People's
Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of
India (Marxist) No. 50
December 22,2002
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of
India (Marxist) |
Vol.
XXVI No. 50 December 22,2002 |
Tapan
Sen
THE
CITU
working
committee
has
called
upon
the
working
class
and
toiling
people
of
the
country
to
heighten
the
countrywide
struggle
against
the
anti-people,
anti-national
and
fascistic
offensives
of
the
BJP-led
NDA
government.
This
call
emanated
from
a
meeting
of
the
working
committee
held
on
December
2-4,
2002
at
Shanti
Ghatak
Nagar,
Hissar,
Haryana.
The
meeting
decided
to
ensure
massive
mobilisation
of
workers
throughout
the
country
in
the
forthcoming
action
programmes
jointly
chalked
out
by
all
the
major
trade
unions
-
the
satyagraha
and
court
arrest
on
January
8
and
the
march
to
Parliament
on
February
26,
to
prepare
for
a
countrywide
strike
action
in
the
subsequent
phase.
IMPRESSIVE
RALLY
The
working
committee
session
was
preceded
by
a
massive
15000
strong
rally
of
workers
and
employees
at
the
Old
Government
College
ground
on
December
1,
2002.
The
state
administration
made
several
attempts
to
disrupt
the
rally.
At
different
parts
of
the
state,
police
obstructed
the
movement
of
vehicles
in
which
the
workers
from
different
parts
of
the
state
were
travelling.
But
nothing
could
deter
the
workers,
and
several
thousands
of
them
reached
the
meeting
place
in
procession
covering
more
than
10
kilometers
distance
by
foot
from
various
spots.
A
resolution,
moved
by
Balbir
Dahiya,
vice
president,
Haryana
CITU,
condemned
the
brutal
lynching
of
five
dalits
by
the
VHP/Bajrang
Dal
hoodlums
at
Dulina,
Jhajjar
district,
in
active
connivance
with
police.
It
also
condemned
the
murder
of
Ramchandra
Chhatrapati,
a
noted
journalist,
at
Sirsa
by
gangsters
engaged
by
the
ruling
clique
in
Haryana.
The
mass
rally
was
presided
over
by
S
N
Solanki,
president,
Haryana
CITU.
Md
Amin,
CITU
vice
president
and
labour
minister
in
the
government
of
West
Bengal,
addressed
the
rally.
He
congratulated
the
working
class
of
Haryana
for
their
heroic
struggles,
braving
the
brutal
atrocities
of
the
state
administration
and
employers’
henchmen.
He
explained
the
pro-people,
pro-worker
policies
being
pursued
by
the
Left
Front
government
of
West
Bengal,
despite
various
limitations
and
hurdles
imposed
by
the
centre.
He
made
a
special
reference
to
the
state-assisted
Provident
Fund
Scheme
for
the
unorganised
workers,
besides
various
other
pro-people
welfare
measures.
He
stressed
on
the
fact
that
the
LF
government
came
to
power,
and
continues
to
remain
in
power
for
over
25
years,
on
the
strength
of
the
united
struggles
of
the
workers,
peasants
and
the
democratic
people
of
the
state.
He
called
for
strengthening
the
united
action
of
the
toiling
people,
to
defeat
the
disruptive
anti-people
policies
of
the
communal
government
at
the
centre
and
its
allies
in
various
states,
including
in
Haryana
and
develop
a
pro-people
alternative.
E
Balanandan,
president
CITU,
referred
to
the
opposition
to
the
policies
of
neo-liberal
globalisation,
which
is
gaining
momentum
not
only
in
our
country
but
also
across
the
world.
We
must
take
initiative
to
further
broad
base
the
struggle.
He
also
emphasised
the
urgent
need
to
expose
and
fight
the
nasty
communal
design
of
the
Vajpayee
government
to
disrupt
the
unity
of
the
toiling
people.
M
K
Pandhe,
general
secretary,
CITU
called
upon
the
working
class
to
fight
unitedly
against
the
communal
and
casteist
forces
in
the
state,
which
were
receiving
full
support
from
the
Chautala
government
to
create
division
among
the
people.
While
detailing
the
forthcoming
struggle
programmes
adopted
jointly
by
all
the
major
trade
unions,
Pandhe
urged
for
a
vigorous
initiative
by
the
working
people
of
Haryana
to
ensure
massive
mobilisation
in
all
these
programmes.
Others
who
addressed
the
rally
were:
K
Hemalata
and
Tapan
Sen,
both
secretaries,
CITU,
Satvir
Singh,
Prabhat
Singh,
Avtar
Singh
and
Jasbir
Kaur
(Haryana
CITU),
R
C
Jagga
(Sarva
Karmachari
Sangh),
Prithi
Singh
(Kisan
Sabha)
and
Inderjit
Singh,
secretary,
CPI(M)
Haryana
state
committee.
The
working
committee
session
commenced
on
December
2,
2002
at
Panchayat
Bhawan,
Hissar,
in
the
“Suryanarayan
Rao
Manch”,
named
after
the
veteran
CITU
leader,
who
departed
few
months
back.
In
his
presidential
address,
E
Balanandan,
outlined
the
major
developments
in
the
international
arena
since
April
2002
meeting
of
the
CITU
general
council
at
Siliguri.
He
referred
to
the
rising
tide
of
strike-struggles
against
the
neo-liberal
imperialist
globalisation
as
well
as
the
mobilisations
against
the
US
imperialist’s
aggressive
design
to
impose
its
hegemony
over
the
globe.
The
US
war
mongering
against
Iraq
was
condemned
by
massive
mobilisation
of
toiling
people
within
the
USA
itself,
besides
all
the
major
cities
of
Europe,
Latin
America
and
Asia.
Balanandan
reiterated
that
the
struggle
of
the
Indian
people
against
the
economic
policies
of
the
Vajpayee
government
and
its
increasing
surrender
to
imperialism,
on
both
economic
and
political
fronts,
must
gather
strength
from
such
growing
worldwide
anti-imperialist
assertion.
Drawing
attention
to
the
fascistic
communal
offensives
of
the
sangh
parivar,
Balanandan
emphasised
the
urgent
task
of
mobilising
the
workers
to
isolate
and
defeat
the
inhuman
communal
divisive
forces.
DISASTROUS
POLICIES
In
the
general
secretary’s
report,
M
K
Pandhe
outlined
the
major
political
developments.
The
central
government
has
been
playing
rank
opportunist
role
on
the
political
front
and
at
the
same
time
it
has
become
the
fountainhead
of
mind-boggling
corruption
and
scams.
Never
before,
was
such
heinous
crime
to
humanity
committed
by
any
political
force
as
the
BJP
and
other
sangh
parivar
outfits
had
done
during
the
Gujarat
carnage,
just
to
remain
in
power.
This
communal
fascistic
offensive
is
the
worst
enemy
of
humanity
and
must
be
fought
resolutely
by
the
working
class,
Pandhe
asserted.
The
report
dealt
in
detail
the
grievous
impact
of
the
policies
of
neo-liberal
globalisation
on
the
country’s
economy,
as
visible
in
consistent
decline
in
all
the
sectors
of
the
economy.
In
such
a
situation,
the
hullabaloo
over
8
per
cent
growth
rate
targeted
during
the
tenth
plan
period
has
turned
out
to
be
a
crude
joke
on
the
people.
The
phenomenon
of
overflowing
godowns
with
food
grains
along
with
increasing
incidence
of
starvation-deaths,
suicides,
mounting
unemployment
and
joblessness
in
both
urban
and
rural
areas,
deepening
poverty
and
destitution,
exposed
the
utter
bankruptcy
of
the
economic
policy
of
the
Vajpayee
government.
The
clear
anti-national
bias
of
the
economic
policy
found
expression
in
desperate
frittering
away
of
national
wealth
for
private
interest,
foreign
and
domestic,
in
the
process
of
privatisation
of
the
profit
making
PSUs,
at
throw
away
prices.
Each
and
every
case
of
privatisation
had
turned
out
to
be
a
scandalous
scam.
The
recently
declared
initiative
for
monetary
and
fiscal
policy
reform
aims
at
granting
more
liberal
giveaways
to
foreign
capital
and
Indian
corporate
lobby,
reducing
the
interest
rate
on
workers
provident
fund
and
small
savings
with
an
intention
to
divert
the
savings
of
the
common
people
to
stock
market
for
speculative
operations.
Owing
to
widespread
poverty
and
reckless
import
liberalisation
on
the
one
hand
and
increase
in
the
cost
of
agricultural
inputs
due
to
faulty
policies
on
the
other,
the
peasants
are
not
getting
the
right
prices
for
their
crops
and
the
small
and
middle
peasants
are
worst
affected.
Agricultural
workers
have
become
destitute
in
large
numbers.
The
most
ominous
symptom
is
that
landlessness
has
started
growing
and
large
number
of
small
and
middle
holdings
are
going
into
the
hands
of
big
landlords,
either
through
reverse
leasing
or
through
outright
sell-off.
Added
to
this
has
been
the
severe
drought
situation
and
the
consequent
distress
suffered
by
the
people.
The
Vajpayee
government
has
chosen
to
remain
indifferent
to
this
situation.
The
rising
tide
of
struggles
by
the
workers
and
people
from
all
sections
of
society
against
such
disastrous
policies
has
witnessed
a
greater
unity
emerging
countrywide.
In
various
states,
resistance
struggle
is
mounting
against
the
same
policies
being
followed
by
many
state
governments,
barring
few
exceptions.
A
nefarious
design
to
drastically
curtail
the
trade
union
and
labour
rights
is
on.
The
recommendations
of
the
Second
National
Commission
on
Labour
regarding
the
changes
in
labour
laws
are
a
pre-designed
text
of
the
Vajpayee
government
prepared
under
the
dictates
of
the
World
Bank
and
IMF.
These
recommendations
seek
to
give
the
employers
total
liberty
to
“hire
and
fire”
and
unilaterally
change
the
service
conditions
of
the
workers,
deploy
contractor
workers
in
all
occupations
and
virtually
ban
the
right
to
strike.
In
essence
they
seek
to
impose
the
conditions
of
slavery
on
the
working
class.
The
trade
union
movement
has
to
unitedly
resist
this
evil
design
of
the
ruling
class.
ON
UNITED
STRUGGLES
The
meeting
addressed
the
issue
of
“United
Struggles
and
Organisational
Consolidation
of
the
Trade
Union
Movement”
and
outlined
the
CITU
perspective
and
approach
in
the
matter.
Tapan
Sen
introduced
the
subject
for
discussion,
on
the
basis
of
a
draft
prepared
by
the
CITU
secretariat.
It
outlined
the
experience
of
CITU
on
the
evolution
of
united
movement
in
the
country
since
1970.
Despite
multiplicity
of
trade
unions,
tangible
unity
in
the
trade
union
movement
was
achieved
through
vigorous
pursuit
of
the
line
of
united
struggle
against
the
exploitative
policies
of
the
ruling
classes.
The
united
platform
of
the
trade
union
movement
could
gradually
be
broadened
only
through
the
assertion
of
struggles.
In
the
present
struggle
against
policies
of
neo-liberal
globalisation,
almost
all
the
major
trade
unions
in
the
country
had
to
join
together.
The
CITU
has
to
take
note
of
the
activity
of
the
disruptive
and
divisive
forces
hampering
the
working
class
unity
and
emphasise
the
urgent
need
for
conscious
struggle
against
the
forces
of
communalism
and
casteism
to
defend
the
unity
of
the
class.
In
the
present
context,
efforts
for
unifying
the
class
have
to
be
carried
on
vigorously
at
the
grass
root
level
to
create
conditions
for
united
countrywide
struggle.
There
is
also
an
urgent
need
for
independent
initiative
of
CITU
in
creating
awareness
on
the
real
face
of
the
policies
of
the
ruling
class
and
the
need
for
all-in
unity
of
the
trade
union
movement
to
fight
against
those
policies
among
the
mass
of
the
workers.
The
need
for
re-activating
the
National
Platform
of
Mass
Organisations
(NPMO)
has
also
to
be
stressed,
to
ensure
mobilisation
of
all
the
sections
of
the
society
in
the
fight
against
the
anti-national
policies.
The
idea
of
confederation
of
all
the
trade
unions
at
the
national
level
must
also
be
popularised.
To
be
able
to
effectively
take
up
these
challenging
tasks,
a
prerequisite
is
to
strengthen
and
consolidate
the
organisation
at
all
levels
both
ideologically
and
in
physical
terms.
In
all
26
members
took
part
in
the
debate
on
the
report
and
another
18
participated
in
the
special
discussion.
The
debate
reflected
a
self-critical
examination
of
the
activities
during
the
period
under
review
and
laid
stress
on
the
need
for
greater
initiative
at
all
levels
to
carry
the
ongoing
struggle
to
a
more
militant
height.
The
meeting
unanimously
adopted
the
following
resolutions:
