The working class in India is moving towards one of the biggest strike action the country has ever seen. About 10-12 crores of workers, 10% of the total people, will be on complete strike for 48 hours from 24.00 / 00.00 hours on the mid-night of 19th / 20th to midnight of 21st / 22nd February 2013 protesting against price-rise, anti-worker policies and demanding the basic demands of the workers. The demands are fully justified and have been raised years back. The government did not take any action. Even in the discussion in the last moment, yesterday, the government did not assure anything, but only requested for withdrawal of the strike, which the union leaders naturally declined.
It is the duty of each and every worker to stand strong with the strike, fully participate and give a strong message to the government that unless the demands are met the struggle will continue by the workers. The government should be taught a tough lesson for ignoring the fully justified demands of the workers.
Yes, as pointed out in my blog yesterday this is going to be another fierce battle like the workers waged in 1946 and 1974,
March forward with determination to the great struggle, the 48 hours Strike!
Towards the Historic 48 Hours National Strike on 20 -21 February 2013!
19 Tuesday Feb 2013
Posted in TU News - India
VAN Namboodiri's Blog 
Dear Comrade wish a grand success for the forthcoming 2days general strike. But one thing I want to know your view in the aspect of BSNL,in the present scenario is this huge manpower is required who lacks requisite skill and basic knowledge of Telecom. Thanks
Dear Comrade,
You have only reproduced the false propaganda of the government and the BSNL management. These are the same workers who have worked efficiently, despite several changes the technology from magneto to CB to auto to latest technologies. Skills are developed and increased through continuous training and re-training. It is the failure of the management that they did not train the workforce to the requirements. In fact, they have done it purposely to find justification for VRS and to engage more and more contract workers, who are being maximum exploited and denied their rights and wages. The strength of BSNL workers have been reduced by more than one lakh after its formation. The present workforce can be effectively used by enabling them to deal with the latest technologies.
Dear Mr. Namboodiri,
Are you also worried about the working class in the unorganized sector………or are you just worried about the Government employees….
Are you just worried about left, right or the centre….or are you worried about the entire human race, to say the least.
With due respects,
Dear Com. Anil,
We are for the entire working class. The unorganised sector workers are more exploited and their issues have been very much focussed in the present strike. I could see the sarcasm in the second para of your comments, the answer for which is left to your understanding of the working class and the human race.
India – 363 hartals in 7 years in Kerala!
Posted by: Pressenza IPA Posted date: 17 September 2012 In: Asia, Politics, Region
Tony Henderson | Pressenza
Hartals – strikes – have clearly become a way of life in Kerala which has seen as many as 363 of them, called by different political parties, since 2005. There have been 18 hartals so far this year alone. While hartals are called for various reasons, political, economic and social, they don’t really achieve what the organisers set out to.
Report by Byju Chalad
Haridas, president of ‘The Proper Channel’, an NGO in Kochi, says calling of hartals by political parties is a violation of the nine guidelines issued by the high court
Here are some facts to demonstrate why calling a hartal to set right a grievance is such a stale idea.
The centre raised the price of diesel to record levels just three months after two hartals were staged in protest against the record hike in petrol prices.
Liquor sales in Beverages Corporation outlets on the day before a hartal shoot up by an average of Rs 3 crore.
In 2005, BMW officials turned their back on Kerala after the two attempts made by its top officials to meet the chief minister happened on hartal days.
A Labour Department study in 2010 had revealed that nearly 95 percent of those in the unorganised sector – fish workers, construction workers, daily wagers of all kinds – are deprived of a day’s work and wages as a result of a hartal.
These facts expose hartals for what they are: One, the authorities have grown immune to them. Two, the general public consider them as a public holiday. Three, they scare investments away. Four, they are harshest on the poor.
“It is convenient for both the political party and the public. Even if an insignificant party calls for a hartal, people are only too willing to oblige,” he said. Shashi Tharoor, MP, the most vocal critic of hartals, wants the practice to be banned.
“The single largest negative factor preventing Kerala growth and investment is our hartal culture,” he said.
Hartal Virudha Munnani, an anti hartal organisation – an action front of Humanist Movement put up a hoarding in the form of a prayer to Muthappan, an local ethnic god, to save the state from hartals.
additional note
If you happen to visit Kerala and find men — young and old, educated and uneducated, blue and white collared — lined up in military discipline in front of a store that fills the state’s coffers (read Kerala State Beverages Corporation), you should guess it is ‘hartal’ the next day; not just that, women and children throng the towns to rent pirated CDs to watch favourite movies, and mobile inbox would be flooded with happy hartal messages. These are the harbingers of a
hartal day.
Every hartal day creates a huge loss for enterprises like the Cochin Shipyard, Techno Parks, KSRTC, etc. Hence, Kerala remains a non-investment friendly State with minimal job opportunities, and most 20+ Keralites do not work in the State simply because there is no work
there.
The next day to the “Emerging Kerala – an investment drive meeting ” that hopes for a 40,000 crore investment and employment opportunity we-keralites faced today a one more harthal that makes the entire state still and people roped to their homes.
The Hartal Virudha Munnani (anti-hartal front) activists displayed anti-hartal cut-outs, mocking the protest as a political gimmick which would not help to lower the prices of essential commodities or diesel price.
Mr. Chandra Babu said the people in Kerala knew well that hartals only caused hardship to people, and served the cause of political parties alone. Hartals do not resolve problems, but instead dissuade people from productive work. Even expatriate Keralites were reluctant to
invest in Kerala out of fear of hartals.
Dear Friend,
I have posted your comments in full in my blog for the visitors to read to realise how much false propaganda and anti-people and anti-working class materials are being propagated by certain sections of the media supporting the corporates, business houses and anti-working class capitalist class.Such propaganda has always been made by these sections whenever their class interests are questioned.
The present 48 hours strike was decided and intimated 5 months back, but the government completely ignored it till the last moment. Even the last minute discussion by some ministers were only an eye-wash to create an impression that the government has come forward for discussion. No assurance on any of the demands was given. That is why senior Congress leader and INTUC President Dr. Sanjeeva Reddy along with other strike leaders rejected it completely.
If any of the corporate houses has even written a simple letter to the Ministers, they would have immediately reacted, discussed with them and conceded their demands quickly. That is our experience. But not so with the demands of the cores of workers and their unions!
Any struggle for progress, development and improvement of the common people and working class have always been decried by the section of media whose reports have been quoted in your comments. This was the section which opposed the independence struggle and criticised the freedom struggle stating that British Rule is good. They opposed the struggles of the peasants and toiling masses. They opposed the public sector. They opposed subsidy to the people. They opposed any progressive legislation. There is nothing to be surprised. The fact is that their class interests are different.
One more thing. The present strike is not a Kerala Strike. It is an all India Strike called for by all the 11 registered Central Trade Unions in the country including INTUC and BMS, connected with both the ruling and the main opposition parties, in addition to CITU, AITUC, HMS, UTUC etc. The demands are of the common people, like protesting against the intolerable price rise etc. along with the demands of the workers. Those who are exploiting the toiling masses will never like the strike. The strike has already started and will embrace the entire country, including the so-called backward states. Of course, in Kerala, the strike will be very successful as usual.
No struggle is in vain. Success may not come immediately, but every struggle has its effect. The freedom was not won in a day or in a year. Decades of struggles took place before we got freedom. It is the same with the struggles of the working class.
thats correct sir…….
Respected Comrade,
Please write something about the attitude of the Chief minister of West Bengal.She is threatening the employees, workers,merchants and the people who will support the strike. police is campaigning for this purpose also. she has forgotten the democratic norms here. No one Chief Minister in India has taken the stand like her. please enlighten the people about her activities through your blog
Dear Comrade,
Your comments are timely. The TMC government in WB is anti-worker, anti-democratic and is supressing all movements of the working class and the common people. There is strong reaction from the workers also. There is no doubt that the sustained struggles will strengthen and will become successful in putting an end to the present critical situation.
Thank You Comrade.