Legal appeals of framed-up Maruti Suzuki workers expose travesty of justice
By
Saman Gunadasa
23 September 2017
Appeals filed by the 31 framed-up Maruti Suzuki workers, including all 12 leaders of the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union (MSWU) at the automaker’s Manesar assembly plant on the outskirts of Delhi, expose the collusion between the Japanese transnational company, India’s political establishment, the police and courts to railroad these workers into prison.
Sentenced to life in prison last March on phony murder charges, thirteen of the workers—including all 12 MSWU leaders—are currently confined to Bhondsi Jail in Gurgaon, a city located near Manesar in Haryana. The other 18 workers were given prison terms of three to five years on lesser charges. Most of these workers have now been freed from jail due to time served, but having lost their jobs and been framed up on grave criminal charges, they now face destitution.
The Maruti Suzuki workers are the targets of a vicious years-long legal vendetta. This is because the MSWU, which was formed by the workers in 2011-12 in opposition to a government-recognized company stooge union, and the Manesar plant emerged as a pole of opposition to the brutal conditions of exploitation that prevail throughout the Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt and across India.
On July 18, 2012, management provoked a factory-floor altercation with workers at the Manesar plant. During that altercation a fire mysteriously broke out which led to the death of the one company manager who was sympathetic to the workers’ plight.
As part of the worldwide campaign the International Committee of the Fourth International is mounting to mobilize the working class to win the freedom of the Maruti Suzuki workers, the World Socialist Web Site…