The Landmark Conference of BSNL Employees Union

BSNL Employees Union, the main recognised union of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, conducted its eighth all India conference at Chennai, from December 31, 2016 to January 3, 2017. 1,632 delegates and observers attended this conference. BSNL is one of the biggest public sector companies employing 2.25 lakh workers and officers.

RSS-Corporate Interface in Adivasi India

There has been a long standing nexus between the RSS and big capital. Funding of Hate, a report published in 2002 clearly pointed to the nexus between the RSS, its affiliate organisations and foreign funding. The India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) and Sewa Bharti International are the two main channels through which Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams, Ekal Vidyalayas get their funding. In fact the facebook page of the Akhil Bhartiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram based in Jashpur says that all cheques and donations to it should be routed through Sewa Bharti or Sewa Bharti International.

Oppose Disinvestment in General Insurance

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on January 19, 2017.THE CPI(M) strongly opposes the clearance given by the union cabinet for disinvestment of shares in the five public sector general insurance companies. The decision is to disinvest by 25 percent shares in each of these companies.By this step, the government is weakening the nationalised general insurance companies which have been running well.

Police Repression at Bhangar Condemned

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on January 18.THE Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) condemns the police firing at Bhangar in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal which has resulted in the death of two persons.The local people have been protesting against the acquisition of land for a power grid project. The TMC government should stop using force against the protestors. It should open talks with the people to settle the issue. There can be no forcible acquisition of land.

When Rape Becomes a Weapon against Tribal Women

THE National Human Rights Commission is to be congratulated for taking the first step, even though much delayed, to bring justice to tribal women in the Bastar region of Chattisgarh. Its interim report confirms, through its independent investigation carried out in March 2016, the horrific gang-rapes, rapes, sexual assault and separately, physical assault, by security forces on 16 tribal women in different incidents in the Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh. The incidents occurred between October 19 and 24, 2015, in the villages of Pegdapalli, Chinnagelur, Peddagelur, Gundam and Burgicheru.

NOVEMBER 7TH — A NEW DATE IN HISTORY

Below we publish an extract from Albert R Willaims’ Through the Russian Revolution written in 1967. Willaims was an American journalist and labour organiser who is most famous for writing memoirs about the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia, an event in which he was both a witness and a participant.WHILE Petrograd is in a tumult of clashing patrols and contending voices, men from all over Russia come pouring into the city.

Myanmar: Looming Genocide!

THE ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya community in Myanmar's Rakhine state is ongoing despite pleas by the international community and neighbouring countries. Satellite images have shown conclusive evidence of destroyed villages and mass dislocation. There has also been incontrovertible proof of children being killed and women being killed by rampaging soldiers. Aid workers have been refused permission to visit the affected areas. A new wave of Rohingya refugees have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Join Together for Achieving Social Justice

ONE year has gone by since the sad demise of Rohith Vemula and still justice seems delayed and surely justice looks denied. The collective efforts by the central government, the state KCR-government and even the TDP government to iteratively nullify the national SC commission report certifying Rohith as dalit, and initiate fresh investigations after investigations to declare him not a dalit out-rightly shows the casteist nature of their involvements as organisations working in our society.

Rohith Vemula's First Death Anniversary Observed

Rohith Vemula's first death anniversary was observed by Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch, along with AIDWA, DYFI, SFI, CITU, DTF, JNM, Janasanskriti, AILU and many others. Rohith was a student of University of Hyderabad who died last year in an institutional murder.The meeting held at Jantar Mantar on January 17, was addressed by Subhashini Ali, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member who paid tributes to the memory of Rohith. She lamented the fact that atrocities on dalits continue unabated.

Failing on Black Money, Foolish Attempt to Go Cashless

HAVING failed miserably on the black money front, the Modi government has been extolling the virtues of a cashless economy. What it seems to have forgotten is that cashless transactions require a digital infrastructure, which we simply do not have. Without an infrastructure that makes mass scale digital transactions possible, coercive measures such as demonetisation or a penalty on cash transactions, will only boomerang.

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