Defiance, resistance way to go, gensecy tells 17th CITU congregation

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The 17th All India Conference of CITU was inaugurated on Wednesday at the Palace Grounds in Bengaluru, with a pledge to “heighten the struggles against neo-liberal policies” and organise the task. In his address, K Subba Rao, Honorary President of the Reception Committee of the Conference, urged for the unity of the working class both in public and private sectors at a time “when the country is facing economic, political, social, cultural and intellectual crises”.

Criticising the Union government’s economic policies that are leading to growing inequalities, he said: “It is unfortunate that many fundamentalist and divisive forces are keeping the working class divided. Consequently, the wealth produced by the working class is in the hands of a few capitalists, who are influencing the governance.”

He stressed that the people in the working class deserve attention to improve their economic and political conditions. CITU General Secretary Tapan Sen, in his introductory speech, asserted that the conference will be mulling ways to heighten the working class struggles by moving towards “defiance and resistance” without persuasion. “There will be no more persuasions,” he said, terming the present regime anti-national and antipeople.

“We are fortunate that the conference and the joint trade union movement are on the same wavelength. And premised on this wavelength, the movement is trying to carry on the united intervention of the working class against this antipeople, anti-national destructive regime. In that process, we collectively reached a realisation that we are fighting not merely to defend the rights of the working class, peasantry and producing class, but also the rights of the people at large and defending our dear country,” Sen said.

Representatives of all central trade unions who spoke during the event touched upon various issues, including the widening gap between the rich and the poor, price rise, privatisation, shrinking spaces for working class movements, and ill-planned demonetisation.

World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) General Secretary Pambis Kyrtisis was also present at the event participated by about 1,500 delegates. CITU President K Hemalata said that the conference will discuss and deliberate on future tasks of actions and the ways to intensify struggles to change the trajectory of the current policies that “are disastrous for the working class”.