Monthly Archives: November 2015

LOK SABHA ADJOURNED REPEATEDLY OVER CPI-M MEMBER’S REMARKS

30 Monday Nov 2015

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Lok Sabha adjourned repeatedly over CPI-M member's remarks

Parliament House of India

Poor prices for Spanish vegetables

30 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by in Current Affairs, Farmers, INTERNATIONAL NEWS

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The Spanish vegetable season has been quite disappointing so far, particularly for growers. It is very quiet on the market as well. Guy Deryckere from Van Lier says that this season has not been good for any Spanish vegetables, except zucchini, “It is slow on the market right now, which is why prices are not rising.”

Guy continues, “With the exception of zucchini, the prices for Spanish vegetables are very low. We have not yet received Spanish tomatoes. They are obviously still very cheap in Spain. They arrive at a different time each year. Sometimes they arrive mid-November, other times they arrive at the beginning of December. By the time we start with Spanish tomatoes it is usually already December.”

Guy expects that the poor greenhouse vegetable situation will continue, “For the situation to improve the weather in Spain would have to cool down so that there is less supply, but for now there is a lot of product.”

Spanish growers hand out their products for free

This week Spanish growers gave out their vegetables for free. On Tuesday the Union of Small Farmers (UPA) in Andalusia gave out more than 8,500 kilos of tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers in the center of Almeria in protest against the low prices. In just a few weeks time the price of tomatoes in Spain has fallen from 1.17 to 24 cents.

Growers are blaming the warm weather, which has lasted longer than normal, (in their own words) ‘aggressive’ competition from Morocco, speculation from traders and middlemen in the chain.

US food prices surprisingly stable

In January, inflation rates for major food groups were well above the national average. Since then, the rates for products such as fruits, vegetables and meat, have fallen steadily to near zero percent.

California agriculture controls much of Indiana’s winter food prices; and with El Nino expecting to bring much needed rain and snow to the area, inflation could drop even more.

Purdue agriculture economist Chris Hurt was shocked inflation rates fell so much due to the continued drought in California. “I think right now the prospects for food production in California looks positive, and that should help keep our costs of those food product very moderate going forward the next six months to a year,” said Hurt. “What we’ve seen so far on fruits and vegetables is basically unchanged, a surprise really. At the start of the year, we were anticipating the drought damage in California to raise fruit and vegetable prices.”

Fruits and vegetables were expected to take a big hit, but has dropped from 2.3 percent to near zero percent.

“What we’ve seen so far this year is very moderate food inflation. Total cost of food is only up around 1.6 percent,” explained Hurt. “As consumers, we are seeing growth in income; and on average will be more than the cost of inflation of food.”

For farmers, this is tough, as prices are below price of production. But for consumers, it’s a relief on the wallet.

If California receives the anticipated rain and snow, Hurt said consumers should expect these prices to last through the start of 2016.

Greek farmers sign petition against new tax hikes

A petition signed by farmers across Greece regarding government plans to raise their taxes was expected to be handed to SYRIZA deputies in their constituencies over the weekend.

Drawn up by the Farmers Initiative, the petition was signed by 62 local farmers’ associations.

While a second round of prior actions the government is required to fulfill for the next tranche of bailout funding to be released did not include tax hikes on farmers, the latter said new measures were in the pipeline.

 

Sitaram Yechury’s Speech in Parliament on November 27, 2015

30 Monday Nov 2015

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DISCUSSION ON COMMITMENT TO INDIA’S CONSTITUTION AS PART OF 125TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF DR. B.R. AMBEDKAR  Contd..

SHRI ARUN JAITLEY (CONTD.): So, if Dr. Ambedkar had today stood up and proposed this provision, how would this House have reacted? ..[In Hindi]

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: These are Directive Principles. You know as much as I know. These are Directive Principles. Do not stretch that argument to such a level.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Let the hon. Speaker continue.

SHRI ARUN JAITLEY: We will go beyond Directive Principles now…[In Hindi]  “The State shall endeavour to organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines and shall, in particular, take steps for preserving and improving the breeds, and prohibiting the slaughter, of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle.” So if Dr. Ambedkar had proposed Article 44 and Article 48 today, how many of you would have accepted it, as Shri Sitaram Yechury says, even as a Directive Principle? …[In Hindi]

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: .[In Hindi] Dr. Ambedkar gave primacy to equality, life, liberty and dignity, the Fundamental Rights.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Mr. Jaitley, if you don’t mind, I wish to make a point. You see, you have quoted article 44. You just go to article 43A. It says, ‘…by suitable legislation…to secure the participation of workers in the management of undertakings,…’ Has that been done? Look at article 45. It says, ‘The State shall endeavour to provide early childhood care and education…’ Has that been done? Then, go to article 46. It talks about promotion of educational and economic interests of SCs, STs and other weaker sections…(Interruptions)…But, you choose one article 44 and another article 48…(Interruptions)…What about providing special care? What about providing all these?

MR. CHAIRMAN: Sitaramji, please, do it when your turn comes. …(Interruptions)…

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: So, don’t pick and choose. That is what I am saying…(Interruptions)…

SHRI ARUN JAITLEY: I think, I am glad that my friend Sitaram’s best argument is that we must have equality in the matter of not following the law, because one provision has not been followed the other should not be followed.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Sir, I am saying you should follow the entire law…(Interruptions)…No, you are not following the entire law. …(Interruptions)…

MR. CHAIRMAN: I would request all the concerned to allow the discussion…(Interruptions)…

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Why are you picking and choosing, Sir? That is my point…(Interruptions)…

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY (WEST BENGAL): Sir, thank you for giving me this opportunity. ..[In Hindi] So, what we wanted was enactments of all the legislations on the basis of which we can carry forward the vision of social justice that Dr. Ambedkar stood for. Now, instead, we have a situation where the Government has come forward saying that we reaffirm our faith in the Constitution. Where is the question of reaffirming? You are here, I am here, and all of us are here on an oath on this Constitution. What is this drama of reaffirming? If the Constitution is not there, then, you won’t be here. The Government of the day must know, the Leader of the House — he is not here now — should know that they are there only because we affirm this Constitution. What is this question of now saying, “We will reaffirm”? And what is this Constitution Day, Sir?….

Go through the history. On 26th of November this Constitution was signed by the President of the Constituent Assembly. It was voted upon and the draft was adopted and in the draft you have said explicitly ‘that on the26th of January India shall be a Republic in 1950 when this draft will turn into a Constitution and we shall enact.’ Can this Government answer? I want our esteemed lawyer, the Leader of the House, to tell us what law governed India from 26th of November, 1949 to 26th of January, 1950? Was it this Constitution? Is it known, Sir? The law that governed India during those two months after you adopted this Constitution was India Independence Act, 1947 moved by the British Prime Minister Attlee in the House of Commons in London. What is this Constitution then? You were under the British law for these two months. You adopted and enacted this Constitution on the 26th of January. Now, what is this new thing that you are finding now 65 years later on the Constitution Foundation Day? You please explain to me, Sir. You are sitting on the Chair. Maybe, you have greater knowledge, but you please explain to me that when Dr. Ambedkar himself says that on 26th of January we are enacting this Constitution and we shall be a Republic, what is this 26th November? Yes, that day the Constituent Assembly adopted this draft, but that was not the Indian Constitution yet. That was not the law of our land yet. It became the law of the land on the 26th of January, 1950. Lawyers are talking like this, Sir, on the Constitution Foundation day! You want some day or the other to find yourself so that you can celebrate one more event. The Constituent Assembly met again on the 24th and 25th of January, 1950. The Jana Gana Mana as the National Anthem was adopted on the 24th of January and on the 24th and 25th all Members of the Constituent Assembly signed this Constitution and on the 26th of November only 15 out of the 395 clauses in our Constitution came into operation. Sir, 26th of January, 1950 was when the entire Constitution came into operation. So, what is this new item that we have, Sir? …(Interruptions)… You may call it item song or whatever. It is a new item now in the Indian Constitution. A senior leader of the ruling party has described our Prime Minister, charitable or uncharitable, I don’t know, it is up to their party to decide, he called him an excellent event manager. One event after another, London and after that Malaysia, after that Asia and after that Constitution Day and from tomorrow it will be Paris. They showed us an old film in my youth, “Paris ke range shyam”. That will be the event from tomorrow.

SHRI ANAND SHARMA: It cannot be in the name of a film.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: I don’t know. So, what is this event to event to event? What are we observing, Sir? I am sorry, but I think the entire, what in Hindi we call, garima of this House, of the Parliament is being undermined by these sorts of flippant events that are coming in. Yes, for 26th of November we have the highest respect for Dr. Ambedkar and for everybody else. Does this Government today know that Constituent Assembly began its work on a Resolution moved by Shri Jawaharlal Nehru called the ‘Objectives Resolution’? Does this Government know that out of the eleven sittings of the Constituent Assembly six of the sittings were devoted to the ‘Objectives Resolution’ and not to this draft? A majority of the discussions in the Constituent Assembly was on the objectives put forward by Shri Jawaharlal Nehru. Sir, that is our history. Yes, the victor always scripts the history.

SITARAM YECHURY (CONTD.): But, here, the victor is also trying to change the past history! Now, this is the history we have inherited. Like the hon. Leader of the House, I was also born after Independence. I think, many of us are born after Independence. And, for all of us, this is inherited history; this is our legacy. You cannot now tamper with that history and tell us a new history! Now, why this Constitution Day? I can only come to the conclusion that this is an attempt to try and worm their way into the national movement when they had no role to play at all. This is the way they want to worm themselves into the national movement and how they want to worm themselves I want to know.

How this order is given? Sir, it is a Gazette Notification saying that ‘it has been decided to celebrate 26th day of November every year as the Constitution Day.’ It is a Gazette Notification. If you want I will place it on the Table of the House. It is a notification in the Indian Gazette, dated 19th November. It is issued by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Does the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment decide a national day to be observed every year?

AN HON. MEMBER: The hon. Minister is here.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Yes, I have noticed that hon. Minister is coming in here. Hon. HRD Minister was a good fried of mine before she became a Minister. After that she does not have time and she has got very onerous responsibilities. But, I just want to know how the Gazette Notification comes on 19th and the HRD Ministry issues a circular to schools on 10th of November saying ‘observe 26th November as the Constitution Day.’ This is a Gazette issued on 19th. What is happening, Sir. Items in Indian politics. That is the only thing I can say — events. You have event management. You want to worm into the national movement when you had no role. Here, I wish to put it on record the fact that often we have heard and we will hear also, I am sure, in the course of this discussion, the role of Communists, etc., in the Freedom Struggle. That is an old charge…
(Interruptions)…

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Sir, please don’t deduct the time of these interruptions from my time and start pressing the bell. Please don’t do that. The British Bombay Home Department, in 1942, during the Quit India Movement observed, “The Sangh has scrupulously kept itself within the law and in particular has refrained from taking part in the disturbances that broke out in August, 1942.” ..(Interruptions).. This is the record of the British Government. Now, Tarunji made a charge against the Communists. .[In Hindi].

“After large scale strikes in mills in Kanpur, Jamshedpur and Ahmedabad, a despatch from Delhi dated September 5, 1942, to the Secretary of State, in London, reported about the Communist Party of India: ‘the behaviour of many of CPI members proves what has always been clear, namely, that it is composed of anti-British revolutionaries.'”

This is the President of India telling this in the Central Hall of Indian Parliament.
(Interruptions)
…[In Hindi].  He read out Article 44 of the Constitution, Sir, which deals with it. I have the copy of the Constitution and this is the copy that belongs to the Chamber. So you cannot accuse me of any personal or fudged copy.
MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: Do you think there are different copies of Constitution?

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: No, no. Sir. They may accuse me. They may accuse me, so I am reading out only from the Chamber’s copy. Even that is challenged. So you don’t argue for authentication; it is marked as Chamber’s Copy. It says, ‘the State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code.’ It was quoted. It was also quoted on the question of organisation of agricultural and animal husbandry. I pointed out then that these are Directive Principles of State Policy, which are not justifiable and enforceable, and these Directive Principles also have other things, Sir, which are not quoted. What do they say? They say, ‘the State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people.’ What did Babasaheb Ambedkar say? The same thing; that is Article 46. Article 47 says, ‘the State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living.’ Isn’t it a shame that today, the largest number of children malnutritioned are in India? Isn’t it a shame that majority of the stunted children in the world are from India, today? This is the Constitutional Directive, Article 47. What has been done? You only pick and choose what you want to do and that is where the suspicion comes as to what is your actual motive. Here in the section on Fundamental Duties that are supposed to be enforceable — you please look at your copy in your hand, Sir — Article 51A says, ‘it shall be the duty of every citizen of India.’ If you read Article 51A (f), it says, ‘to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture.’ Is it the composite culture that we are preserving, Sir? I will come to that again. What does 51A(h) say? It says, ‘to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform.’ Sir, if we hear that Lord Ganesha was the creation of plastic surgery or Karna in the Mahabharata was the creation of stent technology and test tube babies, is that scientific temper? And it comes from no less than hon. Prime Minister. What is happening? What are you implementing? What are you wanting to implement and what not? You are only reviving the hardcore Hindutva agenda. Cow protection, you are wanting to revive. Then the entire question of equality of all citizens to liberty in life. He has quoted Article 30. He is not here, unfortunately, so I cannot request him also. He has quoted this Article 30 — you can also help me, Sir, in finding that Clause — and said that these are contradicted by Articles 29 and 30. Article 15 says, ‘the State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.’ This is Article 15, Fundamental Rights.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY (CONTD.): He says, “Articles 29 and 30 are in contradiction”. Sir, any lawyer would know, any right always comes with what is called reasonable restrictions. I hope, Mr. Parasaran is here; there is no right which does not come without reasonable restrictions. The reasonable restrictions through Article 15 have been detailed in Articles of the Constitution, 29 and 20, where the rights of the minorities to their religion are given. Minorities here meaning not only religious but also linguistic minorities. So, it is said, “This is a contradiction. Don’t we want to remove it?” What would Dr. Ambedkar say today if you were talking about this contradiction, about this Constitution? He would say precisely the same thing that the duties of a citizen would be the spread of tolerance, and not the spread of any one particular intolerant point of view. And that is the bone of contention today, Sir. I read in the media that hon. Home Minister saying that secularism is the word that was injected into the Constitution, and, therefore, that is the cause of all problems. He has also referred to, I believe, poor old Aamir Khan; our actor is getting lampooned. He said, “Ambedkar did not leave the country. But he stayed here and struggled”. And that is what Aamir Khan also said, Sir. He did not say that he is leaving. I am glad he is staying and struggling, and then you accuse them saying that Left is sponsoring all that. Thank you for putting all those people with us. Our tribe is increasing. That is what you are doing. …(Interruptions)… But remember, Ambedkar did not leave the country. He was a patriot. But, Ambedkar renounced Hinduism and embraced Buddhism. You remember that. You remember that, and why was that? That is where the intolerance issue comes in. Sir, these are matters again of history. You cannot erase it, and if you want the question of intolerance, take the same speech of Dr. Ambedkar of 25th November, which the hon. Leader of the House was quoting. This is the same speech, and what does Dr. Ambekar say? He was talking about ‘history will repeat itself’. “Will we lose our Independence again…”, hon. Leader of the House quoted that. After that, he did not quote the rest of it. What does it say? I am quoting from that Speech of Dr. Ambedkar. “Will history repeat itself”? That is, will we lose our Independence once again? “Will Indians place the country above their creed or will they place creed above the country, I did not know”. As the Leader of the House said, if Dr. Ambedkar was here today, what would he say? He would not pose this question. He will say, “Indians are being forced to place their creed above the country”. And that is the intolerance that is happening in the country today. Then, what did Dr. Ambedkar say? “But this much is certain — this is the speech, Sir, which was quoted in the morning — if the parties place creed above country, our Independence will be put in jeopardy a second time — after all the instances he gave, which were quoted by the leader — will be put in a jeopardy a second time and probably be lost forever. This eventuality we must all resolutely guard against. We must be determined to defend our Independence with the last drop of our blood”.

Today, when I stand up against this intolerance, I am doing exactly what Dr. Ambedkar asked us to do. Anybody who wants to say what Dr. Ambedkar said must be done, we will do exactly what Dr. Ambedkar asked us to do, i.e., raise ourselves against this sort of intolerance. This is the same Ambedkar in the same speech.

Then, we heard the question of social justice. The essential point of Dr. Ambedkar is missed out. I have quoted this a number of times in this august House, but I can’t stop myself from quoting this again.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY (CONTD.): Now, I quote it in the full. It says, “On 26th of January, 1950” – please note once again, it is the Constitution Day, the Republic Day – “we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics, we will give equality and in social and economic life, we will have inequality. In politics, we will be recognizing the principle of ‘one man one vote’, ‘one vote one value’. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structures, continue to deny the principle of ‘one man one value’.” That is the contradiction. Then, he continues to say, “If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest. Or else, those who suffer from this inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy that this Assembly has so labouriously built”. This is Dr. Ambedkar in the same speech. What is the situation today? A hundred multi-billionaires in our country, whose asset value is close to one-half of my country’s GDP. And, according to the latest census, ninety per cent of the households in my country, today, have an income of less than Rs. 10,000, a month. Is this contradiction being resolved or are you only accentuating it further? Are we discussing issues of how we should reduce the gap in this contradiction? Instead, every foreign trip, we find a new concession to foreign capital. Fifteen new areas have been opened up to the FDI. Free Trade Agreements are ruining our domestic cultivation of commercial crops! The agrarian distress is growing. Farmers are committing suicides. Your industrial production index, as per this Government’s own statistics, this month has shown a drop from about six per cent plus to about three per cent. Manufacturing has dropped to 2.4 per cent from over 6 per cent. Industrial production is declining. Agrarian distress is deepening. …[In Hindi]

Where are we on the social justice vision of Dr. Ambedkar? I have mentioned about the atrocities on SCs and STS and about reservation. On the question of growing inequalities, the condition of our people is deteriorating. What is this contradiction? You see the reality. Are we paying homage to Dr. Ambedkar? Is this the way Modern India is actually fulfilling the vision of social justice. Forget about the political parties. Forget to which party belong, to which party you belong. As an Indian, when you are talking about these things, are we being honest to ourselves? Are we doing justice to Dr. Ambedkar and all of that generation – Nehru, Gandhi, Abul Kalam Azad, Sardar Patel – that gave us Independence and this Constitution? What had they exhorted all of us to do? Are we doing it? And, you say, “I reaffirm my faith in the Constitution.” Without reaffirming that faith, you won’t be here. What is this reaffirming of faith? Come to the federalism. What did Dr. Ambedkar say on federalism?

MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: Please try to conclude.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Yes, Sir. But how can I conclude federalism and intolerance and all that? …(Interruptions)… You are asking to conclude what the Government is doing.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY (CONTD.): In a federal structure, on CentreState relations, what did Dr. Ambedkar say? He said that the Centre and the States are coequal in this matter. Sir, I am reading from the same speech. “It is difficult to see how such a Constitution can be called centralism. That is, the basic principle of fedearlism is that the legislative and executive authority is partitioned between the Centre and the States, not by any law to be made by the Centre but by the Constitution itself.” That is the essence of this Constitution. Is the principle of federalism followed, Sir? You are talking about the misuse of Article 356. That is only one part of it. We, the Kerala Government, were the first victim of Article 356, way back in the 1950s. I don’t know how many of you were there. Second time, we were victim in 1960s; twice, we were victim in Bengal, in 1967 and 1969. …(Interruptions)..

SHRI T.K. RANGARAJAN: Mr. Antony is here. He was the hero.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Hon. Antony is here. He was a hero of one of the… (Interruptions).. But, Sir, all that apart, what is fedearalism? Not merely equality, that independent respect of the States, are we granting it today? Then, you talked of judiciary. Let me tell you, what Dr. Ambedkar said about judiciary is very, very interesting. I am quoting from the same speech, ” Courts may modify, they cannot replace”, please note, “Courts may modify, they cannot replace, they can revise earlier interpretations as new arguments, new points of view are presented. They can shift the dividing line in marginal cases, but there are barriers they cannot pass, definite assignments of power they cannot reallocate. They can give a broadening construction of existing powers, but they cannot assign to one authority powers explicitly granted to another.” The separation and the complementarity of the Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislature are hallmarks of our Constitution. Now, this is as far as your Judiciary is concerned. But what worries me about is you are paying homage to Dr. Ambedkar. Remember, Sir, from 1946 to 1950, what was the condition of the world? Millions of people were under colonial subjugation. When these countries became independent, what we did in India was, actually, a revolutionary step then. We granted universal adult suffrage, which nobody else of these countries granted. …(Interruptions).. Europe did not grant and not even the United States of America. President Obama came here. All of us were very excited in the Central Hall, both sides. Everybody was saying, wah wah, President Obama came here, and, then, he wrote in the Golden Book — there is no gold in that book — of our Parliament, “Greetings from the world’s oldest democracy to the world’s largest.” This was his message. Yes, this was the message he gave. I had to point it out later that evening at the President’s banquet. I said, “Sir, I think, this is a wrong definition that you are the world’s oldest democracy.” He said, “Why’? I said, “Sir, you got the right to vote, that is, American-Africans, universally in the United States of America in 1962, one year after you were born. The universality of adult franchise in the United States of America came only in 1962; in India, we gave it in 1950.” Whether you are a dalit, you are a landlord, whether you are a Muslim, whether you are a Hindu, we gave it in 1950. And, today, Sir, what is happening? In Haryana, 86 per cent of the people will be kept out of their right to vote and right to contest elections because of various conditions. The State Government has said that unless you fulfil these conditions, you cannot contest or you cannot vote.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY (CONTD.): In Rajasthan, you put conditions whereby more than half the people are excluded from the universal suffrage. In Gujarat, you have said, ‘unless you have a toilet, a pucca toilet, in your house, you cannot vote or contest in local elections’. All these three States have got a BJP State Government. You come here to pay homage to Dr. Ambedkar and the one important thing that has been done by the Indian Constitution on universal adult suffrage, you deny it to people in the States which have a State Government that is led by the BJP. …(Time-bell)…

Sir, I know you will press the bell. But the point is that you please consider all these things. The Ruling Benches are empty. I don’t know who will convey, what and to whom when the reply comes on Monday.

MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: The Ministers are there. …(Interruptions)… They will do it. …(Interruptions)…

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Sir, I sympathize with my friend, Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. How much burden can he carry, Sir? How much can he go and report upstairs saying that this is all that has been said and you please answer that? And, even the officers have deserted the officials’ block. So, I don’t know if anybody is taking note of all this. We understand many of these things. They ignore us normally. …(Interruptions)…

AN HON. MEMBER: This shows their commitment.

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: But, Sir, since you are pressing the bell, let me come down to my final points. The Leader of the House made an interesting and a very interesting reference to the Third Reich and Germany. Wonderful, Sir. We are happy, and I must pay my gratitude to the Leader of the House for having reminded me of the Third Reich and Germany and the dangers of authoritarianism. Sir, in 1939, when the debate in the country was going on as to what should be the character of Independent India, there was a book, which was not thought that it would be very important but a book which had a very, very important implication for Indian politics and India’s future, and that was a book called ‘We, or our Nationhood Defined’ by Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar. He is called the RSS Guru. And, since the Leader of the House mentioned the Third Reich, I only want to quote from that book about the Third Reich. That book is, ‘We, or Our Nationhood Defined’. Who is ‘we’? In Hindi ‘Swaraj.’ ..[In Hindi]  That is the entire import of that book..he talked saying that ‘only Hindus and Hindus alone are inhabitants of this country’. And, then, what does he say about the Third Reich? I am quoting, “To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by purging the country of the semitic Races, the Jews”. I will take a break here, Sir, for a moment. You please draw the parallels in India — who is that instead of the Jews and who is that for the Race and the culture and its purity. I continue with the quote. “Race pride at its highest has been …” …(Interruptions)…

SHRI V.P. SINGH BADNORE: Sir, which book is he referring to? …(Interruptions)…

MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: From which book are you quoting? …(Interruptions)…

SHRI ANAND SHARMA: He is quoting from scriptures of your party. …(Interruptions)…

MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: You say from which book you are quoting. …(Interruptions)…
SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Sir, my good friend, Mr. V.P. Singh Badnore, may not be so much in tune with the RSS as he is a BJP M.P. But let me tell him that the name of the book is: ‘We, or Our Nationhood Defined’. I am quoting from page no. 35. This book was published in 1939 by Bharat Prakashan, republished by Bharat Prakashan, Second Edition, again in 1944. That is the authenticity. That book must be available in library if it is not already removed. I mean, they have this habit also of removing all these books. But otherwise, this book should be in the Parliament library. Otherwise, I will help you. I will give you a copy.
SHRI SITARAM YECHURY (contd.): Now, it is in this book, on page 35. I repeat that quote; it says, “To keep up the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by purging the country of the semetic races, the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well nigh impossible it is for races and cultures having differences going to the root to be assimilated into one united whole. A good lesson for us..” Please understand this.

SHRI V. P. SINGH BADNORE: We cannot do that. That is why! What is that commentary?…(Interruptions)… We cannot do it. What is wrong in it? …(Interruptions)…
SHRI TAPAN KUMAR SEN: He is not saying anything wrong. Why are you getting agitated? …(Interruptions)…

SHRI V. P. SINGH BADNORE: We cannot do that. That is why he has said so. What is wrong in that?…(Interruptions)…

SHRI TAPAN KUMAR SEN: He is not saying anything wrong, Mr. V.P. Singh. …(Interruptions)…

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Sir, let me complete. …(Interruptions)… Sir, let me complete. ..(Interruptions)…

SHRI V. P. SINGH BADNORE: We cannot do that. That is why he has said…(Interruptions)… What is wrong with that? …(Interruptions)… What is he trying to do? …(Interruptions)….

MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: Please, you would get a chance. You may reply to that; you would get your chance….(Interruptions)…. You can reply to that. You would get your chance. You say that he is misinterpreting. When you get your chance, you may correct it. …(interruptions)…

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: I am quoting verbatim. And if you want, shall I re-quote the whole thing?
MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: No, no; there is no need for that. It is all on record. …(Interruptions)….
SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Have you followed so far?

MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: Yes, yes. Now, you need to conclude also. There is no time. …(Interruptions)…

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Sir, let me conclude with just one sentence – “A good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by.” This is about the Third Reich that the hon. Leader of the House was reminding us about.

SHRI V. P. SINGH BADNORE: We thought this is wrong. That is why we…(Interruptions)

MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: Now, please conclude. …(Interruptions)…
SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: This is exactly what this Hindu Rashtra is all about, Sir. That is why, if you want to pay homage and our shraddhanjali to Dr. Ambedkar, please remember what he said in the speech finally. I would like to quote to you what he said about creed: “Without equality, you cannot have liberty. Without fraternity, you cannot have equality and liberty. Without equality and fraternity – fraternity means sadbhavna – …you cannot have liberty.” If you are celebrating India’s freedom and its liberty, equality and fraternity are the two things on which there can be no compromise. And that is precisely what is being compromised in this furtherance of the atmosphere of intolerance.
Sir, finally, let me end by quoting Dr. Rajendra Prasad. When he was about to put his signatures on this draft, the future President of India, quoted these lines. He was not yet the President of India; he became the President of India only on the 26th of January and, then, it was said that the Governor General, Dr. Rajagopalachari, cannot administer an oath to our President because the Governor General is an appointee of the British. So, the Chief Justice was called, in this Central Hall, and he administered the oath. After that Dr. Rajendra Prasad administers the oath for an interim  Government, adopts this Constitution, administers the oath and directs that under this new Constitution, fresh elections be held after delimitation is completed. That election was held in 1952. And today, we hear, Sir, that Sardar Patel was being denied from being India’s first Prime Minister. Unfortunately, poor Sardar died in 1950; the first election was in 1952. .(Interruptions). Is that understood, Sir? Now, if there is some magic and some tantra through which like Lord Ganesha somebody who is dead and gone can be brought back alive, unfortunately, to be the Prime Minister, I can understand! That apart, what did Dr. Rajendra Prasad say? I am quoting this and ending, Sir. Dr. Rajendra Prasad, in his address, hailing that we adopted this Constitution, says, “After all, a Constitution, like a machine, is a lifeless thing.”

SHRI SITARAM YECHURY (CONTD.): “…It acquires life because of the men who control it and operate it. India needs today nothing more than a set of honest men who will have the interest of the country before them.” I am sure when Dr. Rajendra Prasad and Dr. Ambedkar talked about ‘men’, they included the ‘women’ also. So, please don’t take offence; I am sure, at that time, women were also part of it. “There is a fissiparous tendency arising out of various elements in our life”, said Dr. Rajendra Prasad on November 26, 1949. He said, “We have communal differences, caste differences, language differences, provincial differences and so forth. It requires men of strong character, men of vision, men who will not sacrifice the interests of the country at large for the sake of smaller groups and areas and who will rise over the prejudices which are born out of these differences. We can only hope that the country will throw up such men in abundance.” Is that the case? I rest my case by asking you the question. What are we seeing today? Have we produced such men in abundance? If not, I think it is time to correct the notion. If you want to do actual reaffirmation to our Constitution and pay our homage to Dr. Ambedkar, …(Interruptions)…

MR. DEPUTY CHAIRMAN: Okay.
SHRI SITARAM YECHURY: Please don’t okay me here, Sir, you will also be a part of it. All of us will have to sincerely pay homage to this, and that is what we need to do. Thank you, very much for giving me time. (Ends)

Argentina tango right

30 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by in Current Affairs, INTERNATIONAL NEWS, Left politics

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Marco Consolo – http://marcoconsolo.altervista.org/ –

Celebrates the right of Argentina and the continental. With a difference of less than 3% and a narrow margin of 700,000 votes, the ballot wins its candidate, Mauricio Macri, the “Argentine Berlusconi”, who beat Daniel Scioli, the candidate of the Frente para la Victoria who somehow represented the continuism (51.6% to Macri, Scioli to 48.3%, 22% abstention). The settlement of Macri is scheduled for Dec. 10. It ‘the first time since 1998, when Hugo Chavez won the elections in Venezuela, that the ballot box to the right riconsegnano the government of a country that was looking for an alternative.

Decisive factor in the victory was the vote of Peronism conservative, that the first round had voted for Sergio Massa’s reach third. Sniffed the air, Massa had asked for a sign of “change”, implicitly guaranteeing its support “critical” to the right of Macri who managed to add up the votes of an important part of the conservative electorate Peronism. Massa today provides the elect in the different provinces and its votes in Parliament.
In the result has also played support for the right to be part of “social democrats” Unión Cívica Radical, past and barrel with his right from the first round .

The reasons for the defeat

A defeat expected with multiple causes. First, the erosion of consensus after 12 years of uninterrupted management with several errors, a high inflation that eroded the purchasing power of wages, some high-profile cases of corruption, the difficulty in responding to attacks by international powers, the need to the face of internal contradictions, its a process of transformation, a style of self-government.

The decisive factor was the ongoing offensive of the mass media (international and Argentine) against the government and against the Anti-monopoly on the media, with the group  Clarin  in the front row. The government failed to dismantle the “narrative” of “media latifundia”, which took for granted a win Macri (with a distance of less than 16 points), convincing the most conservative sectors that the “game was over.” Later, the political right will return the favor in the media: the Law on Media will be another of the objectives of the conservative restoration.
It certainly working against the government the international crisis, whose impact on Latin American economies has meant, among ‘ another, having to review the implementation of social plans and redistributive.

Important chapter is the new “middle class”, who voted for change (as in Brazil) despite the obvious improvement of their living conditions and purchasing power. It ‘a fact that is repeated in several countries of the continent and that should give pause. In the Argentine case, in recent decades the behavior of the middle class has fluctuated between radical positions and periods reactionaries, even pro-coup. But more generally, the lesson of the polls is not just pull out of poverty amp sectors of the population for electoral support. The new middle class has embraced the social achievements, highlighted by increased consumption capacity. Do not you think you can really go back, because recent years have convinced him of the irreversibility of processes. Not only. In many cases, the new middle class claims for itself the resources allocated to pro-poor in a “war between the ex-poor and still poor.”

Last but not least  , the candidate of the outgoing government, Daniel Scioli, governor for a short while in the Province of Buenos Aires, disliked by the more militant sectors of “Kirchnerism” for its management and its moderate constraints passed by former President Carlos Menem . A candidate with little charisma, whose image is closer to the Peronism of the past years, that the “Kirchnerism” the twenty-first century. And Cristina Fernandez preferred to keep a safe distance dall’agone election. But in these 12 years, both Nestor, Cristina that have failed to make room for any successor, can represent a credible and successful. A choice which has weighed various sectors who have decided to vote in white, despite Scioli has recovered about 3 million votes from the first round.
And that’s the worst predictions of the vigil have come true without surprises. The sensational  performance of Macri in the first round, had alerted the militants “kirchneristi” who led a generous campaign door to door, of which Argentina had no recent memories. But it was not enough. The 12-year rule “Kirchner” (Before Nestor Kirchner and Cristina Fernandez after his death) were not enough to consolidate an organized social base that would guarantee the continuity of the social transformations of Argentina.

The modern face of the right

In line with the suggestions of the  spin doctors  of the  marketing  election, Macri reinvented itself. He did everything possible to alienate itself from the image of the right of “dinosaurs coup” of the past, the “gravedigger” of social achievements, presenting a sign of strength captivating name  “Cambiemos” . During the campaign he had to recognize some positive transformations of the government of Cristina Fernandez, coming to claim to “believe in the role of a strong state.” But true to the motto of veltroni “but also …”, during the election campaign promised state and market, and multinational homeland. A devaluation of the currency, the elimination of state subsidies to transport electricity, gas, and a cut in social programs generalized in favor of the poor. In other words, the view of the future is that of a fall in the purchasing power of wages.

And a few hours after the election results, it promised that the economy will be led by a group of “6 technicians”, stressing the need to deal with the “Fondos Buitre”, to recover the “competitiveness required” for the country’s economy .
gloating the “financial markets” and especially the “vulture funds”, which, thanks to a US judge complacent, they put a heavy burden on their stratospheric profits to buy at bargain prices of external debt and that they never wanted to accept the proposed restructuring of government debt.

In danger are also policies in defense of Human Rights, one of the flags of the government, with hundreds of trials of military and civilian leaders of the genocide of the dictatorship and which today organize their revenge.

Macri complex for the parliamentary framework, which has no majority either in the House, nor the Senate (the latter in the hands of “Kirchnerism”). But it controls many of the most important provinces, including that of Buenos Aires, the largest in the country, the former Peronist stronghold which concentrates almost 40% of voters, conquered in the first round just to Daniel Scioli.

Peronism in dispute

There is no doubt that the election result opens the dispute over control and representation of the Justicialista Party, the Peronist party, historic tank in electoral terms, of power, cronyism and consensus.
In the runoff, the real surprise was the vote Cordoba, in the hands of the Peronist governor José Manuel de la Sota, who guaranteed to Macri almost 70% of the votes in the province, making a lot of difference in the final result.
The two figures emerging today seem so those of Sergio Massa (real balance of power) and that of Jose Manuel De la Sota. Both states support “critical” to the government of Macri and counting on several MPs. It is not to be discarded that some deputy elected with Massa may swell the ranks of “macrismo.”
As is known, in the past the complex phenomenon Peronist had the ability to hold together conflicting options and grinding each other (by the radical left of the “Montoneros” , until the death squads of the “Triple A”) and the figure of Juan Domingo Peron and Evita has represented the historical glue. Nestor Kircher first and then with Cristina Fernandez, in the Peronism was born a sort of “third way”, with the attempt to build the wing “Kirchner” with mass organizations, especially among young people.
The main unknown concerns precisely those organizations, grown in the 12-year rule. The sectors most militants had twisted my mouth on the candidacy of Scioli, and until the last maintained a critical position. It will be to see if they can withstand the impact of displacement from positions of power guaranteed by the umbrella of the government, “Kirchner”. And if the trade union movement, strongly divided, unable to regain its leading role autonomous from the government.

The international framework

The result will have an impact on the political landscape of Latin America in the last 15 years characterized by the presence of progressive and leftist governments, which had bet on unity and regional integration, the United States moving away from the orbit.
Although pragmatically says it will continue to do business with China, Macri confirmed its wish to reconnect the United States (and Israel, with an eye to the important Jewish community of the country) to the International Monetary Fund, and his beloved friends such as former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, ( who described him as “a hope for all Latin Americans … who need brilliant leaders”), the  Partido Popular  of Spain Rajoy, and the Venezuelan opposition, at his side during the election campaign.
The new President has reiterated that he will ask the withdrawal of Venezuela from Mercosur, accused of failing to respect the so-called “Democratic Clause” to “abuses against opponents and freedom of expression.” A clause inspired by the one in force in the Organization of American States (OAS).
The clause provides for the possibility of sanctions as the total or partial closure of land borders, suspension or limitation of trade, air traffic and shipping, communications, administration of energy and services.
The frontal attack on Venezuela has come in recent days by the same OAS that “Che” Guevara defined as “Ministry of Colonies” of the United States. The current Secretary General, the Uruguayan Luis Almagro, a few days ago attacked heavily Venezuelan electoral authorities, provoking public distancing former President “Pepe” Mujica.
The right-wing Latin American (and the US) now they aim to expand to the maximum “the domino effect” across the continent, starting from the upcoming elections in Venezuela on December 6, and then stick to the bottom of the government of Dilma Rousseff in Brazil. And as others. Mala tempora currunt  for transformation processes in Latin America. There is little discussion of the past neo-liberal, with old answers to new questions. Young people have not known nor dictatorship, nor the long neo-liberal night. Today, the key lies in the future, which promises to be turbulent.

The returns of Marx

30 Monday Nov 2015

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Aldo Tortorella

The new issue of the magazine  CRITICAL MARXIST  publish the introduction to the conference returns to Marx, organized by Fondazione Luigi Longo and Marxist Criticism  in Alexandria, from 22-24 October 2015.

A return, almost a fashion, Marx was widely spoken after the start of the Great Depression opened in 2008 by the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and the risk of other very large US banks – then saved with public money, reflecting a mechanism , said conventionally liberal, specializing in privatize profits and socialize losses. Printing and dissemination of the texts of Marx multiplied worldwide, manifested new movements inspired directly or indirectly to a critique of the financial capital, found vast echo research Piketty, non-Marxist, the capital in the XXI century and its concentration in the same way and in the same hands as ever, a topic of interest Marxian.

More recently, the confirmation of a return was made ​​from an unusual source but sensitive to the spirit of the times as the world of the visual arts, with a dedication to Marx of the Venice Biennale this year, including a public reading and systematic Text of the Capital . The greater part of our ineffable daily press has treated the subject almost as a kind of strangeness of the Nigerian curator, who – Okwi Enwezor – is, in fact, one of the most important American intellectuals of matter, distinguished university professor and creator of the most great art exhibitions in the world. The text of his presentation of the biennial, inspired by the reading of Walter Benjamin’s Angelus Novus of Klee, realizes with painstaking meticulousness of the origin and meaning of the reference to Marx: “Capital – writes – is the great tragedy of our time . Today looms more than any other element in every sphere of life … ‘, determining whether “the state of affairs” is the way to watch them.

The Capital of Marx since its release – he adds – has involved not only politicians, economists, philosophers, but artists and the exhibition in Venice, then promises to perceive – says – “the aura, the effects, the consequences and spectra of the capital. ” That the program is successful or not is and will be, of course, the subject of discussion, but it is well proven the validity of a return to those who first put under scrutiny, in fact, the foundation of the contemporary world and it has envisioned the consequences.

After 89

The last burial officer, who seemed the final one, was filed at the end of the Soviet Union. Many funeral orations were spoken by publicists and thinkers of various kinds. Among the political parties of the traditional left of ancient origin terzinternazionalista, but also in the socialist parties, and among many of the intellectuals who were, or were supposed to close them there was a race to deny any relationship with Marx.In Italy, as you know, it takes place the transformation of the Communist Party, party planning but inspired by Marxian reworking of Gramsci. In the German social rethinking of the program of Bad Godesberg – namely the total repudiation of Marxism – begun in the years of Brandt, and continued by Oskar Lafontaine, will close with the “new center” of Schroeder. England Blair will do away with the article of the statute it provides that aims to overcome the capitalist property.

Here, nell’aneddotica of that hasty transformation is also a place for our magazine Marxist Critique , redeemed at the price of a penny, and so saved dall’autodafé collective, and made ​​reborn to a new life. The task that we inscribed in the head, and that has a time even in today’s conference, was to “rethink the left” – the theme, as seen in each other daily, never exhausted.

Then it seemed to some of us, in addition to other considerations, supremely unfair that he considered himself the old Marx as head even last of the tragic fates of the Soviet system came to collapse or errors that the Italian Communists could have done.

An injustice because there had been among the staunchest critics of the Soviet model so many excellent scholars of Marx (including several Italian), all Marxists persecuted by Stalinism, as well as politicians who claimed to be inspired by him (including, albeit belatedly, the top leaders of the Communist Party). But also a mistake because we felt that his thought – and the attempt to use it critically as already suggested the name of the magazine – was essential precisely in order to a radical renewal of ideas and political practices of the left.A renewal is essential, but to qualify for both the change in the global economic and political reality with the global victory of the capitalist model and for the transformations in production systems, in lives and in human relations induced by scientific discoveries and the technological revolution of the century .

In the twentieth century

The story of unwise burials and recurring return alive Marx would, I believe, a search distinct from those on many Marxists, whose history began even during the lifetime of Marx, and the subject of a vast bibliography, is largely summarized by us, at least until the beginning of the eighties of the last century, a collective work conceived and edited by Einaudi Hobsbawm and others. The study of death certificates of Marx’s thought, that accompany the moments of greatest success of the various experiences economic, social and political the capital structure, there would seem to me less important than that of his subsequent resurrection to major crises or disasters of wars.

If at the beginning, at the time of the triumphant bourgeoisie and colonialism ruling, the slating of the economic and social development of Marx, moved by optimism scientist and industrialist, they belonged to a theoretical discussion on the law of value, sull’impoverimento absolute, on ‘outcome of the cyclical crises, after the October Revolution the removal or convictions Marxian analysis were associated largely aversion to the Soviet state nascent. But as well as the outbreak of World War I had done justice to at least some of the more reckless criticisms – like those that assumed a relative ease in overcoming cyclical downturns without contemplating the risk of recourse to war – and had created the revolutionary struggles of the post-war period, the same way the crisis of ’29 brought with it a revival of the analysis Marx and a thorough critique to economic liberalism.

Then, as you know, the ruling classes and the imperial ruling classes were faced with the crisis with the analysis of Keynes and Roosevelt’s reforms in the capital market, while in continental Europe most of the national bourgeoisies were promoting Nazism and fascism and while worldwide Soviet forced collectivization campaign and the repression of dissenting generated the terrible tragedies that you know. He came here to a new time of anti-Marxism combined with the anti-Soviet, with the appreciation of the successes in the West in the internal policies of the Nazis and fascists – and the abandonment of the Spanish republic to Franco – until the new and frightening world war the international anti-fascist alliance again tipped the scale of values ​​and pushed to new interest in Marx a part of the intelligentsia and the new generations matured during the conflict and the resistance.

It was still, however, an interest in which the image of Marx mingled with that of the country of the Battle of Stalingrad and the red flag on the Reichstadt, the country in which, albeit with terrible tragedies, for the first time it had come experimenting the abolition of private ownership of the means of production and exchange.A mixture that was underpinned by new revolutions in the giant China and Cuba in the small. Even the great youth rebellion of ’68 dall’antiautoritarismo move, having the background Vietnam Ho Min did not give us to draw on past revolutions, albeit sometimes, but not always, watching the dissenters persecuted more than the winners.

Equally and not, for as long as the Cold War the anti-Marxist polemic flourished and developed having the background the same image overlay: there was talk of Marx, but it was thought – or were referred – Stalin, Mao, Castro .

The success of the idea promoted by Isaiah Berlin purely negative freedom (ie as total rejection of any interference from the public other than safety of life and property) has the background, in fact, the unacceptability of a model of absolute statism and denial of freedom, as well as the idea, propagated by Thatcher, that the company is purely abstract notion as the only concrete thing are the individuals it targets the very notion of the welfare state, seen almost as an antechamber to the Soviet model of collectivism.

In fact, that overlap, although almost fatal, was essentially arbitrary. In the days of November 1917 a young Italian socialist of great talent, which will be one of the founders of the Communist Party, had written and realized that the October Revolution – which he like millions of people around the world appeared enthusiastic – it was, in Actually, its a revolution against the Capital of Karl Marx. Gramsci differed, in that well-known article on ‘ Avanti , a Marx “tainted by positivism and naturalism” by Marx heir, as he says, “the idealistic thought Italian and German. ‘ The first would be the author of the idea that comes before the capitalist bourgeoisie, its maturity and its crisis, and only at the end of the socialist transformation – and against this Marx, in fact, occurred the October Revolution. In contrast, according to the Marx ‘that never dies, “he taught, according to the young Gramsci, that” the greatest factor of history “is not given the” economic facts brutes “but the relations between human beings,” the society of men “who” develop a collective will, “which” shapes the objective reality that lives, moves, acquires the character of matter telluric boiling, which can be channeled where the will like “2. The times are not required, therefore, and the maturation of consciousness and revolutionary will of the exploited, very long in normal times, could have acceleration due to special reasons – in this case the World War. Unfortunately, the absolute voluntarism that inspired that article born on the wave of emotion and one that did not belong to the old Marx, was not enough and in fact, as we shall see, he could turn against itself.

And, in fact, Gramsci, then, long worked in the notebooks of the jail on that famous passage of the Preface to the Critique of Political Economy of ’59 – omitted in a text written for the party school of 1925, as recalled Fabio Frosini3 – in Marx speaks of the conditions for which you run out of old social formations and the new born, a song that he translates: “No social order ever perishes before they have developed all the productive forces for which it is still not enough, and new, higher relations of production have not taken place before the material conditions of existence of the latter have been hatched in the womb of the old society. Therefore mankind always sets itself only such tasks as it can solve; (If you observe more accurately, you will always find that the task itself arises only where the material conditions for its resolution exist or at least are in the process of their becoming) “4. Gramsci interpret this passage from stripping can read deterministic, but he tried his acuity of thought seeing the substance that is a criticism of the fantasies that, at the same time, defines the actual terrain of the political struggle and ideal, and does not eliminate the role of subjectivity policies. Marx had so little to do with the Soviet model that the Vulgate became known as “Marxism-Leninism” which was added, then, the suffix “Stalinism”, in order to establish a sort of canon immutable. Which, as should be obvious, it was not only distant but opposed to every form of critical thinking – in which Marx also is recognized as a major.

However that mixture and culturally undue overlap was practically inevitable given the origin of the promoters of the ideal of a socialist revolution, and this explains the presumption dell’affossamento definitive Marx following the collapse of the Soviet Union, its dismemberment, the transformation of Russia into a country of capitalism more or less wild. The launch of China in a similar direction, despite the red flag, completed the work. He even spoke of the end of history, in the sense that the winning model would have no alternative. It was a form of self-deception of the winners. The basic reasons that had driven the search for Marx had failed, despite the technological abyss separating us from him. For this is the new return, but if you do not remember the previous one can not understand the difference.

Well dug, old mole!

Today, there is no illusion that somewhere on earth was found the formula of the new world, or that no longer considered inevitable march towards socialism is already embodied in a social formation. Capitalism has shown its ability to huge quantitative development and adaptation, as Marx had predicted, and founded on the desire (ie the individual) and choice (ie free will).

Social ownership of the means of production and exchange, the time and place in which it was attempted, became state property and property in this bureaucratic, and bureaucrats into capitalists robbery. If someone levasse, the call for unity of the proletariat, already rejected in the trenches of World War I, would sound foreign to the reality of a world in which, despite a number of workers than ever, the work must continue to decrease, competition downward it is already deadly fragmentation multiplies misery overflows and generates plenty of recruits for promoters of wars. That is, in short, that this time the return to Marx does not presume to be based on data acquired or easy hopes, and can not have the quality of mature disenchantment.

Born, also, this return by the rapid depletion of the promises implied in the birth of a world unified under the sign of financial capital.

The Cold War ended with the victory of one of the contenders did not open the way to permanent peace and a linear progress. Instead, it returned to the confrontation between the powers and the multiplicity of wars appears to be a world war creeping, potentially explosive. The supposed self-regulating capacity of the market has failed. The idea of ​​infinite development has come up against the physical limits of the planet and threatens the very conditions of life. They do not change, and in many cases increase, the gap between rich and poor and, in each country, between the very rich and the great mass of others. Traveling between the stars but too many people continue to die of hunger, and it seems to be disproportionate welcome those who run away from war and poverty. The pontiff of the Catholic Church had to explain that when he speaks in defense of the poor and against the immoderate gains it does because it is communist but because it is inspired by the Gospel. He had to reinterpret Scripture to explain that the man was not donated the land and the animals that live there to ruin the one and torturing others at will but to protect them.

One would think, with the greatest respect, ‘Well dug, old mole “. In truth, Hamlet says, “Well said, old mole” to the spectrum of the father at the time warned the ground: it was, of course, the voice of the past buried and ignored who returns to tell what he knows, and go in peace. As for Marx, who in the 18th Brumaire he quoted from memory, the mole digging well, as you know, is the image of the revolution which operates under the radar. For us, perhaps, the word spectrum underground is just to Marx now freed from the burden of something that did not belong and also helps those who are distant or hostile. A voice, too, heard so much better after the work of interpretation. For us, but not only for us, it should first reading that did Gramsci who taught to understand, among other things, the mutual influence between the base material, economic, society and all the phenomena called superstructure in lexicon of tradition.

And they have also helped all the jobs that have enabled it to overcome the anachronisms and place it in its time and in its culture, highlighting, for example, the difficulty of this individual to look not only socially determined or the failure to understand the influence patriarchal order in the determination of the male as unacceptable absolute value. A thought does not stay indefinitely because this is no time, but because, in the narrow limits of time, culture and life of its author, opens a new window to look at reality. Now no one, more innocent, drink the hemlock to comply with the law of the city, rather than the more guilty the more frolic. But no one can dispute that the poor Socrates is one of the first inventors of ethics, including the public.

And so it is for Marx. Considering it a kind of Bible, you use it, of course, against himself, perhaps unlikely to endorse or pernicious doctrines of others, as indeed happened (and happens). Seen within its limits and its shortcomings studied for many years, including in this meeting will be discussed, he returns the actuality of who, in fact, found in the capital and along the explosive force, as has been said, the drama of our time, and he teaches about the building of human reality from the ground, trying to see it for what it is and not for what we imagine it to be.

Upload ethics

Can return, so, the author moved by a powerful but misunderstood ethics office that breaks the hypocrisy of the beautiful souls smug virtue of their real or alleged but unable to look at the origins of the evils to deprecate words. The school of thought of Kantian origin who emphasized, at the beginning of the past century, this side of Marx was submerged by those who believed the author of an exact science, then returned to the subject constantly. Its scientific analysis, like every other, is conditioned by the level of knowledge at that time and therefore can be reached continuously partly denial partly correct, but, being the object to which it refers to the social relations – and thus ultimately between people – he would never even born had it not been moved by indignation and a passion. The outrage over the fate of the last and penultimate manufacturers of objects indispensable to life and a good life, a passion for the freedom of each and all. Relations between Marx and Spinoza, a scholar of the passions, now fill a library. The work changes, changes the system of education or employment of consciences, the dominated may ignore or even to be so happy to be so, but without that anger and that passion genuinely experienced, you can not do political action, let alone one called left.

Can return, today, the author who studied this thinking of the future, perhaps in the belief, as certain look, a certain history in the mouth, but said he did not want to do and never did the pastry chef of the future, the ‘ author of an open-ended but not so much because it thus: and so Marx said he was not a Marxist, knowing that their critical method would also cover his work. This is not groped do not know which new orthodoxy, but to read it without distorting lenses to be helped to understand the origin of this distressing problem. And also to be led to a deeper self-criticism.

This world is in danger and forged dominated by capital everywhere and winning first flowering of civilization in places that can not be said to be inspired by Christianity, not only that but also the other Protestant majority here, although raised in the little loyalty or ignorance of the Gospel, as we are now told authoritatively. This is Western civilization today questioned. And the onslaught of fundamentalism losers can not be answered, otherwise the catastrophe, with the fundamentalism of winning. This world is super armed is now closing grimly, as last tried even Switzerland, instead of looking at himself and seek to correct their distortions considering them because of those of others. The tendency to use inordinate force becomes greater, with the attendant risks.

It should react to what is called the left. But having thrown away Marx did not help and, in fact, has been a powerful incentive to slip into the arms of neoliberalism successful and unsuccessful, so the distinction between left and right has become increasingly blurred. It is obvious that not just Marx, but without continuing a rigorous analysis, as was his, the economic and social model in which we live will continue to miss the contribution that the left could give to solve the growing problems of the present. I think that, with open eyes, Marx may be more useful than ever to stimulate research and, also, political action.

2) A. Gramsci, The revolution against the “Capital”, in Id., The future city from 1917 to 1918 , edited by S. Caprioglio, Turin, Einaudi, 1982, p. 514.

3) See. F. Frosini, Preface of ’59 , in G. Liguori, Voza P. (eds), Dictionary Gramscian 1926-1937, Rome, Carocci, 2009, p. 661.

4) A. Gramsci, Appendix. Excerpts from the Notebooks of translation, in Id., Prison Notebooks , edited by V. Gerratana, Rome, Einaudi, 1975, p. 2359.

U.S. Futures Daily Cotton Market -27th November, 2015

30 Monday Nov 2015

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Contract Open * High Low Close * Settle Change
Dec ’15 62.49 62.75 62.49 62.75 62.63 +0.65
Mar ’16 62.85 64.16 62.83 63.99 63.93 +0.65
May ’16 63.55 64.70 63.55 64.60 64.56 +0.60
  Jul ’16 64.00 64.97 60.00 64.90 64.89 +0.50
Oct ’16 0 0 0 0 64.36 +0.59
� Open and Close prices reflect the first and last trade in the market and do not correlate to any opening or        closing period �
Cotlook ‘A’ Index 69.80 (UNCH)

 

**MARKET OUTLOOK**


India & International Market Highlights:

• Wool prices have risen this week in US$ and euro terms over a new increase of the Australian dollar which has been boosted by a possible rise of benchmark interest rates in December.

• Viscose prices have continued slightly sliding in China, triggering a reaction from several producers. .

North Zone:

Cotton traded steady tone across major spot markets of north India on Monday. Prices were up Rs 20-30 per maund. In Punjab, ready delivery cotton traded at Rs 3500-3510 a maund. In Haryana, it offered at Rs 3,420-3,3430 while in Rajasthan, ready delivery new cotton quoted at Rs 3,370-3,440 a maund.

Central Zone:

Cotton spot prices steady tone across west India market on Monday. Gujarat Sankar-6 new cotton traded at  Rs 32800-33200 per candy . while B-Grade Cotton traded flat at Rs 32000-32500 per candy. V 797 cotton offered at Rs 24000-25000 a candy. While in Maharashtra, New Crop cotton good grade quoted at Rs 32200-32700 a candy.

South Zone:

Cotton spot price was steady tone across the major trading centers of south India.  

US Cotton Futures :  Cotton futures finished the Friday session up 60 to 65 points, adding to triple digit gains from Wednesday. The price of Dec15 cotton increased by 4.1% from last Friday, gaining 259 points, and closing at its highest daily close since November 2. The USDA reported export sales of 313,100 RB during the week ending Nov 19, including 7,500 RB of Pima. Upland sales of 305,600 RB were the largest since the week ending October 1, and increased by 53% from the week before. The Cotlook A Index was 125 points higher to 69.80. ICE reported that there were 63,958 certified bales in delivery warehouses on Nov 25, with 4,202 new certs and only 15 decertified bales. There were 1,460 bales awaiting review. USDA put the AWP for this week at 46.89 and dropped the LDP/MLG to 5.11, down .01 from the 5.12 last week.

Pakistan :
Spun polyester and polycotton prices have not really declined on the domestic market in Pakistan, after anti-dumping duties on Chinese polyester staple fibers have raised raw material costs.

China :

Although many cotton exporters’ shipments have been affected thus far in 2015-16 by weak demand from China, the most notable impact has been felt by Australia, according to the latest cottonA report released by the US department of agriculture (USDA).

Over the previous four seasons, Australia had shipped nearly two-thirds of its exports to China. However, since the harvest started for the 2015 crop, Australia’s exports as a share of the crop are at a 10-year low, largely on very weak import demand from China.

Similarly, Australia’s cotton shipments to nearly all other major markets are also down.

How climate change has sparked political and social unrest in Punjab this year

30 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by in Current Affairs, Farmers, NATIONAL NEWS

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And what that tells us about how agriculture is faring in Punjab.
M Rajshekhar

How climate change has sparked political and social unrest in Punjab this year

Photo Credit: Munish Sharma/Reuters

The professor will not forget 2015 easily.

A scientist at Ludhiana’s Punjab Agriculture University, he has been studying cotton for 15 years. But what he saw this year was entirely unfamiliar.

It started with the rains. Punjab saw downpours during the normally dry months of March and April. It rained in June as well – a month when temperatures should have touched 47 degrees, with hot summer winds (the famous loo) gusting across the state.

Instead, the temperature stayed below 40 degrees on most days that month. On the days it did rise, said the scientist, who spoke to Scroll on the condition of anonymity, it did not cross 43 degrees.

More climatic strangeness followed. It barely rained in the traditional monsoon months of July and August. The first three weeks of September stayed dry as well, followed by heavy rains towards the end of the month.

The aberrant weather patterns catalysed a boom in whitefly – an insect that sucks sap from plants during its nymphal stage. And this triggered, among other things, a political crisis in Punjab.

Typically, whiteflies emerge around March and are active till winter sets in. Most years, they are a minor pest preying on most crops, their numbers kept in check by the loo and then the rains. This year, however, the skies stayed overcast but the earth saw little rain; temperatures stayed relatively low and humidity relatively high, creating conditions where whitefly numbers began rising earlier than usual – in June.

Crawling out of their eggs, the nymphs encountered a cotton crop that was more vulnerable than usual. The rains in March and April had delayed the winter harvest – the wheat crop took longer to ripen. This in turn delayed the sowing of cotton. “Due to the late sowing, the crop was just 1.5 months old when the Whiteflies came,” says the scientist. “Normally, it is about 3 months old, and therefore more robust.”

It was a perfect storm. Whiteflies live for about 24-30 days – a quicksilver lifespan in course of which eggs hatch into nymphs, nymphs change into pupas, and pupas become adult whiteflies which mate, lay eggs on crop leaves and die. This year, with favourable conditions lasting longer during the cotton crop, Punjab saw an explosion in their numbers.

The plants were swamped. As the nymphs sucked out the sap, the plants sickened.

What happened next was inevitable. Anywhere between two-fifths to two-thirds of Punjab’s cotton crop was damaged. By mid-October, about 15 farmers had killed themselves. A farmers’ agitation, demanding compensation from the state, began.

Pesticides failed to control the plague, giving rise to speculation that they were fake. The director of Punjab’s agriculture department and several pesticide dealers were duly arrested.

The unrest was building when reports began to proliferate about copies of the Guru Granth Sahib being desecrated in several parts of the Punjab. Public attention swung away from the failed cotton crop – and in the process, the state squandered a chance to understand why whitefly erupted this year.

Make no mistake – fake pesticides are not the primary reason the crop failed.

Start with the rains.

Why were the rains abnormal?

From his office in the Indian Meteorological Department’s red-brick building in Chandigarh’s Sector 39, Surender Paul, a director, has been witnessing large changes in the weather patterns over Punjab.

Punjab gets almost all its rainfall during the monsoon months. Over the last 15 years, said Paul, the state has “seen a decline in mean precipitation between June and September”. In the last ten years, it has seen six “meteorological droughts”, the term for when rainfall is at least 25% below normal.

Paul sees other changes. Historically, rains used to reach the state around June 30. They now arrive five days earlier. Their departure has been delayed as well. “The norm is September 30. But now, winds start blowing towards the south seven-eight days later than before.”

Rainfall is also getting concentrated across time and space. This year, most of the rainfall over Punjab occurred in just 10 days. “This is one of the patterns we are seeing – a few days of concentrated rainfall,” said Paul. At the same time, the state is seeing greater local variations in rain. This year, for instance, only six out of the 20 districts in the state got normal rainfall.

Paul’s work suggests these changes are manifestations of a new interaction between mid-latitude westerlies and India’s monsoons.

It’s like this: The monsoon originates to the south-west of India, over the Arabian Sea, and then moves north till the Himalayas, curving along India’s eastern coast before moving towards the low pressure area that develops over central India due to the summer heat.

As for the westerlies, these blow at a greater distance from the equator, starting from about 32 N (Latitude) – say, the northern tip of Punjab.

However, over the last ten years, the westerlies have been swinging farther south. This trend, said Paul, is seen mostly in the monsoon and winter months. In the last four or five years, they have reached as far south as 25 North – that is, the northern reaches of Madhya Pradesh. In the process, India is seeing greater interaction between the westerlies and the monsoon. “In the last ten years, the influence of extra-tropical weather has increased,” he said. “We have seen as many as 40 instances of western disturbances affecting the monsoons this year.”

It’s not yet clear why the westerlies are swinging south in recent years. What is incontrovertible, however, is that the monsoonal trough – the low pressure area which attracts monsoon clouds – is coming to depend on the interplay between the westerlies and the monsoon winds. The collision of the two, says Paul, results in the formation of a large cloud mass and an abrupt, short-lived but intense cloudburst. That is what India has seen this year in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan.

Elsewhere, rainfall tends to be low. With the monsoon clouds weakened, more rain falls on places that are more conducive for rainfall – like lakes and forests. The moisture they release into the air, says Paul, encourages precipitation.

All of this bodes ill for Punjab. The state’s industrial belt releases emissions that reduce the quantum of moisture in the air. Further, the state has no dense forest cover – less than 4% of the state is forested. States to its north and east have far higher forest cover.

The collapse of extension work

The change in rainfall patterns combined with another factor to create the crisis in Punjab’s cotton fields this year.

During the heyday of the green revolution in the 1970s and ’80s, Punjab had a large bureaucracy that transmitted agricultural knowhow to farmers – chief agricultural officers and gram sewaks in each district, doing what was called agricultural extension. There were also kisan melas at the block and district levels that disseminated knowhow about agriculture and technology – information on new crops, seeds, fertilisers, implements and pesticides – to farmers through camps and lectures.

The system does not work any more. There has been a 50%-60% reduction in the number of extension workers, scientists say. The remaining staff is often deputed for other work – like conducting local elections.

One fallout of the collapse of extension work? It hamstrung attempts to fight off whitefly.

Take Balwana village, about 12 kilometres from the agricultural town of Abohar. Here Jagdish Kumar, a young man in his thirties who runs a shop near the village gurudwara that sells agricultural inputs (fertilisers and pesticides), had a window seat to what happened once the whiteflies arrived.

First, the crisis was spotted late. “Farmers responded only when the whiteflies started flying over their field,” he said. “That is when they asked for medicine, saying, ‘Mujhe spray de do ki kal ko mujhe whitefly dikhai nahin de.’” Give me a medicine which will make sure there is not a single whitefly over my field tomorrow.

There are several problems with such a process, Kumar said. First, whitefly is at its most dangerous as a nymph, which is when it sucks away at the sap and enfeebles the plant. “The whitefly stage is not so harmful,” he said. “All that will happen is the insect will lay the next generation of eggs.”

Second, spraying the flies will not help if it is not coordinated. “All the flies have to do is move to an adjoining field where spraying is not yet underway,” he noted.

Third, the lack of information about the emergent weather patterns meant that the farmers did not spray their fields for a long time. As the Met department noticed, the weather stayed overcast with minor drizzles. This made farmers reluctant to spray  “Companies tell farmers that fields should stay dry for four-six hours after spraying,” Jagdish said. “And the spray is costly – Rs 1,800/litre. Since farmers were never sure when it would rain, they deferred spraying.”

So the eggs grew undisturbed into mites, with concentrations per leaf much higher than before; the plants weakened and their leaves turned black. Which is when, Kumar said, desperate farmers began looking for medicines – “sprays, synthetics, anything”.

Take Hazara Ram of Balwana. The farmer, now in his sixties, sprayed four different pesticides in a bid to control his whitefly outbreak. None of them worked. His harvest was just 80 kilos from two acres, which netted him no more than Rs 4,000 – against which, he spent Rs 5,000 on pesticides alone.

Sukhdev Singhji. Credit: M Rajshekhar
In this part of India, it is the kharif crop – usually a cash crop like basmati or cotton – that introduces variability into farmers’ annual income. The winter crop, usually sold to the government at fixed rates, is more of a safety net. Like Hazara Ram, Sukhdev Singhji, a resident of Balwana village near Abohar, will not make any money on his cotton crop this year. He will make money only if wheat (kanak, in Punjabi) does well: “Kanak bachave to bachave.”

There is another issue here: Given that whitefly go through four stages – egg, nymph, pupa and adult – how did farmers like Ram know the stage of infection and therefore the appropriate medicines to spray?

They went by what agricultural traders or company agents – whose job is to sell pesticides – told them.

The rise of new ‘knowhow’

As Punjab’s extension machinery weakened, other actors stepped into the void – such as companies that sell fertiliser and pesticides. Said the Punjab Agriculture University scientist, “Their agents usually visit villages 15 days before the time of application. If the pesticide doesn’t work, they start working in another village. As it is, they are not even agri-graduates.”

Most of them are very young, said Sukhdev Singhji – “Navey munde. Unhey khud hi nahin pata honda.”

Another entrant into this informational vacuum is the adatiya, the agricultural trader. As an article in the November 7, 2015, issue of the Economic & Political Weekly, titled “Commission Agent System: Significance in Contemporary Agricultural Economy of Punjab”, notes: “They [adatiyas] have become the exploitative alternative for supply of credit, farm and domestic inputs as well as sale of produce. Not only do they provide credit for purchasing essential articles, but also push the farmers to purchase the same from the shops they, or their friends, own.”

One reason for their rise is the worsening economics of agriculture in Punjab.

Take cotton: It is mainly grown in the southern reaches of Punjab, in the Malwa region. On the whole, this is the poorest of the three regions of the state, and the one that sees the most farmer suicides.

Villages in south-western Punjab’s Malwa region are far poorer than villages elsewhere in Punjab.
Credit: M Rajshekhar
Bt Cotton came here in 2004, in response to the American bollworm attacks that started in 1997. Sukhpal Singh, head of Punjab Agricultural University’s Department of Economics and Sociology, points out that since then, though farmer incomes have risen, their debt has not come down.

There are several reasons for this, Singh said. While Bt Cotton was resistant to bollworm, after about seven or eight years of normalcy, attacks from secondary pests started. At the same time, input costs began rising faster than output prices. “It was partly globalisation. Subsidy on input prices was reduced. Diesel and machinery and seeds got costlier. At the same time, international cotton prices fell.”

This is a story that is playing out all across Punjab. As the cost of agriculture rises and its profitability falls, Punjab’s farmers are being pushed into debt – 89% of all farming households are in debt, according to this EPW paper. They borrow from the adatiyas. When the harvest comes in, they give the crop to the adatiyas who sell it, recover the loan, and give the balance to the farmers.

And so, when whiteflys came, most farmers turned to the traders seeking pesticides. The EPWpaper estimates that 15.01% of pesticides in Punjab (across all crops) are now supplied from the shops of commission agents, and another 80% are procured from the shops owned by people connected to these agents. They, says the paper, issue “a “slip” to farmers for obtaining items from their “owned or connected shops”.

The fungicide that Singhji applied to his cotton fields. Credit: M Rajshekhar
This further compromised farmers’ efforts against whiteflies. There was now the added risk that the traders (who are not farmers) might recommend the wrong pesticide, or one with a greater margin, or that farmers might buy cheaper pesticides to keep their debt low.

Agreed the scientist, “Extension work has collapsed. Paisa nahin hain. Udhaar lena hain. Sasti kaun si hain?”

Singhji, for instance, sprayed a fungicide while trying to take on whitefly.

That won’t work, said Jagdish, the young shop-owner of Balwana, pointing out that farmers sprayed unthinkingly. “Decide kuch nahin kiya, jo mila woh daal diya,” he said. They sprayed whatever they could get.

Other farmers underestimated the whitefly crisis and either sprayed the right medicine too late, or used a milder pesticide than they should have. Matters were further complicated by perennial factors like fake pesticides and batch variations. “I see a farmer’s plot after spraying and if there is no change a day later, I send that batch of spray back,” said Jagdish.

That is the arithmetic of this moment. It’s telling that farmers held off spraying as long as the skies stayed overcast – it shows that farmers’ knowhow is static in a world that is changing fast. The state needs to work on mitigation and adaptation. And for that, it needs to prepare its farmers better.

“Our outreach has to be strengthened,” said Surinder Paul of the Met department. “The information is there. But not all farmers are getting it.”

Failing that, the state will only see the turmoil in its farmlands increase.

This article appeared in scroll.in