182 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
There is no question that you must organize if you want to remove your grievances. The next question is what purpose is your orga nization to serve. That you must organize for trade purposes goes without saying. The question is should you form a separate union of your own or should you join any of the existing unions. This is a question which you must seriously consider before you decide upon your line of action.
Trade unionism in India is in a sorry state. The chief aim of trade unions is completely lost sight of. The chief aim of trade unionism is to protect the standard of living of the working class from being reduced. In Europe there is a noticeable tendency on the part of a normal man to cling to his established standard of comfort to the mode of life to which by birth and training he is accustomed. He will resist with firm determination any attempt to reduce it. It is notorious that this determination is not to be found in the Indian worker. He is anxious only to exist. He has no desire to live. And as Mill pointed out “where there is not in the people a resolute resistence to this deterioration - a determination to preserve an established standard of comfort - the condition of the poorest class sinks, even in a progressive state, to the lowest point which they will consent to endure.” If there is any country where trade unionism was an absolute necessity in my opnion it was India. But as I said today trade unionism in India is a stagnant and stinking pool. It is entirely due to the fact that the leadership of trade unionism is either timid, selfish or misguided. There are some labour leaders who are only arm-chair philosophers or politicians who have limited their task to issuing statements in the papers. Organizing the workers, educating the workers and helping them to agitate does not form part of their duty. They are only anxious to represent the workers and speak on their behalf but avoid having any contact with them. A second category of labour leaders is of those who are engaged in forming unions for the sole purpose of finding a place for themselves as Secretaries, Presidents or Chairmen. To maintain themselves in their places they try to keep their unions as separate and rival entities. One notices the astounding and shameful phenomenon that the warfare between different unions is far more deadly than what exists - if any at all - between workers and owners-and all this for what- for no other purpose than that of securing