Gurgaon, 10 Sep 2023: A protest demonstration and meeting against the G20 Summit held in New Delhi on 9-10 September 2023 was organised by the Delhi NCR unit of Mazdoor Adhikar Sangharsh Abhiyan (MASA) at the Mini Secretariat in Gurgaon. A protest march was taken out from Gurgaon’s Rajiv Chowk by constituent organisations of MASA active in the Delhi NCR region, namely Inqlabi Mazdoor Kendra (IMK), Mazdoor Sahayog Kendra (MSK), Jan Sangharsh Manch Haryana (JSMH), IFTU Sarwahara (IFTUS), and Mazdoor Sahayata Samiti, along with Parivartankami Chhatra Sangathan (Pachhas), Krantikari Naujawan Sabha, Pragatisheel Mahila Ekta Kendra (PMEK) and Krantikari Lok Adhikar Sangathan.
The BJP led Indian government has seized upon its role as host of this year’s G20 summit and launched an advertising blitz that stresses upon India’s growing international clout under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The summit has been used to project Modi as a leader of the world and gain electoral mileage in the next year’s general elections. The message that was amplified is that by hosting the world’s top leaders, India has arrived as a world power, with Modi as the person who took the country there. Even though the truth is that the G-20 has a year-long rotating presidency; Indonesia was last year’s host and Brazil will take over from India.
The protest by hundreds of activists including workers, trade union leaders, students and youth was successfully held despite rain, waterlogging and pressure from the administration. All the speakers at the protest meeting emphasised that G20 is a group of exploiters comprising imperialist capitalist countries, that has been formed on the agenda of serving the interests of their big capitalist class by keeping their profits flowing even in times of crisis and, for this, intensifying the exploitation and oppression of the toiling masses worldwide. They said that the governments of all these countries, including India, are rapidly implementing anti-people, pro-corporate neo-liberal policies. The new Labour Codes and Farm Laws brought by the fascist BJP’s Modi Government in India are examples of these very policies.
The workers’ organisations also pointed out that to organise the two-day G20 Summit, the homes and means of livelihood of more than 2.62 lakh people in Delhi alone were bulldozed in the name of beautification! Even before this, lakhs of people have been similarly rendered homeless and jobless in the process of holding 200 G20 related meetings in different states since the past one year. They said that India presiding over and hosting the G20 Summit this year is not a matter of pride for the workers and toiling masses, as is being relentlessly propagated by the Government and corporate media, but is in fact a matter of shame and condemnation. Along with this, the harassment of working-class activists by Gurgaon Police since the past couple of days and framing them under baseless charges merely for distributing leaflets on the summit was strongly denounced by the protestors
A memorandum to the President was also submitted to the Gurgaon DC during the demonstration which included the following demands –
1) Government of India’s withdrawal from G20.
2) Repeal of exploitative policies of liberalisation-privatisation-globalisation.
3) Repeal of four new anti-worker Labor Codes.
4) Provision of housing and livelihood to the people uprooted in the name of organising G20 along with adequate compensation for their losses.
5) immediate end to communal violence and attacks on democratic rights being intensified by fascist organisations.
The demonstration concluded with active and loud slogans focusing on the above demands.
Earlier, on last Friday (8 September), protesting against the G20 Summit, 16 farmer unions burnt effigies at more than 250 places in Punjab alone. The Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee burnt effigies of the Centre and the state government against holding of G-20 Summit at various places in the state. Speaking to The Indian Express, Sarwan Singh Pandher, convenor of the 16 farmer unions, said, “Effigies were burnt at 380 different locations in the said states and at over 250 places in Punjab alone. We are against this summit as the decisions taken by G20 countries have always been anti-middle class and BPL (Below Poverty Line) population. India is a developing country and so, efforts are always made to exploit its labour and natural resources by imposing pro-corporate policies. Protests were also held in Haryana, UP, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Members of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee burn effigies of the Centre and the state government against G-20 meetings at Golden Gate in Amritsar on Friday. Photo: Vishal Kumar.