Zero Tolerance , Pranab Cries!
War Agianst Terrorism is topmost Priority of Galaxy Order as Left demonstrates for Peace
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
Gangotri glacier shrinking by 83 feet every year: Govt
India on Friday admitted that global warming was severely affecting Himalayan glaciers and the Gangotri glacier, the source of river Ganga, was shrinking by 83 feet every year.
Global Warming: Full Coverage»
http://www.zeenews.com/index.asp
Kolkata remembers Mother Teresa ahead of her tenth death anniversary
DailyIndia.com, FL - 41 minutes ago
Kolkata, Sep 1: Special prayers and a feast for the poor and needy are being held here to commemorate Mother Teresa tenth death anniversary in Kolkata today ...
Second miracle delaying Mother's sainthood: Sister Nirmala (Interview)
Zero tolerance is the Latest Gayatri Mantra for Brahminical Hegemony in Asia!
Topmost priority of the Zionist Hindu Imperialist agenda happens to be the War Against Terrorism. Islamophobia and Dalit Hatred being the fundamental ingrediants of Post Modern Galaxy Manusmriti Order ruled from the Oval office of White House in Washington DC, Indian ruling classes are busy to deal with social and political pluralism with mid term equations. Thus, the comradors declare so many programmes to uplift the enslaved and marginalised communities. Sacchar Committee recommendations are implemented. Librahan commission report placed in the Parliament. Supreme Court issues notice on Mumbai Riots and the Marxists demonstrate on Kolkata streets with antiwar peace procession!The left, devoid of the sense of matereialist interpretation of history tries to pose as the leader of Anti Imperialism movement with killing the forces of anti imperialism resistance, the Dalits , Tribals and muslims!
Describing terrorism as the "biggest stumbling block" in the path of development in South Asia, India on Saturday pitched for a joint fight against the scourge and noted that SAARC Home Ministers will meet to devise ways to tackle it. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the time had come for SAARC member countries to have a policy of "zero tolerance" towards terrorism to eliminate the menace. In an speech here on the theme 'SAARC: Accelerating cooperation through connectivity', he stressed on the need for enhanced cooperation and connectivity among the SAARC nations to help realise the potential of the region. There will be a meeting of Home Ministers which would address regional security concerns, such as transnational crimes, terrorism, narcotics and psychotropic substances, Mukherjee said.
The Home Ministers will look at measures on how national legislation and procedures may be harmonised for the benefit of victims of crime and human trafficking and explore ways to rehabilitate them, he said.
"Terrorism, which is going to be the biggest menace and a stumbling block on the road of development, should be treated fairly and squarely," Mukherjee said.
"Perhaps the time has come when the international community, communities in the region as a whole will have to accept a policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism," he said.
In Guntur, Condemning the twin blasts that rocked Hyderabad last week, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi today asked political parties not to "politicise" the issue but join hands in the united fight against the menace of terrorism.While
“Nuclear renaissance” on his lips and perhaps Prakash Karat on his mind, the Prime Minister today quoted Mahatma Gandhi to articulate his world vision and scotch speculation that he is backing off the US deal.On the other hand,Army backs Musharraf-Bhutto 'deal' in Pakistan.Amidst the uneasy truce between the Government and the Left parties, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has strongly batted for the Indo-US nuclear deal saying it is in India's "long term interest" and that the nuclear defence programme has not been undermined in any way.Differing voices on the nuclear issue cropped during the day with CPI leader A B Bardhan disagreeing with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's views that India cannot afford to miss the "bus of nuclear renaissance." In Kolkata, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee struck a positive chord saying "we are working for the success of the mechanism" (to deal with concerns over the nuclear issue).But a sour note came from BJP leader Sushma Swaraj who in Bhubaneswar accused the government of violating norms of Parliamentary democracy by ignoring her party while dealing with the "sensitive nuclear issue" with its non-inclusion in the new committee.
The Left Front's vehement opposition against India's growing engagements with the US was in full force today, as a huge 'anti-imperialist' rally was taken out by the communists in Kolkata, leading to traffic snarl in many places. The cadres, carrying placards with anti-imperial slogans, shouted slogans against the Indo-US nuclear deal and the soon to be held multilateral naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal.The rally also coincided with Germany's attack on Poland in 1939 that led to the beginning of the World War II.
"We are observing the rally since 1945 when fascist forces were defeated by peace-loving people, and we observe the day as 'Peace Day' or 'Anti-Imperialist Day'," a senior CPI (M) leader said. This rally will also help in making people aware about forces, who are threatening our country's sovereignty and integrity," he added.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was present at the rally along with Left Front chairman Biman Bose.
Meanwhile, in an article published in CPI (M) mouthpiece, party General Secretary Prakash Karat wrote: "The nuclear deal, the military agreement and the economic policies designed to advance the interests of US capital are parts of the trio which are harmful for India`s sovereignty, independent foreign policy and the people`s economic interests."
Karat contended that strategic alliance with the US would make India a US ally like the South Korea and Japan.
The Left parties have already announced launching huge rallies along the east coast of India against the naval exercise with the US, which is scheduled to begin on September 4.
A government school teacher in Delhi accused of trying to force her students into prostitution has been sacked on Saturday for immoral trafficking. Sri Lanka's military launched a new offensive against the Tamil Tigers rebels on the island's northwest, a military spokesman said on Saturday. Sri Lanka's military today claimed it has killed at least 11 Tamil Tiger rebels in the latest fighting in the island's north-west district of Mannar. While,Police arrested two people Saturday and formally named two others already in custody as suspects in recent bombings in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad that killed at least 43 people, an official said.FOUR people in Orrissa, eastern India were beheaded after being accused of witchcraft, police said today.Four people have been arrested after three decapitated bodies were pulled from a river on Wednesday.Police have linked the beheadings to a local village leader, saying they believe council member Siba Singh allegedly ordered the killings in revenge for his teenage son's death from a snakebite two weeks ago.Villagers told the police that Singh, whose whereabouts are unknown, believed the four murder victims were sorcerers who had plotted the killing of his son, Mr Das said.
“The four arrested people have confessed to killing four people, including three women,” said district police official PK Das, adding that divers were searching the river for the body of the fourth victim.
“So far we have recovered the headless and decomposed bodies of two females and a male.
"The body of the fourth female victim is yet to be traced.
The countdown for the launch of GSLV-F04, carrying India's communication satellite INSAT-4CR, started at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR in Sriharikota, at 2 pm today, ISRO sources said. Expectations are high on the fifth flight of India's GSLV series, with the previous launch proving to be a failure.
The GSLV F-02, carrying INSAT-4C, was aborted mid-way through its flight in July last year after it veered off its path due to a sudden loss of thrust in one of the four liquid propellant strap-on stages (S4).
The INSAT-4CR satellite will carry 12 high power Ku-band transponders for DTH services, video picture transmission and Digital Satellite News Gathering.
The GSLV is scheduled to blast off from the SDSC at 4.21 pm tomorrow at Sriharikota, about 100 km from here.
The spectre of exploding Nokia batteries looms once again with a second incident reported of a Nokia mobile handset exploding in Asansol in West Bengal.
In a similar incident two days back, the mobile phone of Kishori Saha of Kolkata exploded while it was being charged. The handset -- a Nokia 1100 -- exploded while being charged at a shop dealing in cell phones. It had a BL-5C battery. A few weeks back, BL-5C batteries manufactured for Nokia by Matsushita were recalled following reports of overheating.
The five-months pregnant Kishori escaped with minor splinter injuries to her face. However, her phone -- a Nokia 2100 -- contained the BL-D 3 (also manufactured by Matsushita), and not the BL-5C battery.
Meanwhile, Nokia said it is working closely with relevant authorities and battery suppliers to investigate these explosions, and that it will take appropriate action.
Denying BJP allegations that the UPA was appeasing minorities by implementing the Sachar Committee report, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said it was time the Opposition came out of such a mindset.
"We have to remember that minorities have equal rights in this country as people belonging to the majority community. The opposition says this is minority appeasement. I oppose this statement," he told a workers convention of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress (Sachar) committee here. Without naming the BJP, he said "some people think it is enough for the majority community to give small favours to minorities. They will have to come out of this mindset."
Stating that anti-communalism was an article of faith for the Congress, he said the Sachar committee was appointed with the belief that the country's all-round development would be possible only if all sections of the people, including minorities, felt that they had a role in nation building.
President Pratibha Patil Saturday opened the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute for Youth Development in this southern suburb of Chennai city, where former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991. Before inaugurating the institute, the president and the Congress leaders accompanying her visited the Rajiv Gandhi memorial and paid tributes to the leader.
After lying low for some weeks, the bulls were back in full strength on Indian bourses during the week ended Friday, helping a key index end with gains on all the five sessions despite lingering political uncertainty.The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened on a strong note Monday, ended with a flourish at 15,318.60 points, to register a gain of an impressive 893.73 points, or 6.20 percent, during the week.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said on Saturday talks on a power sharing deal with President Pervez Musharraf had stalled but she would return to Pakistan within weeks even without agreement.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister has won British and American backing for her efforts to enter into a power-sharing 'deal' with the Islamic nation's embattled President Pervez Musharraf before the general elections, ...
Yoga teachers in India on Saturday condemned the decision by two British churches to ban teaching of yoga in church halls.The yoga teachers say that the ancient physical and mental discipline is an art of living and not a religious practice.
"This step has been taken by those who do not want Yoga to spread in across the world or, those who believe there associate it with propagation of Hinduism, says Acharaya Bal Kishan, general secretary of Patanjali Yog Peet, established by renowned guru, Baba Ramdev.
"Though Yoga is born from Hinduism, it is not Hinduism, it is an art of living which is important for humanity," he adds.
Vicars banned Yoga classes for children in two local churches-the Silver Street Baptist Church, and the St. James Angilican Church, Somerset-calling the ancient Indian practice un-Christian.According to church authorities, their premises can be used only by people who fall in line with Christian ethos.
Into Thin Air
He's still out there. The hunt for bin Laden.
Special Report
The Ongoing Hunt for Osama bin Laden
Tora Bora: Fighting Rages Where Osama Once Hid
Bin Laden's Ex-Bodyguard Speaks
Live Talk: The Hunt for Osama bin Laden
Live Talk: The Hunt for Osama bin Laden
Join NEWSWEEK’s Mark Hosenball on Thursday, Aug. 30 at noon ET, to discuss why the United States has failed to capture Osama bin Laden.
By Evan Thomas
Newsweek
Sept. 3, 2007 issue - The Americans were getting close. It was early in the winter of 2004-05, and Osama bin Laden and his entourage were holed up in a mountain hideaway along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Suddenly, a sentry, posted several kilometers away, spotted a patrol of U.S. soldiers who seemed to be heading straight for bin Laden's redoubt. The sentry radioed an alert, and word quickly passed among the Qaeda leader's 40-odd bodyguards to prepare to remove "the Sheik," as bin Laden is known to his followers, to a fallback position. As Sheik Said, a senior Egyptian Qaeda operative, later told the story, the anxiety level was so high that the bodyguards were close to using the code word to kill bin Laden and commit suicide. According to Said, bin Laden had decreed that he would never be captured. "If there's a 99 percent risk of the Sheik's being captured, he told his men that they should all die and martyr him as well," Said told Omar Farooqi, a Taliban liaison officer to Al Qaeda who spoke to a NEWSWEEK reporter in Afghanistan.
Thus, the War goes on. Afghan police and foreign forces killed around 80 suspected Taliban fighters, many in the region where the insurgents recently released a group of South Korean hostages, authorities said on Saturday.
On the other hand, In Iraq, Civilian deaths rose slightly in August as a huge suicide attack in the north two weeks ago offset security gains elsewhere, making it the second deadliest month for Iraqis since the U.S. troop buildup began, according to figures compiled Saturday by The Associated Press.U.S. deaths remained well below figures from last winter when the U.S began dispatching 30,000 additional troops to Iraq.At least 1,809 civilians were killed in the month, compared to 1,760 in July, based on figures compiled by the AP from official Iraqi reports. That brings to 27,564 the number of Iraqi civilians killed since AP began collecting data on April 28, 2005.
South Korea paid Afghanistan's Taliban more than $20 million to release 19 missionaries they were holding hostage, a senior insurgent leader said on Saturday, vowing to use the funds to buy arms and mount suicide attacks.The freed hostages flew out of Afghanistan on Friday to Dubai en route for South Korea. Seoul denies paying a ransom, but critics say negotiating with the Taliban sets a dangerous precedent that could spur more kidnappings -- which the Taliban have vowed to carry out.
Election equations call for different strategies for different political parties and the WWF tournamnt goes on with Hindi commentry with different colors and styles of the roaring participants!NDA convenor George Fernandes today rubbished the government decision to set up a committee to look into Left parties' objections into the Indo-US nuclear deal, claiming that it was only a "face-saver" to clear the "mess" created on the issue.
"The Congress and Left parties have created a mess on the nuclear deal and now they want to clear it up. The time has come now for both the parties to help save their faces," Fernandes told PTI. Raising doubts about the effectiveness of the committee, the senior JD(U) leader said, "the proposed panel will not serve any purpose and much should not be expected from it".
A POWERFUL blast rocked Assam’s capital city Guwahati on Saturday. The blast occurred at Railway colony bazaar in Bamunimoidan at about 11.45am today killing one person and injuring twelve others. The bomb was in an auto van and exploded few seconds after it crossed the Railway police battalion in railway colony. The blast ignited at least one of the four LPG cylinders kept in two roadside ‘chat’ houses causing devastating fire in the market area. Five shops including a jewellery shop, two bookstalls, and one grocery shop were gutted in the fire. Later two fire tenders were called and after half an hour’s fight they were able to douse the flame. Twelve people were injured in the blast and one of them succumbed to the injuries at Guwahati Medical College Hospital. Deceased was identified as Ramlal Das, a cobbler whose shop was also gutted.The injured are identified as Paritosh Pal, Ramkrishna Pathak, Munna Adhikari, a garments vendor Singh, Muni Roy, a rickshaw puller Abid Hussein, Sanjib Das, Manoj Sarkar, and some Kalita and some Choudhuri, their first names yet unknown. Senior police officials rushed to the spot and started investigation. Among them an auto rickshaw puller yet to identified. The auto van, in which the bomb was suspected, was completely destroyed and several other vehicles plying on the road were also damaged.
Police suspects ULFA’s (United Liberation Front of Asom) hand in this blast. Significantly a couple of days back army declared a high intensity operation in upper Assam against ULFA militants.
The police placed some parts of Allahabad city under a curfew today after a Muslim mob indulged in acts of vandalism over the alleged desecration of the Holy Koran. Scores of Muslims went on a rampage, pelting stones at others in the communally sensitive town.Additional police forces had to be deployed in the area to prevent a flare up. .
Five troopers of the paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) were wounded in a car bomb blast in Srinagar Saturday evening, officials said. The five troopers were wounded when separatists exploded a car bomb near the Hyderpora bypass in this summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, they said, adding further details were awaited.
Antulay: Equal Opportunity Commission to be set up
Centre announces measures to improve status of minorities
Applications seek summoning of Modi, Jhadafiya
AHMEDABAD: After a long wait, both the Jansangharsha Manch, representing the victims of the 2002 Gujarat communal riots, and the Congress, on Friday filed two sets of applications before the G.T. Nanavati and K.G. Shah judicial inquiry ...
Notice to Gujarat government on plea for CBI probe
Special leave petition seeks probe into killings during post-Godhra riots
Praise for Kakodkar
TARAPUR: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday complimented the country’s nuclear scientists and engineers for their outstanding efforts and achievements in the face of adverse circumstances and challenges. He had special ...
Special Article
Law of the land~II
More Questions About Singur Acquisition
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=3&theme=&usrsess=1&id=168290
By Dipak Kumar Ghosh
The government somehow forgot that neither “employment generation” nor “socio-economic development of the area” is included in any of the sub-clauses of the Land Acquisition Act. These provisions of the law explicitly exclude “acquisition of land for companies’. Yet the government used the expression “public purpose” as a fig-leaf as it was aware that this totally illegal acquisition was for the benefit of the Tatas. and it was being done at the cost of the small and marginal farmers, the bargadars, the agricultural labourers, van-rickshaw paddlers, and small traders dealing in agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, and agri-implements. Against the loss of at least 10,000 jobs among landlosers, there will be no more than 1,000 regular jobs in the Tata factory to be taken up mainly by outsiders. Is this employment generation or a severe reduction in employment?
The agreement
Section 39 of the LA Act clearly lays down that no formal steps under Sections 6 to 16 and Sections 18 to 37 to acquire land shall be taken unless the company executes the agreement under Section 41. The law is clear that before requiring the company to execute the agreement, the government shall have to be fully satisfied that the company requires and shall utilise the land only for any one of the three purposes mentioned in Section 40(1)(a), (aa) and (b) and for no other purpose. For the satisfaction of the government, the collector shall have to furnish his inquiry report in Form 2D of the manual regarding the suitability or otherwise of the acquisition proposal. This Form 2D demands details of the project and the purpose, the details of the cultivable land, the present and potential irrigation coverage and many other details like resettlement and rehabilitation plans for the land-losers. It requires the opinion of the district level screening committee which must scrutinise each and every project requiring more than two hectares ie five acres of land.
As per the provisions Section 40 of the LA Act, the government may send its own inquiry officer to verify if the collector’s Form 2D report does not appear to be acceptable in toto. The whole objective behind such an elaborate procedure is to ensure that the powerful companies do not cause hardships to the small land-owners. While all other state governments have been asking the companies to directly purchase the lands from the owners ~ even the Centre favours this approach ~ only the government of West Bengal insists on the acquisition of land for companies.
The agreement under Section 41 must contain the total payments to be made by the company beforehand and the terms on which the company will hold the land.
Section 42 is very important. It lays down that “every such agreement shall, as soon as may be after its execution, be published in the official gazette”. And the government’s response remains a “trade secret”. On this ground alone, the Singur land acquisition proceedings require to be declared ab initio void. Even para 11(3) on page 39 of the government manual clearly lays down: “When land is to be acquired for a company under Section 39 to 42, the agreement required by Section 41 must be published in the manner provided by Section 42 before proceedings for acquisition are initiated.” How can a government official, from the LA collector to the secretary of the LR department, bypass the manual, and still remain in office? The agreement should ensure the reimbursement to the government of all costs, including the cost of litigation.
Para 14 on page 41 of the manual puts a very heavy burden on the officials of the WBIDC in this case. They ought to have taken the precaution to avoid excessive expenditure of the WBIDC and the landowners’ risk of losing land. They ought to have avoided land such as cremation grounds.
Unfortunately, the group of WBIDC officials were led by MV Rao, IAS, who had served as the DM of the undivided Midnapore district. He was hand-picked by the chief minister to placate Becharam Manna, Prem Adhikary and other leaders of the Singur Krishi Jomi Raksha Committee.
Although the recital in the first paragraph of the notification under Section 4 of the LA Act has been deliberately lengthened by invoking “the government/ public undertaking/ public authorities” as masks, the face of the Tatas could not be hidden as Ratan Tata, according to his own statement, would not budge even if a pistol is held to his head.
Now, for whom has the Singur land been acquired? Is it the government, is it the WBIDC, a government undertaking? Even then, the public purpose is absent as neither “employment generation” nor “socio-economic development of the area’ is included anywhere in the relevant Section 3(f)(i) to (viii).
And if the land acquisition is really for the Tatas, their stated purpose of setting up a factory for production of small cars is not included in Section 40(1)(a), (aa), and (b) of the LA Act. By no stretch of imagination can the setting up of a factory for manufacturing small cars for commercial purposes be squeezed into the strictly legal provisions of the LA Act of 1984.
The demand for restoration of the acquired lands to the original owners has been negatived by the government citing a few decisions of the Supreme Court. It is submitted that these decisions are case-specific and have no universal application. Even the demand for the return of approximately 350 acres of land, palpably in excess of the requirement of the Tata small car project, to the former owners, who are still unwilling to give up their lands, as proven by their not accepting compensation cheques, has also been stone-walled.
Unfortunately for the government, a whole chapter XV of the manual is devoted to disposal of surplus lands no longer required for the purpose for which it was acquired. There are seven paragraphs from 162 to 168 at pages 111 to 114 of the manual. Paragraph 166 specifically deals with return of the surplus lands to the original owners.
Sub-paragraph (1) of paragraph 166 on page 113 of the manual requires the collector to make a spot verification to find out if the land is situated within agricultural areas. In the case of Singur, there can be only one finding that the land is situated within agricultural areas.
Surplus land
Sub-paragraph 2(a) states that “all rights of land owners or occupiers, which were extinguished by the acquisition of those lands should first be offered to the persons from whom these were acquired or to their heirs, if discoverable”. Sub-paragraph 2(b) does away with the need to hold elaborate inquiries to find out the original owners or their legal heirs and suggests summary determination of titles of claims. Sub-paragraph 2(c) lays down that “the price, at which the rights above referred to are to be offered, should be the amount of compensation; originally paid for them. This price may be reduced, if necessary on account of any deterioration that may have taken place in the fitness of the land for agricultural purposes, while it was in the occupation of the government”.
Paragraph 167 states that if original owners of the land refuse to take back their land, the government will have to retain such agricultural land. Paragraph 168 directs that every original owner should be given a deed of conveyance executed by the district collector on behalf of the government in the land and land reforms department.
It is, therefore, clear that there is no legal bar against the return of the entire acquired lands or at least the land surplus to the requirements of the Tata small car project to the original owners. The government is free to take the decision. It should not sit on prestige.
In a sense, the thought that material forces drive history in an ultimately progressive manner is is the central claim of historical materialism, which is a common name for the Marxian theory of history. The American capitalists and the East German communists may disagree over the details, but the structure of their presentations is identical, and impeccably Marxist. So what kind of a theory is historical materialism, and what can its revolutionary potential possibly be if a version of it is presented up to the American public by its state museum as the most official kind of American history that there is?
.... good place to start this week's readings is actually from the piece that was the last to be written, Engels' introduction to the English edition of Socialism: Utopian and Scientific. This was originally an extract from his much longer polemical work, the Anti-Dühring and was, after the Communist Manifesto, probably the most widely-circulated piece of Marxist literature around a hundred years ago. In this introduction, Engels presents an extremely brief sketch of around four hundred years of European history, from the point of view of historical materialism. Notice how Engels follows Hegel in seeing the Protestant Reformation -- Lutheran and Calvinist -- and the French Revolution as making up the "three great decisive battles" of modern times, connecting these events firmly to the rise of the bourgeois class in Europe. Notice also how it is as the bourgeoisie is basking in its greatest victory, the 1846 repeal of the Corn Laws in England, that Engels insists the times begin to change, and the proletariat begins to flex its own political muscle, setting the stage for the struggles of the present.
By the time Engels wrote this introduction in 1892, the materialist conception of history was almost fifty years old. For as with so many component parts of Marxism, it was the middle 1840s in which Marx began to write the economic history of Europe. We look at three short and early discussions: the first is from the now familiar German Ideology of 1845, and presents one of Marx's earliest accounts of the importance of the material basis of history. Second, the 1846 Letter to Annenkov, tears into the historical theories of the French socialist Proudhon (who is denounced as a "petty-bourgeois sentimentalist"). The letter discusses the ways in which the continuing existence over time of the "productive forces" provides a coherence, or a narrative structure, for human history; a way of linking together the present and the past; and Marx quickly summarises and emphasises the importance of the division of labour, the separation of town and country, and the role of machinery in understanding the course of history. The third text is a series of extracts from another anti-Proudhon tract: the 1847 Poverty of Philosophy was Marx's reply to Proudhon's influential work on The Philosophy of Poverty. Here we see very clearly how Marx contrasts the theory he is developing against rival views, whether those of Proudhon, Hegel or the "bourgeois political economists", in particular David Ricardo. Taken together, these three texts give us a good perspective on the kind of approach to history that Marx was developing in these years.
The 1859 Preface to the Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy is the most famous statement of historical materialism, which some -- most significantly the Canadian philosopher G. A. Cohen, who wrote an entire book about it -- take to be Marx's definitive presentation of his mature doctrine. On this view, the way to understanding the theory of history properly is through a careful clarification of the theoretical propositions in this short text, and through a thorough elucidation of the key concepts ("fettering", "mode of production") and distinctions ("foundation" and "superstructure", "forces" and "relations" of production, "science" and "ideology"). This text has certainly been carefully constructed, but we might ask ourselves whether such a short piece can present the core of the theory in a satisfactory manner? Is it reasonable to aspire to a general theory of transepochal change that can be set out in only a few short sentences? What might be missing from this discussion? Even if we do think that changes in the economic structure of society propel social and political change, we might not think that the story will have a similar structure every time, as this presentation strongly suggests. Could the logic of the different transformations in the European economy have been quite different each time one mode of production replaced another? What does that thought do to the ambition for a general theory of historical change?
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~magd1368/archive/gov98f1/history.htm
After Pakistan, it's Israel. And a lot more clamours are expected in the days to come.]
#1.
www.hindustantimes. com
Now, Israel wants NSG rules changed
Amit Baruah, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, August 28, 2007
First Published: 20:15 IST(28/8/2007)
Last Updated: 21:06 IST(28/8/2007)
Israel is citing the Indo-US civil nuclear deal
as a precedent to alter Nuclear Suppliers Group
(NSG) rules to construct its first nuclear power
plant at Shivta in the southern Negev desert.
According to Platts.com, a leading web portal
that tracks energy issues, Israeli officials said
earlier this month that they woul
