People's Democracy

Ten Days That Shook Kerala

Pinarayi Vijayan

IN the ten days from September 2 to 12, Kerala witnessed a mass struggle that has been unparallel in terms of level of participation, discipline and intensity since the land struggle of early 1970’s. More than half a million volunteers laid siege to key government offices in the state. The offices remained paralysed for ten consecutive days. The volunteers dared the police to arrest and jail them. But no jail could hold such huge numbers. The government was forced to concede some of the demands. The success of struggle has instilled a new sense of confidence among the masses. The struggle has indeed proved to be a turning point in the fight against privatisation policies of the Antony government.

An important self-criticism that was accepted by the Party during its state conference was that the struggles being conducted by the Party have become routine. The participation and forms of struggles were getting more and more symbolic and propaganda-oriented. No doubt, this transformation was also a reflection of the balance of class forces and overall Left domination in the state. Even a symbolic struggle was sufficient to trigger institutional mechanism of response, negotiations and dispute settlement. However, globalisation has been undermining particularly these hard won rights of the working people. The new developments were making traditional forms of struggle ineffective.

As has been pointed out by the recent CPI(M) Central Committee resolution, the UDF government of Kerala is proving once again that the Congress has no alternative economic policies to the BJP government. The chief minister, A K Antony has been competing with his counterpart in Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu for the position of first rank among the reformers. The actions of Antony have made him a doyen among the globalisation fraternity. Recall the acclaim he received in the national press for the stern manner in which he dealt with the struggle of government employees of Kerala.

A favourite dictum of Kerala chief minister has been "no negotiations with the strikers". He doesn’t consider collective bargaining agreements sacrosanct. In fact, he himself set an example to all employees by unilaterally violating the agreement with the government employees. The Head Load Workers Act, passed by the assembly, makes the state police adjudicators of trade disputes and empowers them to register suo moto cases against the workers.

The Congress government of Kerala has been systematically and consciously changing the rules of game. It is no wonder that traditional forms of struggle were proving to be out of theme with the time. The past one-year has witnessed almost all sections in the society taking recourse to protest and struggles. But few had succeeded in getting their demands met. A state of despondency was setting in. It is in this situation, the CPI(M) state committee had decided to directly launch the ten days siege of state government offices.

THE DEMANDS

The following nine point programme of demands was formulated for this struggle:

1.      Against mortgaging Kerala to ADB,

2.      To protect PSU’s and traditional industries

3.      Against the decline in the prices of agricultural commodities

4.      Against the commercialisation of education

5.      Against violence on women

6.      Against the criminal and mafia policies of UDF

7.      Against the ban on recruitment

8.      Against the dismantling of welfare schemes

9.      Against corruption in government

On the eve of the actual launch of the struggle, the government had effected a steep hike in electricity charges, nearly doubling the existing rates. Using the pretext of a poor monsoon and decline in the generation of cheap hydroelectric power, the government embarked on implementing the ADB agenda of higher power tariff. The action of the government brought forth an unprecedented spontaneous protest from all quarters. Thus the demand for the reduction in electricity charges was also added to the charter of demands.

COURSE OF

STRUGGLE

The struggle was preceded by intense propaganda, using various forms. Most important among them was the week long padayatras conducted by every area committee of the Party from August 24 to 31. Nearly, 200 persons participated in each of these padayatras, and on an average addressed 7-8 meetings a day.

67 state government offices, including the collectorate offices and taluk headquarters, were selected from all over the state as sites for waging this struggle. The Party volunteers blockaded all the entrances to these offices well before their opening time and continued it till the end of office hours. If arrested, the volunteers were to insist on transportation in vehicles and would refuse to leave the police station without being produced in the court. If cases were registered, they were to refuse to take bail and plead guilty in the court. Every volunteer had to come prepared to go to jail.

To ensure that the siege started early enough in the morning, camps were opened near the centres of struggle. The volunteers were to come in small jathas from their respective areas to the camps on the previous evening. On an average, these marches covered 50-60 km before reaching the camps. Facilities were also set-up in the camp to provide food for the volunteers.

Because of such arrangements, in most centres the siege started early in the morning and no one could enter the offices. However, the government refused to arrest the volunteers. They adopted passive tactics and allowed the protestors to continue the siege, expecting that the siege will lax, as the sun got hotter. However, everyday the siege continued till the evening. The government was forced to adopt such tactics due to the participation of huge number of volunteers in this programme. Given the preparations, it was evident that any attempt to violently disperse the volunteers would have been forcefully resisted. Thus the offices remained closed continuously for ten days.

Not that everything was peaceful everywhere. In Kanjahad, in Kasargode district, the police fired at volunteers. Five comrades, including the Party area committee secretary, Poklan, was seriously injured. In Kottayam and Koduganloor, the police lathi charged the volunteers. The brutal action of the police in Kottayam led to a district-wide strike. Wherever the police made attempts to practically keep the offices open in order to allow entry of senior officers, disturbances took place in those places.

The hike in electricity charges was the factor that boosted the struggle and evoked spontaneous support from the masses. The other Left parties and DYFI had also launched direct action in front of the State Electricity Board offices. The LDF appealed to the people to refuse to pay the hiked rates. The LDF declared that it would indefinitely picket the payment counters of electricity offices from September 17.

The combination of spontaneous mass upsurge against the hike in electricity charges and the disciplined and planned siege of government offices had literally paralysed the entire government machinery.

THE SUCCESS

The above situation forced the government to backtrack. On the third day of the struggle, the government announced cancellation of its order hiking the electricity charges. Nevertheless, the struggle before select centres continued for the remaining days on the other demands.

On the first day of the struggle, more than 56,000 volunteers had participated. During most of the first week, the numbers ranged between 41,000 to 47,000. But as the struggle entered the second week, the participation steadily increased reaching a peak of more than 83,000 on the last day. The entire state leadership of the Party toured the struggle centres throughout these ten days. The presence of Polit Bureau members in the struggle braving the sun and rain was a source of inspiration for the cadres.

When the siege ended on September 12, more than 5 lakh persons (See Table) participated in the siege. The message of this struggle had been taken to every nook and corner of the state. The government was forced to make yet another concession. It decided to lift the ban on recruitment on appointments. The chief minister had to assure publicly that half the vacant posts will be filled up immediately.

KEY FEATURES

This ten-day struggle has been characterised by certain distinctive features when compared to the struggles organised in Kerala during the last two decades.

First feature has been the high level of participation. Every Party member and sympathiser was called upon to participate in the struggle. The final figure of 5 lakh persons participation exceeded our expectations of 3 lakh persons. Every volunteer was allotted a particular day for participating in the struggle by their respective local committees. It is obvious that large number of Party sympathisers also joined as volunteers in the struggle.

Second feature has been the detailed planning that preceded the struggle. Every detail was discussed and designed and responsibilities assigned.

Third was the intense propaganda that was undertaken before and parallel to the struggle. Struggle itself was not merely symbolic or for propaganda sake.

THE GAINS

The impact of the struggle has also been very significant. First, it has galvanised the entire Party. This is particularly true of the Party branches. Every branch was to recruit its volunteers and march as a separate contingent to the camp.

Second, it has given a new sense of confidence to the people. The sense of despondency that globalisation cannot be challenged is gone. The struggle wrested concessions from the government.

Third, the struggle had also had its impact on the ruling UDF. Seeing the success of the people’s resistance, the ruling partners in the front began to blame each other for the fiasco of electricity tariff hike. Even the electricity minister wants to appear in public to defend his measures. The chief minister was isolated. All these have contributed to the intensification of in-fight in the UDF.

Currently, the Party is engaged in thorough review of the experience of this struggle. Every Party branch is meeting in the presence of an area committee member to identify Party members who failed to participate in the struggle and to assess the strength and weaknesses after proper discussions. The Party state committee will also come out with a comprehensive review of the struggle after thorough discussions.

Meanwhile, the Party has decided that united struggles should be organised around the pressing demands of the different sections of the people, particularly farmers and workers of traditional industries. Workers of the PSU’s are also preparing for united struggles. The coming month, Kerala is going to witness intense upsurge of struggles against anti-people policies of both the central and state governments.

(The writer is secretary of the CPI(M) Kerala state committee)