People's Democracy

May Day Manifesto Of CITU, 2003

THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) extends revolutionary greetings to the working class fraternity all over the world, on the historic May Day --- the day of the international solidarity of the working people!

The CITU greets the working class and the people of the socialist countries for steadfastly holding aloft the banner of socialism, despite the setbacks suffered during the closing decade of the last millennium.

The CITU greets the working class and the people of the advanced capitalist countries, who have raised the banner of resistance to the neo-liberal globalisation policies, putting up inspiring and militant struggles against capitalism.

The CITU warmly greets and pledges solidarity with the working people of the developing countries, engaged in fighting back the offensives of imperialism, on the one hand, and the onslaughts of the ruling classes, on the other.

  II

THE US imperialists have launched the war against Iraq, defying overwhelming worldwide public opinion and without any mandate from the United Nations. In this they were fully aided and abetted by the Tony Blair regime of the UK. This is the most brazen act of aggression propelled by the greed to corner the oil wealth of Iraq and to consolidate the global hegemony of US imperialism. For the imperialists, the euphemism of “war on terrorism” is a handy instrument to militarily intervene in any part of the world and indulge in atrocious onslaughts against the people of any country, for the simple reason of not submitting to the dictates of the US.

The US administration had, in the process, grossly undermined and weakened the role and authority of the UN. The mission of disarming Iraq of the deadly weapons of mass destruction had turned out to be just a ruse, to cloak the display of their arrogance and fire power superiority. Even after five weeks of war in Iraq, the US invaders could not come out with any evidence of the chemical and biological weaponry that Iraq was accused of possessing.

The war on Iraq has taken a very heavy toll of civilian lives; unarmed common people, particularly the children and women, have been massacred in large numbers. Mercenaries and lackeys of imperialism are now being assembled in the war devastated Iraq, to plant a pliant ‘interim administration’ there. The US administration is turning a deaf ear to the sane voices calling for the UN to be involved in deciding the future of that country and to take care of relief and rehabilitation efforts there.

In this context, we need to ponder over what did the world community do in the face of such arrogant demonstration of gangsterism by the US administration. No doubt, an overwhelming majority of national governments opposed the war against Iraq, within the UN forum. Apprehending a defeat in UN Security Council, the US and its cohorts withdrew their resolution proposing war on Iraq. But those nations, which rightly opposed the war on Iraq, ended up as mere onlookers to the unilateral US gangsterism on Iraqi soil, which merrily indulged in large-scale massacre of innocent Iraqis, in a vulgar display of arrogance. They failed to lift even a little finger against the brazen violation of the UN charter and international law. By their stoic silence, they have just allowed the United Nations to be pushed to irrelevance. 

Here the gangsterism of neo-liberal globalisation comes to surface, which is making most of the nation states helplessly succumb to US arrogance. By surrendering to the dictums of neo-liberal globalisation piloted by the Fund-Bank duo under the mighty domination of US imperialist interest, the developing nations and also some of the developed ones undermined, rather weakened, their own sovereignty.

But the people at large have refused to submit to the global gangsters. The anti-war campaign, both prior to the bombing of Iraq and during the height of the war operations, reached a crescendo with people in all the continents taking to the streets in millions.

The imperialists faced the wrath of the masses on their own soil. Never before the imperialist warmongers faced resistance of such a magnitude all over the globe. The US administration may gloat over their ‘success’ in the Iraq war and even succeed in harvesting its dividends; but the indignant wrath and bitterness generated among the world populace will linger on and the imperialists stand exposed as the worst enemies of the mankind.

The US imperialism has already laid bare its intentions to target countries like Syria, Iran, North Korea etc, for its further offensives. Already it has acquiesced in the Israeli onslaughts against the Palestinians, which is bound to be stepped up in the coming period. Hence the anti-war campaign and mobilisation must be continued with more vigour, across the globe. 

The CITU calls upon the working class of India to step up the campaign against imperialist offensives, both militarist-economic and ideological, and rouse the patriotic masses of the country to revive their rich tradition of anti-imperialist struggle in the coming days. 

  III

IMPERIALISM has been using the international financial and trade institutions, which are under its domination, to consolidate its hegemony over the global economy. The neo-liberal globalisation agenda had been pursued through these institutions to subjugate all nation states in the realm of economic policy making and implementation. It is clearly manifest that the conditionality imposed by these institutions has served only to advance the economic interests of imperialist powers. The increasing resort to militarist intervention in different regions of the world is a part of the diabolic game plan of the imperialists, aimed at aggressively pushing ahead their economic domination. 

But, much as the pro-reforms lobby would like the world to believe that ‘There Is No Alternative’ to the imperialist driven neo-liberal globalisation, people across the globe are rallying en-masse in resistance struggles. From Seattle to Genoa, militant protests, participated in huge numbers, had refuted the inevitability of the so-called economic reforms, dictated by the Brettonwood institutions. 

The successive editions of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre and its European and Asian versions held in the recent past had emphatically declared that ‘Another World Is Possible’ and that ‘Socialism Is The Alternative.’

Internationally, the movement against the neo-liberal globalisation is increasingly coming out vehemently against the move to impose further adverse terms on the developing countries during the forthcoming round of ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, during September next.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO), together with a proliferation of regional and bilateral trade agreements, are used by multinational corporations to promote their interests, to dominate and control our economies and to impose a development model which impoverishes our societies. In the name of trade liberalisation, every aspect of life and nature is for sale, and people are denied their basic rights. These countries are trapped in a never-ending cycle of debt that forces them to open up their markets and export their wealth.

Worldwide campaign to stop and reverse liberalisation of agriculture, water, energy, public services and investment, and to reassert people’s sovereignty over their societies, their resources, their cultures and knowledge and their economies are growing in strength.

The CITU exhorts the working class and other sections of the toiling people to rally together to further heighten the struggle against the global economic domination of imperialism being carried out through the WTO, World Bank the IMF and build up a global unity against globalisation!

  IV

IN India, the rise of communal fascism has entered the most aggressive phase of fundamentalist and communal orgy and violence.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat, led by its notorious chief minister Narendra Modi, embarked on fully reviving their rabid communal agenda, targeting the religious minorities in the country for horrendous attacks. The success in the elections to the Gujarat legislature gave further impetus to this process. Though the results of the subsequent elections held in Himachal Pradesh, Tripura and other states had served as some sort of a speed breaker, the saffron brigade will persist with its game plan of to bring about a communal polarisation of the Indian society for achieving electoral successes in the states slated to go in for polls later during this year and the subsequent elections to the Lok Sabha in 2004.

The VHP and other RSS outfits have already upped the antenna of Ram mandir in Ayodhya. Despite the Supreme Court turning down the plea of the BJP government to review its earlier order for maintaining the status quo in respect of the disputed land there, vociferous demands for legislative sanction to hand over the land for temple construction have been raised by the saffron brigade.  

The CITU calls upon the working people to realise the immense harm being caused to the secular fabric of the country and the unity of the toiling people  by the forces of fascistic communalism. The working class of the country must fight hard to root out the communal venom emitted by the fundamentalist fanatics of the Sangh Parivar.  The working class must also steer clear of the militant fundamentalism of the minority variety as well. The CITU will rededicate itself to preserving the class unity of the workers and the people, countering the communal frenzy, which has assumed dangerous proportions at present.

  V

THE NDA government, which doled out innumerable promises to the people, has reneged on every one of them. It has derailed the entire economy. Contrary to the government’s claim of having put the national economy back on rails, the economy is going down the disaster lane, with the lowering of the growth rate of GDP, per capita income and agriculture-growth. Agriculture, industry, trade --- all are in deep crisis. The rural poor are reeling under the impact of drought, famine and penury. The economy is reeling under a severe demand recession due to loss of the purchasing power of the people, consequent upon proliferation of job cut, wage cut, decline in job opportunities and pauperisation of the peasantry. It has drawn flak on all fronts of governance, is facing opposition and isolation on all fronts, and hence banking upon its communal fascist agenda more desperately to defend its seat of governance by any means. In utter desperation, the Vajpayee regime has mounted an all-out attack on the democratic rights of the people. It has specifically targeted the working people of the country for its onslaughts for it is they who have been in the forefront of the struggle against the bankrupt policies of the NDA government. It has embarked on a move to change the existing labour legislations to usher in ‘hire and fire’ regime in industrial relations, to please the capitalist class to intensify their ruthless exploitation.

All the central trade unions and independent unions and federations in the country have come together on a common platform to oppose the disastrous economic policies of the NDA government. The workers, March to Parliament, staged on February 26, 2003, had given a call for an all-India general strike against the government of India’s disastrous anti-people, anti-worker and anti-national policies and for realisation of the eight-point demands formulated jointly. An all-India general strike will be staged on  May 21, 2003. The National Platform of Mass Organisations has, while expressing solidarity with the working class action, also called upon all other sections of the toiling people to stage powerful action programmes like rail roko and rasta roko on the same day, on the demands of the respective mass organisations. 

The CITU conveys its warm greetings to all sections of the working people and toiling masses, who have been participating in the powerful strike wave emerging in the country against the policies of globalisation. The CITU welcomes this new phase of the united struggle by the working people of the country.

The CITU pledges to carry forward this growing resistance into a countrywide mass struggle to defeat the disastrous economic policies.

  VI

ON this May Day, the CITU exhorts the working people of the country to further strengthen and consolidate the unity of all the toiling masses and unleash further powerful struggles against the imperialist offensives, onslaughts of the ruling classes, the ruinous economic policies and against the divisive and disruptive forces of communalism and casteism.

Let us march forward to defend the interests of our great country and its people!

Forward to the May 21 All-India General Strike!

Long live working class unity!

Long live international solidarity of the working class!

Down with imperialism!

Long live socialism!