THE 2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress that was tabled by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development recently throws light on the alarming rise in homelessness in advanced capitalist countries. According to the report, there was a 7 per cent increase in the number of homeless people staying outdoors and a 13 per cent increase in the number of unsheltered families in the US during the previous year. It estimates that the homeless population in California alone was 161,548 as of January 2020.

WITH dates for elections to the West Bengal state assembly having been declared, the manifesto of the Left Front was released by the chairman of the Left Front, Biman Basu, in the presence of other Front leaders. These elections are being held in the backdrop of a year which was marred by a pandemic against which the entire human race is fighting a grim battle. The past year is also marked by a lockdown which was thrust upon the unsuspecting masses and which ruined lives and livelihoods of crores of people of this country.

IN the ensuing elections to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly to be held on April 6, the CPI(M) Tamil Nadu state committee has decided to fight along with the DMK-led Secular Progressive Front. Following the discussions with the DMK, CPI(M) will contest six assembly seats. Similarly, CPI, VCK, MDMK are also contesting in six seats each.Following this agreement with the DMK, the state secretariat and the state committee of CPI(M) met and finalised the candidates for the six assembly seats as follows:1. Keelvelur (SC) – Nagai Mali2. Thiruparankundram – S K Ponnuthai3.

ON March 26, the farmers’ struggle completes four months. On that day, the SKM has given a clarion call for a Bharat bandh to support the struggle and to put the Modi-led BJP regime on the mat. The last Bharat bandh was on December 8, 2020, and it had turned out to be a massive countrywide success.STRUGGLE CALLSThe various SKM struggle calls in the month of March were well implemented not only at the Delhi borders, but also throughout the country. On March 6, to mark the completion of 100 days of the struggle, lakhs of farmers blocked the KMP highway at all the borders.

ON March 15, at the call of the Central Trade Unions and the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, joint protests were held outside hundreds of railway stations against the BJP led union government’s drive for the privatisation of public sector assets, against corporatisation of agriculture through the farm laws, and against the massive rise in diesel, petrol and gas prices. These actions were held all over the country. Pamphlets detailing the harmful effects of these anti-people policies of the government, were handed out to the commuters at the railway stations.