Redress grievances of striking staff in Andhra Pradesh: CPI (M)

A delegation of the CPI (M) State committee has demanded that the State government redress several burning issues that had paralysed the functioning of various departments as the employees were on strike.

The delegation led by State secretary B. V. Raghavulu presented a memorandum to Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on Thursday urging him to pay attention to the sufferings of the striking staff and redress their grievances at the earliest.

The CPI (M) leaders wanted the government to take necessary measures to provide remunerative prices to the farm produce with particular reference to announcement of Rs. 200 a quintal on paddy and fixation of Rs. 4,500 as the minimum support price for cotton bales. They also wanted the government to pay Rs. 250 a quintal for sugarcane in addition to cutting and transportation charges to the farmers. They said the tenant farmers, who suffered extensive damage to the farm produce should be paid compensation.

They sought job security to all the contract and outsourcing staff employed in various government departments. They brought to the notice of Mr. Reddy the hardships of the IKP animators, who were on strike demanding minimum wages. The delegation comprised P. Madhu, Ch. Seetaramulu, Y. V. Rao, Paturu Ramaiah, Julakanti Ranga Reddy and S. Punyavati.

(Courtesy : The Hindu)

Left parties protest government corruption in Karanataka

Left and Dalit, farmers' and progressive organisations marked the International Anti-Corruption Day in Karnataka by holding protest against the BJP governements corruption. Later it was decided to hold a harthal on the day, but due to the election code of conduct, it was decided to hold protest meet across the state. 

The parties staged two parallel coordinated protests against the State Government's alleged corruption in Bangalore.. The agitators decided to split into two groups and stage dharnas at two locations after the police refused them permission to congregate at the Vidhana Soudha.

The first group of protesters, led by the CPI and the CPI (M), marched from the Mysore Bank Circle to the Gandhi statue near the Ananda Rao circle.

Caste politics

Addressing this gathering, CPI State secretary Siddangouda Patil said that the BJP in Karnataka had ceased to be a political party and had become a “party of one community”. He said: “Chief Minister B.S. Yedyyurappa has become the Chief Minister of the Lingayat community.” The State BJP is holding the central leadership to ransom by using caste politics.

He accused the BJP of vitiating the State's political landscape by mixing “divisive sectarian ideology” with “remorseless land grab and blatant corruption”.

CPI (M) leader Maruti Manpade appealed to voters to send out a strong message to the ruling party by defeating its candidates in the forthcoming zilla panchayat elections. “The people of the State should not miss out on this opportunity,” he said.

The second protest was led by the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike and the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha. Members and leaders of Dalit organisations such as the Samata Sainik Dal and the Dalit Sangharsha Samiti were also present at this gathering.

Police criticised

Addressing the gathering, Samata Sainik Dal president M. Venkataswamy criticised the police for curtailing the scope of the protest. “The police are acting like an agent of the State Government,” he said.

KRRS leader Kodihalli Chandrashekar said people of the State had run out of political options. “As far as corruption is concerned, there is no difference between the JD(S), Congress and the BJP,” he said. Leaders at both protests echoed Mr. Chandrashekhar's sentiment and called for a non-Congress, non-JD(S) political formation.

There was some tension at the protests when the agitators threatened to storm the Vidhana Soudha following the failure of a government representative to show up and accept their memorandum. The police finally managed to soothe tempers by allowing a delegation to meet the Governor and submit their memorandum.

Chitradurga

Members of the Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Karnataka Rajya Raita Sangha, staged a dharna at the Mahata Gandhi circle in Chitradurga. 

Somaguddi Rangaswamy, leader of CPI(M), said at a public meeting that the BJP government was promoting caste-based politics in the State.

Ever since Mr. Yeddyurappa became the Chief Minister, he was being projected as the leader of a particular community and not the people. Referring to the open support offered by the seers of a few maths to the Chief Minister, Mr. Rangaswamy said that those seers had lost credibility by doing so. He said that the allegations of corruption on Ministers and officials had tarnished the image of Karnataka at the national level. Even the Congress at the Centre was no better, as far as corruption was concerned. “The Congress cannot be considered as a better alternative to BJP in the State,” he said.

CPI leader Chandrappa and KRRS district president Nulenuru Shankarappa were present.

(Courtesy : The Hindu)

JPC probe only way out: CPI (M)

Instead of attempting to cover up the 2G spectrum scam and shield those involved, the United Progressive Alliance government should order a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe as that alone will be the solution to break the deadlock in Parliament, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Central Committee member T. K. Rangarajan said here on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters, Mr. Rangarajan said that Parliament, which should transact business for a minimum of 100 days a year to discuss people's problems and find amicable solutions, was being stalled by the Opposition for the past 19 days as the government was adamantly rejecting the reasonable appeal for a JPC probe into the 2G Spectrum scam, which “caused a whopping loss of Rs.1.76 lakh crore to the nation.”

Even after the Comptroller and Auditor General had stated that the nation had suffered a huge loss, the government was not really interested in identifying the culprits involved in the “mother of all scams.”

DMK criticised

Mr. Rangarajan criticised the DMK government for denying permission to Opposition parties for organising State-wide public meetings on the scam. “Even as former Union Minister A. Raja has reportedly intervened in the judicial process, the DMK government is not allowing the Opposition to conduct the meetings to show its opposition in a democratic manner.”

(Courtesy : The Hindu)

Varanasi Attack Condemned

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

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the terrorist act of a bomb blast at the Shitla Ghat in Varanasi. The blast has killed a one year-old child and caused injuries, some of them severe, to 35 people. The Polit Bureau conveys its heartfelt sympathy to all those who have suffered due to this attack.

The claim made by the so-called Indian Mujahideen for the blast shows that extremist elements are still attempting to disturb the social fabric and communal amity by such senseless acts of violence. In the recent period, investigations have shown how extremist elements belonging to the Muslim or Hindu communities have taken to terrorist activities. It is essential to firmly combat such groups indulging in terrorism. At the same time, it is necessary to isolate the communal forces that have become the breeding ground for extremist violence.

Declaration of 12th International Meeting of Communist and Workers` Parties

TSHWANE DECLARATION

The 12th International Meeting of Communist and Workers` Parties took place in Tshwane, South Africa from the 3rd to the 5th of December 2010 with theme "The deepening systemic crisis of capitalism. The tasks of Communists in defence of sovereignty, deepening social alliances, strengthening the anti-imperialist front in the struggle for peace, progress and Socialism". 102 delegates representing 51 participating Parties from 43 countries and from all continents of the world came together in order to take forward the work of our previous meetings, and to promote and develop common and convergent action around a shared perspective

THE DEEPENING CAPITALIST CRISIS

The international situation continues to be dominated by the persisting and deepening crisis of capitalism. This reality confirms the analyses outlined in the declarations of our 2008 Sao Paulo and 2009 New Delhi 10th and 11th International Meetings. The current global crisis of capitalism underlines its historical limitations and the need for its revolutionary overthrow. It shows the intensification of the basic contradiction of capitalism between the social character of production and the private capitalist appropriation.

The crisis is systemic - despite pre-2008 capitalist illusions to the contrary, capitalism cannot escape its in-built, systemic tendency to go through cycles of boom and bust. The current global crisis is a particularly severe manifestation of a capitalist downturn occasioned by capitalist over-production. Now, as in the past, there is no answer, within the logic of capitalism, to these periodic crises other than crisis itself, marked by the massive and socially irrational destruction of assets - including mass job lay-offs, factory closures, and the wholesale attack on wages, pensions, social security and erosion of people`s livelihoods. This is why, at our previous two meetings, we correctly asserted that the current crisis was not merely attributable to subjective failings, to the greed of bankers or financial speculators. It remains a crisis embedded in the systemic features of capitalism itself.

The persisting crisis is compounded by significant shifts in the international balance of forces. In particular, there is the on-going relative decline of US economic global hegemony, general productive stagnation in most advanced capitalist economies, and the emergence of new global economic powers, notably China. The crisis has intensified the competition between the imperialist centres and also between the established and emerging powers. This includes the US-led currency war; the concentration and centralization of economic and political power within the EU deepening its character as an imperialist block led by its main capitalist powers; a distinct sharpening of the inter-imperialist struggle for markets and access to raw materials; expanding militarism, including the strengthening of aggressive alliances (for example, the NATO Lisbon Summit with its "new" dangerous strategic concept), the profusion of regional points of tension and aggression (notably in the Middle East, Asia and Africa), coups in Latin America, the intensification of neo-imperialist tendencies of fanning ethnic conflicts and the increasing militarization of Africa through, amongst other things, AFRICOM.

At the same time it has become clear that capitalism`s trajectory with its profit-maximising, headlong destruction of natural resources, and of the environment in general poses a grave threat to the sustainability of human civilization itself. The political elites in the dominant capitalist states with their various proposals for "green technologies" and carbon trading at best represent adjustments which increase the profitability of capital while deepening the commodification of nature, and the transfer of climate change crises onto less developed countries. The crisis of the capitalist system that we face as humankind is directly linked to capitalism`s inability to reproduce itself except through a voracious pursuit of compound growth. It is a crisis that can only be overcome through the abolition of capitalism itself.

Faced with these realities, everywhere capital fights back, seeking to preserve profits and to transfer the burden of its crisis onto the working class by intensifying exploitation based on gender and age, the urban and rural poor, and a wide range of middle strata. Exploitation is intensified, the state is used to rescue private bankers and financial houses while exposing future generations to unsustainable levels of debt, and there are intensified efforts to roll back social gains.

In the entire capitalist world, labour, social, economic, political and social security rights are being abolished. At the same time the political systems are being made more reactionary , restricting democratic and civil liberties, especially trade union rights. The retrenchments, including major spending cuts in the public sector are having a devastating impact on workers, especially women workers. There are also attempts to divert popular distress and insecurity into reactionary demagogy, racism and xenophobia, as well as to legitimise fascist forces. These are expressions of anti-democratic and authoritarian tendencies also marked by the escalation of anti-communist attacks and campaigns in many parts of the world. In Africa, Asia and Latin America we are witnessing the imposition on our peoples of new mechanisms of national and class oppression, including economic, financial, political and military means as well as the deployment of an array of pro-imperialist NGOs.

However, for the mass of peoples, in particular in Africa, Asia and Latin America, it is important to remember that, even before the current global economic crisis, life under capitalism was a continuing crisis, a daily struggle for bare survival. Even before the current global crisis, one billion people were living in squalid slums, and half of the world`s population was surviving on less than $2 a day. With the crisis these realities have been massively aggravated.

Most of these urban and rural poor, along with family members working as vulnerable migrants in foreign countries, are the displaced victims of the accelerated capitalist agrarian development under-way in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Global capitalism, spear-headed by the major corporates in the agro-industrial sector, has declared war on nearly one-half of humanity - the three billion remaining rural people in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

At the same time inhuman barriers are being set up against immigrants and refugees. There is an ever-increasing mushrooming of urban and semi-urban slums populated by desperate marginalised masses typically involved in a variety of activities for survival. The accelerated capitalist agrarian transformation in countries with a lower level of capitalist development has genocidal implications.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RESISTANCE STRUGGLES OF THE WORKING CLASS AND POPULAR FORCES

Across the world, capital`s attempts to load the burden of the crisis onto workers and the poor is being met by working class and popular resistance. Over the past year the anti-people assault on labour rights, social-security rights and wages provoked an escalation of popular struggles notably in Europe. Imperialist aggression in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America continues to meet resolute popular resistance.

In Africa and Latin America, anti-imperialist forces, trade unions, and social movements have escalated their struggles for the rights of the people and against the plunder by the multinational corporations. These struggles have, in some cases, led to the emergence of progressive, popular national governments that declare programmatically for national sovereignty, social rights, development and for the protection of their natural resources and biodiversity, giving renewed impetus to the anti-imperialist struggle.

In the current reality, it is an historic imperative that as Communist and Workers` Parties we participate, to strengthen and transform these popular defensive battles into offensive struggles for the acquisition of broader workers` and people rights and for the abolition of capitalism.

In advancing this strategic agenda, communists stress the significance that the organisation of the working class, and the development of the struggles of the labour movement in a class-oriented direction, have in the struggle for the acquisition of political power by the working class and its allies.

Within the framework of this struggle we attach particular importance to:

• The defence, consolidation and advance of popular national sovereignty
• The deepening of social alliances
• Strengthening the anti-imperialist front for peace, for the right to full-time stable work, labour rights and social rights such as free health and education.

THE DEFENCE, CONSOLIDATION AND ADVANCE OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY

In the face of the intensified aggression of transnational capital, the struggle against imperialist occupation of countries, against economic and political dependency and to defend popular sovereignty has become increasingly salient. In these struggles it is important for communists to integrate these struggles with the struggle for social and class emancipation.

Communists, fighting against imperialism, struggle for equitable international relations between states and peoples on the basis of mutual benefit. The defence, consolidation and advance of popular sovereignty is of particular importance in Africa and for other peoples that have experienced decades and even centuries of colonial and semi-colonial oppression. 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of the commencement of the formal de-colonisation of Africa. Yet everywhere, including in the African diaspora, the grim legacy of the slave-trade, of colonial dispossession and plunder persist. Notwithstanding 50 years of formal de-colonisation, everywhere imperialist interventions are reinforced, the dominance of the monopolies is being strengthened with the aid of domestic capital. The struggle against them requires the active protagonism and unity of the popular masses, and the broadening of popular democratic rights.

DEEPENING SOCIAL ALLIANCES

The ongoing crisis of capitalism and its anti-civilisation fight-back are creating the conditions to build broad social, anti-monopolistic and anti-imperialist alliances capable of gaining power and promoting deep, progressive, radical, and revolutionary changes.

Working class unity is a fundamental factor in ensuring the construction of effective social alliances with the peasantry, the mass of urban and rural poor, the urban middle class strata and intellectuals. Particular attention needs to be paid to the aspirations of, and challenges confronting youth.

The land question, agrarian reform and rural development are important issues for the development of popular struggle in lesser developed countries. These are inextricably linked to food sovereignty and security, sustainable livelihoods, the defence of bio-diversity, the protection of national resources, and the struggle against agro-industrial monopolies and their local agents.

In these struggles, the legitimate and progressive aspirations of indigenous peoples in defence of their cultures, languages and environments have an important role.

THE ROLE OF COMMUNISTS IN STRENGTHENING THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST FRONT FOR PEACE, ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY, PROGRESS AND SOCIALISM

Imperialism`s crisis and counter-offensive are leading to the broadening and diversification of the forces that objectively assume a patriotic and anti-imperialist stand. Everywhere, in our diverse national realities, Communists have a responsibility to broaden and strengthen the anti-imperialist political and social front, the struggles for peace, environmental sustainability, progress, and integrate them in the fight for socialism. The independent role of Communists and the strengthening of the Communist and Workers` parties is of vital importance to ensure a consistent anti-imperialist perspective of broader movements and fronts.

Special attention must be given to the existing relation between various resistance struggles and the necessary ideological offensive for the visibility of the alternative of socialism and to the defence and development of scientific socialism. The ideological struggle of the communist movement is of vital importance in order to repulse contemporary anti-communism, to confront bourgeois ideology, anti-scientific theories and opportunist currents which reject the class struggle, and combat the role of social democratic forces that defend and implement anti-people and pro-imperialist policies by supporting the strategy of capital. We have a key role to play in drawing the critical links in theory and above all in practice between different arenas of popular struggle in the development of internationalist class solidarity.

We are living in an historic epoch in which the transition from capitalism to socialism has become a civilisational imperative. The all-round crisis of capitalism once more underlines the inseparable nature of the tasks of national liberation and social, national and class emancipation. In the face of deepening capitalist crisis, the experiences of socialist construction demonstrate the conditions of the superiority of socialism.

The strengthening of the cooperation among Communist and Workers` Parties and the strengthening of the anti-imperialist front, should march side by side.

We, the Communist and Workers` parties meeting in Tshwane, in a situation marked by a massive onslaught against workers and popular forces, but also with many possibilities for the development of the struggle, express our profound solidarity with workers and peoples and their intense struggles, reiterating our determination to act and struggle side by side with working masses, youth, women, and all popular sectors that are victims of capitalist exploitation and oppression.

We reaffirm our appeal to the widest range of popular forces to join us in a common struggle for socialism which is the only alternative for the future of humankind.

We point to the following main axes for the development of our joint and convergent actions:

1. With the capitalist crisis deepening, we will focus on the development of workers` and peoples` struggles for labour and social rights, the strengthening of the trade-union movement and its class orientation; the promotion of the social alliance with peasants and the other popular strata. Particular attention will be given to the problems of women and youth who are among the first victims of the capitalist crisis.
2.  In the face of the all-round imperialist aggression and the sharpening of the inter-imperialist rivalries, we will intensify the anti-imperialist struggle for peace, against imperialist wars and occupation, against the dangerous "new" NATO strategy and foreign military bases, and for the abolition of all nuclear weapons. We will extend active internationalist solidarity with all people and movements facing and resisting oppression, imperialist threats and aggression.
3. We will resolutely fight anticommunism, anti-communist laws, measures and persecution; to demand the legalisation of CPs where outlawed. We will defend the history of the communist movement, the contribution of socialism in advancing human civilisation.
4. We affirm our solidarity with the forces and peoples engaged in and striving for socialist construction. We reaffirm our solidarity with the Cuban people and their socialist revolution, and we will continue vigorously to oppose the blockade and to support the international campaign for the release of the Cuban Five.
5. We will contribute, within the specific context of our national realities, to the reinforcement of international anti-imperialist mass organizations like WFTU, WPC, WFDY, WIDF. We particularly welcome and salute the 17th World Festival of Youth and Students to be held in South Africa from 13th-21st December 2010.

Address by ANC President Jacob Zuma to the 12th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers Parties

General Secretary of the South African Communist Party,  Comrade Blade Nzimande;
Comrades delegates to the 12th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties from various parts of the globe;

Comrades and friends,

I bring revolutionary greetings from the African National Congress.

It is a great honour to welcome you to South Africa for this important meeting of the International Communist and Workers Parties, which is taking place in South Africa for the first time. This forum is an important legacy of the internationalist struggles of working peoples across the globe.

This has been attested to by leading communists in the past. Speaking, in Moscow on June 16, 1969 as part of his final contribution and delivered as the general secretary and leader of the South African delegation at the international meeting of Communist and Workers Parties, Moses Kotane, amongst other things said: "The very nature of our struggle has taught our revolutionaries, communists and non-communists alike, the fundamental lessons of internationalism. We know full well from practical experience that our struggle against imperialism is one with that of our brothers fighting the same enemy in every country of the world."

This thesis connects the international solidarity with the struggle for the abolition of apartheid and racism in our country. It is for this reason that we welcome our international guests, as your presence confirms our movement’s internationalist and anti-imperialist character.

This meeting reaffirms the bonds of comradeship and solidarity between the ANC and worker movements and communist parties internationally. While the ANC is a multi-class organisation it has always had a working class bias. Many of our members and leaders come from the ranks of the working class, while many working class people regard the ANC as their party of choice and a political home.

As we meet with you today and celebrate our common solidarity, we recall the ANC stalwarts who ensured that our message of freedom reaches far and wide, such as Oliver Tambo, Moses Kotane, JB Marks, Johnny Makatini and a host of others. We recall our worker stalwarts such as Steven Dlamini and others in the South African Congress of Trade Union (SACTU), who laid the foundations for a progressive trade union movement in our country. They taught us the need to place the interests of workers firmly at the centre of the struggle for freedom and the eradication of poverty and underdevelopment.

This gathering also highlights the fact that the bonds which moulded the common struggles of communists and non-communists in the context of the South African revolution, embodied in the historic Tripartite Alliance, continue to be a key pillar of our national democratic revolution in post-apartheid South Africa. The historic icons and leaders who embody the Alliance – each in his or her own way provided wisdom on this relationship.

We recall the words of Alfred Nzo, Secretary-General of the ANC in 1986 in London who said: "Comrades, the ANC will defend the right of any South African who so chooses to belong to the SACP. So shall we respect the right of any of our compatriots to belong to any party of their choice as long as that party is not a vehicle for the propagation of racism and fascism. Our democratic perspectives impose these obligations on us".

This meeting also highlights the need for us to continue to work for unity, solidarity and the defence of the progressive movement against any force that seeks to undermine it locally or internationally.

We are reminded by ANC President Comrade Oliver Tambo about the need to defend the mass democratic movement at all times.He said: "If the attack on the Communist Party were allowed to pass without resistance, none of the democratic organisations would be spared. Today it is the Communist Party, tomorrow it will be our trade unions, our Indian Congresses, our A.P.O., our African National Congress."

Unity should bind this Alliance and also the progressive forces around the world, for us to succeed in implementing the progressive agenda. Locally, a united ANC, SACP and COSATU will continue to drive transformation in our country, supported by progressive forces around the world. I have noted that delegates will be able to attend the 25th anniversary of COSATU tomorrow, to celebrate this critical milestone.

The relationship between workers and the ANC was best described by ANC President Chief Albert Luthuli who said the ANC was the shield and workers, then the South African Congress of Trade Unions, the spear. What is unique about South Africa too is the manner in which leadership cuts across the three components, ANC, communists and the workers.

Comrades over the years have been able to serve all three organisations, the ANC, SACTU and the SACP concurrently. An example is our stalwart Moses Mabhida. He rose through the ranks of the Communist Party to become its General Secretary, while for many years he was Vice President of the South African Congress of Trade Unions. Comrade Oliver Tambo remarked about this at the funeral of Comrade Mabhida in Maputo, Mozambique in March 1986. He said: "This combination of functions sometimes surprised and puzzled our friends who wondered why Comrade Mabhida had to serve in so many senior positions in different organisations. But, above all, it enraged our enemies.

"This combination of functions in one leader of our people upset our adversaries because it reflected the permanence and acceptability among our people of the idea and the practice of the unity of the revolutionary democratic, the socialist and the trade union movements in the South African struggle for national liberation".

Comrade OR also warned us as early as 1986, to guard against tendencies that would seek to divert us from our mission of strengthening the Alliance and focusing on the attainment of true freedom and a better life for our people and to build a better Africa and a better world.

 In the same speech, paying homage to Comrade Mabhida, President Tambo said:

Comrade Moses Mabhida

"Accordingly, he (Mabhida) fought against all attempts to turn the trade unions into appendages of the property-owning classes and resisted all efforts to emasculate the working class as a leading social force for political change in our country. Likewise, he was fiercely opposed to all manoeuvres which sought to educate the working class to repudiate its own history and allow itself to be turned into a base for the creation of a new political formation separate from and opposed to the ANC and the Communist Party. Moses Mabhida could take no other position because he had learnt and absorbed the lesson passed on to him and to us by the late Chief Albert Luthuli: that the ANC and SACTU were to each other a spear and a shield".

That is the advantage of an organisation that is as old as the ANC, which celebrates its centenary in 2012. The history, traditions and culture guide us in everything we do. There is little room for surprises or new innovations that would destroy what the founding fathers and mothers established in 1912, when they founded the ANC in its original form.

We are indeed privileged to be hosting this meeting when we are grappling with how to quickly translate the freedom attained in 1994 to accelerated access to a better life for our people. The national democratic revolution enjoins us to work together to ensure that the workers and the poor have access to basic needs such as water, education, health services, social security, electricity, roads and other basic necessities that should come with freedom.

We also have the key responsibility to shape the economic transformation of the post-apartheid South Africa, to address the deepening inequality and poverty. The progressive movement, especially communists and workers must answer the question why we still have a crisis of jobs, even when we say our economy has been doing well over the past few years. The recent economic downturn saw the loss of over a million jobs in our country, and job losses were continuing in the first six months of this year despite the return of economic growth.

These developments point to the core importance of redirecting and transforming economic growth in order to bring about greater equity based above all on the creation of decent employment for many more of our people.

We trust that we will be able to glean lessons from international delegates here, as to how they responded to such challenges in their own countries. On our part we have introduced a New Growth Path for discussion. It is a framework that takes into account the new opportunities for the developing world. The strong and robust growth in China, India, Brazil and large parts of the African continent provide enormous opportunities.

We outlined what we need to do in 2007 at the ANC’s 52nd national conference, where we stated that the creation of decent work opportunities should be the primary focus of all our economic policies. We are putting this principle into practice in part through the development of a programme to establish a new growth path for our country, which is currently being discussed by various social partners.

South Africa has a strong presence in many international decision-making and multilateral organisations. This presence, in our humble view, is a confirmation that sovereign, peaceful and in-solidarity progressive foreign policy adopted by and advocated by the ANC-led Alliance throughout history of the 90-odd years of the ANC is correct. The implementation of this foreign policy should then assist us to deal with the challenges of inequality and poverty in the world. I trust that when dealing with international political economy issues, you will deliberate on the critical need for the reform of international financial and economic system. Many institutions controlling the global economy were developed during periods when many countries were still in bondage and could not participate in the decision making structures in the world.

The time has come for this to be taken into account and to ensure faster transformation of the Bretton Woods institutions. There are a few outstanding matters that we would like you to help us take forward. We have been advocating for a more open, transparent and merit-based approach to choose the heads of the World Bank and the IMF.

We also need progressive forces in the world to continue advocating for the completion of the Doha Development Round. This will ensure that the developing countries have favourable access to markets in the developed world without restrictive conditions. Africa has strong potential on raw commodities and this will be the mainstay of our economies in the foreseeable future and for many years to come.

It is therefore crucial that we harness and optimize these resources in the global community where there are limited trade barriers and protectionist policies. These are some of the measures we will keep pushing, for as it is imperative that we achieve a just international financial and economic order.

Our recent National General Council underscored that the ANC continues to be the strategic centre of power, the leader of the Alliance, a disciplined force of the left, a mass movement, an internationalist movement with an anti-imperialist outlook.

Therefore the question of international solidarity remains uppermost on the movement’s agenda. We continue to support the campaign for the release of the Cuban Five and reiterate the ANC’s commitment to the cause of the Cuban People.

The NGC also called for increased trade between South Africa and Cuba as a reinforcement of our Foreign Policy and International Solidarity with Cuba. We will depart for Cuba tomorrow, the 4th of December, for a State Visit which takes place on 6-7 December, which will serve to strengthen relations between the two countries, and also boost economic relations.

In the Middle East, The ANC continues to support the calls for finding lasting, just and humane solutions to the Israeli- Palestine question. As we stated in our January 8, 2010 statement, we firmly believe in a two-State solution, this being the view upheld by the majority of the people of that region, particularly those oppressed in the West Bank and Gaza. Such a two State solution must also recognize the right of the Palestinian people to live in freedom along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as part of their territory.

Therefore, it is our firm belief that both the Israelis and the Palestinians would consequently live peacefully, side by side, with Israel enjoying better relations with the rest of the Arab world. We also reaffirm our solidarity with the people of West Sahara, and for world peace, sustainable development and coexistence of the peoples the world-over.

We will continue to support causes that advance the respect for human rights and promoting global democratic institutions at a global level. We will use our regained seat in the UN Security Council to promote these positions.

Let me reiterate our warm welcome to you all!

We trust that you will have fruitful deliberations which will enable us to take forward the quest for unity of purpose and action amongst the progressive forces in the world.

I thank you.

Only JPC can expose 2G scam: Prakash Karat

Describing the 2G spectrum allocation as the biggest scam of India, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat on Sunday said that only a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe will bring the truth to light.

“This Rs 1.76 lakh crore scam is the biggest one after independence and we want a JPC probe into it to bring truth to light,” Mr Karat said at a function organised here to launch the party’s week-long nationwide campaign against corruption.

The 1.76 lakh crore should be recovered, he said.

Demanding reallocation of the 2G spectrum, Mr Karat said many companies were given licenses illegally allowing them to make huge profits in the short span of two to three months. For the last two weeks, Parliament proceedings have been stalled and the opposition is demanding JPC probe into the 2G spectrum allocation, he said.

The CPI(M) leader said the CBI was too slow in its investigation into the 2G spectrum scam and has not done anything noteworthy in the last 13 months. The CBI has become a tool of the Centre, which uses the investigating agency against opposition leaders, he said.

Mr Karat said it took three years for former Telecom Minister A Raja to resign over the 2G spectrum. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had written a letter to A Raja in connection with allocation of 2G spectrum in November 2007. But after this, the PM did nothing in this regard, he alleged.

Commenting on the alleged scams related to the Commonwealth Games (CWG), Mr Karat said though the Organising Committee and its chairman Suresh Kalmadi were under scanner, role of Delhi and the Central governments in conducting the Games should also be probed. Noting that Rs 960 crore had been spent in modernisation of the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Delhi for the CWG, he said that a huge stadium had come up in Hyderabad for Rs 90 crore.

Mr Karat said Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa should resign in the wake of corruption charges against him so that a fair probe could be conducted against him. He said that a nexus of politicians, industrialists and bureaucrats has flourished under the Government’s economic policies, which was breeding corruption. “This needs to be destroyed,” he said.

Corruption has become a threat to democracy, Mr Karat said, adding that steps were needed to eradicate it.

AIDWA demands comprehensive mechanism to regulate MFIs

AIDWA plans to launch a protracted struggle at State and national-level

---

AIDWA members hold survey in Kothapatnam and other parts of Prakasam district

They will call on Minister for Indira Kranthi Patham V Sunita Lakshma Reddy

---

All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) is bracing itself for protracted struggles both at the national and state levels to exert pressure on the Reserve Bank of India, the Union and State Governments to put in a comprehensive mechanism to regulate microfinance institutions (MFIs), which were holding in their clutches poor women debtors.

Informing this to reporters here on Sunday, AIDWA Andhra Pradesh State secretary Swaroopa Rani said the AIDWA had completed a State-wide with 30-point questionnaire in the wake of suicide by over 100 women in the State in the last three months due to forcible collection and arm-twisting by MFI agents.

“We will discuss the findings at our State committee meeting in Hyderabad on December 9. This will be followed by an AIDWA meet in New Delhi on December 18 to chalk out agitation programmes in support of the distressed women in the country,'' she said.

She said it was found by AIDWA members during the survey in Kothapatnam and other parts of Prakasam district that “taking loans from RBI at 8 per cent interest, the MFIs are charging as high as 48 to 60 per cent from poor women whose credit needs were not met by public sector banks''.

She said a delegation of AIDWA leaders would call on Minister for Indira Kranthi Patham V Sunita Lakshma Reddy and press for inclusion of certain clauses in the bill to replace the ordinance on MFIs during the winter session of the State Assembly.

Provisions should be made to regulate rate of interest charged by MFIs, increase the number of equated instalments and do away with collective responsibility of the entire group for any individual to meet her obligation, she said.

“Over one crore women members of Self Help Groups are in a precarious position not getting the ‘Pavala vaddi' promised by the Government,'' she lamented, adding that the continuance of the co-contributory pension scheme Abhayahastham also remained a big question mark.

She claimed that Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy seemed to be more preoccupied with political agenda of making Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as the future Prime Minister.

He had failed to win the confidence of women and other sections by addressing various issues facing them, she contended.

(Courtesy : The Hindu)

Left Parties calls for Karnataka bandh on December 9

Left parties and like-minded organisations have given a call for Karnataka bandh on December 9 in demand of the resignation of B.S. Yeddyurappa-led BJP Government. Resignation of the “corrupt” Government is required to pave way for an impartial inquiry into the scandals involving Mr. Yeddyurappa and his Cabinet colleagues. The bandh is also intended to shed light on the 2G scam involving UPA Government at the Centre.

Dalit Sangharsha Samiti, Samata Sainik Dal, Janavadi Mahila Sanghatane, SFI and DYFI appealed to the people of Karnataka to support the bandh.

(Source : The Hindu)

CPI(M) Assam State committe decides for statewide stir against graft

Decrying the nationwide rampant corruption at the high level of the government, the Communist Party of India (M), Assam State Committee today announced that it would register its protest against corruption throughout the State from December 5 to 11.

Condemning the financial anomalies revealed by special audit inspection report of the AG on NC Hills district, the party leaders today said that the issue would be raised during its countrywide protest along with the other issues like 2G Spectrum scam, land scam and favouritism in Karnataka etc.

"The special AG report has brought to light some of the shocking revelations on the issue of financial mismanagement in the State. It has also proved that corruption and misutilization of public money in the state have reached an alarming level," party secretary Uddhav Barman said while addressing the media.

"A huge amount of money meant for the development of the district has been misappropriated through a nexus between the ministers, officers, contractors and the militant organizations. The State government should have taken immediate measures to conduct an enquiry to ensure strict punishment to the guilty people. Instead, the Chief Minister and the government spokesperson are seen diverting the issue," he added.

"It is now clear that the Chief Minister, who is also the in-charge of the finance department in the State is trying to hush-up the issue making some unconvincing statements.

"The intensions of the State government are doubtful as it tried to cover-up the scam since the very beginning. The Chief Minister himself refuting the charges of Rs 1,000-crore scam announced that Rs 1,000 crore was never sent to the NC Hills district," Hemen Das, senior leader of the party mentioned.