Prabhat Patnaik's reflections on the loss suffered by the Left in the recent Loksabha election.
মমতা দাবি করেছিলেন মাওবাদীদের রাজ্যে নিষিদ্ধ করার. মাওবাদীরা এমন বিপ্লব'ই করলেন যে সরকার আর রাষ্ট্র জনগণের ওপর কালো আইন চাপিযে দেওয়ার অজুহাত পেল. আজিজুল হক লিখেছেন আজকালে.
The Central Committee of the CPI(M) in its meeting held on June 20 and 21 has adopted a review of the 15th Lok Sabha elections.
We present the full text of the review here.
In continuation of the series of incidents of differentiation against the dalits in the countryside I produce it down below in the form of a story, which happened in actuality. However the name of the place and persons stands changed
Tikender
Iran’s social contradictions have once more erupted into conflict. It does not help for us to wave the flag of intervention, or even to throw our support between one or the other camp in this current situation. The best solidarity from afar is to be analytical, not emotional about what is occurring. Things are easier in the case of the Honduras, where the Generals are not only trained by the U. S. at Fort Benning but where it seems plain that the U. S. State Department might bank on this coup to send a message against Bolivarianism across Central and South America. Here we have a clear role, to demand an end to interference in Central America and an end to the School of the Americas. Writes Viijay Prashad.
President Zelaya has increasingly come under attack by the conservative forces in Honduras for his growing relationship with the ALBA countries, and particularly Venezuela and President Chávez. Many believe the coup has been executed as a method of ensuring Honduras does not continue to unify with the more leftist and socialist countries in Latin America,writes Eva Golinger,about the US backed military coup in Honduras.
While their Indian counterparts continue to believe that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”, the Maoists in Nepal have not only endorsed the politics of ballot but also met with remarkable electoral success. The politics of bullet no longer find any place in their agenda. They have endorsed Lenin’s understanding: “we must bear in mind that any popular movement assumes an infinite variety of forms, is constantly developing new forms and discarding the old and effecting modifications or new combinations of old and new forms. It is our duty to participate actively in this process of working out means and methods of struggle”. (Lenin, Revolutionary Adventurism). On the other hand, the Indian Maoists continue to espouse ‘people’s war’ and pursue the path of anarchy and violence,writes Santanu Dey.
Pragoti salutes the nameless and the ordinary whose valiance and courage in life and death will not be headlines in the chronicles of the Mumbai carnage. The immediate appeals to jingoistic nationalism and communalism by the hard and soft Hindu right, and the proposals to launch war and pass draconian laws, dished out by the mainstream media, is an attempt to ensure that the people are put through more of such terror. We stand committed to the struggles of the ordinary and the nameless people of India to fight terrorism and all political harbingers of terror.
The general strike on August 20 will be a landmark in the struggle of the workers and peasants of India against the Manmohan Singh government that is bent on proving its loyalty to the big bourgeoisie in India and its allegiance to international finance capital and by extension US imperialism. A PRAGOTI Editorial
हाल के विधानसभा चुनावों और राजस्थान में वामपंथी आन्दोलन के अनुभवों के बारे में जनवादी महिला समिति की राजस्थान राज्य सचिव और सी.पी.आई.एम की राज्य समिति सदस्या दुर्गा स्वामी से प्रगति के संपादक मंडल सदस्य टिकेन्दर पंवार का विशेष साक्षात्कार।
But what the [financial] crisis [in the world's capital markets] does is to undermine the ideology of neo-liberalism which gives the Left a chance to intensify its struggle against neo-liberalism. And in so far as the recession that is arising will hurt not just the workers and peasants but even sections of the middle classes which have hitherto been beneficiaries of neo-liberalism, the soil for this struggle will be more fertile now. So, the short answer to this question is that the Indian policy-makers left to themselves will not change course, but we have to make them change course. Eminent economist Prabhat Patnaik replies exclusively to a set of interview questions from Pragoti's Editorial Team. Prabhat Patnaik is a leading Marxist economist, and is a professor at Centre for Economic Studies and Planning at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is also the vice-chairman of the Planning Board in the state of Kerala.
Patrick Gray is an economist with a special interest in science-based business development and job creation. In 2001-2202, he led the United Nations study “Human Effects of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident: A Strategy for Recovery” (http://chernobyl.undp.org/engish/). Since 2002, he has served as Programme Leader for British Government funded Closed Nuclear Cities Programme, which assists former nuclear weapons scientists and engineers to create sustainable civil sector businesses and employment in Russia and other countries in the Former Soviet Union. Pragoti publishes an exclusive interview on nuclear issues with him over a wide range of topics from nuclear energy, proliferation, weapons, management, etc.
An afterword to "Scientific Realism for the Contemporary Materialist"
Pragoti reproduces T. Jayaraman's 2007 review of 'some trends and developments in the philosophy of science and related questions that are potentially of substantial interest to Marxists' from The Marxist.
Two articles on the praxis of resistance to neoliberalism in Latin America.
''The arguments in favour of disinvestment, either in terms of resource mobilisation or in terms of “people-ownership”, are devoid of sound economic rationale. Rather, the disinvestment agenda is driven by powerful interests; like the big players in the stock market whose fortunes depend on “good news” and the private corporate sector, which wants to escape the responsibility of paying taxes for financing the government’s welfare programmes.''- Prasenjit Bose,Convenor,Research Unit-CPI(M) ,writes for Pragoti.
'' The “bail out” package to the financial system in the United States is estimated to exceed $10 trillion. The strategy at present therefore seems to be to sustain the financial system and wait for the next “bubble” to appear rather than to revive the real economy directly through fiscal stimuli. The consequence of this strategy will be a prolonged period of recession and unemployment with much human suffering; but this only underscores the power of the financial interests in contemporary capitalism, where even a crisis of this magnitude engendered by their functioning leaves this power undiminished.''-argues Prabhat Patnaik.
"The recent crisis in global financial markets has clearly demonstrated the shortcomings of a deregulated financial regime." writes Vineet Kohli an Economist with Economic Research Foundation
In many ways Agantuk is an inciting film. Though there is a genuine doubt if at all the grungy middle class can really think today in the way Ray wanted them to think. The basic theme is an intellectual soul searching for a re-discovery of the lost human values. It bluntly focuses on the vices of the post-modern world. The reckless immorality of the elite class, their greed for material possessions is harshly criticized. A ‘civilized’ person was defined as the person who can wipe out an entire population with lethal weapon by just pressing a button but has awfully forgotten how to embrace an alien stranger!
Pragoti presents a review of Anand Teltumbde's book by Vijay Prashad. Written originally for Himal, it is being posted here with the author's permission.
"Hanna Schmitz in ‘The Reader’ is responsible for the death of hundreds of Jews, but why do we sympathise with her?" Shelly Walia reviews "The Reader"
''Habib Tanvir was a renaissance personality. There was nothing he could not do in theatre – he wrote, translated, adapted and evolved plays; he was a master director, a superb actor and a good singer; he wrote poetry and songs; he could compose music; he was a designer; he was manager of his company Naya Theatre, which he ran first with his wife Moneeka (and single-handed after her death) for exactly fifty years; he was a critic and theoretician; more, he was a seer, a guru for generations of younger theatre artistes. In all this, and through his prodigiously prolific theatre career spanning some sixty years, he remained an artiste with a deep social conscience and engagement, a public intellectual who never shied away from taking a stand and lending his name to progressive and secular causes.'' writes Sudhanva Deshpande
As a further tribute to Habib Tanvir,Pragoti presents an article written by the veteran leftist actor and director on the struggle for radical theatre.
Salute to the Enduring Legacy of Eminent Playwright and Theater Artist Habib Tanvir
The agenda of disinvestment is again in the policy horizon with the coming back of the UPA to power without the support of the Left. This agenda is however a completely discredited agenda as has been argued here.
In a very well written article published in The Hindu, the well known economist R Nagaraj attacks the policy of disinvestment from a different perspective. The article can be found here.
The post-poll attacks and brutal killing of CPI(M) activists and supporters in Lalgarh became headline news since June 17th.
A look at the different interpretations and positions over the recent protests in Iran.
An article on the left's performance in the recent LS elections.
This is my article published in the latest issue of the magazine COVERT.
Higher government borrowing does not lead to increased interest rates, contrary to what the RBI governor says.
Vellupillai Prabhakaran is dead and officially dead. A quick blog post on what happened and what entails.
It is important that some false theories on the defeat of the left in West Bengal should be critically argued against. This article is an attempt in that direction.
Initial reactions to the Results.
As written about earlier, the Nepali political situation is back in crisis mode. With the withdrawal of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) from the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) led government following a disagreement over the removal of the Army chief, followed by a constitutional crisis featuring incorrect actions by the Nepali president, the Constitution writing process is now under limbo and so is the new governmental formation process.
A crisis has been precipitated in the republic of Nepal. The prime minister Pushpa Kumar "Prachanda" Dahal of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has resigned, following presidential actions rejecting a cabinet decision to remove the Chief of Army Staff, Rukmangad Katuwal from his post. Earlier, the government was reduced to a minority after withdrawal of support from the coalition partner Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist). This article will strive to comment on the developments and put things in perspective.
The question of the money deposited in the swiss banks needs to be seen as a part of the totality of the neoliberal economic policies promoting financial deregulation. An article by Prof.C.P.Chandrasekhar which appeared in the Frontline does that succinctly.
For more than three months, the majority of lecturers, researchers and students in universities and institutes of higher research in France have been on strike.