People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No. 47
November 25, 2012
|
Vol. XXXVI
No. 47 November 25, 2012 |
CITU
Calls for Vigorous Struggle THE 10th state
conference of CITU West Bengal committee has vowed
to launch a vigorous
struggle to defend the rights of the workers in the
state. A programme to
mobilise wider sections of workers in defense of the
gains that are being
attacked now in the state has been formulated from
the conference. The state conference was
held at Comrade Jyoti Basu Nagar ( In his inaugural speech,
Padmanabhan said the CITU would, jointly with other
trade unions, resist the
onslaught on the people launched by the UPA-II
government in the name of
economic reforms. Referring to the severe attacks
against the workers in West
Bengal in the changed political situation, the CITU
leader expressed confidence
that the workers of Padmanabhan said the
Indian economic policy regime has undergone a right
wing shift since the
introduction of neo-liberal economic policies. The
union government is acting
under the dictates of the Word Bank and the chambers
of commerce in order to
make the labour laws of the country flexible. He
warned that the trade unions
would strongly resist such an attempt. Already the
multinational companies are
not implementing the existing labour laws. They are
brazenly restricting the
workers from participating in the trade unions. Even
the constitutionally
guaranteed rights of the people are being undermined
by the big corporate and
MNCs. The union government is a mere spectator to
these violations. In such a
scenario if the labour laws are further diluted, the
workers will be subject to
maximum exploitation. Padmanabhan emphasised
the necessity of protection of the trade union
rights along with ensuring of
the social security, control of price hike and
universal public distribution
system. He said that CITU has always been in favour
of the united workers
movement from its class outlook. After travelling a
long path, all the central
trade unions have called for a 48-hour countrywide
general strike on the 20th
and 21st February 2013. This has happened for the
first time in the history of
independent Tapan Sen, general
secretary of CITU, in his speech exposed the
anti-people nature of the
neo-liberal policies being implemented by the union
government and emphasised
the need for a united struggle against these
policies. In the context of
growing number of unorganised sector workers and
contractual workers, the 10th
state conference emphasised on their problems and
issues in detail and outlined
the path of future programmes. Special discussions
were held on these two
aspects. The delegates in the
conference discussed the issue of the contractual
labour in detail, especially
the growing attack on the labour laws of the country
in the name of labour
market flexibility. How the neo liberal
globalisation policies are impacting
the working class people of The 10th state
conference elected the new CITU West Bengal state
committee. Shaymal
Chakraborty has been re-elected as the president and
Dipak Dasgupta has been
elected as the secretary. MASSIVE
RALLY On the concluding day of
the conference, on 11th November, the
rally was held at Dumurjala in Slamming the government
for taking the state towards an industrial disaster
in absence of a clear
policy, Bhattacharjee referred to how Singur has now
become a desert. “Had the
car manufacturing factory come up there, about 5000
to 6000 people would have
got jobs. Bhattacharjee said that
the transport workers and the whole transport sector
of the state are in a
deplorable condition. Most private transport
vehicles are lying idle as the
agencies are becoming incapable of managing the cost
of the business. Transport
workers are not getting salaries, pensions, and are
compelled to resort to
suicides. This is the crude reality of the state
where the salaries of
ministers in the TMC-led government had gone up from
Rs 7000 during the Left
Front rule to Rs 27,000 now. And the government is
acting as a sleeping beauty,
he criticised. Bhattacharjee also
highlighted the farmers’ misery saying they are
finding it difficult to sell
their crop as the “price they are getting is
uneconomical”. Explaining the
current labour scenario of the country. Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee sharply
criticised the Manmohan Singh government for
incessantly taking anti-people
decisions that have severely affected the working
population of the country. (
Kali Ghosh, secretary of CITU West Bengal state
committee placed the report in
the conference. While placing the report he said
that the workers movement of
the state is facing various attacks during the
tenure of the Trinamool Congress
government. He said the situation is so bad that the
chief minister refused to
meet their delegation that sought to submit a
memorandum about the growing
attacks on trade unions in
