The working-class history of India

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First Conference of the Labour History Association of India, Chennai (Madras), March 1998.

From the AfrLabor list, 28 apr 1997. The written history of Indian labour is a narrative of transition(s), including transition from pre-capitalist (traditional) to a fully developed capital vs. wage-labour relation, in other words the transformation of the Indian peasant into an industrial worker;

Indian power workers strike over pay

BBC World Service, 4 August 4 1998. Workers at the biggest power generating company in the Indian states of Bihar and West Bengal have gone on strike demanding higher pay. Company officials have described the strike as illegal and say they have alerted the army to help them maintain power production (brief).

Globalization: Workers Campaign to Protect Health & Livlihood

By Jagdish Parikh, Asialink, early sep 1998. Some recent Indian worker's campaigns to protect their health and livlihoods, particularly in the face of globalisation. These struggles are generally against disintegration and the strategies and tactics people bring to them are as expressive of their creativity.

India unions strike against reform

BBC World Service, Saturday 12 December 1998. A one-day strike by tens of thousands of industrial and public sector workers across India to protest the government's plans for further privatisation (so-called "reform, "and its decision to allow foreign investment in the insurance sector.

Health and safety

By Thakorbhai Shah and Ramkilesh Saroj, International Viewpoint, 14 feb 1999. When labor inspectors failed to enforce minimum health and safety regulations in the chemical sector, workers at one Gujarat factory have taken matters into their own hands.

Hard Grind For Construction Workers

By Keya Acharya, IPS, 2 sep 1999. Labourers work in near slave-like conditions, lack awareness of their legal rights and mistrust court procedures. Women constitute a large part of the construction work force and are vulnerable because many are of low caste groups that fled oppression in neighbouring Tamil Nadu state a few decades ago.

Nationwide one day strike on February 2 to protest against privatisation

Labour News Network, 30 jan 2000. Three major national trade unions centers in India, The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), owing allegiance to Communist Party of India. Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), owing allegiance to Communist Party of India (Marxist), (presently ruling two states - West Bengal and Tripura in India) and Hind Mazdoor Sabha, affiliated to ICFTU, are going ahead with their strike.

Organized labour and economic liberalization. India: Past, present and future

By Debashish Bhattacherjee, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, n.d. (year 2000). This paper examines the role of organized labour in India in a structural and historical context. It attempts to trace the economic, political and social effects of the trade union movement and its strategies over time (260 Kb).

Left trade unions on nationwide protest Oct 13 against oil price hike

By Ajit Sahi, India Abroad News Service, 7 October 2000. "The hike was most unreasonable as it was made at a time when international oil prices had peaked and were about to fall," said Communist Party of India general secretary A. B. Bardhanturday. "Our protest is against the government's placing an unnecessary burden on the people,"