Dear Editor,
I am writing this letter in response to the CC statement titled, “Unity of the Working Class is an Urgent Need of the Times”, published on 4th July 2020. I totally agree with the call given in the article of uniting the entire working class to fight for our rights. The state has failed miserably in handling the current crisis and the burden of this failure has been shifted on to people’s back. News of huge pay cuts and laying off have become an everyday affair from family and friends. The dire condition of the health system in our country stands exposed. While on one hand people are struggling to keep their jobs and hence working in dangerous working conditions, on the other hand the state has intensified attacks on the working class.
Announcements by various state governments to amend labor laws is anti-workers and an attack on the rights won by the entire working class. The “relief package” clearly exposes states intention to back the capitalist class and provide them with a free hand to enslave the workers. The statement points out that the capitalist class is using the opportunity of this crisis to intensify attacks and exploitation on workers. It is very important to understand that at various points in time the ruling class has made attempts at amending the labor laws which will allow them to hire and fire workers at their own will. But workers unity and protests have always kept them away from doing so. Right now, using the crisis to their benefit the capitalist class assisted by the state is intensifying attacks on workers.
But in spite of the lockdown, workers are continuously coming out on streets and protesting to assert their rights for a dignified life. It is so inspiring to see that workers from across sectors are coming together and fighting against the ruling class agenda of privatization. This unity of the working class is a threat to the capitalist class and comes in its way to achieve its aims of gaining unrestricted profits. Hence, deliberate attempts to break the unity are being made by diverting people’s attention from basic problems like food, health and unemployment. Party rivalry is used to divide the people and hence break the working class unity. As rightly pointed out in the article, the present time demands that the workers rise above all these attempts and unite against their enemy – the capitalist class.
Neither ruling nor opposition party have any intentions to solve the issues faced by the workers. Anti-worker policies have been proposed and pushed for implementation at various times by both the current opposition and ruling parties. Hence, only workers’ unity can beat the anti-worker agenda pushed forward by the ruling class. Workers have to organise themselves around the agenda of fighting the capitalist system and the state that deprives the working class from their right of security to livelihood. Workers and peasants are the wealth creators and have to become the decision makers to set up a system that would ensure fulfillment of the rights of the working class.
Shirin
Pune