A two-day long national workshop of All India Students’ Association (AISA) was held on 1-2 July at Shaheed Chandrashekhar Nagar (Dehradoon). This was followed by AISA’s National Council meeting on 3rd July. This three-day long affair was the first major national level programme in Uttaranchal’s capital.
115 delegates from across Punjab, Delhi, Maharashtra, U.P., Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Karbi Anglong, and Uttarakhand participated in the workshop. The subjects covered at the workshop are “Imperialism since Lenin” and “Communist Manifesto”. The last session on 2nd July was devoted to sharing the AISA activists’ experiences and lessons from student movements and agitations in different states.
The workshop was inaugurated by Com.Dipankar Bhattacharya who urged the students to make all issues of people an integral part of their struggle and concern. He said that it was encouraging that AISA has been making efforts to increase their theoretical understanding while at the same time taking movemental initiatives, and he urged the students to make this kind of practice more frequent.
AISA’s National Council meeting was held on 3rd July. Apart from discussing the recent developments and ongoing students agitations in different states, AISA NC expressed satisfaction over some of the victories like ousting a MNC from JNU campus, successful gherao of Senate meeting in Patna University, bus pass agitation in Punjab, exemplary courage shown by Kolkata students led by AISA and other left student organisations in confronting the brutality of Buddhadev Bhattacharya govt. on Jadavpur University students, followed with massive demonstrations and huge support for the students’ demands, timely initiatives in sending a relief team to the Tsunami-hit Tamil Nadu, and taking a team of students from JNU to regions in Orissa where poor Tribals are being displaced from their traditional homelands.
AISA has resolved to meet the membership target of one lakh. The months of July and August would see extensive membership campaign in all states. It was decided that a national-level Parliament march would be held on the slogan “No Employment - No Government!”
A protest movement against the handing over of many oil fields of Assam to a foreign company is going on in Assam. The UPA Govt. is going to implement the NDA’s decision to handover resourceful Amguri Oil Field under the ONGC to a Canadian company. The left parties including the CPI(ML), the CPI, and the CPI(M) and their trade union organizations and mass organizations are lunching a movement against UPA Govt.’s anti-national policy. On 20th July, joint protest programmes were held in different places of the state, including in Amguri and Guwahati. - Naren Borah
Sustained agitation led by CPI(ML) leaders inside the Arrah jail, backed by solidarity action outside, ultimately forced the administration to yield. Earlier when prisoners, led by Com. Suresh, CPI(ML) State Committee Member, raised the issues of substandard food supply, repairing of fans, cleaning of toilets etc., they were brutally beaten by the jail police and the RJD supporters among the prisoners. In protest, Com. Sudama Prasad, along with other prisoners went on indefinite hunger-strike. In solidarity, agitation started outside the jail. A huge protest march was organized and effigy of D.M. was burnt. Ultimately, the administration was forced to negotiate and accept the 10-point charter of demands.
CPI(ML)’s Seventh Delhi State Conference Concludes with a Clarion Call to Become the Main Voice of the Delhi’s Working People
The Seventh Delhi State Conference of the CPI(ML) was held on 6-7 August in MP Club at South Avenue. Veteran Party Comrade Mulkaraj inaugurated the Conference by hoisting the Red Flag.
Polit Bureau members Com.Swadesh Bhattacharya and Com.Nand Kishore Prasad were present as Chief Guest and Central Observer respectively. Other important leaders present were Central Committee members Prabhat Kumar and Swapan Mukherjee.
In the beginning, CPI(ML)’s State Secretary Rajendra Pratholi presented the work report. The report elaborates on the growing anger of the people of Delhi against troubles arising as a consequence of privatization of electricity and water. The report states that, “every attempt is being made to suppress the basic issues of the people amidst noises created by so much talk on metros and flyovers”. Further, “in the era of globalization, while a pretty good section has prospered, the exploitation of poor has intensified along with widening rifts in income levels.” The report added that, “the poor are exposed to multi-pronged assaults due to unavailability of jobs, growing consumerist culture and ever-widening gap between the rich and poor. The life of the poor has become hell.”
The Conference has presented some important tasks to the new Committee that include: giving a concrete shape to the struggles for social security, dignity and minimum wages; providing a sharp edge to the struggles of urban poor for BPL cards and ration supply as per their need and for round-the-year employment; and, bringing and making the issue of privatization of public goods and services and proper rehabilitation of the displaced poor, in the centre of Delhi politics.
The conference concluded with the call to make the CPI(ML) as the main voice of the millions of toiling and working people of Delhi. The Conference elected a fifteen-member State Committee which re-elected Rajendra Pratholi as the State Secretary.
CPI(ML)’s Second Jharkhand State Conference was held on 28-30 July at Comrade Mahendra Singh Sabhagar in Ranchi. The three-day Conference began on 28 July, the martyrdom day of Comrade Charu Mazumdar. The memories of the struggles which Comrade Mahendra Singh shaped, developed and led, reverberated throughout the Conference. The Conference pledged to fulfill the unfinished dream of Com. Mahendra Singh. The Conference also pledged to develop peasants’ and working class movements to newer heights. The Conference adopted several resolutions and chalked out a comprehensive plan of action for strengthening of the Party organisation and movemental resurgence. The Conference also vowed to nail down the killers of Com. Mahendra Singh by intensifying the people’s struggles on land, wage, dignity and democracy. Delegates pledged to develop a mass upsurge that will punish Dipak Verma and his political mentors.
The Conference began with flag hoisting by a veteran working class leader, Bhaiyalal Besra, and floral tributes by Party leaders and delegates at the martyrs’ column. A two-minute silence was observed in the memory of the martyrs. Activists of Jharkhand Sanskriti Manch presented revolutionary songs. Party General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya lit the lamp and inaugurated the Conference.
After the inaugural address by Comrade Dipankar, CPI(M) State Secretary Com. Gyan Shankar Mazumdar, CPI State Council member, noted intellectual and Secretary of Jharkhand Sanskriti Manch Dr. V.P.Kesari, Vice-President of Jan Sanskriti Manch, Ravi Bhushan and Journalist Faisal Anurag addressed the session. Party Central Committee members Ramji Rai, who was also the Central Observer for the Conference, and Swapan Mukherjee (General Secretary of AICCTU) also addressed the session.
265 delegates and 15 observers and guests attended the delegate session which began with the presentation of the work report by Subhendu Sen. More than 90 delegates participated in the discussions and put forth their opinions and suggestions. The work report was passed after incorporating some suggestions that came from the delegates.
The Conference elected a 31-member new State Committee which in turn re-elected Subhendu Sen as its Secretary. An 8-point task of organisational consolidation with increased Party membership, effective intervention in Panchayat elections, and developing mass organisations, etc. was adopted by the Conference which concluded with the Internationale.
The Palakkad District Leading Team of the CPI(ML) Liberation conducted a demonstration at Plachimada (Palakkad) against the Coca-Cola Company on 9th August 2005, the Quit India day. State Secretary Com. John K. Erumeli inaugurated the demonstration. Coimbatore CPI(ML) Liberation Secretary Com. R. Damodaran, Kerala State Committee Member Com. O.P. Kunju Pillai, Palakkad District Secretary, Com. Joy Peter, RYA State Convener, Com. Kanool Thumarampara, Com.T.K. Rajan, Coimbatore Auto drivers Union Secretary, Com. Shanmugha Sundaram, Com. Das, Lohiya Vichar Vedi State Secretary, Com. Janardhanan Namboothiri, Plachimada Campaign activist, Mayilamma, Plachimada Campaign Co-ordinator Vilayodi Venugopal, and Convenor Velur Swaminathan addressed the demonstrators. D.C. Member Com.Velayudhan presided over. The demonstration was against Coca-Cola setting up a plant in Placimada which would drain enormous amount of groundwater. - Joy Peter
Over 3000 activists and representatives from all over Maharashtra, defying trying circumstances caused by heavy rains, attended the founding conference of Maharashtra Rajya Sarvshramik Mahasangh at Pune on July 31. Workers, both men and women, reached in an impressive procession to the venue of the conference.
The Conference was presided over by a veteran of the trade union movement in Maharashtra, Madhukar Katre, who is also the President of the Lal Nishan Party. Swapan Mukherjee, General Secretary of AICCTU, was the chief guest. Recalling the glorious tradition of struggle in Maharashtra he congratulated the delegates for attending the meet in such large numbers defying the havoc caused by rains. He hoped for a new rising tide of struggles under red flag in the state and appealed to make the All India Countrywide General Strike called by central trade unions a grand success in Maharashtra. q