The conference on “The State and Rights of Labour” organised by Lok Raj Sangathan in collaboration with Mazdoor Ekta Committee (MEC) in Delhi on October 18 drew a large number of workers from across India and from across several industries and professions.

Over 200 leaders and activists of the working class participated in the conference.  Various speakers elaborated on labour rights and their violation, and labour legislation, its context and purpose, and addressed the tasks of the working class in today’s context.

The retrenchment and subsequent recall of 2,000 employees by Jet Airways was fresh in everyone’s mind and stood as a stark example of the violation of the rights of labour by the Indian and foreign capitalist corporations. In his speech, Comrade Prakash Rao, spokesperson of the Communist Ghadar Party of India explained what was behind this. On the one hand, the event revealed the militancy of our young workers, particularly the young women; and on the other, the impunity with which the capitalists can violate the most basic right of workers – right to their jobs. It also revealed that the burden of the crisis faced by the capitalists as always gets shifted on to the backs of the workers, and the existing labour legislation enables the capitalists to carry this out.

He went on to illustrate how labour legislation has in the main favoured the interests of the capitalist class. He called upon the activists of the working class to unite and fight for the alternative to capitalist rule, i.e. worker peasant rule. He pointed out that we must wage the struggle for immediate and partial demands, including reforming of labour laws in our favour; at the same time, we must not make the strategic struggle for establishing a worker- peasant rule into a distant dream and tie the workers hand and foot to merely defensive battles for better wages and working conditions. We must use every opportunity, including the coming elections, to bring the agenda of the working class and the need for establishing worker-peasant rule to the centerstage, he urged.

The Conference began with Com. Bijju Nayak, Secretary of the Delhi Regional Council of LRS and leader of the Mazdoor Ekta Committee, welcoming all the delegates. S Raghavan, President of the LRS gave the inaugural address.  He opened the proceedings with a scathing attack on the imperialist conception of rights, according to which rights can be given or taken away at the whim and fancy of the class in power.

He pointed out that in the conditions of the world economic crisis, the government of India was shifting the burden of the crisis on to the backs of the working people, while using people’s resources to bail out crisis hit capitalist companies and institutions. He called upon the working class to unitedly oppose these attacks.

TS Sankaran, Honorary Chairperson of the Lok Raj Sangathan, one of its founders, who has been linked closely with the struggle for rights of labour, was called upon to address the Conference. He pointed out that despite having nearly fifty laws related to labour, in fact the system has not protected the rights of workers and there are moves to further dilute the statutes in favour of owners. In conclusion, he sounded a warning to the working class activists participating in Conference that in the coming days, the government of the capitalists will intensify the assault on the working class. "We must prepare to unitedly resist it. At the same time, we must work for people’s power, for a fundamental transformation of our society, so that the rights of the working class and all sections of people are guaranteed," he said.

Three valuable presentations followed this. The first of these, made by the representative of Mazdoor Ekta Committee, addressed the theme of the conference. It provided a clear and comprehensive definition of the state and of the rights of workers. The presentation underscored that rights of labour are inalienable and not something that can be granted and taken away by the will of the state.

This was followed by a detailed presentation on the various attacks being envisaged by the capitalist associations in our country in order that the capitalists’ profits can be protected. The capitalist class has been demanding “more liberal labour legislation” that will allow it to hire and fire workers at will and that will not bind the capitalist to any legal obligation towards the workers in an enterprise. This, the capitalists argue, is necessary for attracting investments and for economic growth!  The presentation exposed the real aim behind every such amendment to legislation that has been proposed by the capitalists – that the ID Act be amended, so that the requirement that companies employing over 100 workers need government permission for closure, be changed by raising the limit to 1000 workers; that women workers be allowed to work on night shifts, regardless of the impact on their health and dangers to their safety, that contract labour and ‘hire and fire’ be the norm in all sectors of the economy, beginning with the sector linked to exports; that the working week be increased legally from 48 hours to 60 hours and that workers earning more than 10,000 Rupees a month not be given the rights of workmen; that labour inspectors should not come and inspect factory premises to see if working conditions are according to the existing labour laws, but should accept the word of the capitalists.

Explaining the history of development in labour legislation from the 1880s till date, Dr. Mathew, the leader of Kamgaar Ekta Chalwal from Mumbai, made a thought provoking presentation on the ‘Changing face of the Indian working class’ in the 18 years since the program of globalization through liberalization and privatization was launched. This challenged the lie of the bourgeoisie that the working class is in a minority and dwindling and that not all those who sell their labour power are workers. He pointed out that in this period, it is a fact that many workers in the state owned enterprises, as well as in private owned industries have lost their jobs as a result of capital moving to more profitable areas and as a result of capital’s drive to increase the exploitation of the workforce. At the same time, taking the country as a whole, data shows that the working class is growing in numbers. Many new sectors of the economy, like the IT sector, BPO sector, etc. have opened up and many older sectors like airlines, road transport, health care, education, automobiles, etc. are expanding. The work force is growing younger, it has a constantly increasing proportion of women and its level of education is increasing.

Various organisers of plantation workers and headload workers, construction workers, garment workers, school and university teachers, leather workers, airport workers, IT workers, engineering industry workers, railway workers, journalists and press workers, financial sector workers and workers of many other sectors of the economy then addressed the Conference. These included Com Girjeshwar Singh, Vice President, AIUTUC, Comrade SP Tiwari, General Secretary of the TUCC, OP Sinha, President of the All India Workers Council, Com Anil Tyagi, member of CC, SUCI, Bal Govind Singh, leader of All India Forward Bloc (revolutionary) from Bihar, Dr. Kamala Sankaran of Delhi University, Hanuman Prasad Sharma, President of Rajasthan Shikshak Manch, Ramendra of Delhi Shramik Sangathan, Renu of Purogami Mahila Sangathan, Suryakant, General Secretary of Ladaku Garment Workers Union, Mumbai, Mohd. Atik, President of Leather Workers Union, Gulab Singh of Road Transport Workers Union, Punjab, Narendar, leader of ICTU, Saravanan of Tamilnadu Workers Unity Movement, Shri Jaspal Siddhu of UNI Employees Union, Amitabh Datta, editor of ‘Chintadarsh’ magazine from West Bengal, Subhash Bhatnagar of Nirman Mazdoor Panchayat Sangam, Thaneswar of NFWR, KN Shukla from “Missile” and G. Singh of Agricultural Workers Union, Punjab.

Com Sucharita, member of the All India Council of Lok Raj Sangathan, summed up the conference. She welcomed the fact that so many workers’ organisations, representing a wide cross-section of workers from nearly every sector of the economy, had participated in the conference. She pointed out that there was unanimous agreement that the state is a state of the big capitalists and defends their interests and further, that the working class has to unite and play its leading role in opposing the capitalist offensive, in opposing the economic and political attacks on livelihood and rights of people. The working class has been kept divided and fragmented, made to tail behind one or another of the political parties of the capitalists, and prevented from coming forward with its own independent program of reorganising the economy and society in the interests of all the toilers. The urgent task facing all leaders of the working class is to organise the working masses around the political program of becoming the rulers of India. Only Lok Raj, or people’s power will guarantee the rights of labour, she concluded.