MAY DAY 2003

  Working Class Pledges To Fight Imperialism

  E Balanandan

THE working class of the country celebrated the May Day 2003 while it was also engaged in preparing for the nationwide strike action of May 21 against the anti-working class, anti-people imperialist-led globalisation. The public sector, the mainstay of our economy and the pillar of self-reliant development, is sought to be transferred to the private monopolies, Indian and foreign, for a nominal cost; these include even the units in the vital and strategic sectors. The hard earned rights and privileges of the working class are under attack and attempts are being made to change the labour laws in favour of employers, conferring upon them the unfettered right of ‘hire and fire.’ The slashing down and removal of the quantitative restrictions on imports has severely hit our agriculture and the industries in small scale sector, leading to large scale unemployment and pauparisation of Indian peasantry, and resulting in a slowing down of our economic growth. Clousures, lockouts, downsizing, outsourcing, etc, are throwing  millions of workers out of employment and drastically reducing the employment potential. The country is facing a negative employment growth as the result of the new economic policy being implemented by the Vajpayee government at the centre, under the WTO dictate. Many states too are vehemently pursuing the same path. These policies result in the compromising of our economic and political freedom too.

The working class of the country is moving unitedly to oppose these policies and moving forward for a gigantic and all-embarrassing strike on May 21. On this May Day, among other things, they took the pledge to make the proposed strike a grand success.

This May Day also came in the background of the invasion of Iraq by the US-led mighty military power. The United States, Britain and their allies went to a war against Iraq, ignoring the unprecedented opposition of the people all over the world and the very serious disapproval by the UN Security Council. Out of fifteen members of the Security Council, eleven including France, Germany, Russia and China opposed the US plan for an attack against Iraq. The US-led forces have now taken over Iraq by inflicting huge human losses and enormous devastation. This is how the Bush administration is implementing its ‘National Security Strategy’ and there is no recognised limit or legal boundaries to the use of military power to promote the interests of United States. In the case of Iraq, the alibi used  for the aggression was that Saddam Hussein was in the possession of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, that he was not prepared to disarm and hence the way out was to throw him out of power. After an elaborate enquiry, the weapons inspectors report to the UN said that they could not find any weapons of mass destruction, that the government of Iraq was cooperating and that the inspection should be allowed to continue. Though a large majority of the Security Council members agreed with this proposal,  the United States did not agree with it and went to a war, since the aim of the US was not to disarm Iraq but to bring its oil wealth under US control. 

Even after the capture of Iraq, the United States and Britain have not been able to find any weapons of mass destruction till now and are saying now that more time is required to find them out. But the very same proposal made by UN inspectors was ignored by the US. The US did not want the UN inspectors to continue their work in Iraq, nor did it want any say for the United Nations in the future administration of Iraq. It is evident that the US is going to treat Iraq as its colony, after Afganisthan and Yugoslavia. Thus, led by US imperialism, an era of colonial plunder is in the making, challenging the very concept of independence of nations.

Now the US has listed Syria, Jordan, Libya and Iran as its immediate targets of attack, besides North Korea and Cuba. Thus the promised ‘New World Order’ by US imperialism, after the change-over in the Soviet Union and socialist countries to capitalist order, is being put into practice through this neo-colonisation process. Needless to say, the US imperialism is out to impose its hegemoney over the world. 

That was why, while celebrating this May Day, the working class of the country strongly denounced American imperialism and pledged to fight back imperialism, among other things.