AICCTU held its 5th Jharkhand State Conference in the Bokaro, at the Community Hall on 9 February 2016. The Conference was inaugurated by PB member and AICCTU VP Com. DP Bakshi, after which 2 minutes’ silence was observed as a tribute to and in memory of all the martyred comrades.
A workers’ convention was held in place of the open session, in which the unfair double life imprisonment sentence for the Pricol 8 was condemned and their release was demanded without delay. The convention was presided over by AICCTU State General Secretary Shubhendu Sen and addressed by several workers’ leaders. Addressing the convention, AICCTU General Secretary Com. Rajiv Dimri said that the government and the judiciary are hand in glove in promoting and forcing corporate Company Raj upon the toiling poor and the working class. He gave the examples of the Pricol 8 and the workers of Maruti and Graziano who have been punished unjustly for asserting the workers’ right to form and join a union of their choice. He said that the time is ripe for a decisive workers’ agitation in India on the lines of the May Day agitation of 1886 in Chicago.
Speakers at the delegate session stressed on taking on the governments at the Centre and in Jharkhand to fight the anti-worker amendments to the Labour Law, increasing the AICCTU membership, organizing contract and honorarium workers like ASHA and Anganwadi workers and construction workers, and standing in solidarity with farmers and movements demanding justice for Rohith Vemula and the ongoing movement in JNU.
After Jharkhand Secretary Shubhendu Sen presented the report it was discussed and decided that AICCTU should form new unions in Jharhand, especially in Ranchi, and should intervene in more workers’ struggles which are not in affiliation with AICCTU; AICCTU should launch a big struggle in the matter of workers being laid off in Jamshedpur on the excuse of medical examination; AICCTU district committees should work on the agenda for opposing privatization and transfer of coal blocks. After discussion the report was passed unanimously.
Addressing the Conference, Com. DP Bakshi said that the union must be strengthened and more contract workers, honorarium workers, construction workers, brick-kiln workers, as well as organized sector workers must be brought under the ambit of AICCTU. He pointed out that in earlier days though the membership was less, the movement was stronger; today the struggle has been weakened because of the Welfare Board. He said that we must look beyond the narrow objective of organizing the workers for making them members of the government Welfare Board. The Conference concluded with the election of a 47 member State Council and a 15 member State Executive. Central observer Com. RN Thakur gave the concluding address in which he said that the true achievement of the Pricol 8 is not merely that they showed exemplary courage in their struggle and went to jail, but also that they organized rural and industrial workers around them and set an example which we must follow.
