• POTA amended through Ordinance:
  The working class demands complete repeal of POTA

• Step up the struggle to force the occupiers out of Iraq!

• Unorganised Sector Workers Bill 2003

• Increasing violence against women
  Women cannot rely on the state for security of life and honour
  Women must organise to defend themselves

• Supreme Court rules that police can arrest women in absence of women constables

• Protests in the US against occupation of Iraq

• Protests against Bush’s Asia–Pacific visit

• Free Trade Area of the Americas meeting in November
  US imperialism and the peoples have irreconcilable interests

• US backed Bolivian President forced to resign

• Cleaning up Ganga or cleaning out public funds?

• Struggle to punish guilty must continue without letup

• Deepining political crisis in Britain

• Disasters in Mines

• Indo-US joint naval exercises in Arabian Sea

POTA amended through Ordinance:
The working class demands complete repeal of POTA

POTA is a fascist law to crush the voices of dissent. In Jharkand, Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra, Tamilnadu, UP and Delhi, hundreds of peoples have been incarcerated under POTA. They include political activists and leaders, journalists, teachers, lawyers as well ordinary people—all charged with being potential terrorists or aiding and abetting terrorism. In Jharkhand for example, school children have been incarcerated under POTA for possessing copies of the Communist Manifesto.

Two years of use of POTO and POTA has revealed to all the essential fascist character of POTA. When POTO was promulgated two years ago, there was mass opposition to this fascist ordinance throughout India and demands for its repeal. However, the Union government pushed POTA through parliament by getting it approved in a joint session of the two houses in February 2002. Many of the NDA partners, who expressed disapproval of the law outside parliament, voted for it to pass it. What then lies behind the government’s decision to amend POTA at this time?

In the last two years, we have witnessed another aspect of the use of POTA. Since July 2002, MDMK leader Vaiko has been detained under POTA. His party is part of the ruling NDA. The Jayalaitha government has locked up many prominent personalities under POTA and is threatening the leaders of the DMK with arrest as well. It has also threatened Union Ministers belonging to MDMK and PMK with arrest under POTA. Meanwhile, the DMK has decided to launch an agitation for the repeal of POTA. The DMK is also part of the ruling NDA alliance. All this has thrown the NDA government into a crisis of credibility. Similarly, in UP, the former Chief Minister Mayavati had BJP MLA Raja Bhaiya locked up under POTA, much to the chagrin of the BJP. As soon as Mayavati fell from power, to be replaced by Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, the latter’s first act was to release Raja Bhaiya!

Given the sharpening conflict amongst the various sections of the ruling class at this time, and given that different political parties of the bourgeoisie are in power in different states and in the center, it is extremely likely that more and more governments will use POTA to settle scores with their political rivals, apart from using it against the workers, peasants and working people, to crush the voices of dissent. It is in the very nature of such laws that they will be used by those in state power to put down their political rivals.

This is what lies behind the NDA government’s concern today about the "misuse" of POTA. Today, the ruling bourgeoisie is extremely worried that POTA is increasingly being used to settle inter-ruling class contradictions, rather than focussing on crushing the voices of dissent of the workers, peasants and other toiling people. After all, the same NDA government had, two years ago, shown utter contempt and disregard towards the concerns of hundreds and thousands of working people, human rights activists, jurists and others, that POTA would be directed against all those who dare to raise their voices of dissent. Developments since then have clearly vindicated this concern of the people. Through the recent amendment, the Central government wants to regulate the use of POTA to settle inter-ruling class contradictions and instead, focus on the use of POTA to heighten state terror and crush the struggles of the toiling people. By arming the review commissions with statutory powers, and ensuring that the central review panel has powers over the state review commissions, the Central government is trying to streamline the use of POTA to ensure that it has overriding powers to use POTA, and not the state governments.

The amendments to POTA will not change this essential character of the Act. The working class and all progressive forces must continue to demand the immediate repeal of the fascist POTA.

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Step up the struggle to force the occupiers out of Iraq!

The OIC conference held in Malaysia denounced the occupation of Iraq and called for restoration of full sovereignty to the Iraqi people. The US administration has been exerting pressure on several OIC member states to send peace-keeping forces to Iraq as well as contribute financially to ease the pressure on the US occupation forces. Equally if not more importantly, it is desperately trying to divide the Islamic peoples and countries who have shown their uncompromising opposition to US occupation of Iraq. As US imperialist chieftain Bush held talks with Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri in a bid to mobilise her support for the US’s occupation of Iraq, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad bluntly declared that state terrorism was worse than that committed by individual groups. He accused countries like the US of terrorising the world.

Meanwhile, after weeks of hectic backroom wheeling and dealing, the US has come to an agreement with other big powers like France, Russia and Germany. Like all such agreements amongst the imperialists, what treacherous secret deals were struck by these powers against the sovereignty of peoples and nations as part of their carving and recarving of spheres of influence, remains hidden from the public eye. What has been imposed as a fait accompli is that the Security Council has passed a resolution on October 16th, which has provided a thin edge of legitimacy to the US occupation of Iraq. The resolution calls for the withdrawal of US forces once a new Iraqi government is elected and installed. It has set a December 15, 2003, deadline for the US appointed governing council in Iraq to offer a timetable for writing a constitution and holding elections. In their statement, France, Germany and Russia said they backed the resolution to show "unity" within the Security Council, though they do not intend contributing troops.

While the US–led coalition was murderously invading Iraq the Security Council did not intervene as it ought to have, to ensure peace and justice. Once again now, the Security Council has failed in ending the illegal and unjust occupation of Iraq and restoring sovereignty to its people. Now, the US is using the Security Council resolution to get a few more countries to make financial and military commitments to the occupation forces.

At the initiative of the US, a donor’s conference was organised in Madrid, Spain, on 23 – 24th October 2003, for raising funds for the reconstruction of Iraq, in which India also participated. The US imperialists have sought to get approval of the international community by allowing, as a sop, an agency run by the World Bank and the United Nations to determine how to spend billions of dollars in "reconstruction assistance" for Iraq. This "reconstruction assistance" is aimed at allowing various powers a piece of the plunder of the wealth of Iraq. However, the new agency will only oversee the non-US donations, meaning that money from the US will remain under complete US control! The Madrid conference was yet another attempt to legitimise and prolong the illegal and unjust occupation of Iraq.

The struggle between the US and those opposing the unjust occupation of Iraq is getting more intense. The demand of the people of Iraq is that the occupiers should get out. The peoples of the world must escalate their struggle to make the Anglo-US troops leave Iraq, so that the Iraqi people can then be free to decide their own future. The treacherous deal between the US and some other imperialist powers as reflected in the new UN resolution must be exposed and condemned. So also, the fighting peoples must expose the US blackmail and blandishment of various regimes in Asia and Europe aimed at making them a party to the unjust occupation of Iraq in one manner or another.

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Unorganised Sector Workers Bill 2003

Despite their huge numbers and the contribution that the unorganised sector makes to the domestic product, these workers are bereft of any protection in the matter of security of employment, wages, and safety at the work place and social security. The few labour laws that apply to them, such as the Minimum Wages Act, are not effectively administered. The Constitutional mandates, contained in the Directive Principles of State Policy, have passed them by.

It is only in the recent past that we see some sort of concern being expressed about the need for making the working and living conditions of these millions tolerable and dignified. Of late, particularly after the Report of the Second National Commission of Labour has been submitted, the Central Government has been talking in terms of introducing appropriate legislation that will enable these workers to improve their working and living conditions. Recent newspaper reports say that the draft Bill–The Unorganised Sector Workers Bill, 2003-prepared by the Ministry of Labour has been examined and approved by a Group of Ministers (GOM) of the Union Council of Ministers. The matter will now go to the Union Cabinet for final approval and clearance for introduction of the Bill in Parliament. According to the media, the Bill will be introduced in parliament on the opening day of the coming winter session.

The main aim in passing such laws is to create illusions amongst the toiling masses that their problems can be solved within the capitalist socio-economic system. The usual method of the Indian state in passing laws that are allegedly in favour of the toilers rights are to make sure that they are firstly toothless, and secondly that their provisions are difficult, if not impossible, to implement as a result of the utterly corrupt government machinery responsible for the same.

In the light of the above, in the case of Unorganised Sector Workers Bill, it is first of all necessary for the working class to fight to ensure that minimum benefits in terms of security of employment, wages, safety and social security are specifically and unambiguously incorporated in the law itself. They must not be left to be incorporated in schemes or regulations. Otherwise what will ultimately emerge will be left to the mercies of the executive. The executive will plead financial and administrative difficulties as alibis for not providing the minima necessary.

Newspaper reports say that the proposals, approved by the GOM, include a monthly pension of Rs. 500 to a worker in the unorganised sector when he or she reaches the age of 60 years, a provision of health insurance unto certain limits and a life insurance cover for Rs 100,000. If so, then at least these will have to find a place in the Bill. Given the nature of the unorganised sector and the plight of the workers engaged in it - be they wage employed or self employed, the proposed law should also contain clear provisions for regulation of employment, for wages and for maternity benefits and crèches. Also, the law must provide for systems in the shape of a Board, Workers Felicitation Centre and so forth, in which the workers will be able to effectively participate, not merely as beneficiaries but as active elements in ensuring proper implementation of the law.

In short, the working class must ensure that when the Bill comes up before parliament, a struggle is waged inside parliament over what exactly is incorporated in the Bill so that the Bill, when it becomes a law, can be a focal point of struggle to organise the "unorganised sector" workers. The struggle is to ensure that the law must be such as would enable these scattered and unorganised workers in diverse occupations to be organised, feel, and act united.

The working class must be vigilant to ensure that the bourgeoisie does not fob off the workers with a skeleton of a law, without flesh and blood in it.

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Increasing violence against women
Women cannot rely on the state for security of life and honour
Women must organise to defend themselves

Following the attack on the women at the Film Festival, the Delhi police launched a highly publicised campaign to catch those responsible, by targeting youth in the city. According to latest reports, nearly 10,000 youth have been picked up from different parts of the city, locked up and interrogated, before being released because they obviously had nothing to do with the crime. The police are reported to have picked up school going children from the slums of Okhla, Govindpuri, Dakshinpuri and other working class areas of Delhi to increase their arrest count! Middleclass youth driving motor bikes or frequenting cinemas or bars are being harassed and blackmailed for money to avoid arrest! Even as this reign of terror has been unleashed by the police on the residents of Delhi, the number of reported incidents of assaults on women in Delhi, even in broad daylight, continue to be on the increase.

Whenever the attacked women have shown courage to demand punishment for the guilty , the media deliberately highlights all sorts of suggestions that insidiously blame ordinary women and men for the problem. For instance, it is suggested that girl students and young women are responsible for "inviting rape and assault" by their dress or behaviour. It is also suggested that men responsible for such crimes against women are "unable to control their animal instincts". On the other hand, various politicians issue statements of "concern", while the Deputy Prime Minister has even suggested "death penalty for rapists". Demands are made for sensitising the police force, for making it more efficient, for making laws more stringent and so on. What is deliberately covered up through all this is the fact that violence against women is a weapon in the hands of the dominant class in society, to keep the oppressed classes in subjugation.

Violence against women has always been a conscious policy of the Indian State. It is a tool to terrorise and persecute women and entire communities, by the very "protectors of the law", i.e. the army, police, state security forces and other officials of the state. It is used to attack the struggles of the working class and peasantry, tribals, dalits, oppressed nationalities and other sections of the toiling people against their exploitation and injustice under this system. It is used to target specific communities in all cases of state organised communal violence and genocide, as has been witnessed in Gujarat in 2002, in Delhi and other places in ’84, in Mumbai, Surat, etc., in ‘92-93 and so on. In the north-eastern states, in Kashmir and other parts of the country where the army dominates the life of the people, women are constantly subjected to sexual harassment, torture and rape by the army. Custodial rape and sexual harassment of women is a very common occurrence that has caused much public outrage. Except for a few particularly horrendous cases that get highlighted due to the persistent efforts of women’s organisations and human rights activists, most of them are quickly covered up, allegedly so that the "morale of the security forces is not affected"!

It is small wonder that such crimes are on the rise in society when the organs of the state are themselves the biggest violators of the security and dignity of women. It is well-known that the rich and powerful carry on such crimes against women on a daily basis, with impunity, and get away scot-free. Women cannot rely on this state of the exploiters to provide them security of life and honour. Women have to get organised to defend themselves and step up the struggle against the state, for the right to participate freely and fearlessly in the productive life of society, to live, work and travel in dignity and for the punishment of all those guilty of such crimes against women, no matter what their position or status may be.

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Supreme Court rules that police can arrest women in absence of women constables

In the wake of innumerable cases of rape and molestation of women in police custody, women’s organisations all over the country had, through long years of struggle, secured the right that a woman could not be arrested or detained by the police without the presence of a woman constable after sunset and before sunrise. The recent Supreme Court judgement seeks to take away this right of women, won through much struggle and sacrifice.

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Protests in the US against occupation of Iraq

Waving signs reading "Make Jobs Not War" and "Bush is a liar," the protesters marched down around the White House, on to the Justice Department and then back to the Washington Monument. Al Sharpton, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, exhorted the crowd not to be content with the gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. "Don’t give Bush $87 billion, don’t give him 87 cents, give our troops a ride home," Sharpton said to loud cheers from the crowd. Michael McPhearson, a veteran from the 1991 Persian Gulf War, denounced the president, saying he had misled the nation. "You have butchered the truth, George Bush."

Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters also took to the streets in San Francisco, California, on the West Coast of the US. The protesters came from the states of Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and 27 California cities. "87-billion dollars is being spent for war and meanwhile our jobs are getting cut, our social services are getting cut. Our sons and daughters are being sent to be killed for a war that is clearly based on lies, " said a demonstrator. Former Green Party gubernatorial candidate Peter Camejo said "We’re calling on the United States to get its troops out of Iraq and let the Iraqis solve their own problems."

Reports of protests on the October 25–26, 2003 weekend have also come in from other countries. Thousands of South Korean protesters gathered in central Seoul, calling on the government to reverse its decision to send more troops to help the US imperialist – led coalition in Iraq. A protest demonstration was also held outside the venue of the International Donors Conference for the Reconstruction of Iraq in Madrid, Spain on Thursday, October 23, 2003. These demonstrations by the people of the countries whose governments are taking part in the US–led coalition occupying Iraq are a telling indictment of the lack of legitimacy of that occupation.

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Protests against Bush’s Asia–Pacific visit

Militant protests were held during October 17 - 19, 2003 against US President George Bush’s nine-day visit to the Asia-Pacific. Bush was also vigorously heckled when he addressed the Australian parliament on October 23.

Bush visited Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia. His Asia-Pacific tour was aimed at strengthening the economic, political and military positions of US imperialism in the region and break the growing unity of countries of the region as evidenced in the recent ASEAN summit. It was also to step up the pressure on these countries to provide more military and financial assistance to the US "war on terrorism" as well as participate actively in the illegal US - led occupation of Iraq.

On October 17, anti-nuclear and other activists demonstrated at the US embassy in Tokyo, Japan. They were opposing the U.S. occupation of Iraq and demanding that the United States give up its nuclear arsenal and enact an international nuclear test ban treaty. The same day, a demonstration was held at the US embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia against Bush’s planned visit to Bali. On October 18, massive protests were organised in Manila, Philippines where Bush addressed a joint session of Congress. According to news reports, five members of the House of Representatives walked out during Bush’s speech while other legislators wore pins that read "Legislators Against War." Outside, marchers chanted slogans against U.S. imperialism and burned American flags, as well as effigies of both Bush and Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, calling them terrorists.

The US imperialist chieftain’s visit of Australia was also to "reward" conservative Prime Minister John Howard, whom he dubbed "a man of steel" for sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan despite public protests. However, the protests were loud and clear even during his address to a joint session of Parliament, both within the hall as well as outside. His tagging of Australia as a regional "sheriff" and staunch defense of the Iraq war angered Australian parliamentarians. Bush was forced to stop his speech twice by their heckling. Five protesters were arrested in scuffles with police outside the hilltop parliament as thousands chanted anti-US slogans and waved banners reading: "Yankee Go Home."

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Free Trade Area of the Americas meeting in November
US imperialism and the peoples have irreconcilable interests

FTAA which includes the rapaciously imperialist US state on the one hand and a number of nations of South and Central America who have been devastated by US imperialism on the other has several inherent contradictions.

The FTAA seeks to expand the corporate free trade policies of the existing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which applies to Canada, Mexico and the United States, to encompass the entire Western Hemisphere. Following its failure in pushing through its agenda at the WTO talks at Cancun, the US desperately wants a powerful FTAA under its control. In other words, they want their own interests, of being able to expand markets and source out agricultural produce, materials and finished goods at rock bottom prices, of being able to insist on privatisation of publicly owned enterprises and so on, to be fully protected. They want to strengthen and expand their domination over all the countries of the Americas, as well as block European and Asian penetration of the markets of Latin America. On the other hand, the Latin American countries want US concessions especially on agricultural subsidies and anti-dumping rules, but these are not expected to be discussed at least for now. The US had insisted that both issues could only be dealt with in the WTO Doha round and not within the FTAA. Brazil, in turn, argues that issues such as rules on services, investment and intellectual property which interest the US imperialists most should be removed from the FTAA. It may be recalled that disagreement on those topics, the WTO’s "Singapore issues" were partly responsible for the Cancun collapse.

US imperialism has traditionally looked at the America’s as its ‘own’ turf, in which other powers, especially European powers should not be allowed to interfere. It has a long history of indulging in violence, fostering coups, and using the most despicable covert and overt means to secure its interests in the region. An important example is the overthrow of the democratically elected Allende government in Chile in 1973. It has imposed militarisation and used natural resource-focused accords like Plan Colombia, the Andean Regional Initiative, Plan Puebla Panama and the Central American Free Trade Agreement to further its interests. Similarly, US imperialism looks at FTAA also only as a means to further its own agenda and not as a means to increase prosperity of all nations and peoples in the region. If the plan of US imperialism is to succeed, it would mean that corporate agribusiness would take over family and subsistence farms, and more peasants would be ruined. It would mean that more workers would have to accept lower wages and lose their jobs and rights in order to be ‘competitive’. Hitherto publicly owned enterprises would have to be privatized on demand. In short, implementing the agenda of US imperialism would mean more misery for the peoples of America.

The peoples of Latin America have a proud history of resistance and fighting for their rights. In recent years, the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico, the 2001 rebellion in Argentina, the Landless Rural Workers Movement in Brazil, the struggles against public sector privatization in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and across nations in Central America, the June uprisings in Peru, are shining examples of this legacy. The peoples of America aspire for a life of freedom from want, for dignity, for sovereignty, to be able to decide for themselves what the best economic and political course for each of them is. They want to be able to cooperate with each other as equals to fulfill their mutual needs, and not be dictated into following one-sided agreements. This is in direct contradiction with the requirements of imperialism, which seeks to direct and control everything in its own rapaciousness.

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US backed Bolivian President forced to resign

The US has been blatantly intervening in Bolivia’s affairs. It had sent weapons, ammunition and advisors to back up Gonzalo and crush the largest demonstrations ever mounted by the Bolivian people. Police and army killed almost 100 people in the last month of mass actions. Workers, campesinos, aboriginal people and students had paralyzed the capital, La Paz for five days, crying "Out with Gonzo!" and faced the guns of the police and army. The mass protests had affected other major centres as well.

Vice-president Carlos Mesa has become President and announced a transitional regime, new elections and a referendum on the natural gas issue. This is a setbacks for US imperialism in Latin America, and its plans for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

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Cleaning up Ganga or cleaning out public funds?

Exactly 10 years ago a huge Ganga Clean Up Plan worth 624 crore rupees was prepared. To date, 10 years later, neither has the Ganga been cleaned up nor safe drinking water provided to Delhi’s one crore citizens. On the contrary, the Ganga and its tributary, the Yamuna has become even more polluted.

Industrial waste is allowed to pour in gallons into the Yamuna every day. There is no thought given in the plan for proper sewerage and drainage systems.

The bureaucrats and the politicians blame each other’s department or party saying that there has been a "lack of coordination" between different authorities and have shamelessly declared that there is "no accountability and discipline" and that the "industrial treatment plants have not been taken seriously".

They also blame the people saying that the poor jhuggi jhompri dwellers alongside the Yamuna do not use the toilets that have been built for them, knowing fully well that these toilets have been built four to five kilometres away from where they reside! Another plaintive cry is that from the time the plan was made, the demand has been increasing and there will always be a gap between supply and demand. According to the authorities, there is 1800 MLD gap today.

While it has been said that recyling water and providing clean drinking water is too costly, Delhi’s citizens do not know what happened to the 624 crore rupees, how much of it was spent and on what. Now there is a plan to prepare a "second Ganga Clean Up Plan" worth many more crores of rupees.

As citizens we must demand:

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Struggle to punish guilty must continue without letup

There is a striking calm in the air across the country just a few weeks before the Assembly elections of several key states. The atmosphere is in stark contrast to the vitiated atmosphere in which the elections to the Assembly in Gujarat in 2002. The question to ask is what do the recent trends reveal? Does it mean that the political parties vying for state power have some how come to their senses and have realized the folly of whipping up chauvinistic sentiments in the electorate or have dropped the use of state sponsored violence to polarize the electorate? It could also be argued that the events of Gujarat of 2002 and elsewhere in the past are somehow an ‘aberration’ of what is fundamentally a sound process, and therefore all progressive forces should support the existing system of parliamentary democray. The reason for why there is a lull, could well be that the big bourgeoisie in India is itself at a loss for which party to back in order to establish a stable Government and no political party has the confidence to go ahead and try all possible means to capture state power. The wide spread disgust across all sections of the population at the Gujarat events and the rise in unity among the progressive forces in the wake of that has been a significant cause of concern for the rulers of the country. A repeat of the orgy of violence would seriously threaten the legitimacy of all the state organs and all the consitutional bodies. In the midst of this, one has seen a degree of judicial activism, which after a brief rise has again subsided. The media is activitely collaborating with the rulers in portraying the situation as being ‘normal’, which is that ‘acts of passion’ and ‘riots’ are somehow normal in the country and one should not expect any kind of retribution or redressed for the victims. Some may argue that the anti-Muslim rhetoric of the BJP is so bad that one should support the ‘secular’ parties such as the Congress, without recalling that there has been no justice for the violence of 1984 against the Sikhs that was openly acknowledged to have been engineered by the Congress in order to win the elections. The progressive forces should watch against these trends and not tire in their efforts to raise the public consciousness for the demand for justice for all the victims of electoral and other kinds of violence.

Sincerely,
A. Narayan, Bangalore

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Deepining political crisis in Britain

The war in Iraq by the ‘coalition of the willing’ led by the United States of America in close collaboration with the United Kingdom seems to have precipitated an unprecedented crisis in the ruling circles of the UK. There has been a bit outcry against the case of the ‘sexed up dossier’ and the subsequent ‘suicide’ of Dr. David Kelly, the weapons inspector who was supposed to have been the source of the story. The British Prime Minister Mr. Tony Blair is facing continuing challenges to his ‘leadership’ of the Labour Party and his Government has no credibility left. The situation is so bad that members of the party that disagree with leadership have been expelled, e.g., Mr. David Galloway. This latter event is a signal of the profound crisis that is gripping the political system in the UK with the parliamentary system of democracy dominated by Labour and Conservative parties. Indeed, the latter too is facing its only problems of accountability with a vote taking place on the leadership of Mr. Iain Duncan Smith. Whether or not that vote goes in his favour or not, what the events reveal is the profound lack of credibility in the ‘leadership’ of the parties who are spokesmen of big finance capital and industry, and those who openly support anti-labour activities domestically and favor the carrot and big stick in international affairs. The total bankruptcy of the political parties is likely to intensify into crisis all spheres of life, including economic and social spheres. The state of affairs offers great opportunities for progressive forces to organize the masses to solve their problems independent of the two political parties.

Sincerely,
B. Khanna, Leicester

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Disasters in Mines

As this is being written (October 29, 2003), the story of the rescue of 13 miners in Russia is gripping the world media attention. It is not the first time that miners have found themselves in the terrible condition of being lost and heroic efforts being set off to bring them out safe. A similar story in the mines of Pennsylvania, USA also enjoyed great media attention a couple of years ago. These events highlight the hazardous conditions in which a section of the working class finds itself in this day and age. Labour conditions in mines are some of the worst in the world, with conditions in mines in India, Ukraine, China and elsewhere being nothing less than horrific. The shameful state of affairs is not being addressed in a comprehensive manner by management of mines in the world. Several great novels of as long ago as the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have centered around conditions in mining towns in Wales and other parts of Great Britian. The condition of miners is a case in point about the complete lack of concern of the bourgeoisie for the lives of the workers. Any comprehensive organizing of the working class today must address the issue of the conditions of the workers and a new tomorrow must be heralded where the lives and safety of workers will be foremost.

Sincerely,
Chand Singh, Durg

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Indo-US joint naval exercises in Arabian Sea

Malabar-2003 reflects growing co-ordination between the US and India in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal region. In the past two years, the collaboration in the air, sea and land has been stepped up. Earlier this year, the Indian and US armies conducted joint exercises in the Ladakh region of Kashmir. Joint exercises have been conducted in Alaska as well as in Agra. India and the US have also held joint naval exercises in the Malacca straits connecting the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Bordering the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, India is strategically placed in the sea route between Europe and Asia. It has a vast land border with China. The US sees strategic importance in co-ordinating militarily with India, in pursuit of its plans to dominate the whole of Asia. The Indian ruling class, in collaborating with the US, is revealing its own imperialist ambitions towards other countries of Asia. Growing Indo-US military collaboration is a factor against peace in Asia, including South Asia. The Indian working class and people must resolutely oppose this.

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