Working Class Movement in India in the Wake of Globalization

After the collapse of the erstwhile Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the East European communist bloc, capitalism abandoned its liberal' programmes worldwide, and this brought about three-fourths of the world's population at the mercy of the blind and ruthless forces of the market. In India too, the wave of liberalization under a new economic policy, which had been agreed upon and promoted by both the big political parties, i.e. Congress party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, put untold pressures, uncertainties and hardships on the toiling masses. Welfare schemes and subsidies to goods and services provided by the state were slowly withdrawn and the representative class of finance capital took a reactionary posture in political and social life. In India, the crisis at grass-roots' levels has led to a historical unity among trade unions affiliated with different political parties, and there is hope that they may join hands in the struggle for better living conditions. Against this backdrop, this book, which is an outcome of a national seminar, tries to understand and analyse the conditions of the working class people in India. Various dimensions of working class people's life and politics have been deliberated here. Also, an attempt has been made to present a working class perspective on various economic and social issues of contemporary Indian society.