In a medley of red flag and banners, Delhi IFTU Committee's May Day Rally walked from Ram Lila Maidan to Jantar Mantar against rising contractualizaion. They expressed support to the fighting patriotic people of Iraq and Afghanistan and to the anti displacement struggles of the peasantry in India.

At Jantar Mantar IFTU leaders addressed a mass meeting and targetted mainly the prise rise. They said that the rising proces were the result of the anti agriculture, pro corporate and pro MNC policies of the ruling classes of India. They demanded the arrest of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram the Finance Minister for treason, for making this rich country with its productive land and abundant natural resources dependent on import of foodgrains. The truth is that less and less people in India are getting enough to eat and this situation is  because of the government's policies.

IFTU leaders condemned growing contractualization and non-implementation of labour laws. Need based minimum wage even for the organized sector was a distant dream. They called on workers to intensify struggle for jobs and rights and to lead people's struggles aginst price rise.

IFTU condemned the murder of Amin Banra, activist of Bistapan Birodhi Janmanch Sukinda by TATAs goons on May Day and the TATA-Orissa Government combine which was responsible for the same.

Janhastakshep organized a memorial public meeting:  “A Crusader for Anti Displacement Movements; Rajendra Sadangi” for his irreplaceable contribution to these ongoing struggles, on the 4th of April 2008 at Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi. People from different walks of life including the intelligentsia, students, lawyers, the working class and political activists attended the meeting. Shri Rajendra Sadangi, Convener of Lok Pakhya - Orissa, passed away on 27th March,2008 after being taken ill with cerebral malaria. 

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-New Democracy held a protest demonstration today i.e. on November 13, 2007 at Parliament Street (Delhi) from noon onwards to condemn the bloodbath, displacement, arson and violence let loose by CPM against peasantry resisting land acquisition in Nandigram. Instead of honouring the democratic rights of the peasantry against its displacement from its lands, the peasantry is facing Operation extermination and Displacement at the hands of CPM hoodlums with police, in an orgy of violence orchestrated, led and executed by CPM cadres and goondas and under tutelage of the top CPM leadership. CPI(ML)-New Democracy condemns the violence let loose on the peasantry of Nandigram by CPM, and demands resignation of CPM led West Bengal Govt. Police and armed CPM cadres must be removed from the area; the cadres and leaders guilty of violence in March ’07 and in Amgachia on 10.11.2007 must be punished. The Party demands immediate revocation of SEZ Act 2005.

Holding aloft placards and banners, activists and people present raised slogans against SEZ Act 2005 and CPM’s violence in Nandigram. Students, youth and several intellectuals participated apart from the workers and party activists in the demonstration organized by Delhi Committee of the Party. An effigy of CPM led West Bengal Govt. was burnt.

Speakers at the demonstration said that defeated in pro-MNC, pro-SEZ moves by the fighting peasantry of Nandigram organized under the banner of Bhoomi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC), CPM has bared its fascist fangs and again let loose an organized blood-bath at Nandigram (West Bengal) and unleashed a reign of terror and killing on the peasantry which dared to protest forcible acquisition of its land.

Scrap US-India Nuclear Deal!

Manmohan Singh Govt. Resign!

No Strategic Partnership with US Imperialism!

Daring ‘Left’ allies of his Govt for the first time since becoming Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh displayed his deep sensitivity to the India-US Nuclear Deal. None of the calamities befalling the Indian people, most of them the making of his Govt. and the policies associated with him, had elicited outburst of this kind. It appears to be at the prospect of not being able to cap his career with the “crowning success” of tying India to the chariot wheel of the US imperialism’s global strategy.

In relation to this deal, the two documents are much in discussion- one the Hyde Act and the other US-India Agreement on peaceful uses of nuclear energy under section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act, 1954. This section enables US to reach such cooperation with other countries. To enable reaching such an Agreement with India as India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),  US Congress passed United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act, popularly known as Hyde Act. It was passed by the US House of Representatives on July 26, 2006 and by the US Senate on 16.11.2006 and was signed by US president Bush on December 18, 2006. It is this Act that enabled the US Govt. to reach the Agreement.

The other is the Agreement for Cooperation between the Govt. of India and the Govt. of the United States of America Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy whose agreed text was released on August 3, 2007 (hereinafter referred to as the Agreement). The two documents make it abundantly clear that Manmohan Singh Govt. has mortgaged the interests of the country to the United States, has permitted interference of the US Govt. in Indian Nuclear Programme, and is a part of larger strategic cooperation with US imperialism for “Asia and beyond”. The Prime Minister, Foreign Minister have uttered half-truths, even plain falsehoods, to obfuscate the issues and mislead the people. Their spin masters in the media, the intellectuals sold out to imperialists, the comprador business houses sharing the loot and plunder of the country, are all exercising their lung power and pouring their ink to get the deal through.