some info not afficial
Mounting social anger seen in two-day strike against Indian government
Tens of millions of workers throughout India yesterday joined the second day of a 48-hour national protest strike against the hated pro-investor economic “reforms” of the Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP)-led government.
While the capitalist media largely tried to black-out the strike, it was supported by broad sections of the working class, both in the so-called formal and informal sectors. Moreover, the strike cut across the caste and communal divisions that the ruling capitalist class has used for decades to channel social discontent along reactionary lines.
The large turnout reflects mounting working-class anger toward Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s big business-backed government. During its four-and-a-half years in office, it has dramatically intensified a decades-long assault on the Indian working class, one of the largest in the world. This has included savage austerity measures, acceleration of privatisation, promotion of contract-labour, the gutting of environmental and workplace safety standards, and onerous tax increases on working people.
Chief among those taking part in the stoppage were coal miners, postal workers and dockers, as well as bank, insurance, telecommunication, transport and tea estate workers. Workers from government-owned industries were joined by those from global companies like Bosch, Toyota, Volvo, CEAT, Crompton and Samsonite.
Indicating the sharp class tensions and vicious response of the employers and governments, there were numerous reports of violent clashes, sackings and arrests of striking workers. In several states, such as West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, public sector workers defied government threats of dismissals, pay cuts and other disciplinary retaliation.
The most significant conflict erupted at the Daikin air-conditioning plant in the Neemrana industrial hub of Rajasthan, where 12 workers were arrested yesterday on trumped-up charges of rioting and attempted murder, with similar charges against some 700 unnamed workers. This was after police and security guards attacked a rally of about 2,000 strikers, using lathis (heavy iron-tipped sticks), rubber-coated pellets and tear gas shells on Tuesday.
This repression occurred less than 70 kilometres from the Maruti Suzuki car assembly plant at Manesar, in the neighbouring state of Haryana, where 13 workers have been sentenced to life imprisonment on frame-up murder charges. The 13 are the target of a company-government witch hunt for leading strikes and a plant occupation in 2011–12 against sweatshop conditions and precarious contract jobs.
According to reports, the impact of the two-day strike was substantial in key states, including Haryana and Rajasthan, as well as Maharashtra and Goa in the west, Punjab in the north, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in the south and West Bengal and Odisha in the east.
Private hospital workers and workers from the “unorganised” sector, including in the beedi and construction industries, as well as in retail and distribution, joined the strike in many states.
In Kerala, both state-owned and private buses were off the road. Public bus services were stopped in Karnataka and Haryana, where the Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt is located.
In Mumbai, India’s financial centre and second largest city, most banks and government offices were shut down and port operations were crippled. About 32,000 workers from the city’s public transport service continued an indefinite strike for the second day, demanding higher wages and better working conditions, in defiance of a government Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) order outlawing the strike.
However, the trade unions did not mobilise some of the most important and powerful sections of the working class, such as railway workers. Airports continued to function, with little to any disruption. That reflected the political perspective of the union bureaucracies.
The strike was called by ten central unions and politically led by the Stalinist Communist Party of Indian (Marxist) or CPM. Among the unions were the CPM-affiliated Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), controlled by the other main Stalinist party, the Communist Party of India (CPI). They were joined by the Congress-led Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) and the Labour Progressive Front (LPF), which is affiliated to the DMK, a right-wing party based in Tamil Nadu.
The Kerala state government, which is led by the CPM, encouraged participation. However, underscoring the pro-business nature of the Stalinist parties, it struck an agreement with the CITU to exempt passenger train services and the tourism sector, citing likely financial losses.
Likewise, the unions did not call out autoworkers in Oragadam, on the outskirts of Chennai, which has been dubbed the “Detroit of India” because major automakers have factories there.
Just last November, the unions shut down two-month-long strikes involving over 3,000 workers from three companies operating in Oragadam—Yamaha, Royal Enfield and Myoung Shin India Automotive—without meeting any of the workers’ major demands. In its deal with Yamaha, the CITU pledged “industrial peace” and a “freeze” on sit-in strikes.
By joining the two-day strike, millions of workers have demonstrated their mounting hostility to the pro-market measures imposed by successive governments since 1991, when the Indian elite set out to transform the country into a cheap labour platform for global corporations.
This is the 18th national strike led by the CITU since 1991. But all the central and state governments formed by the parties with which the unions have been allied, including Congress, regional parties like the DMK and the Stalinist CPM and CPI, have ruthlessly pursued the same “investor-friendly” policies. This includes CPM-led state governments in West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala.
India’s much-vaunted “rise” has provided gargantuan wealth to a tiny capitalist elite while condemning the vast majority of people to poverty and economic insecurity, in which any misfortune—from illness to a job loss—can push a family into the social abyss.
Whereas India counted only two billionaires in the mid-1990s, it now boasts about 130—the fourth largest concentration in the world. Meanwhile, more than 70 percent of the population struggles to survive on less than $2 per day. Modi routinely seeks to entice global investors by emphasising that wages in India are no more than a quarter those in China.
The BJP won office in 2014 by pledging to create jobs. This has proven a cruel hoax. A Center for Monitoring Indian Economy study released this week estimated the unemployment rate rose in December to 7.4 percent. If those who have disappeared from the labour force since September 2016 are counted, the true rate is almost 13 percent—that is, more than 50 million unemployed.
To pursue the great-power ambitions of the ruling class, India also has formed a “global strategic partnership” with US imperialism and dramatically increased military spending. With the fifth biggest military budget globally, India now spends two-and-a-half times more on its military than on providing health care to its 1.3 billion people.
Underscoring the government’s callous indifference to the concerns of working people, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley issued a tweet yesterday denouncing the strike. The multi-millionaire accused the “Left trade unions” of seeking “to manufacture a protest on non-existent issues.”
The two-day strike is a part of an emerging international upsurge of the working class, from the Yellow Vest protests in France against the Macron government to US teachers and autoworkers, and Sri Lankan plantation workers who are demanding a doubling of their wages.
All over the world, in their struggles, workers are coming up against the unions and so-called “Left” parties that once claimed to represent their interests. The Indian unions called the strike with the aim of containing the growing anger of the working people and rural toilers, and channelling it behind electoral manoeuvres to bring to office an alternative capitalist government, whether led by the big business Congress Party or regional and caste-based parties.
Open Letter to Federica Mogherini
To the attention of the VP / AR Federica Mogherini:
On February 29, 2016, I sent you a written question – E-001822-16 – about the situation of imprisonment that Professor GN Saibaba was suffering in India, to which you replied that the EU “The EU has been closely following cases of human rights defenders arrested in India, including the cases of professor Saibaba, accused of having links with Naxal militants, and of Ms. Arundathi Roy, accused of contempt of court for her article defending the cause of Professor Saibaba. The EU Delegation in New Delhi has made appeals on humanitarian grounds with the National Human Rights Commission.
The EU attaches great importance to the issues at stake, most importantly to the freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial and the rights of human rights defenders. These issues are also addressed at the EU-India human rights dialogue.” Continue reading →
The Persecuted Prisoners Solidarity Committee (PPSC) strongly condemns the judgement by the Gadchiroli Sessions Court March 7, 2017 convicting Mahesh Tirki, Pandu Narote, Hem Mishra, Prashant Rahi, Vijay Tirki and G N Saibaba, under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) and awarding life sentence to five of them and a ten year imprisonment to another. Continue reading →
The judgement of the District and Sessions Court in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, on March 7, 2017, which sentenced the Delhi University professor and four other activists to life imprisonment, is an unprecedented provocation for any defender of human and democratic rights anywhere. GN Saibaba, wheelchair bound for life, was judged as one of the greatest dangers for Indiaʹs security! He is shoved in jail to die there as he is severely ill. The accusation and sentencing was based on ridiculous evidence under the provisions of the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act which criminalizes the ideas and thoughts of militants. Continue reading →
Today 17/3/17 I met my brother Dr. G. N. Saibaba at Nagpur Central jail after the undemocratic judgement pronunced by the Gadchiroli sessions court. I waited nearly 4 hrs after applying for the mulakat to meet saibaba. The jail authorities has given mulakat almost at the end of the day around 5.45pm.
The jaali mulakat last just in 20 min with two time warnings in between. The new jaali mulakat system is completely undemocratic and inhumane as the window is completely sealed with glass and to talk only over telephones on their side of the glass window. When we talk we can’t even see the face properly; when face is to be observed we can’t talk. With great difficulty we could able to share few things.
Dr. Saibaba looked very weak. He was unable to take Jail food. Jail authorities are not providing required diet to him. He is vomiting if any jail food is consumed. He got two times unbearable pancreatic pain in the jail. He is suffering from pancreas infection and admitted into hospital just before the verdict. So far no medical treatment has been given to him.Even the basic facilities which were earlier provided are now not extended.today did not accept to give medicines,bedsheets, fruits etc.his health condition is highly deteriorated. He needs immediate medical treatment.I was not permitted to meet senior jailer to discuss health issues of Dr. G N. Saibaba. Even Hem Mishra’s health is not in good condition.
It is with utter disbelief and deepest concern that we learn of Prof. G. N. Saibaba, a highly respected intellectual and Asst. Professor in the Dept. of English at Ram Lal Anand College, part of a Delhi University, has been sentenced to life imprisonment under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Prof. Saibaba is wheelchair-bound, 90% disabled with severe and fragile health conditions that warrant constant and now urgent medical attention.
Saibaba, along with five others – a student, a journalist-activist and three young adivasi villagers have been accused of a criminal conspiracy to ‘wage war against the Government of India’ and of ‘links with a Maoist organisation.’
We register our strongest condemnation of the sentence and demand immediate release of Prof. Saibaba and all others accused, and that the concerned authorities conduct a thorough, fair and transparent investigation into the framing of this case.
For many years Saibaba has been outspoken regarding atrocities against the adivasis and for the welfare and rights of tribal and marginalised populations. Continue reading →
Alle organizzazioni contro la repressione e di solidarietà con i prigionieri politici
Ai docenti, intellettuali, studenti democratici
Protestiamo contro la condanna all’ergastolo del Prof. GN Saibaba e 5 suoi compagni!
Fermiamo il soffocamento del dissenso con leggi liberticide e processi farsa!
Libertà per tutti i prigionieri politici in India!
Dopo quasi quattro anni, il 7 marzo 2017, la persecuzione contro il Professor G N Saibaba della Delhi University si è conclusa con la condanna all’ergastolo sua e di altri 5 imputati.
Nel 2013 la polizia del Maharashtra perquisì illegalmente per due volte l’abitazione del dottor Saibaba con la falsa motivazione di “ricettazione di oggetti rubati”, sequestrò supporti informatici senza registrarli e sigillarli come impone la procedura legale.
Nell’aprile 2014 lo stesso professore, disabile al 90% e costretto su sedia a rotelle, fu sequestrato e incarcerato, accusato secondo la legge di “prevenzione delle attività illegali” (UAPA) insieme ad altri 5, il giornalista e attivista Prashant Rahi, lo studente Hem Mishra e gli adivasi Pandu Narote, Mahesh Tirki e Vijay Tirki.
Per due anni è stato detenuto in attesa di giudizio nella prigione centrale di Nagpur, dove gli sono sono state sistematicamente negate le più elementari strutture necessarie a una persona nelle sue condizioni, le terapie e l’assistenza medica necessaria, causando un drammatico peggioramento della sua salute, come riconosciuto dalla la Corte Suprema indiana che nell’aprile 2016 gli ha concesso la libertà su cauzione. Continue reading →
Why are they so afraid of someone who is 90% disabled?‘
Delhi University Professor G N Sai Baba was convicted on March 7 to life in prison under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act — UAPA — for being a member of a banned terrorist organisation, the Communist Party of India Maoist. The professor, who has undergone two spells of imprisonment in Nagpur jail as an undertrial, is 90 per cent disabled and wheelchair-bound. After his arrest in May 2014, he was released on interim bail on medical grounds in July 2015, only to be rearrested in December that year, and released again on the Supreme Court’s orders in April 2016.
Immediately after the conviction, the professor’s wife issued a protest statement that summed up her outrage. Two days later, Rediff.com contributor Jyoti Punwani caught up with Vasantha Kumari.
In between tending to a distraught mother-in-law and leaking taps in her Delhi home, Vasantha expressed her shock, bafflement and indignation at what she feels is a terrible injustice done to someone who has only fought for rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
Delhi home, Vasantha expressed her shock, bafflement and indignation at what she feels is a terrible injustice done to someone who has only fought for rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Continue reading →
Condemn the conviction of Professor GN Saibaba and five others in India! Condemn the travesty of justice and stifling of voices of democratic dissent! Repeal all draconian laws such as UAPA! Release all political prisoners!
The life sentence given on 7th March 2017 to Delhi University Professor G N Saibaba by the Gadchiroli District and Sessions Court in Maharashtra State of India is shockingly unjust. The court has convicted him and five others under the draconian anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Besides Saibaba, the five people convicted are journalist and social activist Prashant Rahi, Jawaharlal Nehru University student Hem Mishra and tribals Pandu Narote, Mahesh Tirki and Vijay Tirki. (While five have been sentenced to life term in prison, the court sentenced Vijay Tirki to 10 years in jail). Continue reading →
Am 7. März wurde durch das regionale Gericht des Distrikts Gadchiroli im indischen Bundesstaat Maharashtra der Professor der Universität Delhis, G.N. Saibaba zu lebenslänglicher Haft verurteilt. Das Gericht verurteilte ihn und vier weitere Personen, Hem Mishra, Prashant Rahi, Mahesh Tirkey und Pandu Narote unter den Artikeln 13,18,20,38 und 39 des Repressionsgesetzes „Unlawful Activities Preventions Act“ (Gesetz zur Vorbeugung ungesetzlicher Handlungen). Eine weitere Person, Vijay Tirke wurde zu zehn Jahren Haft verurteilt.
Die Artikel des UAPA sind dabei:
13: Bestrafung für die Ausübung „ungesetzlicher Handlungen“, aber auch die Unterstützung, Anordnung oder Anstiftung dazu.
18: Bestrafung für „Verschwörung“, wozu jegliche Art von Unterstützung, Anstiftung, Gutheißung von „terroristischen Taten“ gezählt wird.
20: Bestrafung für die „Mitgliedschaft in einer terroristischen Gruppe oder Organisation“.
38: Straftat im Zusammenhang mit der „Mitgliedschaft in einer terroristischen Organisation“.
39: Straftat im Zusammenhang mit der „Unterstützung einer terroristischen Organisation“.
Zusätzlich wurde im Urteil der Abschnitt 120B des indischen Strafgesetzes angeführt, kriminelle Verschwörung.
Die Anwälte Saibabas erklärten, dass sie mit dem Fall vor das Bombay High Court, Indiens höchstes Gericht, ziehen werden.
Im Fall Saibaba ist dieses Urteil kein lebenslängliches, sondern ein Todesurteil. Schon während seiner Zeit im Gefängnis während seiner Untersuchungshaft, aus der er zuletzt am 4. April auf Kaution freigelassen wurde, zeigte sich, dass er eine Haftstrafe aufgrund seiner Gesundheit nicht lange überleben wird.
Eine ausführliche Schilderung der Situation Saibabas im Gefängnis gibt ein Essay der Autorin Arundhati Roy aus dem Mai 2015 wieder. http://www.demvolkedienen.org/index.php/de/asien/1284-saibaba-zu-lebenslanger-haft-verurteilt
The old Indian State, through the Court of Sessions of Gadchiroli (Maharashtra), convicted the Delhi University professor G.N. Saibaba to the life imprisonment. That punishment happened because of his important militancy in defence of the people’s rights. Besides Professor Saibaba, five other militants were targets of this unacceptable measure and convicted under the draconian anti-terror law.
The Indian government has attacked more and more the people of its own country. In order to expel the peasants from their lands, under the mantra of “Operation Green Hunt”, the Adivasis people villages are being decimated, under constants air strikes and the offensive of mercenary groups working for the government. All this has been done to ensure the interests of transnational companies, especially those in the mining sector. In the cities, there is a growing number of draconian laws targeting activists and people’s rights activists. Besides Professor Saibaba the renowned Indian writer Arundhati Roy also has been pursued by the old State. Continue reading →
It is the pages smuggled out from Nagpurʹs high security central prison over a period of three months which will make Delhi University Professor GN Saibabaʹs latest book. He was recently released on bail after spending two years in jail…
avaninews.comIt is the pages smuggled out from Nagpurʹs high security central prison over a period of three months which will make Delhi University Professor GN Saibabaʹs latest book. He was recently released on bail after spending two years in jail following being charged under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
In a bizarre, highly deplorable judgment delivered on Tuesday, Suryakant Shinde, Sessions Judge at Gadchiroli District Court in Maharashtra convicted Prof GN Saibaba (Delhi University), Prashant Rahi (Journalist from Uttarakhand), Hem Mishra (Cultural Activist, Student, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi), Mahesh Tirke, Pandu Narote and Vijay Tirke (tribals from Gadchiroli) and sentenced life imprisonment to the first five and ten years imprisonment to the last, under Sections 13,18,20,38 and 39 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code. Continue reading →
Our advocates will move high Court soon. This judgement is shocking. In the history of Maharashtra this is the first case in which all the person’s charge sheeted were are convicted in all the sections with life imprisonment. Saibaba brother attend most of the arguments of our advocates before the hon. Judge and found that the judgement seems has not taken those into consideration. No evidence has been proved by the prosecution, electronic evidence not sealed. It seems the state and Central governments have put a lot of pressure on the judiciary to implement anti people and undemocratic policies at the behest of corporates and MNCs. The governments have selectively to suppress the voice of people to plunder the resources of this country. The BJP govt. Wants to push nakedly the agenda of RSS by through such people like saibaba behind the bars.
CRPP Statement on the conviction and life sentences by the Gadchiroli Sessions Court of MAHESH TIRKI, PANDU NAROTE, HEM MISHRA, PRASHANT RAHI, VIJAY TIRKI AND GN SAIBABA!
CONDEMN THE CONVICTION OF MAHESH TIRKI, PANDU NAROTE, HEM MISHRA, PRASHANT RAHI, VIJAY TIRKI AND GN SAIBABA!
CONDEMN THE PENAL STATE THAT CRIMINALIZES POLITICAL IDEAS, DISSENT AND THE RIGHT TO PROPAGATE IDEAS IN A DEMOCRACY!
REPEAL UAPA AND ALL OTHER DRACONIAN LAWS! RELEASE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!
The Gadchiroli sessions court judgment on Mahesh Tirki, Pandu Narote, Hem Mishra, Prashant Rahi, Vijay Tirki and GN Saibaba (all accused in order) under Sections 13, 18, 20, 38 & 39 of the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) read with 120-B of the IPC goes a long way in the acts of the entrenchment of a deep national security state ready to penalize anything that it seems a threat to the powers that be. More than the law the 827 odd page judgment is a testimony of how far the lower courts in India are easily malleable to the pulls and pressures of a police state that turns its back to the merits in the detail of the case to draw the fine line between what is primarily and legally beyond suspicion in the commission of the said offence to something that is and can’t stand the rigour of legal scrutiny.
An Appeal to the People, Democratic Organizations, Individuals, Mass Organizations and Political Parties Let us build a broad united democratic movement to demand for the release of Prof. G.N. Saibaba, Hem Mishra, Prashant Rahi, Mahesh Tirke, Pandu Narote and Vijay Tirke convicted under UAPA by the sessions judge Gadchiroli, Maharastra let us also fight to withdraw the draconian UAPA itself
Revolutionary Democratic Front is not a frontal organization of CPI (Maoist) and it is not a banned organization in Delhi, Maharastra and certain other states.
The sessions and district court of Gadchiroli dist of Maharastra has pronounced its judgment against Prof. G.N. Saibaba and five others on 7th March, 2017 under heavy bandobast of armed police. Uniformed armed police with AK-47 like sophisticated weapons were allowed into court hall also where the public hearing of the court is supposed to take place. From the side of accused only the blood relatives were allowed besides the defense lawyers. Continue reading →
Fascist indian state disclosed its actual fascism under the mask of democracy. Fascist state and government sentenced GN SAIBABA to life and put other democratic activists to jail. We condemn and firmly oppose such kind of injustice. We assert that, every citizen has right to take position in favor of any interest of any ethnic group, religious minority etc and stand against any kind of injustice, oppression against adivasis,dalits etc.
It’s a matter of political right. But under a fascist system political right never be ensured. As Indian state, has launched an ultimate war against people of seven sisters. Operation Green Hunt, air fight in Bastar, Malkangiri killing are some example of this democracy. Cold blooded murder in the name of crossfire is a daily routine. Actually, all of the massacre is against the great maoist movement and the proletariat people.
Saibaba and other activists has been opposing actively that kind state killing for several years. It was the main fault of them. They are people’s leader. But for state they are rebel and the are linked with anti-state activities. We want immediate release order of them. We believe an ultimate movement can ensure their release. We always stand with any rightful movement whatever it is armed or unarmed all over the world.
Revolutionary Student – Youth Movement (RSYM)
Internationalist Meeting in Italy the 8th of December 2018
International Week of Action 2-9 April 2016
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The Call for International week of Action in all avaliable languages
Am 7. März wurde durch das regionale Gericht des Distrikts Gadchiroli im indischen Bundesstaat Maharashtra der Professor der Universität Delhis, G.N. Saibaba zu lebenslänglicher Haft verurteilt. Das Gericht verurteilte ihn und vier weitere Personen, Hem Mishra, Prashant Rahi, Mahesh Tirkey und Pandu Narote unter den Artikeln 13,18,20,38 und 39 des Repressionsgesetzes „Unlawful Activities Preventions Act“ (Gesetz zur Vorbeugung ungesetzlicher Handlungen). Eine weitere Person, Vijay Tirke wurde zu zehn Jahren Haft verurteilt.
