• Break the stranglehold of capitalist politics on the working class movement!

• Severe Drought Conditions in many parts of the country

• Massive protests against imperialist IMF and World Bank policies in Washington

• Vigorous demonstration against price rise in Thane

Break the stranglehold of capitalist politics on the working class movement!

Call of the CGPI, May 1, 2000

Comrade workers,

The BJP led NDA government is going full steam ahead with the Indian big bourgeoisie’s anti-working class anti-peasantry and anti-national course of globalisation through privatisation and liberalisation. The Vajpayee Government, which promised to be different from the Congress and other governments of the past that followed the Congress agenda, is proving to be no different from the previous governments. It is carrying out the behest of the big bourgeoisie.

Attacking the livelihood of workers, peasants and working people with a no-holds-barred vengeance, the bourgeoisie is mortgaging the sovereignty of India to the imperialists and their organisations like WTO. It is colluding and coordinating with the chief enemy of the workers of the whole world, US imperialism, against the interests of the Indian and other peoples, to fulfil its own narrow aims and those of its imperialist allies.

This anti-worker, anti-peasant and anti-national course is meeting with powerful resistance from all sections of India’s toiling masses. Workers and working people from all sectors of the economy – power, heavy industry, metallurgy, mining, food processing, engineering, education, health, finance – are on the war path. Lakhs of workers and working people have participated in massive protests and demonstrations against the ruinous course pursued by the government. The peasantry in many parts of the country is protesting the pro-capitalist pro-imperialist course of the rulers, including the elimination of subsidies on agricultural production, which is leading to ruin of vast numbers of peasants. India is seething with revolt.

The first 7 months of the NDA rule has been characterized by the unholy alliance of the ruling alliance and the principal "opposition" party, the Sonia Congress. Between them, they have declared that there is no alternative to the attacks on the working masses. The BJP, the Congress, and the host of smaller and regional parties comprising the NDA alliance including the socialists are showing their desperation to be in the forefront of the race to liberalise and privatise the economy. The desperation with which they fell over each other in parliament to shake the hands of the imperialist chieftain Clinton is eloquent testimony to where there hearts and their interests lie.

On the other side, the concerted attacks on the workers and peasants and the mounting struggle of the working class are putting pressure on all organisations claiming to represent worker-peasant interests to stand up and be counted. As a result, the trade unions affiliated to all parties, including to the parties of the ruling alliance as well as the Congress, have been forced to join the protests of the workers to varying degrees. These unions are finding it hard to justify to their members the open anti-working class stance of the parties that control them.

Comrade workers! For too long have the capitalist parties succeeded in dividing the working class and depriving it of its independent program. For too long have the capitalist parties succeeded in making the class impotent, a tail of the program of the capitalist parties. For too long have the capitalist parties succeed in depoliticising the working class by imposing bourgeois politics on it. The present situation facing the working class movement is a direct consequence of this splitting of the working class movement by the capitalist parties. It is this division that has given the capitalists confidence that they can get away with any outrageous attack on the working class. In this connection, workers must also understand that the role of some in the communist movement who have conciliated with capitalism and created illusions about parliamentary democracy has been no different. They too have contributed to the division of the working class, to its depoliticisation.

Comrade workers, May Day 2000 sets new tasks in front of the working class. Among these tasks, the most important is to break the stranglehold of the capitalist parties and their politics on the working class movement. The division of the working class by the capitalist parties and the conciliators with capitalist democracy must be ended. This is the demand of the times. This is the necessary condition for the working class to make a breakthrough in the struggle against privatisation and liberalisation, in the struggle to defend their livelihood and rights.

Comrade workers, as a result of the mounting struggle of the working class and peasantry, the course of liberalisation and privatisation is losing credibility in the eyes of the toiling masses. This is being reflected in the beginning of the breakdown of unity amongst the capitalist parties over this course. We are seeing this reflected in the moves of various bourgeois politicians to once again come forward as saviours of the toiling masses and to promote a third front yet again. The aim of the capitalists is to once again create confusion amongst the workers that there are messiahs among the capitalist politicians, that the workers do not need to rise up and unite and fight for their own independent program. There are enough conciliators in the working class movement waiting to once again tie the working class to the coat-strings of yet another bourgeois formation.

Comrade workers! Firmly reject this course which is nothing but a dead-end road for the working class. The life-experience of the past 12 years is testimony to the dirty role played by capitalist parties and politicians of all hues in paving the way for the present situation. Workers must get rid of any illusions that within this system, liberalisation and privatisation can be reversed merely by the replacement of one party by another.

We workers must unfurl our own independent program of deep-going transformations. We must unite the peasantry and all toiling and oppressed around this program. We constitute the vast majority of India, we are the producers of all the material wealth. Yet power vests in the hands of a minority, and its is the interests of this minority that is consistently upheld in this system. The capitalist parties are the upholders and defenders of the power of the capitalist class.

Deep-going transformation means that the economy must serve the interests of workers and peasants. It means that the economy must ensure livelihood for all. For this to happen, political power must be seized from the hands of the capitalist minority and vested with the real masters of India, the workers and peasants. This is the aim of the struggle we are waging today. This is the call of May Day 2000!

Fight to halt the program of privatisation and liberalisation!

Fight for political power in the hands of workers and peasants!

Nayi sadi ki hai yeh maang, hindustan ka navnirman!

Hum hai iske malik, hum hai hindustan, mazdooor, kisan aurat aur jawan!

Inquilab zindabad

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Glaring indictment of the "world’s largest democracy"

Several states in the country are once again in the grip of severe drought conditions. Following the failure of the monsoon last year, the existing meager reserves of water have run dry and crores of people are faced with acute lack of drinking water, crop failure, loss of cattle and livestock and the outbreak of gastroenteritis and other water borne diseases. In particular, the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, etc. are badly affected. Official statistics report that in 1999-2000, 126 districts spread over 11 states are drought-affected. 26 out of Rajasthan’s 32 districts, and 22 districts in Andhra (although the Drought Affected Areas programme in AP covers only 11 districts).

8000 villages in Gujarat are affected by severe drought. In almost all the villages of Kutch and Saurashtra, the wells have run dry and further digging only brings up brackish water. Thousands of acres of agricultural land, once verdant fields of groundnut and cotton, now lie barren. In Dhrol and Jodiya villages in Jamnagar district, people have to walk at least 6-7 km to get water. Water drums are delivered by bullock carts and sold at Rs. 10 per drum. Cattle are dying in large numbers due to lack of fodder and large-scale migration of people has been taking place. The only assistance that has been rendered by the state government has been in the form of people being employed for relief work, i.e. back-breaking work of digging for water, for which they have not been paid even the meagre pittance of Rs. 60 per day promised to them.

In Rajasthan, 26,000 villages have been affected by famine. In Udaipur and Rajsamand districts, water is being sold in tankers, at Rs. 350 per tanker, which is out of reach of most of the villagers. In Khetolai village, 4 km from the Pokhran nuclear blast site, cattle are dying for want of fodder.

In the highly industrialized town of Bokaro, there is no drinking water. The numerous water supply projects that have been undertaken by the state government here from time to time, have either been non-starters or have been left uncompleted for "lack of funds", while the Damodar river, which flows beside the town, is completely dry in this season.

The state of Orissa, which was ravaged by cyclones just a few months back, is now once again the victim of severe drought and famine. Large-scale deaths and migration have been reported.

In the state of Andhra Pradesh, which boasts of being among the most advanced states in India, with villages connected by Internet, lakhs of villagers are dying for lack of water. Crop failures are reported from many parts of the state, together with many poor farmers being forced to commit suicide, as they have been completely devastated and are deeply in debt. Despite the fact that many areas of Andhra Pradesh are extremely drought prone and suffer from drought almost year, the computer-savvy Chef Minister and his state government have had little to offer to the affected people by way of succour. There are no rainwater conservation projects worth speaking of and all the wells are dry.

These conditions, which have been repeating themselves with alarming regularity, are a glaring indictment of the Indian state, that boasts of being a modern, developed, scientifically advanced state, the "world’s largest democracy". Last year, the official propaganda boasted of an excellent monsoon and adequate water reserves, but no sooner did the summer season arrive than these claims were proved to be totally false in many parts of the country. The increasing frequency of drought conditions is also a consequence of over-exploitation of existing water resources, with water often being drawn out from more than 1000-ft depth and the water table falling by 10-15 ft each year.

Along with the misery and anguish of the drought-affected people, their hatred and anger towards this rotten system, that cannot even ensure basic amenities such as drinking water, is also increasing. On March 24, irate women from 3 wards of Rajkot ransacked the uninhabited mayor’s bungalow to fill their dry pots. People are coming forward to demand their right to a life of human dignity and are increasingly coming to realize that under the existing system, only the superprofits of the big bourgeoisie, native and foreign, has priority. The Indian state does not even want to acknowledge its responsibility of providing for the basic needs of the vast majority of toiling people.

The big bourgeoisie that has held political power all this time, is not capable of solving even such basic problems as drinking water supply and prevention of famine and drought. Only the political power in the hands of the working class can take up the solution of these problems in the interest of the vast majority of the toiling people.

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Tens of thousands of American workers protested in the streets of their capital, Washington DC, during the Spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) held during mid - April 2000. The protestors were undeterred by the arrests of hundreds of people, and unfazed by heavily armed police squads and helicopters. The effect of these protests was so high that the U.S. government had to close down many of its offices in the city till they abated.

The protestors, belonging to various organisations, denounced the imperialist - controlled IMF and the World Bank for its imposition of anti – people policies on the poorer countries. By using their financial clout, imperialist countries have devastated the economies of many of the countries of the "developing" world, and driven them to bankruptcy. They have done this in a number of ways, including imposition of unequal trade regimes, dumping of cheap goods in these countries, undervaluing the value of goods exported by these countries, etc. The financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank then step in with plans for "assistance" to bail out these countries. However, various pre-conditions such as "structural adjustments" are set in order to qualify for this assistance. These actually increase these countries’ indebtedness and push the burden of the crises onto the backs of the toiling people of these countries.

The anti – IMF / World Bank protestors pointed out that far from helping the people of the poorer countries, the imperialist - controlled IMF and World Bank actually harm them severely. While the imperialist – controlled media sheds crocodile tears about issues such as child labour and damage to the environment and rain forests etc. in these countries, the demonstrators pointed out that it is actually the policies of these imperialist – controlled agencies which are responsible for these maladies. Similar protests had been organised by American workers during the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting held in Seattle, USA, late last year.

The protestors formed human chains around the IMF and World Bank buildings and successfully prevented many finance ministers from entering them for the meetings. They carried apt placards, such as "Spank the Bank" and "Sap the Poor to Fatten the Rich". While attempting to blockade streets by chaining themselves, they braved smoke canisters, clubs and pepper spray from the police with whom they clashed repeatedly. The finance ministers of the world who managed to get into the meeting had to accept the truth of what the demonstrators were saying. The IMF later issued a communiqué acknowledging that the "benefits of the world economy were not reaching everyone, especially those in the developing countries", thus validating the positions of the protestors.

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April 7 witnessed a demonstration in Thane City of hundreds of people protesting against the recent price hikes by the government of kerosene, LPG, electricity, ration grains and other essential items. The demonstration marched from Thane (West) station, through the crowed bazaar streets to the Collectors office at Tembi Naka.

Activists of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Contract Labour Kamgar Union, Lok Raj Sangathan, AITUC, CITU, and Rahivasi Sangh participated in organising the demonstration. The entire route resounded with slogans denouncing the price hikes.

Among other things, the spokesperson of the CGPI said that price hikes have been going on for the entire period since Independence and is not just a recent phenomenon. It is a way of shifting the burden of the economic crisis on to the backs of the working masses. The unprecedented price hike this time is part of the offensive of the bourgeoisie. In its thirst for maximising profits, the bourgeois is intensifying the exploitation of the working masses and impoverishing them through price hikes. She pointed out that the price hikes of essential commodities do not affect all sections of the people equally. Whereas the rich hardly notice it, for the workers and other poorer sections, it immediately amounts to a reduction in their daily intake of nourishment and a cut in the standard of their living. She said that even inflation could be controlled by reducing the unproductive expenditure and by eliminating the middlemen in the trading of the essential items. In fact, the government should take full responsibility of ensuring that the working masses can afford all modern necessities of life rather than leaving it to market forces and washing its hand off these basic responsibilities. She also pointed out that problem can not be sorted out by the Parliamentary opposition parties, as all such parties have proven themselves to be parties available to the bidding of the ruling class. She said the times were calling for a real alternative to emerge and that the joint action by communists, trade unionists and other concerned people of Thane to take up the common problems of the people is a step in the direction of creating such an alternative.

Speaking on behalf of AITUC (Thane Taluka), Com Sane lashed out at the government for hiking the prices to the highest level ever. Com Singhvi of CLKU compared the market orientation of economy with a wrestling bout between a lame person and a body builder. He said that it wouldn't be long before today's hundred on the street would multiply to 10,000 or even lakhs. Com Mariam, speaking on behalf of CPM, declared that the country belongs to the toiling masses, who have only two alternatives - either to resign themselves to fate and keep on facing the attacks or to come out on the streets. No numbers of policemen and policewomen would be able to hold back the people when they come out together in large numbers. The meeting ended with militant slogan demanding withdrawal of the price hikes of the essential commodities.

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