In June this year, the union cabinet approved a special package for the textile and apparel sector claiming that ‘it has the potential for social transformation through women empowerment, since 70 percent of the workforce in the garment industry is women, majority of the new jobs created are likely to go to women’. This package was aimed at increasing exports by improving cost competitiveness and to overtake countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam. Several incentives were given to the employers to achieve cost competitiveness.

The BJP had just concluded its week-long 'tiranga yatra' that was started on the Independence Day. The stated purpose of the yatra is to instill a 'fresh bout of nationalism' among the people. This is a blatant attempt to appropriate the 'national flag' to serve its parochial nationalist designs. National flag is a product of our anti-colonial freedom struggle, in which the BJP or its mother organisation – the RSS, played no role.

The working class of the country is poised to go on a general strike on September 2.  This will be the seventeenth general strike since liberalisation began in 1991.  In the 25 years of liberalisation, these 17 strikes are a manifestation of the big resistance put up by the workers against the neo-liberal offensive.The strike is being called for a 12-point charter of demands which consist of all the major issues which concern the working people.  They include the demand to curb price rise and strengthen the public distribution system; no dilution of labour laws; halting the privatisation an

In the midst of corporate celebrations of 25th year of neo-liberalism in the country, the working class all over the country, with support from peasants, agricultural workers and others is now fully prepared for another countrywide general strike on September 2.The struggle, which began in 1991, is entering into an important phase, with various sections of working people joining the working class protest actions.The first phase of this struggle was from 1991 to 2008, when not all the central trade unions were together in this struggle in which large number of independent national level fede

SENIOR trade union leader, R Sreenivas was released on August 16, after spending 16 years of jail life in Bangalore Central Prison in the ‘BPL Case’. ‘BPL Case’ continues to be an iconic case in the contemporary history of the trade union movement in the post-liberalisation period.4000 workers worked in the ten industrial units of the BPL on the outskirts of Bangalore. There was no union in the factory until 1998, when workers organised under the banner of BPL Group of Companies Karmikara Sangha, affiliated to CITU.