People's Democracy

Sixth National Conference Of CWFI 

Debanjan Chakraborty 

THE sixth national conference of the Construction Workers Federation of India (CWFI) with a membership of 5 Lakh 57 thousand spread over 16 states was held in the Baburam manch at C. Kannan Nagar, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh from September 10-12, 2006. A four-member presidium comprising R.Singaravelu, Kotam Raju, Arakkam Balan and T K Achutan conducted the proceedings. While inaugurating the conference, M K Pandhe criticised the ongoing liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation policies of the UPA government and urged upon the participants to organise massive campaign to make the December 14 general strike in the country a grand success. Chittabrata Majumder greeted the conference with a call for expanding the organisation and to prepare for bigger battle to safeguard the sovereignty of the country. 

Debanjan Chakraborty, general secretary of CWFI placed the report of political and organisational activities with future programme of action. The audited accounts report was placed by the treasurer S B Karmakar. The inaugural session was followed by a massive rally held at the central place of Mandi which was attended by more than 8000 struggling people comprising workers, peasants, students, youth and women. The rally was addressed by M.K.Pandhe, Chittabrata Majumder, Rakesh Singh, Kashmir Singh Thakur, Ravinder Kumar, R.Singaravelu, Debanjan Chakravorty and K.V.Jose. A clarion call was given to intensify the struggle in Chamera Hydro Electric Project and to effectively implement the series of action programmes culminating in an all India general strike on December 14 this year.  

After the lively discussions of two days on the report by 32 delegates from 16 states the report was unanimously adopted. The conference gave a call to increase the membership strength to one million by the next conference. Various resolutions demanding equal remuneration for men and women workers, ban on asbestos use, against imperialistic attack on Cuba, Iran and other countries and supporting the ensuing December 14 general strike were adopted in the conference. 

 The conference elected a strong working committee of 95 members with R.Singaravelu as president, Debanjan Chakraborty as general secretary and S.B.Karmaka as treasurer. A significant feature requiring special mention is the election of 2 working women in the office bearers and 7 others in the working committee of the Federation.