THE All India Agricultural Workers’ Union General Council, which met at the Mazdoor Kisan Bhavan in Jaipur on 17-18 August, has called on the agricultural workers to demonstrate before Parliament during the upcoming winter session to protest against the anti-poor and anti-rural policies of the BJP government at the Centre. In preparation to the demonstration before Parliament, the council decided to carry out an extended outreach programme to contact at least one million agricultural workers across the country. The council also decided to launch a massive ‘Save MNREGA Campaign’, highlighting the government move to dilute this flagship scheme and minimise the number of beneficiaries. This was the first meeting of the General Council after the 8th all-India conference of All India Agricultural Workers’ Union (AIAWU) held in Warangal of Telangana from July 30 to August 2, 2014. The meeting was presided over by AIAWU president S Tihiruvanakkarasu and vice presidents – Bhanu Lal Saha and Govindan Master. The council meeting registered 84.67 per cent attendance. Twenty-one members took part in the discussion on the General Secretary’s report. While presenting the General Secretary’s report, A Vijyaraghavan said that under the BJP government, the social security of the poor is under constant attack. The social security system aimed at benefiting the poor through direct government intervention is now being pushed deep into market mechanisms by linking various schemes and programmes with the market dynamics. He expressed dismay over the remarks of key functionaries in BJP government’s new think tank, NITI Ayog, that the millennium development goals are not realisable which he said confirms the government’s attitude towards the vast network of social security system that is in place to realise the very same goals. Vijyaraghavan said the constant rise in the number of agricultural workers is the direct consequence of neo-liberal agrarian policies that are being pursued over the last two decades. This also indicates the growing number of asset loosing rural people for whom selling their labour power is the only source of livelihood. This is a clear indication of increasing wage labour dependence in rural India. He also stated that as cultivation became a loss making occupation, considerable number rural population moving out of villages in search work either on short-term or on long-term basis. The rural migration is primarily limited to the crop season period and often, agricultural workers move within the state and occasionally to other states, he said. He strongly criticised the central government’s efforts to circumvent the MNREGA implementation indirectly. He said that year by year, the average number of working-days generated under this Act is decreasing. The BJP government decided to hand over the authority over MNREGA funds to a single banking giant and has devised such red tape measures so that MNREGA workers would not be able to get their wages in time. These measures will have serious implications for the future of the Act and future of agricultural workers, and are destined to aggravate rural distress. He called on the local units of AIAWU to study village-level and district-level situation to prepare concrete charter of demands on whose basis MNREGA workers hast to be mobilised. The AIAWU General Secretary criticised market-linking of welfare schemes, saying that these have become new instruments of mobilising savings from meager incomes of poor to meet the badly needed requirements of banking industry in India. He said Jan Dhan Yojana became an important vehicle for mobilising funds from poor rather than facilitating their financial inclusion as it was claimed. Under this scheme, more than Rs 20,000 crore have been mobilised from poor in this year. Under the Prime Minister’s Varishta Beema Yojana, another Rs 9000 crore were mobilised. Thus the new schemes introduced by the BJP government became channels for reverse flow of savings from the poor to the state. The report presented by the general secretary noted that an alarming situation was emerging in the context of food security of the poor. The scenario of food security of the country could not be understood by merely looking at the stocks in Food Corporation of India goodowns, said the report. The real status of food security needs to be assessed by looking at how the poor are able to access to these stocks lying in FCI godowns. The report noted in detail how the public distribution system is being marginalized putting the food security of the country at risk. The council members informed that lakhs of BPL cards were cancelled under various pretexts. Further the government failed starkly in controlling the prices of essential commodities. Moreover, with the proposal to un-bundle the Food Corporation of India and handing over the food procurement to private grain traders is sure recipe for starvation deaths. The council demanded to amend the PDS order 2015, which is aimed at phasing out Antyodaya Anna Yojana scheme benefiting the tribal people and nucleus family of old age couples. as well as denies the benefits of food security to the new entrants into family. The issue of landless and homeless rural poor came out prominently in the deliberations in the council meeting. More than 10 per cent of rural households are homeless and another 30 per cent of rural poor are landless. Put together nearly half of the rural population is homeless. This is another important area of neglect by successive governments. Also the council members who participated in discussion brought the issue of declining public health and education services to the poor in various states to the attention of the Council. It was informed by the council members from Rajasthan that the state government is planning to wind of primary schools and hand them over to private entrepreneurs along with assets worth thousands of crores in the form of school buildings, land attached to schools etc. Similar experiences were reported from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The council members from Andhra Pradesh explained the consequences of land pooling system adopted for construction of the new capital, on the wage income opportunities of agricultural workers. The members from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana brought to the notice of the council about the deteriorating socio-economic conditions of the agricultural workers and other poor and also the deteriorating situation of communal harmony and increasing tendencies of communal conflicts at village levels. They also discussed the serious growth of oppression against SCs, STs, women and minorities in social life as well as government legislation taking away the rights of working people of the country. On these issues, the council deliberated and decided to organise protest activities at the state level as well as national level. A call was given to observe the peasants and agricultural workers demands day on September 1 and to make the general strike of September 2 a success. For the first time, two invitees from West Bengal participated in the General Council meeting who reported to the council about the ongoing process of formation of the All India Agricultural Workers Union in West Bengal. They told the council that the organisational convention is scheduled by end of 2015 to announce the formation of West Bengal state unit of AIAWU. Intervening on the issue of MNREGA, AIAWU all India vice president and finance minister of Tripura Bhanu Lal Saha explained the financial web that is being woven around MNREGA to ensure that no one comes forward to work under the Act. He criticised the central government for setting up a middlemen by co-opting the single corporate bank network that led to inordinate delays in release of wages. CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Subhashini Ali while intervening in the discussion stress on understanding the dynamics of low-key communal attacks. She also asked the council to intervene in such occasions to safeguard the minority community people from physical attacks. Also she drawn the attention of the council towards the need to organsie women agricultural workers in all states at all levels keeping in view the increasing number of women agricultural workers. The AIAWU general secretary, replying to the debate on the report, called on the state units to prepare a year-long calendar of agitation and propaganda activities at various levels. He also stressed on the necessity of organising MNREGA workers across the country in order to protect their interests and also to save the only wage income programme for the rural poor. In his reply, the general secretary also called on the state units to study the concrete situation of rural workers, who are none other than the agricultural workers diversified by nature of their short term occupations to prepare a charter of demands to safeguard their interests. The council took the membership target of 67,00,000 for the year 2015-16, after closing the membership at 57,19,140, for the year 2014-15, an increase of 1,28,631 over the year 2013-14. Delivering the concluding speech, veteran council member of AIAWU and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member S Ramachandran Pillai called on the rank and file of agricultural workers union to take the lead in building widespread unity of the rural poor. He stressed the need to study and understand the changing class dynamics and class structures under neo-liberalism. He told the council that the classes in rural India are polarising fast under the impact of globalisation and now the rural rich consisting landlords, capitalist farmers and their allies who are having roots in capital intensive enterprises. To confront this rural rich, he asserted that a powerful movement of AIAWU is needed. And also he brought to the attention about the necessity of opening up new organisations that will work in close coordination with agricultural workers movement as a stepping stone to build wide spread unity of rural poor. He criticised the BJP government for back-tracking on its electoral promises and accelerating the agrarian crisis. He asked the AIAWU to focus on the increasing trend of migration and possibilities of organising the migrant workers as part of building the widespread unity of rural masses. The council adopted resolutions in support of September 2 workers strike with a call for observing demands day on September 1, on the problems of rural homeless and landless, and also condemning the increasing attack on social security of poor. The council meeting opened with the presidential address of S Thiruvanakkarasu who set the tone for discussion by focusing on the careless approach of the BJP government towards social security. AIAWU joint secretary Suneet Chopra placed the condolence resolution. The council meeting thanked the Rajasthan state committee of AIAWU for its excellent arrangements despite being a small movement. Comrade Shukla welcomed the council members on behalf of the reception committee. (END)