Let all who will
Eat quietly the bread of shame.
I cannot,
Without complaining loud and long.
Tasting its bitterness in my throat,
And feeling to my very soul
It's wrong.
For honest work
You proffer me poor pay,
for honest dreams
Your spit is in my face,
And so my fist is clenched Today-
To strike your face.
A storm has been brewing for over two years now in the Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki in Gurgaon.
A struggle that had started with a sit-in strike or occupation on 4th
June 2011 for the most fundamental constitutionally guaranteed right to
unionize has by today traversed through many a terminations,
suspensions, intimidations by company goons, brutal assaults by the
police, lathicharges, indiscriminate arrests and custodial tortures. But
today, as the Maruti workers approach Delhi towards the culmination of
their 15 days padyatra from Kaithal, what stands out most strikingly
through these darkest of times is their extraordinary tenacity,
determination and zeal to carry on the fight. With this determination
they not only won their right to unionize but also carried forward the
struggle for regularization of contract workers and against the most
inhuman working conditions. It is the same determination that today has
inspired an unprecedented solidarity amongst the workers that
reverberates through the industrial belt of Gurgaon and the entire NCR
region. And again, it is the same determination that is increasingly
sounding ominous to the state-corporate nexus and the ruling classes
that in the context of the deepening imperialist crisis are ever more
desperate to preserve and spread its exploitative tentacles upon the
oppressed.
To traverse through the years, from 2011 till date, with the Maruti
workers, is to experience the sheer brutality and robotic regime with
which labour is being extracted by the big corporates adding to their
super-profits flouting all labour laws in complete connivance and
backing of the state. Even as profits of the company were soaring
and the consumer price index rose by 50%, the real wages of Maruti
workers rose by just 5.5% between 2007 and 2011. While the annual
remuneration of Maruti’s CEOs increased by 419% the share of the
worker’s wages in the net sales of the company dropped from 2.24% in
2007 to 1.94% in 2011. Forced to work for more than eight hours a day
with minimal lunch/tea breaks and sometimes even without toilet breaks,
the workers are forced to meet the target of 1 car every 42 seconds.
Amidst rampant contractualization and insecure working agreements, these
are a few glimpses of the illegal and inhuman working conditions of the
plant that the workers sought to struggle against. And for this ‘crime’
they of course invited the ire of not just the management that imposed
‘good conduct bonds’ and termination of union leaders, but also the ire
of the feudal institutions like the khaap and the might of the Indian
state’s police, paramilitary and judiciary. The workers’ protests and
strikes faced severe crackdown, internal sabotage, indiscriminate
arrests, imposition of 144 to disallow gatherings in the entire
industrial belt, as the state aligned itself blatantly in favour of the
management.
The struggle of the workers and the wrath of the state-management nexus reached new heights after the 18th July 2012 incident.
The suspension of a worker for protesting against casteist abuse by his
supervisor once again triggered the anger of the workers. As police and
company’s bouncers clamped down heavily upon the workers the ensuing
violence led to the death of a HR manager. Union leaders along with
about 55 named and 600 unnamed workers were immediately booked, 546
workers were arbitrarily terminated, and indiscriminate witch-hunt,
arrest and harassment of workers and their families began. Facing brutal
custodial torture 148 of them still remain behind bars as the struggle
spread to the hinterlands gathering immense support with Kaithal
becoming its nerve centre. Braving the lathicharges, water canons and
tear gases the workers under the banner of their hard-earned Maruti
Suzuki Workers Union continued their protests and dharnas demanding the
unconditional release of the 148 workers and the reinstatement of a
total of 2300 terminated workers over the various phases of the
struggle.
It is not a surprise that despite the scale, proportion and
significance of these struggles in such close proximity to the country’s
capital, they have been virtually been under a media blackout. Even
the ongoing Padyatra of the Maruti workers is largely kept out of the
public gaze by the corporate media. But then, the same is true for all
those struggles aimed against the same state-corporate nexus whether in
factories, the forests or in the fields. From the workers in the
production lines of Gurgaon to the adivasis in Bastar, the most
oppressed of this country today are locked in battle against the same
feudal-imperialist stranglehold of a system that is tottering under
crisis. The fight for a society free of exploitation is gaining ground
everyday to announce the end of this oppressive system. In this context,
it our responsibility to extend our unflinching solidarity to the
struggling workers of Maruti and elsewhere. Because ultimately, even
through the darkest of times, their hands shall make history.
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