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Marx Turns 200

I imagine Karl Marx at his desk in the British Library, reading the Blue Books produced by the British imperial officials, studying the large books of Smith and Ricardo, spilling ink onto his coat, wondering what chaos will meet him at home. When he returns home, his children throw themselves on his bulk, demanding he read Shakespeare or the Grimm’s Fairy Tales to them. One of his children is likely sick, his wife and Helene Demuth tending to the ailing child. Marx tells Jenny Marx what he has[...]

Book Launch- 'Building Alternatives: The Story of India's Oldest Construction Workers' Cooperative'

The launch of the new book 'Building Alternatives: The Story of India's Oldest Construction Workers' Cooperative' became an occasion to celebrate alternatives that could move humanity forward in the long road to socialism. The book, which recounts the journey of the Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society (ULCCS) in Kerala, has been written by T.M. Thomas Isaac, Kerala's Finance Minister, and Michelle Williams, Associate Professor at the Wits University, Johannesburg, South Africa. It has[...]

In the land called hunger

As the kisan rally marched into Mumbai, all eyes were on one man, the CPI(M) MLA from Surgana and Kalwan constituencies. He organised the potable water and food packets. He sent messages to party colleagues in Mumbai and Delhi. Above all, he egged on the 35,000 peasants through personal example, he walked shoulder to shoulder with them. And the peasants marched with him, they trusted him.          Comrade Jiva Gavit Even when the peasants walked through Mumbai at midnight (so as not t[...]

#KisanLongMarch

    ‘Meherbani nakko! Hakk Havet.’ ‘No favors, we want our rights.’ On 6 March, about 20,000 farmers from Maharashtra mobilized by CPI (M)-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) began their 200-km march to Mumbai from Nashik. The plan was to indefinitely gherao the Assembly while the Budget session was on and demand immediate resolution of the life-and-death issues facing farmers. The march swelled to around 35,000 farmers as they walked in the heat for six days and reached Mumba[...]

The Left Loses an Election in Tripura, but it Has Not Been Defeated

The BJP and its ally – the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) – have won the 2018 elections to the Tripura state legislature. The alliance of the BJP and the IPFT will now form a government. The Left It is the first time in twenty-five years that Tripura, a state of four million people in India’s northeast, will be without a government of the Left. The outgoing chief minister – Manik Sarkar of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI-M] – has been in that office since M[...]