Jitender Dhankar, a member of the provisional committee of the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union (MSWU) in India, sent a message of solidarity to the workers and young people who participated in the February 9 demonstration against the factory closures and mass layoffs by General Motors.

Workers at Maruti Suzuki’s car assembly plant in Manesar, Haryana, outside of the national capital of Delhi, established the MSWU in 2011-12 in a militant struggle, punctuated by walkouts and sit-down strikes, against the Japanese-owned transnational and a government-recognized, pro-company union.

The corporation and local authorities responded by launching a violent provocation in July 2012, which led to the arrest of hundreds and the sacking of thousands of workers at the plant. In March 2017, 13 workers, including all 12 members of the MSWU executive committee, were convicted on trumped-up murder charges and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) launched a worldwide campaign to free the Maruti Suzuki workers whose only “crime” was to resist poverty wages and sweatshop conditions. Below we post the statement to the February 9 demonstration in Detroit.

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On behalf of the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union, I extend to all General Motors workers our revolutionary greetings. We support your agitation against plant closings and mass layoffs.

Friends, nowadays the capitalists’ drive for ever greater profits is breaking the back of the working class. No matter which corner of the world it might be, everywhere the oppression and repression against workers is only increasing. The capitalists do not fear any laws or constraints and arbitrarily hire and fire workers whenever they please.

This is the situation across the entire world. However, workers have started to take the initiative by uniting to oppose the continuous attacks on them.

The workers in India are also facing the same situation and since the Modi government came to power, the exploitation of the working class and the burdens on them have dramatically increased. The corporations are using temporary workers to do away with permanent employment while older permanent workers are let go. This is also happening to GM India workers in Gurgaon, India.

It is necessary that we build our unity and base our struggle not on one company or on one nation, but by mobilizing the workers of the world. With these words, we express the Maruti Suzuki workers’ sincere solidarity with all the workers of General Motors and our support for your demonstration and struggle.

Jitender Dhankar, on behalf of the provisional committee of the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union (MSWU)