CITU Activists lay siege of Government Secretariate and District Collectorates

Trivandrum

The functioning of the Government Secreteriate in Trivandrum and all other district collectorates  came to a standstill for the better part of the day on Wednesday when thousands of workers belonging to CITU laid siege to it raising the slogan “Job, wages, and food.”

Kannur

Kozhikode

Trissur

Malappuram

Kottayam

Eranakulam

While the siege was officially stated to begin at 8 a.m., workers started arriving well before that, sealing all entry points to the Secreteriate and collectorates. Protesting workers were seen seated before the entry points under make-shift pandals. They continued there till the siege came to end at 2 p.m. with an oath to fight the “anti-people” policies of the Central and State governments.  CITU-affiliated workers from various sectors started coming in droves to the collectorate by 7 a.m. 

Apart from workers of the traditional sector, employees from public sector undertakings, the KSEB, the KSRTC, the Kollam City Corporation, shops and other commercial establishments, autorickshaw drivers, lorry divers, head-load workers, toddy tappers and beneficiaries of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme joined the programme.

The siege was inaugurated in Thiruvananthapuram by M.M. Lawrence, at Kollam by K O Habib, at Alappuzha by P.K. Gurudasan, at Ernakulam by Elaramam Karim, at Trissur byr K.M. Sudhakaran in Kozhikode by K.N. Ravindranath, at Kannur by Anathalavattom Anandan, and at Kasaragod by K.K. Divakaran

FDI in Retail Treachery with the Countrymen

The West Bengal State Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) would set forth for a long and sustained protest movement opposing the anti-people FDI in retail trade. The secretary Biman Basu on the occasion of releasing a pamphlet addressed the press and pointed out few examples on how the FDI in retail initiative in India would cause nuisances and structural corollary in the whole retail trade in India as the tyranny of falsehood of the central government continues in full swing.

The Great Rise of (Un)Employment:

The central government opened up India’s retail market with the ‘FDI in Retail’ sanction. The government is upholding the flag of ‘employment’ to camouflage the dangerous and rapacious sides of this so-called ‘reform’. The promises are basically well planned façade to install confusion in the society to inspire divide over protesting this issue. The government is claiming, though falsely, that there will be a magical transformation in the job market. In coming three years this FDI in Retail would cause for 40 lakhs of direct placements, followed by indirect employment of 60 lakhs. The falsehood of employment totals onto mammoth 1 crore of job openings in three years from now on. The big corporations that would populate the streets of India by dint of this FDI in Retail sanction are namely Wall-Mart, Carrefour, Metro and Tesco and etc. The pro-reform crew in India preaches of Wall-Mart every now and then for their high employment policy, if there is any. The scope of employment that the government promises would hit the bulls-eye if the Wall-Mart affords to employ 117 people per shop. The Wall-Mart has to further afford for opening 640 supermarkets in each of the 53 cities in India, a total of 34180 shops. But the experiences worldwide are quite different on this issue. Most of the people working at the Wall-Mart are casual of part-time staffs and secure lowest wages. Many countries had already given golden handshakes to this corporation as the whole retail sector of those countries got massacred by them where the small retailers received the maximum blow. In India the ‘small retailer’ tolls for the maximum percentage of trade. Demolishing them would result for unprecedented unemployment in this country. So it is clear that the Wall-Marts are not at all going to afford the promise of 1 crore employment in India, it’s us who are being forced to afford Wall-Mart to unleash their wrath for profit in this country.  Through FDI in Retail the government actually promotes ‘Profit for Wall-Marts’ and a great rise of Unemployment.

The Chinese Case:

On proposing the FDI in Retail the central government and pro-FDI crew are shouting with the ‘China affords Wall-Mart’ phrase. The reality is different in case of China and India. China harvests 50 crore metric ton of food grains where India harvests 23 crore metric ton per annum. China has the infrastructure to conserve 39 crore metric ton of grain where India’s capacity is 5 crore metric ton only, 4 crore m. ton centrally and 1 crore m. ton is preserved by the states. In China the Wall-Mart Corporation enjoys only 10% of profit allowing the nationalized industries to enjoy the rest. In case of India there is no such barrier.

The High cost of Low price:

The government is uttering that the Wall-Mart and such corporations are going to make things cheaper as they are going to sale things at low prices that others. May be in the primary stage they would do so to attain larger chunk of consumers on their side to get things going in India. In the long run they would be the one to dictate the terms for consumers as for their ‘low price’ tactics the small business houses will be forced to close their doors.
The West Bengal State Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) would initiate on building popular consciousness and pushing more debates over the FDI in Retail issue and then there would be series of protest movements by the people of this country what would make the central government to roll-back with this anti-people policy.