Today, I got an invitation to address a meeting of the old leaders of service and teachers unions who were part of the union activities in the 1960s, 1970s etc. which is scheduled to be held on 14th March at Calicut. This is being organised in connection with the 20th Party Congress of CPI(M) to be held at Calicut in April 2012.

During the period 1964 to 1991, I was working at Calicut, except for some years on transfer to Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram etc. In Calicut we had a very good team of workers and leaders of the service and TU organisations which functioned jointly and organised many struggles. Whether it is the 1960 or 1968 strike by the Central Government employees, the railway strike of 1974 or the various strikes of the state government employees and teachers or the struggles of the Electricity and transport workers, everyone  stood and co-operated together. The Workers Centre was the umbrella organisation which included all these unions and safeguarded the struggles.

It will be a pleasurable meeting so that the workers and leaders can exchange a lot of memories of the great struggles, agitations and the way victimisations were faced. I congratulate the organisers for this programme.