Reports

RYFI Conference Calls for Second Independence Struggle against Neo-colonial Slavery

First All India Conference of RYFI was held at Bangalore on 30-31 January 2010. On the first day, 30th January afternoon, inaugurating the public meeting at Bannappa Park, following the colourful militant rally of youth from 10 states, com. KN Ramachandran, General Secretary of the CPI(ML) called on the youth to wage uncompromising Second Independence Struggle to overthrow the neo-colonial slavery perpetuated by the central and state governments, by the ruling system. 600 delegates from Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi attended the delegate session at Varadachar Kalakshetra, re-named as Shahid Bhagat Singh Hall for this occasion.
A presidium consisting of comrades Basavalingappa (Karnataka), MK Dasan (Kerala), Sankar Das (West Bengal), Prajakta (Maharashtra) and Pinky (UP) and Steering Committee consisting of comrades Vijay Kumar (MP), Ravinder (UP), Vellimalai (TN), Manoj (Delhi) and Deepa (Chhattisgarh) were elected. After welcome speech by com. Basavalingappa, convenor of reception committee and the inaugural speech by com. KN Ramachandran, com. Vijay Kumar from MP presented the draft Programme and Constitution, which was discussed and adopted with suggestions and amendments. It has called for building a powerful revolutionary youth movement at all India level defeating all reformist and reactionary youth organisations. The Programme and Constitution were adopted by the all All India Conference after the reply. They will be developed incorporating the suggestions and amendments.
Com. MK Dasan from Kerala moving the resolution on unemployment stated that the imperialist globalisation, which is intensifying neo-colonisation, has created unprecedented unemployment and under-employment. While the immediate slogan of employment for all or unemployment allowance at the rate of minimum wage should be put forward and struggled for, RYFI should launch all out struggles, joining hands with other revolutionary classes and sections to throw out the ruling system which is intensifying unemployment and under-employment. Comrades from all states participated in the discussion. The resolution was adopted with a number of suggestions to further sharpen it.
Moving the resolution on intensifying struggle against unprecedented price-rise, which is sky-rocketing unchecked, com. Shanker Das explained that the price rise is the result of the imperialist globalisation policies which are speeding up liberalisation-privatisation. The government has withdrawn to a great extent from the fields of procurement of food grains and public distribution system. It has allowed ‘advance trading’ which is helping hoarding and black-marketing. In this situation struggle against price-rise is a political struggle to throw out the imperialist globalisation policies. The discussion on the resolution brought out many suggestions including the capture of godowns and distribution of food grains to people by arousing them through various forms of campaigns.
The resolution on degeneration of culture and the impact of these degenerated cultural values on youth presented by com. Prajakta provoked a living discussion in a number of delegates participated. The resolution calls for a militant offensive on the part of RYFI to expose and fight these degenerated values and to intensify the struggle for a progressive, democratic people’s culture.
Following this, a panel of 21 comrades for the Central Committee of the RYFI was moved by com. Basavalingappa which was adopted b the delegates with enthusiastic applause. The Central Committee held a brief meeting and announced the following office bearers: president: com. Basavalingappa; vice-presidents: comrades Prajakta, Pinki and Raghunath, Secretary: com. Vijay Kumar; joint secretaries: comrades MK Dasan (South Zone), Shailendra (West Zone), Ravinder (North Zone), Shanker Das (East Zone) and Premjit (North-east Zone); treasurer: com. Manoj.
Representatives of different class and mass organisations: comrades DH Poojar and Sivaram (TUCI), R. Manasayya (AIKKS), Tuhin Deb (Cultural movement), Shukla (AIRWO), Nagaraju (AIRSO) and com. Rudrayya (Karnataka state secretary, CPI-ML) extended greetings to the delegates and the newly elected office bearers. Com. Vijay Kumar, the all India secretary spoke calling on all delegates to build the RYFI at grass root level and to develop struggles on the major issues put forward by the conference so that by the time the second all India conference is held after two years RYFI shall become the fighting vanguard of the revolutionary youth in India. Presidium extended vote of thanks. The Conference successfully concluded with the lowering of the RYFI flag by com. Basavalingappa at 5 PM amidst militant slogans.
Resolutions Adopted by the All India Conference of RYFI
1. Resolution on Unemployment
Growing unemployment and under-employment are inseparably linked with the neo-liberal economic policies that got strengthened during the last two decades. Compared with the era of State-led Keynesian policies that lasted till the 1980s, official unemployment at a global level had doubled during the neoliberal period, rising from 100 million in 1990 to almost 200 million by the end of 2009. This is an underestimates as it does not count the tens of millions of unemployed in rural areas who are completely left out of the official statistics, especially in several neocolonial countries. World wide, the number of under employed today has reached around 600 million. Even the large number of employed themselves are classified as “working poor” as their meager earnings are insufficient for both ends to meet. And in all, about one-third of the world’s total labour force of more than three billion is unemployed, underemployed or lack adequate incomes. Imperialist experts and policy makers often gloss over this grave social malady through their pet phase “jobless growth.”
As far as India is concerned, the trend of declining employment growth rate as a concomitant of neo-colonization got strengthened further during the last two decades of imperialist globalization amidst the much publicized high rate of growth of the economy. Obviously, unemployment figures calculated on the basis of live registers of employment exchanges that comes to around 15 percent of the workforce is a gross underestimate since such data with minor exceptions only pertains to unemployment among educated urban dwellers in India. The vast millions of unemployed, under-employed and casually employed rural youth do not enter into official statistics at all.
Dismantling of the public sector and downsizing of the state coupled with all round liberalization of the economy including import liberalization have already led to unprecedented de-industrialization, under utilization of industrial capacity and closing down of hundreds of thousands of factories throwing millions of workers out of employment. Even today, while 90 percent of the organized sector employment is still provided by the dwindling public sector, the expanding private sector in the newly emerging money-spinning and speculative areas mainly provides part-time, casual and contract employment without job security. The naked entry of corporate finance capital into transportation, communication and other service sectors with their capital-intensive and labour-displacing technologies coupled with all pervasive automation and computerization in banking, administration, railways etc. have intensified under imperialist globalization. The fact of declining employment growth rate remains true even if we take into account all kinds of employment such as agricultural employment, self-employment, house-hold sector employment and similar other informal sector jobs. The recent global economic melt-down and abrupt reduction in outsourcing activities have further aggravated the unemployment situation in the country.
As a matter of fact this worsening of the employment situation is integrally linked with the neo-colonial policies that serve speculative imperialist capital which is reluctant to create or maintain jobs as it reduces the share of profits in gross production. In that sense, the mass unemployment and under-employment today are rooted in the crisis of capital accumulation confronting imperialism. That is, in its mad rush across the globe for increasing profit rate, imperialist finance capital utilizing its comprador sections is shifting the burden of its crisis to the shoulders of world people through unemployment and under-employment.
Unemployment is the biggest challenge to the youth. Lack of productive employment not only results in the destruction of the physical and mental faculties of the youth but also leads to irreparable national and social waste. At the same time, imperialism by promoting its decadent culture and by unleashing reactionary forces is weaning large number of unemployed and frustrated youth to mafia and criminal gangs, to subserve its nefarious ends. The task of the RYFI is to defeat this counter-revolutionary trend by organizing powerful struggles to compel the ruling classes to provide adequate unemployment opportunities for the youth.
However, it is to be reiterated that employment opportunities can be created only through a reversal of the liberalization-privatization-globalization policies unleashed by imperialism using its subservient comprador Indian State. While raising this basic slogan, the youth of the country should demand the government to provide education and unemployment to all and compel it to incorporate the right to education and work as a fundamental right. In the immediate context, if the government cannot provide employment to all youth it should give an unemployment allowance equivalent to minimum wages capable of meeting at least the basic needs of life. In this context, taking the various aspects related to the causes and consequence of unemployment into consideration, the All India Conference of RYFI calls upon the youth of India to come forward for uncompromising struggles against the comprador Indian State for achieving the objective of education and employment as a fundamental right to all.
Reverse Liberalization-Privatizations-Globalization Policies !
Provide Education and Employment to All !
Incorporate Education and the Right to Work as Fundamental Rights !
Provide Unemployment Allowance Equivalent to Minimum Wages Per Month to All Unemployed Youth !
2. Resolution against Price Rise
Prices of food and essential items which are indispensable for the sustenance of broad masses of people are galloping without any let up. This irreversible trend of rising prices is quite unprecedented in the entire history of our country. Obviously, this ever-mounting prices are the direct outcome of neo-liberal policies of globalization, liberalization and privatization by successive governments both at the centre and state level during the last two decades and especially since 2004 when the Manmohan Singh led UPA government intensified neo-colonization of the country in all fields.
It is now widely known that the immediate cause for this unprecedented price rise has been the abolition of all governmental control and restrictions on market forces on the one hand, and government’s withdrawal from public distribution system and public procurement of food gains and all controls on the grains trade on the other. Market liberalization has unleashed the forces of speculation who have indulged in large scale black-marketing and hoarding of food grains and essential items with the connivance of the government itself.
Under instructions from imperialist forces, the central government has demolished the PDS, first by classifying the people under PDS into APL and BPL categories and denying subsidized food to the former and then by drastically reducing the number of families under BPL in the name of Targeted Public Distribution System imposed by World Bank. Along with this, the government has progressively withdrawn from public procurement of food grains. Instead the government has allowed speculative giants such as Reliance to start procuring of food grains from peasants who are compelled to resort to distress sales during harvesting season. In fact, while Manmohan government is closing down FCI godowns in various parts of the country, leading speculators such as Reliance are taking them on lease basis for hoarding huge food grain stocks accumulated by them. Coupled with this, the crucial reason for the recent sky-rocketing prices of food grains has been the permission granted to speculators to engage in futures trading. In the meanwhile, all erstwhile regulations like Essential Commodities act are being repealed at the behest of speculators.
While all kinds of market intervention policies by government are curtailed, global retail giants and corporate houses are permitted to monopolize even retail trade throughout the country. Consequently, propelled by extreme greed for high profit margins at the retail level, the retail monopolies artificially raise retail prices which are several times higher than whole sale prices. This also enables the government to carry on its false propaganda of low inflation quoting wholesale prices which are not experienced by common people.
It is really horrible that this biggest ever price rise is occurring at a critical juncture of ever-declining real wages of workers and purchasing power of peasantry and broad masses of toiling people in our country and at a time when unemployment is growing rapidly. In the name of balancing the budget, while all kinds of subsidies to poor people, agricultural support programs and welfare payments are being taken away, lakhs of crores rupees of tax money is liberally bestowed on financial speculators in the name of stimulus packages. The Manmohan government is a government of financial speculators and traitors and is against the common people. It is high time for the youth to rise up in revolt against the traitorous Manmohan government to force it to retract from the neo-colonial policies that lead to spiraling prices. We call upon the youth to launch an all India uncompromising struggle and be prepared to go to any extent to express their fury to compel the government to withdraw the policies that create price-rise.
3. Resolution on the Struggle against Cultural Degeneration
The ruling classes, in the phase of neo-colonialism uses various devices to enslave the most active and energetic section of society, the youth. When in response to their natural tendency to rebel, the youth comes out on to the streets, new vices are invented to derail them and to mould their thinking in the wrong direction. TV channels promote westernized consumerist culture with the ramp culture of beauty contests and various degenerated imperialist culture. While the media is utilizing the ramp and reality show culture, the most backward, obscurantist, revivalist feudal culture are also promoted. Very often, in the name of using ‘eastern mysticism’ to get relief from western consumerism, a bastardized version of both is put forward as a radical culture. Such backward culture has allowed a revival of the most heinous forms of caste oppression in the name of “honour killing”, etc. as witnessed in Haryana.
Instead of developing love for their country and the people the youth are increasingly turned into individualistic, self-centred and pro-imperialist. Bollywood stars are being made role models in place of Shahid Bhagat Singh and other martyrs. Careerism taking the place of social commitment, chauvinism in place of patriotism, enslavement in the name of self reliance, gang war in place of class war, fanatical Hindutvavadi attacks and atrocities against women and girls in the name of protecting Indian culture are the concepts which are sought to be forced upon the youth. The All India Conference of the RYFI strongly condemns these attempts and conspiracies of the vested interests to spread decadent culture to misguide the youth. This Conference calls upon the youth to fight against all forms of imperialist and feudal culture and to struggle for the creation of a progressive, democratic and socialist culture.
This Conference calls upon the youth to develop appropriate forms to immediately take these cultural struggles into the streets.
Resist the existing decadent culture !
Advance along the path of revolutionary democratic progressive culture !