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  • Utah rallies for breathable air

    Salt Lake City, UT – As many as 5000 Utahans rallied at the State Capitol, demanding cleaner air with no more excuses. Every winter, pollution from oil refineries, Hill Air Force Base incinerators and Kennecott mines gets trapped low near the valley floors, creating toxic air and breathing troubles for the people. With what is known as ‘the inversion,’ Utah competes for the worst air in the country at this time of year.

    Protesters called out elected leaders for putting profits ahead of people and for stifling legislation that would remedy the public health hazard. Officials like Governor Gary Herbert, Representative Rebecca Lockhart and Senator Mike Lee were put on the spot and called to account by the people for the poor condition of the air. People were urged to call in and demand that politicians get behind legislation to stop the air pollution.

    Many young people in the large crowd wore surgical or air pollution masks. Ian de Oliveira of the Students for a Democratic Society-affiliated Revolutionary Student Union explains, “Today’s protest sent a strong message from students and young people in Utah. We need to literally clear the air. Our health is more important than corporate profits. We will no longer be ignored by bought and paid for politicians who bow down before the wealthy owners.”

    Demands were also raised for better public transportation infrastructure, clean energy and regulations for industries identified as major contributors to the problem of Utah’s air quality.

    The rally was organized by several groups including: HEAL Utah, Utah Moms for Clean Air and Utah Physicians for Healthy Environment.

     

  • Dehli- All India Convention Against Capital Punishment, Feb 1

      The issue of Death Penalty has entered a critical stage in India. There are around 450 convicts currently on death row in the country. While executions had been more or less on hold for the past two decades, last year saw certain important developments taking place relating to the issue of death penalty. Execution […]

  • Jan 27: Formal industry, informal work

    http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/38tuZShjftafBaQtvlf5nI/Harsh-Mander–Formal-industry-informal-work.html Formal industry, informal work Harsh Mander Indian industry continues to chaff at the government's failure to introduce what it calls labour reforms. I find the term “reform” here disingenuous, because what is sought is not a better deal for labour but rather further weakening of the already infirm framework of labour regulation in our […]

  • Jan 27: Odisha illegal mining scam worth Rs. 59,203 cr

    http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/odisha-illegal-mining-scam-worth-rs-59203-cr/article5620989.ece Odisha illegal mining scam worth Rs. 59,203 cr. Nitin Sethi The Odisha illegal mining scam amounts to Rs. 59,203 crore and illegal iron and manganese ore amounting to 22.80 crore tonnes was extracted illegally from the state for almost a decade, the Shah Commission report has said. It has demanded a CBI investigation into […]

  • Report and Press Release of protest staged in Calcutta against Fastrack advertisement showing woman on sale

    By Krantikari Naujawan Sabha “Fastrack has always stood for being a fun, quirky and youthful brand. Our intention was never to project women in any demeaning manner whatsoever or objectify them, Fastrack has the highest respect and regard for women. We acknowledge that the current campaign has hurt the sentiments of some sections of the […]

  • Padayatra’s 12th Day in Jhajjar: Questioning separation of ‘gan’ and ‘tantr’ on Republic Day

    MARUTI SUZUKI WORKERS UNION

    (Registration No. 1923)

    IMT Manesar, Gurgaon

    Ref. No… IN26/1/2014                                                                  Date…26/1/2014

     
       

     

     

    12th Day of MSWU’s Jan Jagaran Yatra

    ‘जुल्मी कब तक जुल्म करेगा शोषण़ के हथियारों से, हम भी उसको ध्वस्त करेंगे एकताबद्ध कतारों से।’

     

    Jhajjar (Haryana). MSWU’s march from Kaithal, Haryana to Delhi (15-31 Jan), Jan Jagaran Yatra is crossing through Jhajjar district today before it reaches Gurgaon. We started this morning from Dadri Toi questioning the exploitation and injustice on us on Republic Day, when the gan has been divorced from the tantr, which we see today only working for the moneyed. We continued getting tremendous response of solidarity with our Yatra from across towns and villages of the state, where not only workers and the huge army of unemployed, but also peasants, students attested to the legitimacy of our demand. While in Digal, local people opened the local senior secondary school for us to stay on 23rd night, in Jhajjar, workers of Jal Board welcomed us and gave us their Union space for lodging on 24th night and the local panchayat welcomed us in Dadri Toi. We exchanged our common class anger, we exchanged our experiences of struggle and hope for a transformation of the present anti-worker anti-people system. In Jhajjar, we marched through the city, organising many street-corner meetings and cultural ways of communicating our message. In Ambedkar chowk, the many residents and informal sector workers came to show solidarity with our Yatra which enthused and strengthened us.

     

    Workers from Maruti Suzuki Manesar who are working inside the plant also joined the march in solidarity. Ramniwas of Provisional Committee, MSWU addressed the gathering saying that the government is only listening to the company management and has only worked to legitimize the conspiracy of the company in murder of the company HR who died in the incident of 18th July 2012, and has not even done any proper investigation into the matter which has been one of the important demands of the MSWU. It has rather bypassed all law of the land and has kept 148 workers in jail for the last 18 months without any of them getting bail, which is against all notions of justice. He reiterated the demand of release of all arrested workers and end to goonda rule by the state government. The companies of the region have at present stopped employing workers and youth from Haryana in the factories here like in the new Panasonic company in Jhajjar, while their profit margins increases manifold on the basis of this unemployment. The Union also stressed on the reinstatement of 2300 terminated workers.

     

    Other than MSWU, organizers and people from various mass democratic organisations like Sarva Karamchari Sangh- Jal Board workers, Jan Sangharsh Manch, Inquilabi Mazdoor Kendra, Krantikari Naujawan Sabha, Chattisgarh Mukti Morcha- Mazdoor Karyakarta Committee, Samtamulak Mahila Sangathan, Janrang-Delhi and many others came in support. Com Somnath from Jan Sangharsh Manch Haryana and Com Kaladas from CMM-Mazdoor Karyakarta Committee also spoke in solidarity in the sabha in Dadri Toi, Jhajjar.

     

    We started on 15th January from Kaithal and are entering Gurgaon’s Farukhnagar today having crossed Jind, Rohtak and Jhajjar. We shall start from there tomorrow and walk through on to Gurgaon where workers and trade unions will join us on 28th January 2014. On 29th Jan, we shall go on to Delhi where student-youth organisations

    are organizing a program at JNU in solidarity with our Padayatra, and on 30th Jan, we shall march through Delhi. This will culminate on 31st Jan 2014 in a day-long protest demonstration in Jantar Mantar, New Delhi. We appeal to all workers, trade unions, student-youth and women’s organisations, and mass and democratic organizations to join us, and spread the struggle.

     

    Inquilab Zindabad!

     

    (Ramniwas, Mahabir, Rajpal, Katar, Yogesh)

    Provisional Working Committee

    Maruti Suzuki Workers Union

     

    contact: 08901127876, 9560564754, 9466167876, marutiworkerstruggle@gmail.com;

    marutisuzukiworkersunion.wordpress.com

  • Jan 26: Pathribal linked to Chatisinghpora

    http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2014/Jan/26/-pathribal-linked-to-chatisinghpora–58.asp ‘Pathribal linked to Chatisinghpora’ Khalid Gul Terming the exoneration of Army officers involved in the Pathribal ‘fake encounter’ as shameful, Sikh bodies and the families of Chatisinghpora massacre victims today sought investigation into the killing of 36 Sikhs in March 2000. “The Pathribal case is connected to Chatisinghpora massacre and hence should be probed […]

  • Delhi – Protest demonstration against Indo-Japan nuclear agreement, Jan 26

    The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace(CNDP) invites you tomorrow for a protest demonstration at Jantar Mantar (11am-5pm) against the India-Japan Nuclear Agreement. Mr. Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan is going to be India’s chief guest for this year’s Republic Day ceremony on 26th January. During visit from 24-26 January, the India-Japan nuclear agreement […]

  • Minnesota solidarity with imprisoned Palestinian leader Ahmed Sa’adat

    Saint Paul, MN – Activists from the anti-war and the Palestine solidarity movement gathered here, Jan. 24 to demand the release of all Palestinian political prisoners and an end to Palestinian Authority (PA) security cooperation with Israeli occupation forces. The group rallied for an hour in the midst of a snowstorm. The vigil was held in response to a call from the Campaign to Free Ahmed Sa’adat for Freedom Weeks to commemorate the 12th anniversary of Sa’adat’s abduction by PA forces.

    Observed by hundreds of drivers at one of St. Paul’s busiest rush hour intersections, the group included members of the Minneapolis-based Anti-War Committee, the Minnesota Cuba Committee, students from nearby Macalester College and regular attendees of the long-running weekly Palestine solidarity vigil held in the same location.

    According to the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network Samidoun, “Ahmad Sa’adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, is one of over 5200 Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails. These political prisoners – men, women and children – are activists, organizers and political leaders of the Palestinian people.”

    At the conclusion of Friday’s vigil, Anti-War Committee member Sophia Hansen-Day shared the following words, “We are here today to demand the release of all Palestinian political prisoners and for an end to Palestinian Authority security cooperation with Israeli occupation forces. We are here today to commemorate the 12th anniversary of Ahmed Sa’adat’s abduction by PA security forces and to call attention to his ongoing imprisonment by Israeli occupiers.

    “We are here today to acknowledge the power of solidarity. In the words of heroic freedom fighter Samer Issawi prior to his release, ‘Your solidarity gives me the power to continue my hunger strike until I achieve my demand for freedom. It strengthens my steadfastness because it makes me realize that I’m not alone in the battle for freedom and dignity.’ Today we celebrate the release of Samer Issawi whose determination galvanized the Palestinian resistance, and we acknowledge the work yet to be done.

    “We are here today on land stolen from the Dakota people to mark the ongoing occupation of Indigenous territory both in the U.S. and Palestine, to recognize the crimson blood on all our hands and to adamantly refuse silent complicity with settler colonialism and its ongoing violence.

    “So, today, we raise our voices to the power of resistance, to the power of solidarity, to the power of demanding dignity and justice for all! Another world is necessary, another world is possible, another world is on her way. Long live Palestine!”

    For more information, please go to www.freeahmadsaadat.org or attend an Anti-War Committee meeting held 7-9pm Thursday evenings at 4200 Cedar Ave in Minneapolis.

     

  • SDS launches national push for tuition equity

    Gainesville, FL – This week Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) announced the launch of an education rights campaign for undocumented immigrant students. SDS is calling on all chapters to build the struggle for tuition equity and financial aid for students who graduate from U.S. high schools without documentation.

    Currently many states deny undocumented high school students in-state tuition, even if they meet all other residency requirements. These institutions force students into making a difficult choice: either pay exorbitant out-of-state fees, or do not attend college at all. Chrisley Carpio, an SDS organizer at the University of Florida said, “President Obama’s DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] program created this situation. It granted temporary immunity to a portion of undocumented immigrants but failed to solve any of the problems they face, including education. Now it’s up to individual states and colleges to make their own policies.”

    Federal neglect, ‘States Rights’ to discriminate

    Currently in two states – Alabama and South Carolina – the legislatures went so far as to ban undocumented students from attending college altogether. In Georgia, some schools ban undocumented students, but this legislation is currently under review. Even in states with tuition equity policies, where DACA students qualify for in-state fees, they remain unable to receive financial aid like the rest of their classmates.

    Only five states – California, New Mexico, Minnesota, Texas and Illinois – grant these students aid. Stephanie Taylor, from the University of Minnesota says, “We want our chapters to pick up this campaign on their campuses. Where schools don’t have tuition equity we demand that they implement it. If tuition equity already exists we demand that undocumented students receive financial aid. In the states where it’s completely illegal for undocumented students to attend college, we want those laws repealed.”

    The SDS National Working Committee enthusiastically accepted the proposal on the conference call. Two chapters, at the University of South Florida and the University of Florida, began organizing campaigns during the fall 2013 semester. After hearing about the success at these schools, other chapters around the country decided to take up the issue.

    Gregory Lucero, from the Revolutionary Student Union in Utah said, “The struggle for education rights and legalization remains one of the most important fronts in the struggle. I’m really excited about the new direction SDS is going nationally. If we do this well, we can strike a huge blow against racial discrimination and oppression, while growing the student movement at the same time.”

    If you’re interested in joining the fight for tuition equity and financial aid for undocumented students you can visit SDS at newsds.org and like the Facebook page Education for All Campaign.