The Trade Union Movement is a movement of the working class to improve their working conditions and the conditions in which they live. Unlike farmers who toiled day and night in the fields, workers in modern factories had certain advantages—they worked under a single roof and received a salary at the end of the month. They worked with each other's cooperation in the factory, which gave birth to the concept of unity of purpose. Last but not least, they were not dependent on nature, unlike peasants, which made them more logical and self-reliant.
One of the biggest negative impacts of the capitalist system was the miserable condition of industrial workers in factories and the pathetic living conditions in hutment clusters (known as jhopadpatti in India). Though England and other European countries invested in improving the working and living conditions of their workers through legislation and other administrative measures, this was yet to be taken seriously by the Indian government and capitalists. In India, however, the workers had to face two adversaries—the capitalists and the colonial regime—neither of which was interested in improving their living and working conditions. Workers had to take the initiative themselves. Luckily, they did get support from some urban intelligentsia, mainly the Leftists and the Nationalists.
Strikes and agitation were not new to industrial workers in India. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many unions were organized, such as the Bombay Mill Hands Association (1890), organized by N.M. Lokhandy, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (1897), the Printers' Union in Calcutta (1905), and the Postal Union in Bombay (1907). However, these cannot be classified as trade unions because they were all sporadic and spontaneous and lacked class consciousness. After the end of World War I in 1918, a series of strikes was organized in the industrial centres of Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Ahmedabad, Cawnpore, Sholapur, Jamshedpur, etc. The workers also joined political strikes against the Rowlatt Act (April 6, 1919), marking the entry of the working class into the Nationalist Movement. Serious attempts to form trade unions were made during this period.
The success of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917, low wages, rising prices, and subhuman working conditions brought the thinking, educated, and energetic workers onto a single platform. Thus, the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was founded in 1920 at Bombay. This was a landmark moment since it was the first all-India trade union. Lala Lajpat Rai was the President, and Diwan Chaman Lal was the Secretary of this trade union. N.M. Joshi and Joseph Baptista also played important roles in the formation of AITUC. The aim of the AITUC was to coordinate the activities of all organizations and further the interests of Indian labour in matters of economic, social, and political relevance to the country's progress. As Lala Lajpat Rai rightly pointed out in his presidential address: "Indian labour should lose no time in organizing itself on a national scale... The greatest need in this country is to organize, agitate, and educate. We must organize our workers and make them class-conscious...."
The Communist Party, led by M.N. Roy, Abni Mukherji, and Mohammad Ali, played an important role in strengthening and organizing the Trade Union Movement in India. They formed the Workers and Peasants Party (February 1926) first in Bengal and then in other parts of India. Finally, an All India Workers and Peasants Party was formed in December 1928. Shripad Amrit Dange, Muzaffar Ahmad, Puran Chand Joshi, and Sohan Singh Joshi were its important leaders. The activities of trade unions increased with the Trade Union Act of 1926, which legalized registered trade unions and permitted strikes.
In April 1928, one of the biggest-ever strikes was organized in Bombay, in which 1.5 lakh workers participated. Like any other organization, trade unions were not immune to division. The first split took place in 1929 when N.M. Joshi, V.V. Giri, and M. Kranti Bose left the AITUC and formed the Indian Trade Union Federation (ITUF) under the presidentship of V.V. Giri. The division occurred over the issue of the Royal Commission on Labour. Liberals like V.V. Giri and N.M. Joshi wanted to join and support the Commission, whereas the radicals were completely against it and wanted to boycott it. Another division occurred in 1931 at the tenth session of AITUC in Calcutta. The Communists, led by Deshpande, formed the Red Trade Union Congress.
By the end of 1928, Communist influence in the Trade Union Movement had become very strong. The Girni Kamgar Union of the Communists also gained significant popularity, with its membership rising to 54,000 by the end of 1928. Communist influence, especially in Bengal and Bombay, also spread to workers in the railways, jute mills, municipalities, paper mills, etc. Under Communist influence, workers participated in a large number of strikes and demonstrations across the country between 1927 and 1929.
The Government's policy regarding workers' rights and the Trade Union Movement was dubious. The Indian textile industry, which had access to cheap and talented labour, was a threat to the Lancashire textile capitalist lobby. Under pressure from the English capitalists, the first commission related to the condition of workers was appointed in 1875. Subsequently, the first Factory Act was passed in 1881, which prohibited the employment of children under the age of seven and limited the number of working hours for children below the age of twelve. There was also a provision to fence the dangerous machinery to avoid accidents. The second Factory Act of 1891 limited the working day to 11 hours for women labourers. It also gave them an interval of 1½ hours during working hours. Such so-called labour reforms were introduced to actually harass the Indian capitalists rather than provide relief to the industrial workers. The labourers of tea plantations lived in the worst conditions, but they hardly saw any corrective measures being implemented because the planters were British. To check the activities of the Trade Union Movement and the Leftist influence in it, the Government adopted a repressive policy through acts like the Trade Disputes Act and the Public Safety Act. They arrested the radical leadership of the labour movement. Even the purpose of the Royal Commission on Labour (1929) was more to divide the Trade Union Movement and weaken it from the inside.
The role of Nationalists and the National Movement in the growth of the Trade Union Movement was also not free from controversy. Most of the early Nationalist newspapers actively opposed the Factory Acts of 1881 and 1891. They also opposed strikes in the Indian textile mills. If there were Indian labourers employed in the British-owned industries or farms, Nationalists did not hesitate in giving their full support to the workers.
The workers, on the other hand, actively participated in the Nationalist Movement. They actively participated in the Rowlatt Satyagraha (April 6, 1919), and the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920–22).
Despite the Communists' non-participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement and Quit India Movement, the workers actively participated in both, on their own, as well as under the able leadership of Gandhi. They went on strikes and hartals in Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur, Bombay, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Jamshedpur, Madras, Indore, and Bangalore during the Quit India Movement in 1942. They showed vibrant enthusiasm during the INA trial and solidarity with the mutiny of the naval ratings in 1946. On February 22, 1946, about two to three lakh workers put down their tools in response to a call given by the Communists and the Socialists.
0 Comments