Articles by DN

In discussing the nationality question in Indian politics, it is necessary to distinguish four levels at which the, denial of the rights of nationalities (or, at times, of nations) operates.

the public sector. But the left front government's overemphasis on maintaining industrial harmony and discouraging strike struggles and excessive dependence on the conciliation machinery have made it ineffective as an instrument of struggle. The Congress(I) government at the centre has launched an offensive against the working class and the common people. It has already passed the 59th amendment to the constitution which is a step towards introducing an emergency through the back-door, it has brought an amendment to trade union legislation for setting up a quasi-judicial body called the Industrial Relations Commission. The commission has been given wide powers to forestall strikes. The step will put severe restrictions on the freedom of action by trade unions and introduce compulsory unionisation and compulsory collection of membership dues by the management. It will also ensure recognition of unions through verification instead of secret ballot as demanded by the militant trade unions. The whole purpose of restructuring the industrial relations machinery through amendment of existing trade union laws is to bolster up stooge unions and suppress militant trade unions. The left front government and CITU and other left AT SAARC talks, the government of India has been insisting that the economies of South Asia are 'complementary' and that on the basis of this complementarity there should be a 'har- monisation' of economic plans in this region. What is meant by this harmonisa- tion is that India should be the industrial power in the region, manufacturing enough to meet the needs of the entire region, while the other countries of South Asia should concentrate on production of agricultural or other primary products. Pakistan has opposed this notion of 'complementarity', pointing out that its exports are largely competitive with those of India.

THE revolutionary democratic movement has, over the last few years, gained considerable strength in the plains of south Bihar, i e, the region south of the Oanga comprising the districts of Bhojpur, Rohtas, Aurangabad, Gaya, Patna and Nalanda. The peasant (more correctly, agricultural labourer) movement in this area is divided among a few organisations, the Vinod Mishra-led Central Committee, the Party Unity group, the Maoist Communist Centre and the Provisional Central Committee.

New Delhi, Import Policy 1985-88,
Situations where the market demand is not enough to ensure full working of industrial units are those in which the owners would certainly like to keep the units closed for some time. In West Bengal it is exactly at such times that the trade unions have called strifes. Since the leaders of the 'left' unions are not novices in trade union struggle, the only possible inference is that these strikes are deliberately called in order to meet the needs of the owners. This conclusion is strengthened by the peculiar course of the recent strikes in public sector engineering and jute mills.

DN High output per man-shift (OMS) in the coal-mines of Coal India does not necessarily mean cost minimisation. Beyond a certain level of mechanisation associated with increase in OMS, the saving in wage cost per tonne of coal is not commensurate with the cost of additional investment on mechanisation.