Don't Get Any Ideas: World's Largest Labor Strike Unreported by MSM
Don't Get Any Ideas: World's Largest
Labor Strike Unreported by MSM
By Josh Mitteldorf
The largest protest in the history of the world took place in India on November 26.
250 million workers marched for
• Guaranteed minimum income
• Food for the poorest families
• Employment for anyone who wants to work
• Higher wages generally
• A universal pension system
• No compulsory early retirement
• Worker safety standards
Take a look on the New York Times, on Fox News, on CNN, USA Today, Washington Post... Do you see any mention of this?
Even the World Socialist Web Site has zero coverage.
If you type "Indian strike" into the Google News search engine, the first article you'll see is from the Workers' World: "With one in four working-age people in India participating, this 24-hour work stoppage can again claim the status of 'world's biggest strike.' The first record-breaking general strike had taken place on Jan. 8."
Are you getting the idea that your news feed is being managed. Do you think maybe the people who control our news media aren't too keen on the idea of a general strike in America?
Hourly employees, farmers, small businesspeople, day laborers, ... they're all in this together. This is a country of Hindus and Muslims and Christians and Sikhs and Jaians, with five different castes. If they can pull together as one, why can't we?
America's leadership and America's media are doing everything in their power (and they have a LOT of power) to keep us obsessed with identity politics. While we're fighting about whether a Latina or a gay Muslim gets to be Head of Homeland Security, we're not demanding that the 1% share more with the 99%.
Let's see if we can learn something from the largest democracy in the world.
Largest Strike In Human History NOT Covered by Corporate Media
Re: Don't Get Any Ideas: World's Largest Labor Strike Unreported by MSM
Re: Don't Get Any Ideas: World's Largest Labor Strike Unreported by MSM
That's nice, Zeno. Two days ago was December fourth. The Strike in Question took place In India on November twenty-sixth, and the New York Times did not cover that Strike. It wasn't even mentioned in the later article - the article you have cited.
But after a while, it seems, even the New York Times can not ignore the news that is coming out of India.
On Saturday - Yesterday, there was also a related Action / Protest on the Golden Gate Bridge. Try finding News about that. I'd like to see it. I haven't been able to find a word about it in the Television & Radio Media -or- in print here in California. Prove me wrong.
Note, Post Script:
Zeno found this story - about which I had only heard a rumor from a traveler I met in West Marin on Saturday evening... I had assumed from her telling it had taken place on the Golden Gate Bridge. Actually, it was by the Bay Bridge.
Re: Don't Get Any Ideas: World's Largest Labor Strike Unreported by MSM
An earlier NYT article about this Indian uprising appeared on November 30.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/30/w...s-protest.html
If you are interested in developments in India you could create a Google alert for the reporters at the New Delhi bureau of The New York Times for main stream press reporting from that country.
For foreign correspondents worldwide of The Washington Post see
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graph...orrespondents/
The GGB solidarity with India farmers was reported on at
https://sfbayca.com/2020/12/05/prote...indian-famers/
Re: Don't Get Any Ideas: World's Largest Labor Strike Unreported by MSM
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Zeno Swijtink:
·
Thank you, Zeno. Magnificent. I had thought that the following Search :
would have taken in its net any coverage of the Story in the New York Times. It didn't. But the article you cite, published in the New York Times :
only speaks of "thousands" of demonstrators, not millions:
"Part of an army of thousands of angry farmers who have encircled New Delhi, Mr. Singh vowed to keep protesting for however long it takes for India’s government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to reverse recently passed pro-market agricultural policies..."
But Jimmy Dore says that two hundred and fifty million people are on Strike in India:
At any rate, this is far beyond your run-of-the-mill "important" Story. Two hundred and fifty million People on Strike in India should be News - All Over the World.
I hope the Oligarchs are losing sleep at night.
Re: Don't Get Any Ideas: World's Largest Labor Strike Unreported by MSM
The general strike occurred in the context of the devastation brought about by the coronavirus pandemic in India. Added to this are the millions of people who have lost income and who now face increased poverty and hunger, in a country where even before the pandemic 50 percent of all children suffered malnourishment.
On Thursday over 200 million workers held a one day general strike in India. They were joined by farmers in mass actions across the country against the right-wing government of Narendra Modi.
On Thursday, some 200 million workers held a one day general strike in India. This massive day of action was called by 10 trade unions and over 250 farmers organizations and was accompanied by massive protests and a near total shutdown of some Indian states. According to the call put out by unions, the general strike was organized against “the anti-people, anti-worker, anti-national and destructive policies of the BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Their demands included:
- The withdrawal of all “anti-farmer laws and anti-worker labour codes”
- The payment of 7,500 rupees in the accounts of each non-tax paying family
- Monthly supply of 10 kg of food to needy families
- The expansion of the MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005) to include 200 workdays each year, higher wages, and the Act’s extension to urban industries
- Stop the “privatisation of the public sector, including the financial sector, and stop corporatisation of government-run manufacturing and service entities like railways, ordnance factories, ports, etc.”
- The withdrawal of the “draconian forced premature retirement of government and PSU (public sector) employees”
- Pensions for all, the scrapping of the National Pension System and the reimposition of the earlier pension plan with amendments
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.
In addition to the demands of the nationwide strike, certain sectors made industry-specific demands to fight back against the government’s attacks to their industries that affect the entire working class in India. For example, bank employees are fighting against bank privatization, outsourcing, and for a reduction in service charges and action against big corporate defaults.
Other industries framed their demands in the context of the government’s appalling response to the pandemic and economic crisis hitting India. As the Bombay University and College Teachers’ Union’s statement stated:
This strike is against the devastating health and economic crisis unleashed by COVID-19 and the lockdown on the working people of the country. This has been further aggravated by a series of anti-people legislations on agriculture and the labour code enacted by the central government. Along with these measures, the National Education Policy (NEP) imposed on the nation during the pandemic will further cause irreparable harm to the equity of and access to education.
The general strike occurred in the context of the devastation brought about by the coronavirus pandemic in India. India has more than 9.2 million people infected with Covid-19, the second highest count in the world. Since the pandemic began, nearly 135,000 have died, according to official data. It is likely the numbers are much higher. Added to this are the millions of people who have lost income and who now face increased poverty and hunger, in a country where even before the pandemic 50 percent of all children suffered malnourishment.
The pandemic has spread from major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, and other urban centers to rural areas where public health care is scarce or non-existent. The Modi government has handled the pandemic by prioritizing the profits of big business and protecting the fortunes of billionaires over protecting the lives and livelihoods of workers.
To stand up against these attacks — many of which began even before the pandemic — farmers and rural workers have been protesting for several months. They joined the national strike this week, staging actions across the country. Small farmers from three major agriculture-based states in India marched all the way to Delhi to protest laws passed by Modi’s government that would allow for larger corporate freedom and industrial farming. They were met with tear gas and brutal repression by the police upon entering Delhi.
The nationalist and right-wing government has used the pandemic to intensify its persecution of Muslims and migrant workers. In New Delhi in April, migrant workers returning home after being stranded by the nation-wide lockdown were brutally hosed down with bleach used to disinfect buses.
Modi has also escalated his nationalist rhetoric, especially against China, in an effort to capitalize on the trade war between the U.S. and China and deepen its strategic and military cooperation with the United States.
In the midst of the misery created by decades of neoliberalism and exacerbated by the pandemic, union leaders called the strike to allow workers to express discontent against the government. This one day strike demonstrated the anger of the working class and unity of farmers, workers and students. However, a one day general strike is not enough to impose all of the ambitious demands put forward by workers and farmers. The working class of India must fight to expand the strike, against the Stalinist-led union leaders of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and the All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), who try to reign in the anger of the working class with merely symbolic demonstrations.
Without a doubt, this massive coordinated action shows the great potential for unity in action of the Indian working class and farmers. It serves as an inspiration for workers all over the world to use one of our greatest tools against the capitalists: the strike.
The original source of this article is
Left Voice, December 4, 2020
Re: Don't Get Any Ideas: World's Largest Labor Strike Unreported by MSM
