[Reader-list] After Nandigram

[Abhishek Hazra]

http://www.signandsight.com/features/510.html
was reading an interview with Daniel Cohn-Bendit reminiscing about Hannah Arendt
there are some threads there which i thought might be pertinent to the
ongoing discussion of communist / anti-/non communism and democracy
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When did you begin to get interested in Hannah Arendt's work?
In the 1970s, as the discussions about totalitarianism became more and
more pressing. I was a leftist anti-communist and when I came to
Germany in 1968, I was perplexed by the reluctance to compare
communism with national socialism, which was rooted in German history.
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and back in Calcutta, the author Sunil Ganguly has apparently done a
televised declaration of his scanty knowledge of politics. "ami oto
raajniti bujhi na" or something to that effect (this was after he was
asked on his attendance at the government organized film festival at
the Nandan film complex in Calcutta. such a lovely sound bite, alas!
anyway, its quite heartening to see that at least there are some loyal
"left" intellectuals who still believe in the progressive antics of
the CPM.




On Nov 14, 2007 7:09 PM, Tapas Ray <tapasrayx at gmail.com> wrote:
> It is difficult to imagine that the CPI(M), with a large following in
> West Bengal, does not have members and supporters who possess a greater
> ability for critical thinking and are less prone to substituting press
> releases and the party line for rational discourse, than what has been
> seen on this list so far. Leaving aside such events as Bantala (almost
> forgotten), scams like treasury and waqf (again, almost forgotten), and
> the general atmosphere of "Party control" over everything, the recent
> events of Nandigram and Singur provide an opportunity for these sections
> to consider the need for evolving a genuinely progressive democratic
> politics. Only such an alternative can help the people survive the
> present phase of development, marked by increasing insecurity due to
> neoliberalism, the failure of the Left to present a credible challenge
> to this, and its tendency to resort to fascistic methods in response to
> this crisis. The alternative is an inevitable rise of communal and
> extremist forces, as the state is experiencing today.
>
> Tapas
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does the frog know it has a latin name?
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