People's Democracy

WEST BENGAL

12-Hour Bandh Condemns Dhupguri Killings

B Prasant

THE West Bengal unit of the CPI(M) organised a 12 hours long bandh in the three North Bengal districts of Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar and Darjeeling to register the popular condemnation of the wanton killing of CPI(M) workers. It will be recalled that five CPI(M) workers were killed at Dhupguri on August 17 by the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO).

The Kolkata district unit of the Left Front also organised a central rally in the metropolis on August 20 to protest against the assassination of these CPI(M) workers. A condolence rally was held on September 1 at Dhupguri.

In the meantime, throughout the state, day-long protest demonstrations were organised on August 18 to condemn the killings and to expose to the people the separatist misdeeds of the KLO. The last remains of the five comrades, who fell to the assassins’ bullets, were taken out in a massive procession at Dhupguri on August 18 afternoon for the final destination.

Briefing the media at Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan, state CPI(M) secretary Anil Biswas iterated how the dwindling political base of the KLO has made them so desperate that they are not averse to taking resort to killing leaders and workers of the CPI(M) in particular and of the Left Front in general.

Biswas was sharply critical of the irresponsible statements that emanated from the Trinamul Congress office on the issue of the Dhupguri murders. He made it abundantly clear that the Trinamul Congress, which had electoral ties with the KLO’s political wing, the Kamtapuri People’s Party (KPP), simply lacked the political and ethical right to make any such statements.

TRADE UNIONS’

ACTION PLAN

TRADE UNION convention held at the Kolkata University Centenary Hall on August 12 condemned the anti-people and anti-worker policies of the BJP-led union government and announced a six-point action programme.

The programme is a follow-up of the national-level trade union convention held on July 15 earlier this year at the Talkatora Stadium in Delhi. All central trade union organisations, except the BJP-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), attended the Delhi and Kolkata conventions.

Placing the resolution that was subsequently adopted unanimously, CITU leader Kali Ghosh said the economic and financial policies of the union government, dictated as they are by the World Bank-WTO-IMF trio, continue to cause ruination of the national economy. Our workers and peasants are being made to suffer untold miseries.

A vast number of industrial and manufacturing units have either fallen sick or had to be closed down. The BJP-led government in Delhi has made it one of its fixed aims to open out the Indian market to the depredations of corporate capital, whether Indian or foreign.

The so-called voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) and downsizing have contributed in a marked manner to the rising rate of unemployment. Lately, even the labour market is being opened out while the dubious measure of "outsourcing" has followed the footsteps of the clamping down of contract labour legislations.

Kali Ghosh also mentioned how the labour laws are themselves being changed for the worse. Signatures of a minimum of 100 workers are now necessary (as against 7, as was the practice) to enable a trade union to be recognised at any factory or manufacturing unit. In another sinister move, it is now stipulated that, in the event of the management’s perception that a trade union does not represent 10 per cent of the workforce, cancellation of that trade union’s recognition could follow.

Lalbahadur Singh (INTUC) mentioned how the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) is under constant pressure from the BJP and its allies in the NDA ministry in Delhi. It has been asked to try its level best to persuade the workers and employees of factories, which were sent to the BIFR, to agree to disinvestment.

Only the profit-earning public sector undertakings (PSUs), said Singh, are being targeted, as the corporate sector prefers to enjoy being in the top-level management of the state-run factories. The INTUC leader iterated how VRS has reduced manpower drastically and made the factories lack in viability. This, in turn, makes them vulnerable to corporate takeovers.

CITU leader Chittabrata Majumdar noted that the BJP-led government in Delhi is constantly pushing the nation into the jaws of an economic disaster. The advent of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation (LPG) has sapped the strength of Indian economy, said Majumdar.

Corporate capital is encouraged to ride roughshod over the remnants of the state sector of our economy. Industrialists are making bold to announce that the absence of all labour legislations would be the condition for setting up any production unit.

Citing the manner in which labour laws are being watered down and made to subserve the interests of corporate capital, Majumdar said the development itself could be utilised as a force to unify the trade unions across the political spectrum.

The CITU leader cited the instance of the formation of KCTU in the Republic of Korea ("South" Korea, as it is popularly known) where trade unions of all shades and sizes came together to take a principled and militant stand against the US-backed government in office there. The KCTU has since been successful in forcing the government to renege on some of its anti-worker moves, and the success had its impact on the political scenario in that country.

Regretting the absence of BMS from the national platform of trade unions in India, Majumdar urged for strengthening the united resistance to the BJP-led government’s penchant for acting as an agent of the Fund-Bank-dictated policies. The issue of the augmentation of united and joint struggles must be taken to the factory workers at the grassroots level and nothing should be left to spontaneity.

In order to make the joint movement the success it deserves to be, Majumdar said, the mass of the people must be made aware of the ruinous dimensions of the BJP-led government’s economic and industrial policies. Majumdar also announced the demands of the central trade unions. These are as below:

1) Profit-earning PSUs must not be disinvested.

2) Labour laws must not be changed against the interests of the workers and employees.

3) The decision to remove all quantitative import restrictions on agricultural and industrial items must be withdrawn.

4) A policy for generation of employment must be adopted.

5) Social security must be ensured and unemployment benefits organised.

6) Legislation to protect the interests of agricultural workers must be framed.

7) The bonus act must be revised so that the upper limit of the bonus to be paid is done away with.

8) The rate of interest on the provident fund must be fixed at 12 per cent.

Majumdar also announced the six-point action programme adopted by the participating trade union organisations:

a) A pledge would be taken on August 19 to launch an uncompromising struggle against the policy of unbridled liberalisation.

b) A campaign-movement would be run from August 19 to 24 on the basis of the demands mentioned above.

(The pledge-taking programme and the awareness campaign were conducted throughout the state enthusiastically --- Ed.)

c) September 23-28 will see district-level programmes of struggle.

d) State-level rallies and marches will be held between November 18 and 23.

e) There will be a nationwide mass satyagraha and civil disobedience by workers and employees on January 8.

f) In February 2003, millions of workers and employees will converge on the parliament on the third day of its next budget session.