Organized and unorganized coal workers and construction workers held a protest demonstration Koylanchal (coal belt) of Dhanbad district on 9 Sep 2014 against the pro-corporate and anti-working class policies of the Modi government. The demonstration took off from Randhir Verma Chowk in Dhanbad and ended in a public meeting in front of the district Labour Commissioner’s office. The meeting was addressed by AICCTU general secretary Shubhendu Sen, Upendra Singh, Krishna Singh, Nagendra Kumar, Manoranjan Mullick, Jagdish Sharma, Om Prakash Singh, Kartik Ghadi, Suval Das, Madheshwar Prasad, Saron Devi, Nakul Singh, Arvind Rai, and Radhamohan Singh. A memorandum was submitted to the President of India through the Labour Commissioner demanding repeal of amendments in labour laws, scrapping of FDI in railway, defence, and insurance sectors, and including construction workers’ unions in the State Welfare Board in Ranchi. A charter of demands was also submitted to the district Labour Commissioner demanding registration, identity cards, and other facilities for unorganized workers, implementing the minimum wages for unorganized coal workers as determined by the high power CIL committee, implementing second level Jharkhand State minimum wages for unorganized labour, as well as demands relating to education and health.
A victory march for AISA’s victory in JNUSU elections was held in Ramgarh by RYA-AISA on 16 Sep 2014. The rally started at the CPI-ML office, marched through the city, and culminated in a meeting at Subhash Chowk. The meeting was addressed by RYA State secretary Amal Ghosh. Slogans were raised and speeches made which highlighted AISA’s victory as the victory of students and youth over privatization and saffronization of education on the one hand, and people’s victory over the Modi government’s pro-corporate economic policies and shameless inflammation of communal passions.
