A CENTRAL secretariat member of the Syrian Communist Party, Muhann (Hani) Jebara, was shot dead by an armed criminal gang near his home in "Tejara zone" of capital Damascus in the morning of March 12. Comrade Muhann was a real symbol of hardworking and dedicated Communist who fought for the interests of the masses, which was clear from his brave activities in the Damascus Governorate Council for many years.
THE brutal beheadings of two Japanese citizens and the torching of the Jordanian pilot who were in the captivity of the Islamic State (IS) were the latest instances of the group’s total disregard for basic humanitarian norms. The IS propagandists claim that they are only replicating on a smaller scale what the US and its allies did on a bigger scale with their bombings on civilian areas in Iraq and the torture that was practiced in Abu Ghraib and other CIA run centers.
THE NDA government managed to push through the land acquisition bill in the Lok Sabha this week while a united opposition made it clear that the path of the contentious bills, especially those resulting out of ordinances, would hardly be smooth in the Rajya Sabha and would required to stand the test of parliamentary scrutiny.
THE 24th state conference of the CPI(M) West Bengal committee started with a massive rally at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata on March 8 and after five-days of deliberations concluded on March 13 with the battle cry to ‘Oust Trinamool, Save Bengal’.
THE 21st Maharashtra state conference of the CPI(M) began on March 14, 2015 – the death anniversary of Karl Marx and the birth anniversary of Albert Einstein – with a massive rally of over 20,000 people at Kalwan in Nashik district. The large gathering comprised mainly adivasi peasants from all the rural tehsils of Nashik district. Kalwan (ST) is the state assembly constituency that was won by J P Gavit for the CPI(M) last year in October 2014.
PEOPLE in Kerala wholeheartedly welcomed DYFI’s action against the authoritarianism over food. The beef festival programme organised in Thiruvananthapuram by the DYFI state Committee and in many college campuses all over the state by the SFI has attracted thousands of people, especially youth and students to this form of struggle.
By attending the beef festival, people across the party lines, underlined that they will not allow any move to impose food habits and will fight for food democracy.
THE J&K State Committee of CPI(M) reiterated its stand that Article 370 cannot be abrogated, as this is the only link between Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of India. The state secretary of the Party, M Y Tarigami alongwith Sham Prasad Kesar and MYG Nairang, senior leaders of the Party addressed a news conference in Jammu on March 12.
HUNDREDS of Delhi Airport workers under the banner of Airport Employees Union (CITU) held a demonstration before the office of Union Labour Ministry, in New Delhi on March 2 against the termination of contract workers who are working as loaders & packers with the Airport Authority of India and Indian Airlines at the IGI Airport in Delhi. The workers were arrested by the police.
ARE right-wingers dumber than others? How else can we explain the tenacity with which a set of them hold on to beliefs in flying machines and genetics 7,000 years back; deny evolution; climate change? Why do the right, confronted with evidence contrary to their belief systems, prefer to invent their own facts?
THE victory of a Left Alliance, Syriza, in the Greek elections on January 25, was a matter of great significance, especially because that victory was based on a promise that Syriza would get rid of the memoranda imposing austerity on Greece by the “Troika” (the European Union, the European Central Bank and the IMF). Syriza’s victory was thus expressive of a popular revolt against neo-liberalism.Upon coming to power Syriza wanted to end all existing agreements with the “troika” on the grounds that these had been decisively rejected by the Greek people.
