IT was a truly historic and unprecedented manifestation of worker-peasant unity in action. Such a widespread nationwide struggle with the participation of such a broad spectrum of trade unions and peasant organisations had never been seen in India since independence.

Tens of thousands of workers, peasants and agricultural labourers thronged the capitals of almost all states in the country for three days from November 26 to 28, 2023, in actions that ranged from mahapadavs (sit-in struggles) to rallies to marches to the Raj Bhawans (governors’ mansions). Women, youth and students joined the struggle in huge numbers. People of all religions, castes, languages, and regions took part in this massive struggle.

Although tens of thousands of people joined the mahapadavs, like the historic year-long Delhi Farmers’ Struggle of 2020-21, this struggle too remained peaceful across the country with the highest degree of self-discipline and determination.

Many of the mahapadav sites were artistically decorated with pictures, paintings, cartoons, and quotations of struggle. The struggle sites were replete with bunting, banners, placards and flags. Almost all the colours were represented in the flags of the numerous peasant and worker organisations – red, green, yellow, gold, brown, blue, black, white – all except saffron! 

The numbers grew with every passing day from November 26, and reached their climax on November 28. Thousands of farmers and workers cooked food for the day, and stayed the night in the tractor trolleys or in makeshift tents in the mahapadav site. That, too, was a sight to behold, capture, and cherish. 

There was massive mass participation in the state capitals including Chandigarh, Panchakula, Shimla, Dehradun, Srinagar, Jammu, Delhi, Lucknow, Patna, Ranchi, Kolkata, Guwahati, Agartala, Bhubaneswar, Vijayawada, Chennai, Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and even Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The only exceptions were the state assembly election-going states and a few states in the north east. In some states, additional actions also took place up to the district and even the tehsil levels. 

Various national and state level leaders of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) and the Central Trade Unions and Federations (CTUs) attended and addressed the mahapadavs in different state capitals. Their names are too numerous to mention here. Many intellectuals, artistes and eminent personalities attended the mass protest actions and greeted the participants.

While all the constituent organisations of the SKM and CTUs with a few exceptions tried to mobilise their best, particular mention must be made of the massive countrywide mobilisation of the CITU, AIKS, and AIAWU, all of whom have an all India sweep covering several states. The AIDWA, DYFI and SFI also came forward in all states with full solidarity.   

The SKM and CTUs warmly congratulated all the workers and farmers who made these mahapadavs a grand success. In their joint statement, they said, “This action will be marked in history as a bold step to save the country from the twin danger of the corporate and communal menace being patronised by the Modi government.” The SKM and CTUs warned that there will be more determined massive, united struggles on the demands of the people.

The call for the November struggle was given in the first historic, nationwide, united worker-peasant convention in Independent India held at the Talkatora Indoor Stadium in Delhi on August 24, 2023, organised by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) and the Central Trade Unions (CTUs). Over 7,000 workers and peasants attended it. The day of the Delhi Convention, August 24, was also the birth anniversary of martyr Shivram Hari Rajguru, who hailed from Pune district in Maharashtra, and who courageously faced the British gallows along with two other immortal martyrs, Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev Thapar, on March 23, 1931.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STRUGGLE

This worker-peasant struggle targeted the corporate-communal central government of the BJP-RSS led by Narendra Modi, and the whole gamut of its disastrous policies. The first day of this countrywide struggle, November 26, marked three historic events.

The first was the beginning of the unprecedented SKM-led farmers' struggle on the Delhi borders from November 26, 2020 against the three anti-farmer, anti-people and pro-corporate farm laws that were foisted in a most authoritarian manner by the Modi-led BJP central government. Lakhs of farmers took part in this massive struggle which spread all over the country, and continued unabated for one year and fifteen days, i.e. 380 days till it was suspended on December 11, 2021. It resulted in a magnificent victory. The Modi regime had to surrender and the three hated farm laws were repealed. However, nearly 750 farmers were martyred in this year-long struggle.

The second was the all India strike called by the CTUs on the same day as the farmers' struggle began, again on November 26, 2020. Over 20 crore workers and employees, both organised and unorganised, took part in this huge strike action. This day also marked worker-peasant unity in action.

The third was that it was Constitution Day. It was on November 26, 1949 that the Constituent Assembly, after intensive deliberations, adopted the Constitution of India, all the basic principles of which are today under grave threat from the BJP-RSS regime.

November 28, the last day of this struggle, was the death anniversary of one of the foremost champions of the peasantry and of social justice in India, Mahatma Jotirao Phule. It was Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar who acknowledged that Mahatma Phule was one of his gurus.

Concerted preparations were in progress for months to make these mahapadav actions a great success in all states. Joint worker-peasant conventions and meetings were held in almost all states, and even in many districts. Lakhs of leaflets were distributed in innumerable public meetings, big and small. The SKM-CTUs prepared, and the Delhi Convention adopted, a comprehensive 21-point charter of demands which was popularised all over India. A massive social media campaign was also conducted nationwide.

COMBATING THE AGRARIAN CRISIS

For rural India, the SKM concentrated on those demands which are the burning issues of the peasantry and which will directly help to ameliorate the deep and chronic agrarian crisis. This crisis has further intensified in the last three decades because of the neo-liberal policies followed by successive central governments. But the present Modi government is by far the worst in this regard.

There are two glaring symptoms of the agrarian crisis in India today. The first is the shocking suicides of over 4 lakh farmers in the country in the last 30 years, mainly due to indebtedness. Of these over 1 lakh farmers were forced to commit suicide in the last 10 years of the Modi regime alone. Farming has become unremunerative and hazardous. Lakhs of farmers have been forced to sell off their land to reduce their debt, and to join the ranks of the landless.

The second symptom is the rapidly growing hunger in the country. The Global Hunger Index is an accurate pointer to this. In 2014, when the Modi regime came to power, India ranked 55 out of 120 countries in this index. Today in 2023, India has sharply slid down to 111 out of 125 countries, which means that only 14 countries in the world, which are quite small in population, are hungrier than India. The deaths of thousands of adivasi and dalit children per year in some states due to starvation and malnutrition continue unabated. The big increase in anaemia, especially among women and children, is also a pointer to this malnutrition.

It is in this background that the SKM highlighted certain burning demands of the peasantry.

The first demand, which was also forcefully raised in the 2020-21 Delhi blockade, was for a legal guarantee of a Minimum Support Price (MSP) at one and a half times the comprehensive cost of production (C2 + 50 per cent). This was one of the fundamental recommendations of the National Commission on Farmers (NCF) that was chaired by the renowned agro-scientist Dr M S Swaminathan. Without this principle being accepted and implemented, there can be no relief in the agrarian crisis.

Allied to this is the crucial issue of sharply bringing down the cost of production by reduction in the astronomical price of seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, diesel, power, and water. This can be done only by strict regulation and control over the domestic and foreign corporate lobby, increase in input subsidy, cutting the abominable central government excise duty on diesel, petrol, and gas, and other measures.

The BJP election manifesto in 2014 had promised MSP as above, but like all its other promises, this too turned out to be a 'jumla'. In fact, the very next year, in February 2015, the BJP government shamelessly submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court, in which it said that implementing its own MSP promise was not possible because "it would distort the market."

The second key demand of the struggle was the complete liberation from debt of the peasantry and agricultural workers. This can only be done through a comprehensive loan waiver scheme by the central government. Two central governments had earlier granted a partial loan waiver to the peasantry – the V P Singh-led National Front government in 1990, and the Manmohan Singh-led UPA-1 government in 2008. The Modi government has point-blank refused to give a peasant loan waiver in the last 10 years. On the contrary, it has written off loans worth over Rs 15 lakh crore to its handful of crony corporates in this period.

The third major demand was for a comprehensive crop insurance scheme to fully protect the peasantry against natural calamities like drought, floods, hailstorms, unseasonal rains, and so on. These calamities are greatly intensifying due to climate change and global warming. But the present Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is worse than useless, because all available data proves that it helps the corporate insurance companies to amass massive profits, and harms the farmers in distress by denying them compensation for crop damages.

The fourth important issue that was highlighted was that of a substantial monthly pension to both farmers and agricultural workers.

Other vital rural issues that were raised in this struggle were the expansion of MGNREGA so as to double the days of work and triple the wages paid to agricultural workers; stringent implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) to vest forest land in the names of the adivasis who have been cultivating it for generations; other issues concerning land rights and land acquisition; withdrawal of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill and the cancellation of the anti-farmer pre-paid smart meters scheme which would sharply raise electricity bills; key issues concerning expansion of irrigation; strengthening the public distribution system (PDS) to ensure food security to all; and so on.

WORKING CLASS AND PEOPLES' DEMANDS

Apart from peasant demands, this struggle of course took up the burning demands of the working class like a National Minimum Wage of Rs 26,000 per month, abolition of the contract and casual system, repeal of the four labour codes, reversion to the old pension scheme, government employee status and resultant benefits to all scheme workers, filling up of all government vacant posts, an end to privatisation and to the National Monetisation Pipeline.

This struggle also took up issues of the common people, prominent among which were the back-breaking price rise and the escalating unemployment, along with key demands concerning education, health, housing and so on.

One vital issue that was flagged was the glaring disparities in the country. The alarming inequality in India is captured by the Oxfam 2023 Report, which says that 1 per cent of the richest Indians own 40 per cent of the wealth of the country, 10 per cent of the richest own 72 per cent of its wealth, and the poorest 50 per cent of the population (meaning 70 crore people) owns just 3 per cent of the wealth of the country. It is this entire trajectory that must be thrown out lock, stock and barrel, by both a regime change and also a policy change.

Above all, the November 26-28 nationwide united struggle of lakhs of workers and peasants vowed to fight tooth and nail to defeat the Modi-led BJP-RSS government which is out to:

1. Sell the country at a pittance to domestic and foreign corporates like Adani, Ambani and others through its shameless privatisation drive;

2. Break the country and the unity of its people by using the divisive elements of religion, caste, region, and language, just as the British rulers had done;

3. Subvert the Constitution and dynamite its basic features of sovereignty, democracy, secularism, and federalism. An undeclared Emergency is today the order of the day.

There is no doubt that the November 26-28 struggle by the workers and peasants of India has and will play a major role in saving India and then in changing India for the better.