Who Is Responsible for the Violence in Maruti Suzuki?

Editorial from  journal Revolutionary Democracy

After an eerie silence of almost nine months, confrontation between the workers and management once again flared up in Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant (near Delhi), which had witnessed a series of strikes last year. In a fresh bout of conflagration on the 19th July 2012, the workers again rose against the arbitrariness of the management, leading to a bloody clash between them, in which the General Manager (Human Resources) was killed when fire broke in one portion of the plant and as per the company’s official statement, 100 employees were seriously injured. But no one knows, neither cared to find out how many workers were hurt or injured.

According to various reports that appeared in the media, the incident occurred after a worker was abused by the shop-floor supervisor who used a derogatory casteist remark against him. Subsequently the management also suspended the same worker Jiya Lal from work. This act of the supervisor was protested by the fellow workers, and a scuttle broke between them.

The worker’s got agitated when the management deferred its decision to reinstate Jiya Lal till next day. To quell any workers demand, MSIL (Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.) has institutionalised the practise of calling in armed goons (popularly referred to as bouncers). This tactic of theirs proved very effective in derailing last years strike and preventing any worker from airing their grievance openly. So as expected the goons were called; who on their arrival immediately closed the gates of the factory premises and started physically assaulting the workers inside the plant with sharp weapons and arms. The workers retaliated in self defence and a scuffle started, which led to some people being injured and the GM, being killed when he was engulfed in the fire that had broken in one part of the premise.

The MSIL management which for past couple of years have come to symbolise the true face of ‘corporate governance’ and also representing multi national capital, came into full swing. The Manesar plant was locked out and the entire incident was portrayed as another criminal act of the workers. The company issued a communiqué blaming the workers responsible for the entire melee and terming them as vandals and murderers. [Read Full Story]

http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv18/maruti.htm

JOIN THE JOINT PROTEST DEMO DURING THE VISIT OF OSAMU SUZUKI, CHAIRMAN & CEO, MARUTI SUZUKI CORP

May Day Report

 

In Delhi several left and democratic trade unions assembled in the Ramlila ground to commemorate May day,  like other years the unions marched from the ground to the Town hall.

The organisation present were:AICCTU(affiliated to CPI ML Liberation), CITU (affiliated to CPI M), AITUC (affiliated to CPI), UTUC(affiliated to RSP), AIUTUC (affiliated to SUCI(C)), Mazdoor Ekta Lehar (affiliated to CGPI), HMS ( social democrats), TUCC(affiliated to All India Forward Bloc), Workers’ Unity Trade Union.

 

 

The rally consisted of workers and their union from Delhi and adjoining areas, and consisted of around 3000 members.

WUTU along with Nirman Mazdoor Shakti Sanghtan actively took part in the rally and raised several revolutionary and non sectarian slogans like workers unite, implement 8 hrs work and minimum wage act, red salute to workers unity etc.

WUTU and NMSS had jointly come out with a pamphlet that called for forming militant revolutionary workers’ organisation. The pamphlet was distributed and was well received.

Compared to the May Day rallies of the past the number of participants were less. This shows the weak position of the TU movement in particular and Left in general in this part of the country.

The Maruti Suzuki Strike: A Report

Workers’ Unity Trade Union

 In Eighteenth Brumaire of Napoleon Bonaparte, Karl Marx, wrote, ‘All great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice… first time as tragedy, the second time as farce’. In the struggle of workers against the management of Maruti Suzuki – India’s largest automobile manufacturing company, both tragedy and farce occurred within a span of few days. The tragedy was that the workers had to withdraw their strike without any of their concrete demands being accepted by the management, the farce being that once again as in several struggles of the past, top leadership of the workers capitulated in front of capital, with the top leaders of the union leaving the company after taking Rs. 40 lakhs in golden handshakes along with thirty other members, most of them constituting the core of the new union. According to the media reports 30 workers at Maruti’s Manesar plant, the key people who had been responsible for the strike, were paid off by the management to exit the company. The workers received a combined Rs. 4.2 to 4.8 crore, based on the amount paid to each worker.

Appeal for support and solidarity for garment workers at Unitex Exports, Chennai

Garment and Fashion Workers’ Union

(Affiliated to the New Trade Union Initiative)

Appeal for support and solidarity for garment workers at Unitex Exports, Chennai

 

This is an important juncture in the on-going struggle of the 120 workers of Unitex Exports, a garment manufacturing company in Chennai. We seek your support in the struggle against illegal closure at the company’s Ambattur, Chennai factory and for the recognition of the Garment and Fashion Worker’s Union (GAFWU) as the sole trade union and union of choice of all workers at Unitex.

 

Kazakhstan: The Massacre Continues

Authorities are trying to cover up the number of victims by burying bodies in the steppe

Workers activists are concerned that the authorities may be concealing the bodies of fallen comrades and innocent civilians, as had happened during the events of 1989. Then troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs also shot civilians and hid the bodies in secret locations. Already then Nazarbaev was in power in the country, a member of the Central Committee of the Kazakhstan Communist Party, and oversaw the suppression of social unrest. Today history repeats itself; only this time the oil workers under strike and local civilians have become the victims. Now the main task of the newly formed Commission of Independent Unions and the opposition is not to allow the cover up of the true scale of the atrocities by the hands of the authorities.

Kazakhstan: Stop police violence against strikers

On Friday December 16th a celebration of Independence Day in the Western Kazakhstan city of Zhanaozen ended up with violent clashes between police and protesting oil workers who have been striking since May, demanding wage increases. It has been reported that oil workers planned to have a peaceful rally on Zhanaozen’s main square but were attacked. According to report we have received, armed police were sent against the demonstrators. Some reports say the police used their weapons and some protestors were killed or injured.

Please send a message to the Kazakhstan authorities calling on them to cease violence against their own people.

For Background click here

For online protest campaign click here

Hail the Glorious Struggles of the Iranian Working Class!

The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan)

The Iranian working class has pushed its struggles to a higher level in the past few years. There have been several united strikes by the workers in different sectors of industry. The most recent strike took place in the city of Mahshahr and continued for three weeks. Six thousand five hundred workers of Petrochemical Complex in Mahshahr went on a united strike. Among their demands were the elimination of intermediary contractors between the workers and the Complex, the elimination of signing temporary and individual contracts with workers, and its replacement with signing official and direct and collective contracts with the Company.

Meeting to Commemorate 94th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution Held in New Delhi

Sitting from left: comrades Vijay Singh, Nirmalangshu Mukherjee, Kuldeep Singh, Jaya Mehta

The Workers’ Unity Trade Union (WUTU) organised a meeting to commemorate the 94^th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution on 6^th November, 2011 at the Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi. The meeting was well attended by a large number of participants including representatives from Janpaksh, New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI), Marxist Communist Party of India-United (MCPI-U), Youth for Social Justice, Campaign for Peaceand Democracy, Manipur (CPDM), Nirman Mazdoor Shakti Sangathan and the journal Revolutionary Democracy.  Many members of Workers’ Unity Trade Union were forced by the management not to attend the meeting, by forcefully putting their name into those doing overtime.

Turkey: Leather workers sacked for ‘occupying’ factory

Savranoglu Leather and Kampana Leather are two factories owned by same employer. Savranoglu is situated in Izmir and Kampana is situated in Istanbul. For over 6 months Deri-Is has been waging an intense struggle against the anti-union attitudes of the employer.