Every day, for the last 1509 days, workers of the closed Elgin 1 Mill have been sitting on dharna outside the mill gate. Every Sunday, they hold a mass meeting or some other protest action. Their demand — the reopening of Elgin 1 Mill. Now, after 6 years of complete closure, and four and half years of continuous dharna, there are indications that the mill will reopen. When this happens, it will be a major victory for the lakhs of workers of Kanpur. Union Minister of State for Home and MP from Kanpur, Sriprakash Jaiswal, announced on June 20 to the Press that a Cabinet note has been prepared for the renewal plan for Elgin 1 Mill and that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has promised to expedite the matter and give cabinet approval for the same.

All the textile mills of Kanpur have been shut for a number of years now. The closure of these mills went through four phases. First the sick private mills were nationalized with heavy compensation given to the private owners. Second, instead of modernizing these mills, the mills were allowed to decay and run at losses, for a number of years, until they were declared “sick”. Then the charade of referring these mills to BIFR under the Sick Industries Act, was played out. The mills stopped production and workers were given wages without having to work. At the next stage, workers were asked to take VRS. Finally, those workers who did not take VRS were given an ultimatum, “take VRS or get nothing”. This has been the plight of thousands of worker families in Kanpur. And there are many workers who have not got their VRS because of criminal manipulation of muster rolls and records. This has been the case with hundreds of workers of Elgin Mills, as well as other mills.

The workers of Elgin Mills, organized under the banner of Kanpur Council Trade Union, refused to give up their struggle. From the very beginning, they pointed out that the government owned BIC mills had huge movable and immovable assets in Kanpur, which could be used to run at least one of the mills. They concentrated their struggle on the most modern of the three BIC mills, namely Elgin 1Mill, and ensured through their struggle that the management could not sell off the machinery and other movable assets as scrap. Meanwhile, through well argued and researched positions they showed that the NTC and BIC were sitting on literally hundreds and thousands of crores of land and other assets in the prime areas of Kanpur. With the deployment of a small portion of these resources, Elgin 1 could be modernized and run profitably.

The workers of Kanpur Council Trade Union have refused to become cheerleaders of this or that politician or political party of the bourgeoisie. For instance, the same Sriprakash Jaiswal was forced to run away from the gate of Elgin 1 some years back after the workers refused to allow him to address an election meeting because of his prevarication on their demands. Now, hundreds of postcards were sent to the Congress President Sonia Gandhi from the workers, demanding to know what the stand of Congress was towards the plight of workers of the closed mills. This was part of a public campaign launched by the union during the UP elections, to bring the concerns of the workers to center-stage.

According to the leader of the workers, Comrade Mohd Sami, they are planning to develop the struggle even broader and wider. On July 8, the Kanpur Council Trade Union will organize a solidarity rally to the gate of the nearby closed TAFCO (Tannery and Footwear Corporation). TAFCO has been closed for nearly 6 years too, and workers there are also demanding its reopening. The real estate belonging to TAFCO alone amounts to over 4 lakh sq yards, worth several hundred crores of rupees, located in the heart of Kanpur. The workers plan to push for the reopening of TAFCO along the lines of Elgin 1. The Union is also preparing to organize a petition to the textile ministry from tens of thousands of former textile workers of Kanpur, requesting the opening of at least one NTC mill by deploying the movable and immovable assets of the 5 closed NTC mills. Slowly but steadily, an atmosphere of unity and struggle is being developed once again amongst the workers of Kanpur.