The Chief Economic Advisor to Government, Kaushik Basu, has stated that the increasing wages is the reason for the inflation. Wonderful!
The wages are increased mainly to catch up with the cost of living indexes caused due to increase in prices. Even then, only a portion of the increased prices are given by the government through increase in D.A. The Chief Economic Advisor is not against the high hikes of the top level management or corporates. He is pointing to the wages of the workers.
This statement is part of the strategy to attack the rights of the workers to increase their wages. It is such anti-people, anti-worker policies which has created anger amongst the people and resulted in agitations all over the world.

Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, Labour Minister, has stated that the Contract Labour Act will be changed to extend all benefits of the regular workers to the contract workers.Well Indeed.
What is happening in most of the industries and government departments is that even the provisions in the Contract Labour Act are not being implemented by the employers. Take for example the BSNL, a PSU formed out of the government department.
In BSNL in most of the places the Minimum Wage announced by the Central Government is not implemented. The Social Security measures like EPF, ESI etc. are not implemented. In many places, even the records are not maintained. The Bonus has been denied. Workers are being retrenched by the employer. There is no intervention by the government despite the facts brought to it’s notice.

Large number of police cordoned off the London Stock Exchange after the ‘Occupy London” movement started strengthening. The protesters are camping near the St. Paul’s Cathedral in the heart of the city. The protesters are demanding a ‘New Democratic Financial System’. The youngsters and unemployed are fed up with the present inequal system and want a change to the system.
The big growth story and increase in GDP etc. are all only beneficial to the corporates and big financiers. The ordinary people are suffering. The protests are going to spread to all the capitalist countries.

The Delhi State Government has increased the pension for Senior Citizens above 70 from Rs.1,000 to Rs. 1,500. For those below 70, it will continue as Rs. 1,000 only. According to a statement by the Delhi Government it is paying old-age pension to 3.16 lakh senior citizens.

The National Steering Committee against PFRDA Bill has decided to organise a Parliament March on 25th November 2011 against the PFRDA Bill. BSNLEU is also part of the committee. AIBDPA has also decided to participate in the March. It is a fight by the regular employees as well as pensioners to ensure that the future generations also get the pension unhindered. Details of the PFRDA Bill has been published in the blog earlier.

Taking inspiration from the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement in New York and other cities of US, the poor and the unemployed started ‘Occupy London’ agitation in London since Saturday. Several hundreds of protesters have demonstrated on 15th and it is continuing. They have put camps near the St. Paul’s Cathedral in the central of the city.
While in US the agitation is spreading with the protesters demonstrating in about 100 cities, such protests are spreading in the European cities also.The agitation is against the inequality as also against the bankers as others who are exploiting the people and taking all benefits. It is in fact an agitation against the system itself which had failed the common people. There is the chance to spread the agitation to more cities.

The deferred strike of the BSNL Workers will now be held on 15th November 2011. The strike was decided to be organised on 10th October by the JAC on very important demands. In order to bring wider unity, the JAC decided to defer the strike. On the basis of the discussions with NFTE and its agreement to have a common date for the strike, now it has been decided to organise the strike on 15th November 2011. Let all prepare for an effective and successful strike.

During the Kerala Circle Conference of BSNL Employees Union at Kannur on 12-14 October 2011, I had the rare opportunity of meeting a lot of comrades who have worked with me earlier, many of them retired now. It was a pleasure to meet the old friends and comrades and chat about the past, present and future with them. Since I have been away from them for many years, I could see the changes in their appearances which one could not have realised if he was in constant touch with them. It may be the same for them with regard to me.
Among them, there were two very old comrades, who are brothers, who had influenced me much. They are Comrades Narayanan Master and Anandan Master, both retired as Postmasters. Narayanan Master has been one of the cause for my entering the Pand T Department resigning from the post of a teacher. I used to go to the Post Office at Mattanur where he was the Postmaster to receive the mails. He advised me to apply for the P and T jobs. At that time the applications were called for by the PMG, Madras for the posts of Postal clerks, Telephone Operators, RMS Sorters and Telegraphists. I applied for all the four cadres and was selected for all. I sought the advise of Narayanan Master which to select. He advised me that it is better to select Telephones, since there was much more opportunities. I selected the same and went to training and joined as Telephone operator at Kottayam on 02-09-1958.
Comrade Anandan Master, the younger brother, was working at Kannur when I got transferred to Kannur in 1959. Along with Comrades N.P.Padmanabhan, T.M.Janardhanan and P.Narayanan (Telephones), he was also in the leadership of the NFPTE there.Till 1964, I was at Kannur and got the opportunity to work with the above comrades, through whom I could get a lot of experience in union activities. Comrades Pappettan, Janu Master and Narayanettan are no more. But Comrade Anandattan is still with us. He came to the conference and attended for some time.
With both I discussed our old times, the experiences of the historic strike of 1960 and the present situation. All of us were happy.
I met daughter of Anandattan, who is also an activist of BSNLEU.
I visited the memorials of Pappettan and Janu Master in the Payyambalam beach and paid homage.

Communist Party of India was formed on 17th October 1920 in Tashkent by Indian revolutionaries who were out-side India at that time.
The October Revolution and the formation of the USSR gave inspiration to the people all over the world for a better society based on Socialist / Communist ideas. In India, which was under the colonial rule of the British, the impact was considerable. Although the immediate information was limited, within months the news of the revolution and the changes that is being made in the new system got publicity. The radical nationalist leader Bipin Chandra Pal expressed the situation as below:” There has grown up all over the world a new power – the power of the people, determined to rescue their legitimate rights – the rights of the people to live freely and happily without being exploited and victimised by the wealthier and so-called higher classes. This is Bolshevism”. Many more nationalist leaders welcomed the developments in Russia.
Some of the Indian revolutionaries who have gone to USSR to study the situation there were much impressed and inspired. The first Congress of the Peoples of the East held in Baku in September was participated by the seven Indian comrades also.
Shortly after the Baku Congress, the Indian emigre revolutionaries met at Taskhent on 17th October 1920 and formed the Communist Party of India. The seven comrades who formed the party were: M.N.Roy, Evelyn Trent-Roy, Abani Mukherji, Rosa Fitingov, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Shafiq and Acharya. It was reported by M.N.Roy as follows:
” The Communist elements present in Tashkent, numbering seven in all, in pursuance of their principles and the plan previously formed in conjunction with European Communists, constituted themselves in to a duly organised Communist Party of India on October 17, 1920″.
Gradually, the CPI begin to grow in India.
The communists were hunted in India and many conspiracy cases to overthrow the British Rule in India was foisted upon them and almost all the leading communists were arrested. The Peshawar, Kanpur and Meerut conspiracy cases against the Communists were intended to finish the communist movement in India at its initiative stage itself. But the Communist leaders utilised these hearings to propagate the ideals of Communism. The British could not terminate communism in India, instead it flourished.
After Independence, the CPI was split in 1964 and the CPI(Marxist) was formed in 1964. The CPI(M) is the biggest Communist Party in India at present.

Comrade Tapan Sen, Member of Parliament and General Secretary, CITU, in a letter to Prime Minister has strongly protested against the adverse comments in the Planning Commission report tarnishing Bharat Heavy Electronics Ltd (BHEL), a Navaratna company, comparing with a Chinese firm and demanded deletion of the same.
BHEL is a profitable company and with a good performance all these years. It is not understood what is the intention of maligning such a PSU. Of course it is part of the government policy to malign its own companies, the PSUs and praise the private companies.
Com. Tapan Sen wrote: ” The report is shocking, besides being ill-intentioned, as it reflects deliberate maligning and tarnishing the image of a Navaratna company owned by the Union Government in public, by an authority appointed by the same government.”
He also pointed out that the independent analyses conducted has clearly shown that BHEL in no way is inferior to the Chinese or any other company. He demanded an inquiry in the matter.