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CPI-M's bid to control trade union arm brews discord

G Iype in Ernakulam

A controversial document of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, imposing stiff rules and regulations on the party affiliate Central Indian Trade Union, is threatening to split India's largest trade union confederation.

The document prepared by the CPI-M's Kerala committee, on request from the party's apex Politburo, stipulates that the CITU should submit its accounts to the party leadership for scrutiny.

It also seeks to tighten the CPI-M's grip over the trade union organisation by insisting that no CITU member should contest against the party nominees in all elections to trade unions across the country.

CITU leaders opposed to the document allege that pressure from the two CPM-led state governments in West Bengal and Kerala forced the party leadership to scout for these unprecedented rules.

CPI-M insiders said the attempt is not to stifle the CITU, but to ensure that the party's trade union wing does not become a parallel power centre, especially in West Bengal and Kerala.

"There have been many instances when the CITU acted against the wishes of the party and our ruling partners in Kerala and West Bengal. CITU is a CPI-M wing and it has to remain so," a senior CPI-M leader told rediff.com.

Therefore, he said, the Politburo felt that a document containing certain rules and regulations be imposed on the CITU to avoid friction.

But trade union leaders such as M K Pandhe and R Umanath -- two CITU nominees on the CPI-M Politburo -- have threatened to walk out of the party if it does not withdraw the document immediately.

A meeting of the CPI-M Politburo being held in Calcutta on Friday and Saturday is expected to take up the row for discussion.

The Politburo will also take up the task of updating the party's programme, which many within the party argue is outdated and irrelevant in the present era. If the apex decision-making body makes any changes in the party programmes and policies, it would be the first instance of such an exercise ever since its formation in 1964.

But party leaders insist that there is nothing in the trade union document that threatens to pit the CITU against the CPI-M.

According to Politburo member S Ramachandra Pillai, the document adopted by the party is not a new one. "Way back in 1983, the party had prepared a similar document that dealt with the relationship between the CPI-M and the CITU," he told rediff.com.

He said a few "expelled members of the CPI-M" are raking up the issue now to destroy the relationship between the CPI-M and CITU.

However, CITU leaders opposed to the document argue that the document is a totally distorted version of the 1983 paper.

"It is an unwritten code in the party that the CITU is not just an adjunct of the CPI-M. Therefore, the Poliburo's decision to rein in CITU smacks of totalitarianism," V B Cherian, the former CITU national secretary, who was expelled from the party last year, told rediff.com.

He said the party has "lost its touch with the class and its mass organisations. It now wants to rule the trade union which will only lead to a virtual split in the orgnisation," Cherian added.

But not many in the party expect that a compromise on the issue will be reached between the CPI-M Poliburo and the CITU leadership.

However, party leaders pointed out that to save the CITU from a split, the Politburo might appoint a trade union sub-committee to study the objections raised by the CITU leaders.

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Kerala