In the first two weeks of the New Year, the Left in Kerala learned how out-of-touch it was with reality when a strike by Government employees and teachers belonging to Opposition unions and a land-to-the-landless struggle by the CPI(M) failed to gather public support or make the Government bow to it. The Government employees launched an indefinite strike on January 8, demanding revocation of the decision to introduce the contributory pension scheme from April 1, while the agitation by CPI(M)-controlled outfits of farmers, farm workers...