People's Democracy

THE entire spectrum of trade unions - barring BMS, which chose to stay away at the last minute - came together and declared halla bol against the Vajpayee government at a day long "National Assembly of Workers Against Anti-Labour Policies", held at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi on July 15. More than 5,000 leaders, activists and workers representing all the national level central trade unions and all independent federations of workers and employees in different industries and services, from all over the country gathered for this meeting.

The national assembly of workers decided on an action programme commencing with the workers across the country taking a pledge to defeat the anti-labour policies on August 19. An awareness campaign would be conducted from August 19 to 24 and district level mass action programmes would be held between September 23 and 28. State level joint rallies will be staged between November 18 and 23. On January 8, 2003, workers will court arrest in a massive ‘Satyagraha’ all over India. A massive workers’ march to parliament will be staged on the third day of the budget session during February 2003.

After a day long discussion, the assembly adopted a declaration which while firmly opposing the Vajpayee government’s reckless reform process, places an eight point charter of "minimum agreed demands". (See Box)

The message from this workers assembly was clear to the prime minister- "change your anti-people policies or we will force a change of your government." And towards this end, the workers will build a powerful national movement on a priority basis.

Addressing the assembly, CITU general secretary M K Pandhe called on the working class of the nation to prepare for bigger sacrifices during the course of militant struggles in the coming days to save the country from the clutches of World Bank-IMF-WTO. Expressing happiness at the all-in trade union unity achieved in Kerala, Pandhe said that it shows the way for the working class of the country. He expressed disappointment that after holding initial talks, BMS backed out of this united action and chose to stay away from the workers assembly. He hoped they would join this struggle to safeguard nation's sovereignty and economic independence.

Pandhe warned the prime minister that no government can stand before the storm of workers agitations. He wanted the workers to show, through their action programmes, that the entire working class of the nation is against the government's economic policies. And, for ensuring this the trade unions have a great responsibility on their shoulders, said Pandhe. He wanted the trade unions to come together in this fight, keeping aside their differences in ideology.

Though the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh had joined the efforts to convene this national level meeting, it has drawn up a separate programme action culminating in a nation-wide mobilisation on October 2, this year. In view of this, the BMS had, while still expressing total support to the demands, regretted their inability to participate in the national assembly meeting.

Among those who addressed this assembly include Gurudas Das Gupta (AITUC), Umraomal Purohit (HMS), R C Khuntia (INTUC), Swapan Mukherjee (AICCTU), S C Gaur (TUCC), Sunil Sen Gupta (UTUC), Satyawan Singh (UTUC-LS), Sharad Rao (HMKP), R J Karnik (TU JAC-Mumbai), Dada Samant (Kamgar Aghadi-Mumbai), T Chakraborty (AIBEA), R Sridharan (AIBOA), K D Khera (AIBOC), T I Madhavan (AIDEF), R P Manchanda (AIIEA), A V Nachane (AILIEF), Chakradhar Prasad Singh (AIEEF), J P Chaubey (AIRF), Sukomal Sen (AISGEF), S K Vyas (CCGE) Rangadamappa (JAF Bangalore), V K Gupta (NCBE), M Raghaviah (NFIR), C C Pillai (NFPE) K Krishnan (BEFI), Sudhir Kumar (FMRAI), Naresh Lal (Air Corporation Employees Union), V A N Namboodiri (BSNLEU) M K Ghoshal (Airport Authority), Subhash Lomte, (Agriculture Labour Organisation), Savita Vajpayee, (HMS), Hemalatha (CITU), and Amarjeet Kaur (AITUC)

The assembly was conducted by a presidium comprising of J Chittaranjan (AITUC), E Balanandan (CITU), Shiv Gopal Mishra (HMS), Guman Singh (INTUC), N M Thomas (AICCTU), D N Jha (TUCC), Satyapalan (UTUC) and D Sudreshan (UTUC-LS).