article

Politics of Mass Struggle

THE historic victory of the kisan struggle in forcing the government to roll back the anti-farmer, pro-corporate three farm laws underlines the importance of the politics of mass struggle. The strength of the farmers' united movements under the leadership of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha put the government on the defensive with the struggle organically transforming into a mass struggle against the BJP and its governments at the centre and states.

The Ominous Design: Journey towards a Security State

MODI government has promulgated two ordinances allowing the central government to extend tenures of the directors of CBI and ED from two to five years. That both these central agencies have been functioning as the political tool of the ruling party to advance the government’s agenda is a cliché in India today. Leaders of opposition parties and dissenting voices, intellectuals who dare to call the government to account are being regularly targeted.

A Tax Burden that Attacks The Federal Rights of States

THE Narendra Modi government reduced excise duty on petrol and diesel on the eve of Deepavali. While the reduction for petrol was Rs 5, duty on diesel came down by Rs 10. The finance ministry ‘dedicated’ the reduction to farmers for keeping “the economic growth momentum going even during the (Covid-19) lockdown phase” and said the reduction “will come as a boost to the farmers during the upcoming Rabi season”.

A Tale of Two COP26 Meetings

GLASGOW (Scotland, UK) was once the second most important city in the British Empire. The old docks along the river Clyde brought ships that came from Bengal carrying jute for the mills of Dundee and brought the wealth of the Americas that was earned by the trade in human beings. The city’s old buildings carry the evidence of that wealth, while the stories of its working-class rebellion in 1919 (Red Clydeside) are buried under the flagstones of St. George’s Square along with the memories of the Indian jute workers and the African sugarcane workers.

Change Capitalism to Slow Climate Change

COP26 - the 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is currently underway at Glasgow, United Kingdom. It is considered to have the most important climate talks since this signing of the Paris agreement in 2015. Climate catastrophe continues to haunt the world despite intense negotiations, since the ratification of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed to in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. 

Inescapable: Remembering November in the Midst of a Pandemic

SINCE the collapse of the Soviet Union three decades back, efforts to rubbish the November revolution and its underlying principles continue. It is another matter that the questions raised and the answers provided to some of the profound issues confronting the human society cannot be ostracised for good. They stand up with the full range of its ideological posers. In fact, with the passage of time they raise new vision in engaging with the current and evolving reality under contemporary neo-liberal capitalism.

The Great October Revolution – Its Relevance for the Working Class Today

MORE than hundred years after it ‘shook the world’, the Great October Revolution that changed the course of history continues to inspire the working class around the world. It has started a new era in human history.

The Russian Revolution that took place on November 7, 1917 (25 October as per the Old Russian calendar, hence called October Revolution) is particularly significant today for the working class and all sections of the toiling people who are facing huge attacks by neoliberal capitalism.

Gandhiji and Savarkar in Post-Truth Project of Saffron Brigade

Perhaps Vinayak Damodar Savarkar didn’t ever think that new-age Sangh Parivar patriarchs would drag him in such an uncomfortable controversy and that too involving none other than Gandhiji! While formally releasing a book on Savarkar on October 13 in the presence of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, Defence minister and former BJP president Rajnath Singh claimed that Savarkar had submitted mercy petitions to the colonial administration while he was locked up in the Andaman jail and that it was Gandhiji who had asked him to do so!

J&K: Disillusionment, Hopelessness Created by BJP’s Divisive Policies Bound to Provide Ground for Extremism to Grow

THE recently concluded visit of union home minister Amit Shah, his first since the special status of Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370 was arbitrarily and unconstitutionally revoked in August 2019, has been one more addition to the long list of disillusionments as except rhetoric nothing came out of it. The claims made by Shah that since the abrogation of Article 370 and downgrading of a state with special status into two union territories, there has been progress in J&K, is nothing but a hoax.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - article