PaRCha - JNU - AISA material - 2011 ID-28665
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Radical Aspirations of the Working Class: Where Do CPI(M)-SFI REALLY Stand? .
"Now, we feel there were serious mistakes. It has sent wrong messages to every part in the country and in other countries. Therefore, when we are changing, we tell out trade union leaders look we just cannot repeat our past mistakes... there should be harmonious relations between management and workers. Otherwise, we cannot advance." -West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, At the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) meeting in Kolkata on September 17, 2007 .
"We are trying to change the mindset of workers. We need FDI, we need infrastructure." -Buddhadeb Bhattacharya .
Two days back, the streets of Delhi saw a massive demonstration of the working class at the call of several trade unions. Soon after this, responding to a comment by an AISA activist on Facebook, SFI has chosen to hurl allegations against AISA and CPI(ML) Liberation. To begin with, one wonders why SFI would respond with such venom to a left activist's comment wishing that the working class should uphold a radical banner and radical agenda. Why did SFI assume that the statement was targeted at them? After all, there were other trade unions too (including INTUC, affiliated to the Congress) in the rally, and the comment on Facebook did not mention any party. .
The reason is clear: the SFI-CPI(M) knows full well that it has betrayed the interests of the working class so many times that they get afraid at any reference to a "radical" banner. The above quoted statements of their own chief minister shows what they really think and do. They themselves know too well that they do not subscribe to any radical agenda. This is the real reason for SFI's frenzied response to an innocuous Facebook comment. In contrast note their stunning silence on the highly problematic Godhra verdict, which they obviously think not important enough to comment upon!! .
This is not the first time the SFI has chosen to hurl baseless allegations against AISA just to hide its betrayal of the working class. In February 2005, there was another massive rally of trade unions in Delhi against the proposed Patents Bill which was to be tabled in the Parliament. The student community has not forgotten that just one month after this rally, the CPI(M), which was part of the UPA at that time, voted FOR the Patents Act in the Parliament! The very same CPI(M) who is today trying to fashion itself as the champions of the working class, also supported the SEZ Act in Parliament in Jan 2005. This SEZ Act essentially created "foreign territories" within India, where the laws of the land, including labour laws would not be applicable! Moreover, these self-proclaimed "champions" of the working class also brought in the SEZ Act in CPI(M)-ruled West Bengal in 2003, even before the Central SEZ Act. The JNU student community has also not forgotten that when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited JNU in 2005 (when CPI(M) was supporting the UPA), the SFI (along with NSUI and ABVP) actively opposed AISA and other organizations who showed black flags in protest against the Patents Act and the SEZ Act, against AFSPA and the Indian Army's rape and murder of Manorama Devi. The very same CPI(M) ruthlessly and brutally used the entire state machinery in West Bengal to terrorize, rape and murder peasants agitating against corporate land-grab and land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram. The same CPI(M) has for years organized harmad vahinis -armed military campaigns against the working class -which are similar to the infamous Salwa Judum campaign in Chhattisgarh. Do the SFI-CPI(M) expect us to forget the massacres at Singur, Nandigram and Netai? Does the SFI seriously believe that the working class and the JNU student community will forgive and forget these organized massacres, and these betrayals of workers? To woo corporates and denigrate the working class, Kerala State industry minister Elamaram Karim proudly stated:
Kerala's position [is]
below the all-India average in the number of man-days lost as a result of strikes. .
..Production loss caused by industrial action has come down drastically in Kerala. But the media often fail to reflect such positive changes. Nowhere else in India can you see such a concentration of skilled workers. Significantly, they receive very low wages, compared with their counterparts elsewhere. The wages of factory workers in Kerala is lower than the national average.
in general, wages are low in Kerala". Interview with Kerala State industry minister quoted in Frontline, December 1st, 2006 .
Is this shameful celebration of low wages and no workers' strikes an indicator of radical communist politics? .
The JNU student community is well aware that in JNU too, the SFI has a shameful history of betrayal of workers' rights. During the movement for minimum wages and other workers' rights in JNU, the SFI to begin with claimed that students should have nothing to do with workers' rights. Wasn't it the same "pro-worker" SFI which voted in favour of a Proctorial Enquiry by the JNU administration against those protesting students who were demanding implementation of workers' rights in campus? .
Whether it is the open invitation to MNCs like Spencers, Reliance and Wal-Mart in the agro-retailing business or whether it is a recommendation to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to formulate the government's policy on land acquisition (both made by Buddhadeb Bhattacharya at a CII meeting in Kolkata on September 17, 2007), they have consistently showed their "class position"! Last October, at the peak of the CWG, when a protest was called just outside our own campus by some concerned students and some student organizations against the hoardings put up to "hide" the slums next door, the SFI chose to boycott this protest! The list of SFI-CPI(M)'s betrayals are too many to be quoted in a single leaflet. "Comrades": the real test of standing with the working class is to relentlessly champion their interests in ALL forums, be it on the streets, in the Parliament or through governments which you run. And there, your (in)glorious credentials of opening a Nestle outlet in JNU while leading the JNUSU, inviting MetroCash and Walmart in Bengal, supporting and implementing the anti-worker .
.
.
PaRCha - JNU - AISA material - 2011 ID-28665
.
Radical Aspirations of the Working Class: Where Do CPI(M)-SFI REALLY Stand? .
"Now, we feel there were serious mistakes. It has sent wrong messages to every part in the country and in other countries. Therefore, when we are changing, we tell out trade union leaders look we just cannot repeat our past mistakes... there should be harmonious relations between management and workers. Otherwise, we cannot advance." -West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, At the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) meeting in Kolkata on September 17, 2007 .
"We are trying to change the mindset of workers. We need FDI, we need infrastructure." -Buddhadeb Bhattacharya .
Two days back, the streets of Delhi saw a massive demonstration of the working class at the call of several trade unions. Soon after this, responding to a comment by an AISA activist on Facebook, SFI has chosen to hurl allegations against AISA and CPI(ML) Liberation. To begin with, one wonders why SFI would respond with such venom to a left activist's comment wishing that the working class should uphold a radical banner and radical agenda. Why did SFI assume that the statement was targeted at them? After all, there were other trade unions too (including INTUC, affiliated to the Congress) in the rally, and the comment on Facebook did not mention any party. .
The reason is clear: the SFI-CPI(M) knows full well that it has betrayed the interests of the working class so many times that they get afraid at any reference to a "radical" banner. The above quoted statements of their own chief minister shows what they really think and do. They themselves know too well that they do not subscribe to any radical agenda. This is the real reason for SFI's frenzied response to an innocuous Facebook comment. In contrast note their stunning silence on the highly problematic Godhra verdict, which they obviously think not important enough to comment upon!! .
This is not the first time the SFI has chosen to hurl baseless allegations against AISA just to hide its betrayal of the working class. In February 2005, there was another massive rally of trade unions in Delhi against the proposed Patents Bill which was to be tabled in the Parliament. The student community has not forgotten that just one month after this rally, the CPI(M), which was part of the UPA at that time, voted FOR the Patents Act in the Parliament! The very same CPI(M) who is today trying to fashion itself as the champions of the working class, also supported the SEZ Act in Parliament in Jan 2005. This SEZ Act essentially created "foreign territories" within India, where the laws of the land, including labour laws would not be applicable! Moreover, these self-proclaimed "champions" of the working class also brought in the SEZ Act in CPI(M)-ruled West Bengal in 2003, even before the Central SEZ Act. The JNU student community has also not forgotten that when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited JNU in 2005 (when CPI(M) was supporting the UPA), the SFI (along with NSUI and ABVP) actively opposed AISA and other organizations who showed black flags in protest against the Patents Act and the SEZ Act, against AFSPA and the Indian Army's rape and murder of Manorama Devi. The very same CPI(M) ruthlessly and brutally used the entire state machinery in West Bengal to terrorize, rape and murder peasants agitating against corporate land-grab and land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram. The same CPI(M) has for years organized harmad vahinis -armed military campaigns against the working class -which are similar to the infamous Salwa Judum campaign in Chhattisgarh. Do the SFI-CPI(M) expect us to forget the massacres at Singur, Nandigram and Netai? Does the SFI seriously believe that the working class and the JNU student community will forgive and forget these organized massacres, and these betrayals of workers? To woo corporates and denigrate the working class, Kerala State industry minister Elamaram Karim proudly stated:
Kerala's position [is]
below the all-India average in the number of man-days lost as a result of strikes. .
..Production loss caused by industrial action has come down drastically in Kerala. But the media often fail to reflect such positive changes. Nowhere else in India can you see such a concentration of skilled workers. Significantly, they receive very low wages, compared with their counterparts elsewhere. The wages of factory workers in Kerala is lower than the national average.
in general, wages are low in Kerala". Interview with Kerala State industry minister quoted in Frontline, December 1st, 2006 .
Is this shameful celebration of low wages and no workers' strikes an indicator of radical communist politics? .
The JNU student community is well aware that in JNU too, the SFI has a shameful history of betrayal of workers' rights. During the movement for minimum wages and other workers' rights in JNU, the SFI to begin with claimed that students should have nothing to do with workers' rights. Wasn't it the same "pro-worker" SFI which voted in favour of a Proctorial Enquiry by the JNU administration against those protesting students who were demanding implementation of workers' rights in campus? .
Whether it is the open invitation to MNCs like Spencers, Reliance and Wal-Mart in the agro-retailing business or whether it is a recommendation to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to formulate the government's policy on land acquisition (both made by Buddhadeb Bhattacharya at a CII meeting in Kolkata on September 17, 2007), they have consistently showed their "class position"! Last October, at the peak of the CWG, when a protest was called just outside our own campus by some concerned students and some student organizations against the hoardings put up to "hide" the slums next door, the SFI chose to boycott this protest! The list of SFI-CPI(M)'s betrayals are too many to be quoted in a single leaflet. "Comrades": the real test of standing with the working class is to relentlessly champion their interests in ALL forums, be it on the streets, in the Parliament or through governments which you run. And there, your (in)glorious credentials of opening a Nestle outlet in JNU while leading the JNUSU, inviting MetroCash and Walmart in Bengal, supporting and implementing the anti-worker .
.
.