• Lok Sabha debate on Gujarat massacres:
  Parliamentary democracy stinks

• Congress Party peddles imperialist theory of "good governance"

• The Indian state’s "look east" policy

• Official report blames alcoholism for peasants’

• TN Bill to ban strikes in "essential" services

• Globalisation hits fisher folk in Tamil Nadu below the belt

• Consolidation of foreign capital in the Indian banking sector

• Workers oppose globalisation and privatisation on May Day

• Struggle against globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation:

• Reactionary nationalism and aping Anglo-American imperialism—two sides of the same coin

Lok Sabha debate on Gujarat massacres:

Parliamentary democracy stinks

The main feature of the parliament debate was that the parties of the ruling as well as "opposition alliance" all blamed, directly or indirectly, the people of Gujarat for being "communal". Gujaratis of the Muslim faith have been devastated. Gujarat—its people, its workers, peasants and middle strata—have suffered a great tragedy. Nobody can dispute the fact that the vast majority of the people have had no role in the genocide, except their courageous attempts against great personal odds to save people. The victims—the people of Gujarat—were blamed for the crime. The rulers fault was just their "dereliction of duty"— not organising and executing systematically a genocide. This is the typical method of the political hucksters who have ruled our country for the past 55 years. They talk of "administrative lapses" and other nauseating stuff, but all the while make out that Indian people want to slaughter each other along religious or other lines and the only thing preventing this is their rule. This is how British colonialism justified its rule declaring that it was necessary for "civilising" the backward Indians who would kill each other on caste or religion or ethnic basis.

Minister for culture Uma Bharti, referred to the Gujarat events as a "kalank ka dhabba" on what she claimed to be the otherwise unblemished record of the NDA government. Who is responsible for organising these masacres, why did the government fail to protect the lives of people, the bestial rape, torture and burning of women, such issues were not even touched upon. Instead, her energy and enthusiasm were concentrated primarily in lambasting the "college student-like" behaviour and "lack of tahzeeb (manners)" of the leader of the opposition, Sonia Gandhi. War Minister George Fernandes arrogantly declared that mass rape, sexual violence and burning of Muslim women was "nothing new". He brought ridicule on himself by statements such as "this has been happening for the last 54 years", this happened "on the streets of New Delhi in 1984", "this is not the first time", etc. Not that this repeated violence against women was a matter of any great concern for him, for he simply brushed it all aside saying "we should not feel bothered about such things!" Internal Security Minister Advani called the Gujarat events a matter of "personal shock and anguish", but said not a word about who are the guilty or how the guilty are going to be punished. Instead, he defended the BJP government in Gujarat, despite what he called "administrative and police lapses" and of course, shamelessly denied the by now, well-established charges of "deliberate carnage and state engineered genocide".

Prime Minister Vajpayee, while expressing pain and anguish at the happenings in Gujarat, was more interested in lambasting the media for showing scenes of the violence in Gujarat and for identifying the community of the victims of the violence. His main concern appeared to be to clarify how he had been misunderstood and misquoted, rather than how to bring about an end to the communal violence and massacres.

The "secular" Congress party and its "secular" allies including the CPI and CPIM kept blaming the BJP and the Sangh Parivar for the genocide. None of them was interested in addressing the question raised indirectly by George Fernandes that communal violence, the rape and burning of people, has been a regular feature of India in the entire period since 1947. Of course none of them want to answer the question raised by the Indian people time and again "HOW TO PUT AN END TO COMMUNAL VIOLENCE ONCE AND FOR ALL IN OUR COUNTRY"! None of them, including the parliamentary communists, ever bothered to begin debating why and how state organised communal massacres are part of the system of rule in India! None of them bothered to discuss how both secularism and communalism were weapons used by British colonialism to establish their rule in India and have nothing to do with Indian rajdharma!

The parliamentary debate on Gujarat clearly shows how little concern our rulers have for the people of this country. It shows that their real interest is only to use the present situation to strengthen their position at the expense of the people and their struggle for a better life. It shows how they are least interested in actually ending the politics of divide and rule, the politics of state organised communal violence and terror, which they have inherited from their British colonial mentors, and which they have all used time and again, to stabilise the class rule of the Indian big bourgeoisie and crush the resistance of the people. It shows how all of them stand for defending the existing rule of the big bourgeoisie, the brutal exploitation and impoverishment of the vast masses of toiling people, and that their mutual contention is only for the purpose of settling who can defend this rule better and make maximum gain out of the loot and plunder of the people.

People who want to end communal violence can afford to have no illusions that the present system can be relied upon to do so. Our rulers will switch on and switch off communal massacres whenever it serves their interests, which is to keep the exploitative order in place. There can be no cure for state organised communal pogroms from the organisers of these pogroms, just as there can be no cure for plague from the gods of plague. People must organise to defend themselves from communal violence, as they cannot expect the state to do so. Simultaneously, they must build that alternative political system and political process which will really empower the toiling masses and punish all those guilty of committing crimes against the people.

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ACongress Party peddles imperialist theory of "good governance"

"Good governance" is what the British colonialists brought to India. It refers to a system of political institutions based on English political theory of the "King in Parliament". Supreme power in this system is concentrated in the hands of the executive (the King or the Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister), while the legislative (Parliament) stands apart as a separate body whose job is to legitimise what the executive does, or occassionally to move a no-confidence motion against it. This is the system that was imposed on Indian soil by the colonisers and has been maintained and perfected for over 50 years under the rule of the Congress Party, the BJP and others in-between. It is part of the colonial legacy and source of the problems in India. It is not and cannot be part of the solution to the problems.

This European system of "good governance" suited the interests of the British colonialists whose aim was the maximum exploitation and plunder of the land and labour of India. It has also suited the interests of those classes that grew under colonial tutelage — the big capitalists and big landlords, who were and are interested in concentrating political power in their hands and keeping the toiling masses out. It does not suit the interests of the workers, peasants, women and youth who constitute the vast majority in India. It does not address their demand to have a say in decision making, to have a share in political power today so as to influence the course of society.

The platform of "good governance" that Sonia Gandhi is promoting is a platform that is being funded in India today by the World Bank, British Department for International Development (DFID), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and others. The British DFID has financed the establishment of a Centre for Good Governance in Hyderabad, which was inaugurated personally by the British Prime Minister Tony Blair a year ago. The Congress ruled states of Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, and more recently Chattisgarh, have been paraded as models of governments that are implementing "governance reforms". The ADB has been financing the "governance reform" program in Madhya Pradesh, and the British DFID has recently offered to co-finance the same program. The World Bank is the principal financier and ideological mentor for the program in Karnataka.

The main objectives of this so-called reform program for strengthening good governance are:
(i) to reduce red tape and make it easier for foreign capital to penetrate India, i.e., make India more "investor friendly"; (ii) activate the existing committees of Parliament and the state legislatures to create an illusion of "accountability" of the executive to the legislative, (iii) strengthen the legal system to defend and ensure the supremacy of private capitalist property and (iv) finance and promote the growth of what is known as the "poverty sector", through a host of NGOs, "user groups", "stakeholder participation" and so on. The strategic aim of this program is to prettify and preserve the political institutions established by the British colonisers in India, which keeps the vast majority out of power.

The political system which the Congress Party is promoting as "good governance" is in fact the source of acute political crisis, in India and on the world scale. The experience of the Indian people, just in the past decade and over, have clearly shown that the broad masses of people, the workers, peasants, women or youth, the dalits and adivasis, have no say in decision making, in the political power. Political power is wielded by the big bourgeoisie and it is the program of this class that is implemented by whichever party or coalition that is in power either in the centre or the states. As the workers and peasants and other toiling people have stepped up their struggle against the anti-social offensive, they are increasingly coming to the conclusion that at the heart of the problems in our country is their complete political marginalisation. Ending this marginalisation and becoming the real masters of India and her destiny have become the rallying call of the toilers. In these conditions, the imperialists and reactionary bourgeoisie are trying to befuddle the toiling masses through their propaganda on "good governance". The plank of "anti-poverty" programs and "empowerment programs" for women, tribals, dalits and other marginalised sections is aimed at splitting the united front of workers, peasants, women and youth and other marginalised sections by fostering illusions in this or that section that the government is serious about ameliorating their conditions.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the NDA came to power 4 years ago on the slogan of "good governance", decrying the Congress and the United Front as examples of "bad governance". Four years down the line, the "good governance" platform of the BJP lies in shambles, exposed as the naked rule of finance capital, Indian and foreign, and the instrument of the anti-social offensive against the Indian people. The Congress Party of Sonia Gandhi has picked up this mantle. This party is telling the Indian big bourgeoisie and world imperialism "trust us, we will carry out the anti-social offensive better than the BJP".

The communal slaughter in Gujarat is being used by the Indian big bourgeoisie and imperialism to divide, disorient and divert the mounting struggle of the Indian people against the anti-social offensive. It is at the same time also aimed at legitimising the discredited political system and political process, a system and process that has brought disaster upon disaster upon the Indian people for 55 years on end. India’s toiling masses can ill afford to have illusions on this score. Whether it is the question of the intensified exploitation of workers and peasants, or the oppression of dalits, the adivasis and women, the state organised communal slaughter of religious and ethnic minorities, whether it is a question of corruption and criminalisation of politics, all these problems are all part and parcel of the very system of rule in India. The big bourgeoisie rules through the Indian state and the various governments, with whatever prefixes they have now "good" and now bad, now "Left and Democratic" and other times "Bharatiya" are all instruments of the bourgeoisie in implementing its agenda. Neither will the people win their war against poverty, nor will dalits, women and adivasis empower themselves if they do not recognise this and fight to seize political power from the big bourgeoisie and then ensure that the economy serves them.

India’s communists can ill afford to promote or fall for illusions about the Congress Party or its World Bank sponsored plank of "good governance". They must vigorously expose the Congress Party and its game plan in the service of the big bourgeoisie. The struggle of the workers and peasants against the anti-social offensive runs serious risk of being derailed from its goal, which is to defeat the anti-social offensive, if the enemy is looked at as the BJP and not the big bourgeoisie and its state, including the political parties which are part and parcel of this state. .

The Indian big bourgeoisie and world imperialism are extremely worried that the multi-party parliamentary democracy in India is thoroughly discredited and workers and peasants, women and youth, tribals and dalits are seeking the way to real empowerment. Real empowerment demands that the present system which keeps workers and peasants, women and youth, tribals and dalits away from political power be transformed and a new system wherein workers and peasants rule, is established.

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The Indian state’s "look east" policy

The "look east" policy was inaugurated around the mid-1990s, in the context of the end of the Cold War and the shifting alignments in the post-Cold War world. Without the alliance with the Soviet Union to fall back up on, the Indian State was compelled to seek new allies and friends. While the linchpin of this reorientation in foreign policy has been the growing closeness to the United States, the wooing of the South East Asian countries was also taken up simultaneously. This was seen as a way of counter-balancing both the ties of Pakistan with the Islamic countries as well as the growing clout of China on the world stage, and also of benefiting from the economic growth in the ASEAN region. The first major milestone in the "look east" policy was India becoming first a "dialogue partner" of ASEAN in 1995, and then a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum. However, the preoccupation of many of the ASEAN countries with the fallout of the economic crisis of 1997, and then their anxiety over the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests, meant that for a while these countries did not respond as actively as the Indian State had hoped to its overtures. For various reasons, including possibly the disillusionment of some ASEAN countries with the role of the West and its financial institutions in their economic crisis, this situation seems to have changed in the last year or two.The following are some of the main developments in the "look east" policy in the last year:

In addition to these developments, the Indian Navy has been making moves to extend its field of operations to the South China Sea and the Malacca Straits, in addition to patrolling the Indian Ocean, in collaboration with the US Navy. The Indian Navy has even announced that it will be "escorting" American commercial vessels through the Malacca Straits, allegedly to protect them from pirates!

All these moves together show a very determined push by the Indian State to carve out a kind of sphere of influence for itself in the region of South East Asia. These can be expected to be taken further forward in the coming period, especially since the Indian side is still smarting over the fact that it does not yet have the status of a full partner of ASEAN like China.

While it is still too early to predict the outcome of the "look east" policy in the future, there are some factors that the Indian and other concerned peoples in Asia need to be vigilant about.

Firstly, the "look east" policy is being pursued simultaneously with a policy of ‘looking west’ – i.e., going all out to woo US imperialism. This means that it is likely that the Indian State is being deliberately encouraged by the US imperialists to extend its reach eastwards to counter the influence of China in the region.

Secondly, the "look east" policy is being pursued at a time when there has been a sharp increase in the warmongering and militarisation of the Indian State, directed particularly against Pakistan. These two policies, seen together, throw doubt on the ‘peaceful’ intentions behind the attempt to reach out to the South East Asian countries. In particular, the Indian Navy claiming a ‘right’ to patrol the waters of South East Asia is particularly ominous.

While reaching out to the South East Asian countries, the Indian State has been singularly unsuccessful in maintaining consistently good relations with its more immediate neighbours in South Asia. What then are the chances that it will be able to forge good relations with the South East Asian countries with whom it shares much less by way of cultural and other links?

Finally, by committing itself to building a road link through the North East and into Myanmar, it is almost certain that the Indian State will step up its campaign to suppress various insurgent movements in the North East by all means at its disposal. This could also extend over the border into Myanmar, which would be very dangerous for peace and security in the region.

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Official report blames alcoholism for peasants’

What has outraged people most is that the main reasons for the suicides have been found by the Committee to be alcoholism, family problems and debt. According to news reports, crop failure is given little importance as a factor. Even where the Committee refers to indebtedness as a cause, it is reported that this is linked mainly with extravagant social expenditure, such as on marriages, rather than with the current economic and credit policies, and the lack of adequate institutional credit available to peasants! Even more ridiculous is the stress on alcoholism. Prof M.D. Nanjundaswamy, President of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, has called this preposterous. He questioned why, if addiction to liquor was the main reason behind the suicides, those Committee members who indulged in drinking were not ending their own lives!

The acceptance of the Veeresh Committee Report is a clear illustration of the callousness of the authorities towards the real problems faced by the working people. In Karnataka, every politician claims to be a champion of the farmers, but despite the clear warnings, not just from Karnataka but all over the country, that something is desperately wrong with the conditions of the peasant cultivators, they do nothing to solve it. At best, they appoint committees which whitewash their own responsibility and put the blame in some way or the other on the peasants themselves.

Even in the best of times, a large proportion of the cultivating peasantry in India is barely able to make ends meet. In times of drought, or in drought-prone regions, the peasants have nothing to fall back on. They are left to their own meagre resources, and to the mercies of sharks and moneylenders. Additionally, the growing commercialisation of agriculture, particularly in the past decade of unchecked globalisation, leaves the cultivators at the mercy of fluctuating market trends, poor quality and costly agricultural inputs, and so on. Chief Minister Krishna has had the heartlessness to suggest that peasants are committing suicide in order to benefit from ‘compensation’ that may be given to their families after their death, but in fact it is sheer desperation and hopelessness that prompts them to take such a drastic step.

Some commentators are suggesting that the solution to the cultivators’ plight is not support from the State, but the need for the cultivators to become more savvy about market trends, and to take more wholeheartedly to producing for the world market. To suggest this in the era of monopoly capitalism, which has the capacity to reduce thriving countries and their economies into wastelands at one stroke, is sheer nonsense. Only the reorientation of the economy to fulfil the needs of the people and especially the producers as its prime goal, can solve the problems of the peasantry.

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TN Bill to ban strikes in "essential" services

The Bill empowers the Government to prohibit strikes in "essential" services.

According to the Bill, those participating in "illegal strikes" will be punished with a maximum of three-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 5000.

Not only that, even supporting the strike will be punished! A clause in the Bill says, "Any person who instigates or incites others to take part in, or otherwise acts in furtherance of, a strike which is illegal under this Act, shall on conviction be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with a fine which may extend to Rs. 5000, or with both." Support for the strike with financial aid will also attract the same punishment.

The list of sections of employees included in the Tamil Nadu Essential Services Maintenance Act, 2002 covers most of the services provided by the State. It includes water supply, electricity, transport service, maintenance and repair staff of transport services, public health sector and conservancy employees, local body services and fire brigade under the category of "essential service."

Refusal to work overtime for maintaining essential service will also attract the draconian provisions of the Act.

The State Government has justified the introduction of the Bill with the fascist logic that "there is at present no law empowering the Government to deal promptly and effectively with strikes in essential services with respect to which the legislature has power to make laws to ensure public safety and maintenance of supplies and services necessary for the normal life of the community."

After the recent militant transport strike in Tamil Nadu, the bourgeoisie has been impatiently waiting for an opportunity to retaliate in the most reactionary way and deprive the workers of rights that they have won after decades of struggle. Using the brute majority of the AIADMK government in the TN Assembly the bourgeoisie is planning to steamroll the opposition and get the Bill passed in this session.

One thing is clear. It is the working class of Tamil Nadu which has to work out and implement a strategy to defeat the Bill through building a broad united front with all sections of the working class, other working people and progressive sections of intellectuals, students and so on. While opposing the Bill during the Assembly debates through trade union representatives in the Assembly can contribute to mobilising public opinion, it can by no means be the only form of struggle. The Bill can be defeated only by the entire working class of Tamil Nadu vigorously opposing it through state-wide mass agitations, strikes and propaganda tours and building steel-like unity in its ranks cutting across party and caste lines.

People’s Voice condemns this draconian Bill in unequivocal terms and expresses its complete solidarity with the united action of the working class of Tamil Nadu.

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Globalisation hits fisher folk in Tamil Nadu below the belt

Along the Tamil Nadu coast there are 556 marine fishing villages located in 12 maritime districts. Marine fish landing takes place in 3662 centres.

Besides coastal fishing, there are 5 major rivers, 51 reservoirs and innumerable lakes where inland fishing is done.

As per the census of marine fisher folk completed in 2000, there are about 6.7 lakh marine fisher folk, of whom about 2.6 lakhs are actively engaged in fishing. As per the State Planning Commission, there were 2 lakh inland fishermen in 1995-96. Private estimates place the fisher folk population at 9 lakhs and about 20 lakh people who depend on the coast for their livelihood.

As per the Policy Note 2000-01, there are about 10,000 mechanised fishing crafts, out of which there are an estimated 2000 trawlers. There are about 43,000 traditional catamarans engaged in marine fishing.

According to the Tamil Nadu Social Development Report 2000, the state’s share of fish production in India was 8.9% in 1996-97. However, of the total marine exports, Tamil Nadu contributes nearly one fourth. Over the years, the policy of the bourgeoisie has been to encourage exports at the cost of satisfying local requirements. During the nineties, while the growth rate of fishing was low, the value of fish production and fish exports have shown a significant increase. This is the result of the policy pursued by the central and state governments that placed the short-term interests of profit-oriented fishing enterprises over the interests of coastal communities and long-term coastal ecological balance.

Most of the traditional and small fisher folk families live on the edge of survival and destruction. According to the Policy Note 2000-01 of the Fisheries Department of the state government, "There are 56,169 members in 245 Inland Fishermen Cooperative Societies in Tamil Nadu. Most of them are living below the poverty line".

The forces who gain by globalisation and the export oriented developmental policies of the central and state governments have played havoc with the state’s coastline. Not only have unmindful industrialisation and massive infrastructure projects destroyed the livelihood of fishing communities, they have severely eroded the ecological balance of the sensitive coastal system. Huge chemical and petro-chemical plants, pharmaceutical and industrial complexes, aquaculture shrimp industry, tourist resorts, farm houses, beachside hotels and entertainment parks, power plants and mega ports have all devastated the coastal ecology and coastal communities. The ecological nerve centres of Tamil Nadu, the Pitchavaram mangrove forest near Chidambaram, Muthupet near Vedharanyam and mangrove forests along the Ramnad coast have been severely degraded in the last few decades.

The 1991 Coastal Zone Regulation Notification by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) classified various coastal zones and prohibited activities such as setting up of industries and fish processing units, dumping of untreated industrial effluents and waste materials, land reclamation, mining, etc., within 500m of the high tide line (HTL). But this notification has been diluted through amendments and court judgements and observed mostly in its breach in spite of vigorous protests from environmental groups and fishing communities.

For example, the World Bank funded East Coast Road linking Chennai and Kanyakumari along the Tamil Nadu coast has proved to be an ecological nightmare leading to more than 5000 big and old trees being cut down and thousands of households evacuated. It is estimated that a host of tourism related projects such as amusement parks, aquariums, health resorts, aqua sport and leisure centres with an investment of more than Rs 800 crores will be coming up along the Chennai-Cuddalore stretch of the road.

Aquaculture has been another threat to the livelihood of fishing communities and to the ecological balance. Modern aquaculture is a typical "rape and run" industry. Aqua farms set up by capitalists with the sole aim of quick profits and dollar earnings have proved to be major ecological disasters. They have led to degradation of soil and water, destruction of agricultural fields and the erosion of biodiversity. Fenced farms along the coast have hampered even the normal movement of fisher folk. In spite of the Supreme Court declaring that all shrimp farms and industries located within the 500m space coming within the purview of the CRZ notification should be destroyed, shrimp farms are happily proliferating.

Urban coastal ecosystems have been even more affected by the process of globalisation driven by greed and self aggrandisation, with no concern for public welfare. A recent study done by the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) ranked Chennai second only to Mumbai as the most degraded urban coastal ecosystem. According to studies, the steep increase in residential, commercial and industrial buildings and polluted discharges into the Adyar and Cooum rivers have severely affected the coastal water quality. The expropriation of forest land for aquaculture and plantations, neglect of wastelands and agriculture and the unsustainable exploitation of coastal resources have all reduced the mangrove cover that has been crucial to maintaining the ecosystem balance.

In summary, the forces of globalisation, spurred by the greed for super-profits, have severely endangered the environment and brought untold hardships to the lives of fisher folk in Tamil Nadu. Experience has taught these people that it is useless to rely on the high court and supreme court to stop the degradation of the ecosystem. Neither is there any use in expecting that the central and state governments will reverse their anti-people environmental policies, for they both work in the interests of the big capitalists and multinationals, Indian and foreign. For the fisher folk, the movement against globalisation that they have been waging is not only in defence of their livelihood, which is their birthright, but also in the interest of preserving the entire coastal ecosystem of our country and in the interest of defending national sovereignty. The struggles of the fisher folk are not only against unjust laws but against the entire exploitative system where the vast majority of the producers of wealth and keepers of the food security of the country are left to die in agony to satisfy the greed of a handful of exploiters. It is imperative that fisher folk in Tamil Nadu and throughout the country join hands with all other sections of the working class, who also have been devastated by globalisation, and step up their struggle in favour of an end to this exploitative system.

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Consolidation of foreign capital in the Indian banking sector

On Feb 16th, the RBI announced a major policy change with regard to foreign direct investment (FDI) in the banking sector. According to this policy, FDI upto 49% from all sources will be permitted in private sector banks automatically. For the public sector banks, the overall statutory limit of 20% as FDI and portfolio investment will continue.

Now the budget has announced that new foreign institutional investments will not be subject to the limits of FDI in most sectors. If this applies to the banking sector, then foreign banks can control nearly the entire equity of private sector banks that they take over.

Right from the beginning of the economic reforms, the Indian bourgeoisie has been interested in the consolidation of the financial sector in India, a crucial necessity in their grand plans to become global players. The consolidation involved dropping the social democratic lineage of the Indian public sector banks and setting them on the track of maximum profits through closure of "unviable branches", reduction inworkforce through VRS and tightening credit to small borrowers such as peasants and small businessmen. It also involved partial privatization of public sector banks. Private and foreign players were also allowed to enter into the banking sector.

The foreign banks have been eyeing the 23 old private sector banks, which represent a vulnerable section of the commercial banking sector. These banks have a comparatively high level of non-performing assets, low capital base, inadequate technology and limited reach. They cannot operate on their own in the financial sector where monopolization and consolidation of capital are a must for maximum profits. Till now the new private sector banks were thelikely ones to take over them. With the policy shift, the private sector banks will come into collision with foreign banks.

In the case of public sector banks also, the government has announced that it is planning to reduce its stake in these banks to33% in a phased manner claiming that it does not have enough capital to invest in these banks. This time, the privatization may not be done through selling shares to the public. The bourgeoisie has plans to allow FDI and foreign portfolio investment in the privatization of public sector banks.

The consolidation of finance capital in the banking sector and the increasing domination of foreign capital have grave consequences for the sovereignty of the nation and the livelihood and well-being of the people. Throughout the world, the increasing dominance of finance capital and the growing clout of imperialist capital in the financial sectors of these countries have caused untold hardships for the people. Many countries such as South Korea, Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil have been driven to the verge of bankruptcy by the unscrupulous machinations of imperialist capital. The people of India should assimilate the experiences of other peoples with foreign finance capital and remain vigilant towards the bourgeoisie’s plans.

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Workers oppose globalisation and privatisation on May Day

Workers of Modern Foods organsied a rally against privatisation in New Delhi. Mazdoor Ekta Committee and CITU organised a militant rally in front of Regency Hotel in New Delhi. A huge joint rally was held in Delhi’s historic Ramlila Maidan on May Day, in which several trade unions participated, Mazdoor Ekta Committee being one of them.

Over 5000 workers of unorganized sectors belonging to about 60 organizations came together and held a militant May day rally at Chennai. It was held on the Marina beach at Chennai. It was a great sight on May Day when thousands of these workers assembled from all over Tamil Nadu near the "Statue of Workers(Labour)" at the Marina beach holding the red flags and banners of their various organizations. A large number of women took part in the May Day rally with great determination and resolve.

The May day rally was held as the culmination of a historic Pada Yatra organised by the Joint Action Committee of the unorganized workers. The Pada Yatra started from Kanya Kumari on March-8th on the International Women’s Day and crossed all the cities, towns and hundreds of villages of Tamil Nadu raising the slogan of "Defeat the globalization program" and "uphold the right to livelihood of the people". Women and men, workers of different sectors walked over 900 kms on foot with great determination. All the way through, hundreds of organizations and thousands of workers showed their support for the struggle against globalization.

Lok Raj Sangathan is a member of the Joint Action Committee of the unorganized workers and took part vigorously in the Pada Yatra as well as in the May Day program with the aim of uniting and strengthening the working class movement and taking the fight against the globalization forward.

The May Day rally was addressed by Ms. Geetha, leader of the Nirman Mazdoor Panchayat Sangh (NMPS) and the Joint Action Committee by raising militant slogans hailing the memory of the heroic struggle and the martyrdom of the Chicago workers and the May day tradition.

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Struggle against globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation:

Roadblocks to the struggle of the working class and peasantry in developing the alternative

The struggle of workers, peasants, working people, women, students and other broad sections of the toiling masses is growing in scope and intensity. Working masses are actively seeking an alternative to the course of globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation. Important sections of the middle strata are breaking out of the illusions fostered by the bourgeoisie and imperialism about the "benefits" of the globalisation program. Various political forces are defining and redefining their stands on this important question. This is an opportune moment for the workers, peasants and working people to identify and deal with the main roadblocks to victory in the struggle.

The Indian big bourgeoisie and imperialism is clearly the force that is pushing through the anti-worker, anti-peasant and anti-national program of globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation, or what is commonly referred to in the movement as LPG. The spokespersons of the bourgeoisie and imperialism repeatedly call for "harsh measures" and decry any hesitation on the part of any government as "bowing to populism". In other words, if a government attacks livelihood and rights of workers and peasants and middle strata, the women and youth and dalit and tribal people, it is "doing a good job" as far as the big bourgeoisie and imperialism is concerned. Using the control of the print and electronic media, it is made out that what is good for the capitalists and imperialists is what is good for the country and that the workers, peasants, women and youth and the middle strata who are opposing the anti-social offensive are "opposing progress". It is made out there is no alternative to the anti-social offensive.

The first task facing all those opposing the anti-social offensive is to believe that there is an alternative. We are calling the present offensive of imperialism and the big bourgeoisie as an ant-social offensive precisely because it is targeted at society as a whole, and constitutes all round retrogression on all that society has achieved through struggle and sacrifice in the twentieth century. The very act of participating in the working out of the alternative will at the same time usher in the beginning of the defeat of the bourgeoisie and imperialism.

Today, many political forces are talking about an alternative, including the CPIM. There is a talk in the working class and peoples movement about a "common minimum program". Various forces are putting forth their vision of the alternative. The most crucial question facing all the victims of the anti-social offensive, including workers and peasants, women and youth, working people from different sectors of economy and the middle strata, the tribal peoples, the dalits, the religious minorities, the oppressed nations and nationalities is this—what is a real alternative and what is the same old wine in a new bottle? It is also this—what will unite all the exploited and oppressed around one single program, and what will divide the exploited and oppressed people and line them up behind different sections of the bourgeoisie and imperialism?

What is the core of the alternative program on which workers and peasants, women and youth, all those seeking a real end to this anti-social offensive cannot afford to compromise on? Firstly, that workers, peasants, women and youth are the masters of India—it is they who constitute India. Secondly to recognise that various political parties as well as the Indian political system and political process have defrauded the workers and peasants and deprived them of political power. Thirdly, that central to any real alternative is that workers and peasants must have political power. Fourthly, this political power is only a means to ensure that the Indian economy is oriented in a socialist direction to ensure the well-being of the vast majority. This needs to be widely discussed in the movement and the contours of the program fleshed out.

In the workers and peasants movement in India, as well as in the communist movement, there are influential forces who are ever ready to adjust the program of the working class and peasantry to suit the bourgeoisie. In the name of "fight against corruption", "immediate danger", "lack of forces", "defending national unity and territorial integrity", "fighting communal forces" and such other slogans, what has been repeatedly put forth in the past decade is a program of the bourgeoisie. It is the bourgeoisie and its political system which is the fountain-head of corruption. It is the rule of the bourgeoisie which constitutes the immediate and long term threat to everything that workers and peasants stand for. It is the bourgeoisie whose rule is a threat to Indian unity and which has used the slogan of threat to national unity and territorial integrity to safeguard its rule. It is the reactionary rule of the bourgeoisie which has perfected communalism and communal violence as a weapon to defend its rule and divide, disorient and divert the people. It is the bourgeoisie’s policy of dispensing privileges and depriving people of their rights that divides the toiling masses, and creates a situation wherein it seems that the majority of the population, the toiling masses have a "lack of forces" while the minority, the big capitalists, has abundant forces.

The program of the workers and peasants must target the big bourgeoisie and imperialism. Adjusting the program to make it acceptable to the bourgeoisie is not acceptable to the working masses. These days, the bourgeoisie is trying to split the polity along the line of "secularists" and "communalists". Some in the communist and workers movement are falling easy prey to this tactics. Workers and peasants, based on their own life experience, must reject this.

This is but just the beginning of the discussion on the roadblocks in front of the workers and peasants, women and youth and the struggle to defeat the anti-social offensive. As the activists in the communist and workers and pesants movement take up this discussion in right earnest and critically analyse the different "alternatives" for what they are worth, they will come to the conclusion established by science that just as the bourgeoisie has only one common program at this time (or at any other time), the working class and peasantry have only one real alternative program at this time. Everything else is illusions. The time has come to shatter these illusions. Then, and only then. can we make a real advance.

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Reactionary nationalism and aping Anglo-American imperialism—two sides of the same coin

These remarks of the Prime Minister and the Human Resources Development Minister reveal that the BJP leaders, indicted by Indian public opinion for the communal holocaust in Gujarat, are taking refuge in reactionary nationalism. The point of departure today is not what Indians in the past did or did not. The point is whether the BJP has drawn anything positive from India’s past to bring forward to the present. If anything, it has brought the worst forward from our past, especially the recent past of colonial rule, having been trained in communal politics under the British rule in the same manner that the Congress party received training in pseudo-secularism under the same rule of the colonialists.

Even more pertinent to the present is this—what kind of leaders are these who can justify the Gujarat carnage by pointing fingers at the carnages organised under Congress rule (Jaya Jaitly has done so referring to the massacre of Sikhs in 1984) or the communal, fascist and racist policies of various states internationally, past and present, as Murli Manohar Joshi is doing in the arrogant Brahmanical style? Do they have the right to rule? Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his minister in charge of "Human Resources Development", who claim to be well versed in the history of our country, must surely be aware that that Indian political theory has declared in no uncertain terms that it the duty of the people to summarily depose of rulers who violate Rajdharma— of providing Sukh and Surakhsa to all—in such a blatant manner!

Reactionary nationalism is abhorrent. For the past 4 years, the leaders of the BJP government have been going all out to show their complete servility to the Anglo-American imperialist strategy in the economic, political and military spheres both in South Asia and internationally. Following September 11, 2001 they were among the first to jump into the American bandwagon of "war against terrorism’, and willingly welcomed American troops in Indian soil. They have gleefully supported the conquest of Afghanistan, and Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians. They have had nothing to say about US imperialism’s threat of military aggression against Iraq, Iran and Korea. They passed POTA under the plea that "even USA and Britain have passed similar laws". They have pursued the imperialist prescription of globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation with total disregard for the livelihood of India’s workers, peasants, women and youth, or for the sovereignty of India. Even today, they are more hurt by the mild censures of the foreign imperialist powers than the outrage and opposition expressed by the Indian people against the Gujarat genocide. This is on par with their ignoring the mass opposition of the Indian people about globalisation and liberalisation and privatisation and the WTO.

The outrage of Vajpayee and company at foreign criticism on Gujarat can be summed up thus—they are hurt that their very idols and role models are criticising the acts of their followers.

Indeed, reactionary nationalism and aping Anglo-American imperialism are two sides of the same coin, something that can only bring great disasters for our people. The Indian people must grasp that valuable lesson from our past, which we referred to earlier, and apply it in modern conditions. When the Raja abrogates his duty, the Praja must fulfil their duty by removing the raja and taking over as the raja.

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