“It is necessary to base our struggle not on one company or on one nation, but by mobilizing the workers of the world”
Maruti Suzuki workers in India send greetings to February 9 protest
12 February 2019
Jitender Dhankar, a member of the provisional committee of the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union (MSWU) in India, sent a message of solidarity to the workers and young people who participated in the February 9 demonstration against the factory closures and mass layoffs by General Motors.
Workers at Maruti Suzuki’s car assembly plant in Manesar, Haryana, outside of the national capital of Delhi, established the MSWU in 2011-12 in a militant struggle, punctuated by walkouts and sit-down strikes, against the Japanese-owned transnational and a government-recognized, pro-company union.
The corporation and local authorities responded by launching a violent provocation in July 2012, which led to the arrest of hundreds and the sacking of thousands of workers at the plant. In March 2017, 13 workers, including all 12 members of the MSWU executive committee, were convicted on trumped-up murder charges and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) launched a worldwide campaign to free the Maruti Suzuki workers whose only “crime” was to resist poverty wages and sweatshop conditions. Below we post the statement to the February 9 demonstration in Detroit.
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On behalf of the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union, I extend to all General Motors workers our revolutionary greetings. We support your agitation against plant closings and mass layoffs.
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