 Hello and welcome to Around the World in 8 Minutes, a show by People's Dispatch which brings you stories of resistance and struggles against capitalist exploitation and state repression. In this episode, we take a look at the police violence against students of India's Javalal Naira University, who are protesting a proposed fee hike and regressives restrictions on student activities. We also look into the hunger strike by Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli and the march by trade unions in South Africa against the second annual investment conference in Johannesburg. We begin with the students protest against massive fee hike at the New Delhi based Javalal Naira University, which has been going on for the past 15 days. On November 11, thousands of students led by the JNU students union marched to the auditorium of the All India Council for Technical Education in New Delhi, where the convocation for the university's graduating students was held. With a slogan, no convocation without affordable education, the students demanded the withdrawal of a draft hostile manual that imposes exorbitant hike in hostile fees along with regressive measures like imposition of dress codes and hostile curfews. Hostile fees has been increased tenfold from the existing 2,700 rupees, which is approximately 38 US dollars to Wobubing 30,100 rupees, which is nearly 426 dollars per annum. This is excluding monthly mess bills and the newly introduced electricity and water charges. The protest began in the last week of October in opposition to the restrictions on access to public spaces on the campus like the famous Parthasarati Rock area, the early library closing time and the illegal lockdown of the students union office. As the administration arbitrarily passed the controversial draft hostile manual without any student consultation, the movement expanded to include the demand to revoke the hostile draft manual and the fee hike. At today's protest, students were attacked by police and paramilitary forces who used bait and charge and water cannons against them. However, despite the police violence, the students refused to go back and were successful in submitting the memorandum of demands to the Minister of Human Resource Development, Ramesh Pokharyath. Earlier attempts by JNU students to hold dialogue with the university administration failed as the university vice chancellor and other officials refused to meet the students. The minister has given an assurance that the ministry will arrange a meeting with the administration on the issue of fee hike and other measures. My name is Sanskriti Sharma. I am from Shopor district of Madhya Pradesh. I am from Shopor district of Madhya Pradesh. I am an only student who has been able to reach JNU for the past 50 years. Okay, that's the biggest thing. And that's why I came here because I don't have any fees. I can go to D.U but my parents don't have any money to pay. Okay, and the thing is that education is not washed away by money. The higher education you get, the bigger fees are taken. What is the education level of JNU? And if we talk about the education level of JNU, we learn to write on both sides. There is not just one side of the story. You learn to read what is being taught. You learn to question what is being taught. So, you don't get education by money. And when they say that we don't have revenue, then what is JNU? It's a JNU factory where you can make money. JNU is not made for money. I have been here for three months. Once, mental pressure has not come that I have to ask for money from my home that I have to pay Rs.8000 here. But from today, I have not started thinking since they said that they will give me Rs.10,000 for my parents. Rs.8000, Rs.7000, their fees will also be spent on me, on books and copies, on clothes and everything else. Where will they give it? If you can study in mental pressure, then you will study the same way that all the universities outside are giving you. The level of education that our HRD minister himself said, that all the research that we have done so far, have been copied and pasted. And what JNU does, it does with work. What JNU does, it does with dignity. You will get dignity whenever you have mental pressure. And this is trying to give us mental pressure. JNU has long been hailed as a model of quality and affordable education with a vibrant and progressive campus politics. The JNU students note that it is JNU's low-fee structure that has helped the poorest students in India to get quality education. The far-right government in India, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been spearheading a rapid neoliberal economic campaign in India which threatens the idea of free education to all, as high fees will make university accessible only for the rich. In our next story, we look at three Palestinian administrative detainees who are continuing their hunger strike in Israeli prisons. The detainees are protesting their unlawful detention without charge or trial, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Commission, which reported this on Saturday, November 9. The three detainees have been identified as Ismail Ali, Musab al-Hindi and Ahmad Zahran. Of these three detainees, Ismail Ali has been on a hunger strike for 112 days and counting. The long duration of Ali's strike has already started affecting his health adversely, as he is suffering from severe weight loss, loss of vision and impaired mobility. Ali was arrested in January and was subsequently placed in administrative detention for six months. His detention was renewed in June, which followed Ali launching his hunger strike. Ali has been in and out of Israeli prisons for several years and has already spent a total of seven years in various jails. Musab al-Hindi, a 29-year-old, has been on strike for 49 days. He hails from the town of Taal near northern West Bank city of Nablus. He was arrested in September 2019 and put in administrative detention. Al-Hindi was also recently transferred to the hospital after his health deteriorated significantly. Ahmad Zahran has been on hunger strike for 51 days, has also seen his health worsen to a critical stage due to the long duration of his hunger strike. Zahran was detained by Israeli forces in March this year and placed in administrative detention. He was on hunger strike for over a month already when the Israeli prison authorities agreed to release him, but they later reneged on the agreement and continued to keep him in detention, resulting in him relaunching his strike last week. Two Jordanian nationals, Heba al-Labadi and Abdul Rahman Mare, who were being held in the administrative detention in Israel, were released after nearly two months in prison according to statements by the Jordanian and Israeli foreign ministries. Before the release, a massive campaign was organized by activists across the region to demand that the two Jordanians being held without any charge or trial be released. The Jordanian government also recalled its ambassador from Israel as a sign of protest against the detention of its citizens. Moving on to our third story, trade unions and other organizations striving for socio-economic equality in South Africa marched to the second investment summit held in the country on November 7 at Soweto campus of the University of Johannesburg. Calling the summit a bluff, the organizations condemned the austerity policies of the government and blind reliance on the foreign direct investment or FDI for driving economic growth. The march was led by South African Federation of Trade Unions, SAFTAW and included NUMSA, the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa, the Shack Dwellers Movement, Abilali Bessem Jondolo, General Industrial Workers Union of South Africa Jiusa, the Association of Mine Workers and Construction Union AMCU, the Unemployed People's Assembly and several other civil society organizations. Following the march, a joint memorandum addressed to the country's president, Cyril Ramaphosa, was submitted on behalf of the 50 organizations and was received by Minister of Small Business Development, Lindywe Zulu. Meanwhile, the South African government has continued to follow the neoliberal policies of enforcing austerity while increasing concessions for corporates in the hope that this will incentivize investments and create jobs. However, the unions claim that the data prove otherwise, that such policies are in fact responsible for the current economic crisis. According to the unions, in order to revive the economy under the circumstances, the only way forward is to ensure a massive boost in public investment that will improve public infrastructure, provide social security and also create new jobs leading to an increase in domestic demand. This is all we have for this episode of Around the World in 8 Minutes. For more such stories and videos, visit our website www.peoplesdispatch.org and follow us on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you. Thank you.