Career
Katre joined the freedom struggle during his school days in Kolhapur. He later became a communist and an activist of the Praja Parishad ("People"s Assembly", an organization that struggled for the abolition of the Kolhapur Princely State). As a result from his activist, he was imprisoned for seventeen months.
Katre was a leading figure in the trade union movement.
He was General Secretary of the Maharashtra Rajya Sahakari Kamgar Mahasangh, a union of sugar plantation workers. He also led sugar-producing cooperatives in the state.
Katre had also been active in movements such as Samyukta Maharashtra (the struggle for a Marathi-speaking state), Goa liberation and the struggle for implementation of the Maharashtra land tenancy legislation. After the 1989 split in the party, he became the President of the Lal Nishan Party (Leninvadi).
