ON August 8/9/10, 2020, 45,085 people led by CITU, AIKS, AIAWU, AIDWA, DYFI, SFI and AARM at 491 centres in 99 tehsils and 23 cities/towns in 31 districts of Maharashtra came on to the streets, braving both the Covid pandemic and torrential rains. They held massive demonstrations against the anti-people, pro-corporate, authoritarian and communal policies of the Modi-led BJP-RSS central government. They also raised burning demands of the people. The major mobilisation was by CITU in urban areas and by AIKS in rural areas.

The largest action in the state of trying to gherao the district collector's office in Solapur met with severe police repression. Over 20,000 workers led by CITU and other mass fronts had begun marching to the district collector's office from several points, but they were forcibly stopped and over 100 of them were injured in lathi-charges.

CITU state vice president Narasayya Adam, state general secretary M H Shaikh, state vice president Nalini Kalburgi, AIKS state vice president Sidhappa Kalshetty, AIDWA state president Naseema Shaikh, DYFI state vice president Ashok Balla and 500 others were arrested. Police cases have been filed against Narasayya Adam, Nalini Kalburgi, Yusuf Major, Venkatesh Kongari, Ashok Balla, Mashappa Vite, Mohan Kokul, Daud Shaikh, Deepak Nikambe and Anil Wasam.

The mobilisation was impressive in Thane-Palghar districts, where 8,307 peasants took part in actions led by the AIKS and other mass fronts in 79 villages in seven tehsils and also in Thane and Ulhasnagar cities; and in Nashik district, where 3,455 peasants and workers took part in four tehsils and Nashik city. Here the AIKS rural mobilisation was 2000 and the CITU urban mobilisation was 1,455. Other districts with good mobilisation were Jalna (2,265), Ahmednagar (1,600), Nanded (1,525), Aurangabad (1,280) and Mumbai (1,025).

In Thane-Palghar district, the actions were led by AIKS national president  Ashok Dhawale, AIKS state office bearers Barkya Mangat, Ratan Budhar, Radka Kalangda, CITU state secretary Vinod Nikole MLA, AIDWA state general secretary Prachi Hatiwlekar, AIDWA state office bearers Lahani Dauda, Tai Bendar, Sunita Shingda and Heena Vanga, DYFI state president Sunil Dhanwa, DYFI state vice president and Talasari Panchayat Samiti chairperson Nandu Hadal and SFI state vice president Kavita Vare. The actions in Nashik district were led by CITU national vice president D L Karad, CITU state vice president S K Thombre, and AIKS state council members Vijay Patil and Hanuman Gunjal.

Apart from 29 different local actions in Mumbai by our mass fronts, over 1,500 workers led by the Trade Union Joint Action Committee (TUJAC) held a demonstration near Grant Road railway station and the leaders then marched to the August Kranti Maidan, the historic spot where Mahatma Gandhi gave notice of 'Quit India' to the British rulers on August 9, 1942. This action was led by CITU state office bearers Mahendra Singh, Vivek Monteiro, Sayeed Ahmed, Adv Armaity Irani, K Narayanan, Trishila Kamble and leaders of other trade unions like AITUC, HMS, AICCTU, AIUTUC, TUCI, WREU, SSS etc.

In other industrial centres like Nashik, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Pune, Kolhapur etc, joint trade union demonstrations were organised by TUJAC.

Apart from the nine districts mentioned above, the other 22 districts  from where detailed reports and photos of actions by our mass fronts have been received are Pune, Nandurbar, Dhule, Jalgaon, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur, Beed, Parbhani, Latur, Usmanabad, Hingoli, Nagpur, Wardha, Yavatmal, Amravati, Buldana, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Raigad, Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri.

Several other constituent organisations of the Central Trade Unions (CTUs), All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) and Bhumi Adhikar Andolan (BAA) led their actions in various other centres.
The actions in many districts received good mainstream media publicity. They were widely propagated on various social media channels like Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter.