• Budget session of parliament heralded with massive and militant protests by India’s working class!

• No to the second wave of privatisation and liberalisation!

• Supreme Court order on slum clearance
  Lakhs of people threatened to be rendered homeless

• March 8, 2000: Communism is the condition for the emancipation of women

• Union Budget 2000-01: Harsh on the toiling people—for the benefit of the idle rich

• LRS meeting in Mumbai: Renewal of India - Call of the new millenium

• Memorandum of protest from Modern Food employees to the Prime Minister submitted on February 23, 2000

• All-India protest program by railwaymen

• Organise to replace Party Rule by People’s Rule! (concluding part)

• Government employees of Maharashtra vow to fight

India’s working class has decided to challenge the second wave of liberalisation and privatisation! This was the message of the massive workers’ protests on the opening day of the budget session of parliament on February 23, 2000.

Over 10,000 workers belonging to different sectors of the economy and coming from different parts of the country participated in the militant protests that continued throughout the day.

Workers of the Modern Food Industries staged a militant protest demonstration expressing their complete opposition to the decision of the Union Government to sell 74% of the shares of Modern Food Industries to the multinational Hindustan Lever.

Over three thousand textile mill workers from the BIC textile mills of Kanpur marched to the Textile Ministry in the early hours of the morning, engaged in militant clashes with the police who were imposing a ban on rallies, and then finally held a massive protest rally in front of parliament.

A sea of flags and banners and placards was on view in front of parliament.The workers carried placards with slogans "BIC Kanpur ke sooti milo ko challoo karo!"(Reopen the BIC textile mills of Kanpur) "Thekedari pratha band karo!" (Down with the contract labour system) "Asthayee shramiko ko sthayi karo"( regularise temporary and casual workers) "Kanpur kapada milo ki talabandi khatam karo" (End the lockout of the Kanpur textile mills) "Modern Food Industries ka nijikaran murdabad" (Down with the privatisation of Modern Food Industries) "Sarkar ki mazdoor virodhi niti murdabad" (Down with the anti working class policy of the government) "Arthik sudharo ka naya daor band karo" (No to the new round of economic reforms) "Mehangai nahin, vetan badao" ( Don’t increase prices, increase wages) "Kendra sarkar ka samrajyavadi rukh murdabad"(Down with the imperialist outlook of the central government) "Roji roti ka adhikar, janmasidha adhikar" (Livelihood is our birthright) "Baith kar vetan nahin chahiye, in haton ko kaam chahiye" (We do not want wages sitting idle, these hands want work) "Desh bechna band karon, nijikaran karna band karo" (Stop selling the country, stop privatising) "Hum hai iske malik, hum hai Hindustan, mazdoor, kisan, aurat aur jawan", "Mazdoor ekta zindabad", "Maang raha hai mazdoor kisan, Hindustan ka navnirman"( Workers and peasants demand India’s renewal).

Apart from these demonstrations, there were employees of the Cement Corporation of India as well as Delhi Home Guards and many others as well registering their protests in defence of their livelihood and opposing the second round of privatisation and liberalisation.

Militant united protest dharna against privatisation of Modern Food Industries

The rally by the Modern Food Employees was marked by the fact that workers from the different units of Modern Food Industries in Delhi and Faridabad as well from the head office in Delhi came together ignoring party and union affiliation to register their common protest to the government of India. They submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister calling for an immediate review of the decision to sell Modern Foods to Hindustan Lever. They courted arrest and were later released. The workers of Modern Food Industries than marched to their head office and staged a militant protest demonstration there as well, and clashed with the police.

The rally of Modern Food Workers was addressed by leaders of various unions, including National Federation of Modern Food Employees, Modern Food Industries Head Office Karamchari Sangh, Modern Food Industries Head Office Workers Union, Modern Food Industries Karamchari Union, Rasika Fruit Juice Workers Union, Modern food Industries Employees Union, Modern Food Industries Employees Union (Faridabad), and Modern Food Industries Kamagar Union. Leaders of the textile workers of Kanpur also addressed the rally in solidarity and called for a united struggle of the working class. Activists of the Communist Ghadar Party of India and the Mazdoor Ekta Committee vigorously participated in the rally.

Among those who addressed the rally were Harish Rrawat, former Member of Parliament and currently President of National Federation of Modern Food Employees, Govind Singh Yadav, Secretary of the Modern Food Industries Employees Union, Dharam Veer and Kamlesh Kumar leaders of the Kirit Nagar unit, Siya Ram and R.K. Nair of the Faridabad unit, Davinder Singh Negi and Ajay Tewari of the Rasika unit, Raj Singh and Purshootam Yadav, Dinesh Pal Singh Raghav and Hukum Chand Sharma, Rajinder Kumar and R.D. Sharma. The General Secretary of the All India Modern Bakeries Workers Federation, A.D. Nagpal, sent a letter of solidarity to the fighting workers.

Sooti mill workers of Kanpur gherao textile ministry

Over 3000 workers of the three nationalised and locked out BIC textile mills of Kanpur - Kanpur Textile Mill, Elgin -1 and Elgin -2, together with their families including children, descended on Delhi in the early hours of February 23, 2000 to demand the reopening of their locked up mills and budgetary provision for their salaries. It may be noted that the union government closed these mills several years ago despite the protest of workers, declaraing that it was cheaper to pay workers to sit idle than to run the mills. In the intervening period, several thousand workers have resigned and accepted V.R.S. However, over 5,000 workers have resolutely stuck to their demand for the reopening of the mills. "Baith kar vetan nahi chaiye, in hatoon ko kaam chahiye" has been the rallying cry of these workers. Now, it is openly feared that the Union government will stop paying the workers their salaries.

The historic significance of the present struggle is that the workers of the BIC Mills, overcoming the divisions caused by political parties and their unions, got together to form a sangharsh samiti to lead their struggle. Under the leadership of the sangharsh samiti, after nearly 2 months of gherao of the BIC headquarters in Kanpur in November and December, the workers had won a significant victory. Enthused by this, thousands of workers descended on Delhi to step up their struggle in defence of their livelihood.

As the trains came from Kanpur, workers marched to the Udyog Bhavan, Headquarters of the textile ministry, to gherao it. They clashed with the police in waves, and finally marched to parliament to demonstrate. They merged with the fighting workers of Modern Food Industries, and others, and joined the common protest against the second wave of liberalisation and privatisation.

The massive rally of the textile workers was addressed by the ex-MP of Kanpur, Jagat Vir Singh Dron, and the sitting MP from Kanpur (rural) Shyam Bihari Mishra apart from a galaxy of leaders from the Sangharsh Samiti. These included Santosh Bagga, Virender Dubey, Khalil Ahmed Siddiqui, Mohamed Hanif, Vijay Shankar, Shri Ram Sharma, Suresh Savita, Gurubachan, Iqbal, Shiv Pal Singh, Raja Singh, Guru Prasad, Yaseen, Mukhtar Ahmed, Mona Sur and others. The activists of the Communist Ghadar Party of India and the Mazdoor Ekta Committee vigorously participated in the rally.

Workers of the Cement Corporation of India on dharna

Workers of the Cement Corporation of India, another public sector undertaking, also staged a protest in front of parliament the same day. The company has been closed down pending a revival package and the workers are not being paid their regular wages, despite many protests. The protestors represented the CCI units in Adilabad, Akaltara, Kurkunta, Tandur, Nayagaon, Delhi Cement Grinding Unit, etc.,.

Workers and working people from all over India will march to parliament on 9th March in protest against the second wave of privatisation and liberalisation and the increasing attacks on the livelihood and rights of toiling people. People's Voice calls on the working class and all working people to make the protest action of March 9 a resounding success. Independent of their ideological and political inclinations, independent of their trade union or other affiliations, all those who are concerned about and opposed to attacks on the working class and toiling people, all those opposed to the sell out of the sovereignty of our country, all those opposed to the course of militarisation of the economy, must vigorously participate in this action.

India’s bourgeoisie is desperate to pursue the course of globalisation through privatisation and liberalisation and militarisation to pursue its reactionary vision of becoming an imperialist power. This vision is to be achieved by trampling underfoot the rights of the toiling masses and sending them to an early grave. Such a vision and such a course is heaping disaster after disaster on our people and country. The working class and toiling people of India totally disagree with this vision and this course and will oppose it at every step. Already India’s working class has served notice on the bourgeoisie and its NDA government to this effect. This is the message of the heroic struggle of the UP power sector employees, This is the message of the employees of Modern Food Industries and Kanpur’s textile mills. March 9 must be the next step in this great ongoing battle through which the working class mounts an effective challenge to the bourgeoisie.

Supreme Court order on slum clearance

Lakhs of people threatened to be rendered homeless

On January 17, the Supreme Court passed a judgement whereby it directed the civic authorities of the capital to clear out the slums that provide shelter to over 30 lakh working people and take steps to prevent further setting up of slums. This judgement was passed, according to the judge, in order to ensure that the "capital of the biggest democracy in the world is not branded as being one of the most polluted cities in the world".

Why are millions of people forced to live in slums?

In passing this judgement, the Supreme Court, as the spokesperson of the ruling bourgeoisie, is talking as if the millions of working people forced to live in the slums love to live in filth and are responsible for the pollution in the city. Every day, thousands of people, devastated in the countryside, are forced to go to the cities in search of a livelihood. They have no other option but to live in slums, amidst the filth and squalor, with no drinking water or sanitation, in conditions unfit for human beings in this day and age.

These constitute the workers and working people, the toilers who produce in the factories, the labourers who create out of brick and sand the magnificent structures that bring beauty to the city, those who generate through their sweat and toil all the wealth of society. Yet they are deprived of shelter, because the state has no plan for housing for the vast majority of workers in the city. They have to live in slums, constantly at the mercy of the slumlords and local politicians, with the eternal threat of eviction hanging over their heads like a Damocles’ sword.

Politicians’ Vote bank

Despite the claims by those in power that alternative housing will be provided to those living in the slums, that slums will be regularized, etc., why has the problem remain unresolved and only grown worse? At the time of every election, local politicians come and promise those living in slums that they will be provided drinking water, hygienic conditions, sanitation, etc., that their slums will be regularized, that will no longer face the threat of eviction, if only they cast their vote in favour of this or that politician. Slumlords, financed by various political parties even ensure that entire slums or sections of slums vote for a particular candidate. But after the elections are over and the dust has settled, no more is heard about these promises, for, if they were really to be implemented, then where would the votes come from in the next elections? That is why it benefits the ruling bourgeoisie to keep millions of people living in the slums in these deplorable conditions, so that one wing of the bourgeoisie may talk of "cleaning up" and hold out the threat of eviction while the other wing may go about creating illusions that "something will be done". Between them, the working people are kept completely chained down and at the mercy of the ruling bourgeoisie.

Source of pollution

If the Supreme Court is so concerned about pollution, what about the numerous industries of the big capitalists, often right in the heart of the city, which spew out thousands of tons of toxic smoke and hazardous chemicals and gases every day? Even today, 15 years later, the perpetrators of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, those who then controlled Union Carbide, remain unpunished. What about the lakhs of automobiles on the streets – a direct consequence of the lack of a well-planned and organized modern public transport system for the city’s working millions? Are these not major sources of pollution? How does the Supreme Court plan to deal with them, in its "concern" for pollution?

The Supreme Court has also expressed concern that "large areas of public land . . . are usurped for private use free of cost at the taxpayers expense". If our rulers are so concerned about the misuse of public property, then the same Supreme Court should also explain why, under the present drive for privatization and disinvestment, it should be justified that large public sector undertakings, e.g. Modern Foods and other public sector enterprises such as Electricity and Airlines, with their massive assets and prime land holdings, all of which are public property, can be sold off by the government for a pittance to privately owned and multinational companies, without any discussion with the workers toiling in them or the public at large.

The fact that even today millions are denied the basic human rights of food, clothing and shelter and that the bourgeoisie has no solution to the problem, once again reaffirms that the existing system, where political power is concentrated in a few hands and denied to the vast majority, has failed miserably. Instead of admitting failure, the various agencies of the bourgeoisie are busy blaming the working people themselves for their conditions.

We the working people can have no illusions, no faith in the promises of the bourgeoisie. Only political power in the hands of the working people can solve the problem of food, clothing, shelter and other problems in the interests of the working people.

March 8, 2000

Communism is the condition for the emancipation of women

March 8th was established as International Working Women’s Day by the international working class and communist movement in the beginning of the 20th century. It was established in memory of the courageous struggle for fixed working hours, by the women working in the factories and workshops of the garment industry in the capitalist countries. It was a struggle that signaled the fact that women had begun to assert their rights as workers. Even though they constituted a small minority of women at that time, women working for wages asserted the collective rights of women, as women and as human beings.

Today, the bourgeoisie treats International Women’s Day as if it has nothing to do with the movement for the emancipation of labour. All the states in the capitalist and imperialist countries have sworn to respect the rights of women, but in reality the vast majority of women remain oppressed by these bourgeois states. Their rights are trampled in the mud on a daily basis.

One fact that cannot be hidden is that it was the world’s first socialist state, the USSR, that extended the right to elect and be elected, and other political rights, to women. With the birth of socialism, women actually experienced what it means to participate as equals in all the affairs of society. With the degeneration of socialism and the final collapse of the Soviet Union, the world revolutionary movement entered a period of retreat, and so did the women’s movement.

In India, the working class movement and the women’s movement both arose in the conditions of the movement to liberate the motherland from colonial slavery. It was a time when women joined the Communist Party in large numbers, and the Communist Party extended assistance to build the fighting organisations of women.

In the period after political independence in 1947, the link between these two great movements became broken in political and organisational terms, especially after the Communist Party of India split into two almost equal halves in 1964. The women’s movement resurfaced in the late 1970s and more visibly in the 1980s. However, in the conditions of a politically and ideologically divided working class and communist movement, the women’s movement has remained fragmented and vulnerable to bourgeois ideological influence.

Within the communist movement, those who conciliate with the social-democratic politics of the Congress Party are promoting the harmful illusion that women can become empowered through the mechanism of parliamentary democracy. In the name of socialism and communism, bourgeois reformist ideas are spread among educated women. The lofty aim of emancipation from all forms of subjugation is replaced with the petty aim of accommodating an elite among women into the existing power structures.

The discontent of women with the existing political system, with the domination of parties that are nothing but electoral machines, has been and continues to be manipulated by the bourgeoisie to promote the virtues of the women’s movement separating itself from the working class and communist movement in the name of "autonomy". ‘Keep away from all political parties’ is the slogan which has been used by the bourgeoisie to deprive the women’s movement of ideology and theory, of organisational cohesion, clarity and unity of vision.

The principal weapon in the bourgeois ideological offensive is the philosophical trend called deconstructionism. This trend breaks down society into little parts and promotes the notion of autonomous movements of the different little parts, independent of the whole. Based on this imperialist philosophical trend, numerous bourgeois sociologists, gender specialists and NGOs have been activated to promote so-called autonomous movements of women of ethnic minorities, women of oppressed castes, of specific tribes and so on. The aim of such autonomous movements is nothing more than to seek accommodation within the existing power structures for a privileged few from among such minorities.

Communists, both women and men, fight for the equality of political rights for all adult members of society, women and men. They recognise the unequal conditions that exist among the people, and the need for the State to extend special assistance to various members of society to enable them to exercise their rights. For instance, child-bearing and nursing women need special care and facilities to enable them to participate as equal members of the polity. Communists wage the struggle for equal rights by demanding that enabling mechanisms be established so that everyone can enjoy and exercise those rights.

The bourgeoisie exploits the unequal social conditions to deny the need for equal rights. In place of a united struggle for the rights of all, the bourgeoisie promotes separate sectarian movements for special privileges and quotas. The striving for special privileges and quotas serves to keep the polity divided, the oppressed masses diverted, and thereby preserves the status quo.

The bourgeois ideological pressure on the women’s movement in India today mainly takes the form of the diversionary debate over reservation of seats for women in various elected and nominated official bodies. It is diversionary precisely because it dissociates the question of empowering women from the question of the renewal of democracy and the political process so as to empower all the hitherto oppressed.

The problems of women are problems facing the whole of society. In turn, the problems of society are problems that face women. The exploitation of labour is the basis for the exploitation of women in the realm of family relations. In turn, the oppression of women serves to oppress the working class. Women who understand the social basis of their oppression join the movement of the working class for the elimination of all forms of exploitation or oppression of one person by another. Such women have joined the Communist Ghadar Party of India in significant numbers, right from its inception.

On the occasion of March 8, 2000, CGPI calls on women to come forward to play their rightful role in the vanguard of social progress. Come forward to become the leaders of the communist movement—the movement for the emancipation of labour from all forms of exploitation and oppression, the movement for the elimination of class distinctions in society!

The 21st century is bound to witness the resurgence of the working class movement and the resurgence of the women’s movement in India. The challenge facing Indian communists is to prepare for the coming storms. An essential component of this preparation is to capture the space for communism among the fighting women of India.

Prime Minister Vajpayee and Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha claim that the country needs a "harsh" budget. They claim that the economy is so sick that it needs "strong medicine". But why is it that it is the workers and peasants, not the capitalists and landlords, who have to put up with more hardship every year?

When Vajpayeee and Sinha talk about a "harsh" budget, the question that every worker and peasant must raise is: harsh for whom? Will the budget take tough measures against the rich capitalists and big landowners, or will it pile on greater hardship on the backs of the toiling people?

The actions that the Vajpayee Government has already taken prior to the Budget show what they mean by tough measures. The recent hike in the price of diesel, for instance, led to increase in bus fares for the urban working people. It led to a rise in the cost of cultivation for many peasants and farmers. It did not cause any hardship for the big business houses and foreign multinationals, who praised the hike in diesel price as an excellent step to cut the government deficit.

According to reports of the pre-Budget meetings held so far, further measures that are being planned as part of the Budget exercise include cuts in subsidies and increase in prices of fertiliser and food items, in the name of further "fiscal adjustment". The Central Government is not only planning to raise the prices at its command, it is also planning to pressurise the states to raise the rates charged for electricity, irrigation water, drinking water, bus transport, hospital care, college and school fees. One of the ideas discussed at the pre-budget meetings is to make central assistance to the states conditional on the states raising what they charge the toiling masses for essential consumer goods and services.

If you want to take tough measures, why not tax the rich or stop paying interest to the World Bank and other money lenders? Why not declare all old 100 rupee and 500 rupee notes as invalid from April 1st onwards, thereby forcing all the hoarders of black money to bring them to the banks? This is what the workers and peasants should demand from the government.

Messrs. Vajpayee and Sinha do not want to take any step that will hurt the interests of the Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis and other big business houses of India or the foreign multinational companies. They want to attack the livelihood of the workers and peasants and earn praises from the World Bank experts for their "reformist" budget!

The Budget is an important tool for influencing the orientation of the economy. Under the existing economic and political system, it is the big bourgeoisie that controls political power and sets the main parameters of the Union Budget. Even though the BJP claims to be different from the Congress Party, it is defending the same class interest. It is a party of the big bourgeoisie and big capital, similar to the Congress Party. The Union Budget 2000 promises to raise to an even higher level the policy of attacking the living standards of the workers and peasants to fulfill the greed of the rich.

The time has come for the working class to unfurl the banner of revolt against the attacks of the ruling class on the livelihood of the masses. Why should the working people put up with increasing hardship all the time? Make the rich pay, not the working people! This is the battle cry of the working class on the eve of the Union Budget 2000-01.

As the millenium was drawing to a close in December 1999, all over the world the bourgeoisie was preparing for the biggest bash. In India, the New Year would also see the completion of fifty years as a Republic. The government was making its own plans to celebrate and glorify the event.

But what was its real significance? What did it mean to the crores and crores of toilers of our beloved land who are born in, live in and die in poverty and deprivation? Was it not a time to take stock and see what needs to be done? Lok Raj Sangathan (LRS) Mumbai, took the initiative in December '99 and invited many parties and organisations to a meeting to plan a programme on the occasion of 26th January, 2000, that would raise the issue of rebuilding India. Many organisations – the CGPI, the Ladaku Garment Mazdoor Sangh (LGMS), the Rashtriya Janwadi Kamgar Sangh and the Kamgar Adhikar Sangh—Vasai, responded to the initiative and it was decided to hold a public meeting in Ambedkar Maidan, Worli on January 26, 2000.

In preparation for the public meeting, thousands of posters were put up all over Mumbai and neighbouring Thane. Leaflets in thousands were distributed in various areas. On January 23rd, LRS organised a sports festival and essay and drawing competitions . The theme of the essay was—"Our country—which way forward?" The drawings / cartoons were on the theme—"50 years of the Republic". Entries were received from far-flung places like Ulhasnagar, Thane and Mulund.

On January 26th, Ambedkar Maidan wore a festive look. What was being celebrated was not 50 years of the Republic that had robbed the poor and fattened the rich. What was being celebrated was the unity, the determination, the resolve to collectively challenge the status quo and build an India of those who toil. "Apanach tar yache malak, apanach tar Hindustan; Kamgar, Shetkari, Mahila, Navjawan!" (We are the owners of India, we are India, workers, peasants, women and youth!) This bold declaration was emblazoned in letters of gold on the huge red curtain that formed the backdrop of the stage. Banners of all the participating organisations adorned the place. The function attracted not only local residents of Worli, but people from many outlying suburbs as well.

The proceedings opened with militant songs rendered by a group of garment workers. Dr. Bharat, Convenor of the LRS, Mumbai, welcomed everyone. Briefly recounting how the LRS was formed in 1993 by a group of people from all walks of life who felt that the crucial issue confronting India was the political empowerment of the people. He recollected how the Worli branch of the organisation was inaugurated in the very same maidan less than a year ago, on the occasion of International Women's Day. "Within a year this branch has grown and become strengthened. How successfully we have worked together was evident on the 23rd of January when so many cooperated and made the Sports Festival a grand success. This is the unity we cherish. We have to unite to uphold our interests, to see that our basic questions are addressed."

Comrade Shekhar Kapre of the Ladaku Garment Kamgar Sangh elaborated on the present political system in which people are deprived of politcal power and said that the need of the times is to fight for a system in which the ultimate power will lie in the hands of the people. For this we need a system in which the people have the decisive say in putting up candidates and in controlling what their elected representatives do. Shri Bhave, Co-convenor of LRS, Mumbai, began his address by saying that the ruling classes claim that only they can rule. "They tell us workers and common people that we cannot rule, we can only work. Yes, we certainly cannot rule in their manner. For instance, we are incapable of pulling down the BDD chawls, getting 5-star hotels built in their place and then shamelessly telling the local residents that we are doing it for their benefit. But we are certainly capable of ruling in the interests of the people. By political empowerment we mean active involvement in decision-making, in solving people’s problems. Coming back to the example of BDD, who should have the right to decide what is to be done with these old chawls? Shouldn’t it be us? Shouldn’t we have the right to decide how they should be reconstructed so that all the residents improve their living conditions? Take the example of water. Have the people of Mumbai decided that the Nariman point and Malabar Hill areas are to get water for all the 24 hours and the residents of the chawls and slums only for a few minutes each day? By empowerment we mean that on all important matters, common people should have the decisive say." He exhorted the youth to be part of this all-important movement for people’s empowerment. "When we talk with the youth, they say we are working for such and such party, or for so-and-so. The point is, when are you going to work for yourselves?" Our country is richly endowed with natural resources, and with the most important resource of all, he said – talented, hard-working people. We have to get together and collectively change the economic system and political system that are preventing us from achieving our dreams.

Comrade Radhika Kanavi, Regional Secretary of the CGPI, began by outlining how the claims of the founding fathers of the Republic have been belied in every way. After 50 years, the Indian Union is in a deep, all-sided crisis. Instead of democracy, we have party rule, where the rich exercise power and the working people are totally deprived of it. It is high time that the rule of the rich is ended and replaced by the rule of the workers and the peasants. This is the key to all-round progress of the people.

The Indian Republic is modelled on the western bourgeois model. In 1947 the exploitative colonial rule was replaced by the rule of the big bourgeoisie and landlords. The Indian Constitution is for the most part a reproduction of the Government of India Act of 1935 that was passed by the British rulers. It draws on the experience of other capitalist countries like the USA, Germany, Canada and Australia, but does not draw anything from the experience of the numerous national and social liberation movements that gave rise to revolutionary political thought all over the subcontinent. It makes no reference to Bahadur Shah Zafar or Tipu Sultan, to Bhagat Singh, Rajguru or Sukhdev or to any of the numerous revolutionaries from all parts of the country who have contributed to the development of political thought.

The time has come to fight for a system in which we the workers, peasants, women and youth will be the real maliks of our land, she said, and ended her speech with the rousing slogan, "Nai sadi ki hai yeh maang, Hindustan ka nav-nirman!"

Varmaji, of the Kamgar Adhikar Sangh—Vasai, said that after 200 years of British rule, their system of plunder and exploitation was taken over by native exploiters and used for their enrichment. Comrade V.K.Murthy, Co-convenor of LRS, Mumbai expressed his agreement with the earlier speakers. He pointed out the increasing threat to our country from imperialism. Comrade Anwar Ali Shaikh from the Maharashtra Rajya Janwadi Kamgar Sanghatana recounted the experience of the contract construction workers and thanked the other organisations for supporting them in their struggles. Amarendra Yadav, a student from Ulhasnagar, said that he used to be angered at the way things were going on in our country, but used to feel helpless on his own. After becoming a member of LRS and working for it he has started feeling confident that we can change things, because people from all over the country feel what we feel and are as anxious to bring about a change. He said that the youth have the biggest role to play in this, because they have the highest stake in the future. Shri Babubhai Solanki of LRS, Worli and Manisha Tambe, one of the founding members of the LRS, Worli also spoke about how joining and working for LRS has given them a new sense of purpose and hope and exhorted their friends and neighbours to come forth and strengthen this organisation.

The much-awaited prize distribution function followed, with Comrade V.K.Murthy giving away the prizes to the winners of the sports, essay and drawing competitions. Subodh Patil, a student form Ulhasnagar who won the first prize for his essay recited a couplet compoosed by him, that struck a chord in everyone present.

"Raat ki nirasha ke baad, asha ki bhor ki utkranti hoti hai.

Jab awaam ko kuchh nahi milta, tab samaj mein kranti hoti hai."

Dr. Bharat proposed a vote of thanks. He said that we are all agreed that the Republic has proved incapable of satisfying our aspirations and that the onus is on us to unitedly fight for its renewal.

Dear Sir,

1.On behalf of the 6,500 workers of Modern Food Industries, as well as their families, as well as millions of consumers throughout the country, we, the undersigned, would like to register our strongest protest at the reported decision of the government to disinvest 74% of shares in Modern Food Industries, a public sector undertaking.

2.All the workers and their families are extremely angry at the manner the government of India has stabbed its own workers in the back to please Indian and foreign multinationals. Your government and all governments of the past have shed a lot of crocodile tears about the working class, about how you are committed to defend their interests. There is a lot of talk about involving workers in "decision-making". Your government has taken the decision to sell Modern Foods, a profit making public sector undertaking, on the misplaced advise of a disinvestment commission which seemed to be in a tearing hurry to sell off Modern Foods even before the commission was formed! The disinvestment commission did not consult the workers of Modern Foods. The management of Modern Foods was not consulted either.

3. We have held numerous meetings with the management of Modern Foods at different levels ever since the disinvestment commission was set up. Till today, the officials of Modern Food Industries at the highest levels have denied any knowledge of what has been going on. Till today, the terms of the agreement between the government and Hindustan Lever regarding the workers and their service conditions are the most securely guarded state secret from the workers of Modern Foods. This is crying commentary on the commitment of your government to the "right to information", regarding which your government has a bill pending for the budget session of parliament.

4.We demand that the government immediately call a meeting with the representatives of the workers of Modern Food Industries and take them into complete confidence on a matter of such grave importance to the workers and their families, as well as to the entire country. We have definite views on how Modern Food Industries can be run as a profit making Public Sector Undertaking and serve the toiling consumers as well as bring pride to the country. Just because a former Finance Minister did not include Modern Food Industries in the "ratnas" of the Public Sector does not mean that your government should blindly follow the same prescription. We appeal to you to reconsider the decision to disinvest 74% shares of Modern Food Industries to a multinational. India and its workers will be much better served, in our opinion, if the government took steps in the direction of making Modern Food Industries a jewel in India’s crown rather than in the crown of a multinational.

5.We are shocked that in this day and age, your government is dealing with the workers as slave owners did in bygone era with slaves. Your government is not only selling off precious public assets which was your sacred duty to protect and nourish not sell off to private greedy moneybags. Your government is going even further by adding the workers as part of the deal. We refuse to be treated like slaves.

6.We know only from the newspapers that we are henceforth to be employees of a multinational Hindustan Lever Limited. We would like you to appreciate that many of us have given the best years of our lives in building Modern Food Industries into the premier bread making company in the country. We joined service some 30-35 years ago thinking we were working for the government of India. Of course there will be lot of legal experts who will declare otherwise, but please do not dismiss the ideas of workers through legalities. People join any service on a certain faith. Our faith, the faith of all those who join one form of government service or another, be it the armed forces, the police, the central or state governments, or any other department or the public sector enterprises has been that if they do their work well, and contribute to the country, they are assured of their future. We, the workers of Modern Foods have worked hard and worked well within our conditions. No one can deny it. But now, the government is indulging in a clear breach of faith by simply selling us to Hindustan Lever. Why should any other public Sector worker or government employee have faith in the government? What faith can the workers of the nationalised textile mills have that your government will continue to give them wages as past governments have promised? Why should the workers of Modern Foods have any faith in the government?

7.The Disinvestment Commission declared sanctimoniously that interests of workers must be protected. We ask you how are the interests of workers of Modern Foods being protected? According to the newspapers, this protection is in the form that VRS will be paid to those who leave within one year! If this is true, you have put a time bomb of 1 year over the workers heads. Either we take VRS and leave or Lever will throw us out when it suits it! Neither is acceptable to us. Both alternatives are an affront to our dignity as public sector workers. We want to work as Public Sector workers. We do not want to work as employees of a multinational. Neither do we want to take the Forced Retirement Scheme which is what the VRS that is being offered in the present case amounts to. We ask you to call a meeting with the representatives of workers of Modern Foods to allay their grave doubts and fears regarding their future.

8.There are several hundreds of workers who are on casual work for nearly 13-14 years. We have been fighting a long battle in the courts and the Contract Labour Advisory Board of your government is also dealing with the issue. We request you to clarify what is going to be the fate of these workers following the Disinvestment.

9.In sum, the workers of Modern Foods Industries are extremely worried about the uncharted course of their future, which is being imposed by your government. We demand that the government immediately stop the disinvestment process. We demand that the government take concrete measures to allay the fears of the workers, not only of Modern Foods but also of the entire Public Sector. All Public Sector workers are looking at the deal that the Modern Workers get as an example of what is in store for them. We want an immediate meeting with you to place our point of view across to you as well as for you to act.

From February 7th to February 18th, the National Railway Mazdoor Union, one of the recognised unions of the Central Railway Employees, held a widespread protest program including a series of militant demonstrations, as a part of the all-India program decided by the All India Railwaymen’s Federation, its apex body. They raised a number of vital issues including privatisation of various railway activities, safety, wasteful expenditure, down-sizing of staff, non-filling of vacancies, ban on recruitment of employees and non-settlement of various issues pertaining to their service conditions. Thousands of workers gathered in front of Divisional Railway Managers and the General Manager on February 18th. "Jab tak insaan bhookha rahega, dharti par toofan machega!"; "Jo Hitler ki chaal chalega, who Hitler ki maut marega!"; "Mazdoor ekta zindabad!"; "Inquilab zindabad!"—with these slogans they announced their intentions to carry on their fight against the injustice meted out to them.

Privatisation is a big threat facing the railway employees, the commuters and passengers and the common people at large. The Railway Ministry has decided to convert its six production units into independent cost and profit centres, paving the way to their privatisation. These units are – Diesel Locomotive Works (Lucknow), which manufactures diesel locomotives, Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (Calcutta), which manufactures electrical locomotives, Integral Coach Factory (Chennai) and Rail Coach Factory (Kapurthala), both manufacturing all types of coaches, Wheel and Axle plant (Bangalore) and Diesel Component Works (Patiala). These production workshops have been meeting all the requirements of the Indian Railways. As per the latest decision, they are going to be collaborated with multinational companies.

While the railways are expanding their activities by introducing new trains, computer reservation centres and other activities, they are reducing the number of employees instead of increasing them, pleading shortage of funds. The plan is to reduce the staff strength from about 16 lakhs to 10 lakhs. This means that the burden on the employees is reaching unbearable proportions and this has a bearing on safety too.

The Railways have been ignoring the recommendations of various High Power Committees relating to various aspects of railway safety. Whenever there is an accident (and their number and seriousness has been increasing day by day), they try to do a cover up job saying that the accident was due to human failure. The Railway Ministry is silent about the latest recommendations of the Justice H.R.Khanna Committee for allocating Rs.15000crores for safety and Rs.5000crore for track renewal. Safety is also affected due to contract work for track maintenance, substations, over-burdening of staff due to non-filling of vacancies and several other reasons.

As part of the all-India protest programme, railwaymen from the Northern Railway also held a three day protest dharna at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, from February 22nd 2000 onwards.

Indian history has many inspiring examples of the revolt of the producers against the brahmanical caste domination. The people revolted against the role of the brahmin as the intermediary between the working people and all knowledge. The time has come to revolt once again against the intermediary. The workers and peasants of modern India have to organise the revolt against the present-day intermediary, the parliamentary party that seeks power in its own hands.

Comrades,

To enable the working people to put an end to party rule, it is necessary to differentiate between one kind of party and the other. It is necessary to sum up our experience with political parties in India. What is our experience with different kinds of political parties?

The 20th century has witnessed the birth of scores of parties in India, both before colonial rule ended, as well as afterwards. These can all be classified into two kinds. One, as parties that want to perpetuate the rule of the bourgeoisie. Two, as revolutionary parties — parties that want to end the rule of the bourgeoisie. The first kind of party seeks power in its own hands. The second kind organises the working people with the aim of establishing their own power.

The parties of the first kind, when out of power, scream against the government in the parliament; they also organise strikes and demonstrations, speaking what the people would like to hear. Once in power, such parties act as the gatekeepers, to keep the people out.

Revolutionary parties face tremendous pressure from the bourgeoisie to fall in line with the aim and values of this Republic. Those who refuse to submit to this pressure face the jails and bullets of the Republic. They are branded as extremists, as terrorists, as naxalites, etc., and brutal state terror is unleashed against them.

The Congress Party is the mother of all the parliamentary parties on Indian soil. In direct contrast, the Communist Party emerged on Indian soil to organise the working class and people to establish a new power of the workers and peasants.

The BJP is the loyal successor of the Congress Party, even though it pretends to be different and fights with the Congress Party. While they fight with each other over the seats of power, they both represent the same class interest. The BJP came on the scene with tall promises of making a break with the tradition of Congress rule. It claimed to be a party that respects Indian thought and would restore the glory of Indian civilisation. However, it is as eager as the Congress Party to embrace capitalism and imperialism, the remnants of feudalism and the entire colonial legacy.

The BJP claims that it wants to remodel the Indian Republic. However, all that the BJP proposes is to shift to a presidential system as in the USA. The American system is nothing but another form of bourgeois representative democracy. The BJP wants to shift from one method of party rule to another method of party rule. It hopes that such a shift will ensure that governments last their full term.

The Congress Party, in its 1999 Manifesto, also claims that the most important aim is to have governments that last their full term. But if they are governments of the rich exploiters and oppressors, what do the workers and peasants gain from their lasting a full term? The ruling class, the big bourgeoisie, wants governments to last long enough to implement measures to step up the loot and plunder in the name of a second wave of liberalisation and privatisation. The BJP and the Congress Party reflect the worry of the class they serve. They both stand for the perpetuation of party rule and for its further stabilisation in the interests of the big bourgeoisie.

Communism is the condition for the complete elimination of all class distinctions — a condition of society where there will only be administration of things, not of people. The movement for communism, by definition, stands for the abolition of party rule and its replacement by the rule of the workers, peasants and all the oppressed. However, there are parties within the Indian communist movement who claim that the issue at this time is to defend the Indian Republic. They are calling on the workers and peasants to defend the Republic from the "communal threat" posed by the BJP. Such parties spread illusions among the people that the Indian Republic is secular and democratic, that it represents the "will of the majority" and defends the minorities. They even claim that this Republic has "socialist" aspects that must be defended.

The experiences of the past fifty years have shown again and again that the Indian Republic is a communal state, an organ of all types of violence against the people and their unity. This is a character it has inherited from the colonial state. The Indian Republic remains communal no matter whether the Congress Party or the BJP is at the head.

The Indian Republic has inherited the colonial character of keeping alive everything that is backward and oppressive in Indian society, including the ideas and customs of Brahmanism. It has also inherited and institutionalised the method of elite accommodation. Selected individuals from the oppressed castes are admitted into the ruling class while keeping the caste system and Brahmanism alive. Thus, a dalit can become the President of India but still the majority of dalits continue to be the victims of super-exploitation and oppression on the basis of their caste. To say that this Republic defends the minorities and oppressed castes is to create harmful illusions.

And finally, to say that the Indian Republic has some "socialist" aspects is to create even bigger illusions. It is capitalism and capitalist reforms that this Republic defends. The savage attacks and brute terror unleashed by the central and state governments and courts against the striking electricity workers in Uttar Pradesh is a clear illustration. The only "crime" of these workers is that they demanded that the steps taken towards the privatisation of power are rolled back, for which they have been arrested, dismissed and their families harassed by the police.

Those within the communist movement who conciliate with bourgeois democracy claim that the time is not yet ripe to put an end to party rule. The workers and peasants, women and youth, the dalits and tribals, are not ready for that, they say. However, facts show that the working people have had enough of the present Republic which has offered them nothing but sorrow and suffering. They would welcome an alternative political system and political process wherein power would vest with them. What they need is theory and organisation to be able to develop such an alternative. The conciliators within the communist movement refuse to address this task. They refuse to sum up the lessons of the rise and fall of socialism in the Soviet Union. . They refuse to put forth the alternative to party rule. It is they who are not ready to break with party rule, not the workers and peasants.

The Communist Ghadar Party of India calls on the workers, peasants, women and youth to get organised to change the political system. The call of the Ghadar Party is to fight for people’s rule in place of party rule. What does this mean? It means that every Indian communist, every revolutionary and political activist among the people should strive to build the organs of struggle in the midst of the workers, peasants, women and youth of all nationalities. We must build such organisations in the factories, in the villages, in the jhuggi jhompri clusters, wherever the toiling and oppressed masses work and live, with the aim and vision of establishing people’s rule.

If the workers, peasants, women and youth have organisations where they participate in decision making in a conscious way, only then can they begin to set the agenda for society. They need to articulate their demands and contest the claims of the bourgeoisie. Only then can the working people begin to select their own candidates. They need to wage tit for tat struggle against the bourgeoisie on a daily basis, integrating their day-to-day struggles with the overall aim of establishing people’s rule in place of the existing system of party rule.

Theory and organisation are the main weapons for the working people to succeed in the struggle to establish their own power. The task of the working class and its vanguard Communist Party is to build organisations of class struggle among the people, while building links with all the existing organisations that defend the rights of any section of the people. The task is to build a popular front of all forces that are fighting against the existing rule of the bourgeoisie, providing them with the vision of people’s rule and clarifying the program of struggle to achieve the same. The organs of struggle and political unity of the oppressed masses that we build and strengthen today will develop into the organs of people’s power in the future.

Workers, peasants, women and youth!

Come, let us fulfill the demand of the new century and prepare to reconstitute the Indian Republic as a proud and civilised state of the working people that ensures sukh and raksha for all! The bourgeoisie has ruled long enough! Let us get organised to establish our collective rule, the rule of workers, peasants, women and youth in the 21st century.

Nayi sadi ki hai yeh mang! Hindostan ka nav-nirman!

Hum hai iske malik! Hum hai Hindostan! mazdoor, kisan, aurat aur jawan!

Reconstitution of India is the call of the new century!

Workers, peasants, pomen and youth! We constitute India! We are her masters!

February 23rd, 2000, CST, Mumbai. And they came in waves. Wave upon wave of people, marching in an orderly manner, bearing banners proclaiming that they were State Government employees (Class IV) from various departments. They were there despite the ban orders proclaimed by the State Government. Employees of the Secretariat, sales tax, nursing, Ayurvedic College, Home Guards, telecommunications, the printing and dairy workers. From there they made their way to the neighbouring Azad Maidan, shouting slogans proclaiming their unity and daring anyone to act against them at their own risk. Employees of Dena Bank, Union Bank, Punjab National Bank and others, were there in solidarity.

The Maharashtra Rajya Chaturtha Shreni Shramik Sanghatana had given the call for the agitation The rally included more than 2000 women. Shri Chavan and Shri Kamble, speaking on behalf of their Sanghatana, said that the main issues were that their wages and DA were frozen and their leave reduced. On November 1, 1999, the state Government had started declaring workers surplus and ordered that the services of those who had reached the ages of 50 –55 would be reviewed.

Smt. Vaikule of the Maharashtra Government Nurses’ Federation recollected that the pay and DA parity with the Central Government employees was won after a protracted struggle, including a 54 day strike in 1977 – 78. The wage and DA freeze was being introduced at a time when prices were skyrocketing. Shri Dolas of the All-India Officers’ Union of banks said that their struggle was for existence as the threat of privatisation was looming over nationalised banks. Privatisation has been talked about for several years. Now privatisation has begun with a vengeance. Every day you open the paper, he said, and the front page carries news of four types; this and that is being privatised, workers are being thrown out, the taxes are being increased and so are these prices. The government that came to power talking about swadeshi has adopted videshi policies. They are urging people to take VRS. If they don’t, it will be CRS and retrenchment. He requested trade union leaders to forget their differences, come together and draw the people at large into the fight.

Shri Sunil Joshi, General Secretary of the Brihan-Mumbai Rajya Sarkari Karmachari Sanghatana called for resolute and united struggle. Shri Dhopeshwarkar of the All-India Bank Employees Association, declared that though their jobs were in danger, the main issue was that of the economy. With privatisation of every service, people at large are going to suffer. Nationalised banks have made losses because of the Rs.58,000 crore loans that have not been returned by the capitalists. Out of this amount, Rs.35,000 crore is owed by the Tatas, Birlas and Bajaj alone. Earlier treatment in KEM Hospital was free. Now entry fee is charged. Before 1948, when there was no State Transport, the bus service had not reached every village. What will happen when the bus service is privatised? Maharashtra has 41000 villages. The engineers and workers of Maharashtra State Electricity Board have provided electricity to 39000 of them. What will privatisation of electricity lead to? The rally ended with the resolve to strengthen their unity and struggle.