ML Update, 1 - 7 May 2007.

Workers celebrated the International Workers’ Day and expressed their solidarity with the struggles of the working class all over the globe. They organised rallies and protests and pledged to strengthen the movement against the regressive policies of liberalisation and privatisation all over. The All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) organised mobilisations, independently as well as jointly with other left and democratic trade unions, in various state capitals and important centres. The imposition of SEZs and forcible eviction of peasants was also vehemently opposed by the workers who demanded to withdraw the SEZ Act 2005.

A rally was held in Delhi jointly by all trade unions. Workers marched from Ramlila Maidan to Town Hall where speakers remembered May Day martyrs and condemned the US-led imperialism and policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation which are affecting the lives of millions of workers, peasants and other sections of the society. The issues of the workers’ social security, rights of the unorganised sector workers, downsizing, unemployment, starvation and suicide deaths, entry of monopoly capitalists in retail sector, etc. were raised in the meeting. AICCTU Vice President NM Thomas spoke in the meeting where he called upon all workers’ organisation to oppose the SEZ policy and to condemn the Nandigram and Singur incidents.

Coal workers affiliated to AICCTU in Dhanbad districts in Jharkhand hoisted flags in their respective collieries and then joined a massive worker-peasant resistance march held in Dhanbad. They paid floral tributes at the martyrs’ memorial and held a mass meeting which was addressed by AICCTU General Secretary Swapan Mukherjee and others. In Bokaro, Jharkhand Mazdoor Union along with AICCTU and UTUC (LS) organised steel workers in a mass meeting. Marches, mass meetings and other programmes were organised by Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) [CPI(ML)], AICCTU and All India Agricultural Labour Association (AIALA) at various centres in Jharkhand including Deoghar, Giridih, Manika, Chainpur, Majhiaon, Palamu, Gumla, Dumka, Koderma, Hazaribagh, Jamshedpur, Ranchi, among others. A seminar was organised in Giridih on ’The movement of the proletariat and the challenges ahead’. The Coal Mine Morkers’ Union organised programmes in the coal belt. A convention was also held in Ghaghra. Various AIALA units organised programmes and raised the issue of NREGA, minimum wages and the Below Poverty Line (BPL) Cards. A large number of construction workers and women took part in a march in Ranchi.

AICCTU organised various programmes in towns of Bihar while the AIALA started its week-long campaign from May 1-7 to press for the implementation of NREGA, BPL Cards, and proper employment and wages for the agricultural workers.

Tea workers in Assam held a massive rally in Tinsukia in Assam under the auspices of AICCTU. Programmes were organised in towns in Assam and Bengal including the state capitals. In Rajasthan, Rajasthan Gramin Mazdoor Sangathan organised a rally in front of the Collectorate in Jhunjhunu and forwarded a memorandum to the President demanding to include Jhunjhunu in the NREGA list and to include every agricultural worker into the BPL list.

In Tamil Nadu (TN), the strike in Pricol in Coimbatore has entered into 60^th day on May 1. In this background a May Day Rally was held in Coimbatore in which over 8400 workers, including 1000 women, participated. Majority of the participants were from Pricol. The rally was held in an atmosphere where the TN government is compelled to pass orders in favour of the striking workers, revising its earlier order, which was stayed by the high court. S. Kumaraswami, President of AICCTU, addressed the gathering. He warned the TN government that if there are no orders from the government before May 5, the workers will take their own action to prevent any activity inside the factory. He also called for the workers to get ready for anything and the gathering answered in the affirmative. He also called the workers to organise the unorganised in the textile industry in and around Coimbatore. Balasundaram, Tamil Nadu State Secretary of the CPI (ML) also addressed the gathering.

A May Day rally and public meeting was held in Bangalore. Workers from construction sector and ready-mix industry participated in this. Programmes were also held in Orissa, Andhra, Pondicherry, Tripura and other states.