INDIAN TROTSKYISTS |
io [In the elections just held in India, the candidates of the Socialist Workers party ran on the following platform. y>
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1. Immediate amendment of the present Constitution to enshrine in it the principles of social ownership of means of production, right to work for every citizen and the right of the electors to recall at will their representatives elected to the legislative bodies.
2. Confiscation of all food stocks hoarded by speculators, big merchants and landlords, compulsory procurement of surplus food grains and their distribution at controlled prices through elected committees of workers and rural poor under statutory rationing throughout the country. Nationalisation of trade in food grains and other essential commodities.
3. Nationalisation of land and housing and rational distribution of living space in urban areas on the basis of real needs of the people. Public housing projects to eradicate slums in the cities.
4, Nationalisation of all foreign enterprises, including strategic industries like oil, without compensation. ;
5. Nationalisation of all banks, general insurance companies; statisation of the entire credit system; and nationalisation of import and export trade.
6. Nationalisation of all basic and key industries including iron and steel, transport system, plantations, mining, textiles, cement, machine tools, . engineering and chemicals, pharmaceuticals, etc.
'?7. Creation of elected workers' councils in every factory, workshop ‘or industrial or commercial establishment.
9.* Jobs for all on the basis of a sliding scale of working hours; a six-hour day and 36-hour working week for all industrial workers.
10. Decent living conditions for workers on the basis of a sliding scale of wages linked with cost of living; a national minimum wage of Rs. 250 [US$33] per month.
_. il. Reorganisation of the trade union movement on the basis of strong industrial unions under a single central trade union organisation. Right to form trade unions to all sections of government employees including members of the police force.
12. Abolition of landlordism and all.intermediaries without compensation and redistribution of land among actual tillers through elected tillers councils and their organisation into state-subsidised cooperatives.
13. Complete moratorium on all agricultural indebtedness and cheap statesubsidised credits to the rural poor.
14. Organisation . of agricultural workers into trade unions and statutory. guaran— tee of a minimum wage and hours of work for agricultural workers.
15. Unconditional support to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in their struggle for special equality and against social oppression and discrimination.
16. Protection to all religious and linguistic minorities.
* Point No. 8 appears to have been dropped, probably due to a printer's error, in the list as published in the January issue of Marxist Outlook from which we have taken the platform.
17. -A rational settlement of all disputes regarding border adjustments between linguistic states in India on the basis of the democratically determined will of the people concerned. 18. Complete autonomy to the people in the tribal areas to safeguard their social and cultural heritage. 19. Right of self-determination to the people of Kashmir and Nagaland. 20. Protection of civil liberties of all citizens, repeal of all repressive laws and unconditional release of all political prisoners detained without trial. Unconditional withdrawal of the Emergency and annulment of Defence of India Rules. 21. Unemployment insurance, old age benefits to all. 22. Free education to all with stipends to poorer class children to cover their expenses, up to the university level. 23.. Equal status to all regional languages and development of a common link language for India with the consent of the people. 24. Equal rights in all spheres and equal wages for women, with full maternity benefits, etc. 25. Restoration of full political freedom to members of the armed forces, the police and Government servants. 26. Establishment of a Workers and Peasants Government on the basis of elected workers and peasants councils. In the international field the SWP shall fight for the following: 1. Withdrawal from the British Commonwealth. 2. Solidarity with the Vietnamese people and material support to them in their heroic struggle against U.S. imperialism and solidarity with the liberation struggles of the colonial and semicolonial people. 3. Support to the struggles of workers and the youth in the capitalist countries against war and for socialism. 4. Opposition to all imperialist military pacts, and support to struggles for liquidation of all foreign military bases. 5. Unconditional defence of workers states including the Soviet Union, East European states including Yugoslavia, China, Viet Nam, North Korea and Cuba in the event of counterrevolutionary imperialist aggression. 6. Support to the struggles of workers in the workers states against their bureaucratic regimes for restoration of socialist democracy. 7. Negotiated settlement of all differences and border disputes between India and the neighbouring countries including China and Pakistan.
INDIAN TROTSKYISTS GIVE