Contents

Indo-Pak Ties:

Ensure Peace,
Defeat the Designs of War

The beginning of 2013 stood in a sudden stark contrast to the end of 2012. The same electronic media that resonated in December with cries of freedom and justice for women, and discussed with great urgency issues of much-awaited democratic reforms in our society, began whipping up competitive waves of jingoism over issues of violation of cease-fire along the India-Pakistan Line of Control. If democracy was the theme for December, jingoism became the dominant tune for January....Full text

The Movement Continues

Against Gender Violence, For Women’s Equality and Rights  

[Brief report and photographs from countrywide movement against sexual violence following the Delhi gang rape.]    

Condolence Meetings and New Years’ Eve Protests

On 29 December, following the death of the Delhi gang rape victim, thousands shared the pain and grief of the passing of that brave fighter... And strengthened their resolve to resist sexual violence and defend women’s freedom and equality....Full text

Patriarchy, Women’s Freedom, and Capitalism

Kavita Krishnan

(This article began as a rejoinder to Hindi columnist Raj Kishor [Vaam se dakshin tak ek hi tark, (‘The same argument from Left to Right’), Rashtriya Sahara, January 13 2013], but it has also provided an occasion to address some common misconceptions about women’s freedom and capitalism.)

When women demand ‘freedom,’ why does it immediately raise the spectre of ‘licentiousness’?
Why, in other words, is women’s freedom automatically taken by many as equivalent with ‘licence,’ whereas the similar freedom on the part of men is never branded as ‘licence’? ...Full text

Resolution on Working Class Movement: Context, Tasks and Opportunities

1.        All over the world, predatory capital on neoliberal prowl has intensified its multipronged offensive on labour in the name of overcoming the global economic crisis. In our country this has assumed various shapes old and new: job cuts, retrenchment, forced retirement in the name of voluntary retirement schemes, wage freeze, increased workload and working hours, downsizing, outsourcing and casualisation of jobs of permanent or perennial nature, union-busting and denial of industrial democracy – the list is endless. ...Full text

Resolution on the Tasks and Orientation of the Student-Youth Movement (Draft)

1.        In the face of a deepening economic and social crisis and rapidly declining credibility and legitimacy of the ruling elite, we are once again witnessing very encouraging signs of a powerful student-youth movement across the country. The wind that started blowing in 2011 against corruption, corporate loot and growing collusion between big corporations and the ruling elite became a veritable storm by December 2012, erupting right in the national capital over the issue of justice for the 23-year-old paramedical student who was gang-raped and brutalised in a moving bus in Delhi and who died subsequently in a Singapore hospital. AISA and RYA, the flagship platforms of revolutionary democracy in the student-youth movement, have been playing a key role in mobilising the student-youth community in the ongoing struggles against corporate plunder and sexual violence and for the freedom of women. ...Full text

Draft Resolution on Intervention in Panchayati Raj Institutions

1.        The panchayati raj institutions acquired constitutional status through the 73rd Amendment, 1993 and the subsequent Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act, 1996. In official discourse, the panchayats are celebrated as a model of democratic decentralisation or decentralisation of power. The ‘power’ in the case of panchayats does not however refer to any kind of policy-making or plan-formulating function; it essentially denotes only power to implement schemes and policies that are decided by the central and state governments. Within this limited framework, the panchayats deal with 29 subjects covering a broad spectrum of basic services. Decentralisation of power or democracy should therefore be understood only in the sense of delegation of responsibilities and devolution of funds. ...Full text

Crisis of Neoliberalism and Challenges before Popular Movements

Concluding instalment of write-up by Arindam Sen, which has also been
published by a booklet with the same title. Continued from Liberation January.

Reagan and Thatcher Kickstart Neoliberal Offensive

The crisis of 1970s too saw workers fighting valiantly against job cuts, wage freeze despite high inflation (which meant reduced real wages) and other attacks. But they could not hold out for long against organised capitalist offensive with direct state support. This will stand out from the following diagram1 , which shows the longer-run trends in strikes in OECD countries, with year-to-year fluctuations ironed out by using a five-year average. Strikes are measured as days on strike per 1,000 workers in industry:...Full text

Updates

Mahendra Singh Martyrdom Anniversary Observed As Jharkhand Bachao Diwas

The Jharkhand Committee of CPI-ML had decided to observe the 8th Martyrdom Anniversary on January 16 as Jharkhand Bachao Diwas throughout the State. The Party organized meetings in Giridih and Kodarma at Bagodar, and Bishungarh in Hazaribagh district. A dharna was organized in Ranchi which was attended by well-known personalities from the city....Full text

Film

Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola
Sandeep Singh

How does one write about a film which appears to address some of the issues one feels closely attached with? ...Full text

Cover

Wake Up and Hack the System
A Tribute to Aaron Swartz

Parnal Chirmuley  

‘There is a battle going on right now, a battle to define everything that happens on the Internet in terms of traditional things that the law understands. Is sharing a video on bittorrent like shoplifting from a movie store, or is it like loaning a video tape to a friend? Is reloading a web page over and over again like a peaceful virtual sit-in, or is it like the violent smashing of shop windows? Is the freedom to connect like the freedom of speech, or is it like the freedom to murder?’
- Aaron Swartz...Full text