THE All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers has, in a statement issued on January 25, congratulated the nearly two lakh anganwadi workers and helpers in Maharashtra for their successful indefinite strike. It has demanded that the chief minister of Maharashtra should urgently intervene and settle the issue.
 
The anganwadi workers and helpers of Maharashtra are on an indefinite strike from January 6, 2014 demanding an increase in wages and implementation of the pension scheme which was declared as early as in 2005.

THE Communist Party of India (Marxist) mourns the demise of Pete Seeger, a singer, folk-song collector and songwriter who spearheaded an American folk revival and spent a long career championing folk music, who died on January 27. He was a simple man, who prided in calling himself as a “communist with a small 'c'”.
Pete Seeger was born on May 3, 1919 and was 94 at his death. He performed and recorded for six decades, and was still an activist: as recently as October 2011, he marched in New York City as part of the Occupy Wall Street protests.

WE have been hearing of late remarks like “We do not believe in ‘Isms’” and “Divisions between the Left and the Right are things of the past”. Since these remarks emanate from quarters that supposedly strike a chord with the contemporary youth, they deserve to be taken seriously. Besides, they constitute part of an intellectual tradition that has been recently in vogue, which holds that all “grand narratives”, of which Marxism is a classic example, are passé.

ADDRESSING the nation on the eve of the Republic Day, President Pranab Mukherjee articulated the almost universal concern in the country over the failure to meet people’s aspirations. Hailing the establishment and evolution of Indian democracy, he said, “I am not a cynic because I know that democracy has this marvellous ability to self-correct. It is the physician that heals itself, and 2014 must become a year of healing after the fractured and contentious politics of the last few years”.

WE are observing the birth centenary year of Comrade M Basavapunnaiah which began on December 14, 2013. M Basavapunnaiah was one of the key leaders of the Communist Party. Like many leaders of his generation, MB made an all-sided contribution to the development of the Communist movement in the country. From being a student activist he directly joined the Communist Party in 1934 unlike many of his contemporaries who came to the Communist Party after being in the Congress and the Congress Socialist Party.