[Marxism] ML International Newsletter: May-June 2005

["CPI \(ML\) Intl Liaison Office" <cpiml_elo@xxxxxxxxx>]

ML International Newsletter
May-June 2005

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An update on news and ideas from the revolutionary
left in India.
Produced by: Communist Party of India
(Marxist-Leninist) Liberation international team
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Website: www.cpiml.org
Email: cpimllib@xxxxxxxxxx and cpiml_elo@xxxxxxxxx

Table of Contents

1)      South Asia: The Proof of Better Relations Lies in
Drastic Cuts in Spending on Arms
2)      South Asia: Politics of Peace
3)      Amendment to the Factories Act: Who Suffers and Who
Benefits?
4)      AICCTU?s Draft Charter of the Indian Working Class
5)      The Politics of Election Boycott
6)      Kolkata?s ?Beautification? Campaign

South Asian Politics

The Proof of Better Relations Lies in Drastic Cuts in
Spending on Arms

- Liberation, May, 2005.

The euphoria generated by the launch of the
Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service and the three-day
visit by President Musharraf of Pakistan is indeed
quite overwhelming. The exercises have evoked
considerable popular support in the two countries and
most crucially in the two parts of Kashmir. With the
cricket series serving as the backdrop, the developing
component of people-to-people contact across the
border was all too visible. A few years ago, the Agra
summit between President Musharraf and Prime Minister
Vajpayee had failed to produce even a joint statement.
This time around, Musharraf?s whirlwind visit yielded
not only a joint statement, but also promises of a lot
of forward movement and action in the coming months.

Soft borders, free trade and flexible approach are the
new buzzwords in New Delhi and Islamabad. All these
dimensions have been more or less evident in recent
exchanges between the two neighbours. While Pakistan
has stopped emphasising Kashmir to the exclusion of
other issues, India, too, for a change has started
displaying greater interest in issues other than
?cross-border terrorism?. The joint statement, for
example, says no more than not allowing terrorism to
impede the peace process which is described as having
become irreversible. While saying nothing specific
about Kashmir, the statement has gone on to promise
more bus and rail links, enhanced interaction across
the line of control (LoC) and restoration of
diplomatic measures like the reopening of consulates
in Mumbai and Karachi.

How long will this new momentum last? The question
arises not from a cynical disbelief in sustained peace
and friendship between the two countries, but from a
lack of transparency and explanation about factors
leading to the present juncture. Musharraf has at
least shown the candour to admit to the failure of
coercive diplomacy. As far as New Delhi is concerned,
despite a change of government at the Centre, there
has been no review of or departure from the foreign
policy being pursued by the BJP-led NDA regime.

Genuine peace and friendship between India and
Pakistan can only be based on a conscious rejection
and reversal of the jingoistic foreign policy pursued
for most of the post-partition years. A peace limited
to the post-9/11 context and governned by the
strategic perspective of Washington will always be
fragile and vulnerable to American manipulations.
Circumscribing the present ?breakthrough? in Indo-Pak
ties, for example, is the well-known US game plan to
fuel a fresh round of arms race between the two
neighbours. As long as New Delhi and Islamabad will
vie with each other for currying greater favour with
Washington, Indo-Pak ties will remain hostage to the
war games of US imperialism. Contrarily, a real growth
of bilateral relations between India and Pakistan,
including closer economic cooperation and more
extensive trade ties, could prove to be a real bulwark
for peace and stability in South Asia and increase the
region?s capacity to resist American pressure.

While welcoming the changing complexion of Indo-Pak
ties, democratic opinion in both India and Pakistan
must therefore remain alert against any kind of
American meddling in bilateral affairs. We must press
for growing direct exchanges between the two
countries, including freer trade and travel across the
border. It must be realised that the biggest impetus
to betterment of relations has come from within
Kashmir. Moving away from the ongoing bitter polemic
on cross-border terrorism, the focus must shift to
increased cross-border travel and interaction.

Instead of being the biggest bone of contention
between two warring neighbours, Kashmir could well
prove to be the strongest bridge of peace. It must
however be understood that any attempt to take Kashmir
for granted will only vitiate the environment. The
people of Jammu and Kashmir must be taken into
confidence in every possible manner. Greater political
initiative in Kashmir, including a general amnesty to
all political prisoners and strengthening of internal
democracy in the state, must go hand in hand with
enhanced exchanges with Pakistan.

The corporate houses and the corporate media have
aleady started talking about peace dividends. The
monopoly houses can only calculate dividends in terms
of greater market share and bigger profits. For the
common man in India and Pakistan, the best realisation
of peace dividend can only be in the form of reduced
spending on arms and increased public expenditure and
investment for meeting the basic needs of the working
people of the two countries.
South Asian Politics

Politics of Peace

- Sundaram

So is this the ?end of history? as far as India,
Pakistan and China are concerned? Have all the
battlefields of South Asia really turned into
marketplaces? Will we see no more of the needless arms
race, military rivalry, aggressive postures and even
actual war between India and Pakistan anymore?

While it would be indeed very foolish to dismiss all
the recent positive developments between India, China,
Pakistan as some kind of ?make believe? it would be
equally naïve not to sound a note of caution about
future prospects of genuine peace in the region. There
are several factors at play- promoting a temporary
lull in action among the traditionally war mongering
elites of South Asia.

To begin with one should not underestimate the
overwhelming sentiment for peace that exists among the
people of these three countries. While their so-called
leaders and governments have led them repeatedly to
war the fact is there is little animosity between the
ordinary citizens of India, China and Pakistan.

Witness the sheer outburst of brotherhood and bonhomie
between Indians and Pakistanis in just the last two
years as peace initiatives lowered both tensions and
barriers to exchange of people, information and
culture. In the case of China and India too there is
no doubt at all that the great power rivalry of the
governments over the last several decades has not
damaged the inherent respect that the people of both
countries have for each other.

Sadly it is not such people?s sentiments alone that
are compelling governments in South Asia to reach out
to each other to strike peace deals. There are other
more realpolitik reasons also - a very important one
being the changed global scenario since September 11,
which a resurgently imperialist United States has used
to subordinate every other nation to its own short and
long-term interests.

In Pakistan for example the United States, for all its
rhetoric of freedom and democracy, has been a staunch
supporter of President Musharraf, a military dictator
who came to power through a coup. The ostensible
reason for such support is to use the Pakistani
military to crackdown on Islamic militants both within
the country and in its neighbourhood, including of
course the ever-elusive Osama Bin Laden.

In the long run of course the US sees Pakistan as a
fortress of sorts in its bid to control not just
Afghanistan and countries of Central Asia but also to
keep a check on India and China.

At the same time Musharraf?s position in power is not
all that secure. First he is constantly under threat
of assassination by members of the Islamic movements
as also sections of the Pakistani army itself.
Secondly many in the US establishment are also very
angry with Pakistan for allowing the chief of its
nuclear program Dr A. Q. Khan to sell nuclear
technology all over the globe from North Korea to
Libya to Iran.

Musharraf himself knows that if not for his temporary
utility in the War on Terror the US might even have
considered bombing Islamabad by now given Pakistan?s
dubious role in both the September 11 incident as well
as the spread of WMDs around the world.

It is these multiple swords hanging over his head that
has compelled the Pakistani President to do a
calculated gamble to win international
?respectability? by making peace with India despite
severe opposition to any compromise on the country?s
traditional positions on Kashmir from the Pakistani
military itself.

The Indian establishment tried its best after
September 11 to edge out Pakistan as the US?s favorite
slave in South Asia but having failed in that mission
has softened its hostility towards it neighbour.
Realizing that they have a common global patron in
Uncle Sam the Indian and Pakistani elites have decided
to moderate their sibling rivalries and preach
brotherhood towards each other at least for a while
now.

Paradoxically four years after September 11 and having
used its bogus ?War on Terror? to take over
Iraq/Afghanistan and establish military bases
throughout Central Asia it is the United States itself
that is now getting worried about the prospects of
real and lasting peace in South Asia. Hence its
dubious attempt recently to supply F-16s to Pakistan
and induce India also to buy even more sophisticated
fighter aircraft.

Arriving in India mid-March Dr Condeleeza
?Strangelove? Rice, the US Secretary of State tried
her best to kill the peace momentum in South Asia also
by opposing the proposed natural gas pipeline from
Iran to India via Pakistan. The US is alarmed at the
thought that the pipeline could provide a firmer basis
for peace in the region and also help all three
countries involved achieve energy self-sufficiency
without dependence on US oil companies.

As far as China is concerned, its willingness to
reconsider its border dispute with India and talk
peace have also got to do with its apprehensions vis a
vis the US designs in the region.  Chinese analysts,
rightly believe, that the US is bent on stopping China
from becoming a developed country on its own and wants
to use India as a possible pawn against it.

By establishing peace with India the Chinese are in
fact preparing ahead for what is likely to be the
biggest battle of the 21st century as the Asian
superpower confronts the North American one in the
days ahead. It is time the Indian people woke up to
the US imperialist game in the region and join hands
with their Asian neighbours to resist all attempts to
drag them into conflict of any kind.

Working Class Special

Solidarity Greetings for AICCTU Conference

Dear Comrades,

Revolutionary greetings of solidarity to all the
fighting workers from the international party group of
CPIML (Liberation)!

As imperialist capital in collusion with Indian
capitalists intensifies the exploitation of labour,
the Indian workers continue to resist. These militant
workers have lead and participated in recent struggles
against increase in foreign direct investment,
privatisation of public sector units, revision of
patents act, and for better working conditions and
wages. We are sure the Indian working class will
continue to build on this glorious fighting tradition.


The imperialist capital also continues to face
resistance in all corners of the world against its
design of colonial style occupation and economic and
environmental plunder. While capital tries to dominate
and exploit, workers fight to liberate. While
capitalists want to create a world order of divide and
loot, workers build international solidarity.

We are confident that All India Central Council of
Trade Unions (AICCTU) will continue to organise the
Indian working class under the revolutionary banner to
defeat imperialism and capitalism. We wish you a
successful AICCTU conference in Guwahati where the
deliberations will analyze the latest situation for
the working class and ready yourself for revolutionary
action.
        
In Solidarity,

PB
Secretary
CPIML Liberation International Party Group

Working Class Special

Amendment to the Factories Act: Who Suffers and Who
Benefits?

- Padma

Introduction
The Factories Act, 1948, covers working hours, working
conditions, health and safety, basic amenities like
toilets, crèches etc but applies only to work places
with more than 10 workers using power driven machinery
and more than 20 workers without such machinery. The
Factories Act, 1948, stipulated that ?No woman shall
be required to work in any factory except between the
hours of 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.? The basic convention
prohibited night shift in manufacturing, mining,
construction and similar establishments. The
government?s decision to amend the Factories Act to
enable women to work in night shifts has been hailed
by the industrial class as a welcome move and a step
forward on labour reforms. This article will first
address the deleterious health effects of night shifts
on workers in general and women in particular. It will
then touch on the working conditions in special
economic zones (SEZs), which in particular will
benefit from the amendment, and the lessons to be
drawn from other countries in that regard. Ultimately
the question to be addressed will be who suffers and
who benefits from this drastic amendment to the
Factories Act in the Indian capitalist state.

Night Shifts and Health
There is now a growing body of evidence on the ill
effects of shift work which is defined as work outside
the normal daylight hours. The following are some of
the well documented medical conditions.
 1. Night work and sleep deprivation: The sleep length
of night workers averages 4 to 6 hours compared with
7-9 hours of day and afternoon workers respectively.
Day sleep is also of poorer quality because of
frequent disruptions. Domestic responsibilities
particularly for women and environmental conditions
contribute to sleep problems of night workers. Sleep
deprivation is associated with fatigue and
irritability.
2. Gastrointestinal disorders: 16 out of 24 studies
evaluating peptic ulcer disease (PUD) and shift
workers found shift workers to be at greater risk for
developing PUD than day workers. The reasons for this
are multifactorial and include psychosocial stress,
skipping meals and delayed gastric emptying.
3. Cardiovascular disease: Researchers from the
Department of Hygiene and Public Health from Teiyko
University in Tokyo, Japan, have reported that there
are changes in the electrical activity of the heart
(prolonged QTc interval) in night shift workers after
studying 237 night and 115 day workers. They surmise
that the increase in cardiac disease in night workers
compared with day workers may be secondary to this
effect.  Out of 3 well designed epidemiological
studies 2 reported an increased risk of cardiovascular
disease (CVD) in workers working fixed night shifts.
The 3rd study that did not find an increased risk was
limited in its findings because only 6% of the workers
studied were in night shifts. Investigators have shown
that meals taken during night lead to higher plasma
triacylglycerol levels which is an independent risk
factor for CVD and may explain in part the increased
occurrence of CVD among night workers. A well designed
historical prospective study of paper mill workers in
a small town in Sweden showed increase in heart
disease in workers working outside the normal daylight
hours.
4. Cancer: Data from the Nurses Health Study which
looked at 75, 586 women from 1988-1998 showed that
working a rotating night shift involving at least 3
nights per month for 15 or more years increased the
risk of colorectal cancer in women. A Danish study has
showed a link between night shifts and breast cancer.
These findings, combined with those of other studies
in humans and in animals, suggest that night time
exposure to light may elevate breast cancer risk by
suppressing production of melatonin, a brain hormone
that is made during darkness and that normally peaks
at night. Researchers from Harvard Medical School also
examined the relationship between breast cancer and
working the night shift in more than 78,000 nurses.
Women who worked between 1 and 29 years on a rotating
night-shift schedule had an 8% increase in breast
cancer risk, while women who worked 30 or more years
on the night shift showed a 36% increase in their risk
of developing breast cancer. Women who work on
rotating night shifts with at least 3 nights per
month, in addition to days and evenings in that month,
appear to have a moderately increased risk of breast
cancer after extended periods of working rotating
night shifts.
5. Diabetes Mellitus: Glucose tolerance is known to
deteriorate in the evening, increased resistance to
insulin in the tissues contributes to this effect.
Shift work may interfere with the timing and the type
of meals taken by the workers. All these factors can
make diabetes much more difficult to control.
6. Reproductive health: In Denmark, in a landmark
study, 33,694 pregnancies of daytime workers and 8075
pregnancies of shift workers were studied. Fixed night
work showed a high risk of late foetal loss- both late
spontaneous abortions and still births. A Swedish
research group studied the relationship between shift
work and risk of spontaneous abortion in 3358 Swedish
midwives. A statistically significant increase in risk
was found in those who worked night shifts.
7. Other medical conditions: Night work is associated
with sleep deprivation and this can lead to increase
in seizure events, asthmatic attacks can increase with
irregular sleep patterns in night shift workers.
8. Shift work and depression; several studies indicate
that shift work is associated with clinical depression
in vulnerable individuals.

Night shifts and workplace violence
In an article that appeared in the reputed Journal of
Occupational and Environmental Health in 2004,
researchers analyzed workplace violence in Oregon,
U.S. The study examined 2028 compensation claims of
workplace violence from 1990-1997 and used current
population survey data for risk analysis. Females and
workers und2er the age of 38 years experienced the
most violence. Workers on evening and night shifts had
significantly higher rates of being victims of
violence. For both genders the day shift between 8 am
and 5 pm was found to be the safest period relative to
work during other hours of the day. For females a rise
in violence rates began after 5 pm.

The condition of the working class in Special Economic
Zones (SEZs): Some of the sectors that will benefit
from the amendment to the Factories Act will be
textiles, IT, and the special economic zones. There is
a disproportionately higher number of women working in
the SEZs which has been dubbed as the ?feminization of
labour?. SEZs in different parts of the world share
common features. Women are the preferred work force as
they are considered to be docile, easily manipulated
and less likely to join trade unions. SEZs provide a
number of economic concessions to encourage foreign
investment. Although trade unions are not banned the
authorities make it very difficult for trade union
activity to function. China has the highest number of
SEZs in the world and India is vying to compete with
China in this regard. The Hong Kong Christian
Industrial Committee in September 2004 published a
report on the conditions of women workers in SEZs and
labour standards in supplier factories of 5 German
garment retailer companies and brands in Guandong
province in China.  Working for long hours was the
most common feature in garment factories. 10-13
working hours was found in the peak season. The
typical form of wage payment for production line
garment workers was piece rate which was in violation
of the local minimum wage standards.  Workers were
asked to sign one year contracts giving the management
?flexibility? to employ short term labour. Workers
were not given the copy of their contracts. None of
the factories had a provision for maternity and
medical insurance. Female migrant workers were
prepared to leave employment if they became pregnant
rather than claiming the right to 90 day maternity
leave required by law. Workplaces were ill ventilated
and the sewing machines placed too close together.
Respiratory problems were rampant from inhalation of
the different types of fabric dust. Skin allergies and
repetitive strains to muscles and joints were common.
The work conditions and health effects of workers in
SEZs have been studied in other countries and are
strikingly similar. The SEZs have been viewed in
Mexico as places of sexual promiscuity with women
workers becoming stigmatized; the conditions are also
a conducive environment for sexual harassment. Women
in the Mauritian SEZs have noted that the level of
overtime disrupted their family lives and contact with
their children leading to social problems in the
youth.

Socialism and women workers
Under socialism women are seen as a vital source for
economic development. The October Revolution in 1917
and the transfer of power into the hands of the
working people gave women in Russia full political and
civil equality.  Alexandra Kollantai, the great Soviet
leader and writer, wrote extensively about the role
played by women workers and peasants in the
organization of the national economy on communist
principles.  She wrote, ?A great deal of attention was
given to the organization of public canteens,
kindergartens, playgrounds and crèches--those
institutions which, as Lenin wrote, facilitate in
practice the emancipation of women and are able, in
practice, to reduce the female inequality vis-à-vis
men.?  In 1913 there were 19 crèches for women
workers, by 1946 there were more than 20,000 crèches.
The Communist party in China resurrected the proverb
?women hold up half the sky? and promoted women?s
integration into the paid labour workforce. Day care
centers were instituted widely to facilitate women to
become productive members of the society. In
revolutionary Cuba women are at the center of social
development. In  the article, ?Women,
Industrialization and State policy in Cuba? (1989),
written by Helen Icken Safa ? a well known Latin
American Studies scholar along with the Federation of
Cuban Women, the incorporation of women into the paid
labour force of the textile industry is well
documented. Prior to the revolution the textile
industry employed largely men; by the mid 80s more
than 45% of the workers were women. Shifts were
reduced to 6 hours a day which encouraged more women
to the industry. Support services according to the
author far surpassed those industrial workers in other
parts of the world. ?These include transportation to
and from work, a day care center, medical facilities,
maternity leave, prepared lunches, housing, and
recreational facilities including a baseball field,
community center, and dances.? In 2004, women
constituted nearly 43% of the active workforce; they
comprised 31% of the leaders and 65% of the
technicians.

Conclusions
Occupational health in India along with the public
health care system is in a critical condition. Even in
the few establishments in India that are covered by
the Factories Act there are very few factory
inspectors. We come back to the question who suffers
and who benefits from the amendment to the Factories
Act allowing women to work at night. The vast majority
of women work in unacceptable conditions without any
support systems. They face the burden of ?double duty?
at work and at home. Where are the crèches, the day
care centers and the public canteens to help the
families of women who work at night and need sleep and
rest during the day? Public transportation is dismal
during the day, travelling at night will only be a
nightmare. Sexual harassment at workplaces is a huge
problem for women during the day despite the Supreme
Court directive on sexual harassment; night shifts
will multiply that risk several fold. Night work is
not a step towards emancipation for the working and
the middle class women under the present appalling
state of affairs in our country. Women workers will be
made to work at night in largely intolerable
conditions and super exploited for the benefit of the
MNCs and their Indian allies.

All revolutionary communists and other progressive
sections of the society should oppose the proposed
amendment to the Factories Act that legalizes night
work for women. There is a wealth of medical
information on the deleterious effects of night work.
There is thus an imperative need to minimize night
work even for men and reduce the shift work to six
hours and give adequate rest between the shifts. The
proposed amendment will benefit the EPZs in addition
to other sectors like the IT industry. EPZs world over
have not given workers living wages, humane working
hours and safe and healthy working conditions. We have
to demand all the above for the workers in EPZs and
other workplaces as well as the right to organize. The
media and the industry leaders are trying to prove
that the amendment to allow women to work at night is
in the interests of both the women and employers. The
interests of the working class cannot be reconciled
with the capitalist system of production that benefits
only a privileged minority. Ultimately, as history
demonstrates so well, only under socialism can women
be fully integrated as equal members of the workforce.

Working Class Special

AICCTU?s Draft Charter of the Indian Working Class

- Liberation, May, 2005.

Resist the anti-working class measures of the UPA
government!
Fight to defend the rights of workers against the
assault of the forces of globalisation!!
Ever since it came into office the United Progressive
Alliance (UPA) government led by Manmohan Singh has
been unleashing one anti-working class move after
another. It has made no effort to revive the sick
industries and simply allowed them to close down. In
the name of ?flexiblisation of production? and
modernisation it has allowed contractualisation of
production and outsourcing of even core jobs to the
informal sector. It has identified 44 Public Sector
Units (PSUs), including profit-making ones, for
disinvestments. Oil sector companies, Indian Airlines
and Air India, Maruti Udyog and Bharat Heavy
Electricals Limited are among these. It has decided to
close down 6 loss-making PSUs. It has raised the
foreign direct investment (FDI) cap to 74% in telecom
and private banks. It is going ahead with
privatisation of power sector and coal mines. It is
resorting to anti-working class labour law reforms. It
has failed to fulfil its promise of enacting a
legislation for unorganised sector workers.

Manmohan Singh government has become the most ardent
exponent of globalisation and the most anti-working
class government in recent times. It not only follows
the anti-working class policies of the previous NDA
government but has intensified these policies and
failed to revise a single anti-working class measure
introduced by the previous saffron neo-liberalist NDA
regime. Neo-liberalism has become the gospel of the
UPA government. Despite some verbal criticism, the
opportunist Left ? the Communist Party of India (CPI)
and the CPI (Marxist) ? continue with their
unconditional support to this reactionary government
and have given up any effective mass protest.

Manmohan Singh government is entering into a strategic
alliance with the US imperialists and fully supports
the US war in Iraq and Afghanistan. It actively
colludes with the dictatorial monarchy in neighbouring
Nepal. It loses no opportunity to enhance arms race
with Pakistan.
Indian working class has not taken all these attacks
lying down. They have organised several glorious
struggles in these difficult times despite heavy odds.

> The bank employees have organised a nationwide
strike on March 22, 2005;
> Major trade unions in the country staged a
nationwide protest against hike in FDI cap in telecom
on February 7, 2005;
> All the central trade unions protested on the
passing of Third Patents (Amendment) Bill by
organising a Parliament march on February 26, 2005;
> Oil sector workers launched a campaign from February
14, 2005 to protest against merger of oil companies
and their privatisation;
> The BALCO workers launched a 67-day struggle
supported by a 3-day strike of all the public sector
workers;
> The government employees of Tamil Nadu, Bihar and
Kerala have launched vigorous struggles.
These are only a few examples.

All India Central Confederation of Trade Unions
(AICCTU) is a revolutionary trade union led by
communist revolutionaries. It stands for political
mobilisation of the workers against imperialism and
war and for democracy, secularism and peace. It offers
stiff resistance to the anti-worker measures of the
capitalists. It stands for united opposition of the
entire trade union movement against the neo-liberal
measures of the UPA government.

The following is the AICCTU?s draft charter for the
Indian working class:
* We oppose American imperialist wars in Afghanistan
and Iraq, demand immediate withdrawal of the US troops
and an end to American occupation and express firm
solidarity with the rising international anti-war
movement and Iraqi peoples? resistance;
* We express solidarity with our fraternal trade
unions in Nepal struggling for democracy and demand
that all the arrested trade union (TU) leaders should
be immediately released and all the TU rights restored
in the country;
* We oppose imperialist globalisation, policies
dictated by the World Bank and WTO;
* We oppose Social Clause and Labour Standards that
the imperialists are trying to impose as trade tactic;
* We denounce the ideology of neo-liberalism which has
become the gospel of Manmohan Singh?s government;
* We demand sharp reduction in defence budgets and
withdrawal of the policies of militarisation and arms
race with Pakistan.

On basic working class issues?
* We demand amendment to the Constitution to ensure
Right to Strike in view of adverse Supreme Court
observations in this regard;
* We oppose indiscriminate import of foreign capital
offering all sorts of concessions and we oppose the
Third Patents (Amendment) Act;
* We demand reversal of the obnoxious policy of
disinvestments and adoption of a policy of revival and
strengthening of the PSUs; In particular we oppose the
proposed disinvestments in Maruti Udyog and BHEL;
* We oppose labour law reforms; especially we oppose
hire and fire norms as demanded by the employers and
we call for further measures to strengthen the job
security of workers;
* We demand penalty for companies resorting to
contractualisation and casualisation of workforce;
* We demand a complete ban on downsizing;
* We demand full trade union rights and recognition of
the trade union through secret ballot;
* We demand updating of the occupational safety
provisions in the Factories Act, 1948 and increase in
the compensation for workers suffering industrial
hazards; We demand more effective safety measures for
coalminers.

On behalf of the entire Indian working class our
demands are?
* Rescind the enhancement of FDI cap in
telecommunications and banking sector;
* Drop the move to hike the FDI cap in civil aviation
and insurance sectors;
* We oppose the merger and privatisation of oil PSUs;
* We oppose merger of banks and bank sector
restructuring and allowing foreign banks to takeover
Indian private banks;
* We oppose the privatisation of coalmines;
* We denounce the Electricity Act, 2003 and oppose
privatisation of the power sector in different states
at the dictates of the World Bank;
* Roll back the move to allow 100% FDI in
construction;
* We demand adequate tariff protection to small-scale
industries against unfair competition from large MNCs;
* The government should have a policy of revival of
sick industries and easy credit at concessional terms
should be extended to the sick industries;
* We oppose allowing FDI in the retail sector;
* We demand 12% interest on employees? provident fund
(EPF);
* Withdraw the ordinance on Pension Fund Regulatory
and Development Authority, don?t introduce
contributory pension scheme and introduce pension as
third benefit for workers; Stop investing workers?
pension funds in equities;
* We demand strengthening the employee state insurance
(ESI) to ensure better healthcare to the workers;
extension of the ESI services to cover all organised
and unorganised workers from the present meagre
coverage of only 26% of the organised workers; We
oppose the government move to dismantle the central
government health services (CGHS) and replace it with
private health insurance for employees;
* We demand cheap housing loans to workers and
concessional credit to acquire means of transport;
* We demand restoration of government protection to
the domestic textile industry in the context of
abolition of multi fiber agreement (MFA) and
protection of handloom weavers and powerloom workers
and small powerloom owners; We demand special
legislation for powerloom workers along the lines of
those for construction and beedi workers and we demand
effective administrative measures to abolish
semi-bonded system prevalent in the powerloom sector;
* Pass a legislation to protect the working conditions
of workers, especially women employees, of the call
centres and business process outsourcing (BPO) firms
and information technology (IT) sector firms;
* We oppose the demands of the employers in Export
processing Zones/Special Production Zones for
exemption from the labour laws;
* We want active government involvement in reopening
large units like Dunlop, deliberately made sick by
fraudulent managements;
* We demand review of the SC judgement in Shankar Guha
Niyogi murder case and demand arrest of all the
killers and their masterminds responsible for the
murders of Dutta Samant and Mahendra Singh.

In the interest of unorganised workers?
* We demand a comprehensive law for the social
security of 47 crore unorganised workers in the
country;
* We demand compulsory registration of all unorganised
sector/informal/contingent workers to strengthen their
social security;
* The Centre should pass a legislation making it
obligatory on the part of all state governments to
revise minimum wages for all occupations and to fix it
well above the prevailing market rates; the minimum
wages should be need based and be a minimum of Rs.4500
per month for the unorganised sector workers; the
capitalists who do not implement minimum wages in
their factories should be penalised;
* We demand that all states should notify the
Construction Labour Act and immediately set up welfare
funds for construction labour as per the act; we
demand Rs.2 lakh solatium for the families of workers
who die on the job in accidents and adequate
compensation for those who get injured; we demand a
pension of Rs. 1500 for construction labourers who
have attained the age of 55;
* We demand that beedi workers, especially home-based
workers, should be organised into workers cooperatives
and the government should ensure that they are given
adequate wages and proper raw materials are supplied
to them;
* We demand further strengthening of the Contract
Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 and
measures to make its implementation effective.

In the interest of women workers?
* We oppose the proposed amendment to the Factories
Act that legalises and legitimates the night work for
women;
* We demand strict implementation of equal pay for
equal work in the interest of women workers;
* We demand committees in every workplace to protect
women workers against sexual harassment in the
workplace;
* We demand effective abolition of child labour and
reasonable allowance and rehabilitation of child
workers to provide them with free education.
* We demand that maternity benefit should not be
withdrawn after the second child.

Opposing the anti-labour macro-economic policies?
* We demand that the government should adopt a policy
of job-creating labour-intensive industrialisation
instead of labour-displacing high-tech
industrialisation; We also demand on-the-job training
and skill upgradation for the workers at employers?
cost;
* We demand that the government should adopt suitable
macro-economic policies to keep inflation low. In
particular, we oppose repeated hikes in the prices of
petrol, diesel and kerosene;
* We want strict curbs on the generation of black
money and we oppose official schemes to launder black
money into white and we demand severe penalties for
black money holders;
* We call for strengthening the Public Distribution
System, for universal coverage of all the poor under
the BPL category, and for augmenting the number of
items supplied under PDS, especially kerosene;
* We demand a law to ensure repayment of loans taken
by the capitalists from public sector banks;
* We oppose selling of the lands of closed mills in
Bombay by the managements to real-estate sharks and
such lands should only be utilised for building
residential colonies for workers;
* We demand right to work and demand that the
government should pass an act for a universal and
unrestricted employment guarantee scheme for every
individual;
* We demand Rs. 3000 as unemployment allowance for
workers of closed industries;
* We demand an unemployment allowance of Rs. 2500 for
youth who are yet to get jobs.

In solidarity with the other fighting classes of the
Indian population?
* We demand urgent passing of an exclusive and
comprehensive central legislation for agricultural
labourers;
* We also demand a more effective protective
legislation for migrant workers in place of the
existing act; We express firm solidarity with our
agricultural labour brethren in their struggle for
land and wages; We support the struggle of the
peasants for a pro-peasant, pro-poor agricultural
policy;
* We are fully with the oppressed castes and
minorities in their struggle for dignity and
secularism;
* We demand an immediate halt to the eviction of
slum-dwellers in Mumbai and call for a stop to such
eviction in all cities including Kolkata in the name
of beautification and demand construction of pucca
houses for slum-dwellers.

Finally, in the interest of international solidarity?
* We demand that the Indian government should take up
the cause of Indian overseas workers in Malaysia,
Kuwait, Dubai, Bahrain, Iraq and Saudi Arabia;
* We express heartfelt solidarity with the struggles
of workers all over the world.

Opinion

The Politics of Election Boycott
- Daya Varma
Introduction
The controversy over whether or not to participate in
bourgeois elections is not new. As early as 1870,
Frederick  Engels wrote: ?To refrain from fighting our
enemies in the political arena would be to abandon one
 of the most powerful means of action, and
particularly of organization and propaganda. Universal
suffrage gives us an excellent means of action.?
(Frederick Engels, 1871; Marx and Engels Collected
Works, Vol. 22, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1986, p.
278).

The correctness of Engels? views on what can be
achieved through bourgeois parliaments can be judged
by recounting all the gains made by the working masses
in the capitalist world through parliamentary
struggles - some peaceful and some violent.

In many countries including India, parliamentary
proceedings are aired live in addition to appearing in
the print media so that their position gets widely
known. Communist parliamentarians as well as other
democrats played an important role in exposing the
fascist and antinational policies of the Bhartiya
Janata Party (BJP) ? led National Democratic Alliance
(NDA) government from 1998-2004. More communists were
elected to the Indian Parliament in May 2004 than ever
before; their support has become necessary for the
survival of the Congress ? led United Progressive
Alliance (UPA) government.

Lenin advocated participation in elections as an
additional method of weaning them away from
parliamentary prejudices. Lenin wrote in 1920:
?Precisely because the backward masses of the workers
and ?to an even greater degree-of the small peasants
are in Western Europe much more imbued with
bourgeois-democratic and parliamentary prejudices than
they were in Russia, precisely because of that, it is
only from within such institutions as bourgeois
parliaments that communists can (and must) wage a long
and persistent struggle, undaunted by any
difficulties, to expose, dissipate and overcome these
prejudices.? (?Left-wing Communism, an Infantile
Disorder? Foreign Language Press, Peking, 1965; p. 60;
emphasis in original.)

Since Lenin wrote this book in 1920, communist and
workers? parties have participated in parliamentary
practice in practically all countries where bourgeois
democracy has prevailed.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) participated in
Parliamentary elections for the first time in  1951
and  won 26 seats CPI legislators were fierce in their
opposition to the ruling Congress. Yet, parliamentary
prejudice has not waned (indeed it has increased) in
India or in any other country as a result of the
activities of elected communist legislators, which
would suggest that the objective conditions for
revolution, which dispelled Parliamentary prejudice in
Tsarist Russia, did not and do not exist in India or
anywhere else.

The politics of election boycott is not only an issue
with communist and workers? parties but by other
political formations including reactionary forces,
terrorists and bourgeois or religious nationalists,
who have been more successful in their election
boycott call than Communist Party of India
Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) in the past and Maoist
Communist Center (MCC) and People?s War Group (PWG)
(recently constituted as CPI-Maoist) at the present.

Historical background: From Telangana to the
parliament
An intense debate raged in CPI in 1948 on the question
of appropriateness of the Chinese path versus Soviet
path - both would have led to election boycott. The
first Communist-led armed resistance started in
Telangana in the state of Hyderabad, which was being
ruled by the Nizam, one of the most despotic feudal
lords of India. Although the Telangana peasant
resistance started against injustices committed by the
Nizam and his army (Razakars) and for Hyderabad
joining the Indian Union, it was quickly transformed
into a struggle for the overthrow of the Indian
bourgeoisie ?the most active fighting partner in the
bourgeois-feudal-imperialist combine? to establish
?People?s democracy and Socialism? (Documents of the
Second Party Congress of CPI held in Calcutta from
February 28-March 6, 1948). It is important to note
that the Telangana experience could not be duplicated
in Telgu speaking Andhra state. The CPI call for a
general railway strike on March 9, 1949 drew no
response. An editorial in  the January 27, 1950 issue
of  Cominform?s ?For a Lasting Peace, For a People?s
Democracy?, which essentially rejected the urban
insurrection advocated by CPI General Secretary
Ranadive and drew similarity between India and China.
A delegation of CPI to Moscow was advised by Stalin
that both similarity and differences between India and
China existed. In short, conditions within India were
considered not favorable for armed revolution. Soon
thereafter Soviet Party directly and through the
Communist Party of Britain considered participation in
election as a valid alternative.  Ranadive who had
replaced PC Joshi in 1948 was removed and Rajeshwar
Rao became the General Secretary in 1950; Rao was
replaced by Ajoy Ghosh in 1951.

CPI participated in India?s first Parliamentary
elections in 1951 - in theory based on worker-peasant
alliance.  The Party split in 1964 and CPI and
CPI-Marxist (CPM) came into being; both have
participated in elections since 1951; indeed
developing an effective election strategy, including
electoral alliances, has been an important occupation
of both parties. Both parties have committed errors in
defining their election strategies.  On the other
hand, parliamentary struggles have their own dynamics
and errors in seeking alliances are unavoidable.

Policy of election boycott
At this point in time, election boycott is an issue
only with the CPI (Maoist) and Party Unity Center and
not with other communist formations. I think these
formations are essentially continuing with old policy
without having given thought to its appropriateness.
It will not be wrong to predict that sooner than later
CPI (Maoist) will also enter the electoral fray and
most probably perform well beyond their expectations
or those of others.

Several international and national factors contributed
to the election boycott call by the CPI (ML), which
was formed on April 22, 1969. This was a tumultuous
period in world history. Over 40 armed national
liberation struggles were waging, including some under
the leadership of Communist parties. There was a
world-wide movement against the Viet Nam war. Cultural
Revolution was waging across China with its effects
felt around the world. The Communist Party of China
characterized Soviet Union, as a social imperialist
country causing a split in communist parties the world
over. Although these developments played no major role
in the Naxalbari peasant uprising, the political line
that emerged out of Naxalbari was most certainly
influenced by the developments in the international
communist movement. CPI (ML) and its predecessor, the
All India Coordinating Committee of Communist
revolutionaries (AICCCR) embarked on the Chinese Path.

CPI (ML) declared that its basic program is ?the
establishment of People?s Democratic Dictatorship led
by the proletariat? and rejected ?the parliamentary
path for the whole strategic period.? This was the
beginning of the Election Boycott call by CPI (ML).
CPI (ML) remained a single united party for a very
short time. CPI (ML)-Liberation through the Indian
People?s Front and later directly under the party
banner has been participating in the elections since
1988.

Is the election boycott in accordance with Marxism in
the present Indian context or in the context of India
of 1967? The correctness or incorrectness of election
boycott slogan cannot be judged outside the context of
an assessment of objective and subjective factors
necessary for a successful revolution, new democratic
or socialist or mixed. This is true now and was true
back at the time of Naxalbari. Revolutionary
enthusiasm of a group of communists, though highly
commendable, is not the same as existence of objective
and subjective factors for a revolution. In my
opinion, objective and subjective factors for
revolution did not exist in 1948 and 1967 and do not
exist in 2005. Even sections of CPI (ML) which have
persisted in armed struggle remain localized in forest
and other relatively remote areas. Election boycott is
a legacy of erroneous assessment of objective and
subjective forces and is indicative of political
shortsightedness.

In the prevailing conditions in India, an election
boycott call is clearly anti-democratic. In many ways,
elections are a festive occasion for the Indian
masses, who rightly or wrongly feel that they have
some say in the governance of the country. In Bihar,
Ranvir Sena and other organs of feudal terror have
forcibly prevented Dalits from exercising their
franchise because of the fear that they would vote
against them.  Clearly an identical move by communist
revolutionaries can only be regarded as
anti-democratic. Indeed it becomes the obligation of
communist revolutionaries to ensure the exercise of
franchise by poor and landless peasants, such as was
done by the Indian People?s Front during the 1988
elections.

Struggle Report

Kolkata?s ?Beautification? Campaign

- Soumitra Bose

 Calcutta was a colonial city. A jewel in the British
crown, it still is. True to its colonial character, it
always had a rich but never a super-rich echelon, an
enormously plump middle class holding the spirit,
culture, zeitgeist of the city and a vast mass of
dejected populace, whose cheap labor is required but
whose sustenance is no-ones concern.

Throughout the fiery nationalistic period Calcutta had
been the hotbed of middle-class fire-brand
revolutionaries who had zeal, tactics, sheen,
expertise of perfect anarchists and perfect urban
guerrillas but who would never know the base ? the
vast pauper section who held the city afloat. Since
the days of partition till the late sixties Calcutta
saw stages of disillusion of this middle class urbane
anglicized and yet strongly traditional youth. Yet the
entire period of mass movement of the sixties could
not bring about any class infringement. The Naxalbari
movement and the famous call of Charu Mazumdar of
getting integrating with the class changed all these
equations. All of a sudden, just like swaying of a
magic wand the entire sub-altern of Calcutta came up
ashore and tsunamied the entire city scene. Endless
number of sub-altern youth from the ghettos of North
Calcutta and the refugee settlements of the South came
up like typhoon waves, obliterated all distinctions.
The crème-de-la-crème of the Calcutta students
immediately found a massive sub-altern under-growth of
a base, making a formidable force of youth upsurge ?
the most famous of its kind in the whole of India. For
once no one bothered to quiz any youth?s class
background. The result was symptomatic in some of the
legends going around the city- Tapa, Bhanu and Manmath
were there comrade in arms, one was the son of a super
rich NRI family and educated from Presidency College ?
the seat of the highest echelon, one was a son of a
street vendor, the other was an almost orphan from a
nearby ghetto who had seen all types of underworld.
All three were killed point blank in the most
prestigious Maddox square- off Ritchie Road, off
Ballygunge Circular Road- the seat of the highest of
the high societies. Those were the days when Calcutta
made its own mark as a city of revolution, as a city
of protest, as a city of consciousness and as a city
of declassed ideology.

Later Calcutta was renamed Kolkata, by the left front
government, the one which rode on this protest waves.
The social-psychological change occurred much earlier
in the early seventies. The sub-altern rose against
all odds to claim its rightful position and captured
the spirit. Kolkata, which replaced Calcutta in sheer
nomenclature 25 years later, saw the peoples?
assertion from the ghettos, from the refugee
settlements and from the lower middle section of the
people. The rulers could not tolerate this. What the
previous draconian Congress governments tried in vain
to impose by military force could be achieved through
the sly and cunning machinations of the
social-democrats. They maintained the ghetto
leaderships by corrupting them, lumpenizing them and
de-politicizing them. The base of the leadership was
sub-altern and the character was maintaining the
status quo. This dialectics lumpenized the entire
sub-altern of Kolkata into stooges of moneyed power
and the lumpen rich.

A lot of years went on in this investment and now the
deciders and rulers want their interest back. Kolkata
needs now to become Calcutta again albeit
social-democratically. Beautification as a yardstick
of development is bad when and if directed by
right-ruling-class and would become the Desire when
and if directed by left-ruling-class. The recently
concluded 18th CPM party Congress at Delhi has
certified this tactic as the pragmatic-left practice
of the globalization-times. Kolkata needs to deck up,
dress up and bejewel up to greet the super-rich of the
country and also of the world. Kolkata needs to be
clean. The gaping holes of human miseries and of those
slimy, guttery, miserable living hell-holes all need
not be spruced up but effaced from the gazing view in
total. Kolkata needs to compete in the age of
Globalization with the centers of development and
metropolis of the first world. This is a mandatory
requirement of the World Bank to gain credit points
publishable to the potential venture capitalists of
the West. The poor need to work and not to stay. They
need to be transshipped, transported and not
transmigrated; they need be hauled in and out during
the working hours and cleaned off in leisurely times.
Eviction would be primary precondition therefore for
Development.

The sub-altern who built up Kolkata brick by brick
could take it no more. They voted the social democrats
to power ensured their power against all intrusions
and interventions from the Central bourgeois power and
now they are not asked but shoved out of their abodes,
their livelihoods ? they can take it no more. They
came out in the streets. For days, in times and
occasions they rallied themselves on the streets of
Kolkata. They brought the city to her knees. Calcutta
was stifled, stopped, in poured the revolutionaries,
the democrats and lately the intelligentsia in
solidarity. Kolkata was up in arms again. Batons,
bullets, barricades, bulldozers, pay-loaders, all
battled pitch street fights with humanity. Hundreds
jailed, more injured, more rallied in and the battle
went on. The social democrats greeted royally Hugo
Chavez as a hero and yet did not let him know what
went on beneath his feet. The city was burning; the
sub-altern fought street battles with police forces,
with armed security forces, with armed gears against
guns and yet greeted the leader of the poor in their
own way. On the same day Hugo Chavez was to be
greeted, there was a stand off of the sub-altern on
one side and the police and paramilitary forces on the
other. The authorities had to retreat eventually. The
social democrat Supremo and chief declared the retreat
and pleaded human considerations! The sub-altern did
not fall for such sops and sugar bullets. They kept
their vigil on, they fought, they stayed put ? on the
rail tracks, on the road sides, their children took
public exams under the pangs that they might come back
and see their houses destroyed, they still took the
exams, the life went on, the daily laborers could not
take a day off, they worked and spent anxious minutes,
they showed the highest standard of work ethics.
Sub-altern did speak, did roar actually. They needed
no representative to represent them; they chose to
represent the collective consciousness of the people.
They brought in the intelligentsia, the media, the
fence-sitting section of the middle class, their
employers who needed their service in daily chores.
Kolkata was taken over once again by the sub-alterns.
This time may not be politically for the state power
but for their own rights for education and life.
Against the fully decked up and armored paramilitary
forces the sub-altern came out with whatever they
could gather, from brickbats to handmade batons and
what not. The strongest weapon they carried was the
spirit and the zeal. The armed mercenaries reeled
back. The people got a little breathing time till the
election time.

Kolkata is bumping on to civic elections and again a
statewide reelection next year. Till that time the
sub-altern have gained their time, only through
collective resistances, they have lost previous
battles, concentrated to the southern part of the
city, they fought back and won this time. Kolkata
re-instated its mark of protest. For this time at
least the general struggle of Kolkata and the
zeitgeist was led by the sub-alterns. Sub-alterns led
the general voice of the people. That is where we have
developed. Development means a collective development
of social-psychosis towards collective and shared
living, towards a working class leadership. This time
the battles of Kolkata streets established that again!





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