The struggle to remove Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has raised the question of democracy and the state. We publish the Preface and first chapter of Lenin’s The State and Revolution, which explains what the state is and whose interests it serves.
Mass youth protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar have met a brutal crackdown. The disenfranchisement of crores of voters through the SIR is no accident: it flows from the class nature of the Indian state and the BJP’s divide-and-rule.
Manipur, one of India’s “seven sister states”, has been torn apart by sectarian conflict whipped up by the BJP and the courts. A Marxist analysis of the national question, resource extraction and the road to socialist revolution.
“Those in power think citizens are cockroaches and parasites. They should know that cockroaches breed in rotten places. That’s what India is today.” These are the words of Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) – the ‘Cockroach People’s Party’, a play on…
The Tamil Nadu Assembly elections were held alongside elections in other states such as West Bengal, Assam, and Kerala. The election witnessed a four-cornered contest. The main contenders were the ruling DMK-led Secular Alliance, consisting of the CPI, CPM, VCK (Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi), Congress, MDMK,…
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has provoked an energy crisis in India. This sudden, huge increase in the cost of living has sparked a wave of strikes all across the region. In the last month, strikes have spread across the National Capital Region…
On 23 February, 40,000 workers at IOCL (Indian Oil Corporation Limited) at the Panipat refinery expansion project in Haryana went on a strike, which spread across the entire premises. The sudden, radical action was met with a vicious police crackdown and an internet blackout. The…
On 12 February, India’s main trade union confederations, including AITUC, CITU, INTUC and HMS, in addition to sectoral federations (such as the All-India Bank Employees Association) and farmer organisations, jointly held a national general strike. The labour leaders claim that 300 million participated. But what…
Four months ago, sanitation workers began a protest outside the Ripon Building, HQ of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), demanding permanent employment, opposing privatisations and calling on the GCC to “recall to work those who were dismissed”. These workers are paid a pittance, Rs.15,000 or…
President Donald Trump has taken a sledgehammer to decades of US foreign policy in South Asia by imposing 50 percent tariffs on a swathe of Indian goods. This is a slap in the face for Trump’s former close ally Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is…
