Appeal : Stand in Solidarity With NOIDA Workers’ Struggle

Friends,

Scores of workers of NOIDA have been in jail for more than two months after being arrested on fabricated charges of arson and looting and attempt to murder during the All-India Strike of February20-21 this year. There is not an iota of evidence against them – rather the footage that the police claims to have would prove each of these workers innocent! Many of them have been denied bail at the Sessions Court – and the Allahabad HC has given them a bail hearing date of 29 July. Which means that even if they eventually get bail and are even proved innocent, they are still forced to spend several months in jail. In other words, they are being punished for being workers, for being members of Unions. Meanwhile, as these workers, many of them daily wage earners languish in jail, their families are in great hardship, struggling to survive in the absence of one crucial earning member.

This attack on the rights of NOIDA’s workers is the latest in a series of outright assaults on workers’ basic rights and democracy in the Delhi-NCR region. Workers at Maruti, in NOIDA and in Delhi have been struggling for implementation of labour laws and the right to organize – and Governments are seeking to crush these struggles to protect the ‘right’ of industrialists to flout labour laws.

“We might as well commit suicide– we cannot be assured of a daily meal since my husband was jailed” –Shakeel’s wife says. She and her children have been surviving with the help offunds collected from other workers’ families and trade union activists. 

Shakeel, a member of Delhi Street Vendors’ Union affiliated to the AICCTU, lives in Mayur Vihar Phase-1 Delhi. He is a migrant worker from Bihar. On the morning of 21st of February, he had gone to the AICCTU’s Sector 10 office to help the NOIDA comrades prepare for a small procession on the second day of the Strike. In his pocket, he had Rs 40,000that he had taken from someone for his daughter’s marriage. That morning, a large posse of police officers had descended on the office, accompanied by the media;had arrested all those in the office, and had announced to the media that they had nabbed the culprits responsible for arson and looting in NOIDA Sector 20(Phase-II) the previous day.

Another worker arrested that morning was Gauri Shankar Pal, also a migrant worker from Bihar, who is a street vendor selling boiled eggs in Khora Colony, Ghaziabad, just 1 Km. away from the AICCTU’s Delhi-NCR office branch in Sector 10, NOIDA. Gauri Shankar is the only earning member of his family, and his family is in great hardship ever since he has been in jail. 

Anoj Kumar Singh works in a factory far from NOIDA Phase-II. He has two small children (aged 1 and a half and 6yrs.) Since he has been jailed, there no one to support his family. His wife, Poonam, has now taken up a job as a domestic worker to survive, leaving her two kids behind while at work.     

CPI(ML)’s Delhi State Committee member Shyam Kishore Yadav was also arrested on that day. Shyam Kishore is just recovering from a serious accident in which his hip bones were fractured; even now, he has trouble walking. His brother Hareram, also a CPI(ML) activist, is also in jail. Hareram suffers from TB; with the TB treatment being interrupted in jail, his health has deteriorated.  

Workers in NOIDA are being punished for the remarkable success of the all-India Strike, with their democratic right sunder an all-out assault by the police and administration, under pressure from the industrialists’ lobby. In NOIDA, workers were picked up by police from trade union offices, homes, streets. Trade Union members all over NOIDA were targeted, while innocent workers were also picked up at random. The arrested workers have remained in jail ever since. They were denied bail in the Sessions Court, in spite of the fact that the FIRs against them are blatantly, obviously false. If the police wanted to catch the real culprits they could easily have done so in 2 months’ time: but instead the incidents are being used as a pretext to terrorise and victimize workers in general in NOIDA.

The police claimed they had a video clipping of the violence that took place on February 20th. The request by the lawyer representing AICCTU union members to see the video footage with the Judge was denied. If the video footage were to be shown, it would be all too clear that the arrested workers are nowhere to be seen in it. The Additional Sessions Judge passed an order denying bail: this order states that “the accused have indulged in anti-people activity and have caused damage to public property.” In a blatantly biased and illegal way, the bail rejection order deems the accused to be guilty even before the trial has been held – on the basis of a video clipping which would in fact go to prove the innocence of these workers!

The arrested NOIDA workers’ families are in urgent need of support. Funds are needed to sustain the families, ensure that their children can continue school and their families can survive. Funds are also needed for the legal aid of the workers. We appeal to you to contribute generously to the NOIDA Workers’ Struggle Fund, and also to do all you can – write articles, blog, participate in campaigns and protests, issue statements, etc – to take up the cause of justice for the workers.

If you would like to contribute to the NOIDA Workers’ Struggle Fund, you can make your contributions to All India Central Council of Trade Unions, A/c no 90502010102431, Syndicate Bank, Nirman Vihar Delhi-92, IFSC – SYNB0009050

Issued by

RYA, AISA, LDTF

Contact: 9990748079,9868034224, 9868033425,