10.10.10 was a day of celebration for Pricol Workers. They celebrated their three years of consistent struggle for democratic rights and dignity. They had taken part in festivals organized by the management before. Now, they organized a family festival of their own. This festival was all decorated with red flags and laced with revolutionary slogans. They surprised the skeptics by organizing a mega event that even the ‘mighty’ management did not attempt so far, putting an end to speculations that their move forward would soon lose its sheen and that they would give up before the continued anti-workers measures of the management. In the Festival they made a clear statement: “Come what may. We will not waver from the path of struggle. We will add new tasks to our journey. Our journey will gain new strength and vigor.”
The festival and the preparations went through in a phase in which the management unilaterally announced a long term wage settlement without any negotiations -- either with the unions that enjoy majority or with any other union that enjoys the patronage of the management. The management expected this one-to-one settlement to sow seeds of division among the workers who are undergoing a difficult phase in making the ends meet. But, to the dismay of the management even those workers who are not in the union, who left the union and the so-called satellite unit workers donated funds for their festival, thus demonstrating their class unity once again. Not only the workers but also the general public supported their festival, which could be seen from the help they extended in terms of cash and kind.
They started festival preparations with a certain degree of doubt. All that propelled them forward was an intense urge to deal a blow to the management’s view that the workers would soon loose in the struggle. And it delivered.
They started the festival events with a competition for the logo for Family Festival for the workers. There were more than 20 entries and one among them was selected and used throughout the preparations and events.
On 26th October, when they organized the sports event, 700 wards of Pricol workers participated in various games. On that day itself there were over 400 workers in the ground along with their kids. They entrusted the conduct of the sports event to a foot ball sports committee in the Viviekananda Vidyalaya school near Perianaickenpalayam and they also got the Principal of the school inaugurate the competitions.
In the first week of October, an essay competition on the topic ‘India of my Dreams’, an oratorical competition on Bhagat Singh, VOC ( V O Chidambaram), Bharathi and Singaravelar, and a drawing competition on topics like price rise, Bhopal tragedy, commercialisation of education were held. Indoor games were organized. A “Field Investigation” competition for workers’ teams was also held. 10 teams conducted surveys in various wards in Perianaickenpalayam. All these comrades were given one year “Theepori” subscription as a gift.
All this culminated in a grand gathering on 10.10.10. Since 9 am workers along with their families were coming. Around 11 am the ground was full and comrades who came after that had to sit in a hall where a closed circuit TV screen was arranged to see the program. More than 6000 workers participated in the festival.
Prizes were distributed to all children who participated in various competitions. This alone took over 2 hours. A photo exhibition titled “Instances that Turned into History” was organized as a part of the festival where photos depicting workers’ struggles since they formed a fighting union were exhibited.
Workers’ children staged a dance program with a revolutionary message. A play titled ‘A Quest…. A Journey… A Vision…’ was staged. 25 workers of Pricol, Subha Plastics and ITPL spent their evening after a grueling day of work in the factory for rehearsals for 12 days. Both the play and the dance received good response among the audience.
Comrade Swapan Mukherjee, GS, AICCTU inaugurated the program, comrade Balasundaram, State Secretary of the Party hoisted the flag and comrade Thenmozhi, State President, AIPWA opened the photo exhibition. Mr. Ramesh, the advocate who is dealing with the cases of Pricol workers spoke in the festival.
Addressing the grand assembly, comrade S. Kumarasami said that in Coimbatore, Pricol workers are not alone in their struggle and now there are workers of Subha Plastics and ITPL joining hands with them in the festival. Only Pricol workers can beat the records created by them, he observed, adding that they have proved it once again. Pricol workers have demonstrated clearly that they are strong in their struggle for democratic rights and they will never leave away from the path of struggle, he asserted. He called upon the workers to make the voice of the fighting workers resonate in the assembly by making a powerful intervention in the forthcoming assembly elections.
