A common program was adopted at a meeting of the Kaamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) held on March 28th 2014 in which the following unions and organisations were present: Kamgar Ekta Committee, Airport Authority of India Employees Union, Air India Service Engineers Association, All India Loco Running Staff Association, All India Guards Council, All India Station Masters Association, All India Voltas E
A common program was adopted at a meeting of the Kaamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) held on March 28th 2014 in which the following unions and organisations were present: Kamgar Ekta Committee, Airport Authority of India Employees Union, Air India Service Engineers Association, All India Loco Running Staff Association, All India Guards Council, All India Station Masters Association, All India Voltas Employees Federation, BEST Workers Union, Ladaku Garment Mazdoor Sangh, Lok Raj Sangathan, Mumbai Municipal Mazdoor Union, Purogami Mahila Sangathan, Western Railway Motormens Association.
This program was based on the discussion at the KEC convention held on March 2nd 2014.
We have seen that in the last 67 years since India’s independence, all the parties and fronts of the capitalist class, whether it is Congress led, BJP led or Third front led have worked for increasing the wealth of the capitalist class and bringing misery to vast sections of the Indian people.
We the working people, those who toil and produce the wealth of the country must declare that “enough is enough”.
The working class, those who do not own any means of production, and who earn a living by wage labour, constitutes more than 50% of the population. Along with the toiling peasantry, we constitute 80-90% of the population.
We need to build the independent front of the working class and peasantry. We need to popularize the slogan “Only the rule of the working class can save India”.
We fight for the implementation of the following immediate program:
- End the Contract System and enforce an 8 hours working day
- Provide employment to all able bodied persons commensurate with his/her education, skills and training
- Enforce a fair minimum wage- sufficient for a worker to look after himself and his family
- Provide for Pension for all those retiring from work. This pension should be sufficient to look after the needs of the retired husband wife couple, without them having to depend on anybody else including their children.
- Provide a Universal PDS- where all necessary items such as foodgrains, vegetables, dal, oil, sugar, soap, clothing, medicines and stationery items for children's education will be provided at affordable prices.
This can be done by nationalization of foreign trade and wholesale internal trade, as well as of the multinationals in the retail sector.
- Halt the privatization of public sector units.
- Provide for free and compulsory education up to secondary school level. Discourage private education and increase exponentially government expenditure on education.
- Provide for universal and free medical care. Today Government spends only 1% of its GDP on health. This must be increased to 4-5%.
- All land and natural resources belong to the entire people of India and must be utilized for their welfare.
- Anybody who violates or abuses a woman, whether physically or mentally, must be dealt the strictest punishment. Equal pay for equal work must be guaranteed. Special benefits for the working woman must be provided by the state such as maternity leave for 6 months, crèches, state run eateries and laundries etc.
- Peasants must be provided assistance to form cooperatives both to produce as well as market their product. The state must provide them inputs such as electricity, water, seeds and machinery at subsidized prices and buy their products at a remunerative price.
- The right to conscience must be guaranteed.
- Oppression on the basis of caste cannot be tolerated. All those who have been victims of historical injustices must be specially assisted in order to overcome these historical disadvantages.
- Today India is a prison house of nations. The entire northeast and the state of Jammu and Kashmir have been under army rule for more than 50 years. The working class is committed to a voluntary union of nations. If any nation wants to secede from the Indian Union, it should be free to do so. But if they remain, they must be given all assistance to develop their region, their language, and utilize their natural resources for their own benefit
The present system is designed to keep the working class and its genuine representatives out of power. It is also designed to keep the parties of the rich in power. For example for the coming elections, the maximum allowable spending of a candidate has been nearly tripled from 25 lakhs to Rs 70 lakhs. In actual fact the major parties of the bourgeoisie spend tens of crores on a single seat. This means that the present political system is designed to keep the parties of the capitalists in power and exclude the genuine representatives of the working class from coming to power. Hence the working class needs to fight for a complete overhaul of the current electoral process. In such a process, no candidate or political party will be allowed to spend any money on elections. The entire expenditure will be borne by the Government.
The working class needs to build its committees, which will unite the workers, in every factory, residential areas. These are workers unity committees or Kamgar Ekta Committees, which will be the seeds of the rule of the working class in order to implement the above program.
Workers Unity Zindabad!
Kamgar Ekta Committee Zindabad!