THE eighth conference of Central Zone Insurance Employees Association (CZIEA) called upon insurance employees across the country to work for formation of such a government at the centre that would have a positive attitude towards the working class movement and that would be opposed to neo-liberal policies. It also called for exposing the ulterior motive of the corporate India to divide the Indian political landscape into a BJP-Congress affair.
THE Sneha Domestic Workers Welfare Organisation, affiliated to AIDWA, was formed in Andhra Pradesh in the year 2001 to work on the problems facing the tens of thousands of domestic workers in the state. Around 90 per cent of the domestic workers are women, who due to rising unemployment and rising prices of essential commodities are forced to migrate from rural areas to cities like Hyderabad in search of livelihood.
THE Congress and the BJP had, in their pre-poll manifestoes, promised to reserve 90 percent of seats in the state government funded Delhi University colleges for Delhiites. The move was opposed by the students and teachers of the university as it violated the provisions of the Delhi University Act.
THE Indian Workers’ Association Great Britain (IWA-GB) has taken serious note of the new immigration bill which proposes removal of article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights that protects an individual’s right in regard to private and family life. If this bill becomes an act, the IWA-GB fears that it will add to the current legislative discrimination, further contribute to the breaking of families and deprive children of their parents’ love.
WEST Bengal witnessed semi-fascist terror in seventies what Tripura witnessed in mid-eighties in the name of separatism. But such terror cannot sustain for long as was proven in both Bengal and Tripura. So the terror that Trinamool Congress is currently unleashing in West Bengal today is bound to be defeated by the people, asserted Tripura chief minister and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Manik Sarkar while addressing a massive Left Front rally in Coochbehar.
THE Congress party’s prime ministerial material, Rahul Gandhi’s one day trip to Kerala to take part in a roadshow in connection with the Youth Congress padayatra miserably ended up in an utter chaos with gross violation of law on January 13, 2014. It has led to a public outcry demanding that legal action must be taken against the Congress leader who travelled atop a police jeep. Kodikkunnil Suresh, central minister for state for labour, was injured and hospitalised in the melee that took place during the ridiculous roadshow at Noornad in Alappuzha district.
ON January 14, 2014, a delegation of the Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ), the Delhi Press Initiative 2013-14 and the All India Newspaper Employees Federation submitted a memorandum to the chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, and also met the minister of labour, Girish Soni, with a note containing some suggestions.
ONE stage, two mikes, three instruments, four voices and thousands of the audience --- this was the scene on the Beach Road near Gandhi statue in Pondicherry on January 1, 2014. The members of the troupe were filled with energy during the whole day of the programme. The songs which they sang were thought provoking and graphically described the social evils such as poverty, untouchability and inequality etc. The programme lasted for 12 hours; it continued from 9 a m to 9 p m. This was the fourth successive and successful, 12 hour programme by the team.
FROM December 2 to 6, 2013, the Southern Initiative on Globalisation and Trade Union Rights (SIGTUR) held its tenth congress at Perth, Australia, with more than 120 delegates from 14 countries from Asia, Africa, Australia and Latin America representing the south participating in the meeting. A 13 member delegation of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) took part in this congress which was hosted by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU).
THE Indian History Congress, the premier organisation of Indian historians, held its 74th annual session at the Ravenshaw University at Cuttack in Odisha, on December 28-30, 2013. Over, 1,400 delegates from all over India attended the session.