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CITU Keralam

About CITU

The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) is one of the premier and most influential Central Trade Union Organisations (CTUOs) in India. Founded on May 30, 1970, at the historic All India Trade Union Conference held in Kolkata (then Calcutta), CITU represents the vanguard of the radical, progressive working-class movement in India and is ideologically aligned with the socialist and communist labour movement.

1. Fundamental Philosophy & Vision

  • Socialist Transformation: CITU holds that the exploitation of the working class can only genuinely cease through the socialization of all means of production, distribution, and exchange, leading to the establishment of a socialist order.

  • Class Struggle vs. Class Collaboration: Unlike trade unions that promote compromise with employers, CITU emphasizes continuous, organized class struggle to win rights and fundamentally alter power relations between labour and capital.

  • Anti-Imperialism: A core tenet of CITU is its consistent opposition to imperialist globalization, privatization of national assets, foreign monopoly capital penetration, and international financial institutions (IMF, World Bank, WTO) whose policies dismantle labour rights.

2. Key Objectives & Core Demands

  • Defense of Democratic & Trade Union Rights: Resisting restrictions on collective bargaining, defending the statutory right to strike, and demanding trade union recognition solely through mandatory secret ballot.

  • Living Wages & Work Conditions: Fighting for realistic revisions of real wages tied to living costs, reduction of working hours, and safe, dignified workplace conditions.

  • Resisting Informalisation: Leading struggles against the contractualisation of permanent jobs, outsourcing, fixed-term employment, and aggressive hire-and-fire policies.

  • Universal Social Security: Demanding comprehensive statutory coverage for healthcare, pensions, accident compensation, and maternity protections for all workers, especially through bodies like EPFO and ESIC.

  • Social Equality: Ending workplace and social discrimination based on caste, gender, religion, and ethnicity; defending equal pay for equal work.

3. Organizational Structure & Reach

  • Sectors Covered: CITU organizes across key core industries—coal, electricity, steel, heavy engineering, ports, railways, transport, petroleum, construction, electronics, and textiles—as well as financial institutions and information technology.

  • Unorganized & Scheme Workers: CITU has pioneered the organizing of unorganized, agricultural, and scheme workers across India—including ASHA workers, Anganwadi employees, and Mid-Day Meal workers.

  • Key Publications:

    • The Working Class (English monthly)

    • CITU Mazdoor (Hindi monthly)

    • The Voice of the Working Woman (Focusing on issues of women labourers)

    • CITU Sandesham (Malayalam)