Unite in resolute struggle against capitalist globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation!

End the divisions in the working class!

Fight for a new India!

Call of CGPI to India's working class on the eve of May Day 2001

Comrade workers!

End the divisions in the working class!

Fight for a new India!

Call of CGPI to India's working class on the eve of May Day 2001

Comrade workers!

As we gather in rallies all over the country on May Day 2001, our country is seething with conflict. Everywhere, we workers are opposing tooth and nail the capitalist-imperialist offensive going under the name globalisation through privatisation and liberalisation. We are fighting against closures of factories, mills and mines; against the massive and ever increasing unemployment, against the extreme insecurity. We are fighting the anti-worker, anti-national policies of the government starkly revealed by the sale of Public Sector enterprises like BALCO and Modern Food Industries to rapacious monopoly capitalists and multinationals. We are fighting against the destruction of the livelihood of our peasant brothers, as well as artisans and small producers because of the WTO agreement. The struggle in defence of livelihood and sovereignty has brought the vast masses of India's peoples out on the streets in towns and countryside.

The crisis of the capitalist system is intensifying. The conflict amongst different capitalist and imperialist groups for control of the treasury has intensified. The crisis has been accentuated by BJP's efforts to puts its trusted people in key positions of the army, bureaucracy, intelligence, police services, education and culture by replacing former Congress loyalists. The crisis is further exposing the corrupt, criminal and venal nature of the political system in India. The Tehelka tapes, the exposures on BALCO, the corruption scams involving leading bureaucrats, politicians and officers of the armed forces are revealing the fact that multi-party parliamentary democracy is nothing other then the rule of the moneybags, Indian and foreign. They are confirming Lenin's teachings to the workers not to be taken in by the pseudo-patriotism of capitalist and social-democratic politicians and parties, who do not mind selling their soul and the country for dollars, but who shamelessly exhort the working masses to die for the interests of the capitalists and imperialists by evoking "national interests".

Comrade workers,

A positive development because of our struggle is that today the majority of trade unions have come out firmly against globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation. This is highlighted by the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, known as the trade union wing of the ruling BJP, denouncing the government's anti-national and anti-worker policies. Increasing number of our brothers are recognising that all the parliamentary parties have stabbed them in the back, whether the party be the Congress, the BJP or others. Today, the Congress Party, a party that everywhere knows is the mother of corruption, is carrying on a campaign against the corruption of the NDA government. The aim is to fool us workers and our peasant brothers one more time into not taking up our own program, but instead lining up behind the program of the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie wants to keep workers divided. In practical terms, the capitalists want us workers and peasants to line up behind the Congress, the BJP, or some other parliamentary front and leave our fate in the hands of these parties. We workers must take serious note of this situation and avoid the traps. We must resolutely put forth our program, our alternative, and unite the entire class around this program.

Ten years of the so-called economic reforms has confirmed one thing-this is the program of the capitalist class as a whole, and all political parties of the capitalist class will necessarily implement it. This is a program to place the entire natural and material resources of our country in the hands of the biggest exploiters, native and foreign, a program to extract maximum tribute from the whole of society. We workers cannot expect any salvation unless we begin to fight as one united class, with one program. We must fight to end the political power of the capitalist class and establish a new political power in the hands of workers and peasants. We must build a new India.

There can be and are only two real fronts. One is a front of the capitalist class and one is a front of the working class. All the parliamentary fronts are fronts of the capitalist class. We must build the political front of the working class by rallying the peasantry, the women and youth, and all the exploited and oppressed of our country around the working class. For this, we workers must necessarily be united. If we ourselves are divided on the basis of party and trade union affiliation, if we ourselves are divided in each factory into multiple unions, how on earth are we going to rally the broad masses of peasantry and youth under one banner and around one program? We workers must eliminate narrowness in thinking and defend the rights and interests of all workers and all the exploited and oppressed. We must raise the banner of One Union in one factory and the banner of One working class, One Program as the condition for the building of the revolutionary front of workers and peasants against the program of the bourgeoisie.

Our immediate program is this. We will fight to orient the economy towards fulfilling the well being of the workers, peasants, women and youth. We will implement a plan to ensure security of livelihood, food, clothing and shelter, education and health care for all. To raise money for all this, we will pass a moratorium on payment to the moneylenders and cutback on the enormous military expenditure. At the same time, we will take over the wholesale internal trade as well as foreign trade. We call upon all those who claim to be in the interests of workers and peasants to fight for these demands, for this is the only way to ensure the well being of the toilers and tillers. To realise this program, we workers must and will unite under one banner. We must and will build the powerful united front of the class with the peasantry and all the exploited and oppressed.

The first point of our action plan to implement our program is this. Why do we workers need to tie ourselves to the coattails of the maaliks and their political parties-parties that do not defend the interests of workers? In each factory where there is more than one union, we must demand of our unions-are you really against the maaliks? If you are, then prove it by getting together in one union! Similarly, taking the country as a whole, we raise the demand that all workers should be in one single union, which uncompromisingly fights the capitalist class, defends and develops the independent, alternative program of the working class.

Comrade workers,

We must be clear that the political and economic systems are interconnected. The political system and process of multiparty parliamentary democracy serves the capitalist class in exercising its rule over the whole of society. We workers and peasants must establish our own rule, as the condition for establishing a new India where the real maaliks of India, our workers, peasants, women and youth will be in power. This is the only real alternative to capitalism and the onslaught of the bourgeoisie.

Comrade workers,

We are not against political parties. Far from it, we are most acutely aware of the necessity of the working class organising itself as a political party to lead us to establishing our own rule, as well as showing the way in the present struggle. The times are demanding that we workers learn to differentiate between our real and false friends. We must identify which is the party of the working class and which are parties of the capitalists and imperialists. We must build and strengthen that party which will assist in healing the division within our ranks; that party which will lead us uncompromisingly in the struggle against the anti-social offensive and the struggle to build a new India. An India where no capitalist or imperialist can play with the lives and fate of India's workers, peasants, women and youth. An India where we the toilers and tillers will shape our own destiny. A great opportunity is unfolding before us. Let us not miss this opportunity. Let us, the workers of today, make our contribution to opening the path to progress for Indian society.

End the division in the working class! One factory, one union!

Long Live May Day!

Inquilab Zindabad!

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