2023

by Balki Begumhan Bayhan *
May 31, 2023
After a bitter and hard-fought campaign that went to a second run-off vote, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has retained the Turkish presidency in an election that some deemed as “free but not fair”. Having first won power in 2003, Erdoğan has been able to extend his rule for a further five years by creating an alliance with ultranationalist parties.
A key aspect of the next term is likely to be a hardline conservative agenda. An agreement between the (…)

Jun 05, 2023
An estimated 500,000 people took to the streets of the capital Warsaw and other Polish cities on Sunday to protest the nation’s far-right government, which has assailed reproductive freedoms, attacked the rights of LGBTQ+ people, and cracked down on critical civil society groups and media outlets.
Sunday’s march against the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party—which has held power since 2015—was called by former Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, who is leading the Civic (…)

In his introduction to the Gramsci Reader edited by David Forgacs (New York University Press, 2000), the eminent Marxist historian, Eric Hobsbawm argued that Gramsci was “par excellence the philosopher of political praxis”. A recent study by Kate Crehan (‘Antonio Gramsci: Towards an ethnographic Marxism’, ANUAC, DICEMBRE 2018) has located ethnographic foundations of Gramsci’s political imagination in Prison Notebooks. In the context of his reading of Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, Crehan argued (…)

ALL INDIA BANK OFFICERS CONFEDERATION (Registered under the Trade Unions Act 1926, Registration No.3427/Delhi) State Bank of India, LHO, Dispur, Guwahati–781006 Phone: 9957563825 Web: www.aiboc.org e mail- aiboc.sectt[at]gmail.com & rupamr.aiboc[at]gmail.com
ALL INDIA BANK EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION Central Office: “PRABHAT NIVAS” Regn. No. 2037 Singapore Plaza, 164, Linghi Chetty Street, Chennai- 600001 Phone: 25351522 Fax: 25358853 Web: www.aibea.in e mail chv.aibea[at]gmail.com & (…)

Collective statement by women and human rights organisations condemning the state repression and police atrocities on the wrestlers in their struggle for justice against sexual harassment, issued on 6th June 2023
END THE CULTURE OF IMPUNITY AND ARREST ACCUSED BRIJ BHUSHAN SHARAN SINGH NOW
We the undersigned women and human rights organisations condemn the way the Delhi Police, Home Minister Amit Shah and the BJP led Central Government at the highest level have managed to subvert the law, (…)

June 6, 2023 will mark five years that five activists are behind bars. They include Mahesh Raut, an anti-displacement campaigner, Rona Wilson, a political prisoners’ campaigner, Shoma Sen, a feminist activist and professor, Sudhir Dhawale, a Dalit rights activist and Surendra Gadling, a lawyer who takes people’s rights cases pro-bono.

Editors Guild of India
PRESS STATEMENT
June 7, 2023
In a petition filed by the Editors Guild of India challenging the amendments to IT Rules, 2021, the Bombay High Court issues notice and extends stay on the Rules till July 10
The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2023 (IT Amendment Rules, 2023) were notified by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on April 6, 2023. Along with various regulations (…)

BOOK REVIEW by M.R. Narayan Swamy
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The Stolen Necklace: A Small Crime in a Small Town by Shevlin Sebastian and V.K. Thajudheen
HarperCollins India Pages: xi + 249 ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9356296855 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9356296855 Price: Rs 399
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It happened in a small town in Kerala but it could have happened anywhere in India – and to anyone, more so if one couldn’t pull the right strings. V.T. Thajudheen was adamant he had committed no crime. Yet the (…)

BOOK REVIEW
by Paige Figanbaum (University of Nevada, Las Vegas)
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Thought’s Wilderness: Romanticism and the Apprehension of Nature by Greg Ellermann
Stanford University Press 2022. xiii + 180 pp (cloth) ISBN 978-1-5036-2848-9
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Greg Ellermann’s book Thought’s Wilderness: Romanticism and the Apprehension of Nature, provides a thorough examination of the significance of nature as a concept. The author argues that without the romanticism movement, society would view and (…)

"A soft coup is underway in Colombia"
An urgent call from over 400 political and industrial leaders from around the world
June 7, 2023
Ever since the election of the country’s first progressive government — led by President Gustavo Petro, Vice President Francia Márquez, and the Historic Pact in Congress — Colombia’s traditional powers have been organizing to restore an order marked by extreme inequality, environmental destruction, and state-sponsored violence.
Now, less than one year (…)