Tendency towards the Emergence of an “International” Middle Class

THE chancellor of the exchequer of Britain, whose official residence is only next door to the British prime minister’s, is Rishi Sunak, a person of Indian origin. Britain’s home secretary is Priti Patel, also of Indian origin. The US vice-president Kamala Harris, is of mixed Indian and Jamaican parentage. One can go on; and there are many striking instances of “success stories” in the international business world. These are not persons who are necessarily cut off from their countries of origin.

Mali Ejects the French Military

IN the first two weeks of May 2022, the Malian military government ejected the French military and withdrew from the French political project, G5 Sahel. Deep resentment spread across Mali because of the civilian casualties from French military attacks and because of the French government’s arrogant attitude towards the Malian government. Colonel Assimi Goïta, who leads the military junta, said that the agreement with the French ‘brought neither peace, nor security, nor reconciliation’ and that the population aspires ‘to stop the flow of Malian blood’.

Kerala CM Inaugurates KPPL

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the commercial production of newsprint by Kerala Paper Products Ltd (KPPL), the state-owned public sector unit.He said that the government is focussed on modernising the state’s industrial sector, including IT, tourism, biotechnology, agriculture and food industry. Plans are there to establish one lakh new enterprises in the current fiscal and the state has already received Rs 7,000 crore investment offers.

All India Convention of Agricultural Workers

ALL India joint convention of agricultural workers concluded successfully at Harkishan Singh Surjeet Bhawan, New Delhi on May 16. The convention was attended by more than 500 delegates from different states. Convention adopted the charter of demands and decided to hold protests in 500 districts on August 1, 2022, followed by a one-day rural strike, the date will be decided later.The convention was inaugurated by P Sainath, renowned journalist, Ramon Magsaysay awardee and founder of the People's Archive of Rural India (PARI).

Sivaji Patnaik

CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on May 24THE Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) expresses deep grief at the death of a veteran leader of the Party, Sivaji Patnaik. Patnaik was a former member of the Central Committee of the Party and also a former secretary of its Odisha state committee. He died on May 23, 2022. He was 92 years old.Born in a family of freedom fighters, Sivaji Patnaik joined the student movement and the undivided Communist Party at a very young age and very soon was elected to the state executive council of the CPI.

Food Inflation and the Working People

THE Consumer Price Index (General) measuring retail headline inflation shows a year on year growth of 7.8 per cent in the month of April 2022, which is the highest in the past eight years. Actually, the CPI (General) was higher than 6 per cent in the month of May and June last year and then the prices seem to moderate till September 2021. Since then, there has been a sharp rise in prices reaching close to 8 per cent in April this year.

Enforce Places of Worship Act Firmly

DURING the Ramjanmabhoomi agitation, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Hindutva outfits had raised the slogan “Ayodhya sirf ek jhanki hai, Mathura or Kashi baaki hai”. This translated means “Ayodhya is just the beginning, Mathura and Kashi are left”.After winning the battle to build the Ram temple at Ayodhya at the very spot where the Babri Masjid had stood, in less than two years after the foundation ceremony of the temple at Ayodhya was held, the same forces have begun the struggle for Kashi and Mathura.

Sundarayya’s Abiding Interest in the Agrarian Question

This article has been written on the occasion of the death anniversary of P Sundarayya, on May 19.PUCHALAPALLI Sundarayya was a revolutionary whose efforts for theoretical studies were always linked to practice. Whatever subject he chose for study, be it examining the agrarian relations, or the developments in the fields of literature and culture, they were always linked to immediate needs of practice.Sundarayya gave utmost importance to the study of concrete socio-economic conditions.

Urgent Need for the Law against Crimes of Honour

CRIMES committed in the name of honour persist despite interventions in recent years by high courts and the Supreme Court that have not only given protection to couples entering into inter-caste and inter-community marriages but have accorded stringent punishment to those who have used violence against such couples. Tragically, there has been a parallel development in which many BJP-led states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and recently Karnataka have passed severe and possible unconstitutional laws which, in the name of coming down heavily on ‘conversions’ are actually aimed at relati

18th Congress of WFTU: Pull the Future Out of the Mud of Capitalism

THE 18th Congress of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), which was held in Rome, Italy, from May 6-8, 2022, asserted that the future belongs to the world of work and of struggles. It called upon the working class of the world to unite and march forward in the time tested line of class struggle and proletarian internationalism. Recalling the lines of the revolutionary poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, the Congress affirmed that ‘the future will not come by itself’.

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