South Asia Citizens Web

In early December 2013 I received a call from Swaraj, a Karnataka wide network of women’s groups, fighting against violence and all forms of discrimination against women, to invite me for a function to felicitate six rural women who have challenged the oppression of widows in their families and villages. They asked me to speak on Patriarchy as a Superstition. I was amused by this formulation and asked them why this topic. They said the government of Karnataka was planning to bring a new law against superstition and they want patriarchy to be declared a superstition and outlawed. I smiled whole heartedly and said, WOW. What a great idea!! Once again I marveled at the wisdom of working class rural women. I wondered why in spite of such wisdom of rural working class women, so many media people think feminism is an urban phenomenon.

No serious questioning is allowed. All parties keep the status quo by foreclosing meaningful discussion. No serious questioning is allowed. All parties keep the status quo by foreclosing meaningful discussion.

Reaffirming our struggles against capitalism, patriarchy, feudalism, brahmanism, communalism and nationalist jingoism, we also declare our determined solidarity and support to all movements and groups fighting these destructive anti-people forces. We recognise the fact that women have been the strength behind such struggles and their strength socially and culturally continue to sustain the energy, unity and the focus of our struggles. We pledge to bring our resistance struggles and social movements to the political centre-stage without falling prey to partisan populism. We believe that the resistance spirit as demonstrated by adivasis and dalits, along with fishworkers, forest dwelling communities, agricultural workers, traditional artisans and especially, women of these communities, reflect the spirit and courage to change this structure and nurture alternatives to capitalism.

Anand Patwardhan won the V. Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award at the Mumbai International Film Festival, 2014. In This, his Acceptance Speech, he talks about why he thinks he is a failure, no matter what the world thinks of him and his works.

The New Trade Union Initiative stands in solidarity with the 2 lakh workers employed in Anganwadis across Maharashtra who went on an indefinite strike on 6 January 2014 under the banner of Maharashtra Rajya Anganwadi Kruti Samiti. The Anganwadi workers are demanding regularisation in government employment, retiral benefits including pension and an immediate increase in their ‘honorarium’ among several other demands. The Kruti Samiti is a joint platform of unions of Anganwadi workers affiliated to NTUI, AITUC, CITU, HMS and other unions.