seen many instances like Bt cotton wherein the government ignored the recommendations and/or by passed them to allow GM seeds in the name of field trials. According to media reports, in a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, GM animal feed was taken up for discussion. The animal husbandry department said to be opposed the import of CM animal feed. Yet the meeting directed the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to formulate a regulatory regime for GM animal feed (Business Standard, 29-1-2020). The entry of GM animal feed into India in the absence of any effective regulatory mechanism and without any in-house assessment of its impact on animals and down chain effects would be disastrous.

The US imperialism is a significant trade partner of India with bilateral trade at $87.9 billion in 2019. The US is not only India’s largest trade partners but also one of its largest defense suppliers. It is expected that both countries would sign defense purchases agreement during the Trump’s visit.

The successive governments in New Delhi for the last two decades were signing military agreements with the US imperialism calling it as strategic partnership. India signed Logistic Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016. Before this India signed General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA). In 2019 the latest military agreement signed was Industrial Security Annex (ISA). This will open doors to the US defense companies to form joint ventures with Indian private companies. A fourth agreement – Basic Exchange and cooperation Agreement for Geo-spatial Cooperation (BECA)- is under negotiation. All these are the part of fundamental agreement called Communication Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA). Thus the Indian defense forces particularly the Navy became part of US 7th fleet and standing guard to US trade and strategic interest in the Indian ocean.

The US companies are in the race for multi-billion dollar defense deals with India, including purchase of 144 fighter jets. The US is keen to corner this contract to supply f-16 fighter jets and is ready to offer assembling plants in India with Indian partner under the Modi’s brain child “Make in India” programme. This is being placated as augmentation of defense production capability of India.

The rumblings heard in the US political circles over the Modi’s decisions such as CAA, NRC, NPR, restrictions on Kashmir etc. will subside once the deals were signed. They are only part of political pressure applied on its loyal client India by the US imperialism.

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CODE ON WAGES (CENTRAL) RULES - 2019 DRAFT RULES THAT FAILED THE WORKER.

Code on Wages (Central) Rules-2019Draft Rules that Failed the Worker.
(this article is from 'Class struggle' the monthly organ of CPI(ML) CC)
 Replacing the Payment of Wages Act-1936, the Minimum wages Act-1948, the Payment of Bonus Act-1965 and Equal Remuneration Act-1976, the “Code on wages-2019” was approved by the Parliament and now became a law with the assent of the President on August 8,2019. The Ministry of Labor and Employment published the draft rules for implementing the provisions of the code on wages. This code on wages is supposed to have been intended to regulate bonuses for all workers employed by any industry, trade,business or manufacturer. 

The proposes to increase income capacity and purchasing power of the informal workers who account for 93% of the total working population in our country numbering over50 crore. But when the draft rules are read in depth, it is clearly apparent that the claims of the government are nothing but false promises to mislead and hoodwink the workers.These draft rules do not hold even an iota of truth of the tall claims of the government that“70 years of waiting in granting the constitutional right of guaranteed minimum wage had come to an end” while passing the code on wages in the parliament. 

The proposed rules are neither based on any scientific method for fixing the ‘minimum wages’, nor based on the present day requirement of workers nor on current realities.Leave alone a fair wage – a constitutional right of workers, the draft rules could not prescribe for a moral living wage to ensure basic dignity of life for workers. It is apparent that the government instead of acknowledging that minimum wage is a constitutional right guaranteed to workers, it had considered it to be either a dole or an act of charity.‘World market’ ideology of imperialist neo liberal economic policies peddled by globalization and its rule of the ‘market game’ seem to be the basis in prescribing the rules for fixation of wages for workers. Our government is devoted to facilitate ‘ease of doing business’ for the big capital and its business and industry. The right for minimum wages of workers is projected to be a fetter for industry according to the ‘free market’ ideology and rules. So the government has chosen to do away the constitutional right of the workers for a fair wage. So in the garb of amalgamating laws on wages made this code on wages and attendant rules for the implementation of the code. 

These rules instead of fixing a minimum wages, have prescribed for fixation of a ‘floor level wage’, thus pushing starvation wages in our country. The floor wage according to these rules would be less than half of Rs.325 per day as suggested by its own ministry and far less than the 7th Pay Commission’s recommendations. Due to ever growing unemployment and a large reserve army of workers, they are already forced to lead a precarious life as a mode of existence and are willingly working on less than minimum wages. Now the floor level wage will encourage and exacerbate this practice and promote forced labour. 

The code on wages provides for an arbitrary deduction of wages up to 50% (of monthly wages) based on performance, damage, loss, advances etc. This provision only continue to push workers further in to exploitative condition, discouraging and disallowing them the right of association for fear of huge deductions from wages under some flimsy pretext or other. Workers will not e able to demand even basic right at work place for fear of wage deductions and will continue to be more oppressed and marginalized. 

The draft bill proposes categorizing 681 professions into four skill based baskets each of which will have a different set of minimum wages along with differences based on geography – metro, non-metro and rural areas- and thus made the minimum wagesclassstruggle-jan-2020-lf-code-wags-draft-rulessystem more complicated. But the government has not decided rules for fixing the level of minimum wages involving arduous and perilous work, giving a free hand to employers to exploit the workers more ruthlessly without any compunction. 

These draft rules did not clarify the governance and institutional structure for the “labour inspection system” in contravention with the International Labor Organization Labour Inspection Convention of 1947, which was ratified by India, which provides for well-resourced and independent inspectors. 

The so-called ‘inspection scheme’ is meant to watering down of provisions of labourinspection, allowing employers ‘self-certification’ of their compliance with labour laws. Thisshows how the state withdraws from regulation of labour-capital relations permitting thosewho violate labour rights to become enforces/certifiers of labour regulations. 

These rules provided immunity for the employers from criminality and punishment fordefaulting of payment of due wages and other allowances and it also reduced the amountof fines to be collected from the defaulters. 

Moreover the proposed rules will apply only to the mines, railways, telecom, bankingand insurance sectors along with central public sector units, government owned portsand private contractors engaged by the central government and the state governmentsare permitted to frame their own rules in this regard. Thus a large scope is left for not fixingeven the so-called floor level wage to a numerous number of workers employed in upteenindustries and businesses including the jig platforms. 

While framing the rules for code on wages, the government has skillfully included aprovision that talks of a “9-hour work” day in place of “8-hour work day” that is achieved asa right by the workers throughout the world with heroic struggles and untold sacrifices.Though this clause incorporated in vague terms with an innocent appearance, it is a clearindication that our rulers are intending to reject and refuse the concept of 8-hour workingday, the right of workers. They blatantly renege on workers and their rights in theirsubservience to the big capital and forces of market world of imperialist monopoly financecapital. 

These draft rules did not take the socio-economic considerations and realities facedby workers, but are based only on the dictats of the market world forces that have beenruling the roost of the entire globe. 

These rules have failed the lives and aspirations of entire informal workers of ourcountry. 

The workers movement in our country shall have to equip itself to fight against thisrepressive and reactionary attacks unleashed by the ruling classes and their governmenton the rights of the workers, in the service of big capital and imperialist forces.
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