Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Not everyone8217;s share
With the Sensex scaling new heights, the CPIM mouthpiece has sent out a typical warning, attributing the movements to speculation, and suggesting the stockmarket simply serves the interests of finance capital. It says that sharemarkets rather than allowing the free movement of finance for development have given place to finance capital, which with its speculative nature has pushed back industrial capital to take control of the global economy. In India8217;s case, the article claims, frequent scams have kept long-term investors away from the stockmarket. It picks out for special mention mutual funds, saying they have a dismal record besides having an aggressive, speculative character.
In the US Net
The World Information Summit in Tunisia last month showed, according to Prabir Purkayastha, that the Internet controlled by the US is not acceptable to the rest of the world. The challenge to the US is not what it has done but what it can potentially do given its control over the Internet, also because the Internet is critical to various economic activities. The real issue is how to sort out a global cooperative framework.
WTO nightmares
A front-page editorial in People8217;s Democracy draws a link between liberalisation of trade in agriculture and the negative impact it has had on Indian farmers. The spate of suicides and starvation deaths is blamed on the NDA8217;s decision to withdraw quantitative restrictions on the import of agricultural commodities. The CPIM8217;s position is that India must stress on special safeguard mechanisms for all primary products and primary processed products. Also, pressure must be mounted on developed countries to reduce huge subsidies for their domestic agriculture. Importantly, India must ensure that there should not be any non-tariff barriers on Indian agricultural imports.
Take notes, Santa
Looking ahead, a few things on the CPIM8217;s wishlist:
8226; The government should introduce the Unorganised Sector Workers Bill. The party says that despite being in power for over 18 months and committed to bringing in a comprehensive legislation to protect the interests of workers in the unorganised sector, it has not done so.
8226; CITU President M.K. Pandhe says he wants to dispel the notion that trade unions are against economic growth and says they believe that only economic growth can generate employment. But, he believes that mere economic growth cannot lead to social advancement and trade unions are needed to articulate the interests of workers. His point is that the issues before trade unions are far too numerous and on his wishlist is an effective trade union movement but without the 8220;multiplicity of trade unions8221;.
Compiled by Ananda Majumdar
