People's Democracy

DYFI Holds Kerala State Conference

N S Sajith

PROVING its ineradicable place among the youth of Kerala and vowing to launch new struggles, the recent twelfth state conference of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) culminated in a massive rally in Hugo Chavez Nagar in Alappuzha town. The conference took place from May 21 to 23 and was a new experience for the town which is also as the Venice of the East. Apart from the delegates session, seminars on various subjects, sports and cultural events attracted the attention of thousands of people across the district.

Marking the beginning of the conference on May 21, DYFI state president M Swaraj hoisted the white flag which was brought from the martyrs’ column at Koothuparamba. The latter is the place where five DYFI workers made supreme sacrifice in 1994 in the struggle against commercialisation of education. Prior to the flag hoisting, DYFI state secretary T V Rajesh lighted a huge torch erected near the conference hall. The blaze was lighted with a torch brought from Vaikom where a systematically organised agitation against orthodoxy to secure rights of the depressed classes had taken place during 1924-25.

The conference began with a song written by renowned poet Ezahcheri Ramachandran and sung by Paravur Public Library choir group. M A Baby, member of the CPI(M) Polit Bureau, inaugurated the delegates session. A message from O N V Kurup, Jnanpith laureate, was read out by M Swaraj. DYFI state treasurer K S Sunil Kumar and joint secretary C Sumesh placed the martyrs resolution and the condolence resolution respectively after organising committee convener Manu C Pulikkan welcomed the delegates and leaders. 

CPI(M) Central Committee member Dr T M Thomas Isaac, organising committee chairman G Sudhakaran MLA, senior communist leader P K Chandranandan, CPI(M) district secretary C B Chandrababu, DYFI all-India general secretary Abhoy Mukherjee and joint secretary Tapas Datta were among those who attended the inaugural session.

After the inaugural session T V Rajesh presented the report and the organisational document. The DYFI’s all-India president, M B Rajesh, presented the organisational report. 

In the evening CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated a seminar on the Left Movement in the 21st Century. CPI state secretary Pannyan Ravindran, Forward bloc leader G Devarajan, JD(S) leader Mathew T Thomas and RSP leader N K Premachandran were among those who participated in the seminar. 

On May 22, delegates engaged in a thorough discussion over the reports. The delegates stressed the inescapable necessity of launching new struggles for education and employment. The conference also urged its cadre to take up voluntary works and start a movement to protect the environment. It also pushed for an intensive struggle against the communal organisations in the state. Through a resolution, the conference demanded that the state government must take immediate measures to check the death of infants in the Attappadi tribal area in Palakkad. 

The conference unanimously elected an 81 member state committee, which then elected T V Rajesh as president and M Swaraj as secretary along with a 25 members secretariat. Other office bearers: T V Anita, P P Divya, K Rajesh, P Biju, Roshan Roy Mathew (vice presidents), P A Muhammed Riays, A N Shamseer, C Sumesh, G Muralidharan, V P Rajeena (joint secretaries), and K S Sunilkumar (treasurer).

On the last day of the conference, more than one lakh youth from Alappuzha district rallied to Hugo Chavez Nagar in Alappuzha. The public meeting was addressed by Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar. CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Dr Thomas Isaac, T V Rajesh, M B Rajesh, Abhoy Mukherjee, M Swaraj and C B Chandrababu also addressed the gathering.