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Yay teachers! #ctu #Chicago #teachers #Chicagoteachersunion (Taken with Instagram)
10 September, 2012
Reblogged from anniehinton
Tagged as Chicago teachers education solidarity unions
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India Factory Workers Revolt, Kill Company President
Forbes, 1/27/2012 @ 3:08PM
Workers at the Regency Ceramics factory in India raided the home of their boss, and beat him senseless with led 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.
Did you know that some estimates put the number of Indian Naxalite-Maoist Communists as over 1,000,000. They are currently heavily concentrated in the impoverished Red Corrider and have, until recently, largely been a jungle / non-urban movement.
29 January, 2012
Tagged as India Communism Marxism class antagonism class warfare unions oppression
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(please click that link)
listen. i don’t like it when the most powerful corporate bodies of any society use their wealth to suppress the constitutional rights of our laboring class. i’m not carte blanche in support of unions (which are oft-perverse hegemonic power structures as well) either. HOWEVER, I CAN SAY WITHOUT RESERVATION THAT THAT EXTORTING EVERY SINGLE AMERICAN TO FUND A CORPORATE INTERESTS ANTI-UNION POLITICAL LOBBYING CAMPAIGN LEAVES ME A LITTLE PISSED OFF. what the fuck is wrong with this country? seriously? when does this become not ok? what does it take?
On 27 Jan 2008, the Huffington Post ran a story by Sam Stein titled “Bailout Recipients Hosted Call To Defeat Key Labor Bill”. The story included around five minutes of an hour long recording between federal bailout funds recipiets. The call shows the firms to be involved in lobbying, effectively, with public money. The file released here is the full hour long recording.
The summary below is excerpted from Mr. Stein’s story:
Three days after receiving $25 billion in federal bailout funds, Bank of America Corp. hosted a conference call with conservative activists and business officials to organize opposition to the U.S. labor community’s top legislative priority.
Participants on the October 17 call — including at least one representative from another bailout recipient, AIG — were urged to persuade their clients to send “large contributions” to groups working against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), as well as to vulnerable Senate Republicans, who could help block passage of the bill.
