On 15th August, 2020, PBKMS calls people across West Bengal to commemorate this Independence Day as Food Security Day (Khadya Suraksha Diwas)

After 73 years of Independence, we ask why are so many of us still hungry? Is it not the responsibility of a Democratic Government to take even more responsibility for its citizen's basic right to food at the time of a Pandemic?

 

More than 12 districts of West Bengal will be joining Paschim Banga Khetmajoor Samity (PBKMS) in commemorating our Nation’s Independence Day as National Food Security Day. Our Youth groups have conducted a survey in 13 districts of Bengal to identify members of their communities who do not have ration cards. On Independence Day, in over 300 villages community members will gather and hoist the national flag Then, they will stage protests about being hungry even in a democratic country after 73 years of independence.

We agricultural workers and unorganized sector workers across Bengal unitedly raise the slogan, “Keu khabe aar keu khabe na, ta hobe na ta hobe na” (Some will eat some will not, we don’t accept , we don’t accept).

We demand:

1. Universal PDS and adequate rations
2. Removal of 5 different types of ration cards in West Bengal and one ration card for all
3. 14 kg of food grains, 1.5 kg of pulses, and 800 gram of edible oil per month per person for free.

In addition, we, PBKMS members, in the tea gardens of Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri also demand:

1. 600 rupees daily minimum wage
2. Ownership of the land we have built our houses on

We declare, “Desh hua aazad, lekin hum rahe bagan maliko ke gulam” (The country became free but we remained slaves of the garden owners”.

Our members have started preparing for the day posting banners and distributing handbills in their respective villages. Youth teams have also completed their door to door survey by now. We are all preparing to start our day tomorrow by hoisting of the national flag in our villages. We will gather and join hands to challenge the systemic inadequacies and will show solidarity with the masses reeling under the burden of historic oppression meted out to the working class. Banners and handwritten posters will be used in our demonstrations and public gatherings, which will highlight the sheer magnitude of the scale of denial of food grains to the citizens of our nation. Social action initiatives will be implemented wherein the people will demonstrate the power of advocacy and establish themselves as agents of change.

 

Friends, let us not lose this opportunity to raise our collective voice against the nonchalance and pathetic response of the administration both at the state and centre on ensuring the access of citizens to guaranteed entitlements. We believe that our constant struggle will lead to a new awakening amongst the working class to demand their rightful share from a state, which exploits them and view them as objects of pity.     

Join hands with us in our fight against Hunger this Independence Day! 

 

Bhangar: Press Conference Invitation

In a shocking situation in West Bengal, where the TMC and their Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee came to power on the back of struggles against forcible land acquisition, the ruling party has unleashed unprecedented repression on a movement in Bhangur against similar forcible land acquisition. People of the villages Khamarait, Machhibhanga, Tona, Gazipur etc. in Polerhat 2 No. Panchayat in Bhangar Assembly Constituency, South 24 Parganas, West Bengal are facing desperate situation due to the Government decision to situate a Power Grid (440/220 KV) in that area.

Two people have been killed in police firing, 33 people are in jail, over 40 people have been charged with terror charges under UAPA, and almost the entire population of about 20 villages (men, children and women) have been charged with a number of falsely fabricated non-bailable offences, including eminent activists working for justice through a West Bengal level solidarity committee. An unofficial economic blockade has been declared with any person leaving the village being arrested. Despite repeatedly asking for dialogue, the Government is refusing to talk to the affected people.

In order to bring national attention to this struggle, we are organising a press conference on the on 5th May 2017 at 1.30 PM at the Women’s Press Corps office, 5 Windsor Place, New Delhi 110001.

The people addressing the press conference are Justice RajinderSachar, former Chief Justice Delhi High Court, KN Ramachandran, General Secretary, CPI(ML) Red Star, Dipankar Bhattacharya General secretary CPI(ML) Liberation, Anuradha Talwar, representative of Bhangur Andolan Sanhati (Solidarity) Committee, Achin Vanaik , writer and academic , Amit of Majdur Kranti Parishad,Sanjay Parikh, Supreme Court counsel and PUCL vice president, Bittu Convenor WSS, and Kavita Srivastava, People’s Union of Civil Liberties.

Maruti Workers Union Appeal

Dear Comrades,

We are writing with an appeal, and update on the legal case. The Maruti Suzuki workers case ('State of Haryana vs Jiyalal & Others') is going on since July 2012 through a maze of evidence-less lies and clear pro-corporate anti-worker intent. Since 2012, 216 workers face possible convictions by a pro-corporate system, besides the terminations (and labour cases) of 546 permanent workers and 1800 contract workers, and a separate case of offences against 111 more workers in Kaithal since 2013.

The date for the Judgment from the Trial Court, the Gurgaon Additional District and Sessions Court, has been set for 10^th March 2017. We are apprehensive and have grounds to believe that it will be a politically motivated anti-worker Judgement. The hand-shaking between the Maruti Suzuki company management and the Police, administration, the government and Judiciary could not be more clear as in this case. We are apprehensive about a Pricol-type 'life sentences' and long-term convictions against hundreds of workers and are preparing with a call for unity of all workers and all pro-worker forces. We appeal to you from the Provisional Working Committee, Maruti Suzuki Workers Union to be present in the Gurgaon Sessions Court premises on the day of the Judgement in the case on the 10^th of March. We also appeal to you to be united and take solidarity actions in support of Justice for all Maruti Suzuki workers facing repression by the Central and State Government and the Company.

Update on the Legal Case as it Stands during the Final Arguments:

Context: We had 3 strikes in 2011 where we raised voice against the system of exploitation in the factory, and had to face continued management attacks on our Trade Union rights with complicity of the administration. We finally formed our Union – Maruti Suzuki Workers Union, Manesar (Reg. No.1923) on 1 March 2012. In April, we submitted their Charter of Demands, where the Union said abolition of contract worker system as one of its central demands, among others. This kind of assertion of our rights against their exploitation was not being taken lightly by the Company management, as it challenged their power and profits. They wanted to attack the Union through their power and conspiracy, which resulted in the incident on 18 July 2012, of a clash inside the plant and the death of an HR manager. Since then, 147 workers have been in Jail without having got bail for more than 3-and-a-half years on charges ranging from murder, attempt to murder, rioting, looting, setting fire to private property and various Sections of the IPC. Currently, 11 workers continue to be in jail without bail, which includes the members of the then Union Body. 66 more workers other than the 147 have similar charges under various non-bailable sections. Along with this criminalization of labour, 546 permanent and 1800 contract workers were terminated from their jobs, whose labour cases are also ongoing. 2500 working class families faced constant repression and penury on top of exploitation of the workers in the factory which created the basis for the management-labour conflict. We have had a movement against this regime of exploitation and repression till today.

The final legal arguments in the Maruti Suzuki workers Trial case concluded on 18 February, 2017 with arguments by Advocates Vrinda Grover, Rebecca John and RS Cheema against the State Prosecution. Find here some facts on the case as it stands in the Courts:

1.      It was established during the final arguments that there is no direct evidence linking ‘murder’ or ‘setting fire’ to the factory on any worker. No prosecution witness could establish any worker involvement in the same. Neither was any CCTV footage produced by the Prosecution even after Defence asked for the same. The management person Deepak Anand from GM Vigilance who filed the FIR against the 55 Maruti workers named therein, could not identify any worker. The witness Salil Vihari who named the main accused Jiyalal, could not identify him.

2.      On 18 July 2012, the incident of conflict happened at 7.20pm. But Police was called by the Company management at 11am itself, but Police was not allowed inside until the entire incident came to a boil. It has already been said by workers that it was a pre-planned conspiracy on behalf of the management so that a conflict is generated and workers can be implicated on this basis. Bouncers in workers clothes were also brought inside in the morning itself without IDs.

3.      The FIR mentions that 400–500 workers with rods, batons and sticks in hand entered the HR and beat the management but no witness mentions these weapons. Instead all the witness uniformly said that workers were carrying shockers and door beams – each doorbeam and shocker weighing over 4kgs, so around 4000kgs of weapons were supposedly recovered. On top of this, Police show that a major section of workers took all these weapons to their respective homes and kept them under their beds and almirahs. For another set of workers, Police showed that they caught 20 workers simultaneously siting under a tree conveniently possessing all these weapons.

4.   Also, witnesses had said that each manager was beaten up by 4-5 workers with these weapons with intention of murder. The also stated that no one came to rescue them. But if this was so, then how did they manage to rescue themselves with no serious injury? To this, they said that the workers themselves let them off, which clearly is no intention to murder! The witnesses testified that all of them uniformly stopped the attacks with their left hand. In the MLC done on management injuries show absurdities as a dental root canal as injury!

5.      It has been established how 89 of the 147 workers have been arrested on the basis of names given alphabetically by 4 contractors. None of these workers were identified. Court documents show witness Virendra alias Rajender Yadav has named 25 workers such that all workers' names fall in the alphabetical range of A-G. Another witness contractor Yaad Ram testified that he saw 25 workers rioting, all of whose names fall in the next range G-P. Witness Ashok Rana names 26 workers who were allegedly rioting whose names range from P-S. The final witness Rakesh of Tirupati Associates who supplied 900 contract workers to MSIL testified to allegedly seeing 13 workers whose names, continuing the alphabetic sequence, are in the range S-Y.

6.      The lists of workers arrested thus was provided by the Company to the Police, and not on the basis of its own investigation, pointing to an active collusion between the two.

7.      On ‘setting fire to the factory’:  There was no evidence whatsoever as to setting fire and no witness could explain how the fire was lit and who did it. First, there were contradictory statements as to where the fire was lit – in the conference (M1) room in the first floor, or outside it, or in the ground floor. Awanish Dev’s dead body was recovered from the M1 room, and the witnesses claimed that the room was lit on fire from inside where fighting was taking place, but while testifying they argued that the room caught fire from the outside.

Fire lit and burnt everything down but the match box (a new one) was conveniently unharmed and lying there to be discovered. This recovery of the match box itself was not immediate. At the place of the incident, when the security on-watch, Om Prakash, went on 19^th July 2012 in the morning at 6 am, to the M1 store with a photographer nothing was recovered. Then on that very day at 12 pm FSL authority D. Sonu searched and recovered a new match box and a door frame, and where the room was entirely burnt there was no sign of the matches itself being lit. He neither signed the recovery report nor did he testify in court on the recovered matches and door beam.

On the setting of fire inside the M1 room, of the 16 witnesses that had stated that the room was lit on fire, and 3 witnesses took names of those who did it. None of these witnesses could identify any worker or wrongly identified.

8.      According to the postmortem report, Awanish Dev’s death was due to asphyxiation. The injury he had is below the knee on the right leg, which cannot lead to death which proves that neither is there a murder case possible against the workers nor is their intention to murder in this case. So Sections 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) clearly do not hold. At max, only 2 people can cause such an injury, while 216 workers have been accused of murder and attempt to murder.

Thus even though this is, on the face of it, pertaining to the case on 18 July 2012 where a general manager of the company Awanish Kumar Dev died in the conflict that erupted that day after a Dalit worker Jiyalal was suspended from duty unilaterally when a supervisor attacked him and gave casteist abuse. But as is evident by now, it was a conspiracy from the management against assertion of workers for our Trade Union rights.

Even so, the considerations of the Judiciary are suspect as is evident from one of the High Court orders in May 2013 rejecting bail said “this is one one of the unfortunate incident that has lowered the reputation of India in the world. Foreign direct investment is likely not to happen due to fear of growing labour unrest”. The State has already spent crores of public money all these years against the workers. As per RTI, the government paid Advocate KTS Tulsi R.5.5 crore in just 2 years - s. 11 lakh per appearance - just in the Gurgaon Additional District and Sessions Court, Mr Tulsi's three assistants Rs. 66000 for each appearance and "clerkage" of over Rs. 1 lakh for his expenses each appearance. If this was not enough, instead of the Public Prosecutor from the State, Private Prosecutor from the Company, Vikas Pahwa again kept the 'last word' on their behalf in the Sessions Court Gurgaon during the final arguments.

Will there be Justice for Maruti Workers?

The 147 workers who have spent over four years in Jail, and 11 who continue to be jailed without bail since July 2012, the total implicated 216, the 2500 families, those who have lost their family members in that course of time or not been able to see their children grow up for those years or have not been able to part of the joys and sorrows of their family for that time - will there be justice?

In this industrial belt, workers struggle have happened from Rico Gurgaon (2009) to Shriram Pistons Bhiwadi (2014) to Honda Tapukhera (2016) and countless others against regime of exploitation on workers by the profit-hungry MNCs. Management. In all these cases, to control the simmering tension, there have been outright repression through terminations, violence, murders, lathi-charges, false criminal cases and prison terms by the Police-administration-government and local goons on the company’s payrolls. In current workers struggles, while the management says, “we will make Maruti-like situation for you” (repress you like the Maruti workers), the workers also say right back, “This can turn into a Maruti-like situation” (Workers will wage a collective movement relentlessly against exploitation-repression). We say this will be a ‘political judgement’ since this judgement becomes a measure and signal of which version of ‘maruti-like situation’ stands.

On 1^st March 2017, we marked 6 years of the formation of our Union with a gate meeting in front of the factory in Manesar, where thousands of workers and Unions participated. After this,  the company has moved a stay order against 10 terminated workers in the leadership of the Provisional Working Committee, MSWU to stay 2kms away from the company gate. On 7th March, various Unions met in Gurgaon and resolved to hold factory gate meetings and give warning letters to their managements in solidarity with Jailed workers which happened on 8th March. There is lunch and dinner Boycott in various factories on 9th March. Hundreds of workers will gather in the Court premises at 10am and in the afternoon on 10th March.

We appeal to you to be united and resist this onslaught by capitalists and the government, and stand with the workers class movement in this crucial and decisive situation. We appeal to you from the Provisional Working Committee, Maruti Suzuki Workers Union to be present in the Gurgaon Sessions Court premises on the day of the Judgement in the case on the 10^th of March. We also appeal to you to take solidarity actions in support of Justice for all Maruti Suzuki workers facing repression by the Central and State Government and the Company.

Provisional Working Committee,

Maruti Suzuki Workers Union

Stop State Violence in Bhangar

The WSS (Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression) is a nationwide platform of various women’s organizations and individuals, whose member Sharmishtha Chowdhury is currently in jail for supporting the peasant movement against a power grid in the villages of Bhangar.  Over the past three days, a 12-member team of WSS has visited the affected villagers and concerned officials to understand the origins and the impetus behind the movement, and the response of the civil society and government functionaries to it.

Inquiries by the WSS team have revealed that since 2013, the peasant families of Bhangar have been repeatedly seeking basic information about the power grid and transmission line project that deeply impacts their lives and livelihoods, but have received no information or have been deliberately misinformed at every step.  They have tried to meet every statutory, legislative and constitutional authority in the area to register their concerns, but no one agreed to meet with them, and when they have demanded talks and dialogue with the administration to resolve their concerns, they have instead faced police encampments, arrests and bullets.

Such an irresponsible and insensitive response from the government has only heightened the tensions in the area and increased apprehensions about the project. This is the sole reason behind the situation today, where the villagers have lost all trust in the government and its intentions towards their well-being, and entire families, including women and children are resisting it despite the enormous hardship and violence they are continuously facing. This was definitely not expected of the current government that came to power on the back of people’s mass movements against large projects, and had thus won the confidence of the very people who are now so vehemently protesting.

Acquisition of Land Irregular, Illegal and Arbitrary

The Bhangar movement started around 2013, when around 13 acres of land were sought to be acquired by the government in the village Khamarait. The WSS team learned that the acquisition happened in a completely arbitrary and illegal manner, and that all processes of acquisition were handled by one person, Arabul Islam of the ruling party. He not only arbitrarily decided how much compensation was to be handed out to whom, but also took a cut from all these compensations. While a case against this forcible acquisition is still pending before the High Court, and 11 people have not yet taken the compensation, the construction of the grid proceeded at full place and was completed within one year. The Award has still not been shown to the villagers.

Not only was the acquisition procedures completely opaque to the villagers, they were even kept in the dark about the purpose of the acquisition – first it was meant for government flats, then for a power sub-station and only after the structure was half-completed, did the villagers learn from a board in front of the construction site that it was actually for a power grid.  And it was not until the last quarter of 2016, when giant transmission towers arrived in their village on the beds of the monstrous trucks did they realize that this project will impact the farms and lands outside of the 13-acre plot as well.

Escalating Violence 

When the villagers of Bhangar started asking questions about the impact of these High Voltage Transmission Lines on their lives, livelihoods, health and environment, the government dispatched police to the village on 3 Nov 2016, who beat up people including many women and terrorized them by arresting 6 people, and occupied the village for 18 days.  Since then, the police have been regularly harassing the local populations to the extent that several families have left their houses and are living with their relatives out of fear of the police.  

The situation further worsened on 16 January 2017, when the police entered the villages, beat up people and arrested villagers. The next morning, the police assaulted people going to work, destroyed homes, picked up more people, ransacked shops, attacked the women who had come to assist the shopkeeper, including the elderly Mayur Jan Bibi whose hand was fractured in three places. Those arrested were badly beaten up and  the hand and finger of one juvenile Zahir Husain, was broken and remained untreated for 6 days. Manwara Bibi was sexually assaulted and her disabled husband was beaten up

In response, the villagers protested and blockaded the roads, demanding the authorities should conduct a dialogue with the people, release the detained villagers, and withdraw the police encampments from the area.  Eventually, after an extended stand-off, the DM and the SP sent separate messages through the SDO and the DSP agreeing to a meeting within two days, promising not to oppose the bail of arrested persons and remove the police.  The organizers used the microphones in the masjid to inform the agitated villagers of this, and requested them to safeguard the safety of the retreating police. But even as the crowd of villagers parted to let the police vehicles go back, the police randomly fired bullets in all directions, killing two villagers, Alamgir and Mofizul Khan, and injuring Akbar.  The villagers recounted to the team how, after Alarmgir fell after being hit with a bullet, the police kicked him repeatedly, and shot him at close quarters in cold-blooded murder.  Maufizul Khan was killed when he was walking home from work. Akbar was shot in the back.

The WSS team witnessed first-hand the continuing violence that the affected villagers have to live with every day, when they were caught in Khamarait on 4 March.  While the team was still in the village, a raucous and a loud rally organized by TMC members tried to terrorize the people by going past the village, bursting bombs, firing bullets in the air and throwing stones. One young boy, Saiful Molla, was badly injured when a brick hit him on his head.

Police Response Lethargic and Incompetent

The WSS team also visited PS Kashipur in order to hear the police version of this violence, however, the ASP and DSP present at the thana refused to discuss these incidents.  It is notable that till date no one has been held responsible for the murders of two young men, and the numerous complaints of physical violence by the villagers against the police have gone completely unheeded.  Moreover, instead of initiating dialogue as promised on 17^th January, on the 25^th the police arrested Sharmishta Chaudhary, Pradip Singh Thakur and a young villager, on very flimsy grounds as shown by the FIR. Later charges under UAPA were slapped on the accused though they are neither members of banned organiations and nor were they shown to be indulging in any terrorist activity.

Unanswered Questions and Concerns

The government has yet to answer basic questions of the villagers as to what are the health impacts of the heightened Electromagnetic Field that permeates the dwellings, the constant loud high frequency humming that emanates from the wires, the static charge build up near the towers that can light a bulb without a power source.  How do these impact the fertility of their soil, the long-term health of the residents, their cattle and their fisheries? More importantly, the towers are being placed without the consent of the landowners, and the one time compensation for their use of land and the right to access is being compensated in a highly opaque and arbitrary manner, at a fraction of the economic hit being forced upon the villagers.

These are valid and genuine concerns and any government accountable to its citizens would rush to allay their fears and enter into dialogue about the costs and benefits of such a project.  The fact that the government is rushing police battalions into the area, instead of trying to win over the confidence of the people by addressing their concerns highlights its complete contempt towards local populations.

DEMANDS

The WSS demands that the authorities de-escalate the situation by holding immediate and unconditional talks with the protesting villagers and their leaders, and undertake confidence-building measures to gain back the trust of the villages. This is in the best interests of a functioning and healthy democracy. The FIRs under which people have been imprisoned include dozens of other names, including those of many WSS members (Nisha Bishwas, Swapna Bannerjee, Anuradha Talwar, Krishna Bandopadhyay), and 500-1,500 others who are unnamed, which has given the police a virtual license to arrest and harass a large number of villagers.  Confidence building measures should include the quashing of such vindictive FIRs.  Immediate action must be taken against police personnel and goons involved in the violence.  Attempts to paint the legitimate and peaceful protest as unconstitutional or “terrorist” must stop. 

Members of the WSS team –

1.      Madhuri Krishnaswamy (M.P.)

2.      Adv.Shalini Gera (Chhatisgarh)

3.      Promila (Odisha)

4.      Swapna Bannerjee (West Bengal)

5.      Urmila (MP)

6.      Fatima Bibi (West Bengal)

7.      Sanchita Mukherji (West Bengal)

8.      Indrani Sen (West Bengal)

9.      Shashwati Ghosh (West Bengal)

10.     Sukanti (Odisha)

11.     Deepa (Chhatisgarh)

12.     Rajkali (M.P)

'A Life Without Dignity – The Price Of Your Cup Of Tea'

As one of the world’s leading producers and exporters of tea, India’s tea industry employs more than 1,2 million people. Two regions, Assam and West Bengal, together produce over 70% of India’s tea and are also home to the worst working conditions for tea plantation workers in the country. In sharp contrast to the images of tranquil, lush, green tea gardens, with which consumers are presented, tea plantation workers are paid poverty wages and endure appalling working conditions. Women, who make up 70% of the workforce, are especially affected. This report is the outcome of a fact-finding mission conducted in Assam and West Bengal on behalf of the Global Network for the Right to Food and Nutrition(GNRTFN). It investigates and analyses allegations of serious abuses of human rights on India’s tea plantations, in particular how poor working conditions undermine the human right to food and nutrition (RTFN) and related rights. 

The full report can be accessed at the Scribid site:

Armed Attack on Brickfield Workers

Ashanghatit Khetra Shramik Sangrami Manch (AKSSM) strongly condemns the armed attack on the struggling workers of brickfields in Hasnabad of Basirhat Sub-Division in District 24 Parganas (N) and subsequent police inaction.

On Monday morning (22nd February 2016) at 8.30 a.m. a peaceful rally of the workers was attacked by the hired goons of the owners of many brick-fields with firearms and country made bombs, leading to injuries to several of the agitating workers. Across the state, brick-field owners are systematically violating all existing labour laws, including that of minimum wage. Workers are being forced to live in sub-human conditions. To protest against this, workers of eleven brick-fields under the banner of Shramajibi Samanwaya Committee (SSC), a federation of workers in different micro and small scale industries of Basirhat sub-division, and an active member of AKSSM, unitedly intensified their movement recently to achieve their demand of minimum wage, as per the law of the land.

Backing the assault was Shahanur Mondal, a brickfield owner, who is also a cattle smuggler and a feared local mafia. He is also an Upapradhan from the TMC. Also present were owners of various brickfields, who financed the attack. Chief among these was Ashu Mondal, a brickfield owner and a BJP councillor.

The attack, where bombs and guns were used to intimidate and injure the workers, was fought off by the workers. They also managed to grab once of the attackers and hand him over to the police. Despite this and despite an FIR, the administration has been inactive. It has once again been exposed that the police and the administration are in unholy alliance with the defaulting industry owners.  In response to the inaction on part of police and administration, the workers held protest marches in the morning and evening.

In the meantime, the SDO had already scheduled a tripartite meeting on 24th February 2016 for a settlement of wages in the brick fields in the subdivision. In Shramajibi Samanwaya Committee's experience, all such meetings in the past have ended in the shameful capitulation by the administration, including the Labour Department, and some unions to the owner's demand to pay much less than the minimum wage. SSC's movement has been aimed at condemning such compromises on the part of the Government, where the authority responsible for enforcing minimum wages never enforces the same , but instead actively allows agreements below the minimum wage.

Shramajibi Samanwaya Committee has given the police 24 hours to arrest the attackers, failing which they will begin their protest from noon on 23rd February 2016, starting with blocking of train movements tomorrow morning at Hasnabad railway station for an indefinite period. They will also put forward their demand for minimum wages.

AKSSM calls upon the police administration to immediately arrest the culprits. It also demands that the long-standing issue of minimum wages for brick-field workers be resolved once and for all, with strict punitive action against all owners who do not pay the minimum wage.

AKSSM further calls upon all right thinking people to extend their support to the legitimate struggle of the SSC workers in all ways possible.

Swapan Ganguly, Somnath Ghosh (Convenors)

International Fact Finding Mission Visiting Tea Plantations

An International Fact Finding Mission is visiting and tea plantations in Assam and West Bengal from November 27, 2015 to December 4, 2015. With 18 members from 9 countries, the purpose of the Mission is to understand the status of the human right to food and nutrition - and related rights - of tea plantation workers and to hold central and state governments accountable to their national and international human rights obligations. The mission team has visited tea gardens in the Dooars, Darjeeling and Assam and has had discussions with both tea workers and their unions. It is also meeting concerned officials in Assam and West Bengal such as Mr Amit Mitra, Minister of Industries, Mr Moloy Ghatak, Minister of Labour, the Secretary General of the Indian Tea Association, the management of tea companies, such as Tata, Apeejay.

This is the first Fact Finding Mission to be dispatched under the facilitation of the Global Network on the Right to Food and Nutrition (GNRtFN), a network composed of social movements and civil society organisations worldwide to support and give visibility to the struggles for these human rights. This Fact Finding Mission (FFM) is headed by the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF), who is a member of the GNRtFN. Other participating organisations are FIAN International, Pesticide Action Network, Right to Food Campaign (Nepal), Right to Food and Social Security Campaign (Bangladesh) and the Right To Food Campaign (India). The team consists of activists, experts and trade union leaders from Brazil, Peru,Germany, United Kingdom, Moldova, Spain, Bangladesh, Nepal and India.

The Fact Finding Mission will also contribute to current international processes and dialogues relevant for the human right to adequate food and nutrition.

 

Campaign On Alternative Politics Ends With Mock Hanging Of Traitors

The Osongothito Khetra Shramik Sangrami Mancha and Right to Food and Work Campaign- West Bengal jointly organized a mass gathering in Plassey in Nadia on October 9 at the end of their campaign that started on  September 26. The purpose of the campaign was to raise their voice in support of an alternative politics which makes the empowerment of the working class and their demands the moving force of politics and governance.

The campaign focuses on people’s rights and democracy. It calls for the unity of working people above caste, creed and religion. It aims to stop the rule of goons and demands the right to a life of dignity, which includes a universal guarantee for food, health, education, housing and work. A state-wide campaign program,e including motor cycle rallies, street corners, padayatras and mass contact programmes, along with distributing leaflets and posters, took place in different parts of Bengal, starting from September 26.

The participants began motorcycle rallies from the Assam border, Orissa border, Bangladesh border and Jharkhand border from October 1 and made their way to Krishnanagar after facing ruling party hooligans in Keshpur and police harassment in Baruipur on  October 8 .In the process, the campaign covered almost all 19 districts in West Bengal and travelled 1,300-1,400 km in the State.

On the following day, about 2,000 people, including 180 people who had been on the campaign trial, reached Plassey to identify the modern day Mir Jafars. Mir Jafar was originally responsible for India’s defeat at the hand of British at Plassey and is considered one of the great traitors in Indian history. For a symbolic protest, they gathered in a field near Plassey station and took part in a mock trial to penalise the modern day Mir Jafars.

Before the trial started, the leaders of the Mancha addressed the gathering. The Mancha consists of about 20 unions of unorganized sector, which is the largest and most deprived working sector of the country involving 94% of workers. Bela Adak President of PBKMS (Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity) and Jagganath Das, General Secretary of Shramajivi Samanvay Committee spoke about the terror and discrimination faced by unorganised sector workers in their work place as well as homes. 

Anuradha Talwar, leader of PBKMS and Somnath Ghosh, leader of Hosiery Workers’ Union and convenor of the Manch, pointed out the success of the week-long campaign that took place in North Bengal in Doars where the tea garden owners had bowed to the demand of the workers for 20% bonus.

They also spoke of the success with which the participants in the rally had stood against ruling party terror at various places. Sanjay Poria, President and leader of West Bengal Civic Police Association, talked about their plight in not being appointed to the job which they rightfully deserved and the discriminatory behavior on the part of the police department. Sanjay has been under surveillance of the police and intelligence department for his organised protest against the injustice of the government to the civic volunteers. 

The civic volunteers are a huge number of unemployed  youth who have been provided with low wages and face dismissal and police brutality at the slightest attempt to protest about their terrible working conditions. On this day, following his speech, two police vans full of force reached the spot and there was tension that he might be arrested.

Following the speeches which ended with a great round of applause, the assembly participated in the mock trial to identify the modern traitors in politics. As the notion of alternative politics advocates for the right of people to dislodge the elected representatives from power if they are proved to be inefficient in working for the welfare of the people and to keep the elected representative under continuous monitoring, the assembly passed judgment on the basis of popular unanimity that the political leaders, administrators, bureaucrats, police and all the administrative officials had behaved treacherously with them.

Some of them played the role of political leaders, elected representatives, capitalists, bureaucrats and police while some were the people’s judges. The gathering agreed that these people had failed to perform their duty and they hade let the people down, therefore they deserved highest penalty. 

They also expressed their unanimous opinion to hang these modern day Mir Jafars and an act of mock death penalty was performed by hanging a straw effigy. The meeting ended with a pledge to fight these modern day Mir Jafars and to strengthen the unity of the working people.

Rallies Join Forces For Final Day's Programme

On October 8, the penultimate day of the campaign by Asanghatit Shramik Sangrami Manch and the Right to Food and Work Campaign West Bengal, two rallies started from two seperate points- one from Pandua in Hooghly, and the other from Badu in North 24 Parganas.

The rally in Pandua met women’s groups in Kalna 1 , Kalna 2 and Pandua blocks, campaigning with them, mainly through small public meetings where women from self-help groups had organised street corner meetings . The meetings focused majorly on the issues of the non–implementation of NFSA . The women took a lot of initiative in making all these meetings a a success.

The rally from Badu was joined by strong contingents from Shramajivi Samanvay Committee and West Bengal Civic Police Association (WBCPA). The rally travelled through Nadia district and was hosted by the Chakdah Lorry Owners’ Association and Chakdah Bigyan O Sanskritik Sanstha. At a meeting at the lorry stand issues of environmental importance were brought up. 

 

A similar programme on the issue of indiscriminate cutting of trees and filling of ponds by racketeers was organised by Netaji Swamiji Ideal Youth Society at Shantipur, where the motorcycle rally was also taken throughout Shantipur town. In Krishnanagar, a similar road show was organised by friends from Association for Protection of Democratic Rights, along with street corner meetings at the DM's office and near the Post Office.

Two deputations – one to the BDO Shantipur, and the other to District Magistrate of Nadia district - were also undertaken to inform the Government about the Manch's demands.

The two rallies met and merged at Krishnanagar and will proceed towards Plassey on October 9, where a mock trial of modern day Mir Jaffars (traitors to the people’s causes) will he held tomorrow (October 9) from 10 a.m. to 12 noon at the field next to Plassey station, Nadia.

State-wide Rally Photographs

                                     

       

        

        

              

Police Disrupt Campaign at Baruipur

Asanghatit Khetra Shramik Sangrami Manch condemns the unilateral police action on  October 6, 2015 to break up our state-wide campaign at Baruipur. The motorcycle rally was stopped early in the morning by police from the Baruipur Police Station, when they were about to proceed from the place where they had stayed the night before at Sashan after a successful day of campaigning at Baruipur.

Motorcyclists and the jeep which had the microphone that was being used for the campaign were not even allowed to get on to the road.  The excuse given by the police has been that the motorcycle rally did not have “permission”. As far as we know, no such law exists banning motorcycle or other rallies or processions in South 24 Parganas district.

The police threatened to take away the papers of all the motorcycle and the pick-up with microphone that was with the rally. They also insisted that banners be taken off and that the microphone be removed. All this is illegal and much beyond the powers that the police have.

It should be mentioned that the police, including DGP Police, and all concerned SPs from all districts through which the rally is passing, were informed about the route of the rally, number of participants on motorcycles, stoppages, chief places of campaigning and major programmes on September 29, 2015. No information or feedback has been received from the police till date about the illegality of the programme. Also, the programme has been going on for five days without any such information.

Coming just two days after the rallyists were attacked with bombs by TMC goons in Bibekpur village under Keshpur block (Paschim Midnapore), the situation reflects very poorly on the attitude of the Government and the ruling party towards the rights and demands of the unorganised sector, which form 97% of the workers in the state. This is more or less a continuation of the way in which the administration is neglecting demands of the Manch members for declaration and implementation of the living wages in all sectors, for creation of employment under MGNREGA, for immediate implementation of the National Food Security, for regularisation of the civic police volunteer force, for the right to organise trade unions, for 20% bonus for tea garden workers etc.

The Manch will now be organising a rally at Malda town on October 8. In addition, rallyists will be proceeding through Nadia, North 24 Parganas and Burdwan and Hooghly districts toward Palashi, where the final programme is to be held on October 9. We are apprehensive that similar attacks by the administration and goons who say they are from the ruling party could take place.

  

Swapan Ganguly, Somnath Ghosh (Convenors) 

Campaign For Alternative Politics Gets Going From North Bengal

The Osanghatit Khetra Shramik Sangrami Manch’s statewide campaign began on October 2 from Newlands Tea Garden near the Assam border. The campaign was formally started by Kiran Kalindi, president of the Progressive Plantation Workers Union (PPWU), with participation of about forty motorcycles, and about 90 people who set off for the rally. Many women workers from neighbouring tea gardens also arrived to send off the rally.

The main issue of the rally was the burning need for an alternative politics that is based on working people’s demands and needs. The rally also focused on four main local issues:

• The unresolved issue of yearly bonus to the workers, for which negotiations are presently underway. Workers are demanding 20% while the employers association wants to get away with only 8.33% or at most 13.5% in most gardens
• The pending issue of declaration of a minimum wage for tea workers by the State Government;
• The long-standing demand of the workers for a right to their homes, as all of them are homeless and live on company land, always under threat of eviction
• The illegal closure of the 16 gardens owned by Duncans , as well as the demand to re-open 7 other gardens.

A gate meeting on the above issues was organised at the Newlands factory. Soon after at about 3 p.m. the rally set off for Alipur Duar. At Alipur Duar, from seven till nine at night, the rallyists along with a pick-up and a microphone campaigned through the streets. A street corner meeting was also organised at one of the most important cross roads in Alipur Duar town. The rally was joined by APDR members and individuals from other Left parties like the SUCI and CPI(ML) Liberation. Also present were members of a local platform who focus on violence against women and members of other cultural organisations in Alipur Duar. The main organiser was Suman Goswami of APDR.

On October 3, the rally travelled to Kalchini, covering tea estates like Dima, Rajbhatkuwa, Atiabari, Mechpara, Chuapara , Kalchini, Raimatang etc. They were joined at Dima by 6 members of the Uttar Banga Banshramajivi Manch on motorcycles.

All throughout there was campaigning on the need for alternative politics and the 4 local demands. At Kalchini, again a street corner meeting was organised where, despite having given prior information to the police, the rally was stopped and warned against entering the next block till 5 p.m. as by-elections were going on there.  A police escort then joined the rally, without even being requested for.

The rally stopped for lunch and a meeting with local people at Chinchula Tea Gadren, where the members of Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity (Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Buddhists) organised lunch for the rallyists at their local Buddhist temple. A great festive air prevailed with colourful Buddhist prayer flags fluttering, and all the women workers and their families present. The unit secretary of Progressive Tea Workers Union joined the meeting, which was addressed by Baijnath Naik, General Secretary of the PPWU. Both spoke of taking up the issue of 20% bonus unitedly at the next bonus negotiation meeting on October 6.

The rally then travelled to Sishubari in Madarihat, starting at 3.30 p.m. in the afternoon. It covered Hashimari and gardens such as Varnabari on the way to Madarihat. With some minutes left for the 5 p.m. deadline, they were stopped by the Madarihat police, who insisted on their waiting for the 5 p.m. Election Commission deadline. After campaigning on the way, the rally ended at 6 p.m. at Shishubari, where the local unit of Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity had organised a local school for their night stay and dinner and breakfast the next day.