THE historic farmers' movement in India which began on November 26, 2020 at Delhi's borders, along with the one day all India strike of the working class, completed eleven long months on October 26, 2021. Lakhs of annadaatas of our country have led a peaceful, continuous and resolute struggle and have put themselves through severe hardships during this period. In the largest such protests anywhere in the world, farmers have been demanding that their livelihoods be protected from corporate loot in unregulated markets.

SHUBHA Lakshmi is pursuing her graduation in English literature. She is the newly elected secretary of CPI(M)’s Vilakkuvattam branch, in Kollam district. She is one of the youngest branch secretaries of CPI(M) in the state.In the branch conferences being held in the state, more women leaders are coming to the forefront of the organisation. The number of CPI(M) branches headed by woman secretaries has increased significantly.The representation of women in local self-governments has reached 50 per cent with the intervention of LDF governments.

THE Tripura state committee of CPI(M) held a condolence meeting in memory of Comrade Bijan Dhar at Rabindra Satabarshiki Bhawan in Agartala on October 18, 2021. Polit Bureau members – Prakash Karat, Biman Bose and Manik Sarkar, Central Committee members, Robin Deb from West Bengal, Deben Bhattacharjee from Assam, all Central Committee members from Tripura and leaders of other Left parties attended the meeting. Bijan Dhar’s wife, Ila Dasgupta and daughter Purbasha Dhar were also present on the dais.

LAST week saw two major nationwide actions by lakhs of farmers led by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), demanding the dismissal and arrest on murder and conspiracy charges of the BJP’s union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra Teni, who is the mastermind behind the Lakhimpur Kheri massacre that mowed down four farmers and a journalist on October 3.On Dussehra Day, October 15, to symbolise the triumph of good over evil, effigy-burning of top BJP leaders like Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, Narendra Singh Tomar, Manohar Lal Khattar, Ajay Mishra Teni and others took place in thous

THE two-day AIKS Maharashtra state workshop began on October 1, 2021 at the Comrade Narendra Malusare Sankul, CITU Kamgar Bhawan at Nashik. Because of the Covid pandemic, a physical AIKS state workshop was being held for the first time in the last two years. It was attended by 177 leading activists from 22 districts.