CLICK TO ENLARGETuesday, November 2, 2010
HOW CHINA STRUGGLES TO ELIMINATE POVERTY? - M.K.Pandhe
Elimination of poverty is an essential requirement of a socialist system. Poverty is an essential concomitant of a capitalist system. So long the capitalist society exists in a country poverty will never be abolished. The slogan ‘Garibi Hatao’ given in capitalist system is only an election gimmick. Child labour as a product of poverty will continue to exist so long poverty exists in a society.Even the richest capitalist country, the U.S.A. millions of people continues to be poor and find it difficult to get elementary requirements of human existence.
Even the millennium goal of reduction of poverty by 50 percent by 2012 is not going to be achieved all over the world. The world hunger report 2009 clearly points out that a large number of human population in the world continue to remain hungry while growing prices of food products will make the task of providing food for all a more difficult.
The United Nations’ international agencies are paying up sympathy to task of elimination of poverty. They claim that the present high rate of hunger is unacceptable to them but they in practice accept it and no concrete steps are being taken to provide food for all.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that every human shall have the right to enjoy the living standard required to maintain health and welfare of himself and his family members including food, clothing, housing, medical service and necessary social services. The International convenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, expressly specifies that every human shall be entitled to obtain a certain living standard for himself and family including sufficient foods, clothing and housing and keep improving the living conditions.
The Vienna Declaration and programme of Action adopted by the world conference on Human Rights in 1993 specifies that all the human rights are Universal, inseparable, interdependent and interrelated.
The 47th United Nations General Assembly decided on December 22, 1992 to make every October 17, the international day for the Eradication of Poverty. As noted earlier, at the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000, the leaders of various countries in the world identified the clearly defined objectives and indicators known as the millennium development goals, with regard to the issues of the eradication of poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy. The goals specifies that the proportion of the population living on less than one dollar everyday will be cut down by half by 2015 and the proportion of population threatened with hunger will also reduced by half specifically speaking the population living on less than one dollar will be slashed from 1-25 billion in 1970 to below 625 million in 2015.
According to the World Bank a person having an income of less than 2 dollars per day can be considered as poor while a person having an income of less than one dollar per day is considered to be suffering from acute poverty!
In spite of global lip sympathy towards the starving population in the world the stark poverty continue to dog the world. The recent global economic crisis has only aggravated the situation with large number of unemployed people trying their best to some how or the other keep them alive. The bailout packages worked by various capitalist countries has only brought additional miseries for the common people. The exploitation of the working class and the people all over the world had only added to the poverty conditions of the vast masses of the society. Naturally, the global documents and declaration however, they express noble intentions in reality poverty at the global level only gets aggravated with rise in assets of the big business houses and their speculative gains in the share market, adding to the continuously growing inequality and gulf between rich and the poor all over the world.
According to 2008 World Bank report the people living in acute poverty conditions have declined from 1.8 billion in 1990 to 1.4 in 2005. However, much of the reduction was due to reduced poverty conditions in China. The extremely impoverished population in sub-Saharan Africa increased by 100 million in 2005. In 2009, the population living in the extreme poverty is estimated to grow 55 million to 90 million compared to that before the global economic crisis.
The Definition of poverty in developing and developed countries is not uniform. According to the poverty line determined by the American Government the proportion of the impoverished population in America is usually 10 per cent. However, in 2009 the impoverished population was 35-80 million. 13.3 % of the total population. The impoverished population represented 12.5 per cent of American total population in 2004. The poverty rate was likely to reach 12.7 per cent in 2008. The data clearly underlined how the richest capitalist country in the world is showing growing incidence of poverty conditions. The tall talk of superiority of capitalist system in turn as under by the official data publish by the American.
The Federal statistics office of Germany data shows a 14.9 per cent poverty rate in the country in 2009. The poverty rate in France stands at 13.4 per cent in 2009.
Government of India has been claiming reduction in poverty levels in the country since the advent of globalization in 1990. However, it was due to manipulation of data and keeping the poverty level so low at Rs.13 per day of per capita consumption. The controversy relating to BPL and APL has only exposed the hollowness of the government of India’s hollow argument. Dr. Arjun Sen Gupta Committees exposure that 77 per cent of our population is living below Rs.20 per day. The Government of India is not even prepared to take into account the world bank calculation of poverty levels in the world! The observation of the world Hunger Report that largest number of hungry people in the world are from India. It’s condition was considered worst that among the most backward countries of Sudan in sub-saharan Africa.
The official data reported by the World Bank has clearly shown the bankruptcy of the capitalist system in its utter failure to eliminate poverty from the globe.
SITUATION IN CHINA
Despite over six decades of establishment of socialism in China poverty has not been abolished in China so far. There was some progress in the direction of reduction in poverty prior to the Cultural Revolution and remarkable improvement in the standard of living of the people had taken place. However, during the Cultural Revolution period, there was a serious setback and the task of removal of poverty was totally ignored in China. As a matter of fact there was increase in the poverty levels in China. By the year 1978 the 250 million people in China were facing poverty levels.
Since 1978 the Chinese Govt. adopted a policy of economic reforms which paid special attention to faster economic developments and eradication of poverty. According to a statement by state council of China in 2008. “In the past 50 years since the founding of New China especially since the initiation of reform and opening up to the outside world, the Chinese Govt. has always put the peoples rights to subsistence and development first focused on economic construction, and made efforts to develop social productivity. Consequently, China’s economy and society have advanced by leaps and bounds, its comprehensive national strength has been raised and the people’s livelihood has improved by a large margin thereby realizing two historic leaps bringing the people from poverty to having enough to eat and wear and then to living a better life”.
During 1980 and 2010 the per capita real standard of living of the entire population increased 8 times bringing a large section of the poverty stricken people towards a decent living standard. In the year 1980 more than 4 billion Yuan were allotted to poverty eradication programme . Thus from 1978 to 1986 the people below the poverty line came down from 250 million to 120 million.
In 1986 during the 7th five year plan poverty alleviation was given a top priority. People were given tax concession and other facilities. From 1986 to 1993 the impoverished people nationwide were reduced from 120 million to 80 million. Poverty reduction was thus less by 6.4 million per year.
Sustained efforts to improve the standard of living of people and quality of life had a very important role to play in poverty eradication programme. More job creation was a crucial measure taken by the government. In three decades since 1978, 37 crore jobs were created by the Government of China. Nine year compulsory education was introduced and in 2008 the rate of enrolment stood at 99.5 per cent and junior middle schools reached 98.5 per cent. Due to improved health care and social security measures the life expectancy increased since 1978 by 5 years to reach 73 years ! Over 1978 infant mortality rate declines by 56 per cent reaching 15.3 per cent. While the maternity mortality rate dropped by 60 per cent since 1978. All these measures have positive impact on reducing overall poverty levels of the Chinese population.
One of the different problems China is facing to day in the task of elimination of poverty is that a large part of the impoverished population is belonging to ethnic minorities. They live in remote backward areas like Dingri, Gansu, Ningxia, Guaxi, Yunan, Guizov, Sichwan and Tibet. They were victims of century’s old teandal exploitation, slavery, primitive society and serfdom. People from inner Mangolia also to some extent come in this category. In 2007, the incidence of people in absolute poverty in autonomous areas of minorities in China was 6.4 per cent. 4.8 percentage points higher than the country’s average of 1.6 per cent. Their number stood 77.4 lakhs accounting for 52.3 per cent of the country’s total of one crore forty seven lakhs and nine thousand. However, available statistics show that in 2007, a total of 18.5 lakh people came back to absolute poverty due to natural calamities. The Govt. of China preparing special package to overcome the problem.
A section of the ethnic minorities to oppose economic reform is also an obstacle in this task. In Tibet, every step taken by the Government to reduce poverty is considered as a step towards destroying Tibetan culture by Dalai Lama whose thinking practically means continuation of poverty and backwardness is preserving age-long Tibetan Culture.
The Govt. of China is taking steps to develop road and railway network, airports to extricate Tibet from the poverty conditions. Indian press backed by U.S. Imperialist agencies has been making stories that the economic developments in Tibet has security concerns for India.
In Xinjiang with 16 lakh 59 meters area in 1978, there were 53.2 lakh people were living without enough food and clothing. However, due to huge spending by the Chinese Government by 2000 the problem of basic subsistence was solved satisfactiorilly. Social security benefits are also provided to the vast masses of the people by that time.
Since 1994 the Chinese Government increased investment in Poverty alleviation programme three times in comparison with the investments made between 1986 to 1993. As a result of this the absolute poverty declined by an average of over 60 lakh per year. During 2000-2003 the poverty was reduced by over 30 lakhs. The global economic recession however slowed down the poverty alleviation programme. However, at the end of 2008 the impoverished population in rural areas was reduced to 4 crore! As the number of impoverished people is declining the task is becoming more and more difficulties, since it is concentrated in remote areas where developmental needs are more and more complex. Yet efforts are being made by the Chinese Government to provide funds for poverty alleviation programmes!
The Chinese Twelfth five year plan which is under consideration of the Government is likely to emphasize faster economic growth of less developed regions and give special emphasis on eradication of the vestiges of poverty prevailing in the country. The plan (2010-2015) will further reduce the extent of poverty in the country and will pave the way for accelerating the economic growth of the country.
Source: www.citucentre.org
UNORGANISED WORKERS’ SOCIAL SECURITY ACT – K Hemalata*
It is now nearly two years since the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act has been passed by the Parliament. The National Social Security Board for Unorganised Workers was constituted in August 2009. The state governments have to notify the rules under this Act, constitute state level social security boards and set up the necessary Workers’ facilitation centres to disseminate information of the available social security schemes for the unorganised workers, help the unorganised workers to obtain registration from the district administration and facilitate their registration in the social security schemes. As per the Act, every unorganised worker shall be registered and issued an identity card by the district administration, which shall be a smart card carrying a unique identification number. Though state level social security boards have been constituted in many states, in most of the states registration of the unorganised workers has not yet started.Till now, no new welfare scheme has been formulated under the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, which only makes the following ten of the existing welfare schemes of the government of India applicable for the unorganised workers. Most of these are limited to only BPL workers; some are meant for specific categories of the unorganised workers only like handloom weavers, artisans, fishers etc.
1. Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme – Old people above 65 years of age belonging to BPL category are eligible for a monthly pension under this scheme. The government of India provides Rs 200, while many state governments also contribute varying amounts.
2. National Family Benefit Scheme – This scheme provides for Rs 10000 to the family of an unorganised worker belonging to BPL category in case of death due to natural or accidental causes; however the worker should be the primary breadwinner of the family and aged between 18 and 65 years. It is implemented through the local bodies.
3. Janani Suraksha Yojana – As per this fully centrally sponsored scheme, the states are categorised into Low Performing States (LPS) and High Performing States (HPS) depending on the proportion of institutional deliveries in the state. In case of the 10 LPS (Assam, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand) all women delivering in government health centres/ accredited private institutions are paid Rs 1400 in rural areas and Rs 1000 in urban areas.
In case of HPS, all women delivering in government health centres/ accredited private institutions are paid Rs 700 in rural areas and Rs 600 in urban areas.
All BPL women above 19 years, delivering at home, both in LPS as well as in HPS, are entitled to cash assistance of Rs 500 per delivery up to 2 live births.
4. Janshree Bima Yojana – This scheme is implemented by the LIC. 50% of the annual premium of Rs 200 is paid by the government of India and the other 50% is paid either by the beneficiary, nodal agency or the state government. This is applicable to the unorganised workers in the BPL and marginally APL categories in 43 notified occupations.
Under this scheme, Rs 30000 is paid on natural death; Rs 75,000 on accidental death; Rs 75,000 on total permanent disability and Rs 37,500 on partial permanent disability; Rs 300 per quarter per child is also paid as scholarship for 2 children in IX to XII.
5. Aam Admi Bima Yojana: – This scheme, confined to members of landless unorganised workers in rural households, in the age group of 18 – 59 years, provides the same benefits as the Janshree Bima Yojana and is also implemented by LIC. 50% of the annual premium of Rs 200 is paid from the Fund created for this purpose by the government of India and the rest 50% by the state government.
6. Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) - This scheme provides insurance cover of Rs 30000 to the unorganised sector workers in BPL category and their family members (a unit of five). Transportation costs (actual with maximum limit of Rs 100 per visit) within an overall limit of Rs 10000 are also covered by the scheme. Smart cards are provided for cashless treatment for select diseases which requires hospitalisation. However, there is no provision to cover out patient treatment, which constitutes a major part of the medical expenses of the unorganised workers.
75% of the estimated annual premium, subject to a maximum of Rs 565 per family and the cost of smart cards are by the central government; the state governments contribute 25% of the annual premium, any additional premium and also have to bear the administrative and any other related costs of the scheme. The beneficiaries have to pay Rs 30 per year for registration and renewal.
It is implemented by the state nodal agency through the insurance company involving the panchayats and local bodies.
7. Handloom Weavers’ Comprehensive Welfare Scheme – All handloom weavers, not only BPL categories, are eligible for the benefits under the scheme, which covers the handloom weaver, his wife and 2 children.
The health insurance component is implemented through ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd. 80% of the annual premium of Rs 781.60 is paid by the government of India and 20%, with a minimum of Rs 50, is paid by the weaver. The scheme covers pre existing and new diseases including out patient treatment; the annual limit per family is Rs 15000; the limit for out patient treatment as well as the limit per illness is Rs 7500; it also provides for maternity benefit of Rs 2500 per child for 2 children; an expenditure up to Rs 4000 towards Ayurvedic/ Unani/ Homeopathic/ Siddha systems of medicine is also covered.
The Mahatma Gandhi Bunkar Bima Yojana component of the scheme is implemented through LIC. Government of India pays Rs 150, out of the annual premium of Rs 330, the weaver has to pay Rs 80 and LIC contributes Rs 100. Rs 60000 is paid to the family of the weaver on natural death, Rs 150000 for accidental death, Rs 150000 on total disability, and Rs 75000 on partial disability; scholarship of Rs 300 per child for 2 children in IX to XII class of Rs 300 per quarter for each.
8. Handicraft Artisans’ Comprehensive Welfare Scheme – This scheme covers the handicraft artisan and 3 family members including spouse. It covers all handicraft artisans but the rate of premium is different for different categories.
The health insurance component - Rajiv Gandhi Shilpi Swasthya Bima Yojana – is implemented through ICICD Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd. The government of India pays Rs 650 for general category and Rs 725 for the artisans in the north east states and those in the SC/ST and BPL categories as annual premium. The artisans in the north eastern states and those belonging to SC/ST and BPL categories have to contribute Rs 75 and those in the general category have to contribute Rs 150 as annual premium. (The contribution of the artisans is to be kept at 20% of the accepted bid for the SC/ST and BPL categories and in NE states and at 50% for the general category). This scheme, as in the case of the handloom weavers’ scheme, covers pre existing diseases with a limit per family of Rs 15000 with a limit of Rs 7500 per person; it also covers out patient treatment of up to Rs 7500, and Ayurvedic/ Unani/ Homeopathic/ Siddha systems of medicine. Maternity benefit of Rs 2500 per child is also provided under the scheme for 2 children.
The Bima Yojana for handicrafts artisans is implemented through the LIC and the benefits are similar to those under the Janshree Bima Yojana. Out of the annual premium of Rs 200, the central government pays Rs 60, the artisan has to pay Rs 40 and LIC contributes Rs 100.
Benefits – Rs 30,000on natural death; Rs 75,000 on accidental death; total disability – 75,000; partial disability – 37,500; scholarship of Rs 300 per quarter for 2 children in IX to XII.
9. Pension for Master crafts persons – This is limited only to the recipients of national awards, merit certificates and state awards in handicrafts and whose annual income is less than Rs 15000 with no financial assistance from any other source. Pension of Rs 1000 per month is paid by central government through the field offices of the Development Commissioners of Handicrafts.
10. National Scheme for Welfare of Fishermen and Training and Extension – the central and state governments share the funding in the ratio of 50: 50. It is implemented by the state governments through the Fish Farmers Development Agencies. Rs 40000 is provided for the construction of houses, Rs 30000 for tube wells for drinking water (Rs 35000 in northeast states), and Rs 175000 for the construction of common work places or community halls. Rs 300 per fisher is paid for 3 months for marine and for 4 months for inland fishers during the fishing ban period; the fishers have to pay Rs 14 as annual premium.
The National Social Security Board met three times after its constitution. In its first meeting it formed a sub committee to recommend extension of the above welfare benefits to different segments of the unorganised sector workers. On the basis of the proposals of the sub committee, the National Social Security Board made the following recommendations to the government in January this year.
1. The basic minimum social security which should include life and disability insurance, health and maternity benefit and old age pension should be applicable to all unorganised workers/ occupational groups irrespective of the fact whether they belong to APL/ BPL category.
2. In the first phase, building and other construction workers, NREGS workers, anganwadi employees and ASHAs should be provided the above benefits; it should be extended to the agricultural mandi committee workers, if the necessary data related to them was available.
3. Cess should be levied on income tax to raise funds for providing social security to the unorganised workers.
The Board recommended that RSBY, Janshree Bima Yojana and the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension schemes should be extended to all the workers in the above categories irrespective of BPL or APL; the age at which pension would be available under IGNOAP should be brought down to 60 years.
But till now, except extending RSBY to the construction workers and the NREGS workers who have worked for 15 days, irrespective of their BPL or APL status, the government has not taken any positive measure to implement the recommendations of the National Social Security Board.
In addition to welfare schemes under the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act, some sections of unorganised sector workers like the construction workers, beedi workers etc also have achieved statutory welfare benefits through their struggles. But most of the benefits are not being implemented even today, decades after enacting such legislations like the Beedi and Cigar Workers Act etc. In the case of the Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Act, in most of the states the registration process either has not started or is tardy; very little amount is collected as cess; in states where it is collected, it is not spent for providing the welfare benefits to the construction workers.
In the case of RSBY, though the government claims of issuing 1.7 crore smart cards, it is not known how many unorganised workers have actually benefited by the scheme and how many got cash free treatment.
CITU and the trade unions organising these sections of the workers have to ensure that the hard won statutory benefits for the workers are effectively implemented.
(* Member, National Social Security Board)
Source: http://www.citucentre.org/
FOXCONN WORKERS IN A SEZ FIGHT FOR THEIR RIGHTS - ANOTHER MNC: ANOTHER MILITANT STRUGGLE
A small town with a big Special Economic Zone (SEZ) where giant Multi National Corporations (MNCs) like Hyundai, Foxconn, and Nokia have set up units – that is Sriperambadur in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu. The MNCs in the SEZs are provided with all facilities and concessions by the governments. Not only that; the ruling parties, through their unions, often provide a helping hand to the MNCs to thwart any attempts by the workers to fight for their rights with the support of the unions of their choice. This is the reality being unveiled through the struggle of the Foxconn workers in this SEZ.
Foxconn technology group, which has a unit in Sriperambadur, is a Taiwan based, super profit company, a subsidy of Hon Hai Precision Industries Limited. It is the world’s leading electronics manufacturer, catering to almost all the leading brands in electronics like Nokia, Apple etc. It ranks 112 in the global fortune 500 companies and has manufacturing units in China, India, Czech Republic, Mexico and other countries. In China alone, more than 900000 workers are employed by the company.
This multinational company is notorious for its anti worker policies and drew international attraction recently with reports that 17 workers have committed suicides in its plants. Various reports published on the working conditions of Foxconn workers have shown that they extract maximum work with very low wages. One report says that ‘It is the most typical factory run by a management methodology that boosts productivity through the degradation of workers into dehumanised machines’
In Sriperambadur, Foxconn has three units, with 1400 regular workers and 6000 other workers designated as ‘casuals’, ‘trainees’ and ‘probationers’. This is also a part of its international practice where the system of internship for students is being misused by making them work on production lines. A large section of the workers in the Foxconn unit in Sriperambadur in Kancheepuram district comprise of young women workers, mostly from the nearby villages, belonging to poor peasant, agricultural workers families. Most of them belong to the socially oppressed sections of the society.
Reports of huge number of workers fainting, vomiting, falling sick and getting admitted to hospitals due to the impact of the poisonous gas emitted in its units brought Foxconn into focus some time back. However the company tried to brush it aside attributing these to the impact of some insecticide sprayed in the factory. However, the strike by the Foxconn workers in its Sriperambadur unit since 22nd September 2010 fully exposed the oppressive methods being resorted to by the company.
The workers in Foxconn units are forced to work overtime without proper overtime wages; they are not allowed to form unions; they are not allowed to talk to outsiders, even to each other; all labour laws are flouted with utter disregard. No attention is paid to maintain safe and healthy working conditions in the units. Inhuman practices in the name of ‘disciplinary action’, assaults both verbal and physical, and various other cruel forms are usual.
Unable to tolerate the oppressive conditions, the workers of Foxconn decided to organise themselves, formed a union, got affiliated to CITU and demanded recognition of their union and starting of negotiations on the charter of demands that included increased wages, improvement in the working conditions etc. As there was no positive response from the management, the workers went on strike en masse from 22nd September 2010 that forced the management to agree for discussions with the union.
But in stead of keeping its word, the management treacherously announced that it had reached an agreement with the LPF union which had no following among the workers whatsoever.
The management did not specify the details of the agreement and simply said that they would be announced later. Instead, 23 leading workers were suspended and 8 days’ penal wage cut was imposed for the strike on 22nd September. Not ready to be cowed down, the workers retaliated by going on a strike again from 24th September. To bring pressure from the families of the young workers, particularly the young girls, the management wrote letters to their parents informing that their wards were not attending work and threatening of action.
The workers were asked to report to work with their parents, as if they were school children.
More than 300 workers along with A Soundararajan, general secretary of Tamil Nadu state committee of CITU and the E Muthukumar, secretary of its Kancheepuram district committee were been arrested and remanded in prison on 9th October. Many more fabricated charges under non bailable sections have been foisted by the police, to satisfy the management, and kept the leaders in the prison.
But undeterred by these repressive measures of the management and the state administration, the workers are continuing the strike.
The anti worker and repressive attitude of the DMK government in the state was also exposed during this struggle. While the struggle was going on, the workers along with the Kancheepuram district committee of CITU wanted to open an office in Sriperambadur and rented a small building. Even as all the preparations were going on to open the office on 10th October, the ruling party threatened the owner and publicly warned him of dire consequences if he rented the building to the union. Despite this and the arrest of the leaders, more than 3000 workers, mostly youth, marched on the streets with CITU flags and inaugurated the office. The CITU state committee strongly condemned the attitude of the Tamil Nadu government and the management in denying the workers the right to have a union of their choice and launched a state wide campaign and agitation against the repression let loose on the workers of Foxconn and their leaders.
It has demanded immediate and unconditional release of all the arrested leaders and workers and to settle the issue amicably through discussions.
As per the latest reports, 14 leaders including Soundararajan and Muthukumar are still in prison while the government had to release the other workers.
Source: www.citucentre.org
DISINVESTMENT IN COAL INDIA: STAGE SET FOR LONG LASTING RESISTANCE - Jibon Roy
Coal Workers have taken the resistance to disinvestment to a different height, which probably no public sector enterprise could yet reach other than NALCO and NLC. Coal workers have demonstrated a deep sense of maturity through the current struggle. Any experienced worker of a labour intensive industry knows that this is a height which could be achieved only because the miners were capable to consolidate their concern and anxieties into a patriotic consciousness and pride.
The Coal miners as a whole could effectively puncture all the maneuvering and deceptive game by Coal India management to make the workers a party in their privatization bid of the coal industry. Only 8% of the employees’ portion of share on offer has got subscribed, that too mostly by the officers. Management could fetch negligible amount from the coal workers in the disinvestment exercise.
Chairman, Coal India Ltd. went out of the way to push through the game of phased – sell-out of the company, he heads as an employee. He lavishly spent the Company’s resources which are not owned by him. Yet after getting a rebuff from the workers, he accused the trade unions, CITU in particular. He has got reasons to express his frustrations for his failure to make the workers a party to the crime being perpetuated in the public sector company, because despite CIL’s Chairman’s partial success to rope in some of the leaders, workers, en-masse, belonging to all the unions stoutly refused to become a party to the crime of phased sell-out of the company in the name of disinvestment. Their anti-privatization consciousness got crystallized into firm resolve. All India Coal Workers’ Federation & CITU salutes the coal miners and takes pride for being a part of the brave workforce.
The Coal India Management coerced the coal workers through officers to buy the shares, induced media through fabulous advertisement for confusing the workers and their family members and finally employed state machineries to terrorize them. But all these attempts went in vain. Workers have opposed privatization through participating in strike on 5th May and again on 18th. October, protested IPO through holding demonstration and dharnas everywhere before the pitheads during the period when IPO had been kept open. But the resistance reached the epic level when workers refused either to open Demat Accounts or to submit themselves to the deceptive game of management.
The author, on behalf of the All India Coal Workers Federation bows his head before the united desire of coal workers and assures that it would go by the workers, to carry on the struggle against this draconian move to a further height.
The media has unleashed a campaign to malign the trade unions for the workers’ refusal to become a party to the disinvestment game. They argued that workers’ refusal to buy shares has benefited the foreign institutional investors to corner more share. What can be more unscrupulous than such deceptive & confusing postures. They should know, whatever disinvestment of PSU shares have taken place till date since 1991, not to speak of Coal India alone, 99% have gone to FIIs and other institutional investors & corporate bodies, both domestic and foreign, and very little has gone to workers or in that matter retail investors. Coal workers’ non-participation in purchase of company’s share has not changed the situation in the least. The whole disinvestment process is designed to benefit private corporates, both domestic & foreign speculators, besides warming up the stock market at PSU’s cost.
If the overall scenario is taken into consideration CIL is almost privatized. The current disinvestment process has set the process for foreign and private take over of CIL. Out of the reserved allotment for Qualified Institutional Buyer which stands for 50% of the total floated share, according to indication, will go to foreign institutional investors. In the domestic raising 60% of the total Coal India production is carried through out sourcing. Further, 207 proven coal blocks representing 39 million ton reserves are allotted to private. Now, current process will cut away 10% straight.
If this has been the situation and the Government decides to destroy the most traditional and the core industry of the country, it is the birth right of coal workers to come forward to the defense of the mining and the miners. There is no reason to be carried away by the media campaign that as if the floating of IPO has brought about a new liberation in the horizon of Indian Republic.
It is also being highlighted that the total subscription has crossed Rs. 15512 Crores. Those who are aware about the trend of share movement in high chip companies they would vouch that the subscription rate has been moderate in view of the fact that the ownership of ‘Black Diamond’ and the land are being taken to the international bidding. Whatever may be the bidding CIL is not going to fetch beyond its face value.
The consensus and firmness of resolve of the coal miners reflected in the current phase of disinvestment have its foundation in three basic factors. Firstly, the Coal workers are having their experience to compare the regimes between Public and Private. Secondly, unlike other engineering based industries coal workers have no other identity, than the identity of being the coal workers which has been coupled with the coal cities. Thirdly, when the coal workers reminisce the past they see a horrendous life which is identified with (i) slaughter mining and (ii) slaughtering of miners.
Let us hope that all of us would draw appropriate lesson from the experience and join themselves into an united preparation to block the next round of disinvestment which is likely to begin the moment the dust of the first round is settled. The coal workers struggled hard. Their spirit should galvanize the future.
Long live Coal WorkersLong live the pride of being the Coal WorkersLong Live Trade Union Unity
Source: www.citucentre.org
LET US UPHOLD THE BANNER OF CLASS STRUGGLE- A.K. Padmanabhan
CHERISHING THE MEMORY OF THE GREAT OCTOBER REVOLUTION:This Seventh November will once again renew a lot of discussions on the great October Revolution of 1917, led by the great revolutionary Com. V.I. Lenin. Pages of history teach us that the discussions, of various kinds, had started even before the Great Revolution itself. The question of working class of a country taking over political power was very critically approached by a section of the working class movement at that time itself.
Those who had a mechanical approach to the teachings of Marx and Engels had at that time itself argued the cause of a world wide revolution! It is reminded here only to point out that debates on various aspects of October Revolution had begun even before the success of the revolution and it is not surprising that those types of debates are still continuing! It can be surely expected that these debates will be never ending!
Without going into various theoretical aspects of the great October Revolution, let us only look into the impact that was created!
Soviet Union’s great achievements within a short period, in improving the lives of the working people had attracted attention of the toiling masses all over the period. As has been noted by many, “what could be achieved by the capitalist system in 300 years could be achieved within 30 years of revolution”. The capacity of Soviet Union was proved by the epoch making victory over fascism by the Red Army of the Socialist Soviet Union in the year 1945.
The beacon light of the revolutionary movement was literally strengthening the aspirations of all the enslaved and exploited people in various countries and its full impact was felt in later years, when Soviet Union extended various kinds of help to the newly liberated countries and also to those who were fighting for their freedom.
By the early 1960s USSR was front ranking in the rate of economic growth, income, production and consumption. Socialised production and ownership instead of privatised ownership and production created this big change. The great achievements in the fields of education, health and employment, which were also ensured as basic rights was something unknown to the world. That was the only country, at that point of time, that ensured peoples’ right to live, which was guaranteed through states intervention, instead of throwing them out to the claws of the competitive market. The advances in science, art, culture etc was ensured with people’s active involvement and participation.
The rights and the social security system ensured to the working people after the revolution created the impetus for world wide changes. This fact has been agreed upon even by many of the ardent critics of USSR and its policies!
The fact that more than 20 million people gave up their lives for the cause of defending the gains of Revolution and new pages of valour and sacrifices were added to the pages of history of humanity by ordinary men and women can never be forgotten!
It was their commitment to the cause of the Revolution – the political and ideological commitment of a whole country – that ensured the historic victory in the great Patriotic War!
These achievements and advances of the USSR and further strengthening of the Socialist System with victories in Eastern Europe, formation of the Peoples’ Republic of China added strength to the determination of the people’s movements in the enslaved countries!
The change in the correlation of forces at the world level forced the imperialist forces to come forward for peace talks and also reach certain understandings on regulating or reducing nuclear arms!
One irrefutable fact was that the world was saved from a repeat of nuclear holocausts like Hiroshima and Nagasaki as USSR could catch up with the war mongering U.S. on Nuclear arms!
But while all these were happening, at the political ideological level, many deviations were taking place. In the name of correcting the wrongs done earlier, many wrong conclusions were reached. The lead that U.S.S.R could attain up to very early 60s, led to many wrong assessments on the internal and international situation. These conclusions and assessments also led to minimising or fully giving up caution against the destabilising efforts of imperialist forces and their supporters all over the world.
Internally, strengthening democracy was an important task. That was a real necessity to strengthen the Socialist system. But in the name of democracy, the Socialist system was allowed to be decimated. All these are now part of history. The way the exploiters all over the world celebrated the fall of Soviet Union and East European Socialist Countries is well known. More than anything else, the concerted attack against the ideology of the working class - Scientific Socialism – is continuing.
The last 20 years of these concerted campaigns at the international and national level have created serious crisis among the toiling masses. The theme of these campaigns has been ‘Socialism is dead; Capitalism is the last word in history; and There Is No Alternative to capitalism’. `End of history’ – theorised by Fukuyama was taken up internationally by various forces for full throated campaign.
As the ideas about Socialism and also the ideological aspects of it, was taken to the working people on the basis of great achievements of Soviet Union, the collapse of Soviet Union created a serious crisis and anti-Socialist forces could sow seeds of confusion.
Another aspect of the fall of the Soviet Union is the increasing belligerence of U.S. imperialism and its military and political interventions, in the process of asserting a unipolar world. Several of those who had not understood the political impact of the collapse of USSR, had now started debating on the issue. Some of them have even wished - if USSR was there. There are many instances where the US was unilaterally able to impose its will on other countries. It is also heartening that there are some positive developments, challenging of the U.S. diktats and also developing trends of multipolarity.
The recent developments in the capitalist world, resulting in the biggest ever crisis in the system has brought out the real face of Capitalist System and its unsustainability. The importance of the analysis of the exploiting Capitalist System by Marx and Engels, which proclaimed the inevitability of a new Socialist System, has to be understood fully. This Seventh November reminds us the task of educating our class on the historical role that has to be played by the working class, learning from its past weaknesses and failures. We have to combat the erroneous ideologies that have been spread in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. A counter offensive by our class is the necessity of the hour! Let us prepare ourselves and organise our class to take up these challenges effectively. Let us uphold the banner of class struggle and cherish the memory of the great October Revolution!
Source: http://www.citucentre.org/
THE CALL OF THE DAY – EDITORIAL OF “WORKING CLASS”, NOVEMBER-2010
In countries across the world, the Working Class continues its protest against the onslaught launched by the ruling classes in the name of the Global economic crisis, reaching new heights of struggle during September- October 2010. On 7th September when working class in India rose in unison to register a massive protest involving more than 100 million workers, there were many protests, demonstrations and mobilization on the same day in countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Vietnam, South Africa, Greece, Spain, Portugal, France UK and many other parts in the world. This has reached a crescendo in France this month in October with series of general strikes and massive demonstrations against pension reforms. Similarly, Greece has witnessed so far not less than six general strikes against Pension and Labour law reforms.
Significantly, such worldwide struggle of working class against attack on their rights is taking place on the eve of 93rd anniversary of the Great October Revolution. It is being realized that the present system is inherently unable to eradicate unemployment, poverty and hunger. The working class is yearning for a systemic change from the present – a better alternative.
And this alternative was provided by the Great October Revolution in Russia and the emancipation of crores of workers from the clutches of private capital. Within a short period of ushering in socialism, Soviet Union, was transformed into a scientifically advanced country which sent the first astronaut into space, the first woman to space. Economically, the Soviet Union competed with the US, the richest country in the world and posed a serious challenge to imperialist hegemony. Unemployment and illiteracy were completely eradicated and the state ensured health care to all its citizens.
The Great October Revolution retains the same significance today, as it had on 7th November, 93 years ago. It has unveiled before the world the socialist system, which puts people before profits, as an alternative to the capitalist system where profit is the driving force, where profits have to be protected, increased at any cost.
When we fight against price rise and demand food security, when we fight against unemployment and demand job security, when we fight against labour law violations and demand decent work, when we fight against disinvestment and for a self reliant economy and for social security for all workers, our fight is aimed for alternative policies. The working class needs to become aware of the need to change society to achieve truly alternative policies.
That is the call of the day. The ongoing struggle of the working class has to be sustained - a struggle not only for their economic demands, but for a systemic change to end the present exploitative system.
Source: www.citucentre.org
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