False Cases and Tactics Cannot Suppress 'Madhyamam' Strike: CITU

Thiruvananthapuram: The CITU has demanded that the eight months’ salary arrears owed to employees of the Madhyamam daily be paid immediately. In a statement, the CITU said the false campaigns and legal actions allegedly initiated by the Madhyamam management against CITU All India General Secretary Elamaram Kareem, who extended support to the employees’ indefinite strike, were condemnable.

The CITU state committee urged all workers to strongly protest the legal move seeking Rs 1 crore from Elamaram Kareem over his speech inaugurating the strike.

The CITU alleged that the management was using such tactics to suppress labour protests and break workers’ unity. It said the management had already faced intervention from the Labour Department over its alleged attempts to target and retaliate against employees leading the strike and remove them based on their identities.

The CITU also alleged that the management was distorting references made in Kareem’s speech to corruption and mismanagement at the institution, attempting to communalise them and file false cases in the name of allegations of Islamophobia. It said such attempts were condemnable.

The CITU alleged that the Jamaat-e-Islami leadership and the Madhyamam management were adopting what it described as a Sangh Parivar-style approach of branding criticism and dissent as anti-national. It said such attempts to label leaders of democratic, secular and workers’ movements would only serve to please majority communal forces.

The CITU state committee said the workers should unitedly resist what it described as malicious campaigns by the management aimed at discrediting the labour movement, at a time when people across the state were supporting the struggle of Madhyamam employees.

The CITU said it would confront the management’s alleged false cases through legal means and its alleged political tactics through public mobilisation. It also said the entire labour movement would stand firmly with the employees until the strike achieves its goal.