CITU State general secretary, M.M.Lawrence, has stressed the need for unity among workers attached to different trade unions especially in the backdrop of the failure on the part of the Union Government in ensuring adequate protection of their job safety in the globalised set up.
Mr Lawrence was inaugurating the three-day district conference of CITU at E.Balanandan Nagar (Co-operative College) here on Saturday.
According to him, various trade unions in the country, including AITUC and CITU, could trace back their origin to INTUC and unity among trade unions is a grave necessity to fight the threat faced by the working class from the capitalist forces.
He said the onus of protecting the common people has fallen on the working class as the Centre had miserably failed to protect the interests of the farming sector, especially with the signing of the controversial Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN countries.
Mr Lawrence said the aim of CITU was to set up an exploitation-free social system. He said the popular thinking that CITU is equal to Communist Party of India(Marxist) was totally wrong adding that the former was not at all a political party.
The CITU leader said capitalism was the symbol of an outdated social system. The government in the Unites States of America had provided packages worth trillions of dollars to protect the interests of the industrial lobby, sidelining the sad plight of the tens of thousands of workes who had lost their job due to economic recession, he alleged.
However, the global economic recession could not make much impact in India only because of the persistent and firm stand taken by the left parties against the Union Government’s move for disinvestment of
various public sector units over the past several years, he added.
Mr Lawrence alleged that the country’s food security was at stake due to the negative policies of the Union Government. The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed by India with Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) would cripple the State’s farming sector.
FTA would badly affect the rubber-based economy of Pathanamthitta. The fisheries sector would also have to face an unhealthy competition from the ASEAN countries, he added.
The CITU leader said a broader trade union unity was a grave necessity to check the ill effects of FTA and the anti-people policies of the Union Government.
Mr Lawrence said it was a sorry state that the Union Government has not only been disinvesting various PSUS but was also trying to make workers too party to it.
Food security
He said the recent natural calamity had resulted in massive crop loss and as much as one crore tonne of paddy has been reportedly destroyed in the calamity. This would lead to food scarcity in the coming months, he said.
Mr P.J.Ajayakumar, CITU district president, presided the inaugural function. M. Chandran, K. C. Rajagopalan, MLAs, R. Unnikrishna Pillai, CPI(M) State committee member and district secretary, K.Ananthagopan also spoke.
The three-day meet will come to a close with a rally followed by public meeting on Monday afternoon.
