Ap
Appanraj, Karuppiah (1923– 2007)
Party pseudonym: Giri
Born Madras Province, son of M. Karuppia Servai. Attended American College, Madurai, 1941-44. Active in the Student Federation, Madurai. Opposed “People’s War” line of CPI. Recruited to Trotskyism by the Lanka Sama Samaja Party field organizers, V. Balasingham and B.M.K. Ramaswamy. Joined Bolshevik Leninist Party of India in Madurai, 1942. Participated in Quit India movement, 1942-43, and went underground with T.G. Krishnamurthy, Sholavandan Karuppa Pillai, Kodimangalam Ponniah Ambalam, and other Congress radicals. Moved to Madras and worked as a record clerk in the Madras & Southern Mahratta Railways, 1944. Worked with textile workers, Coimbatore, 1945. Returned to Madurai, 1945. Sent to Tuticorin to assist BLPU group. Took position in Tuticorun Mill Workers Welfare Society. Organized unions in Tuticorin, 1946-7. Returned to Madurai and worked for the union at Mahalakshmi Textile Mills Ltd., 1947. Delegate, BLPI conference, 1947. Led a peasant union in Sholavandan. Entered SP with BLPI, 1948. Editor, Tamil weekly, SamadharmaVathi [Socialist Appeal], 1951-53. Leader, Socialist Party (Loyalists), 1952-5. President, Tamil Nadu SP (Lohia). Editor, Manaitha Kulam [Mankind], 1956. Helped form the SLP after split from SP(Lohia). Joined Tamil National Party with the rest of the SLP members, 1961. Joined Congress with the Tamil National Party, 1964. General Secretary, South Madras District Congress Committee, 1968-74. President, Tamil Nadu National Trade Union Congress, 1974-76. General Secretary, Tamil Nadu Congress, 1979-80; Propaganda Committee, Tamil Nadu Congress, 1984. Author: Anja nenjan: Thoyizh sangha medai S.C.C. Anthoni Pillai, vazhkai varalaru [The Fearless One: Biography of the Labour Leader, S.C.C. Anthony Pillai] (1995); Puratchi Pathai [Way to Revolution], translation of K. Tilak, The Rise and Fall of the Comintern .
Compiled by Charles Wesley Ervin
Applegarth, Robert (1833-1923)
Secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners (1862). Marx wrote to Engels (December 4, 1869) that Applegarth was "very important" because he was regarded by both Houses of Parliament as "the officially recognised representative of the English trade unions." Together with Odger and Allan (Amalgamated Society of Engineers) he was one of the so-called "Junta," the leading representatives of the "new model" trade unionism. Marx related to Engels (December 4) that after the final debate on the Irish question Applegarth, had informed him that "an eminent member of the House of Commons" had been commissioned by "an eminent member of the House of Lords" to ask Applegarth if he had voted for the abolition of all private property at the Basle Congress [Sept 6-12, 1869] of the International. His answer would decide the attitude of his parliamentary patrons. Applegarth wanted to "give the fellows a decided answer" and commissioned Marx to draw up "the reason" for him. Despite ill-health and press of work Marx wrote him "eight pages which will take him a long time to chew" on "landed property and the necessity of its abolition." Applegarth did not agree.