The following is a facebook post by Jagadish G Chandra from the New Socialist Alternative on the #OccupyRBI protest that was organized in Bangalore yesterday. It also features short videos with activists speaking about how the demonetization by the Modi govt has ended up hurting the working people. Jagadish & others activists were detained and later released by the police.
Please click on the following link for more reports on the protests
The protest banners held by two former FTII students at the recent International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa goes to show that their struggle is far from over. It was a prolonged battle that was debated to the core and got the attention from the whole country. 139 day strike was called off by the FTII students on 28th October after nearly five round of talks with Information and Broadcasting State Minister Rajyawardhan Rathod, but did not bring any outcomes favorable to the students. Students were only assured that ministry will think of their demands and that nothing can be forced on the ministry by the students.
After Narendra Modi led BJP govt came to power in May’14, Hindutva forces have become emboldened with its mouthpieces making outrageous and unconstitutional statements one after another. Many people close to BJP or its ideology were appointed on important posts in the administration which was highly criticized. In IIT-Madras, Ambedkar-Periyar study circle was banned. The ban was removed after protests and a huge social media uproar from all over the country. One of the many struggles which rose unexpectedly against this ardent Hindutva ideology was the FTII students struggle.
On 12th June, 2015, central I&B Ministry appointed Gajendra Chauhan as Chairman of FTII, Pune for next three years. When students tried to find out his contribution to the film industry, they found him to be a B grade movie actor, small time TV star and little skill set to head the prestigious institute. What they also found was Gajendra Chauhan is a member of BJP since 2005, belonging to Modi supporters’ camp in BJP. They had to take a call whether to tolerate his appointment in silence and let institute be a home for Saffron ideology or to fight for a progressive institute open to all and door to worldwide cinema.
Students came together and decided to challenge his appointment. They also raised questions over the capabilities of the four members of the institute’s Governing Council who were related to BJP or its other wings, with some of them having held important posts. The students decided to strike with demands for canceling the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan, electing the Chairman of the institute in a democratic way, dissolving the Governing Council and giving 50% participation to alumni’s of FTII in electing the Governing Council members. Thus began their infamous strike.
In the beginning, the struggle was wide spread with many from Bollywood including actors, directors, music directors and people from different art forms supporting the students strike and demands. When the Govt. realized the weakness of its position, it along with media started to defame the students as alcoholics, drug addicts, regular failures in academics and some illegally using campus. This criticism came as a shock for the students protesting in a democratic way for their just demands.
They managed to hit back and put their stand in a stronger way in front of the people making vile accusations against them. Arun Jaitley, Cabinet I&B minister rejected demands of the committee which met him on behalf of the students, which included Rasool Pookutty (an Oscar award winning sound designer). With the struggle gaining more support, RSS mouthpiece – Organizer stepped in accusing the students of being anti-Hindus. Subramanian ‘Susu’ Swamy in his characteristic way accused students of being Naxalites. This showed Govt. was not ready to bear even a little opposition to its agenda. On 50th day of struggle, Rahul Gandhi visited the campus and supported students demands. This constituted a ray of hope amongst students and they decided to take their struggle to Delhi at the Monsoon Session of the Parliament. Activists and people in solidarity with students protested all over the country. New Socialist Alternative also protested at Pune and Bangalore in solidarity with the students.
Continuous pressure from the govt. to end their stike, unbearable criticism from media, threats of physical attacks against them have taught the students as to what lengths the ‘state’ machinery can go to bring down their protests. The police arrested five students at midnight on fake charges of detaining institute’s director, Prashnath Pathrabe on campus. The students were released by the court the next day on bail. The struggle was difficult to continue because the current Govt. was elected with a majority in parliament. Many socially aware people and even youngsters fell to the propaganda made by Govt. and media of defaming the students. It made the struggle tougher for the students. The students have even explained their hardships and all their feelings in a letter addressed to I&B ministers, which is present on their Facebook page- FTII Wisdom Tree.
The struggle also has also taught students many important lessons. It taught them what fighting together is and what it means to take on the whole Govt. machinery/system. This most prolonged struggle in the history of the institute has really tested their resolves to the limits. The immense support from all over the country and internationally must have been surprising as well as enthusiastic for the students.
There can be a debate on the strategies adopted by the students. Award-winning filmmaker and supporter of the struggle, Jahnu Barua said, “Students should have first begun their protest with a series of dialogues. If that failed, they should have resorted to calling the strike.” There can be different views on what stand the students should have taken on different stages of the struggle. But, what is more important is to understand what this struggle has taught us and what lies ahead for the different struggles against this communal govt. This struggle is definitely going to impact on the way Govt. takes decisions and also on how it deals with such struggles in the future.
It can also be said that FTII students struggle was one of the factors that led many of the prominent personalities in the country to return their national/state awards granted to them by various governments in the past. This comes in the wake of Modi’s silence on the Dadri lynching over beef issue, burning of two Dalit children in Haryana and many controversial statements by BJP MPs and ministers. This combined together to play a key role for the BJP’s loss in the recent Bihar state assembly elections.
Now, the students have decided to continue the struggle in a democratic way with new forms of protests. New Socialist Alternative stands in solidarity with the students struggle until the institute is in a position to deliver excellence to its future batches, which is, in short, what students demand.
B. Youvraj
Pune
“IT stands for India tomorrow & BT stands for Bharat Tomorrow” was proclaimed by Atal B Vajpayee, former BJP Prime Minister of India. Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India rephrased the above sentences in 2013 in London and said “IT is India today. BT is not biotechnology, it is Bharat Today. IT and IT equals IT. That means information technology and Indian talent is India tomorrow.”
These rhetoric quotes helped him get applause from the audience; however, today, workers in Information Technology industry are experiencing uncertainty because of a layoff program initiated by the top management in the industry. The following article is regarding the layoff issue in IT Industry, especially in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and written by Raj (name changed), an IT industry employee.
The issue got attention after the press release on December 10th from TCS regarding work force optimization. Though they released the statement regarding work force optimization, many consider this as a lay off statement. The worker’s worries aggravated when some of the senior employees with experience of 10 years and more were asked to leave TCS, and the worries turned into a panic as news about nearly 25000-35000 people may be asked to leave TCS within next three months. It is approximately 10 % of TCS workforce. Because of the high numbers, it got attention in the press and the social media. TCS refutes the claim of mass layoff and stated that involuntary exits would be around 1% – 2%.
The total workforce of TCS is little above 3 Lakh. Even 1% – 2 % means numbers will be around 3000-6000 workers. It is also a huge number as one in 50-100 employees are asked to leave the company involuntarily.
Untimely lay off program
The affected employees will be left in a precarious position as layoff is being implemented in the last quarter of the financial year. The job prospects will be very less in this quarter compared to other quarters. The company’s planned its layoff program to near perfection as this is being implemented at a time when the appraisal process is happening and many employees will be forced not to speak up against the management as this will affect their promotions, salary hike etc.
Not an Open Process at all!
The decisions were taken behind the closed door without announcing the exact criteria for termination of job. The most affected people will be women employees as they would have taken more leaves because of maternity, children, etc., and their performance appraisal will not be on par with men in the company down the years. TCS employs nearly one lakh women employees which account almost 70% of total women workforce across TATA group.
However, in a sign that shows that women IT workers are not willing to bow down without a fight, one of TCS women employee challenged TCS in a petition at the Madras High Court. TCS has now revoked the termination notice citing pregnancy of the petitioner and that it goes against company’s ethical policy. As for the rest, such grand-sounding ‘Tata Ethics’ do not apply!
Profit driven not performance driven
Tata Consultancy Services is considered as the crown in the TATA group. The market capitalization (the current market value) of TCS is closely $79 billion. The promoters i.e., Tata sons and institutional investors hold 73% and 21 % of shares respectively. The company’s share holders worth tripled between 2010 and 2014. Their net worth increased from 15,016.62 crores to 44,051.88 crores.
TCS net profit is nearly Rs. 1660 crores per month in this financial year 2014-15. Considering 3 lakh employees working in TCS, the profit per employee per month is nearly 53,000 rupees. It indicates that one TCS worker already generated 4,50,000 rupees as profit in latest nine months. The profit or productivity per employee increased from 4.6 lakhs per annum in 2013 to 6.3 lakhs in 2014. From this, it clearly indicates that the motive behind layoff is profit not performance (more work/ productivity from less amount of labour).
Movement Against Layoff
The layoff is going on not only in TCS, but also continuing in other companies namely Cisco, IBM and HP. Yahoo already sacked nearly 2000 employees earlier this year. In order to prevent lay off and to protect the worker rights, many organizations, mainly Forum for IT Employees (F.I.T.E.), Young Tamil Nadu Movement (YTM) are trying to organize IT workers and protest against TCS.
They have started a face book page We are against TCS LayOff to raise issues such as unionization, ways to protect the jobs through legal means and to fight against the layoff. Predictably, not to be totally sidelined, CPI(M) linked CITU, the CPI-linked AITUC and Congress-linked INTUC have also stepped to show their half baked support.
Unfair labour laws in Special Economic Zone (SEZ)
In the Indian constitution under Directive Principles of State Policy (Part IV), Article 43 A states that ” The State shall take steps, by suitable legislation or in any other way, to secure the participation of workers in the management of undertakings, establishments or other organizations engaged in any industry”. In real practices neither the central nor the state governments have taken any such steps to ensure participation of workers in management decisions of any industry or implement labour laws.
The centre and state governments are promoting Special Economic Zones to woo IT players to set up their companies in their state. Apart from land, electricity and tax incentives to the industrialist, the major incentives they provide to these MNC are the modifications in the labour laws. For example, the economic activity within a SEZ is considered as a ‘public utility service’ under which Indian law makes strikes entirely illegal!
The BJP led central government advertising and promoting “Make in India” where IT services is one of the five core sectors. However, the central government is silent regarding the layoff of IT workers in TCS, one of the leading IT service company in the country. No effort from government side to prevent the mass lay off happening in TCS.
It shows the actual concerns behind “Make in India” campaigns are about industrialist/ investments and not the actual makers i.e., workers themselves!.
New Socialist Alternative (CWI-India) has participated in protests organized by FITE in Bangalore. We have also spoken on the need for democratic unionization of IT workers in many of our campaign leaflets. This is the only way forward for the IT workers to fight for better working conditions and also to win the fundamental rights of Trade Unions to organise in their workplaces and strike if need be.
Only this way can the IT youth can gel their social weight within the society and strive along with other radical sections who are fighting to establish a system of social equality, with out any form of oppression based on class, caste, gender,sexuality nationality, language and religion. i.e., Democratic Socialism.
Editors
Socialism.in
For over a month now, New Socialist Alternative, Pune has been campaigning and protesting against the recent public transport price hike. The 50% hike will hit many ordinary people hard and many in Pune are angry about this.
In our campaigns we have been highlighting on the very notion of a public transport system and it is not about generating profits, but the duty of the local municipality to provide affordable and quality public transport system. We have campaigned on different bus stops throughout the city, interacted with over 1000 people and got petitions signed.
We raised important issues such as how the corporation has strategically under-funded public transport, reduced the revenue of the corporation by cutting down on octroi/Local Body Tax (LBT) to favour the petty-bourgeoisie trading businesses and then crying hoarse saying lack of money so the need to privatize these essential services would be the only alternative.
After getting favourable responses amongst the general public, we approached the various organizations for a meeting and it was decided to organize a protest in front of Pune Municipal corporation. Apart from us, the other organizations involved included Parisar, Shramik Mahila Morcha, Bharatiya Mahila Federation, Lokjagar, Lok Chetana Manch and individual activists Sulabha Brahme, Anagha Lele.
The protest was held on 21st February and over 40 people attended. We also protested against the daylight murder of the communist party veteran activist – Govind Pansare and condemned the communal forces.
The joint demands put forward, included
B. Youvraj and Rushikesh Divekar of New Socialist Alternative, Pune gave representation to the mayor of the city and Chairman of PMPML. The campaign is still ongoing and different protests are being planned in the coming period.
Venkatesh Harale
Pune
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