 You are watching People's Dispatch. We are reporting from New Delhi, India, talking about the national strike, which is coming up on March 28 and 29. We are sitting here at BTR Bhawan, which is a very relevant place to discuss this, as this is where a lot of the preparations of the upcoming strike are going on. This is the headquarters of C2, the center of Indian trade unions, which is one of the biggest trade unions in India. And it's one of the unions which has given the call for this strike. It's the building BTR Bhawan is named after B.T. Ranadeva, who himself was one of the tallest communist trade union leaders. And he played a central role, major role in some very important struggles of textile workers, railway workers. He was the president of C2. He was elected the president in the first conference. And today we are joined by A.R. Sindhu, who is the national secretary of C2 to discuss about this upcoming strike. So thank you for joining us. To start off, can you tell us about the preparations which are ongoing of this strike and you know the scale of this strike, what all workers from what all sectors are going to be participating and what all actions are planned for this for these two days. So this is going to be the one of the biggest ever strikes after independence. So the number was in 2020, the general strike, it was participated by 250 million people. So this will be more than that because the largest platform of the farmers organization, the Sanyukta Kisan Morcha, which led the historic farmers movement, that also has given a call for support as a rural band. So there the numbers will be more. And talking about the sectors, it will cover all the sectors of the working people from the government sector, the government employees, then the finance sector, the bank, insurance and the state government employees. And also the organized industry and also the participation of the unorganized sector workers. Like means including the street vendors and the domestic workers, every sector of the working class and also the traditional industries, they will all be part of the strike. So the people in the unorganized sector will be also closing down their work and participating in the mobilizations, which is going to be having the large scale road blocks and the rail blocks, blockades, etc. So and the preparations are in full swing and the strike notices has been issued when even including the unorganized sectors workers, they have also issued the strike notices and the straight corner meetings and the public meetings, everything is going on to reach out to the workers. And this time that the working class is making it a particular point that they will reach out to the common people also. So the mass level campaign, even door-to-door campaign, house-to-house campaign also is in full swing. Right. And you know going to the demands, of course there are a lot of demands which are there for this strike, since it is as you said covering so many sectors of workers, but focusing on some major ones in particular, one demand is to increase the budget for the Rural Employment Guarantee Act and also to have an Urban Employment Guarantee Act. Can you tell us about this demand? Why is this being raised? Unemployment is one of the biggest issues the country is facing as of now. Even just before pandemic it was the highest in the last 45 years. So now after the pandemic because closing down of many of the small-scale industries and all the unemployment rate has increased and there are estimates about 40 million jobs were lost during that period. And in the unemployment among the educated youth is more than 60%. So these startling numbers of unemployment and the rural employment is declined to the lowest since independence. So this is a situation where there should be the government's intervention and the only legal guarantee act that is Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act which is not even for the individuals. It is for a household 100 days only. So our demand is that particularly at this point because the country is facing an economic crisis also. So because it's a crisis related to the purchasing power of the people. So even for managing that crisis we need to get the people work and the purchasing power should be brought back. So there the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act that scheme. So there the government is drastically cutting down the allocations for that in the last few budgets and even during the pandemic that budget allocation has been cut. That last budget itself 23,000 crores it was being cut. So that is one of the demands at least to bring back to that and even the back wages are also pending. The last two years there was wages to be paid for the work which is already being done and now our demand is that it should be for the individuals and it should be for 200 days at least and the there should be a minimum wage paid for the workers and also it should be expanded to the urban areas. That is one of the basic demands. And along with that there is a demand of filling up of the vacancies which is already existing in the government sectors. It means more than 2 million vacancies are there in the government and public sector itself. So that has to be immediately filled. That is also one of the demands. Right. So we see that on the one hand the budget for these employment acts which is needed that's being cut but on the other privatization is going on in full swing. Through this national monetization pipeline we see the government is selling off public assets. Some very profitable public sector companies are being sold off to private hands and that too at pretty cheap rates that like the recent one we saw was Air India, the national airlines which was sold off to the Tata Group. So this is also one of the demands in the charter. Can you tell us about this? Yeah, this has been started even since the starting of the neoliberal policies but they could not do much. So the national monetization pipeline which they started is that because of this entire crisis, economic crisis and all whatever the government was even planning to sell it off for cheap rates that was not also being done. Now the national monetization pipeline they are intending that they are just handing over that assets to the private sector and asking them that whatever you run this business and when something if at all is there that you can pay back and for that purchase also the government is providing them loads. So this means totally handing over the entire money to the private sector and some of these companies which is the basically they are the institutions which is giving the government's income. So including the LIC which is giving means it's 95% of the income is going to the government exchequer. So that this is kind of it's just handing over the country to the private and the latest of that even recently after the strike notices were issued the latest is that the land monetization. So whatever the line because the government could not pass the law on the land acquisition for the private owners. So now the government is handing over the government owned or the public sector owned land to the private parties. So they have formed a government department itself for handing over the land to the private sector. So and some of the including the defense some of the crucial sectors are being handed over or they have put on sale. So and even during the pandemic the public sector which has served the country that has served even like a steel authority of India which has provided the entire oxygen where there was a crisis and for running it over time and more than 700 of the workers have sacrificed their life working during the pandemic that all has been sold out. And the employment there is a ban on recruitment and it is total contract registration even in the public sector what is left over. So against this selling of the national assets there is a big discontent among the people also like the railways the public transport is going to cost more the public this energy sector that also is so this is all going to have the price rise and it's going to be terrible for the people. So it's a people's demands to save the public sector for the country that is one of the major demands. And you know one of the main reasons the government is giving one of the being justifications of the government behind this privatization is that the private companies will be able to provide more jobs so they will be able to do the job the work better more efficiently that's what the government says but do we see that happening is there any rise in you know employment or any kind of benefits to the people. There is no statistics to substantiate that kind of an argument and even that you can see that even the profiteering also so that you can see that whatever companies they are selling out it is not nothing means to do with any profit because that is the Maharatna company what we call that which is giving the most means income to the government also and doing the service at the same time to the people and regarding the private sector there is no job created during the last period and even whatever they are calling talking about the investment and all it is on coming only on the financial means taking over of the national assets that way making money that's the only thing which is how it is kind of a real estate business which is the investment also is coming not in the manufacturing or anywhere and there also there but even the kind of employment which is being created that also is having no minimum wages sorry it is all means higher unfair system the quality also has been deteriorated but actual also there is no increase in the employment is created by the private sector right and linked to this is I think the labor codes which again are creating more precarious jobs for the people so these labor codes are also being opposed which have these four labor codes which have been put in place in place of I think around 30 labor laws which were there in the country before that's what the government is trying to do and which is going to really impact the social security of the workers so can you tell us about the opposition to the labor codes you see the basic rights are all being taken away you can see that they ate our work and now the trade union movement with the all the technological advances and all the trade union movement is demanding for this means that it is a 35 hour our working week so that means a reduction of work working hours that is the demand given the technological advances and all but now the government want to increase the working hours no more rate of work it's already legally now means without even overtime up to 12 hours or so and even the working week also that has been increased tremendously so even up to from 60 hours to 100 hours that can be that is the low which is coming and then the minimum wages there is no criteria for the minimum wages as in the low so but the problem is that even in this the change which they have made that even some of these provisions are in there but it's not applicable anywhere so because you are taking away by the definition of the workplace which is means coming under the labor laws that has a like number of the workers in a particular unit that it has been increased that means 70 percent of the organized sector industries will be out of the purview of the labor laws so that is one of the things and then the freedom of association that is the basic right of any democracy that is a and that is also being done away with the unionization not even registering a trade union will be impossible and giving a means going for a strike become illegal old cases because if at the second you serve and strike notice that second itself you have to consider it as their legal process means the negotiation process have started so that means during that process you cannot go away strike means if you service strike notice you cannot go for a strike that is the change which is made in the law it's all ridiculous things and in addition to that they are bringing in draconian laws like the essential defense service ordinance means that is banning all kinds of struggle activities not even to have meetings so it is not about the defense service and they can even it is it is brought for the stopping of the defense sector strike this e can be applicable to anything related to the means the defense production man means transport sector because the defense production these equipments will be transported the trans it can be applicable to transport sector steel sector any sector it can be applicable to so that they are even to having a gate meeting will be illegal and you will be charged with draconian acts like ua pa and all that can be there that can be arrested and without going for a trial also you can be put on jail so these kinds of draconian acts also in addition to the labor courts it's they are bringing so that means there won't be any democratic rights any kind of human rights including the it over work which will not be there if these laws are implemented that courts have been passed but as of now the because of the large scale kind of struggles of the working people till now they have put on hold that these laws so to make them we draw like the farm blows that that is why one of the demands that your total withdrawal of these labor courts and the essential defense service ordinance and what will be the impact of all these changes on women workers because we are seeing that women's workforce participation rate has been falling particularly in light of the pandemic it has been drastically hit so all these changes you know the fall in the budget of the rural rural employment guarantee act the privatization then these labor courts what impact will these all of this have on women you can see that the entire means almost means that the disproportionate burden of this pandemic and also the economic crisis has been put on the shoulders of the women workers so your participation rate of the women workers is drastically came down in even before the pandemic it was there and during the pandemic it has come down up to 15 percent so that doesn't mean that 85 percent of the women are sitting idle they are doing just some kind of precarious jobs just to survey and that is also that they never counted in the kind of GDP and all that is the kind of paid work which they were doing earlier that has been shifted to unpaid kind of work that is what happened that it's not that they are not working or they are sitting idle and this is there in the services and this is there in even the production sector everywhere so that is the burden of the pandemic management one big chunk is that the service sector workers particularly the government service that is the scheme workers is the Anganwadi Asha workers and all they were managing the pandemic without getting any remuneration additional remuneration doing 24-hour duty and all without even the security safety measures means many hundreds have died also so that pandemic management was there totally on the shoulders of the women workers and even in the production sector and even in the agrarian sector you can see this is what is happening so and the labor laws also whatever the minimum kind of protection legislation which were there earlier like even the maternity benefit and all now that won't be applicable to anybody so because the workplace definition has totally been changed and the scheme workers and the domestic workers they are not come covered under any of the labor laws as well so these all these policies will be adversely affecting the women and the positive thing is that they are coming up means in large numbers and they are more visible means many of the most of the mobilization the women workers are sometimes more than 60 percent in the mobilizations of the trade unions that's also positive thing because they are the most affected and now they are realizing and about these the demands of one of the demands is the recognition of these at least to start with the government employed the scheme workers as workers and minimum wages and the social security for them and others these domestic workers and even the street vendors like that where women are there in large numbers so there the recognition and minimum wages that are the demands and the people are also in this few process of the struggles get means becoming conscious about that and coming out in large numbers in the struggles and can you tell us about the other demands which we have not discussed so far the demands this means the one after this after the pandemic all this during the pandemic these strikes the last strike it is 26 November which was along with that historic farmer struggle and now this strike is one the total failure of the government to manage the pandemic the basic services for the people that that is one of the demands this the price rise this huge price is there to arrest price rise and having the basic amenities basic food and the health and education for everybody that is one of the major demands that is an income support for all the families which is not non tax paying families 7500 rupees per month and also for the ration all the families you know tax paying families these are the basic and health for all the the basic health infrastructure has totally failed even during the pandemic there is no investment in that health infrastructure rather the government is going for privatization of the health sector and the education also during the pandemic this digitization and all 80 percent of the children in the rural India means totally that they are out of education now so to manage that there need to be more investment and how more infrastructure these are all the demands and the arresting the price rise then there are other demands of course like this minimum wages and implementation the freedom of association then the service sector related demands for the already existing schemes like ESIPF and having that and the pension scheme of the workers that there was a drastic change in the pension scheme so that has been totally means a paid pension they have shifted to the the old pension scheme which was more means logical and pro working class that was being totally shifted that that now there is a demand of having that old pension scheme back so these are other kinds of demands apart from these things right and one last question you know many of these demands are not being raised for the first time they have come up in various past struggles so what has been the response of the government to all of these so far and what do you think what do you expect will you know come of this strike and then what kind of actions do you think the unions and the workers will have to plan ahead you see one more thing which I missed that is the demand for the minimum support price and the farmers demands that is also one of the major demands because the repealing of the acts were one of the demands even in the last strike but this and the minimum support for price and the social security for the farmers as well as for the agriculture labour that is also demand of this strike but the response as you can see that even the recent move by the government is taking away all the social security and taking away all the labour labour distillation no employment guarantee all these things it is going there just opposite way but at the same time due to the continuous struggles and the pressure built up there there is that as I earlier mentioned the electricity privatisation recently when they have brought they have to take it they took it back they had to because of there was a strike of the electricity employees and in the banking sector also they are resisting and the insurance sector that is also they are all resisting during the last 30 years of neoliberal period there was more than 60 strikes by the bank employees so that means there is huge resistance and the public sector also you see that even though they are even bringing this monetisation pipeline they could not go through because these there are continuous strikes in each and every sector sector wise also so many struggles and strikes are going on so the public sector employees could resist to a great extent the privatisation and with the help of the people in many of the states the electricity in UP in during this period in Haryana they try to bring in the privatisation of electricity and all they could all resist the working class with the help of the people and the transport sector also the public transport or privatisation also they could resist and even now you see that during this last two three months because these large struggles were going on some of the state government that like the Rajasthan government they are decided to bring back the old pension scheme and some of the other governments are also declared that they will be bringing and then there are some of the governments already declaring that we will be regularising the contract employees that is also one of the crucial demands of the against this contract or the outsourcing system of the employment so that these are all also making impact indirectly but the policy framework has not had been changed and it has to be a political kind of pressure which has to be built and during this kind of some of the state assembly elections and all some of the declarations or withdrawal even the withdrawal from the implementation of the farm acts that also is one of that kind so because you can see that even the withdrawal of these farm acts that also with the help of the working class because the working class was totally in support and they were more visible in actions than the peasantry even if you can see or throughout the country in support of the farmers demands so that all could make up kind of impacts but the policy framework has not changed that that is where we have to and this strike and this this is a general strike so this general strike will be also having naturally it's not a negotiating kind of a strike but it's having its political impact and a larger economic impact there this significance of this particular strike is that the unity of the working class itself that various sectors organize and various trade unions are coming together and the most crucial is that the workers percent unity so that was built slowly through these years and this platforms also formed during this last few years that the farmers platforms that is the trade union platform is much older and there that is that is almost total unity in between also the bms including the rss supported bms also was a part of this platform raising this demand even now they are not denying or going against these demands they are also putting their demands although they are not part of the strike but there this unity of the peasant classes also emerged against this policy and now the worker percent unity also is slowly emerging and that is most welcoming it is that it is emerging from the ground also so that way it is going to be very significant in the coming days and there will be a polarization there is already means at the class level because this is this totally right wing government trying to have this communal polarization all kinds of money and muscle power and this communal polarization is the method they want to divide but there also these movements could make an impact in at least making these issues as national issues of unemployment of price rise and all which at least for they were forced to respond to that so the real issues are coming up and this class politics is going to determine the future of Indian politics in the coming days thank you comrades and for joining us today and providing us with these very important insights into the coming strike and that's all the time we have for today keep watching people's dispatch