Community Kitchens in Bengal

HUNDREDS of Left activists are showing exemplary motivation and are helping poor, stranded people in West Bengal. From the day one of lockdown, Left mass organisations have organised temporary food distribution centres. The success story of one has inspired others and numerous such centres have come up in the state. Without any help from the state government, these activists have run ‘community kitchens’ in many areas. They have been encouraged by neighbourhood and people are contributing in cash or kind.

BIHAR: CPI(M) Stands with Migrant Workers Returning Home

IT is well established that Bihar has a long history of migration of labourers in large numbers and the intensifying agrarian crisis has contributed to increased migration from the state to all parts of the country and abroad. Soon after the announcement of the coronavirus lockdown, industries, factories and shops across the country were shut down and the migrant workers were forced to return to their state.

MAHA: CPI(M) Suggestions at the All-Party Conference Held by CM

ON May 7, 2020, Uddhav Thackeray, chief minister of Maharashtra, held an all-party video conference on tackling the Covid pandemic. CPI(M) Central Committee member Ashok Dhawale attended. The following is the nine-point charter that he placed on behalf of the CPI(M).

Authoritarianism Reinforced

THE Covid-19 pandemic has intensified and reinforced the authoritarian set-up which had been ushered in by the Modi government. The authoritarian trend had begun with the Modi government being installed in office in May 2014. It got consolidated with its return to power in May 2019. Now one year hence, the extraordinary situation created by the Covid pandemic has been fully utilised to strengthen the authoritarian regime.

Punish the Guilty of Visakhapatnam Gas Leak

CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statements

THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) is aghast at the deadly gas leak that took place in LG Polymers plant in Visakhapatnam. More than ten people have died so far and nearly a thousand hospitalised. Hospital authorities anticipate the deaths to rise.

EIA Notification 2020: not now, not ever!

The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) had released a Draft Notification on Environment Impact Assessment 2020 (EIA Notification 2020) on 12 March 2020, on the eve of the world’s largest nationwide lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and had called for responses in the next 60 days. This time period is scheduled to expire next week on 11 May 2020. EIA Notification 2020 is to replace and supersede EIA Notification 2006 and the many amendments issued since then.

The Pandemic that Endures

ON the very first day of the lockdown, March 25, a sanitation worker in Delhi, Suresh, died at a sewage treatment plant while his co-worker, Jasbir, was admitted to hospital in a critical condition. They were not only working in extremely hazardous conditions but they were also bereft of equipment considered essential for such work all over the world.

The Valiant Worli Revolt

THE basic cause of the mass upsurge of the Worlis lay in their abominable condition of wretchedness and their suppression by the tyrant landlords. They had rotted in these conditions for over a century – conditions they had thoroughly hated, but fear and helplessness suppressed their raging fire. They lived with bitter despair and were anxious to end their slavery, but did not know how to do it. The entry of Kisan Sabha led by the communists filled this gap.

Red Flag over Reichstag - 75 Years

MAY 9 is the day when the Second World War had officially concluded with the surrender of the Nazi Germany and is hence observed as ‘Victory Day’. This year marks its 75th anniversary and is being observed world over in the midst of acute economic crisis, often compared with the Great Depression of the 1930s. Adding to this is the Covid-19 pandemic, which further exposed the hollowness of neoliberal capitalism and its crisis ridden model.

COVID-19: The Critical Case of Mumbai

MUMBAI, the financial, commercial and entertainment nerve centre of India, has been under serious distress because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mumbai generates 33 per cent of the country’s income tax, 60 per cent of custom duty, 20 per cent of central excise duty, and 40 per cent of the foreign trade, 25 per cent of industrial output, 70 per cent of capital formation, 10 per cent of factory employment. The city is one of the top 10 centres of global financial flow, contributing over 6 per cent of India’s GDP. Large numbers of financial institutions have their head office in Mumbai

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