Working people in the country by now, is all set to go on a day’s historic General Strike on 28th February. All sections of workers, from every corner of the country, has been preparing for this united action for the last three months.

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, on 7th September, 2011. All the Central Trade unions, as recognised by the Govt. of India, was on a joint platform for the first time in the history of independent India to declare a day’s General Strike pressing for an agreed charter of demands,  which included policy issues as well as immediate demands of workers, both in the organised and unorganised sectors.

This call was fully endorsed by various independent federations in sectors like state and central govt. employees and teachers, bank, insurance, defence production, telecommunication, petroleum and natural gas, electricity etc.

Hectic preparations by all organisations had begun during December 2011 and joint meeting and campaigns started by the end of that month.

Central leaders of all CTUs decided to go to various state centres and also to attend sectoral meetings at national level to prepare for the strike.

A meeting at Mumbai on 30th December saw the national leaders of CTUs and also state level leaders planning joint initiatives. Leaders of Bharatiya Kamgar Sena were also approached and they also participated. Various sections of employees and workers also participated in the meeting.

State Level Conventions

State level conventions in the country began with a very successful and massive convention in Hyderabad on 5th January, with more than 2500 representatives from all over the state attending the same.

Dr. Sanjiva 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 Telugunadu Trade Union Council (TNTUC) also attended the convention.

9th January, saw an open air massive convention of all sections of workers in Kolkata, calling upon the workers of West Bengal to make the strike a big success. National and State leaders of all CTUs attended the convention.

In Kerala, a massive convention was organised on 17th January in which 18 organisations, CTUs and also various state level organisations, were represented. State leaders of these organisations addressed the convention and also approved a detailed programme of campaigns all over the state and also sectoral programmes. This included district conventions, dharnas, vehicle jathas etc.

A mass meeting on 01st February at Kochi was addressed by Central leaders including Gurudas Dasgupta (AITUC), Saji Narayan (BMS), A.K.Padmanabhan (CITU), Chandrasekhar (INTUC) and others.

State level conventions were also held in Haryana, Maharashtra, Orissa, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Bihar and Tamilnadu. All these conventions were well attended and top level CTU leaders and also state leaders addressed these conventions.

Reports received from various states show that District level and regional/local level conventions are being organised in every part of the country, where workers from various unions are participating with much enthusiasm.

SECTORAL PREPARATIONS

One important development this time is the huge preparations going on at various sectoral levels.

The convention of Central Public Sector Unions at Bangalore on 13th January was called by all the Central Trade Unions and saw participation from unions all over the country. This was the first time, such a convention was being organised and addressed by leaders of all Central Trade Unions. Among those who addressed were Dr. Sanjeeva Reddy, B.N.Rai, Gurudas Dasgupta, Tapan Sen, R.A.Mittal (HMS), M.Shanmugan (LPF) and also leaders of Joint Action Forum of Bangalore PSUs and Co-ordination Committee of Hyderabad PSUs.  

A declaration, calling for massive participation of PSU workers in the strike was adopted and is being circulated among PSU workers in large numbers.

This successful initiative has prompted various sections of PSUs like coal, petroleum and natural gas, NTPC, powergrid, telecom, coming together in conventions and issuing joint appeals signed by national leaders of industrial federations or representatives in national level negotiating bodies.

A national convention of Oil and Natural Gas PSU Workers was held in Delhi on 4th February organised by All India Petroleum Workers Federation, National Federation of Petroleum Workers and Petroleum and Gas workers Federation of India and a joint strike notice was served on the managements of all PSEs in Oil and Gas industries. Countrywide campaigns have been planned.

All the five federations in the post and dock sector, including HMS, CITU, INTUC and AITUC have issued a joint statement followed by joint preparations for the success of the strike on 28th February.

Leaders of National Federations in Road Transport Sector, both state and private transport met at New Delhi and have issued joint statement. Regional and Zonal level preparations are also made. CITU, AITUC, BMS, INTUC and AICCTU organisations have issued the joint appeal in this sector.

In the Defence Production Sector, AIDEF and INTUC and BMS affiliated federations are jointly organising campaigns all over the country for the success of the strike.

In the Telecom Sector all the unions representing employees including BSNLEU, NFTE and FNTO have come together to make the strike complete and countrywide campaigns have been planned.

Sectoral conventions and meetings are also being held in various states. In Kerala, a massive convention of unions in Central and State PSUs was held on 2nd February at Kochi, where state level campaigns were planned. Such meetings are planned in other states also.

Financial Sector

As has been the practice, all the unions in banking sector and insurance will participate in the strike en masse. Countrywide campaign meetings are being held in these sectors, to make the strike complete success.

Govt. Employers

The national conference of All India State Government Employees’ Federation, the largest organisation of state government employees in the country, held in Hisar in December, unanimously decided to participate in the strike. Its leadership at all levels in making all the 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 has chalked out a countrywide tour programme for the campaign to ensure that the message and demands of the strike are 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 at least the next three years, due to which the proposed indefinite strike was withdrawn. Now the postal employees’ unions are fully involved in the preparations for the success of the 28th February all India general strike. NFPE, FNPO and GDS union leadership have jointly decided to go on a countrywide campaign among the postal employees to ensure complete strike in the postal department.

Railway Employees

A meeting of unions in Southern railway including DREU (CITU), SRES (INTUC), DRKS (BMS), AISMA, AILRSA, SRLU, SREF and others had decided to conduct campaign meeting in Divisional HQs in the Zone and also extensive campaign among the workers and passengers on the demands. Demonstrations will be held in all the divisional centres on 28th February and all workers will wear badges on that day.

CITU Preparations

After the meeting of the All India Secretariat, all state committees of CITU have held their meetings and extensive campaigns have been planned by CITU Unions and committees. State level federations and unions in unorganised and organised sectors are preparing well for the strike.

Various All India Federations and All India Co-ordination Committees have met and directed state committees or affiliates of the federation to go for extensive campaigns.

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.

Pamphlets and Handbills

CITU centre has bought out a booklet on the strike in English and Hindi and various state committees are publishing the same in local languages. Here also, never before such efforts were made with Andhra Pradesh CITU publishing 2.56 lakhs of the booklet in Telugu. It is also being published in Bengali, Oriya, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada in large numbers.

 Millions of handbills have already been circulated and more are being brought out along with posters. Wall writings are being done in various parts of the country.

Sectoral rallies like that of the brick klin workers in Hissar, in Haryana are also being planned by state committees.

On the whole, with more reports pouring in from different states, on the massive preparations for the strike, it can surely be said – The strike on 28th February will be of unprecedented participation and men and women workers in the country will make it a historic one in all aspects. The united working class is on the move and will be out on the streets to challenge the policies of the ruling classes.