While giving judgement on the issue of termination of Tamilnadu state government employees, the Supreme Court rejected the very right of government employees to go on strike. All trade unions, progressive and democratic organizations and most constitutional experts criticized the judgement and labelled it unconstitutional, illegal, immoral and unjust. The right to strike is an inalienable part of workers’ right to organize and it is also upheld by the ILO Charter. Our country is one of the founding members of the same.

The Supreme Court judgement is part of the all around attack by the ruling classes on the workers’ rights and facilities. The rights were won by the Indian working class after many struggles and with many sacrifices. Today the ruling class wants to finish off these rights and the judiciary is coming forward to ensure this end. The ban on bandhs by the Kerala High Court, the total ban on strikes and demonstrations by hospital employees by Delhi High Court, the ban on processions on weekdays by Calcutta High Court, and the Supreme Court’s negation of government employees’ right to strike are all steps in his direction. The aim is to crush workers’ organizations, to rend the right to jobs and to attack their wages and do away with all facilities. This is being done to enhance the super-profits of MNCs and comprador big bourgeoisie, and to attract imperialist investments by offering the lure of cheap labour in India.

A broad based and militant struggle is definitely needed against this latest attack by the Supreme Court on workers’ rights. It is natural for the working class to expect that the various trade union centres in the country will play a leading role in developing this struggle. It is certain that such a struggle will be widely supported by the common people also.

In this process a Convention was organized by the Central trade unions (TUs) on 26^th September, 2003 at V.P. House in New Delhi on the Right to Strike. Independent and Central TUs and Confederations participated. A day earlier, on 25^th September, Central government and state government employees held a Convention at Mavlankar Hall in New Delhi in which it was decided to hold a one-day strike at the end of this year against the Supreme Court judgement.

The Supreme Court judgement was duly condemned on 26^th September at the TU Convention, but a dilly dallying approach was adopted towards struggle against the same. Addressing the Convention, Com. D.V. Krishna, General Secretary of IFTU, called for extending support to the strike call issued by the organizations representing state and Central government employees, and suggested that the strike should be held as early as possible.

INTUC has been held responsible for the Convention not supporting the strike call and for scuttling it till the Budget session of Parliament. According to Com. D.V. Krishna, “The Central TUs should not entertain illusions about INTUC that it will agree to the strike call even during the Budget session. It is only a part of delaying tactic of INTUC to completely kill the issue ultimately and other organizations should not fall prey to the same. IFTU calls on all trade unions which are seriously determined to build a broad based, militant and decisive struggle on the right to strike, to come forward for a one-day strike and to widely organize workers for the same.”

It is definitely necessary to make the working class struggle broad based but to bypass the struggle in the name of broad basing is not in the interests of the working class and the interests of the working class cannot be defended in this manner. Com. D.V. Krishna said, “We must effect broad based unity of the workers in the course of struggle against the anti-worker policies, but this unity must be for advancing struggle and not for weakening it.”

Continual attacks have taken place on workers’ rights in the past NEP years. All ruling class parties are supporters of NEP though some of them want these anti-national, anti-people policies to be given a ‘human face’. The Congress and the BJP are the main implementers of these policies. INTUC and BMS, the trade unions led by them, take a double-faced position with regard to these policies. On the one hand, through these TUs the BJP and Congress try to retain their base among the workers by talking of opposing these policies, on the other, they use them to finish off struggles against these policies. These two unions did not support the All-India Strike of May 2002.

Other trade unions are killing the struggle itself in the name of taking INTUC and BMS along. The question is of taking all trade union centres along in the struggle against attacks on working class, not of abandoning struggle in the name of taking everyone along. The attitude of other TUs towards these anti-struggle TUs is putting a question mark on their own attitude towards struggles.

While the Central TUs are ready to go to any extent to placate BMS and INTUC, they are extremely sectarian towards the revolutionary trade union centre, IFTU. According to Com. D.V. Krishna, “IFTU of its own took initiative to write to Central TUs proposing to join them in all agitational programmes. The Central TUs called IFTU to two meetings and issued a joint press statement including IFTU with regard to the 26^th September Convention. All of a sudden, in the meeting preceding the 26^th September Convention, AITUC and HMS took objection to allowing IFTU as a co-sponsor. They insisted that IFTU should be allowed to be an invitee only. It is definite that their position is not in the interests of establishing a broad based, fighting unity of workers.”

The argument of these unions was that only those trade union centres recognized by the Central Govt. should be among the co-sponsors. This argument is neither based on facts, nor is it in the interest of developing struggle. As D.V. Krishna pointed out “BMS and INTUC are government recognized trade unions. But they are in total agreement with the policies of the ruling classes viz., with the policies of liberalization, globalization and privatization. They do not want to launch any struggle of the workers against the policies of the government. Then how can recognition be a criteria?” The only criterion, he suggested, should be opposition through struggle of the attacks of the ruling class on the workers. “All such trade union centres should be participants in the leadership of the struggle.”

Truly the current attacks by the ruling classes on the working class and other toiling masses are very brutal and massive. Alongwith, the organized and militant struggle which should be the response of the working class to these onslaughts, is very weak. The Indian working class will have to face this fact and understand it, and will have to strengthen the struggle against these attacks. According to Com. D.V. Krishna, “IFTU is committed to building up such a struggle and is ready to participate in struggles against the attacks along with other trade union organizations.”