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December 16th 2006

The day the maids didn't turn up

Thousands of upwardly mobile professionals in Mumbai were forced to carry out their own domestic tasks last Thursday, as household servants joined 60 million other workers across India in a strike against neo-liberalism.

The previous day, the Times of India had warned its readers to prepare for action:

“Be ready to spend more time at home, cleaning utensils and sweeping floor on Thursday. For, maidservants in the city will join the Left labour unions in striking work on December 14 to protest against the government’s pro-globalisation policies.

“This is the first time that various unions of maidservants in the state have extended support to an all-India strike call. ‘The strike is basically against the government’s anti-poor and pro-World Bank-IMF policies,’ said AD Golandaj, convenor of the Trade Unions Joint Action Committee.”

The strikers, who included workers in the pharmaceutical industry, dockers, airport staff, local government employees, bus drivers, teachers, bank and insurance staff, and labourers in the tea gardens of Darjeeling, were supporting a 14-point list of demands, which included a halt to the privatisation of profitable state-owned firms, limits on foreign investment in the telecoms sector, protection of pensions, implementation of labour laws in the Special Economic Zones, and measures against inflation, lay-offs and workplace harassment.

In some districts, school and college students boycotted classes, and many small and medium traders also closed for the day.

Strike rally in Mangalore, 14th December

Despite India’s high rate of economic growth, neo-liberal policies mean that conditions for many workers are getting worse, not better. Forbes quoted Guru Das Gupta of the All India Trade Congress:

“[He] said Indians are being employed in outsourced jobs in almost every sector, which means they work on contracts, put in longer hours and have no job security. 

“‘…Despite the increase in wealth, there has been no improvement in living conditions for the poor. There’s a concentration of wealth, and it’s much easier to become a billionaire in India than to reduce poverty,’ he said.”

India’s trade union movement is divided along political lines, and organisations affiliated to the ruling Congress Party instructed their members to work normally, claiming that the industrial action was merely “posturing” by India’s Communist Parties which are influential in the ‘left’ trade unions.  In the communist-led regions of West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala, the strike was almost total except for essential services which had been exempted from the action.

The Congress Party emerged as the largest party in India’s 2004 general election, ending the dominance of the openly right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party. But the Communist Party of India [CPI] and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] also increased their votes, leaving Congress unable to govern without communist support.  A compromise formula called the Common Minimum Programme, aimed at protecting workers and the poor, was negotiated between the communists and Congress, allowing the latter to form a government.  The Communist Parties accuse Congress of violating the Common Minimum Programme, but they have not voted in parliament to bring down the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

India’s Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, who is a former lawyer for the corrupt US energy firm Enron, is a particular focus of anger, and effigies of him were burned at many of the rallies on Thursday. But according to DNA India, the atmosphere in Kerala was festive during the day:

“‘We started partying right after the morning demonstration. In fact, we wound up the meeting fast to join a couple of friends who returned home after a long time. One of them is a soldier on leave,’ said Christopher Luiz, a CPI(M) supporter and a government employee. Luiz reached his hometown in Kollam district for the CPI(M)  demonstration and to partake in the revelry with friends.

“The arena of the international film festival at Thiruvananthapuram was also chock-a-block as people poured in large numbers from the city or abroad. IFFK (International Film Festival of Kerala), organised by the government-run Kerala State Chalachithra Academy, was exempted from the strike.”