People's Democracy

MAHARASHTRA

 CITU Holds State Conference At Nagpur

 P R Krishnan

THE three day Maharashtra state conference of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) concluded on November 10 at Nagpur with a stirring call to the working class to fight back the anti-working class and reactionary policies of the BJP led Vajpayee government at the centre and the coalition government of the Indian National Congress and Nationalist Congress Party, led by Sushil Kumar Shinde, in the state. The first day of the conference turned out to remarkably memorable for the Nagpur people as they witnessed a militant and colourful procession with the CITU’s red flags and banners marching through the main thoroughfares of Nagpur city where the RSS has its headquarters. The procession was also remarkable for raising full-throated anti-communal and anti-government slogans. This procession later on culminated in a public rally at the Hindi High School maidan in the heart of this orange city of Maharashtra.

The main speaker at the 5,000 strong public meeting and for the conference was M K Pandhe, general secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions. In addition to his address in the inaugural session and at the public rally, Pandhe also addressed a press conference in Nagpur where he exposed the anti-people policies of the Vajpayee government and put forward the CITU line on all vital issues that the country is faced with. His speeches and public address could catch headlines in newspapers, which brought home to the people of Nagpur the glorious tradition of working class movement, though the RSS would not have liked to hear anything of such a past history.

The Nagpur City, popularly known in India as Orange City, was colourfulyl decorated with arches, red flags, banners and wall posters with CITU demands. The slogans inscribed in the wall posters and banners gave inspiration to fight back the growing danger of communalism and to build up working class unity. They exposed the increasing number of closures and sickness in industries and demanded a halt to privatisation of public sector industries. A large number of the participants in the procession were women workers. The reception committee comprising Kumkum Shirpurkar, Amrut Meshram, Ashok Waderkar, V V Asai, Manohar Mule, Mohammed Tajuddin and others had made elaborate arrangements for the conduct and success of the conference. The accommodation arrangements for the delegates were made in Shetkari Bhavan, Om Mangal Karyalaya and Adhyapak Bhavan. CITU’s Maharashtra state committee president Prabhakar Sanzgiri chaired the public rally as well as conference proceedings.  

The steering committee, which conducted the proceedings, comprised the office bearers of state CITU. The conference elected three committees for conducting the proceedings. Of these, the resolutions committee comprised D L Karad, P R Krishnan, Suman Sanzgiri and Hemkant Samant. The credentials committee consisted of Anna Sawant, Sitaram Thombre and Kisan Gujar. The minutes committees comprised S K Rede, Rajendra Pawar, Subha Shamim and Sanjaut Raot.

The venue of the conference was Adhyapak Bhavan in the heart of Nagpur city, which is the second capital of Maharashtra. This was named “Bindhya Prasad Kashyap Nagar.” B P Kashyap, in whose commemoration the conference venue was named, was one of the founder leaders of the CITU and CPI(M) in Maharashtra.

The proceedings of the conference started on November 8 morning, at Adhyapak Bhavan with the hoisting of red flag by the state president Prabhakar Sanzgiri. This was then followed by floral tributes to the martyrs. The 290 delegates to the conference comprised representatives from different industries and hailed from all districts of Maharashtra. In addition to the elected delegates, there were observers, invitees and representatives from other central organisations and national federations. Among the participating delegates were 55 women. The representatives from fraternal organisations who greeted the conference were Ashok Dhawale of the All India Kisan Sabha, S Q Zama (INTUC), S K Bose (NRMU), G M V Nayak (BEFI), Mohan Sharma (AITUC), Narad Singh (HMC) Sarup Singh (Joint Council of Trade Unions) and Vijay Javandia (Shetkari Sanghatana).

The conference adopted 12 resolutions on significant issues of national and international importance. However, the main item for discussion in the delegates session was the report of the state CITU general secretary K L Bajaj, which dealt with the major issues  facing the working class and the several agitations organised by the CITU independently as well as the struggles conducted jointly with other trade union organisations in Maharashtra and at national level. K R Raghu, the treasurer, placed a statement of accounts. The concluding part of the general secretary’s report contained 12 points for future actions and struggles. In the discussion which followed the general secretary’s report, 56 delegates took part. It was heartening to note that 9 of them were women delegates from different industries.     

Among the resolutions passed in the conference were (1) on the right to strike and the Supreme Court judgement on Tamil Nadu government employees’ strike (2), against the separation of Vidarbha from Samyukta Maharashtra, (3) on problems of the unorganised labour, (4) on the danger of communalism, (5) on the US led war on Iraq and its occupation, (6) on the scarcity and drought situation in Maharashtra, (7) on the problems facing the sugar mills and sugarcane cutting workers, (8) against privatisation of public sector industries, (9) on the agitation of Tata Power Company employees and the suicide of two workers (Anant Dalvi and Akbar Khan), (10) for extension of and improvement  in the functioning of the ESI and PF schemes, and (11) for release of bonus to state government employees which the Maharashtra state government has withheld. All the resolutions were passed unanimously.

The conference then elected a 56 members state general council with Prabhakar Sanzgiri as state president, K L Bajaj as state general secretary and K R Raghu as treasurer. The other state committee office bearers are Ahilya Rangnekar, Fatima Baig, Narsaya Adam Master, Udhav Bhawalkar, Saeed Ahmed, Suryaji Salunke, V G Padmanabhan, Ramji Vertha (MLA), Sitaram Thombre, V V Asai, Mahendra Singh (vice presidents), D L Karad, P R Krishnan, Vivek Monteiro, Suman Sanzgiri, Amrut Meshram, Anna Sawant, Hemkant Samant, Datta Mane, M M Shaikh, Sidhappa Kalshetty and Sitaram Lohakare (secretaries).

“The main task before the working class in Maharashtra is to build up unity among all trade unions to launch statewide powerful struggles against the anti-people policies of the Vajpayee government at the centre and the anti-working class policies of Sushil Kumar Shinde government in Maharashtra,” said K L Bajaj after the successful conclusion of the conference proceedings.