People's Democracy

TRIPURA 

 Kshet Majoor Union Holds Eighth Conference

THE Kshet Majoor Union (Agricultural Labourers Union) of Tripura has asked its members to jump headlong into the stormy mainstream of the day-to-day struggles and movements on the people’s issues. It has assured the members of the unwavering support from the pro-people Left Front government whose solid successes would help them in their struggle against the anti-people and elitist government at the centre, which is unscrupulously catering the needs of and capitulating to the corporate and imperialist capital. The call came from the opening session of the eighth state conference of the KMU, held at Sonamura in West Tripura district on May 16 to 18. Hannan Mullah, joint secretary of the All India Agricultural Workers Union to which the KMU is affiliated, was present on the occasion as the chief guest.

The venue of the conference was the Town Hall at Sonamura and was rechristened as “Harkishan Singh Surjeet Nagar.” CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and Tripura chief minister  Manik Sarkar, among others, addressed the open rally organised on the occasion at the Sporting Association ground at Sonamura on May 16 afternoon. Besides, Narayan Kar, general secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha’s state unit, also attended the conference.

Addressing the open rally, Manik Sarkar pointed out how the centre was gravitating towards  the country’s profiteers, towards the monopoly and multinational capital and corrupt vested interests, thus causing an uncontrollable crisis in the agriculture sector and spiralling the prices of the farm produce to a record high level for the consumers and at the same time a sharp fall in the prices the peasants get for the same produce. The crumbling agricultural sector, he asserted, is having a tremendously adverse impact on all other sectors and on the employment situation in the country. In sharp contrast to the anti-people centre, the series of solid successes of the Left Front government’s pro-people policies can be a never-failing weapon of the masses in carrying their struggles and movements forward at this critical juncture, he opined. He, therefore, urged all sections of the state’s population to join the camp of common people, so as to intensify the popular struggle to compel the centre to bow down to the people’s cause.

In his addresses in the open rally and in the delegates session, Hannan Mollah voiced his concern over the centre sacrificing the country’s food security at the altar of commercialisation under the devastative fund-bank guideline, in the process sharply marginalising the agricultural labourers, making agriculture un-remunerative and causing a sharp fall in the cultivated area. So the powerhouse of change in rural economy is the unity of agricultural labourers and poor peasants, he opined. Only a strong and ideologically equipped organisation can be the weapon of the have-nots in contrast to the huge money and media power to the haves. He also pointed out the extra political mileage that can be taken from the alternatives being solidly put forward one after another by the Left Front government in its series of upstream efforts.

Narayan Kar said the Left ruled states provide the only exception to the countrywide phenomenon of total marginalisation of agricultural labourers who are being driven by starvation from district to district and from state to state. It is the leftists who are leading the people’s movements against the UPA government at the centre which is desperate to be subservient to the monopoly capital, and it is the leftist heartlands that are the targets of an all-out attack from the reactionary forces aided by imperialism. Kar opined that the membership of agricultural labourers under the banner of the Tripura Kshet Majur Union at present cannot be increased to any considerable extent as 95 per cent of the total agricultural labourer population in the state is already enrolled in it. A far more important task at hand is the ideological upgradation of its members. It is the day to day struggle in the streets, meetings and marches of everyday and the mass participation in the implementation of pro-people and pro-labourers projects of the Left Front government, and not just some educational camps, that are the most essential schooling for enriching the class consciousness of the 2.26 lakh members of the union in the state, he affirmed.

A 77-member state committee of the organisation was formed at the end of the conference with re-election of Bhanulal Saha and Babul Bhadra as president and general secretary respectively. There are 20 new faces and 11 women in the committee. The conference also elected 56 delegates for participation in the all-India conference of the Agricultural Workers Union to be held at Trichy from July 17 to 19 next.