LAST week saw the announcement of a momentous reform of Britain’s railway system. While the term “reform” under the neo-liberal policy framework these days connotes increased privatisation and deregulation, the UK government under prime minister, Boris Johnson has gone the other way. The UK government released a white paper based on an official review set up in 2018 led by businessman Keith Williams, former head of the now privatised British Airways.

THE union territory of Lakshadweep is a group of islands which are home to around 65,000 people.  These quiet, peace-loving people are being subjected to a ruthless regime which seeks to deprive them of their way of life, livelihoods, food and cultural rights. The plague on the island did not come in the form of the Covid-19 virus first, but when a new administrator took charge in December 2020.  Till then, all previous administrators had been IAS officers.  For the first time, a politician from Gujarat was appointed.  Praful Khoda Patel was an MLA in Gujarat previously who had also been a

THE All India Peace and Solidarity Organisation (AIPSO) organised a webinar on May 14, 2021 in solidarity with Palestine, condemning Israeli attacks. Iraklis Tsavdaridis, executive secretary of the World Peace Council (WPC) and Dr Aqel of the Palestinian Peace Committee spoke in the webinar, apart from the leadership of the AIPSO.Pallab Sengupta, general secretary of the AIPSO presiding over the webinar, briefly reported about the background of the present Israeli attacks on Palestine.

Below we publish the essay authored by Aijaz Ahmad, Arundhati Roy, Githa Hariharan, Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami, Naseeruddin Shah, Nayantara Sahgal, Prabhat Patnaik, Ratna Pathak Shah, Subhashini Ali, Sudhanva Deshpande, and Vijay PrashadSINCE 1948, Israel has tried to erase the Palestinians from their lands and to erase the possibility of a Palestinian homeland. For good reason, the Syrian academic Constantine Zurayak published a book that year called Ma’na al-Nakba (Meaning of the Catastrophe).

THE Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) at its general body meeting held at the Singhu border on May 14, gave a call to observe May 26, 2021 as ‘Black Day’ all over the country. May 26 marks the completion of six months of the historic farmers’ struggle. Lakhs of farmers, both men and women, have been constantly camping on the five borders around the national capital Delhi in cold, rain and heat, and have braved repression and defamation for six months. May 26 also marks six months of the massive All India strike by the working class.