Starvation Deaths Stalk Tea Gardens in West Bengal

RINA Orao is fighting a harsh battle, which she never thought she would have to in her life.A worker of Dimdima tea estate in Birpara-Madarihat block of Alipoorduar district, Rina has lost her husband Mangal four months back. Within a month her brother-in-law died. The cause of death is same: complete starvation. Lack of food and then absence of any treatment has already taken more than 15 lives in this tea estate alone in the last few months, 11 of them in September alone. This garden is owned by Duncans, one of the biggest corporates in tea industry.

Convention of Left Parties Calls for Sustained Struggle on People’s Issues

FOUR Left parties of Punjab -- CPI(M), CPI, CPM Punjab and CPI-ML (Liberation) -- organised a state-level convention at Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Hall in Jalandhar on November 6. More than 3,000 workers, peasants and other sections of the working people participated in the convention, presided over by Bhupinder Samber, Gurchetan Singh Basi, Harkanwal Singh and Gurnam Singh Bhikhi. The convention decided and declared that a sustained and phased mass struggle will be launched for settlement of the 15-points charter of demands.

AIKS Raises Concern over GM Mustard

THE All India Kisan Sabha, in a statement issued on November 6 notes with concern the reports that an application for approval for commercialisation of GM Mustard has been moved with the apex regulatory body GEAC (Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee) in the ministry of environment, forests & climate change. AIKS demands that the government come clear on the facts of the case in a transparent manner. Bio-safety and bio-diversity should not be compromised in any manner.

‘Occupy UGC’: A Struggle To Save Research in India

ALL the Day, All the Night - Occupy UGC’ has become a popular slogan and is reverberating on university campuses across the country. This slogan emerged out of students’ anger against the decision of UGC, under the direction of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, to discontinue non-NET scholarship. Though there is an immediate economic demand of the student community which triggered this movement, its scope and scale have become much larger than the immediate concern. The struggle now is not merely against a particular decision.

AIDWA Holds State-Level Jansunwai On Implementation of Food Security Act

THE Maharashtra State government has identified 7 crore population, 4.69 crore rural population and 2.30 urban population, as the beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act. The experience of these beneficiaries who have had their ration cards stamped as ‘priority families’ leaves much to be desired.Every beneficiary is entitled to get 5 kgs of food grains at Rs 3 per kg rice and Rs 2 per kg wheat. But not a single shop in any district in Maharashtra is giving the entitled quota of food grains. The quality of food grains that are distributed is very poor.

Towards Global Corporate Rule

THE United States is putting in place a new architecture of global corporate rule through a series of investment treaties which it is negotiating with several countries at present. When all these treaties come into effect, the extent of their jurisdiction will cover as much as 80 percent of the global GDP, ie, virtually the entire world economy. These treaties include a set of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Thinking Together

As per the Constitution and the rules of the Party, "The supreme organ of the Party for the whole country shall be the All-India Party Congress." Functions and powers of the regular Party Congress include "To revise and change the Party Programme and the Party Constitution" and "To determine the Party line on current situation".The Party is going to call Plenum in Kolkata during the last week of December 2015, obviously to discuss programmes and line of actions to be taken considering the current situation – domestic and global. Where is the difference, as far as the decision-making process

Take Steps to Improve the Condition of Dalits

Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch (DSMM) has issued the following statement on October 10.WE have come to know through media reports that the cabinet committee on parliamentary affairs has decided to hold the winter session of parliament from November 26 onwards. The first two days have been allotted for a special sitting on the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar, to discuss on Ambedkar and Constitution. DSMM welcomes this decision, but feels that it is not enough to confine to just holding a discussion.

BIHAR: Assembly Election Results Show Total Rejection of BJP’s Communal Corporate Agenda

THOUGH the analysts and political thinkers will pour over the pages of different newspapers, magazines and will cross swords on panel discussions in different TV Channels, but the voters of Bihar have proved their political maturity by dumping the BJP and its allies and strengthening those forces who see the emergence of BJP as a big challenge to the idea of India which came into being after a century long battle against British imperialism and proclaiming itself as a sovereign secular-socialist republic.In the background of the recent heightened communal atmosphere which consumed the life

Nothing New in the “Truth”

CPI(M) general secretary, Sitaram Yechury has issued the following statement on November 5, reacting to the press conference of Venkaiah Naidu, minister for urban development and parliamentary affairs and release of the BJP book “Know the Truth”.

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