In the last two months, the industrial towns of north-western India have witnessed unprecedented workers’ protests. From Panipat to Gurgaon, Manesar, NOIDA, and beyond, the protests have been met with the brutal arm of the state. Police and other state forces have violently turned on protesting workers. Countless workers have been injured and hundreds, including several trade union activists, have been detained, locked up and arrested without any legal basis. They have been charged with ‘misguiding’ and ‘provoking’ workers, ‘inciting violence’ when the protests were for entirely legitimate demands and peaceful until the police turned on the protesting workers.

We call for an immediate release of all workers and activists arrested in Noida, Gurgaon-Manesar and elsewhere.

Both the police action and the unlawful arrests are a violation of the right to freedom of association, a fundamental right under the Constitution which allows for dissent and peaceful protest action. Furthermore, the right to freedom of association has been on the statute book since the Trade Union Act was legislated under British rule in 1926. It cannot be taken away. Police action to restrain the right of workers to form and join trade unions of their choice and protest for their legitimate demands amounts to the criminalisation of the working class.

We call for a stop to all attacks by employers and government on workers’ right to form trade unions, strike and protest.

Across the country, workers have been protesting the unjust minimum wage that has increased only marginally in the last 12 years that the BJP has been in power whilst inflation and the cost of food and other essential goods and services have increased exponentially over this period. Sadly, even non-BJP state governments, have gone along with this virtual freeze on the minimum wage.

We call for a just minimum wage that is calculated openly and transparently, in consultation with the trade union, based on the widely established principles laid out by the 15th ILC and various rulings of the Supreme Court, and validated by successive Pay Commission’s that set pay of government employees.

Workers are also protesting the continuous increase in working hours, especially since the implementation of the 4 Labour Codes forced through the parliament by the BJP government. Most employers are now forcing workers to work 12 hours a day and denying them a weekly holiday whilst not paying the overtime wage of double pay. Many employers have even refused to pay for the additional hours worked. All of this is now possible with the removal of system of statutory inspection by Labour Inspectors.

We call for the repeal of 4 Labour Codes and strict enforcement of the 8-hour workday, a weekly holiday, and payment of double wages for overtime work as per law and ensured through a robust system of inspection.

Workers are being forced to work in increasingly unsafe and hazardous conditions causing more lives to be lost every day. This too, is happening because government has, through the 4 Labour Codes, given employers a free pass on workplace safety and health. The government has divested itself of any responsibility by giving up its own right to statutory labour inspection.

We call for the reconstitution of a rigorous system of labour inspection to ensure the highest levels of workers’ safety and health at the workplace and criminal liability for employers who are in violation.

Workers are protesting because the 4 Labour Codes have failed to deliver universal social security and, in fact, the Codes have delivered nothing at all in terms of both free access to healthcare and pension benefits.

We demand free and universal access to healthcare and a pension to all no less than half the present value of a fair and just minimum wage.

We call on the union government to constitute a tripartite countrywide Commission for Workers Rights that includes representation from all central trade union organisations and that conducts its publicly televised proceedings to redraw workers’ rights that are rooted in equality and justice.

The current situation exists because the BJP government has allowed private capital to dominate government finances and economic policy. For both global and domestic capital, India has become a site for high profit with minimal investment, which in turn is responsible for loss of jobs and the inability to create new jobs.

The BJP is deeply committed to free market and is, therefore, constantly reducing government spending. In addition, the BJP government significantly reduced corporate tax in 2019 and income tax in 2024, making the rich richer. These actions have contributed to the exponential increase of inequality between the rich and the poor. This, coupled with the attack on the farming community and efforts to undermine the Land Acquisition Act and the Forest Rights Act, has aggravated the inequality between urban and rural areas.

To maintain its hold on the government, following the electoral reverses of the 2024 general election, the BJP has left no stone unturned to bread hatred in the society based on gender, caste, region, language and religion.

There is a complete marginalisation of women, Dalits, Adivasis other historically discriminated communities and religious minorities. Advancing Hindutva, as a form of extreme religious nationalism, the BJP has targeted those of the Islamic faith by declaring a virtual permanent war on Pakistan, breaking our historically deep relationship with Bangladesh and turning on Muslims, especially in the border states of Assam and West Bengal, branding them as infiltrators and denying them their vote in the electoral process.

To promote this bigotry, the BJP has even subordinated the country to Israel in its genocide of Palestinians and surrendered significant economic sovereignty to the United States. The BJP government has been careful not to

be critical of the US war against Iran and its people. The BJP has discarded the deep relationships with fellow countries in the global south built on fraternity and solidarity by remaining silently acquiesced to the imperialist overthrow of the Venezuelan government and the forcing of Cuba to starvation.

Winning back workers’ rights, reclaiming fraternity, equality, social justice and democracy, rebuilding the faith and trust of our struggling fellow citizens across the world by defeating war, and regaining peace requires us to overthrow hatred and division. The working class can do this by building stronger, united, militant and democratic trade unions. This May Day, this must be our charge.