STRENGTHEN ORGANISATION
ENSURE DEMOCRATIC FUNCTIONING
BUILD UP CLASS-ORIENTED MILITANT ORGANISATION
It is an admitted fact that our organisation, NFPE, has grown in
its strength and in terms of its movements and intervening capacity throughout
the country. But there is no room for complacency, given the challenges before
and the responsibilities fallen on us. We have to strengthen our organisation
further both quantitatively and qualitatively.
In building, running and strengthening a trade union organisation,
democratic functioning plays the role of a cornerstone. To put it differently,
the source of many of the ills of our organization lies in the absence of
democratic functioning. Therefore the importance of democratic functioning
should be clearly understood by every one of us.
Democratic functioning in essence is to involve the mass of the
workers in the decision making process and their implementation. This requires
a well knit and functional system of regular contacts and participative
communication with the workers at grass root level on the one hand and
collective functioning of the leadership team at various tiers of the
organization.
To mention a few specifics of democratic functioning of a union
are :
(a) mode of discharging their responsibilities by the leadership
(b)
attitude while dealing with the rank and file workers
(c) relationship between
the leadership bodies of the union and general workers,
(d) the norms for
working of the various committees,
(e) collective functioning in the process of
decision making and implementation,
(f) conducting meeting of the committees
and conferences of the union,
(g) management of the union fund and maintenance
of books of accounts etc.
and
the last but not least a functional mechanism of
communicating with the mass of the workers at grass root level and also hearing
from them.
Growing bureaucratic practices in the functioning of the Union are
creating serious impediments in strengthening democratic functioning in the
Unions at some places. Individualistic way of working by some of the leaders
and activists promotes bureaucracy within the organisation. To fight such as
situation what is needed is to ensure the collective functioning, to and fro
communication amongst the leaders, cadres and general workers.
Another vital area of the democratic functioning is the meetings
of the Executive committees and office bearers of the union. In some places
regular meetings of these bodies are generally not taking place. Attendance is
also much below the required level and defaulting comrades are not dealt with
according to the norms of democratic discipline. Then again, the meetings are
not properly planned. No written report reviewing the developments of the
period between the two meetings and status of implementation of the decisions
of the previous meeting is placed before the body concerned. Similar is the
situation with regard to a written statement of accounts, membership position
etc. Holding the union conferences regularly is a very important organizational
requirement. Unfortunately, there are instances of conferences not being held
regularly, in violation of constitutional provisions. Such failure is bound to
have serious organizational problems and weaknesses. For efficient and
effective functioning of an organisation the above mentioned deficiencies are
to be dealt with seriously.
Finally we must always remember that without imparting trade union
education and inculcating trade union consciousness and class consciousness in
the cadres and workers the present malice in the unions narrated above cannot
be addressed. Whole package of neo-liberal reforms and the philosophy and
strategy supporting the same are meticulously designed for marginalizing and
weakening the trade union movement. Trade Union is the only social force, which
if properly organized, can, pose a challenge against the neo-liberal regime and mobilize
the people around it. In fact, tackling trade union movement and subordinating
the same has always been the life and death question for the capitalist system
and in the era of neo-liberal reforms they are much more focused on this goal
of theirs with all their ideological and organizational weaponries at their
command. It is therefore, all the more imperative to ideologically empower our
leaders and cadres to powerfully counter the onslaughts of the capitalist
class.
NFPE
