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Upcoming Events:


Earlier Events:
General Strike of 28th February
Enthusiastic Preparations All Over the Country

Demands of the Strike
The Issues before the Working Class

Price Rise
Enforcement of Labour Laws
Universal Social Security for Unorganised Sector Workers
Stop Disinvestment
No contractorisation
Assured Pension for all

Reports about the enthusiastic preparations to ensure a historic all India General Strike on 28th February are pouring in from all over the country.

The national leadership of all the central trade unions are touring the major cities and industrial centres in the country, attending several state level conventions, addressing joint rallies and holding discussions with the leadership of important industrial federations to ensure their effective participation in the strike.

Tapan Sen, general secretary of CITU, Sanjeeva Reddy, president of INTUC, Uday Patwardhan, senior vice president of BMS, Gurudas Dasgupta, general secretary of AITUC, Umraomal Purohit, general secretary of HMS and also of All India Railwaymen’s Federation, Sharad Rao, president of HMS and SR Kulkarni, president of Port and Dock Workers’ Federation of India met at the office of Western Railway Employees’ Union in Mumbai on 30th December 2011 to discuss the preparations for the strike. The state leadership of the central trade unions including PR Krishnan, secretary of Maharashtra state committee of CITU were also present in the meeting. Later they addressed a meeting organised by the Trade Unions Joint Action Committee held at National Railway Mazdoor Union hall in Matunga. In addition to the above leaders, Dr Shanti Patel, president of All India Port and Dock Workers’ Federation, RG Karnik, president of All India State Government Employees’ Federation, Suryakant Mahadik, president of Bharatiya Kamgar Sena and SK Bosh, secretary of National Railway Mazdoor Unio addressed the gathering comprising bank and insurance employees, college and university teachers, state and central government employees and industrial workers.

Public Sector Unions

A very successful convention of central public sector employees belonging to the unions affiliated to the central trade unions as well as independent unions was held in Bangalore on 13th January. Ghate Convention Centre in the HAL complex in Bangalore witnessed a massive assembly of representatives of almost all the unions in all the major public sector undertakings in all sectors. The national leadership of all the central trade unions – Sanjeeva Reddy, president of INTUC, BN Rai, general secretary of BMS, Tapan Sen, general secretary of CITU, Gurudas Dasgupta, general secretary of AITUC, RA Mittal, secretary of HMS, M Shanmugam from LPF, and the leaders from Joint Action Forum of Bangalore and of Hyderabad coordination committee of Public Sector Unions participated in the convention. S Dev Roye from CITU, H Mahadevan from AITUC and representatives of other trade unions acted as the presidium.

After detailed deliberations on the attacks on the PSEs, the convention unanimously adopted a Joint Declaration and decided to widely campaign among the workers on the issues being highlighted by the strike and ensure their en masse participation. The details of the joint declaration are given separately.

The leadership of all the five federations of Port and Dock workers in the country, affiliated to HMS, CITU, AITUC and INTUC met and decided to participate in the strike. They issued a joint statement calling upon all their affiliated unions to join the strike and ensure that all operations in all the ports in the country come to a stand still on the day.

Serious efforts are also being made by the trade union leadership in various other sectors. All the negotiating unions in NTPC and Powergrid Corporation issued joint appeals to the employees in their respective sectors for participation in the strike. The all India federations of Road Transport Workers’ Unions have decided to hold a national meeting on 31st January in New Delhi. In the Defence sector, all the three major federations are working jointly for the success of the strike. In the telecom sector, in the aftermath of the highly successful joint strike by the BSNL employees on 15th December, the unions are now making preparations to ensure bigger mobilisation in the strike. Federations in Petroleum sector are also meeting on 4th February.

Government Employees

The national conference of All India State Government Employees’ Federation, the largest organisation of state government employees in the country, held in Hisar in December, unanimously decided to participate in the strike. Its leadership at all levels is involved in making all the necessary preparations for a successful strike.

The Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers, representing all sections of central government employees including postal employees has also called for turning the strike into a massive action of protest. The Confederation leadership has chalked out a countrywide tour programme for the campaign to ensure that the message and demands of the strike are taken down to the central government employees at all levels.

The recent united struggle of postal employees against the threat of closure of RMS and Post Offices in the country, achieved success when the government was forced to give a written assurance not to close any office for at least the next three years, due to which the proposed indefinite strike was withdrawn. Now the postal employees’ unions are fully involved in the preparations for the success of the 28th February all India general strike. NFPE, FNPO and GDS union leadership have jointly decided to go on a countrywide campaign among the postal employees to ensure complete strike in the postal department.

State Conventions

In addition to these, the state committees of the central trade unions are organising joint conventions at the state and in some states at the district level. In several states, highly successful joint conventions have already been held; in the others, they are scheduled to be held in the coming days.

West Bengal

A massive open air joint convention was held in Kolkata on 9th January as part of the preparations for the 28th February all India Countrywide General Strike. The convention in which hundreds of workers and employees from different sectors participated, was presided over by a presidium comprising Shyamal Chakraborty, Ramen Pandey, Debashis Dutta, Shiba Prasad Singh, Lalta Prasad, Ashok Ghosh, Shyamal Kanungo and Samir Bhattacharya. It was addressed by Tapan Sen, general secretary of CITU, Sanjeeva Reddy, president of INTUC, BN Rai, general secretary of BMS, Gurudas Dasgupta, general secretary of AITUC, Abani Roy, from UTUC and other trade union leaders. Md Amin, vice president of CITU and Kali Ghosh, general secretary of its West Bengal state committee also participated in the convention. The speakers emphasised the need for united struggles to resist the onslaughts bestowed upon the working class by the UPA government.

Kerala

The state level convention in Kerala, for the preparation of the 28th February strike was held in Kochi on 17th January. Hundreds of workers and employees representing 16 state level organisations and central trade unions including CITU, INTUC, BMS, AITUC, HMS, UTUC, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, NLO, STU, TUCI, INLC, KTUC etc participated in the convention making it a full fledged representative meeting of all unions in the state. KN Ravindranath, president of Kerala state committee of CITU presided over the convention which was addressed by R Chandra Sekharan from INTUC, MM Lawrence from CITU and others. It was decided to organise a massive public convention of workers and employees to be addressed by the national leaders of central trade unions including AK Padmanabhan, president of CITU, Sanjeeva Reddy, president of INTUC, Gurudas Dasgupta, general secretary of AITUC and Saji Narayanan, president of BMS etc on 1st February in Kochi.

A state level convention of central and state public sector undertakings is scheduled to be held on 2nd February. District level joint conventions are planned to be held between 25th January and 5th February. It has been decided to organise vehicle jathas in all the districts between 21st February and 26th February to campaign for the strike. The notice for strike will be served by all the unions on 13th February and evening dharnas will be organised in all panchayats on 25th February.

Andhra Pradesh

Gandhi Bhawan, the venue for the state level joint convention in Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, was overflowing with workers and employees from all sectors, cadres and leaders of all the trade unions in the state. The state convention, first in the series of state conventions all over the country, was held on 5th January. More than 2500 participated in the convention. The constituents of the joint trade union movement in the state made effective preparations for the convention including distribution of ten thousand leaflets, holding press conferences etc. Participation of the national leadership of the central trade unions enthused the gathering. The general secretaries of the state committees of the central trade unions and federations acted as the presidium. The resolution on the demands of the strike and calling for effective preparations was placed by Adbul Khader of INTUC and seconded by Obulesu of AITUC. The national leaders spoke in detail on the issues involved in the strike and the apathetic attitude of the governments towards the problems faced by the workers and the common people. They narrated the developments since the last two years and on the growing unity among the central trade unions and urged upon the participants to preserve the unity achieved at the national level and take it to the grass root level.

Tapan Sen, general secretary of CITU spoke on need to strengthen the unity of the working class at the lower levels. He said that the small streams of movements and struggles of different trade unions in different sectors now merged into a big flow which the government could not prevent. He emphasised the need to intensify the struggles to reverse the anti worker policies of the government, in which the 28th February strike would be an important mile stone.

Sanjeeva Reddy, president of INTUC pointed out that though he was a member of the Working Committee of the Congress party as well as its MP in the Rajya Sabha, the INTUC has joined the other central trade unions in the struggle to bring into focus the plight of the workers. BN Rai, general secretary of BMS highlighted the problems of the contract workers, particularly the increasing contractorisation of work in the government departments. Gurudas Dasgupta, general secretary of AITUC criticised the attitude of the Prime Minister who he said, found time to talk to the big corporate bosses but had no time to discuss the issues of the workers with the trade unions.

Leaders from insurance, bank, state public sector employees’ unions and representative from TNTUC, the trade union wing of Telugu Desam party and others also spoke in support of the resolution after which it was unanimously adopted. It was decided to conduct similar joint conventions in all the district centres, municipal towns and industrial centres and mandal headquarters. The convention in one voice resolved to take the unity to the grass root level.

Haryana

A well attended joint state level convention of trade unions was held in Rohtak in Haryana on 13th December. Representatives of all the central trade unions, state government, bank, insurance, telecom employees etc participated in the convention. It was decided to hold a massive rally of workers in Faridabad on 19th February in support of the strike.



Brave-Heart towards
Brigade



1978         Geoffrey Moorhouse in 1978 presents a vivid description of  Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s rally on the Maidan, “They generally start about tea time, they rarely finish before nine o’clock… they are masterly exhibitions of organisation… The platform is high so that everyone on it will be visible at a great distance, and it is large enough to accommodate twenty or thirty… it is illuminated with spotlights, it flutters with red flags, and it has huge red backcloth upon which Lenin is straining resolutely forward from a thicket of banners. Everything is perfectly under control… as they sit there upon the ground, row after attentive row of them, a brigade of young women to the fore… distantly across the Maidan people have climbed trees and others are packed standing on top of the Esplanade tram shelters… there must be a hundred thousand here altogether… the leaders come through the guard of honour to the platform…it is only when Promode Dasgupta and Hare Krishna Konar are having their say… theirs is the oratory that sends men delirious with dreams, that can set a rabble to a march of destruction… when the speeches are done, the leaders begin to sing the Internationale… all over the crowd torches are swiftly lit and held high in flaring salute…”

2011        The gigantic crowd once again proved the overwhelming support of common mass for the party. On 13th February, 2011 massive sea of people broke all the records of last 10 years’ rally. Perhaps only the historic rally of November 29, 1992, can come to any comparison. Dependent sources claim that the number surpassed 15 lakh. The junction of Kona Expressway and Burdwan Road was the main passage for the comrades of Burdwan, Hooghly and Howrah. But they got blocked in Mumbai Road at around 12:15. At last they had to go by foot from the Calcutta approach terminal of the second Hooghly Bridge, and managed to reach Maidan at around 3:15. Even then the entire Bombay Road was floating in the crowd. Many comrades could not manage through the crowd and went back home. Each inch of the 22 kilometre distance from Kona Express to Maidan was replete with common mass with red flags on their shoulders. When the meeting ended at 3:30, a sea of crowd was waiting outside Maidan, finding no place to enter. A large chunk of people from South 24 Parganas could not enter and went back. If these accounts are taken in consideration; the actual number would perhaps cross the historic 25 lakh of the 1992 rally.

Towards Brigade 2012

From farmer, Land labour & working people to students, the people of West Bengal are facing an unprecedented state-endorsed attack on democracy and democratic rights. The tale of eight months of ‘Change’ has literally changed the secured social ethics of the state; if you are a college principal, you may be physically attacked, if you are a land labour or farmer you may have to commit suicide due to total government apathy, if you are a left activist, you will face a murderous attack. This attack on the people has resulted in the following:

•    55 left activists got killed, 4278 supporter activists are severely injured, 582 party offices got ransacked, and 3197 member supporters got detained by the police in false cases in the TMC regime till date.
•    30 farmers have committed suicide in the state
•    Hundreds of infants have died due to the appalling failure of the health department of the state
•    College Principals and school headmasters and teachers have been beaten up by Trinamool goons.
•    Land from 527 farmers amounting to 1000 acres has been snatched away. Additionally, 4700 patta-owners have been evicted from 2700 acres of land, 3710 bargadars have been evicted from 1587 acres of land while 14025 persons have been evicted from legally acquired land.
Yet brave-hearts will march towards brigade in protest against the anti-people government to renew the resolve to fight and s
trengthen the left. The West Bengal state committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has given a call to join in the open rally of 19th February, 2012 that concludes its 23rd State conference, at the Brigade Parade Ground.




See you at Brigade Parade Ground on 19th February
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