A campaign for the rule of workers and peasants

T. Wilson, the people’s candidate selected by Lok Raj Samitis of Kanyakumari District, kicked off his campaign on 1 May. Wilson, a staunch and long time fighter for the working class, hoisted the red flag at various junctions in Kanyakumari district and appealed to the electorate to vote in defence of the rights of workers by voting for him. He is being supported by various organizations such as Communist Ghadar Party of India, Lok Raj Sangathan, headload workers union, fishermen’s union, Unorganised Workers Federation, NAPM and others.

Comrade Wilson has released a manifesto that clearly lays out his commitment to the working class and masses of working people in India, to genuine democracy and people’s empowerment. Standing as a people’s candidate who has been selected by the Lok Raj Samitis of Kaliyal, Kadayalu Moodu, Puthenchandai, Semmangalai and many other towns of the district, he argues for a new political process in which people select and field candidates from among their midst, hold the elected representative accountable to the people. Wilson has personally signed an affidavit promising, if elected, to work in accordance with the wishes of the people, to render accounts to them periodically and to submit to their decision to recall him if he does not perform in their interests.

The campaign trail of comrade Wilson is arduous and his caravan covers the district of Kanyakumari with its large population of plantation and coir workers; it also covers the large coastal area in the southern part of the district, where lakhs of fishermen struggle to survive; it further covers the grueling stretch of 40 km from Susindram via Nagercoil, Thucklaly, Marthandam, Kuzhithurai to Kaliayakkavilai right up to the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border, where hundreds of thousands of peasants struggle to survive.

At every important junction along the way, Com. Wilson addresses street corner meetings where he explains how the ruling class keeps the people divided on the basis of caste, religion and party affiliations. Com Wilson exhorts the voters that workers, peasants, youth, women, shop keepers should reject the poisonous propaganda of the political parties and build their lok raj samitis, the makkalatchi kuzhukkal, to stake boldly for political power in their hands.

The voters respond enthusiastically to the campaign. Especially because they know that the candidate is from amongst their midst, and will stand shoulder to shoulder with them to fight for their demands.

One of the important issues that Wilson is addressing during his campaign is the livelihood of rubber workers and small producers in the district. Com Wilson and other speakers in his campaign severely condemn the on-going privatization drive and demand that the livelihood of rubber workers and small producers should be protected at any cost.

Another important issue that Wilson has been addressing in his campaign is the issue of security from disasters for the cyclone-prone coastal areas of the district. The Tsunami caused immense damage to the boats and houses of fishermen and other people living in the coastal areas of Kanyakumari district. From the thousands of crores of Tsunami Relief Fund, only a small fraction trickled down to the victims of the disaster.

Wilson is also mobilising the voters against price rise and against the shifting of the burden of the current economic crisis onto the backs of workers and peasants and small shopkeepers.

He is exhorting the people to build lok raj samitis in towns, villages, plantations and factories and stake a claim to play a central role in running the affairs of the country. He explains that for this the people should bring about a thoroughgoing renewal in the political process. They should replace the party-dominated political process with a people-dominated one. Wilson points to the fact that the Congress, BJP alliances at the centre as well as the DMK, AIADMK alliances at the state level are anti-people and have never done anything in the interest of the people. Though they mouth sweet words during the election campaigns and make tall promises, they are not accountable to the people. They are accountable only to the party which gave them the ticket to contest and to the big capitalists. Only the alliance of workers and peasants can implement this demand by setting up their own government and bringing about a thorough overhaul of the political and economic system.

Com. Wilson’s campaign is an important part of the struggle for people’s empowerment. His campaign has contributed to putting the issues facing the people at the centre and to raising the level of political discussion. Undeterred by the fact that every aspect of the electoral process is loaded against candidates like him who are not part of the system but are in fact opposing it, Com. Wilson and his campaign team are reaching out to countless workers and peasants and toiling people of Tamil Nadu. They are campaigning for the workers and peasants to wrest political power from the capitalists and their representatives so that a society free from exploitation and oppression can be established.