Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Dismantling the Social Safety Net in America

  18 May 2012, by Eddie J Girdner

  BOOK REVIEW
  RULING CLASS STRUGGLE AND THE FOX IDIOT BOX
  The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism by Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson; New York: Oxford University Press; 2012; pages: 245.
  The United States is a mature capitalist country on the down side of history. Under neoliberalism, the economic policy since the l970s has been centred on an agenda of rapid and radical de-industrialisation to ensure higher corporate profits. Jobs have since been exported en masse, (…)

• Remembering Karl Marx

  18 May 2012

  (On May 5 this year was observed the one hundred and ninetyfourth birth anniversary of Karl Marx. On this occasion we remember that immortal revolutionary with the following excerpts from his unforgettable writings and speeches. We are also publishing some relevant articles in the following pages. —Editor)
  “In direct contrast to German philosophy, which descends from heaven to earth, here we ascend from earth to heaven. That is to say, we do not set out from what men say, imagine, (…)

• Reflections on Marx, Lenin and Us

  18 May 2012, by Mohit Sen

  (The following are excerpts from the chapter ‘Reflections’ from the autobiography of noted Communist ideologue Mohit Sen, A Traveller and the Road: The Journey of An Indian Communist.)
  Though the birth of the Communist movement took place in 1847-48 when Marx read out the Communist Manifesto, it would not be unfair to date its birth from the victory of the Russian Revolution on November 7, 1917. The news of its victory was sent ’To All! To All! To All!’ Since then, despite defeats, it (…)

• Marx and Engels on the Use of Parliamentary Institutions

  18 May 2012, by Anil Rajimwale

  A STUDY OF ENGELS’ INTRODUCTION
  “The Communist Manifesto had already proclaimed the winning of universal suffrage, of democracy, as one of the first and most important tasks of the militant proletariat,” (Engels’ Introduction of 1895 to Marx’s The Class Struggles in France, SW1, Moscow, 1973, p. 195)
  These are the words of Frederick Engels on the attitude of the Communists to the struggle for universal suffrage. In this entire para, Engels clearly expresses himself in favour of not only (…)

• Our Common Victory and Its Lessons

  18 May 2012, by Vyacheslav I. Trubnikov

  [Vyacheslav I. Trubnikov, one of the best and most respected Russian ambassdors to this country, wrote the following article on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the Victory over Fascism on May 9, 2005 when he headed the Russian embassy in New Delhi. It was carried in Mainstream (May 14, 2005). It is being reproduced seven years later as we observe the 67th anniversary of the end of Hitlerite Fascism on May 9 this week.]
  In Russia’s calendar of memorable dates the 9th of May (…)

• Maoist Actions and State Operations

  13 May 2012, by SC

  Several moves by the state, judiciary and ruling party to muzzle the press have come into focus on the national plane of late. In the global arena, especially in the West, May Day this year has been observed by the working people venting their anger at the growing joblessness and rising austerity measures, and this anger threatens to topple the rulers in Paris and Athens; but in Moscow more than a lakh of workers celebrated Labour Day with a Soviet-style march demonstrating their support for (…)

• Where You Walk in Company...

  13 May 2012

  (Rabindranath Tagore’s 151st birth anniversary falls on Sunday (May 8, 2012) marking the conclusion of the celebrations that began with the 150th anniversary of his birth last year. We remember him and offer our sincere homage to his abiding memory on this occastion by reproducing the following poem, another poem (on page 9) and two articles (on pages 4 to 10 and page 12) that bring out some lesser known aspects of the Poet’s exceptionally creative activities. —Editor) where you walk in (…)

• Muktadhara’s Relevance

  13 May 2012, by Amiya Dev

  A Tagore play that has a lot of relevance today is Muktadhara (‘The Waterfall’ in his own translation, both dated 1922). It is set in the open—in fact its original title was Path or ‘Way’—on the road to Lord Bhairava’s temple in a hilly country, with a quick shift of actors. The occasion is the completion of a dam, a marvel of engineering. People have come to celebrate it and felicitate its builder, Bibhuti, or have come out of curiosity in it or to bemoan their loss in its (…)

• Sketching Tagore as a Social Activist and Social Reformer

  13 May 2012, by Arup Maharatna

  In celebrating the 150th birth anniversary year of the giant poet and writer Rabindranath Tagore, it would be no small a tribute if we recall, recognise, and evaluate him more adequately and comprehensively than ever before as an activist who had remained in his entire creative life immensely concerned, tirelessly active, and deeply thoughtful about rural material poverty, ignorance, illiteracy, superstitions, and such other social evils in our country, and also about the ideals and notions (…)

• The Toilers

  13 May 2012

  As I look around this dear old earth I see the vast wave of common mass traversing by diverse ways the endless track from life to death, urged on by common human needs from times immemorial. It is they that row and they that sit at the helm. It is they that sow the seeds and they that toil at the harvest. They remain the same through ages —the toilers. The spectres snap, the war-drums beat no more, columns of victory stand in stupid silence, bloodshot eyes and bloodstained (…)