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 organisationlies
in the absence of democratic functioning. Therefore the importance of
democratic functioning should be clearly understood by everyone 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
bureaucratism 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 malices 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
weaponaries 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.
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