[Marxistindia] Resolution adopted at the 24th Congress of CPI(M)

[news from the cpi(m)]

Resolution

 

Support Countrywide General Strike on May 20, 2025

Against Labour Codes

 

The 24th Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) extends its full
and active support to the countrywide general strike called by the joint
platform of central trade unions and independent all India sectoral
federations on May 20, 2025, against the implementation of the four Labour
Codes by the Modi-led BJP-NDA government. 

 

The so-called 'labour law reforms' under which 29 existing labour laws have
been repealed and claimed to be subsumed into four Labour Codes, are a part
of the neoliberal agenda being aggressively pursued by the Modi government.
They are meant to drastically curtail the hard-won basic rights of the
working class, related to their working conditions like working hours,
minimum wages, social security and more importantly their right to
organisation and collective action including their right to strike. 

 

Contrary to the claims of the Modi government that the Labour Codes are
meant to universalise coverage and simplify labour laws, Labour Codes in
fact exclude large sections of workers including those in the organised
sector who were earlier covered by protective measures under the existing
labour laws. The Code on Social Security provides scope for social security
benefits like EPF and ESI to be tampered, weakened and for establishments to
exit from these schemes without the need for any Parliamentary amendment to
the relevant Acts. Social security for hundreds of thousands of workers in
industries like beedi, iron ore, mica, limestone, dolomite mines, most of
them dalits, adivasis and OBCs, who were earlier covered with sector
specific Acts will now be thrown into uncertainty as the government has
abolished all related provisions for cess collection. 

 

In addition, the Modi government is using provisions under Acts like UAPA,
PMLA and BNS to suppress the basic rights of the workers. Collective actions
like lodging complaint or even making a representation to the Labour
Department are being interpreted as 'organised crime' under section 111 of
BNS and trade union leaders are imprisoned without bail. At the same time,
through the Jan Vishwas Act, the government has decriminalised 180 offences
under 41 legislations, withdrawing the provision for imprisonment for
violations and limiting punishment to fines. The last Union Budget proposed
to decriminalise 100 more provisions. 

 

The Labour Codes and all the other measures being implemented in the name of
'Ease of Doing Business' are nothing but attempts to weaken the trade
unions, the organised strength of the working class and enable unbridled
exploitation by the big corporates, both domestic and foreign, by imposing
conditions of virtual slavery on workers. 

 

Attempts to amend labour laws in favour of the capitalist class have
intensified since the onset of neoliberalism. The Modi government has
initiated the process of codification soon after returning to power in 2019
and passed the four Labour Codes in 2019-20. But till now it has not been
able to implement the Labour Codes, one of the major reasons being the stiff
resistance of the united working class movement. 

 

The 24th Congress of the CPI(M) fully supports the united struggle of the
working class demanding repeal of the Labour Codes and calls upon all its
committees and branches to actively support the countrywide general strike
on May 20, 2025.

 

 

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