Editorial

 Asserting People’s Issues :
Above the Clamour of Crorepatis, Communalists and Corporate Media

The media poll pundits have already declared that there are “no issues” in the 2009 Parliamentary polls. At the same time, the corporate media houses have launched campaigns seeking to ‘awaken’ middle and upper class voters. They have been awash in self-congratulation at their success in mobilising this class of voters – the only class, they imply, which is capable of making Indian politics clean and meaningful, because it is not a ‘vote bank.’ Slumdogs, they rue, are even willing to sell their kids, so their votes are suspect – while sheer wealth places corporates and crorepatis above corruption.....Full text

Commentary

Appropriating Ambedkar

Kavita Krishnan

Around 14 April, the 118th Birth Anniversary of Babasaheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani accused the Congress of having mistreated Dr. Ambedkar, referring among other things to his resignation from the Congress Cabinet in 1951, and said it was the BJP-backed V P Singh government which bestowed the Bharat Ratna on him in 1990 and not a Congress Government. ...Full text

The Twin States Must Fight Terror Together

Like us, our western neighbour is bleeding under terrorist -- and of recent, also imperialist -- attacks. On March 27, as the US president was unveiling his new strategy to “disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda” and its allies in Pakistan, people of that country were cleaning up the debris of an explosion inside a mosque near the town of Jamrud in the Khyber agency region -- an attack that killed some 50 Muslims offering prayers on Friday and wounded dozens more. Only days before that, Pakistani Taliban fighters and their Afghan counterparts were distributing an agreement to bury their differences in order to counter the new American-led offensive. Incidentally, Pakistan's security officials had recently concentrated forces in the Khyber region, and especially in the Jamrud area, to fight militants attacking convoys carrying supplies for the NATO forces in Afghanistan......Full text

Imperialist Agenda and Popular Resistance

- AS

The holding of the second G20 summit in less than four months comes as a measure of the importance the original G7 and its later incarnation G8 now attaches to the "emerging economies" of the third world. Being trade-surplus countries, the latter hold huge dollar reserves and can play a major role in tackling the international financial and economic crisis. The Global North is keen to manipulate that capacity to its own advantage, but itself remains a house divided. Not insignificantly, the November summit last year was held in Washington and this year's April gathering in London, but both failed to adopt the US-UK plan of coordinated global fiscal stimulus. Nor was the European bloc demand of international regulation of major financial institutions accepted, with the US in particular rejecting any international regulation of its banking system.....Full text

CRISIS WATCH

The Political Economy of Crisis Management in the Heart of World Capitalism

Arindam Sen

Do we see a faint glimmer of light at the -- still distant -- end of the tunnel? In March the housing market in the US stabilised somewhat and new claims for unemployment insurance stopped rising. Crisis-ridden US banks surprised everybody when they reported profits in mid-April, which was followed by a good stock market rally. But most other indices including retail sales figures seem to suggest that such optimism might be premature. As late as March 31st the OECD released a very gloomy prognosis, predicting that the American economy would shrink by 4% this year and not grow at all next year. .....Full text

ELECTIONS

CPI(ML)
On the Campaign Trail…

A Note from Jharkhand
Koderma Parliamentary constituency in Jharkhand had popped a surprise in the last (2004) election and CPI(ML) candidate was the runner up polling more than 2.5 lakh votes. That is why the ruling class parties were in a state of anxiety this time. Babulal Marandi, ex-CM of the State who quit BJP, is the candidate supported by mafia-contractor-money bag nexus and tried to fool the masses by projecting himself as third front candidate.....Full text

PHOTO FEATURE

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TRIBUTE

Crisis of Capitalism Vs. ‘Crisis’ of Marxism

Arindam Sen

(On the occasion of Marx’s Birth Anniversary, May 5, we reproduce this article that appeared in the Birth Centenary Year of Marx, in the September 1983 issue of Liberation. We invite you to re-read this article in this fresh phase of capitalist crisis, when a renewed interest in Marxism is witnessed globally. We have taken the liberty of correcting minor stylistic errors in the original. Ed/-) ....Full text

SPECIAL FEATURE

Party’s Call to the Youth and Students

– Charu Mazumdar
(This piece appeared in Liberation, September 1969, translated from the original Bengali text as appeared in the weekly Deshabrati of August 21, 1969. It is being reproduced as part of our regular feature in the 40th Anniversary Year of the Party’s foundation. Ed/-)

In India, which has been under imperialist rule and subject to imperialist exploitation and oppression for two hundred years, the students and educated youth represent the educated community. Imperialist exploitation has condemned the masses of our people to illiteracy and ignorance. Therefore, it is essential that this educated community...Full text

REPORTS

World at the Crossroads Conference

(A ‘World at the Crossroads Conference’ was organized by the Democratic Socialist Perspective, Resistance and Green Left Weekly at Sydney on 10-13 April. Kavita Krishnan, who represented CPI(ML) at the Conference, reports.)

As the world reels from a severe recession, as wars, occupation and repression scar the entire globe, and as climate change threatens the very future of humanity, it is widely acknowledged that the world is in a crisis. But the nearly 500 people from six continents gathered at Sydney on 10-12 April weren’t there for a mere academic discussion of the crisis. They were there to say the world has a choice. The same choice that Rosa Luxembourg spoke of so long ago: a choice between socialism and barbarism – one could say today, socialism and devastation. ...Full text

INTERNATIONAL

Summit of the Americas : ‘Expelled’ Cuba Steals the Show

The Fifth Summit of the Americas, held on April 17-19 at Trinidad and Tobago, was Obama’s first formal encounter with Latin America since he became US President. The Summit is convened by the Organisation of the Americas (OAS), comprising 34 Latin American and Caribbean nations of the region barring Cuba which was expelled in 1962. The Summit had turned into a platform for mass protest when it last met at Mar del Plata, Argentina in 2005. On that occasion, Bush’s proposal of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) was defeated. It was widely perceived that the Fifth Summit would see Obama attempting to revive US hegemony over a region over which US military and financial interests had once enjoyed total domination. Instead, this time, the Summit saw a remarkable solidarity of Latin American countries – asserting their own history, rejecting the agenda set by the US and introducing their own....Full text

OBITUARY

Farewell to
Comrade Dilip Banerjee

Innumerable friends, comrades and close associates bade farewell to the most loveable comrade Dilip Banerjee on Poila Baishakh (Bengali New Year or April 15). A veteran Party member, Comrade Banerjee died of an undiagnosed neural ailment resulting in multiple complications including a gastro-intestinal disorder on April 13 2009 at the SSKM Hospital, Kolkata. He was 67. Senior doctors, friends, comrades and relatives left no stone unturned to heal comrade Banerjee,...Full text

COVER

Dr. Binayak Sen: "Punishment by Trial"

-- Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer

(This is the text of a letter written by the eminent Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, former Supreme Court Judge, to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, dated April 17, 2009. Ed/-)

I would like to bring to your attention a case of grave injustice which is a cause of much shame to Indian democracy: that of Dr. Binayak Sen, the well known paediatrician and defender of human rights.....Full text