the first major strike action – the ten-day strike of the southern railway workers in 1928

At the September 5 rally, some of the glorious history of the railway workers movement was recalled. The Southern Railway Labour Union (SRLU) was formed in 1918.  The central workshop was first set-up in Nagapattinam and it became a centre for organising the workers in the southern railway.  Gandhiji laid the foundation stone for the union office in September 1927.  This workshop was shifted to Golden Rock in Trichy in 1928 as it was more central. Thousands of workers were retrenched all over the southern railway around this time.  This led to the first major strike action – the ten-day strike of the southern railway workers in 1928; an event noted by the international Communist movement.  Scores of workers were sentenced to prison for participating in the strike.  The Golden Rock Railway Union became the hub for unionising the southern railway workers.  Jeevanandam and P Ramamurthi, who later became prominent Communist leaders, helped in the organisation of the  railway workers.

The history of the railway workers’ struggle was intertwined with the freedom struggle. The railway workers participated in all the major struggles launched by the Indian National Congress.  The pioneering leader of the SRLU was S Paramasivam, who led the reorganised union from 1932.  As a Congress man active in the independence movement, he worked with the Congress Socialist Party activists to organise the workers.  He faced severe repression and died in jail in early 1941.

Subsequently, the union was led by M Kalyanasundaram and K Anandan Nambiar, both Communists who later became prominent leaders of the CPI and CPI(M) respectively.  Anandan Nambiar  became the first Communist legislator to be elected in 1946 from the railway workers constituency just like Jyoti Basu in Bengal.

In 1946, the workers of the southern railway went on a strike against the withdrawal of some rights.  The workers of the Golden Rock workshop were at the centre of the strike activities. On September 5, the police led by an officer, Harrison, attacked the workers.  Anandan Nambiar was brutally beaten up and the police fired on the protesting workers which led to the deaths of Thangavelu, Thyagarajan, Raju, Ramachandran and Krishnamoorthy.  A memorial for the martyrs stands in the ground next to the union office.  The historic strike of the railway workers in 1946 should be seen in the context of the post-war upsurge sweeping the country when there was a wave of working class struggles along with the militant peasant struggles against feudalism.

The railway workers of Golden Rock became the vanguard for a series of struggles of different sections of the people on the eve of independence and the years subsequently.
Long live Golden Rock Martyrs!
Workers unity Zindabad!!