Gujarati workers of US hotel, formerly owned by Donald Trump, to seek support in Ahmedabad for their struggle

By A Representative
In a rare show of effort to seek support in Gujarat, leaders of the protesting workers working in the Trump Taj Mahal Hotel of the US have decided to hold a public meeting at the Ahmedabad Textile Management Association (ATMA) auditorium, Ahmedabad on May 11.
To be held between 4 pm and 7 pm in the auditorium situated on Ashram Road, Ahmedabad, three of the leaders, who happen to be from Gujarat, will be “sharing lessons from the strike – and to learn from the working class movement in India”, says Ashim Roy of the Chemical Mazdoor Panchayat, who is organizing the event.
Things began on July 1, 2016, when more than 1,000 cooks, housekeepers, bellmen, bartenders, and food servers from the Trump Taj Mahal hotel in Atlantic City, USA, went on strike. Originally built by US president Donald Trump, the Trump Taj Mahal, over the last 12 years, cut pay and benefits for workers by 35 per cent, sending many into poverty.

Atlantic City is situated along the Atlantic Ocean, and is about 200 km -- or nearly two hours drive towards the south of New York city. Atlantic City is one of the three major spots in US where Americans throng to play casino, the other two being Las Vegas and Reno Nevada.

“The workers had had enough”, says Roy, adding, “They decided it was time to stand up, and defend all the rights that the union had fought for in Atlantic City.”
He states, “The workers were immigrants from all over the world – India, Mexico, China, and many other countries – but they stood together and refused to be divided by the boss. They supported each other through a 102 day strike, demanding justice.”
According to Roy, “On October 10, the Trump Taj Mahal closed down. But the workers had succeeded in defending the union standard for wages and benefits in Atlantic City. They had gone on strike knowing that if they let the Trump Taj Mahal take away their rights, then every other hotel employer in Atlantic City would try to do the same thing to 10,000 of their fellow union members.”
“The Trump Taj Mahal workers came to the US as immigrants from many different countries. So the solidarity they received from workers and unions around the world was very important. It built up their morale, and reminded them that this fight is global”, Roy says.
“It was especially important to receive support from India. Many of the workers came from Gujarat, and were key leaders in this fight. Not one Indian worker crossed the picket line during the strike”, he added, pointing towards the reason why they decided to hold a public meeting at ATMA auditorium.

Three of the Gujarati worker-leaders from the strike are visiting India, to share lessons from the strike – and to learn from the working class movement in India”, Roy says, adding, “The workers will talk about the economic model that allows billionaires like Donald Trump to get richer, while the workers get poorer.”
“They will also talk about working conditions in US hotels, the need to organize and fight, and what they had to do in order to sustain the longest strike in Atlantic City’s history”, he noted.

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

From protest to proof: Why civil society must rethink environmental resistance

By Shankar Sharma* As concerned environmentalists and informed citizens, many of us share deep unease about the way environmental governance in our country is being managed—or mismanaged. Our complaints range across sectors and regions, and most of them are legitimate. Yet a hard question confronts us: are complaints, by themselves, effective? Experience suggests they are not.

Dalit woman student’s death sparks allegations of institutional neglect in Himachal college

By A Representative A Dalit rights organisation has alleged severe caste- and gender-based institutional violence leading to the death of a 19-year-old Dalit woman student at Government Degree College, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, and has demanded arrests, resignations, and an independent inquiry into the case.

Kolkata event marks 100 years since first Communist conference in India

By Harsh Thakor* A public assembly was held in Kolkata on December 24, 2025, to mark the centenary of the First Communist Conference in India , originally convened in Kanpur from December 26 to 28, 1925. The programme was organised by CPI (ML) New Democracy at Subodh Mallik Square on Lenin Sarani. According to the organisers, around 2,000 people attended the assembly.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

The architect of Congolese liberation: The life and legacy of Patrice Lumumba

By Harsh Thakor* Patrice Émery Lumumba remains a central figure in the history of African decolonization, serving as the first Prime Minister of the independent Republic of the Congo. Born on July 2, 1925, Lumumba emerged as a radical anti-colonial leader who sought to unify a nation fractured by decades of Belgian rule. His tenure, however, lasted less than seven months before his dismissal and subsequent assassination on January 17, 1961.

Venezuela and the crisis of global order: Erosion of rules-based international order

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* The American attack on Venezuela violates every principle of international law that the collective West claims to uphold. The response from the European Union—“we are monitoring the situation”—exposes the hollowness of these claims. WhatsApp gossipers may celebrate this as an act of “bravery,” but what kind of bravery is it to intimidate a neighbour that is neither large in size nor strong in military power?

Search This Blog