CITU All India Conference Begins in Kannur

Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Charmian of Reception committee hoists the red flag in C Kannan Nagar(Municipal Stadium and the venue of public meeting) on the eve of 14th All India Conference of CITU. CITU president A K Padmanabhan, general secretary Tapan Sen are also see

All India conference of India’s most powerful trade union, Centre of Indian Trade Unions, is set to begin at Kannur tomorrow. CITU president A K Padmanabhan will hoist the red flag in morning at Com. M K Pandhe Nagar(Police Maidana) in Kannur town and his presidential address in Dipankar Mukherjee Nagar, will be followed to mark the commencement of the conference. General Secretary Tapan Sen will present the report before the 2000 delegates. The conference will culminate on 8^th April with a massive rally of workers in Kannur district. Delegates from all states have reached in Kannur by Wednesday evening.

 The flag march led by CITU state president Anathalavattam Anandan, the torch relay led by K M Sudhakaran, and flag pole march led by M M Lawrence have converged in AKG square and three jathas jointly moved to Com. C Kannan Nagar (Municipal stadium),  the venue of public meeting. The flag march was started from Valiya Chudukad, in Alappuzha, where the martyrs of Punnapra-Vayalar were cremated. The flag pole march started from Kayyur, in Kasargode district and the torch relay started from Thillankeri in Kannur district. In C Kannan Nagar, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Chairman of reception Committee hoisted the red flag.
 CITU which gathered a massive impetus through the February 20, 21 All India strike will focus on the strengthening of Trade Union unity in the run up for widening struggles to coerce the central government to revoke the anti-people neo liberal policies. While elaborating the structure of the conference, General Secretary Tapan Sen said that the immediate responsibility of CITU is to spread the message of All India strike among the workers and people.
 Ten crores people including workers, farmers, and agricultural workers took part in the All India strike called by India working class movement. It can be analyzed that the working class movement has reached into new phase of growth. Disregarding the political affiliations other central trade unions like INTUC, and BMS also actively took part in the strike. The warnings of working class were disregarded by the Prime Minister who keeps on pouring concessions to the corporate houses. Finance Minister P Chidambaram too avoided the suggestions of working class while presenting budget.  Trade union leaders will meet in Delhi on May 3^rd to plan the future course of action.

 While presenting the outline of the deliberations to be taken place, Tapan Sen said that our thrust will be on democratic functioning of organization, how to tackle the social issues like divisive and communal agenda, changing scenario in the labor force and how to fight the policies of the central government. On April 7^th delegates will discuss commission papers based on this four pronged agenda.

  Contract labor issue will also be discussed. Permanent jobs are decreasing in India as the strength of temporary workers in the total work force reaches 70-80 percent.

 While replying a query on sustainability of Trade Union unity, Sen said that the unity is not formed recently and for the last four years all TU’s are jointly organize the struggles. This achievement was come true with the hard work of two decades. The unity is not only shown in the national leadership level but among the factory level. Ordinary workers also want to be united, he said.

 A K Padmanabhan, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Reception Committee General Convenor K P Sahadevan, CITU state General Secretary Elamaram Kareem were also present in the press conference.