THE Communist Party of India (Marxist) is observing the 50th anniversary of its formation. The Party that was born at the Seventh Congress held in Kolkata (from October 31 to November 7, 1964) has advanced facing many trials and tribulations. On this occasion, we remember and pay homage to the thousands of comrades who became martyrs for the cause of the Party and the movement.
THE deadly cocktail of imposing greater economic burdens on the people, on the one hand, and sharpening communal polarisation, on the other, continues to be intensified under this Modi-led NDA government.
Much is being made about a fleeting decline in the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), according to the data released by the union commerce ministry, which shows that the annual rate of inflation, based on the monthly WPI stood at 2.38 percent in September 2014 compared to 3.74 percent in the previous month and 7.05 percent during the corresponding month of the previous year.
THE 13th Andhra Pradesh (AP) AIDWA conference was held successfully in Vijayawada on September 26-28, 2014. Prior to the delegate session, on September 26 a massive public meeting was held in Vijayawada town. The public meeting was presided over by AIDWA AP state president Karusala Subbaravamma. Brinda Karat national leader of AIDWA addressing the public meeting questioned whether we lived in a civilised country in view of deteriorating levels of women’s security where very young girls to very old women were being sexually attacked.
THE ceasefire agreement between the central government and the Eastern Ukrainian rebel forces on September 5 was viewed by the governments in Moscow and Kiev as a definitive step forward to end the vicious civil war that had gripped the East European country. At the negotiations in Minsk, the Ukrainian government was represented by a former President, Leonid Kuchma. Aleksandr Zakharchenko represented the rebel factions from the East.
THE first Telangana state conference of the All India Democratic Women’s Association was held in Hyderabad on September 27-29, 2014 with great enthusiasm. A public meeting was held on September 27 preceding the conference. The meeting was presided over by B Hymavathi, state president of AIDWA.
A SEMINAR titled ‘Electoral Reforms: A Leftist Perspective’ was held in Madurai on October 4, 2014 as part of the silver jubilee celebrations of ‘Marxist’ – the ideological Tamil monthly magazine brought out by Tamilnadu state committee of the CPI (M). MA Baby, Polit Bureau member of the CPI (M) and R Vaigai, senior Counsel of Madras High Court addressed the seminar.
GORAKHPUR is known as capital of eastern Uttar Pradesh, which was rightly chosen as the venue of the convention on Encephalitis, an epidemic affecting large parts of Eastern UP. Encephalitis was first detected in the year 1978 in Gorakhpur. Since then, around 15 thousand children have died of this dreaded disease. It is estimated that 90% of the casualties have affected poorer sections of society. During the year 2012, 1256 cases of Encephalitis were detected out of which 557 cases resulted into death.
THE RSS-BJP is notorious for using religious festivals to foment communal tension and violence. This has once again been proved by their communal machinations in Bawana Resettlement Colony in Delhi on the eve of Eid al - Adha. This colony is composed of those urban poor who were uprooted from the Yamuna Pushta in 2002. A significant portion of its population is comprised of people belonging to the Muslim minority.
THE Odisha Khet Mazdoor Union and the CITU Odisha state committee have jointly organised a state convention of migrant workers at Balasore on September 27. This programme was organised as per the call given by the recently held 7th all India conference of the All India Agricultural Workers Union.
THIRD October, the Foundation Day of World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) is observed every year as International Day of Action. This year, WFTU gave the call to observe International Day of Action focussing on the slogan ‘Fighting against Unemployment; For Dignified Work’. The WFTU termed unemployment as the ‘biggest, most dangerous problem for the international working class in the whole capitalist world’.