Crony capitalism is the direct consequence of the liberal and neo-liberal policies embraced by the governments. Of course, the licence permit raj has also played a substantial role in the emergence of this monster but the way the neo-liberal policies vitalised it perhaps has no counterparts anywhere in the world. The emergence of the one-party majority rule opened up new vistas for the functioning of crony capitalism.
Commercialisation of Medical Care in China: Changing Landscapes by Rama V Baru and Madhurima Nundy, Oxon and New York: Routledge, 2020; pp xviii + 112, Rs 695.
Ilina Sen, teacher, author and activist has left behind a rich legacy of work and warmth that will continue to inspire women’s and human rights activists and students
Sen exemplified how grounded struggles for feminist change and rich academic scholarship that centred on working-class and Adivasi women’s experiences could be combined.
Despite their electoral defeats, the consolidation of support behind the political projects articulated by Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn underscores the relevance of mass politics with clear ideological moorings. Opposition in India can take cues from these projects for its reconfiguration.
Faced with an existential economic and political crisis in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba launched reforms that were aimed at making its socialist system more sustainable. Self-managing cooperatives, which were to be independent of state control, started getting promoted as the preferred instruments for Cuba’s transition to 21st-century socialism. Drawing on fieldwork in Cuba and on secondary material, it is argued that these cooperatives have a fair chance of success, but that uncertainties exist, especially with respect to the project of “downsizing the state.”
TheOctober Revolution of 1917profoundly influenced the course of the Indian freedom movement in multiple ways. It gave “impetus to Indian political aspirations,” widened the base of the freedom struggle by making industrial workers and peasants active participants, and endowed the movement with a progressive outlook. The revolution’s principles resonated deeply among the people and leaders of the Indian freedom movement. In fact, many of the values enshrined in our Constitution, adopted post independence, were inspired by the lofty ideals of the Russian Revolution.
The 20th century brand of socialism, following the Bolshevik victory as the prototype of socialisms, has nothing to do with socialism as envisaged by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It can be considered only as one among different varieties of socialism such as guild socialism, anarchist socialism, market socialism, and so on. The Marxian socialism, as a portrait of an alternative society after capital, is based on the "associated mode of production." The fundamental characteristic which separates socialism envisaged by Marx from the prevailing socialism is that Marx's socialism, conceived as an association of free individuals, is a completely de-alienated society with no commodity, no money, no waged/salaried labour, no state, all of which are considered as instruments of exploitation and repression of a class society used to put down the immense majority of the humans. The 20th century socialism is quite aptly recognised as a system of party-state, two avatars. Characteristically, and in total opposition to it, in no discussion of the nature of the society after capital-- that is, socialism--by Marx and Engels we find these two avatars. They disappear along with capital, the last class society.
