VS Always Identified Himself With the Struggles of Poor

My first interaction with Comrade V S Achuthanandan was in 1972.

- DR T M THOMAS ISAAC

The SFI state conference in Kollam had concluded, and party members in the new state committee were summoned to the party headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram.

There had been serious factional conflict at the conference, and the purpose of the meeting was to take corrective action. It was Comrade VS who spoke at length. He minced no words in admonishing us. I still remember the shudder of those moments. Later, I would have long interviews with him because my Ph.D. research topic was related to the radical working-class movement in Alappuzha, of which Comrade VS was a key leader.

There are many distinct features to working-class leaders of Alappuzha: most rose from the ranks of workers themselves. These wage workers, most with only primary education, educated themselves through trade union night schools and political study sessions alongside union organizing—emerging as organic intellectuals shaped by working-class struggles.