Sibnath Banerjee, a doyen of the Trade Union movement in India, committed himself whole-heartedly to the service of the nation and the Indian people. Born on 11 July 1897 in the village Brahman Rangdia in Khulna District now in Bangladesh, he first got involved in the anti-partition movement in Bengal at the age of eight. He directly joined the non-cooperation movement in 1920 while still a student of M.Sc. at Calcutta University. In 1921, he moved to Indore to serve as a teacher in a high school but gave up the profession, again to participate in the political movement.
Besides his leadership of the trade union movement, he pioneered workers' cooperatives and led the demand for rehabilitation of leprosy patients, and organized other useful social services like an eye donation campaign. His wide-ranging social activities and especially the leadership of the industrial workers endeared Sibnath Banerjee to many national leaders including Rabindranath Tagore, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Dr. B. C. Roy, Dilip Roy & Dr. Suniti Kr. Chatterjee. Politically he was close to Jayaprakash Narayan, Narendra Dev, Achut Patwardhan, and Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia.
Shri Sibnath Banerjee was the founder of many movements and organizations like the Congress Socialist Party, AITUC, and Hind Mazdoor Sabha. In 1978, he participated in the Marichjhapi movement in South 24 Parganas for the settlement of refugees displaced from Dandakaranya. After retiring from trade Union activities he devoted himself to social reconstruction programs and he founded Workers Education Trust. The cause of the working class and the interest of the underprivileged remained dear to Sibnath Banerjee throughout his life. He passed away on 16 February 1932.
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