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The Indian election result (announced on 13 May), following a marathon 4-stage poll which commenced on 20 April, saw the emergence of Congress as the largest party, with 149 seats in the lower house of the Indian parliament (the Lok Sabha). This was the best result achieved by Congress since 2001. By comparison, the BJP’s … [Read more…]

Introduction On 28 June, at 10.26 in the morning, the much-heralded ‘transfer of sovereignty’ to the Iraqi people took place during a scantily-attended five-minute ceremony in a dreary room in the office of Iyad Allawi, prime minister of the ‘new’ interim government. Fearful that the Iraqi resistance might spoil the party through an uninvited intrusion, … [Read more…]

In this Year of remembered 20th anniversaries for the proletariat a less well remembered one is Bhopal. Bhopal is an ancient city, the state capital of Madhya Pradesh in Central India. It did not differ greatly from many other Indian cities until in the early hours of the morning of 3 December 1984, when forty … [Read more…]

We began this article in the March/April issue of Lalkar. In this issue we conclude with the arguments against joining the euro, the prospects of European union and the attitude of the proletariat to it. Arguments against joining the Euro Those who oppose British membership of the single currency do so on the following real … [Read more…]

On the 29th of February 2004, after weeks of civil war waged by his opponents (hailing mostly from privileged sections of Haitian society), Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the elected President of Haiti, was kidnapped by invading US forces and flown out of the country, in order to make way for US imperialism’s latest choice of President. The … [Read more…]

Part Three This is the third instalment of this article, which we began publishing in the last issue of Lalkar. It is a slightly extended version of that which appeared in The Marxist, Volume XIX, No 2 April-June 2003. The question of communalism and religious bigotry is extremely important, for it divides and weakens the … [Read more…]

Sunday 4 April will go down in history as a day when the Iraqi resistance to Anglo-American imperialist occupation became a truly national revolt of the Iraqi people – Shia and Sunni, religious and secular – united in their hatred of the predatory occupying forces and a burning desire to expel them from Iraq. On … [Read more…]

In the last few weeks fascist Israel has announced its intention of withdrawing from the Gaza Strip, removing the settlements which it had built illegally, and which house some 7,500 Jewish settlers. For all that the Israeli government parades this proposed withdrawal as a massive step towards peace, for which they are to reward themselves … [Read more…]

Part Three This is the third instalment of this article, which we began publishing in the last issue of Lalkar. It is a slightly extended version of that which appeared in The Marxist, Volume XIX, No 2 April-June 2003. The question of communalism and religious bigotry is extremely important, for it divides and weakens the … [Read more…]

I The expulsion of the Rail, Maritime and Transport workers union (RMT) from the Labour Party is a welcome development, removing one particular organisational obstacle to the advance of socialism in the labour movement. At the same time, it imposes new political tasks on those who intend to offer socialist leadership to the working class. … [Read more…]