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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums100,000,000 workers grind India to a halt in one of world's biggest strikes ever
From Occupy Wall St. (FB)On Feb. 28th, 100 million workers in India went on Strike! http://bit.ly/zvPlp7
100,000,000 workers grind India to a halt in one of world's biggest strikes ever
One of the world's largest ever strikes began at midnight on Monday 27th Feb and will end at midnight tonight. Up to 100,000,000 Indian workers from different sectors and industries are calling for a national minimum wage, permanent jobs, and much more.
As reported by libcom blogger working class self organisation in January:
Quote:
Over a dozen of Indias largest trade unions have called for and signed up to the strike. The strike will affect many sectors, including public sector banks, ports and docks, railways, insurance, road transport, energy workers, miners, and aviation workers.
Recent months have seen a mounting wave of militant worker struggles in India, strikes for union recognition in Indias expanding auto sector, including a two-day occupation of a Hyundai plant, a wildcat strike by Air India personnel, and walkouts by telecom workers and coal miners against the central governments privatization plans.
The different unions have a variety of different demands, they include gaining the same rights and protection for temporary and contract workers that permanent workers have, raising and extending the minimum wage, resisting the attacks on trade unions, stopping price rises, the creation of a national social security fund, increase in pensions, and combating corruption.
..more..
and, Massive Student Protests and Occupations in Spain: http://bit.ly/yhPGhl
Student protests erupt across Spain
By Jas Chohan
29-F as it has already being termed saw mass student protests around the Spanish peninsula. The latest marches took place in the almost immediate aftermath of those against the passing of new Labour Reform Laws, which have made it easier and cheaper for companies to sack their employees with little forewarning.
The student strikes were focused on cuts in education but also in the public sector among other areas that face austerity measures. The Spanish student movement has made it clear it very much sees itself as part of the globally lost generation, doomed to earn little if anything. Barcelona made the biggest headlines yesterday, with estimates of some 70,000 students having taken to the streets. Seven public Catalan universities and the United Platform in Defence of Public Universities called the strike there, which shut down the centre of the city for hours. Large banners reading We Will not Pay for their Fraud and We Will Save Public Universities led the demonstration. Strong police aggression faced protestors in Barcelona though, the city whose riot police are famed nationally for their frequently heavy handed policing tactics.
In the whole region of Valencia some 134,000 secondary students alone supported the education strikes, which comparatively were more peaceful. However, only last week student protestors there faced strong police repression in protests against austerity measures in education. The events of the past week undoubtedly spurred on and strengthened yesterdays marches around the country, which took place in solidarity with those in Valencia and against police forces that increasingly seem to enforce law through brute force.
The momentum of protest looks to continue in many of the cities, with the students of the Autonomous University of Barcelona having called another day of strikes for Thursday. All across the country, demonstrations have taken place within the context of cuts facing the nation as a whole. Yesterday once again calls for another general strike reverberated on the streets, with students and workers uniting against the criminal measures being proposed by the conservative Popular Party (PP). The protests have been carried out with strength in numbers and with a spirit of societal solidarity before a cutting government, which faces mounting pressure on all fronts
Today, a National Right to Education Day of Action in the US: http://bit.ly/z7FT9s
http://occupywallst.org/
get the red out
(13,459 posts)Who outsourced the US backbone to India?
aquart
(69,014 posts)denverbill
(11,489 posts)donheld
(21,311 posts)Zalatix
(8,994 posts)Thanks, G_j, for a great OP and thread!
G_j
(40,366 posts)malthaussen
(17,066 posts)I did a search for stories on this topic, and nothing came up from the purveyors of the "news."
-- Mal
Yo_Mama
(8,303 posts)bvar22
(39,909 posts)I hope so,
because The Guardian is a foreign source based in England
(England use to OWN India),
the last link to "IBN" is the CNN affiliate based in India.
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nanabugg
(2,198 posts)Zalatix
(8,994 posts)JI7
(89,182 posts)anyways the goal should be for all the people of the world to demand better standards .
pampango
(24,692 posts)to other, smaller Asian countries or to Africa. China and India together represent about 30% of global population (7 billion).
Of course, if significant numbers of jobs move from huge to smaller Asian countries, wages will rise in them, too, much faster than it took to raise wage levels in the huge countries themselves.
Even if many of these jobs move to Africa, it's population - 1.02 billion - is less than that of either China (1.34 billion) or India (1.17 billion).
Some 1.29 billion people, or 22% of the developing world's population, were poor in 2008, down from 1.94 billion people (43%) in 1981.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gAn80GaWzaXJ_LT9wDjDxsqtOGCA?docId=CNG.911f5f89461dea4c72c0496e193c7b58.4d1
Uncle Joe
(58,112 posts)Thanks for the thread, G_j.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)My Wife & I have been On Strike since 2006.
We're just waiting for everyone else to catch up.
When The Working Class & The Poor realize we have MORE in common with each other
than we have in common with the rich Oligarchs (1%) and their employees in Washington,
THEN we can have "CHANGE".
As long as the 1% and their mouthpieces in Washington and the US Media can keep us divided,
the Status Quo will remain in place.
Our neighbors in Latin America have given us a Blue Print for "CHANGE".
----Bolivian Reform President Evo Morales
(FDR said much the same thing in his State of the Union Address, 1944)
VIVA Democracy!
I pray we get some here soon.
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Should be
an OP
barbtries
(28,703 posts)i really had to scroll a while before seeing this. should be front and center.
mr.banana.hammock
(12 posts)Initech
(99,915 posts)Oh wait - people here are too distracted by American Idol, Fux News, and the Kardashians to notice how badly the GOP and Wall St. are screwing us over.
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)Although India is not really a competitive place to do manufacturing.
Foxconn can set up a factory in China overnight. This has never been possible in India.