South Asia Citizens Web

For seventeen years from 1905, the Russian polity was soaked in blood and cruelty. The revolution was born and bred in the crucible of warfare. It is one of the most tragic ironies of modern history that a movement driven by massive disgust with war and militarism was overtaken by a series of events culminating in a violent ideological dictatorship directed - for the most part - at the Russian people. The aspirations of that time can neither be forgotten nor dismissed. But the only way the socialist vision may be revived is by speaking across state borders; and speaking truthfully about the Russian Revolution.

In 2017 India slipped 21 places to 108 on the Global Gender Gap index maintained by World Economic Forum – much behind China and Bangladesh. India has been seeing a declining participation of women in the economy and low wages.

The New Trade Union Initiative expresses its deep anguish at the huge loss of life at the National Thermal Power Corporation Limited’s power plant in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday, 1 November 2017 and strongly condemns the criminal negligence on the part of NTPC, BHEL and the Governments of India and Uttar Pradesh.

The 285 Turkish nationals, who are teachers associated with the Pak-Turk schools and their families, have been facing deportation to Turkey since November 2016. The 285 now live in fear of raids carried out by the Pakistani police and intelligence services in Pakistan. Should they be deported to Turkey, they are at high risk of arbitrary arrest, judicial harassment, and detention upon arrival. Such detention may be accompanied by torture and other forms of ill-treatment.

Noam! There’s a whole lot of things that I want to talk to you about, but let me start with this. It appears as if the world is retribalizing. We are going back to our primal tribal loyalties – to religion, to nationalism. You see this just about everywhere. You see this with Brexit, the rise of the ultra-right in Europe, with Donald Trump in United States. And here in Pakistan you have bloodletting with Sunnis killing Shias, and everybody going after the Ahmadis and the Christians and the Hindus. And in India – that seems to be a country that has just gone mad with their protection of the cow. What’s going on? There was once a time of the European Enlightenment and I know that you admire John Stuart Mill very much. Have we given up on the advances that humans made in those times? What’s going on?