When contacted on this, the AITUC President Mahadevan said that workers are not for war and Modi’s jingoism is a gimmick for votes. Incidentally, Mahadevan’s birthday falls on 5 March 2019 and he was saying that his only birthday message to all the workers who come to greet him at his Bangalore residence was that, “Don’t believe Modi. Modi serves not the workers but the big industrialists who want to profit from war”.

Tapan Sen, General Secretary of CITU, also denounced Modi Government’ whipping up of war hysteria against Pakistan. When asked about the peace initiatives of the TUs, Mr. Tapan Sen said that on 5 March 2019 all the central trade unions and independent trade union federations would be holding a convention at Constitution Club Annex, New Delhi to come up with a Workers’ Charter for elections and submit it to all political parties to adopt these demands in their manifestoes. He also said they would pass a resolution at the convention calling for peace and urging working class not to get carried away by Modi’s jingoism. “However, we wouldn’t get trapped into a war vs. anti-war binary. We would highlight the real problems of the working class like job losses and erosion of real wages and unemployment of youth so that Modi’s diversionary jingoistic tactics would get sidelined on its own”, he added.

“Por Vendaam” (No War!)—that was the banner under which around 250 workers gathered at the Ambattur Industrial Estate, Chennai on 4 March 2019 when thousands of workers were coming out of their factories after the shift. After fiery speeches against the jingoism and war mongering of Mr. Modi, the leaders of AICCTU, a radical left union which organised the meeting, read out a stirring poem by popular Tamil poet Manushyaputhiran against war and belligerence and workers listened with rapturous ovation.

Mr. Kumaraswamy, All-India President of AICCTU, who was on his way to Sriperumpudur to address a similar meeting near Hyundai Motors plant next day on 5 March 2019, said: “The workers of Tamil Nadu easily see through the jingoism of Modi and would not fall for it. Workers understand the contradiction when we point out that Modi Government calls the airstrike a ‘non-military pre-emptive action’ but at the same time is gloating over 350 to 400 non-existent deaths”. He even cited an occasion when workers burst out in laughter when highlights from Ms. Arundhati Roy’s article against war was read out to them where she had pointed out that Modi’s police could catch poor Dalits carrying 3 kgs of beef but let 350 kgs of RDX easily pass through their tight security cordons!

INTUC President Dr. G. Sanjeeva Reddy said, “Modi Government is No.1 enemy of the workers. They have abandoned tripartite talks and are refusing bilateral negotiations with the central trade unions. But they are dishing out only war propaganda for workers.”

In as much as the question of war and peace on our western border is inextricably linked with the communal question and the Kashmir issue with the question of greater autonomy of the nationalities in India, the question of peace is foremost a question of democracy and democracy is also vital for the labour movement.

The electoral political left might have less of an impact on events today than what they could have done a couple of decades ago. But the potential anti-war community in India is much larger. Initially, the scale of peace activism is bound to be only marginal and might even be dominated by the middle class activists. That is natural. But the early sprouting of anti-war consciousness among workers is a welcome sign.

It is part of history that the glorious anti-war movement of students and youth against the American war in Vietnam paved the way for the first major post-war working class upsurge in 1968 in France which spread to some other European countries.

On 3 March 2019, students of the elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Colombia University and John Hopkins University, the internationally renowned centre for medical education, came out on their campuses and stood out in vigil opposing war in South Asia and calling for peace and solidarity between Indian and Pakistani peoples. And workers gather for peace at their factory gates in India itself.

Working class is seen widely—including unfortunately even by some on the Left—as hopelessly blind to its own oppression, supporting hegemonistic war cries and rightwing nationalism. But this is not entirely true. If history is any guide, any war or even unbridled militarism would only impose disproportionately much greater burden on the laboring people. In India itself, after the First and Second World Wars, the trade union membership expanded by 26% and 45% respectively as workers were getting organised to fight the privations suffered during the war years. The same workers who are resisting the rightwing assaults at every step can instinctively see through the game sooner or later that the same rightwing anti-labour forces are also posing as nationalist champions whipping up war frenzy and jingoism. The organic link is much too transparent. The mass of workers would quickly realise that their class interests are best defended in a regime of peace.

Moreover, we have seen in recent times that the tech workers of Google and Microsoft have set splendid examples by protesting against their own companies collaborating with the militaristic projects of Pentagon.

If airstrikes and war mongering jingoism can earn an electoral victory to Modi again, it goes without saying that the rightwing offensive of labour reforms already seen in the first five years would only get intensified. And whatever labour rights the workers are still left with would naturally come under further stress. The only alternative is peace. As Manushyaputhiran’s beautiful poem concludes, “The nation is waging a war against war”. And to be sure the working class is now at the forefront. (IPA Service)