CITU warns of more strikes

KOLKATA - Congratulating the masses for making Tuesday’s general strike a “success”, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) Tuesday warned of more such strikes and even a siege of parliament if the government did not bow to their demands.

The strike was called by the Coordination Committee of the Central Trade Unions headed by Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) president G. Sanjeeva Reddy. CITU, the Communist Party of India-Marxist’s (CPI-M) labour arm, was among the nine trade unions that called the strike to protest “price rise, violation of labour laws and privatisation”.

“The strike has been totally successful. The people have spontaneously responded to the shutdown call. But if our demands are not met then we can go for more strikes,” said CITU all India secretary Kali Ghosh.

“And if the government doesn’t concede to the demands, we will intensify our struggle and we are also thinking of marching to parliament with a few lakh of people during its coming winter session,” added Ghosh.

“Even in BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) ruled states, the strike was a success, though the state governments there did not cooperate,” Ghosh said.

Turning to West Bengal, Ghosh, the CITU state committee secretary, claimed the strike was peaceful across the state. “It was a 110 percent success.”