South Asia Citizens Web

Recent judgments of many courts in cases related to terrorism which have exonerated the innocent individuals who were arrested and then incarcerated and tortured for long periods, in the process destroying their lives and those of their families, have also censured members of the police force and have recommended departmental action against them. Here too, no action other than the white-wash kind was taken. Do our country’s police forces function in circumstances of impunity? Are there means and mechanisms by which it can be ensured that the “upholders of the law” do not themselves go against the law in their actions? Or are the law-men to be always a law unto themselves?

If the FUTA strike is crushed it will resemble the crushing blow that JR inflicted on the working class and independent political activity in July 1980. I do not want to over dramatise, it is only in retrospect that we can make secure historical judgements, but it is possible that this is one of the final chances the nation will get to throw back the executive power of an authoritarian menace. The state is primed for the offensive, but public opinion, the working class and trade unions, and the educated classes and left opinion are half asleep, but fortunately, also half awake.

Internet users in Kashmir are unable to access Facebook and YouTube. The government had issued orders to Internet service providers to restrict access to the websites. It is not know till when these restrictions will continue.

Anti POSCO Struggle: POSCO Pratirodh Sangarm Samiti (PPSS) is spearheading a relentless struggle against the establishment of integrated steel plant and captive port by POSCO, a South Korean company, opposing this project for the last seven years through peaceful, democratic forms of struggle. There have been number of undemocratic tactics used by the POSCO Company and the state government to break the democratic struggles.

Born to Jewish parents in Egypt in 1917, the year of the Russian Revolution, Prof Hobsbawm’s life and works were shaped by his commitment to radical socialism. An unrepentant Marxist, he acknowledged the failure of 20th Century communism but said he had not given up on Marxist ideals.