Geetanjali Gayatri: Agitation against farm laws turns the spotlight on Punjabi women

History is replete with stories of their heroism because valour runs in the Punjabi blood. But, unfortunately, so does patriarchy. And, there is absolutely no dearth of ghastly tales of honour killing, of female foeticide, of subjugation of the fairer sex and worse. These, however, are dark alleys and just not the place to be… Read More Geetanjali Gayatri: Agitation against farm laws turns the spotlight on Punjabi women

Dilip

Deathbed Letter From Former Cop Claims NYPD, FBI Helped Kill Malcolm X

A letter shared by the family of a deceased former New York police officer alleges that the officer, the New York City Police Department and the FBI played a role in the murder of the powerful civil rights leader Malcolm X. The outspoken antiracism activist and former spokesman for the Nation of Islam died on… Read More Deathbed Letter From Former Cop Claims NYPD, FBI Helped Kill Malcolm X

Dilip

Petition against publishing giants suing SciHub & LibGen

Three publishing giants – Elseiver, Wiley, and American Chemical Society – have recently filed a lawsuit in India to block SciHub and LibGen, which are widely used portals that provide free access to academic articles, many of which lie behind expensive paywalls. Millions of students in India and other countries use these digital libraries to… Read More Petition against publishing giants suing SciHub & LibGen

Dilip

Mitali Saran – Standing your ground: A toolkit

India, 2021: JNU is tukde-tukde gang, Kashmiris are terrorists, Muslims are traitors, liberals are communists, communists are anti-national, dissent is sedition, intellectuals are urban naxals, Congress supporters are slaves, the elite opposition is the Khan Market gang, protesters are andolanjeevis, human rights are Western propaganda, activists are anti-development, journalists are presstitutes, dissent is sedition, critics… Read More Mitali Saran – Standing your ground: A toolkit

Dilip

“Where is the working class? It’s all over the world today”: Jairus Banaji in conversation with Sheetal Chhabria and Andrew Liu

The following conversation took place in December 2020. On the occasion of Jairus Banaji’s latest publication, A Brief History of Commercial Capitalism, Sheetal Chhabria and Andrew B. Liu spoke to contextualize his work within a multi-decade trajectory of history, theory, and labor organization, across Europe and Asia. We noted the particular significance of an original intervention… Read More “Where is the working class? It’s all over the world today”: Jairus Banaji in conversation with Sheetal Chhabria and Andrew Liu

Dilip

Roger Sollenberger: What caused the Texas disaster? Decades of Republican deregulation: "Laissez-faire run amok"

NB: Contemporary conservative thought has a tendency to equate all social control, or even the hint of such control, as ‘communism’. Hence the antipathy toward activists such as Greta Thunberg, who simply asked for urgent measures to control damage to the environment. Note this paragraph from the article below: “The fight against climate change in… Read More Roger Sollenberger: What caused the Texas disaster? Decades of Republican deregulation: "Laissez-faire run amok"

Dilip

TOM ENGELHARDT: The American Century Ends Early

Like Gregor Samsa, the never-to-be-forgotten character in Franz Kafka’s story “The Metamorphosis,” we awoke on January 7th to discover that we, too, were “a giant insect” with “a domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments” and numerous “pitifully thin” legs that “waved helplessly” before our eyes. If you prefer, though, you can just say… Read More TOM ENGELHARDT: The American Century Ends Early

Dilip

K. K. Kailash: ‘One Nation’, New India and the Hollowing Out of the Federal Idea

Since 2014, when “New India” was apparently inaugurated, we are in a remarkably similar phase of federalism as in the 1970s and early 1980s when the centre called the shots and state autonomy was constrained. With the “One Nation, One India” rhetoric now in the limelight, the era of “federalism without a centre” (Sáez 2002),… Read More K. K. Kailash: ‘One Nation’, New India and the Hollowing Out of the Federal Idea

Dilip

We Stand with India’s Farmers! Now Let’s Connect the Dots Between the Forces of Neoliberalism that Stifle Farmers, from India to the U.S.

What the Indian farmers are enduring now happened in the U.S. almost four decades ago We Stand with India’s Farmers! Now Let’s Connect the Dots Between the Forces of Neoliberalism that Stifle Farmers, from India to the U.S. A solidarity statement in support of the brave and historic protests in India from farmers, and other agroecology, farm and… Read More We Stand with India’s Farmers! Now Let’s Connect the Dots Between the Forces of Neoliberalism that Stifle Farmers, from India to the U.S.

Dilip

Book review: The Coolie’s Great War: Indian Labour in a Global Conflict, 1914-1921

The Allied victory in the First World War was won on the back of the labour of non-combatant ‘coolies’, whose deployment allowed for swift mobilisation across fronts. A new book narrates the story of their struggles on the battlefields and of their neglect. Radhika Singha, The Coolie’s Great War: Indian Labour in a Global Conflict, 1914-1921… Read More Book review: The Coolie’s Great War: Indian Labour in a Global Conflict, 1914-1921

Dilip