FRIENDS:
No. 43 (July 2007):
What Keeps Disputes on River Waters Alive?
From the new issue:
“The ruling class parties, and assorted appendages of ruling class politics (regional chauvinist outfits, ambitious clerics, film stars and their fan clubs, opportunist trade unions/peasant fronts), choose to present the issue of the inter-state distribution of river waters as the most important problem of the peasantry.”
PLUS: Suniti Kumar Ghosh on 1947; Dipankar Dey on FDI in India's retail trade.
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Also available online:No. 42:
'Counter-Revolution in Military Affairs?
"Wired" or "postmodern" warfare, it was widely claimed, would transform the 21st-century battlefield and assure American supremacy for generations to come. ... US strategists are now re-learning the fundamental lessons of Vietnam: that guerilla war is a political, not merely a military, struggle; that technology cannot defeat a determined popular resistance; that resistance fighters draw their power from the sympathies and co-operation of the people. Plus: Wheat Imports: A Tool for Reshaping Indian Agriculture.No. 41:
'Global Power', Client State
In recent years, successive governments at the Centre have actively promoted the notion that India is emerging as a 'global' or 'great' power, and that this is a matter of national pride. Now the United States has declared that it plans to "make India a world power". What sort of 'global power' is India in the process of becoming?No.s 39 & 40:
The Story of Otis Elevators
Plus: Examining the Current Boom; Budget 2005-06: Seeing through the Propaganda; more.No. 38:
The UPA Government's Economic Policies
Plus: Squeezing state finances; the US and conscription; foundations and imperialism; debate on the WSF; more.No.s 36 & 37:
The Real State of India's Economy
From the issue: “[T] the entire ‘India Shining’ campaign is a cheap statistical fraud. There is no significant turnaround in the economy as a whole. The actual condition of the people and their productive future — the only real measure of economic performance — is appalling.”No. 35:
The Economics and Politics of the World Social Forum
From the issue: “‘Globalisation’, a misleading word for the current onslaught by imperialism, can be resisted, and even defeated, by a combination of struggles at various levels, in various countries, in various forms. ... However, a careful analysis reveals that the World Social Forum is not an instrument of such struggle. It is a diversion from it.”Nos. 33 & 34:
Behind the Invasion of Iraq
“[S]ynthesizes the seemingly disparate threads of the US war drive in a blistering indictment of American foreign policy . . . The effect is of puzzle pieces clicking into place.” —CounterpunchSee also Back Issues.
Note: Behind the Invasion of Iraq has been issued in book form and may be ordered online from Monthly Review Press.
All material © copyright 2007 by R.U.P.E. (Research
Unit for Political Economy)
Ground floor, Sidhwa Estate, N.A. Sawant Rd, Colaba, Mumbai (Bombay) 400005,
India.