Reach the Unreached through United Struggles of Working People
Vijoo Krishnan
The country witnessed well-attended protests by the workers and peasants on November 26, 2025, the fifth anniversary of the historic united struggle - the general strike, grameen hartal and Delhi Chalo called by Samyukta Kisan Morcha as well as the Central Trade Unions. In 2020-21 the concerted attack on the productive classes - the workers and peasants - in the form of the pro-corporate labour codes and the farm laws was resolutely fought back. It involved a prolonged militant united struggle lasting 380 days amidst a pandemic and also, martyrdom of 736 protesting farmers. The BJP-led NDA government was forced to withdraw the three farm Acts and keep in abeyance the Labour Codes as well as the Electricity Amendment Bill. A written assurance was also given for legal guarantee of MSP, withdrawal of Electricity Amendment Bill, etc. This year’s protests were against the betrayal of the written assurances and the anti-worker Labour Codes. The enthusiastic response of the peasantry and rural poor in the protests also indicate the greater solidarity with the working class that has been meticulously developed over the years.
Immediately after the BJP-led NDA won the Bihar elections, it came up with many anti-people moves including the notification of the four Labour Codes. The Electricity Amendment Bill and the Seed Bill, detrimental to interests of the working people and aimed at aiding profiteering by monopolies, are also being aggressively pushed forward by the Government. The notification of the Labour Codes comes at a time when the corporate cronies have been demanding increasing workday to 12 hours or more and removal of rights to unionise while they get the right to unbridled exploitation of the workers. The agrarian crisis is deepening leading to distress migration and mass suicides by farmers, agricultural workers and daily wage workers.
New attacks are going on in the drive to hand over agriculture to agribusinesses. Electricity is being privatised and pre-paid smart-meters are being imposed. The prices of inputs like seeds, fertilisers and pesticides are incessantly rising while there is no guarantee of remunerative prices. Unequal Free Trade Agreements are being entered into and under the pressure of US tariffs, the Union Government, instead of countering it, has bent down and reduced the import duty of cotton to zero. Absence of employment opportunities is also leading to distress migration. In the wake of the two-pronged attack from the Union and different State Governments, the only answer is to build militant struggles to resist anti-peasant policies and launch result-oriented movements for alternatives.
The peasants and workers have been the most consistent forces that have relentlessly built up struggles against the BJP regime from day one of Narendra Modi coming to power more than a decade ago. Reconciliation between antagonistic classes in such a manner that they complement each other for achieving a common objective as well as defeat a powerful enemy was a very difficult proposition. In the process of the incessant struggles, this is exactly what the peasants and workers have achieved. There is a clear realisation that cross-class alliances are indispensable. Building of broad issue-based unity against a common exploiter or policies was the only way of scripting victory in these dark times. Significantly the peasant struggles managed to bring on the centre stage the overarching agrarian crisis, farm suicides, indebtedness, need for legal guarantee of Minimum Support Prices, public investment in agriculture and rural development etc. It could then successfully articulate the need for the issue-based unity of the peasantry - the SKM - to find common cause with the issue-based unity of the working class - the Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions - in line with the understanding for building a rock-solid unity of the workers and peasants.
This is not the time to rest on the gains of earlier struggles or keep harping on them. Surely, lessons need to be learnt, and we should be able to address the weaknesses of the movements. It is the time to broaden struggles, reach those sections of the working people that are yet to be reached, build point-by-point rebuttal of the lies and false claims of the ruling classes, percolate the worker-peasant unity to the grassroots, draw in other sections of society and scale up struggles to the next level. We need to prepare our organisations to brace for a struggle that will go on till withdrawal of the Labour Codes, Electricity Amendment Bill, Seed Bill, implementation of the promise of legal guarantee of MSP@C2+50, 200 days of work under MGNREGA and waiver of loans.
Notably, since 1991 the major ruling class parties including regional parties are implementing same set of neoliberal policies. Only the Left Parties have had a consistent opposition to these policies. While broad understanding with the other political parties to counter neo-fascist attacks on democracy, secularism and federalism is required and coordination in Parliament is necessary, a Left Democratic Alternative is to be popularised. Struggles on the streets by building a broad platform of mass and class organisations will help scale the movement to a higher level. It will help to build a resolute resistance to communal-corporate policies and have a consistent unrelenting movement till our demands are met.
