Fields to Factories Gearing up For Feb 12 General Strike

India’s working class has once again raised the call for resistance. The Central Trade Unions (CTUs) have jointly announced a nationwide general strike on February 12, 2026, it is the eighth such major action since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assumed power in 2014. With the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) and agricultural workers’ organisations offering unconditional support, the strike is expected to go beyond a symbolic protest and emerge as a powerful expression of the working masses’ opposition to the anti-people policies of the BJP-led government.

The Significance of The Strike

The working class goes on strike for various demands like increment in wages, appropriate working hours, health facilities, better working conditions, and the protection of labour laws. All these struggles drive the consciousness of the working-class forward. The nationwide strike to be held on February 12, is a continuation of these struggles but in exceptionally difficult times under a dictatorial regime.

India is currently facing an unprecedented attack on the livelihoods of workers, agricultural workers, and farmers. The Narendra Modi government has intensified its neoliberal programme in the name of so-called “reforms.” What is promoted as “ease of doing business” has, in practice, become the “ease of exploitation” for corporate interests.

The four Labour Codes, designed to roll back a century of hard-fought labour protections, are being advanced to transform India’s workforce into a vast pool of insecure and unprotected labour. Fundamental rights such as organising, collective bargaining, and an eight-hour regulated workday are under threat.

The strikes in the past were to challenge and pressure the government to provide some relief to the workers on specific issues or demand a roll-back of certain policies. However, this is not the only reason for the upcoming workers’ strike. The question stands on the direction of the country and the nature of the State.

It is a neo-fascist attempt by the BJP-government to overhaul the complete idea of providing secured jobs and livelihoods to the working classes of India. This attack includes weakening of social protections for workers, implementation of labour codes, repealing of the employment guarantee act, electricity and seed Bills, and more such pro-corporate policies.

To oppose this neo-fascistic project of the BJP-government, the Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions (CTUs) has given call for the nationwide strike, which is unconditionally supported by SKM and the Joint Platform of Agricultural and Rural Workers’ Unions. On Thursday, from villages to the cities, from fields to the factories, all the toiling masses of the country will stand together in unity against the anti-people project of the BJP-government.

A Class War

Every move by the BJP-government for the benefit of big capital, is a move against the working-class of India. In the guise of reform, the BJP government just in the last year has brought in policies, one after another, that directly affects the workers, peasants, and agricultural and rural workers of the country.

The BJP government introduced the Bill for the newly proposed labour codes. The four Labour Codes systematically weaken labour protection by sharply removing the existing safety net for workers. These Codes legalise fixed-term employment for permanent jobs, heightening insecurity and weakening seniority, promotions, and collective organisation. Labour rights are further restricted through tougher union registration rules, near bans on strikes, and harsh penalties. Provisions enabling 12-hour workdays and diluted overtime threaten workers’ health and family life, even as thousands die annually in workplace accidents and weakened inspection systems reduce safety oversight.

Immediately after this, they introduced the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Aajeevika and Rozgaar Mission (Gramin) (VB-GRAM(G)) to repeal the existing employment guarantee act – MGNREGA. The existing scheme in its very structure defines an employment guarantee and outlines a good method to ensure that this guarantee reaches to the most vulnerable sections of the rural society - agricultural and rural workers. At a relatively low government expenditure of around 0.3% of India’s GDP, MGNREGA provides employment to nearly five crore rural households every year. One of its most important contributions has been its role as a crisis absorber. Demand for work under the scheme rose sharply during two major crises: first, in 2009–10 following the global financial crisis, and second, in 2020–21 during the COVID-19 lockdown. During the pandemic, when cities abandoned migrant workers and forced them to return to their villages, MGNREGA functioned as a crucial safety net for survival.

Extreme land concentration with caste and gender-based exploitation are defining features of our rural society. For rural labourers, employment was inseparable from bondage, insecurity, and submission. MGNREGA challenges it with guaranteeing work as a legal right, fixing wages, and mandating dignity at worksites. It challenged the foundations of agrarian power.

Although it is not a women’s programme, it places women at its core. The following provisions are in the act: (1) At least one-third of workers must be women; (2) Equal wages are legally enforced; (3) Vulnerable women should be prioritised; (4) Lighter work is provided for pregnant and lactating women; (5) Crèches, shade, drinking water, and medical facilities are mandatory. Women’s participation has been unprecedented. Generally, women outnumbered men in the MGNREGA scheme.

Instead of working to strengthen this Act, the government, in the guise of reforming it, brought in a new law that completely changes the very demand-driven nature of MGNREGA which was a core feature in ensuring employment guarantee which in turn provided social security and mobility to the most precarious sections of the rural society.

Along with these two major attacks on the working people, the government has also introduced the Electricity Bill 2025, which is yet another attempt to privatise electricity distribution, reduce subsidies, and leave India's poorest to the caprices of the market. This, along with the Seed Bill 2025, is a blatant declaration of war, a corporate charter disguised as reform that will annihilate farmers' autonomy and deepen their distress.

What is this if not a class war being waged by the ruling classes of the country against the workers, peasants, and the agricultural and rural workers? The upcoming strike raises the demand to repeal the Labour Codes, Electricity Bill, Seed Bill, and to demand for the rollback of VB-GRAM (G) and for reinstatement of MGNREGA.

Why are Farm and Rural Workers Joining the Strike?

For the rural proletariat, it is not just a matter of the changes in policy but a concern for their everyday livelihood. Agricultural and rural workers are the sections of the Indian working class in most precarious situations. Almost all of the agrarian economy and employment is unorganised and hence difficult to avail any secured forms of employment. MGNREGA as a lifeline in this regard brought a drastic change to this situation. It provided the agricultural and rural workers with fixed wages all year round with a minimum of 100 days of work for each family. The working sites of MGNREGA, at least as defined in the law, were mandated to provide the workers with drinking water, shelter, safe working conditions, creche for women, and a much safer overall environment to the marginalized social groups of rural India. But now the government has even taken it away from the rural workers.

The recent Union Budget has cut down funding for various social protection programmes, from fertilisers to food subsidies, that helped the rural population in sustaining their lives. Various programmes that come under the rural development, their fundings have either declined or remain the same as last year unadjusted to the new inflation.

To further create distress in the rural and agrarian economy, the Modi government has bowed down to imperialists pressure from the United States and have allowed them to import in India at zero per cent tariffs. The U.S Trade deal also targets government procurement and minimum supporting price and subsidies as trade distorting. The deal will help to overcome a $40 billion trade deficit and solve the glut in the US crop market.

The entire cotton area with the highest peasant suicide prone region of India stands as an example in front of us. The elimination of import duty on cotton further eliminated the livelihood security of lakhs of cotton farmer households. Cotton import from the US surged 95.50% from $199.30 million in Jan-Nov 2024 to $377.90 million in Jan-Nov 2025. Wheat and soya bean oil imports also surged during this period.  Such bowing down to imperialist pressures would further affect Indian agriculture, reducing production, and creating more unemployment in rural India. If agricultural and rural workers do not unite, these policies may destroy the lives of millions of the people living in rural India.

The ruling classes believe they can wear down resistance through State power and media influence, but history shows that when the working class rises, no force can halt the demand for change. The February 12 strike will assert that India’s toiling masses will not sacrifice hard-won rights for corporate profit and will serve as a warning to those in power that the nation’s wealth belongs to those who create it, not those who exploit it.

Vikram Singh is Joint Secretary, All India Agriculture Workers Union. Sahil Budhwar is pursuing academics.