All India Central Council of Trade Unions’ (AICCTU’s) 9th National Conference was held in Patna on 4-6 May 2015. The conference began with a “workers’ and farmers’ rights” march from Gandhi Maidan culminating in a massive public meeting in which thousands of workers and farmers participated. The march was led by Comrades Swapan Mukherjee, Kumaraswamy, Nikolas from Greece, Bahadur Khatri and Kamlesh Jha from Nepal, and Tapan Datta from Bangladesh.
Addressing the meeting, CPI(ML) General Secretary Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya pointed out the atrocities on workers and farmers in the Modi regime and said that this 9th National Conference of AICCTU was an important milestone in the fight for the rights of workers and farmers. He saluted the brave struggles of workers in the Maruti agitation, of contractual workers, of workers in Greece and Bangladesh, and all workers fighting for justice. Comrades Swapan Mukherjee, Rameshwar Prasad, Dhirendra Jha, Rajaram Singh, Shashi Yadav and others also addressed the meeting and pointed out that Bihar’s Nitish government is equally guilty of suppressing workers’ and farmers’ rights as the Central Govt.
After the meeting, the inaugural session was held at Ravindra Bhavan. In his report, AICCTU national General Secretary Com. Swapan Mukherjee detailed the challenges before the working class and the dangers of the Modi Govt’s pro-corporate policies. He called for greater unity of the working class to fight these challenges. He condemned the proposed amendments in the existing labour laws which would further kill workers’ rights. He spoke of the historic all India labour strike of 20-21 Feb 2013 and other workers’ agitations, including the 26 February 2015 “jail bharo” agitation and presented the “charter of struggles”.
The second day of the conference started with the guest session addressed by Comrades Kumaraswamy (AICCTU’s National President), Nikolas (WAFTU representative), Kamlesh Jha (Nepal Trade Union Mahasangh’s EC member), Lal Bahadur Pakhrin (KONEP (Nepal) leader), Tapan Datta (Bangladesh Trade Union Centre), AK Padmanabhan (CITU President), DL Sachdeva (AITUC National Secretary), Shivgopal Mishra (AIRF General Secretary), and also by representatives from UTUC, AIUTUC, TUCC, and HMS.
The delegate session started in the second half of 5 May and continued on 6 May. 54 delegates including representatives of construction workers, contractual workers, ASHA and midday meal workers, as well as delegates from organized sectors like rail, steel, bank, coal, tea estates, jute, transport, and government services, expressed their views on the General Secretary’s report. They spoke of the challenges faced by workers in their fields and were unanimous in stressing the need for unity of all workers for a successful fight for justice. Com. Swapan Mukherjee said all constructive suggestions would be included in the report, after which the report was passed unanimously.
Finally, a 195 member national council was formed, and from among them a 66 member national executive and 39 office bearers were elected. Com. Kumaraswamy was elected national President and Com. Rajiv Dimri was elected national General Secretary. 21 Vice Presidents and 16 Secretaries were also elected.
The conference resolved to fight for regularization of ASHA and transport workers, stopping of attacks on migrant workers and their voting rights, protesting against the plan to dissolve Coal India, as well as other issues of workers’ rights. The resolutions that were passed included- announcement of a nationwide hartal on May 26 during the joint trade union meeting; active participation in the 100-day AIPF workers’ and farmers’ rights campaign; opposing the amendments in the child labour laws; supporting the teachers’ hartal in Bihar, and actively supporting the central government workers’ hartal on 23 November. The conference was energized and enthused by songs and programmes by units of Jan Sanskriti Manch and Hirawal. Around 600 delegates participated in the conference.
