bhagat singh

                                      

 celebrate 100 years of shaheed’e'azam !!                    

‘Karmayogi’ Golwalkar Guruji- Coming Soon To A Theater Near You

By Subhash Gatade

True or false !
- RSS had participated in freedom struggle ?
- Congress had demanded help from RSS for Gandhi’s protection ?
- Godse had never been a member of RSS ?

Well, for laypersons like you and me who have the ‘misfortune’ of attending any normal school, the answers to these queries would be in the negative. But if you happen to see the yet to be released film/docu-feature titled ‘Karmayogi’ you would be enlightened with a different set of answers.

You would be told that it is a myth to say that RSS kept itself away from freedom struggle and in fact it had decided in its high level meeting to participate wholeheartedly in the struggle. (It is a different matter that till date one has not yet discovered a single freedom fighter who owed allegiance to RSS brand of Hindutva). If one goes by this bollywoodian version of Sangh trajectory, you would know that Congress government led by Nehru had made frantic calls to the Sangh bosses for Gandhi’s safety and a team of Swayamsevaks in fact happened to be brave enough to volunteer for his security

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two poems from pakistan

1)  how does it matter

so long we are forced to or free to
offer the best years of our lives 
at the altar of work
as slaves serfs or as wage-slaves
i ask my friends of economics and political science
how does it matter
if we produce more and consume more
if we produce less and consume less
if we produce  and consume more effectively
and distribute more equitably
if we produce and consume less effectively
and distribute less equitably.

so long we are forced to or free to
offer the most beautiful years of our lives
at the altar of work
as slaves serfs or as wage-slaves
i ask my friends of social science and history
how does it matter
if the human pyramids
countries firms families and identities
split or come together more peacefully
split or come together more violently.

time tells never anything
so long we are forced to or free to
worry to death
about the terms of offering
the most youthful years of our lives
at the altar of work
as slaves serfs or as wage-slaves
i ask my friends of literature and natural sciences
how is it going to matter
if we look at our present as living historical novel of future
or as science-fiction  of past.

July 2004

 

2) Bar Girls Movement
(on the demonstration of bar girls against
the ban on their profession in mumbai,
india, april 2005)

 

snatched away pains

turn into stuff of our yearnings

we long for it
fight for it passionately

 

 

this may explain

how they turn our fight for freedom

into our fight to

to remain bar girls

 

 

between

bar girls and others
name of the only difference is:

the frequency of job interviews

 

 

you think

we are alone when

we apply for jobs

looking for the highest bidder

for half an hour

three years

or half a life

 

market is glutted with

our lookalikes
now

we go on our all fours

cheap and desperate

that extra makes the difference

maket is not glutted with

our lookalikes
now

we do it with

self-respect and dignity

or something in between

dancing to the full glare of

board of  experts

our irrepressible smiles

do not forget to drop

your best lines

effortlessly

sir take a closer look at

my hair age and looks

height and colour

here is my bio-data

past records and future promises

hating my existence

as bar girl clutching at the length of chain

long before we notice

this length of chain has turned into

length of our  freedom

Gangadin Lohar
April  2005

 

Anand Swaroop Verma interviews Prachanda

                           29 July 2006

Q. Did you ever anticipate that within 10 years of initiating the People’s War it would reach such a great height?A. I would like to tell you that towards the last leg of our preparations for launching the People’s War, we did discuss about the progress sequence of Nepalese People’s War. The pace of its progress was thoroughly discussed and finally, we reached at the conclusion that contradictions existing within the country and the prevailing external situation combined together to facilitate the speedy progress of the People’s War.
Q. Some people opine that the timing of your starting an armed struggle was wrong since the objective situations were not ripe at that time. After the dismemberment of Soviet Union in 1990, the communists, all over the world, were feeling let down and post-1990 the imperialist forces were gaining ground. Was it the right time to launch People’s War?

A. True, the conditions at that time, were really adverse. Post-Soviet Union dismemberment, the imperialist forces were celebrating the demise of communism. On the other hand, Peru’s Maoist revolution got a severe blow with the arrest of Com. Gonzalo. Thus the international scenario was really very unfavourable for our action. But when we analyzed the situation, we found that within Nepal people’s aspirations had got a fillip after the 1990 pro-democracy movement and they were under a false hope of improvement. In order to remove this false sense of hope, we even entered the parliament and for three years tried to explain to the masses that post-1990 agreement was not the real agreement, it was not in the interest of the people. We repeated the same inside the parliament also. We told people that they have been betrayed. Thus after three years of continuous campaigning, we found that conditions, within Nepal, were getting conducive for launching People’s War. All the work undertaken by us during the parliamentary sittings and debates convinced us that conditions at the national level were quite ripe for the launching of the People’s War. Though it is true that, at the international level, conditions were not as favourable but then this was exactly the time when our valor was needed to be tested. We thought that if we could move forward by using our internal conduciveness to remove the general sense of despair spreading fast throughout the world, then we can contribute a bit towards bringing some change in the prevailing situation. Moreover, it was our well thought-out strategy. We are convinced now that our strategy was right. By initiating People’s War amidst trying conditions we got an opportunity to show that revolutions are not dead. We could tell the world that 21st century will again be a century of revolutions.

           read the complete interview 

LEBANON:After Resolution 1701

(This article originally appeared in znet, elaborates that UN resolution on
Lebanon is not a real solution of conflict but it merely represents the current balance of forces. it brilliantly traces the real motives of war and draws some important conclusions –Editor)   

The resolution adopted by the UN Security Council on August 11, 2006 fully satisfies neither Israel nor Washington nor Hezbollah. This does not mean that it is “fair and balanced”: it only means that it is a temporary expression of a military stalemate. Hezbollah could not inflict a major military defeat on Israel, a possibility that was always excluded by the utterly disproportionate balance of forces in the same way that it was impossible for the Vietnamese resistance to inflict a major military defeat on the U.S.; but neither could Israel inflict a major military defeat — or actually any defeat whatsoever — on Hezbollah. In this sense, Hezbollah is undoubtedly the real political victor and Israel the real loser in the 33-day war that erupted on July 12, and no speech by Ehud Olmert or George W. Bush can alter this obvious truth. [1]

In order to understand what is at stake, it is necessary to summarize the U.S.-backed goals that Israel was pursuing in its offensive. The central goal of the Israeli onslaught was, of course, to destroy Hezbollah. Israel sought to achieve this goal through the combination of three major means.

The first one consisted in dealing Hezbollah a fatal blow through an intensive “post-heroic,” i.e. cowardly, bombing campaign exploiting Israel’s “overwhelming and asymmetric advantage” in firepower. The campaign aimed at cutting Hezbollah’s road of supplies, destroying much of its military infrastructure (stocks of rockets, rocket launchers, etc.), eliminating a major number of its fighters and decapitating it by assassinating Hassan Nasrallah…………….

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the truth of 9/11.

Governments have always invented threats in order to pursue aggression and make their people sacrifice their lives, wealth and freedom. If you believe
Israel and the West are under attack by Islamic extremism, you are being fooled. There is growing evidence that
Israel was involved in the 9-11 attack and is plotting new terror scares to keep the GOP in power. A Report of the German Intelligence Service (BND) says
Israel’s Mossad helped the “Arab terrorists.”
Germany has not denied that this report is authentic and no one has been able to refute it. “These investigations disclosed in late May of 2001 that an attack was to be made against certain specified targets in the American cities of
Washington and
New York. But it was apparent that the Mossad was not only fully aware of these attacks well in advance but actually, though their own agents inside these Arab groups, assisted in the planning and the eventual execution of the attacks. That the Israeli government was fully aware of these attack is absolutely certain and proven. Diplomatic traffic between the Israeli Embassy in the

Federal
Republic and the Israeli Foreign Office made it very clear that Minister President Sharon was fully aware of this pending attack and urgently wished that no attempt was made to prevent the attacks.” On August 6,2001, the German ambassador Ischinger informed George W. Bush of the exact time and place of the attack. Bush thanked the ambassador and said he was aware of it. Later the US Government demanded that
Germany keep this warning secret. This report has been around since 2002 but I was just made aware of it. (http://www.physics911.net/germanintel.htm) The “Voice of the White House” Friday produced a transcript of a telephone conversation between the Israeli Embassy and AIPAC, the
Israel lobby. The speakers discuss fabricating terror attacks and scares in order to influence the November elections: “B. Well then, why not have these attacks aimed at American aircraft? Where would they attack from? A. Say at the perimeter fence lines at airports. Or better still, why not a plan cooked up to smuggle explosives on board transatlantic flights to or from
America? Something clever that will catch the public imagination. B. That stupid bomb in the shoe routine? A. Don’t knock it. It worked, didn’t it? We can always find some suckers with a bent to this we can fill up with real enthusiasm and then turn them in, complete with plans. They actually believe they are going to paradise and fuck virgins and we have another propaganda coup. Let’s give this some effort. You know, a terrified public will not want to change horses in midstream. So far, the Rove people have a good line: If you’re against the Republicans, you’re encouraging the evil terrorists shtick.” http://www.rense.com//general73/red.htm

I know this transcript sounds comical and contrived and is too good to be true. Some people think it is a forgery and they might be right. I believe it is a smoking gun. Israelis can be very arrogant and careless

to know more about 9/11 please click here

Interview with nasarallah

(here are exrepts of an interview withsayyad nasarallah hizbullah general secratary)

What is the current state of your relations with the Socialist movement? Hasan Nasrallah: The socialist movement, which has been away from international struggle, now for a considerable time, at last began to become a moral support for us once again. The most concrete example of this has been Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela. What most of the Muslim states could not do has been done by Chavez by the withdrawal of their ambassador to
Israel. He furthermore communicated to us his support for our resistance. This has been an immense source of moral for us. We can observe a similar reaction within the Turkish Revolutionary Movement. We had socialist brothers from
Turkey who went to
Palestine in 1960s to fight against
Israel. And one of them still remains in my memory and my heart; Deniz Gezmis..! What is the importance of Denizs for you? Hasan Nasrallah: We now want new Denizs. Our ranks are always open to new Denizs against the oppressors. Deniz will always live in the hearts of the peoples of
Palestine and
Lebanon… No-one should doubt this. Unfortunately, there is no longer a common fight and fraternity against the common enemy left over by the Denizs. What we would have liked is for our socialist brothers in
Lebanon to fight against imperialism and Zionism shoulder to shoulder. This fight is not only our fight. It is the common fight of all those oppressed across the world. Don’t forget that if the peoples of
Palestine and
Lebanon lose this war, this will mean the defeat of all the oppressed people of the world. In our fight against imperialism, the revolutionaries should also undertake a responsibility and should become in the hearts of our people of
Palestine and
Lebanon, Denizs once again. It is possible to see the posters of Che, Chavez, Ahmedinecad ve Hezbollah side by side in the streets of
Beirut. Are these the signs of a new polarisation? Hasan Nasrallah: We salute the leaders and the peoples of
Latin America. They have resisted heroically against the American bandits and have been a source of moral for us. They are guiding the way for the oppressed peoples. Go and wonder around our streets..! You will witness how our people have embraced Chavez and Ernesto Che Guevara. Nearly in every house, you will come across posters of Che or Chavez. What we are saying to our socialist friends who want fight together with us for fraternity and freedom, do not come at all if you are going to say “Religion is an opiate”. We do not agree with this analysis. Here is the biggest proof of this in our streets with the pictures of Chavez, Che, Sadr and Hamaney waving along together. These leaders are saluting our people in unison. So long as we respect your beliefs, and you respect ours, there is no imperialist power we cannot defeat!Is there any other additional point you want to make?

Hasan Nasrallah: Peace cannot be unilateral. So long as there is imperialism in the world, a permanent peace is impossible. This war will not come to an end as long as there are occupations in
Iraq,
Afghanistan and
Palestine.

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US Government want another 9/11

by Michal Chosudovasky 

In the month following last year’s 7/7 London bombings, Vice President Dick Cheney is reported to have instructed USSTRATCOM to draw up a contingency plan “to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on theUnited States”. Implied in the contingency plan is the certainty thatIran would be behind a Second 9/11.This “contingency plan” uses the pretext of a “Second 9/11″, which has not yet happened, to prepare for a major military operation against Iran, while pressure was also exerted on Tehran in relation to its (non-existent) nuclear weapons program.What is diabolical in this decision of the US Vice President is that the justification presented by Cheney to wage war on Iran rests on Iran’s involvement in a hypothetical terrorist attack on America, which has not yet occurred:the plan includes a large-scale air assault on
Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. Within
Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites. Many of the targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option. As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the
United States. Several senior Air Force officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications of what they are doing—that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack—but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections. (Philip Giraldi, Attack on
Iran: Pre-emptive Nuclear War , The American Conservative, 2 August 2005)

Are we to understand that US, British and Israeli military planners are waiting in limbo for a Second 9/11, to extend the war beyond the borders of Lebanon, to launch a military operation directed against Syria andIran?

Cheney’s proposed “contingency plan” did not focus on preventing a Second 9/11. The Cheney plan is predicated on the presumption that Iran would be behind a Second 9/11 and that punitive bombings could immediately be activated, prior to the conduct of an investigation, much in the same way as the attacks on Afghanistan in October 2001, allegedly in retribution for the alleged support of the Taliban government to the 9/11 terrorists. It is worth noting that one does not plan a war in three weeks: the bombing and invasion of
Afghanistan had been planned well in advance of 9/11. As Michael Keefer points out in an incisive review article:

“At a deeper level, it implies that “9/11-type terrorist attacks” are recognized in Cheney’s office and the Pentagon as appropriate means of legitimizing wars of aggression against any country selected for that treatment by the regime and its corporate propaganda-amplification system….  (Keefer, February 2006 )……………………..

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Articles on India’s Maoist movements

The following eight articles are from Economic and Political Weekly, on aspects of Naxalite & Maoist movements in
India, with relevance and some reference to
Nepal’s Maoist movement as well.

Beyond Naxalbari by Sumanta Banerjee

Challenges of Revolutionary Violence: The Naxalite Movement in Perspective by Manoranjan Mohanty

Learning from Experience and Analysis: Contrasting Approaches of Maoists in Nepal and India by Sitaram Yechury

Maoism in India: Ideology, Programme, and Armed Struggle by Tilak D Gupta

Maoist Movement in Andhra Pradesh by K Balagopal

On Armed Resistance by Bela Bhatia

Spring and Its Thunder by Sagar

Bastar, Maoism, and Salwa Judum by Nandini Sundar[ All are PDF files, around 30kb, except for “Bastar, Maoism, and Salwa Judum”, which is 400kb. ]

LEBANON: Hezbollah: its origins and aims

Michael Karadjis

The United States and Israel claim the horrific attack on Lebanese civilians is necessary to destroy the “terrorist” organisation Hezbollah, which is also routinely referred to as an “Islamic fundamentalist” movement.

Some such assertions are quite fantastic. An article in the July 24 Australian reported that “some US government officials now share Israel’s assessment that [Sheik Hassan] Nasrallah is a bigger danger than Osama bin Laden” — comparing Hezbollah’s leader and the head of the “Islamist” terrorist organisation al Qaeda.

The comparison of a group that allegedly “provoked” this Israeli massacre by abducting two soldiers and one that has killed thousands of people in actions like the destruction of the World Trade Center is self-evidently nonsense. Is there anything in Hezbollah’s history that justifies such comparisons?

Several pro-Iranian groups appeared in 1982 among the poverty-stricken Shiite masses of southern Lebanon to fight the Israeli invasion that year. In 1985 Hezbollah emerged as an umbrella organisation of these groups.

The great majority of military actions Hezbollah has undertaken since then were against the 22-year Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. Fundamentally, therefore, Hezbollah is a national liberation movement, rather than an “Islamist” or “terrorist” organisation.

The largest “terrorist” attack attributed to Hezbollah is the killing of 241 US occupation troops in Lebanon in 1983. However, this was clearly a guerrilla attack on a military target, not the wanton killing of civilians. In any case, Hezbollah denies responsibility for these actions…………..

                   read the complete article