MARCH 19 - EMS MEMORIAL DAY

(1904-1998)

Comrade E.M.S. Namboodiripad was one of the foremost leaders of the Communist movement in India and one of the founding leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

In his nearly seven decades of public life and revolutionary activities, E.M.S. Namboodiripad left an indelible imprint on the progressive and working class movement of the country. As a young man, he became active in the social reform movement against caste. He left college in 1931 to join the freedom struggle and was jailed in the satyagraha movement. From then onwards, he played an important role in the Congress movement and was one of the founders of the Congress Socialist Party in Kerala. In 1934 he became the all India joint secretary of the Congress Socialist Party. It is in this period that E.M.S. while leading the Congress Party as General Secretary of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Party became acquainted with Marxism. He was one of the five members who formed the founding group of the Communist Party in Kerala in 1936. E.M.S. Namboodiripad represented the coming together of the two streams, the anti-imperialist and the anti-feudal struggles, which laid the foundations for the development of a powerful communist movement in Kerala. He was one of the key proponents of Aikya Kerala which led to the formation of Kerala as a unified linguistic state.

E.M.S. Namboodiripad was first elected to the Madras Provincial Legislative Assembly in 1939. As an important leader of the fledgling Communist Party he donated the proceeds of his landed property to the Party. He went underground building the Party in crucial periods between 1939-42 and 1948-50. He was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India in 1941. He became a member of the Polit Bureau of the CPI in December 1950 and later its Secretariat. He became General Secretary of the united CPI in 1962.

In 1957, after the state of Kerala was formed in the first elections in 1957, the Communist Party won a majority and E.M.S. Namboodiripad became Chief Minister of the first elected Communist ministry in India. It was the EMS ministry which initiated the path breaking land reform legislation and other democratic measures, till the ministry was dismissed undemocratically in 1959. E.M.S. Namboodiripad became Chief Minister of Kerala again in 1967 heading a United Front ministry till 1969.

E.M.S. joined the leading group from the united Party who formed the CPI(M) and was elected to the Central Committee and the Polit Bureau of the Party at the Seventh Congress of the Party in 1964 and he continued to serve in these positions till his death.

E.M.S. Namboodiripad was elected the General Secretary of Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 1977 and he led the Party in this capacity till the 14^th Congress in 1992 when he stepped down due to ill-health. His leadership in rallying all the Left, democratic and secular forces was invaluable.

E.M.S. was a brilliant Marxist theoretician. He made outstanding contributions to the application of Marxism-Leninism to Indian society and in working out the strategy and tactics of the Indian revolution. His vast body of writings bear the mark of an original and creative mind which mastered the dialectics of Marxist theory. His writings on land relations, Kerala, society and politics and his writings on Marxist philosophy, literature and history -- mark him out to be one of the most influential communist thinkers of the country and the world.

E.M.S. Namboodiripad was a rare example of a Communist leader who hailing from a traditional landlord family graduated to become the foremost leader of the proletarian revolutionary movement. He spent three years in jail and six years underground. His was a life of sacrifice and simplicity. He set an example which has inspired tens of thousands of communists all over the country. In Kerala he was a legend in his lifetime who was adored and respected by all sections of the people. Till the last day of his life, despite failing health, E.M.S kept to his daily routine of writing articles and providing guidance to the Party.

He died on March 19, 1998 at the age of 89

13TH All India Conference of CITU Begins in Chandigarh

THE 13th all India conference of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions began on March 17 in Chandigarh, Punjab. The five day conference is attended by 2500 delegates from all over the country.

The conference started with the flag hoisting by the all India president of CITU, M K Pandhe, followed by homage to the martyrs. The president of the reception committee, Dr Joginder Singh Paur, ex Vice Chancellor, Punjabi University, Patiala, delivered the welcome address. The inaugural session was greeted by Gurudas Dasgupta of AITUC, Sarbesh Dwivedi of BMS, A D Nagpal of HMS, S P Tiwari of TUCC, Abani Roy of UTUC, AICCTU and Subhash Sharma of INTUC. George Mavrikose, secretary general, WFTU and Andre Bogui, director of ILO South Asia also greeted the conference.

M K Pandhe delivered the presidential address. Speaking about the national and international situation, he said the conference is taking place at a time when the world is at crossroads and the working class has to make a positive contribution in shaping the destiny of the world. The recent global capitalist crisis has brought to the forefront the inevitability of the periodic crisis in a capitalist system.

As a result of globalization, speculative trade got a powerful boost whose real beneficiaries were the multi national corporations who operate through worldwide financial institutions. During 2007 for example, speculative trade in commodity market was five times bigger than the total trade in stock market.  It has reached a scandalous proportions when it was revealed that it was ten times larger than the world GDP.

The drive towards privatisation and market economy always leads to speculative tendencies and capitalist mode of production is bound to create such a crisis. The US economic bubble busted when the topmost investment banks became bankrupt. Those who opposed government intervention in economic matters had to ask for nationalisation of toxic assets of the bankrupt companies.  US government had to shell out $ 700 billion from tax payers’ money to save those companies from collapsing.

Pandhe emphasised that the tax burden of the bail out packages ultimately fell on the working class and the common people.  The collapse of the share markets in leading capitalist countries resulted in workers losing trillions of dollars of their pension funds, which were invested by the pension authorities in speculative activities. In our country, the workers were saved from this from this horror due to the Left’s strong opposition to the UPA government’s move to pump the pension funds into speculative activities. In several countries wage cuts were imposed on the workers, adversely affecting their living standards.

Pandhe observed that Indian banking industry did not collapse because the banks were owned by the government.  Even the Life Insurance Corporation was not affected since it was in the public sector.  If the UPA government. would have succeeded in privatising these sectors, the impact of the crisis in India would have been more severe, he maintained.

In line with other advanced capitalist countries, the UPA government announced liberal ‘Stimulus package’ estimating Rs 5 lakh crore to save the Indian industry.  However, no relief was given to the workers who were the worst victims of the crisis.  The experience of bail out package has shown that the amount pumped in, only fattened the big business houses, both Indian and foreign. Imposition of 12 hours day work, enhancement of workload on the workers, closing down industrial units without following the legal procedure, retrenchment of workforce without paying statutory compensation became the order of the day.  The government of India callously connived at these depredations to save the big business houses and their profitability.

Pandhe said, a remarkable trade union unity has been built in India against the privatisation moves of the union government, against contractorisation and casualisation of labour and many joint programmes were held in the recent past.

He said, Indian struggle against globalisation cannot assume a powerful shape unless the vast masses of peasant and agricultural workers are drawn into it and the CITU would continue to work towards building this solidarity.

35 Foreign delegates from 15 countries are also participating in this conference. They were introduced and felicitated in the inaugural session.