Strikes are the way in which workers and employees resort to simultaneous strikes to meet their demands or to remedy their grievances. In the Western world, strikes are one of the tools of the struggle for lasting rights and dignity for the working class. The literal meaning of the word strike is derived from the ancient Indian religious practice: the united and determined effort of a particular community to achieve a particular goal. ‘Strike’ is currently being used as a synonym for the English word strike. On the other hand, the word 'hartal' refers to a comprehensive and all-encompassing form of strike beyond a particular field. Its lexical meaning is ‘har’ or ‘tal’ or lock on every door. That is, strike in all cases. Nowadays strikes and strikes have become a part of our social life. How much it is intended and how much it is unwanted has become a matter of discussion and criticism. We have to think deeply about the fact that strikes and strikes are deeply connected with our daily normal life and economic activities.
History of Strikes: Accurate information about where and when the strikes started in the world is not availableHowever, the first strike in 1828 in Philadelphia, USA, was called the first strike by domestic workers to reduce the working hours to a maximum of ten hours. Decades later, the massive May Day strike in Chicago, USA in 18 AD has become a glorious milestone in the history of the labor movement.
Reasons for strikes and strikes: Strikes are basically a tool to realize the demands of the working class. So the strike is associated with the labor movement.Workers usually go on strike to demand wages, bonuses, medical benefits, layoffs, etc. that are in line with the market price, to force the employer to do so, or to put pressure on them to negotiate. The workers went on strike, especially if no agreement could be reached with the employer through peaceful talks. Nowadays, the field of strike is not limited to factories. Students in different countries of the world have chosen the path of strike as a tool to realize their demandsIn our country, students played an active role in the language movement of 1952, the education movement of 1962, the six-point movement of 1966, the 11-point movement of 1969, the liberation struggle of 1971 and the mass uprising of 1990They have gone on strike in educational institutions.Nowadays people of different classes and professions are using the strike as a tool to realize their demands. The scope and scope of the strike has been expanded through employee strikes, teachers 'strikes, transport strikes, doctors' and nurses 'strikes, journalists' pen strikes, etc. Besides, sit-ins, hunger strikes, etc. have taken the form of special strikes.
Strikes are usually a tool of class-professional movements. The scope of the strike is much wider than that. Strikes are mainly used as a tool to create maximum pressure and to achieve political ends. The strike called for a strike in shops, vehicles, schools, colleges, factories, offices and courts. However, special strikes are exempted for newspapers, hospitals, emergency services, etc.
Political strikes: Politicians in different countries of the world consider strikes and strikes as political and democratic rights. Strikes are seen as the last resort to protest against anti-government measures or to overthrow an authoritarian government. In many cases, general strikes are also used as a way to express the government's lack of public support. Strikes are an important political weapon in the politics of our country. There have been incidents of forcing the government to relinquish power in our country through continuous strikes. Besides, hartal has been condemned as an unwelcome attempt to achieve party political interests in Bangladesh. The tendency to create political instability by calling for strikes without public support cannot be conducive to a healthy democracy. The tendency to force people to go on strike is not at all desirable. In many cases, the strikers resort to terrorism, vandalism, arson, bombing, sabotage and other activities in an attempt to carry out unsupported strikes. Many ordinary people were insulted by the picketers. There were also incidents of bombings and shootings against the police in an attempt to provoke them. All this disrupts the democratic process of the country and pushes the country towards anarchy and destruction. Irrational frequent or continuous strikes have adversely affected the country's economy. It causes various crises in public life.
Strike protest is also one of the democratic ways of realizing demandsIn the public interest, in the greater interest of the nation, keeping in line with the hopes and aspirations of the people, holding a hartal on the basis of the support and consent of the majority of the people of the society is also democratic. But for various reasons, strikes are working to create anarchy in our country. Strikes have now become a destructive political weapon. Although it is a democratic right, if the strike is implemented irrationally and arbitrarily, it becomes a useless and blunt weapon. At present in our country the hartal callers often do not care about the consent and support of the people. When a strike is called, people live in confined houses for fear of vandalism, violence and loss of life. On the other hand, the pro-strike forces used the attack and counter-attack weapons. Sometimes they get involved in clashes. This is creating a backlash in our minds about the democratic weapon. On the other hand, hundreds of crores of rupees are being lost to the national economy. Therefore, strikes without public support should be avoided. National problems should be solved through compromise with a tolerant and patriotic attitude.