Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India (#RWPI) releases its Election Manifesto

RWPI launched to establish independent Political representation of the common working masses in elections.
RWPI to contest elections from 7 seats in four states in the upcoming 17th Lok Sabha elections.

8th April, 2019, New Delhi. Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India (RWPI), formed by workers, their political organizers and workers’ activists from all over the country who have been organizing various sections of the working class and common masses in both workers’ movement and various peoples’ movement released their Election Manifesto today at the Press Club of India. RWPI will be contesting in Lok Sabha elections from 7 seats in four states (two seats in Delhi, two in Maharashtra , two in Haryana and one seat in Uttar Pradesh).

Satyam Varma, National Convenor of RWPI addressed the Press Conference. He said that a strong, independent voice of the working class and the common working masses representing their real interests is completely absent. All the existing electoral parties, as a matter of fact, only pay lip service to the working class issues and serve the interests of the various propertied classes. All such electoral parties collect funds and resources from different sections of the capitalist class and their electoral trusts. They only serve the interests of the propertied classes, as is evident from the past 70 years. In the year 2017-2018, BJP alone was the recipient of a humongous amount of 1,035 crore rupees as election funds from the Capitalist class. 95 percent of this fund was collected from electoral trusts formed by big corporates like Airtel, DLF, Hero, Essar, Aditya Birla Group, Torentz Power, Tata and Adani. Congress in comparison was given much less fund, about 200 crore, by the same electoral trusts mentioned above along with Nirma, Godrej and Bajaj. Every other electoral party whether national or regional, like Samajwadi Party, BSP, AAP, JDU, RJD, DMK, AIDMK, INLO and Shiv Sena have the same sources of funds and resources, with more than 90 percent of their funds coming from big and small corporate companies and rich peasantry. Parties like CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML) that claim to represent the interests of the working class also collect funds from small capitlists, factory owners, traders and rich peasantry. Moreover, 83 percent of our MPs are millionaires themselves. Thus it is clear that all these electoral parties are funded by various sections of the Capitalist class and hence they cater only to the interests of this very class which funds them. One cannot expect them to represent the interests of working class and common working masses that makes up more than two-thirds of the total population of our country. Working class of India has been reeling under ever increasing poverty, unemployment, malnutrition and insecurity. Especially, under the current fascist Modi regime we have witnessed new highs in unemployment. The rate of unemployment crossed 7.2 percent and recorded a new high in the last 5 decades in February this year while on the other hand, about 24 lakhs seats are vacant in Government institutions. 94 percent of the total working population is exploited by the Contract labour system wherein they are not paid even their minimum wages. The already pliable Labour laws are being further systematically weakened to muzzle any organised workers struggle. 86 percent of the peasants in India have a land holding of less than 5 acres, who are forced to take loans from usurers, and as a consequence they don’t even come under the debt waiver schemes of the government. A staggering rise has been recorded in the incidents of communal hatred and violence perpetuated in the name of religion and caste under the present Modi regime. India ranks highest in crimes against women in the world. The fascist Modi regime which rose to power promising ‘Achche Din’ has failed miserably and is now diverting attention of working class, unemployed youth and common masses from real issues like unemployment and poverty by spreading war hysteria, creating false enemies and communal hatred. Attempts have been made in the past as well for strengthening the representation of the working class in electoral process, but they were not able to accomplish this aim. Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India, RWPI, has been formed with the hope to fill this very void of the absence of a strong, independent revolutionary voice of the working class. Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India, RWPI, has been formed by workers’ representatives and activists who have been organizing various sections of the working class and have matured in the heat of labour movements in different parts of the country. RWPI runs solely through the funds and resources mobilized from the common working masses and conscientious citizens; and thus aims to represent an independent revolutionary pro-working class intervention in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Abhinav Sinha, Spokesperson of RWPI, addressed the press conference and said that merely participating in elections is not the sole aim of RWPI. The ultimate goal of RWPI is to radically transform the present system. Participation in electoral process is only a medium to ensure that the working class has an independent representation in the bourgeois parliamentary system and to protect workers right that are possible within the bounds of the capitalist system. In the profit-centered present capitalist system based on the exploitation of labour, production is aimed at maximizing the profits rather than to cater to the needs of society. On one hand every year tons of food-grains are wasted and on the other hand children die daily in our country of hunger and malnutrition. On one hand lakhs of apartments and houses lie vacant and on the other, 36 crore people are deprived of proper housing facility and sleep on pavements. In this system, democracy exists only for the capitalist class, rich peasantry, bureaucracy and upper middle class. RWPI has been constituted to change this very system by radical transformation. RWPI stands as a revolutionary alternative in front of the working class and common masses which hitherto in absence of an alternative had to choose from this or that bourgeois or petty-bourgeois electoral party. RWPI might only be contesting elections from 7 Lok Sabha seats this year, but in the coming years we will expand our reach.

Shivani Kaul, Spokesperson of RWPI elaborated the works that a candidate of working class from RWPI will emphasize and prioritize upon being elected to the Lok Sabha. She said that RWPI’s candidate will ensure the strict implementation of labor laws such as minimum wage, stipulated working hours, weekly holiday, payment of overtime on double rate, ESI and PF in his/her Lok Sabha constituency. He/She will strive to raise the living standards of working class by improving and providing basic amenities like potable water, sanitation, toilets, electricity, community centres, hospitals and primary health centers and improve the conditions of government schools. Apart from the work in his/her constituency RWPI’s candidate will also struggle to ensure that public works are done in other constituencies as well. RWPI’s candidate will ensure complete transparency of the funds allocated to a Member of Parliament and will through collective decisions employ the fund for various development activities and the welfare of its people in his/her constituency. RWPI’s candidate will only draw an amount equivalent to the minimum wage of a skilled labour as salary and will contribute the rest to his/her development fund. A public audit will be carried out in order to implement all schemes in a transparent manner. Our primary demand is the abolition of Contract labour system. Secondly, upon winning we will table ‘Bhagat Singh National Employment Guarantee Act’ that ensures employment to all as a private bill and will struggle not only inside the parliament but also outside it to ensure that BSNEGA is passed and implemented. Thirdly, we will demand to raise the minimum wage to 20,000 rupees per month. Fourthly, as per the existing technological development a working day should be reduced to 6 hours per day. RWPI will raise the demand of nationalizing all debt-ridden and bad debt companies. We will also demand nationalization of all the banks and the establishment of a central bank. We will make efforts to abolish the current indirect tax system and to implement a progressive taxation policy. RWPI believes that land cannot be anyone’s private property, it is a natural resource much like sunlight, it was not ‘manufactured’ by men, so, land should be nationalized. All the privately owned and operated big farms alongwith all the rest of land should be nationalized and transformed into model state farms or collective and co-operative farms which should be then handed over to collectives of the poor peasants and agricultural labourers. A demand for a high-level judicial inquiry into various scams such as Rafale scam, Crop Insurance scam, Demonetization scam etc will be strongly raised. The Government should be responsible to provide education from primary level to graduation to all and RWPI will strive to realize this. For the providing State Social security Insurance to the working class special taxes should be imposed on the capitalist class. All scheme workers (Anganwadi, Asha and Mid-day-meal worker) should be regularized and declared government employees. The demand of framing of National law and constitution of Special exchange for employment, registration and social security of Domestic Workers will be raised. The demand of Government housing facility for the working class will be raised by RWPI. Shivani concluded the Press Conference by saying that the practice of electoral politics has become such that all the elections are fought brazenly with money and muscle power. The Parliament and legislative assemblies are full of such opportunistic leaders who hop from one electoral bandwagon to the other. Whosoever may win the election but it is always the common people who lose. If a candidate spends crores of rupees in distributing money and liquor in his election campaign for fixing and polarizing votes based on caste-religion, then he/she is doing so as an investment whose dividends he/she aspires to reap with interest after winning the election. There is no true pro-people alternative in front of the common masses. And the people consider this lack of alternative as their destiny and lose their trust in change. RWPI is committed to breaking this status-quo and bringing a new era of change. History tells us that change is certain and only history can create faith for a better future. Shivani said that RWPI will meet the expectations of the people and will not let them down. If RWPI’s candidates win, they will take the peoples’ struggles forward and to new heights, will try to fulfill the maximum possible basic needs of the people, and try to make life better for the working class, and even if RWPI’s candidates do not win, we will be dedicated to working for the cause of the common masses and working class and will participate in their struggles with ever increasing enthusiasm. RWPI will always keep aloft the flag of the struggles of the working class. In addition to presenting an analysis of the current political scenario from the perspective of working class in the election manifesto of the RWPI, the issues related to working class have been raised in a 84 point agenda.