CPI-CPIM Jt Statement on TN Strike

Date: 
Saturday, July 12, 2003

Press Statement

The Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist) have issued the following statement:

Protest against Draconian Law in Tamilnadu

The CPI(M) and the CPI strongly condemn the unprecedented repression unleashed upon the government employees by the Tamilnadu government to suppress their strike.

The AIADMK government has promulgated an ordinance which amends the Tamilnadu Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA). Under this ordinance, any appointing authority can summarily dismiss an employee who is deemed to have participated in the strike. No notice need be served and mass dismissal orders can be issued.

Under this draconian provision, nearly 1,70,000 employees have been dismissed so far. The Tamilnadu ordinance is a grave attack on the basic right of employees to security in employment and an attack on the fundamental rights of citizens. Such an authoritarian and anti-democratic law should not go unchallenged. The law is a threat to the entire trade union and democratic movement.
The CPI(M) and the CPI demand the scrapping of this ordinance forthwith. It is necessary to build up a protest movement against this dangerous law not only in Tamilnadu, but in the entire country.