CITU workers to march to Parliament on December 1

On behalf of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), we congratulate the Haryana electricity employees and engineers on their recent historic victory. More than 40,000 of them brought the State’s power system to a standstill in a 48-hour Statewide strike and forced the Government to issue a policy direction under Section 108 of the Electricity Act, 2003, against the grant of a parallel distribution licence to a private company for Gurugram and Nuh.

Under the impact of the strike, the Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini publicly declared that parallel licencing would not be allowed in Haryana. Farmers’ organisations, other trade unions and ordinary consumers stood with the strikers, despite prolonged power and water cuts.

Meanwhile, the spirit of Haryana is echoed in the massive Statewide mobilisations organised by CITU in Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Assam. Workers in these States came out in large numbers to raise their own issues and the central demand of the working class: roll back the Labour Codes.

The attacks on voting rights have sharpened the people’s assertion for democracy. As the movement against SIR spreads, the BJP finds itself increasingly isolated politically.

These struggles are many, but they face one adversary: The same policies of the Government serving big business. What they need now is a common direction and a national platform. The March to Parliament on 1 December will be that galvanising point.

It will bring these streams together, link sectoral and local battles with the national demands of the working class’s national demands, and give them national visibility.

From Kerala to Jharkhand, and from Rajasthan to West Bengal, workers are coming to Delhi. Gate meetings, door-to-door campaigns, padayatras, vehicle jathas, wall writing, street plays, and leaflet and poster campaigns are reaching workers in factories, plantations, transport depots and workers’ colonies. Travel funds are being raised, participants’ families are being met, and AIKS and AIAWU are organising local send-off programmes.