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By Pramod Kumar
Demanding immediate withdrawal of new Patents Act passed last month, the 14th national triennial conference of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) has exhorted the its workers to get prepared for a battle in the streets rather than leaving it to Parliament. The conference directed the BMS activists to consolidate the voice of the people and save the nation from the clutches of foreigners, by bringing about unity among labourers and farmers and by undertaking massive campaigns of mass contact and mass awakening. ?The present patent law consists of many provisions detrimental to the nation and having disastrous effects on the lives of the poor and rendering them the slaves of foreign capital. This conference severely condemns this legislation. By supporting the new Patents regime, the double-tongued Leftist parties have betrayed the poor people and workers. The Political leadership and the bureaucracy of the country have been bought by the foreign pharma companies. That is why the Act, harmful to the nation, has stood passed,? the BMS said in a resolution adopted at the golden jubilee conference.
The resolution further added, ?As Indian companies have only one per cent patent, the cost of medicines and the enormous profits of pharmaceutical companies amounting to crores of rupees, will go to foreign countries. India will be looted. The monopoly and loot by foreign countries will continue for 20 years. Thereafter also it will be impossible for anybody to get a new Patent since none will remain in competition. Besides this, according to experts, 15,000 out of 26,000 pharmaceutical companies would have to pull down their shutters in the immediate future.?
In another resolution the conference concurred with the world opinion of the workers belonging to various trade unions, councils and federations to observe the ?Anti-Globlisation Day? in November this year as was observed on November 9, 2001. ?This conference appeals to AFL-CIO, ACFTU, ICFTU, WFTU and all those councils/ federations working at the national level to unite to save the billion starving poor of the developing countries, give them a chance to lead decent life and repeat the exhibition of unity demonstrated on November 9, 2001. The central trade unions and those thousand of others serving the country through their registered unions and state-level unions, millions of workers and millions of farmers of India and the ever-mounting army of unemployed youth of India should join hands for solidarity and for survival.?
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