Having organised a bandh on the same day as the BJP,the Left has now been forced to reply to questions as to whether there was coordination between the comrades and the party that it has,all along,shunned as communal. In the latest issue of its mouthpiece New Age,the CPI says there was no synchronisation of action with the BJP.
We have been fighting against price rise and will continue to fight the disastrous economic policies of UPA-II. We will not desist from it even if somebody will try to taunt us about collaborating with the forces to fight whom we are committed to, the lead editorial says. It adds that the Lefts fight against communalism and parochialism will not be affected by organising the bandh on the same day as that of the BJP.
Flotilla fallout
That the Left has always been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause is known. But with elections just a year away in Kerala,the CPM is taking the ideological position a step forward,showing its symbolic support to Palestines people and through that is hoping to reach out to Keralas estranged Muslims.
The trade unions in Cochin port,led by the CPMs labour outfit,CITU,have decided to boycott Israeli ships and cargo arriving at the port in protest against the siege of Gaza by Israeli forces. The CPMs weekly organ Peoples Democracy reports the boycott,which it said was also happening in Sweden,United Kingdom,South Africa and other countries.
Kick Dow while down
CPI(M) MP Brinda Karat had in the past demanded a CBI inquiry into the corrupt practices indulged in by Dow Chemicals to bribe Indian officials to sell Dursban,a pesticide produced by it,in India. Now that the spotlight is on Dow after the Bhopal gas leak verdict,the CPM has raised the issue once again.
Karat has written a letter to Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar reminding him that he had agreed to institute a CBI inquiry into the matter in 2007. It is now three years since then. Has the CBI report been received? It is strange indeed that although Dow has had to pay a fine in the US for corrupt practices indulged in within India,the government of India has still not taken any action either against the Indian officials or more importantly the company itself, she says.
The letter,reproduced in Peoples Democracy,quotes Karat as asking Pawar to make the CBI report public if he has received it. In any case,since there is prima facie evidence of corruption,it is inexplicable why your ministry is not acting against those involved in bribery and corruption, she says.
Back to the people
Now that the CPM has accepted that moving away from the poor in West Bengal resulted in successive electoral setbacks,the party is hoping to make amends. So the slogan for the CPM now is go back to the people. But with Assembly polls just under a year away,the party has realised that time might be too short. A look at the organisational tasks identified by the CPM after the civic poll debacle shows the partys intent. Within the time left,it has decided to put in place organisational measures to engage deep and widen mass contact,individually and family-based and hold regular meetings in localities,neighbourhoods,urban areas,and working-class belts.
Besides,plans are afoot to organise popular lectures and political education camps; build up a network teaching the children of the poor,the working class,and the peasants; and draft a specific plan for mass literacy.
Compiled by Manoj C.G.
