Today is the Mayday.......for most of us it's just another holiday.do we really want to know the significance of this day
Among labour activists, May Day is a very important holiday. In 1887, it was designated International Worker's Day, to commemorate the mass labour protests and unrest in Chicago in 1886 known as the Hay market Riots. These demonstrations, along
with others, led to the institution of an eight hour work day, an immense victory for workers in the United States.
Communists and Socialists around the world commemorate May Day with marches, speeches, and festivals .
But what is the present state of workers or labours in our state -a state ruled by left front for 32 years -do we remember them this day.do we really think about their condition ?
A factory closes down. The news, at times, gets 'covered'! Such news
in the media creates a ripple of uneasy sympathy in some. Most remain
unfazed. The unit doesn't reopen. Workers continue to suffer. So do
their families. In lakhs, and lakhs!
The so called civil society(sushil somaj) shows little empathy towards the plight of workers in closed down units. The attitude of the 'welfare' state towards
those who had their backs against the wall is abysmally indifferent.
The issue is seldom truly addressed in the agenda of the
party-oriented central trade unions.
Closing down of a factory, by the way, is not synonymous to
'industrial closure'! In West Bengal a very small percentage of
factories face legal closures. Most of the closed industries have undergone 'lockout' or 'suspension of work' or
some such similar jargon-like terms which spells 'hunger', 'unpaid
dues' and 'joblessness' for the workers. And death, disease and
disaster for them and their family members.
The legacy of industrial sickness in West Bengal which in the late
60's and 70's witnessed the holocaust of sickness, is a spectre that
haunts us till date with varying degrees of intensity. Industrial
pockets were reduced to veritable graveyards for scores of chimneys
and factory shades. Or else it was wiped clean from the face of the
earth making way for an urban complex.
The boom of real estate industry, for good or bad, indeed indicates an
increasing demand for apartments among a section of the so-called
middle class. The nature and structure of the urban space, even in the
non-affluent parts of the city and its suburbs, is undergoing a sea of
change. This market demand is having a somewhat catastrophic effect.
the promoter,mafia,political nexuses playing with these people's fate.
Most of us do visit the south city mall but how many of remember the usha engineering works that
was previously there.(picture above).
Till 1994, West Bengal had faced a serious crisis in its drive for industrialisation due to the Centre’s discriminatory freight equalisation and licensing policy.When the drive for industrialisation came......we had to face the wrath of the
fire branded opposition leaders of ours ...another project killed in the bud.future of many doomed.trade unions,labour laws,ruling party,opposition nobody cares about those living a life of extreme poverty.the question remains -
what happens to the huge resource base of human skill and working experience, which
has been shunted out of production and laid to waste along with the
rusted machines, crumbling sheds and land in disuse, overgrown with
weeds and bushes? What is the prognosis of the ills befallen on those
skilful and experienced hands? we must remember that socialism is not the distribution of poverty but the distribution of affluence. do we have the time to think about them ???????????????
(sources from the internet and the peoples democracy )
2 comments:
Communists of this state are busy campainging for assembly election.Somebody go tell them it's May day
ore baba history chere esechi bhai, ar porte iche kore na re.....