The mixed response and partial strike may not stop the Killing Machine until the peasantry bails out the trade union movement!
Palash Biswas
We have witnessed Total Bengal Bandh so many times whenever a strike was called by trade unions.It is a miserable departure from the past as the All India Trade Union Strike showed little impact in the strongest trade union movement base in Bengal while ten central trade unions across the country have called for a nationwide strike against the "anti-labour policies" of the government.
Mind you,Bengal had to witness the first strike called by the various trade unions in the second tenure of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Mamta Banerjee simply banned the strike and the Left and its trade unions stranded as the Supreme court order to dismiss land acquisition in Singur turned to be a bolt from the sky.Development without public consent destroyed Left in Bengal and it also failed its trade unions.
The leadership is still not ready for self criticism while the Leftists have become non relevant as fare as the fight for civic and human rights are concerned. Without which the trade union movement has lost its real base and become Hawa Hawai ritual.For which the Haq Haquk of the workers have been killed as the response seems very late as the Left has no guilty consciousness for its betrayal to Indian peasantry for political power which lost like the going wind.
For twenty five years trade unions did a little to resist the destruction of production system systematically and the workers lost everything.It seems to be very late to respond as the labour reforms have been passed without any resistance whatsoever in Parliament or the streets.Trade unions also lost its hold in production units countrywide as they engaged themselves in economics of bargaining with a managerial status.
The mixed response and partial strike may not stop the Killing Machine until the peasantry bails out the trade union movement!
In fact no resistance is possible without the involvement of peasantry which has led all the movements in India for centuries.
The first ever strike was called by Ayyan Kali which recorded grand success as the workers were supported by the peasantry.
The left base in the peasantry always strengthened the trade union movement in India.
But merciless brute neo liberal displacement drive destroyed Indian peasantry and the trade unions had nothing to do nor the Left Politics responded.
Moreover,indiscriminate urbanization and industrialization against the peasantry resultant in ethnic cleansing with monopolistic capitalist and imperialist aggression aligned with apartheid.
Because Indian peasantry lost the sting and the Left lost the credit in peasantry,it lost the political power to lead the trade union movement.It is the consequence of departure from land reforms.
Thus,opposing the country-wide strike on September 2 called by central trade unions, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said her government would take strongest possible action against "miscreants" who try to disrupt public life and will ensure compensation for any damage to shops or vehicles.No one seems to dare,such is the misery.
"Bengal will not be stopped on September 2, 2016. On September 2, all educational institutions, shops, institutions, offices and factories will remain open. Vehicles will ply normally and public transport will not be hindered. There will be strongest possible action against any miscreant who will try to disrupt public life," Banerjee tweeted.
"The government will arrange for due compensation for any damage caused by miscreants to any shop, vehicle or establishment," Banerjee tweeted.