Daily Archives: May 2, 2023

Last month was the 112th anniversary of the first ever International Working Womens Day, but it feels as though the working part of the global holidays title has waned over the years, fading into the background of a holiday that now forefronts womanhood and girl power without the context of class consciousness. By decontextualizing the origins of the holiday and prioritizing girl bosses who do not represent the majority of women, it paves way for capitalist ideals. But by centering the struggles of working, incarcerated, migrant women and gender nonconforming peoplefrom last months IWD to next months May Daywe can build solidarity among the most oppressed sectors of society, and challenge the root causes of our oppression.

Members of Vancouver-based grassroots collectives including Anakbayan BC, Defund 604 Network, Gabriela BC, Migrante BC, Samidoun Vancouver, Sulong UBC, the Worker Solidarity Network, and Unite Here Local 40 held a joint rally on March 11, 2023 to specifically commemorate the revolutionary working class origins and actions of International Working Womens Day (IWWD). Speakers from the organizations addressed topics ranging from structural violence towards Indigenous and working women, international solidarity, and cultural performances such as poetry readings about Filipino migrant workers.

Hailey Yasmeen Dash from Defund 604 Network highlighted the gender-based state violence from policing and incarceration. The families of Chelsea Poorman, Tatyanna Harrison, and Noelle OSoup are still demanding justice one year later, and this is on top of them experiencing racist, dehumanizing, and dismissive treatment from the VPD (Vancouver Police Department) during the inquiry of their childrens deaths. They were not taken seriously during the search for their missing children, or after their bodies were tragically found.

She adds that an overwhelming 82% of incarcerated women in this country are in prison because of behaviour related to coping with poverty, histories of abuse, substance use, and mental health issues that commonly arise from these experiences. This includes women defending themselves from attackers.

She mentions the anti-policing and abolitionist struggle globally, stating, Imperialism takes hold of countries abroad by means of police, military, and border enforcement. The Canadian government funds and trains police forces in occupied Palestine, the Philippines, Latin America, Haiti, across Africa, and elsewhere to suppress mass dissent and to violate Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. Women are on the frontlines of these fights.

Sexual violence against women is rampant in areas nearby Canadian military bases or where so-called peacekeeping missions take place she said.

Kristine Castanos from Gabriela BC connects the roots of migration of Filipino migrant workers to underdevelopment in their home countries, and how imperialist countries like America maintain that underdevelopment. The Philippine government continues to allow US military bases and troops on our land who train the Philippine army and police who then use those tactics to suppress their own citizens, especially activists and land defenders she states. The United States presence in the Philippines is both to project its military power in the region in the face of its inter-imperialist conflict with China, but also to maintain a system of underdevelopment within the Philippines which keeps its people impoverished, she says.

There are no jobs back home due to decades of government neglect and imperialist plunder, she says. This forces millions of Filipinos every year to leave our country to seek employment to support their families in places such as Canada. Canada welcomes these Temporary Foreign Workers knowing they are able to further exploit their labour, leaving them in precarious work situations, with no rights, no status and given extreme barriers when applying for Permanent Residency.

Themes of family separation caused by migration, the need to work multiple jobs to pay for rising costs of basic commodities and housing in Canada, as well as to send remittances to their families in their home country were also discussed by some of the speakers.

We highlight the workers in IWWD because it is only through our class consciousness will we be able to understand the root causes of our oppression, Castanos says. At a grassroots level we need to organize ourselves around our common struggles and connect them internationally.

This coalition of grassroots collectives will take further worker-led actions for May Day:

Photos from Michael YC Tseng and Bayan Canada.

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From IWD to May Day: Connecting working women's struggles - Spring Magazine

The working class is back. Since May Day 2022, there has been an important upturn in the activity of the multiracial, multi-gendered and multigenerational workers movement. It has been active in struggles across the world shaking the regimes of tyrants, defending the most oppressed sections of the class and taking on the bosses attempts to push the cost of living crisis further onto workers shoulders. Though there will be peaks and valleys in every struggle and it will not proceed at the same pace everywhere at the same time, this process is not a blip, but the beginning of a crucial and lasting turning point.

Strike waves, mass strikes and even general strikes have been prominent features of the situation in multiple countries (and where this is not yet the case, workers and youth look on in solidarity and take inspiration from those already in struggle). The UK is still in the midst of a strike wave that has been going on for almost a year with 2.7 million days lost to strike action between June 2022 and January 2023, with December seeing the most days lost to strike since 1989.

In November of last year, the heavily unionized Belgian workers saw their first general strike since 2014. The end of March was marked by the megastrike in Germany where ver.di (service workers) and EVG (rail and transport) unions called joint strike action for the first time in history. And the renewable general strike movement against Macrons pension reform and subsequent dictatorial enforcement moved French society into open revolt in what has become a reference point for workers around the world.

In Sweden, a country where the trade union movement has been hamstrung by the bureaucracys rotten social partnership agreements with the state and the bosses, a small but important three-day wildcat strike of commuter train drivers has taken place in what will only be music of the future. Palestinian teachers, which represent the second biggest group of public employees of the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza, have been on strike since February 5, fighting for higher wages, better working conditions, educational independence and trade union democracy. South Africa lost 1.6 million days to strike action in the first six months of 2022 alone, a thirty-fold increase from the same period in 2021.

Accompanying the upsurge has been a general positive shift in views towards trade unions in many countries as a result of the move towards action showing that a bold lead can mobilize a broader section of the working class. The labor movement revival in the US has not been just marked by phenomena such as Striketober but a surge in new unionization efforts like those at Amazon and Starbucks and a record 71% approval rating for unions among the general population.

In England & Wales, the National Education Union has reported surges of tens of thousands of new members during its last two major disputes, including hundreds of members signing up to become workplace representatives and shop stewards for the first time. The German ver.di union recruited 65,000 new members in just January and February alone! And in many cases this has been driven by an influx of women and young workers. The impact of a new generation of workers entering into struggle and becoming rank-and-file leaders of the class struggle will have an important impact on the character of the battles to come and on the internal situation in the unions themselves.

These are just a few examples with different immediate triggers but all of which underline some truths of the moment. There is no chinese wall between the many forms of suffering, misery and oppression which affect the working class in this new Age of Disorder. Workers are moving into collective struggle not just on economic issues but also many political and social demands. These include questions running the gamut from democratic rights to the fight against gender-based oppression. As well, though the main trigger may be one issue, the overlapping and interconnected nature of the permacrisis pushes struggles to become much broader in scope and aims. And perhaps most crucially, these actions have been driven by pressure from below, often against the wishes of the official leadership of the workers organizations.

Nevertheless, these green shoots of recovery come after decades of neoliberalism and its corrosive impact on the labor movement, affecting working-class consciousness and organization. We still face many obstacles. Forces such as the trade union bureaucracy the conservative leaders of most of the world labor movement represent a real barrier to struggle, though some figures are more open to pressure than others. As Marx wrote in 1852: The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living and this is what the bureaucrats represent. Many of them look to an often fictional past where a strategy of class collaboration and even partnership with employers could secure their positions (and hefty salaries) and maintain social peace. While it is a positive sign of the times that trade union leaders like RMT General Secretarys, Mick Lynch garner celebrity status for berating the bosses and their media mouthpieces, militant rhetoric is no substitute for a strategy rooted in the movements fundamental source of power the mobilization of the working class. That lack of confidence in our class ability to change the world undermines the movement. But the weakness of such leaders (even well-intentioned ones) is also fundamentally political: without the perspective of revolutionary transformation of society to socialism, at the critical hour they will always be looking for ways to demobilize the struggle in favor of a return to a version of the status quo.

This means the rank and file need to get organized. We need a program of fighting policies to bring forward into the workers movement, making it truly combative and democratically accountable to the working class, not a privileged bureaucracy. In the trade unions and other workers organizations, this means all officials should only be on the salary of an average worker and their positions should be democratically elected and subject to immediate recall if necessary. Strikes and disputes should be controlled by the broadest possible assemblies and democratic committees of the workers involved. The approach of only narrowly focusing on the conditions of a small section of trade union members must be thrown aside our movement must be one of solidarity for the entire working class: an injury to one is an injury to all.

That adage takes on renewed importance as we confront increasingly repressive governments desperate to defend the enfeebled rule of capital. In Britain, Rishi Sunak has countered the wave of industrial militancy with a vicious spate of anti-trade union legislation. Despite mass resistance Macron invoked the loathed article 49.3, taking on dictatorial powers to ram through his pension reform.

South Korean trade unions are being confronted with a wave of anti-union laws in the wake of an unprecedented move by the government to repress the 250,000 strong truckers strike at the end of last year. Feeling pressure from the rank-and-file, the CGTP trade union federation in Peru called a general strike to demand an end to brutal state repression and the resignation of illegitimate coup-president Dina Boluarte. The president-elect of Nigeria, Bola Tinbu, former governor of Lagos State, may seek to replicate what he did in Lagos on a national level making all of Nigeria into his personal fiefdom and continuing to exploit the working masses which are facing an incredible cost of living crisis. This poses the need for Nigerias powerful labor movement to prepare for a serious campaign of action.

Peru is one of the many instances in which the working class has brought its enormous power to bear in wider political movements. In Israel/Palestine it was the power of organized labor expressed through an illegal political general strike at the end of March that forced Netanyahu to temporarily pull back his plans for a judicial coup. Although the majority of the ruling class backed the general strike, they did so as a last resort, to halt Netanyahus further destabilization of Israeli capitalism in the background of a historic political crisis which is interlinked to the deepening crisis of the occupation regime.

Nevertheless, those on strike, both Israeli and Arab-Palestinian workers, have gotten a sense of their power. Though Israeli protests and strikes were to a large extent politically hijacked by establishment forces whose agenda is not fundamentally different from the current capitalist occupation government, they reveal deep contradictions in Israeli society and express a sense of impasse and revulsion from the Israeli far-right and the crises under Israeli capitalism, from the cost of living to personal insecurity. In the long run, it can open up the irreconcilable contradictions at the heart of the Israeli state and its barbaric war machine. When Palestinian workers ground construction to a halt in 2021s Dignity Strike, they likewise demonstrated their strength, giving an insight into the type of movement needed for Palestinian liberation one capable of ending the occupation and sweeping away capitalism and imperialism in the region.

Last years Hartal (all out strike) in Sri Lanka delivered a critical blow from which the rotten Rajapaksa dynasty never recovered. In Iran, key sectors of workers joined the revolutionary movement against the theocratic regime, triggered by the murder of Jina Mahsa Amini. Although the organization and leadership necessary to raze the dictatorship to the ground was absent, the revolt has left a lasting impact on consciousness. As the Haft Tappeh sugar factory workers expressed in a statement of solidarity with the women on the frontlines of the rebellion:

This great and laudable uprising should be linked with the strike of workers everywhere in this land. To get rid of discrimination and oppression, to get rid of poverty and hardship, to have bread and freedom, let us not leave the girls of the sun and of the revolution alone.

Girls of the sun and of the revolution; On the day of victory, the whole world will take off their hats in front of you you gave everyone a lesson in standing up and resisting.

Indeed their words reflect a global trend of workers gaining confidence and clarity about our potential to transform society. We make the world run; our position in production endows us with a latent power to bring it to a standstill. The strike is therefore our most potent weapon, one that must be brandished against all the horrors of the system. Working-class women at the beating heart of the global feminist revolt have drawn this conclusion. Feminist strikes call on workers of all genders to withdraw their labor, harnessing the social weight of our class against inequality and sexism,

In the process we forge the unity and cohesion necessary to withstand the ruling class intensified onslaught of divide and rule politics. ISA members have been to the fore in fighting for the workers movement to mobilize its forces in the struggle against all forms of oppression. As the Tories escalate their attacks on trans rights, fomenting the type of violence that led to the murder of Brianna Ghey, Socialist Alternative comrades in several unions passed a motion calling on Support protests and struggles to defend and extend the GRA reform, and to stamp out all transphobic violence among other important demands.

The festering growth of reaction is one of the many morbid symptoms of a system in decay, hurtling us towards catastrophe. Climate breakdown hastens and the war in Ukraine escalates. Putin justifies the bloodshed, attacks on the civilian population and infrastructure, and the occupation and annexation of whole regions with bellicose jingoism. Hes not alone. From the US to China, all imperialist powers have ratcheted up their poisonous nationalism. In response, our movement must rediscover and reaffirm the principles of internationalism.

Working people in Russia have far more in common with their class siblings in Ukraine than the warmongers in the Kremlin. Western imperialism and Zelensky are pursuing their own geopolitical interests in contradiction to the national and social aspirations of the Ukrainian masses of the Ukrainian masses defending their homes, rights including the right to self-determination. To guarantee those, the struggle must be organized from below on working class cross-community basis, and coalesce into an international anti-war movement, one thats completely independent of any and all imperialist butchers, drawing its strength from our class singular capacity to shut down the war machine.

Against the backdrop of a decaying system convulsed by crisis, has it ever been clearer that the workers of the world are those best suited to run society? The pandemic showed us who were really essential. And in every movement we get a taste of our potential to found society anew, as Marx put it. With their Robin Hood actions, French energy workers have provided free power to the poor and cut off the rich, offering us a small glimpse of a world where our class is in the saddle, planning the production and allocation of resources on the basis of need, not profit.

Nevertheless workers remain ill equipped to take on the parasitic elite. Despite the growing willingness to step up the struggle, the absence of our own political force leaves us fighting with one arm behind our back. In the age of the permacrisis even significant victories will be transient. Whats given with one hand is taken with the other: rising food prices immediately gobble up wage increases, bonuses end up in the landlords pocket.

If we are to go beyond the fight for mere survival the workers movement must rearm, and furnish the necessary tools to strengthen and broaden our struggle. That requires us getting politically organized, creating new organizations that can unite and combine all movements that emerge in response to the endless misery that capitalism shall continue to breed.

In recent years, mass struggles across the globe have thrown up embryonic forms of self-organization: resistance committees in Sudan, the cabildos in Chile, neighborhood assemblies in Colombia and revolutionary youth councils in Iran. These show what is possible. But they must be cemented into mass, genuinely democratic workers parties that fight independently for our own interests separate and against the capitalist parties and politicians; political organizations that collectivize the experience of our class, allowing us to discuss the strategy and tactics, program and demands for the movement.

ISA sends fraternal May Day greetings to workers the world over and extends solidarity to all those in struggle. You renew our confidence that the working class can transform society! Barbarism and catastrophe awaits us otherwise. Yet by taking the main levers of the economy out of the hands of the polluters, warlords and profiteers, workers can chart an alternative course. A democratic socialist plan of production could lay the basis for a society that not only guarantees our survival but our flourishing that gives us bread, but roses too and unleashes the full creative potential of humanity.

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1 May 2023 || The Working Class is Back! ISA - International Socialist

Karl Marx Monument in Chemnitz, Germany. (animaflora | us.fotolia.com)

Marxism is basic to the history of the 20th century. Such was the view of Catholic philosopher Augusto Del Noce (1910-1989). In particular, he thought its contradictions and consequent disintegration led to the soft post-1960s totalitarianism that is still with us today.

Del Noces account was complex, and much of it relates specifically to the situation in his native Italy. Even so, an aspect worth wider discussion is his observation that historical materialism is valid, but precisely only as an explanation of the secular forms of thought and of their sequence.

Which means that excluding transcendent goods from public thought ultimately reduces it to what Marx said it was: an expression of the interests of dominant social and economic classes.

That seems believable: without standards of truth, beauty, and goodness that transcend this-worldly purposes, life becomes a battle of wills, and moral claims become slogans, battle flags, or opportunistic maneuvers rather than principles held as true. On the resulting field of battle, it is strength and not justice that rules.

Such a view would treat woke progressivism, the version of liberalism now dominant, as a ruling class ideology. What else could it be, a consistent Marxist would ask, when powerful institutions promote it so single-mindedly?

This interpretation of an outlook that claims to stand up for the excluded and marginalized sounds surprising, but it works better than might be expected.

Woke progressivismattributes inequalities that affect non-dominant social groups to discrimination, and demands their elimination by whatever means are necessary. So if there arent many female Native American particle physicists, it views that as oppression: some voices are being excluded in discussions of the basic nature of physical reality.

Respectable people now find that situation intolerable, and insist that those involved put an end to it.

But woke demands go far beyond personnel policy. Disproportionate representation and even outright discrimination are innate to all historically-evolved social arrangementsnational distinctions, religious and cultural communities, settled family forms, understandings of the sexes and their relationships.

Thus, the Constitution was intended to establish a system of law and government that promotes the common welfare of Americans. And Christianity to bring salvation to those who accept itthat is, to Christians. So the Constitution and Christianity treat undocumented Muslim immigrants unfavorably. For example, they cannot participate in central rituals of belonging like voting in U.S. federal elections and receiving communion in Catholic churches.

Woke progressives therefore view the American constitutional order and Christianity as structures of exclusion, and demand their transformation in order to put inclusiveness at their center. Anything else would, in a predominantly white and Christian country like America, support white Christian supremacynow considered the worst sin possible.

America must therefore open her borders and provide special support for newcomers, and Christianity must transform itself into nonjudgmental outreach, dialogue, accompaniment, and promotion of secular social betterment. Bothwe are toldare here to listen, learn, change, and do better as allies to the excluded and marginalized.

Progressive opinion, which now dominates the respectable mainstream, views these principles as morally unquestionable and infinitely superior to past views.

But what then? Traditional religions, and cultural communities guarded by national borders, had social authority and function. They told people how to live and gave them ways to cooperate with others. That authority and functionality must somehow be replaced.

Of necessity, they are picked up by government, and by bureaucracies and commercial enterprises supervised by government. Such institutions are rule-based hierarchies designed to advance explicit goals. As such, they lend themselves to regulation intended to bring them in line with the standards that now count as just. So they become the only social institutions considered legitimate in woke progressive society.

As for the people at large, they become a disconnected mass of consumers, productive resources, and clients of social programs with no ability to think, act, or organize on their own. Any such action would involve bigotryreliance on connections like nationality and cultural community that dont include everyone equallyand rejection of the sciencethe view of things promulgated by official functionaries like Anthony Fauci.

The effect of woke progressivism, then, is to make ordinary people powerless and transfer all power and social functioning to money and bureaucracy. Progressives say that the arc of history bends toward justice. It appears that applies to current history only if justice involves rule by billionaires and bureaucrats.

And that is just what Marx would have predicted: expressions like social justice, human rights, and equity, in their current secular usage, are masks for ruling class interests. They mean that the rich and powerful should run everything.

That, at any rate, would be the consistent Marxist analysis. Conditions seem to support it: weve been hearing a lot about equity recently, but the more we hear about it the more we become unequal in wealth, power, social standing, and basic goods like life expectancy and stable family connections. Feminism appears to have made women less happy, transgenderism has multiplied the problems of vulnerable young people, and the biggest result of Black Lives Matter seems to be more dead black people (along with some others).

The educated, wealthy, and influential, who got where they are by pursuing their own interests, are increasingly giving their support to an increasingly woke Democratic Party. And woke progressivism has been widely adopted by the most powerful and influential social institutions. These include universities, scientific, cultural, religious, and professional bodies, prestige media such as the New York Times and Washington Post, and the Biden administration.

They also include major corporations, who have been quite friendly to the gender agenda, and made a huge investment in the Black Lives Matter movement. Even banks and investment management companies have gotten into the act through use of ESG scores in funding decisions.

So its believable that woke progressivism is not what it says it is, but is a ruling class ideology. As such, it has the actual predictable effect of increasing inequalities in power and wealth. That, by the way, is similar to a tendency Del Noce noted in Marxism itself: its actual effectslike poverty, slavery, violence, militarized nationalism, and the alienation of man from manhave been the precise opposite of claimed intentions.

Where is the current system likely to go, and what should be done about itespecially by Catholics?

The institutional and cultural forces supporting current tendencies are immensely powerful. Worse, their opponents have been unable to articulate a contrary vision that a propagandized, browbeaten, and radically divided public can find compelling.

Even so, current tendencies wont last forever. The people are sometimes thoughtless, misled, or ill-informed, but they are not insane. Their rulers, in contrast, are in the grip of an ideology that they cannot escape, because they have staked their legitimacy as rulers on the promise to bring liberation and equality by abolishing the effect of family, cultural, national, and religious connectionsthus making money and bureaucracy omnipotent.

Already, the results have included rancor, incompetence, arbitrary governance, popular disaffection, small-scale social chaos, and stupid policies such as depolicing that cant possibly succeed. To make matters worse, woke progressivism has gone international, promoting a rainbow global empire by means that include confronting nuclear powers and bullying Third World nations. None of this is going to end well.

Current public thought needs to be replaced with something better. That will require, among other things, recognitionat first by some and then by manyof the fundamental problems of the current public order. There will need to be a general turn toward better ways of life and thought, and above all a return of transcendent goodsas a practical matter, Godinto public life so it can be understood as more than a battle of wills.

All that is very difficult, but it will happen because people ultimately need to find a tolerable way to live. Those convinced by the liberal vision of individual sovereignty and social neutrality believe such changes would threaten freedom, rationality, and human dignity. But these goods have no place in the system of contending forces that is the spiritual world of secular thought. Events are making that situation ever more obvious: eventually thought will catch up with reality, and the world will change.

Related at CWR: Atheism: The core of modern Western culture in the thought of Augusto del Noce (Dec. 14, 2020) by Dr. Thomas R. Rourke

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Are the Marxists on to something? Catholic World Report - Catholic World Report

The dominant understanding of caste in India has been focused on the idea of caste as a cultural phenomenon. Politics that demand caste and broader social justice are derisively described as identity politics. Pratap Bhanu Mehta rehashes the argument that social justice enhances social divisions (Mirage of social justice, IE, April 21). On the one hand, he seems to argue that the social justice discourse has focused too much on the distribution of public resources based on caste identities, on the other, he calls for recognising the ethical issues of discrimination and creating effective institutions to address caste inequities.

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It bears clarification: What is Mehtas understanding of inclusive economic growth and social justice? Mehta terms the Opposition uniting around social justice a politically unwise idea. According to him, it may bring short-term gains but undermine long-term goals. With due respect to his intellectual calibre, should we not place the idea of social justice in the contemporary backdrop of increasing poverty as well as the disturbing trend of inequality? Why should the further marginalisation of groups already on the margins for hundreds of years not be the fulcrum for unity amongst opposition parties as well as civil society groups? The most basic understanding of social justice is the struggle for equitable division of opportunities, and privileges as well as the broadest possible representation in institutions.

Let us remember that caste-based oppression creates material conditions. This materiality of caste inequality is produced not just in economic and socio-cultural terms but also through political, especially electoral-political, machinations. Mehtas assertion that political mobilisation on the social justice plank will not address the root causes of caste inequities is offered without any justification. He further dubs this a form of majoritarianism. It is the opposite the denial of social justice in India is largely a product of the ideology of Hindutva. In this formulation, caste is portrayed as a troubling but natural flaw of Indian society, which can be papered over by policy neglect and political silence. The political obfuscation of caste-based inequalities can only be countered by a recognition of its historical and political dimensions and a political commitment to challenging the structural barriers that perpetuate caste-based oppression. In his opinion, political parties like the RJD in India are guilty of exactly this crime.

Mehta is perhaps not adequately acquainted with the reality that discrimination in education starts early in India. The RJD and other opposition parties that he accuses of reducing social justice to distributing government largesse based on officially reified caste identities and decimating public education and destructing universities have, in fact, invested heavily in school education systems so that the marginalised sections can simply reach public universities. The quantum of ambition in Bihars youth for competitive exams for public jobs and their presence in all sectors of the private economy across India and abroad today is a testament to the massification of education, despite suffering from the effects of uneven development and the failure of cooperative federalism. It is a no-brainer that dignity cannot be achieved by mere sloganeering. The opposition parties that he never tires of lampooning, combine dignity and development to aim at social justice. However, development is never sought by sacrificing dignity and justice.

The idea that universal remedies can address caste injustices adequately is flawed and can even be unjust in itself. Often, these remedies are proposed by voices that lack self-reflexivity on their own caste privilege. Quotas and reservations that provide opportunities for historically disadvantaged communities are perceived as a form of reverse discrimination by members of dominant castes lacking a sense of social justice and displaying an exaggerated sense of entitlement.

Sadly, Mehta indulges in an intellectual device now regrettably common in India. He deploys the vocabulary developed by the illustrious history of the movement for social justice to argue against the value of mobilising Indian voters around social justice. So, it is not surprising that he embeds an argument against the caste census within a diatribe dressed as a loftier notion of social justice above electoral politics.

The dominant discourse on caste in India has been characterised by a reluctance to acknowledge the scale and severity of caste-based violence and discrimination. It is unfortunate that the failure to recognise caste injustice is a product of a wider culture of denial and impunity. Countering this requires a sustained and concerted effort to raise awareness about the realities of oppression and to challenge the impunity of those who perpetrate caste-based violence and discrimination in various forms. In an environment where a blatantly majoritarian party is intent on affecting a total institutional capture, electoral politics is exactly the arena where that majoritarian consensus has to be challenged, resisted and defeated.

We honestly need to challenge the culture of members of dominant castes, who are often in positions of power and influence, proposing universal remedies and deriding social justice as merely a slogan without acknowledging their own caste-based privilege. Besides, a section of the ruling elite well-supported by the mainstream media has been speaking in a chorus that caste enumeration or caste census shall lead to casteism, which lacks substance. Such fear-mongering needs to be addressed philosophically as well as by citing the data.

That is why we reiterate that social justice fortunately is not a mirage but a hope. If that is a bad idea, we need such bad ideas in abundance.

Jha is MP, Rajya Sabha (Rashtriya Janata Dal) and Ghazala Jamil teaches at CSLG, JNU

First published on: 28-04-2023 at 15:33 IST

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Manoj Kumar Jha and Ghazala Jamil write: Why Pratap Bhanu Mehta is wrong about social justice politics and caste census - The Indian Express

Opinion

No one should be surprised that young people reject a status quo so manifestly stacked against them

Among the myriad indicators of Liberal dysfunction, one statistic leaps out: voters under 34 now prefer the Greens to the Coalition.

The figures suggest Australian youth reject the traditional alternative government, opting instead for a party considerably to Labors left.

No one should be surprised that conservatism does not appeal to those with nothing to conserve, nor that young people reject a status quo so manifestly stacked against them.

The recent stories about student debt illustrate the rigged hand dealt to the young.

Hecs-Help debts dont gather interest. Thats because theyre not meant to grow but, suddenly, they are. Back in the day, the indexation of student loan to inflation didnt signify much. In todays economy, however, an average debt of $25,000 jumps by $1,760 after June. According to the National Union of Students, the latest rise in CPI increases the liabilities of graduates by a remarkable $4.5bn.

The hike feels both grotesquely unfair, but also, in a way, entirely predictable, another grim example of young people punished for doing everything right. The social theorist Stuart Hall famously described race as the modality through which class gets lived. Something similar might be said about age, a category into which every injustice seems to crystallise.

Consider housing. Despite a softer property market, home ownership remains impossible for much of the population. If rising interest rates pushed prices down marginally, they rendered mortgages correspondingly less viable, while contributing to a precipitous increase in rents.

To put it another way, people still cant buy houses and now they cant rent them, either.

The housing crisis screws lots of people (Anglicare describes fewer than 1% of rental properties as within the budget of those on the minimum wage) but, in particular, it screws the young, who cant muster deposits for bank loans, and feel deep in their bones they never will. Understandably, many contrast their circumstances with the norms prevailing a few decades ago, back when Matt Groening could conceive a TV show centred on a schlubbish everyman in a dead-end job and then portray Homer Simpson living in a spacious suburban house with a wife and three kids.

Homer still toils in Springfields nuclear power plant but his demographic cohort now runs the world. In Australia, most of our politicians attended (as did this writer) university back when students paid next to nothing for education. Not coincidentally, the average parliamentarian owns, or has a stake in, two houses, with many MPs having considerably more. Karen Andrews, for instance, reportedly owns seven properties and Tony Burke, six; one-time public housing tenant Anthony Albanese now gets $115,000 in rent from his real estate portfolio.

The generational unfairness evident manifests just about everywhere.

Take a look at the ABCs mind-blowing visualisation (really just look at it!) of the stage-three tax cuts, a policy to which Labor apparently remains committed. As Guardian columnist Greg Jericho writes: Almost half of the total benefits go to the richest 3% and so massive are the costs at $300bn over 9 years, that you could raise jobseeker from its current rate of $693 a fortnight to $1,925 and you would still end up with a smaller government deficit in 2032-33 than you would with the Stage 3 tax cuts.

But its also worth noting that, as well as facilitating a tremendous transfer of wealth to the rich (such as politicians, who stand to benefit by $18m in the next decade), the change disproportionately rewards older Australians, with those under 25 receiving only 2.8% of the billions directed to the ageing and the well-to-do in 2024.

Even as he slashes the governmental revenue base, Albanese wants to spend $368bn on nuclear submarines. Ive written previously on the dangers of the arms race playing out in Asia Pacific and the astonishing insouciance with which strategists now discuss conflict between nuclear powers. But recall, too, how when the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald convened a panel of anti-China hawks to urge a psychological shift in preparedness for war, its experts also suggested the reintroduction of military service. Now, were not going to see conscription any time soon but the very suggestion illustrates the dynamic of intensifying geostrategic tension: old people might plan wars but young people will have to fight them.

And then theres climate change, the most profound generational crime imaginable.

Environmentalists describe the period after the second world war as the great acceleration, when the spread of American-style consumer capitalism massively intensified the depletion of nature. That era also coincided with the baby boom.

By contrast, if youre 20 now, youll turn 47 in 2050, meaning youll still be in the prime of life as, on current trends, parts of the planet become too hot for human habitation, extreme weather grows increasingly common, millions of people get driven from their homes and extinctions cascade through the biosphere.

Thats the legacy handed to young people by their elders, a crisis on a scale unparalleled in human history.

No wonder the kids dont vote Liberal and that so many of them mistrust the ALP.

Of course, as a theory of social change, generationalism only gets you so far.

Poverty, racism and bigotry affect people of all ages. No one can live on Australias welfare system but, statistically, one of the biggest groups forced to do so consists of women over 45.

While most voters under 30 despise the conservatives, you can still find plenty of young men attracted to the far right. For all the memes mocking Karens, todays progressives owe a huge intellectual debt to a New Left founded by boomers. Sure, some Vietnam-era protesters aged into a sour conservatism but plenty of them didnt: at any environment or refugee rally, youll encounter octogenarians far more militant than the gen Zers around them.

As for climate change, its an oppression multiplier, with global heating disproportionately affecting all the traditional victims of injustice.

Nevertheless, its entirely right for young people to feel cheated by what theyve inherited, to despair about those politicians who wont live to see the consequences of their environmental timidity, and to despise the greybeards wringing their hands about gender diversity and drag queens while lauding as a comic genius an old guy in a dress.

A thousand years or so ago, Bob Dylan warned parents that their sons and daughters were beyond their command. If youth rebellion was justified then, its a million times more warranted today.

Jeff Sparrow is a Guardian Australia columnist

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Generational crimes are being committed thick and fast. No wonder Australian kids dont vote conservative - The Guardian

This month, we celebrate the enduring heritage of Jewish Americans, whose values, culture, and contributions have shaped our character as a Nation. For generations, the story of the Jewish people one of resilience, faith, and hope in the face of adversity, prejudice and persecution has been woven into the fabric of our Nations story. It has driven us forward in our ongoing march for justice, equality, and freedom as we recommit to upholding the principles of our Nations founding and realizing the promise of America for all Americans.

For centuries, Jewish refugees fleeing oppression and discrimination abroad have sailed to our shores in search of sanctuary. Early on, they fought for religious freedom, helping define one of the bedrock principles upon which America was built. Union soldiers celebrated Passover in the midst of the Civil War. Jewish suffragists fought to expand freedom and justice. And Jewish faith leaders linked arms with giants of the Civil Rights Movement to demand equal rights for all.

Jewish Americans continue to enrich every part of American life as educators and entrepreneurs, athletes and artists, scientists and entertainers, public officials and activists, labor and community leaders, diplomats and military service members, public health heroes, and more. Last year, I was proud to host the White Houses first-ever Jewish New Year reception. During our Hanukkah celebration, I was also proud to unveil the first-ever permanent menorah at the White House reinforcing the permanency of Jewish culture in America. In my own life, the Jewish community has been a tremendous source of friendship, guidance, and strength through seasons of pain and seasons of joy.

But there is also a dark side to the celebrated history of the Jewish people a history marked by genocide, pogrom, and persecution with a through line that continues in the record rise of antisemitism today. We have witnessed violent attacks on synagogues, bricks thrown through windows of Jewish businesses, swastikas defacing cars and cemeteries, Jewish students harassed on college campuses, and Jews wearing religious attire beaten and shot on streets. Antisemitic conspiracy theories are rampant online, and celebrities are spouting antisemitic hate.

These acts are unconscionable and despicable. They carry with them terrifying echoes of the worst chapters in human history. Not only are they a strike against Jews, but they are also a threat to other minority communities and a stain on the soul of our Nation. I decided to run for President after I saw this hatred on display during the rally in Charlottesville, when neo-Nazis marched from the shadows spewing the same antisemitic bile that was heard in Germany in the 1930s. These incidents remind us that hate never truly goes away it only hides until it is given just a little oxygen. It is our obligation to ensure that hate can have no safe harbor in America and to protect the sacred ideals enshrined in our Constitution: religious freedom, equality, dignity, and respect. That is the promise of America.

I have made clear that I will not remain silent in the face of this antisemitic venom, vitriol, and violence. During my first year in office, I signed the bipartisan COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act to help State and local law enforcement better identify and respond to hate crimes. I appointed Deborah Lipstadt, a historian of the Holocaust, as the first Ambassador-level Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism. And my Administration also secured the largest increase in funding ever for the physical security of nonprofits, including synagogues, Jewish Community Centers, and Jewish day schools.

At my direction, we are also developing the first national strategy to counter antisemitism that outlines comprehensive actions the Federal Government will undertake and that reflects input from over a thousand Jewish community stakeholders, faith and civil rights leaders, State and local officials, and more. This strategy will help combat antisemitism online and offline, including in schools and on campuses; improve security to prevent antisemitic incidents and attacks; and build cross-community solidarity against antisemitism and other forms of hate.

But governance alone cannot root out antisemitism and hate. All Americans including business and community leaders, educators, students, athletes, entertainers, and influencers must help confront bigotry in all its forms. We must each do our part to put an end to antisemitism and hatred and create a culture of respect in our workplaces, schools, and homes and across social media.

This Jewish American Heritage Month, let us join hands across faiths, races, and backgrounds to make clear that evil, hate, and antisemitism will not prevail. Let us honor the timeless values, contributions, and culture of Jewish Americans, who carry our Nation forward each and every day. And let us rededicate ourselves to the sacred work of creating a more inclusive tomorrow, protecting the diversity that defines who we are as a Nation, and preserving the dignity of every human being here at home and around the world.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 2023 as Jewish American Heritage Month. I call upon all Americans to learn more about the heritage and contributions of Jewish Americans and to observe this month with appropriate programs, activities, and ceremonies.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of April, in the year two thousand twentythree, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-seventh.

JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

By U.S. Mission Poland | 2 May, 2023 | Topics: Events, News, President of the United States

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A Proclamation on Jewish American Heritage Month, 2023 - U.S. ... - US Embassy and Consulate in Poland

(CNN) Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina on Sunday teased a major announcement on May 22, signaling he will formally enter the 2024 GOP presidential primary afterlaunching an exploratory committeeearlier this month.

Please tell your friends. Be in attendance, Scott said at an event in Charleston, South Carolina. Were going to have a major announcement, and youre going to want to be there.

Scott the only Black Republican in the Senate has been testing the waters for months. Since setting off on a listening tour in February focused on Faith in America, hes made frequent visits to Iowa.

In announcing his exploratory committee, Scott emphasized his evangelical faith, his race and his experience growing up as the son of a single mother. He defined his personal ethos as one of individual responsibility and his approach to politics guided by the belief that the US is the land of opportunity and not the land of oppression.

Theres this new concept being spread by the far left and its like a drug of victimhood and the narcotic of despair. That somehow, some way, we as Americans are all victims. I grew up understanding the power of individual responsibility and the importance of taking responsibility for how your life turns out, Scott said on April 12.

The South Carolina Republican expanded on that message Sunday, stating, I believe theres nothing wrong with the American people. We just need a new American government to unleash the American spirit.

I believe this so thoroughly that it is time to take the Faith in America tour not just on the road, not just to an exploratory committee, he added.

Scotts national profile grew considerably after he delivered the GOP response to President Joe Bidens address to a joint session of Congress in 2021, which gave him a prominent platform from which to speak to the country and counter Bidens message.

Before joining the Senate, Scott served one term in the US House. He also served in the South Carolina state House and on the Charleston County Council.

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US Sen. Tim Scott teases 'major announcement' as he explores ... - WISH TV Indianapolis, IN

Image: Getty Images

"History owes an apology to LGBTQIA+ people and their families for the ignominy and ostracism they have faced"

Since April 18, all eyes have been on the Supreme Court of India as it hears a batch of petitions seeking legal recognition for same-sex marriage in India, or seeking equal marital rights.

A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court comprising of Chief Justice of India DYChandrachud, and Justices SKKaul,RavindraBhat,HimaKohli, and PSNarasimha, is hearing the petitions had been hearing the said petitions since last week.

Online live hearings have so democratised a normally opaque process with unconfirmed reports suggesting that viewership on Netflix, the OTP platform has dipped as a result!

Same-sexand queercouples from around the country have approached the Supreme Court with a plea stating that same-sexand queermarriages should be legalised under the Special Marriage Act that currently allows for inter-religious marriages amongst others.Through this petitions, rights ancillary to marriage, such as family insurance, divorce, adoption, maintenance, succession are also being demanded by a number of petitioner.

The petitioners have made their arguments before the bench, and the union governments arguments are still being heard. It is worth noting thatthe two days before the bench was scheduled to hear the petitions, theCentre hadsubmitted a102-page documentopposing thepetitionsfiled by couples seeking equal marital rights, deeming itan "urban elitist concept far removed from the social ethos of the country." The Modi-led union government told the Supreme Court that the petitioners were advancing "mere urban elitist views for the purpose of social acceptance" by demanding equal marriage rights. According to this untested stance, neitheruncodifiedpersonal laws nor codified statutory laws recognise oraccept marriage between two individuals who are not biologically male and female. The union government hadalso stated that if the demands of the petitioners are heard and met, itwill wreak "complete havoc" on the delicate balance of personal laws and accepted societal values. Finally, the union government representated by none less than its blue eyed boy, Solicitor General, Tushar Mehta argued that the issue cannot be decided by a Court of Law and that it is up to the legislature to amend the law, if at all.

JamiatUlama-iHind, a representative of Muslims, has also filed theirobjections against the petitions, claiming that the pleas of the petitioners are an attack on the family system and violate all personal laws. "This concept of same-sex marriage goes to attack the family system rather than making a family through this process," it had said.Jamiatis being represented by Senior AdvocateKapilSibal, and is yet to be heard.

Even though this case is still being heard, the opposition views being expressed against the equal marriage rights petitionsare no longerlimited to the courtor the parties to the petitions, withmany groups voicing their opposition, making baseless claims in desperation, and asking the Supreme Court to simply, not hear the said petitions.

While the petitioners, queer community and LGBTQ+ activists have to hear the misinformed, downright derogatory arguments being made by the the union government, vociferously if ridiculously put by Solicitor GeneralTusharMehta, there is another lively debate being conducted outside of the court wheregovernmentagencies and mouth pieces, far-rightreligious leadersand groups of citizenry arestrongly opposingthe expansion of equal marital rights.

Opposition by the Bar Council of India

On April 23, a Sunday, the Bar Council of India (BCI) passed a resolution opposing legal recognition of same-sex and queermarriages, requesting that the Supreme Court refer the matter to Parliament because it would have far-reaching implications for socio-religious traditions.The BCIself-appointed themselvesto be the "mouthpiece of the common man," claiming that the legislature is "truly reflective of the will of the people" and that "more than 99.9% of the people in the country" oppose same-sexand queermarriage. The resolution further said that any decision by the Supreme Courtin favour of the petitioners in the case will be "treated as being against the country's culture and social religious structure."

Now, the BCI is a statutory bodywhosregulatory and representative mandate for the legal profession includes, among other things, establishing standards for professional conduct as well as protocol for advocates, protecting advocates' rights, privileges, and interests, and advocating for and promoting law reform. The council has so far not been pro-active in carrying out its function of promoting and supporting any sort or kind of legal reform by issuing this unnecessary and misinformed resolution with unsubstantiated claims. In doing so, the statutory body has not lived up toits mandate under the Advocates Act of 1961. More importantly, it questioned the Supreme Court's fundamental role in preserving constitutional principles in their true spirit and entirety. Furthermore, the BCI's lobbying of legislative primacy in the matter condemns its own queer members, some of whom are openlyqueer and have had to deal with homophobia indenial of being offered a judgeship, such as AdvocateSaurabhKripal, as well as the larger LGBTQIA+population, to suffer a deprivation of freedoms and rights as a consequence of legislative inaction.

The Council also departed fromits responsibility to promote law reform by opposing a judicial review of marriage laws, specifically the Special Marriage Act, which sought to recognise unions that did not conform to what different communities held to be "acceptable".The said resolution was criticised by many groups and individuals. Queer collectives from 36 Indian law schools, including National Law University Delhi, Faculty of Law, Delhi University and Gujarat National Law University,comprising of more than 600 students,condemned the BCI resolution as "ignorant, harmful, and antithetical to our Constitution and the spirit of inclusive social life," demonstrating the BCI's lack of understanding of its mandate. In a document titled "Representation against the bar council of Indias resolution on marriage equality", the students said they strongly condemn the BCIs "regressive andqueerphobicresolution on marriage equality. The statement also added: "It (BCI resolution) attempts to tell queer persons that the law and the legal profession have no place for them. We, the undersigned, are queer and allied student groups across Indian law schools."

A strong worded critique of the BCIs resolution was also expressed byTrinamoolCongress MPMahuaMoitrawho slammed theBCI for urging the Supreme Court not to hear the same-sex marriage caseand for its 99 percent Indians opposing it remark.Moitraaddressed the BCI in a series of tweets, saying you are oath-bound to protect constitutional morality, and not popular sentiment. Gentlemen - have you truly lost your minds? Even if 1 persons freedom is encroached on, SC is bound to hear it, the TMC MP said. She also brought forth the male-dominated culture of the BCI and wrote in another tweet, India worlds largest democracy with 49% women population. Bar Council of India however, is an all male body which hasnt held elections for the longest time. And BCI lecturing the Supreme Court on what 99% of Indians want Gentlemen, enough already. Zip it. She also said, Maybe if BCI held timely elections you wouldn't even be in your seats in your little boy's club with no women. Shame!

On April 28, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) also passed a resolution condemning the Bar Council of India's statements opposing same-sex and queermarriage legalisation, as well as the hearing and decision-making process taking place in the Supreme Court of India. In their resolution, the SCBA stated that it was "highly inappropriate of the Bar Council of India" to oppose the same sex case hearing because it is the Supreme Court's right to decide whether the matter should be adjudicated by court or left to parliament.

Opposition by other parties and agencies

It is essential to note that while theSupremeCourtis not bound to consider the resolutionof the BCI,its corrosive effects cannot beignored.The openly homophobic resolution passed by the BCIrolled the stone, and soon enough, more agencies and organisations came in support of the BCI and the government. A day after the issuance of the BCI resolution, the Delhi's District Court Bar Associations also expressed their displeasure on the day-to-day proceedings on a batch of petitions presently examined by the Constitution Bench of Supreme Court pertaining to 'marriage equality rights for LGBTQIA+community'.It said that the social ramifications of the proceedings before the Supreme Court are colossal and have the potential for an unintended impact on the social fabric.

In a rare show of unity, leaders from all of India's main religions (the male leadership that us!) - Hindu, Muslim, Jain, Sikh and Christian -also opposed same sex union, with several of them insisting that marriage "is for procreation, not recreation".

TheVishwaHinduParishad(VHP), a far-right extremist group, with a record for aggression and violence against minorities, even causing disharmony, also took it upon themselves to criticise the Supreme Court, said the "haste" with which the Supreme Court is disposing of the petitions for legal recognition of same-sex marriages is not appropriate. The Hindu-tva body, which has the support of the current government at the centre, said the apex court should have sought the opinion of religious leaders and experts from diverse fields before launching on this constitutional challenge!

End April 2023, to top it all,21 retired high court judgeswrote an open lettersaying allowing same-sex marriage would have a "devastating impact on children, family and society".They added that it could increase incidence of HIV-Aids in India and expressed concern that it could "negatively affect the psychological and emotional development of children raised by same-sex couples".

On April 27, more than 120 eminent citizens, including retired high court judges and former bureaucrats, wrote to PresidentDroupadiMurmuto express their opposition to what they called "highly objectionable attempts" to legalize same-sex and queer marriages. They claimed that same-sexbehavioralinstitutions are irrational and unnatural in Indian society and culture.

Former CAG RajivMehrishi, former home secretary L CGoyal, former foreign secretaryShashank, former RAW chiefSanjeevTripathi, Justice (retired) S NDhingra, and Justice (retired)LokPal Singh were among those who signed the letter.

They stated that it was critical toadvisethe Supreme Court of the precise estimate and outcome of such a "culturally disastrous" step in the name of a "ground-breaking approach." They claimed that discussion about human institutional relations such as marriage is "essentially a legislative function," and that courts should "refrain" from creating, recognising, or demolishing the institution of marriage through judicial interpretation or by striking down or reading down the existing legislative framework for marriages.They also stated in the said letter that it was "widely appreciated" that same-sex relationship "can't create long-term or stable institutions".

On April 26, the Union Law MinisterKirenRijijualso said that an important matter like the institution of marriage should be decided by people of the country and that courts are not the forum to settle such issues. Referring to the Constitution bench of the top court hearing the matter,Rijijusaid, "If five wise men decide something which is correct according to them -- I cannot make any kind of adverse comments against them -- But if people do not want it, you cannot impose thingson the people..."

The views of the law minister came asno surprise as he has been indulging in an aggressive power battle with the highest judiciary, having the backing of the BJP government, with the current CJI of India. But what isdisappointing isthat, with the exception of the CPI(M), all the political opposition parties are keeping a prudent silence on the issue of legalising same-sex and queermarriages.

While it is necessary to keep in mind the opposing views being put forth and language being used to when it comes to expanding basic right to a community which has existed as a part of India since time immemorial, it is also essential to focus on the ones showing the community support while they fight this fight.

The support shown for the petitioners in their fight for marriage equality and ancillary rights

The petitioners for marriage equality received a significant boost when the Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS), the country's leading mental health group representing over 7,000 psychiatrists, issued a statement in their support.

"Homosexuality is not a disease," the IPS stated, adding that discrimination against LGBTQ+ people could cause furthermental health issues in them."

The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) also supported the petition, stating that the federal and state governments should take steps to raise public awareness about the "normalcy" of same-sex family units. Multiple studies on same-sex parenting have shown that same-sex couples can be good parents, according to their report. The statement of the IPS carries a certain amount of weight because the Supreme Court referred to a similar statement supporting gay sex decriminalization in its decision in 2018.

On April 25, a group of over 400 parents from Sweekar-The Rainbow Parents wrote to Chief Justice of India (CJI) D YChandrachudurging that their LGBTQIA++ wards be granted the right to marriage equality. Sweekar-The Rainbow Parents is a group formed by the parents of Indian LGBTQIA++ wards with the aim of supporting each other to accept ones child fully and be happy as a family.

We are appealing to you to consider marriage equality, the letter said. The letter also said that We desire to see our children and children-in-law find final legal acceptance for their relationship under the Special Marriage Act in our country. We are certain that a nation as big as ours which respects its diversity and stands for the value of exclusion, will open its legal gate of marriage equality to our children too. We are growing old. Some of us will touch 80 soon, we hope that we will get to see the legal stamp on the rainbow marriage of our children in our lifetime.

The full letter of support can beread here:

Conclusion

A human rights issue has become a central debate in our country now, where one set of persons are demanding legal recognition and support as a marginalised community. This community is demanding equal and basic rights from the court, while the other side is demanding for their continued oppression and suppression in the name of culture and marital sanctity. The Indian Constitutiongives all citizens the right to marry a person of their choice and prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and their petition should be allowed since "constitutional morality is above social morality.

And yet, the queer community has had to approach the highest court of law and hear people oppose their demands stridently. They are making an impassioned please for simply, equal rights.

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Same sex marriage is not an elitist concern:AkkaiPadmashali

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Equal marriage rights: A deep dive into the resistance, showcasing ... - SabrangIndia