Nearly one lakh workers of over 70 units manufacturing auto parts, including Rico auto, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), Microtech, Lumax, Sunbeam, Sona and Caparo Maruti, in the Gurgaon-Manesar belt went on strike on October 20. The workers were protesting against the death of a co-worker, 26 year old Ajit Yadav, in the Rico Auto plant on October 18. He was killed in a police lathi charge, following a clash between striking workers and bouncers hired by the management to break the strike, according to one of the workers. Several other workers were also injured. The striking workers demanded an impartial inquiry into the incident and arrest and punishment of those responsible for the death of their comrade. They have also demanded a compensation of Rs. 2.5 million for the deceased worker’s family and a job in the factory for his kin.

As reported in the October 16-31 issue of MEL, workers of auto components manufacturing units in the Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt have been on agitation for several months now. They have been demanding the right to form a union, wage increase as well as an end to the practice of hiring contract labour in place of regular workers who have been suspended for their participation in the agitation. It has been reported that 16 workers of the Rico Auto plant have been suspended because of their participation in the struggle. The workers have demanded that the suspension orders be immediately revoked and reasserted their right to form their own trade union.

The workers have also pointed out that in most of these units the managements use armed security guards to intimidate the workers and have opposed this practice. Meanwhile, the police are reported to have registered cases of ‘attempt to murder’ and ‘criminal intimidation’ against 12 of the striking workers.

In solidarity with the Rico Auto workers, nearly 5,000 workers of the different auto parts units in the region came together in a prayer meeting held earlier, to mourn the death of their comrade.

The responses of the minister of state for labour, the state labour commissioner and the managements of several of the affected plants indicate that production in the area has been severely hit due to the strike and that the continued agitation is likely to affect many major automobile companies that receive their supplies from these units.

In the Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt, as in old and new industrial centres all over the country, young skilled workers are trying to organize themselves to oppose their severe exploitation by the Indian and foreign monopoly capitalists. In all these cases, the state is coming out openly on the side of the capitalists, justifying the attack on the workers and their right to organize and to go on strike, in the name of providing an ‘investor friendly atmosphere’.

The right to form a union and the right to strike are among the most basic rights of the working class. As the struggle of the Gurgaon workers shows, the organized working class has the capacity to fight back against this super-exploitation and paralyse the machinery of the state and the capitalists. Communists have to provide leadership to the working class in this struggle.