What could be a better way of celebrating International

Working Women’s Day than joining the Strike of the

Working women!!!
Join the Delhi State Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union call for March from
Raj Ghat to Delhi Secretariat!!

Anganwadi Women’s Right March
From Raj Ghat to Delhi Secretariat
From 10:00 a.m.
Assemble at Ganga Bus Stop at 9:30 a.m.
Contact: 7428240370, 8763199176
"As we go marching, marching, we bring the greater days,
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses, bread and roses.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; bread and roses, bread and
roses.”
- James Oppenheim

For the last 36 days 22,000 Anganwadi Workers and Helpers are sitting on an indefinite strike demanding
increase in honorarium, ESI, PF, vacations and status of a permanent employee.The strike which
started at Civil Lines on January 31 is now happening simultaneously at three places. Anganwadi Workers
and Helpers have occupied the Women and Child Department office at Kashmiri Gate since February 25.
Since yesterday they have been sitting outside Kejariwal’s official residence at Civil Lines demanding an FIR
and action against WCD joint director Navlendra Kumar Singh. In these two places women are sitting 24X7.
They are sitting on cold tiled floors, concrete roads and cemented platforms. As it is a working class struggle
we can see them daring cold with a few plastic or cotton sheets and very thin blankets. However, their
enthusiasm sees no limit, they sit overnight raising slogans and singing revolutionary songs. Their struggle
has entered a critical phase. Two days back Navlendra Kumar openly gave a call of “beheading” the
protesting women, apart from abusing them. Delhi Police are not ready to file an FIR against Navlendra
Kumar Singh. Besides this, these working women have been continuously harassed, threatened and
intimidated by the government and Delhi Police as well. Strike is a constitutional right but WCD officials are
openly warning them with termination letters. The Adamant and arrogant Kejariwal Government is not
listening to them. However, they are determined to bring him to the negotiation table. They need our support
and solidarity.

These Anganwadi Workers are the successors of those Working Women who wrote the history of Working
Women's Day. It started with a strike in a New York City textile mill by women workers demanding an
improvement of the working conditions and an increase in wages. The strike met with brutal state repression
but the women did not succumb. In two years they made their first union. In 1908 the successor of these
valiant women of New York City went on a strike for better working conditions, voting rights and increased
wages. This time they were 20,000 in number. Two years later the International Forum of the Worker’s Party
organised an International Socialist Women Conference. In this conference Clara Zetkin, a revolutionary of
the German Socialist Party proposed that March 8 should be celebrated as International Women’s Day.
Since then it has been celebrated as women’s day.

The history of International working women’s day since then has repeated itself several times. Women have
been at the forefront of every major struggle and revolutions. From the Paris Commune, May Day struggle,
Russian Revolution to Chinese Revolution, in every great battle the women were at the forefront. Now there
is an attempt by the bourgeois culture factory and politics to appropriate women’s day and reduce it to
pervert celebrations of free cosmetics and garment sales. The struggle of the women proletariat all over the
world is the real hope of restoring the glory of Working Women’s Day and rescuing it from the clutches of
identity politics. One such struggle is the struggle of the Anganwadi Workers.

Although the Anganwadi struggle has been going on since January 31, the struggle has met with a cold
shoulder from the mainstream media, which is understandable. But the intellectual and university community
of Delhi is not showing much enthusiasm in the struggles of these workers either. Twice the Anganwadi
workers have taken to the streets of Delhi with more than 18,000 in numbers. Apart from this, they are
running three strike locations simultaneously every day. In this entire struggle, hardly have we seen any
participation from the university community. Every day these striking Anganwadi workers reach the striking
spots from far flung corners of Delhi. They have little funds for mattresses, blankets and food. The crunch of
funds is not stopping them from spreading all around Delhi and India to reach out to the people. This
pamphlet is an attempt to invite justice loving students, teachers and the staff of JNU to join them in their
struggle. Seeing the hopelessness prevalent in the youth, masses and working class in general, their
creative ways of running strike are setting examples for future struggles.

Anganwadi workers are not only facing indifference from the university and intellectual community and
threats from the Kejriwal government, the struggle has also witnessed back stabbing from revisionist trade
unions like CITU. CITU, hand in glove with the Kejariwal government, has left no stone unturned to break the
strike. Without any negotiation or talk with the Delhi State Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union
(DSAWHU) which is the genuine representative of the Delhi Anganwadi Workers with the membership of
more than 20,000 Anganwadi workers and helpers, Kejriwal declared a meagre increment in the honorarium.
The government said that they had a negotiation with the Union. It was not DSAWHU but CITU with whom
government had a talk. The entire Anganwadi union of CITU can fit in two autorikshas. If CITU claims a hold
over Delhi Anganwadi then why is the strike still ongoing that too at three different places and attended by
thousands of workers everyday? The reason is simple: CITU (mother party CPIM with student wing SFI) is
repeating its history of betrayal of the trade union struggles(Railways, Dunlop, Bata are just a few
examples). They are sitting in the lap of Kejriwal with the logic of forming an alliance against BJP. Hence,
extending support to Kejriwal means no opposition to him even when he exploits and oppresses the
anganwadi workers, threatens them and harasses them to return to work. What kind of Marxist reading of
Fascism they are presenting to us? Why is it always the interest of the working class that is sacrificed to
defeat Fascism? Fascism is the political expression of monopoly capital in crisis. The final battle is between
capital and labour. It is only the proletarian revolution and proletarian state which could rescue the minority,
working class and the toiling masses from the horror of fascism. However, revisionsts like CPI, CPM and
CPIML(Liberation) are onboard with AAP(mini fascist), SP (party with a record of 75% criminals), RJD
(murderers of comrade Chandu) etc. These revisionist communist parties are ready to align with every other
bourgeois party in their quest to defeat Facsism, but in this process have completely relinquished the
interests of the working. All these parties with whom the revisionists are dying to form alliances are not
against neo-liberal policies, open market economy and globalisation. They all are reactionary parties with a
record of brutal repression of the working class when in power.
The real warriors of the battle against Fascism are the working class. The need of the hour is to politicise
them, organise their struggles and form broader unity with the toiling masses. Hence, we request you to
join the Delhi State Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union’s call for March from Raj Ghat to Delhi
Secretariat tomorrow (March 8) morning (10:00 a.m.) in large numbers.
Long Live the Revolutionary Legacy of International Working Women's Day !
Long Live the Historic Struggle of Delhi Anganwadi Workers !
Long Live Revolution ! Death to Capitalism!
Death to Imperialism ! Death to Fascism!