accelerated the pace of unionization and a series of organized farm labour struggles broke out. The first among them was the violent Punnapra - Vayalar Agitation of 1946. Thus the agrarian relationship in Kuttanad transformed from a
caste relationship to a
class relationship and the system of attached labour was replaced by anew system of wage labour in which workers were free to work under any farmer. Since their formation agricultural labour unions had been demanding for periodic revisions in wages. After considering their representations the government appointed the Minimum wages Committee for Employment in Agriculture in 1953, which submitted its report after three years. Findings of the Committee were referred to the Minimum Wages Advisory Board and as suggested by the Board a tripatriate body called the Kuttanad Industrial Relations Committee consisting of the representatives of farmers, labour unions and government nominees was setup in 1957 for the settlement of labour disputes. Prior to the formation of the first
Communist ministry in Kerala, state authorities had been following a policy of police interventions in case of law breaches in the labour struggles in Kuttanad area. Contrary to this policy the Communist government adopted anew policy of
non interference in labour disputes and thus encouraged the trade unions to achieve their goals by might and main. The functioning of the Kuttanad Industrial Relations Committee was not very effective until the first Communist ministry was dismissed in 1960 as the outcome of amass uprising called Liberation Movement (
Vimochana Samaram) engineered and executed mainly by the landed gentry of the Central Travancore. However, The Committee continued till 1961 when the Industrial Relations Committee (IRC) replaced it for Kuttanad. Most of the earlier leaders of the labour movements in Travancore were either caste Hindus or Syrian Christians and their relatives were farmers. But after the split of the Communist Party of India (CPI) inmost of the labour unions came under the control of CPI (M) and union leadership shifted from upper caste leaders to lower caste and economically poor
comrades. Compared to the parent organization CPI (M) had a more radical approach and the goal of the Party in its trade union front was the creation of highly polically oriented and committed set
of workers bent on destroying capitalism amd its plenipotentiaries at the village level, the farmers”
30
.
When a coalition
government led by C P 29
GOK (1971):
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