THE meeting of the general council of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), which concluded just as the direction of the policies of the BJP led NDA government at the centre were unfolding through its railway and union budgets, warned the working class of the ominous signs of escalation of the same policies pursued by the erstwhile Congress led UPA government. These policies led to increasing burdens on the people and the workers and led to the rejection of the Congress and its allies. The general council of the CITU called upon the working class to closely watch and understand the implications of the decisions and be prepared to protect the unity assiduously built over years and strengthen joint movements and struggles to protect their rights. The general council of CITU met from July 11–14, 2014 in the historic town of Bellary in Karnataka. 320 members of the general council including 38 women from 22 states attended the meeting.

The general council of the CITU, meeting in the backdrop of the recently concluded elections to the sixteenth Lok Sabha, self critically analysed the efforts of the CITU as a whole in implementing the decisions of its working committee held before the elections, which called upon the working class to defeat both the Congress and the BJP and support the Left candidates. The meeting, the first after the 14th conference of the CITU also examined the implementation of the decisions of the conference to ‘intensify struggles to change policies’ and ‘to reach the unreached’.

The meeting started on July 11 with the hoisting of the CITU flag by its president AK Padmanabhan and paying floral tributes to the martyrs. TG Vittal, working president of the reception committee welcomed the delegates. The general council paid rich tributes to the memory of R Umanath, veteran freedom fighter and leader of the trade union and communist movements of the country, KL Bajaj, vice president of the CITU and a leader of the CITU and the joint trade union movement of Maharashtra, Kali Ghosh, former national secretary of CITU and the general secretary of its West Bengal state committee for a long time, who made contributions to developing the trade union movement in the state. The general council also expressed its deep concern at the growing industrial and work place accidents as well as the accidents that were taking place due to the negligence of the profit greedy investors, as was seen in the loss of around 60 lives in the multi-storeyed building collapse in Tamil Nadu.

PRESIDENTIAL

ADDRESS

AK Padmanabhan delivered the presidential address in which he set out the tone for the deliberations in the meeting, in the background of the international situation and the global crisis that continues to adversely impact the lives and livelihoods of the people all over the world including in our own country.

He said that the results of the recent elections to the 16th Lok Sabha reflected the right wing shift in the political and economic situation in the country. Elections were won through money and media power and false slogans. Corporate media has today become an instrument to influence and mould public opinion. Padmanabhan said that it was necessary to analyse the union budget in detail and formulate suitable strategies to resist the onslaught on the workers and the common people in general.  It was also necessary to examine how we have carried out the decisions and the directions of the 14th conference to ‘intensify struggles to change policies’.

Referring to the global scenario, Padmanabhan said that the global crisis that set in around 2007-08 has not been overcome till now. The latest reports on US economy say that it has contracted by 2.9% in the first quarter of this year, its worst performance in five years. One of the major reasons for this is reported to be the reductions in public expenditure. Unemployment was increasing worldwide with youth unemployment crossing 50% in several countries in Europe like Spain, Greece etc. Migration, both internal and international migration including to war zones, was on the rise. Concern at the widening disparities is being expressed by various quarters – from Pope Francis, Noble Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, the economist Thomas Piketty, the ILO and also from Christine Lagarde, the current chief of the IMF, which has been pushing the neo-liberal policies that have led to the increasing disparities. According to the IMF chief, “In India, the net worth of the billionaire community increased 12 fold in 15 years, enough to eliminate the absolute poverty in this country twice over.” This vulgar accumulation of wealth was the result mainly, of following the prescriptions of the IMF and the World Bank.

It is being argued that amending the labour laws would create jobs. They want the workers to work under bonded labour like conditions to benefit capital. The collective bargaining rights of the workers are under severe attack globally. The number of collective agreements and the number of workers covered by them are drastically coming down.

The workers in many countries are up in arms against these policies of their respective governments that seek to come out of the crisis by pushing on the burdens of the crisis on to the workers and protect the interests of the corporates who are responsible for the crisis. The working class was launching struggles in different countries including the advanced capitalist countries like Britain which witnessed a country wide general strike just a day ago.

The presidential address also noted that imperialism was continuing its attempts to dominate the world, with its economic, political and military interventions in different parts. It was continuing its machinations to overthrow the democratically elected Maduro government in Venezuela. It was using West Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan as ‘stepping stones’ for extending its influence in the ‘former Soviet Union’. It has unleashed ‘constructive chaos’ in Ukraine. The USA has been supporting Israel which has attacked Gaza killing scores of people in Palestine settlements.

It is this situation, of increasing global attacks on the working class and a government guided by the RSS ideology of Hindutva and at the same time with a strong commitment to the neo-liberal agenda and obliged to the national and international corporates in power at the centre, that has posed a big challenge before the working class of the country. The CITU general council has to evolve strategies to unite the working class and mobilise it to protect not only the workers but the entire sections of the toiling masses and the self reliant economy and sovereignty of this country. CITU must take up all the issues confronting the workers in addition to the economic and work place issues, like social oppression, violence against women etc in order to build a strong movement. It is also necessary to popularise the vision of CITU of the need to end the exploitative capitalist system.

GENERAL SECRETARY’S

REPORT

Tapan Sen, general secretary of the CITU placed the report. The report pointed out that the CITU working committee meeting in Jaipur tried to identify the situation, challenges, dangers as well as possibilities before the working class in the context of the ensuing elections to the Lok Sabha. It decided that to protect the interests of the working class and the country, it was necessary to defeat both the Congress and the BJP led alliances, to resolutely fight against the fascistic Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and support the Left candidates in the elections. It has noted that the Left’s vision coincided with the vision of the working class. The major task outlined by the working committee of CITU was to bring into focus the policy issues and expose the pro-corporate neo-liberal policies of the Congress as well as the BJP, simultaneously expose the communal divisive agenda of the BJP that seeks to disrupt the unity of the workers and the people by dividing them on communal lines. It was also decided to widely propagate the alternative policies propagated by the Left parties and the need to strengthen the Left in the parliament.

But this decision could not be translated into action. Except in Tripura, in other parts of the country, the Left parties suffered an unprecedented marginalisation. An extreme right wing party with a pronounced divisive agenda and undisputed commitment to the neo-liberal regime, against which the workers have fought unitedly all these years, was voted to power. This indicated a serious deficit in involving and mobilising the workers for a political alternative to the present neo-liberal regime and unleashing their initiative at the ground level. The call of the CITU, to expose the policies and the politics behind the policies could not be effectively carried out. The strategy of the global capitalist order in the midst of the crisis is to depoliticise the workers and to marginalise the Left. We could not counter this. As result, the working class could not rise to the situation in these elections. This calls for a serious introspection to concretely identify the shortcomings and take corrective measures to face the future challenges.

Tapan Sen pointed out that the whole global capitalist order is in serious crisis today. Despite the repeated assertions that the system has entered the trajectory of revival, recovery was not visible or stable. As soon as some signs of recovery were discovered, another important area collapsed. The US economy is reported to have contracted by 2.9% because of the drastic cut in public spending. The burden of the crisis is sought to be passed totally on to the workers and they are the first to take to the streets against the onslaught on their living conditions. This background has to be kept in mind while analysing the developments in our country and their social and political ramifications. He also asserted that global challenges could not be effectively met with local consciousness and lack of class orientation in our work.

The general secretary’s report observed that there was lack of proper class orientation and effective organisational approach in the campaign among the mass of the workers because of which the benefits of our struggles were reaped by our class enemies. Even sections of the traditional Left voters were influenced by the blitzkrieg of the BJP. The lower union and unit level cadres who alone can reach the grass root level workers were not adequately prepared politically and organisationally. Though CITU cadres in almost all the states took initiative to campaign for the Left candidates, collected huge funds and published and distributed lakhs of leaflets, pamphlets etc, this was not adequate to win over the confidence of the workers and their families in support of the Left.

The general secretary’s report noted that the economic situation in the country continued to be in a critical situation. Three major manufacturing units in West Bengal owned by big corporate houses – Hindustan Motors of Birla, Jessop of Ruia and Dunlop of M/s Duckback have been closed during the last one year. The trend of converting manufacturing units into real estate ventures under the neo-liberal regime indicates a perversion in the industrial economy against productive employment generation. In Tamil Nadu Nokia’s manufacturing unit employing 8000 workers is in the process of being closed after Microsoft has taken over Nokia as a whole. In addition, all its ancillaries and suppliers have started shutting shop leading to huge job losses, mostly of young workers. There were similar instances in other states too.

There is severe unrest among the workers including in the organised sector because of mass scale contractorisation, casualisation, lack of implementation of labour laws etc. It is necessary to organise the workers in these modern industries, which constitute the nerve centre of the capitalist system. Without effective presence in these strategic and sensitive sectors and without bringing the workers of these sectors into the frontline of the leadership of the working class movement, it is not possible to advance in our objective of fighting out the exploitative system. Our weakness in these sectors results in large sections of the modern working class falling prey to the machinations of our class enemies in various ways, weakening the striking power of the trade union movement.

ATTENTION TO

CADRE DEVELOPMENT

The report also emphasised the need to change the organisational approach of our work in the unorganised sector paying more attention to cadre development from among the unorganised sector workers. The importance of taking up the specific issues of the socially oppressed sections among the workers, of developing joint movements of the workers and the beneficiaries in sectors having direct interface with the people as in the case of public services was also emphasised.

The general secretary’s report particularly noted the importance of continuing the joint trade union campaigns and struggles in view of the changed political scenario. Strengthening independent campaigns and struggles paved the way for sustaining joint movements, it pointed out.

67 general council members participated in the discussion on the general secretary’s report and while endorsing the report highly enriched it with their experiences. After Tapan Sen summed up the discussions replying to a few points raised, the report was unanimously adopted. The concrete tasks proposed by the general secretary were also unanimously adopted by the general council.

The general council also unanimously passed resolutions on the union budget, against the reduction in the SC Sub Plan in the budget, against the attacks on the trade unions, the Left and other sections by the Trinamool goons in West Bengal and strongly condemning the Israeli attacks on Gaza killing hundreds of civilians including women and children.

In his concluding remarks, Padmanabhan thanked the Karnataka state committee and the Bellary district committee of the CITU which made very good arrangements for the general council members facilitating the smooth conduct of the meeting.

An impressive mass rally was held on the evening of July 14 in which thousands of workers, large number of them women workers, participated. The rally which was presided by VJK Nair, president of Karnataka state committee of CITU, was addressed by AK Padmanabhan, Tapan Sen, Prasanna Kumar, national secretary of CITU and the general secretary of its Karnataka state committee and S Varalakshmi, national secretary of CITU and vice president of its Karnataka state committee. The state committee of CITU also organised five jathas, 'Workers' Rights Awareness Jathas’ that traversed the entire state on the occasion of the general council meeting.

Tasks

1.    West Bengal Solidarity Day – One day during August 1- 7, 2014 to be observed as West Bengal Solidarity Day with effective preparation and campaign; massive demonstrations to be held on different days of the week in different centres in the state, as decided by the state committees of CITU, with immediate feedback to the all India centre

2.    Violence on Women – A national seminar to highlight different aspects of violence against women including political violence followed by state level conventions and campaign up to the grass-root level

3.    Joint actions of CITU with the beneficiaries organisations in sectors having public interface; CITU state committees to take more initiative for effective implementation of the joint action to ‘Save ICDS’ along with AIKS, AIDWA and AIAWU; similar joint activity to be developed in the field of Electricity, along with the Electricity Employees’ Federation of India with the initiative of CITU

4.    Special attention to be paid to organise the workers in the organised sector, both contract and regular workers in public and private sectors with effective preparation of teams of cadres

5.    Prepare for sector wise campaigns and struggles of the workers in different segments of the unorganised sector with specific efforts to develop internal cadres and leaders

6.    Intensify efforts to develop the movement of the scheme workers, including the other sections in addition to anganwadi employees, ASHAs and mid day meal workers

7.    Efforts to integrate the pensioners’ movement with the trade union movement; state committees of CITU to try to form EPF pensioners’ organisations in sectors associated with CITU

8.    Brain storming session on young workers issues

9.    State committees of CITU and concerned unions to act upon the concrete issues raised in the workshops on the specific concerns of tribal workers, particularly in the mines, plantations etc

10.                       Formation of national federation of mid day meal workers at the earliest

11.                       Organise the railway contract workers, caterers, hawkers etc with renewed initiative; all state committees to pay due attention to this important task

12.                       Develop coordinated movement of brick kiln workers in the northern states and also of the jute mill workers movements in different states

13.                       Develop coordinated movement in the NCR

14.                       Padav of mid day meal workers near Parliament from  August 5

15.                       CITU state committees to ensure success of the joint movements in different sectors like coal, steel etc

16.                       Ensure success of the meeting of the public sector unions affiliated and associated with CITU on August 30– 31 along with the concerned state committees deputing a senior leader to the meeting

17.                       Observe International Day of Action of World Federation of Trade Unions focussing on the problem of unemployment

18.                       Reporting of the understanding, formulations and decisions of the CITU general council up to the lowest level of the organisation on the basis of the points for reporting to be sent by the centre; send quantified feedback to the all India Centre.