THE eighth conference of Central Zone Insurance Employees Association (CZIEA) called upon insurance employees across the country to work for formation of such a government at the centre that would have a positive attitude towards the working class movement and that would be opposed to neo-liberal policies. It also called for exposing the ulterior motive of the corporate India to divide the Indian political landscape into a BJP-Congress affair. The conference was held in Gwalior from 15th to 18th December 2013, hosted by the Gwalior Divisional unit of CZIEA, the GDIEA. It was attended by 274 participants, among whom were 111 delegates and 163 observers, including 21 women. The conference discussed about the frantic attempts of the ruling classes to project an alternative in the shape of Narendra Modi to the UPA-II government led by the Congress, which is getting unpopular by the day because of its thoroughly anti-people policies. It felt this attempt was to ensure that the Left and democratic forces are not able to mobilise the people for the reversal of the neo-liberal policies. In such a situation, it is the bounden duty of the insurance employees led by AIIEA to do everything possible to create public opinion to see that in 2014 general elections neither the Congress nor the BJP form a government, felt the conference. The conference venue was named after the legendary communist and trade union leader Comrade Samar Mukherjee while the dais was named after the doyen of trade union movement, Comrade M K Pandhe. A huge rally was taken out in the well decorated city of Gwalior in which people from all walks of life participated. The rally reached the venue of the inaugural session, Jain Chhatravas, through a special gate erected in the name of renowned trade union leader and a sharp parliamentarian, Comrade Dipankar Mukherjee. Before the inaugural session the flag of CZIEA was unfurled by the president of CZIEA, S R Urdhwareshe. The chief guest of the conference, AIIEA general secretary, K Venugopal, placed wreath on martyrs column followed by delegates and observers. A two minutes silence was observed in memory of the martyrs. The inaugural session was presided over by S R Urdhwareshe while chairman of the reception committee D S Raghuvanshi delivered the welcome address. Inaugurating the conference AIIEA general secretary K Venugopal recalled the birth of CZIEA in 1992 at a time when the imperialist-driven economic reforms were initiated by the central government. So the struggles conducted by the CZIEA since its birth witnessed many a successes of the working class of this country against the onslaughts of the neo-liberal policies and the important ones among them was thge stalling of privatisation of LIC and the nationalized general insurance companies for so many years. He said the AIIEA has waged many struggles against the anti-people policies of successive central governments since its inception. Its struggles to safeguard LIC has strengthened the Corporation where today it has more than 80 per cent market share of insurance industry. AIIEA with its organisational capacity had achieved many more victories in the fight against government policies. He said another option of pension and better wage revision can only be achieved by further struggles. Reminding about the imperialist and multinational companies continuing pressure on the government to increase FDI in insurance sector, the AIIEA leader said this can be defeated by campaigning against these policies among masses in the society. This pressure of the imperialist countries is also linked to the severe economic crisis in their countries and the need to shift the burden on to developing countries. Both the ruling parties, Congress or BJP are committed to implementation of these neo-liberal policies and thus need to be defeated in the coming Lok Sabha elections. He called upon employees to continue the campaign against privatisation in general and privatisation of insurance sector in particular. He also urged employees to remain prepared for a bitter struggle to have a well deserved wage revision. The state president of Madhya Pradesh CITU, Ramvilas Goswami also addressed the conference and urged the workers to remain united to fight against these imperialist driven policies. The delegate session of the conference started on 16th December with the placing of general secretary report on behalf of the working committee. The report dealt with national, international, industrial and organisational matters of the last three years for the consideration of the conference. A total of 44 delegates participated in the lively discussion which continued for more than 20 hours, including the interventions made by K Venugopal and joint secretary of AIIEA, V Ramesh. lucid expositions in the delegate session dealt with the concrete conditions Explaining lucidly why the nationalised insurance industry in our country was making advancements in spite of negative trends in the entire world, Ramesh highlighted the role of AIIEA in this. He also gave a detailed discourse on the various aspects of the achievements of AIIEA like upgradation of part time sweepers and cleaners, regularising the temporary employees, enhancing group term insurance scheme, preventive health check scheme for employees and so many other benefits for the employees. The conference decided on several organisational matters. After the general secretary B Sanyal summed up the discussions, the report along with the audited statement of accounts, were adopted by the conference unanimously. It also unanimously elected a 43-member Working Committee with N Chakraborty, B Sanyal and B K Thakur as president, general secretary and treasurer respectively. The conference paid rich tributes to the immense contributions made by S R Urdhwareshe to the cause of the insurance employees movement as the president of CZIEA since its formation. The conference while relieving him from the post of the president thanked him for the contribution to the organisation. It also thanked S K Ghosh for his contribution to the cause of insurance employees as joint secretary of CZIEA right from 1992. Ghosh was also relieved from the post of joint secretary by the conference. The conference accepted the request of Bilaspur Divisional Unit (BDIEA) for hosting the 9th conference of CZIEA.