K Hemalata
THE General Strike on July 9 gave a glimpse of the anger of the workers and the toiling people against their worsening conditions imposed by the neoliberal policies aggressively pursued by the NDA government led by Modi. The call for the General Strike given by the joint platform of central trade unions and independent sectoral federations received magnificent response from the working class and support from the mass of the common people. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha and the united platform of agricultural workers’ unions extended solidarity.
The participation in the demonstrations, road and rail blockades across the nooks and corners of the country by not only the workers, peasants and agricultural workers but many other sections – women, youth, students and progressive people, at the call of the trade unions and the peasants’ organisations – was unprecedented in the recent times. This was truly a reflection of the simmering discontent among the entire cross section of the toiling masses against the BJP led NDA government’s policies and its authoritarianism displaying neofascist tendencies.
While the major focus of the General Strike was the demand to scrap the four labour codes, the trade unions have also raised the major demands of the peasants and agricultural workers and the common people. These resonated with the people who wholeheartedly supported the strike.
Previously scheduled to be held on May 20, 2025, it had to be deferred to July 9 in view of the terrorist attacks in Pahalgam and the escalation between India and Pakistan. Through their massive participation, the working class and the people have rejected the allegations by sections of the right wing forces that the strike was ‘politically motivated’ and ‘anti-national’.
The working class realised that the labour codes were a serious threat to their basic rights, particularly their right to organisation. The notifications to the amendments to labour laws, particularly the increase in working hours declared by several state governments led by BJP as well as opposition parties – as Congress led Karnataka and Telangana, AAP led Punjab, BJP led Gujarat, and TDP led Andhra Pradesh – made the workers realise the impending danger of the labour codes and the BJP government’s policies. The trade unions were able to take this message to the workers. The extended time that became available due to the rescheduling of the strike could be utilised to take the campaign to wider sections of the workers and people.
In Kerala, where the trade union and democratic movements are strong, strike was total in almost all sectors across the state. There was a bandh like situation. But, it was no just Kerala. In many other states including Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura and West Bengal, the strike was substantial in many sections of workers. Industrial workers, unorganised sector and scheme workers participated in the strike and held massive demonstrations. Road transport was severely impacted in states like Odisha, Haryana, Punjab etc., in addition to Kerala and also in several districts in West Bengal. In addition, the road blockades in thousands of places across the country also impacted transport. These resulted in bandh like situation in many districts across the country.
The strike was effective in industrial areas of Faridabad in Haryana, in Delhi, Ghaziabad and Nodia. Workers struck work and joined massive processions. The striking workers in Ghaziabad blocked the Ghaziabad Delhi link road for two hours. In Haryana, massive demonstrations were held in all districts with the participation of construction workers, brick kiln workers, village chowkidars, scheme workers etc.
In Gujarat, the anganwadi employees and ASHAs struck work and participated in massive processions in 26 districts. For the first time after several decades, workers in some industries in Ahmedabad, Baroda and Surat participated in the strike and held processions. In Bhavnagar, workers in the minor port, municipal safaikarmacharis and workers in some industries joined the strike. Strike was also observed in the industrial areas of Chandpur, Varanasi, Bulandshahar, Chandoli and Sikandrabad, etc., in Uttar Pradesh.
The strike in the coal industry was massive across coal mines in Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal with 80 per cent workers including contract workers joining the strike. Production, transportation and dispatch came to a virtual standstill. In iron ore, bauxite, manganese ore, aluminimum and gold mines, spreading over Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, the strike was almost total.
Electricity workers joined the strike and organised demonstrations in several states. Strike in electricity was 95 per cent in Kerala and massive in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra; it was also substantial in Bihar, Haryana, Jharkhand, Telangana, and Punjab impacting power generation. In Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh, electricity employees participated in massive day-long demonstrations. In Powergrid Corporation, Southern Region witnessed massive strike, so also in two NTPC units in Bongaigaon and Farakka. In West Bengal, electricity strike was partial.
In Port & Dock, Kochi port in Kerala witnessed total strike, Paradip Port in Odisha got paralysed owing to the contract workers’ militant strike, in Kolkata Port, strike paralysed Adani controlled operation in Netaji Subhash Dock. In Chennai and Tutikorin and Viskhapatnam, strike was partial
In Railways, 75 per cent strike was reported in Chittaranjan Locomotives Works in West Bengal.
Medical & Sales Representatives were in total strike and participated in the demonstrations.
Strike was massive in the cement industry spread over Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and West Bengal including in the mini cement plants and also in almost all the jute mills mostly located in West Bengal. There was total strike in CEAT Tyres in Maharashtra, JK Tyres in Mysore and Chennai, MRF and Apollo Tyres in Kottayam, Kalamassery and Prabara in Kerala. Workers in the textile mills of Coimbatore, power loom workers in Telangana, Maharashtra went on strike.
Strike was substantial and visible in several private modern manufacturing industries in the industrial clusters including in the MNCs in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
Plantation workers in Assam, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and West Bengal were on strike en masse and also marched to the nearby highways and railway stations to block the rail and roads.
Around 70 lakh scheme workers including anganwadi employees, ASHAs, midday meal workers and others joined the strike and held massive and militant demonstrations across the country and highly contributed to the visibility of the strike.
Construction workers played an active role in mobilising and holding demonstrations on the strike day. In Uttarakhand, the construction workers employed in the railway construction projects completely paralysed the work. The huge demonstrations across the country by the unorganised sector workers like the construction workers, brick kiln workers, beedi workers, MGNREGA workers, street vendors etc and the scheme workers, peasants and agricultural workers gave the General Strike visibility and created confidence among the toiling people.
In most of the above sectors, large sections of workers heroically participated in the strike braving threats and intimidation by the employers including the government, ban orders by the courts and police action including arrests and detentions.
Gig/app based workers in the transport sector, both cars and motor-cycles, also took part in the strike quite substantially in West Bengal and few other states where we have unions. Similarly, IT-ITES workers participation in the mobilisations on the strike day was quite visible in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala.
In the public sector, while the strike was almost total in the captive iron ore mines and coal mines and the central marketing organisation of the steel plants, it was only partial among the public sector steel workers. It was massive in BHEL in Ranipet, Thirumayam and Tiruchirapally in Tamil Nadu. Contract workers in the petroleum sector joined the strike and paralysed operations in the entire North East region covering Assam and Nagaland. Cochi Refinery in Kerala was paralysed due to the strike despite the High Court prohibiting the strike. Strike was partial in the petroleum sector in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal. In the western region, workers staged massive demonstrations.
Insurance employees participated in the strike in a massive manner with 90 per cent LIC employees joining the strike; in GIC too it was massive. The strike was substantial throughout the country in the public sector banks and in some private sector banks as well. In BSNL it was around 40 per cent.
State government employees joined the strike in a massive way in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Haryana, Kerala, Manipur, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Tripura. Their participation in the strike in Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal was partial. In Maharashtra, they observed two hours quit work en masse.
The BJP led government has been resorting to threats and terrorising activities to curb trade union activities among central government employees. Despite this, income tax employees across the country including in Delhi participated massively in the strike. The strike was substantial and beyond expectation in the postal department.
The significant aspect is that the impact of the strike surpassed the expectations of the leadership in many places and industries. This indicates the prevailing anger and dissatisfaction against the government policies among the workers and employees and the possibility of intensifying and heightening united struggles to the level of defiance and resistance. While resisting the implementation of the labour codes at the industry and factory level, this dissatisfaction needs to be channelised against the exploitative capitalist system which is in deep crisis today and the need to transcend the system and achieve an exploitation free society. The experience of this strike and the many more intense struggles that are inevitable in the coming days because of the desperate attempts by the ruling classes to pass on the burdens of the crisis on to the working people, will help the workers become aware of this need. The class oriented trade unions have to help them understand the role of the working class in achieving this and prepare them for this.
A very significant feature of this strike was the participation of the peasants and agricultural workers.Their participation in the preparatory process and also on the strike-day was not symbolic but substantive. At the grassroots level, they participated along with the workers in the rail and road blockades. The leadership of the three organisations, at the state and also in many districts, met and planned the campaign and actions of the day of the strike in many states and areas, though not all. This indicates the possibility of increasing joint struggles of the three producing sections and deepening their class unity, which is of utmost importance in strengthening the struggle against the neoliberal policies. This will also help in overcoming the impact of the divisive casteist and communal forces and developing strong class unity at the grassroots level.
Let this magnificent General Strike take us on that path.
