People's Democracy

Intensify Struggles to Change Policies: 14th CITU Conference

K Hemalata

THE 14th conference of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), held on April 4-8, 2013, in the background of the very successful and unprecedented two days’ joint countrywide general strike in February, concluded with the determination to further intensify struggles to change the anti-worker and anti-people policies of the government. The conference was held in Kannur, the land of struggles, sacrifices, the land of martyrs, in Kerala. The venue of the conference was named Dr M K Pandhe Nagar, after the veteran trade union leader of the country and a founder leader of the CITU, who served the organisation as its secretary, general secretary, president and vice president. The hall was named Dipankar Mukherjee Hall, after the eminent parliamentarian and secretary of the CITU. In all, 1817 delegates, including fraternal delegates and observers from 26 states, participated in the conference; 300 of them were women.

IN THE LAND

OF MARTYRS

The conference started at 10.00 a.m. on April 4 with the hoisting of the CITU flag by its president A K Padmanabhan and lighting of the martyrs’ flame by CITU general secretary Tapan Sen. The flag was brought by hundreds of athletes and CITU activists from Payyambalam beach in Kannur where the bodies of trade union stalwarts C Kannan, Chadayan Govindan and E K Nayanar were cremated.

On the evening of April 3, a day before the conference started, the CITU flag was hoisted by Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, chairman of the reception committee, at the municipal stadium, the venue of the public meeting. The stadium was named C Kannan Nagar, after the veteran trade union leader of Kerala and a founder leader of the CITU. This flag was brought in a jatha led by Anathalavattam Anandan, president of the Kerala state committee of the CITU, from Punnapra Vayalar. The flag mast was brought by another jatha led by K M Sudhakaran, an office bearer of the Kerala state committee of CITU, from Kayyur. Similarly, 18 flames representing the 18 martyrs were brought in another jatha led by P K Gurudasan, vice president of the CITU, covering 18 places in Thillankeri, the land of heroic peasant struggles. These flames were first placed at the venue of the public meeting and then converged and carried to the venue of the conference.

After floral tributes were paid at the martyrs’ column, Kodiyeri Baladrishnan welcomed the delegates and guests attending the inaugural session. Inaugurating the 14th conference, Padmanabhan emphasised the need to further strengthen and widen the unity achieved within the trade union movement. He said it was the only way to reverse the policies that benefited only 0.01 per cent while imposing more and more burdens on the 99.9 per cent of the people. He assured that the CITU would work with all its might for strengthening such united struggles. He drew attention to the struggles of the working class all over the world against the growing attacks on their working and living conditions imposed by the neo-liberal policies and the austerity drives of their respective governments. Citing the examples of the pro-people measures being taken by the Left and progressive governments in Latin America --- in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador etc --- he said that these governments showed that alternative pro-people measures could be implemented even within the framework of capitalism, provided a government had the political will to do so. He criticised the UPA government for increasingly succumbing to the pressures of US imperialism and its subservience to the interests of the national and multinational corporations. He urged the delegates to mobilise not only the workers but all sections of the toiling people in the fight against these policies. Warning against the dangers of the divisive forces that seek to divide the working class on caste, religion, regional lines he stressed the importance of the trade union movement addressing the specific issues of the socially oppressed sections of the society like the dalits, tribals, women, migrants etc in its efforts to unify the entire working class.

TRADE UNION

UNITY STRESSED

Reflecting the growing unity witnessed during the last around four years, leaders of eight central trade unions were present in the inaugural session while two others sent messages of fraternal greetings expressing their inability to be physically present due to some pressing engagements. Gurudas Dasgupta, general secretary of the AITUC, R Chandrasekharan, vice president of the INTUC, Dorai Raj, organising secretary of the BMS, Abani Roy, general secretary of the UTUC, Loukose, vice president of the AIUTUC, S P Tewari, general secretary of the TUCC, M Shanmugham, general secretary of the LPF, and Sonia George, secretary of the SEWA, addressed the gathering. Messages greeting the conference were sent by the AICCTU and HMS. The determination to carry forward the united struggle against the anti-worker policies of the government, irrespective of the party leading it, was expressed in the speeches of all the trade union leaders.

George Mavrikos, general secretary of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), and Alexandra Lymberi from its headquarters attended this conference, which was the first since the CITU got affiliated to the WFTU. Ariel Castro from the Delhi office of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) represented the organisation. As Kannur, being a small town, lacked the necessary facilities and infrastructure, no foreign fraternal delegates were invited to participate in this conference. Messages greeting the conference were sent by 34 fraternal trade unions from 27 countries, including the All China Federation of Trade Unions, Cuban Workers’ Trade Union Central, Vietnam General Confederation of Labour, PAME of Greece, Zenroren from Japan, CGTP in Portugal and COSATU from South Africa, as well as from the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

An important resolution on further strengthening trade union unity and joint struggles, introduced by Tapan Sen and seconded by CITU secretary Swadesh Dev Roye, was unanimously passed amidst enthusiastic slogans in the inaugural session.

ON RESPONSIBILITY OF

THE WORKING CLASS

The delegates’ session started with the introduction of the condolence resolution by K Hemalata, CITU secretary, and observance of silence in respect to the departed leaders and martyrs. Tapan Sen, general secretary of the CITU, introduced the report in two parts. The first part, placed in the evening of April 4, dealt with the political and economic situations in the country, analysed the major joint and independent struggles in the country during the intervening period, and proposed the tasks for the future. The report pointed out to the unambiguous rightward shift in the political, economic and foreign policies pursued by the UPA 2 government following the setback to the Left in the parliament and assembly elections in 2009 and 2011. It also exposed the opportunistic character of the main opposition party, the BJP, which pursued the same policies while in power. In the case of all the crucial economic policy related issues, the BJP has been bailing out the otherwise minority government. Most of the regional parties too exhibited vacillations. It was only the Left parties that consistently opposed the anti-worker and anti-people policies. In the context of the weakened strength of the Left in the parliament, the report stressed that it was the responsibility of the working class to lead the struggle against these policies by extending the consciousness of the workers beyond their workplace to the issues of the broader society.

The second part placed on April 5 evening dealt with the organisational situation of the CITU and the federations led by it. It self-critically identified certain weaknesses and shortcomings in the functioning of the CITU at all levels and emphasised the need to overcome these at the earliest. Tapan Sen also spoke on the need to take up independent campaigns and struggles along with the joint activities and approach the hitherto unapproached sections of the workers. The report also stressed the need to strictly follow the democratic styles of functioning as stipulated by the Bhubaneswar document’ of the CITU. The need to take up the social issues facing the workers and the people including the dalits, tribals, minorities and women, and to develop and promote cadres from these sections, was also pointed out in the second part of the report.

The report of the treasurer was placed by Ranjana Nirula, treasurer of the CITU.

As many as 90 delegates participated in the discussions on the two parts, held separately, and endorsed the formulations presented in the report and the tasks proposed. After Tapan Sen summed up the discussion, the general secretary’s report and the treasurer’s report were unanimously adopted.

The session on April 6 started with paying homage to Comrade B T Ranadive, founder president of the CITU, on the occasion of his birth anniversary. A resolution on the tasks of CITU among working women was placed by K Hemalata and was unanimously adopted by the conference. The convention of All India Coordination Committee of Working Women (CITU) could not be held before this CITU conference, as is regularly done, because of the two days’ countrywide general strike. The conference decided to hold the convention from September 29 to October 1, 2013, in Puri and made it mandatory for the presidents and general secretaries of the CITU state committees to attend the convention along with women delegates. A separate meeting of all the women delegates was addressed by Alexandra, chief of the media department of WFTU headquarters, where she informed about the efforts being made by the WFTU to address the specific issues related to working women. She also sought the help and support of the CITU in organising a world conference of working women in India later this year.

IMPORTANT ISSUES

AND RESOLUTIONS

The conference broke into four commissions on April 7 to discuss four topics. The commission on ‘Fighting for Alternative’ was chaired by CITU secretary Raghunath Singh, and the paper was presented by Tapan Sen. The commission on ‘Democratic Principles for a Powerful Trade Union Organisation’ was chaired by CITU secretary Shyamal Chakraborty, while the paper was presented by Dev Roye. The one on ‘Changing Profile of the Employment – Challenges for Unifying the Class’ was chaired by K N Ravindranath, vice president of the CITU, and the paper was presented by Hemalata. The commission on ‘Social Issues – The Role of the Working Class’ was chaired by CITU secretary Sudha Bhaskar, and the paper was presented by CITU secretary A Soundararajan. Around 200 delegates spoke in these commissions and around 100 more gave their suggestions in writing. The details of the discussions were placed in the plenary session by Tapan Sen, Dev Roye, Hemalata and Soundararajan respectively. It was decided that the new secretariat of the CITU would finalise the papers after taking into consideration all the points raised in the commission discussions.

The conference was greeted by Sudha Sundararaman, general secretary of the All India Democratic Women’s Association, K Varadarajan, general secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha, A Vijayaraghavan, general secretary of the All India Agricultural Workers’ Union, M B Rajesh, president of the Democratic Youth Federation of India, and Sivadasan, president of the Students Federation of India. Congratulating the CITU for its role in uniting the working class and in the two day’s general strike in February, all these leaders told that their respective organisations looked forward to closely work with the working class movement to strengthen the struggle against the anti-people policies of the government.

The conference adopted several important resolutions including the resolution ‘Against attacks on trade union movement and democratic rights in West Bengalm,’ ‘Against FDI in retail,’ ‘Against the government’s water policy,’ ‘On observance of Comrade Jyoti Basu’s birth centenary,’ ‘On food security’, ‘On ICDS’, etc. One of the resolutions Congratulated Comrade Samar Mukherjee, a former general secretary of the CITU, on attaining hundred years of age and wishing him good health.

FUTURE TASKS

SPECIFIED

The conference approved with great enthusiasm the immediate tasks proposed by Tapan Sen including the observation of a fortnight from May 30, the Foundation Day of the CITU, to June 15, 2013, focussing on the demands of minimum wages, equal wages and benefits to all the contract workers as the permanent workers doing the same job and social security including pension for all workers. The first week of the fortnight will be observed by taking up extensive campaign among the workers, making all efforts to approach all the sections of workers hitherto unapproached. The next week will be observed through massive mobilisation of workers and holding dharnas, demonstrations etc before the government offices at the district, block, subdivision and other levels as decided by the state committees of the CITU.

The credentials report was placed by Ranjana Nirula, convenor of the credential committee. Around 43 per cent of the delegates were workers and employees or scheme workers. Some 41 per cent of the delegates were below 50 while 76 per cent were below 60 years of age. About 46 per cent were graduates and postgraduates or had professional or technical education; around 13 per cent had primary education while only 23 out of the total delegates did not have any formal education. The oldest delegate was V R Bhaskaran from Kerala who was 86 years, while the youngest delegates were Bala Sangha and Nirmala Kumari, both of whom are 19 years and are from Jharkhand. As many as 578 delegates were attending a CITU national conference for the first time while 25 attended all the 14 conferences of the CITU. Sukanta Konar from West Bengal spent over seven years underground while Amitava Chakravarty from the same state spent the longest period of nine years in jail.

The conference unanimously elected a team of 34 office bearers keeping one seat vacant. A K Padmanabhan, Tapan Sen and Ranjana Nirula were re-elected as president, general secretary and treasurer. 13 office bearers elected in the 13th conference were relieved from their responsibilities as central office bearers of the CITU but will continue to render their services to the movement --- some as working committee members of the CITU and some in other responsibilities. The team has 14 comrades newly elected as office bearers of the CITU.

The conference also unanimously elected a 425 member general council which in turn elected a 125 member working committee unanimously.

A K Padmanabhan heartily thanked all the office bearers who were relieved of their responsibilities to make room for the young cadres trained and felicitated by them them. He also introduced the newly elected office bearers. In his concluding remarks Padmanabhan exhorted all the delegates to go back to their states and take the message of the conference to each and every member of the CITU and to the wider sections of the workers in general. He reiterated the need to address the specific problems of the socially oppressed sections, including dalits, tribals, minorities and women, from the trade union platform and to raise the awareness among the workers on the need to change the present exploitative society to end all exploitation.

Elamaran Kareem, general secretary of the reception committee, proposed the vote of thanks.

The conference concluded with thunderous slogans which reflected the enthusiasm and determination of the delegates to carry forward its message to the nook and corner of the country and put into practice the slogan of the conference ‘Intensify the struggles to change the policies.’