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Editorial |
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The Resolve of December 18 : We Must Rise to the Occasion
As 2010 draws to a close, the country is witnessing an unprecedented spate of mega scams. The 2G spectrum scam alone is estimated to be of the order of Rs. 176,000 crore – 2,750 times the size of the Bofors scam which had once rocked the country and led to the downfall of the Rajiv Gandhi government which enjoyed a massive 400-plus majority in Parliament....Full text
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Commentary |
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Historic Capitulation to Imperialism at Cancun
Radhika Krishnan
Yet another round of climate change negotiations ended in Cancun, Mexico earlier this month. And yet again, the talks have resulted in a shameful betrayal of the interests of the environment and the poor across the world. The much-touted Cancun agreement, which is being hailed by all countries barring Bolivia, essentially represents compromises of epic proportions for the poor and developing countries. Right from the beginning, the imperialist forces of the world led by an arrogant and stubborn United States have been dictating terms at the climate change negotiations; time and again, they have stalled any effective steps to address the crucial issue of global warming.....Full text
Nobel Prize
and the Price of Peace
- KK
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. China termed the award a calculated affront, and with Liu Xiaobo in prison serving an 11-year sentence and his wife under house arrest, the prize was awarded to an empty chair.....Full text
Microfinance:
Moneylending in a New Avatar?
Srilata Swaminathan
Micro-credit has long been touted as the panacea for poverty and mantra for women’s empowerment all over the world, and in liberalised India too. Accordingly, micro-credit and SHGs spread like wildfire through rural and even urban India (and the rest of the world), capitalising on the dire need of people to have easy accessible small loans. In rural India the stringent conditions and complicated nature of loans from banks make them inaccessible to the vast majority and women in particular. The ubiquitous local and traditional money-lenders charge exorbitant rates of interest while taking land or jewellery as mortgage, and in spite of repeated demands, the government has done nothing to address this problem and help the poor......Full text
The French Deal
and the Indian Resistance
Arindam Sen
Like his American counterpart, French President Nicolas Sarkozy came to India primarily to sell all kinds of products ranging from Mirage fighter aircrafts to seats in French universities. But he had a special focus: to outsmart arch rivals Russia and US and sell nuclear reactors a power-hungry emerging economy. His full-throated reaffirmation of French support for India's permanent membership in an expanded United Nations Security Council is widely seen to be linked to this urge.....Full text
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Cover Feature |
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WikiLeaks: Unmasking Imperialism
For an empire that cloaks its aggressions and coercions in the benign garb of 'liberation' and 'democracy', those who lay bare the truth are dangerous. WikiLeaks, with its devastating exposure of the real face of imperialism, has earned the ire of the most powerful nation in the world. The US has branded the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as a "hi-tech terrorist" and there have been calls to arrest and even assassinate him....Full text
The Sham of Democracy
Shaswat Sinha
Truth is potent, truth is dangerous. Truth is what most governments fear and over times they have shrouded it from the masses in the cloak of secrecy. Under the garb of secrecy, they have committed most heinous crimes against humanity with utter disrespect for human life, values and dignity. WikiLeaks, a four-year-old online non-profit media organization undertook to subvert the secrecy regime that spawn all kinds of evils, exposing all such ‘secret’ documents of the governments all over the world. More specifically, it undertook to disclose a trove of secret US diplomatic cables about 400,000 in number, highest ever released in US history, and that has won it international praise and condemnation....Full text
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Update |
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Bihar 2010 and Beyond:
Challenges for the Revolutionary Left
Dipankar Bhattacharya
The 2010 Bihar election results have understandably triggered considerable discussions in the media and in political circles. While psephologists are busy trying to explain the sweeping nature of the poll outcome, media commentators and academics are going to town with their versions of the Bihar story that lies behind and ahead of this electoral landslide. The BJP and the NDA are particularly buoyed by this unprecedented victory and would surely try every weapon in their stock to consolidate the gains even as Nitish Kumar tries to make as much hay as possible as long as the sun continues to shine. For activists involved in the protracted struggle for democracy and social transformation in the challenging battlefield of Bihar, there are of course many issues to be addressed and a lot to learn....Full text
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Feature |
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Crony Capitalism and Corporate Loot :
Corruption of the Liberalised Era
Stung by the tapes implicating his own lobbyist Niira Radia in the country’s worst ever corruption scandal, Ratan Tata has chosen to act the injured martyr. In an interview with Indian Express editor Shekhar Gupta aired on the Walk the Talk show of a media house (also stung by the Radia tapes), Tata said just the other day Obama had hailed India for having arrived on the world stage, but the developments since then suggested that India was in danger of becoming ‘crony capitalist’ and a ‘banana republic’....Full text
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Reports |
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CPI(ML) Assam 8th State Conference
The 8th CPI(ML) Assam State Conference took place on 11-12 December, 2010 at Ramnaresh Ram Auditorium (Samhati Bhawan) of Shaheed Mukul Baruah Nagar (Dibrugarh). The manch was named after Shaheed Comrade Kshitipati Das, who had laid down his life along with 7 comrades in Tripura in the Huruwa massacre in the 1980s. On the first day of the Conference an impressive mass rally was organized in the main streets of Dibrugarh town, where more than 3000 people, from both Dibrugarh district and nearby Tinsukia district participated. Most of the participants were Tea Garden and rural workers....Full text
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International |
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Police Firing on Garment Workers in Bangladesh
(Based on report by Wimal Perera, 15 December, 2010 and inputs from comrades of Revolutionary Workers’ Party of Bangladesh)
There have been a series of protests by garment workers in Bangladesh in the past month. Garment sector accounts for 80% of Bangladesh’s exports and a huge number of workers are employed in this sector. However the working conditions are poor, unsafe and the workers are paid below the minimum wages. Earlier in the month, the workers’ protests were triggered by the refusal of some of Bangladesh’s 4,500 apparel factories to honour a pay deal between the government, employers and the trade unions in July. Under that deal, the minimum wage was to be lifted to about 3000 taka a month, still highly inadequate to sustain the poor, and far below what workers had been demanding......Full text
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Cover |
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Demand Justice
for
6 December 1992!
To mark the 18th anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the CPI(ML) organised various protest events throughout the country. In Delhi, students and workers participated in the march that was held from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar, culminating in a mass meeting....Full text
Salute to Veteran Socialist Surendra Mohan
On the night of December 2nd and the early morning of December 3rd 1984, some 40 tonnes of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) spewed out of the Union Carbide Corporation’s pesticide plant in Bhopal, exposing over 5,00,000 people to the toxic fumes. 25,000 people died as a result, hundreds of thousands of persons were maimed for life, and entire future generations poisoned.....Full text
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