Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (NR)

Mangalore, Nov 29: A joint meeting was organized here recently of the left-wing trade, labour and employees’ unions from the district, who have planned to launch an agitation on December 4 to coincide with a nation-wide stir on that day. The participants here pledged support for the December 4 agitation against the Union Government’s purported “anti-worker” and “anti-people” policies and for seeking redressal of their 18-point demand.

State unit general secretary of AITUC, Anantha Subba Rao talking at this meet held to mobilize support for the agitation, urged the participants to support the movement. According to him the public distribution system had collapsed, the Indo-U S nuclear deal compromised with Indian sovereignty and the unorganized sector was in the doldrums. He therefore exhorted the participating workers to support and do their very best in pursuit of “true liberty and egalitarianism”.

Another speaker on the occasion the State unit president of CITU B Madhava, focused on the issue of land reforms and its implementation and avered that all the said 18 demands within were important. He opined that economic independence can take place only by bringing people to the mainstream economic activity, and that can be done only through land redistribution, he added.

In this context he said “Land should be given to the tiller and the agricultural labourer, and not the multi-national companies for special economic zones,” and even cautioned against the free-run given to big corporations in the retail sector and said this was going to have dire results.