• The Anglo-American "peace-mediation" between India and Pakistan is aimed at the conquest of South Asia!

• Against the fire fighters of the bourgeoisie in the working class movement

• British led "multilateral initiative" on Nepal:
  Blatant interference in the internal affairs of Nepal

• George Bush’s blueprint for West Asia:
  Establishing US imperialist yoke in the entire region using Israel as the pistol

• Tens of Thousands Demonstrate in Seville, Spain to Protest against European Union

The Anglo-American "peace-mediation" between India and Pakistan is aimed at the conquest of South Asia!

Statement of the CGPI, June 17, 2002

The government of India has jumped at this offer. Even as India rejected Pakistan’s suggestion, at the recent Alma Ata summit, for joint patrolling of the line of control, as "impractical", it has been vocal in its opposition to a role for any "third party monitoring" in the area. Apparently, the Indian government sees no contradiction in admitting "third party technology" in the monitoring mechanism! Defence Minister George Fernandes has declared, "no price is too high" when the country’s defence is at stake, referring to the high cost of the military hardware which India will have to buy. According to news reports, the sensors will be in place very soon.

Meanwhile, Donald Rumsfeld used the occasion of his trip to the sub-continent to fly some kites. He claimed that he had received intelligence that implied that Al-Quaeda was active in the region adjoining
the LoC. Rumsfeld did not elaborate whether they were in Indian held Kashmir or Pakistan held
Kashmir. When the Pakistan government "angrily" dismissed this suggestion, Rumsfeld "clarified" that he had, as of now, no verifiable evidence of Al-Quaeda presence in Kashmir.

While it is clear that Rumsfeld had no evidence for this claim, it would be shortsighted to ignore this as a warning. Obviously this claim has been made to prepare the ground for American military engagement in the sub-continent, to provide a justification to the American people, as well as to the people of the sub-continent, for the US’ continued presence here. It should not come as a surprise to anyone, if indeed, in a few months,
Al-Quaeda presence in the sub-continent becomes a verifiable reality! In just the same manner, Bill Clinton, three years back, had declared Kashmir to be the "most dangerous place on earth". At that time, the Indian government had reacted "angrily" to this suggestion, declaring there was no need for American "peace-mediation" in the region. Bill Clinton clearly aimed at ensuring an entry point for the US into this region. Three years down the line, the US imperialists have the entry point they wanted, now with the willing connivance of the Indian government.

The US imperialists policy in the sub-continent is to egg on both the Indian and Pakistani bourgeoisie against each other with promises of support, provided they completely co-ordinate their plans with the USA and act as it bids them to. Both the governments are being armed to the teeth by the US and other imperialists. The imperialists are making huge profits through the sale of sophisticated arms to both countries, and South Asia has become one of the most militarised regions in the world.

Imperialism means war and conflict. It means conquest of new territories, markets and sources of raw materials, and the redivision of the world through economic as well as military means, through pressure and blackmail, through the deliberate incitement of local conflicts. Just the past decade has seen US imperialism in action in Somalia and Iraq, in Bosnia and Serbia, and now in Afghanistan. They have all been for the one common aim of advancing the US imperialist economic, political and military stranglehold in various regions and this is the aim US imperialism is pursuing in South Asia today.

The US is using the very noble sounding cause of "war against terrorism" in pursuit of its policy. This cannot hide the fact that imperialism is the source of terrorism on a world scale and that US imperialism has been and remains the biggest sponsor of terrorism worldwide. By alleging that some countries are sponsoring terrorism, US imperialism is seeking to justify its policy of intervention and war. In the context of the
sub-continent, this strategy suits the Indian government as well. India’s big bourgeoisie is utilising it to constantly repeat its propaganda that Pakistan is the base of terrorism in South Asia. This is aimed at covering up the role of the Indian State as one of the principal sponsors of terrorism in South Asia.

If we review the developments of the past four years after India and Pakistan became nuclear power states, as well as the developments of the entire period since the end of the Cold War, there has been a consistent thread in the strategy of the US policy towards South Asia. Arm both countries to the teeth. Keep tightening the screws on both the regimes through blackmail and promises of support and make sure they remain on bended knees. Ensure that tensions remain extremely high through the organising of terrorist killings on both sides of the border. Keep fostering enmity and suspicion in both governments against each other. Make sure that there is no possibility of peace between the two regimes and all channels of communication between India and Pakistan go through Washington. US imperialism has the ruling class of India and Pakistan and their governments by their throats.

The Indian working class and people cannot afford to forget the bitter lessons drawn from history. British colonialism declared that Hindus and Muslims could never live in peace in one country. Using the services of their agents, they organised the bloody partition of the country along communal lines. The history of the sub-continent since 1947 reveals that partition of the sub-continent has exacerbated the problems in the region. The Indian big bourgeoisie has used the existence of Pakistan as a bogey to whip up anti-Muslim hysteria, divide the working class and people, and diverting attention from itself, the capitalist system and colonial legacy, which is the root cause of the miseries of the workers and peasants of various nations, nationalities and tribal peoples who constitute India. The Pakistani ruling class has done the same thing. Since 1947, the British imperialists, the US and Soviet social-imperialists, have all pursued the policy of playing off India and Pakistan against each other and acting as "peace-brokers" to advance their imperialist interests in the sub-continent. The imperialists and the ruling class of India and Pakistan have benefited from this. It is the workers and peasants of the sub-continent who have been the losers.

The presence of US imperialism in the sub-continent means war. Peace cannot be established without the expulsion of this anti-people force. However, neither the Indian nor the Pakistani ruling class will ever take this bold and necessary step of throwing the imperialists out. Only the working class and peasantry of India and Pakistan can do so. For this, they must take political power into their own hands and put an end
to the capitalist system and the colonial legacy.

A dangerous situation has been created. There is urgent need to thoroughly expose and oppose the diabolical game plan of the US imperialists for the conquest of South Asia. The situation demands that the Indian and Pakistani working class and peasantry simultaneously target the treacherous ruling class of both countries. The working class and peasantry of India, as well as the patriotic intelligentsia need to take serious note of this situation and to act to change it in favour of
the peoples.

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Against the fire fighters of the bourgeoisie in the working class movement

Statement of the CGPI on the role of CPIM in the recent governmental crisis in Maharashtra, July 25 2002

The Congress-NCP regime of Maharashtra has been unrestrained in its offensive against the working class and people. It has zealously pursued the program of globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation. Taking the lead in amending the Industrial Disputes Act, the ‘Democratic’ Front government has savagely attacked all the struggles of the toiling people in defence of their rights. It has put down the movement against imperialist war through state organised communal and fascist violence.

The anti-social offensive of the 'Democratic' Front government was increasingly meeting the united struggles of the working class. The working class, cutting across party and trade union affiliation was attempting to mount a unified opposition. It was as a mark of protest against the anti-working class program of the 'Democratic Front' government that CPIM withdrew its support to this coalition. The PWP and the others, whose constituency is primarily the working class and peasantry were also forced to withdraw their support to the anti people coalition, thus precipitating the governmental crisis.

What then is the logic of providing a new lease of life to the same anti-working class, capitalist government?

The CPIM has declared that it was forced to prop up the anti-working class, anti-peasant regime of the Congress-NCP coalition in order to prevent the Shiv Sena-BJP combine from coming to power. The BJP-Shiv Sena combine, the CPI (M) argues, is "communal and fascist", while the Congress is "secular" and therefore the "lesser evil" of the two.

Communalism is the preferred policy of the Indian bourgeoisie and not merely the policy of this or that party. The Indian State, its constitution and all its institutions such as the police, bureaucracy are communal. All the bourgeois political parties perforce use communal politics to capture seats of power. Unleashing of communal pogroms by the state has become a routine matter in this much-celebrated ‘secular’ country.

Today, it is clear even to the blind that both the BJP and the Congress are parties of the big bourgeoisie. Both these parties are pursuing the same capitalist program of globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation. These two parties of the bourgeoisie routinely use communal violence to achieve their own narrow aims of capturing and retaining their power. Therefore the line of aligning with the "lesser evil" has only served the purpose of tying the working class and peasantry permanently to the coattails of this or that bourgeois party. Keeping alive illusions about the nature of Indian democracy, it has pushed the working class deep into the morass of parliamentarism. This is one of the main factors that has facilitated the rise of what CPI(M) terms 'communal fascism'.

The anti-social program of globalisation is the program of the entire ruling class and imperialism and not merely of this or that party. Within this one common program, fierce competition exists amongst the different sections of the bourgeoisie and different imperialist groups. It is an open secret that the capitalists and imperialists routinely pay vast sums of money to MLA’s and MP’s to establish their own lobbies to push their individual agenda. They fight like cats and dogs to gain control of the state machinery. The fierce fight amongst them in the market place is what is reflected in the wheeling and dealing that goes on in the corridors of the parliament and legislative assemblies.

While the governmental crisis in Maharashtra was precipitated by the sharpening of the class struggle of the working class against the capitalist offensive, the sordid drama that unfolded subsequently is the reflection of the intense contradictions that exists in the camp of the bourgeoisie.

In such conditions, when the wanton misuse of power by all the bourgeois political parties is apparent for all to see, the task of the communists must be to vigorously advance the class struggle through the systematic exposure of the bourgeoisie and its multi-party democracy. Communists must clarify that in this system of 'democracy' the 'representatives' represent only their own selfish interests and those of the bourgeois class in power and not that of the people. The opportunity provided by such governmental crisis must be used to wean the working class, the peasantry and all its allies from the stranglehold of bourgeois parliamentarism. They must innovate and elaborate a form of direct democracy wherein the working class and peasantry have full control over their representatives.

By propping up the discredited Congress-NCP regime, the CPIM is doing just the opposite. By extolling the virtues of parliamentary democracy, it is contributing to the lie that there is no alternative to the present system of governance. It is precisely this politics of conciliation with the bourgeoisie that spreads pessimism and disillusionment in the working class and depoliticises it.

The Communist Ghadar Party of India condemns the role played by CPIM in shoring up the capitalist government of Maharashtra. By stabbing the working class movement in the back, the CPI (M) has shown who their real masters are—the reactionary Indian bourgeoisie and the imperialists. They have revealed that they are in fact the fire fighters of the bourgeoisie in the working class movement.

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British led "multilateral initiative" on Nepal:

Blatant interference in the internal affairs of Nepal

On June 19, a British led "multilateral initiative" was convened in London, in which the key players were the US, Britain, the two neighbours of Nepal, i.e. India and China, as well as other donor countries. The main agenda of this initiative was to work out plans to deal with what are being described as the "rapidly deteriorating political and economic conditions" in Nepal. In particular, the conference discussed joint initiatives to stamp out the rising protests and demonstrations all across Nepal, reflecting the growing discontent of the working masses there.

Nepal is facing an acute political crisis, accentuated by a series of events, culminating in the dissolution of the Parliament, extension of Emergency and expulsion of the Prime Minister from his party, the Nepalese Congress Party. The struggle of the peasants, youth and working people of Nepal, against their worsening conditions of life and livelihood, has also been greatly escalating, as also the barbaric violence unleashed by the Nepalese government and armed forces, in collusion with the Indian armed forces, to crush this struggle.

The present crisis in Nepal comes at a time when the Anglo American imperialists are using their "war against terrorism" to brutally interfere politically and militarily in this region, as part of their strategy for the conquest of Asia.

The present crisis in Nepal is also characterised by the deep and sinister involvement of the Indian state. In the past, successive governments in India have used the position of Nepal, as a small, poor, land-locked country, to dominate and hegemonise over it, to ruthlessly plunder it, to impose economic and tourism blockades on Nepal and to interfere in its internal affairs. Accusing Pakistan of using Nepal as a "base for terrorists", this interference has now been greatly stepped up. The Indian rulers are openly providing military assistance to Nepal, to crush the revolt of the people there. Nepal’s King Gyanendra recently visited India.

The Indian rulers have been shamelessly facilitating the growing Anglo-American imperialist interference in this region. Now, in the name of "bringing in the weight of the international community in defeating the Maoist threat to Nepal", the Anglo-American involvement in the region will be further deepened.

It has been reported that at the conference in London, the US and Britain will put forward a set of proposals to the Deuba government to initiate reforms in areas such as "good governance", as well as to counter the "Maoist threat". In other words, they will go all-out in their economic, political and military interference in Nepal.

The convening of the London Conference is expected to pave the way for the Anglo-American imperialists to intensify the plunder of the resources of that country, in the name of "solving the crisis".

The brazen economic, political and military interference of the Anglo-American imperialists in this region and the utter venality of the Indian ruling class in collaborating in this interference, are a source of very grave danger for the peoples of this region. Only the unity of the peoples of all the countries of our subcontinent, in struggle against the Anglo-American imperialists and our reactionary rulers, can thwart their evil designs in this region.

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George Bush’s blueprint for West Asia:

Establishing US imperialist yoke in the entire region using Israel as the pistol

"Today Palestinian authorities are encouraging, not opposing, terrorism. This is unacceptable. And the United States will not support the establishment of a Palestinian state until its leaders engage in a sustained fight against the terrorists and dismantle their infrastructure", says Bush. President Bush also arrogantly called on "the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror". (The Hindu, Jun 26, 2002)

As far as the Palestinian people are concerned, and the democratic and progressive people of the world are concerned, it is the Israeli Zionists who used terrorism as the weapon, first to deprive the Palestinians of their homeland and set up the Zionist state of Israel, and later on, have systematically used terror and aggression against the Palestinian people both in the occupied territories and in the refugee camps. At this very time, the Israeli armed forces have once again occupied Palestinian Authority areas, in the name of counter-terrorism. The Israeli occupation and reign of terror has been carried out at this time, as in the past, with the full backing of US imperialism. The liberation struggle of the Palestinian people is a just struggle which cannot be equated with terrorism.

US imperialism has created and used the Zionist state of Israel as a pistol at the head of the Palestinian and other Arab peoples. It has been an instrument to achieve the long standing aim of subjugation of the Palestinian and Arab peoples and establishing US imperialist domination over a vital region with enormous oil resources as well as the sea route between Europe and Asia. Not only the martyred people of Palestine, the people of Israel are also victims of this policy. The Israeli people need to join hands with the Palestinian people and other Arab peoples against US imperialist intervention and against the Zionist State which is the instrument of US policy in the Middle East.

US imperialist leader Bush’s Palestinian policy is a restatement of the long standing policy of US imperialism. It is unqualified support for Israeli terror and military aggression against the Palestinian and other Arab peoples. It is at the same time a call to the Palestinian people to give up their just resistance struggle, the second Intifada which was launched two years back. It is a call to the Palestinian people to capitulate to the Zionists and US imperialists. The heroic Palestinian people, who have fought for over 5 decades for their homeland, are not going to give up their struggle. What the developments are confirming again and again, is that US imperialism is the biggest enemy of the Palestinian and other Arab peoples, and the greatest enemy of freedom, of just and lasting peace, and of the rights of peoples and nations.

Condemn Israel’s Stepped Up terror on Palestinians!

Israel is escalating its brutal acts of state terrorism against the people of Palestine in order to deny them their right to freedom and self-determination. These are being carried out in the name of "anti-terrorism" and the "right to self-defence."

On June 24, the Israeli army once again invaded the Palestinian city of Ramallah and surrounded the headquarters of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. This is the third time the Israeli state has surrounded Arafat's offices in the past month. A total of 130 Israeli tanks now occupy the city of Ramallah where the offices of the Palestinian Authority are located. Ramallah is the sixth of the major Palestinian cities in the West Bank to be invaded by Israel during its current "Operation Determined Road."

The Palestinian news agency WAFA published the statement of a Palestinian official denouncing the Israeli aggression. The statement says, "The Israeli occupation forces are escalating their aggression against the Palestinian districts focussing on Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour, completely re-occupying them while tightening their re-occupation on Jenin, Qalqilya and their refugee camps, shoveling olive groves and destroying the trees, brutally ransacking and invading Palestinian homes, searching them and randomly arresting civilians."

Since June 19, the Israeli army has escalated its attacks against the Palestinians. On the same day that Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles under cover of fighter jets and armed helicopters invaded most of the cities in the West Bank which are part of the Palestinian authority, Israel issued a statement declaring that it "will respond to every terror attack by capturing Palestinian Authority territory, which will be held for as long as the terror continues," until it has eradicated the "terrorist infrastructure."

The Israeli cabinet met on June 23 to finalise plans to step up its aggression against the Palestinian people with a policy based on "collective punishment". The plans are part of a decision taken by the Security Cabinet on June 21 when it announced a plan to reoccupy the West Bank indefinitely. Palestinian territories would be captured "according to need and until goals were achieved."

People’s Voice condemns the Israeli Zionist terror campaign against the Palestinian people and extends full support to the heroic Palestinian people in their just struggle against the occupation army, for restoration of their national rights

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Tens of Thousands Demonstrate in Seville, Spain to Protest against European Union

There were around 100 separate protest demonstrations with a march through the city by more than 150,000 people. Red flags, placards and slogans against the "Europe of capital" abounded in the march. The protesters, under the umbrella of the Social Forum which had met parallel to the European Council meeting as a "counter-summit", marched through central Seville. "Against a Europe of Capital and War" and "No Person is Illegal" were the head banners of the March.

When the call for the march was issued 10 days ago, the government refused to authorise the route scheduled by the organisers, and instead ordered the protesters to follow the Guadalquivir river that borders the city. But the Social Forum argued that the route assigned by the government ran through a dangerous area, and that only the fish in the river would see the demonstrators. After the organisers decided to hold the march anyway, the government delegates said they would negotiate, and a route was finally agreed.

Armed police had set up roadblocks on the main road into Seville from the southern coastal town of Malaga, searching cars and luggage and checking the identity of their drivers. Earlier, Spanish police barred buses carrying around 500 Portuguese protesters from entering the country to join the demonstration, turning them back near the border. Spain temporarily re-established its border controls with neighbouring France and Portugal on Friday as part of tight security measures for the EU summit. The blocking of Portuguese protesters sparked concern in Portugal, where a spokesman for President Jorge Sampaio said he had contacted the Spanish embassy

The Social Forum discussed a range of economic, social and cultural problems inextricably linked to the agenda of capitalist globalisation. The manifesto of the Social Forum called for total cancellation of the external debt of poor countries, an economy at the service of citizens, "genuine" social policies, and a Europe more committed to the environment.

Consulta Europea, one of the participating groups, described EU policy as "a religion of the market". The European bloc does not seem to be aware that in its territory "there are three million homeless citizens, or even that there are poor," including "25 percent of the adult population of Portugal, nearly 20 percent of that of Britain, and over 15 percent of that of Spain," the group added.

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