HISTORY stands as witness: whenever waves of struggle have swept across the nation, Kolkata has never backed down. Whether it was the historic Rashid Ali Day of 1946 or the fierce street solidarity with Vietnam's liberation struggle in the 1960s, the boulevards of Kolkata have repeatedly erupted into an ocean of surging youth. The radical legacy Kolkata carries in its veins proved no different this time.

The following joint statement was issued to the media by the Central Trade Unions and Samyukt Kisan Morcha July 29, 2026:

On 21 July 2026, the AIKS Maharashtra State Committee organised a 5,000-strong statewide rally at the Azad Maidan in Mumbai. Braving the rains and in spite of the busy sowing season, thousands of peasants came from 15 districts of all the 5 regions of the state - Konkan, Western Maharashtra, Northern Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha. They included Thane-Palghar, Nashik, Ahilyanagar, Pune, Raigad, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur, Beed, Parbhani, Nanded, Buldana, Amravati, and Yavatmal.

SUCH is the pervasiveness of bourgeois ideology these days that even many who are wholly committed to the vision of socialism entertain ideas about it that are utterly erroneous. It would not be out of place therefore to go back to this basic question once again. The common perception of socialism is that it is a society characterized by the social ownership of the means of production, for which state ownership is taken as a proxy. But this, while a necessary condition, is not a sufficient condition.

ON July 6, Suryapur in Baruipur, on the southern fringes of Kolkata, erupted in protest — an upheaval whose tremors reverberated across West Bengal. The brutal gang rape and murder of a minor girl sparked widespread outrage. Exploiting the tragedy, the state’s new BJP government predictably sought to frame the issue through a communal lens.