Some of the Major Labor Unions
1. All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC):
The oldest trade union federation in India is the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC). AITUC has been the main trade union organization in India operating under the Indian National Congress since its founding when unions started to organize along party lines. Learn about the founding of the Indian National Congress in the article linked. The Communist Party of India has been ideologically allied with the All India Trade Union Congress since 1945. It was created in opposition to the ruling that sentenced freedom warrior Bal Gangadhar Tilak to six years in prison. The AITUC grew until it broke up in 1929. Following the First World War, there were numerous worker strikes throughout India. The majority of these unions, as would be expected, were located in advanced industrial hubs like Bombay, Calcutta, Kanpur, Ahmedabad, and Madras. Cotton and jute textiles, railroads, ships, iron and steel, and post offices and telegraphs were the key industries where these unions were established. The communist ideology, which is based on the doctrines of Marx and Lenin, gives the working class center stage. Therefore, it made sense that communists would be deeply active in India’s labor movement.
2. Indian National Trade Union Congress:
It is an Indian national labor union. The International Trade Union Confederation is one of its affiliates, and it was established on May 3, 1947. The largest Trade Union in India, INTUC, with 3.95 million members in 2013. Basically, it is to ensure that laws for the protection and advancement of labor are properly enforced and to control hours and other work conditions in accordance with the conditions of the workers.
3. Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh:
BMS was established on July 23, 1955, which was also the birthday of Freedom Movement veteran Lok Manya Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Only by studying the past of the trade union movement, the successes, and failures of various Unions, political divide. The causes that gave rise to the foundation of BMS can the growth of BMS in the current Trade Union Movement be properly understood. BMS had previously used a different approach that had worked well despite the lack of a wide range of expected leaders. The last movement to enter the scene, BMS, went on to become the largest Trade Union in the nation, according to the third phase of history up to the present. Others are just unions that have broken apart from Communist or trade unions affiliated with Congress primarily for political reasons.
Conclusion:
During colonial times, the organized working class made up a tiny fraction of the Indian population. However, the fact that it was concentrated in a few significant cities provided it cohesiveness and political prominence. The early nationalists were not particularly concerned with worker’s issues. They opposed regulations governing the working conditions in mills and factories because they supported an indigenous capitalist path to development. The working class in India fought hard and won some rights back from the capitalists and landlords who have ruled the country for the past 75 years. Workers consistently rejected divisive tribal politics during the freedom struggle and banded together to strike ferocious blows against the colonial authorities. India’s workers must rise to the occasion once more and fend off any attempts to contaminate their solidarity.
Movement of the Working Class in India
In the nineteenth century, India saw the emergence of the contemporary working class. This change resulted from the construction of contemporary factories, railroads, dockyards, and other types of buildings and roadways. In terms of relatively modern labor organization and a comparatively free labor market, it was a modern working class. This rule had a few significant exceptions. The plantation workers, who also created items for their capitalist bosses and sold them on foreign markets, were hired and forced to work in oppressive conditions. In truth, the bulk of workers in colonial India did not have as free of restrictions on hiring and working hours as they did in some other nations with more advanced capitalist systems. The working class movement saw effects from this scenario as it evolved over time. Along with the less developed economy, colonialism also had an impact on the labor movement. In India, the labor movement prioritized worker care over promoting workers’ rights. Despite being well-organized, they weren’t present throughout all of India. Most of their concerns and demands were about how women and young employees could support themselves. The Indian labor movement was led by and for the workers, not by the workers themselves.
Silent protests, passive resistance, individual protests and strikes, more organized welfare activities, as well as larger protests and strikes that reach the level of general strikes, are all included in its scope. There are numerous variations of worker responses to the industrial system. These reactions might be intended to improve living and working circumstances inside the industrial system, but they might also be directly in opposition to the industrial system. Thus, labor activism can take numerous forms, from the small-scale battles of the workforce to broad-scale strikes that affect an entire industry or a number of industries. It covers both the labor movements and actions that take place within the capitalist system and those that resist it.
Contact Us