PORTUGAL, Austria and Poland had elections to their respective parliaments recently. While the Social Democrats were victorious in Portugal, Conservatives won in Austria and Poland. A noteworthy feature is the decrease in the vote share of the far-right party in Austria, a coalition partner of the Conservatives in the previous government; the entry of Left into Polish parliament and the marginal setback to the Left parties in Portugal.In Austria, the ruling Conservative Austrian People's Party won 37.5 per cent of the votes, retaining power.

THE Bank Employees Federation of India(BEFI) has stated that the interest rate cuts will not reverse the slowdown presently witnessed in the country. Reacting to the bimonthly policy statement of the RBI released on October 4, the BEFI issued the statement.The BEFI has stated, “Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of Reserve Bank of India, on  October 4 has reduced the key bank rate or the rate at which the RBI lends to banks for the fifth time in a row since February, till now by 1.35 per cent bringing it to 5.15 per cent and intends to continue further cuts to revive growth in the economy.

WOMEN activists from the Left progressive parties and movements gathered at Essen, Germany last month in the Feminist Futures Festival organised by Rosa Luxemburg Stiflung to share their experiences about their struggles when combating the right-wing forces in their respective countries and discuss strategies and ideas for an international networking to strengthen this movement. The participants included women from the continents of Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America.

THE Centre of Indian Trade Union, in a statement issued on October 12, has expressed its grief at the demise of Comrade R Srinivas, vice president of Karnataka state CITU. He passed away on October 11, 2019 at Bangalore due to massive heart attack while attending a meeting.Comrade Srinivas was the leader of CITU union in BPL who has led the historic strike in 1998. He was victimised and implicated in a false case by the management for which he was sentenced for life imprisonment. He had spent more than 16 years in jail and was released only in 2016.

THE Haryana state assembly elections for 90 constituencies will take place on October 21. Both the CPI and the CPI(M) are contesting seven seats each. The CPI(M) has announced the following candidates:Jagtar Singh-Tohana(Fatehabad); Suresh Kumar-Adampur(Hisar); Ram Mehar-Bawani Khera-SC(Bhivani); Ramesh Chandra-Julana(Jind); Satyawan-Kalaayat(Kaithal); kamlesh Lahli-Kalaanaur SC(Rohtak); Virender Dangwal-NIT(Faridabad).In the parliament elections held in May 2019, all the 10 Lok Sabha seats from Haryana were won by the BJP, securing 58.2 per cent votes.