Member-only story
America, Take Notes — Indian Workers Organize What’s Being Called the ‘Largest Labor Movement in History’
In a single day alone, laborers across India sent a powerful message to the workers of the world: Unite. Will Americans follow their lead?
As the world remains deep in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, the working class has suffered tremendous blows from a global economic system that has been increasingly exposed for its exploitation and neglect of the poor and marginalized. With the United States and India holding first and second place in total coronavirus cases as of January 16th respectively, workers in both nations have reeled in bearing the ongoing costs of a largely halted world economy. While thousands of newly unemployed Americans fill up breadlines and are left without healthcare due to an employer-based insurance system, India’s migrant workers have endured long, treacherous journeys back to their villages since last March, and informal sector workers suffer major wage losses and food shortages under prolonged lockdowns.
While economic challenges stemming from a once-in-a-century global health crisis are to be expected, these harsh realities for workers must be juxtaposed to a recent sobering reveal that the world’s billionaires became $1.9 trillion richer in 2020 — a 16% jump in wealth for America’s billionaires; 19% for…
