Australian workers and youth speak out against Maruti Suzuki frame-up

 

Australian workers and youth speak out against Maruti Suzuki frame-up

By
our reporters

31 March 2017

Over the past days, Australian workers, students and young people have voiced their support for the campaign launched by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) in defence of the framed-up Maruti Suzuki car workers in Haryana, India.

Many have expressed hostility to the sentencing last month of 13 of the workers to life imprisonment, and of 18 others to prison terms of between three and five years. The prosecution, which was based on bogus evidence, was in response to a series of struggles waged by the Maruti Suzuki workers including strikes, factory occupations and protests in 2011–12, against the dire conditions they faced.

Many of those who spoke with Socialist Equality Party campaigners signed the ICFI’s online petition demanding the immediate release of the victimised workers and the repudiation of the fraudulent charges against them.

Carol, a retired child-care worker from Newcastle, a working-class regional centre in New South Wales, said that the frame-up was “disgusting”. She added: “It is against the entire international standards for human rights. Workers don’t have anything these days. It’s scary, and something is really going to happen because workers are sick and tired of the way things are going. Maybe even a revolution. Something’s got to give.”

Carol

Carol pointed to the international offensive of the corporate elite, and the mounting social crisis afflicting workers in every country. “It’s not just in India, it’s here as well,” she said.

“Houses are so ridiculously expensive that young people can’t afford to live anywhere. I’ve got nine grandkids. None of them have a future. My son and…

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