THE countrywide general strike on September 2 called by the Central Trade Unions and independent national federations received massive response from the workers all over the country. Crores of workers employed in almost all the sectors of the economy participated in this strike. Police was used on the workers in several states. The Trinamool government in West Bengal used the brutal force of its police as well as its goons to physically attack the workers on strike. The workers bravely fought back this terror and participated in the strike.

HISTORY has not been written by capital alone. The dynamics of capitalism is an expression of unplanned antagonism between labour and capital. The neo-liberal milieu sometimes make us believe that it is the whims and fancies of the capitalist class that go unchallenged and hence capital can make the world of its own image. It had never been so and would not be in the future as well. Discourses that perceive capitalist logic as identical to that of human civilization are ideologically loaded.

PRESSING for their 10-point demands, members of Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of All Types of Differently Abled and Caregivers (TARATDAC) staged a road roko at nearly 100 places across the state on August 25.

The protestors said that the state government, besides allocating Rs 5,000 crore for the physically challenged in its budget every year, should extend the monthly assistance of Rs 5,000 for every differently abled person by abolishing its order promulgated on April 14 that stopped the disbursal of monthly assistance to those who were not orphans.

YEMEN, among the poorest countries in the Arab world has been subjected to unprovoked aggression by its wealthier neighbour, Saudi Arabia since the last week of March. The Saudi Kingdom has assembled an alliance that includes all the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states barring the honourable exception of Oman. The other non GCC monarchies in the region like Jordan and Morocco have been participating in cowardly air raids targeting heavily populated Yemeni cities. A Moroccan F-16 fighter jet was shot down over Yemen in the first week of May.

AT the call of the Central Committee, the August campaign was conducted successfully in the state. The state committee meeting held on July 9-10, discussed in detail and planned for the campaign that began from July 25. Meetings of district committes/ district organising committees, local and area committees were organised. Party centre highlighted the issues through demands and prepared the material to be used for propaganda in the campaign. A special bulletin ‘Sangharsh Sandesh’ was published by the state centre. 5000 copies were published and distributed.