Massive Strike against Insurance Amendment Bill

THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) in a statement issued on March 7 has denounced the NDA government’s deplorable act of getting the Insurance Law (Amendment) Bill 2015 passed in Lok Sabha by neglecting the opposition by all trade unions and the public sector insurance workers. The Bill hikes FDI to 49 per cent (from the present 26 per cent) in insurance sector and opens routes for privatisation of general insurance sector.The BJP led NDA government introduced the Bill in Lok Sabha and got it adopted on March 4, 2015 although the Bill is pending with the Rajya Sabha.

More to Lose than Chains

THE other day, I was helping my child in learning paryayvachi shabd (synonyms) in Hindi. The children in the class were taught that the synonym for stree (woman) is abala (the meek). I was trying to convince my child that this is wrong and in fact this should be brought to the notice of the concerned teacher. In spite of the best of my efforts, my child, all of Class V too was not convinced that women are not meek and refused to discuss this with the teacher.

Defeat Modi Govt’s Conspiracy against Farmers

THOUSANDS of farmers, agricultural workers, tribals, landless peasants and fishermen thronged the national capital to express their anger against the Modi government’s conspiracy to snatch their livelihood forever, by promulgating the ordinance amending the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Act, 2013. They converged at Parliament Street demanding withdrawal of the ordinance at once. The capital city heard their battle cry against the black ordinance, to repeal the ordinance. The protestors were carrying flags of different colours - red, green, blue and white.

MoU on Bank Wage Revision Signed, Strike Deferred

AFTER over two years since the tenth bipartite settlement became due, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the form of minutes was exchanged between the Indian Banks Association (IBA) representing the managements of various banks and the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) representing close to ten lakh bank employees and officers with five workmen unions and four officers unions as its constituents on 23 February 2015 in Mumbai. Two other unions namely NUBE and Karmachari Sena also inked the MoU separately.

Dabholkar to Pansare: Journey of Rabid Communal Terrorism

THE dastardly assassination of Comrade Govind Pansare, the veteran 81-year old former CPI state secretary, national council member, trade union leader, eminent lawyer and prominent Marxist intellectual and writer – exactly a year and a half after the similar assassination of renowned rationalist and socialist Dr Narendra Dabholkar - has been another black mark in the recent history of Maharashtra.

THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

THE budget session of the parliament in which the BJP led government placed its first full-fledged budget began on February 23, 2014. This session has almost 20 days of sitting.The parliament began with the president’s address to the joint session of both the houses of parliament.

Kerala State Conference Upholds Unity of the Party

THE conference of the CPI(M) Kerala state unit was held at Alappuzha from February 20-23, 2015 in the land of historical Punnapra-Vayalar struggle, in the run-up to the 21st Congress of the CPI(M). In this conference, all together 574 comrades participated including 558 delegates and 16 observers. The state conference was inaugurated by Prakash Karat, general secretary of the Party. Pinarayi Vijayan, state secretary presented the state report.

Tripura State Conference Concludes with Call to Build Model Party

THE 21st conference of CPI(M) Tripura state committee concluded successfully with a clarion call to the workers to build a model and stronger Party unit in the state. The conference commenced on February 25 with a massive rally in Agartala and ended on February 28.

BJP led Govt’s Budget Serves the Corporates, Burdens the Common People

The following are the statements issued by various mass organisations on the annual budget 2015-16:

Deception & Loot on
Common People, says CITU
THE annual budget presented by the Modi government is an articulation of anti-people and pro-corporate bias camouflaged by so-called pro-people rhetoric.

Budget 2015-16: Bonanza for the Corporates

BUDGETS these days deliberately tend to produce a miasma of words and figures, which can then be interpreted by the “pundits” in TV studios in so many diverse and confusing ways that the class content of the budget gets effectively camouflaged. But the miasma produced by Jaitley this year can scarcely conceal the class content of his budget. This is because his is the most brazenly pro-corporate, pro-rich and anti-people budget in recent memory.

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