• The growing US imperialist interference in South Asia must be opposed!
  "War against terrorism" is a war for the American conquest of Asia!

• The peasant question demands an alternative solution!
  Build the worker-peasant alliance!

• DVB sold to the Tata’s

• Delhi Vidyut Board employees threaten agitation in defence of livelihood

• ‘Disinvested’ VSNL reinvests in Tata Teleservices
  Privatisation – loot through stripping of assets and wealth

• Scams are fellow travellers of the capitalist financial system

• The bubble bursts

• The state must not be allowed to absolve its responsibility towards agriculture in the name of cutting subsidies

• What lies behind the Anglo-American imperialist
  chorus against "fundamentalism"?

• How serious are our rulers about peace and security in the region?

• Erstwhile peasant leaders become the bludgeon of the ruling class against peasants

The growing US imperialist interference in South Asia must be opposed!
"War against terrorism" is a war for the American conquest of Asia!

Statement of Communist Ghadar Party of India, June 12, 2002

Everyone can see that US imperialist interference and intervention in South Asia is rising. Every week, some political or military representative or envoy of the United States or Britain is visiting India and Pakistan these days. What is their purpose and aim?

It is claimed that the American and British envoys are here to strengthen the alliance against terrorism, and to ensure peace in the subcontinent. The working class, peasantry and peace-loving peoples of India and Pakistan must not fall for this blatant lie. The aim of the US and British imperialists has nothing to do with ending terrorism or ensuring peace. Their aim is to subjugate and control this region, as the key to the conquest of Asia. The strategic aim of US imperialism is to establish a unipolar world under its dictate. Terrorism and the "war against terrorism" are weapons or tactics to achieve that aim.

The hysteria about the "war against terrorism" is aimed at establishing the belief among the world’s peoples that the biggest threat to peace and security comes not from the imperialist powers, headed by the US, but from somewhere else. Their aim is to create a justification for imperialist aggression and wars of conquest.

The biggest danger to peace and security comes from the imperialist system of states headed by the US. Imperialist powers like the US need war and terror to maintain and expand their empires. Rivalry among the big imperialist powers and monopoly capitalist groups over the control of markets and sources of raw material, over spheres of influence and control of territories, was the root cause of the two world wars and the rise of Nazi fascism witnessed during the 20th century. Today, too, the biggest threat to peace and security comes from the imperialist system of states headed by the US and the intense competition and rivalry among the various imperialist powers for regional and world domination.

During the time when the socialist Soviet Union existed and championed the cause of creating a world without imperialist aggression and wars, US imperialism and its allies carried out aggression and interference in many sovereign states in the name of containing communism. They committed innumerable crimes in pursuit of their hegemonic ambitions, while presenting the justification that it was for the sake of "democracy" and against the "communist menace". They organised and financed many terrorist groups all over the world to discredit the communist movement, as well as to discredit and weaken all anti-imperialist forces and national liberation movements. They propped up many military dictators to attack and quell such movements.

When the Soviet Union deviated from the path of revolution and socialism, aggressed on Czechoslovakia, established its own sphere of influence in Eastern Europe and became an active participant in the Cold War and superpower rivalry for world domination, it became a factor for war. It stopped being a factor for world peace. Both the US and the Soviet Union, and the rivalry between them, became the main factors for war and the spread of violence and terror in all continents of the world. The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan further confirmed this fact.

Today, when the Soviet Union no longer exists and the Cold War period has ended, US imperialism needs a new justification for pursuing its ambitions and continuing to use force and aggress on whomever it pleases. US imperialism has created the specter of terrorism and "fundamentalism" for that purpose. The very same terrorist groups and military dictators that they financed in the previous period are now being made out as posing the greatest danger to peace and security in the world. The US imperialists pick whoever they like as their target, with the media portraying the selected person or government as the most terrible menace to the world.

The US imperialists created the specter of Saddam Hussein, portraying him as being the biggest threat to world peace, so as to justify military aggression against Iraq. They similarly built up public opinion against Milosevic in Europe to justify military occupation of Kosova and the dismemberment of Yugoslavia. They created hysteria about the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden, originally financed and armed by the CIA, to justify military aggression and occupation of Afghanistan.

What do all these developments show? They show that the cause of the problem lies in imperialism and its policy of using force to settle political matters, including the use of state terror and open war as well as covert operations such as sponsoring various terrorist groups. The spread of individual terrorism is one of the aspects of the policy of imperialism and various reactionary bourgeois states. The imperialist and bourgeois propaganda about terrorism turns the truth on the head by suggesting that some dark terrorist force is the main cause of the problems while the actions of US imperialism and other states are a reaction, a response, a retaliation – a crusade of good over evil!

We in India have considerable experience with the relationship between state terrorism and individual acts of terrorism. Facts have shown that it is the central Indian state that is the principal organiser of violence and terror within India, be it in Punjab, Kashmir, Nagaland or Manipur. The Central Government has armed terrorist groups to infiltrate and decimate the national liberation movements and the struggles for rights. In the name of fighting the "terrorist menace", state terrorism has been raised to the status of the most preferred method of rule, with POTA being the latest addition to the fascistic legal arsenal. Every election is accompanied by bomb blasts and assassinations. State organised communal violence has become the preferred method of building vote banks. Terror has become an institutionalised adjunct of parliamentary democracy. What this entire experience has shown is that it is imperialism and the bourgeoisie that benefit from terrorism, not anybody else.

Facts show that US imperialism is the biggest financier and principal organiser of terrorism in the world. It is part of the problem and cannot be part of the solution. No solution can emerge by collaborating with imperialism and the US-led "war on terrorism". No solution can emerge from mortgaging the sovereignty of India or Pakistan or both.

The solution to the problem of terrorism can be found only by those who take an uncompromising stand against imperialism, headed by US imperialism, and against all acts of aggression and violation of the rights of individuals, nations, nationalities and peoples.

By joining hands with the US and Britain in their "war on terrorism", the governments of India and Pakistan are seriously endangering the sovereignty of the peoples, nations and countries of South Asia. The rulers of India want the US imperialists to put pressure on Musharraf and, one day, allow India to attack Pakistan in the name of fighting terrorism. In short, they want to play a role in the imperialist game and gain something for themselves, at the cost of the freedom and independence of the peoples in this region.

The danger to the peoples of South Asia is grave because the two biggest countries in the region, India and Pakistan, are ruled by reactionary bourgeois classes that have a history of collaboration with colonialists and imperialists. They care more for their moneybags than about the freedom, independence and well being of their own peoples. The states of India and Pakistan, created in the midst of the terrible Partition engineered by the colonialists, are both part of the imperialist system of states. The traitorous classes that safeguard the institutions left behind by the colonisers cannot be relied upon to defend the sovereignty of the nations and peoples of South Asia today. That responsibility falls on the shoulders of the workers, peasants and patriotic forces in South Asia and on all the peace-loving peoples of the world.

The Communist Ghadar Party of India calls on the working class, peasantry and all the oppressed nations, nationalities and peoples of India and Pakistan, and the peace-loving peoples of all countries, to unite to oppose the growing US imperialist interference in South Asian affairs! There is no justification for this interference and intervention, which will neither help end terrorism nor to establish peace in this region. There is no pardon for any government in this region that sells out the sovereignty of the peoples and nations of South Asia to the most dangerous and rapacious imperialist power in the world.

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The peasant question demands an alternative solution!
Build the worker-peasant alliance!

After 1947, the Indian big bourgeoisie implemented a plan to rally the influential sections of the landlords and peasantry, that is the rich, behind the big bourgeoisie. It implemented partial land reforms, as well as carried out the "green revolution". The influential sections of the revolutionary peasantry, who had fought with daring for freedom, were fobbed off with the illusion that India’s new ruling class would take care of the peasantry’s concerns. Simultaneously, the Indian working class was kept under the illusion that the new state would be pro-worker, through the enactment of various labour laws and the creation of a public distribution system for food grains.

In the sixties and seventies, farmers were given concessions to install pumps and tap ground water for irrigating their crops. Heavy use of pumps brought down the ground water tables to dangerously low levels, but the bourgeoisie did not care. The granting of free electricity to a section of peasants exonerated the state from having to invest in preserving and expanding the irrigation networks.

In the eighties and nineties, various parties and peasant leaders of the bourgeoisie promoted the illusion among peasants that liberalisation and globalisation, the signing of the WTO agreements and lifting restrictions on imports and exports of agricultural products will bring them enormous profits. Peasants were offered loans and forced to produce for the market with the promise of higher returns, exposing them to high risks and enormous exploitation by the middlemen and multinationals. Export concessions were announced and peasants were encouraged to sow cash crops in place of foodgrains and coarse cereals gravely endangering the food security of the masses of working people.

The wheel has now turned a full circle. The National Agricultural Policy, announced recently that growth in agriculture will be market driven, that all subsidies will be eliminated and that all facilities will be provided for the big bourgeoisie and imperialists to further penetrate and dominate agricultural production and distribution in India.

All those peasant leaders who rode the wave of subsidies and concessions have now turned into the most vicious enemies of the peasants. The Congress and BJP peasant leaders, the TDP and INLD peasant leaders, all of them have kicked away the ladder using which they climbed to political power. They have become the bludgeon of the big bourgeoisie’s anti-social offensive against the working people.

Today, broad sections of the peasantry have been shaken out of this illusion of subsidies and concessions. They are demanding that the state provide them with support, not as a concession or a subsidy, but as a matter of right. They have been demanding minimum support prices, agricultural inputs at reasonable costs, regular supply of essential commodities at affordable prices, moratorium on interest and loans and an end to the take over of their farms by Indian and foreign multinationals. They are opposed to the privatisation of electric power distribution, decontrol of oil and pharmaceutical products and the removal of subsidies on agricultural inputs such as seeds and fertiliser. They are demanding those steps that will be not only in their interest but in the interest of the vast majority of the working people of India as well.

For the communists and working class, the dispelling of illusions among the vast majority of peasants has opened up enormous possibilities for strengthening the worker peasant alliance and for advancing the movement for revolutionary change. The working class approaches the agrarian question and the worker-peasant alliance with the perspective that it is the workers, peasants, women and youth who are the true masters of India, and not the handful of big capitalists, big landowners and foreign imperialists.

The approach of the working class to the agrarian question also means that it will build the worker-peasant alliance around a far-reaching program. Such a program firstly puts the issue of the revolutionary transformation of the present capitalist society to a socialist society. The working class declares that it will ensure the supply of all agricultural inputs at affordable prices to the peasants. It demands and fights that the new state of workers and peasants will guarantee remunerative prices for all agricultural produce. The new workers-peasants state will take over wholesale internal and external trade so that all middlemen are eliminated. It will guarantee food security in towns and countryside for the urban and rural proletariat by using the surplus produce of the peasantry, and ensure availability of all essential goods for all working people by setting up direct exchange between the producers of goods in the towns and countryside. The working class declares that it will ensure education and health for all the rural masses, and implement a ban on sale of all agricultural land.

The road to emancipation of the peasantry lies in its firm alliance with the working class. Communists and the working class are fully with the vast sections of the peasantry in their opposition to the savage attacks being made on their life, livelihood, traditional knowledge and food security. The peasantry must rally behind the banner of deep-going transformation of the Indian society so that political power is wrested from the hands of the big bourgeoisie and firmly entrenched in the hands of the crores of peasants and workers of our country.

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DVB sold to the Tata’s

Why would Tata Power and BSES want to buy a chronically loss making and inefficient company? It can be presumed, and even Minister Ajay Maken will agree, that benefit to the consumers would hardly be the motive factor in this buying. Rather, it can only be the profit motive. So where does the private monopolies who are buying up the distribution companies of DVB hoping to make profits?

The first area of potential profit is the under valuing of the assets of DVB during the sale. Apart from everything else, the land in the hands of the DVB is valued at hundreds of crores of rupees. In its keenness to privatise DVB, the Government of Delhi has made the deal extremely lucrative. For example, instead of calling bids on the basis of premium on share price, the Government of Delhi has invited bids on the basis of aggregate technical and commercial loss targets while shares will be transferred at par value to the successful bidder. It has been estimated that this amounts to handing over the company assets at one tenth the market value. In other words, if the private monopolies decide tomorrow to sell off the very same distribution companies or their assets, they will make a cool profit, without even adding any value.

A second area where the private monopolies will be expected to make profits is by retrenching the workforce. (See Box). And a third area will be by raising power tariffs. DVB has itself hiked power tariffs manifold in the past two years as a prelude to privatisation. Given that the monopoly position of power distribution will remain in place (it will simply be a private monopoly instead of a government owned monopoly) the consumers will be at the mercy of the private monopoly in terms of power tariffs, as they were at the mercy of the government monopoly in the period prior to privatisation.

It may also be recalled that the April deadline of handing over the management control to the strategic partners had to be abandoned as the private parties did not wish to accept penalties for not meeting the targets of lowering the power theft by 20% in five years. After much negotiations with Tata Power and BSES, the government gave into the demands of the buyers, and lowered the target for reduction in transmission and distribution losses to only 17% over five years. The actual record of BSES in the privatisation of the Orissa State Electricity Board, where it had taken over three of the four distribution companies in Orissa has been dismal. It has neither brought in superior working skill nor capital. Rampant theft and T&D (transmission and distribution) loss remained at the pre-restructuring figure.

Taking all things together, the "efficiency" that the Tata’s will bring into DVB’s distribution will not relate to transmission and distribution losses, but to increasing the exploitation of the workforce as well as the consumer. Benefits to the consumers will remain a mirage.

The experience of power sector privatisation in India and the world over has been extremely negative for consumers. The Orissa experience has been well documented, as also the Andhra Pradesh experience. It is extremely important that the workers and working people of Delhi, as well as the middle strata seriously analyse whether the privatisation of DVB has any safeguards to protect the consumers interests. They cannot afford to fall prey to the illusion that privatisation will automatically benefit the consumers.

The real reason behind the privatisation of electricity distribution is the demand of the Indian and foreign monopolies. In the conditions of the capitalist crisis, the big monopolies are demanding that the government hand over all lucrative public assets to the private monopolies to plunder. The investments that the private monopolies will allegedly make (in this case the Tata’s) is also public assets held by nationalised banks which will lend to the Tatas. Management control and hence the biggest share of profits will be in the hands of the private monopolies, instead of those who milked the state owned distribution system earlier— i.e., the politicians and top officials in DVB, as well as various private parties. The reason why the government and the private bidders have reached agreement on not curtailing transmission and distribution losses is to benefit both the new plunderers and the former plunderers. The new plunderers will not invest in new technology and upgradation necessary to reduce T&D losses. The old plunderers will continue to plunder through kickbacks in the form of T&D losses. The losers will yet again be the consumers. Such is the privatisation deal which is being hailed as "beneficial" to consumers.

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Delhi Vidyut Board employees threaten agitation in defence of livelihood

It may be recalled that to kick off the privatisation of DVB, the Government of Delhi had separated the transmission business of DVB into separate transmission companies. In doing so, the affected employees were deemed to have retired from DVB (and hired into the new company). The actual implication of such a move is anyone’s guess—but one thing is very clear. It does not bode well for the job security of the employees.

The DVB employees, while fighting to protect their livelihood, have a very big task cut out for themselves. They have to expose the lying propaganda of the government about how privatisation is for the benefit of the consumers and strive to forge the unity of the common people of Delhi with the employees of DVB.

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‘Disinvested’ VSNL reinvests in Tata Teleservices
Privatisation – loot through stripping of assets and wealth

Barely a few months ago the Tatas had acquired management control of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) by buying up 25 % of its shares for just Rs 1,439 crores. The ‘disinvested’ VSNL was supposed to acquire another 20 % of the shares by means of open offer for Rs 1,151 crores. Meanwhile, the Tata controlled board of VSNL decided to "strategically" invest Rs 1,200 crores in another Tata company, Tata Teleservices!

The Communications Ministry declared that VSNL’s reserves were meant for the growth of VSNL alone, and not any other Tata company. It even declared that it would take disciplinary action against two government–nominated directors still serving on the Board of VSNL. Shri Mahajan went so far as to declare that the VSNL Board decision "made a mockery of the disinvestment process". The Tatas, however claimed that VSNL "needed to tap the customer base of Tata Teleservices for its’ survival in the deregulated environment". In other words, the Tatas say that unless they are able to use the resources of the companies they acquired as they wished, the companies would run into rough weather.

On the other hand, the Disinvestment Ministry declared that having given up management control, the government really had no business or right to give directives to companies that had been privatised. It voiced the "fear" that if the government continues to give directives to companies where it had already sold its’ stake, "there would be no takers for the Public Sector Undertakings". In other words, if private capitalists were not allowed to use the assets of the companies they took over as they wished, there would really be no point in expecting them to take over such units.

Can it be said that Shri Mahajan and the Ministry he heads really stand for justice? Or is it that they felt that such decisions by the Tatas expose too much to too many and too soon? Facts and figures show the latter to be the case. Hence, following a few days of public sparring, he made up with his colleague, Shri Arun Shourie, whom his Ministry had only a short while ago accused of "intellectual arrogance". Gone also was the threat that the government would sue the Tatas over the VSNL board decision. The public statement issued after Shri Mahajan and Shri Shourie patched up declared that airing of differences in public should be avoided in future. More importantly, "the disinvestment process which had gathered momentum should stay on course".

As far as the Indian monopoly bourgeoisie and the imperialists are concerned, they are pushing for privatisation as a way to make maximum profits in the conditions of the crisis through the take over and plunder of the assets of the country at extremely subsidised rates. In the case of the Tata’s for instance, (this is true of all monopolies and multinationals), the aim of taking over of VSNL is maximum profits by stripping VSNL of its assets, both cash reserves and otherwise, and investing in sectors where maximum profits can be made. Why privatisation as a way of making maximum profits is extremely attractive to the Indian and foreign monopolies is precisely because assets are being deliberately undervalued and sold to a privileged bidder, well connected with the government.

As far as the government is concerned, it is a government of the big Indian and foreign monopolies. It’s policy of privatisation has nothing to do with the well-being of Indian society and everything to do with the well being of the Indian and foreign monopolies. However, it has a dubious role of making its decisions palatable to the public at large. With the unfolding of things and phenomenon, the privatisation program is getting extremely discredited and its true aims are being exposed. The government is faced with credibility crisis. The infighting in the cabinet is a reflection of the deepening credibility crisis.

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Scams are fellow travellers of the capitalist financial system

What is the real issue here? Is the issue one of better "regulation" and ensuring that information is equally available to all investors in the stock market – rich and poor alike? Is the real problem one of unscrupulous individuals taking advantage of "loopholes" in law and fooling the "gullible public"?

Today, we are ruled by finance capital. Finance capital demands free flow of capital from one sector of the economy to another, from one country to another, at a rapidest speed dictated solely by concern for maximum profits. In the past two years, the stock market transactions in India have more than doubled. This has happened at a time when there has been a definite downturn in all the indices of real growth. What does this show? It reveals that under the rule of finance capital, or under imperialism, money is made from the economic crisis and recession in just the same way as money is made in the period of boom and upswing of the economy. When the law of capitalist society is to make the maximum profits in any way, who can fault anyone? Scams are an inevitable feature of the capitalist system where a handful of exploiters are given free rein to defraud the working people of their life’s earnings through speculation, embezzlement, stock price rigging and various other devices. All these devices are perfectly legitimate by bourgeois law.

Even as scams discredit the imperialist system temporarily, they play an important role in the transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. The more such devices are used by the rich for quick enrichment, the more "liberal" is the financial system considered to be. The biggest multinationals earn a good part of their profits not through sale of goods and services, but through defaulting on bank loans, manipulation of their share prices and speculating with people’s funds. Living like parasites through "coupon clipping" without engaging in productive activity has become the hall mark of "progress" today. A major part of the financial transactions in the economies of "developed" capitalist countries does not involve any productive assets. India is racing overtime to be counted amongst the "developed" capitalist economies.

As long as the Indian economy is organised on capitalist lines where social production and private appropriation is the norm, where banks and financial institutions serve to put the capital raised from working people at the service of the big bourgeoisie, people cannot expect any change in the situation. This is not just the Indian experience but the entire world’s experience, that scams and frauds are fellow travellers of the capitalist system. Therefore, only by dismantling the capitalist system at its roots and setting up a just, democratic and socialist system in its place, can be eliminated.

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The bubble bursts

While the firm’s intention of raising public money and investing in a dotcom venture when other ventures were crumbling around were suspect right from the beginning, the bourgeoisie’s regulators did nothing because the firm’s activities were well within the laws of the country. A NABARD report filed on April 19 finally blew the whistle. The report exposed the fact that the Nagpur District Central Co-operative Bank (NBCCB) had given HomeTrade Rs 124 crores to invest in government securities, but the former never delivered the certificates in exchange. Once this fraud was made public, it opened up the floodgate for other charges involving at least eight co-operative banks in Maharashtra and Gujarat and the Seamen’s Provident Fund. Further investigations revealed that the scam involved Rs 300 crores and that the criminal firm was ably assisted by public sector banks. Before the scam, the "financial model" adopted by HomeTrade had also been praised to the skies by the press and media as a typical capitalist model that fetched profits from thin air.

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The state must not be allowed to absolve its responsibility towards agriculture in the name of cutting subsidies

The supporters of liberalisation claim that subsidising agriculture is a burden that the government and society can ill afford. They claim that these subsidies mainly benefit the rich farmers. On the basis of these claims, they argue that the government should cut down budgetary support to agriculture. They are demanding that commercial rates be charged for water and power supplied to agriculture so that supplying such inputs can be run as profitable private business.

India is an agrarian economy that is undergoing a gradual and painful process of industrialisation and urbanisation, led by big business houses and giant corporations. It is a rich minority that controls state power, while the productive human population is burdened with massive poverty, prevalence of small land holdings, illiteracy and ill health. The economy – that is, the process of social production, follows the laws of capitalism at its highest stage, that is the stage of imperialism. There is an extremely uneven distribution of the social product, with the rich growing richer at one pole and the poor poorer at the other pole. The impoverishment of the countryside in relation to the cities has been a constant feature. As peasant households get ruined, there is largescale migration to the urban areas by poor and landless peasants and agricultural workers seeking a source of livelihood.

The question of any particular tax or subsidy must be seen within the context of the relations of social production and the uneven distribution of the product, based on the exploitation of labour and plunder of the tillers through unequal and monopolistic trade between town and countryside.

The peasants or the tillers of the land constitute one of the largest yet most oppressed section of Indian society. Under colonial rule, the surplus generated in agriculture was sucked out through onerous taxation in the name of land revenue. When colonialism came to an end, the masses of Indian peasantry demanded and expected that the exploitation and plunder of their land and labour would come to an end. Supply of irrigation and modern inputs to encourage and promote technological progress in agriculture was one of the principal aspects of the agrarian policy followed in the name of building a "socialistic pattern of society" for the first 40 years after independence. Guaranteed public procurement of the food grains produced by the farmers was another aspect of this policy. Today, the very principle of state support to the peasantry is being thrown overboard. The bourgeoisie is cutting agricultural subsidies and is threatening to dismantle public procurement as well, in the name of liberalisation and privatisation.

The policies followed towards agriculture since 1947 have largely benefited a rich minority among the peasants. This is inevitable given the capitalist character of ownership of the principal means of production. The big bourgeoisie and imperialism is aiming to intensify the degree of exploitation of the peasantry as a whole. It is aiming to extract even more from the peasantry. With this in mind, it has let loose a propaganda barrage against subsidies for the agricultural sector.

It is not true that the proposed cut in subsidies to agriculture and dismantling of public procurement only threatens a minority of rich farmers. It also threatens the middle peasants and those among the poor peasants who purchase manufactured inputs and produce for the market. In fact, it indirectly also threatens the livelihood of landless labourers whose prospects for employment will go down if rich and middle peasants are squeezed out of business.

By criticising agricultural subsidies for mainly benefiting rich farmers, the champions of liberalisation want to create the impression that they are concerned about the welfare of the poor peasants. However, their real concern is not about the poor. Their real concern and aim is to establish and expand the space for global multinationals and Indian monopoly companies to reap maximum profits from agriculture and agro-business.

Apart from the interests of different classes among the tillers of the land, such as poor, middle and rich peasants, there is something called the interests of the agricultural sector as a whole. It is essential that if agriculture is to flourish, the state must extend support to compensate for the unequal exchange between industry and agriculture. And the flourishing of agriculture is a necessary condition for the progress of Indian society. In other words, there is a sound reason, from the standpoint of the general interests of Indian society, for the state to extend generous support to agriculture.

Withdrawal of state support to agriculture is a step that is against the general interests of Indian society. It is a move that must therefore be opposed and defeated by the peasantry and all the working people. Those who are serious about defeating the bourgeois offensive of liberalisation and privatisation must join hands with all those who are being victimised by this policy. They must not be fooled by the propaganda of imperialism and the big bourgeoisie that agricultural subsidy only benefits the rich farmers. They must fight to defend the general interests of society and demand that the state extend comprehensive support to ensure that agriculture can flourish on all plots of land.

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What lies behind the Anglo-American imperialist

chorus against "fundamentalism"?

Ruling circles in many countries such as India have taken up this chorus of the Anglo-American imperialists. The working class and people fighting against the anti-social offensive of imperialism and the ruling class, against the imperialist interference in this region, is under intense pressure to oppose fundamentalism, particularly Islamic fundamental-ism. It is therefore important to understand what lies behind the Anglo-American imperialist chorus against "Islamic fundamentalism" and whose interests it is really meant to serve.

The Anglo-American campaign against Islamic fundamentalism is directed, first and foremost, against the peoples and countries of West Asia. Central Asia, North Africa and also South Asia and South East Asia. This vast region is the home of precious resources, including oil. The peoples of the different countries and nations of Asia and North Africa have a rich history, their own cultures, psychology, philosophies and traditions, their own historically evolved political institutions. Asia is today one of the biggest emerging markets and producer of goods. Conquest of Asia is central to the agenda of US imperialism to rule the world. This needs imposition of the Euro-Centric agenda on Asia. Central to the Euro-Centric agenda is to declare the economic and political system prevalent in the US and Western Europe as the last word and the only word to be imposed on all peoples.

The peoples of Asia and North Africa have never accepted unquestioningly Euro-Centric and Anglo-American definitions of political and economic systems, of philosophies and cultures. In particular the peoples of the Islamic faith, as also others have refused to do so. You are a fundamentalist if you disagree with Anglo-American imperialism, with Euro-Centric definitions about political systems and economic systems—this is the Anglo-American propaganda. Should the Indian people accept this—we, who have suffered for over 250 years under colonialism and the colonial legacy?

The US imperialists have always attempted to establish regimes that subserve their interests. Overtly, or covertly through their intelligence agencies, they have created and backed the most unpopular political regimes in these countries, to safeguard their interests. However, their attempts have sometimes backfired. The Iranian revolution overthrew the hated US backed regime of the Shah of Iran. In the Cold War period, the Soviet Union also actively intervened in this region. Various countries and regimes in this region, such as Iran and Iraq, Syria and Libya, Algeria and Indonesia, Sudan and Philippines, and many others, have, at different times, taken a stand, based on their own interests that hits US imperialist interests. The US imperialists have always viewed it as a threat to their interests in the region, if any of the countries or peoples of this region have stood up against imperialism or refused to toe the line of the imperialists. They have immediately responded with economic and military blockades and other such pressures, in an attempt to impose their economic and political system on these countries. Such countries and peoples, who have tried to withstand these pressures, have become the target of the Anglo American imperialists’ campaign against "Islamic fundamentalism".

The imperialists try to make out that their opposition to "Islamic fundamentalism" is due to their "concern" about the Islamic countries having exploitative regimes, where mediaeval practices and backward customs prevail, where women are cruelly exploited and oppressed, children are abused, where religious intolerance dominates, etc. Extending the old colonial logic of the "while man’s burden" to the present time, the imperialists argue that these regimes need to be opposed, attacked and even overthrown, as they are a threat to "democracy" and "modern civilisation". They try to make out as if their opposition to "Islamic fundamentalism" is motivated by their concern for the oppressed people of these countries.

Why is it that this opposition to "Islamic fundamentalism" is restricted only to those regimes that pose a threat to the interests of the Anglo American imperialists? How is it that the Anglo American imperialists’ "concern" over the exploitation of the people, the backward customs, the oppression of women, the lack of democracy, etc. did not extend to regimes allied to the imperialists’ interests, such as those of Saudi Arabia, Jordan or even Indonesia under the fascist Suharto regime? Anglo-American imperialists have actively worked, through coups and direct military intervention, to prop up the most fascist, exploitative and anti-democratic regimes in various countries and to defend them from the wrath of their peoples—this is what facts reveal!

The propaganda against "Islamic fundamentalism" tries to make out as if some barbaric, mediaeval, religious ideas are the main threat to the freedom and democratic strivings of the peoples of the world, and not the ruthless economic and military might of the imperialist powers. This is an utter lie. In reality, today, the biggest threat to the freedom and democratic strivings of the people comes from US imperialism and its allies, who stop at nothing, including military, economic and political intervention, to extend their domination over other countries and peoples.

Clearly, therefore, the tirade against "Islamic fundamentalism" is motivated purely by geo-political interests, by the plans for the conquest of Asia, which the US imperialists are aggressively pursuing at the present time. It has nothing to do with the genuine strivings of progressive, freedom loving and revolutionary forces throughout the world, who clearly recognise the Anglo American imperialists as the force behind the most barbaric and undemocratic regimes in the world.

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How serious are our rulers about peace and security in the region?

In a recent address at the security conference organised by the International Institute of Strategic Studies in Singapore, Defence minister George Fernandes stated that today, in the South Asian subcontinent, terrorism is the main issue and that India is committed to "wiping out terrorism". He further elaborated on how today, Pakistan is the source of "cross border terrorism", to eliminate which India is prepared to go to war. He expressed his hope that the US and other imperialists would use their influence on the international community to back up India in such a war. On the same note, Home Minister Advani has accused the Pakistani regime of not being serious about eliminating "cross border terrorism".

In my view, our political leaders are displaying great political immaturity and naiveté if they really believe or are trying to make us believe that the US is interested in eliminating terrorism. They ought to know very well that the US imperialists and their intelligence agencies are infamous for creating and supporting terrorist outfits all over the world, including Asia, to advance their own geo-political interests.

Further, they are trying to coverup the fact that state terrorism has been systematically used by successive governments of our country against the people of Kashmir, Punjab, Northeast, Andhra Pradesh and other parts of the country. Similarly, the state-organised communal violence against certain communities can in no way be considered a "war against terrorism". On the contrary, both the Indian state as well as various foreign powers have set up various terrorist groups to terrorise the people, discredit the popular forces, and justify state terrorism both in India as well as in other countries of South Asia..

Thus, making "terrorism" the main issue and using "Pakistan sponsored cross border terrorism" as the pretext for heightening the war propaganda and war preparations, shows just how serious our rulers are about peace and security in the region.

We, the people of India and Pakistan, have to realise that the US imperialists have no interest in ensuring peace and stability in the region. Rather, instigating war and instability in this region assists the US imperialists in their plan for the conquest of Asia. We must realise that growing military collaboration with the imperialists will only increase the imperialist interference and intervention in this region and threaten our sovereignty, peace and security. We must unite to oppose the growing collaboration of our rulers with the US imperialists and their growing interference in this region. This is the main issue that needs to be addressed today, if we are serious about ensuring peace and security in this region.
Asaf Ali, Aligarh

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Erstwhile peasant leaders become the bludgeon of the ruling class
against peasants

The Om Prakash Chautala regime in Haryana has requisitioned six companies of the CRPF to trample on the agitation of the state’s peasants under the leadership of the Bhartiya Kisan Union. Earlier several peasants were killed in a brutal firing ordered by the Haryana government to disrupt their rally. The blockades put up by the peasants are being removed ostensibly to clear the way for the military to move to the border. It was the same Chautala, at the head of the Indian National Lok Dal, who had manipulated the anger of the peasants against the Indian state to catapult himself and his party to power some time ago. His party came to power with promises of free power and stable procurement prices for farmers.

In Punjab, the Akali Dal promised concessions to peasants and came to power. The entire struggle of the peasantry against the oppressive Indian State and against the exploitative system in the eighties and nineties, was turned into a struggle for privileges and concessions by the Akali Dal. A few months back, peasants of Punjab launched a massive agitation on the procurement price issue. The agitation was launched by five Kisan unions, including Bhartiya Kisan Union (EKTA), Punjab Kisan Sabha, Kirti Kisan Sabha, All-India Kisan Sabha and Punjab Khet Majdoor Sabha, leading to disruption of rail services throughout the state.

In Andhra Pradesh, the TDP government led by Chandra Babu Naidu and his predecessor, N.T.Rama Rao came to power riding on the wave of peasant protests against the earlier Congress regimes. Today, the state has recorded an estimated 500 suicide deaths among farmers who were forced to make distress sales of paddy, maize, cotton, chilli, groundnut and other products, virtually making them bankrupt. The entire peasantry in the state is seething with anger against this injustice.

In Kerala, millions of small producers and workers in the arecanut, rubber, coffee, pepper, spices, cocoa, tea plantations lost their livelihood due to disastrous fall in prices and the state’s neglect of irrigation, technology and capital investment in agriculture. The LDF and the UDF used the opposition of the peasants to the policies of the ruling class and their central government and converted it into electoral gains in the nineties.

In Tamil Nadu, both the DMK and the AIADMK have long fooled the peasants that they are for social change and that they are parties representing toilers. Today, free power is being withdrawn, markets set up for poor and marginal farmers to sell their produce (uzhavar sandhai) are being wound up and assets of defaulting peasants are being seized.

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