PEOPLE'S
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PEOPLE'S
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Internet
Edition: April 16-30- May 1-15, 2001
Published by the Communist Ghadar Party of India |
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TABLE OF CONTENTS |
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Unite in resolute struggle against capitalist globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation! End the divisions in the working class! Call of CGPI to India's working class on the eve of May Day 2001 Comrade workers! As we gather in rallies all over the country on May Day 2001, our country is seething with conflict. Everywhere, we workers are opposing tooth and nail the capitalist-imperialist offensive going under the name globalisation through privatisation and liberalisation. We are fighting against closures of factories, mills and mines; against the massive and ever increasing unemployment, against the extreme insecurity. We are fighting the anti-worker, anti-national policies of the government starkly revealed by the sale of Public Sector enterprises like BALCO and Modern Food Industries to rapacious monopoly capitalists and multinationals. We are fighting against the destruction of the livelihood of our peasant brothers, as well as artisans and small producers because of the WTO agreement. The struggle in defence of livelihood and sovereignty has brought the vast masses of India's peoples out on the streets in towns and countryside. The crisis of the capitalist system is intensifying. The conflict amongst different capitalist and imperialist groups for control of the treasury has intensified. The crisis has been accentuated by BJP's efforts to puts its trusted people in key positions of the army, bureaucracy, intelligence, police services, education and culture by replacing former Congress loyalists. The crisis is further exposing the corrupt, criminal and venal nature of the political system in India. The Tehelka tapes, the exposures on BALCO, the corruption scams involving leading bureaucrats, politicians and officers of the armed forces are revealing the fact that multi-party parliamentary democracy is nothing other then the rule of the moneybags, Indian and foreign. They are confirming Lenin's teachings to the workers not to be taken in by the pseudo-patriotism of capitalist and social-democratic politicians and parties, who do not mind selling their soul and the country for dollars, but who shamelessly exhort the working masses to die for the interests of the capitalists and imperialists by evoking "national interests". Comrade workers, A positive development because of our struggle is that today the majority of trade unions have come out firmly against globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation. This is highlighted by the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, known as the trade union wing of the ruling BJP, denouncing the government's anti-national and anti-worker policies. Increasing number of our brothers are recognising that all the parliamentary parties have stabbed them in the back, whether the party be the Congress, the BJP or others. Today, the Congress Party, a party that everywhere knows is the mother of corruption, is carrying on a campaign against the corruption of the NDA government. The aim is to fool us workers and our peasant brothers one more time into not taking up our own program, but instead lining up behind the program of the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie wants to keep workers divided. In practical terms, the capitalists want us workers and peasants to line up behind the Congress, the BJP, or some other parliamentary front and leave our fate in the hands of these parties. We workers must take serious note of this situation and avoid the traps. We must resolutely put forth our program, our alternative, and unite the entire class around this program. Ten years of the so-called economic reforms has confirmed one thing-this is the program of the capitalist class as a whole, and all political parties of the capitalist class will necessarily implement it. This is a program to place the entire natural and material resources of our country in the hands of the biggest exploiters, native and foreign, a program to extract maximum tribute from the whole of society. We workers cannot expect any salvation unless we begin to fight as one united class, with one program. We must fight to end the political power of the capitalist class and establish a new political power in the hands of workers and peasants. We must build a new India. There can be and are only two real fronts. One is a front of the capitalist class and one is a front of the working class. All the parliamentary fronts are fronts of the capitalist class. We must build the political front of the working class by rallying the peasantry, the women and youth, and all the exploited and oppressed of our country around the working class. For this, we workers must necessarily be united. If we ourselves are divided on the basis of party and trade union affiliation, if we ourselves are divided in each factory into multiple unions, how on earth are we going to rally the broad masses of peasantry and youth under one banner and around one program? We workers must eliminate narrowness in thinking and defend the rights and interests of all workers and all the exploited and oppressed. We must raise the banner of One Union in one factory and the banner of One working class, One Program as the condition for the building of the revolutionary front of workers and peasants against the program of the bourgeoisie. Our immediate program is this. We will fight to orient the economy towards fulfilling the well being of the workers, peasants, women and youth. We will implement a plan to ensure security of livelihood, food, clothing and shelter, education and health care for all. To raise money for all this, we will pass a moratorium on payment to the moneylenders and cutback on the enormous military expenditure. At the same time, we will take over the wholesale internal trade as well as foreign trade. We call upon all those who claim to be in the interests of workers and peasants to fight for these demands, for this is the only way to ensure the well being of the toilers and tillers. To realise this program, we workers must and will unite under one banner. We must and will build the powerful united front of the class with the peasantry and all the exploited and oppressed. The first point of our action plan to implement our program is this. Why do we workers need to tie ourselves to the coattails of the maaliks and their political parties-parties that do not defend the interests of workers? In each factory where there is more than one union, we must demand of our unions-are you really against the maaliks? If you are, then prove it by getting together in one union! Similarly, taking the country as a whole, we raise the demand that all workers should be in one single union, which uncompromisingly fights the capitalist class, defends and develops the independent, alternative program of the working class. Comrade workers, We must be clear that the political and economic systems are interconnected. The political system and process of multiparty parliamentary democracy serves the capitalist class in exercising its rule over the whole of society. We workers and peasants must establish our own rule, as the condition for establishing a new India where the real maaliks of India, our workers, peasants, women and youth will be in power. This is the only real alternative to capitalism and the onslaught of the bourgeoisie. Comrade workers, We are not against political parties. Far from it, we are most acutely aware of the necessity of the working class organising itself as a political party to lead us to establishing our own rule, as well as showing the way in the present struggle. The times are demanding that we workers learn to differentiate between our real and false friends. We must identify which is the party of the working class and which are parties of the capitalists and imperialists. We must build and strengthen that party which will assist in healing the division within our ranks; that party which will lead us uncompromisingly in the struggle against the anti-social offensive and the struggle to build a new India. An India where no capitalist or imperialist can play with the lives and fate of India's workers, peasants, women and youth. An India where we the toilers and tillers will shape our own destiny. A great opportunity is unfolding before us. Let us not miss this opportunity. Let us, the workers of today, make our contribution to opening the path to progress for Indian society. End the division in the working class! One factory, one
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On the 183rd birth anniversary of Karl Marx: Long live Marxism-Leninism! May 5 is the birth anniversary of the great and immortal leader and teacher of the international proletariat, Karl Marx. Marx was born in Germany 183 years ago and dedicated his whole life to solving the theoretical and practical problems of the proletariat's struggle for emancipation. The greatness of Karl Marx lies in the fact that it was he, along with his close comrade and collaborator Frederick Engels, who first armed this struggle with its own guiding doctrine, the doctrine of scientific socialism. For over a century and a half, Marxism has guided the working class in its struggle to achieve emancipation for itself and all other oppressed classes, and it continues to be the indispensable weapon the proletariat needs to win victory over the bourgeoisie. It was Marx who showed through his profound theoretical work that the exploitation of one class by another is not something fixed or eternal, but is a product of history, which came into being at a very definite stage in the development of human society, and just as inevitably must give way to a classless society. Analysing the specific law of motion of modern-day, capitalist, society, Marx showed that capitalism too must inevitably give way to a higher form of society - that is, socialist and communist society, in which the exploitation of man by man would be done away with once and for all. He pointed out that the class that would be the gravedigger of capitalism would be none other than the proletariat, the class which was itself a product of modern industrial society and which had "nothing to lose but its chains". Marx showed the workers exactly how their exploitation takes place under the capitalist system, through the extraction of the surplus value from the labour of the workers by the capitalists. Karl Marx was not only a profound theoretician, but he also dedicated his whole life to organising the working class to achieve its historic mission of overthrowing capitalism and ushering in socialism on a world scale. Along with Engels, he founded the first International Working Men's Association, which played a very important role in the early growth and rapid development of the working class movement in several countries. Throughout his life, he was the shining example of a consistent revolutionary fighter, who never spared himself, but plunged actively and wholeheartedly into the revolutionary struggles of his time. Basing itself on the doctrine of Marxism, the proletariat over the course of the last hundred years has won many earth-shaking victories against the bourgeoisie, including the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat and socialism in many countries. However, the struggle of the proletariat for complete emancipation is by no means an easy or uncomplicated process, as the setbacks to socialism in the Soviet Union and other countries show. Today more than ever before the working class and all communists need to deepen and strengthen their grasp of the teachings of scientific socialism as enunciated by Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, to meet the challenges posed by the bourgeoisie's onslaught on the working class and people. Far from Marxism being an outdated doctrine, as the bourgeoisie would like to make out, it is only by basing itself on the Marxist-Leninist understanding of capitalism and imperialism and of the present stage of world development, that the working class can take on and once again turn the tide against the bourgeoisie. Hail the revolutionary life and work of Karl Marx! |
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Joint May Day Call in Chennai: Unite in a single front against the capitalist offensive! Dear comrade workers, This May Day we are standing at a very crucial juncture. The big capitalists have started on the second generation reforms, which are going to hurt us even more than the reforms carried out in the nineties. These reforms are being pushed by Indian and foreign multinationals who want to squeeze the sweat and blood of the working people even further to fill up their coffers. They are doing this at any cost, even by selling out the sovereignty of our country to the imperialists and multinationals, starving our people to death, and mercilessly depriving the livelihood of crores of workers and peasants. In the land of Kattabomman who refused to allow the British colonisers to plunder our country at the cost of his life, we see the parties and leaders of the ruling class laying the red carpet for the foreign multinationals. The Central Government has openly announced its decision to amend the Industrial Disputes Act and the Contract Labour Act to assist the capitalists and imperialists to hire and fire workers at will as well as effect closures and retrenchments at will. Moreover, we are being deprived of our trade union rights. But, throughout India, we workers are not accepting this attack lying down. We have been challenging the rulers at each and every step, forging our unity and sharpening our counter-attack with grit and determination. Lakhs of workers such as the textile, powerloom, engineering, construction, match factory and plantation workers, weavers, unorganised workers and workers in the small scale industries have come out militantly on the streets against the anti-social offensive in defence of their livelihood. The alternative to this system can only be a new, genuinely socialist India-an India without any trace of exploitation or oppression of persons by persons, an India wherein the workers and peasants shall rule. Such a socialist society cannot be established by replacing one government of the rich with another. It can be built only by overthrowing the capitalist political system and establishing in its place a political system of the proletariat. When we are all victims of the capitalist exploitation and oppression, when our enemy is the same and the goal is the same, what is it that is preventing us from uniting in one front and with one program? Today it is a bitter reality that the capitalist class has succeeded a great deal in dividing us on the basis of party affiliation, caste, religion and so on. We have been rendered effectively impotent by these divisions. Let us resolve this May Day to work to end the division of the class! Let us forge the united front of the working class against capitalism and the anti-social offensive going on in the name of globalisation! The bourgeoisie claims that workers and peasants are not fit to rule, but only fit to toil and slave for the moneybags. If we can produce all the material blessings of society, we can very definitely also run society according to our vision. The time has come to seriously build the alternative political power. Let us unite on a single platform. Let us establish committees in each and every factory, kudiyiruppu (mohalla) and village and forge the militant unity of workers and peasants into a powerful, invincible force. Once we build such a force, then nobody can stop us from overthrowing the capitalist system and bringing about a thorough going transformation in society. We will put an end to the capitalist system and build in its place a new proletarian society. On this occasion of May Day let us resolve to step up our struggle and focus our energies on building the powerful front of the working class! No to hire and fire! Jobs for all, education for all, health for all! Smash the globalisation, privatisation and liberalisation programs! Let us fight uncompromisingly for our trade union rights! Let us fight for complete security for construction and other unorganised workers! Oppose the forcible eviction and deprivation of livelihood of the urban poor! One working class, One program! Socialism is the only alternative! Power to the workers and peasants! Inquilab Zindabad! Jointly organised by: |
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Meeting to commemorate the anniversary of V.I.Lenin April 22 marks the birth anniversary of the great leader and teacher of the international proletariat, V.I.Lenin. On this occasion, the Delhi Regional Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India organised a solemn meeting and discussion around the theme "Marxism-Leninism - the indispensable weapon of the proletariat to open the door to the revolutionary transformation of society". A large number of workers, women and youth participated actively in the meeting and raised several questions and points relevant to this theme. Welcoming the participants at the meeting, the secretary of the Delhi Regional Committee of the CGPI emphasised the relevance of the teachings of Marxism-Leninism in the context of the struggle of the working class today. The views of the party on this were elaborated in a brief presentation. It was pointed out that Lenin carried forward the teachings of Marx and Engels and further developed them in the period of imperialism, which Lenin called "the highest stage of capitalism and the eve of the proletarian revolution". At the head of the Bolshevik Party, Lenin organised and led the working class of Russia to rise up in revolution, overthrow the rule of the Tsar and the bourgeoisie and establish the Soviet Union. The establishment of the Soviet Union was the practical demonstration to the proletariat of the whole world that the working class can come to power and build a social system free from capitalist exploitation. It shook the foundations of capitalism and imperialism all over the world. Today, the bourgeoisie and imperialism want to negate all this and are telling the workers that revolution and socialism can never be successful, that the teachings of Marxism-Leninism are no longer relevant. Refuting these claims of the bourgeoisie, it was pointed out that Marxism-Leninism remains the indispensable weapon of the proletariat for carrying out the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist system and building socialism. The importance of the leadership of the communist party, guided by the principles of Marxism-Leninism, was also stressed upon. The party's views on the present situation and the program for the working class in this period were elaborated. A lively discussion followed the presentation. The main issues discussed included social democracy and its danger for the proletarian revolutionary movement. the factors that led to the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union, the importance of the working class being in power and using its political power to defend the gains of the revolution, the united front of the working class with the peasantry and all other oppressed sections of the society, the national question and the question of what kind of political party the proletariat needs to succeed in its mission. The program ended on a serious and optimistic note, with all the participants resolving to deepen their study and understanding of the teachings of Marxism-Leninism, in order to step up the struggle against the attacks of the bourgeoisie. |
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An indicator of the growing parasitism and decay of capitalism The recent Indian stock market crash, following the presentation of the 2001-02 Budget by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, is another glaring indicator of the severe crisis of the capitalist system in India. The Sensex, which is the benchmark for the Indian stock market, had reached a high of 6000 on February 12th. It has been almost continuously falling from the day after the budget and is now around 3400. The crisis has been of such magnitude that the market capitalisation of the 10 top companies (i.e., the total value of the shares of these companies at the prevailing market price) fell from Rs 3,46,000 crores in March 2000 to just around Rs 99,000 crores in March 2001, a loss of about Rs 2,47,000 crores or over 70%! The stock market crisis has wiped out the savings of lakhs of small investors, leading to many suicides. It has led to the threat of bankruptcy of two banks, the Bank of India and the Madhavpura Mercantile Co-operative Bank, which had funded the speculators in the stock market to the tune of several hundreds of crores. The current stock market crisis once again exposes the ever-increasing clout of finance capital over the Indian economy. Such crises are constant features of capitalist countries throughout the world. The more the dominance of finance capital over the economy of the said country, the greater is the magnitude of the crises. While explaining the nature of finance capital and the emergence of financial oligopolies, in his important work "Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism", Lenin explained that finance capital is the merger of banking capital with industrial capital. It is capital controlled by banks and other financial institutions and deployed by industrialists wherever the maximum rate of profit can be reaped. Lenin also clarified that finance capital arises at a particular juncture in the development of capitalism, when production has become highly concentrated, giving rise to monopolies and oligopolies in the major spheres of the economy. The bourgeois propaganda and the government's response to the crisis are trying to create the impression that the problem lies with the way the stock market is regulated, i.e., as if stock market crises can be avoided under monopoly capitalism provided the regulatory mechanisms and policies are improved. Thus, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has ordered a probe into the workings of the stock exchanges and of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The bourgeoisie wants to hide the fact that the root of the problem lies in the very nature of the economic system. The current stock market crisis is further proof of the growing parasitism and decay of the Indian economy, a characteristic feature of the highest stage of capitalism. The domination of finance capital has grown to such proportions that it has given rise to a stratum of rentiers - the likes of "big bulls" such as Ketan Parekh and Harshad Mehta. It has given rise to the most brazen swindling of public money for speculation. Such speculation takes place with the full involvement of directors of banks, of mutual fund monopolies such as UTI, the governing members of major stock exchanges, the SEBI and the RBI. This stratum of financial magnates lives by "clipping coupons", as Lenin said. They do not take part in any production process and their very profession is to swindle society through speculation. The stock market is a mechanism that allows big capitalists to dominate and control immense economic empires with a comparatively small capital. For example, big capitalist groups such as Reliance and the Tatas own only 30-40 per cent of the share capital of their companies, sometimes even less. By selling shares of their companies in the market and promising high returns, the big bourgeoisie lures millions of small investors into investing their life savings, while maintaining the controlling shares in their own hands, both directly and through the financial institutions. While individual small shareholders may together hold a majority of the shares of an enterprise, it is impossible for these scattered shareholders to get together and challenge the leadership of these giant companies. During the nineties, the Indian ruling class introduced a number of "reforms" in the share market to draw in the unsuspecting small investor by the millions. A major reform was an amendment to the law to issue shares of small denominations so that more and more investors can replenish the kitty of the bourgeoisie. In fact, with the introduction of share depositories it was made possible to sell and buy even a single share. The extraordinary growth of the Reliance group into one of the biggest capitalist families in India through the raising of massive capital through the stock market, within the last two decades, is touted as the hallmark of "democratisation of the stock market". The bourgeoisie tries to create the impression that even a middle class family can become rich very quickly by investing in stocks and shares. However, with every crisis, the truth is exposed that small investors can only expect ruin and devastation from the stock market. The big financial magnates enrich themselves both when the share prices rise and when they fall. They collude with each other to cause artificial swings in the market so as to reap windfall gains. However, the stock market does not create any new value or wealth in the economy. It only redistributes the existing wealth; hence one person's gain is another person's loss. The big players make the biggest gains, while the small investors invariably get wiped out. The stock market crisis is a part of the general crisis of capitalism at its highest stage, the stage of imperialism, which is characterised by the growing domination of finance capital and the constant tendency towards parasitism and decay. Tightening of regulations and transfer of a few officials cannot put an end to such crises. Only a fundamental transformation of the existing system, the complete elimination of capitalism, can end such crises once and for all. |
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Increasing integration of the Indian economy into the world economy: Devastation for the working people The recent crisis in the software industry in the US and its immediate negative impact on the Indian industry has brought out the fact that the Indian economy is getting integrated into the world economy on a scale never before seen, causing devastation to the lives of millions of working people. The software slump in the U.S has been having an immediate adverse impact on the Indian software industry. All the big software business houses in India such as Infosys, Wipro, HCL and others have put a freeze on their recruitment. There is also a plan to layoff thousands of software workers. The Indian software monopolies are taking advantage of this crisis to settle scores with smaller software enterprises which have been emerging as a threat to their monopoly. They are also using the slowdown to cut down employment and increase their bargaining clout vis-a-vis their relatively highly paid employees so that they can keep their profits intact even in a period of crisis. Recent years of economic reforms have seen the increasing integration of economies around the world within the world capitalist system leading to severe crises and destruction of productive forces on a massive scale. In the early nineties, the devastating capitalist crises in Brazil and Mexico brought about by conditionalities imposed bythe big imperialist powers and monopolies, through the World Bank and IMF, caused jitters throughout the world economy. These countries which were in neck-deep debt to the imperialists, particularly American imperialism, were forced to remove restrictions to the penetration of foreign capital and their currencies were devalued to such an extent that millions of people lost their life savings. In the mid-nineties, the south east Asian countries went through the same turmoil as did Brazil and Mexico. Their currencies were devalued anywhere from 20 per cent to 60 per cent. Many industries were wiped out, enterprises were taken over for a song by foreign monopolies and these countries were pushed further into the mire of debt from which they are yet to recover. Throughout the nineties, the Indian bourgeoisie kept doing the propaganda that the Indian economy is well insulated from the world economic turmoil and that with intelligent planning further reforms and globalisation can only help to advance the Indian economy. This was a blatant lie. During the nineties, as the Indian bourgeoisie went ahead with its globalisation measures throwing open the doors of the Indian economy to increased plunder and exploitation by the imperialist monopolies, millions of workers and peasants lost their livelihood and many small and medium enterprises were forced to shut down. The current software crisis proves again the point that the further integration of individual economies into the world economy, the increased penetration of finance capital on a global scale, further concentration of capital and growth of monopolies are all objective features of the highest stage of capitalism, i.e., imperialism. These features of capitalism leading to concentration of capital at one end and to the destruction of productive forces at the other end are not dependent on the will and fancy of capitalists of individual countries. They are objective laws of capitalist growth. Hence, the only solution to the capitalist crisis is the complete overhaul of the capitalist system whose inherent contradictions and general laws of development cannot be manipulated by "intelligent" policies. Only the creation of a socialist system - the anti-thesis of the capitalist system - where all exploitation and oppression is eliminated, and producers of wealth have first claim to the products of society can provide a lasting respite from capitalist crises and unemployment. The software workers now join a growing army of workers and peasants who have lost their livelihood and have been driven to bankruptcy and even to suicides by the ill winds of globalisation. Millions of public sector workers, engineering industry workers, plantation workers, weavers and peasants are on the war path vigorously condemning the globalisation measures of the bourgeoisie and calling for a complete halt to further measures and policies in this direction. The time is ripe to forge a powerful united front of workers and peasants with a practical alternative to the program of the bourgeoisie and to bring about a fundamental transformation in society. Some facts
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Sterlite, BPL and Videocon banned from capital market Privatisation: plenteous plunder for the perverted The Securities and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI), has in an order passed on April 19, 2001, barred three of the biggest corporates who were in the running for picking up lions' shares of the disinvestment pie, from entering the capital market in India (i.e. issuing fresh shares) for periods between two and four years. These companies have been proved to be guilty of price-rigging and manipulating the stock market in connivance with stockbrokers such as the notorious Harshad Mehta in mid - 1998. While the disinvestment of Indian Airlines may be delayed on account of this, the Disinvestment Minister has brazenly stated that it would in no way affect the sale of BALCO despite its' buyer, Sterlite being confirmed as a crooked manipulator! These companies - BPL, Videocon and Sterlite - were in the forefront of those who were to benefit from the disinvestment process, the sale of public companies by the government of India. BPL was in the running for picking up the majority stake in the highly profitable, near-monopoly, Internet Service Provider (ISP) and overseas communication public company Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL). Videocon International has bid for buying 26% of the stake in the national carrier Indian Airlines (IA), while the only other bidder for IA is none other than the Hinduja group which became quite notorious in the Bofors scam of the eighties. The sale of Bharat Aluminium (BALCO) to Sterlite Industries in the face of stiff opposition of the workers, the public at large, and even the state government of Chhattisgarh is still very fresh in the public memory. The SEBI ban is yet another substantiation of the fact that the biggest monopolies in India, as elsewhere, do not stop at anything in order to raise capital and other resources from the people and then to super exploit their land and labour. It is no accident that these are the very same monopolies who have been proven to be manipulators and crooks of the most stained and sophisticated type. Company managements will obviously know much more about the future of their own companies than anyone else. By letting out bits and pieces of "insider information", by selectively buying up copious volumes of their own company shares, and other dubious ways, they are in a strong position to influence the prices of their company's stocks. The common investors, many of whom are small players investing their life savings, are induced into buying those shares. The managements can then sell off some of the stock they hold at very high prices. Capitalist market analysts have known for very long that huge money flows into the stock market, and there has been little done to check this. Harshad Mehta is the prime accused in the mammoth security scam of 1992, which led to the bankruptcy of thousands upon thousands of small and medium investors as well as quite a few banks in which workers had invested their life savings. The SEBI inquiry report is understood to have revealed that Harshad Mehta continued to operate with impunity in mid 1998, thus showing how false the governments' claims about protecting small investors and ensuring "fair play" in the stock markets, etc. In fact, the facts show that the government is in fact guilty of allowing the big capitalists to cheat and loot the people at will. The SEBI report on manipulation comes at a time when the stock markets have been staggering from crash to crash. Though lakhs of small and medium investors, who provide the capital for the big bourgeoisie to play with, have been either made bankrupt or pushed to the brink, those who have survived are obviously very disgusted and unlikely to invest in the stock markets again for quite some time. This would not be in the best interests of the capitalist class as a whole. Further, it also comes at a time when the rivalries between various big capitalist groups is on the rise, and they are looking out for all means, fair and foul, to dent their rivals. The brazenness of the government in upholding the interests of the big bourgeoisie, however tainted they may be, is indeed highly significant if not horrendous. Firstly, they shed tears and lament how "vested interests" were "using the stock scam to derail the disinvestment process". They then set up a top ranking team of officials to look for all legal loopholes to continue with their dirtied disinvestment process. One of the important reasons declared by the government for disinvestment is that the private capitalists can infuse more capital needed to make the erstwhile public companies survive and thrive. If the promoters of the groups taking over the public companies, like BPL, Videocon and BPL cannot raise money from the capital market, it would be very difficult for them to do this. The disinvestment process would thus lose an important justification. But the government has bent over backwards to thwart this, using legal deceit. The government has declared in parliament that the SEBI order is said to be "prospective" and not"retrospective". Thus while Sterlite, the group that took over BALCO, has been banned from raising capital, BALCO itself as an entity can raise as much capital as it likes! The biggest corporates have been proven to be the most cunning and atrocious of cheaters, yet the government bends backwards to help them even more! The conclusion that it is these big bourgeois scoundrels who control the government is thus inescapable. By no means is this an aberration, since the story, with some minor variations, has been repeated for over a decade now, with several parties holding the reins of office in between. It is necessary that all those disgusted with the system unite and work for its' overthrow. The times are calling on all sections of the working people to unite as one to sweep away the capitalist system and replace it with one where each one is rewarded for the productive work he does. |
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