People's Democracy

AISGEF Holds 11th Conference

HELD at Chennai, Tamilnadu, from December 27 to 30 amid great enthusiasm, the eleventh national conference of the All India State Government Employees’ Federation (AISGEF) was attended by 1,642 delegates and observers, including 166 women, from 19 states of the country. The event also witnessed the participation of 13 fraternal delegates from Vietnam, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

On December 27, after the AISGEF chairman R G Karnik had hoisted the red flag of the federation and the delegates, observers and foreign delegates had paid floral homage to the martyrs, the inaugural session started at Vadapalani, Chennai, in a hall named after Comrade S Sundaresan. After the welcome address by All India Insurance Employees’ Association (AIIEA) general secretary and reception committee chairman N M Sundaram, World Federation of Trade Unions president K L Mahendra inaugurated the conference. Confederation of Central Government Employees general secretary S K Vyas and CITU secretary W R Varadarjan were other speakers at the inaugural session.

In the delegates session that started on the same day, AISGEF general secretary Sukomal Sen introduced his report with certain explanations and clarifications. The report itself was rich in content, and made an indepth assessment of the present international and national situation as well as of developments in different states from the viewpoint of the trade union and mass movements. The report also outlined the organisational position in the AISGEF and its movements and activities. The federation has played a significant and commendable role in fighting against the anti-worker and anti-people, IMF-World Bank-WTO policies of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation, being pursued by the NDA government in our country.

In the discussion on the general secretary’s report, that went on for 8 hours, as many as 40 delegates including some women took part. They were from all the 19 states from where delegations had come, namely, Tamilnadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Punjab, Bihar, Tripura, Rajasthan, Assam, Jharkhand, Goa, Pondicherry, and Jammu & Kashmir.

A very significant part of the conference was an exclusive “Women’s Session” held on December 29 --- the first in the history of the organisation. Mythili Sivaraman, an outstanding leader of women in the country, inaugurated this session. Tamil Selvi, a women’s leader of the organisation, introduced a discussion paper on the problems facing the working women as well as the common and general plight of entire Indian womenhood and the women’s role in the struggle against that plight. Eighteen women delegates from 16 states discussed the paper with remarkable enthusiasm and fighting attitude, and the discussion was summed up by Sukomal Sen. The women’s session added an inspiring and fighting dimension to the entire conference.

Attractive cultural functions, poster exhibitions and a film show on closure of public sector undertakings in Andhra Pradesh were the other attractions of the conference. Professor V B Ventatesh Athreya from Bharathi Dasan University, Tiruchi, was the speaker at a seminar on “The Impact of Globalisation,” while Professor Venkatakrishna of Madras University spoke at the other seminar on “Challenges of Contemporary Communalism.”

Sukomal Sen summed up the discussion on the general secretary’s report on December 30 and it was adopted unanimously. The conference unanimously adopted 20 resolutions on contemporary issues and on organisation as well. 

The conference unanimously elected a committee with R G Karnik as chairman, M K Appan as honorary president and Sukomal Sen as general secretary for the next term of three years.

In the context of present national situation when multi-pronged and wide-ranging attacks are taking place on the rights and interests of the working people, the conference came as an example of unity and pledge to fight against all odds. It showed the unprecedented unity of the state government employees in the country as a whole.

The conference ended with a huge, colourful and militant procession from Thomas Munra Statue to Triplicane Car Street, in which, apart from the delegates and observers, employees from Tamilnadu participated in thousands, with their respective banners, festoons and flags. The procession culminated in a public meeting at Theradi, Triplicane, which was addressed by CITU general secretary M K Pandhe. Other speakers were AISGEF chairman R G Karnik, general secretary Sukomal Sen, reception committee chairman N M Sundaram, honorary president M K Appan, former secretary K Gangadaran, secretary N M Sridharan and others. Reception committee secretary R Muthusundaram proposed a vote of thanks.