Showing posts with label world wide strike. Show all posts
Showing posts with label world wide strike. Show all posts

Tuesday 12 January 2021

World Strike.

        Surprise, surprise, the world's largest workers strike doesn't get much media coverage. The Indian farmers' strike where somewhere in the region of 200,000 took strike action against the implementation of new government legislation opening up India's agriculture to the free market. This strike has been ongoing since November 26th 2020, and farmers are still camped outside the capital Delhi demanding a complete withdrawal of this legislation. All rounds of talks with the government have so far failed to reach any agreement.
      So far they managed to get the court to implement a stay of the legislation "until further notice" and the court has set up a committee to attempt a deal between the farmers and the government. Meanwhile the government has ruled out any roll back of this legislation, while the farmers have repeatedly stated that they will settle for nothing less than the complete withdrawal of this free market legislation. The court has also agree to hear a multitude of petitions against this legislation.
       Agriculture should be for sustainability and self sufficiency, not about mass markets for export to enhance corporate coffers. The "free market" in agriculture has nothing to do with sustainability and self sufficiency, it's all about large corporations dominating the production of food for profit.
      The determination of the farmers is borne out by the period over which the strike has persisted and the hardship the strikers have endured. At least four farmers involved in the strike camp outside Delhi have committed suicide, many others have died from various illnesses and from the bitter cold winter conditions. This legislation would be the death knell for thousands of Indian farmers.
        This strike should be receiving world wide solidarity and support, of course a world wide strike would be one answer. The free market is an enemy of the ordinary people and puts more of the world's resources in the hands of the ever greedy and powerful corporations. They already control vast swaths of our resources and wield tremendous power over our lives, for the benefit of all humanity, we have to reverse this march of the corporate world.  

                                     Photo courtesy of BBC






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Tuesday 8 December 2020

Strike.

         In this capitalist cesspool of inequality and injustice the workers often take strike action to try and redress some of those injustices and inequalities, and it's not easy. To take strike action in this capitalist system of exploitation, often means that when you stop working, you stop eating and so does your family. So strike action is always difficult to organise and sustain. Over the years we have seen some very large strikes and some small very determined strikes, there have been great victories and some defeats, but the strike action is still one of the best weapons in the armoury of the ordinary working people in defence of their conditions and to try to improve those condition. However it is also one of the necessary weapons if we want to change the system to one of fairness that frees us from the exploitation of that privileged pampered parasite class, and in so doing creates that society that sees to the needs of all our people.
      While this struggle against exploitation and corruption has involved many strikes, and lots ending in savage brutality, handed out by the bosses minders, the state, our planet has never seen a strike of the magnitude of what is happening in that patch of the world called India. An estimated 250 million, yes million, ordinary people have taken a unified strike action. They are taking a stand not only against their working conditions, but the gross corruption of the Indian government and the corporate bodies that get rich on the exploitation of poverty.
      Now is the time to show our support from across the world, for this unprecedented unified action by ordinary people. Their struggle is our struggle, we all live under a unified corporate monster that is backed to the hilt by rich, corrupt politicians. These two entities are well organised and unified in their determination to continually enhance their power and wealth on the backs of the ordinary people. We should take a leaf from their book and be unified and organised world wide, it is one struggle, one battle for one world, shaped by us the ordinary people.

 The following from The News:

      The Indian working class has once again flexed its muscle and organised a general strike of more than 250 million workers against the anti-workers, anti- people and anti-farmers policies of the rightwing Modi government.
       All efforts to intimidate and repress the workers failed to stop this general strike from taking place. Despite repression, this joint general strike by workers and farmers has almost shut down India. This massive day of action was called by 10 trade unions and over 250 farmers’ organisations, and was accompanied by massive protests and a near total shutdown of some Indian states.
       Workers in nearly all of India’s major industries – including steel, coal, telecommunications, engineering, transportation, ports, and banking – joined the strike. Students, domestic workers, taxi drivers, and other sectors also participated in the nationwide day of action. These historic protests illustrate the power of workers and farmers to bring a nation’s economy to a complete standstill when united in defence of their rights.

Also this from Jacobinmag:
     Even more importantly, the general strike converged with a march launched by a broad group of farmers’ organizations, all planning to descend on the capital of Delhi. Social media was suddenly awash with images of farmers using tractors and trucks to break down the barriers erected by police to keep them out of the city. In one video, a protester emphatically explained to a policeman at the barricades that “this is a revolution, sir.”

 And from Wikipedia:

       On 26 November 2020, a mass general strike was held across India. The strike was organized by 10 trade unions across the country and was supported by the Indian National Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist), and other left-wing parties.[1][2][3] An estimated 250 million (25 crore) people took part in the strike,[4][5] which Jacobin estimated as the largest in history.[6] The strike was followed by a march to New Delhi, which arrived there on 30 November with tens of thousands of farmers surrounding Delhi,[7] increasing to hundreds of thousands by 3 December.[8]

And from Industriall Union:
       Trade union leaders expressed concerns that, using Covid-19 as an excuse, the government has unleashed widescale repression. Police used violent means to attempt to stop hundreds of thousands of workers and farmers who are on their way to Delhi to demonstrate peacefully in the capital city on 26 and 27 November.


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