THE victory of a Left Alliance, Syriza, in the Greek elections on January 25, was a matter of great significance, especially because that victory was based on a promise that Syriza would get rid of the memoranda imposing austerity on Greece by the “Troika” (the European Union, the European Central Bank and the IMF). Syriza’s victory was thus expressive of a popular revolt against neo-liberalism.Upon coming to power Syriza wanted to end all existing agreements with the “troika” on the grounds that these had been decisively rejected by the Greek people.

WEST Bengal witnessed waves of protest condemning the brutal incident of rape of a 71-year-old nun in a Convent school in Ranaghat, Nadia. The chief minister herself faced the wrath of local people, including school students in Ranaghat when she visited the spot. Thousands of people blocked her car for more than an hour demanding immediate arrest of the culprits. Protestors raised slogans, “Chief Minister Go Back” and “We Want Justice”. An enraged chief minister, instead of pacifying the hurt people, threatened them and blamed the CPI(M) and the BJP for organising such protests.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on March 19, 2015.

THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the police raid on the CPI(M) state committee office in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. The police broke open the door and damaged furniture in the office and arrested more than a dozen people including the SFI all India president, Sivadasan. Those arrested including the SFI president were beaten in police custody.

MEMBERS of parliament belonging to 14 political parties marched to the Rashtrapati Bhawan from the parliament and submitted the following memorandum declaring their opposition to the Modi government’s proposed amendments to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition And Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.

THE Himachal Pradesh State Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in a press statement issued on March 19 has strongly condemned the brutal lathicharge on the protesting students at Vidhan Sabha chowk, which was followed by an attack on CPI(M) office which was ransacked and the leadership of the Party was mercilessly beaten up. The leaders were dragged and given harsh beating inside the office and were taken to Boileauganj police station. Even there they were not spared and each one of them was separately beaten up in a room while the lights were switched off.