THE Maharashtra state committee of the Democratic Youth Federation of India organised a three-day study camp for its leading cadre from April 22-24 in Mumbai. Kumar Shiralkar, well-known writer and activist, inaugurated the camp which was attended by 160 delegates. Inaugurating the camp, he exhorted the youth to rally against the communal forces and also come out in struggle against the ill effects of neoliberal policies. Rural distress, unemployment and price rise should be taken up for intense struggles, he said.

THOUSANDS of workers from across Tamil Nadu took part in a rally in Chennai on April 4, demanding a curb on price rise, check on rising unemployment, abolition of the contract system and equal pay for equal work, an end to violence against women at work place, and a minimum wage of Rs 18,000, among others. The 13^TH Tamil Nadu state conference of the CITU had given a clarion call to the working class to lay siege to the Fort St George, the state secretariat, over these long-pending demands of the people, particularly the workers.

BJP has acquired the most aggressive posture and after Uttar Pradesh, Bihar is the next target, where it wants to expand its activities by fomenting communal trouble in different parts of the state. Nawadsh, Bhagalpur, Madhubani, Rohtas, Darbhanga have experienced such nefarious activities by the RSS and its affiliates but they have failed to ignite a fire.

IN the midst of the current tumultuous situation in valley which is wrecking innocent lives with terrible alacrity, it seems words like peace and security have completely disappeared from our  living idiom as some of us may have held on to the faintest hopes that these words carry in the situation that has beset us for so long.

THE Left parties, including the CPI(M), and various mass organisations commenced relay hunger strike demanding the TRS government to continue the dharna chowk at Indira Park in Hyderabad. Started by the Left parties on April 15, the relay hunger strikes by different mass organisations and different sections of the people would continue till the 14th May and culminate into occupation of Dharna Chowk on the 15^th May.