The following is our statement on the recent gig worker strikes in India. Read the full 1st Edition here or download the attached file.
The Gig Organizer would like to extend its revolutionary greetings to the over 40,000 gig workers who recently struck with the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers. Indian gig workers employed to massive corporations like Ola, Uber, Swiggy, Zomato, Zepto, and Blinkit face a similar level of poverty to U.S. gig workers that is exacerbated by national oppression, semi-feudalism, and colonization at the hands of U.S., Chinese, and European imperialism. One of the main demands of the strikers was to ban the “ten minute delivery” policies that force unrealistic expectations and competition onto drivers for below-subsistence wages. These policies have resulted in the deaths of multiple gig workers. Workers also fought for a minimum wage of ₹40,000 (around $500) per month, but have yet to see any increases.
The Indian State has asked corporations to curb their policies, but is not threatening any legal action to force them to comply. Indian gig workers must ensure their independence from the Hindutva Fascist State, which is currently eroding all Indian labor protections, and establish organized leverage over their employers and the State. Establishment unions in India, just like in the U.S., have utterly failed at defending the working class against Fascism, and prefer instead to be absorbed into the Fascist regime as state-unions like through BMS, which is the labor front of the RSS – the paramilitary group behind the Fascist BJP and Modi government. Similarly, the AFL-CIO represents ICE, CPB, and police, the terrorists who brutalize, kidnap, and deport our co-workers and neighbors.