According to findings of a survey by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), the first ever on work activities generated through NREGS*, has another major finding: the majority of participants , over three-fourth, in NREGS works were either from “agricultural labour” or “self-employed in agriculture”(poor peasants) category of households. The proportion was as high [...]
With unemployment at a near historic high in the United States, could you imagine any American company bringing in foreign workers to work for them below the minimum wage and with no benefits? Most people would say no. But can you imagine those same Americans forcing foreign workers to stay here, with no pay, [...]
in Gurgaon – Delhi Industrial Belt –the Special Exploitation Zone (SEZ) Without artificial optimism or propagandistic attitude we can say that the development of both ‘industrial climate’ and working class experience in the Delhi industrial belt have created the general condition for a larger wave of wage struggles. Obviously there is no ‘historic inevitability’, [...]
The Illegalised Mining ‘Illegal mining’ existed before nationalisation, it emerged – it was ‘illegalised’ – with the introduction of land property titles and the encroachment of common land by the colonial state. The process of ‘nationalisation’ re-shaped the ‘illegalised sector’ and its relation to the ‘official economy’, the boundaries of a hierarchical division within [...]
The Coal-Mining Sector during Colonialism and after ‘Independence’ In the following we have at the historical development of the mining industry and workers’ struggle in the area – from the ‘Colonial Times’ to ‘Independence’ after 1945 and nationalisation of the mining industry in 1971-3. On this background we then focus on the re-structuring [...]
Following report was written after a two weeks visit in Dhanbad-Jharia, one of the main coal mining areas in India. Seeing the area and talking to the coal-mining comrades of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (Marxist-Leninist) was insightful and inspired us to dig a bit deeper into the historical material of Dhanbad-Jharia. From the past [...]
This story reveals who is really beating the drums of America’s biggest ecological war. A small organic oyster farm has fought for 20 years against pesticide sprays near its waters. The pesticides that finally caused the farm to shut down were not sprayed by big oyster farms, but by government agencies conducting a massive chemical [...]
Last week, Oxfam launched its new international campaign, GROW, to fight food insecurity. The advocacy organization’s campaign materials cite many of the statistics with which the post-food-crisis world has become familiar. Most common is the estimate that more than one billion people in the world are now hungry as a result of the combined impacts [...]
Finance is a form of warfare. Like military conquest, its aim is to gain control of land, public infrastructure, and to impose tribute. This involves dictating laws to its subjects, and concentrating social as well as economic planning in centralized hands. This is what now is being done by financial means, without the cost to [...]
A mass movement, capable of forcing action will be necessary for truly radical change to occur. The recent struggles by public workers in Wisconsin and a few other states might rekindle such a movement. What has been interesting and hopeful about these struggles is how they took inspiration from the revolt in Egypt—where workers actually [...]