STATE CONFERENCE OF APAWU

Resolve To Resort To Direct Action On Land Issue

M Venugopala Rao

THE 23rd state conference of Andhra Pradesh Agricultural Workers’ Union resolved to resort to direct action on the most crucial land issue.  The three-day conference was held at LBG Nagar (Kavya gardens) in Bhadrachalam from October 14. 

In the presence of about 700 delegates, who are actively involved in the movement of agricultural workers, Paturu Ramayya, president of All India Agricultural Workers’ Union and of its state unit, hoisted the flag of the Union amidst blowing of tribals’ kommuboora (musical instrument made of horn), bursting of fireworks  and resounding slogans.  All of them paid homage at the martyrs’ column. 

INAUGURAL SESSION

Professor Jayati Ghosh, chairperson of the commission on welfare of farmers, in her inaugural address, found fault with the introduction of the new economic policies for the crisis in agriculture. The impact of falling prices for agricultural produce, declining per capita income and increasing poverty was more severe in the rural areas, she said. She expressed concern over the declining opportunities for employment and mandays, and increasing death rate of children.  Also, the trend of migration of workers in search of work gained velocity. The policies adopted by the ruling classes were responsible for the dismal situation, and Andhra Pradesh had become a central point for the experimentation of the disastrous policies, said Jayati Ghosh.

Explaining the painful experiences of farmers that had come to her notice during her visit to several districts, Jayati Ghosh pointed out that there were instances of farmers committing suicide unable to bear the insult of their names being made public, instead of those of the rich and influential defaulters, as defaulters by the banks.  Another reason for the crisis in agriculture, she said, was the farmers shifting their cultivation from traditional crops like maize to capital-intensive commercial crops like chillies and cotton.  As a result of the farmers not getting proper marketing facility, the agricultural workers also were not getting minimum wages. Against the statutory minimum wage of Rs 85 per day, the male agricultural workers were getting only Rs 40 and the female workers Rs 30 in the villages, she explained. Jayati Ghosh asked the agricultural workers to strengthen their movement and fight for their rights.

Suneet Chopra, joint secretary of All India Agricultural Workers’ Union (AIAWU), lashed out at the rulers for neglecting the agricultural workers, who were the base for building the Indian society, despite their starving for months together for want of food, water and land.  He made it clear that unless the lot of agricultural workers was improved, a better society could not be built up. Explaining his personal observation in Rajasthan and Punjab of migration of workers as a result of implementation of the new economic policies, Suneet Chopra pointed out that as per official statistics 3 crore 30 lakh people had lost their employment in the country. He questioned the propriety of the prime minister Manmohan Singh in ignoring the agricultural workers’ unions and their leaders, while he was holding meetings  with traders, farmers and industrialists on the issue.  Suneet Chopra asked the agricultural workers to strengthen the Union organisationally and fight for achieving their demands independently and jointly with other movements of the people.  Paturu Ramayya presided over the conference. B Venkat, general secretary of APAWU, Dr M Baburao, member of Lok Sabha, Sunnam Rajaiah, MLA and others participated in the session.

CONFERENCE DELIBERATIONS

In the discussion on the report of the secretary, delegates from all the districts participated for eight hours, explaining their experiences and making suggestions for strengthening the movement of agricultural workers for solving their demands. The discussions went on in the direction of waging struggles on each and every issue of the agricultural workers.  Venkat explained that the membership of the Union increased from 4.41 lakh at the time of the last state conference to 6.22 lakh presently.  The conference decided to increase the membership to 8 lakh in the coming period.  During the last three years, the Union waged struggles on 34 types of problems confronting the agricultural workers in 450 Mandals and 150 divisions. Venkat reminded that the struggle of laying siege to godowns of the Food Corporation of India on September 18, 2001 yielded good results and that the food- for-work scheme was introduced as a result of that struggle. Cases foisted against nearly one thousand workers in connection with that struggle are still continuing. During the massive struggles waged on the issue of land and house sites, the poor had occupied 64 thousand acres of land in 670 centres in 240 mandals.  As a result of such a movement on the land issue, the present Congress government was showing some interest on the issue. 

The conference passed several resolutions, demanding the government to resolve the land issue immediately and distribute 38 types of lands to the poor.  It demanded the government to give pattas to the poor on the lands they were already cultivating and give three acres of land each to the landless families of agricultural workers.  The conference resolved to resort to direct agitational action from December next onwards, if the government would not solve the issue. The conference demanded the government to implement the food-for-work scheme in all the drought-affected mandals on the basis of the degree of severity of  the drought, besides holding an all-party meeting on the issue of drought.  Pointing out that 40 lakh workers had migrated from the state for want of work, the conference demanded the government to respond immediately to arrest this trend.    The conference demanded the government to recognise the rights of sharecroppers and give them identity cards, to give required loans to the farmers with guarantee provided by the government itself.  Loans to DWCRA women at a nominal interest of 25 paise per month, as promised by the Congress party during the recent elections, should be given. The conference demanded the government to set up an autonomous council for tribals in the agency areas, give special recognition to the tribal areas and transform them into centres of development, set up an industry for beedi leaves with Bhadrachalam as the centre and ensure remunerative prices to the tribals  for the forest produce they collect.

Addressing the conference on the last day, Vijayaraghavan, general secretary of All India Agricultural Workers’ Union and MP, pointed out that agricultural workers were facing the severe impact of the crisis in agriculture caused by the policies of the government. Though the budgetary allocation to the public distribution system was increased from Rs 9,200 crore in 1999-2000 to Rs 27,000 crore during the current financial year, expected benefit had not accrued to the poor, he said.  While announcing increased allocations, the governments were reducing the number of the beneficiaries.  Though insurance scheme for the agricultural workers was introduced by the government as a result of struggles waged by them,  only 1.5 lakh workers were likely to get  benefit out of the scheme against nearly 11 crore agricultural workers in the country, explained Vijayaraghavan. Apart from the old age pension scheme to agricultural workers, as a result of the setting up of a welfare board in Kerala,  agricultural workers were getting loans to the tune of Rs 30 crore per annum, he said.  It was noteworthy that, as a result of struggles, all the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes people could construct own houses in Kerala. Taking inspiration from the struggles waged by the Union for minimum wages and struggles against discrimination on caste basis waged in Andhra Pradesh, struggles were conducted in several states and good results achieved, he said..  Vijayaraghavan asked the agricultural workers to review organisational deficiencies, overcome the same and forge ahead on the path of victory.

The conference unanimously elected Paturu Ramayya as president, B Venkat as general secretary, K Krishna Murthy, B V Raghavulu, T P Bhanuraju, P Somayya, R Kuppanaidu, Jala Anjaiah and A Nageswara Rao as vice presidents and N Venkataswamy, Y Vinayakumar, M Sitaram, V Venkateswarlu, A Kotireddy, D Balavuseni and Ch Rangayya as secretaries.

MASSIVE RALLY

On the concluding day of the conference, a massive rally of agricultural workers was taken out in Bhadrachalam which culminated into a public meeting at the ground of the junior college.  Holding 23 flags at the forefront of the  procession, raising resounding slogans on their demands, agricultural workers marched forward.  Traditional tribal dances, revolutionary songs rendered by the artists of Praja Natya Mandali,  and other traditional art forms and playing musical instruments  all along the route of the procession immensely attracted the attention of the people. Several  mass organisations welcomed the agricultural workers at several points.  P Ramayya, Dr M Baburao, S Rajaiah, B Venkat, P Somayya and other leaders of the Union led the procession.

Manik Sarkar, Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M) and chief minister of Tripura,  demanded implementation of land reforms for solving the basic issues of the poor.  Though the Left parties had demanded inclusion of land reforms in the common minimum programme of the United Progressive Alliance, the Congress party refused to do so with a view to safeguarding its class interests, said Sarkar criticising the Congress.  Most of the agricultural workers were dalits and tribals and they have been starving without getting basic requirements like food, education and medical facilities, though food would not be available to the people of the country without their labour, he said.  Apart from distribution of land to the poor, without solving the problems of irrigation facility, seeds, fertilisers, remunerative prices to agricultural produce, marketing facilities, etc., land reforms would be meaningless, he said. Explaining how the Left Front governments in West Bengal and Tripura have been implementing land reforms that benefited lakhs of poor families, Sarkar gave a call to the working people of the country to fight against the plight of the agricultural workers. The Left parties had played a crucial role in defeating the TDP in Andhra Pradesh and the BJP-led NDA  in the country and in paving the way for formation of a secular government at the centre, he said.  He asserted that without the support of the Left parties, the UPA government led by the Congress party would not continue.  Manik Sarkar asserted that it was wrong to think that the Left parties were blindly supporting the government and made it  clear that the way was paved for formation of the government by the Congress so as not to allow continuation of the economic and communal policies of the erstwhile BJP-led government.

B V Raghavulu, state secretary of the CPI(M), warned that time was running out for the Congress government headed by Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy to implement the promises made by the party and solve the problems of the people and that the CPI(M) would wage struggles if the proposals put forth by it were not implemented by the government.  Reminding that the erstwhile chief minister, Chandrababu Naidu, was accused as a ‘paid piper’ of the World Bank by the Congress party, Raghavulu demanded the present government to make its stand clear on whose side it would stand, on the side of the people or of the World Bank? The chief minister’s silence on the issue was giving rise to doubts,  Raghavulu said.  Having promised supply of free power to agricultural workers and other poor people, the government had gone back on its promise by giving a rebate of just Rs 10 per month on the power bill of the poor. Raghavulu said that it was learnt that there was pressure from the World Bank on the government and due to this pressure only the government asked the district collectors to put to public debate whether free supply of power was proper or not.  Though five months had passed, the government had not appointed tribal advisory council. The government was not taking care of the tribals, though they were suffering from serious ailments and dying. Raghavulu made it clear that the CPI(M) was on the side of the people and not on the side of the government, and that it would support any pro-people measure taken by the government and fight against it if anti-people steps were taken.

Vijayaraghavan said while the erstwhile rulers announced 12 types of schemes in the name of the poor, the present government allocated Rs 70,000 crore.  However, only 15 per cent of the allocations was reaching the real beneficiaries and the remaining amount  pocketed by the rich and the influential, he said.  Minimum work and basic facilities were being provided to the agricultural workers in Kerala, Tripura and West Bengal as a result of the strong movements of the agricultural workers conducted there, which also contributed to the Left parties coming to power in those states, Vijayaraghavan explained. With the same inspiration, struggles for alternative policy should be conducted in Andhra Pradesh also, he said.  Suneet Chopra reminded that the heroic Telangana armed struggle had given inspiration to lakhs of the poor people in the country and with that struggles of agricultural workers were organised in various parts of the country.  He gave a call for preparing to wage struggles against the anti-people policies of the government.  B Venkat  demanded the government to distribute land to the poor, as promised by the chief minister, Rajasekhara Reddy, earlier during the recent general elections.  Otherwise, people’s movements would be intensified, he warned.  D Ramadevi, leader of AIDWA, said that  intensified exploitation of the labour of women among the agricultural workers was going on and that attacks and sexual atrocities on women, especially on the female agricultural workers,  were on the rise in the state.  She asked the agricultural workers to prepare for fighting along with other democratic organisations. Thammineni Veerabhadram, central committee member of the CPI(M) and MLA, made it clear that the CPI(M) alone had the history of fighting on the issues of tribals and for protection of enactments intended to protect their rights and that the struggle would continue hereafter also. He gave a call for fighting back disruptive movements intended to create conflicts between the tribals and non-tribals.  Paturu Ramayya, who presided over the meeting, S Rajaiah and other leaders addressed the meeting.