AIKS 30TH ALL INDIA CONFERENCE

  Massive Nationwide Peasant Upsurge On May 21

 Ashok Dhawale

The General Secretary’s report then took stock of the major struggles led by the All India Kisan Sabha during the last four years. The major actions at the all India level included a Left convention of peasant-agricultural workers organisations in August 2000; a massive one lakh strong Delhi Rally of Left-led peasants and agricultural workers on November 30, 2000; and a nationwide struggle of picketing of central government offices, rail roko and rasta roko actions in March 2001, in which lakhs of peasants and agricultural workers took part. All these actions were directed against the disastrous agrarian policies of the BJP-led central government.

PROGRESS IN MOVEMENT AND ORGANISATION

Apart from these successful all India actions, the report noted that there were large joint state level actions of the peasantry in Punjab, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and other states on various burning issues. From these, the report drew the conclusion that “Experience shows that by taking local issues at the right time and with proper preparation and continuity, we can effectively conduct joint struggles and force the state governments concerned to concede some of our demands.” 

The report then outlined a large number of independent struggles conducted by the AIKS all over the country on issues like drought relief, land, remunerative prices, irrigation and power, and against social atrocities. In the struggles on all the above issues, several lakh peasants took active part. The general picture was that, during the last four years, the AIKS has been active throughout the country on several peasant issues, not only in the stronger states like West Bengal, Kerala, Tripura, Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh, but also in weaker states like Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

While taking a review of the organisation, the report noted that there has been a significant increase in membership by over 29 lakhs in the last four years, and AIKS membership now stands at a record 1 crore 57 lakhs. But it also noted the great unevenness in membership, with West Bengal alone accounting for 76 per cent, and West Bengal and Kerala accounting for 87.5 per cent of the total membership. Of the above 29 lakh increase in the last four years, the three states of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura account for an increase of 24 lakhs. All the other states put together account for an increase of 5 lakhs - from around 12 lakhs at the last conference to 17 lakhs in this conference - which works out to an increase of 39 per cent.

The report noted some other improvements in the organisation. There has been some improvement in the collective functioning of central office-bearers. The AIKS bulletin has been started, is being brought out regularly and is meeting with good response. Most of the state councils are meeting regularly and attendance of central office-bearers in these meetings has increased. In addition to West Bengal, Kerala, Tripura, Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh where there is regular state centre functioning, some attempts were made in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Orissa in this period and there is some improvement in these states. Cadre training camps have been seriously taken up in this period in states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.

WEAKNESSES AND FUTURE TASKS

However, the report also clearly pinpoints the weaknesses in both movement and organisation. For instance, it underlines the need to consciously build peasant unity centred on agricultural labourers and poor peasants. It stresses the need to take up sustained agitations and struggles on local issues on a much bigger scale. It calls upon all state units to concretise their demands in the light of the actual situation obtaining in the state, region and district. It stresses the necessity for effecting an all-round improvement in the method of functioning at the state, district, local and village levels. And it underlines the urgent need to make special efforts for raising the political-ideological consciousness of the peasantry.

The report ends by setting out the following nine future tasks:

• Proper selection of specific issues of the peasantry for launching powerful joint and independent struggles at all levels;
• Special importance to struggle against eviction of tribals and non-tribals from forest lands;
• Identifying two to three cadres primarily for Kisan Sabha work at the state and district centres;
• Holding conference upto block or taluk level every year after membership campaign; democratic functioning of the organisation at all levels to be ensured;
• State committees to prepare an annual plan for work with periodic reviews of its implementation;
• Crop-wise and section-wise concentration to be widened and consolidated;
• Issues of social atrocities on dalits, adivasis and women to be given priority with direct intervention and struggles;
• Annual state and district-level political training camps for cadres to be organised; and
• Kisan Sabha bulletins in local languages to be published.

  In the eight-hour discussion on the report on March 7, 36 delegates from all the states participated. They greatly enriched the report with their suggestions, criticisms and their experiences of struggles and organisation. After the reply by K Varadha Rajan on the morning of March 8, the General Secretary’s report and statement of accounts was adopted unanimously amidst cheers and resounding slogans.

COMMISSIONS AND RESOLUTIONS

On the morning of March 8, after a special resolution was adopted by the AIKS conference expressing solidarity with the struggles of women on International Womens’ Day, the conference divided itself into four different commissions, which conducted their discussions for over six hours. The four commissions, along with their convenors and panelists, were as follows: (1) Effects of LPG policies on our agriculture – Convenor: Ashok Dhawale; Panelists: Anil Basu, E K Narayanan, G Mani, Lahembar Singh Taggar; (2) Irrigation and Natural Calamities: Convenor: Suryakant Mishra; Panelists: C K P Padmanabhan, Md. Ali, Sheopat Singh, Vijay Kant Thakur, Sumanto De, Krishna Swarup, (3) Social Atrocities – Convenor: K Balakrishnan; Panelists: Upen Kisku, Radha Chandradeb Burman, Maruti Manpade; (4) Credit Facilities: Convenor: Subodh Roy; Panelists: Ashok Bannerjee, P P Vasudevan.

A written approach paper was prepared for each of these Commissions by the convenors, these papers were circulated to all the conference delegates, and it was on the basis of this paper that extremely fruitful discussions were held in each Commission. The four convenors then briefly placed the gist and the conclusions of these discussions before the plenary session of the conference on the concluding day, March 9. It was decided to finalise all the four papers in the light of these discussions. The new CKC would discuss and decide on some of the concrete recommendations made by the Commissions.

The 30th conference of the AIKS adopted a number of important resolutions. Three of these resolutions have been mentioned earlier, viz. Condemning the US-UK war drive against Iraq, Hailing the Left Front victory in the Tripura assembly elections, and Expressing solidarity on International Womens’ Day. The other six resolutions adopted were: Against eviction of tribals from forest lands; Against reversal of land reforms; On the serious question of drought; Against the anti-people and anti-peasant Union Budget; Against the communal danger; and On Environment and the Earth Summit.

CREDENTIALS REPORT

In the concluding session of the conference on the morning of March 9, Convenor of the Credentials Committee Bayya Reddy placed the report, some of the highlights of which were as follows: Among the 692 delegates and observers from 23 states, 20 were women.

In terms of class origin, 48 came from agricultural workers, 209 were poor peasants, 261 were middle peasants, 31 were rich peasants, 15 were of landlord class origin, 105 were from the middle class, and 12 were industrial workers. As many as 465 delegates were whole timers. So far as land ownership was concerned, 100 were landless, 235 owned upto 1 acre of land, 180 owned upto 2.5 acres, 97 owned upto 5 acres, 38 owned upto 10 acres and 28 owned above 10 acres of land. 

Agewise, 14 delegates were below 30 years, 295 were below 50 years, 304 were below 65 years and 64 were above 65 years of age. Educationwise, only 4 delegates were illiterate, 85 had a primary education, 257 had studied upto the intermediate/12th standard, 212 were graduates and 93 were post-graduates.

Nine delegates had joined the AIKS before 1947, 116 had joined between 1948-67, 242 had joined between 1968-76, 238 had joined between 1977-95 and 82 had joined after 1995. 434 delegates had participated in land struggles, 103 in homestead struggles, 111 in sharecropper struggles, 191 in agricultural workers struggles, 112 in struggles for infrastructural inputs and 457 in other democratic movements. There were 38 CKC members, 56 AIKC members, 311 state committee members, 185 district committee members, 11 tehsil committee members and 9 members of primary village committees.

374 had experience of jail life of less than a month, 83 of upto 3 months, 33 of upto 6 months, 33 of upto one year, 42 of upto 5 years and 10 had a jail life of more than 5 years. 67 had experience of underground life of less than a month, 43 of upto 3 months, 41 of upto 6 months, 47 of upto one year, 43 of upto 5 years and 9 had gone through underground life for more than 5 years.

Among the delegates, there were 8 state ministers, 9 MPs, 26 MLAs, 14 chairpersons or vice-chairpersons of zilla parishads, 34 members of zilla parishads, 6 municipal councillors, 17 village pradhans/ mukhiyas/ sarpanches, 26 village panchayat members and 56 were elected to co-operative societies.

CONCLUDING SESSION 

The concluding session of the 30th AIKS conference on the morning of March 9, after hearing the reports of the convenors of the four Commissions and the credentials report, unanimously adopted some amendments to the AIKS constitution that were proposed by the outgoing AIKC. The conference then warmly felicitated two veteran AIKS leaders – Shitala Prasad from Uttar Pradesh and Pandian from Tamilnadu - who had joined the organisation over five decades ago in 1940. 

As per the AIKS constitution, the AIKS president is directly elected by the conference. AIKS vice president Benoy Konar proposed the name of S Ramachandran Pillai for the post, and the suggestion was seconded by AIKS general secretary K Varadha Rajan. There were no other proposals, and hence S Ramachandran Pillai was unanimously re-elected president of the AIKS for a second term to a rousing ovation. The conference then unanimously elected a 135-member All India Kisan Council (AIKC), which in turn elected 13 All India office-bearers (given in separate box earlier) and a 52-member Central Kisan Committee (CKC) (given in separate box along with this report).

In his concluding speech, AIKS president S Ramachandran Pillai congratulated all the delegates and fraternal delegates, whose rich contributions, militant struggles and valuable discussions had made this conference a great success. He congratulated and thanked the Punjab unit of the AIKS, the reception committee and all volunteers for the tremendous efforts that they had put in to host this conference in an excellent manner. He particularly thanked Harkishan Singh Surjeet, who had personally toured the whole of Punjab for 10 days to ensure the all-round success of this conference. 

S R Pillai then clearly outlined the five main tasks that had emerged from the deliberations of this conference. The first task was to unleash mighty struggles on local, statewide and nationwide issues of the peasantry in order to correctly channelise the rapidly growing unrest and anger against imperialist-dictated ruling class policies. The second task was to make concerted efforts to raise the political and ideological consciousness of the peasantry against communal and casteist forces, and also against the globalisation drive of imperialism. The third task was to greatly strengthen our organisation at all levels, starting from the All India centre to the state and district levels right down to the local and village committees. The fourth task was that of rapid consolidation and expansion of both movement and organisation, especially in our weaker states, to face and defeat the coming challenges. And the fifth and immediate task was to fully support the All India general strike of the working class on May 21 by means of a massive nationwide campaign and an unprecedented peasant upsurge on that day against the disastrous policies of the BJP-led central government, which must be ousted at the earliest if our country is to be saved. He expressed the confidence that all units and cadres of the All India Kisan Sabha in the country, taking inspiration from this conference on the heroic soil of Punjab, would bend all their efforts to carry out the above tasks with determination and distinction.

After the vote of thanks by Lehambar Singh Taggar, secretary of the reception committee, the memorable 30th conference of the AIKS at Jalandhar concluded amidst resounding slogans and with an impressive public meeting of thousands of peasants in the evening.

(Concluded)