Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Return of ‘State Socialism’ in the Post-COVID-19

  17 May 2020

  by Badre Alam Khan & Sanjay Kumar
  ‘[The] Virus is a product of nature; the crisis is a product of neo-liberalism’ [(Salas and Silverman, 2020); Cited by Vijay Prasad, EPW, March 2020].
  The Covid-19 lockdown has not posed serious challenges in health and socio-economic sectors, but also curtailed civil liberties and freedom of speech (especially dissenting voices of subaltern masses) in the so-called both democratic and authoritarian regimes across the world. Before coming to the (…)

• Time To Rethink Universal Health care

  17 May 2020

  by Shubham Kumar
  The outbreak of COVID-19 is arguably the biggest threat mankind has faced since World War II. The economic consequences of the pandemic may even outweigh the crises triggered by the Great Depression. It has been projected that Indian economy could contract further by about 20 percent in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021 if lockdown continues till mid-May 2020, which seems inevitable now. Recently, USA after a lot of furor passed Families First Coronavirus Response Act (…)

• Debate on Marx’s law of falling rate of profit, and value-price conversion

  16 May 2020, by Anil Rajimwale

  Review Article
  Which Way Lies the Future? KK Theckedath, Ma-Le Prakashana, Bengaluru, 2017. Price Rs 60/-
  Publication of Volume III of Capital by Karl Marx began series of controversies on value/price relationship. Bourgeois and even some Marxist economists tried to show that there is a contradiction between labor theory of value of Volume I and the determination of price and profit in Volume III.
  They are also trying to prove that the Law of the Tendency of Rate of Profit to (…)

• 

  Table of Contents - Mainstream Lockdown Edition no7 | May 9, 2020

  9 May 2020

  Table of Contents - Mainstream Lockdown Edition no7 | May 9, 2020
  Letter to the Readers – May 9, 2020 – Lockdown Edition no7
  We will never know how many people died of starvation, because no state government will admit to starvation deaths | P Chidambaram
  Important Role of Public Sector in Vaccine Production in Developing Countries | Bharat Dogra
  Karl Marx versus official Marxists | Sankar Ray
  Remembering Marx under the condition of lockdown: Going beyond the “Corona” Paradigm | (…)

• Letter to the Readers – May 9, 2020 – Lockdown Edition no7

  9 May 2020

  As one writes these lines, one is struck by the lead news report in all the major newspapers today:
  "Sixteen jobless and weary migrant labourers who had dozed off on a railway track after walking nearly 36 kms from Maharashtra’s Jalna, where they used to work in a steel plant, were run over by a goods train at Satana village near Aurangabad on Friday morning (May 8, tragically cutting short what was to be a journey back to their native M.P.
  "The deceased were in a group of (…)

• We will never know how many people died of starvation, because no state government will admit to starvation deaths

  9 May 2020

  by P Chidambaram
  The war against COVID-19 and its social and economic consequences is being led by the Central and state governments and we the people are mere followers. But as followers, we can imagine many things.
  First, imagine that the virus can be defeated without a vaccine. That will lead us to imagine that a lockdown is a cure and, until the cure is complete, a lockdown will stop the spread of the virus. The reality is that a lockdown is not a cure, nor does it stop the spread of (…)

• Important Role of Public Sector in Vaccine Production in Developing Countries

  9 May 2020, by Bharat Dogra

  Vaccines have been widely recognized as an important part of health programs of various countries. Now vaccine development and production has in fact become the most discussed aspect in the times of COVID-19 when there is a worldwide rush foe developing and then manufacturing vaccine for COVID 19. However in the prevailing situation of domination of international vaccine scene by networks of multinational companies, private billionaires with strong interests disguised as philanthropists and (…)

• Karl Marx versus official Marxists

  9 May 2020

  by Sankar Ray
  Two years elapsed since the 200th birth centenary of Karl Heinrich Marx (5 May 2018) but the official Marxist parties (OM) of India – CPI(M), CPI and variants of CPI(ML)- quietly ignored the co-founder of Scientific Socialism (with Friedrich Engels). Their mouthpieces, mass fronts etc did not bring out any special number on Marx, leave alone organising academic seminar, symposium and conference.
  In contrast, Patna-based Asian Development Research Institute deserves praise (…)

• Remembering Marx under the condition of lockdown: Going beyond the “Corona” Paradigm

  9 May 2020

  by Maya John
  On the occasion of the birth anniversary of Karl Marx, the greatest intellectual of the millennium, it is best to steer clear of hero-worshipping. Instead, let us commemorate Marx’s ideas by re-enacting his way of knowing things. Much can be drawn from his writings wherein we can see Marx reinvigorating the revolutionary agenda at a time of deep despair and defeat. Reflecting and writing after the failed revolutions of 1848, Marx provided an introspective critique of unfolding (…)

• 75th anniversary of Victory over fascism in WW II

  9 May 2020, by Anil Rajimwale

  This year, world celebrates 75th anniversary of the Second World War (WW II), which ended with victory over fascism, on 9 May 1945. The most destructive war in human history, it caused 5 crore deaths, two crores of them from Soviet Union alone. Soviet Red Army was in the forefront of the struggle and victory.
  The greatest lesson it taught us was not to underestimate fascism. Humanity paid a heavy price for letting fascism and Nazism come to power. The western imperialist powers US, Britain (…)