State of unemployment in our country

Dear Editor

The article ‘Drastic Decline in the Quantity and Quality of Employment’ has comprehensively discussed the state of unemployment in our country. The fact that crores of people are unemployed and crores of families are without a fixed source of income is infuriating! Is it not the government’s responsibility to create jobs? However, does the government even intend to provide jobs?

In my experience and that of my friends, I have seen that capitalists increase their profits by getting more work done from fewer workers by making us labour for long hours. On many occasions, I have found myself thinking, ‘Why don’t they employ more people? That will surely reduce some of my stress!’ However, instead of employing more workers, capitalists prefer having 100 workers do the job of 200. The workers are left with no rights and no choice but to take what they get.

In a truly fair society, there would be jobs and job security for all. There would be a robust public transport system to facilitate movement. There would be community kitchens and children’s day-care centres to enable more women to work. Private profit-making would no longer be possible. Everything from railways to electricity to mines would be owned and controlled by the working class. This was all achieved by the Soviet Government because it was a government of and for workers and peasants.

It is very clear that no government in a capitalist state will provide jobs to all because, as the article reveals, having a reserve of unemployed persons allows the capitalist class to deny workers job security, refuse their demands and overexploit them to create maximum profit. Unemployment is essential for capitalism to survive, which is why there is no solution to unemployment under capitalism.

The pandemic has exacerbated the situation and further increased the rate of unemployment in the country. Moreover, the jobs and rights of lakhs of public sector workers are now under threat due to the anti-worker policies of monetisation and privatisation. At such a time, we must remember that it is the labour power of the working class that creates value in the process of production. We are the ones who create the profits that are ultimately pocketed by the capitalists. We must fight to establish a system where the value we create will be used for our own welfare.

Aparajita,
Mumbai

Share and Enjoy !

Shares

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *