How Ruling Class Divides Dalits

Lathi blows, face police bullets, go to jail and attack fellow workers. But the leader- ship is never given to them. Their job is to do and die, not to question where & why, Look at the role played by Dr. Datta Samant, the latest trade union imperialist of Bombay, who is responsible for the closure of Bombay’s textile mills for the past six months throwing out of jobs 3 lakh workers. What a disaster! Most of these poor millhands are Marathi dalits amid whom Dr. B. R. Ambedkar lived & worked. But Ambedkar, who led the country’s first textile strike., did not believe in this sort of trade unionism. Is this Marxism? Our Bombay representative reports that this city’s longest strike has mainly affected the dalits many of whom have started migrating to villages, their unmarried daughters turning to prostitution, boys taking to thugery. Trade union leadership being in the hands of high castes, they hard y evince any interest in the specialised problems of dalits such as reservations etc. Not only the unions do not take up the cause of dalits but nary a time they have joined hands with management in persecuting dalits and minorities. In Beharsharift, CPI workers themselves killed their Muslim co beedi workers (Economic & Political Weekly, May 16, 1981), In many factories end establishments dalits and minorities have formed their own unions During the Gujarat caste war Hindu ni thar ds belonging to INTUC attacked their dalit co- workers inside the mills. INTUC got split on caste lines. Dalit Panthers alone stood by dalit workers. The bath of SSS as against RSS in Tamil Nadu has conclusively proved the futility of political parties and its trade unions. This was admitted by a CPI leader (DV no. 18). Trade unions are being used by the high caste-controlled Left leadership to divide workers instead of uniting them. Therefore, let us not take interest in these unions but form our own organisations. Let us not become tools in the hands of this trade union Big Business, FILMS being the most powerful mass media in this country of illiterates, the Ruling Class has started using this against the poor by instilling in them false and even dangerous values. Many big film heroes have, therefore, started joining politics because like films, politics is also fest becoming a business. Hindu religious leaders have blessed these film he roes joining politics. Film journals are there in dozens. AIR and TV are hardy. Therefore, there is an all-round conspiracy. Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran in TN, N.T Rama Rao forming Telugu Desam In Andhra, Rajkumar jumping into language agitation in Karnataka are the indications of the shape of the things to come. Since it is the votes of the poor that will decide the fate of any election, these film heroes with millions of fans, becked by millions of rupees can easily become political leaders. Who bothers about ideology 7 What the RSS. Big Business and Hindu religious leaders want is fascism. And they are using political parties, language. trade unions & films to go nearer this ideal. And they have achieved big success. Therefore we call upon dalits, persecuted minorties and OBCs to seriously ponder over this danger, educate their fellow comrades and keep out of this five-point divide- and-rule game played by the Indian Ruling Class.