There was no opposition, nor was
there much of a concrete guidance.
It was in such circumstances that
the first salvo of the RIN revolt was
fired on the morning on February,
1946. From the very beginning the
discontent related to service
conditions was linked with the
political demands of the national
liberation struggle.
The impact of the incidents of
18 February was felt in all the naval
establishments in India, on the high
seas and in foreign ports. The
Indian navy literally passed into the
hands of the ratings. Plans to
spread the revolt to other wings of
the armed forces failed to
materialize for lack of contact.
Nevertheless, the British dared not
use Indian troops and the air force
against the naval rebels. The “first
general centre of resistance”, that
Marx spoke of, was becoming
active again. The very foundations
of the British Empire in India were
shaken.
The national leadership
hastened to contain the RIN revolt.
Such ugly developments could not
be allowed to spoil the beauty of
the negotiations for the peaceful
transfer of power. Even Gandhi
declared as such. Mrs. Aruna Asaf
Ali tried in vain to secure the
support of the national leadership,
only to be rebuked by Gandhi in
his inimitable sweet fashion. Both
the Congress and Muslim League
advised surrender and promised
that no harm would come to the
ratings. The promise was of course
never kept.
The leadership of the revolt,
lacking in experience and without
effective political guidance,
wavered and surrendered. Signifi-
cantly, this happened just when at
the call of the Communists, the
workers had come out on the
streets and put up barricades, and
the sailors had given the slogan:
“On to the barricades with arms”.
Two hundred workers and their
leaders were massacred in
December - 2018
Bombay. The British realized that
they had lost the military strength
to hold the country in thrall, while
the national leadership had
acquired the power, and the
determination to prevent a total
and revolutionary break with the
past. And so the deal was struck
and was finalized just six months
later.
The contribution of the
members of the Indian armed
forces to the victory of our struggle
for freedom remains unrecognized
even today. The RIN revolt has only
a passing mention in the critical
history of our national movement.
This is certainly not because of the
sedulously nurtured myth of our
“unique bloodless revolution”. Our
petti-bourgeois revolutionaries are
remembered with reverence. The
revolt of 1857 is recognized as our
first “battle of independence”. Even
the INA has been admitted into the
pantheon. Some of its leading
lights have been absorbed in the
Establishment. A veil of silence has
been drawn over the RIN and other
revolts in the armed forces. This is
really because every ruling class
dreads the disloyalty of soldiers, as
Gandhi had frankly admitted in
February 1946. One can only hope
that someday the nation will honour
those long denied their due.
Japan Opens Its Doors to Foreign Workers
The industrially and highly
technically developed capitalist
Japan has been boasting that it can
solve its problem of labour crunch
with more women and more robots
without the necessity of migrant
workers.
Such lofty claims may appear
to be pleasant to hear, but cannot
conceal the fact that without the
exploitation of the labour power of
workers that too the cheap labour
power of migrant workers the
capitalism cannot survive and
thrive.
The same thing is proved with
the recent experience of Japan. In
the first week of November.18, the
Japanese government approved
legislation to potentially allow
hundreds of thousands of blue-
collar workers’ legal entry for the
first time. If this proposed legislation
is passed in parliament, it will come
in to effect in April.2019.
For all these years immigrants
entered in to Japan without proper
documents. While there were
around 6,82,480 foreign workers in
Japan in 2012, their number is
doubled to 12,78,670 by 2017.
More than half of these workers are
students working part-time and so-
called “technical interns” who are
supposed be in Japan for training,
but are used as low-skilled factory
workers.
With such a proposal of legi-
slation the Japan government
expects 40,000 foreign workers
annually adding up to 2,50,000
over five years.
These foreign workers will be
allowed to work in 14 sectors like
agriculture, nursing, construction
and hospitality etc that face severe
labour shortages. According to the
proposed legislation two new visa
categories will be created. One is
designed for unskilled workers who
will only be allowed to stay up for
up to five years with no possibility
of extension. The second is for
more skilled migrants who will be
allowed to renew their visas
indefinitely and also to bring their
families along.
Just like in all other developed
countries people in Japan too are
not in favour of allowing migrant
workers with the wrong notion that
the crimes and social friction would
increase and the state had to
maintain over-burdened public
services.
But to allay these fears the P.M.
of Japan Mo. Abe has been
contd. on page 16
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