"Let's Intensify our Opposition to the Indian State's War on the People"
Forum Against War on People Public Meeting: 3 pm, 6 February 2012,
Rajendra Bhawan Deen Dayal Upadhayaya Marg, near ITO, New Delhi
Speakers:
JAN MYRDAL the internationally acclaimed author will talk on the War on People in India
SUJATO BHADRA will speak on atrocities by Joint Forces in Jangalmahal in West Bengal
The Indian government's war on people in central and eastern regions has entered its second phase with the deployment of the Indian army. The surreptitiously declared war on the people of this country codenamed Operation Green Hunt (OGH) which was launched in September 2009 by the Indian government is continuing unabated till today. In fact in the recent months, the ruling coalition at the Centre in connivance with political parties of all hues in power in the Central and Eastern states have intensified their brutal war on the poorest, most maginalized and oppressed people of the subcontinent. Contrary to the rhetoric of not deploying the Indian Army in direct combat, the Government of India has increased the number of troops in the region with the intent of crushing the growing people's resistance against its policies. It is well known that the first batch of 2000 Army personnel were sent by the government to the forests of Narayanpur District in the Bastar on 3 June 2011 with a plan to occupy an area of 600 square kilometres, albeit in the name of Jungle Warfare Training. Just six months later, another 2500 personnel descended on the forests of Bastar on 4 November 2011. Though the Central and Chhattisgarh governments maintain that they have set up this so-called Jungle Warfare Training Centre in Bastar merely to put pressure on the Maoists and to dominate the region militarily, the real purpose is to hand over the vast swathes of mineral-rich forested lands to the Multinational Companies and to evict the people who have stood up to defend their jal-jangal-zameen, their very existence.
The involvement of the army in this war is more than what meet the eyes. Senior army officials were appointed long before OGH was initiated two-and-half years ago to guide and coordinate the `counter-insurgency' operations involving more than two hundred thousand police-paramilitary joint forces. The launch of OGH further +institutionalised the Indian Army's role under the Unified Command Structure of joint operations of the four different armed forces – the civil police of various states, Special Armed forces raised by different states (like the C-60 of Maharashtra, SPOs of Chhattisgarh, SOG of Odisha and Greyhounds of AP), paramilitary forces under the Union Government and the Indian Army along with the Air-force and the Navy. The Union Government's public posture that the Army will not be engaged in combat with the Naxalites is only to hoodwink the democratic sections of the public in the country and to safeguard its image in the international domain as the much-advertised "largest democracy" in the world. Such claims fly on the face of the license to kill, handed out by the Indian government to the Air-force and the Army: while the former reserves the `right' to commit aerial bombardments in the name of `self-defense', the latter does not even require such fig-leaf of an excuse as it has been made clear that the army will not wait to be first shot by the Naxalites, but will be the first to fire upon anyone it suspects to be a Naxalite. Indian Army's operations are being expanded in the war zones where the adivasis and other communities are resisting the sell-out of natural resources to international and domestic monopolies, displacing and decimating the local people. In order to deceive the democrats in the country and outside, the rulers – who are fighting against the most deprived sections of the people – have tried to justify their war as an act of curbing `left-wing extremists' or Naxalites / Maoists. No doubt Naxalites / Maoists are part of the larger resistant movement today in all these regions, but this does not justify the ruling elite's war on the citizens of this country.
Due to the stiff resistance faced by the Indian state's Armed forces from the wretched of the earth in these regions, the `democratic' Indian state has followed the policy of raising private armed vigilante gangs. That the corporate sector in India also has time and again asked the Government to further institutionalise such gangs through concrete material and other supports so as to enable the easy loot and plunder of the resources in these regions is an open secret that few have noticed. The list of such private armed groups formed and led by the joint armed forces of the government in central and eastern India is a long one: Salwa Judum and Koya Commandos (now legalised) in Chhattisgarh, Sendra, Nagarik Suraksha Samiti, PLFI, Jharkhand Prastuti Committee, Tritiya Prastuti Committee in Jharkhand, Shanti Sangams in South Odisha, and Harmad Bahini or what is now called Bhairab Bahini in West Bengal, and so on. And these are only a few of the vast number of private armed gangs being propped up by the government to kill and brutalise our fellow citizens by spending the tax-payer's money. All these forces are under the directions of the Unified Command of the Indian government and the Home Ministry. These publicly-funded private gangs are killing thousands of people branding them as Naxalites/Maoists. If we add the private armed gangs maintained by the local warlords, the mining mafia and other corporate houses supported and patronised by the Indian state, the number of common people who are resisting their oppression and are killed by the government forces in the War on People shoots up exponentially.
The War on People is not restricted to the rural and mineral-rich forested regions of India alone, but has also reached its urban enclaves. It has spread to encompass all the urban and semi-urban regions from where support and solidarity is extended to the rural regions – the mainstay of the resistance movements. Democratic voices are stifled and choked everywhere. Thousands of democratic individuals and hundreds of peoples' organisations that boldly raise their voice of protest against this War on People are jailed, tortured, threatened or killed in fake encounters. It is important to note here the detailed statement of the Minister of State for Home Affairs Jitendra Singh in the two houses of Parliament showing organisations such as Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF), Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP), People's Democratic Front of India (PDFI), Democratic Students Union (DSU), CPI (ML) (Naxalbari) and other parties and people's organisations as "being watched" closely by the eyes and ears of the government. That "being watched closely by the eyes and ears" of the government is to provoke a sense of siege mentality in the psyche of the general public vis-à-vis such organisations so as to segregate them from the vast democratic mass movements that they are part of. Further the minister has gone ahead to brand RDF, CRPP, PDFI and DSU as the frontal organisations of the CPI (Maoist). It is evident that all these organisations have been successful in rallying the voices against the murderous campaign of the Indian state to facilitate this largest land grab ever since the time of Columbus let alone the attendant loot and plunder of resources of the people. So it becomes inevitable for the Indian State to see to it that such voices are criminalised by profiling them as `anti-development' and hence against the `national' interest. This fascistic tendency to supress the democratic voices is a needed strategy for the belligerent ruling forces that are entangled in crisis with the deepening economic crisis world-wide.
The Indian rulers facilitate the unbridled plunder of people's resources and labour to help the imperialist countries come out of their economic crisis, while the people fall prey to starvation, diseases and planned genocides of the state. This situation is certainly no better than the old colonial policy since Columbus and his brand of land-grab that decimated numerous indigenous tribal communities. The only answer is to intensify our opposition to Indian State's War on People in the name of Operation Green Hunt.
————————————
About JAN MYRDAL, speaker at the Forum: The Swedish author and columnist, Jan Myrdal, son of Nobel laureates Alva and Gunnar Myrdal, and a central figure in the protest movement against the Vietnam War, has penned more than 80 books, among which are Confessions of a Disloyal European (1968), Report from a Chinese Village, The Silk Road and India Waits (1986). He has written fiction, plays and books on literature, art, politics.
He is a prominent supporter of the civil liberties movements in various countries, a trenchant critic of US imperialism and Israeli colonial settlements in the Middle East. He has also made a number of feature films and TV documentaries.
Two years ago, at the age of 83, Jan Myrdal travelled in the tribal heartland of Bastar and personally interacted with the tribal people and the leadership of CPI (Maoist). His book Red Star Over India is an account of his trip which deftly combines India's present with its past. The English version the book is released in the Kolkata Book Fair on 28 February 2012.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
clash in berlin against international army conference et european police congres
argentina ¡LIBERTAD A LOS PRESOS POR LUCHAR! ¡A LA VIOLENCIA REACCIONARIA, VIOLENCIA REVOLUCIONARIA
¡LIBERTAD A LOS PRESOS POR LUCHAR! ¡A LA VIOLENCIA REACCIONARIA, VIOLENCIA REVOLUCIONARIA!
Comunicado del Partido Comunista Popular
Aunque los militares o policías no tengan un pasado en la dictadura y hayan recibido una y otra vez cursos de Derechos Humanos, siguen teniendo la misma función, en una sociedad dividida en clases: reprimir al pueblo trabajador para mantener seguros a los ricos y poderosos. No es un policía, es toda la institución. No son errores, no son abusos, no son excesos. Es la política represiva del Estado Argentino, que no cesó después de la dictadura, sino que cambió de forma, de sujetos y de discurso legitimador para adaptarse a nuevas etapas, a un nuevo contexto, a una nueva correlacion de fuerzas. En las fuerzas del Estado no hay democratización que valga. Con o sin pasado en la dictadura, con o sin participación civil, están para reprimir y lo seguirán haciendo, mientras vivamos en una sociedad con opresores y oprimidos.
A medida que se profundiza la crisis capitalista, que empuja al pueblo trabajador al reclamo, la represión selectiva sobre las organizaciones populares adquiere más dureza, y se hace más explícita. Enfrentamos a diario un aumento contundente de la represión que el gobierno emplea para disciplinar a quienes, organizados, confrontan sus políticas de explotación y opresión.
Hace pocos días, se conoció que el gobierno “de los derechos humanos” ha decidido reformar integralmente los planes de estudio de formación militar. La reforma en los planes de estudios es, tradicionalmente, una de las herramientas de las que se vale el Estado, gobierne quien gobierne, para legitimar a su aparato represivo. Durante el gobierno de los Kirchner, más de 5.000 militares y policías se entrenaron en cursos que brindan los Estados Unidos. Las fuerzas armadas, desde 2004 hasta la fecha, han realizado más de 150 ejercicios conjuntos con ejércitos de todo el mundo (principalmente de los EEUU y de Latinoamérica). Una de las principales hipótesis de conflicto de esos ejercicios, es la realización de “operaciones de mantenimiento de la paz” (Peace Keeping Operations, PKO), que es un eufemismo para designar a las operaciones de represión de rebeliones populares.
En todas las medidas de lucha, el pueblo trabajador debe enfrentar, por una parte, a la policía, a la gendarmería, a la prefectura, a las patotas de la burocracia sindical y del partido de gobierno; por la otra, a jueces y fiscales que criminalizan las luchas bajo la máscara de causas penales. Las leyes “antiterroristas”, promovidas por el imperialismo, y dictadas por todos los gobiernos desde 1983, incluyendo al de los Kirchner, abren el camino para imputaciones, procesamientos y condenas arbitrarias por “pertenecer” o “ser referente” de una organización.
A los casi 6.000 compañeros perseguidos, procesados y condenados por enfrentar las injusticias del sistema, se suma la consecuencia más grave de esta política represiva estatal, los presos políticos.
¡LIBERTAD A LOS PRESOS POR LUCHAR!
Salvo el poder, todo es ilusion. A conquistar el Sol Rojo de nuestra liberacion
Para el pueblo, conciencia y fusil
PARTIDO COMUNISTA POPULAR
Comunicado del Partido Comunista Popular
Aunque los militares o policías no tengan un pasado en la dictadura y hayan recibido una y otra vez cursos de Derechos Humanos, siguen teniendo la misma función, en una sociedad dividida en clases: reprimir al pueblo trabajador para mantener seguros a los ricos y poderosos. No es un policía, es toda la institución. No son errores, no son abusos, no son excesos. Es la política represiva del Estado Argentino, que no cesó después de la dictadura, sino que cambió de forma, de sujetos y de discurso legitimador para adaptarse a nuevas etapas, a un nuevo contexto, a una nueva correlacion de fuerzas. En las fuerzas del Estado no hay democratización que valga. Con o sin pasado en la dictadura, con o sin participación civil, están para reprimir y lo seguirán haciendo, mientras vivamos en una sociedad con opresores y oprimidos.
A medida que se profundiza la crisis capitalista, que empuja al pueblo trabajador al reclamo, la represión selectiva sobre las organizaciones populares adquiere más dureza, y se hace más explícita. Enfrentamos a diario un aumento contundente de la represión que el gobierno emplea para disciplinar a quienes, organizados, confrontan sus políticas de explotación y opresión.
Hace pocos días, se conoció que el gobierno “de los derechos humanos” ha decidido reformar integralmente los planes de estudio de formación militar. La reforma en los planes de estudios es, tradicionalmente, una de las herramientas de las que se vale el Estado, gobierne quien gobierne, para legitimar a su aparato represivo. Durante el gobierno de los Kirchner, más de 5.000 militares y policías se entrenaron en cursos que brindan los Estados Unidos. Las fuerzas armadas, desde 2004 hasta la fecha, han realizado más de 150 ejercicios conjuntos con ejércitos de todo el mundo (principalmente de los EEUU y de Latinoamérica). Una de las principales hipótesis de conflicto de esos ejercicios, es la realización de “operaciones de mantenimiento de la paz” (Peace Keeping Operations, PKO), que es un eufemismo para designar a las operaciones de represión de rebeliones populares.
En todas las medidas de lucha, el pueblo trabajador debe enfrentar, por una parte, a la policía, a la gendarmería, a la prefectura, a las patotas de la burocracia sindical y del partido de gobierno; por la otra, a jueces y fiscales que criminalizan las luchas bajo la máscara de causas penales. Las leyes “antiterroristas”, promovidas por el imperialismo, y dictadas por todos los gobiernos desde 1983, incluyendo al de los Kirchner, abren el camino para imputaciones, procesamientos y condenas arbitrarias por “pertenecer” o “ser referente” de una organización.
A los casi 6.000 compañeros perseguidos, procesados y condenados por enfrentar las injusticias del sistema, se suma la consecuencia más grave de esta política represiva estatal, los presos políticos.
¡LIBERTAD A LOS PRESOS POR LUCHAR!
Salvo el poder, todo es ilusion. A conquistar el Sol Rojo de nuestra liberacion
Para el pueblo, conciencia y fusil
PARTIDO COMUNISTA POPULAR
Manipur - Maoist institutes new Manipur Labour Policy
Dear Comrades,
After a long political struggle at Work places, we had mobilized our party units at work places of Manipur. We have institute historic workers policy in Manipur as a progress of workers movement led by our party.
Here is the some details of our achievement which is published by our Manipuri Medias,
After a long political struggle at Work places, we had mobilized our party units at work places of Manipur. We have institute historic workers policy in Manipur as a progress of workers movement led by our party.
Here is the some details of our achievement which is published by our Manipuri Medias,
Maoist institutes new Manipur Labour Policy
Imphal, February 01: In their quest to provide better lifestyle and standard assistance to the labour community in the state, the Maoist Communist Party, Manipur in a press statement claimed that the organisation has successfully instituted a historic Manipur Labour Policy and the same has been discussed and approved by the private employers in the state.
In the statement, Maoist stated that labours will be classified into two categories viz: permanent labour and temporary labour according to the new policy. Permanent labours will enjoy pencil schemes and medical allowances while temporary labours will enjoy medical allowances to some extent.
As per the policy all the worksheds or offices shall have first aid items readily available in case of medical emergency. Besides safe drinking water at the worksites, all the offices shall subscribe newspapers and monthly journals as an education policy for the labours. Offices where male and female labours work jointly shall have separate toilets and changing rooms for male and female labours to maintain their privacies. In order to prevent unwanted incidents, all kinds of intoxicants shall not be allowed in the premises of the work site.
A recess break of 45 minutes shall be provided to all the labours at a fixed time during their eight hours of work in the offices. Proper refreshment items should be provided during the recess break. Wages shall be determined by the labours after studying the social economy and inflation situation. Moreover, male and female labours shall be given equal amount of wages for similar works.
Permanent labours shall enjoy 60 % of their daily wages if they could not attend the work due to illness. Employers shall also provide 70 % of the amount if a permanent labour is hospitalised. In case of temporary labours, they will enjoy 50% of their wages if they got ill during their work and the employer shall provide 50% of the amount if they are hospitalised. Compensation amount for labours if they got expired during executing their work for their offices, will be finalised by February 15, Maoist stated while adding that the new labour policy will be a landmark for the labour community in the state as well as for Maoist Communist Party in their New Democratic Revolution.
In the statement, Maoist stated that labours will be classified into two categories viz: permanent labour and temporary labour according to the new policy. Permanent labours will enjoy pencil schemes and medical allowances while temporary labours will enjoy medical allowances to some extent.
As per the policy all the worksheds or offices shall have first aid items readily available in case of medical emergency. Besides safe drinking water at the worksites, all the offices shall subscribe newspapers and monthly journals as an education policy for the labours. Offices where male and female labours work jointly shall have separate toilets and changing rooms for male and female labours to maintain their privacies. In order to prevent unwanted incidents, all kinds of intoxicants shall not be allowed in the premises of the work site.
A recess break of 45 minutes shall be provided to all the labours at a fixed time during their eight hours of work in the offices. Proper refreshment items should be provided during the recess break. Wages shall be determined by the labours after studying the social economy and inflation situation. Moreover, male and female labours shall be given equal amount of wages for similar works.
Permanent labours shall enjoy 60 % of their daily wages if they could not attend the work due to illness. Employers shall also provide 70 % of the amount if a permanent labour is hospitalised. In case of temporary labours, they will enjoy 50% of their wages if they got ill during their work and the employer shall provide 50% of the amount if they are hospitalised. Compensation amount for labours if they got expired during executing their work for their offices, will be finalised by February 15, Maoist stated while adding that the new labour policy will be a landmark for the labour community in the state as well as for Maoist Communist Party in their New Democratic Revolution.
http://hueiyenlanpao.com/hueiyen-lanpao-news-paper.php?newsid=11241
We will be appreciate if any comrade suggest some guidelines and constructive comment to make us grand success. We really need your suggestion as we are very new. Thanks
Your's Comradely,
Sharad Manipur.
Maoist Communist Party, Manipur
after new fact " India Factory Workers Revolt, Kill Company President" workers in italy in the campaign 2-9 avril 2011 issue this declaration
India, the country where “workers burn their bosses”
We toilers, workers, temporary workers, unemployed, salute the struggle of the Indian masses against the Indian reactionary regime supported by imperialism.
In India the masses are struggling against the bosses that lay off and exploit, against high prices, corruption and State terrorism, with huge strikes and demonstrations, factories occupied, attacks on the bosses.
In India the government decided to sell natural and human resources to the Western imperialist corporations, the new monopolies of the owners of biggest automobile and steel factories, such as Tata, Essar, Jindal, Mittal, etc. which derive from the uncontrolled exploitation of workers, often women and children, the profits that allow them to become shareholders of the big international monopolies in those sectors, often in alliance with the Italian bosses.
Against all this the Indian masses raise up and develop a people's war led by the party of the working class of India, the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
The Indian government and the masses imperialism unleashed the repression against the masses, under the name of "Operation Green Hunt", with massacres, summary executions, raids against entire villages and the whole tribal population, trying to delete what they call "the most serious internal threat and a danger for the international system", the people's war, that has as its goal to establish a new power based on unity of workers and peasants, overthrowing imperialists, the bourgeoisie and feudal classes.
The struggle for the rights of workers and peoples, the struggle for jobs, wages, living conditions, the fight for freedom, for democracy, to overthrow the power of the bosses and establish a power in the hands of workers and the masses, is an international struggle that unites us all over the world.
That is why we express the greatest solidarity to the Indian masses and the Party that leads them, and wish they withstand the attacks of the enemy and advance to victory.
this texts has been approved in steel factories in Taranto and bergamo italy
csgpindia@gmail.com
this texts has been approved in steel factories in Taranto and bergamo italy
csgpindia@gmail.com
international conference to support people's war in India in Summer a task for all commmunists, revolutionaries, antimperialists people
International Conference to support people's war in India in Summer. a task for all commmunists, revolutionaries, antimperialists people
After the international campaign 2-9 avril 2011, campaign against AZAD murder in july 2011, and campaign 14-22 january 2012 dedicated to comrade Kishenji, murdered from India regime; now the work is for an International Conference that the
International Commitee to support people's war India wants to organise for Summer 2012, for advancing in the united mouvement that it is the only manner for giving force to the support and to make of this support an international and internationalist phenomena in the world.
For this I.Conference it needs the work not only of the International Commitee but of all solidairities commitees, all parties and organisations that support people's war in India, all revolutionaries that they are not 'maoist' but see the people's war in India as a very important revolutionary struggle in the world,; all antimperialists that condanm 'green hunt operation':
This Conference is organised in Europe, because actually the International Commitee has here his organisative base and it is correct that who proposes this type of Conference, takes his organisative responsability, in agree, of course, with indian comrades.
It is very important that all the solidarity mouvement in the world can support, can partecipate in different manners to this Conference.
Who partecipes will have intervention in the Conference, but it is a base Conference, not a intellectual conference with
star, we want that speak proletarians, students, women, in struggle before of all.
It is important that this Conference is not theater of ideological clashes about all problems in ICM mouvement, because all partecipants can realize an united block against imperialism, India regime and in the same time can affirm the force of PCIm that guides this revolution.
In avril a meeting in Italy will take final decisions about date and place, plan de preparation and propaganda.
all interested to this Conference can partecipate to this meeting, can send proposition and suggestions about it.
A specific internet adress and an eventually specific blog will be created, after avril meeting
we can send your disponibility to partecipate avril meeting to csgpindia@gmail.com
International Commitee to support people's war India
february 2012
After the international campaign 2-9 avril 2011, campaign against AZAD murder in july 2011, and campaign 14-22 january 2012 dedicated to comrade Kishenji, murdered from India regime; now the work is for an International Conference that the
International Commitee to support people's war India wants to organise for Summer 2012, for advancing in the united mouvement that it is the only manner for giving force to the support and to make of this support an international and internationalist phenomena in the world.
For this I.Conference it needs the work not only of the International Commitee but of all solidairities commitees, all parties and organisations that support people's war in India, all revolutionaries that they are not 'maoist' but see the people's war in India as a very important revolutionary struggle in the world,; all antimperialists that condanm 'green hunt operation':
This Conference is organised in Europe, because actually the International Commitee has here his organisative base and it is correct that who proposes this type of Conference, takes his organisative responsability, in agree, of course, with indian comrades.
It is very important that all the solidarity mouvement in the world can support, can partecipate in different manners to this Conference.
Who partecipes will have intervention in the Conference, but it is a base Conference, not a intellectual conference with
star, we want that speak proletarians, students, women, in struggle before of all.
It is important that this Conference is not theater of ideological clashes about all problems in ICM mouvement, because all partecipants can realize an united block against imperialism, India regime and in the same time can affirm the force of PCIm that guides this revolution.
In avril a meeting in Italy will take final decisions about date and place, plan de preparation and propaganda.
all interested to this Conference can partecipate to this meeting, can send proposition and suggestions about it.
A specific internet adress and an eventually specific blog will be created, after avril meeting
we can send your disponibility to partecipate avril meeting to csgpindia@gmail.com
International Commitee to support people's war India
february 2012
India Factory Workers Revolt, Kill Company President
India Factory Workers Revolt, Kill Company President
Workers at the Regency Ceramics factory in India raided the home of their boss, and beat him senseless with lead pipes after a wage dispute turned ugly.
The workers were enraged enough to kill Regency's president K. C. Chandrashekhar after their union leader, M. Murali Mohan, was killed by baton-wielding riot police on Thursday.
The labor violence occurred in Yanam, a small city in Andra Pradesh state on India's east coast. Police were called to the factory by management to quell a labor dispute.
The workers had been calling for higher pay and reinstatement of previously laid off workers since October. Murali was fired a few hours after the police left the factory.
The next morning, at 06:00 on Friday, Murali went to the factory along with some workers and tried to obstruct the morning shift, local media reported. Long batons, known as lathis in India, were used by police who charged the workers, injuring at least 20 of them, including Murali.
He died on the way to hospital, according to The Times of India. Hundreds of workers gathered outside the police station and demanded that officers be charged with homicide.
Curfew and other civil orders were imposed in Yanam because of the uprising that ultimately led to the murder of the Regency president. Police reported that rioters also torched several vehicles outside the police station. Eight Regency Ceramics workers were injured in police firing that followed; the condition of two of them is critical. More than 100 protesters have been arrested.
India factory workers are the lowest paid within the big four emerging markets. Per capita income in India is under $4,000 a year, making it the poorest country in the BRICs despite its relatively booming economy.
At Regency Ceramics, workers went on strike Jan. 1 over the wage dispute. The management had reportedly decided to slap a restraining order on five workers and managed to obtain an order from a high court saying that the striking workers should not come within 220 yards, more than the size of two football fields, from the factory.
Once news of Murali's death spread, the factory workers allegedly destroyed 50 company cars, buses and trucks and lit them on fire. They ransacked the factory. Residents joined hands with around 600 workers, while others were enroute to Chandrashekhar's house.
Workers at the Regency Ceramics factory in India raided the home of their boss, and beat him senseless with lead pipes after a wage dispute turned ugly.
The workers were enraged enough to kill Regency's president K. C. Chandrashekhar after their union leader, M. Murali Mohan, was killed by baton-wielding riot police on Thursday.
The labor violence occurred in Yanam, a small city in Andra Pradesh state on India's east coast. Police were called to the factory by management to quell a labor dispute.
The workers had been calling for higher pay and reinstatement of previously laid off workers since October. Murali was fired a few hours after the police left the factory.
The next morning, at 06:00 on Friday, Murali went to the factory along with some workers and tried to obstruct the morning shift, local media reported. Long batons, known as lathis in India, were used by police who charged the workers, injuring at least 20 of them, including Murali.
He died on the way to hospital, according to The Times of India. Hundreds of workers gathered outside the police station and demanded that officers be charged with homicide.
Curfew and other civil orders were imposed in Yanam because of the uprising that ultimately led to the murder of the Regency president. Police reported that rioters also torched several vehicles outside the police station. Eight Regency Ceramics workers were injured in police firing that followed; the condition of two of them is critical. More than 100 protesters have been arrested.
India factory workers are the lowest paid within the big four emerging markets. Per capita income in India is under $4,000 a year, making it the poorest country in the BRICs despite its relatively booming economy.
At Regency Ceramics, workers went on strike Jan. 1 over the wage dispute. The management had reportedly decided to slap a restraining order on five workers and managed to obtain an order from a high court saying that the striking workers should not come within 220 yards, more than the size of two football fields, from the factory.
Once news of Murali's death spread, the factory workers allegedly destroyed 50 company cars, buses and trucks and lit them on fire. They ransacked the factory. Residents joined hands with around 600 workers, while others were enroute to Chandrashekhar's house.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)