Chittabrata Majumdar, the veteran trade unionist and pioneering leader of the Communist movement in India, passed away on 20 February 2007 due to emphysema and lung complications. Comrade Majumdar, fondly known as Chitta Da, was admitted to a private nursing home in Kolkata soon after the 12^th All India Conference of the CITU (17-21 January 2007). Comrade Majumdar was 71 and has left behind his wife Sabitri Majumdar, a Member of the Howrah district committee and his daughter Barshana Majumdar, a computer professional. 

Born on 14 August 1935 in the district of Dhaka in erstwhile-undivided Bengal (now in Bangladesh), to Swarnalata and Khshitishchandra Majumdar, Chitta Da was a science graduate from Bangabasi College, Calcutta University. He later studied textile technology at the Bengal Textile Institute at Serampore in Hooghly.  Renouncing offers of a professional job of a textile technologist, Chitta Da preferred what was a low-paying teacher’s job at the Salkia Vidyapeeth, Kolkata. 

In 1957 Majumdar, who had previously played an active role in the students movement, became a member of the undivided communist party – CPI. Due to his adherence to the Marxist-Lenisist ideology, he later separated himself from the CPI and enrolled himself as a member of the CPI (M). In 1965-66, his active participation in ongoing workers’ struggles resulted in imprisonment for one-and-a-half years, under the Defence of India Act. His role in rebuilding the Howrah district party is noteworthy. When the All India Trade Union Congress was split to form a new trade union – CITU, Chitta Da became one of its Working Committee Members.

He was elected General Secretary of the Bengal unit of CITU in 1990 and in 1991 became one the National Secretaries. In 2004, during the 11^th Annual Conference of CITU in Chennai, Chitta Da was elected the All India General Secretary, and was later re-elected to the same post during the 12^th Conference in Bangalore in 2007. In 1995 he became a Member of the Central Committee of the CPI (M) and was later made a Member of the Politbureau during the Delhi Party Congress in 2005.

Chitta Da had a simple and subtle style of writing. He prepared a series of political and educational booklets and pamphlets for the masses, drawing on his in-depth knowledge of Marxism and Leninism. He wrote innumerable essays and articles on subjects such as Marxism-Leninism, political economy, the ideology of the Communist Party and Party and Trade Union organisation.  Some of his writings were brought together and published in a small anthology called Ek, dui, teen (in Bengali).

At the most difficult time of the ideological and economic onslaught of imperialism, he led the CITU with sharp ideological clarity and organisational understanding. He always spoke of the importance of liberating the workers’ struggle from the narrow ambit of economism into the wider realm of class struggle. While addressing the 12^th CITU Conference in Bangalore, Chitta Da vehemently criticised neo-liberal policies, emphasising that this economic model is incapable of offering even minimal solace to the masses facing profound crises in their lives. He had called upon the working class to take vigorous initiative to mobilise all sections of people in the resistance struggle against the retrograde economic policies. 

Chitta Da is no more. However, his humble lifestyle, his commitment to knowledge, his role as a dedicated communist, and his achievements as a trade union organiser will ever remain an inspiration for the present and the future generations of communists, trade union organisers and workers.