People's Democracy

 On To Broadest Mobilisation Against Anti-People Policies

G Mamatha

THE 13th All India Conference of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions concluded on March 21 with a clarion call to mobilise the toiling masses of the country and launch mightier struggles against the anti-worker, anti-people neo-liberal policies of the government. The conference which was held in Chandigarh from Match 17-21 exhorted the delegates that, �In the changed political scenario, the ruling class will be aggressively pushing through their project for developing a consensus for their neoliberal and pro-imperialist policies among the bourgeois non-Left political forces in the face of an apparently weakened Left in parliament. The working class movement being the life line of the Left movement has to combat the challenge through ensuring broadest mobilisation of the toiling class and intensifying class action against the flawed policy regime which alone can foil the game of ruling class.�

The delegate session of the conference began on March 17 in the afternoon, with the placing of the condolence resolution.  The general secretary�s report was placed by Mohd Amin. The details of the report are carried in the adjoining article on the conference. Around 60 delegates participated in the discussions which were held across three days, enriching the report with their experiences and suggestions. The report was unanimously adopted by the conference on the last day on March 20 after the general secretary�s reply. The delegate session of the conference which was to conclude on March 21 in the afternoon was advanced by half a day and concluded on March 20^th night itself. This was to facilitate the complete participation of around 250 delegates from West Bengal who had mistakenly booked their tickets for the very early morning train on March 21.

The report of the treasurer and the statement of accounts were placed by Kanai Banerjee. The report was unanimously adopted by the conference. The fraternal organisations greeted the conference on March 19. S Ramachandran Pillai from the All India Kisan Sabha, Suneet Chopra from the All India Agricultural Workers� Union, Sudha Sundararaman from the All India Democratic Women�s Association, Pushpender Tyagi from the Democratic Youth Federation of India and Ritabrata Banerjee from the Students� Federation of India greeted the CITU conference and extended solidarity for the future struggles on the common issues.

The conference passed resolutions on homage to martyrs, against Maoist-Trinamool attacks in West Bengal, on trade union unity, on price rise, on agrarian crisis and worker - peasant alliance, on 50th anniversary of Cuban revolution, on unemployment, on centenary of international women�s day, on solidarity with the people of Palestine and on migrant workers.

On March 19, six commission papers were placed and discussed. They were:  Revolutionary Ideology of the Working Class, Neo-liberal Offensive and the Trade Unions; Unity of the Working Class and Our Approach; Challenges in Organising Unorganised Workers; Organising Working Women � Our Objectives; Safety, Health and Environment; and News Media and Working Class. The discussions were then reported to the conference. On March 20, Hemalata placed the draft declaration on tasks of CITU among working women which was discussed and endorsed by the conference. These tasks were formulated by the 9th convention of the all India coordination committee of working women (CITU) held on January 8-9, 2010 in Thiruvananthapuram.

The credential committee report was placed by Kanai Banerjee. According to the report, the conference is attended by 2410 delegates, out of which, 357 were women. 32 foreign delegates from 16 countries and two delegates from International Labour Organisation attended this conference. 12 fraternal delegates, 13 observers also attended. The oldest delegate was Satya Prakash of Uttarakhand. He is aged 90 years. Youngest delegates were Rupang Barla of Assam and Sushma Kumari of Jharkhand. Both are aged 18 years only. 592 comrades attended the  CITU all India conference for the first time. Ananda Pathak and Rajdeo Goala both aged 80 years were in underground for the longest period of seven years. 1600 delegates had an educational qualification of above class tenth. 987 delegates were wholetimers, 293 were factory workers, 275 were office employees, 186 were self-employed, 36 were retrenched or dismissed workers and 165 were retired workers. 1002 delegates joined the CITU between 1977-1990 and 805 after 1991.

A book, Jeevan ke Dhoop Chhaon, written by Mohd Amin was released in the conference on March 20. M K Pandhe released the book and handed over the forst copy to Mohd Amin. The book discusses the journey of Mohd Amin from an ordinary jute worker to a national leader and highlights his experiences in the course. It also has a collection of his poems.

The Jana Natya Manch activists enacted a play, Ab Nahin Sahenge, on the plight of the working class and their struggles on March 20, which was well appreciated by the delegates.

The conference decided on the following tasks for the future course of action to meet the challenges before the working class movement and prepare the CITU to combat the same effectively:

� Intensify struggles to reverse the neoliberal economic policies and resist its onslaught on the working class and the people

� Intensify and widen solidarity actions in support of the struggles of the working class and other sections of the society in various parts of the country

� Organise solidarity with the workers and democratic people of West Bengal in their struggle against the murderous attack and violence by the so called Maoist-Trinamul Congress Combine

� Raise the consciousness of workers to fight against the imperialist offensives of all hues

� Organise regular campaign against communalism and all kinds of divisive forces to defend the unity of the people

� Launch powerful struggles and mobilisations demanding implementation of labour laws and fight back the government�s move to dismantle and overhaul labour laws in favour of employers� class.

� Organise nation wide campaign demanding �Right to Work as a Fundamental Right�; intensify campaign for Employment Guarantee Act for urban areas; intervene to ensure proper implementation of the NREGA.

� Make efforts to develop united campaigns and struggles of all the exploited sections of the society including the agricultural workers and peasants; intensify efforts to revitalise the National Platform of Mass Organisations by developing joint activities with our fraternal mass organisations to start with

� Make efforts to develop awareness among the CITU cadres and activists on the inadequacies of the capitalist system in solving the basic problems of humanity and the role of the working class in affecting a change in policies

� Intensify efforts to organise the contract, casual workers etc in the organised sector

� Prioritise organising workers in the organised sector, particularly the key sectors

� Decide state wise priorities for organising the workers in the unorganised sector, allot suitable cadres and form trade/ segment wise unions

� Concentrate on development of cadres with continuous efforts to raise their capabilities and efficiency through regular trade union classes, workshops etc. Ensure effective functioning of P Ramamurti Institute for Trade Union Education at the earliest

� Pay special attention to organise working women and promote them to the leadership positions

� Reorient our work as per the guidelines in the �Bhubaneswar Document� on organisation; Organise a national workshop on organisation to review its implementation and update

� Strengthen the CITU centres at the national as well as state levels wherever necessary to ensure effective discharging of the responsibilities

� Fulfill the target of achieving membership of 75 lakhs by the time of the next conference

A huge public meeting was held on March 21 in the afternoon marking the conclusion of the conference.