South Asia Citizens Web

South Africa has seen an unprecedented wave of worker protest and strikes in the past 3 months, triggered by the Marikana massacre in August 2012. Its a matter of great shame that despite a long history of anti apartheid solidarity campaign in India in the past, also extensive social links with large Indian diaspora in South Africa, the recent presence of Indian big business in South Africa and of course growing contact amongst academics of the two countries, there is no news or discussion in India or other countries of South Asia about the South African strikes. No trade unions or platforms of labour in India or South Asia have issued any statements of solidarity. Anyhow posted below is a random compilation of selected news, analysis and reports about developments in South Africa, with the hope that it might interest trade unionists, scholars, labour activists and rare journalists reporting on labour matters in South Asia.

In 1971 the Jamaat e Islami supported the Pakistani army against the nationalist Awami League: now their leaders are being indicted by an international crimes tribunal and secularism is back on the agenda. It’s time to discuss the forgotten role of the fundamentalist militias in the war of liberation of Bangladesh

Just as market access pulled jobs from China to lower-wage Bangladesh, so, too, may Burma succeed in pulling jobs from Bangladesh

The keys for a rejuvenated and radical left in India must be its promotion of alternatives to neo-liberal capitalism, formation of a united anti-capitalist front, weaks in its organisational principles of "democratic centralism" to allow for the flowering of genuine democratic discussion and debate. This article is based on a presentation in a seminar on “The Indian Left: Social Development Visions and Political Challenges” organised by the Council for Social Development in New Delhi on 8 August 2012.

The Sri Lankan government must immediately provide justice for the physical assault on Manjula Tillekaratne, Secretary of the Judicial Services Commission in Sri Lanka, and cease public efforts to undermine the independence of the country’s judiciary, the International Commission of Jurists said today