Saturday, May 1, 2010

CPI(M) Karnataka state Committee plans ‘mammoth' protest rally in September

MYSORE: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) will stage a mammoth rally in Bangalore in September to protest against the State Government's “administrative failure on all fronts and its inability to distribute ration cards to the poor”.

This was decided at the State Secretariat meeting of the party, which concluded here on Friday. CPI(M) State Secretary V.J.K. Nair told presspersons that the party would mobilise lakhs of people to participate in the rally, which would underline the growing resentment of the economically weaker section of society towards the Government. He said the Bangalore rally is part of the ongoing agitation against the Government's anti-people policies.

Mr. Nair said even though the Centre was responsible for the increase in prices of essential commodities, the State Government had failed to bail out the common man by way of subsidies, but had no compunction in releasing funds to maths. The BJP Government in the State had increased the prices of milk, water, bus fares and it was reluctant to reduce its cess on petrol and diesel to minimise the impact of hike in petroleum prices, Mr. Nair added.

He pointed out that the State Government had failed to make good its promises of distributing 35 kg of rice at Rs. 2 per kg and free power supply to farmers.

Corporate subsidies

The CPI(M) said subsidy to the poor could be garnered by reducing the subsidy to industries and the corporate world. About 1,500 companies had received subsidies of about Rs. 5 lakh crore, he said, adding that if this was cut down, it could help subsidise food for the poor.

Mr. Nair said farmers received a pittance as compensation in lieu of land from the Government.

Tax relief

Lampooning the Rs. 400 crore tax relief announced by the Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday, he said this only favoured the rich and the higher-middle class as most of the relief was for the aviation industry, construction, etc.

CITU May Day Pledge

The trend in the working class movement which confined itself to the immediate struggle only, which looked upon May Day as only for declaration and assertion of partial demands, diverted the working class movement from its revolutionary objectives, and ending of capitalist rule and establishing socialism and working class power” wrote Comrade BTR in Working Class on the eve of May Day, 1986 and today after 24 years when capitalism stands totally exposed world over after the so called global finance meltdown, these words should arm the working class with revolutionary arsenal to battle against capitalist exploitation in the neo-liberal form. The neo-liberal economic policy, driven as it is by the international finance capital, aims at quickest way of maximizing the profits. As a result May Day this year sees the workers locked in a grim combat against the attacks of rising prices, inflation, attacks on wages, indecent jobs and monstrous rise in unemployment. India is no exception, confronted with double digit inflation with 1/3rd of world‘s hungry population living in the country where 77% of the population can not spend more than Rupees 20 per day.
Working Class in India has been undergoing relentless onslaught of the neo-liberal policies since early nineties under the cover of a fanciful word coined for this purpose - Globalisation. The proponent and cheerleaders of this new brand of economic imperialism led by the ruling polity, the multinationals / domestic corporates and their captive media are trying to misinform and mislead the country that the IPL, Satyam, Illegal Iron Ore Mining by Reddy’s of Bellary and others, Share Scam of Nineties etc. etc. are only aberrations and not part and parcel of casino – capital driven neo-liberal economy. It is for the working class, whose rights and livelihoods are being jeopardized at every step, to expose the real face of present day capitalism and neo-liberal globalization which is a daylight (‘nightlight’ of IPL), loot and fraud on the economy and the people of the country. Neither Government enquiry nor JPC can even cosmetically treat the ugly face of the capitalism, in the bizarre scenario of ‘corporatisation of politics’, ‘Dinakaranisation of judiciary’, ‘pricing of news’, ‘Tharoorisation of Congress” or ‘Reddyisation of BJP’ and so and so forth
Establishment of Socialism and Working Class power is the only alternative as pointed out by Comrade BTR. Let us rededicate ourselves to this cause on this year’s May Day.