Politics http://www.pragoti.org/taxonomy/term/25/atom/feed 2008-07-31T08:53:18-05:00 We belong to and will belong to the Rio Group http://www.pragoti.org/node/2916 2009-01-03T21:33:56-06:00 2009-01-03T21:33:59-06:00 aghatak Speech by Raúl Castro Ruz, president of the Councils of State and Ministers of the Republic of Cuba, at the Extraordinary Summit of the Rio Group, Costa de Sauipe, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, on December 16, 2008: "Year 50 of the Revolution"

]]> Past, Present, and Future: Interview with Eduardo Galeano http://www.pragoti.org/node/2839 2008-12-27T20:58:19-06:00 2008-12-27T20:58:27-06:00 aghatak Jorge Majfud interviews Edugardo Galeano, and talks about our past, present and future.

]]> Art, truth and politics http://www.pragoti.org/node/2834 2008-12-26T21:13:27-06:00 2008-12-26T23:18:24-06:00 aghatak Pragoti pays tribute to one of the greatest dramatists of the modern era, Harold Pinter. Pragoti expresses deep grief and condolence on Pinter's death on December 24, 2008. In his memory, we present Pinter's Nobel Acceptance Speech which concluded:

"I believe that despite the enormous odds which exist, unflinching, unswerving, fierce intellectual determination, as citizens, to define the real truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation which devolves upon us all. It is in fact mandatory.

If such a determination is not embodied in our political vision we have no hope of restoring what is so nearly lost to us - the dignity of man."

]]> Empire Burlesque http://www.pragoti.org/node/2512 2008-11-16T20:41:00-06:00 2008-11-16T20:43:10-06:00 aghatak The master theorist of the resurgent global left may have been outsmarted by the current economic meltdown. But his all-too-perfect system may never have to acknowledge such real-world inconsistencies. A review of Antonio Negri's books by Scott McLemee.

]]> PURPLE PATCH: In defence of history http://www.pragoti.org/node/2487 2008-11-12T21:00:36-06:00 2008-11-12T21:17:38-06:00 aghatak History needs to be defended against those who deny its capacity to help us understand the world, and because new developments in the sciences have transformed the historiographical agenda. Says Eric Hobsbawm.

]]> Bolivia: Defeat of Right Reaction http://www.pragoti.org/node/2177 2008-10-08T08:08:44-05:00 2008-10-08T08:11:24-05:00 chirashree The domestic and international reaction to the Left parties that are in office in a number of countries in South America – most notably in Bolivia and Venezuela – has tended to utilise violent, non-democratic and even means of sabotage to destabilise the regimes. The ongoing developments in Bolivia are the most notable examples of the tactics of the opposition.

The big question when Morales was elected was whether he could stay long in office, or whether the Bolivian right, perhaps in collusion with the armed forces, could oust him. He has now demonstrated that he can.

An EPW editorial (Courtesy Economic and Political Weekly) and an article by Immanuel Wallerstein (Courtesy Monthly Review) on the political developments in Bolivia.

]]> Our Quality of Mercy http://www.pragoti.org/node/2010 2008-09-12T06:31:22-05:00 2008-09-12T06:31:22-05:00 aghatak Whatever happened to the principle that justice must compel the strong to refrain from doing what they have the power to do, so that the weak don’t have to accept what they are forced to accept? Whatever happened to our quality of mercy? Sunita Narain says about our judiciary system and its market friendliness.

]]> Unity- the way out in Zimbabwe http://www.pragoti.org/node/1801 2008-08-12T09:17:44-05:00 2008-08-12T09:24:35-05:00 chirashree Robert Mugabe's authoritarianism takes Zimbabwe into a downward spiral

]]> Colombia: Interview with Antonio Navarro Wolf http://www.pragoti.org/node/1777 2008-08-09T03:37:44-05:00 2008-08-09T03:46:32-05:00 chirashree Wolf is a folk hero to many on the left in Colombia. Running on the platform of “Zero corruption,” he was elected mayor of the city of Pasto where he served until he ran for the national senate. He won his bid for the senate to represent the federal district of Santa Fé de Bogotá with the largest percentage of the votes ever tallied for a single senator in Colombia and only narrowly missed taking the leadership of president of Colombia’s left party, the Democratic Left Pole (PDI), the position being won by former president Carlos Gaviria. His influence on the writing of the Constitution of 1991 was significant and led to the inclusion of many progressive elements that today haunt Colombia’s right-wing president, Alvaro Uribe.

Courtesy: Upside Down World

]]> Collateral Damage http://www.pragoti.org/node/1709 2008-07-31T06:16:29-05:00 2008-07-31T08:53:18-05:00 chirashree Terror continues to stalk the nation. In five days, 55 bombs were planted (of which, mercifully, 25 did not explode) in the three cities of Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Surat, leaving at least 53 dead. Even for a country that has brazened such terrorist attacks in the past 60 years, this has come as a shock. The country lost a Mahatma to terrorist bullets, a Prime Minister to those unleashed by Sikh terrorists; and a former Prime Minister assassinated by a suicide bomber.

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