Dear Friends,
There are dates that belong to the calendar. And then there are dates that belong to the conscience of a working class.
19 September 1968 is one such date.
Fifty-eight years ago, more than 30 lakh Central Government employees—from Railways, Posts and Telegraphs, Defence establishments, Income Tax, Customs, Accounts and numerous other departments—stood together in one of the most historic acts of working-class resistance in independent India. Under the banner of the Joint Council of Action (JCA), representing the AIRF, AIDEF and the Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers, they declared that the dignity of labour could no longer be ignored.
But young comrades must understand one thing clearly:
That struggle did not begin on 19 September 1968.
Its roots went back more than a decade.
The workers had been demanding a Need-Based Minimum Wage since the 15th Indian Labour Conference of 1957. The norms associated with Aykroyd's formula were designed around the basic needs of a worker and family—including food, clothing and other essential requirements. The Government's own later documentation records the adoption of the Aykroyd dietary norms by the 15th ILC.
Yet the Second Central Pay Commission did not satisfy this aspiration. Inflation continued to eat into the purchasing power of employees. The demand for adequate neutralisation of the rise in prices through Dearness Allowance became a central issue.
The workers tried representations. They tried negotiations. They tried persuasion.
But when every door seemed closed, they chose the only language that a united working class possesses—the language of collective struggle.
And then came 19 September 1968.
Railway services were affected. Postal operations were disrupted. Government offices fell silent. Workers who normally kept the enormous machinery of administration moving decided, for one day, to withdraw their labour and make the country understand the value of that labour.
It was not merely a strike.
It was a declaration: “We are workers, not machines. We have families, dignity and aspirations. Our labour has value.”
The response from the Government was severe. The Essential Services Maintenance Ordinance was promulgated on 13 September 1968, shortly before the strike, providing penalties for participation in prohibited strikes. Contemporary legal records document the extraordinary legal and administrative measures surrounding the action.
Thousands were arrested, suspended, terminated or otherwise victimised. Parliamentary records from the following year show that the Government was still dealing with the consequences of the dismissals and reinstatement of striking employees.
Imagine that generation.
No social media.
No WhatsApp groups.
No smartphones.
No instant communication.
No digital banking.
No easy access to legal information.
No comfortable retirement planning.
And yet they stood together.
They faced arrests.
They faced suspension.
They faced dismissal.
They faced hunger and uncertainty.
And some paid the ultimate price.
Seventeen workers are remembered in the movement's history as having lost their lives during the repression surrounding the struggle. Their names were not those of famous politicians or wealthy industrialists. They were ordinary working people who became extraordinary because they refused to surrender their dignity.
Among them were workers whose names must never disappear from the memory of the Central Government employee community.
They had families. They had dreams. They had children. They had unfinished lives.
But they also had something greater—
the courage to believe that tomorrow's generation deserved something better than today's injustice.
There was also a remarkable episode in Kerala. The Government headed by Comrade E. M. S. Namboodiripad refused to use the Essential Services Maintenance machinery against the striking Central Government employees in the manner demanded by the Centre, despite the political consequences threatened by the Union Government. The episode remains an important part of the historical record of the 1968 struggle.
The struggle did not end when the one-day strike ended.
Victimisation continued. Leaders went on hunger strike from 10 October. On 17 October, a mass rally was held near the residence of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The pressure continued.
And the struggle left an imprint.
When the Third Central Pay Commission was constituted in 1970, the question of Dearness Allowance and the impact of the Consumer Price Index became part of the framework considered for pay revision. The history of the movement therefore reminds us that many of the protections and compensations employees later came to regard as normal were shaped by decades of organised struggle.
But there is another uncomfortable truth.
The principal dream of 1968—the Need-Based Minimum Wage—remains unfinished.
That is why 19 September cannot become merely a ritual of garlanding photographs, raising slogans and posting a message on social media.
History is not something to remember once a year.
History is something to understand, inherit and carry forward.
TO THE YOUNGER GENERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
Dear young comrades,
When you receive your salary, remember the workers who fought for wages.
When you receive Dearness Allowance, remember the workers who fought against the erosion of purchasing power.
When you enjoy leave, service protections and collective bargaining mechanisms, remember that these did not descend from the sky.
When you enter a government office with the security of a service career, remember the generations who faced victimisation so that the next generation could work with greater dignity.
Every benefit has a struggle story.
Every protection has a sacrifice behind it.
Every right has someone who fought before you.
Do not make the mistake of believing that what you have today will automatically exist tomorrow.
Rights can be weakened.
Protections can be diluted.
Social security can be reduced.
Permanent employment can be replaced by precarious arrangements.
And when workers become indifferent to their own history, the erosion of rights can happen silently.
The greatest danger to a worker is not always an order issued from above.
Sometimes the greatest danger is forgetting.
Forgetting who fought.
Forgetting why they fought.
Forgetting what they sacrificed.
And forgetting that unity is the greatest strength of working people.
The generation of 1968 had fewer resources than us—but it had extraordinary solidarity.
We have technology they could never imagine.
We can communicate across the country within seconds.
We can organise, educate and mobilise with unprecedented speed.
But technology cannot replace courage.
Social media cannot replace solidarity.
A WhatsApp message cannot replace collective action.
And a Facebook post cannot substitute for standing beside a fellow worker when that worker is in trouble.
The true tribute to the martyrs of 1968 is not a photograph.
It is our commitment to protect the dignity of labour.
Let the younger generation learn the greatest lesson of 19 September 1968:
Rights are never permanently secured.
They must be defended by every generation.
We did not inherit our rights from the generosity of governments.
We inherited them from the struggles of our ancestors.
And therefore we have a responsibility to pass them to the next generation—not weakened, not diluted, not surrendered, but strengthened.
On this 59th remembrance of the historic 19 September struggle, let us bow our heads before every worker who suffered imprisonment, suspension, dismissal, hunger, victimisation and death.
Let us remember the seventeen who never returned to their families.
Let us remember the unknown workers whose names may not appear in history books but whose courage helped shape the rights we enjoy today.
And let us make a solemn pledge:
We shall remember their struggle.
We shall protect their legacy.
We shall educate the younger generation.
We shall never treat workers' rights as charity.
We shall never allow sacrifice to become forgotten history.
Because the struggle of the working class has no final chapter.
Yesterday they fought for us.
Today it is our turn to stand.
Tomorrow another generation will judge what we did with the rights we inherited.
LONG LIVE THE MARTYRS OF 19 SEPTEMBER 1968!
LONG LIVE THE UNITY OF THE WORKING CLASS!
LONG LIVE THE SPIRIT OF COLLECTIVE STRUGGLE!
STRUGGLE HAS NO END — BECAUSE JUSTICE HAS NO EXPIRY DATE!
Bruhaspati Samal
General Secretary
Confederation Odisha State CoC
No comments:
Post a Comment