Workers’ Protest Against Devastating Assault on Weaving Industry
Favouring American policies, foreign MNCs and big industrialists, the Vajpayee government has launched an assault on industries like hosiery, readymade garments and weaving. The finance minister, in his budget has slapped an excise duty on all these small industries. It is to be noted that in 2004, under WTO, India is likely to get an export share in the world market of the textile sector. And about 70% of our textile exports come from powerloom-handloom, readymade and hosiery garment. Now, big industry and MNCs have their eye on this sector.
First the BJP government removed the ceiling for investment which had hitherto protected the small-scale sector, and now it is paving the way for its devastation by introducing excise duty. As part of this scheme, the Mayawati government in UP has announced the formation of four economic zones, where labour laws and taxes are being relaxed to attract big capital. Of these, the Banaras-Bhadohi zone can come up only by destroying the small-scale industries.
Weavers erupted in protest against the 11.1% excise duty on the powerloom sector, declaring a ‘looms bandh’ strike (‘murri’ bandh hartal). The world-famous Banarasi sari industry generates the maximum employment in the entire Poorvanchal (Eastern UP) region. Therefore, the protest has drawn in workers and weavers from Mau, Tanda, Khalilabad as well as Banaras. AICCTU-affiliated Bunkar Mahasabha began an indefinite relay hunger strike at the district HQ on 2 April with the slogan “Save Banaras, Save the Weaving Industry”. Together with other weavers’ and loom-owners’ groups, a massive rally of over 10,000 weavers was held at the district headquarters on 16 April.
The ongoing strike pushed weavers’ families on the brink of starvation, and there were reports of attempted suicide. The Bunkar Mahasabha and Khet Mazdoor Sabha launched an agitation on 21 April, placing the onus of preventing such suicides on Central and State governments, and demanding immediate relief measures for the starving weavers. The Bunkar Mahasabha took the initiative of forming a struggle front (Sangharsh Samiti) which organized a conference and dharna on 26 April. This dharna was addressed by leaders of weavers’ groups as well as CPI(ML) UP State Secretary Akhilendra Pratap Singh and AICCTU State Secretary Dinkar Kapoor and others. The struggle of weavers in Banaras as well as all over India forced the government to roll back the excise duty.
— Dinkar Kapoor

WORKERS’ FAMILY FESTIVAL

Will there be singing
In the dark times?
Yes, there will be songs
Of the dark times!
- Bertolt Brecht
At the Ambattur Industrial Estate, Chennai, scene of a determined movement against impending closures, it was a festival with a difference. AICCTU Ambattur’s Workers’ Family Festival was part of the journey towards social change. Even with the threat of unemployment looming large, workers and their families challenged “ the dark times” with festivity that held a radical spark.
The festival began with a drawing and essay competitions for the children of the workers. Children were asked to draw anything that gave them pain or pleasure. What emerged were visuals that evoked the horrors of the Iraq war, the inspiration of the martyrs of the freedom struggle, and statements against communal violence, as well as childlike celebrations of colours, birds, rivers and greenery. The topic for the essay competition was: “Tamilnadu, India and the world of my dreams”. There were some 70 entries for both the competitions.
Then there were races, chess and carom competitions for the children. There was a festive mood in the sports ground on 4th May. Nearly 300 people were there. There were no professionals or experienced people; it was the workers who rose to be skilled organizers. Women also ran races. There were long jump, kabaddi, chess, carom board and races for the workers. All children who participated were given prizes and certificates.
On 4th there was a quiz program in which some 16 teams of worker’s families participated. 5 teams were selected for the finals, which was held on May 11, the festival day. The festival proper was held on May 11 in a big marriage hall of Ambattur. There were extensive wall-writing, banners and propaganda for the festival. The first item of that day was an oratory contest on the topic, “Working class movement- Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”. Then there was a quiz. There was a general round and a rapid fire round. Questions were on labor law reforms, Marxist quotations, closures, second national labor commission, literature, communist history, communalism, T.N., political situation and of course on American imperialism and Iraq. Three from the audience won special prizes in the quiz program.
Then there was the star program. “A Real Drama”. A serious drama troupe called Koothupattarai helped to train some of our comrades and wellwishers and helped them in finalizing the dialogue and script. The drama dealt with the issue of cruel destruction of the productive forces and its impact on working class families, highlighting the problems of women. The drama was a big success and will be staged in other places. There was only one speech delivered by Com. S. Kumarasami. Then two of our advocate sympathizers, K.M. Ramesh and T. Narayan who fight many of the workers’ cases gave away the prizes and certificates. This was the longest program as nearly some 200 received prizes. There was a dinner for all in which more than 500 took part. It was a great success, as the workers’ families came in good numbers and participated as if it was their family function. -- S Kumaraswamy

Agrarian Workshop in TN:
Towards Gaining A Stable Social Base in Rural TN
The party’s Tamil Nadu State committee organized state level agricultural laborer’s workshop on 2003, 25, 26, April in Natham Village, Sattanadhapuram, Sirkazhi of Nagai district.
The state is witnessing serious agrarian unrest due to unprecedented drought. There have been spontaneous outbursts in rural Tamil Nadu. Jayalalitha reacted by announcing a free noon meal scheme for agricultural labourers, small and marginal peasants. Even this evoked a very strong protest. CPI(ML) took the initiative in demanding free rice in Kovai, Dharmapuri, Erode, Madurai, Trichi, Tuticorin, Kanchipuram and Tiruvellore districts, as well as in our old centers like Thanjavur and Nagai.
The party at the state level responded to the agrarian crisis by reaching out to rural poor and more particularly the agricultural laborers in different districts of Tamilnadu. The workshop was a follow-up of these initiatives. Before the workshop, a detailed questionnaire was circulated to all the participants to make a study and investigation of the conditions of agricultural laborers at the panchayat level.
Strengthening the theoretical understanding and basic approach in organizing agricultural laborers, grasping particularities of Tamilnadu through study and investigation and finalizing a plan and target for the state level agricultural laborers organization, were the main aspects of the workshop.
Addressing the first session of the workshop, Comrade DP Bakshi, CPIML PB Member, dealt with the question of the emergence of agricultural laborers as an independent class in rural India, under the specific conditions of the distorted, uneven and half-hearted growth of capitalism in Indian agriculture. Identifying agrarian labour as the most dynamic and assertive class of rural India, Comrade Bakshi pointed out that despite the tremendous variations across Indian agriculture, agrarian labour have emerged as an all-India class which is taking more and more independent class actions. The complex reality of the Indian countryside demands that the struggle against rural capital cannot be separated from the anti-feudal struggle. Agrarian labour, organized as a class, will be the backbone of the struggle to eliminate feudalism and establish proletarian leadership over peasant struggle.
In the next session Comrade Balasundaram, member of CC, CPIML, narrated the development of agrarian movement in Tamilnadu and its challenges and tasks in a detailed manner. Thereafter comrades put forth their views on the points enumerated in the first session by Com. Bakshi, which generated a lively discussion which facilitated formulating a package for a state level agricultural laborers organization in Tamilnadu.
A decision was taken to launch a campaign to demand comprehensive state-level legislation to protect the interests of agricultural labourers. Such legislation must guarantee minimum wages, equal wages for women, and representation in the wage fixation machinery for agricultural labourers, 200 days of employment in a year, implementation of food for work programs in a big way.
Registration and issue of multi-purpose identity cards to agricultural laborers, rural workers and migrant workers, implementation of integrated welfare schemes giving priority to education, health, drinking water and old age protection.
Strengthening the public distribution system, ensuring 30 Kg free rice and monthly relief of Rs.750 to the agricultural laborers, small and marginal peasants throughout the period when there is no work.
Confiscating govt. and common land illegally occupied by vested interests like landlords, kulaks, neo-rich, corrupt politicians and officials, to be distributed to the agricultural laborers, rural workers and poor peasants who do not have homestead lands, Stringent action against upper caste landlords, who perpetrate social oppression in collusion with govt. officials against agricultural laborers and women agricultural laborers, Implementation of rural development schemes under the supervision of people.
A 12 member state level preparatory committee was formed and a detailed plan of organizational and political inituiatives has been chalked out. A vigorous campaign on the above issues will be followed by sustained agitations and signature campaigns, culminating in a Rally and State Conference on 25 December, Venmani Day.

Helpless Workers Commit Suicide
In Kanpur, around a dozen people belonging to working class committed suicide recently in a short period as they had been caught in the usurers’ debt trap. For instance, on 23 April, six persons belonging to a single family in Sanjay Gandhi Nagar of Naubasta took their lives and on 28 April a working couple committed suicide at Barra. Then on 29 April a woman at Narval took poison to end her life because of debt. And so on.
Continuing closure of factories, increasing joblessness and poverty have caused despair among a broad section of workers who have been thrown out of jobs. Some of them have become rickshaw puller or porter, some became peddlers taking loan from usurers. Soon the usurers manipulate the amount of loan and add exorbitant interest and then snatch the land and household property of the debtors, beside harassing, humiliating and even beating them. As the usurers are also police touts and local thugs (one of them is a policeman himself), complain against them is not entertained by police stations. This helplessness has driven many of the working people to commit suicide.
Recently a sales manager of the local NTC Mure Mill Mr Ravi Shukla died of heart attack when he came to know that he was being forcibly put on VRS. Protesting against this and demanding action against the officials responsible for this death the Staff association held hunger strike at the Mill Gate. It has come to light that all the five NTC mills of Kanpur are being put to auction at a price of Rs.260 crore. According to the ministry sources, part of this money will be invested in textile mills at Naini and Mau. Workers allege that machines and property are being sold at throwaway prices. Not only that, new machines bought for the purpose of modernization of these mills are also being sold at scrap prices.
It must be noted that almost all the workers of Mure Mill, Atherton Mill, Swadeshi Cotton Mill and Laxmi Ratan Cotton Mill – four out of five NTC mills – have already taken VRS. More than 500 workers of New Victoria Mill had taken VRS in April. And on the eve of May Day this year, all the remaining 175 workers of New Victoria Mill were forced to avail VRS.
In the meantime machinery of Mure and Atherton Mills have been already sold for a paltry sum of Rs. 11 crore. A single company of Bombay has purchased the lot. Tenders were issued on the basis of ‘clean and sweep’ – even the windows and doors and underground cables are included in the inventory. Other mills will also follow suit. On the other hand, the issue of closure of NTC mills is pending with AIFR. Central Labour Secretary had issued a directive that the mills should be closed only after settlement of all the disputes with the workers. This directive has been violated by the management because several such cases are still pending in court.
Against this, CPI(ML) and its trade union units in Kanpur staged a dharna on 6 May at Shaheed Ram Asrey Park before the Collectorate. Apart from demanding reversal of the dismantling process of NTC, they held the administration responsible for the suicide deaths of workers and demanded stern steps against the usurers.

Hunger Strike by BKU(Ekta) and Dharna by CPI(ML) in Punjab
Protesting against Amrinder Singh’s going back on promises made to the peasantry, the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta) Punjab leaders started hunger strike from 21 April 03 at Matka Chowk in Chandigarh. Earlier, BKU (Ekta) along with other peasant organizations had conducted a dharna at Chandigarh from 10 to 18 March 2003 protesting against electricity billing of motors pumps and other demands. The finance minister who met the BKU(Ekta) leaders then promised to arrange for a talk with the chief minister. However, the chief minister didn’t call the BKU leaders even after one month. This led to the hunger strike. On behalf of CPI(ML) Punjab unit, Comrades Jita Kaur and Kripal Singh Bir participated in the hunger strike and addressed to the joint press conference on the eve of the hunger strike. The BKU (Ekta) was represented by president Pichora Singh, general secretary Ruldu Singh and other leaders. Along with the hunger strike by BKU(Ekta), CPI(ML) leaders Jita Kaur and Kripal Singh sat on dharna in their support. Punjab State Electricity Board and some other organizations too supported the hunger strike. Under this pressure, the chief minister held talks with BKU(Ekta) leaders and announced acceptance of several demands, like abolition of 4% tax on pesticides, reduction of connection fees to motor pumps from Rs.5200 to Rs.4000 per horse power and increase of electricity load, rationalization of canal water rent and lifting the restriction on cooperatives to purchase fertilizers only from Markfed. He also promised to pay bonus on paddy as per earlier announcements. However, on the question of electricity bills of motor pumps he agreed only to accept payment without fine till 15 May. Still, the gains of the movement are substantial and the BKU(Ekta) leadership has resolved to soon put up the other outstanding demands like reduction in rate of interest on loan from cooperative banks, reduction of electricity tariff and further reduction of connection fees.