By Amar Jesani and 250,000 TEXTILE WORKERS have been on strike in Bombay since January 1982, one of the most momentous working class battles to take place anywhere in the last decade. The super-exploited textile workers have been fighting back against the employers structure the textile industry at the expense of the workers.
The strike has seen a massive wave of workers self-organisation, themselves through mill committees, and attempting to throw off the grip of the reactionary proCongress Party trade union, the Rashtriya Mill Mazdoor Sangh (RMMS).
The textile industry in India has, like many other industries, economic crisis. The mill owners are trying to restructure the industry through shifting production to yarn away from cotton cloth - introducing a new wave of mechanisation, speed up and redundancies.
The strike started in October 1981 with seven mills going on strike, and became more generalised in January 1981. The demands of the workers include parity of wages with other industries like engineering; making permanent the "substitute' workers wo are lake on ony wrer me dosses need them; and 'de-recognition' of the RMMS The Bombay textile industry was one of the earliest industries in India. Its workers have been among the vanguard of the Indian working class. In 1981 they held a general strike. In 1924-5 over 150,000 workers in the industry went on strike. But through reactionary legislation they have had imposed on them a pro-bosses union, and despite several major struggles have dislodge it.
In this present struggle the bulk of the workers have not transferred their allegiance to the traditional "left' legalism rather than struggle. Instead they have relied on the mill committees, led by Datta Samant a former Congress man. The initial seven mills led by Samant put forward the demand for a wage rise from Rs 300 to Rs 500. Other demands included provision regarding Leave House Rent allowance, substitute workers.
From the beginning of the strike it has been bitterly fought by central government, the provincial government and the RMMS. have been bitter clashes involving fights with the police, during which the police have badly injured many workers including women.
One of the tactics adopted by the strikers has mas thares of nousths it oughts is mass arrests thousands Lalbaug, the area where most textile workers are concentrated, textile workers were not only batoned by the police, but the police entered their houses and beat up women and children.
Many workers arrested in the industrial area of Saki Naka because of their solidarity with the textile workers have been beaten up by the police, many sustaining severe injuries. Solidarity with the textile workers from tens of thousands of other workers has been one of the major gains of the strike.
From 11 to 13 October last year more than 1.5 million workers all over Masarashtra went on strike in support of the textile workers.
Apart from the far left organisations in the build solidarity with the strike, womens organisations have also mobilised in support of the textile workers. In Bombay, various feminist groups and organisations have supported the strike by grainStand raising, against repression etc.
The Communist League (Indian section of the Fourth International) has made solidarity with the strike a number one task on an all-India level. The textile workers strike will be crucial for the future of the working class throughout the sub-continent.
attempts to rethe workers been badly hit by the world been unable to unions because of their emphasis on Travel Allowance, permanent Henry Kissinger (left), Richard Nixon (right), architects of detente.