At the 11th conference of the All India Coal Workers Federation, CITU National General Secretary and former MP Tapan Sen said that the enemy of workers is not Modi but capitalism.

Sen said that along with Modi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee were also puppets of capitalism. Workers need to fight against capitalism.

Sen was addressing the inaugural session of the three-day conference of the Federation at Comrade Basudev Acharya Nagar (CMPDI Campus) from Friday. 320 representatives of 23 unions affiliated to CITU from Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana are participating in it.

The former MP said that the process of coal production is going on in restructuring mode. "This restructuring is anti-worker. Gradually, regular workers are being removed from production. Now 80 percent of the production in the company is being done by contract labour. The situation is challenging. To deal with the challenging situation, we will have to take to the streets," he said.

Sen said that MDO and revenue sharing models have come in coal. "The role of Coal India has also been limited in this. In such a situation, coal workers will have to decide the strategy ahead. A fight will have to be fought till the end. Contract workers will have to be organized," he said.

The conference began with the flag hoisting by Federation President Com GK Srivastava. A minute's silence was observed remembering the departed comrades. Thereafter, Com Vishwajit Deb, Chairman of the Welcome Committee, reiterated the history of the struggles of the working class here, keeping in front the history and glorious tradition of the state of Jharkhand.

320 delegates from all over the country were welcomed in the conference. Also, a call was given to do or die to make the strike of May 20 a success in protest against the plan of the Central Government to implement the Labor Code.

After this, the General Secretary of the All India Coal Workers Federation presented his report and discussion started on it which will continue for the next two days. A new executive will be formed on March 30.