Conference on "The state and rights of labour"

Lok Raj is the precondition for guaranteeing the rights of labour

The present day Indian state defends the interests of the big Indian and foreign capitalist corporations. It systematically attacks and violates the rights of all sections of the working population. This is being increasingly exposed once more today, in the conditions of the current economic crisis. The working class, as the most organised section of all the working people, has a major role to play in the struggle to establish people's rule— to establish a state which will recognise the inalienable rights of all, including the rights of workers as workers, and ensure that these are not violated under any pretext.

This was the common theme voiced by leaders and activists of the working class movement at a conference organised by Lok Raj Sangathan in Delhi on October 18, on “The state and rights of labour". Over 200 leaders and activists of the working class movement particpated in the deliberations. The Mazdoor Ekta Committee, a political organization of the working class, working for the unity of the class around its own independent agenda, co-hosted the Conference.

Delegates participating in the Conference came from Tamilnadu, West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and the National Capital Region of Delhi. Women and youth activists were present in large numbers. Organisers of plantation workers and head load workers, construction workers, garment workers, school and university teachers, leather workers, airport workers, IT workers, engineering industry workers, railway workers, journalists and press workers, financial sector workers and many other sectors of the economy participated in the Conference.

The Conference began with Bijju Nayak, Secretary of the Delhi Regional Council of LRS and leader of the Mazdoor Ekta Committee, welcoming all the delegates. S Raghavan, President of the LRS gave the inaugural address.

Shri Raghavan welcomed all the delegates to the Conference on behalf of the LRS. He opened the proceedings with a scathing attack on the imperialist conception of rights, according to which rights can be given or taken away at the whim and fancy of the class in power.

He pointed out that in the conditions of the world economic crisis, the government of India was shifting the burden of the crisis on to the backs of the working people, while using people's resources to bail out crisis hit capitalist companies and institutions. He called upon working class to unitedly oppose these attacks.

Shri Raghavan explained the reason why Lok Raj Sangathan was initiating the Conference on the State and Rights of Labour. Lok Raj Sangathan was a political organization committed to innovating a new political system and process in which the Indian people would become the real rulers. The working class of India is an important component of the Indian people, and if the working class does not take up the mission of the navnirman of India, so that political power actually vests with the people, then we will remain victims of the rule of the capitalist class and the financial oligarchy. Lok Raj Sangathan had initiated this conference as a first step in the direction of the working class asserting its rights, including the most important right to rule.

Shri Raghavan invited Shri TS Sankaran, Honorory Chairperson of the Lok Raj Sangathan, one of its founders, who has been linked closely with the struggle for rights of labour, to address the Conference. Shri Sankaran was greeted with a standing ovation.

In his address, Shri Sankaran pointed out that despite having nearly fifty laws related to labour, in fact the system has not protected the rights of workers and there are moves to further dilute the statutes in favour of owners. "The tripartite system which was held out as a panacea since 1919 and the formation of ILO has proved to be a red herring", he said.

Shri Sankaran pointed out that in the tripartite system, when the government itself was a government of the capitalists, what was the hope for workers? Echoing the thoughts of Shri Raghavan, Shri Sankaran warned the working class activists participating in Conference that in the coming days, the government of the capitalists will intensify the assault on the working class. We must prepare to unitedly resist it. At the same time, we must work for people's power, for a fundamental transformation of our society, so that the rights of the working class and all sections of people are guaranteed.

The representative of Mazdoor Ekta Committee made a power point presentation on what is the state and what constitutes the rights of workers. He pointed out that rights of workers emerge from their very being, as workers and as human beings born to society. They are not something granted by the government of the day, to be taken away the next day. They are inalienable. In India, these rights are brutally violated. The state supervises this violation with all its organs — the executive, the legislature, the judiciary and the security forces.

Dharmander, an activist of Hind Naujawan Ekta Sabha, made a presentation on the kind of changes capitalist associations in our country are demanding of the government, in order to facilitate both easy movement of capital, as well as increasing the degree of exploitation of the class. They are demanding that the ID Act be amended, so that the requirement that companies employing over 100 workers need government permission for closure, be changed by raising the limit to 1000 workers! They are demanding that women workers be allowed to work on night shifts, regardless of the impact on their health and dangers to their safety, that contract labour and 'hire and fire' be the norm in all sectors of the economy, beginning with the sector linked to exports. They are demanding that the working week be increased legally from 48 hours to 60 hours and that workers earning more than 10,000 Rupees a month not be given the rights of workmen. They are demanding that labour inspectors should not come and inspect factory premises to see if working conditions are according to the existing labour laws, but should accept the word of the capitalists. He exposed the real motive behind the demands of the capitalist associations.

Dr Matthew, leader of Kamgaar Ekta Chalwal from Mumbai, made a thought provoking presentation on the 'Changing face of the Indian working class' in the 18 years since the program of globalization through liberalization and privatization was launched. He pointed out that in this period, it is a fact that many workers in the state owned enterprises, as well as in private owned industries have lost their jobs as a result of capital moving to more profitable areas and as a result of capital's drive to increase the exploitation of the workforce. At the same time, taking the country as a whole, data showed that the working class was growing in numbers. Many new sectors of the economy, like the IT sector, BPO sector, etc. have opened up and many older sectors like airlines, road transport, health care, education, automobiles, etc. are expanding. The work force is growing younger, it has a constantly increasing proportion of women and its level of education is increasing.

Comrade Prakash Rao, spokesperson of the Communist Ghadar Party of India dealt with the developments surrounding the coordination between two private airlines, Jet Air ways and Kingfisher, the retrenchment of thousands of young workers, as well as the decision of the management to take back workers after mass protests of the workers. He pointed out that the the following lessons could be drawn. The airlines industry had decided to shift the burden of the crisis on to the backs of the workers, in order to ensure maximum profits. At the same time, they wanted a bailout from the government, in terms of unpaid fuel bills, as well as other benefits. The government has now obliged them. And these events showed the militancy of our young workers, particularly the young women. It also shows that they have no legal rights — the capitalist can throw them out anytime, according to the provisions of the existing labour laws!

Explaining the history of development in labour legislation from the 1880’s till date, Comrade Prakash Rao illustrated how they had in the main favoured the interests of the capitalist class. He called upon the activists of the working class to unite and fight for the alternative to capitalist rule, i.e. worker peasant rule. We must wage struggle for immediate and partial demands, including reforming labour laws in our favour. We must oppose every effort of the capitalists to reform labour laws in their favour. But we must not make the mistake of those who turned the struggle for worker- peasant rule into a chimera and tied the workers hand and foot to merely defensive battles for better wages and working conditions. We must use every opportunity, including the coming elections, to bring the agenda of the working class and the need for establishing worker- peasant rule to the center stage.

Others who participated in and addressed the conference included Com Girjeshwar Singh Vice President AIUTUC, Comrade SP Tiwari General Secretary of the TUCC, OP Sinha, President of the All India Workers Council, Com Anil Tyagi, member of CC, SUCI, Bal Govind Singh, leader of All India Forward Bloc (revolutionary) from Bihar, Dr. Kamala Sankaran of Delhi University, Hanuman Prasad Sharma, President of Rajasthan Shikshak Manch, Ramendra of Delhi Shramik Sangathan, Renu of Purogami Mahila Sangathan, Suryakant General Secretary of Ladaku Garment Workers Union, Mumbai, Mohd. Atik, President of Leather Workers Union, Gulab Singh of Road Transport Workers Union, Punjab, Narendar, leader of ICTU, Saravanan of Tamilnadu Workers Unity Movement, Shri Jaspal Siddhu of UNI Employees Union, Amitabh Datta, editor of 'Chintadarsh' magazine from West Bengal, Subhash Bhatnagar of Nirman Mazdoor Panchayat Sangam, Thaneswar of NFWR, KN Shukla from "Missile" and G. Singh of Agricultural Workers Union, Punjab. All the speakers made important contributions to the discussion on state and workers rights.

Sucharita, member of the All India Council of Lok Raj Sangathan summed up the proceedings. She highlighted the fact that representatives of so many workers' organisations, representing a wide cross section of workers from nearly every sector of the economy, had participated in the conference. Notable also was the unanimity in the views expressed, that the Indian state works in the service of the interests of the exploiting capitalist class, while the rights of labour, won through hard struggle, have been systematically violated in practice. The working class has been kept divided and fragmented, made to tail behind one or another of the political parties of the capitalists, restricted to fighting only for its immediate demands and prevented from coming forward with its own independent program of reorganising the economy and society in the interests of all the toilers. The urgent task facing all conscious leaders of the working class is to organise and mobilise the working masses around the political program of becoming the rulers of India. Lok Raj, or people's power is the precondition for guaranteeing the rights of labour, she concluded.