The Association of Indian Communists, Indian Workers’ Association GB in collaboration with Friends of CPI and other left organisations welcomed Comrade Sitaram Yechury to UK.

Date: 
Tuesday, July 14, 2015

 
 
The Association of Indian Communists, Indian Workers’ Association GB in collaboration with Friends of CPI and other left organisations welcomed Comrade Sitaram Yechury to UK.
 
Southall—12 July 2015today at the Public reception,The Association of Indian Communists, Indian Workers’ Association GB in collaboration with Friends of CPI and other left organisations welcomed Comrade Sitaram Yechury to UK. Over 200 people assembled in the Dominion Centre defying the torrential downpour. To provide a warm welcome to the new General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechury MP. Among them were the Member of Parliament  for Ealing Southall Virendra Sharma, the elected member of the Greater London Assembly Dr. Onkar Sahota, Polit Bureau Member of the Tudeh Party of Iran Mohamed Omidvar, the EX National President the militant Railway and Maritime Trade Union and member of the National Executive of the Communist Party of Britain Alex Gordon, the chairman of the CPGB ML Harpal Brar, Jograj Singh President of Sri Guru Ravidas Sabha, Oliver New from the Ealing Trade Union Council and Save Ealing Hospital campaign. Sarwan Zafar the leader of the friends of Communist Party of India, Joginder Bains National General Secretary of IWA GB, business leaders and representatives of NGO’s and community organisations.
The Public Reception began by paying respects and condolences to the comrades who have laid down their lives to uphold the red flag in West Bengal. Condolences were moved by standing in silence also in the memory of JagjitAnand the former editor of NayaZamana and Jujhar Singh Basi.
The Lady Mayor of the Municipality Harbhajan Kaur Dheer accompanied by her consort the Deputy Leader of the Council Ranjeet Dheer provided the civic welcome to Sitaram Yechury.
Rich tributes and messages of welcome were provided by all the speakers. There was widespread recognition and appreciation of the role played by Sitaram Yechury as an MP in Parliamentary debates in the Rajya Sabha. In particular the historic intervention during the vote of thanks on the Presidents’ speech last year. Virendra Sharma MP and Dr. Onkar Sahota Member GLA described Sitaram as a visionary economist entrusted by the people of India with great responsibility. They were confident that Sitaram would live up to the people’s expectations and aspirations.
 
Sarwan Zafar from the Friends of CPI raised the issue of the worsening plight of India’s toiling masses. All the friends and well-wishers of the left he said, were encouraged by the developments to forge closer links between the left forces.
Mohammed Omidvar PBM Tudeh Party thanked Sitaram Yechury and India for the support and solidarity for Iran against US Imperialism at the United Nations.
Alex Gordon welcomed Comrade Yechury in his new capacity as the General Secretary of CPI (M). Alex highlighted the developments in Greece and the struggle against Austerity Measures in UK with over 400 thousand people marching in protest through the streets of London on 20 July. While recognizing the inconvenience to the travelling public, he reminded the attendees of the reasons for the 24 hour stoppage by Transport workers that brought London to a halt last week. The need to defend workers’ rights is of paramount importance for the working class.

Joginder Bains added her welcome and detailed the current campaigns of the IWA GB. Joginder invited everyone to sign the on line- petition for removing the Minimum Income Threshold level for sponsoring a spouse from a non EU country to the UK. A Conference of organisations and institutions will be convened on Sept 12th in Leicester to escalate the campaign.

 

Comrade Sitaram Yechury thanked the organisers and all the well-wishers for such an overwhelming warm welcome.

Sitaram provided a detailed account of global economy, finance capital and the impact of neo liberalism. He narrated the reasons for the global financial crisis of 2008. The pursuit of austerity measures by governments and the transformation of this failure into sovereign debt. The worldwide challenge to austerity by people most effected.  The vast accumulation of capital in the hands of the 1%, the effects of increasing crony capitalism.
 

Reflecting on a year following the election of the Modi Government. The neo liberal policies are being implemented in a more aggressive way. India has provided an open invitation for inflow of capital to “Make in India”. Every possible avenue is opened up to foreign capital including defence,banks, insurance and financial services.
The on-going economic stagnation and contraction in the global economy has adversely effected India’s exports.
A reduction in purchasing power has resulted from the implementation of neo liberal policies with cuts in rural employment scheme by 60%, cuts in agriculture prices and subsidies and an increase in diesel and electricity prices. Since the 2014 General Elections recorded suicides by farmers in distress have increased by 26%
BJP /RSS combine is now promoting a clear agenda to shift India from its secular traditions towards a Hindu Rashtra.
There is increasing evidence of authoritarianism being practiced and the danger of another Emergency was recently aired and quickly retracted by Mr. Advani.
The transparent corruption free good governance promised by NDAis now completely shattered with scams being exposed on a regular basis.
With increasing discontent against these policies and it will be our responsibility to channelize this. A general strike by all the Central Trade Unions has been called for 2nd September providing a point of convergence for mass protests.
The 21st Congress of the CPI (M) has defined a road map to improve the independent strength of the Party, strengthen the left and democratic forces by strengthening the independent struggles on people’s issues. In West Bengal we have arrested the decline through glorious struggles with the sacrifice of over 500 comrades and we are now on the difficult path of ascendancywith increasing resistance.
“To all who say there is no alternative, let us remind them that Socialism Is The Alternative”
ENDS
Harsev Bains
07956 811553
[email protected]
www. indobrit.org