Q. Even after 70 years of capitalist development after Independence, the CPI(M) still talks about the People’s Democratic Revolution. As per the Marxist understanding, when capitalism has become the mode of production in Indian society, why is the CPI(M) not aiming for a socialist revolution?  Sushant Banerjee, Howrah, West BengalA.

After the October Revolution, the Revolutionary government passed a decree which established workers control over factories.  This was the first ever step for workers control in any country.  Lenin prepared the draft Regulations on Workers Control soon after the Revolution on October 26 or 27 (November 8 or 9) in 1917.  The draft was subsequently placed before the Council of People’s Commissars, after which detailed draft Regulations on Workers Control was drawn up.

THE CPI(M) is going to organise a massive public meeting – Telangana struggle convention for social justice – to mark the conclusion of Mahajana Padayatra on March 19 at Nizam college grounds in Hyderabad.  Chief Minister of Kerala and CPI(M)  Polit Bureau member, Pinarayi Vijayan will be the chief guest. CPI(M)’s Telangana state secretariat members G Nagayya, B Venkat and T Jyothi released the Party’s charter of demands to be taken up by the movement for social justice at a media conference in Hyderabad on February 23.

CLOSE on the heels of Delhi’s Ramjas College, Savitribai Phule Pune University campus became the site of ABVP hooliganism last week. Students Federation of India (SFI) activists were attacked by the ABVP goons on February 24 night inside the campus while putting up posters of a protest programme. Nasir Sheikh, PhD student and president of SFI’s Pune University unit, Sandeep Marbhal, MA student and secretary of the unit, two other PhD students, Satish Gore and Satish Padalkar and an MPhil student Satish Debade were brutally beaten.

POTATO growers in West Bengal are enraged, with strings of protests and blockades sweeping through the state. The crisis of the peasants has accentuated as the prices of potato have come down to an all-time low, both in wholesale and retail market. Distress sale has become the order of the day. And, though it is continuing for months, no intervention has been evident from the state government.Potato, along with paddy, is one of the most important agricultural produce in West Bengal. Tens of thousands of farmers are dependent on this produce.