THE year gone by 2021, was a year full of travails but ended with a triumph for the people.The second Covid wave fueled by the Delta variant ravaged the people between March and May. The country was unprepared for this onslaught since Modi and his government had proclaimed victory over the virus in January itself. As a result of this false optimism, tens of thousands died, many of them unrecorded. The terrible sight of patients gasping for lack of oxygen and bodies floating down the Ganga were beamed all over the world.

SIXTH all India girls’ convention of SFI was held successfully in Sikar, Rajasthan, from December 17-19, 2021, with the slogan of combating gendered push out in educational institutes. The anti-people government at the centre has coupled up the challenges put forward by the pandemic and its unprecedented affect on the common mass. A huge number of students from marginalised families are forced to leave studies and commit to an unhealthy work atmosphere due to the financial meltdown and apathy of the ruling government.

COMRADE Ratan Budhar, 72, a senior member of the CPI(M) Maharashtra state committee and vice-president of the AIKS Maharashtra state council has passed away on December 19 due to a lung ailment. He was also a member of the Party’s Thane-Palghar district secretariat and president of the AIKS Thane-Palghar district council. He will be remembered as an extraordinary comrade who devoted over 50 years of his life to the Red Flag. 

IN the United States there are still four million persons who remain unemployed compared to before the pandemic; and yet the Biden administration’s attempt to stimulate the economy has already run into a crisis with the re-emergence of inflation not just in that country but elsewhere in the capitalist world as well. The Federal Reserve Board (the equivalent of the US central bank) is planning soon to raise interest rates (that are currently close to zero), and even the fiscal expansion will be difficult to sustain in the face of inflation.

ELECTRICITY employees and engineers of Jammu and Kashmir achieved a major victory after a valiant struggle through an indefinite strike call from December 17-18 midnight against the move to privatise the power sector that has been initiated through the formation of a joint venture company with J&K Power Transmission Corporation Limited (PTCL) and Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL).The national chapter of the National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE) conveyed its warm greetings and salute to all electricity employees and engineers of Ja