Full text of the speech by Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary of CPI(ML) Liberation at the Open session of 11th All India Conference of AICCTU held at Talkatora stadium in New Delhi on February 24, 2025.
Birsa Munda gave the slogan, "Abua Dishum, Abua Raj," our right, our rule in our own country: this is the same voice that resonated in 1857, in 1949, when the constitution was passed in the country, and in 1950 when the republic was established.
Today, there is a need to raise this voice even louder! Because today, in our country, there is a government that stands against dissent, against the workers and farmers of this country, against those who build this country, those who run this country, against the common people of this country.
And that is why you will see that today not only are our rights being snatched away – the rights of workers, farmers, youth, women – not only are all the assets of the country being handed over to Adani-Ambani, but the entire pride of the country is being auctioned off to America.
There is a song from 1857, which says – 'Aaya firangi door se, aisa mantar mara, luta dono haath se yaara watan hamara' (The foreigner came from afar, casted such a spell, looted our beloved country with both hands). Today, the Prime Minister of our country grovels before USA, and that same USA is continuously sending back our citizens to the country in American airplanes, handcuffed like criminals, shackled like slaves.
I want to say that all those who are being sent back are workers of our country. They used to work there. Whether they have papers or not is irrelevant – we saw how Colombia and Mexico said that if America does not want our citizens, we will definitely take them back to our country, but with full respect! They said our plane will go and bring our citizens back to our country. We saw how Colombia and Mexico displayed the pride in their workers and citizens of the country. But in India, on the 5th, Modi ji was taking a dip in the Kumbh, Delhi was witnessing assembly elections, and in Amritsar, our people, our women, were coming back with handcuffs on their hands and shackles on their feet.
That is why a crucial question is before us today: the struggle of workers is a long historic struggle. Since the independence movement of India, Amarjeet Kaur is present here, the General Secretary of AITUC which was established in 1920, in the course of the independence movement of the country. The freedom movement of India was the movement of the working people of this country. Carrying such a great tradition, 105 years of the organized trade union movement of this country. As far as the rights of trade union are concerned, those are even older. Through those struggles, we have arrived here today.
We have many questions before us today. Today when working conditions are discussed, someone says one should work 70 hours, someone says one should work 90 hours. In reality, people are working 100-100 hours, but there is no conversation around fair wages for that work. There is no concern for the workers. There is no conversation on our workplace, on safe working conditions, on equal and democratic workplaces. The sole focus, the biggest conspiracy in the country today is how to extract more and more cheap labor.
In such times, there is no denying that rallying for worker rights is very important today. We however need to begin from the beginning, we have to start from, 'Hum hain iske malik, Hindustan hamara' (This land is our land, we the people of India). We are the rightful owners of this country, and as the main stakeholders, when the workers demand their rights; Faiz had said that when we will demand our share, we will demand the whole world. We are the working class, which Karl Marx said, Workers of the World, we are not limited to India, we are a class across the world, the class that runs the entire world. So when we think about our future as owners today, we will think about ourselves, we will think about the farmers, we will think about the youth, we will think about the students, we will think about their education, we will think about the whole country. The constitution of the country is under attack today. In such a situation, there is a great challenge before us, there is a need for greater unity.
Today's working class composition has undergone major changes. In older times, we used to talk of the public sector, of the organized sector. In the public sector and the organized sector, the workers had achieved some victories by waging long struggles. The circumstances are quite different today: the public sector is under heavy attack, the organized sector has completely shrunk, there is a very large informal economy, a very large unorganized sector, there are many workers who are so-called ‘self-employed’, they have no employer. There is huge unemployed mass of people, and workers working in very insecure, humiliating and harsh conditions.
There are all kinds of workers within the working class. Half of our country's population is women. Women of India also form half of the working class. And we can see today that a large number of women are present here today. Yet there is a need for even larger numbers to come, there is a need to fight beside each other in the future.
Today's workers movement is for everyone: all scheme workers, ASHA, Anganwadi, Mid-Day Meal, Livelihood Mission, crores of women workers, this organization is for you, this movement is for you. This movement is for all agricultural laborers, for all those crores of rural laborers, for whom MNREGA was implemented, but you see that their wages do not increase at all. The government itself declares the minimum wages, like today as per law, 26,000 minimum wages should be ensured for all. However in this country, no scheme worker, no MNREGA worker, anywhere, gets this minimum wage. The government itself announces the minimum wage and takes work from people in exchange of very little money, token money. All those people who are fighting for minimum wages today are with us, the workers movement is for everyone. Those people whose land is being snatched away, whose houses are being demolished; today Vakil Hassan is with us, who along with his team rescued the workers trapped in the tunnel, but instead of honouring him, today the country is such, the government is such, that his house was demolished by a bulldozer. We are witnessing such great injustice in the country, to the farmers, to a leader like Vakil Hassan, to all the slum dwellers of the city, whose shelters are being demolished, whose shops are being set on fire in riots, all those questions have become the questions of the workers movement today.
Therefore, I appeal to you comrades that alongwith the issues and demands of the workers, if anyone has the biggest heart in this country, it is the worker. If anyone has the greatest responsibility, it is the workers who run the country. We are the owners of this country, so we have to think about everyone, we have to think about the whole country. We have to prepare ourselves so that we can save and liberate this country from the clutches of Adani-Ambani, Trump and Elon Musk. Babasaheb Ambedkar gave us the constitution, and he fought for the rights of the workers: the right to strike, the right to protest, the right to organize, all these are rights on the path of which the constitution of India was developed. The constitution that should have been strengthened is being constantly attacked and neglected in the conspiracy of this government.
In such times, AICCTU is having its conference today. This conference should send a message of unity; today there is a need for great unity in the whole country: unity of trade unions, unity of workers and farmers, unity of workers, students, and women, unity of workers and citizens. We are workers and the citizens of this country. We say: eight hours of work, eight hours of rest, eight hours for participation in democracy. Therefore, the question of democracy in the country at this time, the question of protecting the constitution, the question of protecting the freedom and pride of the country, which is before the workers movement; today the time has come that along with the issues of our trade union, we have to become a part of the bigger struggle. There was a similar phase in the freedom movement, at that time trade unions were being formed, but to fight for an independent India. And today, the country needs the same unity to fight against a different threat: protection of the constitution, protection of democracy, and absolutely clear protection of the freedom and pride of our country: we have to go into this struggle.
I believe that the atmosphere is changing in front of us. Laws are caducous, but I believe today the situation of the country for the workers movement is not that bleak, but better. 30-35 years ago, when the New Economic Policy came, the country was misled in the name of privatization, globalization, liberalization. Many people had started to believe that privatization would lead to India's progress, that globalization would lead to India's progress. This policy came in 1991, and from then until today 2025, 35 years have passed. You have the experience of 35 years. These 35 years have shown that privatization is a path to destroy this country. Today, not only trade unions are fighting against privatization, but the entire India is fighting against Adani and Ambani. And I believe that it is a matter of strength for you that everyone is fighting your battle together. When the struggle to form the Maruti workers Union began, farmers from Haryana were not standing with you. But today, I believe that the farmers' movement has created a new awareness among the farmers. Today, farmer comrades will stand with Maruti workers, today, farmers and Khap Panchayats from Haryana are standing with women wrestlers. We are witnessing an expansion and development of consciousness in the country.
Today, our country has a new education policy, and this new education policy is about privatization. It is about making education expensive, inaccessible and depriving workers and the poor of the country of the right to education. So that the children of the workers don't get educated. Babasaheb Ambedkar had said, 'Educate, organize, and agitate,' and there is no other path before you. This policy of privatization, the new education policy, has come to block that path. The contract system is continuously increasing: in railways, in banks, where there used to be permanent jobs, today, young people are being given work on contract. You will see that farmers are standing with you in these struggles too.
Today, there is a possibility and need for a bigger fight. We appeal to you to unite all the people within the workers movement. Wherever there is oppression in the name of caste in this country, attacks on Dalits, attacks on tribals, stand firmly against that oppression, with those Dalits, tribals, and all the backward classes. Wherever there is injustice against women in this country, the issue of safety of women at the workplace is not just an issue for women, make it a central issue of the entire workers movement that half of the country's workforce is working in unsafe workplaces.
They are dividing workers into Hindu-Muslim. Against this conspiracy to divide the workers of the entire country into Hindu-Muslim, we shall rally with the same slogan, ‘Hum hein iske malik, hindustan humara’. We are not tenants, we are owners, and there is no place for religious, communal division among us. This is your conference, and I know that you people, especially comrades from UP, Bihar, and Bengal, have come here facing a lot of difficulties due to Kumbh. At this time, people in this country have their own faith, and certainly, as the constitution says, freedom of religious worship is for everyone. But today, the business of religious faith, the cultivation of hatred that is happening, the people who were called to Kumbh from all over the country, for whom no arrangements were made, who got injured, who got trampled, the people of the country, preys of these cruel jokes. We will definitely have to stand with them. And if superstition is spread in the name of religion, if there is hypocrisy in the name of religion, then against such hypocrisy, against such superstition all over the country, the workers movement shall fight against this, shall fight and move forward!
I would like to rest my words here. Today, our veteran leaders are not here. Comrade Swapan Mukherjee, Comrade DP Bakshi, from the very beginning of AICCTU, under the leadership, guidance, and hard work of these comrades, this organization was built. Today that organization is holding its eleventh conference. People have come from every corner of the country. The number of women has increased. I appeal to you to keep this momentum going, move forward, unite everyone, unite every section. Unite people in every small union, in every unorganized sector, unite AICCTU against the ruthless way people were fired from IT sector, like slaves, champion the cause of the new generation of workers. Wherever there is oppression, injustice, atrocities, move forward together. May your conference become a center of unity, a center of struggle. May your conference be successful. Wishing all of you comrades the best, I conclude my speech.
LONG LIVE REVOLUTION!
LONG LIVE AICCTU!
LONG LIVE WORKERS' UNITY!
