People's Democracy

40 YEARS OF CITU

Thousands of Workers

Celebrate Proud History

Ganesh

THE Tamilnadu unit of CITU joined the nation in celebrating 40 years of struggle for workers. The celebrations to commemorate the CITU's journey of the past 40 years began last year in Madurai on May 29. Now, the concluding function of the celebrations was held on May 30 at Coimbatore, a notable industrial centre where the working class has a rich history of glorious struggles. Between the inaugural function and the event organised at Coimbatore, more than 100 programmes were organised in the state marking this occasion.

At the function that was held at Coimbatore, Tapan Sen, general secretary, CITU, was the main speaker. R Singaravelu, president, Tamilnadu state committee, CITU, A Soundarrajan, general secretary, Tamilnadu state committee, CITU and many other leaders took part in the function.

While addressing the mass gathering at Sivananda Colony, Tapan Sen proudly remembered the heroic struggles waged by the working class in India, particularly Tamilnadu. Resistance actions against the attempts to wipe out the workers rights were launched by stalwarts like P Ramamoorthy, B T Ranadive, Jyoti Basu and others. And this led to the formation of CITU on May 30, 1970, he recalled.

Sen also warned the working class to take the struggles forward and not to rest on the past laurels. He particularly pointed out the present situation in West Bengal, where the Left and in particular the working class is facing violent attacks after the setback suffered in the recent assembly elections.

A Soundarrajan in his speech exposed the previous DMK led state government’s inaction on the implementation of labour laws in the multinational companies like Foxconn, Hyundai etc. He insisted that formation of union, a minimum wage of Rs 10,000 for the labourers, eight hours work and abolition of contract labour per se are four points on which the CITU will wage struggles in the coming days.

Many leaders who were part of the heroic struggles waged by the working class in Coimbatore were honoured by the organising committee on this occasion. Among them were some of the family members of Uppilipalayam Muthu, Chinniyampalayam martyrs, Valparai matyrs and Stanes Mills martyrs.

CULTURAL

PROGRAMMES

Various cultural programmes were also conducted by several groups on this occasion. Nellai Thiruvudaiyan's songs, Singari Melam by Kerala Yuva Star Group, Bharathanatyam by Srikrishna Natya Kalashetra, Karthik Dance Troupe and many dance programmes by the wards of labourers enthralled the audience.

It was not mere cultural programmes. The songs portrayed the class struggle and social justice. The gist of the songs exposed the anti-worker stance of the ruling classes. Bharathanatyam dancers have also rendered patriotic songs. All the cultural programmes were very well received by the audience.

The concluding function was presided over by P Kaliappan, president, Coimbatore district, CITU. C Padmanabhan, state committee member, welcomed the gathering. The district secretaries of neighbouring districts, M Chandran(Tiruppur), S Subramaniam (Erode), L Thyagarajan(Nilgiris) and U K Vellingiri, Coimbatore district secretary of CPI(M) also took part. S Arumugam, secretary, Coimbatore district, CITU had inaugurated the function and district treasurer T S Subbian thanked all for the successful completion of the function.

Thousands of workers took part in the function. Mill workers, construction workers, un-organised sector labourers and middle class employees have come not only from Coimbatore, but also from Erode, Nilgiris, Tiruppur districts. The programme started well before the sunset and went on upto 11 pm. It is notable that the audience sat till the end of the function.

(with inputs from M Sakthi)