Struggle Shall Never Die

 

Struggle Shall Never Die

Bruhaspati Samal

General Secretary

Confederation of Central Govt Employees and Workers

Odisha State CoC, Bhubaneswar

Who lit this torch I carry high?
Not kings, not courts, not laws that lie.
It was the sweat of broken backs,
The fire in hearts that faced attacks.

They marched in chains, raised their voice,
When silence was the safer choice.
They bled on roads, they slept in jails—
Their pain has filled our current sails.

Fixed duty hours? A peaceful leave?
Those are dreams they dared believe.
No government with a golden pen
Granted rights to working men.

They fought through fear, through brute police,
They chanted slogans for justice and peace.
It wasn’t mercy, it wasn’t grace—
It was won in every workers’ place.

Now the wolves wear suits and ties,
They steal with smiles and sweetened lies.
They call it reform, they call it need—
But every word is veiled with greed.

Now they take and twist and bend,
The rights for which our forebears penned
Their hopes, their lives, their final breath—
Now smothered slow in silent death.

The codes they make, the cuts they plan,
Are not for worker, not for man.
OPS to NPS, laws they bend—
They want our struggle to meet its end.

Shall we stand still while they erase
The future of our working race?
Or rise like waves in roaring tide,
With truth and justice on our side?

Let not your silence shame their grave,
Be the voice of every slave
Of policy that bleeds the poor—
Strike the bell, open the door!

For every struggle lights the way
To guard tomorrow, come what may.
If they had not, we would not be—
So fight today to keep us free.

They fought for us, we fight for them,
Their legacy our diadem.
Strugglers may die, but not their cry—
For struggle shall never, never die.

Thus how can I sit still and mute,
When history’s call plays like a flute?
If I don’t rise when danger’s near,
My children’s future disappears.

I stand not just for my own bread,
I stand for those who fought and bled.
Their spirits walk with me when I shout,
Their slogans live when I walk out.

Let the offices pause, the silence break,
Let every floor and file awake.
Come out in strength, come out in might,
Now is the time to stand and fight.

From shop floors, posts and factory gates,
Let’s shake the ground beneath their plates.
Raise your hands, raise your heads,
Let not their dreams sleep in our beds.

One day we’ll rest, but not today,
While justice fades and rights decay.
Struggles may cost, but silence kills—
And sells our soul to richer wills.

So if you ask me why I fight—
It’s because I owe a sacred right.
They fought for me, and now it’s mine,
To fight for future's brighter sign.

Strugglers may fall, their bodies lie,
But the struggle marches, never to die.
For every chain we break today
Builds freedom’s path for tomorrow’s way.

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