mode and participatory approach to AGITATION

every agitation has a constituency.

the broader the constituency, protracted the action.

but however broader or minor the action is, voluntary participation is a must.

i am not against bandhs or any agitational actions for that matter. but participation is and must be the prime objective.

if the public transport does-not run, the transport workers should be on strike. it should not be off the roads because activists were throwing stones at them and the windshields were broken. if the trains are not running, the workers have to be on strike. or a public boycott of the same should take place. boycott has to be voluntary.

if the private vehicles are off the road it should be voluntary.

if the shops are closed, the small traders association should participate.

every participation takes us a step forward towards revolution.

but now no body wants to take this long route. success, and to show success is imp..for our comrades now.

it might have a impact in the shorter run. but in a longer run it is blunting the ultimate agitational tool.

bandh is the ultimate agitational tool. it has to be used discreetly.

it has to be used when all the sections could participate. when the constituency that you mentioned the middle class and the govt officers would also 'participate'

my emphasis is on voluntary participation in any agitation.

i don't know why is every body missing the pt. or nobody wants to touch it.

i want solidarity action to take place. when college teachers all over India were on strike others should have gone on a token strike as an act of solidarity.

when post and telegraph employees were on strike, other psu workers should have gone on a token one day strike.

when workers of Honda factory were gunned down, solidarity industrial action should have taken place.

but it has to take place not at the leadership level but at the grass root worker level.

about the 20th Aug all India strike. we did not have a pointed charter of demands.

politically it was the five pt pro-gramme. i.e. against the nuclear deal, against price rise, against communal ism etc.

bsnl workers were against the ipo

sbi workers were against the merger with state bank of saurashtra

the airport workers were against the privatization of airports

but the co-ordination at grass-root level was missing. every union participated in the strike but with their own agenda.

the action was a success.

it would have been more success-full if the co-ordination with local demands and national demands were propagated in the same breath.

every agitation is like an opportunity to reach to newer sections of the society and encompass them in the wave towards a revolution.

that's where i am making it difficult. emphasis on voluntary participation would make it mandatory for convincing every worker, every govt employee, every officer or bureaucrat to participate.

when i say the pulse of the people, i mean the disagreement of a large section of the people (not necessarily a majority) to a certain policy of the party or the govt. this happened in nandigram and to some extend in singur.. the party was not able to anticipate this.

that's the danger.

mamta is an enemy. blaming her in pragoti is converting the converted. we all know what her intentions are. so writing about her antics don't make sense.

we would have been in a better position to bargain if we would have anticipated the scale of the agitation.

regards,

prakash kutty