#FridayProtest — A Spirited Agitation by Indian Tech Workers
By Rahul Das, AIITEU West Bengal
The Government of India has made its intent very clear to replace 29 labor laws in India with four labor codes. The purview of the new labor codes includes wages, social security, industrial relations and occupational safety, health and working conditions. Although the respective rules under these new codes have not yet been clearly defined, the initial draft of the codes indicates that employers will be the primary beneficiaries not the employees i.e. the workers of India.
Despite opposition from workers unions and a few states, the central government has been utilising every trick in the book for relentless PR campaigns to convince the masses about the need and essence of these codes. It has been repeatedly highlighted that the new codes are intended to reduce complexities, improve ease of compliance, enhance transparency and ensure a healthy camaraderie between employers and workers.
No matter how alluring these announcements may sound, a careful study of these codes makes it pretty evident that these will rip the working class off whatever minimum protection they had under the previous laws. The new labor codes fail to extend the reach of social security benefits among the labourers from the unorganised sector. On the contrary, they open doors for more corporatization of the social security funds. There is a fear that the legalisation of fixed term contracts will appropriate the hire and fire policy and soon the concept of permanent workers will be abolished. This is concerning for all hard-working masses of the country.
Our Modes of Protest
Sensing the ulterior motive of the labor codes, the avant-garde of modern trade union movements in India, All India IT and ITeS Employees Union was first of the few to foresee major loopholes in the new labor codes and engaged in weekly public protests conducted across the state of West Bengal, every Friday. These protests were christened as #FridayProtest.
The movement started on December 10, 2021 when the comrades of AIITEU West Bengal gathered at Kolkata’s IT Hub — Sector 5, Salt Lake to publicly record an act of dissent. The Union’s All India General Secretary, Saubhik Bhattacharya marked the advent of the protest with a fiery speech beseeching the IT workers of the area to refute the new labor codes and stand in solidarity with the union. It was encouraging for us to see people taking interest in what our comrades had to say about the negative impact of labor codes on the day to day lives of the working class.
Since December 10, 2021, AIITEU comrades have conducted Friday Protests at Barasat, Nandan, Park Street, Behala, Sreerampore and other places within West Bengal. Innovative approaches to protests were adopted in addition to the conventional and effective ways of distributing leaflets carrying intricate details about these codes accompanied by the union’s demand — “Repeal the four Labor Codes”.
Nandan, a film and cultural centre, is considered as an abode of culture in Kolkata. On Christmas eve, AIITEU comrades staged their first silent protest within Nandan premises, wearing Guy Fawkes and Dali masks and holding placards bearing several testimonies of oppression on the working class. This was followed by another silent protest on 31 December 2021 at Park Street where the union members walked in silence along Park Street making their way through a huge crowd and in the process, spreading the message that Friday Protests intended to convey.
Agitation backed by facts
We were vehement in our protests, our revolutionary movement stands on honest analysis of facts that we collected over time. Almost obvious as it may sound, our activities drew the attention of Kolkata Police both at Nandan and Park Street. Our comrades were interrogated, and we were forced to change the locations of our protests. We are all familiar with how the Government and its machineries never operate following rule books but expect public protests to follow guidelines.
Nevertheless, none of these attempts could dampen our revolutionary spirit. Through our Friday Protests we succeeded in connecting with people — people with distinction, people with determination and also the commoners like you and me. The success of Friday Protests movement was not limited to social media only. The flak we received from Police was overpowered by the applause and support we received from our fellow citizens and therein lies the actual success of the movement.
The Bigger Picture
Formulation of these labor codes and the attempts to implement these are not just a matter of evil and greed. These are aimed to serve a larger motive to nurture a system that can thrive on cheap and unprotected labor. This is the Government’s way of legalising the practice of slavery. A system, or a nation, where workers are deprived of their rights to dignified employment, minimum wages, social security and healthcare and even their rights to dissent, will eventually pursue a colonial policy. Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, will get its fodder from these colonial policies. This is the primary force of evil that All India IT and ITeS Employees’ Union aims to fight through their consistent Friday Protests.
The Covid 19 pandemic has made the lives of IT workers miserable as they are forced to work for longer hours even at odd times. Consequently, our friends who work in the tech sector often report about suffering from mental stress as well as occupational ailments such as dry eyes, back pain, body aches etc. An increasing insecurity related to one’s job, amidst news of unnecessary retrenchments by employers just to increase their profit margin created an environment where it became imperative for AIITEU to fight the corporate encroachment into the lives of tech workers.
This encroachment may apparently seem harmless as it is camouflaged as sugar-coated colloquial rants but in real sense it is a strategic approach to form permanent establishments for a fascist regime. These establishments will act as funnels to channelize thoughts and principles that are a deterrent to the evolutionary process of mankind. These establishments will sow seeds of discriminatory policies that include not only employment and working conditions, but also other important areas like the education, health, monetary and fiscal policies of the country.
