IN February 7, the Supreme Court finally dismissed the case that newspaper owners had collectively filed to deny the working journalists and other newspaper employees the legitimate dues announced by the Majithia wage board.
The court ruled that the wages awarded by Justice Majithia must be paid from November 11, 2011, the date on which the award was notified by the central government. Its recommendations are to be implemented from April 2014 and arrears paid in four instalments within a year.
AT the call of the Employees Coordination Committee, the state government employees of Haryana staged a successful 72 hours long, state-wide strike from January 21 to 23, in spite of all types of conspiracy by the state government. Lakhs of employees of the government and semi-government bodies, boards, corporations, universities and municipal bodies as well as workers of the schemes run by the central government took part in the strike that paralysed all work in Haryana.
EGYPTIANS observed the third anniversary of their revolution on January 25 under fraught political circumstances. The last two years had witnessed volatile events, including the ouster of the long ruling authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak and also the first democratically elected president, Muhammad Morsi. Morsi’s ouster had come under controversial circumstances. The violence that followed and the concurrent heavy-handed response from the Egyptian security apparatus has left deep wounds on the Egyptian national psyche.
ON the very first day of the extended winter session of parliament, starting February 5, there was uproar in both the houses on various issues. In Rajya Sabha, the government brought the Prevention of Communal Violence (Access to Justice and Reparation) Bill 2014 for consideration; it could replace the Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill 2005, which the union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde withdrew. But the CPI(M) and other opposition parties forced the government to defer the bill.
UKRAINE today is the laboratory for imperialist designs. The unrest and popular protests in Ukraine had forced the president of the country, Viktor F Yanukovych to flee. Armed with a warrant, search is on to arrest him. A case is also filed before the International Criminal Court to try him for war crimes – the police action against the protesters, which resulted in the death of more than hundred people. As is now becoming common, any popular protest that results in the ruler being ousted from power is called as a 'revolution' and in Ukraine it is called as an 'orange-brown revolution'.
ON February 10, 2014, the Forward Seamen’s Union of India (FSUI) organised a meeting at Mumbai, Maharashtra, to commemorate the birth centenary of late Comrade Jyoti Basu.
The All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) has issued the following statement on February 21:
AIDWA condemns the interim budget which claims to be swayed by “equity concerns” but which has imposed heavy additional burdens on women, making it even more difficult for them to exercise their right to a violence free life.
ACTIVISTS of the Janwadi Mahila Samiti, Democratic Youth Federation of India and the Students’ Federation of India held a demonstration on February 25 at the Police Headquarters in New Delhi to protest against the casteist attack on the marriage procession of a Dalit youth in Maidangarhi on February 23.
IT is a hundred and four years since when the International Women’s Day is being observed all over the world. The day, which used to be the day of working women, has now become International Women’s Day, focussing on the demands of women as a whole.
It is also to be noted that, as about other occasions nowadays, this day of struggle is being commercially exploited by vested interests. At the same time, this is also utilised to divert attention from the realities of class exploitation and oppression being perpetrated against women.
THE CPI(M) Maharashtra state secretariat and state committee met at Mahur in Nanded district in the Marathwada region from February 7-9, 2014 in the presence of CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury and Central Secretariat member Nilotpal Basu. This was part of the 2012 decision to rotate some Party state committee meetings in different districts of the state.