The verdict on last months Nairobi World Social Forum, held under the banner of 'peoples struggles, peoples alternatives', was mixed. Several attendees consider the event both a success and a failure. Anthony Barnett elaborates on the Forum in a useful article. Also writing from Nairobi, Walden Bello questions whether the Chinese juggernaut in Africa holds great promise or great harm.

In our third article S.P. Shukla makes an intellectual, yet pragmatic attempt at articulating the contours of a National Political Agenda. He identifies the agrarian crisis, alienation of the Muslim minority and assertion of dalits, adivasis and OBCs (other backward castes) as the 3 issues that will dominate the political agenda of the Republic of India for the next few years. He calls for a grand alliance of peasantry, adivasis, dalits, OBCs and Muslims against the elite agenda of globalising growth. Whether his predictions will prove right remains to be seen, but its clear that India's political leaders will have plenty of issues on their plates.