[Marxism] AICCTU Report: All India General Strike

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

AICCTU Congratulates Working People of India for the
resounding success of today's General Strike

New Delhi, 29 September 2005: All India Central
Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) has congratulated the
working class and various sections of the working
people in India for the total success of today's all
India General Strike called jointly by the sponsoring
committee of trade unions (comprising of seven central
trade union centres including AICCTU). This became a
historic success due to widespread support it received
from the people of India. This was first action on
such a massive scale against the anti-people policies
of the UPA government at the centre. These policies
are nothing but a continuation of the previous NDA
regime and the success of the strike is also a
continuation of people's resentment expressed against
the NDA in the last general elections. This also
exposed fallacy of the Congress' slogan of 'reform
with a human face' and that the working class in the
country will never tolerate the tilt in the policies
of the Congress toward 'Ambani and America'.

The strike was total in all important states, as well
as all industrial establishments and financial
institutions. Jharkhand, Assam, West Bengal,
Maharashtra, Kerala, Tripura, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry
and many other states observed a bandh like situation
today. Strike also received huge response from Central
and State govt. employees and public sector
undertakings like coal, petroleum, banks, insurance,
airports, postal, BSNL and health. There was a good
participation from various unorganised sectors like
agricultural workers, tea gardens, construction
workers, powerloom and handloom.workers. It was also a
huge success in Gurgaon which witnessed recently
barbaric police repression on Honda factory workers.

AICCTU played an important role in making today's
strike a big success in many states. Its General
Secretary Swapan Mukherjee led the stike in coal
fields in Jharkhand, where railway tracks were blocked
for three hours in Kumardubi and GT Road was blockaded
for more than six hours. In Assam, AICCTU affiliated
unions led the strike in many tea gardens, Guwahati
Oil Refinery and coal fields. A number of AICCTU
leaders and activists were arrested in Assam today. In
UP, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Bihar, etc.,
rallies, sit-ins, road and rails blockades were
organised by AICCTU. During the strike thousands of
workers were arrested.
Rajiv Dimri
Secretary, AICCTU

__________________________________________________________

Down with the Pro-US Policies of the UPA Government!
Editorial, ML Update, 27 September - 3 October, 2005.

Left-led central trade unions in the country including
AICCTU, CITU and AITUC have called for a countrywide
industrial strike on September 29 to demand a reversal
of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government?s
pro-privatisation and anti-labour policies. CPI(ML)
activists all over the country will extend active and
wholehearted support to this first major countrywide
protest action by the Indian working class against the
Congress-led UPA government?s destructive and
disastrous design. While endorsing the united trade
union charter opposing the neo-liberal economic
policies, the CPI(ML) appeals to the Indian working
class and every anti-imperialist Indian to rise
simultaneously against the pro-US foreign and defence
policy of the UPA government. Following India?s
questionable nuclear deal with the US, India has now
openly sided with the US against Iran and thus
isolated itself from the entire developing world and
other countries opposed to US unilateralism.

On 24 September India shocked and shamed the entire
developing world by voting in favour of the US-EU
resolution referring Iran to the UN Security Council
for alleged violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty. In spite of not being a signatory to the NPT,
India chose to side with the US ostensibly to prove
India?s credential as a ?responsible? (read loyal)
nuclear power to the US and the big three of the
European Union ? Germany, France and Britain. India?s
surrender stood in sharp contrast to the bold
opposition put up by Venezuela or the strong
reservation expressed by the twelve abstaining member
countries including China, Russia and South Africa at
the 35-member board of governors of the International
Atomic Energy Agency. No wonder, the US has thanked
India for her support to the US-led move to isolate
and coerce Iran.

The Indian sellout on the Iran-US confrontation comes
in the wake of India?s notoriously wavering and
increasingly collusive pro-US posture on the issue of
the Anglo-American invasion, occupation and
destruction of Iraq. Iran has generally been friendly
to India on every international platform. Apart from
being a major supplier of India?s petroleum needs,
Iran has also been willing to supply natural gas to
India through the proposed pipeline project involving
Pakistan and India. The US has always been opposed to
this idea of Iran-India-Pakistan cooperation in the
crucial energy sector and it was to appease the US
that Manmohan Singh had expressed doubts about the
pipeline project during his earlier visit to the US.
Now this Indian stand at the IAEA amounts to nothing
short of a backstabbing sabotage against a
long-standing friend.

The economic, defence and foreign policies of the UPA
government are all marked by a pronounced
pro-imperialist and especially pro-US tilt. Not a
single month has passed since the UPA?s coming to
power without the government announcing some major
concession to foreign capital. From banking and
insurance to aviation and telecommunication, FDI
restrictions have been removed in every key sector of
the economy. By reenacting Jalianwallabagh in Gurgaon,
the government has also demonstrated the degree of its
loyalty to the interests and dictates of foreign
capital on the Indian soil. From Bhopal through Dabhol
to Gurgaon, the Indian rulers have repeatedly allowed
foreign MNCs to get away with every conceivable crime,
be it a case of mass murder, mega robbery, or
terrorization of workers.

Let September 29 make it clear to the Indian rulers
and their imperialist bosses that India cannot be
steamrolled into neo-colonial subjugation. The writing
on the wall should be clear and bold enough for the
UPA government which is following in the footsteps of
the ousted NDA regime. And the Left rulers of West
Bengal who have reversed and reduced land reforms to
real estate business should also be made to understand
that the workers and peasants of West Bengal are not
here to be hoodwinked by the false mantras of market
and ?corporate communism?.

Long live the fighting spirit of the working class and
the anti-imperialist tradition of the Indian people!




                
__________________________________
Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005
http://mail.yahoo.com

________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism