KERALATHE common people were the worst-hit by the rise in the price of essential commodities following the frequent fuel price hikes and neo-liberal policies followed by the NDA government led by Modi, said Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, CPI(M) state secretary. He was inaugurating a state wide CPI(M) protest march in front of Raj Bhavan in Thiruvanathapuram. He also urged the central government to pass the food security bill as early as possible. It will help in arresting price rise and poverty.
THE State Level Plenum of CPI(M) in Jharkhand has called for building a strong revolutionary party organisation to counter the communal and right-wing forces and to take up the people’s issues. The plenum began with a huge rally by workers, peasants, youths and women.
EVER since the formation of the Raghubar Das government in Jharkhand, the law and order situation has been deteriorating day-by-day and people are being forced to live under constant fear. To make matters worse, instead of taking actions against the criminals, policemen are unleashing their fury on the innocent masses in the name of maintaining law and order.
WORKERS at the Shongtong Karcham Hydropower Project, under the banner of CITU, have been on strike for the past four months but the government and the local administration remain insensitive to their just and genuine demands. The workers are demanding that labour laws be implemented. But the administration and the government are on the side of the contractors who are not paying minimum wages, overtime and tunnel allowances to the workers and not depositing provident fund contribution. A worker is losing out Rs 5,000-7,000 per month on account of denial of their rights by the contractors.
Reports have appeared in the media that the newly-sworn in LDF government has supported the stand of the earlier UDF government before the Supreme Court which was against the entry of women into the Sabarimala temple. If this is true, it is truly unfortunate.
THERE is a view that the discontent among the English workers that caused the Brexit vote was not because of European economic integration as such, but because of the policy of free internal migration that has accompanied this integration; that if Europe had not enacted free migration within the EU, then its economic integration would have been more successful.
THE Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch calls upon all its units across the country to organise widespread protests condemning the gruesome attack on seven members of a Dalit family by the cow protection vigilantes (gau rakshaks) in Gujarat’s Gir Somnath district on July 11.
CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat has requested Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister to ensure that justice is done to the family of Mohammad Akhlaq, the victim of the lynching in Dadri last September. In a telephonic conversation and a subsequent letter, Karat also asked Yadav to look into the circumstances in which a court order was given under CrPC Section 156(3) for filing of an FIR against Akhlaq and his family members and investigating the charge of cow slaughter.
UNITED Forum of Bank Unions, an umbrella organisation of nine unions of workmen and officers in the banking industry has given a call for a day’s strike on July 29, 2016 opposing the moves of the government towards privatisation and merger of public sector banks and proposed anti-labour amendments to labour laws and demanding stringent action against willful defaulters towards recovery of non-performing assets.
THE Central Committee of the CPI(M), in its last meeting, reviewed the Party’s performance in the Assembly elections in five states. It concluded that the electoral tactics in West Bengal of having an understanding with the Congress party was a departure from the political-tactical line of the Party and that approach should be rectified. This decision of the Party has evoked some discussion in political circles. Some Left and liberal intellectuals have voiced their disagreement with the Party’s stand that there should be no alliance or understanding with the Congress party.