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7 May this year marks the 50th anniversary of one of the greatest battles of the twentieth century, namely, the epic battle of Dien Bien Phu in Viet Nam, fought for 55 days between the Vietnamese people’s army (Vietminh) and the French colonial army. The Vietnamese forces had laid siege to the French fortified garrison … [Read more…]

The Indian election result (announced on 13 May), following a marathon 4-stage poll which commenced on 20 April, saw the emergence of Congress as the largest party, with 149 seats in the lower house of the Indian parliament (the Lok Sabha). This was the best result achieved by Congress since 2001. By comparison, the BJP’s … [Read more…]

Introduction On 28 June, at 10.26 in the morning, the much-heralded ‘transfer of sovereignty’ to the Iraqi people took place during a scantily-attended five-minute ceremony in a dreary room in the office of Iyad Allawi, prime minister of the ‘new’ interim government. Fearful that the Iraqi resistance might spoil the party through an uninvited intrusion, … [Read more…]

At the invitation of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP), Harpal Brar, in his capacity as editor of Lalkar, was invited to participate in an International Conference in Istanbul to coincide with the NATO summit to be held in the same Turkish city. The purpose of this Conference is clear from the title it was … [Read more…]

If under the rule of the bourgeoisie elections are but a gauge of the maturity of the proletariat, it must of necessity be of interest to examine what the latest elections in Britain, municipal and European, tell us. They assist those working in the proletarian movement to ascertain their most urgent immediate tasks when addressing … [Read more…]

8th July 2004 marks the 10th Anniversary of the death of Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), the great leader of the Korean people. Modern Korea, in particular the DPRK, is indelibly linked with the life, work, thought and leadership of Kim Il Sung. He guided the Korean people from the anti-Japanese struggle through to victory against … [Read more…]

On Thursday, 2 July, the US imperialist-led occupation brought the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, to face trial before a kangaroo court presided over by an Iraqi puppet appointed by the US. The purpose was to divert attention away from the prison abuse scandal, ever-rising Iraqi resistance and, above all, to legitimise the imperialist predatory war … [Read more…]

This is the fourth instalment of the article, which we began publishing in the January issue of Lalkar. It is a slightly extended version of that which appeared in The Marxist, Volume XIX, No 2 April-June 2003. The question of communalism and religious bigotry is extremely important, for it divides and weakens the working-class movement, … [Read more…]

LALKAR received a request from Harpal Brar, Zane Carpenter, Robert Morris, Ella Rule and Carlos Rule – all of whom were illegally and unconstitutionally expelled from the Socialist Labour Party on 8 May 2004 by the opportunist faction led by Arthur Scargill – to put correspondence on its website, so as to inform everyone in … [Read more…]

On Wednesday, 30 June, the London underground workers, belonging to the RMT transport union, held a successful strike. The strike became necessary as the talks in the long-running pay and conditions dispute broke down. The strike was fully supported by the staff with only a handful of trains running. Several million commuters had to use … [Read more…]