So 18% of the population of India organised the largest general strike in history. A quarter of a billion people. 3.2% of all living humans on planet Earth. And the English speaking world is mostly just... not paying attention?
@InvaderXan this is the one article i found lol
a number of links
@InvaderXan alright, after some research i've dug up the following articles:
https://www.firstpost.com/india/nationwide-general-strike-on-26-november-to-see-participation-of-25-crore-workers-9050491.html
https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/10-trade-unions-to-hold-strike-on-november-26/cid/1797740
I have a few questions :
1.
How exactly was the number of protesters estimated? And, by whom?
2.
Can we get city-wise, or even state-wise break up of the total? For example, can we know how many protesters were there in dilli?
@catherine
@InvaderXan
Whao, thanks, I did not even know this is impressive and amazing.
It feels all over the world people are resisting fascism and turn to worl¡ker's solidarity against liberalism.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/12/general-strike-india-modi-bjp-cpm-bihar
India has the second highest number of English speakers in the world:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population#List
So, it must be something else.
I wonder what that couldb *possibly* be?
🤔
@InvaderXan I’m hardly seeing any mention of it from the anti-fast fashion accounts on insta despite many of the people on strike being farmers and textile workers
media (-)
@InvaderXan I think we're seeing who major media outlets really serve when push comes to shove. I'm so glad you brought this to my attention!! Rebellions like these are some of the biggest news story besides COVID and global warming, yet I've never seen them make the top of the page in the Guardian or really anywhere.
@InvaderXan same here in germany. regarding the general strike in january, some leftist journalists checked in with the german news agency (dpa) why they didn't report on the topic. reason: they claimed they couldn't verify the number of participants and since there weren't any confrontations or deaths, the strike was deemed unimportant.
(the article (in german) for reference: https://www.neues-deutschland.de/amp/artikel/1109688.streik-in-indien-stell-dir-vor-es-ist-streik.amp.html )
@InvaderXan our masters don't want us getting any ideas
“... The farmer revolt comes as some 250 million workers across the country took part in the largest strike in history against the Modi government’s neoliberal labor reforms.”
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/12/3/india_protests_modi_neoliberal_reforms
mainstream media:
AJE - 10,000s at Delhi:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/3/india-farmers-protests-govt-resumes-talks-with-farmers
BBC - viral image - 100,000s Delhi:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-55156219
NYT - 1000s Delhi; 10,000s Delhi (later in text):
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/30/world/asia/india-farmers-protest.html
Democracy Now - 250,000,000 in national strike; 10,000s at each of
Delhi's three borders.
AJE+BBC+NYT are missing the factor of 1000 times more people striking than protesting.
We can moan and groan;
or edit and obtain consensus in editing:
The main article
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Indian_farmers%27_protest
is proposed for the en #wikipedia main page 'In the news' "ongoing" section:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:In_the_news/Candidates#Ongoing:_2020_Indian_farmers'_protest
Add your agreement/disagreement and explain why in terms of the criteria:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:In_the_news#Criteria
@InvaderXan This is the first I’ve heard of it, so as a resident of the western world yes, it would appear that we’re oblivious. 🤦♂️
I am actually genuinely shocked by this. I mean yah I guess I shouldnt be but I generally keep a loose eye on the news, and not just the big news being repeated ad naseum (aka whatever drumpf is saying) and I had not a single shred of awareness of this (I am in US btw)
@InvaderXan as usual. Very few Americans pay attention to anything outside of their own nation. I can't speak for other countries, but my experience has been that people who only speak English take no interest in nations where it's not the primary language. I follow the news from India specifically, because I have friends there and because it affects my dayjob. I'd like to follow other nations but just don't have the bandwidth.
@WanderingBeekeeper @InvaderXan also corporate media in general downplay and ignore events that threaten business as usual. Korean media is being fairly silent about it, too, though I expect that the left-leading weekly I subscribe to will cover it.
What are the chances the globalists let these measures get rolled back?
@InvaderXan @ThermiteBeGiants solidarity!
@InvaderXan I happen to live near a road that was used by farmers to travel to the national capital. Seeing such a large number of vehicles with hammer and sickle flags on them was exciting, to say the least.
@InvaderXan Democracy Now! did a headline Nov 30: https://www.democracynow.org/2020/11/30/headlines/indian_farm_workers_protest_market_deregulation_plans
and a story in their main show on Dec 3: https://www.democracynow.org/2020/12/3/india_protests_modi_neoliberal_reforms
@InvaderXan
Yep, and it's the same for the French and German speaking worlds I'm afraid. Only a few journals considered "far-left" mentioned it, and I'm not even sure it made it anywhere close to their headlines...
Indian politics in retrospect
@silmathoron
The farm bill is yet another attack on a national interest by the Indian government. Instead of revamping the food supply chain, they want to privatise it. I say yet another because there has been other stunts in the past by the Modi gov. For eg. there was a bill to undermine environment regulations that they sneaked in during the pandemic. After all this, support for BJP doesn't seem to diminish and I don't see any progress by their reign.
@InvaderXan
"Freedom of Press" is the freedom of owners. To be precise: capitalists. Any more questions?
@InvaderXan dpa, a german news agency, states it was deemed to be irrelevant because the lack of violence. So much to the often heard demand for peacefull protests by white-bread media .. Also, they "could'nt verify the numbers of participants" 🙄 lmao
@BlauerKlabauter Turns out, when they keep asking "but why can't you protest peacefully" the answer is that no one will pay attention otherwise.
india pol, largest general strike in history, current events
@InvaderXan Thanks, I hadn't heard about this. But it's on the "ongoing" section of the Wikipedia front page news. I try to check that once a week or so but I'd been forgetting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Indian_farmers%27_protest
@InvaderXan CBC has been having regular articles on it and interviewing Punjabi Canadians to explain the cultural context of it
@InvaderXan holy shit. links to any artcles? i tried looking but you are right, there's barely anything in finnish media at least