• No to outside interference in Sri Lanka!

• Movement for reunification of Korea making headway

• Recurring droughts-not a natural calamity, but a calamity engendered by the capitalist system

• Hail the 25th anniversary of the victory of the Vietnamese people!

• India Must Resign as Co-Convenor of the First Ministerial Conference of the "Community of Democracies"

• "Water Wars" are here!

The situation in Sri Lanka has reached crisis point once again. As the civil war rages in the Tamil areas of Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan government has declared a state of emergency. Within the Indian political circles, intense discussion is going on about whether India should intervene in the Sri Lankan situation and if so in what form that intervention should take place.

The Communist Ghadar Party of India calls upon the progressive and peace loving people of India, particularly the people of Tamilnadu who have a history of close ties with the Tamils of Sri Lanka, to vigorously oppose all outside interference in the civil war in Sri Lanka under any pretext and in any form. In particular, they must stay the hands of the Indian government and prevent it from embarking on a tragic adventure in Sri Lanka.

The Indian State has a long history of interference in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka, including military intervention in the name of "peace keeping". Most of the earlier meddling has come to no good. It has neither helped the Sri Lankan people in resolving their problems, nor has it brought credit to India. As a result of the earlier meddling, Tamilnadu witnessed a great escalation in terrorism and state terrorism. Three years of the IPKF action in Sri Lanka resulted in the humiliating withdrawal of this force after suffering thousands of causalities. That intervention brought India into disrepute amongst all sections of the Sri Lankan people.

As of now, the Indian government has officially stated that it will "not repeat the IPKF experience". This position is a result of the great pressure by various political forces in India, especially in Tamilnadu. However, Indian people must not be lulled by any sense of false complacency. In a systematic manner, the ground is being prepared that allegedly there is "no alternative" to Indian interference in Sri Lanka. It is being propagated by official circles that if India does not interfere, than some other powers might, or that the problem of Sri Lanka will spill over to India! This is the kind of logic that was used when the grounds were prepared for the IPKF operation in 1987-1900. It was made out that the Indian armed forces were to ensure on the one hand the "unity and territorial integrity" of Sri Lanka, and on the other, to "protect" the Tamils. The results are well known. The people of India must not succumb to the self-serving logic of our ruling class.

The refusal of successive Sri Lankan regimes to address the burning problem of the national oppression as well as national aspirations of the Tamils of Sri Lanka, coupled with covert and overt interference by foreign powers including India, has been the reason why peace has remained elusive to Sri Lanka. Instead of poking its nose into the troubled situation in Sri Lanka, the Indian government should be forced to address similar problems at home and prevent new areas of conflict from arising. India should raise its voice in SAARC and other international fora against all foreign interference in Sri Lanka.

It is the peoples of Sri Lanka who have the strength and wisdom to resolve the civil war, and it is they who will in the final analysis ensure a just and lasting solution to the crisis, and an enduring peace. The Indian people are one with the Sri Lankan people in this endeavor.

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The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) has reported that " the north and the south of Korea, reaffirming the three principles of national reunification clarified in the historic July 4 North-South Joint Statement, reached an agreement aimed at accelerating national reconciliation and unity, exchange and cooperation, peace and reunification. The agreement says: at the request of President Kim Dae Jung, he will visit Pyongyang from June 12 to 14, 2000. In Pyongyang a historic meeting between Kim Jong Il, General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, and President Kim Dae Jung will take place and inter-Korean summit talks will be held."

This is an important development, coming over fifty years after the US military intervention which led to the division of Korea and the occupation of South Korea by US armed forces. This summit will be the first time the two sides will hold face to face discussions at the highest level and without any foreign intermediaries as well.

A summit meeting had been planned for 1994 with former US President Jimmy Carter as the intermediary but had to be postponed because of the sudden death of President Kim Il-sung of North Korea. Kim Il-sung was the chief architect of the formula which stipulates independence, peaceful reunification and national unity as the three principles on which the two Koreas can unite and form a Democratic Confederal Republic of Koryo that would respect the existing differences between the North and South, and create the unity of the nation to overcome the obstacles remaining on the road to reunification.

The historic July 4 agreement referred to above, that was signed by the two Koreas in 1972, laid down the principles for reunification as follows:

"Firstly, reunification should be achieved independently, without reliance upon outside force or its interference;

Secondly, reunification should be achieved by peaceful means, without recourse to the use of arms against the other side;

Thirdly, great national unity should be promoted first of all as one nation, transcending the differences of ideology, ideal and system."

These principles have remained the firm foundation on which all initiatives for the reunification, including the February 1992 "agreement on reconciliation, non-aggression, cooperation and interchange between the north and south", have been based.

Commenting on the summit, a Seoul newspaper wrote among other things, "The summit meeting is expected to help the two parties solve their mutual problems on their own. It is expected to reduce the influence that the international community has been exerting on the Korean Peninsula". "Economic matters are expected to top the agenda…. Next will come the issue of uniting separated families. Also on the shoulders of the two leaders is the responsibility to remove the vestige of the Cold War and bring about a secure peace on the Korean Peninsula. In addition, they need to establish a framework in which South and North Korea will hold regular dialogues. …. Though it may be too early to expect the two leaders to wrap up a grand compromise, they could at least take the first steps that will ultimately lead to the final stage of national unification," continues the paper. Clearly, the desire for reunification of Korea is being strongly felt inside both South Korea and North Korea.

Nevertheless, the progress towards reunification has been slow, mainly because of the interference by outside powers, especially the US, which has 37,000 of its troops stationed in the South. According to North Korea, the United States has never been interested in peace on the Korean peninsula and its reunification. If reconciliation, unity, peace and reunification are achieved on the Korean peninsula, it will deprive Washington of any justification for its continued military presence in South Korea and, furthermore, endanger the realization of its strategy for domination overthis region. KCNA reports that since the announcement of the summit, the U.S. authorities have started a campaign to spread false rumors that any unification will be "too expensive" because of the "imbalances" between the two Koreas. This is being done with the sole aim of creating distrust between the North and South and of seeking a pretext for a permanent U.S. military presence in South Korea.

Worldwide support for Korean reunification

In other news, the International Liaison Committee for Reunification and Peace for Korea (CILRECO) has launched a world-wide petition for the peaceful and independent reunification of the Korea which will be handed over to the 55^th General Assembly of the United Nations later this year. This petition says:

"We, the undersigned, express our full solidarity with the Korean people in their struggle for the independent and peaceful reunification of Korea.

We recognize that the Three-Point Charter for Reunification constitutes the most fair and reasonable proposal and method for reunification in conformity with the actual situation on the Korean peninsula and aspirations of the entire Korean nation, and support it accordingly:

We demand the immediate withdrawal of the U.S. troops from South Korea in order to enable the Korean people to determine their own future independently and to ensure durable peace on the Korean peninsula."

CILERCO is appealing to people everywhere to send copies of the signed and dated petition reproduced above to CILRECO-International Liaison Committee for the Reunification and Peace in Korea, 119, rue Jean Jaures, 92320, Chatillon, France or fax: 33 1 46 62 07 98 along with their name and organization or address. CILERCO has also announced that throughout this year it will organize actions and forums around the world, including the 5th World Conference of Solidarity in Favour of the Reunification of Korea, "to make the international public aware of the need and urgency to promote the reunification of and peace in Korea, not only in the interest of the Korean people but also in the interest of peace in Asia and the world."

People's Voice hails these initiatives and extends full support to the Korean people in their struggle to reunify the country through dialogue and negotiations according to the above principles.

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The raging drought in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh is not a natural calamity as the big bourgeoisie would like us to believe. Droughts in India are a grim manifestation of a system that is totally preoccupied with maximising the wealth for a handful of individuals. Over the past years, and particularly in the last 10 years, the governments of the big capitalists, in New Delhi and in the state capitals, have slashed their spending in areas which have a direct bearing on the livelihood of the working people, while at the same time spending crores of money on debt and interest payments to domestic and foreign moneylenders, hiking up expenditure on sprucing up the war machinery benefiting India’s and the world’s arms merchants and giving tax sops to the richest of the rich.

According to the Economic Times dated 2 May, 2000 a survey of 25 states finances show a steady drop in funding allocated for irrigation and control, water supply and sanitation and soil conservation and water management since 1997-98. To begin with the shares of these expenditures in state expenditures were abysmally low. For example, in 1997-98 the states spent 7.41% of their budgets on irrigation and flood control; 2.5% on sanitation and a measly 0.4% on soil conservation and management. By 1999-2000, these figures had fallen to 6.18, 2.4 and 0.38% respectively. For the big bourgeoisie capital investments in water management was the least priority.

Successive governments of the capitalists have tried to justify this low investment using the argument that they have not been able to increase these investments because the fiscal deficits of the central and state governments werealready high and they cannot afford any further hikes in expenditure. This is a blatant lie, because when it comes to investments to be made for the benefit of big capitalists in such areas as telecom, or when it is a question of giving further concessions and tax breaks to big capitalists, there has been no hesitation on the part of the central and state governments.

The recent tax sops given by the Finance Minister is a case in point. The ten-year tax holiday for software exporters, which was temporarily withdrawn, has again been restored. Such "capitalist-friendly" measures are never considered to worsen the fiscal deficit.

The callousness of the ruling class is further evident in the withdrawal of subsidies in fertilisers and the PDS, which are certain to hit those affected by the floods where it hurts most. In spite of massive protests and demonstrations, the government of the capitalists has decided to go ahead with the subsidy cuts when passing the Finance Bill on May 4. Arguing that interest payments and subsidies have been increasing continuously, the BJP government bull-dozed its way on the subsidy cuts, while claiming helplessness in the case of interest payments.

While interest payments have increased from Rs. 26,563 crores in 1991-92 to Rs. 1,16,857 crores in 1998-99, the expenditure on subsidies have increased from Rs. 12,153 crores to Rs. 22,025 crores. it is clear that subsidy expenditures have been a fraction of interest payments over these years. It is also clear that interest payments haverisen much more steeply than subsidy expenditures over these years. Then why do the capitalists never think of the possibility of a debt moratorium to overcome the fiscal deficit and find funds for water management and other essential areas for the survival of the working people? This is because, interest payments made to provident fund, post office, pension funds and the like are only a small slice of this expenditure. The major chunk goes into the pockets of the biggest Indian and foreign financiers and corporate houses.

At the same time, it is also evident that not even a small fraction of these subsidies have been benefiting the working people in a lasting way, as is evident from the NSSO study which has found that rural poverty has actually increased in the nineties. And now, the bourgeoisie is dismantling even the modicum of welfare measures meant for the people.

The green revolution, the techno-scientific revolution in agricultural production, the economic reforms – all these have accelerated the growth of capitalism in the countryside bringing more death and disaster for the working people.

Famine relief operations – A lucrative industry for the bourgeoisie

Every year, regularly, crores of money are spent by the government on "famine relief" operations. An article in the Economic Times dated 5 May 2000, reports that in the 34 years between 1956-57 to 1989-90, a sum of Rs. 1,799 crores was spent on famine relief works in Rajasthan. Out of this, the amount spent during the last 5years in this period, 1985-90, was itself Rs. 1,236 crores. In fact, a sum of Rs. 622 crores was spent on famine relief works in a single year 1987-88 which was more than the total public outlay in the annual plan of Rajasthan that year.

In Rajasthan, out of the 14 years from 1981-82 to 1994-95, 11 years had famines. The worst year was 1987-88 when all the 27 districts were affected by famine. And now, reports from the district collectors show that 23, 406 villages out of 34,694 villages in 26 districts are affected by the current drought. 75 percent to 100 percent crops have been wiped out in these districts. 2.61 crores people and 3.45 crores livestock have been affected.

Such has been the devastating effect of droughts in Rajasthan. When crores of people are being devastated, and enormous assets are lost year after year, then why does the state of the big bourgeoisie prefer to spend money in drought relief but not on investments in public works? Why does it spend as much money in famine relief as its total public outlay in a single year, when timely investments could have saved many times the money spent in drought relief?

Because, for the bourgeoisie, public money spent on drought relief, flood relief and so on, fetch much more profits than from investments in public works. That is why the Indian state prefers to let droughts and floods devastate the working people and then let the contractors, middlemen and moneylenders move in like vultures swooping on their prey.

Collapse of traditional systems of rain harvesting – A scourge of the capitalist system

From the time that India was colonised by Britain, and capitalism started to flourish in the Indian economy, the collapse of traditional support systems for the welfare of the people began to collapse. At the core of the problem in the drought affected regions in India today is the collapse of traditional systems of rain harvesting. In the past, the people of each region had developed their own systems, but on the whole, the greed of the colonialists and capitalists for super profits have dealt these systems a death blow. The traditional systems could not withstand the onslaught of commercialism, strengthening of capitalist production and distribution in agriculture, and land reforms in the rural areas of the country.

For example, village tanks were maintained by the people and farmers in the village who used the silt from the tank as enrichment for the soil, took responsibility for desilting the tanks. But with the advent of the Green Revolution, which accelerated the growth of capitalism in agriculture, silt was no longer favoured. The introduction of the zamindari system and land reforms after independence, introduced a class of landlords and big capitalist farmers who were no longer dependent on the traditional systems. The government’s programmes for water-shed development have made little difference to the situation, for they have done nothing to change the socio-economic conditions in the villages. How can the government of the capitalists and their programmes and projects be expected to put an end to exploitation in the countryside and empower the working people to take charge of the situation. These watersheds have only further marginalised the poor and strengthened the control of natural resources by the rural exploiters.

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Twenty-five years ago, on April 30, the Vietnamese people won a decisive victory over the colossal armed might of US imperialism. Through their own heroic efforts and the terrible sacrifices made by millions of their compatriots, the people of Vietnam drove out the US imperialists who had occupied their country, overthrew the Vietnamese puppet regime in the southern part of the country, reunified their land, and re-established their complete independence and sovereignty. The nearly decade-long armed struggle of the Vietnamese people against US imperialism was one of the epic wars of the twentieth century. US imperialism threw every resource at its command, every weapon it possessed, including outlawed chemical weapons, into their war against small Vietnam. But they could not triumph against the determination and courage of a people fighting for a just cause. As the liberation troops marched into Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh city) on April 30, 1975, the US forces fled in a panic-stricken manner. On that day, freedom and justice-loving people throughout the world, including sections of the American people, erupted incelebrations, wholeheartedly welcoming the victory of the brave Vietnamese people.

Since the victory 25 years ago, the Vietnamese have enjoyed an unprecedented period of peace. Yet the War left their country absolutely devastated and the economy of this once prosperous land was ruined. Since that time, the government and people of Vietnam have been concentrating their efforts on reviving the economy and providing a decent life for its citizens. Yet, despite their defeat in battle, the US and other imperialist powers have not lifted their pressure against this proud people and their country. Today Vietnam is under constant pressure to conform to the dictates of the forces of globalisation emanating from those countries or else face even greater hardship. Under these circumstances, the ongoing struggle of the Vietnamese people to defend their independence and sovereignty on all fronts, and pursue their own chosen course of development, is a just one that deserves the support of people everywhere.

The triumph of the Vietnamese people twenty-five years ago will always be remembered and celebrated as the proof that a people that remains determined to fight for the victory of a just cause can overcome the might of an enemy that appears to be far superior in strength and resources. The working class and people of India wish the people of Vietnam well in their efforts to forge ahead and build an even better life for themselves.

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According to a news release from the US State department, Poland will host the "first-ever meeting of countries that have chosen the democratic path" on June 26-27, 2000 in Warsaw. Besides the United States and Poland, five other countries, namely, Chile, the Czech Republic, India, Mali and South Korea, are co-convenors of this new initiative called Community of Democracies."The goal of the Community of Democracies Ministerial is to strengthen the capacity and effectiveness of existing international organizations in their support for democracy. Governments attendingthe meeting will affirm their commitment to a core set of universal democratic principles," says the press release.

According to the US Secretary of State Madeline Albright, "This Community of Democracies initiative will explore ways that we can cooperate more effectively in strengthening democratic societies and values. Poland will simultaneously host the non-governmental World Forum on Democracy, recognizing that the growth of civil society is a key to broadening democratic constituencies. Later in theyear, the International Conference on New or Restored Democracies will be held in Benin, focusing on complementary goals. The underlying theme of these efforts is that democratic societies must learn from and assist each other, whether in times of relative stability, or when emergencies arise."

The World Forum on Democracy that Albright refers to is being organized by the two think-tanks, the Freedom House of the US and the Stefan Batory Foundation of Poland, founded by the US super-financier George Soros. While the Ministerial meeting that India is a co-convenor of will have government delegates only, the participants in the World Forum on Democracy will include some of the biggest international financiers and ideologues of the international bourgeoisie.

The list of workshops planned for the governmental meeting is significant. It includes:

1. Cooperation among democratic governments in strengthening global, regional and specialized international institutions,
2. democracy and human rights: sharing best practices,
3. responding to threats to democracy, and
4. strengthening democratic institutions through mutual support and partnership.

Meanwhile, the non-governmental World Forum on Democracy will hold sessions devoted to national sovereignty and humanitarian intervention, globalization and democracy, international financial institutions, and democracy and supporting democratic change through national and international foundations/institutions, etc.

Intervention in the name of "defending democracy"

What is clear from the above news and information is that this new initiative of the US is to legitimize its striving for world domination in the post Cold War world in the name of "defending democracy". The US and the NATO alliance have already adopted "humanitarianism" as a pretext for military intervention in another sovereign country. Now the Community of Democracies initiative seems to be intended to create the framework for US-led intervention when any of the member states are threatened with mass revolutionary upsurges in the coming period.

The norms of relations between sovereign states, based on non-intervention in the internal affairs of other countries,were jointly laid down by the community of nations at the end of World War II. It is not a coincidence that Warsaw has been chosen as the site to launch this new offensive to undo those norms, as the name of the city of Warsaw is symbolically linked withthose historic post-war arrangements. Nor is it a surprise that the Freedom House and Soros foundations are at the center of the new initiative because, together with other dubious imperialist institutions, these have had a sordid history of acting against the sovereignty and independence of countries all over the globe. What is a matter of grave concern for the Indian working class and people is that the Indian government has seen fit to join the company of the US imperialism in its sinister schemes. Itdoes no honour to the Indian people to be associated in the name of democracy with the US imperialists who have forcibly intervened to stifle the democratic aspirations of peoples throughout the globe, be it in Chile, in the Philippines, in Korea, in South Africa, or elsewhere. Through this move, there is the great danger that India could become an accomplice as well as a target of future US-led intervention. People’s Voice demands that the Indian government immediately withdraw India from this diabolical Community of Democracies initiative, and condemns the doctrine of intervention under any pretext to solve international relations as is being advocated by the US.

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For the Indian working class and peasantry, conflict between neighboring states for sharing river water has long been used as a political tool to keep them divided and lined up behind self-serving political parties of the big bourgeoisie. Problems connected with the construction of large dams such as those in the Narmada basin, the devastating drought now unfolding over large parts of India, thelack of safe drinking water, etc., continue to plague the masses of people. But these water related problems could seem like nothing if the government of India goes ahead with the implementation of the new World Bank agenda to privatize water distributionsystems. The Indian government recently agreed to implement this plan at the Hague World Water Forum.

A handful of multinational water suppliers, backed by the World Bank, are turning water into an expensive commodity. These corporations are vying to dominate the water supply of the entire world through privatization programs sanctioned and imposed by the World Bank and other financial agencies. The UN sponsored World Water Forum earlier this year in Hague was used by these corporations to promote the acceptance of the control of water supply by the corporations. According to these corporations, water is a"human need" and not a "human right" and thus can be supplied by private corporations like all other commodities. A number of NGOs which came to Hague to argue against the privatization of water presented many examples of the adverse effects of water privatization for the people. The drop in the water quality standards, promotion of over-use of water to increase revenue by the private owners, and the shutting off of water to thousands of customers in Britain who could not pay the higher costs, were all documented.They showed evidence that privatization of water supply has resulted in the doubling and tripling of water bills on the one hand, and in more than seven-fold increase in the profits of the multinationals on the other. They also provided documentation of the bribery and corruption practices indulged in by the water giants like Vivendi and Suez-Lyonaise of France to impose privatization of water supply. In spite of many protests, the governments attending the Hague Forum adopted the policy of privatization programs in water supply and committed themselves to enact legislation to this effect in their respective countries.

The alarming experience of Bolivia

The experience of other countries like Bolivia where the World Bank has already been able to impose itswater privatization policy, shows the grave dangers facing the people elsewhere. Bolivia had been forced to sell off the city water supply in Cochabamba, the third largest city of the country, in 1998 as a precondition to receive a $25 million loan from the World Bank to re-finance water services. The official of the World Bank in Bolivia, who attends the cabinet meetings of the Bolivian government, had insisted that the World Bank would not guarantee any future loans unless the government sold the water supply system to private companies and permitted them to pass on the cost to the consumers. People were fooled into accepting the initial proposal to privatize the water system with promises of improved water quality and reliability of the water supply. For the Cochabamba water supply system, only one bid was received, and that was from a subsidiary of a multinational conglomerate led by the giant Bechtel corporation of the US.

Soon after the privatization scheme was accepted, the new private owners doubled the price of water, making drinking water more expensive than food for many Bolivians, amounting to about half of the daily wages of those earning the minimum wage. At the same time, the World Bank announced its support for full-cost water pricing, pegged the cost of water to the US dollar, and imposed the condition that none of the World Bank money can be used to subsidize water to the poor. The Bolivian government then enacted legislation which granted monopoly control over water tothe private water companies all over the country. Under the legislation, peasants and farmers had to buy permits to even gather rain water on their property, and to access water from community wells!

Bolivians had earlier seen the privatization of their electrical utilities, transport systems and educational institutions, and had opposed it. Now the privatization of even their water supply brought thousands onto the streets in protest. The imposition of military rule in Bolivia in early April was a direct consequence of these protests. President Hugo Banzer of Bolivia declared martial law and shut down radio and television stations as the government arrested hundreds of activists in midnight raids to quell the strikes and demonstrations by the people. However, the guns of the government could not silence the protestors. Far from being intimidated, hundreds of thousands of Bolivians responded to this provocation and marched to Cochabamba on April 10, 2,000, and forced the government to kick out the American monopoly Bechtelcorporation. The government also had to revoke all legislation related to the privatization of water supply before the demonstrators agreed to disperse.

Need to escalate and broaden the struggle in India

It was Mr. Ismail Serageldin, a former World Bank vice president, who had theorized several years ago that the wars of the 21^st century would be fought over water. That war has started, and it has been brought on by the policies of the World Bank itself. The first such battle in this war has been fought on the streets of Bolivia.

It is heartening that people of Bolivia have prevailed in this first test of strength in defense of their right to water, and the Indian working class and people must extend to them their full support. Now, the acceptance of the Hague water privatization agenda by the government of India is a matter of grave concern for our working class and the peasantry. The first rumblings of such a water privatization agenda have already been heard in the big cities and in the drought stricken lands of western India. With the right to water being targeted as the source for profits, and water wars being planned by the multinationals and international financiers, the working class and people of India must step up their struggle. In particular, the struggle against privatisation and liberalisation has to be intimately linked with the struggle for the right to such basic human needs as water, food, shelter, education and health care for all. The importance of this cannot be over-emphasized.

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