People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No. 43
October 28, 2012
|
Vol. XXXVI
No. 43 October 28, 2012 |
Hold
Conventions on FDI in Retail
Trade
Through
a joint missive, issued on October 16, 2012, the Communist
Party of India
(Marxist), the Communist Party of India, the All India
Forward Bloc and the
Revolutionary Socialist Party have directed all their
committees, units and
cadres to hold conventions at various levels on the issue of
foreign direct
investment (FDI) in retail trade and mobilise public opinion
against the
government’s recent decision for this sector. The text
follows.
THE
UPA government has announced that 51 per cent FDI will be
allowed into
multi-brand retail trade. The
entry of
foreign supermarket chains like Walmart will affect the
livelihood of a large
number of shopkeepers and traders. Once the foreign chains
establish
themselves, then they will start dictating prices to the farmers
for their
produce. The Left parties have been consistently opposing the
entry of FDI in
retail trade. It is necessary to mobilise public opinion and to
build up a
broad-based movement against the entry of foreign supermarket
chains.
The
Left parties have, therefore, decided to take the initiative to
organise
conventions against the FDI in retail in the month of November
2012. Such
conventions should be held in the state capitals and other major
cities. It
should be ensured that conventions are held in the state
capitals of the states
where there are Congress governments as they have all agreed to
allow FDI in
retail in their states.
A
special effort should be made to involve different sections of
people like shopkeepers,
retail traders, small business organisations, lawyers,
intellectuals and
prominent personalities in these conventions.
The
title of the convention should be “Stop FDI in retail trade;
No to Walmart.”
All
state units of the CPI(M), CPI, AIFB and RSP are requested to
immediately chalk
out plans for the holding of the conventions.
The
signatories to the missive are Prakash Karat, S Sudhakar
Reddy, Debabrata
Biswas and T J Chandrachoodan, general secretaries of the
CPI(M), CPI, FB and
RSP respectively.
