Privatisation, Globalisation, Policies
With utmost anger the Communist Ghadar Party of India condemns the brutal terror unleashed by the Madhya Pradesh government against farmers agitating for their rights. At least 6 farmers have been shot dead while dozens of others are battling death with severe injuries when police and paramilitary forces opened fire on agitating farmers in Mandsaur on June 6.
The crisis facing banks in India has been brewing for some years now. A large and growing share of the outstanding loans extended by commercial banks has turned into bad loans or Non-Performing Assets (NPAs). Any loan for which the principal or interest payment has remained overdue for a period of 90 days or more is called NPA. It is a loan which the borrower is not paying back as agreed.
An all India Convention of Workers was held on 8 August 2017, at Talkatora Indoor Stadium, New Delhi. The Convention was jointly organised by AITUC, CITU, INTUC, HMS, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, UTUC and LPF. More than 6000 delegates from different federations of workers and employees from the defence plants, steel plants, coal mines, railways, banks, insurance, and many other sectors of the economy participated in the Convention. A delegation of the Mazdoor Ekta Committee actively participated in the Convention.
It is now more than a month since the imposition of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on 1st July.The days leading up to and following it witnessed country wide protests against its imposition. Shops and workshops across several sectors downed their shutters. Several unions joined in the protests.
Under the banner of Karza Mukti Andolan Sangharsh Samiti, farmers from across Rajasthan took out demonstration on July 17 and started a Traffic Jam Campaign. 39 farmers’ associations of Rajasthan are involved in this Sangharsh Samiti. As a result of the protest, on 22nd July the government invited the representatives of all 39 organizations from the Sangharsh Samiti, to discuss the problems being faced by the farmers.
Call of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, July 12, 2017
Peasant brothers, you have come here to Delhi from every corner of India to declare to the whole country that you will fight against injustice and for your rights. The Communist Ghadar Party of India stands firmly in defence of your struggle.
Hundreds of peasants’ organisations and many organisations fighting to protect the interest of working people have called for a rally in New Delhi on 18 July 2017. The rally has been called to demand that the government takes necessary steps to address the crisis that is devastating the lives of peasants across the country.
An estimated 120,000 people from across Germany and different parts of the Europe, gathered in militant protest actions at Hamburg, Germany, on the eve of the G-20 Summit which began on July 7. Various protest actions had begun in Hamburg nearly two weeks before the Summit. These protest actions demonstrated the resentment of the world’s peoples against imperialism, the capitalist system, the plunder and devastation of nations, militarization and war.
The Indian IT industry alone employs more than 45 lakh people. Despite packages that may seem attractive, the working conditions of these professionals are very damaging to their physical, mental and social well-being.
In June 2017, Tamizhaga Vivasayeegal Sangam (Sangam) organized a meeting of peasants near Pasuvandanai in Thoothukudi district of Tamilnadu. Peasants belonging to the nearby villages took active part in this meeting. Besides Sangam leaders and activists, the leaders and activists of Communist Ghadar Party, Workers Unity Movement and Unorganized Workers Federation also took part in this meeting.
The United Forum of Bank Unions has decided to observe July 19, the 48th anniversary of nationalisation of major banks, as 'Save public sector banks' day.
All members will wear a commemorative badge on the day, display posters in front of all branches, distribute leaflets and hold rallies/demonstrations.
The Union Government has announced its clear intention to accelerate on the privatization program. The aviation and defence sector public sector enterprises are high on the list of its privatization program. State governments are withdrawing from their responsibility to ensure safe, reliable and affordable public transport system, by privatizing road transport.
Nearly 5-7 lakh farmers from different districts of Maharashtra including Ahmadnagar, Nashik, Kolhapur, Sangli, Solapur, Nanded and Jalgaon have launched an agitation since 1st June 2017. They are demanding remunerative prices and guaranteed procurement for their produce as well as waiver for their debt.
Modi-led government has continued to justify demonetisation and refute even bourgeois economists’ assertion that it has hurt the economic growth. It has refused to accept that crores of workers lost their livelihood for months and lakhs of small and medium sized enterprises were forced to shut-down in the absence of cash post-demonetisation.
Employee Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) is considering a proposal to reduce provident fund contribution from 12 percent to 10 percent by both workers and employers. EPFO is claiming that the proposal is beneficial to workers as it will increase their take-home pay. It is hiding the real reason for the proposal which is to help the capitalists by reducing their contribution to workers’ provident fund.
Nearly 9 lakh chemists all over India observed a day long strike on May 30 in support of their demands. The strike had been called by the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD). Retail chemist shops remained closed in almost all parts of the country, in support of the strike. A demonstration was also held at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, on the day of the strike.
It is not usual to find organisers of teachers, farmers, government employees and of women and youth all participating actively in a joint political discussion. Such an event took place recently, at the initiative of the Rajasthan Council of Lok Raj Sangathan, a non-party political organization committed to the cause of bringing people to power.
The India Exclusion Report 2016, released by the New Delhi-based Centre for Equity Studies (CES) on 12th May 2017, citing Labour Ministry Data, says that says that employment creation in 2015 plummeted to 135,000 jobs compared to 930,000 in 2011. Even worse, existing jobs, especially in the IT sector, are being lost as thousands of workers were laid off in 2016, and the trend is set to continue this year.
This is in response to the May Day call of the CC of the CGPI dated 29-4-2017 entitled `Strengthen the united working class opposition!' carried in the May 1-15, 2017 issue of MEL. This is an excellent piece of theoretical and practical work, the hallmark of the CGPI, and an excellent piece of tactics in the ongoing class struggle towards the goal of socialism and emancipation of the working class and liberation of society from the shackles of vicious capitalist enslavement.
I am writing to thank you for carrying the important and educative article entitled 'What is the way out of the crisis of agriculture?' in the May 1-15, 2017 issue of MEL. This article is an outstanding example of Marxist-Leninist analysis of the concrete problems faced by the people of the country engaged in the agricultural sector, accounting probably for 70% of the population. The article begins by noting the recent directive from the Madras High Court to the Government of TN to waive all farm loans through cooperative banks.
On 4th April, the Madras High Court directed the Government of Tamilnadu to waive all farm loans accessed through cooperative banks. This comes at a time when farmers from drought-stricken Tamil Nadu have been agitating in New Delhi for several weeks. Their terrible plight has been visibly on display in all major TV news channels.
On 17th April, the Central Government handed over a list of the biggest loan defaulters to the Supreme Court. That list includes the names of all big capitalist companies which owe more than Rs 500 crore each to banks. Both the Government of India and the Reserve Bank claim that the names of these top defaulters must be kept hidden from the public, allegedly to protect the “economic interest of the country”. The Supreme Court has agreed to this.
Sir,
I am writing to thank you for carrying the article entitled `Bypassing of Rajya Sabha to push the monopoly capitalist agenda' in the April 16-30, 2017 issue of MEL, which is a detailed report on 5 bills tabled in the Lok Sabha during March as "money bills".
We are approaching May Day this year in the midst of growing mass protests against the draconian sentence of life imprisonment imposed on 13 Maruti-Suzuki workers, whose only crime is that they stood up for the rights of workers and dared to form a fighting union.
As many as five Bills were tabled in the Lok Sabha during March as “money bills”. They consist of the Finance Bill and four bills related to the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Finance Bill 2017
The Finance Bill is a piece of legislation that is tabled in parliament every year, along with the Union Budget. Taxation, expenditure and borrowing targets proposed in the budget become operational once the Finance Bill is approved by the Parliament and signed by the President.
Three sectoral unions in the IT sector have announced a joint campaign against the proposed mass layoff of employees by Cognizant Technologies Solutions. NDLF (New Democratic Labour Front), FITE (Forum for IT Employees) and KPF (Knowledge Professionals Forum) have issued a common statement urging employees not to accept forced resignations while demanding that the company invest in re-skilling employees. Earlier in 2016, NDLF, through a court case, had won a favourable clarification by Tamil Nadu government, that declared that all industrial and labour laws applied to the IT Sector.
We are approaching May Day at a time when the number and scale of protests of the working class are on the rise all over the world. Workers are fighting back with growing determination and waging more powerful, more united struggles against the capitalist offensive. There have been massive protests against the “austerity” measures being imposed on the working people, the cutbacks in social service and privatization of health services.
The All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA) and the All India Guards Council (AIGC) have decided to go on a 36 hour hunger strike on 25 and 26 April 2017. Through this hunger strike, they plan to highlight the grievances of the running staff of trains on a number of issues including the recommendations of the Seventh pay Commission on wages and allowances for different grades of the running staff.
The Second Plenum of the 6th Central Committee of Communist Ghadar Party of India was convened on 25-26 March, 2017. Assessing the developments on the world scale, the Plenum noted the intensification of inter-imperialist contradictions and the growing tendency of capitalist ruling classes to resort to fascist methods of rule. It noted that the Indian big bourgeoisie is marching on an extremely dangerous path and could drag us into a reactionary war to fulfil its selfish aims.
On 18th March, the Gurgaon district court pronounced its sentence for 31 workers of Maruti Suzuki whom it had convicted on the completely concocted charges of murdering a manager of the company. Thirteen workers have been awarded life imprisonment.
More than 12 lakh government employees went on strike throughout the country on 16th March 2017. The strike saw participation of workers from various government services including postal services, income tax services, RMSCGWB, postal account, civil account, survey of India, census services. The strike took place in support of the 20 point charter of demands released under the banner of Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers. The strike took place successfully throughout each part of the country.
The capitalist class and its economic experts talk as if the rate of growth in GDP is the indicator of the economic health of the country. However, life experience shows that growth in GDP does not guarantee improvement in the standard of living of the workers, peasants, artisans and others who toil to produce the GDP.
Crores of workers become poorer whenever the movement in their wages lag behind the rate of increase in the prices of consumption articles. It makes no difference to them whether GDP has grown by 5% or by 10%.
The condition of peasants is growing from bad to worse in all parts of the country. Growing domination of capitalist monopolies, withdrawal of State support in the name of liberalisation, and the cash crunch created by the Note Ban have all added to the misery of the peasants. The following are some cases which have hit the news in recent weeks.
Recent months have witnessed thousands of workers being thrown out of their jobs in a wide range of sectors, as a result of intense monopolistic competition leading to mergers among the biggest capitalist corporations.
The telecom sector is witnessing an unprecedented wave of mergers and acquisitions, which is expected to lead to massive destruction of jobs.
The Central Board of Trustees (CBT) of the Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has announced its decision to reduce interest rates for Employees Provident Fund from 8.8% to 8.65%. This will be applicable for the current year 2016-2017, once it is approved by the Central government.
This reduction in the Provident Fund interest rate is an attack on the savings of crores of workers. It is estimated that there are about 4 crore active EPF accounts. These workers will now earn less on their savings.
The Indian Railways (IR) organised a massive campaign over the last three months beginning September 2016, ostensibly with the purpose of getting suggestions from its 13 lakh workforce on how to improve the functioning of the Railways. 75,000 staff members gave over 150,000 suggestions and the best of these were to be selected and discussed at the 3 day shivir. Only delegates from the recognised trade unions, NFIR and AIFR were allowed to attend.
On 28 November a massive protest demonstration was organised at Church Gate Station in Mumbai against the demonetisation announced by the Modi government. Over 400 activists of various communist parties participated in the protest demonstration including the CPI, CPM, CGPI, SUCI (Communist), Republican Party of India, Samata Vidhyarthi Aghadi, Lal Nishan Party, and Peasants Workers Party, and others. The activists protested against the great difficulty caused to people are large, and raised slogans with banner and placards.
MEL is carrying out a series of interviews with leaders of the working class to get their view on demonetisation and its consequences for the people.
Com. Suryakant Shinge, leader of Ladaku Garment Mazdoor Sangh and activist Com. Vilas Kamble
MEL: What is the effect of Modi’s demonetisation on the lives of people in villages and towns?
The Reserve Bank of India reduced the rate of interest it charges on loans advanced to commercial banks by 0.25 percent in the first week of April.
Ever since Finance Minister Jaitley announced an allocation of Rs. 2500 crore for the “recapitalisation” of banks in his budget speech on 29th February, the issue of capitalist loan defaulters has caught the public attention. What is the real content of this “recapitalisation”?
The presentation of the Union Budget in Parliament, which takes place on the last day of February every year, is an exercise in massive deception. While the budget is a tool to plan the central government’s annual expenditure, revenues and borrowing program, its real content is never presented honestly to the public. Every government tries its best to hide the fact that it is a management team for the biggest capitalists of the country. Every Finance Minister tries to cover up the fact that the annual budget is a tool to align government finances with the drive of monopoly capitalists to maximise the degree of exploitation of labour, robbery of peasants and plunder of natural resources of the people of India.
Mazdoor Ekta Lehar interviewed Comrade Vishwas Utagi, Vice President of All India Bank Employees Association(AIBEA), on the rising bad loans or Non performing Assets of the Public Sector Banks(PSB)
Mazdoor Ekta Lehar (MEL):What is a Non Performing Asset(NPA)?
An extremely tense situation prevails all over Haryana. In the name of maintaining “law and order”, the government of Haryana and the Central government have unleashed a reign of terror against the people. As of February 20, 2016 at least 10 people have been reportedly killed and hundreds seriously injured in firing by the army and police.
In the last Railway Budget presented by the Railway Minister, Mr. Suresh Prabhu on February 2015, he had announced that Rs 8.5 lakh crores would be raised to augment the capacity of the Indian Railways and modernize its infrastructure.
Economic news during the month of February was dominated by various reports of Indian banks facing a major problem due to a steep rise in “non-performing assets”. Side by side, there has been repeated coverage of the pre-budget debate, dominated by a so-called dilemma of striking a balance between the need to accelerate “growth” and the need for m
On February 23, the opening day of the budget session of parliament, hundreds of Guards of the Indian Railwaysparticipated in a militant rally in New Delhi, from Ambedkar Bhav
About 1.5 lakh employees of the three municipal corporations of Delhi have been on strike from 27th January to 8th February in support of their demand for a permanent settlement of their issues of salary and arears due to them.
The meeting of the Joint Action Committee of Workers’ Associations was held in Dadar, Mumbai on 28th January 2016. AITUC, CITU, INTUC, Kamgar Ekta Committee, HMS, Dharmrajya Kamgar Sangathan, AIUTUC, AICCTU, Kamgar Aghadi, All India Bank Employees Federation, Bharatiya Kamgar Sena and other associations participated in it.
The statement of the CC of the CGPI dated 23-1-2016 entitled `On the occasion of Republic Day 2016: Unite, organise and lead the struggle for the Navnirman of the Republic!' in the February 1-15, 2016 issue of MEL is an important piece of reading that has analyzed the key features of the political economy, based on the principles of dialectical materialism and class struggle.
On 8th February 2016, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) passed an order which barred differential pricing of data based on its content by internet service providers.
I found the piece entitled `Economic Notes, January 2016: Global economy in trouble' carried in the February 1-15, 2016 issue of MEL to be extremely educative in the matter of the economy. It informs the reader so we are not misled by bourgeois economic propaganda.
The important facts recounted in this article may be organized in the following bullet points:
2015-2016 has been the second consecutive year of drought. Following over 12% deficit in the South-west monsoon in 2014, the monsoon this year saw 14% deficit. These figures only give the average deficit in rainfall for the whole of the country.
On January 13th 2016, the Union Cabinet approved the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). This is the latest crop insurance scheme in the country. It replaces the existing schemes viz. the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) and the Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (MNAIS). The scheme will come into effect on 1st April 2016.
The first month of 2016 witnessed a sharp fall in stock markets all over the world, reflecting the expectation of falling production and profits across a wide range of sectors on the world scale. The price of crude oil in world markets has fallen steeply to below 30 Dollars a barrel, the lowest in 12 years. The decline in oil prices initially began
Lok Raj Sangathan, for several years, has been fighting for rights of the residents of working class colonies of East Delhi located at Shashi Garden – Shastri Mohalla, Jawahar Mohalla, Mahatma Gandhi Camp and Khoka-Patari Cam
Hind Naujavan Ekta Sabha (HNES) organised a discussion on 15th August on the issue of State and revolution. A large number of school and college students, as well as youth workers took part in this discussion.
I am writing to thank you for reprinting the paper entitled 'The Last reform: Breaking with the Past', in the August 15-31, 2015 issue of MEL. This classic paper by Com.
A state-wide bandh was organised in Jharkhand on May 4, 2015, against the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, that the Narendra Modi government is trying to push through Parliament.
Kamgar Ekta Committee has brought together several workers' organisations and progressive organisations to initiate a widespread campaign against the bourgeoisie's program of privatisation of Railways.
Sir,
The Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 12th March 2015. With this, the cap on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the insurance sector has been raised to 49% from 26% hitherto. At the same time, FDI in pension funds will also get raised to 49% since the Pension Fund Regulatory Bill links the FDI in the pension sector to that in the insurance sector.
Important amendments to the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 have been proposed by the Labour Ministry of the NDA government.
I am writing to thank you for the excellent and informative article entitled `Union Budget 2015 – “Achhe Din Kiskke Liye?” in the March 16-31, 2015 issue of MEL. It analyses the political and economic phenomena unfolding in the country drawing from the facts and figures.
The Union Budget 2015, presented by Finance Minister Jaitley on 28 Feb 2015, has clearly shown that the economic policies, direction and thrust of the BJP-led NDA government are no different from that of the Congress party. The budget presented by Modi government in 2014, soon after BJP came into power at the Centre, too, was identical to the interim budget presented by the UPA in Feb 2014.
On February 26th 2015, the Railway Minister, Suresh Prabhu presented the Rail Budget for 2015-16.
In the budget there were very grandiose goals set forth namely,
Sir,
It is with great interest that I read the article entitled `The debate on “Black Money” and its recovery” in the November 15-30, 2014 issue of MEL, and it is my view that this article should be compulsory reading for all those in the revolutionary camp, as well for all those who are interested in knowing what are the nuts and bolts of the economy.
Mazdoor Ekta Committee and Lok Raj Sangathan jointly organized a meeting on the Indian Economy.
Once again in recent weeks there has been much discussion in political circles and the media about “black money".
Tens of thousands of people held mass rallies all over Europe on October 11, against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) Treaty that the governments of Britain and other EU states are planning to sign. The governments of these states are justifying this treaty as one which would facilitate breaking down of trade barriers, i.e.
Finance capital would invest further in India only if its investments are going to fetch big returns. Finance capital moves into those countries or sectors of the economy where it can secure maximum capitalist profit through the exploitation, ruin and impoverishment of the majority of the population, through the enslavement and systematic robbery of the peoples and, lastly, through wars and militarization. It would invest in India if its calculations show that by investing in India, it could earn higher profits than if it invested elsewhere. This would be its motivation, not the well-being of the Indian people
BJP led NDA government passed the Apprentices (Amendment) Bill, 2014 on the last day of the recently concluded session on 14th August 2014. Since the passing of the Apprentices Act in 1961, there have been four amendments in 1973, 1986, 1997 and 2007. This is the fifth amendment.
The two main parties of the ruling class, BJP and Congress, are fully in favour of further privatising and opening up the Insurance Sector to foreign capital. It is the working class which has been vigorously opposing this course. The main aim of the privatisation of insurance and pension sector is to provide access to Indian and foreign bourgeoisie to the huge savings of people accumulated in the form of insurance funds and pension funds. The big bourgeoisie wants to control this massive capital, as well as expand it. Foreign insurance giants have the same interests. Increasing the FDI limit in insurance is aimed at joint exploitation of the insecurities of the people by the parasites of finance capital.
Fear and insecurity are fundamental to the insurance business. The more the people of a country are living in fear and insecurity, the greater will be the profits of insurance companies.
The Central government has announced increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the defence sector from 26% to 49%. It has done away with the requirement of licences for defence manufacturing for all but 16 items. It has called for turning India into an arms exporter in the world arms market.
Persistently high food price inflation is a sign that the capital-centric orientation of the economy is incompatible with providing even the most basic necessities for all. The solution lies in reorienting the economy by bringing social production under social control. Only by putting an end to the anarchy of capitalism and the domination of profiteers over the market is it possible to ensure adequate availability of nutritious food for all, alongside a stable and secure livelihood to all those who till the land. The solution lies in establishing the control of workers and peasants over the production, procurement, trade and distribution of essential commodities, eliminating the space for private profiteers in this sphere of the economy.
Sir,
I am writing this in response to the statement of the CC of the CGPI entitled `Opening doors wider to Foreign Direct Investment is a Dangerous Coursei: BJP led NDA government is gambling with the fate of our country to serve the imperialist drive of Indian capital to join the global big power club' issued on 16th July, 2014 and carried in the August 1-15, 2014 issue of MEL.
Presenting the first budget of the BJP-led NDA Government, Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley announced the decision to permit 49% foreign ownershi
Presenting the budget of the Government of India for the fiscal year 2014-15, Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley began his speech in Parliament on 10th July with the following words: “The people of India have decisively voted for a change.
July 31st is the deadline for signing of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) by all 160 member countries of the WTO. The TFA will bind member countries to lower all borders to international trade including tariffs, procedures, etc. The Indian government is opposed to signing the Agreement unless its concerns over WTO Rules regarding agricultural subsidies are addressed.
The Budget for 2014-2015 of the Indian railways, presented by the Railway Minister Shri Sadanand Gowda represents the continuation of the course of privatization of the railways reflected in the budgets presented by the railway ministers of the UPA government.
The Union Labour Minister, Shri R.S. Tomar, has advised the workers’ unions not to act in a way that blocks industrial growth in our country. He says that his Ministry’s role is to “harmonise the interests of industry and labour”.
The Minister of Road Transport and Highways, and Rural Development, Shri Nitin Gadkari, has initiated a discussion through the monopoly media on changing key provisions of the 2013 land acquisition law, declaring that “development” is being hindered by the present law.
Sir,
At least six workers of Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) were killed and over 30 injured due to leaking of poisonous gas on the night of June 12, 2014. Soon after this, two engineers were killed on the steel melting shop 2 of Vizag steel plant on June 16, 2014.
"Sab ka saath, sab ka vikaas!" (Together with all, for the development for all!) This is the slogan with which the BJP led by Narendra Modi has swept to power at the centre, capturing 52% of the seats and reducing Congress Party to a small minority in the Parliament.
The document that was published on 23rd March, and distributed widely across the country among the working class, youth, toilers and intelligentsia and published in Mazdoor Ekta Lehar, is very important for the proletariat and toilers.
There have been numerous massacres of people of the Muslim faith in Assam, the most recent being during the ongoing elections. The Nellie massacre in 1983 during the Assam agitation against "foreigners" in which thousands of people died cannot ever be forgotten.
According to the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) wages as percentage of net value added has been declining over the last two decades.
The global economy has been sinking deeper and deeper into crisis over the past five years. Unemployment, poverty, inflation and all the diseases of the capitalist system are growing from bad to worse.
Throughout the civilised world the teachings of Marx evoke the utmost hostility and hatred of all bourgeois science (both official and liberal), which regards Marxism as a kind of “pernicious sect”. And no other attitude is to be expected, for there can be no “impartial” social science in a society based on class struggle.
Ukraine is being relentlessly pushed into deeper and deeper crisis, threatening its very existence as a sovereign country. The US imperialists and their NATO allies are directly responsible for this terrible situation. They set loose their fascist agencies in Ukraine to spread anarchy and violence in the capital Kiev and other cities.
April 22 is the birth anniversary of V.I. Lenin, the great revolutionary leader and teacher of the working class. Developments in India and all over the world reaffirm the extreme importance and relevance of his fundamental teachings today.
I am writing to thank you for carrying the landmark interview with Com.
The Call of the CC of the CGPI on the occasion of May Day 2014 which carries the byline `Build the united front of the working class and toiling masses around the program to ensure prosperity and protection for all!’ in the columns of MEL and on the web-site of the party organ, is a rallying cry that I endorse.
Interview withSir,
In the last two months, there have been several high level Japanese visitors to India. In November there took place the first ever visit by an Emperor and Empress of Japan to India. In early January, the Japanese Defence Minister visited Delhi. This was followed by the visit of the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was also the Chief Guest at the Republic Day ceremonies.
The Singapore government introduced a new bill in parliament on January 20, giving police special powers to “maintain public order” in Little India, a hub of Indian-owned businesses, eateries and pubs, where migrant workers from India and other South Asian countries get together in their rest time.
More than 15,000 workers, i.e. about 80% of the work force of the state owned Korea Railroad Corporation (Korail) went on strike on December 9, protesting against steps that are being widely perceived as preliminary to privatizing the rail service – a plan by the management to sell off to private hands the most profitable slice of its business.
Encouraged by the covert and overt backing of the imperialists of US and Germany, the anti-government protestors led by the opposition parties in Ukraine have been trying to overthrow the government of President Viktor F. Yanukovych by carrying out one provocation after the other.
The 44th annual World Economic Forum (WEF) brought together more that 2000 corporate executives, prime ministers, presidents and other government leaders, heads of central banks and social celebrities at the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos, from January 22-25.
More than two lakh government employees of Haryana participated in a successful strike for 72 hours from 20th-22nd February, under the leadership of an Employees Coordinating Committee.
The Loco Running Staff of the Southern Railways organized a protest demonstration on 22nd of Jan, 2014, in Chennai to highlight their key demands. A dharna was held in front of the Moore market near the Central Station. it was addressed by various union leaders and activists including Comrades V.R. Prakash, President of AILRSA, R. Murali, Zonal secretary of AILRSA, R.
On December 25, 2013, the Communist Ghadar Party of India completed 33 years since its founding. The occasion was marked by celebrations organized by the party organizations in different regions of the country. The Central Committee had previously planned to organize a series of Party Schools in different regions.
Elections to the Bangladesh parliament were held on January 5, 2014 in the backdrop of a severe political crisis in that country. The 28 party opposition coalition headed by the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) of Khaleda Zia boycotted the elections.
On January 1, 2014 the price of non-subsidized cooking gas (LPG) was raised by Rs. 220, one of the steepest hikes so far. Following the increase, a 14.2 kg non-subsidized cooking gas cylinder will now cost Rs. 1,241, while it earlier cost Rs. 1,021.
In the year that has gone by, one of the biggest burdens on the masses of working people has been the sharp and continuous rise in prices of vegetables. This added to the burden the people were already facing because of the rise in the prices of a whole host of other essential commodities. The rise in prices was particularly severe in the case of onions, and also potatoes and tomatoes.
In November 2013, the Reserve Bank of India issued a new policy for foreign banks in India, which allows them to take over existing Indian banks if they satisfy certain conditions.
“Why should we, the people of India, not elect a new Constituent Assembly to formulate a new Constitution to enable Hindustan to march on the high road of civilisation in this 21st century?”
There has been a lot of noise in recent weeks about the external exchange value of the Rupee, which has fallen by nearly 10 percent in the last one month and nearly 20 percent since April 2013. The prices of imported goods have risen and this has had a cascading effect on prices across the spectrum of commodities.
Four farmers of the Vidarbh region committed suicide on eve of the 66th anniversary of Independence. They have been driven to suicide due to failure of their crops twice in a row. In this year alone, the number of farmers dying in this manner has already crossed 518.
On August 1, the Commerce Minister Anand Sharma announced further liberalisation in the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy of the government for the retail sector. This follows the policy changes announced in September last year.
The Congress government of Maharashtra approved the Maharashtra Industrial Development (Reforms) Bill on July 17th. According to the provisions of this Bill, promoters of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) can now construct residential buildings on 40 percent of the land.
In the constant, day to day struggle between capital and labour, the capitalist class tries to increase the degree of exploitation of workers and thus increase the surplus value extracted from the labour of workers, by depressing the wages of workers and by increasing the length of the working day.
Devastating floods in Uttarakhand as well as Himachal Pradesh, following heavy rains in northern India since June 13, have already claimed thousands of lives and left behind a terrible trail of destruction. Men, women and children, their homes and belongings, whole villages, roads and bridges have simply been washed away by the raging flood waters.
The UPA government is claiming that it finally has achieved an “all-party consensus” on the proposed new land acquisition bill, titled the Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Bill, 2011.
On May 22, the UPA-2 government “celebrated” its fourth anniversary and congratulated itself for its performance on delivery of services to the people. However, the facts speak otherwise. The UPA government is yet to deliver on its promise of implementing a plan to ensure food for its people.
The following is the third part of a series of articles on this question, which has been an important topic of discussion within the Communist Ghadar Party and in the working class movement in recent times.
Karl Marx was born 195 years ago and died 120 years ago, but the science that he gave to the world continue to inspire us in a very live way. Marxism is alive because it is a science that guides the action of the working class and its vanguard Communist Party on the basis of analyzing contemporary phenomenon.
Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of Britain from 1979 to 1990, died on April 8, 2013. As Prime Minister, on behalf of Britain’s biggest monopoly capitalists, she presided over a fierce offensive against the rights of the working class and working people, which pushed up unemployment, poverty and inequality in Britain to levels not seen in decades.
The article on the General Budget printed in the April 1-15 issue of Mazdoor Ekta Lehar was extremely enlightening. This article clearly lays bare the character of the Indian state and in whose interests it functions.
On the occasion of May Day 2013, MEL interviewed Com Santosh Kumar, spokesperson of the Mazdoor Ekta Committee, on the issues facing the working class at this time. The interview is reproduced below.
Q. What is the message that you want to give on this May Day?
Comrade workers!
The Finance Minister of the UPA government, Shri.P. Chidambaram, while presenting the 2013-14 budget on 28thFebruary said, “Faced with a huge fiscal deficit, I had no choice but to rationalise expenditure. We took a dose of bitter medicine.”
Comrades!
The Indian working class carried out a successful general strike on February 20-21 under the leadership of the Trade Union organisations for their demands to put a stop to the price rise, for increasing the minimum wages, against the contract labour system and against the privatisation of public property.
After consulting with the capitalist associations in India and abroad, Chidambaram also held day-long talks with the Congress Working Committee. The aim of this exercise was to figure out what so-called concessions he ought to highlight in his budget speech, so as to fool the working people and not lose too many votes for the Congress Party in the coming state assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
On the morning of 9 February, under the cover of utmost secrecy, the Indian state hanged Mohammed Afzal Guru and buried him inside Tihar Jail in Delhi. His family and the rest of the country came to know only after the fact. The execution of Afzal Guru was a shameless and cowardly act that cannot be justified in the name of law and justice. On the contrary, the evidence shows
On 22nd February, 1993, the opening day of the budget session of Parliament 20 years ago, organisations of workers, women and human rights activists jointly staged a bold protest rally at Ferozeshah Kotla, condemning the criminal deeds of the principal parties in Parliament. They appealed to all men and women of conscience to take joint action for bringing about a fund
On January 31, 2013, a very important meeting was organized by the Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) in Mumbai on the theme, “What should be the response of the working class to the capitalist class’s program of globalisation through privatisation and liberalisation?” This conference was held in the backdrop of preparations of the working class for the All India Two Day General Strike of February 20t
The crisis that hit the aviation industry over the past five years has had its inevitable consequence. The workers in this sector face massive insecurity. From pilots to trainee pilots, cabin crew to trainee cabin crew, as well as the technical workers on ground and other ground workers, the livelihood of workers is under severe attack.
We, the undersigned, note that this Budget session of the Lok Sabha is being convened at a critical moment in the history of India. The blood of thousands of innocent victims of organised violence has not yet dried on the streets of Bombay, Surat, Delhi and other places, while lakhs have fled their homes, and returned penniless and destitute to the far corners of the country.
Thirteen years ago, in February 2000, led by the Mazdoor Ekta Committee, the workers of Modern Foods India Limited (MFIL) carried out a bold protest action in New Delhi on the opening day of Parliament.
A convention of activists was held on 30 January 2013 in the Mavlankar auditorium by the United Workers Organisations of Delhi. The convention was organised in the context of the call given by the central trade unions to make the all India strike on 20-21 February a success. More than a thousand activists took part in this convention.
The glaring contradiction between the voices being raised on Raj Path and on the jan path, between those in Parliament and those on Parliament street, reflects the inevitable clash between the forces of the Old and the forces of the New. The old order is crumbling. A new order is struggling to be born. Those who benefit from the old order are using their power to prolong its life, to postpone its end for as long as possible.
The working class is resolutely combating the attacks it is facing. In order to guarantee maximum profits for the capitalist class, the government is relentlessly implementing measures that are resulting in continuous increase of prices of essential commodities of daily consumption.
The hysterical warmongering against Pakistan witnessed in the first half of January brought India and Pakistan dangerously close to another military conflict.
The Justice J.S. Verma Committee, which was constituted by the government following the brutal gang-rape and subsequent death of a 23 year old woman in New Delhi on December 16, 2012, and the nation-wide agitations that followed demanding that the government take stern steps to prevent crimes against women, released its recommendations on January 23, 2013.
On 15 January the contract workers of Tehkhand Depot of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) went on strike to protest against the anti-worker attitude of the management and the Labour department.
The strike was led by Mazdoor Ekta Committee (MEC) and the All India Employees Trade Union.
Comrade Workers!
Today, one of the major factors leading to the exposure of both the Congress Party and BJP is the outbreak of numerous corruption scandals of gigantic dimension. What do these corruption scandals show?
The winter session of Parliament began on 22nd November. The agenda includes several proposed new laws, cleared recently by the Cabinet, which require parliamentary approval.
On November 13, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of a resolution calling for an end to the more than 50 year long blockade of Cuba by the US. The fact that the vote was 188 member states for the resolution with only 3 against, shows the complete isolation of the United States with regard t
In their attempt to justify the opening up of retail trade and many other sectors to foreign direct investment, the Prime Minister and many other so-called economic experts argue that increased inflow of foreign capital is essential to save our economy from sinking deeper into crisis.
The proposal for the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been hailed by the bourgeoisie. All the associations of big capitalists, CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM are calling the implementation of GST as the most important and urgent ‘reform’ required by the country to speed up the slowing growth of GDP. They claim that it could add as much as 2.5% to GDP growth.
Com A K Shrivastava is the Secretary General of the All India Guards’ Council (AIGC). Our correspondent met him to interview him about the effect of 20 years of the economic reform policy and to get information about the working conditions in this important sector.
The second round of liberalisation measures came on October 4, with the announcement by the UPA government of hikes in the ceiling on foreign equity ownership from 26 to 49 per cent in the insurance sector and from nil to 49 percent in the pension fund industry.
The article on the anti-people policies of the UPA government that was published in the issue of MEL October 1-15, brings out very well that the party which is in the majority of the central cabinet wields all power in this “democracy”.
The latest two packages of economic policy reforms announced by the UPA Government have been met with widespread opposition among the working class and people. These are measures to expand the space for the biggest capitalist monopolies, Indian and international, to collaborate in intensifying the exploitation and plunder of our land and labour.
On September 10, thousands of public school teachers in Chicago went on strike, opposing education reforms proposed by the city's mayor, which have been endorsed by the Obama government. Nearly 29,000 teachers were reported to be on strike.
In his address to the nation on 21st September, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warned the people not to “be misled by those who want to confuse you by spreading fear and false information.”
Report of Public Meeting on “Whither India?” held in Mumbai on 8th September, 2012
Working class representatives from all over the country are gathering on 4th September, at a time when a titanic struggle is going on in our country. The struggle is between the majority of toiling and exploited people and a minority of exploiters. It is between the majority whose lab
Sixty five years after independence from the British, who is free in India today? Workers, peasants, intellectuals, women, religious minorities, nations and nationalities are all oppressed. The big bourgeoisie has used the state of the Indian Republic to become the most dominant and ruling force of society, and is dragging the entire country onto a dangerous path – colluding and contending with other imperialist powers, and has grown rich not only by domestic but also through external plunder. The time has come to negate this state which negates the rights and aspirations of all our peoples. This can be done if and only if the working class takes the lead. For India to be free and independent, it is essential that every part our country, every section of our people, is free from oppression or discrimination of any kind. On the 65th anniversary of independence, the Communist Ghadar Party calls on all… to unite firmly around the program to reconstitute the Indian Union on a voluntary basis, redefine democracy to empower the people!
It is important for leaders and activists of working class, irrespective of the party or union they belong to today, to understand how and why the bourgeoisie is able to continue to attack the rights of the working class and people, despite knowing that the majority of the population is opposed to these attacks. The main reason lies in the fact that while the bourgeoisie is united around its one program of globalisation through liberalistion and privatisation, the working class is not.
As a newspaper and organisation that is partisan to the workers and toilers, we have been asking the leaders of the working people as to how the toilers of India view the reforms that were started 20 years ago. Whether the working class and people have benefitted from these reforms or have suffered?
One of the first major decisions taken by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, after he took charge of the Finance Ministry in July 2012, was to scrap the draft of General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR) and constitute a new committee to propose a new draft after consulting all ”stake holders”.
In 2000-01, an auto worker spent 2 hours 12 minutes of an 8-hour shift working for his own subsistence and that of his family. He spent the remaining 5 hours and 48 minutes generating surplus for the capitalist. By 2009-10, the ratio had deteriorated: The auto worker now spent just 1 hour 12 minutes working for his own subsistence and that of his family, and the remaining 6 hours 48 minutes ensuring profits for the capitalist.
Since 18th July, hundreds of peasant families in Gorakhpur, Haryana have pitched their tents under the hot sun on their fields in the villages. Women, men and children are sitting in protest on the land which the government wants to acquire for setting up a nuclear power plant.
On 26th June, the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) announced a new tariff schedule with a 25-27% hike in the rates of electricity for the Delhi domestic consumers. In less than one year, residents of Delhi are being made to pay about 65% more for a unit of electricity, in addition to 33% higher fixed monthly charges.
The strike of the pilots of Air India was withdrawn on July 3, 2012, following the intervention of the Delhi High Court.
This strike was called by the Indian Pilots’ Guild when the Central Government officers in charge of Air India went back on their promises on 7th May. It lasted for almost two full months. The 440 youthful pilots who were on strike revealed great determination and resolve to fight for their rights in the face of organised slander propagated by the corporate media and the Central Government.
On May 23, 2012 the UPA government launched a savage attack on the livelihood of our people by increasing the petrol prices by over 7.50 Ps per liter. This is the third hike in petrol prices in the past year, and the steepest ever, the previous steepest being Rs 5/- a litre.
A special session of both houses of Parliament was convened on 13th May to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the first session of the Lok Sabha.
While the Manmohan Sigh government and the Congress Party continue to pretend that they are working for the “aam aadmi”, both the working class and the peasantry are being impoverished and ruined at a rapid pace.
Comrade Workers!
The Right to Education Act which came into effect on April 1, 2010, has received much publicity as one of the biggest achievements of the UPA government, which allegedly shows its commitment towards ensuring elementary education for the children of our country.
As reported in the March 1-15 issue of Mazdoor Ekta Lehar, the Central Labour Ministry, New Delhi had appointed a one man National Tribunal, under Justice G.S Saraf, to look into the grievances of the Engine Drivers of Indian Railways.
It has come to light through newspaper reports that at a Railway General Managers Conference (there are 17 Railway Zones, each headed by a General Manager) on January 11, 12 in New Delhi, these “learned” gentlemen proposed to the Railway Ministry that in order to cut running costs of the Railways, the salaries including dearness allowance (DA) of the railway employees should be r
The BRICS grouping, just like other imperialist groupings, is wrought with contradictions between the member states. India and China for example have contradictions over unequal trade relations; they are competing for energy and other resources in Myanmar, South Sudan and other countries of Africa. They are contending with each other in Nepal, Sri Lanka, and South East Asia.
International Women’s Day, on 8th March, 2012, comes at a time when more and more women are coming out on the streets, in our country and all over the world.
On February 28, 2012 the Indian working class, its trade unions and organisations gave a call for an All-India strike in opposition to the proposals of the UPAgovernment for labour reforms in the interest of the capitalists. The strike call was for the defeat of the programme of privatization and liberalization, and against the bail out for the capitalists at the expense of the people.
While tightening their economic pressure against Iran through punitive sanctions, the Anglo-American imperialists are simultaneously busy making preparations for outright military aggression as well. US president Obama’s recent statements about giving time to allow the sanctions to take effect are only a diplomatic ruse to fool world opinion.
Birju Nayak: This strike has been called to oppose the anti-worker, anti-national, anti-people policies of the present UPA government.
Defeat the program of privatisation and liberalisation!
Fight with the aim of establishing workers’ and peasants’ rule!
Call of the Central Committee, Communist Ghadar Party, 23 February, 2012
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The polling of votes for the UP state assembly has been organised to take place in seven phases between 8th February and 3rd March. UP is a huge state with a 20-crore population. It has played a significant role in our country’s revolutionary politics.
The initiating speech, at the working class conference on the Way Forward held on 23-24 December 2011, was made by comrade Lal Singh, on behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India.
Recent facts reveal that the Central Government has not given up its aim of liquidating and privatising the largest state-owned airline company in the country, to satisfy monopoly capitalist greed for maximum private profits. They show that the opposite claims made at the end of the pilots’ strike last year were blatant lies.
Dear Editor
62 years ago, on 26 January 1950, the present-day Republic of India was proclaimed. This marked the consolidation of the state power of the Indian bourgeoisie, which had taken over power from the British colonialists when they were forced to leave because of the mounting struggles of the people of India.
Contradictions have become increasingly visible between countries, nations and peoples fighting for their sovereignty and the dominant imperialist powers that are imposing their vision on every country. US imperialism has shown its readiness to wage wars to defend its dominant position and those of American multinational corporations. It has unleashed death and destruction in West Asia and North Africa already.
Comrades, we have launched an important initiative to engage all communists in discussion on the urgent necessity for preparing the working class to take political power into its own hands. I call upon you to take up this task and spare no effort in taking this widely in every region of the country.Let us put pressure on everyone calling themselves communist to take a clear stand on this question— are they or are they not agreed on the urgent necessity to prepare the working class to take political power and establish proletarian democracy in place of capitalist democracy?
The 31st birth anniversary of the Communist Ghadar Party of India was celebrated in grand and colourful style in Delhi on 25th December 2011. The entire program was managed from beginning to end by the youthful comrades of the Party.
An important and path breaking two-day conference was organized by Lok Awaz Publishers and Distributors in Delhi on 23-24 December, 2011. It was attended by activists and organisers of the working class, belonging to numerous trends and parties in the communist movement.
Recent data show that the rate of economic growth has turned negative in many advanced capitalist countries, while it is slowing down in all the others. Serious concern is being expressed by multilateral institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund that the global recession may sink into a double-dip depression.
The year that has gone by has been characterised by militant struggles of workers, peasants and all the exploited and oppressed in defence of their rights.
Doctors working in Rajasthan's government hospitals have been on strike since December 21, on the issues of parity in wages and time-bound promotions. 6000 doctors are militantly fighting for their rights.
Sir,
Greece is considered to be the birthplace of European political thought, with the longest history of democratic forms of political power dating back to the stage of slave society. Today, in the early 21st century, the people of Greece are confronted with a State that openly places its duty to its external money-lenders above its duty to its own citizens.
Less than a mile away from Wall Street, the heart of global capitalism, the U.S. and the world have for the past three months witnessed a phenomenon unseen in almost four decades.
The All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA)) organized a countrywide protest on November 15, 2011 in support of their long standing demands. Engine drivers all over the country went on a 24 hour fast to mark their protest.
Overall, peasants have lost their economic independence, their livelihood, their land, the collective life and culture of the village.
They are doing this not to develop India. India's development should mean how the ordinary workers and peasants prosper. If we see that way, exploitation by the capitalists has increased and so has the number of poor people in India. The land, water and labour of our people are being super exploited. Our experience in Ashok Leyland over these years show that people have not benefited by the policy of privatization and liberalization. Only big capitalists have become richer.
As a result of trade getting shifted to large corporate retail houses, lakhs of small traders will be thrown onto the streets without livelihood. And once monopolies capture the entire market, they will supply poor quality products at high prices to make maximum profits.
In more than 8 districts of Vidarbha & Marathwada regions of Maharashtra, tens of thousands of cotton farmers are involved in mass protests at this time. They are demanding that the minimum procurement price for cotton be revised to at least Rs.6000/- per quintal.
Sir,
Sir,
Lakhs of workers from all sectors of the economy participated in an All India protest on November 8, marked by rallies and jail bharos. The protests took place in all the state capitals as well as other towns.
As a newspaper and organisation that is partisan to the workers and toilers, we have been asking the leaders of the working people as to how the toilers of India view the reforms that were started 20 years ago. Whether the working class and people have benefitted from these reforms or have suffered?
Respected editor,
Sir,
It is the Maruti Suzuki management that should be in the dock. The workers and their unions should take the Maruti management to court for attempting to bribe worker leaders and for violating labour laws. This would be a fitting reply to the vicious anti-worker-campaign.
The result of the two decades of the so-called economic reform program since 1991 – the globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation program - has been highly uneven and lopsided economic growth.
Dear Editor,
The conditions in our country are crying out for a reorientation of the economy and reconstitution of political power. These together constitute the program for the Navnirman of India that our Party advocates.
We, as a paper and organization partisan to the working class and toiling people, are asking the leaders of the toiling people what India Working think are the consequences of the reforms that were initiated 20 years ago. Have they benefited the working class and toiling masses? Have they harmed the working class and toiling masses?
Dear Editor,
I am writing to thank you for the first in the series of views of representatives of the working class in the form of an interview with Com. Lal Singh, General Secretary of the CGPI in the October 16-31, 2011 issue of MEL. The series will be a landmark contribution to the struggle for the liberation of India through the offices of the working class.
Mazdoor Ekta Lehar (MEL): Can you please tell us about your union? What has been the trend of employment in the last 15-20 years?
According to recent reports in the press, a contractor made an agreement to send 15 workers from Orissa to South Africa, promising Rs 15,000 per month to the unskilled labourers and Rs 16,000 to semi-skilled workers, such as masons and plumbers, among them. The workers were instead sent to Uganda and subject to very exploitative conditions of work.
A draft of the Land Acquisition and Relief & Rehabilitation Bill (LARR) was approved by the Cabinet and tabled in Parliament on September 7, 2011 and referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee on September 15. The Standing Committee is to submit its report on the draft in 3 months.
Tens of thousands of people poured onto the streets of Athens and other cities in Greece in the last week of September 2011 to protest against a fresh round of attacks on their livelihood being launched by the government.
Hundreds of protestors marched on the New York homes of wealthy billionaires who sit on the boardrooms of the banks and other financial institutions of the US on October 11, 2011.
The protesters chanted "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out" and "Hey you billionaires, pay your fair share" and carried signs that "We are the 99 percent."
The immediate cause for this action is the continued attacks on the workers by the management of Maruti-Suzuki and Haryana government
Workers of Maruti-Suzuki struck work insider the factor when 1600 casual workers were prevented from entering the plant by the management and goondas attacked the workers.
On September 30, representatives of 13 Unions and organizations met in Mumbai. The leadership of Lok Raj Sangathan, All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA), Indian Commercial Pilots Association(ICPA), Air India Aircraft Engineers Association(AIAEA), Western Railway Motormen’s Association(WRMA), All India Service Engineers Association(AISEA), All India Railwa
Whenever the price of petrol or diesel is raised the government claims that it is because of the “unaffordable subsidy”. This is a blatant lie because petroleum product consumption is being heavily taxed in our country and not at all subsidized. The “subsidy” in the central budget is less than one-tenth the total taxes collected from petroleum products.
This is a decisive struggle which will have bearing on workers rights all over the country. Because the workers are fighting for the right to organize themselves into a union of their choice, a union that will defend their interests..
If long-term discouraged workers are also counted, as was officially done in 1980, the unemployment rate was 22.7% in June. In other words, between one-fifth and one-fourth of those willing to work are without jobs.
The legal battles reflect the contradictions among the biggest monopolies and financial groups, and between states that represent rival imperialist interests. Such conflicts are growing acute alongside the contradiction between finance capital and the broad masses of working people.
Private companies have taken over the massive infrastructure, equipment, offices, substations and real estate belonging to the Delhi government for a song. New meters have been forcibly installed, which the workmen who install say are doctored. The workers who come to fix lines are contract labour. The only permanent staff is those who are near retirement, or are collecting bills.
At the heart of the crisis is the question as to what constitutes political power in India, what is the genesis of the power, and the question of who wields it and for what purpose. This question is directly related to the question of the 1950 Constitution of India, and what its central premises are. This essence of the latter is the defence of a viciously exploitative system that defends the right of a miniscule minority to exploit the resources and the labour of the vast majority, and the ascendancy of the right of private property.
Casual workers of Air India are on the war path, trying to organize their own union to assert their rights. They want to be recognised as regular workers with all the rights of the regular workers who do the same work they do. The nearly 500 workers working in Chennai for Air India have taken the lead.
On 12th September 2011, the Maruti-Suzuki Employees Union organised a huge rally from Kamala Nehru Park to the Mini Secretariat in Gurgaon.
This rally was organised to demand withdrawal of the requirement of 'good conduct bond', reinstatement of union leaders and other workers and recognition of their Union. More than 3000 workers participated in the rally.
On 12th September, 2011, in the Manesar plant of Munjal Showa situated in IMT, workers sounded the bugle for a strike from 4 in the afternoon. They were demanding being made permanent employees instead of being treated as trainees indefinitely.
The Government of India is trying to mislead the toiling majority of people by claiming that capitalist monopolies in retail will help to control food prices. The real objective of the monopolies is not to provide essential items at affordable prices but to reap maximum profits at the expense of the producers. The real aim of the government is to enable this to happen. It does not want to accept its responsibility of ensuring that the livelihood of producers is secured, that food is available to people at prices they can afford through efficiently managed procurement and distribution and not allowing trade in essential items to be a profit making activity.
The Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) has pointed out that “Youth are being denied a future. They are being blocked from having any say in shaping the future. The state itself promotes violence and anarchy; and then blames the youth”.
The Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on Air India covering the period 2005-10 has unequivocally indicted the management and the government for the purchase of 50 Boeing aircraft.
The struggle against corruption is part and parcel of the struggle to change the political and economic system in our country. An important and immediate aim of this struggle is to reclaim from Parliament what belongs to the people, namely — sovereignty, the supreme decision making power.
The III Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India was convened in the third week of July 2011.
Bank employees all over the country went on strike on August 5, 2011 at the call of the United Forum of Bank Employees. Workers from Public Sector Banks, private Indian and foreign banks, rural banks and cooperative banks participated in the strike action.
Over three hundred bank workers participated in a rally held at State Bank of India, Imphal, on the occasion of the All-India Bank Strike on August 5 of 2011. The main speakers were Th. Rohinikumar Singh, former convenor of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU, Manipur State Committee), S. Bijoy Singh, President, Bank Employees Federation of India, S.
Sir,
I read with great interest the in-depth article entitled ``What is the trouble with Air India and who is the trouble-maker?'' posted on the party web-site on the 17th of July 2011.
I have gathered the following from the article which I would like to express in bullet points as follows:
Dear Editor,
I found the article in MEL of 1st to 15th july on the subject of Land Aquisition very thought provoking.
“Development for whom?”
The United Forum of Bank Unions, consisting of nine unions of employees and officers of all state-owned banks, has called a one-day strike on 5th August. The workers’ unions are fighting against intensified exploitation and attacks on their rights and working conditions.
Following the call for an all-India strike on 5th August by the United Forum of Bank Unions (5 employees’ unions and 4 officers’ unions), correspondents of Mazdoor Ekta Lehar interviewed one of the most senior leaders of bank workers in Delhi on 13th July, 2011. Comrade Ramanand is General Secretary of the Delhi State - Bank Employees Federation and one of the leading members of All-India Bank Employees’ Association
The Confidentiality Act is a legacy of British colonial rule, like the Land Acquisition Act. The law exists from the epoch when we were enslaved to the white man.
In the wake of these exposures, the government is now talking of revival of Air India. On the other hand, the capitalist associations are demanding its immediate privatization. They are saying government must not inject any money in Air India as it is allegedly a waste.
Central Postal Joint Council of Action (CPJAC) has declared that postal workers all across India will intensify their struggle. They may go on indefinite strike in July 2011.
The Fourth Congress of the Communist Ghadar Party of India was convened in the last week of October 2010.
The Report of the Fourth Congress was presented by Comrade Lal Singh on behalf of the Central Committee elected by the Third Congress. It was discussed at length and adopted by the Congress. It was been edited for publication by the decision of the Fourth Congress. This publication also contains the Resolutions adopted by the Fourth Congress
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Marked as a "Day of Protest against Price Rise", June 23 saw various trade unions of Delhi stage a joint protest against price rise at Jantar Mantar. The unions demanded that the prices of the various petroleum products which had been hiked up by the Congress led UPA government be reduced.
Greece has been under severe economic crisis for the past several years. The Greek government which did not have any foreign debt before it joined the EU in 2000, is now mired in debt. By 2009, the budget deficit stood at 15.7%, which is four times what is allowed by the EU and the external debt was 127% of the GDP. The primary reason for this situation was the easy credit offered to the Greek government by the "troika" of lending institutions, i.e., the IMF, European Central Bank and the European Commission.
On June 9th , 2011, 10 unions representing the different sections of the employees of Air India, including, pilots, aircraft technicians, ground staff and cabin crew, Aircraft Engineers, radio officers and flight officers,Service Engineers as well as the officers came together at Mumbai and decided to form the “Core Committee of Joint Forum of Air India and India
For the past several months, corruption and how to eradicate it has become the main topic of political discourse. The monopoly media, both print and electronic, has become a warrior against corruption in public life. Anti corruption crusaders have sprung up and are in the lime light.
Thousands of workers of different factories in Manesar participated in a militant solidarity dharna at the gate of the Maruti Suzuki plant in Manesar on June 9, 2011.
The UPA government is planning to present a draft Bill on Land Acquisition before parliament during the monsoon session. For the past few years, farmers all across the country have been waging militant struggle against forcible land acquisition.
Lured by the possibility of maximum profits in the rapidly growing aviation industry, the biggest private monopolies, Indian and foreign, are fighting each other to dominate this sector. Liquidating and privatizing Air India is part of this game.
The workers of Air India Air Transport Services Limited (AIATSL) have come out in opposition to the decision to hand over the ground handling charge of Thiruananthapurman airport to a foreign agency.
The workers of two mills in Gorakhpur won a long battle against the owners, after much struggle and sacrifice.
Egypt continues to boil. The fall of the Mubarak regime, and the establishment of an interim government, has not satisfied the working masses. The working masses can see that the military, the backbone of the Mubarak regime, continues to rule and the interim government continues its anti working class, pro US, pro Israeli course. They are demanding a fundamental change in course.
On May 15, the Israeli Armed Forces opened fire on hundreds of protestors who had gathered at a check point on the border of Gaza with Israel, to commemorate Naqba (day of catastrophe), the founding of the Israeli Zionist state in 1948. At least 15 people were killed in the firing while many more were wounded.
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry issued a "Consolidated Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Policy" effective April 1, 2011. This Policy is part of the on-going effort by the government to promote FDI by progressively removing restriction and reducing regulation of capital from abroad.
After a 10 day strike that grounded Air India, and three days of negotiations involving the pilots, the Management of Air India and the Civil Aviation Ministry, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association withdrew their strike on May 6, 2011.
The industrial areas of Panipat contains mostly hosiery and yarn factories. Thousands of workers who work in this industrial area live in rented tenements in the neighbourhood.
The results of the elections to the assemblies of West Bengal, Tamilnadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry have come in. These elections took place against a background of growing anger and resentment amongst the workers, peasants, tribal people, progressive intelligentsia and other working people, about the worsening conditions of life.
Workers of public and private sector banks in the country will strike work on July 7, 2011.
The dharna was organized by an action committee for solidarity with Maruti workers that was established at a meeting of local trade unions on June 8, 2011. Over 2000 workers of the Maruti Suzuki plant are on tool down strike since June 4, 2011 in support of their demand for recognition of their union, Maruti Suzuki Employees Union and against the terribly exploitative wages and working conditions. All production has come to a halt.
On June 11, 2011, the tool down strike by Maruti Suzuki workers which had begun on the afternoon of June 4, entered its 8th day. A correspondent of MEL spoke to a leader of the striking workers. Below are excerpts of the interview.
Since the afternoon of June 4, 2011, thousands of workers of the Maruti Suzuki plant at Manesar have gone on strike, bringing to a halt all production in this factory.
The Delhi High Court ordered the striking pilots back to work by declaring the strike illegal, and is initiating contempt proceedings since its order was not obeyed. It has remarked that if its orders are not obeyed, then it would lead to anarchy and a discrediting of the institution, and then everyone would do as they liked. Why does not the Court also ask this of the management, and in particular of the MD, Mr. Arvind Jadhav? The latter has now been named in several allegations amounting to corruption of the worst sort, including those listed in the article, and more recently in the sale of valuable land to private players.
126th May day was held in various places in Tamil Nadu on 1st of May, 2011. Working class vigorously worked in organizing and participating militantly in these May day programs. Various organizations and parties held their programs separately across the state. Some programs were jointly organized.
Replacing one party or coalition by another in the existing capitalist democracy does not lead to any advance for the toiling masses. It does not change the capitalist orientation of the economy. It does not end the loot and plunder of our land and labour, nor the attacks on our rights. The only way the situation will change is if we who produce the wealth of India become her masters. Then and only then can we reorient the economy to provide prosperity and protection for all.
In our country at the present time, the party that is promoted as “the Marxist Party” has turned Marxism into such a grotesque caricature that masses of working people are rebelling against its rule in West Bengal. Far from arming the working class to become the ruling class, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has committed itself to managing the rule of the capitalist class. It has merged with the existing capitalist state and its multi-party representative democracy. It has unleashed police repression and brutal violence against peasants and others so as to seize their land and hand it over to capitalist monopolies.
On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair, peacefully gone to sleep — but for ever.
An immeasurable loss has been sustained both by the militant proletariat of Europe and America, and by historical science, in the death of this man. The gap that has been left by the departure of this mighty spirit will soon enough make itself felt.
32 PROFITABLE ROUTES WITHDRAWN TO BENEFIT PRIVATE AIRLINES.
FORCED STRIKE ON EXECUTIVE PILOTS, THEREAFTER HE WAS NOT AVAILABLE FOR TALKS FOR FOUR DAYS (LOSS MINIMUM 100 CRORES).
AIRCRAFTS RE-PAINTED THRICE IN AS MANY YEARS.
12 CRORES CROCKERY ORDERED.
(from the leaflet of striking Air India pilots)
Question 1 : What is Communism?
Answer : Communism is the doctrine of the conditions of the liberation of the proletariat.
Question 2 : What is the proletariat?
Answer : The proletariat is that class in society which draws its means of livelihood wholly and solely from the sale of its labour and ...
Under the garb of a ‘fundamental right’, India’s education system is being made even more discriminatory and class divided, giving in to the ‘right’ demanded by capitalists to make profits from every sphere of social activity, including education. The real aim underlying the RTE Act is to fulfil capitalist greed – not the fundamental right of all workers, peasants and their sons and daughters.
Teachers and union members marched in the streets of Philadelphia to protest the state education budget that contains a massive 54 percent cut to public higher education spending. Education cuts lead to tuition fee hikes, making education unaffordable for many youth.
Employees of Hellenic Petroleum launched a 10-day strike on 3rd April 2011 that could disrupt the supply of the market with fuel in the coming days. The employees at EL.PE are striking in demand of "the safe staffing of the new units that are commencing operation at the (EL.PE) industrial installations in Thessaloniki and Elefsina". (ANA-MPA).
Hundreds of Finnish workers have started a two week strike at selected paper making plants aimed at speeding stalled wage talks. The trade union says the walkouts began in the first week of April 2011 and include some 1,000 members. They are expected to cause plant closures, mostly at UPM- Kymmene Corp.'s factories.
Increased allocation of financial resources for providing health care in the public hospitals. This is required for uninterrupted full supply of life saving medicines and instruments required for life saving procedures in the peripheral and district hospitals throughout the state. Currently there is a huge shortage of these items.
The workers of Voltas in Mumbai are on the path of struggle. Voltas is a profit making company belong to the Tata Group. The workers of Voltas have been fighting for revision of their wages and have put forward a charter of demands.
Thousands of film workers of Andhra Pradesh have declared they will go on strike from April 8. The workers are demanding a hike in their wages, but Telugu film producers are refusing to discuss their demands. "Workers of all the 24 crafts will not participate in any shooting from tomorrow until our demands are met," leaders of the A P Film Industry Employees Federation (APFIEF) declared.
Contract workers in a steel making plant in Sanguem taluka in Goa began an indefinite strike on April 5, 2011. Over 250 workers gathered outside the factory gates shouting slogans against the management. The striking workers are demanding better working conditions.
All India Postal Employees Union has threatened to go on an indefinite nationwide strike in support of their demands.
The strike by workers of General Motors India (GMI) at the Halol plant in Gujarat continues. 900 temporary workers of the car plant are on strike since March 16, 2011.
Contract workers of ACC (Holcim), a multinational cement company, in Chhattisgarh, have started an indefinite dharna from April 3, 2011, demanding the implementation of a High Court order for their regularization and for implementation of the Cement Wage Board Award.
Saturday 26th March was a historic and proud day for all working people of Britain. Almost a million people marched through the streets of London protesting against the cuts to welfare and public services, corporate bail-outs, and wars of aggression in the Middle East and South Asia. Central London was brought to a standstill by students, pensioners, trade unionists, anti-war protesters along with masses of working people marching in solidarity.
A rally was brought out under the leadership of Kisan Sangharsh Samiti on 19th March 2011 in Fatehabad, Haryana against the Gorakhpur Atomic Power Station. The demonstrators, consisting of hundreds of militant farmers, youth and women of 20 to 25 village panchayats, took out a candle light march right through the centre of the town.
Hundreds of activists of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, SUCI(C), CPI(ML) and People’s Front (Delhi) held a joint demonstration in front of the Delhi Secretariat on 16th March 2011 to protest against rising prices, unemployment, corruption and other problems faced by the ordinary people of Delhi.
The National Advisory Council (NAC), headed by Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi, has released an Explanatory Note on the proposed National Food Security Bill, and asked for comments on this note from all interested parties by 15th March. This Explanatory Note is in support of a draft National Food Security Bill that would give conditional entitlements of fixed quantities of rice, wheat or coarse grains at subsidised prices to ‘priority’ and ‘general’ category households.
Press ahead with the demand for a Modern Universal Public Distribution System!Food price inflation has been reported at 18% over the previous year in the third week of January. Conditions of life for millions dependent on fixed wage incomes are becoming unbearable. Conditions facing peasants and small family enterprises are also becoming untenable, with extremely high degrees of uncertainty and price volatility affecting food as well as raw materials.
A series of high profile corruption scandals have rocked the political establishment in recent weeks, engulfing both the ruling Congress and its allies, as well as the main opposition, the BJP.
Even as the government boasts of hosting the "best Commonwealth Games ever", it is an open secret that the construction workers at the Commonwealth Games sites, whose number is estimated to be over a lakh, have been victims of the most brutal and inhuman exploitation.
More than 30,000 Romanian public sector workers are to go on strike at the end of September 2010. The spokesman of the National Union of Public Workers said that workers from hundreds of state institutions will participate.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and bourgeois economists in general try to hide the connection between the rise in National Debt and the rise in economic burdens that are piling up on the backs of workers and peasants at this time. In fact, the rising national debt is one of the major factors, and a permanent one, leading to ever increasing burdens being imposed on the toiling people, in the form of higher taxes and prices of everything they need to buy in the market.
The issue of what price the peasant is able to sell his marketable produce at is very critical in the face of rising input prices being paid by him - it is a question of his livelihood. This has become a matter of serious concern as increasing number of peasants face destitution and ruin.
Hundreds of foreign student nurses, most of them Indians, face the threat of deportation from Australia. This follows the government's decision to raise the English language standard requirement for passing for foreign students. This arbitrary decision was taken when most of these student nurses had just completed their courses. Many of them had got job offers in Australia.
The countrywide strike by doctors in Nigeria is having a widespread impact. The doctors began their strike on August 11. Initially resident doctors struck work to force the government to implement an earlier agreement on wages and working conditions. The resident doctors have now been joined by consultants.
Strike action by Metro system employees in Athens, Greece, was ruled illegal last month by a court order just before the transport staff were scheduled to strike for five hours the next morning.
Workers at the Fos and Lavera oil terminals at the port of Marseilles, France, held a 24-hour strike on August 20, 2010 Loading, discharging and berthing / unberthing were all severely affected during the industrial action.
Several demonstration and actions have been taking place in Ireland to oppose cuts in health services. One of the latest in a series of demonstrations to oppose the downgrading of hospital services took place in Portiuncula hospital, Ballinasloe, County Galway, on August 16, 2010.
Transport workers across the world are holding a day of action to protest the sacking of 157 transport workers in Turkey by the multinational transport company UPS, which transports cargo by land, sea and air . The workers were dismissed following attempts to unionise. The company has been using threats as well as violence against the workers.
Mazdoor Ekta Lehar expresses its deep sympathy to the people of Pakistan at these grave moments when the people are faced with one of the worst calamities in history as a result of floods. The estimate of those who have lost their homes ranges upwards of two crore people. Thousands of towns and villages have simply been washed away.
A copy of the statement jointly brought out by Lok Raj Sangathan (Maharashtra Committee) and Kamgar Ekta Chalwal on the just demands of the All India Loco Running Staff Association has been received by Mazdoor Ekta Lehar. The statement is call to the working class of the whole country to unite and we are reproducing it below for our readers.
Viva Global is a company whose factory located in the Udyog Vihar region of Gurgaon manufactures clothes for well known brands such as Marks & Spencer. For the past few months, the management has been trying to intimidate the workers who have been organising to force the management to give them their rightful dues. Following brutal attacks on the workers and especially the union leaders on 25th August 2010, the workers have been demonstrating outside the factory gate. MEL interviewed the fighting workers who include a large number of women.
The indefinite of over 33,000 non teaching staff of universities and colleges of Bihar has completed 49 days on August 18, 2010. The strike has badly affected teaching and examination schedules of all the colleges and universities in the state. Most colleges did not reopen after month-long summer vacation on July 1 and hence the admission of students to the three-year degree courses is yet to start there.
Nearly 200 nurses were arrested in Ahmedabad on August 11, 2010, for agitating for their rights. The nurses of UN Mehta Institute of Cardiology and Research Center at Civil Hospital were protesting the suspension order issued to three of their colleagues for forming a union.
Domestic Workers in Chennai organised a protest action demanding weekly offs, notice before termination of service, paid holidays and medical benefits. They are demanding cards identifying them as domestic workers. They are also demanding that they be treated with dignity. Many of them are falsely accused of theft and harassed by police.
Workers of the government-owned Arignar Anna Sugar Mills at Kurunkulam near Thanjavur, Tamilnadu, are waging a struggle in defence of their wages.
Five lakh Bank employees will participate in the all India General strike of September 7, 2010. This has been announced by the leaders of the All-India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA).
Thousands of peasants from UP and other places held a massive protest rally in New Delhi on August 26, against the forcible acquisition of their land for the Yamuna Expressway. They condemned the police firing on agitating peasants in Aligarh on August 15, in which four peasants were killed and nearly 20 injured.
Workers of IIT Kanpur staged a demonstration on August 16, 2010 to press for various demands including permanent status to daily wage workers.
Over 40,000 workers of the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) have decided to step up their struggle for their long standing demands, including implementation of the 6th Pay Commission recommendations. The Officers’ union of the Corporation has extended moral support to the strike.
The Civil Aviation Ministry along with the Union government is preparing a plan to impose wage cuts, as well as retrenchment, on Air India workers. This is aimed at making the company "profitable", according to the media.
A report released by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) reveals that in the past 16 years, the rich have grown richer and the poor poorer. According to the report, the top 20% of our country's population has more than 50% share of the national income in 2009-2010, as compared to the 36.7 % it had in 1993-1994.
The news that thousands of lakhs of tonnes of foodgrains have been rotting in the godowns of the Food Corporation of India has angered the workers and peasants of our country. Investigations have revealed that the amount of foodgrains condemned by the government as unfit for human consumption has been steadily increasing since 1997.
Several new taxes were introduced in the state budget (March 2010) and again in May that have imposed a heavy burden on the working people. Noting the increase in expenditure on projects and schemes related to the CWG, the Delhi Minister for Finance, Dr.Walia said, "Our revenue collection through taxes has not been adequate due to recession. Therefore, it has become essential to look for measures to generate additional revenue to sustain development."
The British Prime Minister David Cameron came to our country in July to forge a "special relationship" between the rulers of the two countries.
Dear Sir, I am writing to support the call given in the article of the July 16-31, 2010 issue of PV entitled "The people of India are demanding - "take measures to control prices, or quit!"''. I would also like to join the CGPI in extending its congratulations to the people of India for carrying out the successful Bharat Bandh on July 5, 2010.
Employees at Tata Memorial Centre, the country’s premier facility for treatment of cancer, can now agitate against unfair labour practices legally and put up their grievances before the local labour commissioner. On August 9, 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that they are governed by the state labour laws.
In the context of the continuing global economic crisis, two summits of the world's leading capitalist countries were held in quick succession in end-June of this year in Canada - the G8 on June 24-25 and the G20 on June 26-27.
The Communist Ghadar Party of India has been agitating for a Modern Universal Public Distribution System through which all people will be assured of adequate supply at affordable prices of good quality foodgrains, pulses, sugar, cooking oil, edible oils, cooking fuel and all other essentials of mass consumption necessary to ensure nutritious food.
According to news reports (TOI July 1, 2010), Law Minister Veerappa Moily is proposing to enact a law that Public Interest Litigations aimed at stopping "developmental projects" on environmental grounds would have to pay the cost of delay of projects, when their PIL's get rejected. This proposal is a key aspect of the new National Litigation Policy.
The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission is supposed to be an independent authority that sets the prices consumers have to pay for electric power in the national capital. However, on 4th May, 2010, the Delhi Government issued a directive to the Commission not to issue the tariff order for 2010-11. As a result, the privately owned distribution companies of the Tatas and Reliance are overcharging consumers to the extent of Rs.300 crore per month. This has been stated in the most recent communication from the Chairman of DERC to the Chief Secretary of Delhi Government, who is also Principal Secretary for power.
The UPA Government, which recently completed the first year of its second avatar, has claimed to be a government serving the aam aadmi. It pretends to be greatly concerned about the poor peasants in the villages. However life reveals the opposite.
The Government of India has been talking about how it is subsidizing oil companies. Here are some facts which will indicate who is subsiding whom.
The storm raised in India and abroad over the trial court verdict on the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984 has deepened the crisis of credibility of the Manmohan Singh regime. From the painstaking evidence gathered by those fighting for justice for the lakhs of victims of this tragedy, it is clear as daylight that the then Rajiv Gandhi regime was more concerned about rescuing Warren Anderson and the management of Union Carbide from the wrath of the people, than about ensuring justice for the victims of the gas tragedy.
The UPA Government headed by Manmohan Singh has completed the first year of its second term in office. Workers must make a sober assessment of this regime which is attacking workers and their rights in the name of the “aam admi”. This fortnight, Mazdoor Ekta Lehar looks at the UPA Government in relation to the conditions, aspirations and demands of the working class.
Twenty six years after the horrific Bhopal gas tragedy of December 2-3, 1984, a trial court in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, has given its verdict. This verdict is a complete travesty of justice. People all over India and across the world have expressed horror and anger at the verdict.
The total value produced by labour (GDP) during 2007/08 was Rs.40.4 lakh crore, according to the National Accounts Statistics (NSA). The working class received wages of Rs.13.1 lakh crore in 2007/08. Toiling peasants and other small producers received Rs.12.5 lakh crore as their net income. The bourgeois class, which does no work, earned income in the form of profit, interest and rent of Rs.14.9 lakh crore, or 37% of the total value produced in 2007/08.
Mazdoor Ekta Lehar expresses its profound grief to the families of the 158 passengers and crew of the Air India Plane from Dubai that crashed in Mangalore Airport in the early hours of May 22, 2010. Hundreds of people have lost their sole bread earner in this tragedy.
If we honestly sum up our experience, we workers of India must admit that our struggle has been weakened by narrow party politics. Such politics has divided us and diverted us from the struggle against the capitalist class. Parties whose aim is to come to power at any cost have raised slogans against privatization and liberalization, but have implemented the same once in power. Parties that are active in the working class movement have collaborated in the capitalist land grab in the name of industrialization. Such class conciliation has resulted in weakening our struggle against the bourgeois offensive. It has assisted the bourgeoisie in intensifying the exploitation of the working class.
Recently the Delhi Government announced an increase in the minimum wages effective 1st February 2010. As per the revised wages, the minimum monthly wage for an unskilled worker will be Rs. 5,278. This increase is the result of the persistent struggle of workers, trade unions and other organizations like the Mazdoor Ekta Committee.
The Editor,
I am extremely thankful to you for carrying the statement of the CC of the CGPI entitled 'Step up the struggle to assert the claims of labour on the social surplus!' in the April 1-15 issue of PV.
On April 8, 2010 the UPA government’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave its approval for the disinvestment of 5% of the Government of India’s shareholding in the Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL), one of the giant Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). The approval also covered the issue of fresh shares to the extent of 5% of its existing share capital.
The UPA government is preparing to introduce a bill in parliament that is called the “National Food Security Bill”. Mazdoor Ekta Lehar condemns this bill as a blatant assault on the right of the working masses to guaranteed food. Far from ensuring any food security, the aim of this bill is to create the illusion that the UPA government is concerned about eradicating hunger and malnutrition, while in fact the bill guarantees nothing to the working masses of town and country.
Dear Editor,
| Petrol Prices in Delhi | % of sale price |
| Price without duties and taxes | 43 |
| Subsidy/Under recovery | 10 |
| Sales Tax | 15 |
| Custom duty | 1 |
| Excise duty | 31 |
| Total | 100 |
When the vast sections of our country are seriously impacted by the ruthless price rise and its consequences, our government in its recent budget has not shown any kind of sympathy or concern to their plight. This whole budget has been oriented towards facilitating further maximizing profits for the capitalists.
Lakhs of workers all across the length and breadth of the country participated in protest actions against the anti working class policies of the UPA government on March 5, 2010.
As part of its drive to grow and amass ever greater profits, the Indian big bourgeoisie is expanding its reach abroad as well as within the country. It is seeking new markets, sources of energy, minerals and raw materials, as well as profitable fields for investment of its capital. One of the areas where it is expanding its presence most dramatically in recent years is the resource-rich continent of Africa.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is presenting the Union Budget on 26th February, at a time when the working class is reeling under the burden of record food price inflation. President Pratibha Patil, in her address to Parliament on the opening day of the budget session, blamed various external forces and the weather for food prices rising at over 20%. This is a sign that the present rulers of India are not going to solve the food problem.
The economies of four countries of the Eurozone — Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy are in deep crisis. There are fears that there will be a domino effect on the economies of the rest of Europe, and.the EURO has fallen in relation to the Dollar. GDP statistics reveal that all four economies experienced zero or negative growth in the last quarter of 2009.
On February 9, 2010, workers living in the South Delhi parliamentary constituency took out a torchlight procession to protest the massive increase in food prices. The rally was organised under the baner of the Mehangai Virodh Samyukt Sangharsh Samiti (Joint Struggle Committee to Oppose Price Increase). The torchlight rally began from Tekhand village at 4 pm and marched to Kalka Depot, passing through the factories of Okhla Industrial Area Phase 1 and Phase II.
9 फरवरी, 2010 को महंगाई विरोधी संयुक्त संघर्ष समिति की अगुवाई में, दक्षिणी दिल्ली के तेहखंड गांव के चैक से कालकाजी बस डिपो तक, शाम 4 बजे से महंगाई के खिलाफ़ मशाल जुलूस निकाली गयी।
Working class and toiling families are facing an intolerable situation, with the prices of every essential of food – rice, wheat, pulses, sugar, eggs, milk, vegetables, including onions and potatoes – spiraling upwards since the last nearly one year. Prices that started rising a year ago are continuing to spiral up and the rate of inflation has crossed 20%.
Over 10,000 workers have been retrenched in the mines of Barbil-Joda-Gandamardan mining belt in Keonjhar district of Odisha. The sword of retrenchment hangs heavy over the heads of another 10,000 workers at this time.
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.
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 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.
After three days of near total strike, which threatened to bring road transportation in the country to a grinding halt, the central government forced the workers of public sector oil companies to end their agitation on the evening of January 9, 2009, with arrests, sackings and threats of mass dismissal.
A meeting on the world economic crisis and its impact on India was organised in Mullahpur village, near Ludhiana in Punjab on December 21, 2008. The Lok Kala Manch, an organisation dedicated to using folk cultural forms to enlighten the working people, had organised the meeting as part of the celebration of 20 years of its founding.
Capitalists are throwing workers out of jobs in one sector after another. In India, lakhs of workers in export oriented industries have lost their jobs as exports are falling sharply. Domestic demand has also fallen for a number of goods like automobiles, steel, cement, TVs, refrigerators, etc. Factories are cutting back the level of production.
1.75 lakh employees of LIC (Life Insurance Corporation) and four General Insurance Companies namely, New India Assurance Company, National Insurance Company, Oriental Insurance Company and United India Insurance company, went on a one day strike on December 23 to protest against the introduction of two Bills (the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008 and the Life Insurance Corporation (Amend
A meeting on the world economic crisis and its impact on India was organised in Mullahpur village, near Ludhiana in Punjab on December 21, 2008. The Lok Kala Manch, an organisation dedicated to using folk cultural forms to enlighten the working people, had organised the meeting as part of the celebration of 20 years of its founding.
On September 24 and 25, nearly 10 lakh bank employees including officers, will participate in a country-wide bank strike, demanding an immediate halt to privatisation and to merger of state owned banks in the name
The discrediting of CPI(M) rule is an inevitable result of following the path of managing the bourgeois state for more than thirty years. It is the logical conclusion of expanding the space for capitalism to grow in West Bengal, at the expense of the rights and livelihood of workers and peasants.
This document entitled Towards the Rule of Workers and Peasants and a Voluntary Indian Union contains the Report of the Central Committee presented by Comrade Lal Singh, General Secretary of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, which was discussed and adopted by the Third Congress of the Party, held in January 2005.
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The struggle of workers, peasants, working people, women, students and other broad sections of the toiling masses is growing in scope and intensity. Working masses are actively seeking an alternative to the course of globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation.
Comrades and friends,
All over the country, workers and working people are protesting against the onslaught on their livelihood and rights. A fierce clash is developing between the working class and the ruling big bourgeoisie.
In the last week of December, following an extraordinary meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment, it was announced that the remaining 26% shares of Modern Foods, currently held by the Government of India, will be handed over to Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) in January 2002, a year ahead of schedule.
This paper, entitled Only Communism Can Save India! was presented by Comrade Lal Singh, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, at the Kanpur Communist Conference, 2000. The publication also includes the resolution adopted at the Kanpur Communist Conference, 2000.
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At the end of September 2000, three trade union leaders working in the Lawrence Road unit of MFIL were suspended. Suspension of workers for real or false charges is a common practice in capitalist India.
Workers and working people, while fighting in defence of their rights and interests, must not restrict themselves to the bounds of a defensive struggle. The working class has the responsibility of putting forth a broad vision of an alternative to the course of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation in front of the entire country.
Lakhs of insurance employees have been waging struggle over the past two months against the introduction of the Insurance privatisation bill in parliament. On December 1, a country-wide strike was observed. Earlier on November 29, massive rallies and dharnas were staged in Delhi as well as all the state capitals.
Preparing for the Coming Storms: Challenge Facing Indian CommunistsThis report entitled Preparing for the Coming Storms Challenge Facing Indian Communists, presented by Comrade Lal Singh, General Secretary of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, on behalf of its Central Committee, was discussed and adopted at the Second Congress of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, held in October 1998.
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Program adopted by the Second Congress of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, October 1998 titled Workers, Peasants, Women and Youth. We constitute India We are her masters. An immediate program for the reorientation of the economy; political empowerment of the people; and the democratic renewal of India.
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The report Whither India? was presented by Lal Singh, General Secretary of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, on behalf of its Central Committee, at the Third Consultative Conference of CGPI held in Delhi on December 23-24, 1995.
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| Publication | Details | Notes |
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| The Call of the Martyrs - on the Crisis in India and the Present Situation in the Punjab, by Hardial Bains, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist). The call of the Martyrs deals with the present situation [1983] and its historical basis and explains the main content of the Indian revolution. It was the Indian martyrs who by their sacrifice immortalised the progressive and patriotic ideals of the Indian people, and today their spirit calls upon the people to carry the struggle through to the end... |
The first part of this pamphlet is an analysis of facts and phenomena to identify and expose the real aims behind the Note Ban. The second part is devoted to a critical appraisal of the government’s claims that it will reduce inequality, corruption and terrorism. The third part is what Communist Ghadar Party believes is the real solution to these problems and the immediate program of action towards that solution.
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Interview with Comrade Lal Singh, General Secretary of Communist Ghadar Party of India by Comrade Chandra Bhan, Editor of Mazdoor Ekta Lehar
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Interview with Comrade Lal Singh, General Secretary of Communist Ghadar Party of India
by Comrade Chandra Bhan, Editor of Mazdoor Ekta Lehar
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A Presentation of Communist Ghadar Party of India
100 years ago Ghadar Party was formed by Indians in the US.It was historic milestone in our anti-colonial struggle.
The goal of this party was to organise a revolution to liberate our motherland from British servitude and establish a free and independent India with equal rights for all. It believed this to be the necessary condition for our people to hold their heads high anywhere in the world.
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Call of the Central Committee of Communist Ghadar Party of India, 30th August, 2012
Working class representatives from all over the country are gathering on 4th September, at a time when a titanic struggle is going on in our country. The struggle is between the majority of toiling and exploited people and a minority of exploiters. It is between the majority whose labour expands wealth and the minority who enjoy the fruits of wealth creation on the basis of their private property and positions of power.
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Defeat the program of privatisation and liberalisation!
Fight with the aim of establishing workers’ and peasants’ rule!
Call of the Central Committee, Communist Ghadar Party, 23 February, 2012
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From CGPI Archive:
Against Communalism and Fascist Terror in Punjab! September 1984
Resolutely Condemn the Savage Communal and Fascist Terror Unleashed by the Indian Ruling Classes! November 1984
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