Hemalata
THIS May 30th, CITU will turn 54.
During this period of over five decades since its foundation, CITU made serious efforts to put into practice the slogan ‘Unity and Struggle’, adopted at its foundation conference. Through its persistent and untiring efforts to put this vital slogan into practice, CITU not only overcame all initial attempts to isolate it within the country’s trade union movement, but is today recognised as the champion in developing and strengthening united movements of the working class to protect the rights, wages, benefits and working conditions of the workers.
But, CITU’s objectives go beyond just protecting the existing rights, wages, benefits and working conditions of the workers or even improving them. CITU Constitution adopted in the first meeting of its working committee in Jaipur on October 2-4, 1970 categorically states that CITU ‘stands for the complete emancipation of the society from all exploitation’. It also affirms that ‘CITU believes that the exploitation of the working class can be ended only by socialising all means of production, distribution and exchange and establishing a Socialist State’. These are the objectives of CITU. CITU Constitution also strongly asserts that ‘no social transformation can be brought about without class struggle’.
Thus CITU set upon itself the task of uniting the working class and intensifying class struggle to achieve its objectives, by no means an easy task.
It is this ideological position that lies behind the slogan of ‘Unity and Struggle’. United struggles, for CITU, should lead to unity of the workers as a class and raise their class consciousness, so the working class understands its role in the struggle for transformation of the society and ending all exploitation.
While celebrating its foundation day, CITU can proudly claim that it has taken commendable initiatives for the development of the joint trade union movement, in ensuring its sustained movements, in formulating joint demands and united actions. We are always in the forefront in effectively implementing joint actions.
Today, the working class and common people of our country are facing tremendous challenges and attacks on all aspects of their lives. On the one hand, their livelihoods and working conditions are being subjected to brutal attacks by the neoliberal policies. On the other, communal and divisive forces, particularly those led by RSS are gaining influence, seeking to disrupt unity on the basis of religion, caste, language, region etc, weaken united struggles and thus benefit the big capitalist class. Modi led BJP government at the centre has been aggressively pursuing neoliberal policies and promoting the communal divisive agenda of RSS Hindutva during its ten years’ tenure.
This is not specific to our country alone. Faced with the systemic crisis of capitalism, the ruling classes in all capitalist countries and the governments representing their interests across the world are resorting to such attacks and are promoting right wing forces to divide the people, disrupt their unity and suppress dissent and opposition to their policies. Neoliberalism, which was adopted in the 1970s to address the capitalist crisis, has proved to be a failure. With international finance capital dominating the system today, capitalism till now is unable to find a solution to come out of this crisis within the existing framework. It has nothing to offer except further attacks on conditions of workers, weakening trade unions, loot and plunder of public resources to increase their profits and amass wealth. To facilitate this they are promoting right wing forces and authoritative and dictatorial governments.
The inalienable right to strike of the working class is now being questioned by the global capitalist class. Recently the governing body of ILO has, through a majority vote, decided to refer the issue of the right to strike to the International Court of Justice. Till now the accepted and settled position was that the right to strike is an intrinsic corollary to the right to organisation protected by ILO Convention 87. The employers’ class has been challenging this during the last around ten years and in connivance with several governments in capitalist countries have now conspired to deprive this right.
In contrast to reformist global trade union ITUC and its affiliated unions which welcomed the ILO decision to approach the ICJ, CITU, along with the other affiliates of World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) condemned questioning of the workers’ inalienable right to strike and asserted that it cannot be subjected to legal confrontation.
In our country, the Modi government’s policies proved to be a disaster for not only workers, peasants and other sections of toiling people, but to the nation as well. Unemployment, particularly among educated youth, has reached unprecedented levels. Lakhs of MSMEs have closed leading to huge job losses. Working conditions have worsened. Permanent jobs have drastically come down. Contract, temporary, fixed term, part time jobs, gig work etc and many other types of work without any job security, social security or workplace rights have increased. By passing the four labour codes, subsuming 29 existing labour laws, the Modi government sought to curtail the basic rights of the workers, deprive them of even the existing social security benefits and push them into virtual slave like conditions. Public sector, public services including health, education, transport and the country’s natural resources are being handed over to private corporates including foreign monopolies. Prices, particularly of the essential commodities have skyrocketed. Consumption has fallen. Indebtedness has risen, more markedly for the vast sections of the unorganised sector workers.
At the same time, under the Modi regime, the influence of RSS has penetrated deeply including among the workers. Large sections of workers, from all sectors - are becoming victims of the communal poison being spread by the RSS and its various outfits. There is also rise of fundamentalist forces in other religions. Religious and caste identities are gaining prominence instead of class identity. This is impacting united struggles and posing a big challenge to the development of class unity.
CITU can proudly claim to be conscious of the adverse impact of the neoliberal policies on the working class from the beginning. It has taken the initiative to develop united movement against neoliberal policies in 1991 itself. Country wide general strikes and innumerable sectoral struggles and strikes have been organised during the last thirty three years in our country, each strike surpassing the earlier one in the participation of workers. Six country wide joint general strikes were held with increasing participation in the last ten years of Modi’s rule, braving the Covid pandemic related restrictions in 2020. Today there is consensus in the joint trade union movement about the disastrous impact of neoliberal policies, though some of them, in the initial stages were reluctant even to oppose privatisation and contractorisation on the pretext that they were political issues and were not of concern to the workers. The joint trade union platform has given the call to defeat the Modi led BJP government in the recent parliament elections for its aggressive implementation of neoliberal policies.
In addition, CITU also emphasises the need to develop unity of all toiling people, particularly workers, peasants and agricultural workers. As per CITU Constitution, ‘CITU promotes relations of solidarity with the peasants and agricultural workers…’ and supports their struggles, for this purpose.
Accordingly, CITU took several initiatives to develop unity between workers, agricultural workers and peasants. Along with AIKS and AIAWU, it has been observing 19th January every year to commemorate the first country wide general strike after Independence, in 1982, when the trade union movement raised the demands of remunerative prices for farmers and comprehensive legislation for agricultural workers and ten people were killed in police firing on that day. Our initiatives in organising the mazdoor kisan sangharsh rallies contributed to the development of solidarity and support between the joint trade union movement and the joint kisan movement in the country. It is significant that the joint trade union movement and the Samyukta Kisan Morcha spearheading the joint struggle of the farmers have together organised a national convention on a common charter of demands on August 24, 2023 and gave call for joint actions and also called for the defeat of the Modi government.
While noting these significant contributions, this is also an occasion to examine and objectively assess how far have these initiatives led to the development of class unity of the workers and their class consciousness.
Comrade B T Ranadive, founder president of CITU, in his concluding address to the foundation conference, stated ‘… In India today, we are locked in a deadly combat with our main enemies, against the monopolies, against the big capitalists, and the government which protects them’. This is true, more than fifty years after they were spoken. This combat needs to be carried out with much more vigour, intensity and consciousness today.
The 17th conference of CITU held in January 2023, had a self critical examination of its organisation in a special session.It noted the initiatives for united and independent struggles by CITU were not reflected in its organisational strength in terms of membership and expansion. Vast mass of workers do not realisethat the monopolies, big capitalists and the government which protects them are their main enemies. Despite consistent united struggles against neoliberal policies during the last over three decades, the workers in general do not identify neoliberalism and the capitalist system as their main enemy even today. Increasing numbers of workers, from all sectors are under the influence of RSS led communal ideology. The consciousness about the need for class unity overcoming religious, caste, language and other divides promoted by the divisive forces is still lacking among most of the workers including members of CITU.
It has concluded that serious efforts have to be made to overcome this shortcoming. Along with other campaigns and struggles, it was decided that 2024 parliament elections should also be utilised to reach the mass of the workers and create this consciousness.
In line with this decision, CITU working committee, in its meetings at Rourkela in September 2023 and Hanumakonda in February 2024 emphasised the need to ensure livelihood issues of the workers remain in focus and the diversionary and divisive machinations of the BJP and its mentor the RSS for their electoral gains are defeated. Reports indicate that the joint trade union movement along with the joint kisan movement have to a an extent succeeded in ensuring that the discourse is not totally diverted towards divisive and communal issues though Modi and BJP tried their best to do it.
Five of the seven phases of elections to the 18thLoksabha are now over. The results will be out on June 4, and the new government will be formed in a few days.
It is a foregone conclusion that if the BJP returns to power, it will much more aggressively pursue its twin agendas of neoliberalism and Hindutva converting India fully into a junior strategic partner of US imperialism. At the same time, defeat of the BJP does not automatically mean that the new government would pursue alternative pro people policies, whatever promises are made in their manifestos. If the Left gets to have a stronger presence in the 18th Lok Sabha, as in 2004, the voices of the workers, peasants and other sections of common people would resonate in parliament, to such extent.
But what is more important for CITU, whichever political formation forms the government at the centre, is to continue its efforts for developing class unity and strengthening class struggle through its campaigns and struggles on the day to day burning issues of workers, at the same time not losing sight of its constitutional objective. The working class must be prepared to discharge its historic role and responsibility in transforming society, through its struggles on its immediate issues.
Foundation day of CITU is an occasion to reiterate the determination to step up efforts to achieve this.
or reload the browser
On CITU Foundation Day
Hemalata
THIS May 30th, CITU will turn 54.
During this period of over five decades since its foundation, CITU made serious efforts to put into practice the slogan ‘Unity and Struggle’, adopted at its foundation conference. Through its persistent and untiring efforts to put this vital slogan into practice, CITU not only overcame all initial attempts to isolate it within the country’s trade union movement, but is today recognised as the champion in developing and strengthening united movements of the working class to protect the rights, wages, benefits and working conditions of the workers.
But, CITU’s objectives go beyond just protecting the existing rights, wages, benefits and working conditions of the workers or even improving them. CITU Constitution adopted in the first meeting of its working committee in Jaipur on October 2-4, 1970 categorically states that CITU ‘stands for the complete emancipation of the society from all exploitation’. It also affirms that ‘CITU believes that the exploitation of the working class can be ended only by socialising all means of production, distribution and exchange and establishing a Socialist State’. These are the objectives of CITU. CITU Constitution also strongly asserts that ‘no social transformation can be brought about without class struggle’.
Thus CITU set upon itself the task of uniting the working class and intensifying class struggle to achieve its objectives, by no means an easy task.
It is this ideological position that lies behind the slogan of ‘Unity and Struggle’. United struggles, for CITU, should lead to unity of the workers as a class and raise their class consciousness, so the working class understands its role in the struggle for transformation of the society and ending all exploitation.
While celebrating its foundation day, CITU can proudly claim that it has taken commendable initiatives for the development of the joint trade union movement, in ensuring its sustained movements, in formulating joint demands and united actions. We are always in the forefront in effectively implementing joint actions.
Today, the working class and common people of our country are facing tremendous challenges and attacks on all aspects of their lives. On the one hand, their livelihoods and working conditions are being subjected to brutal attacks by the neoliberal policies. On the other, communal and divisive forces, particularly those led by RSS are gaining influence, seeking to disrupt unity on the basis of religion, caste, language, region etc, weaken united struggles and thus benefit the big capitalist class. Modi led BJP government at the centre has been aggressively pursuing neoliberal policies and promoting the communal divisive agenda of RSS Hindutva during its ten years’ tenure.
This is not specific to our country alone. Faced with the systemic crisis of capitalism, the ruling classes in all capitalist countries and the governments representing their interests across the world are resorting to such attacks and are promoting right wing forces to divide the people, disrupt their unity and suppress dissent and opposition to their policies. Neoliberalism, which was adopted in the 1970s to address the capitalist crisis, has proved to be a failure. With international finance capital dominating the system today, capitalism till now is unable to find a solution to come out of this crisis within the existing framework. It has nothing to offer except further attacks on conditions of workers, weakening trade unions, loot and plunder of public resources to increase their profits and amass wealth. To facilitate this they are promoting right wing forces and authoritative and dictatorial governments.
The inalienable right to strike of the working class is now being questioned by the global capitalist class. Recently the governing body of ILO has, through a majority vote, decided to refer the issue of the right to strike to the International Court of Justice. Till now the accepted and settled position was that the right to strike is an intrinsic corollary to the right to organisation protected by ILO Convention 87. The employers’ class has been challenging this during the last around ten years and in connivance with several governments in capitalist countries have now conspired to deprive this right.
In contrast to reformist global trade union ITUC and its affiliated unions which welcomed the ILO decision to approach the ICJ, CITU, along with the other affiliates of World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) condemned questioning of the workers’ inalienable right to strike and asserted that it cannot be subjected to legal confrontation.
In our country, the Modi government’s policies proved to be a disaster for not only workers, peasants and other sections of toiling people, but to the nation as well. Unemployment, particularly among educated youth, has reached unprecedented levels. Lakhs of MSMEs have closed leading to huge job losses. Working conditions have worsened. Permanent jobs have drastically come down. Contract, temporary, fixed term, part time jobs, gig work etc and many other types of work without any job security, social security or workplace rights have increased. By passing the four labour codes, subsuming 29 existing labour laws, the Modi government sought to curtail the basic rights of the workers, deprive them of even the existing social security benefits and push them into virtual slave like conditions. Public sector, public services including health, education, transport and the country’s natural resources are being handed over to private corporates including foreign monopolies. Prices, particularly of the essential commodities have skyrocketed. Consumption has fallen. Indebtedness has risen, more markedly for the vast sections of the unorganised sector workers.
At the same time, under the Modi regime, the influence of RSS has penetrated deeply including among the workers. Large sections of workers, from all sectors - are becoming victims of the communal poison being spread by the RSS and its various outfits. There is also rise of fundamentalist forces in other religions. Religious and caste identities are gaining prominence instead of class identity. This is impacting united struggles and posing a big challenge to the development of class unity.
CITU can proudly claim to be conscious of the adverse impact of the neoliberal policies on the working class from the beginning. It has taken the initiative to develop united movement against neoliberal policies in 1991 itself. Country wide general strikes and innumerable sectoral struggles and strikes have been organised during the last thirty three years in our country, each strike surpassing the earlier one in the participation of workers. Six country wide joint general strikes were held with increasing participation in the last ten years of Modi’s rule, braving the Covid pandemic related restrictions in 2020. Today there is consensus in the joint trade union movement about the disastrous impact of neoliberal policies, though some of them, in the initial stages were reluctant even to oppose privatisation and contractorisation on the pretext that they were political issues and were not of concern to the workers. The joint trade union platform has given the call to defeat the Modi led BJP government in the recent parliament elections for its aggressive implementation of neoliberal policies.
In addition, CITU also emphasises the need to develop unity of all toiling people, particularly workers, peasants and agricultural workers. As per CITU Constitution, ‘CITU promotes relations of solidarity with the peasants and agricultural workers…’ and supports their struggles, for this purpose.
Accordingly, CITU took several initiatives to develop unity between workers, agricultural workers and peasants. Along with AIKS and AIAWU, it has been observing 19th January every year to commemorate the first country wide general strike after Independence, in 1982, when the trade union movement raised the demands of remunerative prices for farmers and comprehensive legislation for agricultural workers and ten people were killed in police firing on that day. Our initiatives in organising the mazdoor kisan sangharsh rallies contributed to the development of solidarity and support between the joint trade union movement and the joint kisan movement in the country. It is significant that the joint trade union movement and the Samyukta Kisan Morcha spearheading the joint struggle of the farmers have together organised a national convention on a common charter of demands on August 24, 2023 and gave call for joint actions and also called for the defeat of the Modi government.
While noting these significant contributions, this is also an occasion to examine and objectively assess how far have these initiatives led to the development of class unity of the workers and their class consciousness.
Comrade B T Ranadive, founder president of CITU, in his concluding address to the foundation conference, stated ‘… In India today, we are locked in a deadly combat with our main enemies, against the monopolies, against the big capitalists, and the government which protects them’. This is true, more than fifty years after they were spoken. This combat needs to be carried out with much more vigour, intensity and consciousness today.
The 17th conference of CITU held in January 2023, had a self critical examination of its organisation in a special session.It noted the initiatives for united and independent struggles by CITU were not reflected in its organisational strength in terms of membership and expansion. Vast mass of workers do not realisethat the monopolies, big capitalists and the government which protects them are their main enemies. Despite consistent united struggles against neoliberal policies during the last over three decades, the workers in general do not identify neoliberalism and the capitalist system as their main enemy even today. Increasing numbers of workers, from all sectors are under the influence of RSS led communal ideology. The consciousness about the need for class unity overcoming religious, caste, language and other divides promoted by the divisive forces is still lacking among most of the workers including members of CITU.
It has concluded that serious efforts have to be made to overcome this shortcoming. Along with other campaigns and struggles, it was decided that 2024 parliament elections should also be utilised to reach the mass of the workers and create this consciousness.
In line with this decision, CITU working committee, in its meetings at Rourkela in September 2023 and Hanumakonda in February 2024 emphasised the need to ensure livelihood issues of the workers remain in focus and the diversionary and divisive machinations of the BJP and its mentor the RSS for their electoral gains are defeated. Reports indicate that the joint trade union movement along with the joint kisan movement have to a an extent succeeded in ensuring that the discourse is not totally diverted towards divisive and communal issues though Modi and BJP tried their best to do it.
Five of the seven phases of elections to the 18thLoksabha are now over. The results will be out on June 4, and the new government will be formed in a few days.
It is a foregone conclusion that if the BJP returns to power, it will much more aggressively pursue its twin agendas of neoliberalism and Hindutva converting India fully into a junior strategic partner of US imperialism. At the same time, defeat of the BJP does not automatically mean that the new government would pursue alternative pro people policies, whatever promises are made in their manifestos. If the Left gets to have a stronger presence in the 18th Lok Sabha, as in 2004, the voices of the workers, peasants and other sections of common people would resonate in parliament, to such extent.
But what is more important for CITU, whichever political formation forms the government at the centre, is to continue its efforts for developing class unity and strengthening class struggle through its campaigns and struggles on the day to day burning issues of workers, at the same time not losing sight of its constitutional objective. The working class must be prepared to discharge its historic role and responsibility in transforming society, through its struggles on its immediate issues.
Foundation day of CITU is an occasion to reiterate the determination to step up efforts to achieve this.
or reload the browser
