Heroic Opposition to State-Imposed Immiseration and Violation of Human Dignity

On November 26, workers, farmers and youth of India are planning to rally in Delhi in defence of their dignity, well-being and rights against their further immiseration by the Indian state on behalf of the rich.

On that day, and on November 27, the farmers, answering the call of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) are converging in Delhi from many states in India. According to the organizers, farmers from states on the periphery of Delhi, including Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, will reach Delhi, the national capital, on their tractors on November 26 and 27 through five highways. Farmers from other states will hold protests in their respective states at the district and village level.

October 27, 2020. All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee meeting of farmers organizations from different parts of India.

If the government and the police do not allow the farmers to enter Delhi, as they are threatening, using the pandemic as a pretext, the farmers pledge that they will hold their protest wherever they are stopped, for an indefinite period. Farmers will be carrying supplies to sustain a three-month long action. Representatives of farmers' organizations say that the government did not hesitate to pass its new farm laws amid COVID-19 and yet it is trying to stop the farmers from holding their action in Delhi citing the pandemic. The Delhi police have imposed a ban on protests in the capital.

On November 26, ten trade union centrals are holding a one-day nationwide general strike and are also supporting the two-day action by farmers. The ten trade union centrals are the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), the Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), the All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC), the Trade Union Co-ordination Centre (TUCC), the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), the Labour Progressive Federation (LPF) and the United Trade Union Congress (UTUC). Youth are also expected to join.

The main demand of the day of action is the immediate withdrawal of a series of draconian anti-farmer and anti-labour laws which were passed at rapid speed in September by the Indian Parliament, with no debate and despite widespread opposition from workers, farmers, youth and people from all walks of life.

Farmers in particular have been holding mass actions since September to have the farm laws repealed. In the northern state of Punjab, farmers blocked roads and highways and railway tracks to back their opposition to the bills. Instead of listening to the concerns of farmers, the central government retaliated and cancelled all trains carrying goods to Punjab as of October 24, causing great hardship for the people. Workers have been holding demonstrations across India to oppose the government's anti-worker, anti-farmer and anti-national policies. The fact that the Indian state is imposing these laws in the midst of the suffering caused by the pandemic and the economic crisis has increased the people's anger.

October 6, 2020. Protest by farmers at the Dussehra grounds on the Sirsa-Barnala highway in Haryana.

Draconian Farm Bills

The impoverishment of Indian farmers is already extreme. It is estimated that two-thirds of India's 1.3 billion people depend on farming for their livelihood, but the agriculture sector makes up only around 17 per cent of the nation's total economic output, about $2.3 trillion. About 80 per cent of Indian farmers are considered marginal (less than one hectare) or small farmers (one to two hectares). More than half of India's farmers are reported to be in debt. A huge problem is that the cost of seeds, fertilizer and other inputs has risen steeply. Meanwhile, the prices farmers receive for their crops are not even adequate to cover their costs and provide a net income sufficient to maintain their families. While farmers' incomes decline, the debt they owe to banks and money lenders keeps rising. The combination of falling incomes and rising indebtedness drives thousands of Indian farmers to suicide every year.

Farmers all over the country have been demanding that the state ensure that their crops are purchased at a price that is at least 50 per cent above their full cost of production. This has never happened, neither through the limited form of public procurement by state agencies that currently exists, nor from private traders who do not even abide by the official minimum support prices established by the state. Many farmers end up not even recovering their production costs.

Farmers' organizations estimate that the new bills that were adopted by the Indian parliament will only aggravate their situation. These bills are the Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill.

According to the farmers' unions, the new bills give full rein to private trading companies to loot the small farmers. Private corporations can now purchase agricultural products in any trade area, at any price. They do not have to purchase the produce at the regulated market price and pay the required fees. There is no mention of minimum prices in the legislation.

The Indian government is promoting its legislation on the basis that it gives farmers "freedom" to sell their produce anywhere, that the government is opening up options to farmers. The reality, the farmers' unions say, is that 86.2 per cent of Indian farmers own less than two hectares. They are under heavy pressure to sell their crops immediately after harvest in order to pay their debts, buy inputs for the next crop and to meet their other needs. As well, they have no capacity to store crops or for transport (which government procurement provided) or to bargain for the best price. They have no choice but to go to the nearest mandi (market yard), which is regulated by state governments.

What is going to happen is that rich private corporations will replace the minimum support prices and government procurement. According to farmers' unions, this means that farmers will be subjected to total corporate control, with powerful rural elites acting as middlemen for global multinational agriculture corporations which means that both inputs and crop markets will be entirely monopolized by these private corporations. The farm bills open the path for increasing domination of agricultural trade by big corporations, both Indian and foreign.

With deregulation, farmers will lose any guarantee and any control over the price they receive for their crops.

Labour Codes

September 25, 2020. Farmers and youth organize protests in Balangir district, Odisha.

Parliament passed three labour code Bills on September 23 when the opposition was boycotting the monsoon session on the issue of the farm Bills. The three Bills, the Industrial Relations (IR) Code, the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH) Code, and the Social Security Code, along with the prior Code on Wages, 2019, amalgamate 44 labour laws. All the legislation deals with wages, industrial relations, social security, safety, and welfare conditions. The bills were passed in spite of the fact that all trade unions explicitly opposed them.

To give some examples of the content of the bills, the new code governing industrial relations eliminates the previous requirement according to which all enterprises employing 100 or more workers needed prior government approval to close down or throw workers out of their jobs. The threshold of 100 has been increased to 300. About 45 per cent of all factory workers are employed in enterprises with fewer than 300 employees. The new law also states that the central and state governments can raise the 300-employee threshold at any time.

According to the previous legislation, all enterprises employing 100 or more workers had to have Standing Orders, which are known to the workers and registered with the labour department, relating to classification of workers, the manner of informing workers about working hours, holidays, pay day, wage rates, termination of employment and grievance mechanisms. Workers in enterprises where such Standing Orders were in place could use them to defend their rights against arbitrary decisions by the employers. The change will deprive millions of workers of this mechanism for protecting their rights.

Both the Industrial Relations Code and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 allow the government to exempt any new industrial establishment or class of establishments from their provisions if to do so is in the "public interest." On occupational safety, the code provides that exemptions are allowed in the interest of "creating more economic activity and employment." Such exemptions can be granted regarding hours of work, safety standards, rehiring processes, trade union rights, use of contract labour, etc.

The list of exemptions is vast, all being imposed by the Indian state on behalf of narrow private interests under the hoax of "flexibility," "red tape reduction" and "job creation."

The All India Days of Action on November 26 and 27 are important events in the fight of the working class and people of India for their rights, their dignity as human beings and producers and their well-being in opposition to further immiseration and violation of their rights by the Indian state on behalf of the rich, which is all the more egregious in the midst of the pandemic and the economic crisis. This is a heroic action that deserves the full support of all Canadian workers and of workers all over the world.

November 5 "Chakka Jam" Actions to Block Highways

November 5 a nationwide "Chakka Jam" was called by farmers organizations demanding withdrawal of the three agricultural laws with farmers blocking state and national highways and roads as well as organizing other actions.

Rampur, Punjab