Solidarity With Nepal’s Mass Organisations
The 6th National Conference of the All Nepal Women’s Association (ANWA) (affiliated to the CPN-UML) was held at Pokhara from 20-23 March. On ANWA’s invitation, an AIPWA delegation comprising AIPWA General Secretary Meena Tiwari and National Executive Member Sarojini Bisht attended the Conference.
The Conference was inaugurated by a massive rally, which was addressed by representatives of several Indian women’s organizations including AIPWA.
Addressing the mass meeting on behalf of AIPWA, Comrade Meena Tiwari said that the role of Nepal’s women in the struggles for democracy are a source of inspiration for women all over South Asia. Congratulating Nepalese women on winning 33% reservation in representative assemblies as well as several pro-women laws, she said that women in India are still struggling for these rights. She shared the experiences of women in India fighting against entrenched biases in Government, police, and judiciary, especially the way in which the Bihar Government was influencing the process of justice to protect the perpetrators of feudal massacre at Bathani Tola and the rapists of Rupam Pathak. She called for greater solidarity among women’s struggles all over South Asia. The rally was also addressed by NFIW leader Amarjit Kaur and AIDWA General Secretary Sudha Sundararaman, as well as women representatives of JD(U) and Samajwadi Party.
The 5th National Congress of Confederation of Nepalese Professionals (CONEP) was held at Kathmandu on May 1st, International Labour Day, and May 2nd. AICCTU Vice President SK Sharma attended and addressed the Congress, extending solidarity greetings with Nepal’s working class movement.
RYA Protest Meeting Against
Assault on Dalits
In the May issue of Liberation, we had reported on the assault on dalits at Ramgarh village in Gautam Buddha Nagar (Dadri, Uttar Pradesh), and CPI(ML)’s initiatives to secure justice.
On 25 April, a Protest Meeting was held by local youths under the banner of RYA, calling for a struggle to ‘Defend Land, Demand Dignity’. The protest meeting faced difficulties because the gram pradhan from the dominant caste pressurised local landowners to deny permission to use their land for the meeting. However, the local youths, organised under RYA, refused to admit defeat and managed to hold the meeting on public land. The site of the protest meeting was decorated with red flags, and there was a large turnout of dalit youths as well as women form Ramgarh as well as neighbouring villages.
The meeting was conducted by Brahm Jatav, RYA activist, whose decision to file an FIR against grab of panchayat land allocated for dalits, led to the attack on dalit homes in the village. Brahm Jatav recounted how he had also helped file an FIR when a local landowner beat up a dalit youth for refusing to lift the carcass of a buffalo calf on his shoulders.
Other youths who addressed the meeting were Vikas, Tejvir, Raushan, and Virpal. Two issues were central to the meeting – the failure of police to arrest those responsible for the massive assault; and the failure of district administration to take action against the 7-foot high illegal wall that encircles the dalits’ land.
Three ex-pradhans of Khap Kheda, Pali, and Ramgarh, affiliated to the BSP, came to speak at the meeting. Their refrain was that the meeting was trying to ‘provoke’ dalits in the village. They tried to play down the organised caste violence against dalits by terming it to be a ‘quarrel within the family’ that they offered to sort out. While one such BSP representative was speaking, a dalit youth in the audience got up to ask, “So we shouldn’t even put up any protest or resistance when they grab our land and beat us up?” One youth, when he spoke, said that it was true that the SP Government was not acting against perpetrators of violence on dalits. But in Ramgarh’s case, he asked, why had the Dadri MLA Satbir Gujjar and the Gautam Buddha Nagar MP Surendra Singh Nagar – both from the BSP – not intervened to ensure action against the assailants and against the grab of dalit land? Brahm Jatav’s mother Shakuntala, herself badly injured, and Prakashi, who has a rod in her arm due to a bad injury, spoke of how women are daily being subjected to casteist and sexist abuse by the dominant castes.
The meeting was also addressed by the Pradhan of the neighbouring village of Bhogpur, Delhi State Secretary Sanjay Sharma, Delhi State Committee members Mathura Paswan and Aslam, Comrades Upadhyay, Shivji Singh and Chandrabhan Singh from CPI(ML)’s Noida city committee, and Kavita Krishnan, Central Committee member of the CPI(ML).
CPI(ML)’s First Mumbai-Thane Conference
The first Conference of the Mumbai-Thane unit of CPI(ML) was held on 20 April at Comrade Jayant Ganguly Nagar (Boisar-Jambhlapada) at Comrade Ashok Kumar Hall. The Conference began with hoisting of the party flag by Comrade Kisan Dublake of Jambhlapada. CC member Swapan Mukherjee, who was also the central observer at the Conference, paid floral tributes to the martyrs’ memorial. Around 60 delegates, of whom half were women, participated in the Conference.
The Conference was conducted by a 5-member presidium, headed by Comrade Shyam Gohil, who presented a political-organisational document for discussion in the house, which was read out by Comrade Dhiraj Rathod. After discussion, the document was unanimously adopted by the house. A 11-member Mumbai-Thane committee with Comrade Shyam Gohil as Secretary was then elected.
A 11-member Boisar local committee was also elected. A branch committee for the Mumbai Nagar Nigam union was also elected.
Addressing the house, central observer Comrade Swapan Mukherjee congratulated the comrades and called for intensifying the efforts to organize adivasi people of the area against the ongoing plunder of resources and assaults on their rights.
Comrade Dhiraj Rathod and newly elected secretary Comrade Shyam Gohil also addressed the Conference, calling for all comrades to strengthen the functioning and activism of the party in Mumbai-Thane.
Puducherry
Conference of CPI (ML)
CPI(ML)’s 2nd Puducherry UT State Conference was held at Puducherry, the State Capital of Puducherry UT, on 22nd and 23rd April 2012. The town was decorated with festoons, red flags and hoardings. The central call of the Conference, ‘Intensify working class struggles to punish the NR Congress government’s anti-people policies and betrayed promises’ got a warm response from the working class and the democratic sections of the state.
On 22nd April (Comrade Lenin’s birth anniversary and Party Foundation day) evening a big rally was organized, led by Com. S Motilal, State Committee member and Com. P Sankaran, State Committee member. The rally passed through the main thoroughfare of the town and ended with a public meeting.
The public meeting was presided by Com. G Palani, District Secretary, and CCM Comrade Balasundaram, and outgoing State Secretary Com. S Balasubramanian addressed the gathering.
The Conference began on 23rd April, with unfurling of the red flag by senior Party comrade Dhanalakshmi. Leaders and comrades paid homage at the martyrs’ column.
CCM Comrade Kalyan Goswami, central observer, delivered the inaugural address and called for consolidation of party and expansion of struggles.
A five member presidium was elected to conduct the proceedings of the conference Com. S Balasubramanian, secretary of the outgoing state committee, submitted the draft report for discussion and approval of the conference.
Comrade Ammaiyappan, District CPI(ML) Secretary Cuddalore, Tamilnadu, Com. Shenbagavalli District Secretary AIPWA, Villupuram Tamilnadu, Immigrants Nepalese (India) Association Puducherry Secretary Bidur Sharma attended the conference.
26 delegates (9 women), 6 observers and 5 invitees attended the conference. The conference elected unopposed a nine member state committee. Com. S. Balasubramanian was elected unanimously as State Secretary.
During the conference preparation, comrades made door to door and shop to shop campaign and fund collection. A week long fund collection was also done in the central Bus stand of Puducherry which evoked much response.