THE 15th Maharashtra state conference of CITU was held at Uran in Raigad district. The

conference venue was named after the pioneer of the working class movement in India, Satyashodhak Narayan Meghaji Lokhande. The hall was named after Comrade M K Pandhe, and the stage was named after Comrade Prabhakar Dhonde.

In his inaugural speech CITU general secretary, Tapan Sen stated that the working class has to seriously ponder over a question that despite nationwide struggles against the anti-labour, anti-people and anti-nation policies of the BJP government, in which millions of people joined; Modi was able to win the parliament elections again in 2019 and that too with a bigger majority.  He said that this shows that the working class is failing in its political task and the main issue before the conference should be to seriously think it over and strategise accordingly. This will have to be done to save the country.

The conference flag was hoisted by CITU state president, D L Karad. In her welcome speech former minister, Meenakshitai Patil of the Peasant and Workers Party traced the rich contribution of Raigad district to the progressive traditions of Maharashtra. This is the district where Shivaji Maharaj based his capital. This is where B R Ambedkar commenced his historic mahad satyagraha for equality by burning the casteist ‘Manusmriti’, which has oppressive tenets against women and dalits.

Raigad district is also known for the peasants revolt and abolition of landlordism. From this district, thousands of mill workers migrated to Mumbai where they joined the workers struggles.

K R Raghu placed the condolence resolution. After the inaugural session an impressive rally of red flags wended its way through the town of Uran to the site of the public meeting. The meeting was presided by Madhusudan Mhatre. Tapan Sen, K Hemlata, Narsayya Adam, Shubha Shamim, M H Shaikh and Bhushan Patil spoke in the public meeting. The newly elected MLA from Dahanu, and CITU Maharashtra state secretary, Vinod Nikole was given a rousing felicitation.

In the delegates’ session, K Hemlata reiterated that though the principal task is to defeat the anti-worker and anti-national policies and ideological offensive of the Modi government and the RSS, introspection has to be there as to why the desired results are not achieved. She said, “we also have to self critically analyse the reasons why our membership has seen a decline, despite the active struggles of the past three years.”

M H Shaikh presented the political and organisational report. A total of 82 delegates spoke on the report, including 23 women delegates. They highlighted the need to strengthen the efforts for educating the cadre in the districts and re- activating the Comrade Prabhakar Sanzgiri Worker Education School.

The following resolutions were adopted in the conference; on fighting the communal forces on the strength of workers unity; regularising the scheme workers; social security and pension for unorganised sector workers; defending the public transportation system; organising the unemployed for the fight for policies to boost employment; revision of the common minimum programme to address the problems of workers and farmers; compensation for crop loss to farmers; implementation of minimum wages; abolition of contract working system;, removal of GST on medicines; and on making January 8, 2020 all India strike a grand success.

In the concluding session a new state committee consisting of 143 members was elected, including 41 office bearers. D L Karad, M H Shaikh and K R Raghu were re-elected as president, general secretary and treasurer of the state CITU. In his concluding speech, D L Karad paid tributes to senior CITU leaders R S Pande, Mane and Vijay Gabhne for their lifelong dedicated services to the organisation.

On behalf of the AIKS, its president Ashok Dhawale, greeted the conference and spoke about the need for unity of workers, farmers and agricultural labour to fight against the policies of the Modi government, and also to pressurise the newly formed non BJP government in Maharashtra to pay attention to the problems of workers and farmers. The conference was greeted by Prachi Hativlekar of AIDWA, Santosh Thakur of DYFI, Balaji Kaletwar of SFI and by fraternal trade union delegates, Krishna Bhoyar of AITUC and M A Patil of NTUI.