Strikes in Western Europe/India

[djones@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (rakesh bhandari)]

Thanks to Hinrich for uploading the article by Krishnan on the French strike.

To change the topic a bit:

What is the Indian left now doing to prevent the catastrophes to be
engineered by the BJP?

Here are questions for the theorists of cultural studies: how has the BJP
mobilized the meanings and symbolism of Hinduism; here is an opportunity to
draw from the lessons of our fascism seminar; here is an opportunity to
analyze the connections between caste, gender, nationalism, religion and
class; here is an opportunity to analzye the reactions to the failed modern
project represented by the Congress Party and see what the sociology of
modernity has to offer; here indeed is an opportunity to deepen our
understanding of the crisis of world capitalism, the impact of
liberalizations and the role of politics in the age of propaganda.

I find myself quite not up to the task of analysis.

If Rahul or Siddharth or anyone else has thoughts, please begin the
discussion.

So far, I have heard a "leftist" political expert  downplay the gravity of
the situation because of  the putative countervailing power of electoral
leftist forces in the national front; she also seems to think the BJP
platform is more secular than commonly thought.  This seems to me a
tremendous underestimation of how grave the situation really is.

I think this "result" (BJP victory) also takes us back to our debates about
whether the left should cooperate with the state in crackdowns on illegal
right-wing forces.  How do things look now that they have ascended to power
in the "world's largest democracy."

Any thoughts?



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