An All India convention of Agricultural workers was held on 16th May at HKS Surjit Bhawan at New Delhi. More 500 leaders and activists from different states attended the convention. The convention was addressed by Dhirender Jha, General Secretary of AIARLA, B Venkat of AIAWU, Gulzar Singh Goria of BKMU, Asit Ganguly of AISKS and Darmender of AIAKSU.
AIARLA President Shriram Chaudhary, MLAs from Bihar Birendra Gupta and Gopal Ravidas, who are Bihar State President and Secretary respectively of AIARLA and leader of Mazdoor Mukti Morcha in Punjab Bhagwant Samaon also addressed the convention apart from many other delegates from different states.
Eminent journalist, scholar and activist working on rural India P. Sainath inaugurated the convention. He said that inequality in India has reached at dangerous levels. Rural distress is growing day by day and skyrocketed price rise is adding more and more families in hunger zone. He supported the demand charter of the convention.
The convention adopted the resolution and charter of demands unanimously and decided to intensify the movement on following issues and declared future programmes as follows:
- District level protest actions will be organised on 1st August in more than 500 districts on the demand charter. Prior to this a massive campaign on the demands will be organised at grass root level from July 15.
- State and district levels conventions will be organised in the month of June and July.
- This phase of struggle will culminate in a strike of rural workers.
The convention also called for a unity of all agricultural and rural workers’ movements against the hate and divisive politics of RSS and BJP.
