An attack on the working people

The Price Monitoring Cell of the Department of Consumer Affairs has published data that show that prices have risen to a level to make a household pay 25 percent more than last year for its essential food items. From rice and wheat to salt and oils, prices of 15 essential food items have risen, on an average, by 25 percent. Of these, onions have gone up 155 percent since the previous one year, while groundnut oil has surged by 31 percent over the previous year and mustard oil by 19 percent. Milk prices have gone up steadily over the last one year, as also the prices of dhal and rice. Wheat prices are predicted to rise further with its impending import by the government at Rs.16 per kilo against the ruling price of Rs.13 per kilo.

In the context of this price upsurge, the inflation rate is reported to be only 3.2 percent, when it ought to be at least 3-4 times that. This is because the inflation rate is based on the prices of some 450 items including not just milk and eggs, but also petrol and steel! The bourgeoisie uses every trick in the book to conceal facts and mislead the people.

The UPA government has no answers for this hike in prices of essential food items. In fact, there has been no concern expressed on this issue, reflecting the government's callousness and criminal neglect, as well as the class character of the government. The bourgeoisie benefits from price hikes of essential commodities, as it is another way to rob the working people and enrich themselves. All parties of the bourgeoisie, when in government, pursue those policies and adopt those measures which serve immediate and long term aims of the bourgeoisie of enriching themselves. The UPA government has been no different.

The working class has put forth the demand that a modern public distribution system be put in place which will ensure that all essential commodities, including food grains, pulses, edible oils, milk, suga r, as well as cooking fuel, be made available in adequate quantity and good quality and at affordable prices to all the people of town and country. For this to be ensured, wholesale trade needs to be nationalized. Far from undertaking any of these measures, successive governments have been busy dismantling the existing Public Distribution System, in the name of “reducing subsidies” and “targeting the poor”. At the same time, the arena of trade in agricultural commodities has been opened up to the biggest multinationals, Indian and foreign. In such a scenario, it is not surprising prices are skyrocketing, and the workers and peasants are being squeezed.

There is no end to this attack on the workers, peasants and working people in this capitalist system. The working class must fight to replace bourgeois rule by the rule of workers and peasants. A government of workers and peasants will immediately take those measures that will ensure that all essential commodities will be available to the working people, at affordable prices, in adequate quantity and of good quality. It will reorient the economy to ensure that providing for the people is the motive of the economy, and not maximum profits in the pockets of the bourgeoisie.

Prices of essential commodities - September 2007