Central TU leaders call for all-India strike on Nov 26, celebrate 100 years of AITUC

By A Representative

Central trade union leaders, gathered in Delhi to celebrate 100 years of the All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), India’s first national trade union organization formed at the founding conference held on October 31 to November 2, 1920, have called for a nationwide strike call of November 26, 2020 in favour of their demands for the rejection codification of labour laws, farms bills, sale of public sector enterprises, natural resources and attack on the democratic rights of the people.
Participating in the event, held at the AITUC Bhawan in Delhi, they said, the working class won over several labour rights from British rule and in independent India, which are under attack by the present Central government. They called for the need for trade union unity for the occasion.
Those participating in the event included Ashok Singh, vice president, Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC); Harbhajan Singh Sidhu, general secretary, Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS); Tapan Sen, general secretary, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU); Satyavan, secretary, All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC); Rajiv Dimri, general secretary, All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU); Lata, secretary, Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA); and Shatrujit Singh, United Trade Union Congress (UTUC).

Amarjeet Kaur, general secretary, AITUC, narrated some significant events and agitations prior to the formation the AITUC in 2020. She said that Indian working class is proud of its role in the freedom struggle of the country to win independence from the foreign rule. Union leaders expressed their anguish of the government decisions of rolling back “hard won” rights of workers, undermining tripartism, bipartism, commitments to international labour standards and ratification of the International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions and relevant laws.
Naveen and a team from the Centre of Education and Communication (Sunil, Ashok, Abhishek and Harshita), put up an exhibition of photographs, paper cuttings etc. of the event, spanning 100 years of AITUC, on the premises of the AITUC Bhawan, Delhi. A booklet titled “AITUC – Past, Present and Future” was released on the occasion.

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