labour organisers. All that merely strengthens my appeal that all sane and truly selfless persons in public life should devote themselves to the task of organising the industrial and agricultural workers.
That is not Trade Unionism
The persons who have the organising of labour in Ahmedabad may be doing well owing to the fortuitous cir cumstances that they possess more means than most other Indian groups could possibly have. There is a mild form of welfare work carried on and conciliation is established be tween individual complainants and their bosses. That is all. That is not modern trade unionism struggling for justice and the right of the workers to possess in common what they produce for the common good, and to control and regularise their own destiny.
What has Ahmedabad labour done ? What can Ahmed abad labour do if it is torn away from the All-India Trade Union movement ? It can certainly never aspire to be either a pattern or a model. Can Ahmedabad labour secure better hours, better wages, better education, a better franchise and the right of the workers to compensation in industrial acci dents, unemployment allowances, old age pensions, etc., unless and until labour in the whole Bombay Presidency and in all India, obtain the same ? Ahmedabad district by itself, as a district, even of well-organised labour, cannot possibly do anything for itself, whereas by holding aloof it can weaken the Labour movement in the rest of India and can strengthen the power and opportunities of the master class to oppress the working class.
More than Criminal
Ambalal Seth from Ahmedabad showed me a commend able welfare scheme of his own, but I soon discovered him to be the exception and not the rule. I say unhesitatingly that 90 per cent. of the labourers in Ahmedabad are living under conditions much worse than the conditions prevailing amongst the employees of some European firms that I observed in Cawnpore and Calcutta. I put it to you unhesi tatingly and without exaggeration, that 90 per cent. of the children of Ahmedabad workers are made to live by their masters, whom you consider so virtuous and patriotic, under conditions which would be condemned and punished as criminal if dogs, horses or other domestic animals were kept
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