Dilip Simeon's blog

Millions of internal migrants were sent back to their homes across India since the first coronavirus lockdowns. By the time restrictions lifted, many women had already lost work, and faced compounding layers of inequality.  Sunita Devi’s life is a study in contrasts. On a cold February morning, the 35-year-old daily wage worker turned the wheels of a chaff cutter in her village in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state. If ‘things had not changed’, Devi would have been 400 kilometers away quarrying stones instead in the neighbouring state of Rajasthan. For more than 15 years now, Devi and her family have been inter-stiate migrants who travel to more than half a dozen cities from Mandi Mirza Khan village in search of work. Her migration, like most of India’s informal workforce, is seasonal and often   circular  (to earn and remit money back), lasting anywhere between six to ten months in a year. She has led a hardscrabble life of manual labour to earn just 9,000 rupees...

There’s no dispute that general working-class support for Democrats has fluctuated from election cycle to election cycle. The one constant, though, is that “working-class” is almost always used in the media to suggest white, male workers. The representative Reagan Democrat was, literally, a white autoworker in Michigan. Even when the white prefix is used to indicate a specific research interest - as in Joan Williams’s White Working Class -  there is still an unspoken assumption that this is the part of the working class that matters most. White workers were supposedly neglected in the 2016 campaigns, and so we ended up with Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton. Last year, I spent time talking to workers involved in the Fight for $15 campaign. One of them, Deatric Edie, a then-forty-two-year-old mother of four in Florida, was working three jobs at fast food franchises, at hourly wages of $11, nearly $10, and $8.65, respectively. “My whole life is dedicated to working,” she said. ...

Train stations across the United Kingdom and the London Underground remained closed or inoperative on Tuesday. Striking railway and transport workers are demanding better salaries in the context of a sharp increase in prices. Inflation in the country currently stands at 9.2 percent, and could reach upwards of 11 percent in the fall when energy and oil prices are likely to rise again, according to government officials. Prices are expected to rise by 50 percent in October when the cold weather sets in, on the heels of a 50 percent increase in April. This is the United Kingom’s biggest rail strike in more than 30 years. The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport workers (RMT) called for actions across the industry today, and has called for two more day-long strikes on June 23 and June 25. Workers are demanding improvements to the public system, Network Rail, as well as to the privately-operated lines. Hundreds of photos show picketing workers enforcing the closures, comin...

In July 2021, in a year which presented few reasons to be happy, the garment workers of Sindh province in Pakistan had cause to celebrate. The provincial government had just announced a 40% increase to the minimum wage, raising it from 17,000 to 25,000 rupees (from €84 to €124 at the current exchange rate) per month. Although still well below living wage levels, the hike was an urgently needed step up from the poverty pay that left workers struggling to survive during the pandemic. A government-ordered increase should have been water-tight, immovable. It should have guaranteed workers enough money to feed their families and pay their rent. However, progress in the garment industry is fragile. Now, half a year later, the promised wage increase has still not materialised…. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/pakistans-wage-struggle-shows-the-fragility-of-progress-in-the-global-garment-industry/ Alessandra Mezzadri: Informal labour, the majority world and the...

The Indian working class was a proud participant in the anti-imperialist struggle against British rule in India. Whether it was the six-day strike of the working class of Mumbai in 1908; the attempts of the Ghadar Party organised by Punjabi immigrant workers in Canada, who sailed to India in 1914 to overthrow the British; the four-day old Solapur Commune of 1930, the Meerut Conspiracy Case of 1929 in which 31 working class leaders from all corners of India were rounded up and tried; the storming of the Calcutta Congress Session by the workers in 1930 spurring on the “Poorna Swaraj Resolution”; the actions of the Kisan Sabha and the Workers Peasants Party which in 1937 led to resolutions of zamindari abolition by the United Provinces; the actions of the dock workers of Mumbai and Kolkata in 1945 refusing to load ships taking supplies to British troops during the Second World War; and finally the heroic support of the Mumbai working class to the Mutiny of the ratings of the Royal Indian ...

From 2017 to 2021, gas pipeline leaks averaged more than 200 a year. In most cases, leaking gas either ignites at the construction site or passes through a confined space underground and enters nearby premises before exploding.  For example, one of the most deadly accidents in recent years in terms of casualties was a gas explosion that occurred at a   community market   in the city of Shiyan, in Hubei province. On June 13, 2021, gas leaking from an underground pipe gathered under the market building. When the gas encountered a spark from the exhaust fume pipe of a restaurant, it ignited. The explosion killed 26 people, injured 138, and left the market in shambles.  Similar explosive accidents due to gas pipe leaks have occurred in hospitals, restaurants, and supermarkets... https://clb.org.hk/content/high-frequency-gas-accidents-threatens-safety-workers-across-industries More  posts on labour 1938: the year Indian workers fought for themselves China Labour Bull...

This week, authorities in India's capital New Delhi released a new plan of action to  curb air pollution  over the course of summer, as a severe heatwave bakes the city. The plan focuses on reducing pollution from road dust and the burning of waste, which are major contributors of fine particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) that pose the greatest threat to human airways. Delhi's pollution problem is  especially bad in late fall and early winter , when prevailing weather patterns drive pollutants from heavy industry and coal-fired power plants to smother the megacity in toxic gray smog.  Additionally, the city residents are inhaling smoke from burning crop waste in the neighboring states of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. The city is among the  worst-polluted in the world . To understand the impact of pollution on people most exposed to harmful air, DW recently visited the Ghazipur landfill, considered India's tallest rubbish mountain, and its su...

Let us honor those workers who stood up to Amazon, especially Chris Smalls, described by Amazon’s chief counsel as “not smart, or articulate,” who led a walkout at the Amazon warehouse at Staten Island JFK8 at the beginning of the pandemic two years ago to protest unsafe working conditions. He was immediately fired. Amazon’s high-priced lawyers, however, were in for a surprise. Smalls unionized the first Amazon warehouse in the country. He, along with his co-founder Derrick Palmer, built their union worker by worker with little outside support and no affiliation with a national labor group, raising $120,000 on GoFundMe. Amazon spent more than $4.3 million on anti-union consultants last year alone, according to federal filings. We must not underestimate this victory. It is only by rebuilding unions and carrying out strikes that we will halt the downward spiral of the working class. No politician will do this for us. Neither of the two ruling parties will be our allies. The media will ...

  Gogannamattam Village (16°26'23.67"N, 81°57'3.13"E) located on the bank of Vainatheya which is a tributary of River Godavari. On the west side of the village flows river Vainatheya which opens up at nearby coast into Bay of Bengal. This creates a unique estuary from the coast where large area of Mangrove patches was formed. On the date of 25-01-2022 excavators started excavating the soil and forming an approach road to enter the Mangrove patch (16°25'55.62"N, 81°57'14.41"E). Villagers of Gogannamattam village after knowing the information of excavation activity had rushed to the destruction site. Excavators had formed an approach   road and uprooted the mangrove trees on the site. Villagers obstructed the destruction of Mangrove trees and the excavation activity was stopped. Excavators had destroyed several trees   in the area which belong to the Mangrove species. Biodiversity: Mangroves in this region supports as life line for many Bird specie...

The  “sovereign citizen” theory  is a powerful current running through these movements. Its adherents insist that they stand above the law. Some of them refuse to buy vehicle licences, or pay taxes or fines. They believe they are exempt from public health measures, such as lockdowns and vaccine passes. In other words, they arrogate to themselves sovereign powers that not even the monarch enjoys... There’s no solidarity in ‘sovereign citizen’ protests — only incoherent rage When a group in black fatigues called Alpha Men Assemble began  practising paramilitary manoeuvres  in a park in Staffordshire   at the beginning of this year, it looked pretty threatening. These men, we were warned, were about to launch an insurrection against vaccines and in favour of “ the sovereign citizen ”. Since then, silence. It wouldn’t be surprising if the group had dispersed: a society of self-proclaimed alphas is bound to fall apart. This was just one example of the incoherent pr...

There is one last hope for the United States. It does not lie in the ballot box. It lies in the union organizing and strikes by workers at Amazon, Starbucks, Uber, Lyft, John Deere, Kellogg, the Special Metals plant in Huntington, West Virginia, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, the Northwest Carpenters Union, Kroger, teachers in Chicago, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona, fast-food workers, hundreds of nurses in Worcester, Massachusetts, and the members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees…. https://scheerpost.com/2022/01/18/hedges-americas-new-class-war/ Chris Hedges: The Age of Social Murder TOM ENGELHARDT: A World at the Edge Alfred McCoy: The crumbling delusion of Washington's endless world dominion Zack Stanton: Violent Christian Extremism in the USA DANIEL LEWIS - Daniel J. Berrigan, Defiant Priest Who Preached Pacifism, Dies at 94 // Catonsville 9 Statement written by Dan Berrigan, S.J. Steve Bannon Documentary, 'The Brink', Will Leave Y...

Santo Tanti is an Adivasi – but you can’t pin him down to a specific tribe within that category. For perhaps a century and a half, Assam’s tea garden areas have seen Adivasis from Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh arrive here as migrant labourers. Many descendants of these groups came to intermingle within Adivasi communities and with other social groups. These communities as a whole are often called the ‘Tea Tribes’.  Over six million of them live in Assam, and while recognised as Scheduled Tribes in their states of origin, are denied that status here. Some 12 lakhs of them work in the state’s 1,000-odd tea gardens. PARI Archive on Adivasis Rana Behal: One Hundred Years of Servitude: Political Economy of Tea Plantations in Colonial Assam Daily hardships of life and intensive labour often seem to crush the aspirations of many among them. But not Santo’s. He sings  jhumur  songs that express the sufferings...

I am Rohith Sakthi, a Vidiyal Child Rights Movement member in Madurai, Tamil Nadu.   Covid-19 and lockdown forced us into desperation and poverty. Before the pandemic, I was doing a part-time job, but I took up a full-time job to support the family's income. When I see a child under 14 working in hazardous occupations, I report it to ChildLine, which helps children by providing suitable rehabilitative solutions. If a child must work to support their family, we ensure that the child is in a safe environment and gets adequate wages by involving a facilitating organisation. I want my children’s movement to support both education and work. There should be a balance between both, so that the child can earn and support their family while continuing their education. The government must provide education for all children below the age of 18. Poverty is the root cause for many children taking up jobs, so the government should design programmes to eliminate poverty for children. This would...

Last Friday’s jobs report from the US Department of Labor elicited a barrage of gloomy headlines. The New York Times emphasized “weak” jobs growth and fretted that “hiring challenges that have bedeviled employers all year won’t be quickly resolved,” and “rising wages could add to concerns about inflation.” For CNN, it was “another disappointment”. For Bloomberg the “September jobs report misses big for a second straight month”. The media failed to report the big story, which is actually a very good one: American workers are now flexing their muscles for the first time in decades. You might say workers have declared a national general strike until they get better pay and improved working conditions. No one calls it a general strike. But in its own disorganized way it’s related to the organized strikes breaking out across the land – Hollywood TV and film crews, John Deere workers, Alabama coal miners, Nabisco workers, Kellogg workers, nurses in California, healthcare workers in Buffalo… ...

Saidulu Singapanga’s most vivid memory of  the 1185 days he spent in custody,  since he was  arrested in February 2018 under the  Unlawful Activities Prevention Act  (UAPA), 1967, was when his wife and three children came to visit him in a police lock-up a few days after his arrest. It was the birthday of his daughters, aged 11 and 9. The two girls and their brother came towards him eagerly, saw his handcuffs and drew back in fear.  Singapanga, 39, was the last of five Reliance Energy Ltd (now Reliance Infrastructure Ltd) contract workers from the densely packed working-class eastern Mumbai neighbourhood of Kamraj Nagar in Ghatkopar detained that year—the other four were arrested in January, a month before he was. Singapanga’s four colleagues were granted bail in December 2018 because the Maharashtra police’s anti-terorrism squad did not file a chargesheet within 90 days, as they were required to under the UAPA. An extension to this period was ...

The events of recent weeks have once again highlighted the gross inequalities and the legacy of apartheid geography that remain South African realities.  They also revealed that the poison of ethnic nationalism continues to course through parts of the body politic. As a result, there are many lessons to be learned, some of which, although vital, will remain on the margins.  Because the loudest cry now is for a return to normalcy, to get back to life as it was, albeit with a few adjustments along the way.  But it was the very conditions that existed - the “normal” now apparently called for - that created the conditions for the death and destruction in KZN and Gauteng.  Yet an explosion of this kind - or even worse - was warned about by the labour movement in this column more than a decade ago. And, after all, regular, but largely isolated, incidents of burning tyres, barricades and looting have, for years, been part of daily life, not generally reported on ...

Poet, folklorist, orator, teacher, legislator, administrator and co-founder of the Dalit movement in Karnataka, Siddalingaiah ’s many-layered engagement with the life of the state defies easy characterisation. Indispensable for a historian of contemporary morality in Karnataka, Siddalingaiah’s work is an elaboration of a rich vision of humanism. His debut book of poetry, Holey-Maadigara Haadu (The Song of the Holeyas and Maadigas, 1975) expressed the suffering of Dalits with a fury and imagery hitherto unknown in modern Kannada poetry.  Due to an early attraction to the class analyses of Marxism, his poetic focus though was not solely fixed on the Dalit experience. The famous poem from his debut anthology, Nanna Janagalu (My People), for instance, articulated the experience of several kinds of toiling labourers without referring to their community identities…. https://www.deccanherald.com/ opinion/the-humanism-of- siddalingaiah-1004625.html Two excerpts from Avataragulu ‘Avat...