People's Democracy

CALL OF THE SECOND ALL INDIA CONVENTION

Build A United Struggle Of Unorganised Workers!

W R Varada Rajan

THE Second All India Convention of Unorganised Sector Workers was held at Ferozabad, Uttar Pradesh on October 3-4, 2005. The venue of the convention was named ‘Comrade B T Ranadive Nagar’

The convention began with the hoisting of the CITU flag by Kamalapathi Tripathi, president of the UP state CITU. Rajjo Devi, president of the Kanch Udyog Kranthikari Mazdoor Sangh, Ferozabad and chairman of the reception committee, welcomed the participants.

INAUGURAL ADDRESS

M K Pandhe, president, CITU inaugurated the convention. Noting that the convention was being held after 13 years, Pandhe said that the problems of the unorganised sector workers had assumed serious proportions since the first convention held at Panihati, West Bengal in November 1992. He expressed concern over the increasing proliferation of jobs in the informal (unorganised) and home-based sectors, leading to steep deterioration in the working and living conditions of around 93 per cent of the workforce in the country.

Pandhe noted in his address: “The policies of economic liberalisation have on the one hand accentuated the crisis in the unorganised sector industries, and on the other placed unbearable burdens and miseries on the workers in the unorganised sector. The WTO-related policies, implemented by the government, of de-reservation of items of production earmarked for the small-scale sector and deprivation of institutional credit to this sector, have led to large-scale closures and non-employment of thousands of workers. The agrarian distress in rural India has pushed a large section of rural agricultural labourers into urban areas, leading to overcrowding of the labour market. Employers have taken full advantage of this situation to further intensify their exploitation. The policy of dispensing with the regulations in the name of removing the `Inspector Raj’, resorted to by the central and several state governments, has made a mockery of the existing labour legislations. This has led to collapse of the implementing machinery. The successive governments at the centre had miserably failed and deliberately sidelined the issue of enacting separate legislations for the agricultural and the unorganised sector workers. While the UPA government, in its common minimum programme, had assured to pass a comprehensive legislation for the benefit of the unorganised sector workers, it has only been circulating various versions of the draft bill without making any substantial changes in the original draft of the previous NDA regime”. Pandhe ended his address by calling upon the CITU leaders and cadres, in various states and industries, to take effective steps to mobilise these vast sections of the workers and wage a sustained struggle to defend their interests and achieve their genuine demands.

At the very outset, the convention unanimously adopted a resolution congratulating the glass workers of Ferozabad, for their valiant fight against the attacks of the management-administration nexus and pledged full support of the CITU.

A presidium comprising Kanai Banerjee (CITU centre), Kamalapathi Tripathi (UP), Mrinal Das (WB), Malathi Chittibabu (TN) and K Bhaskar (AP) conducted the proceedings.

CAMPAIGNS AND TASKS

In the report placed on behalf of the All India Coordination Committee of Unorganised Sector Workers, P K Ganguly, convener, narrated how the composition of the workers in the unorganised sector and the nature of the jobs being done by them had undergone a vast change due to the policies of liberalisation and globalisation. A large section of the workers in the unorganised sector consist of women workers and child labour. Around 98 per cent of the total working women are in the unorganised sector. A large proportion of the workers in the unorganised sector belong to the downtrodden and socially oppressed sections of society like the SC, ST and other backward castes, who are victims of both capitalist exploitation and social oppression. Besides facing severe exploitation by the employers, the unorganised sector workers live in miserable conditions in their residential areas. Majority of them have no proper dwellings and live in slums, without proper sanitation and even drinking water facilities.

The report traced the developments since the CITU constituted the All India Coordination Committee of Unorganised Workers in the Calcutta Conference held in 1991 to pay focused attention to organise the workers in the unorganised sector. It recalled the holding of the first all India convention in 1992, followed by an all India strike organised in 1993 on the demands of the unorganised sector workers. Although at present unorganised sector workers constituted around 50 per cent of the membership of CITU, it is still insignificant when compared to the huge size of, and the vast spectrum of industries covered in, the unorganised sector. Nonetheless, the report dealt with, in some detail, the work of CITU among workers in the unorganised sector in different industries, both in the states and from the centre, and the results therefrom.

To strengthen our movement in the unorganised sector and overcome the persisting organisational weaknesses, the report highlighted the steps to be taken with due seriousness and urgency, as under:

1. The sub-committee on unorganised sector at the CITU centre and the All India Coordination Committee of Unorganised Sector Workers should meet regularly and chalk out action plans for time-bound implementation.

2. All the state committees should discuss and decide priorities. State coordination committees should be formed, wherever they are not formed. State-level sub committees, within the CITU state committees, should be formed to monitor the functioning of the State Coordination Committee.

3. Industry/ trade-wise unions should be organised.

4. Survey/study should be conducted on the problems of the unorganised sector workers in the prioritised industries and concrete demands should be formulated. State-wide campaigns give better results than localised actions

5.  Suitable cadre should be deployed for each industry/ trade wise organisation. Women cadres should preferably be deployed in industries where women work in large numbers.

6. Special attention should be paid to develop cadres from among the workers, train and promote them to leading positions.

7. Issues like social oppression must be taken up and the unions should address gender oppression, literacy and residential problems, besides the work place issues.

8. Intermediary organisational forms like self help groups/savings groups/credit groups etc should be considered to create confidence in the strength of unity among the workers in the unorganised sector.

A total of 345 delegates attended the convention from various states and 26 comrades participated in the debate on the report, which was finally adopted after the summing up by the convener.

MASS RALLY

The convention unanimously resolved to take up a countrywide campaign on the pressing demands of the unorganised sector workers (see box) and prepare them for a sustained struggle. It demanded the UPA government to speedily legislate both the Agricultural Workers Bill and the Unorganised Sector Workers Bill to provide for employment protection, guaranteed minimum wages and social security. The convention deplored the UPA government for not taking any meaningful steps to incorporate in the draft bill the unanimous suggestions made by the central trade unions.  It called upon all sections of the working class to launch a countrywide campaign and struggle to pressurise the government to take immediate steps to enact this legislation, after appropriate consultations with the central trade unions. It also decided to massively mobilise the workers in the unorganised sector for a march to parliament on December 8 during the winter session of the parliament this year and to prepare for staging a countrywide general strike on the demands of the unorganised sector workers, during 2006.

Md Amin, secretary, CITU and the labour minister of West Bengal, greeted the participants in the convention and later addressed a mass rally of workers who had assembled in huge numbers from Ferozabad and its neighbourhood. He recalled with pride the labour-friendly measures implemented by the Left Front government in West Bengal during the last 28 years of its rule, particularly the unique scheme of provident fund for the workers of the unorganised sector in the state. Others who addressed the mass rally, presided by Kamalapathi Tripathi, were M K Pandhe, Kanai Banerjee, W R Varada Rajan, K Hemalata, Dipankar Mukherjee and Daulat Ram.