Protests are continuing in Peru even 11 weeks after the ‘coup’ of December 7, 2022, dislodging President Pedro Castillo and putting him under arrest. Formally elected president Pedro Castillo was in office for a short period: 28 July 2021 – 7 December 2022. Newspaper La Republica, which belongs to one of the two biggest media houses, ran two headlines carried[Read More…]
62% of voters in Chile rejected the proposed constitution last Sunday. It may seem paradoxical. How could they reject a constitution that would guarantee 50% reservation for women; Education, Health and Social Security and care for all are state responsibility; and also Rights of Indigenous communities or nations or tribes (by whatever name they be called) would be documented for[Read More…]
The princely state of Cooch Behar merged with the Dominion of India on August 8, 1949 and became a part of the State of West Bengal on January 1, 1950. To go to Cooch Behar, one has to cross Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts, which were also once part of other neighbouring hill kingdoms and annexed by the British. During my[Read More…]
Thanks to Parti des Travailleurs (حزب العمال Akabar Ixeddamen) of Algeria for letting us know the cruel condition of life in which the majority of population are in. But before we go to that and start thinking what might happen, we should have a recap of last 3½ years. The movement started on a Friday, February 16 and continued each[Read More…]
Sometimes it was a rise in pig iron prices due to disruption of supply chains due to the Covid pandemic. Now you can find the Ukraine War as a reason for the increase in the price of coke used in the steel industry. Not so long ago it was GST and demonetisation. Whatever be the real reason life is surely[Read More…]
In the month of June-July, fruit-wise still a month of Mangoes, allegedly some fellows at the behest of Adani Power company and emboldened by administration of WB started destructing mango and lichi orchards in some villages near Farakka (the place famous for barrage) for the purpose of clearing way for constructing transmission towers for carrying electricity from Adani’s power plant in Jharkhand to neighbouring Bangladesh. When villagers protested many were beaten by police and many were arrested. A team of Sanyukt Kisan Morcha that went to inspect the area was virtually detained by the administration and was prevented from going to the spot, a press statement of SKM said.
Some of the élites are in a fury and others busy in making cover up. West Bengal Education Ministry scam in recruiting teachers, though yet to be come as व्यापक (vyapak) as the व्यापम (vyapam) scam of the of Madhya Pradesh where one officer was found to be in possession of ₹70 crores, has already made storms in media, social-media[Read More…]
Bhutnath Kumbhakar, a master terracotta craftsman, heard that an emergency situation had developed and so he would not be permitted go out of the campus. The nationwide lockdown started due to the Covid pandemic while he was working as a resident artist in the NSHM campus in Durgapur. He along with several other artists continued their work inside the campus.[Read More…]
“So, Durga Puja is coming, it is not even 14 weeks from now…”. “The days are so tough, we are almost forgetting the taste of fish or meat” said Mahesh, speaking while working on a paddy field, not his own. “But other delicacies are there. Buy mustard oil for 10 Rs and some dried chili, fry deep and dry, keep[Read More…]
Avail Practical Classes Free-of-Cost In 1993 an essay appeared in a US journal: “Clash of Civilisations” by Samuel Huntington which later appeared as a book [The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order by Samuel P. Huntington]. In the very first chapter we find: “One grim Weltanschauung [“philosophy (of life)”] for this new era was well expressed by[Read More…]
Social Environment is also crucial for Natural Environment, ignoring which no pious wish, no sci-tech can cure Nature Several species have shown their ability to change natural environment to some degree, Humans showed what maximum destructive changes can be done (an in some limited small-scale cases the opposite was tried). But ‘humans’ do not mean just a sum of some[Read More…]
Who killed the baby? Who put fields on fire and why? Who spewed poisons in fresh village air? And, who robbed water underground? Moreover, will you only ban stubble burning without addressing the whole issue? An 18-month-old girl, Roopa, who stayed in hutments of migrant workers, was charred to death after a fire broke out in around 40 hutments in[Read More…]
So, again France dribbled well, seven months ahead of the World Cup Football and escaped the trap of fascism, is it so? Many persons who are anxious of worldwideweb of fascism and its forward march were seen to be relieved and taking breath of respite. But there are, alas, many buts and we must visit some. A point which might[Read More…]
10 Weeks – In Between Returning from Delhi Border 11.12.2021 and Going to Polling Booths 20.02.2022 Millions will be waiting for the results of the elections to the five state assemblies out of which three took part in the farmers movement: Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Gigabytes of comments from ‘Experts’ will pour out. And there will again be a[Read More…]
Rakesh Tikait visits Swami Sivananda Image courtesy: हिन्दुस्तान टीम, हरिद्वार In June 2011 Swami Nigamananda died fasting for more than a hundred days. Later, Swami Gyan Swarup Sanand (formerly known as professor G D Agarwal the pioneer Environmental Engineer at IIT Kanpur and one of the initiators of Pollution Control Boards of our country) died in October 2018 fasting 112[Read More…]
Though I could not meet Naren Hansda, the esteemed teacher, yet, but I have heard stories regarding him from friends and also read some articles on him; and hence I am not hesitant in using this hashtag #stand_with_naren_hansda. Photo Courtesy: Ayna Soren (Facebook) Naren Hansda is an unusual man. Naren Hansda is not only a Santali folk singer – Starting[Read More…]
Today is 02.02.22, day before yesterday the farmers observed ‘betrayal day’ at the call of Farmers Unions. After a protest sit-in for continuous 381 days around the capital Delhi defying extreme weather conditions, vicinity to urban pollutions, staying far away from homes and rural surroundings encaged in dingy hutments, paucity of water and sanitation, mosquitoes and pests, and dedicating lives[Read More…]
A message from Workers Peasants Unity 11.12.2021 (a rough translation of the Page 1 article of Ei Muhurte Kichhu Bhavna Dec21-Jan22) 381 days. More than 725 martyrs. So, what did we see in the year-long battle? “Modi-Shah-BJP-RSS are unbeatable. Whatever they say are final. Modi ne kiya hain toh kuch soch samajh ke hi kiya hoga (Modi has done it,[Read More…]
Some facts for some ‘secular protestors’ Bangladesh is so near and so far, and the border, though we hear it is very porous, is also very opaque or even illusive or hallucinating, thanks to the almighty media, especially the ‘social’ media like Meta-FB, WhatsApp-University, etc. If asked what happened there most will perhaps reply attack on Hindus, on Durga Puja[Read More…]
(Some impromptu personal thoughts) An interview of Gurmukh Singh, of Jamin Prapti Sanghash Samiti (जमीन प्राप्ति संघर्ष समिति) published in Forward Press recently has again brought a fresh fragrance in this ‘Kingdom of Denmark’ where so many things are rotting. The question of Dalits in this land, their right on this land was again brought to forefront. And why not.[Read More…]
From the Bhopal disaster to a song in raaga Bhopali, through some photos and stories… Do you know Marshal? Aatank? Kavin? Aayudh? No? Just names of four out of so many pesticides, herbicides made of carbamate chemicals H2COO⁻ and carbamates are made from an intermediary chemical named Methyl Isocyanate, CH3NCO. And Methyl isocyanate was manufactured and stored factories like Union Carbide, Bhopal,[Read More…]
From an Irritatingly Orthodox Marxist Viewpoint [One] Whenever there is a discussion on Minimum Support Price of MSP of Agricultural products two things shadow our mind: Swaminathan committee report, and Remunerative price for rice, wheat, sugarcane, etc. For the first, some must-know issues are – what is that Swaminathan committee? Who made it? And who is that particular Swaminathan? Swaminathan[Read More…]
Bangalore, April 18-19, 2016. That Bangalore which forgot the heydays of working class fight there in late 1970s – early 1980s, and those Bangalorians who were more connected to the USA and west went frantic. They could never imagine those invisible rustic suburban millions who make the ‘things’ (not the gigabytes) that create trillions could stop their cars for hours[Read More…]
Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable. — Mark Twain Counter Currents gave me some space on Oct 30, a piece was published “Tripura after Bangladesh – Curious Turn of Events”. That article contained some interesting facts and chronologies which were and still are usually not discussed in the media. It took much time to collect those, and[Read More…]
We landed in a messy Halloween today after curious turns of events in October. There were eruptions of anti-Hindu barbarism in Bangladesh during mid-October, during Bengali Hindu religious festival centring Durga Puja. And after that we got a week when news of vandalism against Muslim community came from Tripura. The Bengali-Hindu community in eastern India including West Bengal, Assam, Tripura[Read More…]
The fridays for future organisation that cropped up from worldwide student protest launch first by a lone Swedish girl student of Class IX, Greta Thunberg starting from August-September 2018, has called for a Global Climate Strike on coming Friday, September 24, 2021. For millions of Farmers and Farm labourers in India who are in the 10-month continuing protest sit-in around[Read More…]
Tricontinental published their “One Hundred Years of the Communist Movement in India” on September 1, 2020 [1]. We are dealing with it only snappily. From here one can learn what may be called a ‘left’ way to rewrite history of the ‘communist’ movement; a ‘left way’, that is certainly different rom a ‘communist’ way – where the ‘left’ stands for decent[Read More…]
A ‘Protest Song’, the Singers, what else they sang for, A Wrong Protester Vis-à-vis other kind of Cuban ‘protesters’ least talked-of #Patriayvida, @descemerbueno, @gentedezona, (René Pérez Joglar) @residente, @lajovencuba A new Cuban ‘protest-song’ is now much talked about. It is “Patria y Vida” sang by Descemer Bueno, Gente De Zona, and Yotuel, and written by Beatriz Luengo Gonzalez, Descemer Bueno,[Read More…]
Since July 11, Cuba has been facing a protest that started in a city and then spread to 60 to 70 points of turbulence. Everyone knows that Cuba is a thorn in the flesh for the US imperialist. Imperialist propaganda for decades was Cuba was alive only due to Soviet Military Umbrella and Soviet aids proved partially wrong after the[Read More…]
On June 26, lakhs of farmers and farm-workers will assemble in various border points of Delhi will observe “Save Democracy, Save Farmers” day. On that date three important occasions are coinciding — (i) completion of 7 months of the historic continuous sit-in protest of lakhs of farmers around Delhi on the border points; (ii) 7 years of first swearing in[Read More…]
Since November 26, 2020, lakhs of farmers and workers have been in their continuous sit-in protest at different points around Delhi Border. On April 26 it will complete 5 months. And the human-cost is enormous: 400+ deaths. But braving death, terrible cold, rain, storm and now around 40°+ at noon, threat of covid19, the farmers and workers are continuing; after[Read More…]
What an assembly election! Eight Phases! From the first voting date to the last voting date the election is spread over 40 days. And from the first official announcement date to the date of counting – it is a period of two months! This will be some three weeks longer due to the death of candidates of two seats due[Read More…]
Sir, Your article “Why Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath Remains the Most Memorable Saga of Displaced Farmers and Migrating Workers” that appeared in Countecurrents on April 8, 2021, presented us a scope to visualise the current distress of the farming communities, the peasants, workers, who are getting dispossessed, dislodged, against the backdrop of the novel John Steinbeck wrote. ‘The Grapes of[Read More…]
March 5, 2021 marks the 100th Day of the sit-in of more than half a million farmers and workers and it is indeed an unthinkable affair compared to farmers’ movements that happened in the recent past. It will not be irrelevant if we probe a little bit of history to understand its uniqueness. In the past, we have seen bigger[Read More…]
Two fires were on the headlines not long ago, though they were taking place at countries one-third of the world circumference apart (about 14,000kms) – Brazil and Australia. And one architect of those, who was given the Title of “Captain Chain-Saw” as the destroyer of the Amazon rainforest by the big media houses like Telegraph (of the UK) or Bloomberg[Read More…]
Lessons from Bolivia. Where Che was Murdered. Where Again a Coup was Staged. Forty-six years and two months. Eduardo Galeano wrote La Trampa on events of Chile that happened on September 11, 1973, in a few touching paragraphs. The last two we can reread now. “In those difficult times, the workers were discovering the secrets of economy. They were understanding[Read More…]
Recently economist Jean Dreze told, “There were radical land reforms in Kashmir in 1950s and those land reforms were made possible due to Article-370.” [https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/economist-jean-dreze-jandk-more-developed-than-gujarat-special-status-helped-reducing-poverty] It is really so because without Article 370 the then Chief Minister Sheikh Abdullah could not expropriate big landlords without compensation. We know that happened from a 1953 article by Daniel Thorner, ‘The Kashmir Land[Read More…]
Suddenly the media and social media are abuzz with concern for water crisis, water wastage, preservation, groundwater replenishment and so on so forth. It is good. The social media, which are our big brothers, always watch over what people are doing, each and every person, can easily detect the date and time of the beginning of the sudden spur that[Read More…]
Dr Kamel Eddine Fekhar dies fasting in Custody on May 28, Workers Party leader Louisa Hanoune and many other Activists under arrest by military, while Protest Continues Kameleddine Fekhar, mort… sous nos yeux silencieux https://t.co/Cv88Xv1nDi — Khaled Drareni (@khaleddrareni) May 29, 2019 Dr Kamel Eddine Fekhar was arrested on March 31 by the authority in the de facto military rule[Read More…]
This article examines the following – the Early history of the Purulia Pumped Storage Projects that is/will-be devastating Ayodhya Hills ecosystem and society;The Faulty Environmental Impact Assessments and the Actual Devastating Impacts happened so far; the Alternative Technologies available and their possible loads; Some Conclusions including request to the students of GIS-RS, the Cultural and Historical Value of the Ayodhya[Read More…]
Atmabodhananda (left) at Matri Sadan Ahsrama[1] Haridwar, 26-04-19 Photo courtesy – Whatsapp Group নদী বাঁচাও জীবন বাঁচাও (nodi banchao jibon banchao)[2] It was afternoon of 25-April. Director of National Clean Ganga Mission Mr Rajiv Ranjan Mishra and Executive Director (Projects) Mr G Ashoke Kumar rushed to Matri Sadan Ashrama at noon and talked with Atmabodhananda. They assured that within a[Read More…]
Gilets Jaunes march with a banner with photo of Zineb Redouane (80) killed by a tear gas shell fired by police in Marseilles.Photo: Youcef Brakni[1] The amazing movement of Gilets Jaunes is continuing for 18 weeks, while six central trade unions CGT, FO, Solidaires, UNEF, UNL and UNL SD jointly issued a small leaflet[2] with the call of a General[Read More…]
By 29-January a photo from a press conference of US National Security Advisor John Bolton went viral, Mr Bolton had some yellow note sheets in his hand on which ‘5000 soldiers in Columbia’ was written. Speculation was high that US gathered or arranged 5000 soldiers in Columbia to invade Venezuela giving a final touch to the awaited coup d’état. Russian[Read More…]
In past two Octobers, Professor Prabhat Patnaik made two importantcontributions to theorisation of Fascism and ways to defeat it. One was Published on 17.10.17 in The Telegraph[1], “Finding a way out: The current upsurge of fascism”and the other in last year, “The Left and Opposition Unity: How Fascism Can Be Defeated in 2019” published in The Wire on 9.10.2018[2]. Firstly,[Read More…]
To understand the phenomenon Gilets Jaunes we may start from some background facts. The background study will show us why this phenomenon is complex.We shall also see how far the opposition of Daniel Cohn-Bendit,one leading person of 1968 rebellion, is correct;and we must see why prof Alain Badiou distanced himself from this movement, because Alain Badiou is one of the[Read More…]
From August 31 this year, a part of the media and social media was abuzz with a supposed oracle of some scientists. Headings like: “We Cannot Fight Climate Change With Capitalism, Says Report,” “A dire new report reveals our capitalist economic system may not be up to the task of dealing with the climate disasters to come”, “This is how[Read More…]
Elections seldom act as a true mirror – a century ago we heard about soldiers ‘voting with their feet’ in favour of demobilisation and Bolsheviks getting only about a quarter of popular votes in the constituent assembly election weeks after the Bolshevik revolution. But election results can show some trends within the society and it will not be prudent to keep eyes[Read More…]
Even the establishment media ultimately could not underplay the Farmers’ March from Nasik to Mumbai in March 2018. And not long ago we saw the Farmers’ Strike in Maharashtra; that happened in June 2017. All the pictures those protests presented showed a queer image of Maharashtra, a state which is set to be a Trillion $ economy by 2025 [[1]][Read More…]
How Billionaires Celebrate Naxalbari@50(And some other sides of the Half Truth they showed) A bare bodied mason, whose name was given as some Murmu, stood outside Kanu Sanyal’s home, “a single room hut thatched with corrugated tin… in a dilapidated condition… portion of the roof has cracked; sun-rays light up the room where his books, notepads and clothes lay in[Read More…]
On the Sept 22, 2017, during a march of All India Kisan Sangharsh Co-ordination Committee, one of its leaders Mr Yogendra Yadav (henceforth YY) told us, “So, what we are witnessing is the beginning of something that can only be described as a peasant rebellion”[1] Because, there were outbursts of peasants’ movement in several states of India in the last[Read More…]
There were undeniably several confusions that the workers in general faced during the first fifty years of forward march of international communist movement since the Petrograd Soviet days. What exactly Rosa meant in her criticism towards Russian socialists? How Trotsky differed from CPSU headed by Stalin? Then what happened to all the members of the Central Committee that led the[Read More…]
An Irrational Verdict? 
Trump Rot at the EPA 
AUKUS, the Australian Labor Party, and Growing Dissent 
Palestinians Don’t Exist? 
The Long Arm of Washington Extends Into Africa’s Sahel 
Radio Fatherland!! 
Bellies of the Rich Swell Further on the Back of Hunger 
The Big Picture And The Small – Part II 
2500 people urge Chief Minister of Karnataka to protect farmers, pastoralists and Dalits from Supreme injustice 
Our Global Water Crisis 
3.5 Million March Across France Opposing Macron’s Pension Reform 
Election Commission of India must question the presence political nominees on BEL’s and ECIL’s Boards 
Ihan Omar Introduces Legislation to Combat Islamophobia 
Narendra Modi’s Cricket Coup 
The Big Picture And The Small 
Prophesies, Then and Now – My Life at World’s End 
How the Cuban Government and Its People Collaborated on the Family Code 
Stop Criminalizing Journalism and Human Rights Activism: Release Irfan Mehraj and Parvez Khurram 
Politics of Bhagat Singh’s trial 
The Tragedy of Footpaths: Impressions of a Pedestrian in Bangalore 
Altruism exists in nature, Reciprocal altruism in humans 
U.S. Trying To Cover Up Its Role In Nord Stream Sabotage, Says Seymour Hersh 
Open Letter To Rahul Gandhi, Indian National Congress Party 
Future Scenarios in Ukraine 
West Sends Depleted Uranium Weapons to Ukraine: MEP to Warmongers – “You Make Me Sick!” 
Sri Lanka’s unconvincing response to Universal Periodic Review’s forthright findings 
Kisan Mahapanchayat stages massive rally in Delhi 
The betrayers of Julian Assange 
The Truth About Our Failure to Curb Carbon Emissions 
They’re liars, Mexico’s President on U.S. 
Grameena Pedala Sangham, Telangana State conference, is an important mile-stone 
Imperial Visits: US Emissaries in the Pacific Enough is enough. Restore parliament 
Disgrace at the New York Times 
‘Israel is (Not) Back to Africa’: How African Countries are Challenging Israeli Plot on the Continent 
A Highway to Peace or a Highway to Hell? The Vast Power of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex 
Accelerating Change on United Nations World Water Day 2023 
Defence Daredevilry 
Selling One’s Soul – The betrayal of Christ and Constitution 
Climate Crisis Has Caused Increasingly Irreversible Losses, Says UN Report 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
