TAMILNADU - STRUGGLE RESTORES NOT ONLY PATH, DIGNITY TOO!

Ganesh

MEDIA may have got tired saying "untouchable wall". They coined a different word to describe the wall in Salem. It was "Salem’s wall of Shame". It was really shameful, since the wall existed in the 42nd ward of the Salem Corporation for the last 15 years. The wall was about 20 metres long and 10 feet in height. Shame wall separates Raman Colony where the Arunthathiyars live and VOC Nagar. This issue was taken up by the Democratic Youth Federation of India initially and they had organised a demonstration. When they announced that a relay hunger strike will be organised, the administration had started intervening in the issue. The Tamilnadu Untouchability Eradication Front had also protested against the wall.

Initially, the administration was trying to create a wedge between the democratic forces and the people living on the other side of the wall. They tried to pass on a misinformation saying that the dalit population was interested only in settling the old issues like basic amenities to their area. But, the Arunthathiyars of Raman Colony stood behind the TNUEF and the DYFI. A peace committee meeting was arranged by the district officials. In that, it was decided to settle the issue amicably. The TNUEF and the DYFI were firm in their stand. It was people's will that the wall should be demolished.

The caste Hindus had tried to create confusion by saying that the wall was constructed on the patta land. On this, the TNUEF and the DYFI had demanded a re-survey. But the process at the official end was going on at a snail's pace. Hence, the TNUEF had decided to conduct a demonstration to demand the speedy disposal. On August 9, many volunteers from the TNUEF, DYFI, SFI and AIDWA took part in the demonstration. P Sampath, president, TNUEF presided over the programme. In his speech, he described the wall as a shame on civil society and insisted that there is an urgent need to demolish the same. He also demanded that basic amenities should be provided to the dalit population in their habitation.

When the survey was conducted, it became clear that the wall was constructed illegally. With pressure mounting up, the district administration had no other option but to demolish the illegal structure. On August 13, "Shame wall" was brought down. The people welcomed the action and the mood was celebrative among the 500 Arunthathiyar families. They thanked the TNUEF and the DYFI for settling the issue that was troubling them for the last 15 years. It was their feeling that the struggle not only restored their path but also their dignity.

The TNUEF has also decided to take up other issues which haunt the dalits. Drainage, street lights and drinking water facilities still elude them. They have not been issued the house pattas. The public toilets in that area are in very bad condition. The struggle will continue for such facilities.

Courtesy: People's Democracy

TAMILNADU NEWSLETTER - PUNISH LAND GRABBERS IRRESPECTIVE OF POLITICAL AFFILIATION IN TAMILNADU: CPI (M)

S P Rajendran

PERSONS involved in land grabbing must be punished irrespective of their political affiliations and this has always been the stand of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Party state secretary G Ramakrishnan said in an interview at Coimbatore on August 11

On the charges by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) that complaints against All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) functionaries ended in compromise and only DMK men were targeted, he said “whoever is involved should be punished no matter which party they belonged to.” The highest number of land grab cases, however, had taken place over the last five years.

On the DMK moving the High Court, seeking to quash the government order for the formation of police special cells to deal with the land grabbing cases, Ramakrishnan said that the DMK in its general council at Coimbatore last month passed a resolution stating that land grabbers, even if they were DMK men, could be legally dealt with but such complaints should not be used against DMK for political vendetta.

The special cell would only file a case and it was only the special courts (recently announced by the government) that would deal with these cases, Ramakrishnan said. The DMK leadership should explain why it moved the court seeking to quash the GO. He wanted to know whether the DMK was of the opinion that there was no land grab during its five-year rule or if it was trying to protect its men involved in these cases, contrary to its resolution at the general council.

With regard to the Siruthavur land grab case, Ramakrishnan said “the CPI (M) had always been firm that the lands should be restored to rightful owners, even when the Justice P Sivasubramanian commission recommended for restoring the lands and handing it over to some other beneficiaries.” Ramakrishnan also wanted to know from Karunanidhi why he failed to take action on the issue during his tenure as chief minister and also on why he did not take action on the commission report for nearly two years.

CPI (M) FOR AUTONOMY TO SRI LANKAN TAMILS

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) called for specific measures for “the devolution of autonomy to the Tamil-speaking areas” of Sri Lanka at a massive demonstration in Chennai on August 9.

“Though two years have passed since the end of armed conflict in Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan government has not taken any worthwhile steps to reach a political settlement on the Tamil question,” G Ramakrishnan charged while addressing the protest.

Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa had promised a political settlement after the war, but no progress had been made and now the defence minister of Sri Lanka and brother of the president, Gothabaya Rajabakshe commented against the devolution demand.

“It is essential that specific measures are taken for the devolution of autonomy to the Tamil-speaking areas of northern and eastern regions so that the Tamil people can live a life of dignity and as equal citizens within a united Sri Lanka,” he said.

He also called for stepping up of efforts to rehabilitate those displaced during the conflict and a high-level enquiry into the allegations of atrocities and human rights violations by the armed forces.

Earlier he and A Soundararajan, Legislative leader of the Party inaugurated a signature campaign on the issue. Maduravoyal MLA K Bhim Rao, former MLA S K Mahendran, South and North Chennai district secretaries A Backiyam and T K Shanmugam also spoke. The protest had taken place across the state including Maduai and Coimbatore.

FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION

On the eve of the 65th Independence Day, CPI (M) state committee organised an anti-corruption movement in front of Gandhi statue at the Marina Beach of Chennai.

N Sankaraiah, veteran leader and the chairman of the Central Control Commission of the Party presided over and read out an oath against corruption and for purity in public life. Party state secretary G Ramakrishnan, Central Committee members T K Rangarajan MP, U Vasuki, Legislative Party leader A Soundararajan, P R Natarajan MP, Party MLAs district leaders and hundreds of people participated and took oath.

While addressing the gathering, N Sankaraiah called for a stronger Lokpal bill and criticised the UPA government for destroying the nation with the cancer of corruption in all spheres.

CORRUPTION IN PUDHUCHERRY

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) had appealed to the Central Bureau of Investigation to widen the scope of probe into irregularities in the construction of houses for tsunami-affected people in Puducherry.

Addressing a joint press conference on August 9 in Pudhucherry, Tamilnadu state committee member of the P arty T Murugan and secretary of the Pradesh committee of the CPI (M) V Perumal said the irregularities should be investigated completely. The role of chief minister N Rangasamy, under whose earlier tenure the tsunami rehabilitation process started, and former chief minister V Vaithilingam and ministers should also be investigated, they said.

While seeking the removal of collector G Ragesh Chandra, against whom the CBI is conducting an investigation, Perumal said one official alone cannot be held accountable for the irregularities. Pointing out that the project implementation agency was governed by a seven-member committee, Murugan said all decisions were taken by the committee and the collector was only a member.

The committee headed by chief secretary takes decisions on the works to be undertaken for tsunami rehabilitation, he said, adding that such decisions are implemented with the approval of government. The investigation should not be limited to a few officials, he added.

Urging the government to issue a white paper on the amount of money received by the territorial administration from union government and other agencies, he said the Party from the beginning had been complaining of misuse of funds earmarked for tsunami rehabilitation.

Murugan said the Party would stage a demonstration in front of the Raj Nivas if Lt Governor Iqbal Singh decided to give his customary address in the assembly on August 18.

Courtesy: People's Democracy

TWO DECADES OF NEO-LIBERAL REFORMS - THE WORSENING EMPLOYMENT SITUATION

Utsa Patnaik

TWO decades after neo-liberal economic reforms started in India as part of the agenda of imperialist globalisation, the condition of the masses of the labouring poor is worse in every part of the country except where some positive intervention has taken place to stabilise livelihoods. The richest minority at the top of the income pyramid is far richer than ever before, better off even than advanced country middle classes for they command extremely cheap services from the mass of the labouring poor whose bargaining position is lowered owing to rising unemployment and the resulting constant addition to the reserve army of labour. The three issues which most concern the masses today are, the increasing levels of unemployment as high GDP growth fails to translate into increasing jobs; the high rate of inflation in prices of basic necessities which is eroding their already low purchasing power; and in rural areas, the attempt to take over their lands and resources by corporate entities, usually actively aided by governments.

HEGEMONIC ROLE OF FINANCE CAPITAL

The ruling classes in this country have long forgotten that ‘development’ means improving the well being of ordinary people. They have long subscribed to the ideology of finance capital which continues to play a hegemonic role despite global economic and financial crisis, and which entails an obsession with the rate of growth of GDP to the exclusion of any concern about how this growth takes place, how it is distributed and who it benefits. They seem to subscribe to a crude form of ‘trickle-down’ theory in which if the rich get richer, automatically the poor are supposed to benefit through the increased demand for goods and services on the part of the rich.

What is actually happening is a dangerous combination of two trends – first, there has been a fairly drastic slowing down of the expansion of material production especially in the vital primary sector, agriculture and allied activities, and in particular the key crop, foodgrains, has seen falling per capita output. This has happened because for the best part of two decades through its new public reform policies, the State has actively attacked the small producers and created an agrarian crisis which has by no means ended but is intensifying into the struggle for retaining land.

Second, the type of growth which has taken place and given high numbers for GDP expansion has been acutely lopsided with services now accounting for three-fifths of GDP and agriculture as well as manufacturing being relegated to contributing less than a fifth and less than a quarter respectively. Enrichment of the minority has meant a boom in construction and in eating out and travelling on their part including foreign travel. Construction and the so-called hospitality sector are the only ones generating some employment while in the material producing sectors the job situation is dismal. Minority enrichment has produced speculative real estate operations and an attack on the small property of farmers – in the name of development projects or of Special Economic Zones which are but a front for real estate speculation, a pittance is paid for taking over farmers’ lands, a process which the farmers have at last now started resisting actively.

As we know, high GDP growth has not been producing jobs. This is bound to happen under capitalist production in the long run since capitalists are motivated by profitability and are prepared to dispense with hiring labour completely if a machine can do the job and give them higher profits. The very fact of technological change and higher labour productivity means higher joblessness and this is added to when the State misguidedly cuts back on development spending in the name of fiscal discipline. Between 1993-4 and 2004-5 the National Sample Survey (NSS) data showed that unemployment for both men and women had risen in both rural and in urban India. With the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) being implemented it was expected that the rural unemployment situation would improve. In India as a whole, the recent 66th Round, 2009-10 Employment and Unemployment Survey, of the NSS shows a rise in rural unemployment rates with a much steeper rise for women compared to men.

Table 1 Rural Unemployment Rates 1993-4 and 2009-10

RURAL	MALES
	Weekly	Daily	Usual
	Status	Status	Status
1993-94	30	56	20
2009-10	32	64	19
RURAL FEMALES
	Weekly	Daily	Usual
	Status	status	Status
1993-94	30	56	14
2009-10	37	80	24

Source: NSS 66th Round, 2009-10 Key Indicators of Employment and Unemployment in India Note: Unemployment rates are the number of persons/days unemployed per thousand persons/days of labour force, namely employed plus unemployed. Usual (principal) status is a measure of chronic unemployment since the reference period is one year while the shorter reference period for weekly and daily status give correspondingly higher rates of unemployed days.

ADVERSE CHANGES

There are problems with obtaining the rate of growth of employment by applying the participation rates of the NSS to the Census population totals, as is usually done. The NSS samples households and asks questions to households alone while the population includes additionally lakhs of unemployed families migrating in search of work, and people in non-household institutions. Still if this method is used in the absence of data permitting anything better, we see a collapse of employment growth in recent years as a previous article in the July 31, 2011 issue of People’s Democracy has established, particularly in rural India. While between 1999-2000 and 2004-05 rural employment is estimated to have grown at 2.2 per cent annually, in the period 2004-5 to 2009-10 it grew at only 0.42 per cent annually. Given the impact of global recession since 2008 combined with inadequate revival of public spending, the outcome is not surprising and would have been even worse without the MGNREGS which has helped in the states where it has been implemented properly.

The significance of the rise in rural unemployment and the lack of concern with it, has to be understood in the context of the fallacious official view that it does not really matter if people are unable to find work within the primary sector because in any case they should be moving out into more productive occupations outside agriculture. Development has always meant a fall in the share of the population dependent on agriculture and a rise in the share drawing their income from manufacturing and services and India will follow the same route, or so it is claimed. This argument is also presented to justify the displacement of peasant producers from the land through processes of primitive accumulation such as land acquisition by the State for setting up SEZs or for handing over to the corporate sector. The argument is logically unsound since countries with large labour reserves like India and China can never solve their employment problem without active measures to support peasant production and follow labour intensive growth strategies, which are anathema to capitalists. In today’s advanced countries the problem of unemployment owing to technical change and the inability of capitalism to provide rational labour-absorption strategies, was historically ‘solved’ through a process of massive grabbing by Europeans of land and resources from indigenous peoples mainly in the Americas, and large-scale out-migration of their own displaced workers – 50 million Europeans migrated in the century after 1821 in one of the greatest land-grabs in history. Needless to say quite apart from the ethics of such a solution, it is not open to our country today.

To think complacently that displaced peasants will automatically find livelihoods elsewhere within our economy is a mistaken idea. This dismal employment situation is the result of a combination of expenditure-contracting fiscal policies in the neo-liberal era and technological change. In the first four decades after Independence however growth was spurred by large-scale public spending under the Plans and was much more socially broad based. The State followed expansionary fiscal policies spending a great deal on rural development projects and on building up a manufacturing base in the public sector. The NSS data showed that employment was growing much faster than the labour force hence unemployment was declining – this is the main reason that land acquisition for development did not face the bitter resistance it does today. This is not to say that there were no problems – there was distress. But those whose land was acquired could on the whole be absorbed into other jobs, mainly as wage paid labour.

Since economic reforms started two decades ago, the general job situation has become much worse. Retrenchment of employees in the public utilities, large reductions in development spending and privatisation all contributed to job loss. The Indian State cut back sharply on development spending and the results are there to see from successive National Sample Survey studies – a sharp reduction in material growth indicators, a rise in unemployment for male and female workers both rural and urban. The net change in employment between 1993 and 2009-10 therefore has been adverse as the table shows, and would have been even worse if the MGNREGS had not been implemented. The actual employment loss is greater than the figures show as people losing regular jobs have to get by somehow with petty low-productivity activities and report themselves as being ‘self-employed’.

In such a situation of disappearing job alternatives, the rural producer with a bit of land will naturally cling to it and will resist any attempt at dispossession. That bit of land is security against unemployment and destitution. No matter if the neo-liberal attack on agriculture combined with exposure to global price volatility, has caused acute agrarian distress and made farming so unviable especially in the case of many export crops, that lakhs of farmers have been driven to suicide owing to indebtedness. It is highly significant that farmers and rural communities are struggling against land acquisition because it means that from passive forms of protest – suicide – they have turned at last to active forms of resistance. A decade ago this author, when drawing attention to the agrarian crisis long brewing in the countryside, was told that if things were actually that bad then peasants themselves would be protesting which they were not. No one can put forward such an argument for ignoring agrarian distress now. Peasants are slow to move, but when they do start moving then no force can hold them back.

Courtesy: People's Democracy

TWO DECADES OF NEO-LIBERAL REFORMS - THE WORSENING EMPLOYMENT SITUATION

Utsa Patnaik

TWO decades after neo-liberal economic reforms started in India as part of the agenda of imperialist globalisation, the condition of the masses of the labouring poor is worse in every part of the country except where some positive intervention has taken place to stabilise livelihoods. The richest minority at the top of the income pyramid is far richer than ever before, better off even than advanced country middle classes for they command extremely cheap services from the mass of the labouring poor whose bargaining position is lowered owing to rising unemployment and the resulting constant addition to the reserve army of labour. The three issues which most concern the masses today are, the increasing levels of unemployment as high GDP growth fails to translate into increasing jobs; the high rate of inflation in prices of basic necessities which is eroding their already low purchasing power; and in rural areas, the attempt to take over their lands and resources by corporate entities, usually actively aided by governments.

HEGEMONIC ROLE OF FINANCE CAPITAL

The ruling classes in this country have long forgotten that ‘development’ means improving the well being of ordinary people. They have long subscribed to the ideology of finance capital which continues to play a hegemonic role despite global economic and financial crisis, and which entails an obsession with the rate of growth of GDP to the exclusion of any concern about how this growth takes place, how it is distributed and who it benefits. They seem to subscribe to a crude form of ‘trickle-down’ theory in which if the rich get richer, automatically the poor are supposed to benefit through the increased demand for goods and services on the part of the rich.

What is actually happening is a dangerous combination of two trends – first, there has been a fairly drastic slowing down of the expansion of material production especially in the vital primary sector, agriculture and allied activities, and in particular the key crop, foodgrains, has seen falling per capita output. This has happened because for the best part of two decades through its new public reform policies, the State has actively attacked the small producers and created an agrarian crisis which has by no means ended but is intensifying into the struggle for retaining land.

Second, the type of growth which has taken place and given high numbers for GDP expansion has been acutely lopsided with services now accounting for three-fifths of GDP and agriculture as well as manufacturing being relegated to contributing less than a fifth and less than a quarter respectively. Enrichment of the minority has meant a boom in construction and in eating out and travelling on their part including foreign travel. Construction and the so-called hospitality sector are the only ones generating some employment while in the material producing sectors the job situation is dismal. Minority enrichment has produced speculative real estate operations and an attack on the small property of farmers – in the name of development projects or of Special Economic Zones which are but a front for real estate speculation, a pittance is paid for taking over farmers’ lands, a process which the farmers have at last now started resisting actively.

As we know, high GDP growth has not been producing jobs. This is bound to happen under capitalist production in the long run since capitalists are motivated by profitability and are prepared to dispense with hiring labour completely if a machine can do the job and give them higher profits. The very fact of technological change and higher labour productivity means higher joblessness and this is added to when the State misguidedly cuts back on development spending in the name of fiscal discipline. Between 1993-4 and 2004-5 the National Sample Survey (NSS) data showed that unemployment for both men and women had risen in both rural and in urban India. With the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) being implemented it was expected that the rural unemployment situation would improve. In India as a whole, the recent 66th Round, 2009-10 Employment and Unemployment Survey, of the NSS shows a rise in rural unemployment rates with a much steeper rise for women compared to men.

Table 1 Rural Unemployment Rates 1993-4 and 2009-10

RURAL	MALES
	Weekly	Daily	Usual
	Status	Status	Status
1993-94	30	56	20
2009-10	32	64	19
RURAL FEMALES
	Weekly	Daily	Usual
	Status	status	Status
1993-94	30	56	14
2009-10	37	80	24

Source: NSS 66th Round, 2009-10 Key Indicators of Employment and Unemployment in India Note: Unemployment rates are the number of persons/days unemployed per thousand persons/days of labour force, namely employed plus unemployed. Usual (principal) status is a measure of chronic unemployment since the reference period is one year while the shorter reference period for weekly and daily status give correspondingly higher rates of unemployed days.

ADVERSE CHANGES

There are problems with obtaining the rate of growth of employment by applying the participation rates of the NSS to the Census population totals, as is usually done. The NSS samples households and asks questions to households alone while the population includes additionally lakhs of unemployed families migrating in search of work, and people in non-household institutions. Still if this method is used in the absence of data permitting anything better, we see a collapse of employment growth in recent years as a previous article in the July 31, 2011 issue of People’s Democracy has established, particularly in rural India. While between 1999-2000 and 2004-05 rural employment is estimated to have grown at 2.2 per cent annually, in the period 2004-5 to 2009-10 it grew at only 0.42 per cent annually. Given the impact of global recession since 2008 combined with inadequate revival of public spending, the outcome is not surprising and would have been even worse without the MGNREGS which has helped in the states where it has been implemented properly.

The significance of the rise in rural unemployment and the lack of concern with it, has to be understood in the context of the fallacious official view that it does not really matter if people are unable to find work within the primary sector because in any case they should be moving out into more productive occupations outside agriculture. Development has always meant a fall in the share of the population dependent on agriculture and a rise in the share drawing their income from manufacturing and services and India will follow the same route, or so it is claimed. This argument is also presented to justify the displacement of peasant producers from the land through processes of primitive accumulation such as land acquisition by the State for setting up SEZs or for handing over to the corporate sector. The argument is logically unsound since countries with large labour reserves like India and China can never solve their employment problem without active measures to support peasant production and follow labour intensive growth strategies, which are anathema to capitalists. In today’s advanced countries the problem of unemployment owing to technical change and the inability of capitalism to provide rational labour-absorption strategies, was historically ‘solved’ through a process of massive grabbing by Europeans of land and resources from indigenous peoples mainly in the Americas, and large-scale out-migration of their own displaced workers – 50 million Europeans migrated in the century after 1821 in one of the greatest land-grabs in history. Needless to say quite apart from the ethics of such a solution, it is not open to our country today.

To think complacently that displaced peasants will automatically find livelihoods elsewhere within our economy is a mistaken idea. This dismal employment situation is the result of a combination of expenditure-contracting fiscal policies in the neo-liberal era and technological change. In the first four decades after Independence however growth was spurred by large-scale public spending under the Plans and was much more socially broad based. The State followed expansionary fiscal policies spending a great deal on rural development projects and on building up a manufacturing base in the public sector. The NSS data showed that employment was growing much faster than the labour force hence unemployment was declining – this is the main reason that land acquisition for development did not face the bitter resistance it does today. This is not to say that there were no problems – there was distress. But those whose land was acquired could on the whole be absorbed into other jobs, mainly as wage paid labour.

Since economic reforms started two decades ago, the general job situation has become much worse. Retrenchment of employees in the public utilities, large reductions in development spending and privatisation all contributed to job loss. The Indian State cut back sharply on development spending and the results are there to see from successive National Sample Survey studies – a sharp reduction in material growth indicators, a rise in unemployment for male and female workers both rural and urban. The net change in employment between 1993 and 2009-10 therefore has been adverse as the table shows, and would have been even worse if the MGNREGS had not been implemented. The actual employment loss is greater than the figures show as people losing regular jobs have to get by somehow with petty low-productivity activities and report themselves as being ‘self-employed’.

In such a situation of disappearing job alternatives, the rural producer with a bit of land will naturally cling to it and will resist any attempt at dispossession. That bit of land is security against unemployment and destitution. No matter if the neo-liberal attack on agriculture combined with exposure to global price volatility, has caused acute agrarian distress and made farming so unviable especially in the case of many export crops, that lakhs of farmers have been driven to suicide owing to indebtedness. It is highly significant that farmers and rural communities are struggling against land acquisition because it means that from passive forms of protest – suicide – they have turned at last to active forms of resistance. A decade ago this author, when drawing attention to the agrarian crisis long brewing in the countryside, was told that if things were actually that bad then peasants themselves would be protesting which they were not. No one can put forward such an argument for ignoring agrarian distress now. Peasants are slow to move, but when they do start moving then no force can hold them back.

Courtesy: People's Democracy