"Strike cripples business, transport" was the headline of the Indian Express newspaper on May 12, referring to the nationwide 20 million-strong strike the previous day. The strike was called by the National Platform of Mass Organisations (NPMO), a coalition of left parties and trade unions opposed to liberalisation, privatisation, rising prices, and cuts in food and fertiliser subsidies.
That newspaper reported: "Commercial activity was badly hit as employees in most of the banks, except State Bank, stayed away from work. The strike found its echo in Parliament where both the Houses had to be adjourned without transacting any business."
The May 11 mobilisation was a "grand success", declared the May 17 ML Update, a weekly magazine of the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (Liberation) (CPI (ML)) and the May 14 People's Democracy, weekly of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M). Both parties are part of the NPMO.
"The General Strike had much wider impact than earlier such actions. Its impact was not limited to the Left Front ruled states. In Bihar, Assam and Andhra Pradesh, statewide Bandh [demonstration with an aspect of picketing] was observed at the call of the Left parties including CPI (ML)", ML Update stated. West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala are the states in which left parties such as the CPI-M and Communist Party of India are part of the ruling coalitions or have significant influence.
"[The] strike was complete in Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Manipur, West Bengal, Tripura, Bihar, Haryana, UP [Uttar Pradesh] and Madhya Pradesh", MK Pandhe, general secretary of Centre of Indian Trade Unions, a major trade union federation influenced by the CPI-M, told a May 11 media conference.
Pandhe added that in the finance sector, including banks and insurance, full participation in the strike was registered all over the country, and in the coal and iron ore mines the overwhelming majority of workers struck.
Emphasising the serious social consequences of the neo-liberal attacks so far in India, the ML Update said that, in addition to the unprecedented rise in unemployment and steep hikes in prices of essential commodities, "privatisation of public sector industries, services and financial institutions and even social services like education, health etc. has pushed the poor to the brink of starvation and death". CPI (ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said the strike was a warning to the Indian government.
The strikers and supporters used a variety of means to get their message across, including marches, torchlight processions, road blocks, the blocking of trains, mass rallies and demonstrations. Police attacks on the participants, some brutal, were widely reported. There were also mass arrests all over the country.
BY EVA CHENG