REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE

The eighteenth century England witnessed the rise of Industrial Revolution. The invention of machines, like the Spinning Jenny and the Steam Engine, catering to economies of scale, gave way to an Utilitarian mindset among the industrialists, resulting in a considerable decrease in the importance of the only ‘active factor’ of production–LABOUR. Thus, the dehumanization, oppression and exploitation of labourers and factory workers at the hands of the capitalists and factory owners led to the need of a body which could look after the interests of the labourers and fight for their rights. Hence, the Trade Unions were formed. The Trade Unions put political and economic pressure on the management so as to persuade and coerce them to comply with the requests, demands and petitions of the labourers. Traditionally, this persuasive method comprised – discussion, deputation, petitioning, gathering, meeting, marching, and if none of the aforesaid methods yielded fruitful results, then only a “STRIKE”.
The “STRIKE” is an economic weapon wherein, production is boycotted by workers so as to compel the industrialists to pay heed to their demands for fear of incurring heavy losses due to a prolonged stoppage of the production process. Though, the industrialists are at the receiving end in such situations, it’s the workers who suffer the most, especially if the strike is prolonged. The workers are daily wage earners and therefore, have to sacrifice their pay for each day of the strike. The price paid by the poor workers for observing a “STRIKE” is to sleep with an empty pocket and an emptier stomach.
Because of the economic relevance and political significance of “STRIKE”, it was adopted even by Gandhiji as a non-violent economic weapon to fight against British imperialism. The Civil Disobedience movement, Non-cooperation movement, Swadeshi movement and the Dandi March were all a refined and reconstructed form of the traditional “strike” wherein, the draconian British laws and imported British goods were boycotted to nullify the existence of British authority over India and Indians.
But sadly and disappointingly enough, the very “strikes” that have been used in history for honourable and valid socio-economic and political causes, for the interests and needs of the perennially oppressed proletariats, and against the exploitative attitudes of the plutocrats, are today being misused by insincere Trade Unions, dishonest politicians and certain other unscrupulous groups for their vested interests and selfish personal gains. The very proletariats, for safeguarding whose interests were the “strikes” traditionally observed, have now become the victims of the same “strikes”. They are misguided, and lured by non-existent and misconceptualized gains into observing a “strike”.
Whether it be the pseudo-nationalist politicians who lie down on railway tracks to show their false concern for people’s causes, or it be a strike by associations of the various modes of transport, or the recent prolonged strike by the employees of a nationalized bank, the people who actually bear the brunt of such protests are the general public, the faceless comman man. The longer the strike continues, greater is the inconvenience and suffering caused to the comman man. It’s the general public who suffer the most without registering their protest in the queues of stopped buses, halted congested trains, and out-of–order ATM machines.
Drawing inspiration from and treading on the footsteps of such immoral endorsers of unnecessary and unethical “strikes”, students of colleges have started declaring “strikes” for as invalid and illegitimate an issue as holding a poet’s conclave instead of a jam session for the college’s annual fest. The very people who are always keen to declare “strikes” at the slightest of instances, may not even be aware of the fact that a legal notice needs to be filed with the Labour Commissioner forty days prior to the actual day of “strike”.
Can anybody justify the blocking of the peripheral Ring Road (the Life Line of Delhi transport) by tees hazaari court lawyers that caused immense inconvenience to thousands of commuters every day, just because a bench of the Delhi High Court had been opened in Rohini, and that too, for better convenience of general public and speedier judgements by the judiciary.
Can anybody justify the losses worth crores of rupees incurred by the five markets- Sarafa, Kirana, kapda, galla and loha when “Bandhs” are called by R.S.S. to propagate it’s concept of “Hindutva”, by B.J.P. when they want to register their resentment and protest against a bomb blast at a religious site, and various other similar instances.
Can anybody justify the annihilation of multitudinous factories and industries in Bengal, which used to be the trade capital of India during the days of the Raj, just because of recurring and prolonged strikes called by political parties and trade unions under the cover of peoples’ causes.
Such meaningless and unscrupulous “strikes” have put hard work and toil in the back seat and changed people’s mindset so much so that students in colleges, workers in factories, and clerks in offices wait wishfully for a “strike” as “strikes” no longer depict a day of registering resentment and revolt against oppression and exploitation but is an “unofficial Sunday” – a welcome holiday on an otherwise working day. A “strike” has ceased to be the fight of the poor, oppressed and underprivileged for their fundamental rights but has become a hoodlum tact of dishonest trade unions to economically blackmail the factory management and extort money from them at the cost of the poor factory workers’ daily wage. It’s no longer an act of struggle and agitation for a legitimate social cause but a shortcut method of conscienceless politicians for gaining instant popularity, mass sympathy and political mileage.

BY : SHUBHRO SEN