Organ of All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC)

Bulletin No. 15 22 April, 2017 Price : Rs.20.00

Frederich Engels(28 November 1820 – 5 August 1895)

The above image is of the founding congress of the Second International held on 14 July, 1889 in Paris,th

France. Under the leadership of Frederich Engels this congress called upon the working people of the world

to observe May 1, every year with effect from May 1, 1890 as International Day of working class solidarity.

Anganwadi workers and helpers of Haryana under the banner of Anganwadi Karyakarta Sahayika Union,

Sonepat District Committee, Haryana, affiliated to AIUTUC held a rally in Sonepat and demonstration before

the residence of the Minister for Dept of WCD on 8.4.2017 against arbitrary termination and threat of

dismissal of around 1500 workers

Comrade Samar Sinha, General Secretary, AIPF addressing the gathering of the Eastern and North Eastern

Regional Electricity Workers Convention at Bharat Sabha Hall, Kolkata on 8.4.2017 organised by NCCEEE

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Historic May Day Movement and the Great November Revolution —A Red Letter History of their Identification and Internationalisation

Let us begin with the call of V.I. Lenin, thearchitect of the great November revolution givenon the eve of celebration of May Day in 1904;

“Comrade workers! May Day is coming, theday when the workers of all lands celebrate theirawakening to a class- conscious life, theirsolidarity in the struggle against all coercion andoppression of man by man, the struggle to freethe toiling millions from hunger, poverty, andhumiliation. Two worlds stand facing each otherin this great struggle: the world of capital and theworld of labour, the world of exploitation andslavery and the world of brotherhood andfreedom.

On one side stand the handful of rich blood-suckers. They have seized the factories and mills,the tools and machinery, have turned millions ofacres of land and mountains of money into theirprivate property. They have made thegovernment and the army their servants, faithfulwatchdogs of the wealth they have amassed. Onthe other side stand the millions of thedisinherited. They are forced to beg themoneybags for permission to work for them. Bytheir labour they create all wealth; yet all theirlives long they have to struggle for a crust ofbread, beg for work as for charity, sap theirstrength and health by back-breaking toil, andstarve in hovels in the villages or in the cellars andgarrets of the big cities”.

This is how.Lenin approached thecelebration of historic May Day in a leafletprepared and published by him calling upon theworkers to observe the same in 1904. It may beadded here that in July 1903, in its secondcongress the Communist Party of Soviet Union(formerly known as RSDLP), while declaring theimmediate programme of the party inter aliapinpointed the struggle for eight hour workingday as one of its programmes. It is worth recallingthat in 1901, in the Obkhub Arms Factory in St.Petersberg (Petrograd), while observing May Day

strike the striking workers heroically resisted thebrutal attacks of the police of the Tsarist autocracywho came down heavily on them to foil the strike.This attack caused bloodshed of hundreds ofstriking workers. To take further revenge 800workers were arrested and a good number weresent to exile. This created a sensational impact onthe Russian workers. In 1905, in its third congress,while adupting the resolution on “Minimum Tasksto be implemented by the ProvisionalRevolutionary Government”, along with theoverthrow of Tsarist autocracy, implementation ofeight hours work day was emphasized. It is alsoto be noted in this connection that during thepreparation of struggle to overthrow the Tsaristautocracy as well as the anti-capitalist socialistrevolution in November 1917 and almost in everyanniversary of May Day Lenin placed before theworkers the significance and lessons of May DayMovement and its linkage with the revolutionarystruggle not only in Russia but also in all thecountries of the world. In fact, the “linkage” wasbecoming more and more consolidated with thepassage of time.

J.V. Stalin, the worthy successor of V.I. Leninand an extra-ordinary artist and builder ofsocialist construction in USSR, while calling uponthe workers on the eve of 1st May, 1912 toobserve May Day explaining its significance infollowing words:

“Comrades ! As far back as last century, theworkers of all countries resolved to celebrateannually this day, the First of May. That was in1889, when, at the Paris Congress of theSocialists of all countries, the workers resolved toproclaim, precisely on this day, the First of May,when nature is awakening from her winter sleep,when the woods and hills are donning their greenmantles and the fields and meadows are adorningthemselves with flowers, when the sun shinesmore warmly, the joy of revival fills the air andnature gives herself up to dancing and rejoicing—

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they resolved to proclaim loudly and openly tothe whole world, precisely on this day, that theworkers are bringing spring to mankind anddeliverance from the shackles of capitalism, thatit is the mission of the workers to renovate theworld on the basis of freedom and socialism.

Every class has its own favouritefestivals. The nobility introduced theirfestivals, and on them they proclaim their“right” to rob the peasants. Thebourgeoisie have their festivals and onthem they “justify” their “right” to exploitthe workers. The clergy, too, have theirfestivals, and on them they eulogise theexisting system under which the toilers diein poverty while the idlers wallow in luxury.The workers, too, must have their festival,and on it they must proclaim: universallabour, universal freedom, universalequality of all men. That festival is thefestival of the First of May.........”[Source: Works, Vol. 2, 1907 – 1913 -Publisher : Foreign Languages Publishing House,Moscow, 1954 - https://www.marxists.org/reference/ archive/stalin/works/ 1912/04/ x01.htm-written by J. V. Stalin in Moscow, at the beginningof April 1912; printed in leaflet form on theoccasion of celebrating May Day 1912 …..]

While observing their own FESTIVAL – THEMAY DAY, the working people of the world mustrecall not only the history of May Day Movement,but also the long drawn movement for shorteningof working day in general and eight hour workingday in particular, which had been in the growingsince the beginning of 18th century in differentparts of the globe, particularly in Europe and inAmerica, culminating in the emergence,consolidation and expansion of May DayMovement. Many glorious battles were fought inmany places including in India which we refrainfrom detailing in this presentation. But it ismention-worthy that the movement for eight hourworking day got momentum after theestablishment of the First International in thename of ‘International Working Men’sAssociation’ (IWMA) on September 28, 1864.This also must be kept in mind that Karl Marxand his close compatriot Frederich Engels in theirvarious celebrated works explained thejustification of the demand of legislation of eighthour working day and laid the scientifictheoretical foundation of the limitation of working

hours. It had an immense contribution inadvancing the Eight Hour Working DayMovement that led to historic May DayMovement in 1886 throughout America thatcommenced on 1st May. In this connection it isimperative to have a meticulous look at startlingrevelation of Karl Marx as follows:

“What is a working-day? What is thelength of time during which capital may consumethe labour-power whose daily value it buys? Howfar may the working-day be extended beyond theworking-time necessary for the reproduction oflabour-power itself?” It has been seen that tothese questions CAPITAL replies: the working-day contains the full 24 hours, with thededuction of the few hours of reposewithout which labour-power absolutelyrefuses its services again. Hence it is self-evident that the labourer is nothing else,his whole life through, than labour-power,that therefore all his disposable time is bynature and law labour-time, to be devotedto the self-expansion of capital. Time foreducation, for intellectual development, for thefulfilling of social functions and for socialintercourse, for the free-play of his bodily andmental activity, even the rest time of Sunday (andthat in a country of Sabbatarians!) — moonshine!But in its blind unrestrainable passion, its were-wolf hunger for surplus-labour, capital overstepsnot only the moral, but even the merely physicalmaximum bounds of the working-day. It usurpsthe time for growth, development, and healthymaintenance of the body. It steals the timerequired for the consumption of fresh air andsunlight. It higgles over a meal-time, incorporatingit where possible with the process of productionitself, so that food is given to the labourer as to amere means of production, as coal is supplied tothe boiler, grease and oil to the machinery. Itreduces the sound sleep needed for therestoration, reparation, refreshment of the bodilypowers to just so many hours of torpor as therevival of an organism, absolutely exhausted,renders essential. It is not the normalmaintenance of the labour-power which is todetermine the limits of the working-day; it is thegreatest possible daily expenditure of labour-power, no matter how diseased, compulsory, andpainful it may be, which is to determine the limitsof the labourers’ period of repose. Capital caresnothing for the length of life of labour-power. All

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that concerns it is simply and solely the maximumof labour-power, that can be rendered fluent in aworking-day. It attains this end by shortening theextent of the labourer’s life, as a greedy farmersnatches increased produce from the soil byrobbing it of its fertility.

The capitalistic mode of production(essentially the production of surplus-value, theabsorption of surplus-labour), produces thus, withthe extension of the working-day, not only thedeterioration of human labour-power by robbingit of its normal, moral and physical, conditions ofdevelopment and function. It produces also thepremature exhaustion and death of this labour-power itself. It extends the labourer’s time ofproduction during a given period by shorteninghis actual life-time.

But the value of the labour-power includesthe value of the commodities necessary for thereproduction of the worker, or for the keeping upof the working-class. If then the unnaturalextension of the working-day, that capitalnecessarily strives after in its unmeasured passionfor self-expansion, shortens the length of life ofthe individual labourer, and therefore the durationof his labour-power, the forces used up have tobe replaced at a more rapid rate and the sum ofthe expenses for the reproduction of labour-powerwill be greater; just as in a machine the part of itsvalue to be reproduced every day is greater themore rapidly the machine is worn out. It wouldseem therefore that the interest of capital itselfpoints in the direction of a normal working-day.(Karl Marx, “Capital” – Vol. I – July 25,1867)

The above examination which was madeearlier form a part of “Capital – Vol-I”, which waspublished after the Geneva Congress held on 3-8September 1866. It may be recalled that theGeneva Congress endorsed the call for legislationof 8 hour working day as adopted in BaltimoreConvention of trade unions, held on 16th August,1866. In the Geneva Congress, the secondcongress of the First International, Marx andEngels jointly proposed the following with the title“Limitation of Working Day”.

“Limitation of the Working Day - Apreliminary condition, without which all furtherattempts at improvement and emancipation mustprove abortive, is the limitation of the workingday. It is needed to restore the health and physicalenergies of the working class, that is the great

body of every nation, as well as to secure themthe possibility of intellectual development,sociable intercourse, social and political action.We propose 8 hours work as the legal limitof the working day. The limitation beinggenerally claimed by the workmen of the UnitedStates of America, the vote of the congresswill raise it to the common platform of theworking classes all over the world. For theinformation of continental members, whoseexperience of factory law is comparatively shortdated, we add that all legal restrictions will fail andbe broken through by capital if the period of theday during which the 8 working hours must betaken, be not fixed. The length of that periodought to be determined by the 8 working hoursand the additional pauses for meals”. (Works ofMarx and Engels – Vol – 20, page 187)

With adoption of the above proposal at theGeneva Congress the demand of legislation ofeight hour working day was elevated to the statusand character of a general demand ofinternational working class movement. Thisadded a new dimension to the struggle forlegislation of eight hour working day. Marx furtherobserved this in his celebrated work – “Capital –Vol I” as follows:

“In the United States of North America,every independent movement of the workers wasparalyzed so long as slavery disfigured a part ofthe Republic. Labour cannot emancipate itself inthe white skin where in the black it is branded.But out of the death of slavery a new life at oncearose. The first fruit of the Civil War was the eighthours’ agitation, that ran with the seven-leaguedboots of the locomotive from the Atlantic to thePacific, from New England to California. TheGeneral Congress of labour at Baltimore (August16th, 1866) declared: “The first and greatnecessity of the present, to free the labour of thiscountry from capitalistic slavery, is the passing ofa law by which eight hours shall be the normalworking-day in all States of the American Union.We are resolved to put forth all our strength untilthis glorious result is attained.”

At the same time, the Congress of theInternational Working Men’s Association atGeneva, on the proposition of the LondonGeneral Council, resolved that “the limitation ofthe working-day is a preliminary conditionwithout which all further attempts at improvementand emancipation must prove abortive... the

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Congress proposes eight hours as the legal limitof the working-day.” Thus the movement of theworking-class on both sides of the Atlantic, thathad grown instinctively out of the conditions ofproduction themselves, endorsed the words of theEnglish Factory Inspector, R. J. Saunders:“Further steps towards a reformation of societycan never be carried out with any hope ofsuccess, unless the hours of labour be limited, andthe prescribed limit strictly enforced.” (KarlMarx, “Capital” – Vol. I)

We find that movement was spreading indifferent parts of the world and very soon itassumed a mass scale character in the UnitedStates of America. Engels wrote on February 25,1886 -

“….. The tendency of the Capitalist systemtowards the ultimate splitting-up of society intotwo classes, a few millionaires on the one hand,and a great mass of mere wage-workers on theother, this tendency, though constantly crossedand counteracted by other social agencies, worksnowhere with greater force than in America; andthe result has been the production of a class ofnative American wage-workers, who form,indeed, the aristocracy of the wage-working classas compared with the immigrants, but whobecome conscious more and more every day oftheir solidarity with the latter and who feel all themore acutely their present condemnation to life-long wage-toil, because they still remember thebygone days, when it was comparatively easy torise to a higher social level. Accordingly theworking class movement, in America, has startedwith truly American vigor, and as on that side ofthe Atlantic things march with at least double theEuropean speed, we may yet live to see Americatake the lead in this respect too”. [Source:Appendix to the American Edition of - NewYork, 1887" “ Works of Frederick Engels1886 - The Condition of the Working Classin England in 1844, - London, February 25,1886 – Frederick Engels - - Transcribed: byTony Brown.]

Expectation of Engels turned into reality.American workers took the lead. An indefinitestrike commenced on 1st May, 1886 on thedemand of legislation of eight hour working day,at the call of American Federation of Labour inassociation with “Knights of Labour”. Chicagobecame the nerve centre of the movementalthough other cities like New York, California etc.

did not lag behind. Many workers were killed bypolice firing on 3rd and 4th of May. In an unfairtrial 4 leaders of the workers namely, AlbertParson, August Spies, George Engel and AdolfFischer were hanged on 11th November, 1887. Itstirred the entire American working class and thatof Europe. Any people could hardly believe thatsuch a gigantic event could happen in Americansoil. Engels observed -

“In February 1885, American public opinionwas almost unanimous on this one point; thatthere was no working class, in the Europeansense of the word, in America; that consequentlyno class struggle between workmen andcapitalists, such as tore European society topieces, was possible in the American Republic;and that, therefore, Socialism was a thing offoreign importation which could never take rooton American soil. And yet, at that moment, thecoming class struggle was casting its giganticshadow before it in the strikes of thePennsylvania coal-miners, and of many othertrades, and especially in the preparations, allover the country, for the great Eight Hours’movement which was to come off, and didcome off, in the May following. That I then dulyappreciated these symptoms, that I anticipated aworking-class movement on a national scale, my“Appendix” shows; but no one could thenforesee that in such a short time the movementwould burst out with such irresistible force,would spread with the rapidity of a prairie-fire,would shake American society to its veryfoundations.[Source: ibid]

The “GREAT EIGHT HOUR MOVEMENT”as characterized by Engels went on and spreadover in different continents. Engels felt that themessage of May Day movement should becarried to the entire working class fraternity of theglobe. Great Marx was no more. The FirstInternational also collapsed in 1870s due tovarious reasons and factors. Now Engels took afresh initiative to bring together the vanguards ofthe working class movement of different countriesinto one platform. In this backdrop, theInternational Congress was convened on 14th Julyof 1889, the centenary year of the victory of theFrench Revolution and thus came into existencethe Second International. This congress inter aliaadopted a resolution calling upon the workingclass fraternity of the world to observe 1st Mayevery year as International Working Class

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Solidarity Day with effect from 1st May 1890 onthe demand of legislation of eight hour workingday in all countries as well as improvement ofworking conditions of the workers. Later onEngels wrote – “This was the best of what ourcongress achieved.” On this day Engels furtherwrote in the preface to the German Edition of the‘Communist Manifesto’ as under:

“Working men of all countries, unite!”But few voices responded when we proclaimedthese words to the world 42 years ago, on the eveof the first Paris Revolution in which theproletariat came out with the demands of its own.On September 28, 1864, however, theproletarians of most of the Western Europeancountries joined hands in the InternationalWorking Men’ s Association of glorious memory.True, the International itself lived only nine years.But that the eternal union of the proletarians ofall countries created by it is still alive and livesstronger than ever, there is no better witness thanthis day. Because today, as I write these lines, theEuropean and American proletariat is reviewingits fighting forces, mobilized for the first time,mobilized as one army, under one flag, for oneimmediate aim: the standard eight-hour workingday to be established by legal enactment, asproclaimed by the Geneva Congress of theInternational in 1866, and again by the ParisWorkers’ Congress of 1889. And today’s spectaclewill open the eyes of the capitalists and landlordsof all countries to the fact that today theproletarians of all countries are united indeed. -If only Marx were still by my side to seethis with his own eyes!”

Thus began internationalization of May DayMovement and this was no more confined in thedemand of eight hour working day alone.Gradually it encompassed all legitimate demandsof the entire working class. The observation ofMarx and Engels that “the limitation of theworking-day is a preliminary condition withoutwhich all further attempts at improvement andemancipation must prove abortive”, immenselycontributed to the development of revolutionarystruggle of the working class aimed at putting anend to exploitation of man by man. Thus closelinkage between movement for limitation ofworking hours and revolutionary struggle foremancipation of labour became more and morebeing identified and consolidated. Consequentlyeverywhere workers raised slogans to put an end

to the exploitative capitalist system and establishworking class state overthrowing the capitaliststate. This was achieved for the first time in theworld in 1917 in Russia, where the first workingclass state was established..

One hundred twenty six years have passedsince the beginning of the observance of MayDay as International Working Class SolidarityDay. There is hardly any day like the May Daywhich is observed in all the countries of theworld. This year is 131st anniversary of May Dayand 127th anniversary of the InternationalWorking Class Solidarity Day. At this juncture,working people of the world are passing throughunprecedented difficult times emanating from thetragedy that have befall on humanity owing tothe temporary collapse of the socialism andsocialist camp caused due to nefarious attacksfrom within and outside. An organizedonslaught, even somewhere emboldened bystate sponsored violence has been unleashed onthe achievement of eight hour working day andother hard owned rights including the right tominimum wage, social security, organize, strikeand collective bargaining for the interest ofmonopoly houses, employers community andextending the lease of life of moribund capitalismwhich is engulfed in irreversible multi-prong crisisstriking a blow to the euphoria of capitalistglobalization. Twelve to fourteen hour workingdays are being imposed in many industries andservices. ILO core conventions including eighthour working day are being reversed oramended in retrograde direction for the interestof corporate sector. On the other hand, despiterelentless effort of the capitalist class and itssubservient states in league with thecompromising forces to disarm the workingclass, they are taking to the streets in variouscountries including ours as well in advancedcountries namely America, Great Britain, France,Germany etc. The ruling class for its survivalare patronizing religious fundamentalism,communalism and right reaction. Fascism is inthe process of consolidation in almost all thecountries irrespective of the stages ofdevelopment. Ours is no exception. As such, itis seen that right reactionary, ultra nationalistand religious fundamentalist forces are coming topower starting from America, France, Germanyto India. Imperialism is on desperate offensive.Danger of war is also looming large.

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The situation demands an all out unity of theworking people of all countries and to build updecisive resistance based on correct outlook andunderstanding of the present situation andconstant sharpening of class consciousness.Comrades! We are in the midst of the preparationof Great November Revolution centenary celebra-tion. Situation demands of us to integrate thelessons of May Day movement with the lessons of

the Great November Revolution. Let us recall theclarion call of Lenin, the architect of the GreatNovember Revolution, given on the eve ofcelebration of May Day in 1904 in Russia — “Letthe celebration of May Day win thousandsof new fighters to our cause and swell ourforces in the great struggle for the freedomof all the people, for the liberation of allwho toil from the yoke of capital!”

Marxist Authorities onGreat November Revolution and aftermath

(On 7th November, 2016 commenced the centenary of the victorious Great November Revolution.We declared that throughout the year as a part of observance of the centenary we shall publish theviews of the great men and some Marxist authorities on the November revolution as also the articles ondifferent aspects, experiences and achievements of November revolution in various walks of life of Sovietpeople. We have started our exercise from the 30 November 2016 issue (Bulletin No. 13), wherein wereproduced the views of some eminent personalities of the contemporary world about the Novemberrevolution. In Bulletin No.14 (15 February 2017 issue) we reproduced one article of Great Lenin, thearchitect of the revolution and a speech of his worthy successor - Great Stalin on the lessons of theNovember revolution. In this issue we are reproducing some valuable excerpts from the speechesdelivered by Mao-Tse-Tung and Shibdas Ghosh, the great leaders of the proletariat on and in connectionwith the great November Revolution and aftermath)

Mao-Tse-Tung“….. I would like to say a few words about the Twentieth

Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. I think thereare two “swords”: one is Lenin and the other Stalin. The sword ofStalin has now been discarded by the Russians. Gomulka andsome people in Hungary have picked it up to stab at the SovietUnion and oppose so-called Stalinism. The Communist Parties ofmany European countries are also criticizing the Soviet Union, andtheir leader is Togliatti. The imperialists also use this sword to slaypeople with. Dulles, for instance, has brandished it for some time.This sword has not been lent out, it has been thrown out. WeChinese have not thrown it away. First, we protect Stalin, and,second, we at the same time criticize his mistakes, and we havewritten the article “On the Historical Experience of the Dictatorshipof the Proletariat”. Unlike some people who have tried to defameand destroy Stalin, we are acting in accordance with objectivereality.

As for the sword of Lenin, hasn’t it too been discarded to acertain extent by some Soviet leaders? In my view, it has beendiscarded to a considerable extent. Is the October Revolution still valid? Can it still serve as the examplefor all countries? Khrushchov’s report at the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the SovietUnion says it is possible to seize state power by the parliamentary road, that is to say, it is no longernecessary for all countries to learn from the October Revolution. Once this gate is opened, by and largeLeninism is thrown away.

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The doctrine of Leninism has developedMarxism. In what respects has it done so? First,in world outlook, that is, in materialism anddialectics; and second, in revolutionary theoryand tactics, particularly on the questions of classstruggle, the dictatorship of the proletariat and thepolitical party of the proletariat. And then thereare Lenin’s teachings on socialist construction.Beginning from the October Revolution of 1917,construction went on in the midst of revolution,and thus Lenin had seven years of practicalexperience in construction, something denied toMarx. It is precisely these fundamental principlesof Marxism-Leninism that we have been learning.

In both our democratic revolution and oursocialist revolution, we have mobilized the massesto wage class struggle in the course of which wehave educated the people. It is from the OctoberRevolution that we have learned to wage classstruggle. During the October Revolution, themasses in the cities and villages were fullymobilized to wage class struggle. Those who arenow sent by the Soviet Union as experts tovarious countries were but children or teenagersat the time of the October Revolution, and manyof them have forgotten about this practice.Comrades in some countries say that China’smass line is not right, and they are only toohappy to pick up the paternalistic approach.There is no stopping them if they want to do so;in any case, we adhere to the Five Principles ofPeaceful Coexistence, with non-interference in

each other’s internal affairs and mutual non-aggression. We have no intention of exercisingleadership over any country save our own, thatis, the People’s Republic of China.

The fundamental problem with some EastEuropean countries is that they have not done agood job of waging class struggle and have left somany counter-revolutionaries at large, nor havethey trained their proletariat in class struggle tohelp them learn how to draw a clear distinctionbetween the people and the enemy, between rightand wrong and between materialism andidealism. And now they have to reap what theyhave sown, they have brought the fire upon theirown heads.

How much capital do you have? Just Leninand Stalin. Now you have abandoned Stalin andpractically all of Lenin as well, with Lenin’s feetgone, or perhaps with only his head left, or withone of his hands cut off. We, on our part, stick tostudying Marxism-Leninism and learning from theOctober Revolution. Marx has left us a greatmany writings, and so has Lenin. To rely on themasses, to follow the mass line — this is what wehave learned from them…..”.

(Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung – Vol.– 5 speech at the second plenary session of theeighth central committee ... Transcription by theMaoist Documentation Project….. HTML revised2004 by Marxists.org - https://www.marxists.org/reference/ archive/ mao/ ... mworks/volume-5/mswv5_56.htm)

Shibdas Ghosh“….. You should keep in mind that Leninism is a method of

analysis, a total outlook in this era to comprehend the process ofrevolution in each and every country under the imperialist worldorder, aware of the concrete differences of time and place fromcountry to country. It is Leninism that has projected what shouldbe the fundamental strategy of revolution in every country in thisera. For this reason, Leninism is called the Marxism of the presentera, the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution. It means thatin the present era, when capitalism is decadent and moribund andhas become utterly reactionary having reached the highest stage ofits development by giving birth to imperialism and is crushingfreedom and democracy in one country after another, it is Leninismthat has held aloft the fundamental guiding principles tocomprehend the concrete process of revolution in the capitalist,colonial and semi-colonial countries of the imperialist world order,and to work towards social transformation.

By wielding this Leninism as the weapon, the working class of Russia led by the Bolshevik Partyorganized revolution. The character of November Revolution was not national but international.

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November Revolution has thrown up before allcountries a perspective of revolution and itsfundamental principles in this era. NovemberRevolution has demonstrated: the working class iscapable of organizing revolution. This revolutionhas conclusively proved that the era of worldbourgeois democratic revolution has come to anend and world capitalism has entered the phaseof decadence, become moribund, opposed toprogress, to national freedom struggle, toindividual liberty and democracy, and thus, itstands as the obstacle on the path of socialprogress. Despite all technological developmentsand modernization extreme crisis has grippedproduction, which the capitalist class cannot doaway with. Owing to the competition among thecapitalists and the two-pronged exploitation ofpeople — by the domestic capitalists as well as bythe foreign imperialists — the squeezed-in marketcompared to the augmented productive forces iscontinually engendering crisis in production. Andfurther, as its inevitable consequence, this crisis iscasting its shadow on the entire process ofadvancement of knowledge—science, technology,arts, philosophy, literature, culture, ethics, whichare stemming from the ongoing contradictionbetween man and nature — and is curbing theirgrowth. Thus, from all angles, capitalism isdecadent and stands against progress. So, it is tobe overthrown with the force of revolution. Ofcourse, it is the proletarian class which will leadthis revolution. Therefore, the present stage ofrevolution internationally is the stage of anti-capitalist socialist revolution led by the workingclass.

Secondly, in the backward capitalistcountries the world over — countries which areunderdeveloped compared to the advancedcapitalist countries in the sense of capitalisticdevelopment, where capitalist state has beenestablished and the progressive role of thebourgeoisie has been exhausted — socialistrevolution is to be made successful byoverthrowing the bourgeoisie forging alliance ofworker and peasants under the leadership of thecommunist party on the soil.

Thirdly, even in the countries where thebourgeois democratic revolution has not beenaccomplished, or those countries which are still inthe stage of anti-imperialist, anti-colonial nationalfreedom struggle, or national liberationmovement, a national liberation front under the

leadership of the working class with workers,peasants and any section of the bourgeoisie thatis willing to join and has that kind of disposition,is to be formed to organize the national liberationstruggle. But it is to be viewed as part of the worldsocialist revolution, the proletarian revolution, andit must be conducted under the leadership of theworking class, the proletariat. If some people thinkotherwise then they would commit a mistake andwould have to pay dearly for this mistake in thesense that their revolution will not be successful atall. It is because, if the working class cannotestablish their leadership, the bourgeoisie of thecountry would usurp the leadership and as partof the reactionary international bourgeoisie, itwould obstruct the path and progress of therevolution. Thus, the bourgeois democraticrevolution would end up in a truncated and half-baked way. As a result, people’s emancipationwould not come about, capitalism would ratherget consolidated and even the national freedom,after having been attained, would run the risk ofbeing endangered. Even the neo-colonialism thatis being talked about today is recognized inLenin’s analysis of imperialism. He himself hasspoken about it. To me, it is not the point whetherLenin used the term neo-colonialism or not. Butthe main feature, or the essence of neo-colonialism, that the imperialists in this era wouldvirtually exert political and even military controlover the backward independent bourgeois statesthrough exercising economic domination, is to befound in Lenin’s analysis. Imperialism, old style,will not continue; it will appear in a new form byestablishing and expanding the sphere ofeconomic domination. Therefore, in this era, thenational freedom movements can reach properand successful culmination, achieve the mainobject only if working class leadership can beestablished over them. That is, it would bepossible to lead revolution in these countries stageby stage and gradually elevate it to culminate insocialist revolution, and then national freedomalso will be fully attained and protected thereafter.

….. It was Lenin who pointed out thedifference between the present imperialist era andthe era of Marx, and showed how, because of thedifference, advanced capitalist countries wouldnot be the nerve centre of revolution; the centrewould shift to backward countries, the weakestlinks of the world-wide chain of imperialism, andthere revolution would come about. Lenin also

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expounded theoretically that since the bourgeoisiewere now getting more and more attached tomilitarism and bureaucracy and less attached tofreedom and democracy in this era, revolution inevery country henceforth was bound to be armedrevolution. Apart from these, Lenin had toconfront sharp differences and debates withPlekhanov, Trotsky, Kautsky and others on manyfundamental issues like the character and form ofimperialism, the question of organization of thecommunist party and its concept of democracy,the dictatorship of the proletariat, the role of theworking class in the proletarian revolution and therole of the peasantry, and so forth. Why thesecontroversies? We know that all of them knew theworks of Marx and Engels by heart, why did thecontroversies arise even then? It is because asection considered the observations andconclusions of Marx and Engels alone to be thetheory. But Lenin did not consider theobservations only, or the conclusions Marx hadarrived at in the perspective of their times, to bethe theory of Marxism. He considered Marxism tobe the science, the scientific methodology ofanalysis and reasoning by applying which Marxhad arrived at the conclusions in his time. Forexample, seeing the liberal democraticenvironment in England, Marx had concludedthat the proletarian revolution would beaccomplished there peacefully and throughdemocratic means. Subsequently, in the light ofthe experience of the Paris Commune, Marxhimself changed his idea in his treatise Critique of

the Gotha Programme. The time differencebetween the two was not much. Marx hadreached a certain conclusion before seeing thenaked aggressive character of the bourgeois state.The experience of the Paris Commune correctedhim. Today also those who are used to quotingMarx out of context and arguing that ‘thisparticular observation of Marx has proved to becorrect in history, but that particular remark hasnot’ – are they really Marxists? They have notunderstood Marxism at all. Lenin graspedcorrectly that these are not Marxism. In this way,Marxism can be neither understood, nor applied.

In the same way, whatever Lenin said in aspecific context is not Leninism. The scienceapplied by Lenin, the manner in which he did soand while doing so, the way he developed thatscience, that method of analysis, and on its basisdetermined the fundamental principles, thosefundamental principles constitute the main basis,and that method of analysis is the essence ofLeninism. Unless one can master it in this way,simply by memorizing Lenin’s observations andparroting these, nothing at all is achieved; itmerely is tantamount to copying blindly. Thus, themethod guiding formation of the party duringLenin’s time and in present-day India cannot beexactly similar, especially because the dangerousform that bourgeois individualism has assumedtoday was never like this during Lenin’s time…...”(Selected Works, Vol – IV, pp 394-396 &pp. 406-408 - “Science of Marxism is theScientific Dialectical Methodology”)

[In the previous issue of our journal wepresented to our readers a brief account ofvarious achievements of Soviet Union workersand working people during socialism in theUSSR. In this issue we are dealing with thequestion of eradication of child labour therein asprepared by Soviet Union official authorities inthe period of 1970s to 1980s when capitalism wasin the process of restoration in Russia. Therevisionist leadership also could not deny theachievement in respect of eradication of childlabour and improving the working conditions ofyoung people during the first few decades of theestablishment of the working class state. When

November Revolution eradicatedchild labour in Soviet Russia

our readers will read the following they will haveto keep in mind that this is the picture of whatwas achieved even a century back during the lifetime of Great Lenin and Stalin and what is thestate of affairs in advanced capitalist economiesand also in India where robbing of childhood andgeneration of crores of child labour are continuingunabated even a century after].

“….. In pre-revolutionary Russia childlabour was extensively used in various sectors ofthe economy. The growth of the workers’movement and protests of public opinioncompelled the Tsarist government to make a

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number of laws restricting the use of child labour,so that the minimum age for juvenile employmentwas set at 12, and night work for childrenbetween 12 and 15 years of age was prohibited,During the First World War, however, the Russiangovernment passed a law which practicallyinvalidated the restrictions of earlier legislation.This law allowed employers to use child labourfor night work and underground in mines.

The earliest decrees of the New Sovietauthorities banned the use of child labour.Under socialism participation by minors in theproduction process is merely the practicalimplementation of the fundamental principle ofSoviet education which provides for close linksbetween schooling and practical work and thebest possible blend of education with sociallyproductive labour, so as to ensure a balancedintellectual, civic, cultural and physicaldevelopment for the young. Child labour is notused, for raising output or boosting the nationalproduct. The aim is an organic combination ofschooling with socially useful work. This principleis clearly and explicitly reflected in theConstitution (Fundamental Law) of the Union ofSoviet Republics. Article 142 of the Constitution,in reference to the guarantees of the right ofcitizens of the USSR to health protection,stipulates that this right is ensured by special carefor the health of the younger generation,including prohibition of child labour apart fromthe work done by children as part of the schoolcurriculum. Indeed, given the desire to providethe young with a balanced upbringing, the banon child labour for the protection of children’shealth does not affect schooling and educationthrough work, always an integral part of thesocialist approach to education. In any discussionof gainful employment of children from thehistorical standpoint, the words of Frederic Engelsshould not be forgotten: “The first day it seizespolitical power the working class will haveto take much more stringent action tosafeguard women’s and children’s labourthan, just a bill introducing the ten or eveneight hour working day.” One of the firstSoviet decrees was designed to introduce theeight-hour working day, to ban children fromgainful employment and to regulate employmentof adolescents. The same provisions wereincorporated in the Russian Federation’s Labour

Codes of 1918 and 1922. The decree on theeight-hour working day was enacted on thefifth day of the October (November)Revolution. It was binding on all industrialoperations, whether private or public, andcovered the entire labour force. The decreeincluded as safeguards a number of articlesregulating the employment of young people.Article 9, for example, stipulated that minorsunder the age of 18 could not be gainfullyemployed, while adolescents between 15 and 18years of age were not allowed to work for morethan six hours a day. (Pravda, Moscow, 2September 1979, The Constitution (FundamentalLaw) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,Article 112, 1977) A note to Article 9 of theDecree stated that as of January 1, 1919 noemployment of minors under the age of 15 wasto be permitted. Article 6 of the decree barredpersons of both sexes under 16 years of age fromnight work. Article 15 ruled that adolescentsunder the age of 18 would not be permitted towork underground; Article 18 placed an absoluteprohibition on overtime for persons under the ageof 18. The decree set forth stiff penalties for failureto comply. Article 28 read “persons contraveningthis legislation shall be punishable by law, andsentenced to up to one year’s imprisionment”.Finally, working hours were reduced, the pay forthe shorter working day was made equal to thatfor the full eight-hour day and finally the work ofyoung people was arranged to permit educationand training combined with actual work.Naturally, the enforcement of legislation on youthand child employment relating to hours, wagesand other working conditions required extraresources and at first created considerabledifficulties for State-owned enterprises, especiallyin view of the grave economic situation of theyoung Soviet Republic in its earliest years.Nevertheless, during this period the Sovietauthorities in no way diluted the labour legislationfor young people. In fact, the protection offeredby them was extended and a compulsory quotaof vacancies specially set aside for young peoplewas introduced. The enforcement of labourlegislation in general and juvenile labour laws inparticular also necessitated enormousorganizational endeavors by the agencies. On 8November 1917, shortly after the NovemberRevolution, the People’s Commisariat of Labour(Narkomtrud) was formed. Departments were set

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up to deal with occupational safety, socialinsurance, manpower distribution, and to assertworkers’ rights over the power of capitalistemployers, etc. In May 1918 the Government ofthe Russian Federation enacted a decreeestablishing a Labour Inspection Board, theobjective of which was “to protect the lives, healthand work of all those engaged in any economicactivity, and extending to the entire range of livingconditions of persons engaged in employment,both at their places of work and elsewhere. Thisdecree set out in the minutest detail the InspectionBoard’s method of work. Under the decree, it wasgiven the broadest possible powers in combatingcontraventions of employment of labourprotection regulations, including those concernedwith juvenile labour protection. The Board wasresponsible to the People’s Commissariat ofLabour and the latter’s local offices (labourdepartments), Labour inspectors (local officials)were elected by trade union councils and weregiven wide powers ranging from the right toimpose fines on those who failed to take theproper steps to protect the lives and health ofworkers, including young people, to the right tobring legal action for malicious and persistentviolation of labour regulations, Under a resolutionby (Collection of Statutes, 1918, No, 36, art. 74.the Government of the Russian Federation) of 31July 1918, the People’s Coinmissâriat of Labourissued an ordinance for the Labour InspectionBoard where the rights and duties of labourinspectors were listed in detail.’ The Board wasassisted by local working-class organisations, suchas trade unions and works committee& activelyenforcing strict observance of the labourlegislation.

The foregoing helps show the way the childlabour problem in the Soviet Union was dealtwith, how the ban on child labour was institutedand how, in an effort to promote balanceddevelopment of the young, their health andinterests were safeguarded through regulationsgoverning their employment. Legislation onyouth employment in the USSR Youthemployment in the USSR is subject to variouslaws, particularly the Fundamental Principlesgoverning the Labour Legislation of the USSRand the Union Republics (herein after referred toas “the Fundamental Principles”) which form thebasis for regulating labour relations in which the

trade unions play a key part. The FundamentalPrinciples, which constitute an act of the SupremeSoviet of the USSR, contain a separate chapteron the employment of young persons. The ninearticles in this chapter set forth regulationsgoverning various aspects of youth employment.The first, Article 74, lays down the statutoryminimum age for employment. It stipulates that itis unlawful to employ any person under 16 yearsof age: Provided that, in exceptional cases, it ispermissible to employ persons who have reachedtheir fifteenth birthday, with the consent of theworks, local or branch-of-union committee Twoarticles (75 and 78) prohibit the employment ofpersons under 18 years on arduous work inunhealthy or dangerous working conditions, orunderground work. Under these articles, it isunlawful to employ young persons under 18 onnightwork, overtime or on rest days and holidays.Considerable attention is paid in the FundamentalPrinciples to the health protection of youngworkers. Article 76 provides that “all personsunder 18 years of age shall undergo a preliminarymedical examination before being accepted foremployment, and after that they shall undergo aregular medical examination every year until theyhave reached their eighteenth birthday,”(Coilecton of Statutes 1918, No. 56, Art. 620.International Labour Office: Legslative Seriesi970 - USSR 1, Geneva, ILO, 1970, p.20.)

For, persons under 18 the law provides for ashorter working day. The working week for youngpeople from 16 to 18 years of age is one of 36hours, and from 15 to 16 years of age it is of 2hours less. (The normal working week in theUSSR is kL hours). It should be noted that,notwithstanding the shorter working day, workingpeople under 18 are paid at the same rates asthose at corresponding grades who work acomplete day. Separate articles in theFundamental Principles (Articles 33 and 79)regulate the length of annual leave for personsunder 18 years of age and the time at which itmay be taken. Manual and non-manual workersunder 18 years of age are entitled to an annualleave of one calendar month in summer or, if theyso choose, at any other time of year. The SovietState maintains a constant effort to expand andimprove the general education and vocationaltraining of young people to take account ofscientific and technological progress and the

12 Workers’Voice

growth in output, and it pays close attention toprompt placement in jobs and to vocationalguidance for young people who discontinue orinterrupt their full-time general education orvocational training for one reason or another. Thesystem of job quotas is used to give promptassistance to such young people in findingemployment. Article 80 of the FundamentalPrinciples establishes a special procedure forplacing young people in employment. It laysdown that every undertaking and establishmentshall reserve a certain quota of posts for theemployment, industrial training andapprenticeship of young persons who havecompleted their general education or vocationaland technical school training, and other youngpeople. It is of great importance that the natureof work done by young people reflects the tradeand skills that they have acquired. This need iscatered for under Article 81, which says: theYoung workers who have completed their trainingat vocational and technical schools, and youngpersons who have completed their training inspecial skills in higher educational establishmentsand specialized secondary institutions shall beprovided with employment in keeping with theskills and vocational training they have acquired.The status and qualifications obtained by theyoung through completion of training ateducational institutions mirror the existing divisionof labour and also display their occupational andtechnical abilities. Qualifications, however, are notmerely a yardstick for evaluating their abilities.They are also a key factor in their subsequent

vocational development and progress,. Theguarantee contained in Article 81 Of theFundamental Principles is therefore crucial ifyoung working people are to show a high degreeof efficiency and quality in their work as well asfor the molding of their abilities and skills…..

The present paper has been contributed asan overview of the changing situation in theUSSR and has been presented by the DeputyMinister of Education of the USSR and AssociateProfessor of Political Economy, University ofMoscow. As such, it represents an official point ofview and stresses the major achievements madein eradicating child labour and increasingschooling and related educational facilities in thecountry. Thus, legislation on the employment ofyoung persons in the USSR can be seen to be intotal conformity with the ILO standards, thecomplete protection of children and young peoplebeing a fundamental goal. This is true for thestatutory minimum age for employment, for themandatory medical examination of minors, forthe prohibition against young people beingemployed on arduous work in unhealthy ordangerous working conditions, and for theprohibition of night work, overtime, and work onrest days and holidays. (Sources: https://ideas.repec.org/p/ ilo/ilowps/213224.html by VNYagodkin - 1981-ý& staging.ilo.org/public/ libdoc/ilo/1981/81B09_531_engl.pdf - July 1981.llhIIIIIIIIIIII!iiiiiiiIllhIIIII/iiji. 467Q3 (Supplement toReport II), (Geneva, ILO, 1979 - UNFPA ProjectNo.: GL0179/P43-WEP 2-21/WP.109)

1st May 1949

On this day, i.e. on 1st May 1949 our beloved organisation cameinto existence. Coming 1st May 2017 is the 69th foundation day ofthe genuine revolutionary trade union organisation of the workingclass of our country. On this occassion we convey our warmgreetings to our readers, activists in the trade union movement aswell as the working millions of our country.

— Editorial Desk, ‘Workers’ Voice’

13Workers’Voice

All those who believe in justice to thedeprived and exploited people engaged in theproduction either in industry or the agriculture orelsewhere under the subjugation of economicallyand politically powerful owners feel highly injuredon hearing the pronouncement of lifesentence to 13 leading workers and 5 yearsrigorous imprisonment to 4 other workersof Maruti-Suzuki Plant of Manesar, Gurgaon(Haryana) on 18th March, 2017 by the Trial Courtof Additional Session Judge, Gurgaon in the caseof alleged murder of an officer due to suffocationand burning out of fire in Maruti-Suzuki Planton 18.7.2012. Out of 148 workers against whomcharge sheet were filed, 117 workers have beenproved non-guilty and thus are acquitted aftersuffering jail custody for 4 years; 31 workers wereheld guilty on 10.03.2017, out of which 14workers though proved guilty were freedfrom jail custody as they have alreadypassed 4 years in jail, while 60 other workershave been proscribed absconder who may bearrested any time to face fresh trial. After thealleged incident of 2012 AIUTUC demanded animpartial judicial enquiry by the sitting judge ofHigh Court which remained unheeded.

It is to be recalled that Maruti workers havebeen facing the onslaughts of the managementsince the year 2000 when they were asked toexecute a Bond promising good conduct, on theviolation of which their job could be terminatedat any time. A large number of workers whoprotested against the move of the

National Scenario ;Labour, Capital,

Governments & theState

Life-long imprisonment of13 Maruti-Suzuki workers ;

unrest in Gurgaon Industrial Belt — Country wideprotest demonstration on 5th April, 2017

management,were ousted of their jobs. 2500permanent workers were retrenched in twophases - .1250 in 2001 and 1250 in 2003. Muchmore onslaught had followed. Curtailment of therights of workers including wage reduction wasimposed besides increase in workload withoppressive dealings in day-to-day work schedule.At present only 15% of the workforce arepermanent workers, rest 85% workers are eithercasual or contractors’ workers includingapprentices, trainee workers and studenttrainees. Now the Japanese company Suzukihas assumed its ownership holding majorityshares. Govt. does not hold any share. It is a fullyprivatised company. It has earned huge profit.Instead of one in Gurgaon, now it owns 4more big Plants, 3 in Manesar and anotherin Gujarat state. Presently it is having 250subsidiaries with more than 800 Units in GurgaonIndustrial belt stretched over 100 KM from Delhiborder to Rewari district. Even after giving 35%over-production beyond the capacity of thecompany the workers are deprived of theirlegitimate share in the form of wages and socialsecurities. They demand decent work and decentwage – it is their crime. They are not allowed toform the union of their choice. Whenever theyapplied for registration of the union, the applicantworkers were forcibly terminated from theservices. How the Honda workers were treatedworse than animals, brutally beaten andvictimized in front of the office of the DeputyCommissioner (DM), Gurgaon on 25.07.2004 –whole country had witnessed on TV Channels

14 Workers’Voice

vividly. Section 144 was imposed now and then.The factory had been just like a policecantonment. Similarly, on that fateful day of18.07.2012, one supervisor misbehaved with oneworker. The company cared little to take anyaction against him rather suspended thatworker. When the newly elected unionleaders (the same 12 have been awardedlife sentence now) demanded withdrawal ofsuspension and pressed for action againstthe erring supervisor, they were severelybeaten by the hired bouncers in presence of largenumber of police who merely remained a mutespectator. In between fire broke out in the campusfor which these workers are being heldresponsible. The police officers patronized thehired goons of the management were madeEnquiry Officer in the case. The former CongressGovt. headed by Bhupendra Singh Hoodaexercising its special power provided a high levelLegal Assistance to the Company against thepoor and innocent workers by hiring a SupremeCourt advocate K T S Tulsi spending crores ofrupees. BJP and its labour wing BMS had alsoprotested this move of previous HaryanaGovernment. But after coming to power at theCentre as well as the State, the BJP Govt.blatantly followed its predecessor and contributedto the present outcome. It could withdraw thecase in the interest of justice in favour of theworkers and initiate an impartial Judicial Enquiry.But it preferred not to follow such step in order toteach a lesson to the workers and crush the tradeunion movement. No sensible citizen shall disputethat the class having domination over wealth andallied economic agenda not only controls thepolitics but everything else including the judicialsystem and the powerful media. The newstelecast of 10.03.2017 by one local TV Channelbears testimony of the media’s providing distortedand cooked up news. Whereas the Court put offthe case for proscribing the sentence till17.03.2017, dominated by the ruling capitalistclass the said TV Channel announced on10.03.2017 that 13 workers will be hanged todeath. Clearly this demonstrates pre-meditateddesign to thwart morale of the workers.

Under the decision of Trade Union Council,Gurgaon comprising AITUC, CITU, AIUTUC,

HMS, INTUC and others the workers expressedtheir resentment against the anticipated order ofconviction and boycotted the Lunch (provided bythe factory owners in the noon) on 16.03.2017 inthe entire industrial belt from Delhi border toBawal, Rewari. On the day of proscribing lifesentence on 18.03.2017, all the workers of the 4Plants of Maruti-Suzuki suspended their work forone hour from 9 AM to 10 AM successfully. On23.03.2017, the Martyrs Day of Shaheed-E-AzamBhagat Singh, a valiant fighter for the workers’cause in the Freedom Struggle, all the workersfrom entire industrial area marched to Manesarand assembled in Devilal Park to hold a massivepublic meeting in protest against the injustice tothe workers. As a constituent of Trade UnionCouncil, Gurgaon AIUTUC have appreciated theunprecedented unity of the workers and havecongratulated them for rousing their voice ofprotest.

In this backdrop Central Trade Unions met inDelhi on 25th March, 2017 and called upon theworking people of the country to organizesolidarity meetings and demonstrations on 5th

April, 2017. In response to this call workers indifferent parts of the country organized protestmobilization against the heinous attacks onMaruti-Suzuki workers. Thousands of workers inthe Gurgaon Industrial Belt organized a vastprotest assembly which was addressed by thecentral trade union leaders.

Soon after the pronouncement of the courtverdict Comrade Satyawan, President, AIUTUCHaryana State Committee in a statement hasdemanded stay of the sentence by the Trial Courtand to institute a Judicial Enquiry by a sittingjudge of High Court. He also demandedadequate compensation for 117 acquittedworkers for robbing their liberty by keeping themin jail for 4 years and also to reinstate them at theearliest. He further demanded reinstatement ofthose 525 workers of Manesar Plant whoseservices were terminated in July 2012 withoutany sort of enquiry or giving them anyopportunity of hearing. He also demanded toabide by the Labour Laws and other legal anddemocratic rights of the workers in the GurgaonIndustrial Area and stop their victimization.

15Workers’Voice

NEW DELHI, 30TH MARCH, 2017The Embassy of the State of Palestine in

India and the The World Federation of TradeUnions (WFTU) affiliates in India viz. AITUC,CITU, AIUTUC, AICCTU, TUCC and UTUCjointly organized the above meeting on 30th

March, 2017 at BTR Bhawan, New Delhi. Apresidium, comprising comrades Satyawan,(AIUTUC), Vijay Laxmi (AITUC), Santosh Roy(AICCTU), among others conducted theproceedings of the meeting. The speakersincluded Mr. Adnan Abu Aheja, the ambassadorof the State of Palestine in India, ComradesTapan Sen (CITU), Sankar Saha (AIUTUC),Amarjeet Kaur (AITUC) and Rajiv Dibri(AICCTU). Comrade Swadesh K. Debroy wasalso present in the dias. The meetingunanimously adopted the following Declaration.

“On this 30th March 2017, The Embassy ofthe State of Palestine in India and the CentralTrade Unions in India affiliated to the WorldFederation of Trade Unions (WFTU)commemorate the Land Day and declare theirsolidarity with the Palestinian people in theirstruggle against Israeli aggression and occupation.

It was on this day, 30th March, in 1976 thatsix unarmed Palestinians were killed, hundredsinjured and hundreds more were arrested by theIsraeli army when the people were marching inprotest from Galilee to the Negev against theIsraeli government’s announcement of its plan toexpropriate thousands of acres of their land. Thiswas a pivotal event in the struggle of thePalestinian peoples for their Home Land.

The Palestinian people have beencourageously carrying on the struggle for theirindependent Home Land braving inhumanattacks. They have been suffering for many yearsfrom the Israeli aggressiveness, from their illegal

MEETING AGAINST OCCUPATION & OTHERATTROCITIES BY ISRAEL

ON THE PEOPLE OF PALESTINE

ANNIVERSARY OF LAND DAY ANDINTERNATlONAL SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINIAN

PEOPLE

establishment of settlements, the looting of thenatural resources and products of their land andfrom the blockade. The conditions of the nearly1.8 million people living in the Gaza strip havebecome unbearable as a result of the continuoussanctions and economic blockade by Israel.Palestinian children are murdered in the streets.Workers are imprisoned every day. Today morethan 300 Palestinian children are detained inIsraeli prisons.

Instead of recognizing Palestinianssovereignty over their rightful land, Israel hasreinforced its occupation and truncated theremnants of the Palestinian land. In recent years,the extreme right-wing governments which havebeen in power in Israel have further encroachedinto Palestinian territory, built Jewish settlementsand snatched away the private lands of thePalestinians. They have built a security wall whichhas truncated the limited territory under thePalestinian Authority. This Israeli aggression withthe open support from the USA has even moreintensified after the election of Donald Trump asthe US president, specially after the declarationcalled on a UN resolution stating that Israel’ssettlements have no legal validity, and urged theenforcement of last year’s UN Security CouncilResolution 2334 as is evident from itsannouncement of the building of 3000 houses ofJewish settlers in the West Bank and from therecent bill of the Israeli Knesset legalising the grabof Palestinian property in the same region.

The central trade unions in India affiliated toWFTU strongly oppose the racist colonial policyof Israel and reiterate their total support andsolidarity to the fight of the Palestinian people forthe end of Israeli aggressiveness and settlements.

16 Workers’Voice

We support the struggle of the Palestine peoplefor their just cause for their independent homeland and the recognition of a free and anindependent Palestinian state on the borders of1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The central trade unions in India affiliated toWFTU believe that it is the workers who canresist, who can demand. and stand up, throughthe activities and the initiatives of their tradeunions, for the end of the destruction of the

Palestinian people and land. The working class ofPalestine have the power to compel the USimperialism backed Israel to concede the justdemands of the Palestinian people. The WFTUaffiliated central trade unions in India assure theworkers and the people of Palestine continuedsupport to their just struggle.

STOP TO THE SETTLEMENTS —RECOGNISE INDEPENDENT

PALESTINIAN STATE!”

While conveying warm revolutionarygreetings to Mr. Adnan Abu Aheja, the ambassa-dor of the State of Palestine in India, ComradeSankar Saha, General Secretary, AIUTUC, in hisbrief speech said that AIUTUC has always beenwith the people of Palestine and will remain firmin support of their fight for home land and againstIsraeli occupation. Referring to WFTU position onthis issue he said that WFTU since its foundationin 1945 always stood against capitalism-imperialism, fascism and racism despite its variouslimitations. It had always supported the cause ofPalestine liberation. All are aware that with themessage of solidarity of WFTU, present GeneralSecretary comrade Mavrikos went to Palestineand stood by the fighting workers staking his life.In course of his deliberation on international

Comrade Sankar Saha, General Secretary, AIUTUC, addressing the meeting

situation, comrade Saha observed that had theWorld Socialist Camp been in existence, had itnot been dismantled due to attacks from withinand outside and had the leadership of the Sovietparty and state not been deviated from the pathof great Lenin and Stalin, the internationalsituation to remain conducive to not only thestruggle of Palestine people but also for alloppressed people and emancipation of labourfrom the yoke of capitalism-imperialism. In hisconcluding observation he opined that solidaritymeeting is not enough, effectively help Palestinepeople and such other people. It is the need ofthe hour to sharpen class struggle in everycountry on the one hand and on the other buildup united militant mass movement againstimperialism, fascism and rascism.

17Workers’Voice

Hundreds of Anganwadi Workers andhelpers held a massive protest demonstration inthe city of Sonepat on 8th April 2017 under thebanner of Anganwadi Karyakarta SahayikaUnion, Haryana, regd. No.1996 affiliated toAIUTUC. Starting from Ambedkar Park, Busstand the procession led to Sector 15 at theresidence of Smt. Kavita Jain, minister forDepartment of Women and Child Developmentto submit her a memorandum demandingrevoking of services of an Anganwadi WorkerSmt. Anita Dahiya president district committeeSonepat and withdrawal of show cause noticesissued to 1482 Anganwadi Workers and stopharassing them.

It may be recalled that a programme in thename of ‘Mahila Samman Samaroh’ wasorganized on 15th March, 2017 at Murthal,Sonepat and addressed by Chief Minister ofHaryana Shri Manohar Lal Khattar. There in thesaid programme the Chief Minister incidentallyannounced an increase of Rs. 640 and Rs 321per month in the honorarium of AnganwadiWorkers and Helpers respectively consequent ofimplementation of 7th Central Pay Commission’sreport. Hearing this Anganwadi Workers reactedsharply in spontaneity and left the meeting place.It is worth mentioning that according to a pressstatement issued by the Revenue Minister on 31st

January, 2017 and published in almost all thenews papers next day, it was stated that anincrease of Rs. 1072 for workers and RS. 500 forhelpers per month will be effective from 1st

January, 2017. Thus the reaction of theAnganwadi Workers present in the programmewas just spontaneous. The government and theadministration of Women and Child Developmentdepartment labeled it as a planned protest andstarted to harass the Anganwadi Workers. First ofall services of Smt. Anita Dahiya, district presidentof our organization were terminated instantly on16th March, 2017 without any show cause noticeand depriving her of right of self defense which isdetrimental to democratic norm and principle ofnatural justice. Later on show cause notices were

Anganwadi Workers and Helpers of Haryana are onthe path of movement against arbitrary termination

and threat of dismissal of around 1500 workersalso issued to 1482 Anganwadi Workers askingthem why not their services be terminated. It issurprising to note that the government hasresorted to the action alleging that chief minister’ssecurity was at stake due to the reportedresentment of Anganwadi workers. Hence thegovernment also pleaded that the action wastaken in ‘PUBLIC INTEREST’. However, whenthese workers submitted their reply, the officialsdid not receive that and they were asked forciblyto submit letters of unconditional apology. Manyof them were asked to submit the unconditionalapology even more than once.

Earlier to it, State office bearers ofAnganwadi Karyakarta Sahayika Union had metand submitted a memorandum to the CWDMinister Kavita Jain on 25th March and 4th April,2017 at Sonepat demanding immediate revokingthe services of Smt. Anita Dahiya narrating wholeincident and stating that it was never a plannedprogramme but a spontaneous reaction over thedeclaration of reduced amount of increase in themonthly honorarium as never expected andnever happened. Evidently it is clear that thereaction of the anganwadi workers was simpleand natural out of the frustration createdincidentally by the Government itself where theRevenue Minister announces something and theChief Minister something else unexpectedly incontradiction to each other.

There was a lot of pressure on theanganwadi workers from various cornersincluding that from the administration for nottaking part in the today’s protest. Threats offurther termination of the services have beensailing in airs. In spite of that the protestdemonstration was a grand success. The leadersalso warned the government that if the remedialmeasures were not taken in time they would beforced to sharpen their agitation and even to holdstatewide protest demonstrations which may leadto complete strike to compel the state governmentto retreat. The leaders also demandedimplementation of minimum Rs. 18000/- per

18 Workers’Voice

Opposing and demanding to scrap the anti-worker provisions of Electricity (Amendment) Bill– 2014, anti consumer provisions of Uday Projectand on the demand of equal pay for equal worka convention of electricity workers of eastern andnorth-eastern states was held on 8th April, 2017at Bharat Sabha Hall, Kolkata at the call ofNational Co-ordination Committee of ElectricityEmployees & Engineers (NCCOEEE). Thisconvention was the first out of four to be held atfour corners of the country at East, West, Northand South as envisaged by the NCCOEEE. Theeastern and north eastern region convention wasconvened by All India Powermen’s Federation(AIPF) as per decision of the core committee ofNCCOEEE.

The convention was represented by workersrepresentatives from as many as six states likeAssam, Sikkim, Odhisa, Jharkhand, Bihar andWest Bengal. Comrade Samar Sinha, GeneralSecretary of AIPF and convenor of theconvention placed the resolution. In his shortspeech comrade Sinha made it clear that theproposed Bill is aimed to form multiple licenseswithin the same area by way of splitting Carraige& Content of the distribution system. The mainobject of the Bill is to push ahead the aspect ofcommercialization of electricity to serve interest ofthe private operators by alluring them in therevenue potential area. He also criticized the anti-consumer provisions of Uday Project andappealed the electricity workers to build upmighty protracted united movement againstproposed Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2014 andanti-consumer provisions of the project and alsoon the demand of “Equal Pay for Equal Work”.inconformity with the judgement of Hon’bleSupreme Court of the country. Comrade PrasantaNandy Chowdhury, General Secretary of EEFIexplained the disastrous effects of the Electricity

(Amendment) Bill 2014. He told that due tocontinuous pressure of movement the Bill couldnot be tabled before the parliament as yet. At thiscritical stage he urged the delegates to intensifythe movement. The other speakers wereComrades Brojalal Prasad Singh, AIFEE(Jharkhand), Rajesh Pani, AIPF (Odhisa), KapilJadav, AIFEE (Bihar), Kamal Silan, AIPF(Sikkim), D.K.Saha, EEFI (Assam) and ManasSinha, AIPF (West Bengal). The convention wasconducted by four member presidium comprisingcomrades Dipak Raychowdhury (EEFI), KrishnaMajumder (AIPF), Dipak Saha (AIFEAU) andBidya Sagar Singh (AIFEE).

The convention resolved to carry forwardthe ongoing movements of the electricity workerson the following demands and through theprogramme enumerated below:

Demands :

1. Scrap anti-worker provisions of Electricity(Amendment) Bill 2014 and anti-consumerprovisions of Uday Project

2. Implement “Equal Wage for Equal Work”

3. Stop draconian Game Plan of CentralGovernment to privatise the ElectricityIndustry

Programmes :

1. To hold state and district level conventions– demonstrations – Dharna etc.

2. Massive campaign amongst the electricityworkers and consumers

3. All out preparation for Delhi March duringMansoon Session of the Parliament

The convention ended with amongst muchenthusiasm and thanks to the chair.

month as honorarium/wages to the Anganwadiworkers and helpers as per the recommendationof 7th Central Pay Commission. The speakers whoaddressed this rally are Comrades Hariprakash

and Iswarsingh Rathi (AIUTUC), Silak Ram Malik(SKS), R.K.Nagar (SKM) and Pushpa Dalal,Secretary, Anganwadi Karyakarta SahayikaUnion, Haryana

Eastern and North Eastern Regional Convention ofthe Electricity Workers in Kolkata

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AIUTUC extended solidarity towards PAME’s movementagainst persecution of Trade Union Leaders of Greece

Extending solidarity towards PAME n the above incidence AIUTUC General Secretary SankarSaha sent on 20th March 2017 the following letter to the General Secretary, All Workers MilitantFront (PAME)

The General SecretaryAll Workers Militant Front (PAME)

Dear Comrade,On behalf of the All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC) and the working class of

India we strongly condemn the evil designs resorting to measures persecuting 35 Trade Unionleaders of PAME, Presidents of dozens of Trade Unions and Federations by the Greek governmentonce again. Indeed shocking, the said Trade Union leaders stand acquitted from fake charges outof the previous trial.

We are utterly dismayed over the Government’s fresh initiative backed by EU-IMF to throttlethe trade union rights and freedom of the Greek workers. Against such anti-worker measurespaving the way for new attack, we appreciate, the steps you have chalked out for necessarypreparation and intensification of the movement of workers culminating to National General Strike.

While expressing solidarity of the millions of Indian working class with the Greek workers intheir fight to protect and secure trade union rights, we once again record our condemnation overthe Government’s new effort to criminalize the trade unions’ action.

With revolutionary greetings,

Despite various repressive measures arebeing taken by the governments of the respectivecountries to suppress the mass and workersmovements, workers around the world in everycorner of every continent are stagingdemonstrations, organizing rallies and also goingfor strike actions against the anti-worker, anti-people policies, job losses, and also demandinghigher and legitimate wages, bonus and otherbenefits and rights and above all against thecapitalist oppressions. Hereunder in this issue weare reproducing the reports of the preparation forthe ensuing nationwide strike by USA workers to

be held on historic May Day on May 01, 2017which is a great action programme incontinuation of the long drawn movements thatare being carried on since the beginning ofPresident Donald Trump’s assuming state power.)

In January, women across the world cameout in droves to march in protest against PresidentDonald Trump. But on March 8, they acceleratedthe movement by calling a general strikethroughout USA and many other countries of theworld. The women and men across the U.S.participated in A Day Without A Woman—amovement that sought to show the vital role

20 Workers’Voice

women played in both the domestic and globaleconomy.

Next steps in the strategy to defeatTrump has been taken to build for

mass protests and strikes across thecountry on May 1

— All Out Against TrumpMillions have protested since Trump’s

inauguration, yet the Billionaire in Chief hasrelentlessly pursued his racist, sexist, anti-workingclass agenda. Now his latest budget and healthcare proposals declare war on everything fromthe Environmental Protection Agency to Medicaidto public schools, while handing out major taxcuts to corporations and the wealthiestAmericans. Trump can be defeated, but it is aquestion of social power. Whether or not theadministration can carry out its agenda is linkedto how broad and militant a movement can bebuilt to oppose it. Many right wing governmentsthroughout history have been forced to changecourse, or brought down altogether by revolts ofordinary people. But symbolic protest alone willnot be enough. We will need to engage the realpower working people have through mass civildisobedience and strike action. If strike action iswide enough this will affect the profits of thecorporate elite, large sections of which have beenhappy to go along with Trump because of hisagenda of deregulation and regressive taxation.This will put real pressure on them to back awayfrom Trump.

International Workers Day : May 1, alsoknown as “May Day” or “International WorkersDay,” is historically a day of global mass actionand major immigrant rights protests in the U.S.The time has never been more relevant to returnto May Day’s roots, and to launch a summer ofresistance against this dangerous right wingadministration. Trump’s brutal attacks onimmigrants have been front-and-center in his firsttwo months in office, and already they provokedimmigrant protests and strike action on February16, which while organized rapidly, involvedthousand of immigrant workers in cities aroundthe country. The mass protests at the nation’sairports in response to Trump’s anti-immigrantban dealt the president his first humiliating blow,as sections of the ruling class pushed back on himover growing concerns at the resulting “chaos” of

mass civil disobedience. Now, immigrant workersaround the country are preparing for what arelikely to be the biggest May 1 demonstrationssince hundreds of thousands walked off the job in2006 on “The Day Without an Immigrant.” …..The most important May Day developments sofar are in California, where 340,000 serviceworkers are preparing for strike action, led by acoalition including SEIU United Service WorkersWest (USWW) and immigrant workers centers.“The president is attacking our community,” saidTomas Mejia, a member of USWW’s executiveboard. “Immigrants have helped form thiscountry, we’ve contributed to its beauty, but thepresident is attacking us as criminal.” A “CaravanAgainst Fear” is also being organized by thecoalition, to travel throughout the state ofCalifornia during the month of April to build forMay 1 action. The president of United TeachersLos Angeles, Alex Caputo-Pearl, has called on superintendent Michelle King to shut downschools district-wide on May 1. In the Bay Area,the San Francisco Labor Council issued a issueda statement on March 7 endorsing workersolidarity actions on May 1 and asking that theirbe “no retaliation against any worker – union ornon-union – who chooses to exercise their civilrights” by taking the day off…..Momentumaround May 1 has also been growing inWashington State. In Martin Luther King County,which includes Seattle, the county labor councilvoted to urge its affiliate unions “to consider allforms of action on May 1, 2017, whether striking,walking out, taking sick days, extended lunchhours, exercising rights of conscience, organizingdemonstrations or teach-ins, or any other acts ofcollective expression.” This kind of flexibility hasbeen stressed by organizers around the countrywho want to minimize retaliation against workers,while building for the broadest and most powerfulpossible May 1 actions. A number of other unionsin the Seattle area have also passed May Dayresolutions, including WFSE Local 304,representing workers at Seattle communitycolleges, and IBEW Local 46, representingelectrical workers. At the University ofWashington, the largest university in theNorthwest, 6,000 graduate student workersrepresented by UAW Local 4121 will be soonvoting whether to go on strike on May 1,following a strike resolution passed by the union’sExecutive Board. As a member of the City

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Council, I have used my platform here in Seattleto call on the city’s mayor, Ed Murray, to allow allcity workers to take May 1 off without retaliation(Washington State law already allows all publicemployees to take 2 days off each year forreasons of conscience or religion). But the biggestdevelopments in Seattle are with the SeattleEducation Association (SEA), where 5,000teachers will soon be voting on whether to shutdown the city’s public schools for the day, inresponse to longtime unconstitutionalunderfunding of schools in Washington State.“We have tried the same thing for years,” saidSEA educator Kit McCormick. “We’ve beenwriting our legislators and we’ve been going toOlympia and it’s time to take a bigger step.”“We’re fed up,” said Socialist Alternative andSEA member Justin Vinson. “Educators havebeen fighting to defend our schools and now wehave Trump and Betsy DeVos setting their sightson major education cuts. But there is a largerprinciple at stake here as well, with theadministration going after our immigrant sistersand brothers, women, Muslims and LGBTQpeople. An injury to one is an injury to all.”

It’s Not Just About Trump : In Illinois, SEA’ssister organization, the Chicago Teachers Union(CTU), is also weighing whether to hold a one-day strike on May Day in protest against ongoing,brutal cuts to the public education. Other unionsaround the country, such as the Minnesota NursesAssociation, have also passed resolutions in favorof action on May Day. It is still too early to sayhow much this momentum for strike action willcontinue to grow, but the need to fight backagainst Trump is a clear and present danger. Wemust recognize that our movement will notcontinuously grow in a straight line that there willbe setbacks also. And while we will not defeatTrump in one day, we should build for thebroadest and most powerful possible actions onMay 1 to take our struggle to another level. Goingforward, we need to engage broader and broadersections of working people and youth to resistTrump and the Billionaire Class. We can do so byfighting for positive changes that can make a realdifference in people’s day to day lives. Withhealthcare under attack, we must not only defendagainst the Republican plan, but fight boldly forMedicare for all. With workers and union rightsunder attack, we must not only oppose right-to-

work-for-less legislation, but demand a federal$15 minimum wage. And it’s not only about onepresident or one political party. Trump wasassisted in his election victory by the anger ofworking and middle class people at being sold outover decades by the brutal, bipartisan neoliberalpolicies. We need to build a new political partythat will fight for socialist policies, and declare itsindependence from corporate money and power.Because our fight is not only with Trump, it is withthe broken system of capitalism, which is theunderlying basis for this dangerous rise of rightpopulism and vicious attacks on working people.On May 1, we will strike back.

May 1 & Beyond: Toward a Summerof Resistance :

We can defeat Trump’s agenda. But to doso we will need to build a powerful movementthat both stands up against his right wing policies,and fights for positive change for working peopleand all those under attack. No ban, no wall, no raids! Not one more

deportation. For real sanctuary cities. Stop Trump and Ryan’s assault on

healthcare. Defend Medicaid and PlannedParenthood.

Defeat Trump’s vicious anti-working classbudget. No cuts to public education, masstransit, or affordable housing.

We need Medicare for all, with free andaccessible reproductive care.

No to Trump’s military build-up. Stop the Republican war on the labor

movement. No right-to-work-for-lesslegislation.

Stop the war on the environment! For amassive expansion of renewable energy.

Defend the right to protest. Pass a federal $15 minimum wage. Tax the rich! Fully fund human services. Free college for all. Cancel student debt. Black Lives Matter! End the mass

incarceration state(Source: Workers’ Movement | Socialist

Alternative - https://www.socialistalternative.org/category/workers-movement/ - ... March 24,2017 ... build for mass protests and strikes acrossthe country on May 1.- SA Newspaper PublishedOn March 24, 2017 | By Kshama Sawant |#ResistTrump, Workers’ Movement)

22 Workers’Voice

According to a study paper report focused inthe journal ‘Nature’ as published in ‘The Times ofIndia’ dated 31st March, 2017, quoting the reportpublished by ‘The Independent’ - globalizationcauses lakhs of air pollution death every year. Thereport published with the headline ‘Globalisa-tion kills lakhs every year’ is as under:

“Globalisation has become, in the eyes ofsome, the epitome of everything that’s wrong withthe world, allowing multinational corporations todrive down wages, run roughshod over workersrights and even challenge democracy itself.

But an international team of scientists hasnow laid another alleged crime at its door – thepremature deaths of more than 7,50,000 people.They found that 4,11,100 people died in 2007after breathing in fine particles of air pollution,known as PM2.5, which were carried on the windfrom one region to another. But they also conclu-ded that PM2.5 resulting from goods and servicesproduced in one part of the world then transportedor used in another had caused 7,62,400 people todie earlier than they otherwise might.

The study paper said “Millions of people dieevery year from diseases caused by exposure tooutdoor air pollution. Some studies have estimatedpremature mortality related to local sources of airpollution, but local air quality can also be affectedby atmospheric transport of pollution from distantsources. International trade is contributing to theglobalization of emission and pollution as a resultof the production of goods (and their associatedemission) in one region for consumption inanother region. Results reveal that the trans-boundary health impacts of PM2.5 pollutionassociated with international trade are greater thanthose associated with long-distant atmosphericpollutant transport. The paper also noted atendency for polluting industries to move to partsof the world with less strict environmental rulesforcing politicians to weigh the importance ofattracting inward investment and have clean air tobreathe”.

Despite claim of growth, insecurity ofjobs and earning aggravates in India

“…..No more than 16.5% of workers earn aregular wage or salary, according to the Fourth

Annual Employment & Unemployment report(2013-14), the latest available data. In anotherestimate made in the same report, three in fourhouseholds (78%) had no one earning a regularwage or salary.

On the other hand, the proportion of casuallabourers in the workforce is considerable – 30.9%and growing. Contract and casual work have beengrowing at the expense of regular employment. Inmore than a decade, between 1999 and 2010, theshare of contract workers in total organisedemployment rose from 10.5 to 25.6% – and theshare of directly employed workers fell from 68.3to 52.4% in the same period. Even regular workerswere appointed increasingly on short-termcontracts, with little or no social security. This ishow the increasing informality in the organisedlabour market has blurred distinctions betweenformal and informal labour. The informal sectorgenerates around 50% of India’s GDP. It employsmore than 90% of country’s workforce. The totalfigure for formal and informal employment in theunorganised sector is 82.7%. Of the currentworkforce of around 475 million, around 400million, considerably larger than the population ofthe US, are employed with little job security or anyformal protection of the labour law regime.

Contrary to the promises of successivegovernments to generate more employmentopportunities, the reality has been moreuncertainty, fewer jobs and even less security. Inthe decade 1999-2000 to 2009-10, while GDPgrowth was reportedly accelerated to 7.52% perannum, employment growth stayed at just 1.5%,less than the 2% annual employment growth rateseen over the four decades starting 1972-73.

Job contracts with formal agreements andlegal responsibilities (at least on paper) arebecoming increasingly rare: About 93% of casualworkers and even 68.4% of contract workers donot have any job contracts, according to agovernment report. Even among more formalwage/salaried employees, about 66% are reportedto be working without a written job contract.

Beyond the realms of the formal/legal, it is theever-presence of extra-legal modes of mobilisationand disciplining (harnessing caste, kinship or

Facts & Figure :—‘Globalisation kills lakhs every year

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community relations) that has received further fillipwith the larger trend towards informalisation andcasualisation of workforce.

This refers to a workforce which is without anysocial security and employment benefits andwhose labour rights (such as maternity benefits,paid annual or sick leave, overtime pay, right tounionise, etc.) are being diluted over the years inthe name of “reforms”.

The brunt of this casualisation is borne by themost oppressed sections of society. ….. Whatexplains this marginal decline of casual workersamong SCs and STs in urban areas? The NationalSample Survey data show a spike in rural-urbanmigration stream from 18.8 to 19.5% between1999-2000 and 2007-2008. However, recentstudies show a decline in the contribution ofmigration to urban population growth. This canpossibly be explained by the argument thatmigrant workers are finding it difficult to get atoehold in cities.

Who, then, is filling the gap between the risingranks of rural destitute and the faltering ranks ofpermanent migrants to the cities? They are theseasonal or circulatory labour migrants whoremain virtually invisibilised, informalised andunenumerated – the footloose migrants who maketheir ends meet by adding up both their seasonalremittances and the income from the shrinkingagricultural sector.

An estimated 12.24 million people areseeking work for two to six months as per NationalSample Survey Office (NSSO) data. Of these, 77%are resident in rural areas and more than two-thirdsmigrated to urban areas. Some estimates show thatabout 35-40 million labourers – almost half thenumber of casual labourers outside agriculture –could be seasonal migrants. A peep into the stateof agriculture would complete the picture. Today,

over 80% of the total land holdings belong tomarginal farmers who own less than one hectare,according to the NSSO. STs are over-representedamong the landless, and SCs among marginallandowners. Considering 75% of all migrants comefrom marginal landowning households, one canestimate how they overwhelmingly would be fromthe most marginalised sections of society.

So, the destitution in the countryside, thecasualisation of labour and the erosion of theirlabour rights are not just the results of a flawedmodel of development. This neoliberal model ofdevelopment is also made possible by this despairin the countryside and increasing informalisationof labour. The burden of this “growth”, as isevident, falls on the most disadvantaged.

The trend is that of “vulnerabilisation of thelabour markets”, as G. Vijay, an assistant professorat the School of Economics University ofHyderabad, calls it, wherein vulnerable sections ofthe labour force are consciously chosen as theywould be materially and socially compelled toaccept greater deprivation with least resistance tothe dehumanising conditions of informalisation.Till this is acknowledged and addressed at itsfundamentals, ….. millions ….. will continue toshuttle between the distressed countryside and theunwelcoming megacities.

(Sources: Job Security in India Falls Even asGDP Continues to Rise - Only 16.5% of workersin India earn a regular wage. - The Wire https://thewire.in/119161/job-security-falls-gdp-rises/ -By Vivek Mishra and Anirban Bhattacharya on 27/03/2017, GDP up but job security falls, only 16%earn regular wage ...economictimes.indiatimes.com & GDP Grows But Job Security Falls: Only16% Indians Earn Regular ... https://www.bloombergquint.com/; IndiaSpend@IndiaSpend - March 25, 2017)

[This column of ‘Workers’ Voice’ invites from thereaders - their views, valuable opinions and suggestions asalso constructive criticism regarding the magazine to make itmore attractive and useful for strengthening the working classmovements. They are requested to send their views in briefon the issues affecting them addressed to “The EdtiorialDesk”, Workers’ Voice. For views and observationsexpressed in the letter, The Editorial Desk is not responsible]

The Editor, Workers’ Voice,I am a regular reader of your esteemed

journal. I appreciate your sincere and dedicated

efforts to inspire the workers to build upuncompromising protracted workers movement inour country conducive to change of this social

24 Workers’Voice

Casual Bank workers rally atLucknow

Under the auspicious of All India UCO BankEmployees Unity Forum, hundreds of casualworkers engaged in its various branches staged ademonstration before their regional headquarterat Lucknow on 10th April 2017. They demandedin the main – their regularization and otherbenefits so also the legitimate minimum wage.Apart from the representatives of the workersfrom UP, Bihar and other states, All Indiapresident and General Secretary of All India BankEmployees Unity Forum (AIBEUF), Comrades J.Raymandal and Vijay Pal Singh respectivelyaddressed the gathering.

World Health Day Observed in DelhiOn the occasion of observance of the World

Health Day, a seminar was organized by NationalPublic Health Alliance (NPHA), Delhi StateCommittee at the G.B. Panth HospitalAuditorium on 7th April 2017. Around 250 publichealth employees from various hospitals andservices including a good number of public healthsector officers attended the seminar. The topic ofthe seminar was – Role and Responsibilities of

Public Health Sector and its employees to ensure“HEALTH FOR ALL” at the earliest. According tothe report received off late, the seminar createdan enthusiasm among the health employees tomobilize themselves effectively and consciouslydischarge their role in all directions.

AIUTUC stands in solidarity with PortEmployees Struggle

In view of proposed All India Strike of elevenmajor ports on 19th April 2017, AIUTUC GeneralSecretary Comrade Sankar Saha in a pressstatement issued on 15th April, 2017 urged theport and dock employees of eleven major portsirrespective of affiliation to continue their struggleto force the BJP led central government to refrainfrom amending “MAJOR PORT TRUST ACT,1963” and replace the same by the “MAJORPORT AUTHORITY ACT, 2017”. He alsoreminded the workers of the role played by theCongress led UPA government and the BJPgovernment of 1999. He observed that thepresent government’s move is not only theextension of the previous government’s role in thedismantling of the centralized core sector but alsoprivatizing the same in various ways.

order. Very eagerly I wait to have the copy ofevery issue of your periodical to know somethingmore and new on workers movement in India asalso in abroad. You also invite the readers’advices, opinions, experiences of their daily lifestruggles in domestic, social as also of workplaces. As such, I convey my following request toyou.

The historic May Day is approaching. Fromprevious some articles and writings I have cometo know that your struggling organization -AIUTUC which was earlier known as UTUC, and

thereafter for certain time as UTUC, Lenin Sarani,was born on this glorious historic day of 1949 i.e.on 1st of May, 1949. In this connection I wouldrequest you to publish a suitable article depictingthe emergence of AIUTUC in course of the historyof Indian Trade Union Movement. It willimmensely help many like myself who takeinterest in the movements of Indian working classto know the true picture of the Labour movementof our country.

With warm greetings,Sainik, Kolkata

Latest Despatch :-

Maruti Suzuki workers at the Manesar rally on 23.3.2017 in protest of court verdict for life imprisonment of 13

leading workers and 5 years rigorous imprisonment to 4 other workers of Maruti-Suzuki Plant of Manesar, Gurgaon

As a part of All India protest call given by Central Trade Unions in solidarity to Maruti-Suzuki workers in their

movement against the life imprisonment of 13 workers and 5 years rigorous imprisonment to 4 other workers

of Maruti-Suzuki Plant of Manesar, Gurgaon there was a gathering of thousands of workers at Kamala Nehru

park, in Delhi on 5th April, 2017.

Editor in Chief : Krishna Chakraborty. Edited, printed and published by Sankar Saha, General Secretary, AIUTUC,All India Committee, 77/2/1, Lenin Sarani, Kolkata 700013. Printed at : Ganadabi Printers & Publishers Pvt. Ltd.,52B, Indian Mirror Street, Kolkata 700013. Phone: 033-2265-9085 Email ID: workersvoice2016@gmail.com

Concluding part of the statement of August Spies, one of the martyrs of the

May Day Movement 1886 made before the trial court.

On 1 May, 1890, European Spocialist Parties organized May Day Demonstrations and rallies in Industrialst

cities of Germany, France, Belgium etc. in befitting manner. The above is the photo of one of them.