South Africa: ANC on the Defensive

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma is coming under increasing political pressure, both from within his party and from the opposition on an array of issues. His handling of the economy has been particularly under the scanner. Plummeting commodity prices have hit the South African economy very hard. The South African economy is heavily dependent on mineral exports. The mining sector, dominated by big conglomerates, accounts for 35 percent of the country's exports. It is the second largest economic sector after the agricultural sector.

TELANGANA: Repression in University of Hyderabad as ‘Accused’ VC Resumes Duty

WHAT is widely perceived as a pre-planned attempt to create unrest and let loose repression on the students in the University of Hyderabad, with the return of its vice chancellor P Appa Rao, one of the accused in the case of death of dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula, from leave to take charge, the police resorted to indiscriminate lathicharge and assault on the agitating students and even on some of the faculty members, and the varsity administration imposed unwarranted restrictions on the campus and even supply of water and electricity to the mess was stopped.

Constructing ‘Nationhood’ RSS Style

ARUN Jaitley, the finance minister, has claimed that the BJP has “won the first round in the nationalism debate. The people who were raising anti-India slogans are now forced to say Jai Hind, or Bharat Mata ki Jai”. This understanding underscores the Sangh Parivar’s jingoistic and purile notion of the ‘nation’. The Sangh Parivar, and indeed Jaitley would do well to remember that Jai Hind and indeed Bharat Mata ki Jai (where Bharat Mata is in chains with a tricolour not on a lion with a saffron flag) are slogans of the freedom struggle which the RSS was never a part of.

No FDI in E-Commerce Retail

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on March 30.

THE decision of the Modi government to allow 100 percent FDI in e-commerce retail is an outright surrender to the interests of big foreign e-commerce retail firms. This is clearly announced to appease foreign capital on the eve of PM Modi’s US visit. It is also a surrender to the pressures of the EU keeping in mind the ongoing Free Trade Agreement talks with EU and the prime minister’s visit to Brussels.

Uttarakhand: Assault on Democracy

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement March 28, 2016.

THE dismissal of the Harish Rawat government and the imposition of president’s rule in Uttarakhand is a shameless assault on democracy and a blatant violation of the constitutional norms. The fact that the central action has taken place a day before the chief minister was to test his majority on the floor of the assembly as asked by the governor, makes this +intervention patently illegal and unconstitutional.

Lahore Bombing Condemned

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on March 28, 2016.

THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) expresses its deep shock and outrage at the suicide bombing in a park in Lahore, Pakistan, which has killed 70 persons mostly women and children and injured more than 300. This attack was particularly heinous as the perpetrators have themselves claimed that they targeted the Christian community who had gone to the park on Easter Sunday.

On Marxism and the Caste Question

THE intellectual effervescence, leading to the emergence of a new Left discourse incorporating the caste question, that has appeared in several campuses around the country in the wake of the Hindutva forces’ attack on institutions of higher learning and creativity, brings to the fore once more the relationship between the Marxist approach and the issue of caste oppression.

TELANGANA: Nava Telangana Celebrates First Anniversary

THE first anniversary of Nava Telangana, Telugu daily was celebrated at a function organised at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram in Hyderabad on March 21. In this connection, a seminar on ‘Civil Society and the Role of Media’ was held which was presided over by S Veeraiah, editor of Nava Telangana and member of the Central Committee of the CPI(M). Justice K Chandru, retired judge of the Madras High Court, and editors and former editors of several newspapers participated in the seminar.

LDF All Set for the Fight

THE CPI(M) led Left Democratic Front in Kerala has announced its list of 124 candidates for the elections to the 140 member Kerala legislative assembly. There are 12 women and 11 independent candidates in the list.

CPSU Workers to Prepare for Nationwide Strike

A meeting of the unions in central public sector undertakings (CPSUs) was held at the CITU Centre in New Delhi on March 11. It was attended by around 135 leading comrades representing almost all major CPSUs in the country.

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