India
India: We Tamils Party promotes communalism in Tamil Nadu
By Athiyan Silva, 14 May 2013
The NTK campaign is a reactionary attempt to divide workers in Tamil Nadu from their class brothers in Sri Lanka and India.
Death toll in Bangladesh factory collapse reaches 950
By Sarath Kumara and Wimal Perera, 10 May 2013
The authorities’ main concern is to downplay the rapidly rising casualty figures in the textile factory collapse, to cover up the scale of the disaster.
Global corporations and the Bangladesh building collapse
By Peter Symonds, 8 May 2013
The world’s retailing giants are engaged in a cynical PR exercise to distance themselves from the tragedy that has taken the lives of more than 700 people.
Tensions rise in India-China border stand-off
By Deepal Jayasekera, 4 May 2013
The current border stand-off between India and China reflects the explosive political tensions unleashed by the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia.”
Bangladeshi government ends rescue operations in collapsed building
By Sarath Kumara, 1 May 2013
The government has ignored pleas from the relatives of victims who are still hoping that survivors will be found.
The Bangladesh factory collapse and the drive for profit
By K. Ratnayake, 27 April 2013
The tragedy is one of the world’s worst industrial disasters, but it will not be the last, as global corporations sacrifice workers’ safety to the requirements of profit.
Border tensions between India and China escalate
By Deepal Jayasekera, 27 April 2013
India has alleged that a platoon of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) intruded 10 kilometers into Indian territory.
Mass protests erupt in Bangladesh over factory collapse
By Patrick O’Connor, 26 April 2013
Hundreds of thousands of garment workers marched out of their factories yesterday, compelling plant owners to declare a day’s “holiday”.
Memorial for West, Texas victims obscures causes of fertilizer plant exlosion
By Naomi Spencer, 26 April 2013
The event served to conceal the criminal negligence behind the tragedy and put the bulk of the recovery costs onto the shoulders of survivors.
Huge death toll in Bangladesh factory collapse
By Sarath Kumara and Wimal Perera, 25 April 2013
At least 149 workers were confirmed dead as of Thursday morning, but the figure is likely to rise as more bodies are recovered.
West, Texas residents survey explosion aftermath
By Naomi Spencer, 22 April 2013
Some residents were allowed to return to the five-block blast area around the West Fertilizer Plant that had been closed off since the disaster.
Texas plant explosion highlights gutting of health and safety rules
By Andre Damon, 20 April 2013
Occupational Safety and Health Administration records show that the last time the agency inspected the plant was 28 years ago.
India: Victimized Maruti Suzuki workers stage fresh protests
By Deepal Jayasekera, 13 April 2013
Victimized workers from the Maruti Suzuki car assembly plant at Manesar, Haryana continue to mount protests against their arbitrary dismissal and the jailing of almost 150 workers on grave, trumped-up criminal charges.
Indian building collapse kills 75
By Shree Haran and John Watanabe, 8 April 2013
The tragedy exposes the abysmal living conditions facing millions of working people in Mumbai, the country’s financial centre.
India: Stalinist CPM waffles over its full-throated support for Afzal Guru’s execution
By Kranti Kumara and Keith Jones, 22 March 2013
After giving its full-throated support to the recent secret execution of Afzal Guru, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has belatedly raised reservations about “the manner in which the death sentence was executed.”
India: Victimized Maruti Suzuki workers file affidavits documenting their torture
By Arun Kumar and Kranti Kumara, 20 March 2013
Thirteen of the jailed Maruti Suzuki workers have filed affidavits in court accusing Haryana state police and senior management personnel of colluding in their torture and threatening to kill them.
India manoeuvres over UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka
By Deepal Jayasekera, 19 March 2013
The Indian government is under pressure from Tamil Nadu parties over its stance on a US-backed resolution at UN Human Rights Council on Sri Lanka.
India: Accused in Delhi rape found hanging in his prison cell
By Deepal Jayasekera, 13 March 2013
While police and prison authorities are claiming that the accused committed suicide, his family and lawyers are charging that he was murdered.
Indian budget offers concessions to big business while slashing price subsidies
By Deepal Jayasekera, 2 March 2013
India’s last full budget before the next national election has provided domestic and foreign investors with fresh tax and other concessions, while slashing subsidies for working people and the rural poor.
India: Chief Minister threatens victimized Maruti Suzuki workers
By Arun Kumar and Jai Sharma, 2 March 2013
Haryana’s Chief Minister has threatened to order further arrests of victimized Maruti Suzuki workers.
Indian general strike ends with no demands met
By Arun Kumar, 23 February 2013
By calling the strike, the trade unions sought to let off steam, and prevent workers from launching any independent struggle to defend jobs and living standards.
India: Terrorist attack kills 16 in Hyderabad
By Deepal Jayasekera, 23 February 2013
The serial bomb blasts that killed 16 people Thursday evening in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad were a reactionary attack aimed at whipping up communal animosity within India and intensifying tensions between India and Pakistan.
Prime Minister Cameron’s India tour highlights UK’s weakening global position
By Julie Hyland, 22 February 2013
Cameron said that there was “no thinking” that a partnership with India “is ours for the taking”. He was right.
Tens of millions of Indian workers join general strike
By Arun Kumar, 21 February 2013
The two Stalinist union federations called the strike to let off steam and forge closer ties with bourgeois parties, including those of the extreme right.
63rd Berlin International Film Festival—Part 1
Unresolved issues in today’s filmmaking
By Stefan Steinberg, 21 February 2013
A number of interesting films from central and eastern Europe were awarded prizes in Berlin this year, but, unfortunately, they were not characteristic of the festival as a whole.
To defeat ruling class assault,
Indian workers need a socialist program
By the WSWS Editorial Board, 20 February 2013
Tens of millions of workers across India will join a two-day general strike today and Thursday to protest against the Congress Party-led government’s social spending cuts and pro-investor “reforms.”
French President Hollande presses for major arms deals in India
By Kumaran Ira, 19 February 2013
French President François Hollande made a two-day visit to India last week to promote large-scale military deals amid a growing arms race in Asia.
India: Thousands join protests to support victimised Maruti Suzuki workers
By Arun Kumar, 19 February 2013
Thousands of workers participated in an “All-India Protest Day” to voice their support for victimized workers at Maruti Suzuki India’s car assembly plant in Manesar, Haryana.
India: Cash transfer scheme aims to slash subsidies to India’s poor
By Ajay Prakash and Kranti Kumara, 15 February 2013
The Indian government has launched a program to replace all its subsidies on food and other essential commodities with cash payments. Due to India’s double-digit inflation rate, the real value of these payments will rapidly decline, further squeezing incomes.
A legal lynching: Indian government executes Afzal Guru
By Kranti Kumara and Keith Jones, 12 February 2013
In an action that exemplifies the reactionary trajectory of India’s Congress Party-led government, it ordered the secret execution last Saturday of Mohammad Afzal Guru.
India: Victimized Maruti Suzuki workers continue to protest
By Arun Kumar and Kranti Kumara, 2 February 2013
Victimized Maruti Suzuki India workers staged a rally last Sunday to demand their reinstatement and the immediate release of 150 workers who have been jailed on frame-up charges.
Union limits Indian auto workers to “go-slow” campaign over wages
By Arun Kumar, 28 January 2013
Over one thousand workers at Hero MotoCorp’s (HMCL) Gurgaon and Dharuhera plants in the northern Indian state of Haryana carried out a “go-slow” job action on January 23.
India: Union calls off Chennai air cargo strike
By Sasi Kumar and Moses Rajkumar, 22 January 2013
The airport workers had demanded regularisation of their jobs, higher wages, and basic medical and canteen facilities.
Unions abruptly shut down “indefinite” public sector strike in Kerala
By Arun Kumar and Kranti Kumara, 19 January 2013
A militant strike of several hundred thousand government employees and teachers in the southern Indian state of Kerala collapsed this week after the Stalinist trade-union leadership negotiated a surrender agreement with the state government.
India and Pakistan exchange threats in Kashmir border dispute
By Sampath Perera, 15 January 2013
Tensions between India and Pakistan remain acute, with the two countries accusing each other of initiating the intermittent border clashes.
India and Pakistan clash again in disputed Kashmir area
By K. Ratnayake, 10 January 2013
Clashes in Kashmir between the militaries of Pakistan and India underscore the highly volatile situation in the region.
Indian establishment manipulating anger over Delhi rape
By Deepal Jayasekera, 10 January 2013
The case is being exploited to further strengthen the repressive apparatus of the state.
Witch-hunt continues against Maruti Suzuki workers in India
By Arun Kumar and Kranti Kumara, 10 January 2013
Police have arrested another Maruti Suzuki worker in India, bringing the total number of framed-up and jailed auto workers to 150.
India and Pakistan involved in fatal border clash
By Keith Jones, 7 January 2013
India and Pakistan are trading accusations after a bloody clash over the Line of Control in disputed Kashmir early yesterday morning.
Rape of Delhi woman sparks protests in India
By Deepal Jayasekera, 28 December 2012
Thousands of people, mainly students, protested last week in the Indian capital, New Delhi, against the gang rape of a young woman on December 16.
Ravi Shankar, acclaimed Indian musician, dies at 92
By Kapila Fernando, K. Ratnayake and Peter Symonds, 20 December 2012
What was unique about Ravi Shankar was the breadth of his interests, willingness to experiment and passion for making classical Indian music available to the world.
Instigator of 2002 Gujarat pogrom seeks new term as chief minister
By Kranti Kumara, 17 December 2012
Chief Minister Narendra Modi, an unabashed Hindu supremacist, is hoping he can use victory in the Gujarat state elections to catapult himself into the national political arena.
Indian establishment mourns founder-leader of fascist Shiv Sena
By Nanda Wickremasinghe, 15 December 2012
The fawning send-off the Indian ruling class accorded Bal Thackeray, the founder-leader of the fascist Shiv Sena (SS), following his death last month at the age of 86 constitutes both a lesson and warning to the working class.
India: Thousands join convention and protest to defend victimised Maruti Suzuki workers
By Arun Kumar, 15 December 2012
The convention and march underscores growing militancy among auto workers in India who want to fight the slave labour conditions they are subjected to.
After winning FDI vote, Indian government vows to push ahead with pro-investor measures
By Deepal Jayasekera, 13 December 2012
Last week’s debate and vote on opening India to Walmart and other giant retailers has underscored the support of all sections of India’s political establishment for big business’ economic agenda.
Defend auto workers victimised by Maruti Suzuki and Indian authorities
By World Socialist Web Site, 6 December 2012
Workers across India and internationally must defend the workers at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar assembly plant who are the target of a joint vendetta by India’s largest automaker and the Congress Party-led Haryana government.
Behind the UAW’s “support” for the Maruti Suzuki workers
By Jerry White, 5 December 2012
The United Auto Workers union in the United States has issued a letter of protest against the firing and arrests of workers at a Maruti Suzuki India plant.
A significant report on the global economy
By Nick Beams, 23 November 2012
China and India will not be able to provide the basis for a new period of global growth
India: Thousands protest victimization of Maruti Suzuki workers
By Arun Kumar, 14 November 2012
Victimized workers from Maruti-Suzuki’s Manesar car assembly plant staged a series of protests last week to demand their reinstatement and to fight for the release of 149 workers who have been beaten and tortured while in police custody.
“Many could have been tortured to death,” charges lawyer for jailed Maruti Suzuki India workers
By Arun Kumar, 13 November 2012
In an interview with the World Socialist Web Site, one of the lawyers who represents the 149 jailed Maruti Suzuki India workers described how many of them have been brutally tortured by police.
India: Jailed Maruti Suzuki workers subjected to torture
By Arun Kumar and Kranti Kumara, 23 October 2012
Indian authorities have tortured militant Maruti Suzuki workers who were jailed as part of a corporate-government conspiracy to convict them on murder charges.
India’s Kingfisher Airlines workers demand unpaid salaries
By Sathish Simon and Kranti Kumara, 19 October 2012
Several hundred employees at privately-owned Kingfisher Airlines in India have engaged in strikes and other job actions over the past month to demand back wages owed to them since March.
Despite mass opposition, India pushes ahead with operationalizing nuclear plant
By Arun Kumar and Kranti Kumara, 27 September 2012
Despite mass protests and numerous safety concerns, Indian authorities are pushing ahead with the loading of nuclear fuel into a newly-built nuclear power plant at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu.
India’s government survives defection, vows to press forward with “big bang” reforms
By Deepal Jayasekera, 22 September 2012
To fervent applause from big business, India’s Congress Party-led government is pressing ahead with its pro-investor “reforms” in the face of mass popular opposition and the defection of a coalition partner.
Millions protest in India against “big bang” pro-market measures
By our reporters, 21 September 2012
The widespread participation in the bandh demonstrates the popular outrage over the government’s announcements, which will impact severely on living standards.
All-India general strike against pro-investor “big bang” economic “reforms”
By Deepal Jayasekera, 20 September 2012
Tens of millions of working people will join the one-day all-India hartal or general shutdown of schools, shops and workplaces that the opposition parties have called for today to protest against fuel price hikes and other pro-investor “reforms.”
India announces “big bang” economic reforms
By Kranti Kumara, 18 September 2012
Under immense pressure from international and domestic big business, India’s government has announced a series of “big bang” economic reforms aimed at reducing the state budget deficit at the expense of working people, attracting foreign investment, and spurring the reorganization of key economic sectors so as to make them more profitable for capital.
India: Profiteering, negligence, and corruption lead to 50 deaths in factory explosion
By Sathish Simon, 12 September 2012
Last week’s factory explosion and fire that killed more fifty people is only the latest to rock Sivakasi, the center of India’s fireworks industry.
Former Gujarat minister convicted for her role in 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom
By Kranti Kumara and Keith Jones, 5 September 2012
Mayaben Kodnani, a sitting state legislator and former BJP minister, has been convicted for her role as the “kingpin” of a brutal massacre of 97 Muslims during the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
India: Maruti Suzuki presses ahead with workforce purge
By Palash Roy and Arun Kumar, 4 September 2012
With the full backing of Haryana’s Congress Party-led state government, Maruti Suzuki India is pressing ahead with its purge of the workforce at its Manesar car assembly plant and its drive to smash the independent union that the workers established last year.
Millions in India affected by severe drought
By Sathish Simon, 1 September 2012
An estimated 20 percent shortfall in the annual June-September South-West monsoon has severely affected the lives of hundreds of millions of farmers and agricultural workers in rural India.
Indian government gifts tens of billions to big business through privatization
By Kranti Kumara, 28 August 2012
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has released a series of damning reports that accuse India’s Congress Party-led government of facilitating the looting of public wealth by private corporations to the tune of $75 billion.
India: Maruti Suzuki fires workers en masse, reopens plant under police gauntlet
By Palash Roy and Arun Kumar, 23 August 2012
Maruti Suzuki of India and the Congress Party-led Haryana state government are attempting to smash all resistance to the brutal work regime at the carmaker’s Manesar assembly plant.
Indian elite hamstrung as the economy falters
By Kranti Kumara, 18 August 2012
High inflation and the sharp depreciation of the rupee have prevented India’s central bank from cutting interest rates to counter faltering economic growth.
Following grid collapse: Indian bourgeoisie demands privatisation of power sector
By Deepal Jayasekera, 11 August 2012
After the collapse of India’s electricity grid early last week, big business is pressing its demands for reforms in the energy sector.
Indian ruling elite fears impact of altercation at Maruti Suzuki plant
By Arun Kumar, 10 August 2012
The Indian ruling elite fears that the incident at the MSI Manesar plant may weaken the pro-investor image of India and further impact the country’s already declining economic growth rate.
India: Maruti Suzuki and Haryana government mount vendetta against auto workers
By Arun Kumar, 4 August 2012
Maruti Suzuki has locked out more than 3,000 workers at its Manesar car assembly plant and, at its behest, Haryana’s Congress Party state government has arrested more than 100 workers.
Assam communal clashes claim 53 lives in north-east India
By Deepal Jayasekera, 2 August 2012
Tensions between Bodo tribals and Bengali speaking Muslims are rooted in the 1947 communal partition and related abortion of the democratic revolution.
Grid collapse in India leaves over 650 million without electricity
By Kranti Kumara, 1 August 2012
Much of India’s electricity transmission grid collapsed Tuesday, depriving almost 700 million people of power.
India: Maruti Suzuki launches witch-hunt against workers
By Arun Kumar, 23 July 2012
It is clear that the plant management deliberately provoked the altercation to intimidate workers and suppress any opposition to slave labour conditions.
Stalinist CPM backs ruling Indian Congress party’s presidential candidate
By Deepal Jayasekera, 20 July 2012
The Stalinist CPM’s decision to support Congress candidate Pranab Mukherjee in the presidential elections is a clear signal that the CPM is willing to resume its alliance with the Congress.
Former Indian finance minister Mukherjee runs for presidency
By Deepal Jayasekera, 17 July 2012
The Indian presidential elections will be held on July 19.
India: The lessons of the NLC betrayal
By Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka), 11 July 2012
The Stalinist unions deliberately blocked any political fight against the state and central governments, and a turn to other sections of workers.
US declares India a “lynchpin” in its Asian strategy
By Sarath Kumara, 12 June 2012
Defence Secretary Panetta called for greater US-Indian military cooperation during his visit last week to New Delhi.
Indian government prepares mass sacking of Air India pilots
By Sathish Simon and Deepal Jayasekera, 9 June 2012
The attack on the pilots sets a dangerous precedent for a similar assault on other sections of workers defending their jobs and living standards.
India: NLC contract workers oppose union sell-out
By Arun Kumar and Moses Rajkumar, 5 June 2012
Angry NLC contract workers confront local union leaders over the back-room deal signed with management to shut down long-running strike action.
Singh promotes Indian interests in Burma
By Sarath Kumara, 4 June 2012
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent visit to Burma highlighted India’s intensifying pursuit of its economic and strategic interests.
Indian workers, youth, rural poor join bandh against fuel price hikes
By Arun Kumar, 2 June 2012
On Thursday, workers, youth and rural poor throughout India joined the nationwide shutdown and protests against fuel price hikes imposed by the UPA government.
Indian government attempts to smash pilots strike
By Sathish Simon, 31 May 2012
The attacks on Air India pilots are a warning to the entire working class.
India: Nationwide protests against fuel price hikes
By Deepal Jayasekera, 30 May 2012
Like its counterparts internationally, the Indian government is seeking to impose the burden of the worsening global crisis of capitalism onto the backs of working people.
Indian Communist Party (Marxist) continues to defend Stalin’s crimes
By Deepal Jayasekera, 29 May 2012
Far from being unimportant “archival matters”, the ideological differences between Stalinism and Trotskyism are of fundamental importance for workers today.
India: WSWS team attacked as NLC strike enters second month
By Arun Kumar, 22 May 2012
The assault on WSWS supporters, who were distributing a leaflet exposing the role of the government and the unions, is a clear sign that a betrayal is being prepared.
Sri Lankan SEP condemns attack on WSWS supporters in India
By Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka), 21 May 2012
The assault by AIADMK thugs is a warning to workers of the methods that governments and employers will use to suppress opposition to the deepening assault on jobs and living standards.
Clinton pressures India to support sanctions on Iran
By Sarath Kumara, 15 May 2012
Indian corporations and banks are facing the prospect of tough US penalties from the end of June for doing business with Iranian banks.
India: Striking NLC contract workers must expand struggle—industrially and politically
By Arun Kumar and Moses Rajkumar, 15 May 2012
On strike since April 21, the 14,000 contract workers at the Indian government-owned Neyveli Lignite Corporation are challenging a cheap-labour and repressive work-regime that has become the norm in both India’s public and private sectors.
Indian Stalinists line up with national bourgeoisie on Sri Lanka’s Tamil issue
By V. Sivagnanan, 10 May 2012
India’s main Stalinist parliamentary parties have based themselves on defending the national interests of Indian bourgeoisie in their stand on the issue of Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority.
India: Strike challenges NLC’s decades-long use of contract labor
By Satish Simon, 5 May 2012
A WSWS reporting team spoke with some of the 14,000 contract workers who have been on strike against the central government-owned Neyveli Lignite Corporation in Tamil Nadu since April 21.
Storm clouds gather over Indian economy
By Kranti Kumara, 3 May 2012
The head of India’s central bank has suggested that the country could face a balance of payments crisis akin to that in 1991, when it turned to the IMF for emergency loans.
Two hundred feared dead in Indian ferry disaster
By Deepal Jayasekera, 2 May 2012
The ferry disaster is the product of successive governments’ grossly inadequate funding of basic social infrastructure and the subordination of transportation services to the dictates of the profit system.
India tests long-range missile capable of striking China’s cities
By Kranti Kumara, 24 April 2012
The Indian government did nothing to counter or dampen the media’s contention that the long-range missile it tested last Thursday is aimed first and foremost at China.
Mounting tensions between India’s army and civilian government
By Kranti Kumara, 18 April 2012
So fractious are relations between India’s army and civilian government, sections of the government reportedly feared that a military coup might be underway in mid-January.
India: Stalinist CPM congress dismisses socialism
By Deepal Jayasekera, 16 April 2012
At its 20th Congress, the CPM reiterated its defence of the crimes of the Soviet Stalinist bureaucracy and justified its role as a political prop of the Indian bourgeoisie.
India: Stalinist CPM promotes alliance with regional bourgeois parties
By Deepal Jayasekera in Kozhikode, 7 April 2012
The national congress of India’s main Stalinist parliamentary party has called for renewed efforts to build an alliance with regionalist and caste-ist bourgeois parties to contain mounting working class and poor peasant opposition to the social crisis wrought by two decades of market “reforms”.
India’s Communist Party (Marxist): Defender of Stalin and capitalist restoration
By Deepal Jayaskera, 6 April 2012
For the first time since 1992, the leadership of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), India’s principal Stalinist parliamentary party, is presenting an “ideological” resolution to its national congress.
India: Stalinist CPM holds party congress amid mounting internal crisis
By Deepal Jayaskera, 4 April 2012
India’s principal Stalinist parliamentary party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is holding its 20th Congress this week amid a mounting and deep-rooted internal political crisis.
India’s government orients towards privatizing water
By Ajay Prakash and Kranti Kumara, 30 March 2012
Under the guise of providing a solution to the country’s acute water crisis, India’s Congress Party-led Union government has issued a policy document that advocates the wholesale privatization of water delivery and sanitation.
Indian budget raises taxes and prices
By Deepal Jayasekera, 29 March 2012
The working people and rural toilers will be hit by higher prices, particularly for fuel and fertiliser, in an effort to satisfy the financial markets by cutting the budget deficit.
India: Tens of millions join one-day protest strike
By our correspondents, 2 March 2012
As many as a hundred million workers participated in a one-day, India-wide general strike Tuesday to protest against the socio-economic policies of the Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance government.
West Bengal government threatens savage reprisals if state workers join one-day strike
By Kranti Kumara, 28 February 2012
West Bengal’s Trinamul Congress government is threatening draconian sanctions against any state worker who takes part in the national one-day general strike called for Tuesday, Feb. 28.
Indian workers must adopt socialist strategy to oppose UPA-led big business offensive
By the WSWS Editorial Board, 28 February 2012
Tens of millions of Indian workers will join a one-day countrywide general strike today, Tuesday, February 28, to protest soaring prices, the spread of contract-labor, privatization, and the appalling conditions under which 90 percent of the workers employed in the so-called informal sector toil.
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