On February 18, 2009, tens of thousands of workers marched through the streets of the heart of Delhi from Ramlila Maidan to Parliament.

The protest was against job losses, retrenchments, wage cuts, closures, attacks on trade union rights, lay offs and hire and fire, and handing over of Provident Fund to private managers. They demanded that UPA government provide relief to the working people, not to the corporate houses. They demanded guaranteed protection of jobs, a halt to the course of globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation, increase in the minimum wages, strict implementation of labour laws, the universalisation of the Public Distribution System and the addition of more essential items of mass consumption to this Distribution System. They demanded more investment in agriculture and social sector, extension and universal coverage of the NREGA to urban areas. They demanded amendments to the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act recently passed by the UPA government, and legislation to protect the rights of agricultural workers.

The rally was organised at the call of the Sponsoring Committee of Trade Unions. Workers came from all over India. Anganwadi workers, beedi workers, coalmine workers, electricity workers, agricultural workers, marched with workers of banks and insurance, railways, defence, civil aviation and telecommunications.

According to the trade unions, over 20 lakh workers have lost their jobs through retrenchment and layoffs in the last six months. It is feared that this figure will rise to over one crore workers during the course of 2009.

The rally was addressed by leaders of the trade unions and federations. Those who spoke included Gurudas Dasgupta, MK Pandhe, Swapan Mukherji, Krishna Chakraborty, SP Tiwari and Abani Roy from the central trade unions. There were also speakers from the federations representing employees of banking, insurance and defence sectors, central  and state governments. Speakers pointed out how the government was doling out peoples monies to the big capitalists, while ignoring the plight of workers. AIBEA leader Venketachelam revealed that the government is doling out Rs 35,000 lakh crore of people's money to private and corporate sector to allegedly overcome the economic crisis. Leader of the Federation of Defence Employees, S. Pathak pointed out that the government is planning to give Rs 25,000 crores to private and corporate sectors from the defence budget.

The rally ended with a memorandum presented to the government highlighting the demands of the workers and a call to prepare for a Bharat Bandh to take forward the struggle of workers. 

This massive protest rally of workers in the capital comes in the heels of protests organised by trade unions and workers federations all across the country, in recent weeks, through which working class has been highlighting its concerns and demands. It shows the great potential of the working class to unitedly fight in defence of its rights and against the capitalist onslaught. This potential must be turned into actuality — this is the task of communists and all class conscious workers. The workers are declaring that they are fed up with the capitalist system and want to establish an alternative social system, the socialist system. They want the economy so oriented and organised that it would fulfill the growing material and cultural needs of the working population, and not as it is today- oriented to fulfill private greed. This demands that the working class take political power into its own hands, in alliance with the peasantry. This is something which all those who claim to represent the cause of emancipation of working class have to seriously address and organise for.