THE presidential council of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) has called for a worldwide struggle against unemployment and for the strengthening of solidarity actions in the struggle against capitalist and imperialist exploitation.
The meeting of the council, which is the highest policy making body of the only class oriented international trade union organisation, was held in Rome on February 14 and 15, 2014. The meeting was hosted by the USB of Italy and presided by WFTU president Muhammad, Shaaban Azouz, who is also the president of GFTU, Syria.

IN a letter written to the editor of Malayala Manorama on March 8, 2014, Hannan Mollah, former Lok Sabha member and a member of the CPI(M), took strong exception to a news story published by the said paper regarding the candidature of Uluberia Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal. The text of the letter is reproduced here.
“This is to invite your attention to the report appeared in the Malayala Manorama  daily dated March 6, 2014 regarding the candidature of Uluberia Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal, which I represented for eight terms.

THE abrupt end of the winter session of parliament, two days ahead of the schedule, came as a big disappointment to the millions of disabled persons in the country. For the umpteenth time, the UPA’s government’s promise of tabling the Disability Rights Bill remained unfulfilled. This, despite the fact that the cabinet had cleared it, on December 12, 2013, after an inordinate and inexplicable delay. Opinion was divided over not just the intent and will of the government but also on whether in the given circumstances the bill could be tabled and passed.

THE states of Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, which are home to a majority of the adivasis outside the northeast, have been categorised as ‘least developed states’ by an official report of the central government. At least three of these four states (excluding Jharkhand) have been governed for the last one decade by non-Congress regimes that have been marketing them as promoting an inclusive model of development. These regimes are also well known for promoting export led agriculture as well as corporate capital in natural resource based industries, especially mining.