People's Democracy

AIAWU Punjab Unit Organises State Level Meetings

Suneet Chopra

THE Punjab state committee of the AIAWU which hosted the sixth all India conference of the union at Nawashahr on June 3-5, 2007 is not wasting a moment. It has ensured the speedy translation of the new statement of policy, aims and objectives and immediate demands. On July 2-4, 2007 AIAWU joint secretary, Suneet Chopra has reported the decisions of the conference to its leading office bearers and activists of the union at Barnala, Jalandhar and Tarn Taran, covering the three regions of the state Malwa, Doaba and Manjha.

Four hundred people attended the meetings from fifteen districts. The first meeting was attended by leading activists of Barnala, Patiala, Sangrur, Bhatinda, Ludhiana, Ferozepur, Faridkot and Muktsar. The second from Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Nawashahr, Kapurthala and Ropar. The third by those of Amritsar, and Tarn Taran.

During the reporting Suneet Chopra pointed out that the organisation had more than fulfilled the target of membership of 40 lakhs which the Thrissur conference had set in 2003, by enrolling no less than 42,50,754 members in eleven states. The membership of Gujarat is yet to reach the centre as the delegates of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh could not attend the conference because of the disruption of the transport system as a result of the Gujjar struggle.

The conference was attended by 664 delegates and 18 observers, most of them district, state and all India leaders. 617 of them were men and 65 women, which reflects the enormous need to expand our work among women. But what was heartening was the fact that 330 were actually of agricultural labour origin, 125 of the working class and 96 from poor peasant families, but no less than 151 were graduates, the majority of whom have been active in the organisation since between 1964-2000, reflecting the emergence of a leadership from among the basic masses and a stability of the organisation which had undertaken an enormous task to organise the most oppressed and downtrodden. But it had an even more enormous task ahead to become truly representative of agricultural labour all over the country.

The enormity of the task was highlighted in the inaugural address of AIKS All India president, S R Pillai, where he noted that the problem was not one of agricultural growth alone but of changing the agrarian relations that have rendered some 33 lakh farmers landless each year, reduced the days of work available to agricultural labour to a third of what it was in the 1980s and was now threatening India’s food security and had wrecked the public distribution system, leading to hardship and starvation. But the Indian governments at the center ignored these necessities of the people and catered to an agriculture controlled by and profitable only to big landowners, corporates and multinationals. The recent National Development Council meet on agriculture totally ignored agricultural labour. He called for struggles to implement policies spelt out in the document on an Alternative Agricultural Policy adopted by AIKS and AIAWU jointly on December 28-29, 2003 at Thiruvananthapuram.

In his report, the general secretary of the union, A Vijayaraghavan, highlighted the fact that conditions both in the world and in India were favourble to our making sure the people gained more from development than those who oppress and exploit them. This was especially true as the Doha round of WTO talks had failed because of the greed of multinationals and global agro-corporates who refused to reduce the huge subsidies that allowed them to sell foodgrains and agricultural produce at a fraction of their cost of production causing a loss of no less than Rs. 1,16,200 per year to our farmers alone after the NDA-led government of Atal Behari Vajpayee buckled under US pressure to remove quantitative restrictions between 1999 and 2002, a good three years before they were constrained to do so, resulting in the spate of farmers’ suicides that have followed since. The present UPA government cannot claim, ‘there is no alternative’ to globally accepted policies any more. In fact, the WTO prescription for agriculture has been globally rejected. As such, we have every right to fight for a change at home as well.

In fact, the people of India have voted for such a change. In the 2004 elections they voted for it. They defeated a relentless globaliser like the NDA and refused to give its counterpart, the Congress, a clear majority, while voting for 63 Left MPs mainly from West Bengal, Kerala and Tirpura for the first time without whose support the UPA government cannot survive. The price exacted for this support was the Common Minimum Programme, with promises to provide 6 percent of the GDP for education, to secure the IPF of employees, increase expenditure on health and rural development, provide credit cheaply to farmers to get out of the death-trap, to ensure a National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, a Right to Information Act, a Forest Right Act, a strong Public Distribution System, reviving public sector units, fighting communalism and casteism, and a Comprehensive Central Legislation for agricultural labour. Many of these we have achieved, especially the NREGA, and it is our duty to ensure its proper implementation.

This will not be possible without a mass struggle to keep the UPA government on its toes. Already the central government had increased the number of districts under the purview of the NREGA from 200 to 330 but had not provided sufficient funds for the increased burden. Similarly, recent struggles to implement the provision of full rations for below poverty line families in Punjab who are being given only 15 Kg of wheat instead of the stipulated 20 Kg was met with the response that the centre is not providing enough grain. This cannot be tolerated. Similarly the increase of attacks on dalits and tribals with a decline in convictions under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, shows the need to ensure those committing these atrocities are brought to book.

The organisation has called for strengthening of the central, state, district and lower level committees with enough cadre to keep the links from the lowest to the highest levels alive. To meet these new needs, more funds are needed. So the membership fees have been increased to Rs. 2 per year, with 25 paise going to the centre. Even then this increase hardly covers the price-rise over the years. Also, this ought not to be a problem if we ensure a real capacity to gain benefits for agricultural labour through increased efforts on the ground.

Already, reports of states like Andhra, Tripura, Tamilnadu, Maharashtra and Karnataka give us ample evidence that the implementation of NREGA can help to organise agricultural labour under the banner of AIAWU. Major states like UP,Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Orissa and Gujarat, not to speak of Chattisgarh and Jharkhand, ought to learn from this experience and move forward. There was every hope of doing this as all states where the union functioned had shown growth, except Madhya Pradesh. In fact in his presidential address, Paturu Ramayya, enthused the conference by pointing out that even while the conference was taking place, people in Andhra were engaged in a massive struggle for land in 540 centres covering 38,787 acres. Over 12,000 people were arrested. The police resorted to lathi charges in 114 centres . 952 activists were jailed, of whom 333 were still in prison.

The conference had also passed a new statement of policy and amended the aims and objectives and immediate demands that accompanied it, in keeping with the changed conditions of our times and without underestimating the need to organise agricultural labour under its own banner to ensure a radical change in village-level agrarian relations. The conference had called for the 25th anniversary of the union to be observed this year by highlighting crucial issues like land, house sites, drinking water, electricity, cancellation of debts, pensions, a comprehensive central legislation for agricultural labour, a proper functioning PDS, a sharp and timely response to attacks on dalits and agricultural labour and the specific problems of bonded labour, women and migrants. Movements must be planned at the state level on these demands, while the maximum effort must be put in to ensure that the struggle to implement the NREGA is undertaken on a countrywide scale.

The president and secretary of the state unit, Bhup Chand Channo and Vasudev Jamsher participated in all the meetings, while vice president, Ram Singh Noorpuri was also present at Jalandhar. The state unit has given an immediate call to come forward and ensure that the Akali-BJP government implement their election promises to give atta at Rs. 4 and dal at Rs. 20 per kilo; give 5 marla plots to those who have no homes, 400 units of electricity free and 20 kgs of grain to BPL card holders. It is heartening that after hosting a successful sixth conference, our Punjab unit has not wasted any time. It has finished its state-level reporting and evolved a plan of struggle.