• Economic slow-down

• Indo-Nepal relations:

• Down with Anglo–American Military Aggression and Interference!

• Six years after privatisation of power in Orissa

• Starvation Deaths

• Task facing communists on the front of organising youth for the renewal of India

Economic slow-down

In basic goods and industrial machinery, there was an absolute fall in production in June 2001. In the mining sector, production declined by 3% in June as compared to a growth of 4.4% in the same month last year. Manufacturing grew by 1.9% in June as compared to 6.1% in the same month last year.

Export growth in the period April-June 2001 was 1.7% as compared to 28% in the corresponding quarter last year. Exports actually registered a fall of 4.6% in June 2000 as compared to last year.

Employment in the organised sector has stopped growing. The following figures, referred to by a ruling class policy expert, Prem Shankar Jha, are self-revealing. The number of educated job-seekers is rising at the rate of 2.5% per annum. Employment grew at 0.46% in 1998, 0.04% in 1999, and –0.15% in 2000. The average growth worked out to 0.11% per year in the organised sector, which translated to one in 24 young job-seekers landing up with a job. On the average, according to estimates, 672,000 educated entrants into the job market have tried for jobs per year, of which only 17,000 succeed in finding jobs. In these three years, 2 million educated youth have joined the ranks of the unemployed.

Whether the economy is on the up-swing or down-swing, the biggest capitalists and imperialists always make maximum profits and become even bigger. However, during the period of slow-down, bourgeois governments come under great pressure because the dissatisfaction of the masses of people is greatly increased, and various sections of the middle strata are hit in the crisis.

Bourgeois politicians are now playing the game of blaming each other. While the BJP blames the opposition Congress and the coalition partners for the crisis, the Congress ideologues blame the BJP. From the Finance Minister to the opposition, they all declare that the underlying cause for the crisis is lack of growth of demand. Their solution is to pursue the 2nd generation reforms program announced by the Finance Minister including finishing the procurement system and the PDS, the introduction of hire-and-fire and expansion of contract labour, and deregulation of petroleum prices. They bemoan that the government has lacked the will to implement these reforms.

It is not a great discovery that in the Indian economy there is a "lack of demand" in the capitalist sense. This "lack of demand" has nothing to do with the satisfaction of the needs of the people. It is not because the people have enough of food, clothing, shelter, water, electricity, health services, as well as other necessities of life. It is simply that people have no money to buy these things. In the conditions where there is a crisis in the US economy, the possibility for the capitalists to use the export front to boost profits has also shrunk. The bourgeoisie is having difficulty finding markets.

The solution offered by the bourgeois economists and politicians is firstly to look to the gods for salvation (they are praying that a good monsoon will increase rural demand and kick-start the industrial production); to pursue the course of globalisation through privatisation and liberalisation with even greater vigour; and to deploy the resources plundered from the whole of society by the state in the service of the big monopolies and imperialists. The debate in parliament over the economic slowdown, where Minister of Disinvestment Shri Arun Shourie openly called upon India to emulate China and try to attract foreign investment at any cost reveals the bankruptcy of the rulers of our country. Significantly, Shri Shourie was referring explicitly to the Special Economic Zones in China and the fact that workers can be thrown out at one month's notice in these zones, that there are no trade union rights, and workers have to work seven days a week and overtime, if necessary, with no overtime wages, as the things to emulate! He also pleaded passionately for the ending of the foodgrains procurement system. In other words, India’s rulers are advocating a further intensification of the attack on the livelihood and rights of workers and peasants. The economic slowdown will be reversed if subsidies to peasants and the poor is completely eliminated, if workers trade union rights are completely eliminated and capital is given a free hand to hire and fire at will—this is what the bourgeois spokespersons are preaching. We Indians must make the conditions in India so lucrative for exploitation that foreign capital will prefer to come to India rather than China or some South East Asian country, this is what the rulers are promoting.

The Indian and world bourgeoisie have adopted the course of globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation to get out of the crisis of the previous period. But capitalism cannot escape the economic crisis because of the inherent contradictions in the system—the private ownership of the means of production coming into conflict with the social character of production. This is the problem no bourgeois economist will dare admit, even as they talk about "lack of demand" in general terms. The solution is to transform private ownership of means of production into social ownership by the working class.

There is a solution to the problems facing the Indian economy, provided blinkers are shed and foreign prescriptions are not bandied about as the last word for India and her problems. This is to orient the economy to providing for the people. From the goal of making maximum profits, the economy has to be reoriented to fulfilling prosperity and security for all Indians.

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Indo-Nepal relations:

All attempts by our rulers to violate the sovereignty of Nepal must be consistently opposed

Down with Anglo–American Military Aggression and Interference!

In the past few weeks, western imperialists led by the US and Britain, have stepped up their blatant armed aggression in Iraq and in the Balkans, while continuing their interference in several other countries such as Zimbabwe. The peoples of all nations and countries in the world have the right to determine their own futures, a right which the imperialists need to steadfastly deny in order to maintain and advance their man- eating system. People's Voice condemns the blatant imperialist aggression and interference. We print below reports on the most recent acts of aggression and interference in Iraq, Zimbabwe and the Balkans. It calls upon all its readers to support the valiant struggles of the peoples of these nations for sovereignty.

In a coordinated operation, on August 11, 2001, 20 bombers, supported by 30 reconnaissance, electronic counter-measures, air defence and tanker aircraft, attacked three targets at the bases at an-Numaniyah, 70 miles southeast of Baghdad, and an-Nasiriyah, 170 miles southeast of the capital. They fired precision-guided weapons. It was the biggest raid since February 2001. For this raid, the RAF provided four Tornado GR4 bombers, which took off from Ali al Salem in Kuwait, up to three Tornado F3 air defence aircraft, based in Saudi Arabia, and a VC10 tanker from Bahrain. The American strike aircraft consisted of US Navy FA18 Hornets and F14A Tomcats from the US aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, in the Gulf, and US Air Force F16 Fighting Falcons, which are also based in the Gulf region.

Meanwhile, there have been revelations that the so–called UN–sponsored "weapons inspection program" has been used to extensively spy on Iraq. While this was suspected by democratic world opinion all along, it has been confirmed in a documentary film by Scott Ritter, former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, premiered at the United Nations last month. Ritter, a former US Marines intelligence officer, says in the 90-minute documentary that he did not provoke the confrontation the Americans wanted in March 1998, but fellow inspector Roger Hill did have a confrontation in December of that year. Days later, chief UN inspector Richard Butler declared that Iraq was not co-operating with weapons inspectors and the United States and Britain launched air strikes against Iraq in "punishment". UN inspectors pulled out of the country ahead of the bombing raids. Iraq barred them from returning. Thus, Scott Ritter has acknowledged in his testimony to the world, and in particular to the United Nations and the Security Council, that UNSCOM was engaged in espionage for the benefit of Israel’s Mossad and America’s CIA and other imperialist intelligence agencies.

Iraq also firmly rejected any kind of so-called "smart sanctions", which are an attempt to carry on the sanctions in the teeth of the opposition of democratic opinion worldwide. The US and Britain had earlier produced a list of "dual purpose" items which they claim could be put to both military and civilian ends, thus severely restricting essential non-military imports. In June ‘01, Iraq cut off oil exports in protest at talks on the plan. Baghdad could do the same in the face of another effort to revamp sanctions when the current period of the oil program ends on November 30, Iraqi UN Ambassador Mohammed Aldouri said. "We are confident that we ourselves can do our best in this battle," he said. The UN imposed sanctions on Iraq 11 years ago.

Iraq has called on the UN to take a stand against this brutal attack of the US and UK. Iraqi Foreign Minister Dr Naji Sabri said that the United States used its military aggression on Iraq and the Iraqi villages as a demonstration of its brutal force, with the aim of inflicting more harm on Iraq and terrorising other people in the world. In a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Iraq Foreign Minister said the US also does this when the facts about the shameful US use of a Security Council organ–such as the UN Special Commission–to spy on Iraq are discovered and triggers crises or when their sanctions fail.

The United States, the Foreign Minister said, takes advantage of the passivity of the United Nations and the Security Council towards this aggression that has been going on since 1991, and uses this as an opportunity to implement its hostile policies towards Iraq. Moreover, the United States is also using the blanket sanctions imposed by the Security Council as a tool to annihilate the people of Iraq. What Iraq hopes, the Foreign Minister said, is that the UN Secretary-General should champion the UN Charter and principles of justice and truth against a brutal force that is acting with utmost recklessness. This force is going against the very basis of international relations emanating from the UN Charter, which upholds the principle of the sovereignty and equality of all states and of non-interference in their internal affairs, respect for their security and stability. This requires that the UN adopt a frank and firm stand in denouncing this aggression, demanding that it stop immediately, and holding those who perpetrated it fully responsible. The Iraqi Foreign Minister said that the people of Iraq, who have a long history and heritage, with the support of the peoples of the world, would emerge victorious over US aggression and sanctions, no matter what they are called.

The government of Zimbabwe has recently issued several statements strongly condemning continued interference by Britain, the US and other countries in its internal affairs. It also announced that it would demand an apology and compensation from Britain for decades of colonial rule at the World Conference Against Racism to be held in South Africa at the end of August 2001.

Since the beginning of the year 2000, a movement has been unfolding among the landless cultivators in Zimbabwe to seize thousands of acres of farmland that are still owned by descendants of former colonial settlers today, more than 20 years after Zimbabwe won its independence from Britain. Under British colonial rule, settlers of British origin seized virtually all the arable land, while the original inhabitants of the country, constituting the vast majority of the population, were left dispossessed and deprived of all rights. After a long and hard-fought armed struggle, the people of Zimbabwe won their freedom. However, under the terms of the so-called Lancaster House settlement that was imposed by Britain, in 1980, as a condition of its withdrawal from Zimbabwe, many of the possessions and privileges of the former settlers were left in place. Today, 70% of the farm land is still controlled by just 4,500 large landowners. Britain, the US and the European Union have continually opposed the attempts by the government and people of Zimbabwe to overcome the legacy of colonial rule, redistribute land to the landless and chart their own path of development. This is the case even though both Britain and the US have an obligation, under the terms of the Lancaster House Agreement, to help fund land re-distribution in Zimbabwe. Last year the British government, in the manner of the 19th century colonialists, warned the government of Zimbabwe to stop the seizure of land and "respect the rule of law", while at the same time it demanded that Zimbabwe hold "free and fair elections", openly intriguing with, financing and encouraging those who opposed the government of Robert Mugabe.

The government of Zimbabwe claims that it has evidence that the so-called Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) provided more than £26,000 to help maintain the main opposition grouping in Zimbabwe, the Movement for Democratic Change. The WFD was established in 1992 by the Conservative government as a means to openly interfere in the political affairs of countries in central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and Africa. The EU, along with the IMF, has already suspended various "aid" packages to Zimbabwe. In June it threatened to take further measures within two months if Zimbabwe failed to accede to demands to end land seizures, "restore the rule of law" and hold "free and fair" presidential elections, monitored by the EU, next year. For its part, the US government has also strongly criticised the government of Zimbabwe for what it referred to as "serious human rights abuses" connected with the seizure of land. The U S is also making plans to impose sanctions against Zimbabwe and interfere in its internal affairs. Earlier, the US Senate approved the Democracy and Economic Recovery Bill, which directs President Bush to increase funding for "democracy programs" in Zimbabwe, assist in bringing about "democratic change" and introduce targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe including seizing foreign assets of government ministers.

The government of Zimbabwe immediately condemned the Bill and stated that the US government could only make laws for its own country and not for Zimbabwe. President Mugabe condemned the double standards and hypocrisy of the governments of Britain and the US, which he said spoke of "democratic values" that were aimed at preserving the imperialist control of Zimbabwe’s natural resources. He said that Zimbabweans had fought for the sovereignty and control over their own resources that was still being threatened by the big powers, and he vowed to continue with land reform despite the threat of sanctions.

NATO governments have deployed troops in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to prepare for the collection of weapons to be surrendered by the Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA). This follows a "peace deal" aimed ostensibly at averting civil war in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia signed by all political parties. NATO is to supply 3,500 troops for the new mission. Other NATO countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Spain, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Greece, have sent troops, although Britain’s contribution is the largest.

NATO troops have no business in Macedonia. Foreign intervention throughout the Balkans has done nothing but bring strife and bloodshed to this troubled region. Ever since the Balkan Wars of 1913 and before, and especially over the last decade, the big powers have meddled and attempted to carve and re-carve the region for their own ulterior gains. When US and British planes bombed Kosovo and Yugoslavia, it was supposedly for the good of the Albanian population, who, however, began their exodus en masse because of the bombing. The NATO imperialists’ concerns in Macedonia and the rest of the Balkans have nothing to do with the self-determination of peoples. Interference and even aggression by NATO powers in the Balkans and elsewhere has brought not self-determination but subjugation to the economic and political aims and values of these powers.

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Six years after privatisation of power in Orissa

AES Corporation, the US power major that has a 49% share in the Orissa Power Generation Company (OPGC), and 51% shares in CESCO, the Distribution Company for Central Orissa, has threatened to pull out. Dennis Bakke, CEO of AES has warned of "drastic measures". This is reportedly not the first time that private sector players in Orissa have created trouble. Earlier in May, the MD of a power generation company switched off its generating stations to pressurise the government owned Transmission Company GRIDCO to clear its dues. The government had to threaten the arrest of this MD in order to restore power!

AES has initiated arbitration proceedings against GRIDCO for non-payment of dues. It has also threatened to pull out of CESCO unless CESCO increases the power tariffs further. GRIDCO is the intermediate company, which buys power from the power generation company and sells it to the distribution companies.

There are four private power distribution companies in Orissa corresponding to different regions—CESCO (Central Orissa), WESCO (Western Orissa), NESCO (Northern Orissa), and SESCO (Southern Orissa). AES owns CESCO and BSES owns the other three. Generation is partly privatised with AES owning a 49% share of OPGC. CESCO has 6.8 lakh consumer, WESCO has 3.83 lakh consumers, SESCO has 3.58 lakh consumers, NESCO has 2.92 lakh consumers. All these claim to be running at a loss. These distribution companies are taking punitive action against consumers, disconnecting lines for non-payment, etc, creating great ill feeling amongst the population. These distribution companies themselves owe GRIDCO around Rs. 800 crores. AES owned CESCO for instance owes GRIDCO Rs. 250 crores, But AES is suing GRIDCO for non-payment of Rs. 160 crores to AES controlled OPGC!

Today, the foreign players in the power sector in Orissa are threatening to pull out, unless their demands are met by the government. What is the essence of their demands? It is that the government give these players unrestricted right to further raise power tariffs in order to increase their profits, as well as extract more from the government in the form of subsidy or write-offs allegedly to cover their "operating losses". In other words, they demand a guaranteed rate of profit, by blackmailing the government. This is much like what ENRON has been doing in the Dabhol power project.

The Orissa power privatisation debacle exposes the false propaganda of the advocates of power sector privatisation. These advocates, including the World Bank and their Indian supporters, promised relief to the mass of consumers through privatisation, eliminating of subsidies, cutting of theft and transmission losses, improved work culture and efficiency and so on. In fact, the real motive of these advocates of power privatisation, was and remains, extracting maximum profits from a very lucrative sector and establishing the control of private monopolies, foreign and Indian over one of the main life lines of the Indian economy. The threats and blackmail going on in Orissa and Maharashtra are part of the whole game plan of the imperialists to tighten their stranglehold over the power sector. People must force the government to call the bluff of the imperialist players in the power sector and not to further capitulate to their demands.

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Starvation Deaths

Dear Sir,

This has reference to the article on the Public Distribution System in People's Voice (July 31 – August 15, ’01). As the article correctly points out, the PDS is meant to starve the people rather than ensure equitable distribution of essential commodities. The government has all along been letting millions of tonnes of food grains rot and be devoured by rats, rather than feed the nation’s millions of underfed and malnourished people! Can we have any claim that we are citizens of a civilized country?

The correctness of this statement has also been vindicated by the recent directive of the Supreme Court on August 20, 2001, stating that the government was under obligation to provide food to all even if it had to be given free. It was noted during the proceedings that over 50 million tonnes of food grains have been stocked in the Food Corporation of India godowns against the government’s requirement of a buffer stock of 17 million tonnes, and starvation deaths have been very rampant in at least six states – Orissa, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. "Devise a scheme where no person goes hungry when the granaries are full and a lot is being wasted due to non-availability of storage space." In reply, the attorney – general sought time from the court for "formulation of a mechanism" to provide food to the destitute. Clearly, a case of wishing to continue to play the fiddle while the funeral pyres of the poor burn even more rapidly.

What a shameful state of affairs this is! Verily, the times are crying out for radical change in the system of governance, if only to restore the dignity of humankind in our country.

Kawaljeet Singh, Delhi

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We have gathered here today to think, discuss and take decisions about one of the most important tasks facing Indian communists today, the task of organising the youth for the revolutionary transformations that India is crying out for.

The youth of today constitute the people of tomorrow. They hold the key to the future. Whether India will progress or not is dependent on what path the Indian youth will take today. Are they going to march on the high road of civilisation, organised to the gills, with the most advanced science and the most up to date theory guiding them? Or, are they going to straggle along, each one chasing their own individual dreams, then only to be consumed by this man-eating society? This is the way the question is squarely posed. With the fast deteriorating situation in the country today, organising youth for a thoroughgoing social revolution in India, has become one of the most important tasks facing the communists.

Comrades!

This conference is taking place at a time when the Vajpayee Government has thrown all caution to the winds and is most blatantly selling out the country. It is openly and shamelessly acting on behalf of the interests of the super rich, both Indian and foreign. It is shamelessly selling out the country and committing untold crimes against the interests of the majority of the Indian population-the workers, peasants, women and youth.

The Bharatiya Janata Party came to power claiming, among other things, that it will be different from the Congress Party in dealing with imperialism and foreign capital. It claimed that it had a "swadeshi" policy, a policy of opposing the enslavement of the country to "videshi" forces. However, the "swadeshi" platform of the Vajpayee Government has been clearly exposed as a policy designed to hand over completely the land and labour of the people of India to be super-exploited by the foreign imperialist monsters and Indian big monopolies.

The BJP led government in New Delhi has been the champion of the sell-out of national assets to private profiteers, Indian and foreign, in the name of dis-investment, which is another name for privatisation. In two stages, the "reforms" implemented in April 2000 and April 2001, have opened up all sectors of the Indian market to imports. All this is in the name of liberalisation and the need to comply with the WTO, with no regard to the consequences on the masses of Indian people.

The great enthusiasm, with which the Vajpayee Government has embraced the imperialist path of globalisation of capital and production in the past two years, has earned it many a bogey points from the leading imperialists of the world. It has been eagerly and with great alacrity striking deals with the US and other imperialist powers. In fact, the Vajpayee Government was one of the few in the world that spoke in support of the latest missile building plan unveiled by the new US President.

The leaders of BJP claim to be the greatest upholders of values and thought material handed to us through centuries by our ancestors. But nowhere in the political theories developed over centuries in the Indian sub-continent can we find any justification for the sell out of the land and labour in the name of globalisation, privatisation and liberalisation. Which Indian value is it that sanctions measures by the Indian State that bring super profits to some multi-national while wiping out the livelihood of millions of Indians? Unable to find any thought in any of the ancient Indian texts which could even provide a semblance of legitimacy for such policies these exponents of hindutva are reduced to repeating borrowed arguments from western "ideologues" and "experts". Blinded by the lure of the lucre, Euro-centerism and Brahmanism, these ‘wise pundits’ are simply asserting the worn out argument that "there is no alternative" to globalisation and the capitalist market reform.

Indian values and political thought material has undergone change, along with the changes and developments in Indian society. From the stage of primitive communism and through various stages of the development of class society, different ideas and theories have clashed. New theories have come into being, while others have gone out of vogue. However, whether it is the Rgveda, Mahabharata,Vidurniti, Thirukural or Aini-Akbari, one element that has remained consistent and has influenced social development is the notion that it is the duty of the state to look after all the members of society, to provide them with prosperity and protection. A king was judged as just or unjust depending on whether he fulfilled this sacred promise to the people. The Mahabharata, for instance, has slokas that "explicitly sanctions revolt against a king who is oppressive or fails his functions of protection, saying that such a ruler is no king at all, and should be killed like a mad dog. (pg. 88-89, The wonder that was India, by Basham)

The yardstick that the Imperialists in unison are imposing on India today to judge whether a government is performing well or not, at the central and state levels—is how well the said government ‘reforms’, in other words, implements the anti-people, anti-national program of liberalisation and privatisation. It might be good at this point to remember that it was the British colonialists who first imposed the unacceptable value that a government that is found beneficial to the British Crown is the one that is best for the Indian people. The declaration in 1858 that the British Indian state can do "the best" for the people by pursuing its own "conscience" has been carried forward to this day. What is best for the imperialist and monopoly property holders is the best for all of us! This British and European notion of the state as a trustee is the corner stone of the foundation on which the modern Indian State was built. The state as "trusteee" justifies all its activity, its constitution, its structures and superstructures in the name of the people, while it acts in favour of interests contradictory to those of the people.

The contemporary Indian State and the state-craft it promotes is a complete departure from all the ‘states’ and state-craft that the Indian people have been theorising and fighting over for thousands of years. The notion that the state has no obligation to its citizens, leave alone that it can protect with fire and sword a man-eating system, is completely alien to the Indian people, their political theories and values. Shame on those who swear by "swadeshi" and are trying might and main to impose the value that what is best for the imperialist marauders, what is best for monopoly capitalists, foreign and Indian, is best for the Indian people.

Comrades!

All sectors of the economy have been opened up to imports during the Vajpayee Government’s tenure, including the consumer goods markets. This has led to the destruction of small and medium enterprises all over the country. The BJP, which claimed to be a champion of the small producers, stands exposed in the eyes of millions of them as a party that betrayed their interests.

At one stroke of the pen, the Prime Minister signed an agreement when he visited Malaysia, to lower import duties on coconut oil, and thereby signed a virtual death warrant on large number of coconut growers in Kerala. There are numerous examples of the WTO provisions leading to widespread destruction of livelihood all over India. There have been suicides by peasants in many parts of the country. The multinational companies are eyeing the fertile lands of India and poor peasants are threatened with the prospect of losing their land and joining the ranks of the semi-employed landless labourers, who find work only for part of the year. The liberalisation of food and agricultural imports has affected not only the poor and middle peasants, but also many rich peasants and capitalist farmers. Big farmers in Punjab and Haryana, for instance, are facing the burden of unsold stocks of wheat and rice that the government agencies are refusing to purchase from them.

Faced with the anger of the peasants and farmers in many parts of the country, Prime Minister Vajpayee offered the advice that they should diversify their cropping pattern and start growing other cash crops instead of wheat or rice. It is to be remembered that it is precisely the Central Government that promoted the conversion of Punjab and Haryana into wheat and rice bowls of India, by arranging for the sale of high-yielding varieties of seeds and guaranteeing purchase of the food grains by the Food Corporation of India. Today the head of this government says, "Now don’t grow food grains, grow something else".

What lies behind this arrogant statement of the Prime Minister is the value that it is up to the peasants to fend for themselves in the global market place and the state has no responsibility to guarantee livelihood to anyone. Until now, the FCI guaranteed the purchase of food grains from the farmers based on the "minimum support prices" for wheat and rice announced by the central government every year. Now, the central government wants to wash its hands off any responsibility towards providing food security and guaranteeing livelihood to the tillers of the land.

In response to the report of numerous peasants committing suicide in Andhra Pradesh, what did the Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu do? This man, who is promoted as the greatest hero of free market reforms and the cyber age, sent psychiatrists to the villages, to study the mental problems that may be driving peasants to commit suicide!

What kind of values are these that are being promoted as the most modern and most suitable for India’s development? They are not only damaging in the economic sense, they are also abhorrent in the philosophical sense. These values are akin to those of the 19th century colonisers and their Indian collaborators. They stand in opposition to all the values that human beings around the world find acceptable as humane values fit for the 21st century. They have nothing in common with what we Indians have believed and cherished over many centuries.

Comrades!

No responsible government in India can abandon the millions of peasants to the fate of the ups and downs in the world market. The primary responsibility of the government must be to ensure livelihood to the people. In the Indian conditions, where the majority of the population still lives in the villages and depends on agriculture, ensuring livelihood to the tillers of the land must be among the prime duties of the government. The argument that there is no alternative because the WTO says so cannot be accepted. If the WTO stipulations deny the right to livelihood for so many Indians, then the Indian State should pull out of the WTO! This is a completely legitimate and just demand of the Indian peasantry.

A ‘state’ and government can be said to be fit for the 21st century if and only if it gives first priority to the question of ensuring livelihood and human conditions of life for all its citizens. Such a state would concentrate all foreign trade in its hands and not permit any private profiteer to engage in importing or exporting anything. Imports and exports can then be organised to complement the efforts of India’s own workers and peasants to produce the material blessings that Indian society needs. A responsible government should regulate foreign trade to serve the needs of the people of the country. It is this kind of government that the people need and must fight for, while they fight for their demand that the Government of India must pull out of the WTO.

India is a land of peasants. What can we say about a ruler of India, or any part of India, who says that the peasants better fend for themselves and learn to play the game of profiting from the world market? We can only conclude that the rulers are consciously selling out the land and labour of the country to the imperialist monsters, and they do not know anything about Indian values and beliefs. These rulers better be warned, in the words of a renowned historian, that "the Indian town mob was dangerously inflammable, and the king who seriously outraged popular opinion did so at his own peril".

Comrades!

While the masses of workers and peasants are being asked to fend for themselves, this does not apply at all to the big monopolies like Enron, who ask for and are given guarantees by the state and central governments. Why should the imperialists have guarantees while the people have none? What gives the Government of Maharashtra and the Government of India the right to sign an agreement according to which crores of rupees must be paid out to Enron even before a single unit of electricity is supplied? Why should the entire people be made to pay for guaranteeing the maximum rate of profit to Enron and its Dhabol company?

While peasants and farmers are being left to perish and the state is denying support to them in the name of "cutting subsidies", large amounts of public funds continue to be handed out to big capitalist corporations in the form of fertiliser subsidy, power subsidy and other hand outs.

The experience of various privatisation deals that have been struck so far show that this is a program to step up the exploitation and robbery of the people to satisfy the private greed of Indian and foreign monopoly companies. Hindustan Lever Limited bought up Modern Foods in order to satisfy the private greed of the capitalists who control HLL. It had nothing to do with the general interests of Indian society. In fact, the workers of Modern Foods can explain to anybody in great detail how society is worse off as a result of this deal.

In the case of BALCO, a central government owned mining company in Jharkhand, the land on which this mine operates belonged to the tribal people of the area. The central government had taken possession of this land when the mines were established, justified under the pretext that this was in the general interests of Indian society. Today the Central Government has struck a deal with Sterlite Industries and sold BALCO to them. The tribal people are legitimately asking how the Central Government can sell something that does not belong to it in the first place, and without consulting the original owners who have traditional rights over this land.

The question raised by the tribal people in Jharkhand can as well be raised by all the people of India, as to who does state property belong to? Does it belong to the Indian people as a whole, who the Central Government is supposed to represent? Or does it belong to the ministers and the ruling Cabinet that can issue any executive Order that it likes and sell the property to anyone it pleases? The same Constitution of India, which begins its preamble with the words, "We, the people of India, give to ourselves this Constitution", at the same time enables the central executive power to sell state property to whosoever it pleases.

The struggle against privatisation has clearly exposed even to the most gullible that according to existing fundamental law in India, the ‘public’ sector actually does not belong to the public, that is, it is not the property of the masses of people. It belongs to the ruling class of big capitalists, in whose behalf the central executive power acts. The Central Government acts not in the public interest but in the private interests of a privileged few. The "socialistic pattern of society" that was built under Nehru and Indira Gandhi in fact had nothing to do with socialism. It was a capitalist system with the big business houses controlling the central state, which acted on their behalf.

Every central government company, whether in industry or in trade or financial services, is controlled by a board of directors in which representatives of the Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis and other big capitalists sit alongside the IAS officers nominated by the government in New Delhi. The savings of the millions of Indian people, that get concentrated into massive amounts of capital, (such as in the hands of the Life Insurance Corporation, Unit Trust of India and other "public" institutions), are handed over to the various big business houses. The representatives of biggest capitalists sit in the highest decision-making body of these "public" corporations and decide who gets how much of the booty. The same forces that earlier decided to invest in the "public" sector, are now deciding to "disinvest" and sell-out the assets of various central undertakings. Both when the expansion of the "public" sector was promoted, and when the contraction of this sector through "disinvestment" or privatisation is being promoted, the claim of the promoters is that this is in the best interests of all Indians. In both cases, the promoters were the same and the real aim was to protect and promote a system that will be beneficial to foreign and native exploiters and fulfil their voracious greed.

In spite of rising opposition to privatisation and liberalisation, the Central Government is persisting with its "second generation reforms". The Prime Minister recently declared, at a Labour Conference, that his government will continue to pursue liberalisation and privatisation, but will also look after the interests of labour. This is like some villain who says he will kill you but he will also look after your soul!

Comrades!

The question of to whom the land and natural resources belong, has been debated, discussed and argued out in Indian history. It is an unresolved question to be settled in India. Does the land belong to those who till it? Does it belong to the Raja? Or is there some form of shared ownership and rights, as was the case in most parts of the country before the colonial conquest? It was the British colonialists who imposed a new form of property that served the colonial plunder. They conferred exclusive private property rights to the class of big landlords that they created in various provinces through their land settlement acts based on capitalist notions of exclusive private property rights.

Today the times are calling on the workers, peasants, women and youth to settle the question of who is the master of the natural resources as well as the railway lines, mines, factories, roads and other productive infrastructure created by the labour of society. They must settle this question once and for all, by asserting that it is they, who produce all the material blessings with their sweat and toil, who are the masters of India. They must organise to realise this longstanding aspiration and necessity of the times by seizing political power in their hands. With this power, they - the workers, peasants, women and youth - should take decisions that reorient the economy, by deploying all the resources, to ensure protection and prosperity for all those who work.

On an immediate basis, the working class, the peasantry, women and youth of India, must contest the right of the Central Government to sell public property to a private bidder without any consultation with, or approval by, the ‘public’. ‘We the people’ in whose name the property in question was created in the first place must demand and seize what is justly ours. Indian mythology contains a story wherein the goddess of the earth contests the right of the king to sell land to whoever he pleases. The conditions in India today are calling on the workers, peasants, women and youth to take the form of goddess earth, and rise up to question the right of the Vajpayee Government to sell national assets to private bidders.

Comrades,

An extremely volatile situation prevails in the country today. Every passing day only further reveals the extent of the anti-national and anti-people character of the NDA alliance. On the other hand the Congress Party, with no credible alternative vision to the people, is trying in vain to ride on the tide of resentment against BJP rule.

As we all know, it was the Congress Party-led minority government of Narasimha Rao that launched in 1991 the first phase of the liberalisation and privatisation program, which the BJP is taking forward today. Faced with the acute crisis in the 1980s, it was the Congress Party under Rajiv Gandhi that condemned the so-called socialistic pattern of society of Nehru and Indira Gandhi, and gave the call for modernisation to take India into the 21st century.

Faced with the rising anger of the broad masses of people against the liberalisation and privatisation program in India today, the Congress Party is unable to speak in one voice on the question of economic policy. Some of its leaders speak in defence of the reforms initiated by Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh, while others say this was a mistake which resulted in the decline of the party in the 1990s. In the states where it is in power, such as in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the Congress Party is trying to excel the BJP and the Telugu Desam Party in terms of implementing liberalisation and privatisation.

While neither the BJP nor the Congress Party inspires any confidence among the majority of Indian people, the idea of a "Third Front" also stands discredited. A political front that was supposedly based on a Common Minimum Program took charge of the Central Government during the 1996-98 period, headed first by Deve Gowda and later by I. K. Gujral. The facts showed that the real content of the common minimum program was to ensure that the program of globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation would be maintained and there would be no reversals. The UF government established the disinvestment commission and charged it with giving recommendations to privatise the Public Sector. The UF government took the major step in dismantling the PDS by creating a two-tier PDS and eliminating at one stroke the conception that food security for all Indians was the responsibility of the government. The UF government gave legitimacy to the signing of the WTO by the previous Narasimha Rao government and took major steps to integrate India into the WTO regime. All this was done by a government that stayed in power with the support of the parliamentary communists of CPI and CPI(M).

It must not be forgotten that in the great battles against WTO during the Narasimha Rao regime, it was precisely the CPI and CPM who paraded around as opponents of the regime and as leaders of the movement. The same was the case with the struggle in defence of the PDS and the struggle against privatisation. In sum, the UF government gave the seal of approval of CPI and CPM to the program of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation and completely disrupted the movement against the anti-social offensive. In other words, the Third Front was a front of the bourgeoisie, to keep the system going while one of the major parties prepares to stage a comeback.

Given the fact that all the three fronts on the Indian political scene—the BJP front, the Congress Party front and the "Third Front"—are discredited in the eyes of the majority of Indian people, the bourgeoisie has begun to promote the idea of a "People’s Front". Such an idea is being promoted especially in the context of the next assembly elections in UP, which is scheduled to take place any time between October 2001 and March 2002. The class conciliators in the communist movement are the most zealous proponents of this so-called Lok Morcha or people’s front. Now what is the content of this people’s front and how does it differ from the "third front" that formed the governments led by Deve Gowda and Gujral in the 1996-99 period? All evidence revealed up till now points to the fact that this so-called people’s front is one more avatar of the secular front, third front concept made popular by the CPI(M). It is a front to sabotage the great struggle that has engulfed India against globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation. It is a front that offers breathing space to an increasingly isolated bourgeoisie to regroup its forces and at the same time disrupt the growing fighting unity of the workers, peasants, women and youth against the anti-social offensive.

For sometime now this notion that this is an era of coalition governments, and that no force can now operate in the electoral arena both in the center and the states without forming fronts and coalitions is being promoted. It is also said that this is a positive development, factor for strengthening democracy and its institutions. The leaders of CPI(M) and other ‘’leftists" project this coalition politics as some great discovery or conscious party policy, when in fact it is a necessity created by the objective conditions. The Congress Party declared until recently that it would not enter any coalition governments. Today, however, it has changed that policy. This change was not motivated by any principle, but based on the realisation that it cannot arrest its decline if it does not enter into alliances and coalitions with regional parties.

Instead of analysing the objective changes that have taken place in Indian society, as a Marxist would do, the CPI(M) leaders are toeing the line of the bourgeois parties, claiming that coalitions are the way forward.

The rise of coalition governments in India is a reflection of the rise of capitalist class forces in many of the regions within India. Spurred initially by the Green Revolution, the rise of new rural bourgeois forces in various parts of the country has been taking place for over two decades now. The rise of such forces is an inevitable result of the development and growth of capitalism.

At the present time, the imperialists are also stoking the competition among regional bourgeois forces, as is evident from the "state focused" lending strategy of the international institutions such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

The intensification of the contradictions between the exploiters and the exploited are leading to the further sharpening of inter -bourgeois contra-dictions. There is acute and cut throat rivalry among different factions of propertied interests for control over the central and state executive. Different factions of the big bourgeoisie are forging alliances with different imperialist powers, on the one hand, and with different regional bourgeois interests, on the other. This is the essence of the so-called era of coalitions. Every day new fronts will come into being and go out of being. But does not matter what, all of them remain loyal fronts of the bourgeoisie. The struggle between them is over who can best implement the liberalisation and privatisation programme of the bourgeoisie and over who gets what access to the state treasury to loot and plunder at will.

Comrades,

The broad masses of Indian people are extremely disgusted with this political process and the self -serving politics prevalent in India today. They are not inspired by the politics of building rival coalitions to implement the same program. What the workers, peasants, women and youth, need is one revolutionary plan and program and a well organised front based on this plan and program, which will consistently champion their interests and safe-guard their claims. This revolutionary front should combine all forms of struggle, both inside and outside parliament, to put an end to the anti-people and anti-national program of privatisation and liberalisation, and implement the alternative program for the renewal of India, on the basis of empowering the workers, peasants, women and youth.

We must be aware that the discrediting of political parties and politicians as a breed can lead to a very negative result if we communists do not carry out ideological struggle and political organising work among the people, to build the revolutionary alternative. It can lead to the further depoliticisation of the people, where they begin to reject politics altogether as a dirty affair. Such a development will only serve the bourgeoisie.

For many decades now, the ruling bourgeois class has unleashed the politics of the ballot and the bullet to disperse the fighting forces and marginalise them from political life. State and individual terrorism, communal violence and the criminalisation of the polity by parties that seek power at any cost—this is what the bourgeoisie has had to offer. It is in sharp contrast to what the people desire, which is a state that would ensure protection and prosperity to all.

The ruling bourgeoisie wants to further sideline the working class, peasantry and all the oppressed, including the youth, from the political arena. Either join the vote bank of one or the other rival parliamentary party or fronts and practise goondagardi and all other forms of terror, or stay away from politics altogether—this is the "choice" which is presented to the people. The message which is being conveyed through this propaganda is that there is no alternative to the existing state system and political process, no alternative to vote-bank politics, no alternative to political parties that serve vested interests and are organised as electoral machines.

A most harmful role is being played in this context, by those in the communist movement who call on the working class and people to defend the very state that oppresses them. They work very hard to line up the people behind one or the other bourgeois fronts under the pretext that it is the "lesser evil" compared to the BJP. While they justify their positions with Marxist sounding phrases, these leaders are acting as a roadblock to the further development and consolidation of the fighting united front of workers, peasants, women and youth against the offensive of the bourgeoisie. Through their actions, they are diverting the working class from setting its own class aim. They are mobilising workers to remain at the tail of the bourgeoisie and succumb to the pressure that "there is no alternative".

But there IS an alternative to vote-bank politics, to the colonial-style state and representative democracy. That alternative is for the people to assert their right to determine the destiny of India and establish organs of empowerment that they can wield. They have to modernise economy and the system of democracy. The right to redefine and reconstitute the polity belongs to the people of India. The workers, peasants, women and youth must declare that the renewal of India is their birthright!

The system based on the 1950 Constitution ensures that it is the interests of big monopoly capital that determine the course of public policy. The broad masses of people have no say in decision-making.

One of the fundamental flaws in the 1950 Constitution is that the Lok Sabha is not a collective of delegates selected and sent by the people, because the people have no say in the selection of candidates for election. The Lok Sabha is a collection of "representatives", elected from among those selected by various parliamentary parties.

In other words, in the existing parliamentary democracy it is the "representatives" of various political parties who are sovereign, not the people. It is they who have the power to make decisions that affect the fate of Indian society. Life experience has shown how through numerous enabling legislation, this Constitution actually empowers the Executive, in the form of the Cabinet or even a small clique within the Cabinet. They have supreme power to take major decisions affecting the fate of India without even any semblance of discussion among the elected representatives in the Lok Sabha.

In order for the workers, peasants, women and youth to become the masters of India and decide her fate, an essential condition is that they should establish a new Constitution, a new fundamental law, which would be a clean break from the colonial past. Such a constitution will debar the electoral machine type of political party that seeks power for itself. The workers, peasants, women and youth should give rise to such a constitution that should not permit any space for any party that divides the polity on the basis of gender, caste or creed. It should not permit parties that criminalise the polity in the pursuit of power. It should permit only modern political parties that work to bring the people to power and enable them to rule themselves.

The Communist Ghadar Party of India has explicitly declared that it is not and will not ever become an electoral machine. It does not seek power in its own hands. It is and will always be an instrument for the empowerment of the working class and all the oppressed. The CGPI recognises the role of other parties that can play a similar role in the polity, presenting a vision for society and enabling the toiling and oppressed people to exercise power.

What the masses of people are looking for, and longing for, is a political force that can make a break with the present course. What we need is a revolutionary political front that would put an immediate end to the privatisation and liberalisation program, and begin implementing the renewal of India on new foundations, so as to open the path for revolutionary transformations.

The acute and deepening political crisis can and must be used to accelerate the work of building the organs of class struggle among the masses, organs that can prepare the workers, peasants, women and youth to fight against the unjust rule that exists today. These organs of class struggle will assist the people to also prepare themselves to become the masters (malik) of India and take her fate into their hands. Only the communists can build and lead such a force, uniting the masses of oppressed around the working class and its program for the renewal of India. The conditions for building this force are becoming increasingly favourable today.

Comrades!

In order to organise the workers, peasants, women and youth in struggle against the existing system and the anti-people and anti-national program of the ruling class, it is necessary to examine and assess where the movement is at the present time. We need to assess the level of collective consciousness and organisation of the working class—the class that has to lead the revolutionary front.

If we look at the developments in the first 5 months of the year 2001, what we see are massive protests by the working class against the privatisation program. Right here in Mumbai, the workers organised a city-wide shutdown in protest against privatisation and the attacks on their rights in the name of reforming labour laws.

There is a new situation in the level of consciousness of the masses of people who are in struggle against the existing system and policy of the Government. What is new is the widespread recognition that the program of privatisation and liberalisation is anti-worker, anti-peasant and anti-national. As a result, there is pressure on every trade union and every worker’s organisation to come out clearly against the bourgeoisie’s program, irrespective of which party is in power. The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, the trade union centre linked to the BJP, for instance, has come out with a clear stand that the economic program of the government is anti-worker, anti-people and anti-national. Every ruling party at the state level that implements this reform program is facing rebellion in its trade union wing.

Even CITU, the trade union centre linked to the CPI(M), is agreeing to work in unity with all other unions, including BMS, to oppose the privatisation program. All these phenomena point in the direction of the working class beginning to realise its own strength. It opens up the possibility of the movement advancing from waging reactive struggles to the stage of waging pro-active struggles.

A struggle is reactive when it responds or reacts to what the rulers do—like the government privatises or liberalises something, then workers and peasants react with demonstrations and slogans condemning what has been done. To be pro-active means to anticipate what the government is going to do and organise to foil that plan. If communists carry out their duty of providing leadership to the class struggle, it is possible today for the Indian working class to actually win specific battles against the bourgeoisie and block various moves that are on the agenda at this time.

Thus, an immediate and important task facing Indian communists is to further consolidate the unity among workers, peasants, women and youth around the correct conclusion that the program of privatisation and liberalisation is indeed thoroughly anti-people and anti-national. This requires stern ideological struggle to smash all the arguments that are used to justify the program of the bourgeoisie and present it as allegedly in the best interests of India, and as the only possible course. It is essential to arm the working class and people with arguments and facts to contest and expose these lies of the bourgeoisie. It requires tireless exposures that conclusively prove that the drive towards globalisation through privatisation and liberalisation is a program to enrich the already rich and impoverish the rest.

One key point to grasp is that this policy package of liberalisation and privatisation is not just the creation of the Congress Party or of the BJP or any one party. It is the program of the class that stands behind these parties. It is a program to fatten the pockets of the big capitalists by stepping up the loot and plunder of the land and labour of the Indian people, in collaboration and competition with foreign capital. It is a program to attack the rights which have been won by the working class, under the pretext that this is required so as to make Indian capital globally competitive. It is a program that violates the basic value or belief that Indians have developed over their long history, namely, that it is the obligation of the state to ensure the wellbeing of its citizens, their prosperity and protection.

In order to justify the current anti-labour, anti-people and anti-national course in the face of the rising opposition among the people, the rulers of India are repeating the lie that "there is no alternative" to the existing political and economic systems.

The rulers of India speak in the name of Indian values but they sell out in practice. Both BJP and the Congress Party, as well as others in the parliament, embrace the western values of a market oriented economy where each individual has to fend for himself or herself. They submit to British parliamentary democracy and the Westminster system of political power, where the people have no say in decision-making.

The bourgeois ideologues promote the notion that the existing capitalist system is the best and only possible system on the economic front. And the system of representative democracy that exists, an imitation of the British Westminster model, is the best and only possible system for India as far as political power is concerned. They irrationally assert that 19th century liberalism, including the notion of each one fending for oneself, is the end all of philosophy.

These assertions contradict the basic philosophical outlook that Indians have given birth to and treasured over the years. According to Indian philosophy or Darshan, everything is in a state of motion, of change. Nothing is permanent except the process of change itself. This is true of economic and political systems as well. It is not true that the existing capitalist imperialist system and party dominated representative democracy will remain forever. They will go out of being and new systems will come into being. Indian minds cannot and must not submit to the western imposition that there is no alternative to the imperialist market economy and the system of multi-party democracy.

The history of the Indian people is a history of struggle against injustice, a struggle to establish and consolidate a society that ensures sukh and raksha for all members. It is a long struggle against Brahmanism and other oppressive customs that enslave the mind and marginalises women and girls from social activity. This struggle has given rise to a definite system of Indian values, which includes today the striving to create that society which will fulfill the claims of all its members.

Workers, peasants, women and youth need to counter the bourgeois propaganda offensive by asserting that there IS an alternative, which they themselves will give birth to. They should seriously study not only the history of India and all the political economic theories that have been propounded, but of the whole world. Summing up the experience of the world for just the last two hundred years, one thing is very clear for those who want to see. Socialism, the first phase of communism, is the next stage of development of human society.

Comrades!

The bourgeoisie attacks the very concepts of communism and the communist party using the fact that the Soviet Union disintegrated. "Communism may be a good thing but it cannot work" is what is propagated among the working people in India, who have a strong tradition of love for socialism and communism. In order to counter and overcome this ideological offensive of the bourgeoisie, it is necessary for all Indian communists to be armed with the analysis and clear conclusions from the experience of the rise and fall of socialism in the Soviet Union.

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik), under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin, did not seek power for itself. It fought to establish proletarian democracy, the rule of the workers and peasants. In the October Revolution in 1917, the party advanced the slogan "all power to the soviets". The soviets were assemblies of delegates of workers, of peasants and soldiers, which elected deputies to the Supreme Soviet, which was the highest decision making authority. The soviets of workers, peasants and soldiers constituted the organs of the class power of the working class. The party ensured that its members play an active role in the soviets and ensure that the power of the masses is defended and strengthened. As long as the party acted in this way, socialism advanced and made great strides in the Soviet Union.

As socialism began to advance to a higher stage, it became necessary to bring the role of the broad masses of people and the form of party leadership on par with the requirements of the higher stage of socialist society. The role of the masses of working people needed to be enhanced in running all affairs of the society. The party needed to pay attention to the further democratisation of the polity, to create a situation where the people rule and govern themselves, with every adult citizen enjoying the right to select candidates for election and recall elected deputies at any time, and the party playing an enabling role. This development was envisaged in 1936, and this vision was enshrined in the Stalin Constitution that was adopted in that year. However, this vision was not realised. First there was the outbreak of the Second World War. Then later the Bolshevik party was captured by cliques of revisionist traitors after Stalin’s death—first the Khrushchevites, followed by Brezhnev and others—who took the course of competition and collaboration with imperialism.

Step by step, the Khrushchevites and their followers monopolised all decision making power in the hands of the leading clique called the Politbureau of the party. The Bolshevik Party lost its class character and became a party that seeks power in its own hands, with the state organs, army and secret service as so many instruments of party rule. Once the working people were completely marginalised from politics, the revisionists were able to destroy the socialist system and pave the way to restore the capitalist system.

In the present period, when the Soviet Union has gone out of being, it is essential for communists to base themselves on the lessons of this experience. They must build the communist party as the instrument of class struggle and of class power, highlighting the contrast with parties that seek power in their own hands.

Those who followed the Soviet revisionists in the previous period, and had reduced the party to an electoral machine, are refusing to draw the lessons of the Soviet experience in the present period. The CPI(M), for instance, has reduced Marxism into the art of winning elections and holding on to power in West Bengal. The biggest achievement that the leaders of CPI(M) claim for themselves is that they have been running the state government continuously for over 20 years. What is there to show for it in terms of the condition of the workers and peasants in Bengal? Their condition is no better than in the rest of India. The CPI(M) has not used its share of political power to bring about any revolutionary transformations. The masses of people remain outside the process of decision making and their economic conditions only grow from bad to worse, just like elsewhere in India.

Marxism has been reduced to a caricature in West Bengal. Such a dogmatic rendering of Marxism assists the bourgeoisie in its struggle against communism. "Look, even the communists in West Bengal are wooing foreign capital for industrialisation", the bourgeois spokesemen say gleefully. It helps them to keep asserting that there is no alternative.

Instead of political power being the means to bring about revolutionary transformations, to these parliamentary cretins, revolutionary phrases and symbols have become the means for the party to stay in power. To stay in power has become an end in itself for the party. And in order to stay in power, the CPI(M) justifies conciliating with the status quo, that is, not do anything that may "rock the boat".

Since this arrangement serves the bourgeoisie and does not threaten it in any way, the bourgeoisie wants to keep it going. That is one of the main reasons that the CPI(M) keeps winning elections in West Bengal. In other words, there are vested interests who gain from perpetuating the rule of this party in West Bengal. Communists in this party need to think seriously whether they should be building a party of vested interests.

Comrades!

Six months ago, at the historic Kanpur conference and rally, our party assessed that a new tide of revolution was on the horizon. All the developments since that time show that this assessment is correct. The anger among the broad masses of working and oppressed people is rising not only in India but also on the world scale. The rulers are increasingly not able to rule in the old way while the people are increasingly not willing to put up with the way things are going.

May Day this year witnessed more powerful demonstrations than in recent years. This was the case not only in India but also in almost all the major capitalist countries of the world. This shows that the contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the working class is intensifying on the world scale. Youth in the US, Canada, Britain and other capitalist countries are clashing with the police in demonstrations against globalisation and imperialist domination. What is visible in all these developments is the trend of intensification of the major contradictions on the world scale.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the bipolar division of the world, US imperialism has been trying through might and main to establish a uni-polar world under its dictate. How far has it been able to advance in this direction? What do the developments over the past 10 years show in this regard? They show that the strategy of US imperialism is in crisis today.

The US led policy of warmongering, armed occupation and dismantling of various states in the name of "peacekeeping" or "peacemaking", or in the name of defence against terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism—is finding fewer and fewer supporters in the world today. When the US armed forces rained bombs on Iraq, in the name of defending the world from the evil designs of Saddam Hussein, the imperialists were able to successfully mobilise the majority of states and members of the UN to support this war. Only some of the Arab states and few others came out in opposition. This was at the turn of the decade, just as the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse.

When the US imperialists led the war in Yugoslavia, however, it could not count on a similar degree of international support. It could not count on the United Nations to legitimise this war. So it acted under the umbrella of the NATO, given that Germany and other European powers also had their own interests in carving out Yugoslavia. The war in Yugoslavia was condemned by a large number of states in the world, including even the Indian State. The peoples and states condemned the more recent aggressive acts of the US against China even more widely across the world.

Who can the US imperialists target for their next war adventure? As you know, the US economy is experiencing a downslide at the present time. The military industrial complex in the US is looking towards the Bush Government to pull the economy out of the crisis by organising another war in some part of the world. However, justifying armed aggression and occupation in the name of peacekeeping or peacemaking or defending human rights has become more difficult than before. The US has even been kicked out from the United Nations Human Rights Commission. The US policy finds less and less supporters, even among its allies in Europe. There are contradictions between the Anglo-Americans and the states of continental Europe over the question of the future of NATO. There are contradictions over the policy to be adopted towards China, towards Cuba and North Korea, among others. All these show the weakening of the positions of imperialism on the world scale.

Comrades!

The Second Congress of our party has identified and established the definite practical tasks of the present epoch, around which the working class and broad masses of people need to be united. There are four distinct but closely related components of these definite practical tasks of the epoch. Number ONE: an immediate end to the bourgeoisie’s anti-worker, anti-people and anti-national program of privatisation and liberalisation. Number TWO: democratic renewal and the lifting of society out of the crisis. Number THREE: the overthrow of capitalism as the condition for the completion of the democratic, anti-colonial, anti-feudal and anti-imperialist struggle. And number FOUR: the building of socialism through revolution.

Calling for an immediate end to the program of the bourgeoisie naturally leads to the question as to what is the program that will take its place. Thus the two are related. And the remaining tasks are also related, in the sense that the democratic renewal of India will pave the way to overthrow capitalism and to build socialism. And without the leadership of the party of communists, devoted to the strategic aim of socialism and communism, the struggle for the democratic renewal of India cannot be won

Comrades!

In order to carry out these tasks successfully, it is essential for communists to organise the youth as a powerful political force.

The population of India is a relatively young population. Persons in the age group 15-25 constitute a very significant share of the entire population. According to the 1991 census, this proportion is large. An even larger percentage of workers and peasants are youth. And it is also true that the majority of Indian youth are workers and peasants. Indian youth thus constitute one of the most potent forces for the revolution.

The youth, by their very nature, are attracted to what is new and emerging, while they are disgusted with all that is old and rotting. In addition to the worker and peasant youth, the prospect of revolutionary transformations and the vision of an India without unemployment, poverty, ruthless exploitation and oppression of the majority of Indians also attract the sons and daughters born in families of the middle strata.

At every turning point in the history of Indian society, the youth have played a critical role in the struggle to open the path for progress. Youth were a powerful force among the bhaktas and sufis who rose in rebellion against the hated brahmanical caste system before the British colonial conquest. Youth like Mangal Pande were among the martyrs of 1857, the First War of Indian Independence. And the anti-colonial struggle is full of the heroic exploits of youth like Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. Youth were also in the forefront of the struggles in Telengana and in Naxalbari.

The power of the youth has thus been seen at many points in history. When youth set their minds on achieving something, they release tremendous energies to achieve the same. How should youth be brought together to participate in politics today? This is the crucial question that faces us.

Imperialism and the bourgeoisie do not want Indian youth to become a political force today. They want them to remain just a productive force, which will produce superprofits for them. They want to inculcate in the youth the cynical notion that there is no alternative except to fend for oneself and become a self-seeker, and that this is the most modern outlook that one can have.

The imperialists and the bourgeoisie promote the notion of every young person pursuing his or her own individual "happiness" as the highest and universal value to be adopted in the modern day world. Why should Indian youth adopt this so-called universal value that is being promoted by imperialism and the bourgeoisie?

According to the bourgeois propaganda, each one should maximise one’s own individual benefit or private profit. Anyone can allegedly become a billionaire (crorepati) in the market place, according to what is promoted in the media. But the facts show that it is in fact only a small minority among the youth from middle class families who actually manage to prosper in this capitalist driven society. And even then, their prosperity is never secure.

There has been so much propaganda in recent years, for instance, about computer careers for the Indian youth. Learn computer programming and you can become a billionaire—this was the propaganda. A small number of Indian youth did earn high salaries in the IT field and decided to settle down in the US. Today, when the IT bubble has burst and the US economy is experiencing a downturn, the fate of some of these IT wizards is truly pitiable. They have been thrown out of their jobs. They owe big instalments of money on their house mortgage, with no income any more. And the real estate market in the US is down, so even if they decide to sell their house and come back to India, they will lose a lot of their hard earned money.

It is not possible to secure individual happiness when the collective to which the individual belongs remains exploited and oppressed. As long as Indians remain enslaved to the economic and political systems, as well as the value systems, of the imperialists who colonised India, we can never secure a happy future.

For over 50 years since India became independent, those who claimed to be the fathers of the nation have presented youth with all kinds of false promises. To talk in the name of society and the general interest, but to pursue one’s own self-interest and the narrow interests of one’s patrons—this is the old politics, which the youth of today find extremely disgusting. In this situation, the bourgeois media promotes the notion that youth must forget about politics altogether and just go after their self-interest by exploiting the opportunities in the global market. By contrasting one form of self-seeking behaviour to another, they want to trap the youth within the confines of the old world of capitalism and imperialism.

Parties like BJP and Shiv Sena also organise the youth, apparently on the basis of patriotism. They attract the youth with their shakas, where they teach yoga and also impart their ideology of hindutva. However, this ideology has begun to sound hollow and the youth are beginning to question these so-called defenders of Indian culture.

Culture is not something unrelated to economics and politics. How can the BJP and the Shiv Sena, which have adopted the enslaving policy of globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation, have any credibility as defenders of the dignity of Indian people on the cultural front? If one is a beggar in economic terms, one will necessarily be a beggar in all fields.

Politics is the concentrated expression of economic interests. It is also the highest form of culture of a people. Hence the most urgent necessity facing Indian youth is to become political. To become political in India today means to become conscious of the anti-people and anti-national offensive that is being waged by the present day rulers of the country and their international partners in crime. It means to begin to fight against the rule of the bourgeoisie and its anti-social offensive on a collective class basis, in unity with all those who are oppressed and victimised by the same. The ultimate aim of the political struggle is to wrest political power from the present day ruling class into the hands of the broad masses of workers, peasants, women and youth—the real masters of India. With political power in our hands, we can reorganise the economy to provide protection and prosperity for all.

As Lenin pointed out after the triumph of the Great October Revolution in 1917, the older generation of workers and peasants can at most carry out the task of destroying the capitalist system of exploitation. The task of building the new society belongs to the youth of today and to the future generations.

To politicise the youth means to make them conscious of the necessity to lay claim to this country that belongs to them, so that the future does not remain a future of oppression and plunder.

In order to break out of the stranglehold of the old world, and give birth to the new world, youth need theory and organisation in their hands. The party must provide the youth all possible assistance to develop their theoretical thinking and outlook, and to build their own organisation of class struggle.

Indian youth are witness to a plethora of organisations today. Every major party in parliament has at least one mass organisation for youth. These are typically mechanisms where the netas of the party sit and make all the political decisions, while the youth are called upon to implement such decisions. They are called upon to do the dirty work of maximising the vote-banks of that party while damaging the prospects of its rivals. The politics of these organisations is based on the premise that India belongs to a privileged minority, the propertied classes and their political leaders and the youth must do their bidding.

In direct contrast to this old politics, we must mobilise the youth to affirm that it is we—the workers, peasants, women and youth—who constitute India. We are her malik. This will be the basic premise of the new politics around which Indian youth need to be organised.

On the basis of the old type of politics, the bourgeoisie has managed to divide the youth along party lines or on some other sectarian basis. What is absent in the situation today is a single unifying and rallying point for the youth, on the basis of the new politics of unity against the common enemy. What is needed is a single all-India organisation that would serve to forge the political unity of Indian youth in struggle for the renewal of India.

The question is immediately posed as to what is the content of this unity.

The unity that we seek is political. It is against the old world and for the birth and flourishing of the new. It is against exploitation and oppression, and for the affirmation of rights. The aim is to unite as many as possible so as to achieve a definite practical objective—which is to end the anti-social offensive and open the path to the progress of Indian society. This political aim guides the work on all fronts of organising the youth, including culture, sports and other activities. Youth are and will be mobilised by the program to change the world, to renew India on a modern basis and open the road to revolutionary transformations.

The challenge is to build a popular organisation that attracts and retains all kinds of youth in its midst—including working class and peasant youth, sons and daughters of middle class families, students in government schools, private schools and colleges, etc. Any Indian in the age group of 15-35 can become a member of this organisation. The only other condition will be that he or she agrees to participate in the struggle to implement the program of the organisation.

The work of organising Indian youth should begin with the recognition that our strength lies in the collective. Hence it is the collective or general body (sabha in Hindi) of active youth in any area, who are willing to take part in the struggle, that should have the power to make decisions. The general body of members of the youth organisation in any area may delegate duties to an elected body. The elected committee (samiti is the suggested Hindi translation) is duty bound to render accounts to the general body regularly; it does not have the right to change any decision of the general body. The general body of members has the right to recall, at any time, any person who it elected to the committee. On the basis of this organisational theory, it is possible to create sabhas and samitis in each region, in every city, high school and college campus, and so on.

The youth organisation should be active all the time, organising political, cultural and sports events, and other projects to achieve learning by doing. It must strive to galvanise the energies of youth not only in India but also among Indians abroad.

Such an organisation will serve many objectives at the same time. In the first place, it will be an organ of class struggle, for politicising the youth and mobilising them for the struggle. Secondly, it will serve as a training and recruiting ground for communists. Thirdly, it will also serve as a training and recruiting ground for activists and leaders of non-party organisations among the workers, peasants and women.

By focusing on the political aim, and keeping the doors wide open to all Indian youth who want to take up the new politics, irrespective of ideology, we can gain a broad following and build a popular movement of youth. At the same time, it is the communist youth who will have to play the most active and leading role to build this organisation. Ideological and theoretical education to guide the political struggle should also be among the constant activity organised among the youth.

The youth need a clear vision to inspire them in struggle against the old-world. What is that vision of the new India that needs to be put forward and developed among the Indian youth of today? It is a continuation and further elaboration of the vision we inherit from all the glorious martyrs and anti-colonial fighters—of an India without exploitation, without any caste or class distinction, where the wellbeing of each shall be the condition for the wellbeing of all.

Comrades,

If Indian youth make up their mind, and work in close unity with the working class, they can foil the plans of imperialism and the bourgeoisie. The plunder of India can be ended. With political power in their hands, the workers, peasants, women and youth will be able to ensure that there is work for all. They will ensure that what is produced is geared towards providing adequately for all members of Indian society.

Come, let us take this bold step together! The energy and initiative that we see in the youth gives us the confidence that we can succeed in this project. Glory to the heroic youth of India! Long live the unity between the youth and the working class movement for emancipation.

Naujawan ki hai yeh Maang! Hindostan ka Navnirman!

Hum hai Iske Malik! Hum hai Hindostan! Mazdoor, Kisan, Aurat aur Jawan!

Naujawan Ekta Zindabad! Mazdoor, kisan, aurat, jawan - Sab ki ekta Zindabad!

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