THE CITU has expressed serious concern over the hell-bent bid of fast-tracking the privatisation of CPSUs across the sectors, with their huge asset base, to private hands, both foreign and domestic.

States are also being pushed to privatise state-PSUs. The national assets are being sought to be sold out to private corporate entities at throw-away prices, which will also act in destroying indigenous productive capabilities in almost all strategic and core areas of the national economy. And all of this is sought to be justified under the so-called slogan of Atma Nirbhar Bharat.

Almost all the CPSUs in the crucial sectors of the economy viz., petroleum, electricity, steel, coal, entire infrastructural sector like port and dock, airports and airlines, railways and public transport, entire financial sector including banks and insurance, defence production etc., are being targeted for privatisation.

The trade union movement in the country has been resolutely opposing such destructive privatisation programme of the Modi government through numerous united protest actions including strikes. The need of the hour is to further heighten this united struggle for decisive resistance to this destructive game plan. The joint platform of central trade unions and sectoral federations have already resolved to move in that direction. Besides, privatisation is not the concern of the workers alone. Through privatisation, the BJP government is selling off the nation’s assets to domestic and foreign corporates. This is the concern of all patriotic citizens of the country.

United resistance struggle is developing in many establishments against this retrograde privatisation move. Ongoing united struggle against privatisation move in Visakhapatnam steel plant along with solidarity actions in other steel PSUs, two day’s strike decision in the banking sector on March 15-16, 2021, and strike in the insurance sector on March 18, continuous relay dharna in BEML, KGF, Karnataka, countrywide strike action by electricity employees on February 3, 2021, and agitations in the coal sector etc., are some of the examples of emerging establishment/sector level struggles.