India's bravest dissenters are paying with their lives for exercising their democratic right to freedom of expression.
Indian farmers - carrying the Red Flag of the Kisan Sabha and the Communist movement - used the technique of the mahapadav (sit in) to stop local governments from operating and to paralyze the state. This forced the neoliberal government to negotiate. Perhaps if the French workers hear about this struggle and its victory, it might inspire them in their own battles against anti-labor laws.
Since 16 March, over 100,000 workers across India have participated in work stoppages after a court sentenced 13 unionists to life imprisonment. The charges stem from deadly clashes that took place at the at the Maruti Suzuki India Limited auto plant in 2012 after management refused to recognize a union formed in a bid to end the mass casualisation of jobs and improve working conditions. India's auto industry is one of the world's largest.
The single most dangerous spot on the globe, the current situation in Kashmir cannot continue. The Kashmiris should have their referendum — and both India and Pakistan will have to accept the results. The world cannot afford the current tensions to spiral down into a military confrontation that could easily get out of hand. Neither country would survive a nuclear war, and neither country should be spending its money on an arms race.
Tens of millions of public sector workers have gone on a day-long strike across India, protesting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's economic policies, particularly his plans to push for greater privatization. Thousands of state-run banks, government offices and factories were closed on Friday, and public transport disrupted, in the strike called by 10 trade unions.
State banks and power stations shut and public transport halted in some states as public sector workers take industrial action.
The LDF, which comprises the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India and nine other allied parties, gained over 20 extra seats over the 2011 election results in Kerala defeating the Congress Party and the ultra-right BJP. This was a victory to celebrate even though the Left Front continued to lose ground in West Bengal.
To use a term that has become commonplace in our world when discussing commerce, the prospect of nuclear conflict has globalized war and it’s a nightmare of the first order. In the post-Cold War world, Exhibit A in that process would certainly be the unnerving potential for a nuclear war to break out between India and Pakistan.
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For generations, the Extreme Right in India has sought to erase the Left. What is it about the Left that the Extreme Right fears? It fears that the Left has an alternative narrative of India’s history and of its possible future -- one rooted not in social exclusion and economic inequality, but in the very opposite of that.
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