India

For the first time in its history, the BJP has won the state elections of West Bengal, a state where until 2016, it did not control a single assembly seat. Not only did the BJP win the elections, it swept the polls securing 208 seats in the assembly of 294 seats, with a vote share of over 45% of all votes polled. The unprecedented rise of the BJP appears to defy all logic and the unique history of the state, yet this reality is rooted in the political developments in India and West Bengal since 2014. The BJP’s victory in West Bengal was not an overnight or sudden phenomenon but years in the making, with certain key events propelling these changes forward. The consequences of this victory are yet to be fully seen, but we may get a hint of what’s to come from statements made by BJP ministers, supporters and the actions of BJP cadres on the ground.

It had been only a few months back that the contract workers of Indian Oil Company had revolted in a wildcat strike. They were protesting the conditions of work for contract workers. The uprising inspired petro chemical workers in Surat where the same conditions were replicated. Now, the fire spreads from Panipat in Haryana to the streets of Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Noida is the so-called Millenium city of India, a poster child for neo-liberal growth. The militant protests of workers have made non-sense of this illusion of neo-liberal capitalist development.

The protests stands as one of the largest single action by workers anywhere in India. These are contract workers, many of whom come from rural regions of Bihar and North India, they come for a better life to Haryana. Their labour built up one of India’s fastest growing industrial regions. Yet, for their sacrifices, they aren’t given the basic respect of a regular pay.

There has been a general strike almost every year since the year 2010, yet the Indian capitalist class has grown only bolder in its attacks on the working class. It is important to understand why this contradiction exists, and to understand the general strike in context.

The 19th of February 2026 would mark the 80th anniversary of the naval mutiny, the event which shook the British Raj to its core and made British rule in India impossible. The uprising of the mutinying naval ratings of the British Indian Navy was not one isolated incident, it was the culmination of the rising class consciousness of the people of India, and it was the culmination of the growth of class struggle in British India.

The region comprising the Chotanagpur plateau and Eastern Ghats accounts for the most mineral rich region of India. For centuries, this region remained dominated by autonomous tribal communities. Today, private domestic capital has stepped in where the British once ruled to accelerate the exploitation of these peoples

A service as essential as travel and transit cannot be left over to profit. At the core of capitalist thinking is the commodity. Everything is reduced to the logic of being a commodity, everything is seen through the lens of profitability, to see how much money it can make the capitalist. This logic ruins transit.

By Mazdoor Inquilab It had been 4 years since the last major general strike by central trade unions in 2021. Since 2010, there had been a general strike once every year by trade unions until the pandemic hit. The past strikes were massive one day strikes that caused large, but temporary, disruptions to the system, […]

Mazdoor inquilab India Mehnatkashtareek Pakistan Introduction : The abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian constitution was celebrated by the Modi government as a great nationalist victory. This amendment, which ended Kashmir’s limited autonomy, was presented as the change that would bring lasting peace to Kashmir, prosperity would soon follow. Instead, it turned Kashmir overnight […]

By Mazdoor Inquilab (India) and Mehnat Kash Tarik (Pakistan) On the afternoon of 22nd of April, nearly 26 civilian tourists were gunned down by militants claiming to be of the ‘The Resistance Front of Kashmir’ (TRF), an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. The tourists were mostly visitors from the Indian mainland, and mostly Hindu. Eyewitnesses have […]

By Mazdoor Inquilab In February, the Russo-Ukrainian war entered its third year. Until this point, there has been at least 1 million casualties, and verifiable death estimates of soldiers and civilians amount to over 300,000. This makes the war the deadliest war in Europe after the Second World War, far surpassing the death and destruction […]

Since September 9, the workers at the Samsung plant at Sriperambudur in the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, have been on strike. Over a thousand workers have been on strike demanding increases in pay, among various other demands for improving their work conditions. The intensity and militancy shown in the strike, has been an […]

It has been two weeks since the brutal rape and murder of a resident doctor at R.G. Kar Hospital. The protests that erupted in its aftermath have not subsided in West Bengal, despite pleas from the political establishment and the judiciary for the doctors to return to work. The protests have united disparate sections of […]

Socialist Voice interviewed Doctor Sourov Misra, a member of the core committee of the Resident Doctors Association, which is leading the doctors’ strike. He is a junior doctor at the School of Tropical Medicine, Calcutta. He is a postgraduate in MD Tropical Medicine and is a third year resident. Justice for R.G. Kar is the […]

It was in 2012, close on the heels of the anti-corruption agitation that we saw such a massive outpouring of anger on the streets against sexual violence. In West Bengal, it was earlier this year that the villagers of Sandeshkhali were on the march against the tyranny and sexual violence inflicted by a leader of […]

By Mazdoor Inquilab The Indian elections of 2024 were a pivotal moment in the nation’s history. The BJP was poised not only to win a historic consecutive third term, but also maintain it’s dangerous super majority in parliament. The slogan of the BJP was ‘400 paar’ meaning across 400, they had set a target to secure […]