People's Democracy

 Unite To Defeat Neo-Liberal Policies

THE 11th conference of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) got off to a flying start in the morning on December 9, 2003 at Chennai with the organisation’s president, E Balanandan, giving out a clarion call to build a new India, an India which will fulfil the aspirations of the mass of the people, through an alternative policy of economic development. He urged the youth of the country, irrespective of all differences, of political, of trade union or any other, to unite and build up the country ridding it of the policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation.

Earlier, the five jathas traversing through thousands of kilometers covering every nook and corner of the country converged in the conference venue, the sprawling Rama Laxmi Paradise Complex.  The march of the red volunteers just before the commencement of the inaugural session was quite impressive. The venue of the conference was aptly named as Comrade Ramamurti Nagar, to commemorate the indomitable warrior of the working class, the late Comrade P Ramamurthy, the founder general secretary of the CITU. The conference hall has been named as Comrade Suseela Gopalan Hall, to recognise the yeomen service rendered by her in the trade union, democratic and political fronts, especially on the women’s front.

The inaugural session commenced with a series of cultural programmes performed by talented artists. There were patriotic and revolutionary songs, nadaswaram music, etc, which earned the appreciation of the massive audience present in the open ground. All the participants in the five jathas were felicitated on the dais by E Balanandan, M K Pandhe and J Hemachandran. Kanai Banerjee, Secretary, CITU, introduced the participants in the jathas.

The CITU flag was hoisted by the president, E Balanandan amidst thundering slogans, releasing of multi-coloured balloons in the air and bursting of crackers. 11 white doves symbolising the urge of humankind for peace on earth were released on this occasion. Immediately after, the leaders and secretariat members of the CITU led by E Blanandan paid floral tributes at the martyrs’ column.

E Balanandan, in his presidential address, spoke at length on the autocratic attitude of the Jayalalitha government in Tamil Nadu and condemned the manner in which the government unleashed unprecedented repression on the government employees and teachers who went on strike in July 2003 and recently how the very same government unleashed repression on the freedom of press thereby attacking the democratic rights enshrined in the constitution. At the national level he was highly critical of the NDA government reform policies, which were ruining the economy of the country by destroying the indigenous industries, reducing the agricultural segment to nullity and throwing out millions of workers to the streets. He said that the conference was going to discuss a paper on unemployment, the present figure of the unemployed being more than 1/3 or the total population, especially in the context of `jobless growth’ and `job killing revival’. The registered unemployed, according to the union labour minister’s statement on April 30, 2003 in the Lok Sabha was 4.7 crore and the unregistered  was estimated to be more than 3 times. He stressed that a fight for policy change was a must, in which the organised trade union movement should play the leading role.

On the agricultural front, he referred to the steps taken by the central government for the removal of quantitative restrictions on import of agricultural products which paved the way for dumping these items into our country at cheaper rates, affecting large sections of our peasantry and leading to price crash. The reduction and removal of subsidies for electricity, water, fertilisers and pesticides, the stopping of government procurement to save the peasantry from distress sales and price crash, etc, have resulted in the ruination of peasants, hundreds of them having committed suicides in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, etc. He called upon the working class to take up the responsibility of helping the peasantry in the fight against the dangerous consequences of the policy of globalisation as a priority job.

In the international sphere, while being critical of the Bush-Blair combine for the brutal war against Iraq, he pointed out to the silver lining in the horizon emerging in the Latin American countries, which reaped the consequences of implementing unbridled globalisation measures. He called upon the youth of the country to help build a new India by adopting an alternate economic policy to defeat the machinations of imperialism and to guide the present society in such a manner as to embrace socialism the ultimate saviour of mankind.

N Sankaraiah, chairman of the Reception Committee, in his welcome address traced the history of working class and freedom movements from the early part of the 20th century in the state of Tamil Nadu. He recalled the establishment of the very first trade union in Chennai, the Madras Labour Union in the year 1919 by labour veterans, B P Wadia, Annie Beasant, Thiru Vi Kalyanasundaram, Sakkarai Chettiar, G Ramanujalu, and G Selvapathi, the strike organised in Tuticorin by the patriot V O Chidambaram Pillai, the boost given to the freedom movement by the revolutionary poet Subramaniam Bharati, who hailed the October Revolution as an epoch making revolution and as one of the most significant events in the history of mankind.  He also said that the 11th conference of CITU was meeting at the defining moment in the country. With the entire spectrum of the trade union movement having unitedly resolved to enter a decisive action phase to defend the right to strike, he hoped that the conference would chalk out plans to carry the resistance struggle to further heights and to chart out the further path of advance of the Indian working class and democratic movements.

A Soundararajan, general secretary of Tamil Nadu CITU state committee, moved a resolution in the session condemning the anti-people and anti-worker policies of the AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu.  The resolution came down heavily on the Jayalalitha government for implementing the same disastrous economic policies of the NDA government at the centre, for enacting the anti-Conversion Bill, the TESMA, for attacking the freedom of the press in the cases of The Hindu and Murasoli, for foisting of cases under ESMA on the leaders of political parties on charge of instigating the strike of government employees, etc.  The resolution reiterated its strong solidarity with the fighting people of Tamil Nadu against the tyrant rule of Jayalalitha regime and called upon the working class throughout the country to stand solidly by the toiling people of Tamil Nadu fighting against the barbarous attacks and onslaughts on their livelihood and democratic rights by the government. It also called for militant countrywide mobilisation against the anti-people policies in the bedrock of which, the tyrant rule in the state sought to thrive.

K N Ravindranath, while seconding the resolution, pointed out that the autocratic way in which the Jayalalitha government dealt with the strike of its employees and teachers was only a trend which was fast developing in the various state governments and which required to be met with resistance movements by the entire trade union movement of the country including the government employees of all the states and the centre. The resolution was then adopted unanimously.

Gurududas Dasgupta, general secretary, AITUC, A Subramaniam, vice president, HMS, K L Mahendra, president, WFTU, Krishna Chakravarty, vice president, UTUC(LS), C Kuppuswamy MP and president of Labour Progressive Federation (LPF) and Shivasankar, vice president, TUCC, extended their greetings, expressed their fraternal solidarity and pledged to stand unitedly with the CITU in  struggles to defeat the LPG policies to put down the menace of communalism in the country and to safeguard the democratic and trade union rights of the working class. They were all unanimous in the view that the denial of the right to strike had to be defeated by organising a united and countrywide strike by the mass of the working  people of the country.

M K Pandhe, general secretary, proposed a vote of thanks.