Thailand: Democracy Trampled

THE Thai army junta which calls itself the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) that seized power from a democratically elected government on May 2014 now seems intent to permanently convert electoral politics in the country into a farce. In the first week of August, Thais were told to vote in a referendum that in effect sought to curtail their democratic rights.

Reject the Proposal of Creating a "Bad Bank"

IN a letter written to the prime minister on October 4, regarding the proposal to create a “bad bank” as the solution proposed by the government to overcome the humongous amounts of outstanding NPAs by the corporates, Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), noted that bad loan provisioning for most State-owned banks doubled – and even trebled in some cases – in 2015-16, as shown by recent reports. To make matters worse, the core earnings of most of these banks have fallen grossly short of the requirement for bad loan provisioning.

CITU Tamilnadu State Conference Calls for Consolidating Working Class Unity

THE 13th conference of CITU’s Tamilnadu state unit was held in the pearl city of Tuticorin on September 9-12. The conference called upon the working class of Tamilnadu to consolidate the unity among various sections and forge a militant fight against the central and state governments that pursue neo-liberal economic policies against the interests of the workers.The reception committee was constituted in April with K Kanagaraj as its president and R Russel as secretary and V Balasubramaniam as treasurer.

CITU Condemns the Govt’s Change of Decision on EPF Coverage

THE CITU, in a statement issued on October 6, has condemned the reported rejection by the union cabinet of the proposal to reduce the threshold of industrial units for the coverage of Employees Provident Fund. Actually, the government has gone back on its own assurance given in the parliament to reduce the existing threshold of 20 workers to 10. The government had been claiming that 50 lakh more workers will be benefited by this change. The proposal to cover factories with at least 10 workers has been pending from 2012, when the 44th Indian Labour Conference had recommended it. The Cen

Huge Tribal Rally Held in Maharashtra

ON October 3, 2016, over 50,000 adivasi peasants, women, youth and students from all over Maharashtra under the joint leadership of the AIKS, AIDWA, DYFI, SFI and AARM held an unprecedented gherao agitation outside adivasi development minister Vishnu Savra's house at the sub divisional centre of Wada in Palghar district. The gherao continued for 16 hours till dawn on October 4 with tens of thousands of people.

Resist Jharkhand Government’s Land Grabbing Ordinances

BJP’s Raghubar Das government of Jharkhand launched a serious attack on the adivasi, dalit and OBC peasants’ lands in Jharkhand violating the basic features of Jharkhand’s tenancy laws and of the constitution of India. This attack is to implement Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project ‘Make in India’ in Jharkhand for the loot of Jharkhand’s land and natural resources by the Desi and Videshi corporates.

Unabated Repression on Agitation against Aqua Food Park in AP

UNABATED repression and police highhandedness marked the visit of CPI(M) Andhra Pradesh state secretary P Madhu and other Left leaders to Bhimavaram in West Godavari district where villagers have been protesting against the setting up of a mega food park. The proposed Aqua Food Park is one of the 42 mega units sanctioned by the erstwhile UPA-II government. The food park intends to provide processing and storage facilities for fish and prawn in East and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh.

No Approval of GM Mustard Without Wide Consultation & Addressing All Concerns

THE All India Kisan Sabha, in a statement issued on October 5, has noted that the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) and the BJP-led NDA government seem to be in an undue haste to commercially release GM Mustard. This is despite the absence of any credible regulatory mechanism that can conduct long-term tests and ensure bio-safety concerns can be addressed. The data has also not been made public despite repeated efforts and even order from Central Information Commissioner.

Thinking Together

Swami Vivekananda emerged as an iconic saint-philosopher who is credited for bringing a new momentum to the process of Hindu revivalism in the 19th century. The Hindu nationalists spearheaded by RSS and its affiliates have and continue to project Swamiji as the leading light of militant Hindutva. The CPI(M) and the Left have not taken it upon themselves to confront his ideas in a vigorous manner. Why is it so?Biswajit Ghosh, Kolkata ANY Marxist approach to critically evaluate historical personalities who have profoundly influenced contemporary thinking begins with a bas

End Strident Jingoism, Reduce Tensions

A WEEK after the official announcement about the surgical strikes conducted across the Line of Control, there is much which is unclear about this operation and what it has achieved. Through briefings to the media, it was put out that seven terrorist launch pads were targeted by two groups of special forces.

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