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    In What May be the Largest Strike in World History, Millions in India Protest PM Modi's Policies Archived Message

    Posted by sashimi on January 8, 2020, 10:42 pm

    An estimated quarter billion Indians - roughly three percent of the
    world's entire population - went on strike today across the
    subcontinent, protesting the government of Narendra Modi's racist and
    "anti-people," "anti-worker" policies. The protests were called by the
    Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and are thought to be perhaps the
    largest in world history.

    General strike in India begins. 250 million to be out
    today. World's largest strike.@cituhq pic.twitter.com/Wyob6JVPjk
    - Vijay Prashad (@vijayprashad) January 8, 2020

    The CITU has a 12-point charter of demands they have put to the
    government. The demands include:
    * Urgent measures to contain price rises through a universalized
    public distribution system and banning of speculative trading on
    the commodities market.
    * A job generation scheme to combat India's unemployment problem.
    * Stricter enforcement of all basic labor laws.
    * Universal social security.
    * A minimum wage of at least 15,000 Rupees (≈ $210) per month.
    * A guaranteed pension for the entire working age population.
    * Equal pay for equal work.
    * The stoppage of pro-employer, anti-labor laws.
    * The end to foreign direct investment in key industries like rail,
    defense and finance.
    * Delhi university strongly rejects violence on campus and the
    communal divide of India. #BharatBandh #NRC_CAA_Protests
    pic.twitter.com/VHB4IYX0g2
    - We The People of India (@ThePeopleOfIN) January 8, 2020

    Many on the streets are also continuing the protest against Modi's
    privatization schemes and racist CAA and NRC acts. The CAA explicitly
    prevents Muslims (India's largest religious minority numbering around
    140 million people) from neighboring countries to acquire
    citizenship. The NRC (National Registration Council) overturns all
    previous citizenship laws, requiring all Indians to provide extensive
    documentation to prove their citizenship- something hundreds of
    millions will surely be unable to do. It, therefore, gives Modi and
    his ruling far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the ability to
    remove citizenship- and therefore virtually all human rights- from any
    Indian it wishes. The government has already removed nearly two
    million people's citizenship in the northeastern state of Assam-
    around half of them Muslims. It is also currently building a network
    of "detention centers" similar to those used by ICE in the U.S. to
    house the newly criminalized population of "illegal immigrants." In
    many cases, it is employing those same people to build their own
    prisons.

    The strike is supported by most major unions except for those
    affiliated with the ruling BJP. It also has the support of the Indian
    National Congress Party, which ruled the country for decades after its
    independence from the U.K. Rahul Gandhi, leader of the party until
    August last year, also estimated that 250 million would be on the
    streets, tweeting:
    https://twitter.com/RahulGandhi/status/1214756142494048261

    One industry expected to be hit particularly hard by the strike today
    is banking. Nearly a quarter of a trillion Rupees (≈ $3.1 billion) in
    bank transactions are set to be hit throughout the day, as ten unions
    from the finance and insurance sectors, representing around half a
    million workers, join the strike.

    A common tactic of the strikers across the country is to occupy
    railway lines, shutting down India's most important and iconic
    transport network, effectively paralyzing the country. Representatives
    of India's coal unions also announced that its 600,000 members would
    join the strike, despite an order from the management of Coal India
    Ltd. not to do so. Many of the country's enormous population of
    agricultural workers are expected to down their tools as well.

    The people with the railwaymen in Howrah railway
    station...#AllIndiaWorkersStrike pic.twitter.com/XxzJmK3VpM
    - Surjya Kanta Mishra (@mishra_surjya) January 8, 2020

    News of what is billed by supporters as the world's largest strike has
    been hard to come by in Western sources. In fact, there has been an
    almost complete media blackout of the subject. A search for "India
    strike" into Google's news search engine as of 23:00 India standard
    time (in other words after an entire day of unrest) produces just one
    result from a Western news organization; a short article from Reuters
    claiming that only "tens of thousands" are on strike. While numbers
    for simultaneous demonstrations happening across a subcontinent can
    never be gauged completely accurately, what is striking is the
    complete disinterest in such a large revolt from international media
    organizations.

    Cont'd at https://www.mintpressnews.com/largest-strike-world-history-millions-india-protest/263999/

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