- by Graham Holton
- The Guardian
- Issue #2154
Photo: workers.org
On 24 June the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, Revolutionary Socialist Party and All India Forward Bloc issued a joint press statement fully supporting the 9 July 2025 Bharat Bandh (nationwide strike). The strike was arranged by the ten Central Trade Unions (CTUs) and independent all-India sectoral federations and associations that comprise the Joint Platform of Trade Unions.
India’s central and state governments are attacking the working class. The general strike was against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new Labour Codes, which are a key part of the corporate agenda aimed at severely curtailing the basic democratic rights of workers, including the right to organise and undertake collective action. The unions stand against the amendments to the twenty-nine labour laws and the four labour codes and the privatisation of public sector enterprises. Unions want the Old Pension Scheme restored and a national minimum wage of INR 26,000 (AUD $461) with a regular revision every five years.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government is implementing a neoliberal agenda of contractualisation, and the privatisation of PSU. Congress MP Singh Surjewala and AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka, Jairam Randeep, said 53 per cent of Indian workforce has no social security. Eighty per cent of India’s workforce is in the informal sector, while 60 per cent do not have a written contract. At the state level, he Andhra Pradesh state government amended the law to increase the working day to ten hours, diluting hard-won workers’ democratic rights. At a time of rising cost of living and stagnant wages this has led to massive discontent among the working class.
Solidarity actions by the peasantry have united workers in the face of attempts to divide the movement. The trade unions’ demands reflect the concerns of peasants, agricultural workers, and the general public. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha agricultural workers’ organisations supported the general strike. Union leaders addressed a workers’ rally in New Delhi, saying power, mines, minerals, coal, ports, and public transport were impacted by the strike.
Amarjeet Kaur from All India Trade Union Congress said that over 250 million workers and farmers took part in the strike to protest across the country. Sanjay Vadhavkar, IndustriALL executive committee member and general secretary of the Steel, Metal, and Engineering Workers’ Federation of India, said: “Today’s successful strike reflects that the working class in India is totally against the anti-worker and anti-people policies of the present government. Workers will continue to fight … trade unions in the country stand united and we will carry on the struggle to defend workers’ rights.”
Workers in banking, postal, coal mining, factories, state transport services joined the Bharat Bandh. In West Bengal, including Kolkata, workers blocked railway tracks at Jadavpur railway station. Odisha members of the Khordha District unit of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions blocked the national highway at Bhubaneswar. The Rashtriya Janata Dal students’ wing blocked the Jehanabad railway station in Bihar.
The Politbureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) congratulated the working class on the success of the strike. “Reports show that the police resorted to lathi charges and attempts were made to intimidate workers from participating in the general strike. Braving all such attacks, the strike was held successfully. Kisan, agricultural workers and various sections of the people too joined the workers in solidarity and held protest demonstrations.” CPI (M) supporters marched in processions, blocked roads and railways. Workers bearing Communist flags were seen in marches and demonstrations, protecting the rights of India’s working class.
