Mr. Ramamurthy called for the widest possible unit of trade unions in the country for action and a united front of all central labor organizations. He welcomed the eight-point declaration by representatives of major trade unions and that would be sufficient basis for rallying the workers for united action against the Government.
The eight-point declaration wanted abolition of property rights, nationalization of monopoly capital without compensation, genuine land reforms, a wage policy providing for real wages provision of full employment and unemployment relief, public control of all necessities of daily life, moratorium on all public debts and change in industrial and financial policy to free the economy from foreign influence.
Those who attended this meeting included Mr. P. Sundarayya, Mr. Jyoti Bassu, Mr. Umanath, Mr. K. ramani, Mr. A Balasubarmaniam and Mr. Basava Punniah, About 120 labour leader’s attended this conference. This is the first annual meeting of the General Council after formation of the center of Indian trade Unions.
As usual Mr. Ramamurty was a big report which he read from a written pamphlet. He analyzed the Central Budget and said that thought the deficit was stated to be 320 crores, it could as well be Rs.500 crores.
After analyzing the index of wholesale prices Mr. Ramamurthy doubted whether the Indian economy was posed for a big advance as claimed by the authorities. The first sign of a developing economy he pointed out was rising employment, but the results of last year and the year before showed deterioration in employment.
Citing the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry report Mr. Ramamurthy said the number of unemployed in the first half of 1970-71 in the country was 13 million the number of man days last rose from 17 million in 1967-68 to 19 million in 1969 when the economy was said to turn the corner, he said.
Mr. Ramamurthy’s criticism against the “green revolution” was also frank. Compared with the production of 89.34million tons in 1964-65, He pointed out the achievement of 95.05 million tons in 1967-68 appeared to be barely three per cent increase per annum.
