The 2020 Indian general strike was a mass

general strike A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large co ...

that was held across

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

on 26 November 2020. The strike was organized by 10

trade unions A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and Employee ben ...

across the country and was supported by the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in term ...

, and other

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

parties.

Trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

s claim 250 million (25

crore A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is e ...

) people took part in the strike, which ''

Jacobin , logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg , logo_size = 180px , logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794) , motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir) , successor = Pa ...

'' says would make it arguably the largest in history. The strike was followed by a farmers march to New Delhi, which arrived there on 30 November with tens of thousands of farmers surrounding Delhi, increasing to hundreds of thousands by 3 December.

Strikers' demands

The workers' unions presented a list of seven demands: # Direct cash transfer of per month to all families who earn less than the income tax threshold # free

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

ration per person every month to all in need. # Expansion of the ''Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act'' to provide employment from the current 100 days to 200 days work in rural areas with enhanced

wages A wage is payment made by an employer to an employee for work done in a specific period of time. Some examples of wage payments include compensatory payments such as ''minimum wage'', ''prevailing wage'', and ''yearly bonuses,'' and remuner ...

, and extension of this programme to urban areas # Withdrawal of all anti-worker labour

code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...

changes and liberalizing agricultural reforms seen by the protesters as anti-farmer laws despite the proven hostile nature of Indian labor as a significant impediment to the growth of manufacturing sector in Indi

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/state-govt-urged-to-press-for-withdrawal-of-new-labour-laws/article65341594.ec

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/isro-truck-blocked-in-kerala-trade-union-members-seek-gawking-charge-101630858177288.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7630696.st

# Stop

privatisation Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

of public sector corporations, including those in the financial sector. Stop the corporatisation of government-run manufacturing and service entities in railways, ordnance manufacturing, ports and similar areas. # Withdraw the circular of forced premature retirement of government and public sector employees. # Provide a

pension A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

to all, restore earlier pension scheme and improve EPS 95.

Organisers

The trade unions involved included the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS),

Centre of Indian Trade Unions Centre of Indian Trade Unions, CITU is a National level Trade Union in India and its trade union wing is a spearhead of the Indian Trade Union Movement. The Centre of Indian Trade Unions is today one of biggest assemblies of workers and classe ...

(CITU),

All India United Trade Union Centre The All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC), formerly known as United Trade Union Centre (Lenin Sarani) or UTUC-LS, is a Central Trade Union Organisation in India and the labour wing of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist). Prese ...

(AIUTUC),

Trade Union Coordination Centre Trade Union Coordination Centre is a central trade union federation in India. TUCC is politically attached to All India Forward Bloc. TUCC was founded in 1970. Prasanta Das Gupta was the founding general secretary of TUCC. Prior to the fou ...

(TUCC),

Self-Employed Women's Association Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), meaning "service" in several Indian languages, is a trade union based in Ahmedabad, India, that promotes the rights of low-income, independently employed female workers. With over 1.6 million partici ...

(SEWA),

All India Central Council of Trade Unions All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) is a central trade union federation in India. It is politically attached to Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation. According to provisional statistics from the Ministry of ...

(AICCTU), Labour Progressive Federation (LPF) and United Trade Union Congress (UTUC). Several other organisations were involved in the strike. The All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) stated that nearly 30,000 bank employees were to participate in the strike. The Independent Sectoral Federations and Associations (ISFA) released strike notice to workers of all industries, calling scheme workers, construction workers, beedi workers, domestic workers, agricultural workers, vendors, hawkers, and self-employed people in rural as well as urban India to come onto the streets for ''chakka jam'', a demonstration meant to block traffic. According to a statement made by the CPIM, there was "massive participation" by people who did not receive strike notice, such as informal sector workers, students, women, and peasants. Approximately a quarter of all working-aged people in India participated in the general strike. The date of the general strike converged with the All India Kisan Sangharsh Co-ordination Committee's own strike calling for newly enacted anti-farmer agricultural laws to be repealed. The worker's unions and the AIKSCC declared their solidarity with each other in the days leading up to the general strike and the AIKSCC's " ''Chalo Delhi''" ('Go to Delhi') mobilization.

Strike and march to New Delhi

The initial, 24-hour

took place all across India. Five states – Kerala, Puducherry, Odisha, Assam and Telangana – were completely shut down. Jharkhand and

Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh (, ) is a landlocked state in Central India. It is the ninth largest state by area, and with a population of roughly 30 million, the seventeenth most populous. It borders seven states – Uttar Pradesh to the north, Madhya Prade ...

reported a 100% strike. Tamil Nadu reported shut-down in 13 of 38 districts, with industrial strikes continuing in the remaining districts. In Punjab and Haryana, state transport buses did not leave their depots. The strike saw stoppages of work in banks,

financial services Financial services are the Service (economics), economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, acco ...

, various government services, transport,

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

units, ports and docks, telecommunication services, plantations, power generating units, coal and other mines, oil and natural gas production units, and millions of other places. The strike was followed by the

2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest The 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest was a protest against three farm acts that were passed by the Parliament of India in September 2020. The acts, often called the Farm Bills, have been described as "anti-farmer laws" by many farmer unions ...

march to the Indian capital New Delhi. On 30 November, "tens of thousands of

farmers A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mi ...

and their supporters ... eredemonstrating at several road junctions". By 3 December, '' BBC News'' estimated the number of farmers blocking New Delhi in the hundreds of thousands.

Role of social media

A "photograph of a paramilitary policeman swinging his baton at an elderly Sikh man", later identified as Sukhdev Singh, taken by Ravi Choudhury of ''

Press Trust of India The Press Trust of India Ltd., commonly known as PTI, is the largest news agency in India. It is headquartered in New Delhi and is a nonprofit cooperative among more than 500 Indian newspapers. It has over 500 full-time employees , including abo ...

'' (PTI) went viral on social media. Politicians opposed to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) used the image to criticise police violence, while BJP members claimed that the Sikh farmer had not been hit. Choudhury said that the man had been hit by the policeman. A

fact-checking Fact-checking is the process of verifying factual information, in order to promote the veracity and correctness of reporting. Fact-checking can be conducted before (''ante hoc'') or after (''post hoc'') the text is published or otherwise dissem ...

website, ''Boomlive'', interviewed Singh, who stated that he had been hit by two policemen, and sustained injuries to his "forearm, back and calf muscle". Social media also helped start a Sikh solidarity protest in

London, United Kingdom London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

on 6 December 2020.

Notes

References

External links

{{external media , float = right , width = 220px , video1 = {{YouTube, -1xGT611Z_A, Prof. Richard Wolff: India's Historic General Strike General strikes in India Indian_general_strike Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in India November 2020 events in India Protests in India December 2020 events in India 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest