TN: Thousands of Workers and Farmers Head to Delhi for April 5 Rally
A jatha taking forward the demands of the April 5 rally. Image credit: special arrangement
Thousands of industrial workers, agriculture workers and peasants from Tamil Nadu are on their way to Delhi to participate in the April 5 Mazdoor-Kisan Sangharsh rally. The rally is jointly called by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and All India Agriculture Workers’ Union (AIAWU).
“On behalf of CITU Tamil Nadu, 3,700 people are heading to Delhi to participate in the rally. Around 60% of them have already left,” said Gopi Kumar, CITU state committee member, told NewsClick.
“Around 1,500 farmers will take part in the rally from AIKS Tamil Nadu. Batch-by-batch, they have been travelling by train to Delhi over the past few days,” Samy Natarajan, AIKS general secretary, Tamil Nadu, told NewsClick.
“We have given an open call and carried out campaigns; many groups of agriculture workers are already on their way to Delhi. We will know the numbers only when we reach Delhi,” A Lazar, President of AIAWU, Tamil Nadu, told NewsClick.
900 CAMPAIGN CENTRES
Amplifying the message of the April 5 rally, AIKS, CITU, and AIAWU have held joint campaigns across Tamil Nadu. Jathas, conventions, pamphlet distributions, public meetings and other forms of campaigns were carried out over the past few months.
Explaining the demands of the rally, the organisations held conventions in four zones in Tamil Nadu, namely in Thoothukudi, Thirupur and Chennai, KeezhVenmani.
Gopi Kumar said, “Different types of campaigns were held in 900 centres across Tamil Nadu. It included jathas, bike rallies, van campaigns and so on.”
B Thulasi Narayan, state secretary of AIKS Tamil Nadu, told NewsClick, “The rural masses seriously read the printed material we distributed. In every village, we could see the anger among the working class and farming communities.”
“Integral Coach Factory (ICF) workers, harbour workers, transport workers, electricity workers and unorganised workers, such as construction workers, have participated in thousands for the campaigns in six areas in Chennai. We have distributed 12,000 leaflets,” Thiruvettai, CITU Central Chennai district secretary, told NewsClick.
The Mazdoor-Kisan Sangharsh rally, which is the culmination of the joint campaign of workers, farmers and agriculture workers, has been called to protest against the anti-people policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. It demands a life of dignity and security, a life that is free of fear and hatred.
Get the latest reports & analysis with people's perspective on Protests, movements & deep analytical videos, discussions of the current affairs in your Telegram app. Subscribe to NewsClick's Telegram channel & get Real-Time updates on stories, as they get published on our website.
