Editorial 2nd Quarter 2021

 EDITORIAL FIRE MAGAZINE

MAY,2021                      

 

                                                            T. HANUMAIAH     CHIEF    EDITOR

May Day 2021

The All India Loco Running Staff Association, on this May Day,2021, extends fraternal solidarity and revolutionary greetings to the workers and toiling people all over the world, who are bravely fighting the Covid pandemic on the one hand and the attacks of the ruling classes, on their livelihood, rights and working conditions, on the other.

The All India Loco Running Staff Association, on this May Day 2021,salute the working class and all sections of toiling people across the Globe who, bearing the brunt of huge personal losses and risking their own lives have been toiling to bring economy back on wheels and safeguard the lives 0f others. The AILRSA Condoles the members of the bereaved families who lost the lives of their near and dear to the covid-19.

The Covid-19 pandemic, ever since it first appeared in the last quarter of 2019, has stripped and exposed the capitalist system, which in spite of all round vast and fast development of advancement in science and technology, has miserably failed to meet the basic needs of most of the people and also, failed in protecting their lives. It happened so, because it is a system wherein health is not a basic right of citizens but is meant for only those who can afford to buy it. The health, education, housing and food is increasingly going out of the reach of the poor and needy people. The number of poor people struggling for survival has increased during the pandemic Covid-19. Many a Million of people have lost their jobs. The pandemic situation, In the richest and most powerful country of the world, the USA, and the other advanced capitalist countries, is a glaring example of, how these countries neglected the public health care, against Covid-19 Pandemic in the pursuit of promoting the private insurance-based health care, which has resulted in the death of thousands of preventable deaths to the pandemic and India is no exception to that. Today, the Covid vaccines are being controlled and cornered by a few advanced countries. Many poor countries are denied access to vaccines.

Whereas the socialist system, which prioritises people over the capital has effectively contained the spread of Covid-19 and curtailed the deaths in the socialist countries by providing universal public health care and prompt government intervention which in, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba and China have shown the way in curtailing the disease and safeguarding the health, lives and livelihoods of the people. Despite the imposition of inhuman blockade and sanctions on Cuba by USA, the Cuba in an exemplary action of solidarity has sent its teams of doctors and health professionals to assist more than 51 countries across the world, not only in Africa and Latin America but also to advanced capitalist countries in Europe like Italy, in dealing with the pandemic. The Cuban doctors deserves all praise, world over, for their selfless medical services. Our red salute to them.

The AILRSA deplores the manner in which the NDA government in our country has been utilising the pandemic and the related restrictions as a “never before opportunity came handy,” to aggressively pursue its neoliberal agenda, to satisfy the lust for the profit of the landlord-capitalist class, jeopardising the livelihood and survival of the mass of the toiling people and working class. It is during this period that this government passed the three farm bills suspending the MPs from parliament who asked for division and also passed three Labour Codes when the entire opposition was absent in Parliament. It is going ahead with its plan of wholesale privatisation of the public sector including the Indian railways a department of government of India. Under the misleading and deceptive slogan of ‘Atmanirbhar’(self-reliant) Bharat, this government is mortgaging the entire country, its wealth its natural resources and public sector as well as the real creators of the wealth of nation, the workers and peasants, to the big corporates of domestic and foreign. The country and its people are being sought to be pushed back into colonial exploitative conditions of 19th century.

With the three major public-sector vaccine manufacturing units in the country being closed down under the neoliberal regime, vaccine manufacturing is now left to private companies for whom the government of India is one of the buyers. India, once a pioneer in vaccine manufacturing is facing a serious shortage of Covid vaccines today. It has failed in ramping up vaccine production and providing universal access to the vaccines. It has declined the requests from several state governments as well as the Indian Medical Association to expand coverage. The Central Government should launch free, universal and mass vaccination drive and withdraw allocation of vaccines to the private sector.

The only way that the rath of covid-19 and the resultant deaths can be checked is through universal vaccination of the entire population of the world. It requires large scale production of vaccine. For that purpose, it needs at least, a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights held by a few capitalists’ multinational companies, so that, a massive output of vaccine can be ensured in different parts of the world and the universal vaccination can be under taken to save the lives of world populace.

A year ago, when the Lock Down was imposed the country witnessed the pathetic plight with acute hardship of tens of thousands of migrant workers with their families walking away in silent protest against the employers who have abandoned them to hunger and homelessness, after prospering through decades of their labour. The Inter-State Migrant Workers’ Act, 1979 that provided the migrant workers with some protection now stands repealed, as it is said to be subsumed under the Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions but, without most of the protective provisions. The draft National Policy on Migrant Workers has nothing on their labour rights or on matters related to industrial relations. It is nothing but a dubious exercise for deceiving the migrant labour and it is not at all in their interest.

With faster-spreading second wave of Covid-19, ravaging the country and the prospect of lockdowns staring at their face, crores of migrant workers find their lives crumbling before their eyes. Fearing another round of lockdowns, thousands of migrant workers are again going back to their native places. what a miserable plight, it is.

The Labour Codes, enacted during the pandemic are the lethal weapons gifted to the big corporates by the NDA government to enable unfettered exploitation of workers, on the pretext of promoting 'Ease of Doing Business'. On the one hand, the labour codes legalise the hitherto illegal violation by the employers of what were the laws of the land; on the other, they criminalise the workers' collective actions to assert their basic trade union and labour rights. Even the universally accepted right to “eight hours’ working day” synonymous with May Day is being sought to be diluted. They all are meant to denude workers of the only weapon in their hands is organised trade unions for collective bargaining through collective actions. The Labour Codes, enacted during the pandemic are meant to impose conditions of slavery on the working people, depriving them of all their hard-won rights, with the sole objective of severely weakening and crushing the collective bargaining of the working class to benefit the aggressive and cruel exploitative capitalists., 

The public sector, which is the wealth of nation, is being handed over to the corporate cronies. During the period when crores of workers lost their jobs and incomes, when they and their families were compelled to go hungry, when India’s GDP is estimated to contract by seven per cent, the Oxfam reported that the wealth of Indian billionaires rose by 35 per cent during the pandemic. This phenomenon exposes the single-minded pursuit of the anti-people policies of Government intended to facilitate loot of the country’s resources, exchequer and the financial system as a whole by the big-business corporate class, both foreign and domestic, at the cost of the people of India. On the whole, the corporate big-business class across the world multiplied their wealth phenomenally during the same period when global GDP turned negative. Unemployment in many countries including India has reached explosive proportions exposing the systematic destruction of the employment absorbing capacity of the economy by the destructive neoliberal capitalist policies.

The public sector banks where the common people of our country save their money, the public sector life insurance and general insurance companies, where the common people invest their meagre savings to be protected from adversities, are sought to be handed over to the corporate giants. The Defence production, the railways, telecom, civil aviation, ports, electricity, steel, mines etc., are set to be given away to the private corporates including foreign monopolies. The entire economy including services like health, education, welfare schemes is being targeted for privatisation. These acts of government have a severe negative and destructive bearing on the country’s employment generation, productive and service capabilities as a whole.  Our production capacities are being destroyed, ironically, in the name of ‘Make in India’. In the result, the livelihood of people is adversely affected.

The NDA government has, not only opened up the industries and services to the absolute control of corporates but also opened up our agriculture. The three Farm Acts enacted are meant to facilitate corporate takeover of our agriculture hitherto dominated by small farmers. They promote corporate farming, withdraw regulations including remunerative prices and procurement that protect the farmers there by exposing them to the vagaries of international food markets. This would lead to the dismantling of the public distribution system, threatening the food security of our people, particularly the poor. A majority of the farmers would face the threat of eviction from lands, there by converting them into labour in their own lands or forcing them to migrate to towns and cities in search of livelihood.

The AILRSA congratulates the working class, the farmers and all sections of toiling people for their heroic resistance against these anti-worker, anti-farmer, and anti-people policies of the NDA government. The farmers’ protests against the ‘black’ farm laws at Delhi borders are not only continuing for several months but have also gained support from all sections of toiling people all over the country. Despite exhausting all its naked tricks employed to divide the farmers, malign them, mislead the people by spreading lies, diverting people’s attention etc., the NDA government, could not succeed in weakening the struggle. The farmers are continuing their united struggle. The AILRSA salutes their courage and determination.

The AILRSA also congratulates the working class for its courageous and sustained struggle to protect its rights and working conditions against the onslaught of big capital and their representatives in governance of the NDA government. Not to be cowed down by the restrictions to its movements and activities due to the pandemic and the associated lockdown, the working class utilised every opportunity to raise its voice against the anti-worker, anti-people policies of the government, raising its voice from rooftops and balconies at the peak of the lockdown, it gradually stepped out to step up the struggle and went on a successful strike on November 26, 2020, despite the serious constraints due to the ongoing pandemic. The coal workers, the steel workers, the bank and insurance employees, workers of private organised sector, the scheme workers and lakhs of workers from almost all sectors have been on the struggle path. The AILRSA stood with them in solidarity.

The AILRSA is proud of its role, even under the trying conditions of pandemic, in initiating and organising the protests against the onslaughts of government in the matter of, DA/DR freeze, restoration of statutory pension(old pension) and scrapping of National pension scheme, imposing ceiling limit of pay for payment of Night Duty Allowance, violating the RAC 1980 formula in prescribing the rates of running allowances, restoration of paper pass, treat e-pass as travelling authority, supply of tools in a trolly bag, protection from covid-19 pandemic and payment of compensation of Rs. 50 Lakhs to the families of deceased, extending of Crew beats and skipping of Crew changing points, privatisation and selling of Railway assets, closing or degrading of Railway hospitals, allocation of  equivalent non running scales to the medically decategorized running staff, who are absorbed in the alternative post of non  running category, non payment of leave salary to loco running staff, enhancement of  exemption limit  at par with the rates of KMA for the purpose of  calculation of income tax and eligibility criteria for the post of CLI., etc.,

The growing solidarity between the two major sections of our toiling people, the workers and the peasants, who produce the wealth of this country, is a matter of great significance. The AILRSA has always been making efforts to develop and welcome such solidarity and unity of workers and peasants. In the midst of the pandemic, the workers and peasants not only continued and intensified their struggles on their own demands, but also consciously tried to synchronise their actions and physically participated in each other’s actions. The AILRSA believes that strengthening such unity of workers and peasants and taking joint struggles to a higher level involving broader sections of the masses will provide a historic opportunity to advance the struggle against not only neoliberal policies but against the exploitative capitalist system itself.

The AILRSA urges the workers all over the country to strengthen the unity of workers, peasants and others The toiling people should strive to, overcome the divisive machinations of the communal and casteist forces bent upon disrupting people’s unity in order to serve the interests of the ruling classes. The AILRSA reiterates its commitment to strive for strengthening the unity of workers, peasants and all sections of toiling people and intensify the struggle to protect their interests and save the nation.

The aggressive attacks of capital and its representatives in the governments, on the workers and other toiling people are not specific to India alone. In the midst of continuously aggravating economic crisis that predates the Covid-19 pandemic, the ruling classes across the world have been trying to maximise their profits and amass wealth by squeezing the workers and working people and by grabbing control over natural resources and public properties and services. Changes in labour laws curbing hard-won rights of the workers, particularly their right to organise and collective bargaining, attacks on democratic rights are being made in several capitalist countries. The ruling classes are promoting the growth of right-wing forces to achieve their objective and divide people on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity, region etc. Despite the failure of the discredited neoliberal model, the capitalist system has nothing to offer to come out of the systemic crisis, except imposing further burdens on the people and working class, which are bound to prove counterproductive.

In view of the comprehensive all-round onslaught on the people, the economy, democratic system, societal harmony and the national integrity as a whole, the fight back by a class oriented working class has to base itself on a comprehensive understanding of the character of these attacks of the ruling class, in all its expressions, linking one with the other. It has to be the united battle of the working class along with the people to defend the rights and dignity of the workers and the people, their livelihood, defend the democratic system and values, defend the national economy and resources and above all to defend the unity of the people.   

This requires consistent and continuous efforts to expose the inherent exploitative character of the capitalist system, its inhuman machinations and the politics that promote it. This May Day let us pledge to take up this task in right earnest.

The AILRSA, on this May Day, appeals to all workers and toiling people to:

Unite and demand universal free vaccination against Covid 19 as well as a universal free public health care.

Unite to fight against the capitalist onslaught on the livelihood and hard-won basic

rights of the workers and all toiling masses.

Unite and fight to defeat all attempts of the ruling classes to divide the working class and the people.

Loco men, to unite rank and file, organise railwaymen movement against privatisation, besides fighting for their legitimate demands and rights.

Long Live May Day, Working Class Solidarity, Worker Peasant Alliance and united struggles.