Saturday, September 10, 2016

Major Singh — 180 million Workers Strike Back in India

On Friday the 2nd of September 2016 the biggest single strike action in world history took place in India. As many as between 150 and 180 million workers took part in the All India Strike around a 12 point charter of demands put forward by the Central Trade Unions. These included a raise to the minimum wage and pension for all workers, an end to privatization of state owned enterprises and contractorisation of the workforce, a halt to price hikes, the enforcement of labour rights and the scrapping of pro-employer labour law amendments.…
The strike was met with more organized governmental resistance than Occupy Wall Street across the US coordinated by the Department of Homeland Security, but it came off anyway in spite of the intense repression.

Unlike Occupy, the strikers put forward a 12 point list of demands.

Defend Democracy
180 million Workers Strike Back in India
Major Singh

2 comments:

Peter Pan said...

The ultimate weapon of organized labour is the general strike. It would be interesting to see if it still has the same level of effectiveness.

Tom Hickey said...

Right. Ignored in the capitalist press.