Dear Comrades,
West
Bengal to make the proposed strike a big success. National and
state leaders of all central trade unions attended the convention.
Bihar
and Tamilnadu. All these conventions were well attended, with national and
state level trade union leaders addressing them.
Working Class Prepares for Historic
General Strike
HISTORIC
The decision to go
on a day’s strike, as is well known, was taken in a national convention of
central trade unions and industrial federations in New
Delhi India
came to a joint platform for the first time in the history of independent India
This call was fully
endorsed by independent federations of those working in various sectors, like
state and central government employees and teachers, bank and insurance
employees, defence production, telecommunication, petroleum and natural gas,
electricity employees etc.
All these
organisations began vigorous preparations during December 2011. Joint meetings
and campaigns began by the end of that month.
Central leaders of
all trade union organisations went to various state centres and also attended
sectoral meetings at the national level in order to prepare for the strike.
A meeting at Mumbai
on December 30 saw the national and also state level leaders of central trade
unions planning joint initiatives. When approached, leaders of Bharatiya Kamgar
Sena also participated. Various sections of employees and workers joined the
meeting.
STATE
LEVEL
The series of state level conventions began with a successful and
massive convention in Hyderabad
Dr Sanjeeva Reddy (president, INTUC), B N Rai (general secretary, BMS),
Gurudas Dasgupta (general secretary, AITUC), Tapan Sen (general secretary,
CITU) and other central leaders along with state leaders addressed the
convention. Leaders of the Telugunadu Trade Union Council (TNTUC) also attended.
In Kerala, a massive convention was organised on January 17, in which 18
organisations, central trade unions and various state level organisations, were
represented. Addressing the convention, state leaders of these organisations
approved a detailed programme of campaigns all over the state, and also
sectoral programmes. These included district conventions, dharnas, vehicle jathas
etc.
A mass meeting at Kochi
Reports received from various states showed that district and regional
or local level conventions were also being organised in every part of the
country, and that workers from various unions are participating therein with
much enthusiasm.
SECTORAL
One important development is that huge preparations had been going on at
sectoral level.Bangalore
A national convention of workers of oil and natural gas PSUs was held in
Delhi
All the five federations in the port and dock sector, including those led
by the HMS, CITU, INTUC and AITUC, issued a joint statement. Joint preparations
for the success of the February 28 strike followed.
Leaders of national federations in public as well as private road
transport sectors met at New Delhi
In the defence production sector, AIDEF, INTUC and BMS affiliated
federations were jointly organising campaigns all over the country for the
success of the strike.
In the telecom sector, all the workers’ and employees’ unions including
the BSNLEU, NFTE and FNTO came together to plan countrywide campaigns to make
the strike complete.
Sectoral conventions and meetings were also held in various states. In
Kerala, a massive convention of unions in central and state PSUs was held at Kochi
As has been the practice, all unions in the banking and insurance sector
will participate in the strike en masse. Countrywide campaign meetings were
held in these sectors.
Held at Hissar in December, the national conference of the All India
State Government Employees’ Federation, the largest organisation of state
government employees in the country, unanimously decided to participate in the
strike. Its leadership at all levels has been making all necessary preparations
for a successful strike.
The Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers,
representing all sections of central government employees including postal
employees, has also called for turning the strike into a massive action of
protest. The confederation leadership chalked out a countrywide tour programme
for the campaign to ensure that the message and demands of the strike were taken
down to the central government employees at all levels.
The
recent united struggle of postal employees against the threat of closure of RMS
and post offices in the country achieved success when the government was forced
to give a written assurance not to close any office for the next three years at
least, due to which the proposed indefinite strike was withdrawn. Now the
postal employees’ unions are fully involved in preparations for the success of
the February 28 all-India general strike. Leaderships of the NFPE, FNPO and GDS
unions jointly went on a countrywide campaign among the postal employees to
ensure complete strike in the postal department.
A meeting of unions in the Southern Railway, including the DREU (CITU),
SRES (INTUC), DRKS (BMS), AISMA, AILRSA, SRLU, SREF and others, conducted a
campaign in the divisional headquarters in the zone and also among the
passengers to explain the demands. Demonstrations will be held in all the
divisional centres on February 28, and all workers will wear badges on the day.
VIGOROUS CITU
After a meeting of the CITU secretariat, all state committees of the
CITU held meetings and planned extensive campaigns by unions and committees.
State level federations and unions in the unorganised and organised sectors are
preparing well for the strike.
Various all-India federations and all-India coordination committees met
and directed their state committees or affiliates of the federation to go in
for extensive campaigns.
The All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers, Electricity
Employees Federation of India, LIC Agents Organisation of India, All India Road
Transport Workers Federation and others have held national, zonal and state
level meetings.
CITU secretariat members at the centre have been attending various
meetings, conventions and seminars in connection with the strike.
The CITU centre bought out a booklet on the strike in English and Hindi,
and various state committees published the same in local languages. In this
regard, the Andhra Pradesh unit of the CITU made an unprecedented effort of
publishing 2.56 lakh copies of the booklet in Telugu. The booklet was also
published in Bengali, Oriya, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada in large numbers.
Apart from posters, millions of handbills have already been circulated
and more are being brought out. Wall writings are going on in various parts of
the country.
Sectoral rallies, like that of the brick kiln workers in Hissar
(Haryana), are also being planned by state committees.
