 Hello and welcome to the world in 8 minutes. A new show by People's Dispatch where we bring to you stories of resistance from people's movements across the world. Today we report from one of the hundreds of sites of what is perhaps the largest worker strike in the history of human kind. Nearly 200 million Indian workers are on strike over a series of 12 major demands. The strike is led by 10 central trade unions. This strike comes at a very key point in India's history. The far-right Narendra Modi government has brutally failed in its promises of delivering jobs for youth. Unemployment is soaring but the government instead of providing jobs has actually introduced legislation which makes it more difficult for workers to organize. It is in this context that the workers who are striking today have put forward 12 demands. Some of them include concrete measures to ensure that employment is generated for everybody. The workers are also demanding that no steps be that all labour laws be implemented properly. They have also asked for a minimum wage of rupees 18,000 per month which comes to close to around $265. They're asking for pensions for everybody as well as social security. The Modi government has been continuously pursuing the pro corporate policies and one thing is that they're not at all implementing the labour legislation which is earned through the years of struggles but in spite they were amending the existing labour laws for having a free high-run fire system for the corporates. And here into the latest even after means just one week before this strike is announced means the strike is to take place they have brought the trade union amendment bill which is to even curtail the trade union rights and the recognition of the trade unions. So these and then the bills of various kinds the 44 labour laws have been changed into come into four labour courts which is to curtail all even the social security benefits and the right to freedom of association also and also the latest to that is to for the promotion of the contractisation the fixed time ordinance fixed time employment ordinance also this government has noting considering the amount of disinvestment that is taking place the unions are demanding that there be no foreign direct investment in key sectors such as defence and railways they're also demanding an end to all sorts of contractualisation and formalisation of jobs of workers this strike is a key moment in India's history the workers across the country in hundreds of locations are carrying out similar rallies such as this united in their demand that that they need more jobs and that enough is enough and they will not take the anti-worker policies of the Modi government anymore. The today's strike called by a central trade union such as BMS has seen unprecedented success in the entire country including Delhi there have been industrial areas which have been completely shut down and government establishment which have been partially affected we can see bank employees who have participated we have seen big industrial areas like Bhavana or Narela which have seen working class action on an either do unprecedented scale and in Delhi particularly this kind of strike we had been trying for a long time in 2015 we saw a good response second September 2016 again we saw a good response but this time the workers are really fed up they are saying that the kind of inflation that has set up that has set in the country and the unemployment unemployment because of GST and a large number of small-scale industries have closed down causing a lot of workers to lose their job that has caused a lot of anger among the workers and they are out on the street expressing it they are with the strike and they have successfully implemented on the second day as well the call for this historic strike was given in September where on this very parliament street workers farmers and agricultural workers staged a massive rally in which they condemned the anti-worker anti-poor policies of the Modi government in November hundreds and thousands of farmers marched from across the country to parliament once again demanding farm loan waivers as well as a variety of reforms to ensure that farmers could lead a stable life even this strike today is supported by farmers and cultural workers students organizations and a variety of organizations across the country for more stories of struggle on this week's episode of the world in eight minutes we head back to the studio following the unrelenting strike by doctors teachers in Zimbabwe have also announced a nationwide strike teachers and doctors in Zimbabwe receive among the lowest pay in the world for their professions the teachers are demanding a pay rise from their current salaries of five hundred dollars to three thousand dollars unions claim five hundred dollars are not sufficient for teachers to even afford enough food for their families they are also demanding that they be paid in US dollars rather than board notes pegged to the US dollar which is the current system of payment the progressive teachers union of Zimbabwe stated in its petition to the government last month that teachers don't have enough money to even report to duty apart from the erosion of real incomes of teachers the country is also suffering from an acute shortage of teachers according to the chief executive of the Zimbabwe teachers association the pupil to teacher ratio in the country is at one is to seventy and sometimes it even goes up to one is to hundred and one in the worst case scenario but there have been no increases in the education budget to address this crisis the long queues at fuel stations empty supermarket shelves shortage of medicines doctors and teachers not having enough money to report to duty all suggests that these reforms sold by neoliberal pundits as a prescription for fixing the economy are not proven to be a solution in Zimbabwe just as it didn't anywhere else in the world only nine days have passed since 2019 began and almost 10 social leaders and human rights defenders in Colombia have been killed the phenomenon of right-wing paramilitary violence and state violence against Colombian leaders surged in 2018 human rights organizations estimate that more than 200 social leaders were assassinated last year and since the Havana peace agreements were signed in september 2016 more than 400 leaders have been assassinated with these alarming numbers that continue to climb social movements and organizations have questioned the political will of the Colombian government to protect the lives of Colombia's leaders on january 6 peasant leader mariza isabel liewa was shot dead on a small farm near the Caribbean city of Santa Marta liewa was part of the district round table of victims and was also a land claimant she was actively fighting for the rights of peasants in her region mariza was a mother to four children and is the sixth social leader to be assassinated in 2019 the national agrarian coordinator a platform of peasant organizations in Colombia released a statement on january 5 condemning the wave of assassinations and persecution this said that contrary to what the government is claiming it is not guaranteeing the full rights of citizens instead the government is infringing on all rights like the right to life mobilization organization among others that's all for this episode of around the world in eight minutes for more stories and videos about people's movements please check out our website peoplesdispatch.org and follow us on facebook twitter and youtube