Date:02/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/02/stories/2008050253081200.htm

National

Right to strike should stay: Basu

Special Correspondent

It should be the last weapon of workers

UPA government blindly pursuing globalisation
Public resentment against Congress growing

KOLKATA: The right to strike should not be taken away from workers, but it should not be exercised at all times and in every situation, veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu reiterated on the occasion of May Day. Strikes should be their last weapon.

Attempts should be made to end any stalemate by involving workers and employers in negotiations. “But if the need arises then a strike should be called,” he said in an article published in Thursday’s edition of Ganashakti, CPI(M) organ.

Mr. Basu criticised the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government for “blindly” pursuing the policy of globalisation, just as the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance regime did.

The public resentment against the Congress was growing because of certain policies adopted by the UPA government, which was not abiding by the Common Minimum Programme. This was evident in the party’s defeat in the recent Assembly elections in some States recently, but it failed to learn its lesson.

Rising prices

The UPA government’s policies led to a crisis in the agricultural sector, suicide by farmers and priced rise. Social security and rights of workers and employees were also under attack.

Globalisation and the control of markets by multinationals resulted in an assault on workers across the world, closure of factories, retrenchment, and impoverishment of large sections of people, Mr. Basu said. A fight was on against the policies of globalisation in Latin America and there was much to learn from it.

He underlined the need for taking forward the process of industrialisation in West Bengal, to which the Left Front government was committed.

May Day should come as a reminder that the working class movement should not be confined to economic demands. The working classes should be prepared to take up leadership in the struggle for social change, Mr. Basu wrote.

Addressing a rally held here by the Left central trade unions and workers’ federations, Mohd. Amin, all-India general secretary, CITU, said the Left trade unions and parties were working for a third alternative as the UPA failed to fulfil most of the conditions set by the Left parties in exchange for their support to it.