“Nine bombings in as many months, almost 100 people dead, and some 200 injured: Bombay is in the midst of … the longest-running terror offensive any major Indian city has ever encountered…” (Editorial in ‘The Hindu’, 26 August 2003).
“The country does not mean brick and mortar; the country means its working people”. (Gurazada, the Telugu poet who galvanised millions into action against the British Raj.)
FOR A long time, India has been mainly in the news for its political instability, communal and caste pogroms, environmental degradation and so-called ‘natural disasters’, and the nightmarish scenario of a nuclear war with its neighbour Pakistan. But a single day of action on 21 May catapulted the working class of India to the top of the charts of combativity against neo-liberal policies. The unprecedented 50 million strong, all-India general strike was the biggest strike since the days of independence.
“Nine bombings in as many months, almost 100 people dead, and some 200 injured: Bombay is in the midst of … the longest-running terror offensive any major Indian city has ever encountered…” (Editorial in ‘The Hindu’, 26 August 2003).
The twin bombs that rocked Mumbai (Bombay) on the 25th of August are the second this year and the worst since the 1993 blasts, which triggered ghastly communal riots in which hundreds of Muslims were killed.
According to V. K. Gupta, one of the joint secretaries of the National Confederation of Bank Employees, 50 million took part in this historic strike. Some of the veterans of the movement say this was the biggest strike since independence.
Leading up to the planned demonstration of 12 April, in Bangalore, there was a week-long campaign demanding, “No to war”. In spite of the apparent ‘conquest’ of Baghdad, the action was quite successful in terms of reaching a broad layer of people.
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