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Eighty-two thousand permanent defence civilian employees and 40,000 contract workers of the 41 Indian Ordnance Factories went on an unprecedented total strike from August 20 to 25, 2019. The three federations of defence civilian employees — All India Defence Employees Federations (AIDEF), Indian National Defence Workers Federation (INDWF), Bharatia Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh (BPMS) — gave a clarion call to the civilian employees of Ordnance Factories to go for a one month strike against the 100 days agenda formulated by the Modi-02 government to convert the 218 years-old Ordnance Factories into a corporation/ public sector.

On the face of it, economic policies of Modi government appear to be clueless and directionless. However, underneath there is a deep rooted conspiracy to systematically loot the nation in favour of the few who have put their puppet in the prime minister’s chair.

Ever since the final list of National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published in Assam, where more than 19 lakh people were excluded, there have been criticisms against it. Particularly, NRC has been labelled as an “exercise against the Muslim community by the Modi government” by a section of intellectuals. No doubt the final list of NRC is not free from errors but giving religious colours to the process is disturbing.

It is really between a devil and the deep sea kind of situation for the trade union movement. Labour inspectorates were the most corrupt outfits. In major industrial centres, the labour inspectors promptly visit the industries once in every six months only to take a fixed amount as bribe and go. Whenever the workers make a complaint, they would promptly handover the names of the complainants to the management. True, they would also pinch the corporate pockets with their bribe demands but they used to harm the workers’ interests much more. Workers would shed no tears if the factory inspection regime in its old form goes for a toss.

A Supreme Court bench, hearing the VVIP chopper deal black money case, was reportedly furious with the attempts by the defendant’s lawyer to delay the proceedings, saying ‘justice cannot be bought or delayed’.

NEW DELHI: India is set to launch its biggest war games in disputed Arunachal Pradesh, near the Chinese border.

AMORA, Portugal—Hundreds of thousands gathered this past weekend for a three-day extravaganza of culture and revolutionary politics in the Lisbon suburb of Amora. While the annual Avante! Festival (Festa do Avante!) has a musical lineup that could rival the profit-driven Coachella, the jamboree was embedded with the spirit of resistance and anti-fascism.

Candidates of Left Unity Alliance have swept JNU Students Union elections. The alliance has won all the four key central posts for the JNUSU polls. Though officially the results will be declared on September 17 following court order, the verdict is already known to all students of JNU.

Trump’s first problem when his administration launched a full-scale effort earlier this year to overthrow the Venezuelan government was that he was working against history. Since the months before the presidential elections in that country in 1998 up to now, the U.S. has repeatedly failed to thwart that country’s “Bolivarian Revolution.” Trump, in fact, is a latecomer to that ongoing effort.

Announcing withdrawal of the Extradition Bill has in fact been a strategic move of China to downplay the accusation of world fraternity of denying and crushing the democratic rights of the Hongkongers.