What's your name? 2
Jawaharlal 3
When did you come to Faridabad? 4
1970 5
Your first job was in a factory? 6
Universal Electric Limited 7
The time piece that is put in a bomb 8
in a time bomb 9
that time piece is manufactured 10
there I worked for one year. 11
There was a strike by the union 12
and in this I was thrown out, 13
after one year. 14
After that? 15
Then Porritts & Spencer Asia Limited, 16
which was a British company 17
it still exists 18
but Is now owned by Germany and America 19
I worked there. 20
There was a strike in 1977. 21
In that strike, 22
I was the General Secretary of the Union. 23
Then I was thrown out. 24
What work did you do? 25
In Universal Electric 26
I worked on a lathe machine. 27
In Porritts Spencer, 28
on the loom machine 29
on which clothes are made, 30
I worked on that 31
and on the winding machine 32
on which thread is made 33
I worked on that. 34
It was a factory 35
where all the workers 36
had to do all the jobs. 37
They were trained in all jobs. 38
So I was also trained in all the machines. 39
How many people worked in the factory? 40
At that time, in 1977, 41
about 300 workers. 42
But when I first came 43
there were only 125. 44
When the factory started 45
there were only 70 people. 46
At that time 47
these 70 people 48
were made shareholders in the company. 49
All employees were made shareholders. 50
But when I joined, 51
the shareholder scheme had stopped. 52
By 1977, all employees 53
had sold their share in the company. 54
The strike was in 1977? 55
Yes. 56
Say something about the strike. 57
It was then I was thrown out of the factory. 58
Then I was full time with the CPI. 59
Then I joined CPM full time. 60
After that I worked for the Naxalite movement. 61
In 1979 we formed a resistance committee 62
and we worked through that. 63
We brought the whole of Faridabad to a stop in 1979. 64
Tell us about this. 65
When we stopped work in Faridabad in 1979, 66
guns were fired in which many workers were killed. 67
At that time, the Bhajanlal Congress government, 68
ordered the gunfire. 69
The guns were fired at the Neelam square 70
which we today call the Martyr Square. 71
The workers became martyrs. 72
How many people died? 73
The count was not correct. 74
The government said 17 people had died. 75
The workers and some police officers were hurt. 76
How many people do you think died? 77
The workers said that about 150-175 people had been killed. 78
But the government made the dead bodies disappear. 79
Because there were many arrests, 80
in fear, the protest went down a little for some days. 81
We could not find out 82
whose dead bodies were missing. 83
But it emerged that 150-200 people had been killed. 84
Now, after 30 years, what do you think about those demonstrations ? 85
Before that there were demonstrations in many different factories 86
which the government could not control. 87
At that time there were unions in about 50% of the factories 88
and they helped one another. 89
The police oppression was also very great, 90
but the workers then were so militant 91
that they used to fight with the police. 92
This is the reason why in the Faridabad strike 93
there was a struggle with the police, 94
where the police fired guns and the workers were killed, 95
but the police was also injured. 96
In 1979. 97
After that the workers movement declined, 98
automation was introduced in the companies 99
and the number of workers decreased. 100
Many factories closed, 101
a large number of textile factories closed 102
and unemployment increased. 103
Many factories were computerized. 104
Many workers became unemployed, 105
and workers went back to their villages. 106
The factories started outsourcing. 107
So the movement went back. 108
Perhaps the big demonstration of 1977/79 109
gave the police and the government an opportunity 110
to destroy the movement? 111
Perhaps before that time, 112
the police did not have the opportunity 113
to repress workers inside the factory, 114
because the management would not like it. 115
Now after 30 years 116
what do you think about those demonstrations? 117
At that time, in 1980, '79, or '77, 118
there was a lot of pressure by the police, 119
in the whole factory, on the unions. 120
since the automation started 121
and workers have become unemployed 122
and permanent workers were made redundant 123
factories were closed. 124
After that the trade union movement 125
declined. 126
For this reason the militancy became weak. 127
Permanent work was reduced. 128
People started to work on contracts. 129
So they did not have any sense of struggle, 130
They think: "We do not have any legal rights 131
or any other right 132
so we can not fight for ourselves". 133
So they did not protest about anything. 134
So these subcontractor's workers do not unite 135
and do not stuggle. 136
And in every factory 137
there are suncontrator's workers in large numbers. 138
For example, where I was thrown out, there were 300 permanent workers. 139
Now there are only 75 permanent workers 140
The rest are employed by the subcontractor. 141
How many people work for the contractor? 142
About 200. 143
So the permanent workers are less today? 144
Only a permanent worker can fight. 145
But they see 146
that they cannot even get a job in subcontracting. 147
So their militancy has become weak. 148
What can they learn from the 1977/79 campaign? 149
They hear about that campaign 150
but they are not influenced by it 151
because their life has not passed through such a struggle. 152
Then they see the environment 153
where there cannot find permanent jobs, 154
and they are forever running after it. 155
There are so many people 156
and they don't get it. 157
What can the contract workers do? 158
Yes, if they unite, 159
but they do not unite. 160
In some places they themselves unite 161
and suddenly join the struggle. 162
But they are very few. 163
Although they could join 164
because there is dissatisfaction inside them. 165
"I have no rights" 166
"I will get no legal right" 167
"I am not going to be permanent" 168
"I don't get what I am legally due" 169
So there is anger inside them. 170
But in bringing this anger out 171
in getting united, 172
they find it difficult. 173
They are faced with the problem of their legal rights. 174
But how can they unite? 175
They work one month in this factory, the next month in another? 176
For example if a factory has 100 workers 177
They can be united factorywide. 178
Employed by three subcontractors. 179
But in the Honda factory, it was 4,000 contract workers only 180
who came together and struggled and went on strike. 181
comes out. It is - to stand up for oneself 182
They were all contract workers. 183
So this was one case that happened in Haryana. 184
The contract workers united themselves 185
without any union, 186
went on strike. 187
And after the strike when they won some rights, 188
they got organised in the trade union. 189
This was one case 190
of Hero Honda workers that were contract workers 191
How do you like the paper ?Faridabad Workers News?? 192
?Faridabad Workers News? ? 193
The ?Faridabad Workers News? is 194
a way by which the feelings, the inner anger, or struggle of the workers 195
comes out. It is - to stand up for oneself, a kind of awareness. 196
Its a struggle in itself. 197
Because how else should one worker talk to another? 198
It is the one thing for Faridabad?s workers 199
a paper to creating a feeling among them 200
through which the workers 201
can talk to one another and where there is no trade union, 202
even there they can stand up for themselves. 203
This is what it is about. This is what it gives.