IN The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, the famous political philosopher, author and Holocaust survivor, wrote: “Only the mob and the elite can be attracted by the momentum of totalitarianism. The masses have to be won by propaganda,” referring to how the Nazi gangs unleashed fascism with ferocity in Germany in the early decades of the 20th century.

WHEN the land of people’s movements and struggles played host to the 23rd Party Congress, it scripted a new history. The 23rd Party Congress of CPI(M) at Kannur was made a huge success by the efficient organisation, spirited coordination and hard work with determination. The energetic support offered by the Party workers, sympathisers, fellow travellers and the common people was crucial in achieving this.

KANNUR, the land with a revolutionary legacy of agrarian revolts and struggles, is in the final stage of preparations to host the 23rd Party Congress of the CPI(M). Arrangements for the conference at the E K Nayanar Academy, Kannur, are almost complete and a public meeting and rally will be held at A K G Nagar at Kannur Jawahar Stadium. The delegate session will be held at the specially constructed E K Nayanar Nagar in E K Nayanar Academy.

Watersheds come in families; nested levels of intimacy. On the grandest scale, the hydrologic web is like all humanity ----- Serbs, Russians, Koyukon Indians, Amish, the billion lives in the People’s Republic of China-----its broadly troubled, but it’s hard to know how to help. As you work upstream toward home, you’re more closely related. The big river is like your nation, a little out of hand. The lake is your cousin. The creek is your sister. The pond is her child. And, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, you’re married to your sink.

PROFESSOR Aijaz Ahmad, who passed away last week in Irvine, California, was one of the foremost Marxist intellectuals of our times.  His significance as a Marxist theoretician came to prominence in the period after the retreat of socialism in the late 1980s and which led to the dismantling of the Soviet Union in 1991.