Book Review

No End of Protest

IT'S five years since the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) that took the world by a storm. It all began in September 2011 and ended in November 2011. At its height, 'Occupy' protests happened in around 951 cities in 82 countries around the world. These protests brought forth the wide inequalities existing between the 1 percent and the 99 percent. Many analytical/critical articles and commentaries were written on these protests. The End of Protest, A New Playbook for Revolution, as the title signifies, is an audacious attempt by Micah White, one of the co-founders of the OWS movement.

Cuba Si ! Yankee No !

IT is 62 years since Fidel Castro, who is now 88-year old, had burst into limelight. On July 26, 1953, he had led a band of activists into attacking the Moncada garrisons and along with it the little known Bayamo garrisons. Though the attack carried out against the Batista dictatorship was a failure and Fidel, along with others was imprisoned, it did not deter them from planning the future course of action. It is during the course of his trial that he gave the famous speech, 'History Will Absolve Me'. And how correct he was proved!

The Resistible Rise of Economic and Religious Rights in Gujarat

IN Liberalization, Hindu Nationalism and the State: A Biography of Gujarat (OUP 2012), Nikita Sud traces the state's politics under colonialism and later under its Hindu religious and business elites. Their joint vested interests led to the parallel consolidations of the economic and religious rights in Gujarat. The region inherited a rich mercantile as well as a rich peasant-artisan based handicrafts traditions that go back to three millennia. The region also inherited a rich plural culture that has been well chronicled in early and medieval Indian and Asian sources.

Wages of Neo-liberalism

JEREMY Seabrook, one of the most vocal voices of labour today, in his latest book The Song of the Shirt, takes us to the bleak, almost surreal, world of Dhaka garment industry’s over 3,000 sweatshops. Tens of thousands of workers – 80 per cent of them women and children – labour here for long hours, in cramped and squalid conditions to eke out a subsistence existence. Many malnourished live on one meal a day, with diseases never far away and doctors beyond their reach. Nevertheless, for these workers, the only thing worse than these sweatshops is not to have them.

Dare – To Dream, Fight and Change the World

IN the recently concluded elections to various States in Latin America – Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay and El Salvador – the parties that were credited to have ushered in a 'pink tide', retained office. These victories are indeed significant, because many ruling parties (both Social Democrat and Conservative) across the world are losing elections in these times of global economic crises.

FIFA, IOC Style Neo-Liberalism

DEVASTATED! Or is it too mild a word to explain the emotions of all the fans of Brazilian football, not to speak of the Brazilians, after the 7-1 semi-final routing of Brazil at the hands of Germany? Brazilians wanted to exorcise the ghosts of their loss in the final of 1950 World Cup at the Maracana, till now considered as a national tragedy, by hosting and winning this World Cup at home. That was not to be.

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