| Description | This file comprises copies of Mazdoor in Punjabi and English.
The first few issues of the journal were published only in Punjabi. Copies comprise the first issue, published August 1961; second issue, published September/October 1961; the fourth issue; and the fifth issue, published in November 1962
Copies of Mazdoor in English consist of the 'civil liberties' issue of Mazdoor, published 28 March 1965, and a fragment of an issue of Mazdoor probably published in August 1964, consisting of an editorial by Jagmohan Joshi on national struggles for independence from imperialism in Asia, Africa and Latin America
The 'civil liberties' issue of Mazdoor contains an editorial by Jagmohan Joshi on struggles against oppression in Vietnam; the civil rights struggle in America; the election of a communist majority in state elections in Kerala, India; civil rights struggles in Spain, and the Indian Workers Association's campaigns against immigration legislation in Britain.
The journal also contains articles on racial discrimination in Britain, written by Maurice Ludmer; on the arrest of political activists in India by Ranjana Ash and the failure of Congress Party government by Jagmohan Joshi. An article by Avtar Jouhl refutes accusations made by Sohan Sandhu of the Immigrant Welfare Association, and published in the 'Birmingham Post,' that the Indian Workers Association was attempting to further communist ideas through the Sikh temple in Smethwick, and describes the visit of the IWA Executive Committee to the temple to clarify their position before the congregation.
The back pages of the journal contain news about recent IWA events, including Republic Day celebrations in Leamington, Coventry, Nottingham, Leicester, Derby and Bradford, and a meeting held at Digbeth Civic Hall in Birmingham to protest at the attack on civil liberties in India. The journal also gives information about recent elections at branches of the Indian Workers Association in Leamington, Coventry and Nottingham, and an update on the Indian Workers Association campaign for racial harmony in Marshall Street, Smethwick, in response to the divisive housing policy supported by Smethwick Conservatives. |
| AdminHistory | 'Mazdoor' was a journal published monthly by the Indian Workers Association during the 1960s. The Programme of the Indian Workers Association for 1961 states that the organisation intended to publish a monthly magazine in Indian languages, and Birmingham Central Library holds copies of the first few issues of 'Mazdoor', starting in August 1961. It was published in Punjabi, with some articles in Urdu. There are scattered references to 'Mazdoor' in subsequent minutes, policy papers and correspondence of the Indian Workers Association, including a suggestion that the idea for the journal came from the Birmingham branch of the organisation. Other references suggest that the journal later became the mouthpiece of the Central Executive Committee. Although produced in Birmingham, the journal was distributed to branches nationwide. By 1964, 'Mazdoor was being published in English, though it is likely that there also continued to be a Punjabi version of each issue. By 1967, 'Lalkar' was established as the journal of the Indian Workers Association, and this publication may have replaced 'Mazdoor'. |