Janwadi Lekhak Sangh has its State and District level units and all the units enjoy relative autonomy to take decisions on the basis of organisational democracy. Those units function within the framework of the Constitution and the Manifesto of the Association. General guidelines are communicated to the units by the all-India Centre after the meetings of the Central Executive and the Central Council from time to time. The activities of all the units include seminars on literary and cultural issues related to the contemporary social reality. The all-India Centre also organises some activities including seminars on some important issues. Since its inception in 1982 , the all-India Centre held seminars on Marxist aesthetics, organised functions on the birth centenary of Ram Chandra Shukla, a Hindi critic, birth centenary of Rahul Sankrityayan, a prolific writer of Hindi literature, birth centenary of Firaq Gorakhpuri , a famous Urdu poet, birth centenary of Surya Kant Tripathi Nirala. On August 10,1999, the all-India Centre of Janwadi Lekhak Sangh organised a joint Convention of ‘writers, artists , cultural activists and intellectuals in defense of culture’ and issued an appeal to all cultural organisations to launch a movement to defend the age-old tradition of our composite culture from the onslaught of communal fascist organisations such as the RSS, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena that are destroying basic ethos of humane and sane cultural formation of our society by arousing communal and obscurantist passions among the masses.
On December 23, 1999, the all-India Centre organised a protest meeting against the attempts of the BJP-RSS led Central government to destroy autonomy of the PRASAR BHARATI BOARD. On August 11-12, 2001 the Central Unit organised a workshop on the “Threat of Communal Fascism” at Khurja (Bulandshahar U.P.) in which representatives of various state units took part. We were the first to condemn the Gujarat massacre at Godhara and subsequently the state organised genocide of minority community and destruction of their property and bases of their livelihood. Out UP unit orgaised a visit of those suffered in Gujarat violence against Muslim minority and submitted a report to the JLS Centre. We held a day of Resistance Poetry in April 2002 and presented the recital of poems of three great icons of Hindi and Urdu poetry of Indian subcontinent i.e. Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Nagarjun and Habib Jalib. We also recited on that day the poems of Wali Gujrati known as Wali Dakhni whose ‘majar’ was destroyed by VHP goons at Ahmedabad and converted into a straight road. In the year 2003 we organised a big demonstration before the Central Board of Secondary Education that has hurled insult on Munshi Premchand by making his novel an alternative to a novel written by an unknown woman non-writer’s novel who is simply a leader of BJP’s women wing.
ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2004 a joint RESISTANCE CONVENTION was organised at
New Delhi-110001 in which Janvadi Lekhak Sangh, SAHMAT, Progressive Writers Association, JANAM, ACT ONE, Udbhavna, Samayantar,Hans, Communalism Combat, Jan Sanskriti Manch, Jan Sanskriti gave a call to fight against communal fascist ideology of the Hindutva forces who were attacking writers, theatre activists and artists at various places.
When NDA Govt at the Centre was voted out and new Government under United Progressive Alliance was sworn in, Janwadi Lekhak Sangh organised a Convention of all prominent Hindi-Urdu writers at New Delhi on June 10, 2004 to discuss issues to be included in the Writers’ Charter to be placed before the new Government. The Charter contained writers’ point of view in relation to literary, educational and cultural institutions under direct or indirect control of various union Ministers. The Charters were submitted to the concerned ministers and some of the demands were met, but many goals remained unrealised. An important suggestion of the Janwadi Lekhak Sangh to celebrate 125th Birth anniversary of Munshi Premchand, the great novelist of Hindi and Urdu language and champion of our composite culture was accepted by the Ministery of Culture. JLS leadership was included in the National committee formed for this purpose and various programmes were organised by the Committee beginning with an inaugural programme on July 31, 2005 at Lamhi and Varanasi where the Union Culture Minister of UPA Govt too was present. Various programmes on Munshi Premchand were organised during the whole year of 2006 with a grand programme at New Delhi on July 31, 2006.
On February 24-25, 2007 we organised a National seminar at Siwan (Bihar) on the role of media and also one session on Urdu literature and after. We also organised a grand programme on May 19, 2007 at Meerut to celebrate the 150th anniversary of 1857 revolt and brought out a Special issue of NAYA PATH, our Hindi Journal on that occasion. After that we began our preparations for the All India Conference that was held at Digwadih (Dhanbad) as mentioned above.
Janwadi Lekhak Sangh published NAYA PATH (New Path) a literary Hindi Journal. This Journal was launched in the early 50s of twentieth century by progressive and revolutionary writers of Hindi. It was owned and published by late Shiv Varma, a great revolutionary and comrade-in-arms of Bhagat Singh, Sukh Dev and Chandra Shekhar Azad. Comrade Shiv Varma thought it fit in 1986 to transfer its ownership to Janwadi Lekhak Sangh , a genuine heir to the legacy of democratic ideals dreamt of by great freedom fighters of India. After getting ownership transferred in the name of Janwadi Lekhak Sangh the association published about 28 issues so far. Three special numbers i.e. one on ‘Nirala’ and another one on completion of fifty years of Independence and one, as mentioned above on 1857 were brought out by JLS centre and these were well received by Hindi readership.
The Association from time to time publishes JALES KHABAR, a news bulletin containing some pages in Hindi and some in Urdu script.