All India Education Convention

February 19, 2010: In the run up to the All India Education Convention in JNU, SFI had organized a rally in Delhi University which was followed by a public meeting at Vivekanda statue, Arts Faculty. The rally started from Vishwavidyalaya metro Station at 11am with SFI delegates from all over the country participating in it. The rally culminated in a public meeting addressed by former all India general secretary of SFI and Former M.P. Com.Nilotpal Basu ,All India General Secretary of SFI Com.Ritabrata Bannerjee,All India Joint Secretary Com.Shivadasan and Delhi State President Com.Roshan. Com.G.Selva presided over the meeting.

The rally echoed the resolve of the SFI and the larger student community to resist the commercialization and centralization of education and reaffirmed the legacy of the ‘study and struggle’. This resolve was resoundingly reflected in the public meeting as the speakers addressing the meeting asserted the basic right of the students to education and also the democratic rights of the students, while highlighting the anti-people anti-student nature of the policies pursued by the congress led UPA government.

Com.Nilotpal Basu began his inspiring and insightful address by reminding the comrades of the great anti-imperialist legacy of the student movement in India as the conscious and awakened student community having accessed the modern education and hence the modern ideals performed a crucial role in the anti-imperialist freedom struggle against the British colonizers. Focusing on the worsening status of India in terms of Human Development and grossly inadequate expenditure on education inspite of the universalisation of education being included in the directive principles of the constitution, he urged the students to rise in unison to address these issues and struggle for the achievement of the unfulfilled [i]promises in the education sector so as to change the present set up which is marked by highly inegalitarian tendencies. Criticising the empty-rhetoric mongering of the self proclaimed ‘revolutionary’ organizations Com. Basu said that the question posed before the student community is whether to struggle over the real issues of education, employment, inequalities or to indulge in the anarchist violence in the name of revolution, without ever raising a voice of protest over the actually existing injustices. Exposing the hollow commitment of the UPA government to the universalisation of education he said that there has been no financial memorandum along with the right to education act, laying down the provision of funds for its implementation. He further attacked the UPA government for the proposal of HRD ministry to centralize the decision making processes regarding the education by bringing all the matters in the domain of a 7 member ‘expert’ group as this proposal is essentially anti-democratic as it completely neglects the diverse nature of the issues faced by the different parts and the sections of the country. Com.Basu emphasized the necessity of resisting these policies through the united action of students along with the working classes of the country and asserting the right to education. He concluded by saying that let a wave of struggles emerge in this country to defeat the anti-people anti-student policies of the UPA government.

Com.Ritabrata Banerjee drew the attention of the comrades to the spate of organized assaults on the student community from the government and affirmed the resolve of the SFI to resist these assaults steadfastly. Asserting that ‘when politics determines education, we have to determine politics’ he asserted the necessity of the struggle to maintain and regain the democratic rights of the student community which have come under the axe of neoliberal regime which has set out to depoliticize the student community. Saluting the Undying legacy of the martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for SFI Com.Ritabrata appealed the comrades to uphold SFI’s legacy of ‘Study,Struggle and Sacrifice’.

Com.Shivadasan placed the assaults on the student community in the larger context of the rightwing assaults on left-forces and emphasized that SFI needs to rise up to these challenges as a part of the larger democratic movement in the country.

Com.Roshan focused on the impossibility of the universalisation of education under the neoliberal-capitalist regime as the education being seen in its fullest meaning raises the level of consciousness of the students which would motivate them to fight against the prevalent injustices and oppressions under the neoliberal-capitalist regime. He asserted the opposition of the SFI to the foreign education providers bill as it essentially amounts to the commecialisation of education and is motivated by the profit-making drive.

Delhi State Secretary of SFI Com. Robert Rahman Raman delivered the vote of thanks and the Delegates from all over the country proceeded to JNU for the all India Education convention, only to sharpen and intensify the struggle against the commercialization and centralization of education.

SFI CEC also takes this opportunity to congratulate its Presidency College Unit, Kolkata District Committee and WB State Committee for winning the Presidency College Students’ Union Elections.

Great Victory for SFI in Westbengal College Elections

The Students Federation of India (SFI) not only retained its dominance but also increased its strength in the students’ union election of the Presidency College on Friday. The SFI won the students’ union election for the second consecutive year winning 39 seats while the Opposition, including the Independent Consolidation (IC) and the Trinamul Congress Chhatra Parishad (TCP), bagged 32 of the 71 seats.
Meanwhile, the SFI also made a near clean sweep in the students’ union elections at the Scottish Church College by winning 33 of the 37 seats.

• 14 colleges election was held on 19.02.10 at nadia districts in west bengal. Out of these 14 colleges SFI wins at 7 colleges.
• .kalayani mahavidyala= sfi 45 - tmcp 8
• chakdaha college= sfi 59- tmcp 0
• haringhata mahavidyalaya = sfi 38- tmcp 8
• krishnagar govt college = sfi 84 -tmcp 0
• krishnagar commerce college = sfi 76- tmcp 0
  
• sfi also wins at chapra college and in bethua college with a healthy margin.
• in north 24 pargana sfi wins at naihati rishi bankim chandra college morning at 33-10 margin

CITU DENOUNCES THE GOVERNMENT DECISION TO ENHANCE PRICES OF UREA AND OTHER FERTLISERS

CITU strongly opposes the Government’s decision to increase the Urea price by 10 per cent and to deregulate prices of other fertilizers. CITU also denounces much opposed Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) scheme for phosphatic and potassic fertilizers.

The decisions once again exposes Government’s total insensitive approach and apathy to the plight of the people reeling under skyrocketing price of essential commodities, mainly the food items. The Government has renewed its attempts to deregulate the prices of essential agricultural inputs like fertilizer to allow the manufacturers to garner huge profits through sale of their products at global price under Import Parity Price (IPP) method, which is most unrealistic and has no link with the actual production cost.

CITU strongly feels that this decision coupled with Government’s effort to increase the price of Diesel will destabilize the food security of the India, specially when the country is facing severe draught and flood situations in various parts of country and the agricultural productivity has declined. The so called explanation given in favour of the NBS that it will depict the actual demand of the fertilizers in the country and promote realistic pricing of fertilizers in the internationals market, is a reprehensible attempt to mislead the people when actual objective of the Corporate - friendly Government is to allow the fertilizer producers to hike the prices of their products to the level of International price. Deregulation of pricing in fertilizer industry to attract fresh investment in this sector is yet another attempt to disown the responsibility of reviving the closed fertilizer units in public sector, namely, Durgapur, Haldia (West Bengal), Sindri (Jharkhand), Baruni(Bihar), Talcher (Orissa), Gorakhpur (U.P) and Ramagundam (A.P) through public investment and to gurantee windfall profits to private players.

CITU, therefore, urges upon the Government to withdraw the disastrous decision forthwith and declare:

a) Regulation of prices for all types of fertilizers in order to achieve self-sufficiency in fertilizer production to ensure food security on the country.

b) Time bound commitment to revive the closed fertilizer units in Public Sector.

February 19 : Chittabrata Majumdar Memorial Day

  

(1935-2007)

Born on August 14, 1935 in the district of Dacca in erstwhile undivided Bengal, of Swarnalata and Khshitishchandra, Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar was a science graduate from the Calcutta University and he later read textile technology at the Bengal Textile Institute at Serampore in Hooghly. Renouncing offers of a professional job of a textile technologist, Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar preferred what was a low-paying teacher’s job at the Salkia Vidyapith.

TU ORGANISER

A part of the rousing tide of mass struggles of the 1950s, Comrade Majumdar was involved first with the students’ movement, and later with the TU movement, being received into the then undivided CPI in 1956. He worked as one of the main Party organiser of the Howrah district and spent a large slice of his daily life organising workers. Concentrating on developing the TU movement in the engineering industry in particular, Comrade Majumdar became the secretary of the metal workers’ union in Howrah. He had intimate contact with the TU units of Bridge and Roof, Reyroll Burn, Hooghly Dock and Engineers, Bicko Lawry and other outfits. 

Taking a leadership role in Howrah in the battle against revisionism of the 1960s, Comrade Majumdar put to good use his deep insight into the ideology of Marxism-Leninism. On the CPI being split in 1964, Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar played a significant role in building up the Howrah unit of the CPI(M). He worked at the district Party centre along with Communist stalwarts like Comrades Naresh Dasgupta, Joykesh Mukherjee, and Harisadhan Mitra. Incarcerated for a year and four months under the Defence of India Act by the then Congress government, Comrade Majumdar, on coming out of the jail, became a Party wholetimer.

In 1968, he became a member of the district secretariat of the Howrah unit of the CPI(M). Winning by a massive margin from the Howrah (north) Assembly constituency in 1977, Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar became the minister for cottage and small-scale industries in the first Left Front government, and played a crucial role in the expansion of these sectors of industries across the state. 

Comrade Majumdar also looked after the building up of such state-run institutions catering small-scale goods as the Tantuja, the Tantusree, and the Manjusha. Interested in scientific and technological developments, Comrade Majumdar gave an organisational form to the people’s science movement in Bengal, being one of the chief architects of the Paschimbanga Vigyan Manch. Later as a member of the Rajya Sabha, Comrade Majumdar played a significant role in opposing the industrial, labour, and financial policies of the union government.

PARTY ORGANISER

Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar had a significant role to play in the organisation of the Salkia Plenum in 1978. He was elected as a member of the state committee of the CPI(M) in 1982, inducted into the state secretariat in 1985. A specialist in producing the Party Education series booklets and pamphlets, Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar combined his deep knowledge of Marxism-Leninism with a subtle yet simple style of writing. A member of the central committee of the CPI(M) in 1995 at the Chandigarh Party Congress, Comrade Majumdar was made a member of the Polit Bureau in 2004 at the Delhi Party Congress.

A TU organiser of the highest calibre, Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar was a member of the general council of CITU when it was formed in 1970. He was elected the general secretary of the Bengal unit of the CITU in 1990 as a leading TU organiser. He was made one of the secretaries of the CITU at the national level in 1991. Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar was elected to the post of the all-India general secretary of the CITU at the 12th all-India conference of the CITU held in Chennai, re-elected to the post from the Bangalore conference in 2007.

Dedicated to the task of a united workers’ struggle against the sweep of liberalisation and globalisation, Comrade Majumdar was of the firm opinion that the struggle was for changing the policy, which would lead to a change in the government at the centre. He always spoke of the importance of taking the workers’ struggle out of the circle of economic demands into the wider realm of political struggles and movements. He also played an important role in setting up an international solidarity of workers against the dictates of imperialist globalisation.

Comrade Majumdar wrote innumerable essays and articles on such subjects as Marxism-Leninism, political economy, ideology of the Communist Party, and Party and TU organisation. Some of his writings were brought together and published in a small anthology called Ek, dui, teen (in Bengali). Comrade Majumdar represented the CITU in International TU conferences and in the ILO. He remained the editor-in-chief of the internet edition of the Ganashakti. 

Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar’s humble lifestyle, his depth of knowledge, his role as a dedicated Communist, and his achievements as a TU organiser who led from the front shall remain as icons of inspiration that he leaves behind for the present and the future generations of Communists, TU organisers, and workers.

On the 64th Anniversary of the Naval Rising of 1946

A Sketch By Chithaprasad on 1946 RIN uprising

On 18 February 1946, one of the most significant episodes in the history of anti-imperialist mass militancy in late colonial India began. It shook the foundations of the British Empire in its last days and revealed an alternative vision of decolonization from below which contradicted the social interests of the Indian upper classes.

The Ratings of the colonial ‘Royal Indian Navy’, who had survived the slaughter during the Second World War and contributed to the victory over Fascism, started a strike against low wages, poor food and racist harassment. The strike began in the battleship ‘Talwar’ stationed in the Bombay harbour and within 48 hours enveloped the naval bases of Bombay and Karachi. Even ships stationed in Aden and Bahrein responded to the strike. Soon 74 ships, four flotillas and 20 shore establishments had joined the movement in the Arabian Sea. The naval ratings removed the Union Jack and hoisted the flags of the Congress, the Muslim League and the Communist Party of India. Though initially peaceful, the protests turned violent when the colonial authorities termed the strike as a ‘mutiny’ and opened fire. The ratings retaliated in kind. The naval strike now assumed the shape of a mass uprising and affected all major port-cities of British India. In Bombay, Karachi and Calcutta, workers led by the Communist Party observed General Strikes.  Solidarity strikes were observed in the Royal Air Force also. Fierce fighting between common people and the colonial army and the police claimed 228 lives in the streets of Bombay; these were three blood-soaked days of optimum class resistance to imperialism which lasted from 21 to 23 February. Though the ratings were forced to surrender in Bombay and Karachi on the 23rd, the working-classes continued to fight and the popular upheaval persisted till 25 February.

 

The Communist Party of India, the third largest political force at the time, extended full support to the naval ratings and mobilized the working-classes in metropolitan centres. The two prinicipal bourgeois parties of British India, the Congress and the Muslim League, refused to support the rising. The class content of the mass uprising frightened them and they urged the ratings to surrender. Patel and Jinnah, two representative faces of the communal divide, were united on this issue and Gandhi also condemned the ‘Mutineers’. The only prominent leader from nationalist ranks who supported them was Aruna Asaf Ali. Upon surrender, the ratings faced court-martial, imprisonment and victimization.

 

Even after 1947, the memories of the naval strike, the related massacre and the betrayal of the people evoked uneasy responses among ruling circles of Independent India and Pakistan. These  governments refused to reinstate the sacked ratings or offer compensation. The rising was championed by Marxist cultural activists from Bengal and its radical promise was recalled through post-1947 struggles. Salil Chaudhury wrote a revolutionary song (see MS4) in 1946 on behalf of the Indian People’s Theatre Association. Later, Hemanga Biswas, another veteran of the IPTA, composed a commemorative tribute. Perhaps the best left representation remains Utpal Dutt’s play Kallol. Written in the 1960s, it was banned by the Congress government of West Bengal which felt criticized and cornered by rising left-led mass movements against its policies. Dutt himself was briefly jailed.

 

The brutal suppression of the naval rising of 1946 displayed the violence of the British Raj in its dying moments and the complicity of the subcontinental ruling-classes-in-waiting in stemming anti-imperialist assertions from below. However, this episode convinced the European masters that they could no longer depend on the Indian armed forces to continue colonial occupation. They were also worried by a degree of sympathy which the naval strike generated among the war-weary and left-wing segments of the white troops deployed in India. This accelerated the process of negotiated exit from the colony.

(Courtesy : Pragoti)

Charter of Demands of All India Convention on Employment

The DYFI organized a two day long Convention on Employment in New Delhi on 10-11 February 2010. The Convention was inaugurated by Com. Prakash Karat. Deliberations in the Convention started with the presentation of an approach paper by the DYFI CEC followed by the presentation of 9 papers on various aspects of the employment problem in India. These were followed by a vibrant discussion by the delegates attending the Convention.
 

Charter of Demands

CREATE SECURE JOB OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL!

NO TO JOBLESS GDP GROWTH; REVERSE NEOLIBERAL POLICIES!!

FORMULATE NATIONAL YOUTH POLICY!!

General Demands:

• No to Privatization and Disinvestment of Central Public Sector Enterprises; Expand public investment by CPSEs for expansion and modernization using Rs. 5 lakh crore reserves and surplus in sectors like power, railways, oil and gas, steel, coal, telecom, defence, Research and Development etc.; Unlock the lands of closed factories in public and private sectors by removing legal hurdles for setting up new industries.
• Lift ban on recruitment and abolition of existing posts in different Central and State Government departments and PSEs; Make public status of all vacancies in Government departments and initiate fresh recruitment; Stop outsourcing, contractorisation and recruitment of retired employees in permanent jobs. 
• Release employment data along with quarterly GDP estimates (every three months); Stop releasing unemployment data once in 5 years; NSSO (National Sample Survey Organisation) and Labour Bureau should collect and publish regular data on employment/unemployment both for the organised and unorganised sector.
•    Implement land and tenancy reforms and distribute joint pattas for land; Increase public investment in agriculture and irrigation; Strengthen public procurement of crops at remunerative prices; Provide subsidised agricultural inputs; Ensure small farmers’  
•  Fulfill reservation quotas and all backlogs for SC/STs and OBCs; Implement Ranganath Mishra Commission’s recommendation to provide job reservations to minorities; Extend reservations to the private sector.
• Ensure equal pay for equal work for women and men; Provide security for women employees; Prevent sexual harassment at workplace; Abolish child labour.
• Ensure balanced regional development; Adopt special development package for North Eastern region with emphasis on infrastructure and industrial development like power, railways, telecommunications, oil refining etc.; Provide Government jobs to militancy affected youth in Jammu & Kashmir and North East.

For Rural Youth

• Expand the scope of the NREGA to all individuals (not only to households) and enhance the cap of 100 days; Increase minimum wages to at least Rs. 160/- per day and ensure regular wage payment; Expand the schedule of permissible works to include individual beneficiary schemes, social services, etc.; Delegate decision making powers about the type of  
• Appoint local persons on a regular basis as village employment assistants or Rozgar Sevaks; Pay unemployment allowance to job card holders not given work; Combat corruption in NREGA implementation.
• Enact comprehensive legislation for agricultural workers ensuring minimum wages and social security; Link minimum wages to inflation index.
• Implement recommendations of National Commission on Farmers on creation of skilled jobs in agriculture through horticulture, energy plantations, animal husbandry, biomass utilization etc; Set up Farm Schools in all village panchayats for training and skill development of young cultivators; Promote agro processing industries in rural areas through small enterprises, cooperatives and Self-Help Groups (SHGs).
• Amend the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 and enact a Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill in order to minimize displacement and ensure adequate compensation, sharing of profit and livelihood security for land losers and displaced persons; Amend SEZ Act to curb real estate bubbles and tax concessions; Strictly regulate land use to prevent land hoarding and speculation and promote employment intensive industrialisation.

For Tribal Youth

• Ensure remunerative employment opportunities in tribal areas through NREGA; Strengthen public procurement at Minimum Support Price (MSP) for minor forest produce and coarse cereals; Strengthen TRIFED (Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Ltd.) and facilitate local level processing and value addition of tribal Initiate intensive socio-economic development programmes in tribal areas through expansion of PDS outlets, schools, colleges and hostels (especially for girls), training institutes, health centres, expansion of credit, irrigation, roads, power, telecommunication, market infrastructure, extension services etc.
• Implement ST reservations in all posts and services; Extend ST reservations to the private sector; Remove anomalies and exclusions in notifying tribes as Scheduled to ensure all deserving groups are included; Act against issuers and receivers of  
• Recognize and vest forest rights for tribals, distribute pattas speedily and implement fully the provisions of the ST and OFD (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act; Assign government barren and waste lands to landless tribals; Provide homestead land and housing 
• Prevent tribal land alienation; Implement Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act; Strengthen gram sabhas in tribal areas; Implement 5^th & 6^th schedule provisions and declare autonomous councils in tribal districts. 

For Urban Youth

• Initiate Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme at minimum wages with one-third jobs reserved for women; Bring public works and infrastructure projects in urban areas under the employment guarantee; Provide BPL cards to all unemployed persons and poor informal workers; Stop forcible eviction of slum dwellers, street vendors etc.; Ensure proper rehabilitation of displaced persons.
• Universalize social security; Amend central legislation to provide for provident fund, pension, health insurance, accident benefit and death benefits for all workers in the unorganized sector (not only BPL) as per the recommendation of the NCEUS (National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector); Set up National Social Security Fund to finance unorganised sector social security schemes; Implement 8 hours working day for all unorganised sector workers; Strictly implement minimum wages and link them to inflation index.
• Enact comprehensive legislation for protecting the lives and livelihoods of migrant informal workers including pravasis; Impose strict punishment for anti-migrant violence and compensate victims; Issue identity cards for migrant workers to ensure access  
•  Launch national level programme on Employment Assurance and Skill Formation as per NCEUS recommendation to provide 6 months assured training and apprenticeship to all willing youth; Expand vocational training institutes like Polytechnics, ITI and ITCs and implement affirmative action in private training institutes; Initiate certificate 
• Revamp and modernise employment exchanges; Provide unemployment allowance to the registered unemployed; Integrate Employment exchanges with skill development initiatives and provide information on private sector jobs too; Launch Government sponsored job portal (website) to disseminate information about employment opportunities in the public as well as  Enhance financial support for self-employment schemes, SHGs and small enterprises, especially for small women entrepreneurs; Provide cheap credit, training, promote quality control and certification/branding for products of self-employed run enterprises; Check corruption in self-employment schemes.

Maoist Attack on Police Camp

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) expresses its deep shock and condemnation of the Maoist attack on a police camp in Shilda in West Midnapur district which resulted in the death of 24 persons belonging to the Eastern Frontier Rifles. A student has also died in the incident. This incident exposes the vicious violence indulged in by the Maoists.

The Maoists have been on a rampage in the West Midnapur district for over a year. The joint operations by the state police and the central paramilitary forces were launched to curb the Maoist violence. It is surprising that such an attack could be launched in daytime on a police camp with such large casualties and arms and ammunition being taken away.

There is necessity for better coordination between the state police and the Central paramilitary forces. The Central Government should ensure that joint operations begin across the border in Jharkhand, without delay.

The Polit Bureau conveys its heartfelt sympathies to all the families of the policemen and the civilian who has died in this brutal attack.

Delhi Chalo: Left Parties Rally in Delhi, March 12

DELHI CHALO: MARCH 12, 2010

The Left Parties, namely the CPI, the CPI(M), the Forward Bloc and the RSP call upon you to join the massive rally in Ram Lila maidan Delhi on March 12 to raise your voice against the Central Government’s polices which are looting the budgets of the poor through price rise. The rally is for the demand for cheap rations to all, the right to work and jobs, and land for the landless. The rally is also to express strong condemnation of the Trinamool-Maoist violence against Left party activists in Bengal.

Against Price Rise and for Cheap Rations

People throughout the country and particularly women are the victims of the unprecedented rise in the prices of food items essential for our daily lives. Rice, atta, dal, sugar, edible oil, milk, vegetables everything we need to survive has now become too expensive to buy. The Government itself admits that the prices of food items have risen by 20 per cent compared to last year but in fact some items like sugar and some types of dals have increased by 100 per cent and more. The Congress led UPA Government’s policies are responsible. The Congress came into power on the slogan of aam aadmi but the Government it leads has followed policies which have only helped the khaas aadmi.

For example:

It paid 12 to 14 rupees per kilo to big traders for imported wheat but in the same year gave only 9.50 rupees to Indian farmers.

In spite of expensive imports it still cut wheat supplies to the ration shops.

The price of wheat remained high in the open market.

Who benefited? Neither the farmer nor the consumer—only big companies.

In sugar it is the same story

Sugarcane farmers who produced a bumper crop two years ago were punished by not giving them adequate prices for their produce. Many burnt their crops in the field. Government should have ensured a buffer stock of sugar at that time. Instead Government not only allowed big sugar companies to export the sugar but paid them incentives to do so. The following year farmers did not sow sugarcane but since there was no buffer stock it resulted in a shortage. Then the Government allowed the big companies to import sugar and that also without any taxes.

Who benefited? Big sugar companies have made huge profits. 33 companies increased their profits from 30 crores to over 900 crores in just one year, that is by 2900 per cent! Farmers suffered and the consumer had to pay 40 rupees a kilo for sugar.

Another policy of the Government which has led to price rise is the permission granted to speculative capital in future trading in food items. Why should profiteering be allowed in essential food items? The earlier ban on future trade in wheat was also removed by the Central Government. In this sphere also huge profits have been made by private companies. We demand a ban on all future trading in food items.

The Central Government has virtually destroyed the public distribution system by depriving lakhs of people ration cards. The bogus definition of poverty line of just 11 rupees a day for an adult in rural India has meant that large numbers of the poor are denied BPL cards and all the rest of the poor are termed as above poverty line. Is a man or a woman who earns 15 rupees day not poor? Why are they deprived of BPL cards? This is a cruel instrument to divide the poor and deny them their rights. In the last five years 75 per cent of rice and wheat meant for the rationing system in different States has been cut. Shamefully today when the Government has a big buffer stock of around 20 million tonnes instead of restoring the cut allocations at the subsidised, it is offering the States some amount of foodgrains at double the price. This is the same Government which gives 4 lakh crore rupees as tax concessions to the rich but when it comes to giving cheap rations to the working people it says it has no money.

We demand that all sections of the unorganized workers which come to almost 80 per cent of the adult working population should be given BPL cards. We demand at least 35 kilos of foodgrains to each family at two rupees a kilo through the immediate enactment of a law.

Jobs for All

After a big struggle by Left parties the earlier UPA Government enacted a law for guaranteed employment for 100 days in rural India. But only one person in a family can get work under this law. Why should this be so? Does not every adult who can work have a right to be included in the law? Those who get work under NREGA are not guaranteed a minimum wage. Piece rate wages are linked to impossibly high productivity norms as a result of which in large parts of the country workers do not get the full wage. We demand an expansion in the work guarantee and payment of minimum wages. At the same time what crime have the urban people committed that they should be deprived of such a right? The urban areas have been totally left out. Crores of young men and women are looking for work. It is essential that the Government should enact a law to ensure employment guarantee in urban areas.

Till now the Government itself has been the biggest employer but as part of its liberalization economic polices the Central Government has placed a virtual ban on recruitment. This has badly affected employment and especially the SC and ST youth since the number of jobs available for them has been cut down. Minority communities are also deprived of jobs and the central Government has made no move to ensure any action to give them jobs. Even disabled citizens who have a right to 3 per cent of reservations in identified jobs are being denied their rights.

Government figures show that in the total organized sector employment which was 267.33 lakhs in 1991 remained at 269.93 lakhs in 2006—an increase of only 2.6 lakh jobs in 15 years! This is the economic policy of successive pro-capitalist Governments.

At the same time the current recession has worsened the situation for the working class. Leave alone getting jobs, they have lost jobs. In 2008-2009 11 lakh workers lost their jobs and in 2009-2010 13 lakh workers lost their jobs. But what did the central Government do? It gave money to help the companies but did not put any conditions to ensure that the workers jobs were saved. We demand protection fore the workers, we demand that the Government lift the ban on recruitment in Government jobs; we demand that the backlog in SC/St vacancies and vacancies for disabled be filled; we demand that socially and backward communities including minorities be given employment guarantees.

Land reforms and Land pattas to the landless and homeless

The vast numbers of our people live in the villages and among them are the landless agricultural workers and those without even homestead land. The importance of land reform in such a situation needs to be emphasized. How can India develop if the large masses of our rural people have no assets and very low purchasing power? Land reform and distribution of surplus land to the landless will help not only those who get the land but also by increasing their earnings increase demand for other goods thus leading to an expansion of the domestic market and have a positive impact on expansion of production and job creation. But instead of stressing on giving land to the landless the successive Governments at the Centre are practicing policies in reverse—allowing corporate companies to take over land or to lease land out from small farmers. Huge tracts of so-called wastelands are being handed over to corporates by different Governments.

At the national level according to one estimate over 500 lakh acres is surplus land in India. But how much has been taken over? Just 73 lakh acres. How much has been distributed? Only 53 lakh acres. That is after 62 years of India’s independence just 10.6 per cent of surplus land has been distributed to the landless. This is a shameful record. In contrast in West Bengal for example the Left front Government which has only 3 per cent of the agricultural land in the whole country had taken over land to the extent of 13 lakh acres and ensured its distribution to the landless which is 20 per cent of all land distributed in the country. Even today the West Bengal Government holds the best record in the country on land distribution. We demand that the Central Government change its agricultural policies with its emphasis on corporatisation of land and agroiculture and frame policies for takeover and distribute surplus land as well as develop wasteland and distribute it to the landless.

Millions of people in India are without homes. The Indira Awaas Yojana is highly inadequate. What is required is a proper policy to ensure homestead land and houses as for example in Kerala where successive LDF Governments have ensured homestead land with a small plot where families can grow their own vegetables and other requirements.

At the same time the Central Government continues to use the draconian and outdated 1894 Land Acquisition Act to takeover land of the peasantry coercively. The two Bills for amendments and relief and rehabilitation for landlosers is still not brought before parliament. We demand that the 1894 Act be scrapped that displacement is minimized and that laws are enacted to ensure full compensation, profit share and livelihood security to those affected.

In Solidarity with West Bengal

Today West Bengal which is the heart of the Left and progressive movement in India is under severe attack by the reactionary forces. In blatant violation of minimum democratic norms, these forces are using violence to eliminate Left cadre and sympathizers, to attack and burn their houses and even women and children are not spared. Since the Lok Sabha elections over of 168 Left Front leaders, workers and supporters have been brutally killed. Leading the attack is the Trinamool Congress in alliance with the Maoists. It is indeed an unprecedented development in Indian politics that whereas the prime Minister states that the armed attacks and terror tactics of the Maoists are the greatest threat to internal security, a Cabinet Minister, leader of the Trinamool Congress gives open certificates to the Maoists and protects them demanding the withdrawal of the joint central State operations in Bengal. At the same time the Trinamool Congress and the alliance of parties and forces from the extreme right to the extreme left led by it have a one-point programme to destabilize Bengal and oust the Left front Government through these tactics.

The attacks in West Bengal on Left cadre by a gang-up of anti-Left forces is a concern not only of the people of West Bengal but of all democratic minded citizens throughout the country. We express our solidarity with the fighting people of West Bengal against the Trinamool-Maoists violence and the struggle for defence of democracy.

Withdraw Fisheries Bill :CPIM

CHENNAI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist), at its recent State Committee meeting, urged the Centre to implement the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission report and withdraw the proposed Marine Fisheries (Regulation and Management) Bill.

In a release, CPI (M) State secretary G. Ramakrishnan said the Commission had recommended 10 per cent reservation for Muslims in jobs and education and reservation and other concessions for Dalits.

This should be implemented for their uplift.

“Withdraw Fisheries Bill”

The CPI (M) said the proposed Fisheries Bill must be withdrawn without any conditions as it would affect the livelihood of fishermen.

PRICE RISE DUE TO CENTRAL GOVT. POLICIES : PRAKASH KARAT

Kozhikode: Prakash Karat, general secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), has said that perspective put forth by E.M.S. Nampoodiripad for the development of Kerala is still relevant for the State.

“His was not a perspective something for the 1950s and 1960s. If you look at the contribution of EMS, the approach was for current requirement,” Mr. Karat said while inaugurating a one-day seminar, “EMS and Kerala development,” organised by the Keluettan Studies and Research Centre in connection with the conclusion of the EMS birth centenary celebrations here on Monday.

“In 1990, when EMS took the initiative to hold the International Kerala Study Congress in Thiruvananthapuram, we saw how he updated his understanding on what is required to ensure a balanced, sustainable and equitable development for the people of Kerala,” Mr. Karat said. Looking back at the life and works of EMS, Mr. Karat said that there was no doubt that he was the most creative Marxist leader India had ever produced. His contribution to the development of the agrarian movement and the practice of Marxism in parliamentary institutions was significant. Touching upon some aspects of EMS and the development of Kerala, the CPI(M) leader said that EMS was the architect of modern Kerala. One of the main issues he dealt with was how to break the fetters of feudalism and the landlord system.

His conception to bring all Malayalam-speaking people within one State was part of an effort of the Communist party in the 1940. The reorganisation of States on linguistic grounds was because of the pioneering works of EMS and other communist leaders at that time.

Mr. Karat said that EMS also focussed on bringing about a material transformation for the people of Kerala. “He also addressed the question of democratic decentralisation, which was not only strictly for Kerala but also envisaged a federal democratic set-up from the Centre to the State and from the State to villages,” he said, adding that one of his last initiatives was to revitalise the whole system of decentralisation of planning.

One of EMS’ major contributions was to conquer communal and caste politics and broaden the base for a secular polity in Kerala.

He said the contribution of EMS in making public policy, be it for land reforms or empowering the working people, was of immense importance. “We find the imprint of EMS through the first Communist Ministry which lasted only 28 months in Kerala, but which has a lasting and contemporary impact even today,” he said.

Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan presented a paper on “Secular politics and EMS” and Industries Minister Elamaram Karim on “Kerala’s industrialisation and EMS.”

(Courtesy : The Hindu)