All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) is a fighting trade union centre of the Indian working class. Its founding conference was held in Chennai in May 1989. The second and third all-India conferences were held respectively in Calcutta (May 1992) and Patna (September 1995). Now the Fourth All India Conference was held in Delhi from September 22 to 24. Which was preceded by an all-India workers’ rally in the capital on September 21.
The 1990s has been the most challenging decade for the Indian trade union movement. Far from reversing the course of India’s economic stagnation and decline, the New Economic and Industrial Policies being followed since July 1991 seem only to have aggravated the situation. And for the working class, the new policies have led to large-scale disappearance of jobs, extensive erosion of wages and working conditions and severe curtailment of basic trade union rights.
Through its own affiliates and as a consistent constituent of the sponsoring Committee of Indian Trade Unions, it has been AICCTU’s sincere effort to enable the trade union movement in India to face this growing threat to India’s economic sovereignty and to the basic rights and interests of our workers. AICCTU’s motto of organising the unorganised and unionising the ununionised has established it as a trusted trade union centre among large sections of the most exploited and oppressed workers in different corners of India.
From the small and medium factory workers in Chennai to the jute mill workers around Calcutta, from the textile workers in Kanpur and Ahmedabad to the transport workers of Delhi, from the powerloom and beedi workers of Tamil Nadu to the tea plantation workers of Assam, from the coal miners of Bihar to the contract labourers and quarry workers of Chhattishgarh, from the low-paid migrant labourers in Ludhiana to the construction workers in Jaipur, AICCTU has been steadily expanding its fighting network.
With its growing profile as an emerging centre of revolutionary trade unionism in India, AICCTU has also established solidarity links with the trade union movements in other parts of the world. The forthcoming September Conference in Delhi is expected to bring together nearly a thousand leading activists, men as well as women, from different industries/occupations in different parts of the country. Trade union leaders from some foreign countries are also expected to participate.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 1. AICCTU stands for a resolute resistance to the offensive of capital against the Indian working class and the trade union movement. It is determined to put up a consistent fight in defence and for the extension of the rights and dignity of all workers and strive for the establishment of a socialist order in the country through the complete democratisation of political, economic and socio-cultural life. 2. Thorough democratisation of economic life entails: ) encouragement of rapid and balanced development of the Indian economy through unleashing the productive energies of the working people, utilising the full potential of other productive resources, extending the control of the direct producers over the means of production and enhancing the say of the working people in economic decision-making at every level. b) checking the indiscriminate entry of foreign capital and breaking the hold of big business houses over joint stock companies. ) reinvigorating and restructuring the state sectors with particular emphasis on democratic management comprising the representatives of workers, technocrats and professionals. d) confiscation of all illegal assets and black money in the country and abroad. e) thoroughgoing land reforms and infrastructure development in rural areas; ensuring minimum wages, round the year employment opportunities and sufficient landholdings for housing and sideline production to be provided for each agrarian labourer household. . AICCTU will rally the Indian working class to fight for the overthrow of the domination of the Indian economy by multinational capital and its domestic allies. 4. AICCTU fights against all fundamentalist-obscurantist ideas and organisations and strives to develop a scientific outlook and modern cultural values among the working class. 5. AICCTU fights a) for full democratic rights of the Indian people particularly of the rural poor, oppressed nationalities, women, national minorities and dalits. ) for enforcing the right to work and provision of social insurance for the old, weak and disabled. c) for a needs-based minimum wage leading to the formulation of a uniform national wage policy and for implementation of the principle of equal pay for equal work. d) for proper education, housing and health care services. e) for introducing a six-hour working day with overall improvement in working conditions. ) for greater participation of women in organised production, the eradication of gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace, and for securing equal rights and full maternity benefits to all women workers. g) for abolition of child labour and all forms of bonded labour. h) against the cotract labour and all forms of bonded labour. i) against industrial pollution, environmental degradation and industrial health hazards and for adequate safety measures to prevent industrial accidents. ) for abolition of all occupations which go against basic human dignity and full provision of alternative employment for the affected workers. 6. AICCTU strives to build up solidarity with working class movements in other countries, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, against imperialist plunder and domination and to promote class unity among workers of South Asian countries against the regional hegemonism of Indian ruling classes. AICCTU Central Office U-90 Shakarpur Delhi 110092