FACEBOOK is in the limelight for both the right reasons and the wrong reasons. The wrong reason is that, what was supposed to be a small configuration change took Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp down for a few hours last week. It affected billions of users, showing us how important Facebook and other tech giants have become to our lives and even other businesses. Of course, the much more significant issue is the whistleblower, Frances Haugen, a former employee, making tens of thousands of pages of Facebook's internal documents public.
THE Telangana state committee of the CITU organised a 22-day padayatra covering a distance of 400 km across industrial hubs in the five districts around Hyderabad on the demands of minimum wages and restoration of workers’ rights. A four-member team consisting of S Veeraiah, P Jayalakshmi, Paladugu Bhaskar and Bhoopal undertook the padayatra. While travelling from Koyyalagudem to Pochampalli, the marchers came across a board at the entrance of a company which reads in Telugu: ‘Nee edupe naa edugudala’, or ‘As you shed tears, so I prosper’.
CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, Brinda Karat, has written a letter to Bhupendra Yadav, union minister for environment, forests and climate change, government of India on October 6, on the ‘Consultation Paper on Proposed amendments in the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980’ (FCA). Below we publish the text of the letter.THE ministry has invited comments/suggestions on proposed amendments in the FCA. However the actual amendments are not circulated but only a general note.
ON September 29, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat visited the eviction affected villages in Darrang district of Assam along with a delegation comprising Suprakash Talukdar, CPI(M) Central Committee member, MLA Monoranjan Talukdar, secretariat member Ajit and other state leaders. On their return, the delegation tried to meet the chief minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma to present to him their findings. Since he was not available at the time, Brinda Karat wrote a letter to him. Below we publish the text of the letter.We went to Dhalpur 1, 2 and 3 and met scores of evicted people.
THE RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat, paid a four-day visit to Jammu recently. This was the first visit by Bhagwat to Jammu & Kashmir after the annulment of Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution. In one sense, this was a triumphant tour by the RSS chief since it was the Sangh which relentlessly opposed Article 370 and fought for its removal.The Sangh had, through the Praja Parishad in Jammu, opposed Article 370 and launched an agitation for integrating Jammu into the Indian Union. Jammu became the redoubt of the RSS and later the BJP.
MINDLESS violence unleashed on the cadres and the offices of CPI(M) in Tripura on September 8 was condemned by the people of Tamil Nadu in various ways. Many demonstrations were held across the state since September 10 condemning the BJP for unleashing the reign of terror.
SEPTEMBER 25, 2021 marked the birth centenary day of Comrade Prabhakar Sanzgiri. He was born on September 25, 1921 and passed away on March 9, 2009. In him, the Left movement, the CPI(M) and the CITU in Maharashtra lost one of their extraordinary leaders. He joined the Communist Party in 1941 at the age of 20. Sanzgiri devoted 68 of his 87 years to the Communist movement with exemplary devotion.For most of this period, he was one of the front rank leaders of the Party and CITU.
THE scheme workers organised a successful all-India strike on September 24. The Joint Platform of Scheme Workers’ Federations congratulated them for the magnificent show of strength. Lakhs of scheme workers mainly the Anganwadi, ASHA and Mid-day Meal workers struck work and held demonstrations, dharnas, rallies etc at district/block centres throughout the country.