THE AIKS Maharashtra state council meeting that was held at the Comrade B T Ranadive Smarak Bhavan at Belapur in New Mumbai on June 30, 2014 under the chairmanship of AIKS state president Dada Raipure, took the following five major decisions:
1. Organise statewide mass actions from July 8 (Jyoti Basu birth centenary) to July 15 on the grim issue of drought and of compensation to peasants whose crops were destroyed by hailstorms, demanding access to water, food, employment, fodder, seeds and fertilizers, and the waiver of loans, electricity bills and students’ tuition fees;
The following is the press statement issued by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions on July 26.
THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions condemns the move to bring about anti-labour amendments in Industrial Disputes Act, Factories Act and Contract Labour Regulation & Abolition) Act by the BJP government in Rajasthan on which Amendment Bills have already been introduced in Rajasthan assembly. The CITU calls upon to organise countrywide protest at the earliest against such corporate driven onslaught on working people by the Rajasthan government at the behest of the capitalist class.
THE shooting down on July 17 of the Malaysian airliner MH17, killing all the 283 passengers and 15 crew members, undoubtedly is one of the most unfortunate consequences of the civil war in Ukraine. The world should have responded with an independent investigation, possibly under International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) or any international agency. Instead, the tragic incident is being used by the US and its allies in tandem with Ukraine's Poroshenko regime to launch a vicious attack on Russia and the federalists in Ukraine. What is missing in all this is a shred of evidence.
THE social importance of the capitalist class arises from the fact that the level of activity and employment in a capitalist economy depends upon the “state of confidence” of the capitalists (or what Keynes had called their “animal spirits”). Marx had theorised that the capitalists, competing against one another (a competition or “rivalry” that does not disappear even when they collude), are caught in a Darwinian struggle where they are compelled to accumulate.
NOW that elections are passe, the cloak and dagger activity of the BJP too seems to have outlived its utility. With comfortable majority in the parliament, they do not want to hide anything, everything is open. They are defining how India needs to be, what Indianness is and who stays in India.India, according to a Goan minister, Deepak Dhavlikar belonging to the regional outfit Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), an alliance partner of Bharatiya Janata Party, should be a Hindu state.
AS the first full session of the newly elected parliament comes to a close, it has been clearly established that the economic path of the BJP government will not be any different from that of the Congress. On the contrary, the policy pronouncements of the BJP government betray its aggressive intent in furthering the neo-liberal policy trajectory.
The tragedy is further compounded by the shocking reports that it could have been not a natural, but a man-made disaster which got accentuated by the particularly heavy rainfall.
THE Modi government has extended a welcome gift to John Kerry, the US Secretary of State who is visiting India. The union cabinet has approved the raising of the FDI cap in the insurance sector from 26 percent to 49 percent. An amendment to the Insurance Laws will be placed in this session of parliament itself. This will fulfill a longstanding demand of the United States, as voiced repeatedly by the India-US business forum which was set-up during the UPA-1 government.
THE Communist Party of India (Marxist) organised a lecture by noted economist Prof. Prabhat Patnaik on "Capitalism, Inequality and Globalisation" in New Delhi's Constitution Club on July 30, as part of the Jyoti Basu birth centenary celebrations.
In his short welcome address, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said Jyoti Basu symbolised the working class movement in India and its achievements. He said Basu, who was first elected to the Bengal Provincial Assembly in 1946 from the Railway Workers constituency, was an outstanding leader of the Communist movement in India.
THE nearly two month long rule of Narendra Modi has starkly exposed its anti-people character and its pro-corporateness, said Tripura chief minister and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Manik Sarkar. The NDA government was taking forward UPA's anti-people policies much more forcefully. With both corporates and RSS actually running the government from behind, there is imminent danger of communalism spreading across the country. He called upon the working class, peasantry, poor and other downtrodden sections of the society to unite and resist this harmful agenda of Modi government.