• Crisis of Capitalism is intensifying — Only Communism can save India!
  Communique of the 7th Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India

• Down with the anti-worker, anti-peasant and anti-social Budget for 2001-02!
  Block the path to the implementation of the "Second Generation of Reforms"!

• Down with the sell-out of BALCO by the NDA government!
  Support the just struggle of the BALCO workers against privatisation!

• Tehelka, Kashipur and Koel Karo

• Anti-working class offensive

• Peasants in Tamil Nadu call for an alternative

• Vigorously oppose the anti-peasant budget!
  Forward with the building of the worker-peasant revolutionary front!

• Only a society free from exploitation and oppression can guarantee a bright future for the youth

• Bhagat Singh’s martyrdom anniversary commemorated in Sanjay Colony

• Martyrs day commemorated in Ulhasnagar

Crisis of Capitalism is intensifying — Only Communism can save India!

Convened during March 31-April 1, 2001, the 7th Plenum of the CC of the Communist Ghadar Party of India deliberated on the current acute crisis in the country, which is an integral part of the worldwide crisis of the capitalist-imperialist system and the states of multi-party representative democracy.

The anti-worker and anti-peasant Budget for 2001-02, presented by the Vajpayee Government in February; the complete lifting of ban on imports of all kinds, starting April 1, to comply with WTO conditions; the acute clash over the BALCO privatisation deal that was announced in the budget; and the Tehelka tapes scandal in March — all these show that the major contradictions of Indian society are intensifying, not only between the exploiters and the exploited but also among the exploiters themselves.

The developments confirm that the ruling bourgeoisie is incapable of lifting India out of the crisis. They point to the urgency for the working class movement, with communists providing unified leadership, to emerge on the scene with its own independent program for the renewal of India.

The 7th Plenum noted that the current crisis of bourgeois rule offers an opportunity for the working class to come to the centre-stage of politics, putting forth the alternative to the capitalist system and to representative democracy. It is essential to step up the work to capture the space for communism to flourish on Indian soil, building on the historic success of the Kanpur Communist Conference and Mass Rally in December 2000.

Having positively assessed the theoretical and practical organisational work of the party over the past 5 months, the 7th Plenum took important decisions to further strengthen this work. These include specific organisational measures to consolidate the work of building the political unity of workers, peasants, women and youth. The plenum took the decision to launch a yearlong campaign to elaborate contemporary Marxist-Leninist thought, starting with the celebration of Lenin’s birth anniversary on April 22, 2001.

The 7th Plenum also deliberated on problems of inner-party democracy and reaffirmed the crucial importance of regular reporting and submission of minutes to the higher bodies by every party organisation, so as to strengthen collective leadership as well as individual responsibility and individual initiative within the party. The Plenum discussed the plan of work for the year and decided to sum up the work at a Consultative Conference to be held in December 2001.

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Down with the anti-worker, anti-peasant and anti-social Budget for 2001-02!

Block the path to the implementation of the "Second Generation of Reforms"!

The Budget announced a wide ranging package of policy measures, all of which are aimed at facilitating the acquisition of maximum profits by the big capitalist companies and multinationals, through more intensive and extensive super-exploitation and plunder of the land and labour of India.

The Budget set the "bold" target of raising Rs. 12,000 crore through the privatisation and sale of public assets. To emphasize the point that it is more serious about its privatisation target than others in the past, the Vajpayee Government announced the BALCO privatisation deal to coincide with the opening of the Budget session of Parliament.

The Budget put forth plans to amend both the Industrial Disputes Act and the Contract Labour Act so as to strengthen the power of the capitalists to hire workers without offering any legal protection or security of livelihood, and to fire them at any time it suits the interests of capital.

The Budget declared that the system of public procurement of wheat and rice and their subsidised sale through ration shops—the PDS—would be dismantled in steps. For whatever remains of this system after it is truncated, the responsibility would be transferred to the state governments. The government also announced its intention to eliminate the system of subsidised supply of fertiliser to the peasantry.The Essential Commodities Act would also be amended so as to allow free inter-state trade in food grains and other food products in the interests of maximising capitalist profits. In other words, the plan is for the Central Government to wash its hands off any responsibility to either guarantee livelihood to the tillers of the land or ensure supply of essential commodities at affordable prices.

The year 2001-02 will be one in which the ban on imports will be completely lifted to fulfill the conditions of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). This is a process that was initiated by the Congress Party when it was in power at the Centre, and which is being carried forward by the current BJP-led government. The result of this process is to subject all the small and medium-scale producers in the towns and villages to the threat of cheap imports flooding the Indian market. Over the past year, lifting of restrictions on some 700 commodities has led to the ruination of tens of thousands of workers and owners of small and medium-scale units. From April 1, 2001, imports will be allowed of the remaining 700 items still on the restricted list.

In such a situation, the Budget proposes dereservation for several key items of leather goods and readymade garments, to enable the big monopoly companies to invest and capture the market for exports of such items. This is a proposal that threatens to wipe out, at one stroke, a very large number of small scale units engaged in these sectors.

While threatening the livelihood of workers and peasants, the Budget offers fresh tax breaks to the capitalist class. Dividend tax will be lowered from 20% to 10%, the 10% surcharge on import duty will be abolished, and new tax holidays and exemptions are being extended to the companies that invest in infrastructure sectors.

In the sphere of Centre-state relations, the Budget has announced the plan to increasingly make the flow of funds from the Centre to the states conditional on a package of "reforms" to be implemented by the state governments, especially their performance in privatisation of electric supply. This is a plan for the Central Government to assume a role with respect to the states similar to the role of the World Bank and IMF towards the Government of India. The aim is to use financial transfers as a mechanism to influence state government policies, more extensively and blatantly than ever before.

The Budget is being hailed by the bourgeois media as the harbinger of the "second generation of economic reforms". The content of these "reforms" is to block the path to the progress of Indian society. It is not only anti-worker, anti-peasant and anti-small producer, it is at the same time against the general interests of society as a whole. It is aimed at satisfying the greed of the biggest exploiters and plunderers.

Prepare to Block Implementation of this plan!

This Budget must be met with a fitting response on the part of the workers, peasants, women and youth of the country.

First of all, the Finance Bill has to be passed in the Parliament for the Budget proposals to become effective. Secondly, many of the measures proposed in the Budget require legal amendments in order to be implemented. Some may need a vote in Parliament. The working class and people have to prepare to block the path to the implementation of the bourgeoisie’s plan.

Let us step up the struggle against the anti-social offensive of the bourgeoisie!

Let us block the path to implementation of the Sinha Budget!

Workers, peasants, women and youth! We constitute India! We are her masters!

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Down with the sell-out of BALCO by the NDA government!
Support the just struggle of the BALCO workers against privatisation!

The workers of BALCO in Balconagar, Corba district of Chattisgarh have gone on a powerful militant strike completely bringing production to a standstill. They have forced the management to shut off the power plants, and gheraoed the management. These seven thousand workers have through their immediate action shown the power of the organised working class and its capacity to give a fitting challenge to the anti-national anti-worker disinvestment program of the Indian state. This struggle deserves the support of the entire Indian working class and of all Indians concerned about the future of the country.

The Supreme Court and the Central Government have declared the strike of BALCO workers "illegal". However, the real issue is, in what way can the sale of BALCO be justified? Where from does the government of India get the right to sell off property that does not belong to it in the first place? Is the duty of the government of India merely to defend the exploitation and plunder of the country by Indian and foreign capitalists and use the taxpayers’ money to finance courts and police and armed forces to defend the capitalists and imperialists? These questions were raised by workers of Modern Food Industries a year ago, and the government has still not answered, except for the notorious statement of former Disinvestment Minister Arun Jaitley that "it is not the business of government to make bread". However, the government and all political parties cannot avoid answering these questions for long.

The workers of BALCO, and the people and government of Chattisgarh have raised very vital questions regarding the validity of the sale of BALCO, which just cannot be brushed aside. It is a fact that land belonging to tribals has been leased to BALCO for mining purposes at extremely nominal rates, on the consideration that the aluminium plant belonged to the people of the state. The power plants that were handed over to BALCO were done so with the understanding that power would also be supplied to the people of Korba. India’s laws explicitly prohibit establishing of industries by private capitalists in tribal areas.The Chattisgarh government has also raised the vital question of the right of the people of Chattisgarh to the natural resources of the state. In its greed and haste, the Union government has trampled upon the rights of the peoples and the right of the government of Chattisgarh and merely defended the right of private property.

The entire course of privatisation has been dismissed by the courts and legal experts as a "matter of policy" in the past year and more. Does this mean that if the government of India decides to sell a part or the whole of the country to some foreign bidder, it is all a matter of policy? What are the rights and duties of the government of India, what are the rights and duties of the state governments, what are the rights and duties of the citizens of India? While fighting against the sale of enterprises like BALCO, the Indian working class and people must bring these questions to the forefront in their ongoing struggle against privatisation and liberalisation.

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Tehelka, Kashipur and Koel Karo

While the fallout of the Tehelka tapes has pushed aside questions regarding the pro-rich thrust of the budget and the government’s disinvestment policies, these are unlikely to disappear altogether. What the Tehelka tapes also highlight is the fact that under the current system of party funding and lack of accountability, governments will inevitably be more responsive to the concerns of large industrialists and arms dealers than to the constituencies from whom they get their votes. In the hope that by repeated assertion their statements will assume the mantle of acceptability, Jaya Jaitley, Bangaru Laxman and others have attempted to claim that asking for donations to their parties (whether in rupees or dollars) from dubious arms dealers is somehow less corrupt than asking for personal bribes. Such kickbacks inevitably increase the price of defence procurement, and there is no reason whatsoever why taxpayers should thus indirectly fund parties they may not otherwise support. But this apart, surely it is more than obvious that dealers or industrialists do not fund parties out of pure philanthropy. Since workers, peasants tribals and ordinary soldiers do not have the money for such slush funds, and their concerns never make daily news in the way that the stockmarket does, it is perhaps not unsurprising that governments feel they do not have to listen to this vast majority of India’s population.

Two major incidents in the last few months highlight the growing contempt that governments feel for ordinary citizens and for the laws of the country. The police firings at Maikanch village in Rayagada district of Orissa on 16 December, 2000 and at Tapkara in Ranchi district, Jharkhand, on February 2, 2001 share more than just the fact that they were targeted at unarmed adivasis. In both cases, human rights groups who have visited the area to investigate the incidents have discovered that the firing was entirely unprovoked. Again, in both cases, in what is evidently the latest lesson for trigger-happy police or ‘Police face-saving 101’; the police burnt their own jeeps in an effort to shift culpability to the protestors. In Maikanch, three people were killed, six permanently disabled and dozens more injured, while in Tapkara, nine have died so far and 22 others seriously injured. Even in a society inured to deaths, especially the deaths of scrawny little adivasis in the middle of nowhere, these numbers and the public callousness about them are startling.

Since 1993, villagers in Rayagada have been protesting against a proposed Aluminium plant being promoted by Utkal Aluminium International Ltd. (UAIL), a joint venture of Hindalco and Hydro Alumina, a Norwegian Company. After initial resistance to two other proposed aluminium plants in the area, their promoters are watching the UAIL drama from the sidelines before they plan their next steps. The bauxite for UAIL is to come from Baphlimali hills, and more than 1,750 hectares of land to be requisitioned for mining, the plant site, a township and dumping grounds etc. As happens in every adivasi area, immigrant traders and contractors, and petty politicians have supported the plant, floated their own NGOs and attempted to play upon differences between adivasis and dalits. A pro-mining gang led by the BJP district president and his supporters who visited Maikanch village on December 15th was driven away after they misbehaved with local women. The next day, two platoons of policemen arrived in the village. When they beat up a middle-aged woman and she fell unconscious, the men who had run away to the surrounding hills to avoid confrontation were forced to come down. They were shot as they came down the hills. Cattle grazing on the hills also died. Justice Tewatia and Swami Agnivesh who visited the area, note in their report that ‘the BJD, BJP and the Congress parties are operating neither as representatives of the people nor in the interest of the predominantly tribal population, but as agents of the multinational consortium UAIL.’ After the Tehelka revelations, no prizes for guessing why.

The struggle against the Koel Karo dam has been an even longer one, since the mid seventies. In 1985, the villagers had erected a gate at Derang village on their own land, so that outsiders visiting the area would have to explain their presence, rather than assuming, as they always do, that they have a right to come in and survey whatever they want without informing the locals. On February 1, a police patrol, ostensibly in search of MCC activists, broke down the gate. When an ex-army man, Amrit Guria, who saw this, asked them why, they beat him up severely. The next day, around four thousand unarmed people gathered in front of Tapkara police outpost to demand that the gate be restored, and that Amrit Guria be compensated. Even as their representatives had gone inside to hand over their memorandum, the police started firing. As anthropologist Kaushik Ghosh and other human rights activists have certified, the police claims that they were attacked strain credulity, given the nature of the damage, which appears to be entirely self inflicted.

In both the Koel Karo and the Rayagada case, not only have the governments not taken any action against the police officers, they have willfully ignored the provisions of the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas Act, 1996), which give gram sabhas (or Zilla Parishads in the case of Orissa) the right to be consulted in all decisions regarding land acquisitions. Worse still, UAIL like BALCO under Sterlite, is in contempt of the Supreme Court’s decision in the SAMATA case, which prohibits mining by private companies in adivasi areas. Even as the government claims to be cleaning up its act after the Tehelka expose, institutions like the World Bank promote good governance, and industry pretends there is no alternative to full-scale privatization, everyone is happy to ignore the laws of the land when it comes to stealing from adivasis.
Nandini

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Anti-working class offensive

Regarding the Contract Labour Act, this is what the Finance Minister says in his speech: "Similarly rigidities inherent in the existing legislation regarding contract labour inhibit growth in employment in many service activities. Section 10 of the existing Act envisages prohibition of Contract labour in work/process/operation if the conditions set therein like perennial nature of job etc., are fulfilled. Section 10 enables the contract labour engaged in prohibited jobs to become direct employees of the principal employee. To overcome this difficulty and at the same time ensure the protection of labour, it is proposed to bring an amendment to facilitate outsourcing activities without any restrictions as well as to offer contract appointments. It would not differentiate between core and non-core activities, and provide protection to labour engaged in outsourced activities in terms of their health, safety, welfare and social security etc. It would also provide for larger compensation based on last drawn wages as retrenchment compensation for every year of service."

The proposed amendment to the Contract Labour Act constitutes a massive attack on all that the working class has achieved in the past 5 decades since formal independence. As is well known, the vast majority of India’s workforce— whether in industry or agriculture or services sector or construction—are virtually contract labour, without any rights, living a hand to mouth existence at the best of times.

Freedom to hire and fire is the essence of contract labour. From the time capitalism emerged on the scene, the capitalist system has required a reserve army of unemployed in order to beat down the wages of labour and increase their profits. The working class organised itself into trade unions and fought to restrict the freedom of the capitalist class to hire and fire labour. In the process of a long drawn struggle, workers of different countries asserted their right to a life of dignity and the bourgeoisie of various countries was forced to pay lip service to some of these rights. In Indian conditions, the working class fought for the abolition of contract labour, which of course is not possible to abolish in the conditions of capitalism. As a result of this long drawn struggle, it was made difficult for the capitalists in the sectors in which workers are organised into powerful unions to hire and fire at will. The capitalist class of course has ensured enough loop holes in the laws to ensure that this could be still done. At the same time it has long been demanding that laws such as the Contract Labour Abolition Act, or Section VB of the Industrial Disputes Act relating to closures, layoffs and retrenchments in larger companies hiring over 100 workers, be themselves repealed. As the process of globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation was unleashed in the early nineties, foreign capital also demanded the same conditions in order to ensure free movement of capital and labour, that is in order to ensure the maximum rate of profits through the super exploitation of the workers of India. Now the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government is coming forward shamelessly to fulfil these wishes of the capitalist and imperialists.

The Contract Labour Act (Section 10) has provisions which restrict the scope of contract labour to seasonal work and to the non-core sector of the particular industry. For instance, in a hospital, security and housekeeping was always under contract labour, but nurses and technical staff could not be hired on a contract basis. What Mr. Sinha wants to do is to legalise a situation in which a hospital could have its entire work sub-contracted out—not just the canteen and security services. He wants to legalise that a factory producing bread can outsource production of bread to a subcontractor without any liabilities towards the labour employed by that contractor. This will lead to an increase in small units which are at the mercy of large corporations, Indian and foreign, which in turn will simply put their labels on the products produced in sweat shops in remote corners of the land where workers have no rights, and rake in maximum profits for themselves. The moment workers in those contracted units organise themselves into unions for their rights, the big capitalists will simply outsource production to some other contractor.

Yashwant Sinha and his supporters are making out that abolition of the Contract Labour Act will be to the benefit of contract workers, as if this is their aim, not the maximising of profits. This is like rubbing salt on open wounds. Capitalists and their political spokespersons are never bothered either about increasing the quality and quantity of employment, or modernisation of the production process. Their mantra is solely maximisation of the rate of profits, whether this is achieved through hiring and firing contract workers, depressing the wages, modernisation of the production process, or using archaic methods of production, as is the case in our construction industry with children, women and men being used as beasts of burden. If the Contract Labour Act is amended in the direction that Mr Sinha proposes, it will mean a big attack on the entire working class, even though in appearance it is targeted at the workers who at present are in the category of skilled or professional workers. It will mean that all workers, not just those who are contract labourers today, will have the Damocles sword of losing their jobs at any moment hanging over them, totally at the mercy of the employers. It will mean that there will be an all round depression of wages of workers, both those who are currently contract labour and those who will join their ranks as a result of the amended legislation, and an increase in the intensity of exploitation of labour. This is obviously good news for the capitalists and terrible news for the working class and broad masses.

The proposal to abolish Section VB of the ID Act has similar aims. At present, notionally, a factory employing over 100 workers on a regular basis cannot fire at will, or close down, without seeking permission of the appropriate government. The NDA government wants to eliminate this provision, or reduce its applicability to factories employing more than 1000 workers on a regular basis. At one stroke, such an amendment will ensure that 90% of workers who are at present offered a modicum of protection by the existing law will lose even that. In modern day conditions, it is known that capitalists do not want 1000 workers under one roof, and have already devised methods to divide their production into much smaller units in different plants.

The NDA government of the capitalists and imperialists has thrown the gauntlet at India’s working class. The working class accepts this challenge. India’s workers are not slave to the existing labour laws which actually serve more to reconcile the class struggle in favour of the capitalists then to protect the workmen from the laws of capitalism. The central demand that the workers organisations and all their well wishers must hoist is the banner of security of livelihood for all, which includes food, clothing, health, education, and work for themselves and the coming generations. That India’s labour laws need a complete overhaul is no secret. Workers themselves have been in the forefront of the fight for overhauling these laws, including the scrapping of the conciliation machinery, the tripartite boards, the acts that prevent strikes in essential services, the ban on strikes and other forms of protests without notice etc. Workers should demand that all laws that restrict their space for organising and fighting for security of life and livelihood must be forthwith scrapped. Why should the government of India be in the business of defending the interests of the biggest capitalists and foreign monopolies? Why should the government of India deploy the army and police to crush strike struggles of workers, and why should the toiling people foot the bill for these forces?

The time has come for India’s working class to provide a unified challenge to the onslaught of the reactionary bourgeoisie. This can be done only by presenting a comprehensive alternative to the anti-social offensive of the bourgeoisie and imperialism. This alternative must squarely place security of life and livelihood for all workers, peasants, women and youth at the centre. This is something which the state must ensure, otherwise it has no business to exist. This alternative must emphasise that the interests of capitalists and imperialists must in no way take precedence over this overriding concern of the toilers, and that all political parties and forces who think or act otherwise will inevitably be condemned by history. Finally, workers must demand from all political forces, particularly those calling themselves communists, that they stop their fire fighting exercises on behalf of the bourgeoisie and the existing capitalist system, and take up the challenging of forging the revolutionary front of workers, peasants, women and youth of our vast country to build a new India in accordance with the vision of the toilers and not that of the capitalists and imperialists.

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Peasants in Tamil Nadu call for an alternative

The militant meeting was held at Pasuvanthanai in Tuticoring district of Tamil Nadu jointly by Tamilaga Vivasaya Sangam and Makalatchi Iyyakam (Lok Raj Sangathan) on 17th March, 2001. About 50 activists and enthusiasts participated in this meeting and discussed the serious issues facing the peasants and this country at large. The meeting was chaired by Thiru Cholaisamy Reddiar, head of Tamilaga Vivasaya Sangam of Ottapidaram region. Thiru Ma. Gurusamy Thevar, Asst Secretary of Tamil Nadu state of Tamilaga Vivasaya Sangam, Chinnaraja Perumal, Innasi Muthu pillai, District organizer of Tamilaga Vivasaya Sangam, Thiru Suppuram, organizer of Virudhu Nagar District of Tamilaga Vivasaya Sangam, John and Wilson — from the General workers Union of Kanyakumari district and Wilson, the Kanyakumari districtpresident of Makalatchi Iyyakam, Thiru Palraj, well-known social activist, Baskar an activist of Makalatchi Iyyakam from chennai and many others spoke and shared their views at this meeting.

It was recalled that it was in this very same town in 1972 when the peasant’s union launched the Varikoda Iyakkam (No-tax movement) and called for all agricultural loans to be written off and a moratorium on all taxes. In fact, when some people in the leadership raised doubts if this movement will succeed or not, the peasants replied by quoting Veerapandiya Katabomman, a militant King of South India, who refused to pay taxes to the British colonisers who did not provide for the people of India. They were confident that people belonging to this land and who are heirs of this heroic tradition would not back out, but are sure to move forward. Such was their anger against the injustices of the system that millions of peasants came out on the roads and brought the state to a standstill for days on end. The movement shook the very foundations of the rule of the capitalists who launched a brutal assault on the fighting peasants. Many peasants were martyred in this struggle, which invoked memories of the Telengana and the Tebhaga movements against the colonial oppressors and their Indian lackeys. As a direct result of these struggles the peasants won the right to use electricity free of charge and several other concessions from the bourgeoisie.

The activists while taking stock of the present situation felt that for the last ten years and more there has been a stagnation in the peasants movement while the ruling classes have been continuously heaping assaults on them. They felt that now they have been pushed to a "life or death" situation and it is time to act. The peasants have been experiencing the most unfair prices for their agricultural produce in the market, while agricultural inputs have become dearerand dearer. The situation is so alarming that thousands of peasants are being ruined and hundreds have committed suicide. Those who have been feeding the entire country are now faced with starvation deaths. At the same time once fertile lands are turning barren right in front of their eyes.

While peasants have been driven to the wall, it was pointed out all sections of the society are in deep crisis because of the destructive policies of the bourgeoisie and their all-consuming greed for super profits. Whichever government has been in power, it has worked for the big capitalists and big landlords. If we are to live a dignified life we have to revive our organisation, we have to build the sangam in each and every village and take our struggle forward.

The participants were confident that the peasants of Tamil Nadu are much more experienced today. We will not let the parties of the ruling class fool us with illusions about how the policies of this or that party is in favour of peasants. We will not let the ruling class divide them on caste and party lines as they had done in the past. While the peasants have lost even their meagre assets, the situation of workers in the cities is no better. They are squeezed to the bone by the capitalists who are our common enemies. It is imperative that we strengthen the worker-peasant unity and build a powerful and sturdy alliance that can defeat the attacks of the bourgeoisie and bring about a fundamental transformation in the existing system.

The peasants representatives firmly rejected the fronts offered by the bourgeoisie in the coming elections and resolved that only a worker-peasant front that works for an end to all oppression and exploitation can find a lasting solution to the peasant question in favour of the peasants. Replacing one bourgeois government with another is no solution.

On the other hand, the divisions in the communist movement have also benefited the big capitalists to carry out their exploitation without any real hindrance. The activists pointed out that we needto recognize all these factors and learn from our past experience. We need to fight for the power in our hands. We have to build strong organizations and discuss and finalise the basic set of demands with which we can go forward to struggle. Let us not deviate from our struggle and run behind any parties and leaders. But, let us welcome all those parties, political forces and organizations which are interested in supporting our cause.

The peasant’s meet concluded with the reiteration that there is no alternative to revolutionary change. We may have to face many hardships, but otherwise too is life bearable at all in the current dispensation? Is there any alternative? they asked. We will not retreat. If we want to give a new life to agriculture and along with it defend our livelihood and life’s hard earnings, then we need to bring about a revolutionary change in this man-eating system. If people rise in an uprising, there is no force on this earth which can stop them from achieving their aims. Let us smash this man-eating system and in its place build a new system with human beings at the center was the clarion call of the meeting.

The participants then elected a committee to carry forward the work of building the Tamilaga Vivasaya Sangam in each and every village of this region. They also discussed preparations to hold a peasants’ rally on July 5th, the peasant’s day.

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Vigorously oppose the anti-peasant budget!

Forward with the building of the worker-peasant revolutionary front!

The budget proposals in the agrarian sector are a part of the ‘second generation’ reforms that are being feverishly pushed by the big bourgeoisie. They concretise many of the recommendations made in the recently introduced New Agriculture Policy. They also reflect the expansionist ambitions of the Indian ruling class, which has plans to become a world player in agricultural commodities, in collusion and contention with the big foreign agro-monopolies and corporations. These measures will pave the way for expanding the capitalist mode of production in agriculture to areas like the east and north-east regions where capitalism in agriculture is less developed, extending the ‘green revolution’ to newer areas and subjugating the toilers and tillers of the land to brutal exploitation by the Indian ruling class and imperialism.

The anti-peasant measures proposed in the budget are broadly:

• Further dismantling of the PDS and discontinuation of the administered price mechanism (which guaranteed a fixed procurement price), throwing the peasants to the mercy of market forces.

• Setting up of an additional 1 lakh self-help groups, expanding the distribution of kisan credit cards and insurance coverage for peasants—all measures to bind the peasant, hand and foot, to the private financial monopolies and state-run banks. This is aimed at increasing the plunder of the middle and rich peasantry through credits and increasing of their indebtedness.

• Huge subsidies for agro monopolies to build cold storage facilities.

• The Centre will stop providing subsidised foodgrains to the state pool and will progressively hand over both procurement and distribution to the states, thus absolving the central state of responsibility for protecting the interests of peasants.

• Removal of restrictions arising from the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 and allowing of free trade and transfer of essential commodities, thus gravely endangering the food security of the working people.

Solutions advanced by various bourgeois parties such as revamping of the existing PDS, expansion of the food-for-work programme, and reimposition of quantitative restrictions on all agricultural imports cannot help the small and middle peasant from overcoming the present agricultural crisis.

The proposals advanced in this budget have once again proved that the privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation policies of the ruling class can only bring death and destruction for the peasants. The peasants can save themselves from ruin only by forming a revolutionary united front with the working class and fighting for deep-going transformations in the present capitalist system.

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Only a society free from exploitation and oppression can guarantee a bright future for the youth

A dark future is the only vision that is apparent to the youth in this prevailing capitalist system. The only experience of the youth of the workers, peasants and working class sections, in the last so many years, has been the grind in this exploitative-oppressive system and today too, this remains the only experience that is possible for them. While this new generation has been aspiring for education, knowledge, good health, good culture and a secure, harmonious and happy life, this vision has remained an unfulfilled dream for countless people. Even for those few youth who have the good fortune to obtain a school or college education, the future promises only unemployment and insecurity. Every day, the ruling bourgeoisie is unleashing new attacks on the people, laying off those who have been employed and freezing all recruitment. Shelter, health services, nutritious food, clean drinking water and many such basic necessities are not available to countless youth and their families. This is further in shambles when disasters like floods, drought and earthquakes occur. The only future that belongs to lakhs and crores of youth is servility to the bourgeoisie for the barest necessities, a life not worthy of a human, but fit only for animals.

It is the vision of revolution, the overthrow of the state of the bourgeoisie, the political empowerment of workers, peasants, women and youth, that has, in the past, inspired the best youth of every new generation and will continue to do so in the future. Whether they were in the struggle for ousting the British colonialists from our country or part of the revolutionary wave of Naxalbari struggle for the overthrow of the Indian ruling classes, our youth have always come forward in great numbers to lay their life down at the altar of these struggles.

The bourgeoisie has tried every trick in the book to divert the youth from their struggles. The bourgeoisie has made every effort to deceive the youth through cultural onslaught, crime, terrorism, communalism and addictive intoxicants. On the ideological front, the bourgeoisie has made use of television, films, novels and even formal education to spread the lies that the bourgeois-capitalist-imperialist system is the best, and even worse, that one cannot even plan for any alternative system. In this context, the bourgeoisie claims that liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation are going to lead to superior technology, to more work for everybody, to higher salaries and to the introduction of new computers in every village. In short, the bourgeoisie promises that this new technology will solve all problems of youth!

The youth know from their life experience that all this propaganda is totally false. There is no alternative in this system for the youth except to sell their labour power cheap in the service of maximum profits for the capitalists. Under the present system of representative democracy, only a select number of the bourgeoisie, their representatives and other vested interests have the right to decide for society. It is said that people can cast their vote and "elect their own representatives" so that people get fooled on this question. They claim that the youth are also participating in the political process merely because the minimum age for voting is 18 years. What is this democracy where these representatives are not "elected" by us, are not accountable to us and moreover, cannot be recalled? What kind of democracy is it when we do not have the power to even decide on the most important issues for society?

The bourgeoisie wants to negate all the achievements of human society in the twentieth century and wants us to be stuck in old nineteenth century ideas. The workers and toilers of the Soviet Union showed the workers of the world what incomparable progress can be achieved in a society ruled by the workers and what genuine democracy can be in the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat, when they overthrew the bourgeois state and established socialism in the Soviet Union through revolution. The youth played a key role to bring about revolutionary changes in Soviet society and the path to a bright future free from oppression was thrown open to them. The world bourgeoisie and imperialism had a hand in the collapse of the Soviet Union and using that as an example of the failure of socialism they want to tie the youth to capitalist slavery.

But the fire burns bright in our youth against this injustice and this fire cannot be extinguished by the bourgeoisie and its cohorts.This fire will consume the rule of the capitalist exploiters and burn it to ashes. The times are calling now for all militant and conscious youth to take up the path of revolution. A bright future for the youth can be secured only through revolutionary change and renewal.

Bhagat Singh and his brave comrades were of that generation when every worthy son and daughter of our country were part of the wave of struggle that had risen in strength against the injustice and oppression of the colonialists, and the poverty, famine and insecurity that was crushing our people. Even the certainty of punishment by death could not deter them in their struggle. This unbounded courage, taking up the challenge in the face of death, this determination not to put up with injustice – these are qualities that are special in our youth. Today we are seeing that increasing number of youth from every corner of the country are fighting against the attacks of the ruling classes, the conditions that are snuffing out lives, the insecure and dark future and have challenged the decree of the ruling classes. The youth want to put an end to this exploitation and slavery, and bring about fundamental changes in society such that the workers and toiling masses can become masters of their own destiny and make the crucial decisions in society. It is the youth that have the courage to challenge the prevailing system and its attendant institutions, its ideas, its traditions and this makes them the reserve of immense strength. If this strength is channeled in an organised manner then it becomes a powerful vehicle to bring about revolutionary changes in society. It is the duty of all communists to clarify to the youth the revolutionary changes needed in society and to draw the oppressed and downtrodden youth towards this revolutionary programme. The only way our youth can secure a bright future for themselves is by fighting shoulder to shoulder with every oppressed worker, peasant, woman and all other oppressed people for revolutionary change and renewal.

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Bhagat Singh’s martyrdom anniversary commemorated in Sanjay Colony

The secretary of the Delhi branch of the LRS, in her presiding address, stated that the nation was in great need of its youth, to rise up to the occasion, come forward and work for progress in society. The entire program was directed towards making youth realise their prominent role in society. Activists of the LRS had previously contacted hundreds of school children, working people and ordinary residents of Sanjay Colony, who willingly contributed financially and otherwise towards the success of the program.

A street play entitled " Matadin chand par" (Mata Din on the moon) was enacted by members of the Rangbhoomi Natya Manch on the occasion. It was a caricature of the current situation in India, depicting the manner in which Indian police officials train the honest police department on the moon in the ways of greed and corruption.

Group songs were presented by members of the LRS, which extolled the deeds of the martyrs who worked for revolutionary change in India. One of the delightful aspects of the program was the manner in which parents enjoyed the program along with their children. All those who took part were given parting gifts consisting of items useful in their studies.

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Martyrs day commemorated in Ulhasnagar

Every speaker representing the LRS pointed out that Bhagat Singh and his comrades were the best sons and daughters of India, who knew very well that their activities would earn them the death penalty from the colonialists, but remained steadfast to the struggle to liberate their people from exploitation and oppression. Today, youth are given various illusions and the carrot of wealth is dangled before them, so that they do not become conscious. For creating a bright future and realising the ideals of the martyrs, it is imperative that more and more youth from the toiling classes unite around the program of revolutionary transformation of the polity.

Students from five colleges of Ulhasnagar, and a few cultural groups from Mumbai participated in the evenings' program. The artists presented songs, poems, and plays mainly based on the life and work of Bhagat Singh and his comrades. One of the plays clearly showed that Bhagat Singh and his comrades were not terrorists wantonly flinging bombs on innocents, as the colonialists portrayed them, but revolutionaries who did not shirk from making the supreme sacrifice. The play enacted by the 'Avahan Natya Manch' showed how the ideals of the martyrs remain unfulfilled to this day. The play presented by 'Thekedari Padath Virodhi Manch" (Front opposing contract labour) showed how the rich and the apparatus controlled by them, including the police and legal system, are instrumental in safeguarding the exploitation of the workers. Along with these serious plays, some college students also enacted a satirical play.

Group songs and dances also formed part of the evenings' program, in which young members of the LRS and other youth took part.

Finally, the program had rather reluctantly to be brought to an end. The convenor of the program suggested that the challenge be taken up next year of organising a united program with many more organisations which would stretch at least throughout the day, so that people are able to enjoy the best in the field of culture, and the unity of progressive youth is strengthened too. This unity can be very instrumental in ending exploitation and oppression for ever in our land.

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