• Step up the struggle

• No to the Indian State’s intervention in Sri Lanka!

• State Terrorism: Down with Police Atrocities!

• Mass Opposition to the Hike in Power Tariffs in AP

• The working class and the slogan of "national unity and territorial integrity"

• Historic summit for the reunification of Korea

• Capitalist consolidation in the cement industry has grave portents for the working people

• The struggle against the ferocious capitalist offensive must be waged with the revolutionary perspective!

• What is the government’s business?

• Youth workshop for social change

• Vigorous fight against union breaking activities by garment workers in Vasai

• Kanpur textile workers struggle against grave injustice

Step up the struggle

The Union Cabinet has announced privatisation of 11 more Public Sector Undertakings. The Delhi government has announced trifurcating of the power sector and its privatisation. Badarpur Power Plant, an NTPC unit, is up for sale. In Andhra Pradesh as well as other states which have implemented privatisation of electricity, power tariffs have been hiked enormously imposing unbearable hardships on the toiling masses. Postal services are being privatised. The privatisation of water is on the anvil. Road transport, railways — the list is long. Workers of nationalised textile mills in Kanpur and other places are not being paid their wages for the past 6 months. Systematically, while the loss making units that the government bought from the bourgeoisie in an earlier period to bale them out are being closed down, profit making PSU’s are being sold to the big bourgeoisie and the imperialists. At the time of going to press, the Union government has decided to introduce a bill to greatly expand the role of contract labour. These are part of the massive offensive of the Indian ruling class against the workers and peasants and working people of our country.

Workers and working people all over the country are rising in struggle against the massive onslaught on their livelihood and rights. The ruling class thinks that the opposition of workers and peasants can be crushed or dissipated. It is relying on its agents within the ranks of the workers to do what it cannot do by itself. These people, many of whom are "trade union leaders" of this or that variety, have enjoyed a share of the loot and plunder of workers and peasants and the whole of society which has gone on in the past 50 years. They are spreading pessimism amongst the workers that their cause is lost, that there is no use fighting privatisation. These same forces also preach that workers of each sector should fight their struggle in splendid isolation from the rest of the class and the rest of society so that their struggle remains doomed from the beginning.

The time is here and now for the workers and working people to reject these failed messiahs who have only heaped disasters on the class as a whole. This is the time to build a united movement against the bourgeoisie’s all sided onslaught. The workers of Modern Food Industries, those of UP Electricity Board and the Kanpur textile workers have taken a bold lead in the struggle. As workers and peasants all over the country join the battle lines, the stage will be set for a titanic clash with the bourgeoisie. In opposition to the bourgeoisie’s vision that the interests of society must be subordinated to its drive for maximum profits, workers must put forth their vision of ending the man eating system of capitalist exploitation and oppression for ever by overthrowing the rule of the bourgeoisie and establishing the rule of the toilers of town and country. In the course of developing their united struggle, the Indian working class will emerge as the leader of all the exploited and oppressed in the building of a new society

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No to the Indian State’sintervention in Sri Lanka!  

With Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh’s recent visit to Colombo, the prospects of Indian intervention in Sri Lanka have greatly increased. Officially, the Vajpayee government has not changed its stand of no armed intervention except to render "humanitarian assistance". But the very fact of Jaswant Singh’s visit at this time, and the range and nature of his discussions with the Sri Lankan President Kumaratunga and other leaders there, is significant. It clearly shows that active intervention of some kind is on the cards.

Under no circumstances can the Indian working class and people support intervention by the Indian state in the problem of Sri Lanka. This problem can be solved only by the various political forces and the people of Sri Lanka, belonging to all the different communities and numbering several crores of people, themselves. Why the problem in Sri Lanka has not been sorted out for so long, which forces bear responsibility for this, which solutions have been tried and which have failed, and what solutions would be most acceptable to the people there – all these issues can and must be sorted out only by the people of Sri Lanka. This is the true meaning of Sri Lanka being a sovereign country, and the Indian state has no right to violate that. If this is not recognised and accepted as a matter of principle, then today’s "humanitarian assistance" and "political intervention" can easily turn into tomorrow’s semi-military or military involvement and aggression by the Indian state in Sri Lanka. Such a thing would be disastrous for Sri Lanka and India and for peace in South Asia, as the earlier IPKF catastrophe showed.

The Indian people should not be fooled into supporting any adventurist action by the Indian state in Sri Lanka just because some of those who bear responsibility for the present mess there – especially the leaders of the government and main opposition parties in Sri Lanka – are now apparently inviting some kind of Indian intervention. Eventually, they will have to answer to their own people for doing so. But we in India know that the Indian state and some of the major bourgeois political forces here have nothing good to offer the people of Sri Lanka. These same forces have had a definite role in exacerbating the problem in that country over the years. Moreover, the Indian state is today on the look-out to expand its role as the policeman of this region, closely coordinating this role with the strategies for this region and the world of the US and other imperialist powers. It seeks to don this mantle of regional policeman, even as it, at the same time, crushes with brute force the aspirations of various peoples within India, leading to the almost permanent devastation of large areas of the country, such as Kashmir and the North East. What good can possibly come out of the intervention of this Indian state in already troubled Sri Lanka?

The Indian working class and people sincerely wish that, first of all, the bloodshed and suffering of ordinary masses of people in Sri Lanka cease, and secondly, that a solution to the problem there be found which would be acceptable to all sections of the people. We are confident that such a solution can and will emerge from the efforts of the people of Sri Lanka who are not reconciled to the continuing violence and injustice being perpetrated there. At the same time, our opposition to any form of intervention by the Indian state in Sri Lanka is a principled one, which is in the best interests of the peoples of both Sri Lanka and India, and we must uphold this stand without any hesitation

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State Terrorism

Down with Police Atrocities!

On June 24, the police showered bullets on slum dwellers in Delhi’s Yamuna Pushta, killing one and grievously injuring many. Just a few days earlier, an innocent young bus conductor was shot dead in cold blood in an encounter killing. These are not isolated incidents, but a systematic stepping up of state terror on the toiling masses. People’s Voice strongly denounces these cold blooded shootouts and killings and calls upon all those who value justice to raise their voice against these attacks and the escalating state terror.

The Indian state is advancing various pretexts for the stepping up of state terrorism. One such justification is that of growing lawlessness in the capital which allegedly requires nothing less than encounter killings. In the name of eliminating gangsterism, police gangsterism has reached new heights as is revealed in the cynical shooting to death of the conductor.

Another reason advance is of combating terrorism. A bomb blast in the crowded walled city area of Delhi was the pretext for repression on the slum dwellers of Yamuna Pushta. Several innocent youth have been rounded up and locked up in police custody on suspicion of being "illegal Bangladeshi migrants". The residents of the locality protested vociferously while a youth was being arrested on suspicion of being involved with the recent bomb blasts in the Red Fort. Prior to this, the police desecrated sacred books in a madrassa, creating a lot of resentment. Hundreds of angry residents surrounded the police station and demanded the release of the arrested youth. While they were shouting slogans demanding his release, the police opened fire on them.

The Indian state is facing a serious crisis of legitimacy as it is incapable of addressing any of the political, economic or social concerns of the toiling masses. In these circumstances, state terrorism and the playing of the communal card have become the favourite weapons in the arsenal of the state to disorient and crush the toiling masses.

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Mass Opposition to the Hike in Power Tariffs in AP

The month of June was marked by widespread protests against the massive hike in power tariffs in Andhra Pradesh. Broad masses of working people of town and countryside took to the streets against this attack on their livelihood. They braved the brutal force that was unleashed by the police, including lathicharge in Vijaywada and other towns.

The tariff revision announced by the newly created Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) consists of a very steep increase of over 60% for rural consumers and even steeper for urban domestic consumers — 60% at the lowest slab and rising to over 100% or doubling for higher slabs. On the other hand, it includes a moderate decrease for industrial users. After the announcement of this huge tariff revision by the APERC and the public outcry that immediately followed, the Andhra Pradesh Government declared that it will finance Rs. 280 crore as additional subsidy to the farmers, to soften the blow on them. This is the usual tactic of trying to set one section of the victims against another. The response of the workers and peasants over the last week in June showed that this tactic did not prevent the masses of people from uniting to step up their protest actions.

The tariff revision announced by the APERC is the first step in a long list of attacks planned as part of the Power Sector Reform designed by the World Bank and accepted by the Naidu Government as the condition for receiving $1 billion as loan over 7 years. According to this program, power tariffs will be raised every year by at least 15%.The entire burden of the loss making government companies will be shifted on to the backs of the people before transferring all the assets into private hands, so as to carry out the loot and plunder afresh, more "efficiently" than before, which means to reap a higher rate of profit.

Orissa was the first state to embark on the road of Power Sector Reform as defined by the World Bank. Since then, the Government of India has endorsed the view that there is no alternative to privatisation of power supply. Several states have initiated the first steps towards privatisation, with or without assistance from the World Bank. These first steps include: creation of a Regulatory Commission and "unbundling" of the State Electricity Board, its breaking up into 3 or more corporations.

In modern society, electric power is a fundamental need of life, just like food and shelter. Provision of electric power to all families in society, both in urban and in rural areas, must therefore be regarded as the duty of the State. However, the Indian State is today abrogating all responsibility in this regard, claiming that it has no responsibility except to set policy objectives while the "market forces"—meaning private monopolies owned by Reliance or Tatas or Enron or some other capitalist monopoly — will run power generation and distribution as a profit making business. The prices will be set by a regulatory body that would give primacy to commercial considerations above everything else, and also be guided by the political tactics of the party in power. This is the content of the capitalist reform program in the power sector.

An attack on one is an attack on all! This is the slogan with which the working class must gather around itself all the victims of the offensive of the bourgeoisie. Only the working class has the interest to electrify all the villages and provide power to all members of society

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The working class and the slogan of "national unity and territorial integrity"

The slogan of "national unity and territorial integrity" is again being bandied about by various political forces in India. The ruling circles of South Asia have used this slogan ever since the partition of the subcontinent and the declaration of independence 53 years ago by India and Pakistan, with the aim of blocking any solution to any of the outstanding problems. In particular, the ruling cliques of all the countries of South Asia have used this slogan to block the national aspirations of various oppressed nations, nationalities and tribal peoples who historically inhabit definite areas in the subcontinent. National strife is a common feature of all the countries of South Asia. Unleashing state terror in place of seeking political solutions to political problems and justifying this with the slogan of "national unity and territorial integrity" is also a common feature of the states created after British colonialism formally relinquished its rule in this part of the world.

Today the slogan of upholding national unity and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka is being absolutised by certain political forces in India. They consider the demand for a separate Tamil state in Sri Lanka as sacrilege. The same is the case with the Kashmir problem as well as the problems faced by the peoples of the Northeast. When Kashmiris raise the issue of their divided nation, and raise the demand for self-determination, there is a shrill outcry and call for more bullets and lathis. Kashmiris are condemned as "Pakistani agents" and secessionists. When Uttarkhandis, Jharkhandis, Gorkhalandis, and others raise the issue of self-determination, there is an outcry that this will lead to the "destruction of India, as we know it". What stand should the working class take on these questions? The working class has to elaborate on these crucial questions today, in order to be the leader of the project of nation building in the 21st century.

Starting point

The starting point is to recognise that South Asia is home to numerous historically formed nations, nationalities and tribes. Opposition to imperialism, colonialism and feudalism united the peoples during the period of British colonial rule. British colonialism on its part played one nation against another, one people against another and co-opted definite elements within the different nations, nationalities and tribes to a greater or lesser extent to strengthen its rule. The partition of India in August 1947 led to the partition of the two biggest nations of South Asia, which are Bengal and Punjab. It also led to the partition of Kashmir and a legacy of bitterness and national strife. The Indian State refuses to recognise that India is a multinational country. The same is the case with the states of Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Once the existence of historically formed nations, nationalities and tribes is denied, then any atrocity, any oppression of the peoples is justified. The rulers of South Asia have persisted with, and further perfected the British colonial policy towards the nations, nationalities and tribes. The result can be seen in the 53 year liberation struggle of the Nagas, the creation of Bangladesh, the civil war in Sri Lanka, the unending turmoil in Kashmir and the North East as well as all over the country and region.

The bourgeoisie has failed in addressing the national problem

The Indian big bourgeoisie simply declares that it is "anti-national" and "secessionist" if any people question their status within the present Indian Union or demand solution to the national problem they face. People are raped and slaughtered on a daily basis by security forces and precious resources are diverted to keeping a huge standing army armed with most sophisticated weapons to suppress the peoples. 53 years of "defending national unity" by the states of India, Pakistan or Sri Lanka have ensured that old problems have festered and new ones created. This is the result of the implementation of the bourgeoisie’s conception of nation building. Stripped of propaganda this is nothing but a declaration that the natural resources of all the peoples of India belong to the big bourgeoisie to be ruthlessly exploited and plundered. If any people demand control of their own resources and lands, if any people want political power, then they deserve to be crushed under the jackboots of the armed forces—this is the bourgeois concept of nation building. All fighting people are branded as imperialists agents. However, the bourgeoisie reserves the right to sell the resources of the country to any of the foreign imperialists besides exploiting on its own.

The working class and the unity of peoples

The working class believes in and fights to forge the unity of workers and all the oppressed of all nations, nationalities and tribes on the basis of a common struggle to end the system of exploitation of persons by persons. We workers cannot accept "unity" created by the bourgeoisie through the barrel of the gun. Workers face daily capitalist exploitation as well as oppression based on their nationality, as they travel to far corners of the country as well as the world in search of livelihood. As we wage the struggle against exploitation and oppression, we see the bourgeoisie using repression as well as the national question, the caste question, and so on to repress, divide and crush the struggle. Our struggle has no hope of advancing if we workers do not at all times boldly hoist the banner of opposition to all forms of exploitation and oppression. This means, among other things, that our vision for a new India is a voluntary union of all the nations, nationalities and tribal peoples, wherein political power will vest with the workers and peasants. This new union must be for mutual benefit of all the nations, nationalities and tribes and act as a powerful block to any imperialist marauding force. This new union will be achieved only by fighting capitalism, the remnants of feudalism, imperialism and the entire colonial legacy.

Pressure of social-chauvinism

Today, within the communist and workers movement of India, there is great pressure on the working class to toe the line of the bourgeoisie on the national question. The bourgeoisie’s approach to the national question is national-chauvinist and imperialist. The working class approach to the national question is a proletarian internationalist approach. These two are sharply divergent approaches and the working class can end class exploitation only if it takes a resolute stand against the national-chauvinist and imperialist approach of the bourgeoisie to the national question.

What is the national chauvinist and imperialist approach to the national question? It is precisely the approach that the Indian ruling class adopts to the struggle of Kashmiris, Manipuris, Nagas and all the other peoples of India. It is to deny them sovereignty. It is to treat the lands and resources of the peoples as the property of the Indian big bourgeoisie, to be exploited and colonised in the manner of imperialists and colonialists.

The pressure on the working class on the national question is to support "ones own bourgeoisie", the Indian bourgeoisie, against the bourgeoisie of some other country or against an oppressed nation or nationality or tribe. Those who capitulate to this pressure slur over the imperialist aims of the Indian bourgeoisie towards our neighbours while talking about the criminal designs of the ruling class of Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka or Bangladesh. They slur over the crimes of the Indian state against its own people and the concrete national oppression to which the peoples of India are subjected under the present rule. Instead they talk of the narrowness and chauvinism of Kashmiris, Assamese, Manipuris, Punjabis, Tamils, Jharkhandis, Uttarkhandis and hundreds of other peoples who together constitute present day India. What they do is very suitable for the Indian bourgeoisie. If the Indian working class follows those who capitulate to the bourgeoisie on this vital question, there is no hope for its salvation.

The working class fights to establish its state power in place of the present rule of the bourgeoisie. In this, its main enemy is the big bourgeoisie at home and their imperialist allies abroad. We want to create a world free from all forms of exploitation and oppression. We can do so only by destroying the present relations of national oppression. Therefore we support the struggle of all nations, nationalities and tribes against national oppression. Most importantly, we must never forget to support this struggle when it is directed against "our own" bourgeoisie. The proletarian internationalist unity of the toilers of all nations, nationalities and tribes is concretely forged precisely in this way.

Right to self-determination includes the right to secession

Faced with the rebellion of peoples, the bourgeoisie and its conciliators within the working class invariably advance the proposition that while "national unity and territorial integrity" cannot be negotiated, various forms of "devolution of power" is negotiable. This implies that the bourgeoisie stubbornly refuses to recognise the sovereignty of the different nations and nationalities. Instead the ruling class imposes its demand that the oppressed nations submit to the existing state of affairs and agree to some minor concessions.

The working class recognises, along with the existence of nations, nationalities and tribes, their inalienable right to sovereignty. This means every people have the right to self-determination, to determine their own destiny. This right to self-determination includes the right to secession. In fact, without the right to secession, the right to self-determination is a cruel joke on the people. The existence of the right to secession of course does not mean that every people will chose that course. They will, if they have no other choice. The existence of this right does not mean that the working class always blindly calls for or supports secession. However, it is as a matter of principle that the working class upholds the sovereignty of all peoples as inalienable, including the right to secession.

When India was under British colonial rule, it was considered treason to raise the demand for complete independence. There were forces that demanded "home rule" under the British Empire. However, the revolutionary patriots and communists hoisted the banner of complete independence. The rest is history.

Right now, a grotesque debate on "autonomy of Kashmir" is going on in the Kashmir Assembly and in the news media. This debate is being conducted while dozens of people are being raped and slaughtered in the Kashmir valley on a daily basis by the armed forces. This debate is being carried out at a time when thousands of Kashmiri fighters are incarcerated in the jails of the reactionaries. How should workers view this?

India’s workers must demand with one voice that the Indian government immediately withdraw its military into the barracks and cease state terrorism and the rule of the armed forces. We must demand that all political prisoners must be immediately released. The government of India must acknowledge and restore the sovereignty of Kashmir. Once sovereignty is restored to the peoples, the peoples will be free to decide what arrangements they want with other peoples. In the absence of restoring sovereignty to the peoples, everything else including the debate on "autonomy of Kashmir" is a ruse of the ruling class and their imperialist allies to prevent a solution to the outstanding problems of nation building.

India’s working class gains by forging the unity of not only all the nations and nationalities and tribal peoples of India, but also the unity of all the peoples of South Asia as a bulwark against imperialism and for mutual benefit. This demands that working class pursue a consistent policy on the national question, and resolutely oppose the social-chauvinist and imperialist policy of those in the working class who want to make it a tail of the bourgeoisie

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Historic summit for the reunification of Korea

The movement of the Korean people for reunification of their country took a step forward as the leaders of North and South Korea signed a historic agreement on June 14, 2000. Divided by the designs of US and world imperialism since 1948, the Korean people living on both sides of the divide have been aspiring for reunification ever since. With this meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jon Il and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, the possibility of reunification has greatly improved. Further meetings and interactions of ministers and officials have been planned to take the work ahead. South Korean Finance Minister Lee Hun-jai said the two sides were expected to hold Cabinet-level talks in July to follow up on summit agreements.

The division of Korea had its origins in the imperialist strategy of US imperialism at the end of the Second World War. As Japanese imperialism suffered defeat and the Korean people rose up to liberate their homeland from the Japanese occupiers, the US imperialists sent in their troops to prevent the liberation of Korea and instead take over from where the Japanese left. The Korean people refused to accept American occupation and domination and waged a vigorous struggle against the occupation forces. After a three-year bloody war between the US occupation forces and the Korean liberation fighters, Korea was formally divided and the southern part of Korea came under American military and political control. However neither the people of North Korea or those of South Korea ever reconciled themselves to this forcible imperialists instigated division of their homeland.

The two parts of Koreas are, according to the imperialists, technically still at war since the hostilities in 1950-53 were ended by only an armistice. Even today, over 38,000 US troops are stationed there, ostensibly to "guarantee peace and security". Unrelenting pressure has been put on the government and people of North Korea over the decades, including through economic blockades and threats of military invasion, to force the Korean people to give up their aspirations and accept subjugation by US imperialism.

However, the people of Korea have never accepted this. They have risen in repeated revolts, braving the fascist puppet troops and occupation forces over the decades. Only a few days ago, on June 17, 2000, in Maehyang-ri, 50 miles southwest of Seoul, hundreds of villagers, students and workers staged militant demonstrations demanding closure of the nearby Koon-Ni U S Air Force Range. They demanded that U.S. troops leave South Korea and clashed with baton-wielding riot police. "This is our land. Let’s drive out U.S. troops!’’ chanted the thousands of demonstrators, pumping their fists into the air.

Washington was quick to say that the troops would still be stationed there, no matter the easing of tension! According to a May 26 ‘00 Washington Post article, the Pentagon is determined to keep them there despite the vanishing of the "threat" from North Korea. Thus, US imperialism is adamant on continuing its discredited and dastardly policies that have brought so much hardship to people all over the globe.

People’s Voice extends full support to the Korean people in their struggle to reunify their country.

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Capitalist consolidation in the cement industry has grave portents for the working people

The 110 Million tonnes cement industry in India, the third largest in the world, is fast on its way to domination by a handfull of Indian and foreign monopolies. Recently, Gujarat Ambuja cements took over DLF Cements and also acquired a 11 per cent stake in the Tata owned Associated Cement Companies (ACC), a big monopoly in its own right. Larsen & Toubro, another cement giant, took over Narmada Cements. India Cements in south India took over another big player in the south, Raasi Cements. The Birla-owned Grasim acquired the cement division of another Birla-owned enterprise, Indian Rayon, to consolidate itself to meet the competition. Very recently, the BK Birla owned Century Textiles has decided to sell off its Manikgarh plant in Maharashtra.

The industry now has about 60 capitalist groups operating over 120 plants. The scenario is now changing fast with all the mergers and acquisitions. Even medium sized producers are selling off their plants and exiting. Even now, four or five corporate houses account for more than half the output. Just 3 cement monopolies, L&T, Gujarat Ambuja and Grasim account for 24.6 per cent of domestic capacity.

Foreign cement monopolies have also been taking over cement plants in India, trying to grab a slice of the market share. Global monopolies like Lafarge of France, Blue Circle of Europe, Cimex of Mexico and Holderbank of Switzerland, are negotiating with domestic producers to take over their plants. Lafarge has already taken over cement plants belonging to TISCO and Raymonds. The Italian owned group company Ciment Francais bought a 50 per cent stake in the KK Birla owned Zuari Industries recently.

The cement industry in India had been under the total control of Indian capitalists until a few years back. The high import duty of 40 per cent protected the domestic capitalists from cheap imports. The domestic capitalists have also been controlling all the bulk cement handling facilities in the ports. Now, the domestic capitalists and their state feel that they can gain by allowing foreign multinationals to enter the Indian industry, not by creating new capacities, but by takeovers and mergers. The rapacious greed for super profits of both the domestic and foreign capitalists are driving them into each other’s arms.

Why are all these capitalists and monopolies interested in the cement industry now? Is it because they are concerned about the millions of people who live in the villages and urban slums in kutcha houses or on the pavements? Are they really worried about the low per capita consumption of cement of 250 kg, which is a third of the global average? By becoming global players in the cement industry and achieving global efficiencies are they going to provide cheaper cement for the people?

Not at all. Indian and foreign capitalists are least bothered about these issues. What has been attracting them to the cement industry is the recent high growth rates in this sector in India. Domestic capacity has grown 50 per cent since the mid-1990s. Last year alone saw a growth rate of 14 per cent. Considering the negative growth rates in other regions such as south-east Asia, and the global growth rates of 1.5 per cent, India offers a lucrative market for the capitalists.

The growth in the cement market has been driven by government policies and programmes, aimed at consolidating this industry so that India can become a global player. Huge amounts of investments are being diverted to the infrastructure sector, to build highways, flyovers and bridges bringing windfall profits to builders and material producers. This is being done by cutting down on fertiliser, sugar and public distribution subsidies and diverting funds from education, health and welfare sectors. The 1999 and 2000 budgets have provided many sops for the industry. The 1999 budget established a Central Road Fund for national highways and railway overbridges.

The eastern market has shown the highest growth rate of 22 per cent in 1999-2000 considering the huge investments in infrastructure being made in the northeast. In the south, the growth was 21 per cent, propelled by highways and IT parks.

Apart from this, urban and rural housing have also been contributing to the growth. Banks and financial institutions have been offering housing loans to the middle strata in the cities and rural towns. Interest from these housing loans account for a major part of profits of financial giants such as HDFC. The cement monopolies have been pressurising their government to give cheaper loans and reform land laws for the uninterrupted growth of their profits. In amending land laws, a beginning has been made with the ordinance repealing the Urban Land (Ceiling & Regulation) Act, which has been subsequently ratified by Parliament.

Cement monopolies have also been planning to capture markets outside India. For example, Gujarat Ambuja Cements, is setting up a jetty in Sri Lanka. It subsequently plans to set up a 0.5 m tpa cement grinding facility by March 2001. India’s main export markets are Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, UAE and Mauritius.

With all this consolidation, it has been predicted by economists that the monopolies will have an upper hand in pricing cement. A couple of years ago, excess capacity and falling demand had driven the prices and profits down. This is going to be reversed now. Cement prices are expected to increase by 1.5-3.5 per cent in 2000 and 5-6 per cent in 2001.

While India emerges into a global player, there are no plans to give shelter to the millions of homeless people, who live in thatched huts, ramshackle bastis and on the pavements. Neither are loans available to them, nor are they provided construction material at subsidised rates. So, while India’s working people remain homeless, big Indian and foreign monopolies will be making super profits through the ruthless exploitation and plunder of India’s vast natural resources.

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The struggle against the ferocious capitalist offensive must be waged with the revolutionary perspective!

The Central government has announced the decision to privatise Air India as well as the Hotel Corporation of India as the next step in the ongoing privatisation program. Simultaneously, the government has decided to stick to the cut in food and fertiliser subsidy, increasing the hardships of workers and peasants. The chief of the IMF has issued a special certificate to the Government of India and its Finance Ministry for its loyal and speedy implementation of the so-called "Second Generation of reforms", including cuts in subsidy and privatisation.

The Communist Ghadar Party of India denounces these attacks on the livelihood and rights of workers and peasants and all working people. The Communist Ghadar Party of India denounces the attempts of the government and its spokespersons to portray these decisions as dictated by "public interest". This is a transparent attempt to cover up that the so-called "public interest" that the Indian State is defending is the interest of the biggest Indian and foreign capitalists. It is the claims of these sections that are being speedily satisfied and this is the whole and sole purpose of the so-called "Second Generation of Reforms". The IMF President has left no one in doubt as to whose interests the government of India is loyally defending.

Who benefits from privatisation?

The government propaganda makes out that privatisation is necessary because various public sector operations are loss making and the government cannot sink more public funds into these operations. Workers must ask the government and the capitalists who are so hell bent on privatisation these days that if loss making is the issue, then, should not those who were responsible for crores of public money being siphoned off during the decades these enterprises were in government hands not be identified and punished? If loss is the issue, then, should not all the ministers and so-called public servants of past and present who have plundered the public exchequer in the name of "socialistic pattern of society" not be punished? By trying to sell off the public sector enterprises, the government is trying to throw a cloak over all the enormous plunder that has been carried out by the cabal of politicians, bureaucrats and private capitalists. At the same time, as each public sector enterprise is sold off, once again money will be made by this same cabal by undervaluing the precious assets and disposing them off to Indian and foreign capitalists.

Thief Crying Stop Thief

To divert attention from the outright plunder of public assets that the government has and is supervising over on behalf of the capitalists, a massive disinformation campaign has been launched to divide the working class and blame the victims of capitalism for the evils of capitalism. According to this propaganda, firstly, it is claimed that the public sector employees are "over paid" and "privileged" compared to the rest of the working class, and secondly, that these industries are "over staffed". It is made out that the workers are somehow to blame for this situation.

The aim of this type of propaganda as well as the propaganda that workers are inefficient, do not work, etc., is to blame the victims of the privatisation for the problem. It is to demoralise the workers and divide the opposition to privatisation, so that workers start repeating the propaganda of the bourgeoisie. Lastly it is to divert attention from the fact that it is the bourgeoisie and its governments, both the present one and the past ones, who are wholly and solely responsible for the present state of affairs. We are not aware that the bourgeoisie or any of its governments from Nehru’s time to today ever asked the opinion of the working class of India before setting up the Public Sector. On the contrary, the Public Sector was set up under the famous Tata-Birla plan named after its mentors. According ot this plan, the Tata’s and Birlas demanded that the government of India invest in sectors of the economy which required long gestation periods, huge investments beyond the means of the capitalists at the time, and where the rate of returns were low. The capitalists demanded that loss making enterprises, especially in the old sectors like textiles and jute, as well as dilapidated coal mines and so on be taken over by the government and the capitalists be given massive compensation. This is precisely what successive governments implemented under the Tata-Birla plan for the "socialistic pattern of society".

If a record is made of the sytematic plunder of the public sector that has been carried out by the capitalists, the politicians and bureacrats over the decades, it will show the enormous and decisive role of the public sector in enabling the Indian bourgeoisie to enrich itself and grow big by plundering the wealth of society and the labour of the workers. It is precisely as a result of this that today the big capitalists of India have grown so big that they are in a position, either in collaboration with foreign multinationals or by themselves, to take over and run such huge enterprises, as well as make maximum profits from them. Hence the demand for privatisation of potentially profit-making sectors.

The capitalist offensive can be fought through to the end only with the revolutionary perspective

Workers and working people must understand that the Indian State is a state of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. What does this mean? This means that the ruling class is the bourgeoisie and it is this class’s dictate that runs over the whole of society —in the sphere of the economy, of politics, of international relations. The state machinery - the armed forces, the bureaucracy, the judiciary all serve to maintain this dictatorship over the working class and toiling peasantry and prevent them from rising up in revolution. Then there are those who play the role of the priest, within the working class movement. These traitors to the working class prettify the bourgeois state and make out that the interests of the working masses can be fulfilled within this system just by this or that policy change, or by bringing this or that party to power. They preach that overthrow of the bourgeois state through revolution is impossible and unnecessary and workers must remain content with such crumbs as they may get within this system.

The apologists for the bourgeoisie within the working class propagated in the sixties and afterwards the "virtues" of Tata-Birla "socialism". They preached to the workers in Public sector enterprises that their duty was to defend this capitalist "socialism", and not fight for revolution. Now these same agencies of the bourgeoisie in the working class are blaming the workers in the Public Sector enterprises that they have been "privileged", that they "do not work", that there are "too many workers" and so on. In sum they are repeating the propaganda of the bourgeoisie. They do not want to expose the loot and plaunder of the whole of society that was carried out in the name of the "socialistic pattern of society", becasue they themselves have benefited from this loot. These same agencies are spreading pessimism amongst the workers in the state enterprises who are facing the axe of privatisation that they have no alternative but to accept the "inevitable". They are also busy asking the workers to work out plans to make the enterprises "profitable", working out the "best deal" the workers can get after privatisation, etc. That is, they are striving as always to divert the workers of the state enterprises from fighting the capitalist offensive boldly and with a revolutionary perspective.

The damage to the working class from such "priests", such fire fighters against the revolution has been incalculable. They have succeeded in smashing the unity of the working class and making each section indifferent to the problems of other sections of the working class and the toiling and oppressed masses. This is a logical consequence of fighting for reforms within the capitalist system without the revolutionary perspective. The bourgeoisie is only too willing to concede this or that minor reform to this or that section of the toilers, as insurance against revolution. And when it has sufficiently paralysed and divided the workers, it comes back with multiplied ferocity to attack the workers. The attacks India’s toiling masses are facing today are also a consequence of the role played by those who claimed to be leaders of the working class, but were actually selling out to and collaborating with the bourgeoisie and its state.

The offensive of privatisation can be fought only by waging the struggle with the revolutionary perspective. What does this mean? This means, comrades, that the workers must fight in such a manner as to bring the day of revolution, the day of the overthrow of the capitalist system, closer. We must wage the struggle with the clear understanding that success or defeat in the struggle against privatisation can be judged by one and only one yardstick. This is the yardstick of forging the political unity of the working class and people around the program of wresting political power in the hands of workers and peasants as the condition to ensure that the economy is oriented to providing for the present and future generations. This is the yardstick of increasing the degree of preparedness of the working class and peasantry and all the exploited and oppressed for the revolution. In waging the struggle against privatisation in this manner, workers will learn to isolate and expose the priests and firefighters for the capitalist system who are infiltrated into their ranks, and throw them out of the movement.

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What is the government’s business?

Earlier this year, when Modern Food Industries, the largest public sector bread making company in India, was sold off to the multinational Hindustan Lever, the disinvestment minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley went on record saying that his government was "not in the business of making bread".

The end of last year and the beginning of this year witnessed powerful strikes and struggles of the UP Electricity Board workers and sympathetic struggles by electricity workers all over India, against the governments moves to privatize electricity generation and distribution. The recent disinvestment of Air India, the "Maharaja" and pride of India, India’s international airline, has created much debate in many sections of the society. ITDC Hotels are reported to be next on the disinvestment agenda. Already moves are on to privatize insurance and banking, moves which are being vigorously resisted by the employees of those sectors. With increasing cutbacks in subsidies in higher education, health, public distribution, public transport and other sectors and the increasing inroads being made by private enterprises in many of these sectors, we shall soon be told that "it is not the government’s business to operate hotels or airlines, provide electricity and water, education and health services, financial security, public transport or food to the working people".

The government has categorically stated that disinvestment is of top priority in its agenda. Various sectors have been earmarked for disinvestment, as if the government considers these sectors to be of a "very low level", too low to be run by the government! One may well ask then, what is the government’s business?

The current drive towards privatization of key sectors of the economy, in fact, very clearly brings out what is and has been the real business of the government in India. The real business of the government is to serve the interests of the ruling class, the big bourgeoisie, to plunder the land and labour of the Indian people in the service of the big capitalists and the imperialists. The real business of the government is to suppress the struggles of the working and oppressed people through violence and terror and to advance the imperialist ambitions of the Indian big bourgeoisie.

This has been the real business of the government ever since the time of the British colonial rule in India. The British colonialists, of course, left no doubt as to what their business in India was. But when the rising tide of liberation struggle of the Indian people seriously posed the threat of revolution in India, the British colonialists groomed the class of the big bourgeoisie to act as the "representatives" of the Indian people and continue the same rule after them.

The Indian big bourgeoisie, which took over power from the British colonialists, has always considered the land, labour and natural resources of our people as its private property, to exploit, loot and plunder, in order to maximize its own profits and emerge as a big power in the region and in the world. It has used bestial violence and terror to crush the just aspirations of millions and millions of workers, peasants and working people, to suppress the rights of the various nationalities and tribes in India, including the worst kind of communal violence to divide and massacre the people. Using the slogan of "opposing the threat to national unity and territorial integrity", it has promoted the worst kind of jingoism. It has repeatedly gone to war against neighbouring Pakistan, greatly militarized itself and struck up all sorts of alliances with the imperialists in order to lord it over all the countries of this region and advance its imperialist ambitions all over the world.

All the governments that have held the reins of power over the last 50 years, whether of one political party or another, have consistently made this their real business. The well being of the masses of toiling people, their happiness, security and social progress, has never been the real business of the government. This is amply clear from the fact that this real business of the government has been and continues to be performed very well, while the conditions of the working and oppressed masses has grown from bad to worse.

In the 50’s and 60’s, certain sectors of the economy were included in the "public sector" and their operation was considered the responsibility of the state. These were sectors that needed large-scale investments and long gestation periods, e.g. iron and steel, coal and oil, electricity and water, surface and air transport, etc. The bourgeoisie and its media did their very best to portray the public sector as a "socialist sector". But, in reality, this sector built out of the money, resources and labour of the toiling people, was meant to provide the infrastructure, raw materials and heavy machinery needed by the big capitalists to maximize their profits in India and abroad. It served the purpose of concentrating all this wealth of the people in the hands of the state of the big bourgeoisie, to be used in the service of the big bourgeoisie and its drive for profits. Today, when the bourgeoisie has put disinvestment of all these sectors on its agenda, the state of the big bourgeoisie is merely taking measures to facilitate this disinvestment, in the interests of the big bourgeoisie. No matter which government has been in power, it has pursued this real business of the government, while fooling the people that its business has something to do with the needs or interests of the people. And now, representatives of the government are openly coming out and saying that all this "social welfare", etc. is not their business!

What should be the real business of a government?

From ancient times, our people have understood the business of the government to be that of providing sukh and raksha, i.e. prosperity and security to the people. In the common language of our people, a government that cannot provide these to the people is worthless and must go. It is expected that a government should have as its primary concern the well being and security of the people and should actively pursue a program of utilizing all the natural and human resources at its disposal to ensure this. It is expected that the government should listen to and respect the voice of the people. It is expected that the government should be fair to all its citizens alike and mete out justice impartially to all. It is expected that the government ensure that the wealth created by the labour of the people is used, first and foremost, to improve the lot of the people. It is expected that the government should enable the people to control their own natural resources and live in peace and harmony with each other. Clearly, the present government or any of the governments before it have fallen far short of these expectations. In fact, they have worked precisely opposite to these expectations.

How can we, the working and oppressed people, ensure such a government?

Any government that comes to power will necessarily look after the interests of the class in power. If the interests of the class that holds political power is in accordance with the interests of the vast majority of the people, then its business will be to look after the interests of the people. On the other hand, if the class that holds political power has interests opposed to those of the masses of people, as is the case with the present ruling class, the big bourgeoisie in India, then the business of the government will be to serve the interests of the bourgeoisie, no matter how much demagogy it uses to fool us and make us believe otherwise. If we want that the government should look after the interests of the workers, peasants, women, youth, the various nationalities and tribes in India and make this its main business, then the precondition for this is that the workers and working people must have political power in their own hands. The 20th century has vividly witnessed what the real business of the government can be when the working class has political power in its hands. We have witnessed how the government, working in harmony with the people, can go about doing its business so as to ensure dramatic advances in the quality of life of the people. To ensure that the government makes it its business to serve the interests of the toiling masses, the first task before us is to build the unity of all the working and oppressed people and take forward the struggle for political power in the hands of the working class and people.

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Youth workshop for social change

The Delhi Committee of Lok Raj Sangathan (LRS) had organised a workshop for working class youth on June 25, 2000. About 35 boys and girls in the age group of 15 - 20 took part in this programme.

The purpose of organising the workshop was to stimulate the youth to contemplate and discuss issues facing society and in particular the role they could play in bringing about social change. The workshop was conducted in several sessions, in which the youth participated very enthusiastically.

President of LRS, Mr T S Sankaran, welcomed the participants and briefed them about the history and activities of LRS. The participants discussed several topics, such as the role of mother in family, gender equality, social inequity, the effect of cinema and TV, falling educational standards, unemployment, etc. Privatisation, globalisation and liberalisation and their effect on the lives of the working people were discussed. A documentary film on the liberalisation programme, Lifting the Veil, was screened.

The very important role to be played by youth in bringing about social transformation, and constructing a society without exploitation of man by man, was emphasized throughout. The difficulties encountered on the road to social transformation were discussed, during which it was stressed that there is a constant struggle between old and new ideas, and those interested in social change have to work tirelessly for it. All the participating youth wanted to work to create a society where only the working people controlled the powers of the state. For building such a society, they concluded that it is necessary to make the working people conscious, strengthen their unity and build their fighting organisation. The entire programme helped in strenthening the unity, confidence and optimism of the participating youth.

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Vigorous fight against union breaking activities by garment workers in Vasai

Workers (mostly women) in a large garment unit in Vasai near Mumbai owned by the Leela group (which owns the 5 Star hotel Leela Kempinski in Mumbai) have been vigorously fighting against union breaking activites and attacks by the management and police.

On Monday June 19, 2000, goondas hired by management entered their work place and attempted to force people to signup to join a new management sponsored union. The workers immediately raised a hue and cry about it as even their own relatives are not allowed to enter the work place even to deliver lunchboxes, and here were management goondas not only entering, but openly "recruiting". The news spread like wild fire inside this large garment unit, and the workers immediately stopped working in protest and marched out to demonstrate. The goondas attacked them physically aided by some supervising staff, but were firmly repulsed by the workers and they ran away. However, emboldened by the support of the management the goondas turned up at the gates of the factory again the next day and tried to intimidate the working women by blocking their entry into the factory. The security guards of the factory or the supervising staff did not take any action and instead started abusing the workers. This provocation led to an immediate walk out and protest demonstration at the nearby Vasai Police Station asking for immediate police action against the goondas. The inspector in charge at the police station, as an honest servant of the capitalists, did nothing against the actual troublemakers. Instead, he started booking the complaining workers including the General Secretary of Ladaku Garment Mazdoor Sangh, Com. Shekhar Kapare, on trumped up charges. The next day, when the arrested workers were supposed to be produced in court, the police started arresting more workers saying they do not have names of goondas but they have names of workers. Hundreds of assembled workers vigorously protested against this unjust and blatantly biased activity of police. The inspector relented and did not arrest any more workers and instead produced them in court were they were released on bail.

Leela management had a large garment unit in Andheri in Mumbai and using precisely the same tactics of using hired goondas, they had locked out the factory in1978, forced the workers to leave and then built their 5 - star hotel on the site of the factory, near the airport. This hotel is today one of the most expensive and profitable hotels in the city of Mumbai. According to Com. Murthy, president of the union, and Com. Verma and other activists, workers are fully united and are negotiating a wage agreement with the management, which today runs the business largely on piece rate and does not even give minimum wages to workers.

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Kanpur textile workers struggle against grave injustice

The workers of the N.T.C. and B.I.C. mills are fighting valiantly against the grave injustice being done to them by the U.P. State and Central governments and the capitalists. Not only has their struggle shaken up the city of Kanpur, it has completely exposed the anti - worker policy of the government of the capitalists.

During the last twenty-five years, the various cotton, woolen, and silk mills of Kanpur have been taken over by the central government, by passing laws at different times in Parliament. While taking over these mills, the government had given three reasons. Firstly, that production would be carried out in order to provide the masses with cloth at reasonable rates. Secondly, to ensure permancy of employment. And thirdly, in order to produce uniforms for the armed forces. The same reasons were adduced as and when the different mills were taken over.

However, after this nationalisation, neither was the machinery in the mills improved in any way, nor was their management improved, nor was cloth produced for the poor or the underprivileged. In other words, all the noble reasons adduced by the government were proved false.

The truth was that the government purchased the shares of these mills from the capitalists after compensating them very handsomely, and started to run them, when the capitalists did not find it profitable to run these mills in the old way. To hide this sordid reality, rosy promises were made. The government allowed the huge productive forces, that is the machinery and the working force, to go into disuse and ruin. It did not try to modernise the mills or improve them in any way. Meanwhile, after some consultations with trade unionists, the government declared the NTC and BIC Mills to be "sick". The workers started getting paid for sitting idle. And this is the case till today.

The wages of these workers were not revised since 1972, while the wages of workers in other sectors has been revised several times in the interim. The workers do not get DA and other benefits. While the wages of the supervisors and others working in the offices of the holding company have been revised, the workers of the mills are getting only the old wages and their condition is very bad. For example, the unskilled workers are getting a wage as low as 30 Rupees a month! In order that it can escape revising the wages,the government has been making many false excuses. It says that the wages have been fixed by a tripartite agreement (between the mill owners, government and union representatives) and is hence powerless to change the wages on its’ own, etc. But the owner of the mills today is the government itself! By denying the workers living wages, it is pushing them towards starvation and death.

The workers of the textile mills in Kanpur have been fighting against this with great determination and courage. They are demanding that the government mordernise these mills and run them properly, provide the workers with work, and give them wages as in other public enterprises.

The issue of the NTC and BIC mills in Kanpur once again makes it clear that every governement in bourgeois society works only for the benefit of the capitalists, while there is tremendous destruction of the means of production and all round hardship caused to the thousands of workers.

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