View from the Left

A mellow CITU

Desperate to find a toehold in the growing IT sector, trade unions are now trying a new approach by being less adversarial, as an article by CITU’s W R Varada Rajan shows. He says there is no reason why employees after unionisation will stop cooperating with employers to sustain work order. He also says there is no empirical evidence to suggest that foreign companies awarding BPO contracts are specifying the absence of trade unions as a precondition. According to him, a positive response would not be lacking from employees even after unionisation but it would lead to a ‘‘more dignified work place atmosphere’’. It would change the ‘‘fear-driven work environment’’ where employees are never sure when they will be handed the pink slip.

Aid Lankan talks

An editorial in People’s Democracy advocates resumption of the peace process in Sri Lanka and suggests India’s crucial role would be to assist in bringing all parties to the dispute to the negotiating table. ‘‘As far as India is concerned, the interests of the Tamil minority are the crucial issue, but the LTTE cannot be identified as the sole custodian of Tamil interests,’’ says the editorial. But the CPI(M) believes that President Rajapakse’s position during his election had raised doubts over a political settlement with autonomy for the Tamil-speaking areas within the framework of a united Sri Lanka. Incidentally, Left leaders had a meeting with the Sri Lankan president when he was in India recently.

US and them, Buddha way

The UPA Government must shun its policy of strategic partnership with the United States and must join hands with countries like Russia, China and Brazil and struggle against imperialism and globalisation sponsored by imperialism, said West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at the 40th anniversary of Ganashakti, the CPI(M)’s Bengal daily. However, the CM has been in a strategic partnership with the US himself as part of his plans to bring in investment to his state.