New Delhi- On July 9, India witnessed what is arguably one of the largest coordinated actions by the working class and peasantry this year. Around 25 crore (250 million) workers are said to have participated in the general strike—a strike in which not just one sector, but a large section of the working class goes on strike.

According to Tapan Sen, President of CITU-one of the organizing unions-the strike was observed in around 500 districts across India, taking various forms such as rail roko, chakka jams, and symbolic protests.

The central trade unions demanded that the central government immediately concede to demands that were submitted last year in the form of a 17-point charter to the Labour Minister, Mansukh Mandaviya. This charter included all the demands around which the strike was organized.

From road blockades in Palghar to Rail Roko in Bihar, and demonstrations across Delhi, Mumbai, Punjab, Bengal, and Kashmir, the country saw widespread disruption and mobilization. While the strike marked the culmination of several long-standing grievances, three primary demands anchored the protest: the repeal of the four new labour codes, a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP) as per the Swaminathan formula (C2+50%), and an end to the privatization drive in critical sectors such as railways, defence, education, and healthcare.

Labour Codes at the Core of Workers’ Anger

At the heart of the workers’ discontent are the four labour codes—the Code on Wages, the Industrial Relations Code, the Social Security Code, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code—passed in Parliament in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown. These codes replaced 29 existing labour laws and are seen by trade unions as sweeping deregulatory reforms that undermine collective bargaining, dilute protections for contract and informal workers, and increase employer flexibility at the cost of worker security.

Though the government argues that the codes are designed to “simplify” compliance and improve the ease of doing business, unions across ideological spectrums have opposed them. They allege that the codes legalize the extension of working hours, restrict the right to strike, and lower thresholds for retrenchment without state permission, and were passed without consulting workers. As noted in CITU’s statement ahead of the strike, the government has failed to hold the Indian Labour Conference-the country’s highest tripartite decision-making body on labour issues-despite repeated petitions.

While general strikes are traditionally seen as the terrain of organized labour, this year’s mobilization also reflected significant peasant participation. The demand for a legal guarantee of MSP, long raised by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha and echoed during the 2020–21 farm laws movement, found formal expression in the July 9 bandh.

Despite promises made in writing following the repeal of the three contentious farm laws in 2021, the central government has not introduced any legislation that would provide statutory support for MSP. Farmers argue that without such a guarantee, procurement remains unreliable, prices volatile, and debt cycles unbroken.

The third axis of the protest was opposition to privatization. Protesters highlighted ongoing disinvestment in public sector undertakings, the corporatization of Indian Railways, and the privatization of public healthcare and education as signs of a retreating welfare state.

Unions claimed that privatization, undertaken in the name of fiscal consolidation and efficiency, has led to mass contractualization, loss of permanent jobs, and a decline in service quality. Specific mention was made of Karnataka’s recent amendment to extend the working day from 10 hours to 12 hours—a move unions see as a violation of hard-won labour rights.

The unions argue that far from being a path to inclusive development, privatization represents a consolidation of wealth and control in the hands of a few large corporate houses. This critique, while not new, has gained renewed traction in the post-pandemic era, where inequality has sharply risen and social security has eroded.

- The author is a graduate in Political Science from Elphinstone College and is involved in People’s movement in Mumbai and Thane.