The dominant media narrative about the two-day all-India strike, called by trade unions for February 20 and 21, was one of 鈥渉ooliganism鈥 by workers and inconvenience caused to the 鈥減ublic鈥.
As usual, the main demands of the striking workers found little space in the media's discussion of the strike. The working class 鈥 usually invisible, both at the workplace and where they live 鈥 attained visibility on TV screens only as a 鈥渕ob鈥.
Workers, whose labour is, after all, the source of all production, are seen and shown as a source of wanton and mindless destruction.
India
Indian socialist feminist Kavita Krishnan spoke to 91自拍论坛 TV's Pip Hinman about the new movement against gender violence in India. Kavita is Secretary of the All India Progressive Women's Association (AIPWA) and has been a leading activists in the campaign that has swept India (and beyond) since the brutal gang rape of a woman student in Delhi in a public bus. The woman, badly injured in the attack, died two weeks later despite being flown to Singapore for treatment. Her male companion, who was also severely assaulted, survived. Six suspects are being tried.
The statement below was released n December 24, condemning the culture of impunity for rape as well as opposing the death penalty for perpetrators as a solution. It is reprinted from KAFILA.org.
In the midst of the unspeakable horror of a rape and attempted murder in Delhi [since the article was written, the victim has died in hospital] is a spark of hope that we nurture, cradling it with our hands lest it be snuffed out, helping the spark to grow into a steadier flame 鈥 and then spread into a forest fire.
Yasin Malik is the chairperson of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, a secular nationalist organisation formed in 1977 to struggle for the independence of Kashmir.
Since 1947, Kashmir has been divided between Indian and Pakistani occupied areas. Both claim the whole of Kashmir and have fought three wars over the country.
The JKLF launched an armed struggle in 1988, but changed tactics to non-violent struggle in 1994.
When the early morning fog rises and drifting skeins from wood fires carry the sweet smell of India, the joggers arrive in Lodi Gardens.
Past the tomb of Mohammed Shah, the 15th century Mughal ruler, across a landscape manicured in the 1930s by Lady Willingdon, wife of the governor-general, recently acquired trainers stride out from ample figures in smart saris and white cotton dhotis.
Millions of workers joined a one-day strike in India on February 28 in defence of public ownership and for stronger labour rights.
Eleven major trade unions called the action to protest against the United Progressive Alliance government's policy of selling stakes in state-owned companies.
They also demanded an amendment to minimum wage laws to keep pace with inflation, pensions for all workers and the registration of trade unions in different industries.
World renowned novelist and global justice activist Arundhati Roy is facing escalating threats of violence in India because of her support for justice in Kashmir 鈥 the disputed region partitioned between India and Pakistan and occupied by military forces in the area India controls.
Roy faced sedition charges for comments she made about Kashmir at a public meeting in October. The government has since indicated it would not pursue the charge.
With the death of Dr K. Balagopal at age 52 on October 8, India and in particular his home state of Andhra Pradesh, have lost an untiring worker for human rights. Over almost three decades of activism as a human rights investigator, a public intellectual and 10 years as a lawyer, Balagopal had become synonymous with the human rights movement in India.
The butchery unleashed on Mumbai by a team of 10 black-hooded terrorists came to an end on November 29 at around 8.30 am. This is the sixth time Mumbai has come under some kind of attack since 1993.
Karl Marx, born nearly two centuries ago, had in 1867 (in the first volume of Capital) laid bare the 鈥渋ntimate connection between the pangs of hunger of the most industrious layers of the working class, and the extravagant consumption, coarse or refined, of the rich, for which capitalist accumulation is the basis鈥.
The 8th congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) ended with a massive 100,000 strong all-India rally in Kolkata on December 18. A key focus of the rally was solidarity with the peasants of Nandigram against attempts to drive them off their land by the West Bengal government in order to establish a Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
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