Category: Latest posts

2.5 lakh Jute workers of West Bengal went on indefinite strike on 14th December, 2009 demanding implementation of previous tripartitite agreements with the owners and the government, as well as payment of Dearness Allowance in context of rising prices.

The National Fishworkers’ Forum along with all the constituent state Trade Unions held a day long sit in protest rally (dharna) in front of parliament in Delhi, on January 11, 2010.

More than 7 lakh construction workers struck work as part of an All-India strike on December 8, 2009. The strike was observed in175 districts of 19 states and in more than 50 big construction projects. The strike was called by the Construction Workers Federation of India(CWFI).

Dear Comrades,
I would like to convey my best wishes to you for the New Year, 2010.  It is the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century.  It is the 30th year in the life of our party.  It promises to be a very significant year in the history of Indian society.

The brutal rape and murder of two young women in Shopian, Kashmir in May 2009 in an area teeming with military and paramilitary forces had led to widespread strikes and demonstrations which continued for over two weeks, in which people demanded that the crime be properly investigated and the guilty servicemen be brought to book for their dastardly acts. (See MEL, June 2009)

Severe police repression has been unleashed on the tribals in Narayanpatna block of Koraput district of Orissa.

Over 45,000 people from all over the globe – many from countries where livelihoods and life itself are severely threatened by climate change – went to Copenhagen in December 2009 in the hope that a new global agreement on climate change would be reached there. However what emerged from the conference in which 192 countries participated was only an acknowledgement that the US and five other countries had struck a deal!

The Indian state’s stand, joining the big power chorus against Iran’s nuclear program, is utterly hypocritical and shameful. India itself had till recently been the target of the policy of nuclear discrimination, and was at the receiving end of big power sanctions and disapproval for having gone ahead and developed its nuclear program. 

The privatisation program of the bourgeoisie has been given a fresh boost by the policy decisions announced by the Manmohan Singh government on 12th November, 2009. All central government public sector companies which have made profit in the last three years have been asked to get their shares listed on the stock exchange. Listing shares on the stock exchange means that parts of these companies will pass into private owners' hands.  Current regulations require that at least 10 percent of shares of a company must be privately owned for its shares to be listed.  Thus, the present government has initiated the process of privatisation of another 50 public sector companies.

Political Crimes need political trial and punishment!

Twenty five years have passed since the gruesome state-organised massacre of Sikhs in Delhi and other places in India, following the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 1st November, 1984.  The massacre of 1984 continues to be called a riot in the official records, which is a travesty of justice and a gross