On February 28 this year, India has seen a national strike in which millions of workers expressed their anger at soaring prices and batted for improved rights of employees. Come May 1, you may see the same unions rubbing shoulder-to-shoulder to make a global strike called by Occupy Wall Street (OWS) supporters a success in India.
While the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India (CPI) have already expressed solidarity to the strike, groups like All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) — which also participated in "Occupy Dalal Street" led by CPI which promulgated support to the global Occupy movements — will hold demonstrations supporting the global move on May 1, which is a public holiday in the country. According to reports, the OWS supporters have called for "No work, no school, no housework, no shopping, no banking TAKE THE STREETS!!!!" on the day.
When asked about this, Mark Bray, an OWS spokesperson said, "The idea is to tap into a long tradition of May Day as the workers’ holiday in order to revive global resistance to economic exploitation. We hope that by bringing thousands of people out into the street, we will gain momentum for our organising going into the summer and show our international solidarity."
Though the OWS movement is not sure on whether there will be a direct impact in India, they are will take a cue from the country as far as mass protests are concerned. "It will not be anywhere nearly as large as the strike in India since we don’t have the same culture around mass strikes, but we are trying to bring that tradition back," Bray said.
However, the global strike is likely to get takers back in India too. Expressing "solidarity" for the movement, CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury said, "This is an action by workers’ and we will always be with such movements. I was there at the "Occupy London’’ protests close to St Paul’s Cathedral near London Stock Exchange. We normally conduct demonstrations on May Day and it is a public holiday here also."
CPI, which spearheaded the "Occupy Dalal Street" in November may also extend its hand to support the strike call. According to D Raja, CPI national secretary, the part will support such struggles but have not decided on the course of action on May 1. "We are not in touch with the Wall Street movement. But if there is any decision it will be taken by the 21st party congres to be held in Patna by the end of this month. We will discuss the Wall Street movement there and may move a resolution regarding the crisis in capitalist countries."
On the other hand, CH Venkitachalam, general secretary of AIBEA and also the general secretary of Trade Union International of Banking, Insurance and Finance Unions (TUI BIFU) with members from 35 countries said, "We will be holding demonstrations and protests on the day supporting the strike, against global issues like poverty, unemployment and price rise." The Occupy Dalal Street protests did not attract mass support like the organisers intended.
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The "Occupy Wall Street", inspired by the Tahrir Square protests, has started on September last year and around 82 countries have similar protests now. The May 1 strike will be unlike the Indian general strikes as it will "focus on marches, cultural events, speeches, and non-violent civil disobedience."
Possibly this may not be the first of its like kind action by the protesters. Expressing hope that the strike is not going to frizzle out, Bray said, "We will certainly try to coordinate more with other organisers around the world and try to set up more global days of action to enhance our international solidarity."