Latin America’s Fourth Left Wave Since the Cuban Revolution is Social Democratic

ON August 7, 2022, Colombia will have a new president (Gustavo Petro) and a vice president (Francia Márquez), both stalwarts of the country’s left-wing movements. They will form the first left government since the country won its independence in 1810. Two months later, on October 2, the people of Brazil will vote in the first round of their presidential elections.

Karnataka: Convention for harmonious, prosperous State

LEFT, secular and democratic parties in Karnataka held a state-level convention in Bengaluru for a harmonious, prosperous people's Karnataka. The convention was held on July 16, 2022, in Ambedkar Bhavan. In this convention, more than one thousand activists and cadres of CPI(M), CPI, SUCI(C), CPIML( Liberation), Forward Block, RPI and Swaraj India participated.

GST Rate Hikes and the Tweets Of Union Finance Minister

REFERRING to a list of 12 grains and their flours, union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that “GST on these goods shall apply when supplied in ‘pre-packaged and labelled’ commodities attracting the provisions of Legal Metrology Act. For example, items like pulses, cereals like rice, wheat, and flour, etc, earlier attracted GST at the rate of 5 per cent when branded and packed in unit container. From July 18, 2022, these items would attract GST when “pre-packaged and labelled”.BRANDED AND UNBRANDEDLet us clarify this rigmarole.

DUJ-KUWJ Slam Curbs on Journalists

THE Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) and Kerala Union of Working Journalist (KUWJ) Delhi Unit, in a joint statement on July 28, have expressed serious concern, both at the curbs on Kashmiri journalist Aakash Hassan, who was ‘barred’ from flying to Sri Lanka for coverage and the arrest warrant against journalist Ravi Nair in an Adani defamation suit.

Dairy Farmers’ Protest Demands Revocation of GST on Dairy Products, Machinery

THE GST Council in its 47th Meeting held on June 28-29 had recommended imposition of 5 per cent GST on dairy products and 18 per cent GST on dairy machinery.

Sixty Years of Independence: Advance Struggle for Democratic Transformation

THE country will celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of independence and look back with pride at the achievement of India becoming free from colonialism on August 15, 1947. Millions of people participated in the freedom struggle, which led to the first historic milestone in the decolonisation process ushered in after the defeat of fascism in the Second World War. Tens of thousands of people sacrificed their lives in the different phases of the freedom struggle.

Supreme Court: Contradictory Trends

TWO judgments delivered by the Supreme Court in the course of a week have brought out starkly the contradictory trends on display in the highest court of the land. In the case of the multiple FIRs against Alt News journalist, Mohammed Zubair, a three-member bench consisting of Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice Surya Kant and Justice A S Bopanna, in their judgment asserted that the power to arrest must be used sparingly subject strictly to the law and guidelines laid down by the top court in the Arnesh Kumar case. The judgment stated that “Arrest is not meant to be and must not be u

Profit out of Pain and the Rising Inequality

NOTHING but the astonishing alienation from the realities of India, on the part of some academics close to the policy circle, can explain the futile attempt to show that inequality in India has declined during the COVID-19 pandemic. A widely publicized exercise based on national private consumption expenditure data from National Accounts Statistics (NAS) claims that inequality and poverty have declined in India. NAS consumption expenditure data is derived as a residual measure net of other macro aggregates.

Telangana: Party Offices turn into Rehab Centres for Flood Victims

CYCLONE and monsoon rain between July 5-15 led to heavy precipitation. More than 44 per cent than normal rainfall was recorded during this period, particularly in the catchment area of Godavari. There was a heavy loss in the districts of Bhadrachalam, Khammam, Adilabad, Warangal, Nizamabad and Karimnagar.Just a month had passed by since the Kharif crop was sown. The seedlings have been damaged. Nearly 11 lakh acres of the sown area have been damaged. Main crops include cotton, rice, soya, pulses, jowar, and oilseed crops. Eight people died so far because of heavy rains.

Fifty Years of Independence and Calcutta AICC Session

Below we reproduce the article written by Comrade Harkishan Singh Surjeet published in People’s Democracy on the 50th anniversary of India’s Independence.THE AICC session at Calcutta from August 8 to 10, 1997 adopted, amongst others, Political Resolution, Economic Policy Resolution, International Resolution and a Golden Jubilee Resolution. This session being held on the eve of the Golden Jubilee of Indian independence provided an opportunity for remembering the sacrifices made in the course of the struggle for freedom.

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