Workers' Action without Agenda and Leadership
/B.PAIN
News agencies report that members of CITU (trade union affiliated with the political party CPI(M)) and their families from all over Kerala laid siege to the administrative headquarters at the state, district and taluk levels on December 20, 2005 and shut down all government functions. Both in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, and in district headquarters, people formed a thick human chain before the start of the working day that lasted till late afternoon, preventing anyone going inside the offices. The protest was peaceful.
This mass action was to protest against anti-worker, anti-people policies of the current government. The call for the protest was given by the state CPI(M) leadership. News agencies report that the Leader of the Opposition in Kerala Assembly, Mr. V. S. Achuthanandan, "termed the day's action as a wake-up call to the working class to rise against the UDF and defeat it in the coming Assembly elections."
Like many other mass actions all over India, this mass action is a manifestation of the rising anger and activism of the workers against their deteriorating living and working conditions under the economic liberalization and privatization regime. However, the Kerala action is organized by the CPI(M) to improve its electoral ascendancy in the next assembly elections, due in six months. An objective movement of the workers is being consciously hijacked and channelized for narrow political gains by a party to come to power.
What would be the aim of any protest against "anti-worker anti-people policy" in India today? The CPI(M) wants people to believe that the aim should be to elect a "pro-worker pro-people" party to power. This is precisely the logic of parliamentary democracy where the ruling and opposition parties alternate places through elections to run the same economic and political superstructure but one being "anti-" and other as "pro-". The New Delhi government has changed hands between Congress, BJP and the United Front government five times since 1991, without ever abandoning the "anti-worker anti-people" economic policies or other policies even though all of them have presented themselves as for or against policies of the incumbent party. Experience suggests that the longer people are misled to believing that replacing the ruling party by the opposition party will solve their problems in today's India, the more acute will their problems get.
Can it be said that the content of the workers’ movement against the “anti-people anti-worker” policies is to fight for an alternate brand of liberalization-privatization program? Far from it. In the very least, the aim of the workers' movement has to be a complete REPUDIATION of the "anti-people anti-worker" policies, and not just this or that version of the liberalization-privatization program. Similarly, a roll-back to pre-1991 days is a non-starter, because the space for the liberalization-privatization was created in the first place because of the failure of the "socialistic pattern of society" and the "social-welfare state".
What was needed in 1991 in India was to stop the big business houses from monopolizing the surplus wealth being generated in the private and public sectors through a complex licensing and quota raj. Instead the privatization and liberalization program launched in 1991 enhanced the profitability of big business houses of India even further. All political parties funded by different business interests in India signed on to the 1991 policy very quickly. Since then they have been falling over each other to convince the business houses that they can run the economy and politics better than their competitors if supported to come to power through elections. CPI(M) seems to have totally accepted this approach to coming to power by using communist label to secure votes from the workers and the oppressed just as BJP and Congress who employ hindutva and secular labels respectively to line up votes from the depoliticized urban and rural vote banks.
News agencies report that members of CITU (trade union affiliated with the political party CPI(M)) and their families from all over Kerala laid siege to the administrative headquarters at the state, district and taluk levels on December 20, 2005 and shut down all government functions. Both in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, and in district headquarters, people formed a thick human chain before the start of the working day that lasted till late afternoon, preventing anyone going inside the offices. The protest was peaceful.
This mass action was to protest against anti-worker, anti-people policies of the current government. The call for the protest was given by the state CPI(M) leadership. News agencies report that the Leader of the Opposition in Kerala Assembly, Mr. V. S. Achuthanandan, "termed the day's action as a wake-up call to the working class to rise against the UDF and defeat it in the coming Assembly elections."
Like many other mass actions all over India, this mass action is a manifestation of the rising anger and activism of the workers against their deteriorating living and working conditions under the economic liberalization and privatization regime. However, the Kerala action is organized by the CPI(M) to improve its electoral ascendancy in the next assembly elections, due in six months. An objective movement of the workers is being consciously hijacked and channelized for narrow political gains by a party to come to power.
What would be the aim of any protest against "anti-worker anti-people policy" in India today? The CPI(M) wants people to believe that the aim should be to elect a "pro-worker pro-people" party to power. This is precisely the logic of parliamentary democracy where the ruling and opposition parties alternate places through elections to run the same economic and political superstructure but one being "anti-" and other as "pro-". The New Delhi government has changed hands between Congress, BJP and the United Front government five times since 1991, without ever abandoning the "anti-worker anti-people" economic policies or other policies even though all of them have presented themselves as for or against policies of the incumbent party. Experience suggests that the longer people are misled to believing that replacing the ruling party by the opposition party will solve their problems in today's India, the more acute will their problems get.
Can it be said that the content of the workers’ movement against the “anti-people anti-worker” policies is to fight for an alternate brand of liberalization-privatization program? Far from it. In the very least, the aim of the workers' movement has to be a complete REPUDIATION of the "anti-people anti-worker" policies, and not just this or that version of the liberalization-privatization program. Similarly, a roll-back to pre-1991 days is a non-starter, because the space for the liberalization-privatization was created in the first place because of the failure of the "socialistic pattern of society" and the "social-welfare state".
What was needed in 1991 in India was to stop the big business houses from monopolizing the surplus wealth being generated in the private and public sectors through a complex licensing and quota raj. Instead the privatization and liberalization program launched in 1991 enhanced the profitability of big business houses of India even further. All political parties funded by different business interests in India signed on to the 1991 policy very quickly. Since then they have been falling over each other to convince the business houses that they can run the economy and politics better than their competitors if supported to come to power through elections. CPI(M) seems to have totally accepted this approach to coming to power by using communist label to secure votes from the workers and the oppressed just as BJP and Congress who employ hindutva and secular labels respectively to line up votes from the depoliticized urban and rural vote banks.
posted by charcha-editor at 18:43
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