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An excerpt from ‘The End of the Beginning: Lessons of the Soviet Collapse’

Although a distance of more than a quarter-century separates us from that fateful day in December 1991 when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) ceased to exist, understanding of the Soviet collapse remains unsatisfactory and incomplete. The global working class is still reeling from the blows of that two-year period from 1989 to 1991 – when socialism was dismantled from Berlin to Khabarovsk. Yet, we still haven’t fully understood the nature of those blows. Such a situation must b[...]

Remember, Remember, the 6th of December

Remember, Remember, the 6th of December, the axes, the hammers, that would dismember a mosque and a nation that has since then - only walked on embers. - Akhil Katyal Indian democracy has seen multiple black dots in its 70 years of history. From emergency declared by Indira Gandhi to 2002 Gujarat riots, one event that stands out in this period is the demolition of Babri Masjid. On 6th December 1992, thousands of Kar Sevaks mobilized by Hindu outfits like Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Rashtriya S[...]

Two New LeftWord Titles: by Samir Amin and Lula da Silva

We have published 9 titles in 2018 and there are more titles in our schedule for this year. For a brief review of our books this year, the reviews that our books received, their excerpts from various publications, interviews of our authors and events around our books, you can read our blog on our books in 2018. Recently, we published two new titles. Here's a quick information about these titles:  1. Truth Will Prevail: Why I Have Been Condemned  An ultra-right fanatic is today the Pres[...]

On the Death of Comrade Amit Sengupta (1958-2018)

Amit Sengupta, one of the most important global leaders of the people’s health movement and of the people’s science movement, left us this week. He was a close friend of LeftWord Books from our inception in 1999. We spoke to him early into our existence to do a book on public health. We went to see him in the Delhi Science Forum office and discussed the outline of such a book – either a full-scale monograph or a shorter book that would become part of our Signposts series. Amit was eager an[...]

Dilli Chalo!

The agrarian crisis has taken the form of a civilizational crisis. Successive governments have dismissed the concerns of the farmers. Not only that, they have also been actively complicit in furthering the crisis. Its grave nature is reflected in the suicide of well over 300,000 farmers in the last 20 years.  The consequences are no longer restricted to the Agriculture sector alone. India's 'agrarian crisis' has gone beyond the agrarian. We cannot evaluate it through the measure of loss of lan[...]