The CTUs-SKM calls to observe August 13, 2025 as “Corporates Quit India Day; workers and farmers to organize protest mobilizations across the country on the day to “Defend National Sovereignty and To Stop Corporate Loot!”

Groundxero | Aug 4, 2025

A joint Statement issued on Monday jointly by the coordination of ten Central Trade Unions (CTUs) and Samyukt Kisan Morcha has strongly condemned the recent threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to impose 25% tariffs on India and also punitive tax for oil trade deal with Russia. The statement called the US action a “blatant act of economic coercion aimed at dictating India including its trade relations with Russia.”

The CTUs-SKM has called upon all farmers, workers, students, and citizens to join the nationwide day of resistance on August 13, 2025, with various mass actions including rallies, protest demonstrations, and public gatherings to expose the hypocrisy of U.S. trade policies, which demand open markets for American corporations while weaponising tariffs to bully sovereign nations.

The joint statement by the Central Trade Unions and farmer unions said that the Union government instead of firmly rejecting the U. S. A. intimidation has responded with silence, signaling its willingness to compromise India’s strategic autonomy in favour of U.S.A. They said that this capitulation paves the way for an even more exploitative India-U.S. trade deal, which would grant American agribusiness corporations like Cargill unrestricted access to India’s dairy sector, agriculture, resulting in collapsing prices and destroying the farming community along with endangering food security of the nation.

The statement that the growing subservience of the Union government to western imperialist interests is further evident in the recently signed India-UK Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA), a deal that sacrifices the interests of India’s farmers, workers, and economic independence at the altar of foreign corporate profits.

“The CETA agreement will allow British agribusinesses to flood Indian markets with cheap dairy, wheat, and meat—mirroring the devastation caused by the India-ASEAN FTA, which crashed rubber prices by 70% in Kerala,” said the joint CTUs-SKM statement. They called the India-UK CETA, a direct attack on India’s food security, healthcare, and economic self-reliance.

The CTU-SKM have demanded that India should reject Trump’s tariff threats and assert its sovereign right to trade with all nations, including Russia, review the India-UK Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) and halt India-US negotiations for a trade deal to prevent further corporate exploitation. It has also demanded that instead of secret trade agreements—all future trade deals must undergo full parliamentary scrutiny and public consultation.

“The East India Company colonized India through trade—today, CETA and US trade deals are the new instruments of corporate imperialism. On August 13, farmers and workers will rise in defense of sovereignty and freedom, sending a clear message: “We will not let history repeat! Quit India, again,” concluded the joint statement.