People's Democracy

    Delhi CITU Conference Call

Intensify Struggles, Strengthen Organisation

 Sudhir Kumar

THE eleventh conference of the CITU Delhi state committee has called for strengthening the CITU organisation and to intensify struggles in the coming period.

The conference, held on June 13-14, 2004 at Faridabad, was attended by 149 delegates and 25 representatives from fraternal organisations, including AIDWA, DYFI, AIIEA, Sarva Karmachari Sangh and BEFI attended the conference  held at Comrade E K Nayanar Nagar (Yaday Sabha Bhawan), Faridabad.

Inaugurating the conference, CITU president, M K Pandhe, cautioned the workers that they have to be vigilant against attempts by vested interests to goad the new United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to persist with the policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation, despite its commitment to address people’s concerns in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP). Therefore, the workers should prepare for sustained campaign and struggles, not only to get the points in the CMP implemented but also to reverse the World Bank-IMF dictated policies of globalisation.

Emphasising the need to overcome some of the weaknesses in the organisation, he urged the Delhi state unit to conduct regular classes to educate the workers. In this connection he referred to the permanent school being set up at Ghaziabad by the CITU. Pandhe asked the conference to consider setting up a target of one lakh membership for Delhi CITU.

A presidium comprising S B Bharadwaj, Nathu Prasad, Bramjit and Kamala conducted the proceedings of the conference while Subash Lamba, leader of the Sarva Karmachari Sangh and convenor of the reception committee welcomed the delegates. CITU Haryana general secretary, Satvir Singh, AIDWA Delhi general secretary, Asha Latha,  AIIEA leader, Sinha, and others greeted the conference.

A total of 33 delegates participated in the debate on the general secretary’s report placed by Mohan Lal. Most of the participants emphasised the need to intensify struggles, which would in turn strengthen the organisation. After the reply by the general secretary, the report was adopted unanimously.

A resolution on the “Charter of Demands” of workers in Delhi, Ghaziabad, Noida and Faridabad, which will form the basis of further planned struggles by the state CITU, was unanimously adopted by the conference. Among other resolutions adopted were –  On “Unorganized Sector”, “Against privatisation of Delhi Jal Board”, “Against communalism and divisive forces”, “Against growing unemployment” and “On working women”. 

In his concluding speech, CITU secretary, W R Varada Rajan, pointed out that the mandate of the people in favour of a secular government at the centre and the increased presence of the Left in parliament was a significant positive development for the working people of the country.  He said this was reflected in the drawing up of the CMP. However, the workers must prepare for future struggles to ensure the implementation of positive features of the CMP. He also underlined the importance of carrying out the tasks laid out in the Bhubaneshwar document of CITU on organisation to remove the present shortcomings and strengthen the organisation. Drawing attention to the importance of struggles in the approach of CITU, he said: “for CITU, struggle is a necessity and conciliation a compulsion”.

The conference elected the new state committee with Sudhir Kumar as president, Mohanlal, as general secretary, H C Pant as treasurer, Nathu Prasad and Bramjit as vice presidents, Virender Kumar Gaud and Anurag Saxena as secretaries.

A largely attended public meeting was held on the evening of June 14 and was  addressed  by W R Varada Rajan, Satvir Singh, Subash  Lambha and presided over by Sudhir Kumar. The proceedings were conducted by Mamchand.

The reception committee made excellent arrangements for the stay of the delegates and conduct of the conference and took much effort to decorate the venue and surrounding area over a considerable distance. More than 40 volunteers worked day and night for making this conference a success.