People's Democracy

 “Dissolve WTO! Go Back, Sharon!”

A UNIQUE thing recently happened in the trade union movement in Gujarat --- that the state unit of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) took initiative to convene an all trade unions’ joint meeting. State INTUC chief Nihil Mehta convened the meeting to chalk out a campaign programme to oppose the Supreme Court’s recent anti-strike verdict.

On September 6, in the Mirzapur office of the HMKP headed by Chidambaram of NCP and Jayant Panchal, this meeting was attended by the Majur Mahajan Sangh stalwarts and by leaders of the CITU, AITUC, Gujarat Federation of Trade Unions, HMP, bank and LIC employees’ unions, and several other trade union leaders at the state level.

A platform was been announced with ex-labour minister Navin Shastri as the convenor. It was named “Gujarat Shramjivi Manch.”

Its first programme was a human chain programme against the Supreme Court’s anti-strike attitude. Immediately following that, a convention of state level activists took place in Mahendi Nawab Junh hall at Paldi in Ahmedabad, where a coordination committee was formed with two members from each organisation. The immediate programme undertaken was a huge protest dharna before the US visa office near Vyapari Mahamandal on Ashram Road, on September 9, demanding “Sharon, Go Back From India!” and “Dissolve the WTO.”

The first batch of protestors was led by INTUC chief Nihil Mehta, Chandubhai, Mahendra Mehta, and bank employees’ leader Dushyant Trivedi. The CITU’s Subodh Mehta, Jayant Panchal of CMP, Ambrish Patel of GFTU, B C Shah of LIC Employees Association, Nikunj Patel of AEC, Satish Parmar, Mini Satish and Devtadin Yadav of district CITU, Patrick Christian, Vinod Vaghela and Altaf Hussein of DYFI leader and SFI leaders led the second batch. The protestors also declared support to the coming all- India convention of trade unions at New Delhi on September 26. The programme blocked the entire space, with traffic all over being choked for more than an hour.