People's Democracy

 7TH CONFERENCE OF AICCWW (CITU)

Working Women to Fight Globalisation and Communalism

 Hemalata

‘STRENGTHEN the working class movement and intensify struggles against economic and social exploitation by bringing more and more women workers into the trade unions in general and the CITU in particular’ was the call emanating from the just concluded 7th Conference of the All India Coordination Committee of Working Women (CITU) gave to the millions of women workers in the country. The conference, as part of the 11th Conference of CITU, was held on October 11-12, at Mangala Hotgi Manch, in Susheela Gopalan Nagar (Adarsha Vidyalaya), Mumbai. A total of 318 delegates and fraternal delegates from 18 states, representing more than 25 industries/sectors participated in the conference. Working women from the organised sector industries like steel, plantations, electricity, road transport, railways, airlines, mines, telecom, insurance, banks, state and central government departments, medical and health employees, teachers, and working women activists from the unorganised sector like beedi workers, anganwadi employees, forest workers, cashew, coir, handloom and khadi workers, home-based workers, domestic servants etc participated in the conference. The participation of anganwadi workers from Jammu & Kashmir inspired all the delegates.

AICCWW (CITU) conferences were earlier held one day prior to the CITU conferences. But in 2000, CITU decided to hold two-day conference of working women separately in order to have better focus and more detailed discussion on the issues of working women and their participation in the activities and leadership of CITU. This was found to be very useful and the practice has been continued this time too.

INAUGURAL SESSION

The inaugural session began with the hoisting of the CITU flag by the veteran leader of the trade union and women’s movement and vice president of CITU, Ahilya Ranganekar. A presidium consisting of Nirupama Chatterjee (West Bengal), M K Kamalamma (Kerala), T Jaya (Tamil Nadu), Ch Prameela (AP), Rama Deb Burman (Tripura), Fatima (Maharashtra) and AR Sindhu from the AICCWW Centre conducted the proceedings. Malati Chittibabu from Tamil Nadu introduced the Condolence resolution. Suman Sanzgiri, chairperson of the reception committee welcomed the delegates and the guests.

Inaugurating the conference, M K Pandhe, CITU general secretary, said that the trade union movement had ignored the problems of working women for a long time. It was the CITU, under the leadership of B T Ranadive which first cautioned that the trade union movement could not be strengthened until working women, who constituted around 30 per cent of the workers, remained outside the trade unions. The CITU also realised the necessity of including the specific problems of women workers like unequal wages, maternity benefit, crèches, separate toilets, sexual harassment etc in the charter of demands of the trade unions. It has instructed its affiliated unions to ensure that the entire membership is mobilised on the specific demands of women workers. The AICCWW was formed in 1979 followed by state level Coordination Committees of Working

Women to advance the work of the CITU among working women. The state committees of the CITU and its affiliated unions were advised to elect women activists of the unions as delegates to the conferences, as members and office bearers in the committees. Pandhe exhorted the delegates to assert themselves for their due place in the trade union movement.

Founder members of the AICCWW (CITU) and veteran leaders of the trade union and women’s movements in the country Lakshmi Sahgal and Ahilya Ranganekar, both of who are the personification of courage, determination and sacrifice in the struggle for the cause of the working class, were felicitated by the conference. In her short but inspiring speech, Lakshmi Sahgal reminded the delegates that the struggle to end exploitation was not over and urged that they should continue their untiring fight for a just and exploitation-free society. Ahilya remembered how the CITU had always stood firm to protect the rights of the workers, particularly working women, even when the reformist unions tended to make compromises and urged the delegates to strengthen the CITU. In a gesture to symbolise the handing over of the legacy of struggles to the younger generation, the Red Flag of CITU was handed over by Lakshmi Sahgal to Jyoti, a young office bearer of the AP state committee of CITU and by Ahilya Ranganekar to Heerabai, an anganwadi worker from Maharashtra.

Ashok Dhawale, general secretary of the Maharashtra state committee of the Kisan Sabha, and Kiran Moghe, joint secretary of AIDWA, greeted the conference. Ashok Dhawale said that working women, who hold half the sky as remarked by Mao Tse Tung, were subjected to economic as well as social exploitation. Women agricultural workers were being discriminated. It is necessary to fight against all forms of exploitation of women. The peasant women and the agricultural workers, large number of them women, faced the brunt of the economic policies being pursued by the BJP-led central government. Imperialism, communalism and social injustice were the major problems faced by the working class and these should be opposed unitedly. He emphasised the importance of organising the agricultural workers. Kiran Moghe told that AICCWW (CITU) and AIDWA shared a common understanding about the problems of women, as well as common leadership, like Lakshmi Sahgal and Ahilya Ranganekar. She drew the attention of the delegates to the increasing commercialisation of women’s bodies and the devaluation of their work, in the era of globalisation. She pointed out that united struggles of the trade unions’ and the women’s movement was necessary to end discrimination and social oppression of women workers.

PURPOSEFUL DISCUSSION

In the discussion, 37 delegates, including the representatives of several industrial federations, participated and endorsed the report, presented by Hemalata, secretary of AICCWW (CITU). The report was later adopted unanimously.

The conference noted that working women were the worst affected by the neo-liberal globalisation policies being pursued by the BJP-led central government. The industries where women work in large numbers are hit by these policies. Agriculture, plantations, traditional industries like coir, cashew, fisheries, handloom etc, where most of the women workers are employed, are today in doldrums. Working women in the unorganised sector, where most of the women get some work, do not get any legal benefits like minimum wages, maternity benefit, equal wages, social security benefits etc. Even in the organised sector, women are being targeted for Voluntary Retirement Scheme. The women workers in the Special Economic Zones are being subjected to severe economic exploitation and sexual harassment. The report of the Second National Commission on Labour gave blanket permission for night shift for women and proposed that separate women’s trade unions should be promoted, which would in fact divide the trade unions on gender lines.

The recent Supreme Court judgments on the right to strike, on the retirement age of air hostesses, on contract labour etc indicated the anti-worker, particularly, anti-organised labour attitude of the judiciary in the era of neo-liberal globalisation.

The conference expressed its concern at the rising danger of communalism in the country and the working class being influenced by the communal ideology as is seen by the participation of the workers in the communal riots in various industrial centres in the country. It has noted that majority communalism and minority communalism feed on each other and both are opposed to the emancipation of women. Both seek to confine women to their homes and family responsibilities. The conference emphasised the need to create awareness among working women of the dangers of communal forces and the necessity of being vigilant towards their attempts to disrupt the unity of the working class.

MORE WOMEN IN STRUGGLES

The conference observed that the struggles against imperialist globalisation have intensified all over the world, including in our country, and that more and more working women were participating in these struggles. In our country even middle class women employees like teachers, bank and insurance employees, government employees etc, who were earlier reluctant to participate in demonstrations and shouting slogans, were doing so now in increased numbers. In Kerala and Tamilnadu large number of women state government employees were at the forefront of the strikes and were arrested and kept in prison. Anganwadi employees and women in other sectors regularly face police repression whenever they raise their demands. Women plantation workers are being killed along with their male comrades by the goondas of the management and their private security forces.

The participation of women workers in the activities of the CITU has increased considerably in the recent period. In the ‘Collectorate siege’ programme of the Kerala state committee of the CITU on January 28, in several districts women workers constituted more than 50 per cent of the participants. In the ‘Court arrest’ programme in Tamilnadu on the problems of the unorganised sector workers, more than 5,000 women workers courted arrest. Thousands of women plantation workers participated in the May Day rallies in Assam. In Andhra Pradesh, anganwadi employees in some mandals took up the responsibility of organising the May Day programmes.

Women’s sub-committees were formed in several unions, like those of the electricity employees, road transport employees, medical and health employees, construction workers, beedi workers, plantation workers etc at the state and district level in some states. The delegates felt that formation of such sub-committees within the unions helped in greater participation of women in the activities of the CITU. The conference noted that still a large number of unions have not formed women’s sub-committees and called upon all of them to do so at the earliest. It expressed happiness that several fraternal organisations like the AIIEA, BEFI, All India State Government Employees’ Federation, teachers’ organisations etc, organise women’s sessions, conventions etc at the state or all India level on the occasion of their conferences and have formed women’s sub-committees.

The membership of women in CITU has increased from 15.91 per cent in 1998 to 20.68 per cent in 2000. In Karnataka, women constituted 55 per cent of the membership of the CITU and in Himachal Pradesh, women membership was 48.65 per cent. In one district in Karnataka, almost the entire membership of the CITU consisted of women. In Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana, Maharashtra and Kerala, it was between 20 and 40 per cent. It is to be noted that to ensure women’s participation in CITU conferences, a quota of 10 per cent was given in the 8th conference of the CITU at Patna. This was increased to 15 per cent in the 10th conference at Hyderabad. This time the CITU General Council decided that women should constitute at least 20 per cent of the delegates wherever they were more than 20 per cent of the members and in other states it should be 15 per cent. The conference noted that this quota is not being fulfilled by some of the states and called upon the state coordination committees to ensure that women are elected as delegates to the conference as per the quota.

Some improvement has also been observed in the representation of women in the various committees of the CITU and its affiliated unions. Most of the state committees of the CITU have women members and all the major state committees have at least one woman as office bearer. Women are elected as members and office bearers in many district committees of the CITU. Among the fraternal organisations, women employees in insurance have been elected to important positions as general secretary or president at the divisional and zonal level. But, on the whole, it was felt that the representation of women in leadership positions needs much improvement. The conference also unanimously adopted the note on Home-Based Workers, presented by Ranjana Nirula, member, AICCWW from the centre and decided to study the conditions of home-based workers, prioritise the industries and prepare strategies to organise them.

Resolutions on amendments to labour laws, on the right to strike, on comprehensive legislation for agricultural workers, on caste oppression, on violence against women, on imperialism and war, and on communalism were unanimously adopted.

A 50 member AICCWW was formed with representation from the states and some industrial federations. It was decided to co-opt a few more members after state coordination committees are formed in those states. Hemalata was re-elected the secretary of the AICCWW.

The conference concluded with the concluding remarks by Kanai Bannerjee, secretary, CITU who expressed his hope that the CITU would have women as general secretaries at least at the state level in some states in the near future. AR Sindhu presented the vote of thanks.