• Condemn the "middle path" proclaimed by the Vajpayee government on the war in Iraq!

• Condemn the gruesome slaughter of people in Kashmir Valley!
  Statement of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, March 25, 2003

• On the occasion of the 120^th anniversary of the death of Karl Marx
  One Working Class, One Program, One Communist Party!

• Conference of communists on Indian state and revolution held in Maharashtra

• Condemn the armed invasion of Iraq!
  The Anglo-American aggressors must be punished for this crime!
  Statement of the Central Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, March 23, 2003

• Anglo-American onslaught meets with stiff resistance from Iraqi and world's peoples:
  Increasing isolation and ignominy of imperialists
  Uphold and strengthen the unity of the peoples of the world against imperialist terror!

• Massive protests all over India against the US aggression on Iraq

• Martyrs Day celebrated in Nohar, Rajasthan:
  Hundreds of Lok Raj Sangathan activists protest against war on Iraq

• Letters to the Editor

• Introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) in place of States’ Sales Taxes:
  The working class would recommend the total abolition of indirect taxes

• Rejecting illusions of power, Indian women must step up the struggle for real political power!

Condemn the "middle path" proclaimed by the Vajpayee government on the war in Iraq!

It was clear from the statements of government spokespersons that India was not going to take any initiative, either through the Non-Aligned Movement or otherwise, which would jeopardise India’s cosy relationship with the US. This was conveyed by the External Affairs Ministry to the visiting Iranian leader Ali Akbar Velayati, who is the special envoy of the Iranian President Mohammed Khatami. The spokesperson of the government is reported to have remarked that there is no need to antagonise the US by naming it or talking about "aggression".

Prime Minister Vajpayee’s statement to the all-party meeting on Iraq reveals the Government of India’s reactionary and pro-imperialist international line. According to newspaper reports, Vajpayee said "Our relations with the United States and Britain and others involved in the crisis are strong, with many dimensions, and expanding…" According to him, India’s relationship with other countries could not be "defined by a single issue." In other words, his government was unwilling to support the just struggle of the Iraqi people as well as the peace-loving people of the whole world against the Anglo-American war of aggression on Iraq, because it wants to cosy up even more to the US imperialists.

Further on, Vajpayee made it clear that the Indian ruling class is not in disagreement with the US on any matter of principle. On the contrary, the Indian ruling class wishes to use the "war against terrorism" to advance its own imperialist interests, and would like to co-ordinate with the Anglo-American imperialists on this, especially against Pakistan. "We should be careful that neither our internal debate nor our external actions deflect our attention, or that of the world, away from the real source of terrorism in our neighbourhood…The nexus between international terrorism, fundamentalism and weapons of mass destruction is now being strengthened. The remnants of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are being given refuge. There is real threat of rogue nuclear activity and WMD terrorism. Action against Iraq should not dilute our focus…" The Prime Minister’s language and reasoning is no different from those of Bush and Blair.

The focus of the Indian and world’s peoples is to bring the Anglo-American imperialist war of aggression against Iraq to an immediate halt, and to ensure punishment for the aggressors. The peoples of the world are demanding the immediate convening of the Security Council and the General Assembly of the UN for this purpose. However, the reactionary Indian ruling class has chosen to cling on to a different focus, as articulated by Prime Minister Vajpayee. And that is how to further strengthen the coalition of imperialist forces headed by US imperialism and direct it against Pakistan! In other words, the Indian ruling class is one with the US in its plans for the conquest of Asia and the whole world, under the signboard of "war against terrorism". In return, it is demanding only a share of the cake from the plunder and ruin of peoples. Far from taking a principled stand in defence of the freedom and sovereignty of Iraq, the Indian ruling class is acting like a vulture eager to join the Anglo-American imperialists in the plunder of Iraq they are planning in the name of "post-war reconstruction".

The so-called "middle path" pursued by the Indian ruling class today constitutes outright collaboration with the imperialist war-mongers. It is treachery to the peoples, who are fighting in defence of peace and freedom, and the independence and sovereignty of the peoples and countries, and for the right of each people to determine its own economic and political system free from outside interference. Ever since it came to power in 1947, this ruling class has pursued a pragmatic unprincipled course in international relations, siding with one or the other imperialist superpower during the Cold War period, and with the US in the period since the end of the Cold War. In each instance of big power aggression, from the Soviet social-imperialist aggression against Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan to the numerous US aggressions against the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America, including the US aggression against Afghanistan, this ruling class has taken care to feather its own nest and advance its own imperialist ambitions. It has never taken a consistent internationalist stand in defence of the principles of freedom and sovereignty of the peoples and nations from imperialist aggression. Once again, at a time when the peoples of the world have risen up with remarkable oneness in opposition to the war against Iraq, the Indian ruling class has made it plain it stands on the side of the war-mongers, on the side of retrogression.

This treacherous, pro-imperialist, pro-war course of the "middle path" being pursued by the Vajpayee government needs to be thoroughly exposed and condemned! This is a course that is bringing shame on our people amongst the larger community of nations and the peace loving peoples of the whole world. The Indian people must demand that Parliament should immediately and unequivocally condemn the US aggression on Iraq. The Indian people must force the Indian government to immediately take a stand in the UN Security Council and General Assembly to punish the Anglo-American imperialists for aggressing upon Iraq. This is the only course of honour for the Indian people.

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Condemn the gruesome slaughter of people in Kashmir Valley!
Statement of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, March 25, 2003

The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K.Advani, blamed the killings on Pakistan. Newspapers reported that immediately following the massacre at Nadimarg, US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, spoke to the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha. Colin Powell reiterated the US call for putting an end to cross-border terrorism and said that "Washington would discuss the issue with Islamabad". In a related statement, the US ambassador to India, Robert D. Blackwill said that "the global war on terrorism will not be won until such atrocities end against all countries". Jack Straw is reported to have said that "these killings . . . underline the need for continued action to eliminate the scourge of terrorism". Clearly, the Kashmir killings provide grist to the mill of "war against terrorism" of the Anglo-American imperialists and the Indian ruling class.

This gruesome slaughter of innocent people in the Kashmir Valley is one more in the series of such unending tragedies. In these difficult times, it is vital that the people of Kashmir and India analyse in a cool and collected manner the reasons for this massacre and see how to end such massacres.

It is evident that the slaughter of innocent women, men and children in Nadimarg is state-organised. It has been organised by the very forces who want to foment communal bloodbaths in India, by the forces who seek to equate the liberation struggle of people against oppression and injustice with acts of senseless terrorism against innocent people. Such forces in India and the world over need to organise such terrorist killings again and again. They need to inflame passions among ordinary people, to justify state terrorism and repression, communal and fascist terror and the further violation of rights of the people. They organise terrorist killings to besmirch the genuine liberation struggles of the peoples.

This slaughter has been organised precisely at a time when the US imperialist-led "coalition of the willing" stands completely exposed and isolated in front of the world’s peoples, following the launch of the war of aggression against Iraq. The governments of India and Pakistan are also under great pressure to take a stand against the US war on Iraq, as a result of the popular opposition to the war by the masses of people in both India and Pakistan and all over the world. In this situation, the Nadimarg massacre clearly comes out as an act of state terrorism, organised by the enemies of peace, freedom and liberation.

Terrorism is rooted in the moribund capitalist-imperialist system which is able to prolong its life only through fascism, war and the organising of terrorist and communal slaughters. All the capitalist and imperialist states, including the Indian state, use terrorism as a preferred weapon in their arsenal of rule. Ending communal and fascist terror in India demands that the working class and people of India, independent of their faith, their national origin, their language or region unite in struggle to overthrow the rule of the capitalists and imperialists in India.

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On the occasion of the 120^th anniversary of the death of Karl Marx
One Working Class, One Program, One Communist Party!

March 2003 marks the one hundred and twentieth anniversary of the death of Karl Marx, who is remembered and honoured as the foremost thinker, fighter and teacher of the international working class. Throughout his life, Marx worked and fought hard to make the working class conscious of its own aim and to make it become a class for itself. He worked to build the unity of the working class around its own independent program so that, led by its vanguard Communist Party, it could achieve the goal of ending the basis for the exploitation of labour through the revolutionary transformation of society from capitalism to socialism and communism.

The working class, consisting of all those who own nothing but their labour power, is an international class, bound together by its common interest in ending all exploitation of man by man. Unlike the bourgeoisie, which by its very nature is divided into antagonistic rival factions, the working class is characterised by the oneness of its class aim. Through his personal example, Marx demonstrated the necessity for the workers of all countries to unite and organise to achieve their class aims independently of, and against, the bourgeoisie.

Marx taught that while sharing the same aim on the world scale, the working class of each country had to settle scores with its ‘own’ bourgeoisie. In order to end its exploitation, it must smash the bourgeois state machine and build its own state of the dictatorship of the proletariat. And in order to achieve this aim, the advanced section of the working class must be organised into a united Communist Party that stands at the head of the movement within each country.

In India today, there are many parties and individuals that call themselves Marxists and communists. However, the real test of whether one is following the road of Marx lies not in words, but in deeds. To follow Marx today means to fight for the political unity of the Indian working class around its own independent aim of smashing the bourgeois state and establishing its own state power. To uphold the program of Marxism means to organise to bring the working class to power. Those who are working merely to bring their own party to power, to manage the existing Indian State, are not really Marxists, even if they call themselves such.

Marx drew important lessons from the practical experience of the class struggle. For instance, when the working class stormed the citadels of bourgeois power and established the Paris Commune in 1871, Marx paid great attention to analysing this historic development. Even though the workers’ power was short-lived, Marx drew invaluable lessons from this experience. In particular, he drew the lesson that the working class cannot simply take hold of the readymade state machinery of the bourgeoisie and wield it for its own purposes. The working class has to create a new state power, which would be an instrument to suppress the bourgeoisie, overthrow capitalism and build socialism.

Marx defined the basic features of this new state power, the dictatorship of the proletariat. It was by following these ideas that the Russian working class organised the Great October Socialist Revolution in 1917 and created a new worker-peasant state in the form of the Soviet Union. By means of this state, the working class overthrew the feudal-capitalist system and built socialism, the first phase of communism.

The bourgeoisie claims that the fall and disintegration of the Soviet Union show that the ideas of Karl Marx do not work. However, if the facts and phenomena on the world scale are examined dispassionately, what they show is something else. It is capitalism that does not work. It is capitalism that is unable to escape from crises. Capitalism is unable to grow without spreading death and destruction on the world scale, exactly as Marx predicted.

One of the economic laws discovered by Marx is called the law of the tendency for the rate of profit to fall. The steep decline being witnessed today in the rate of capitalist profit in the majority of countries of the world, independent of the will of the imperialists and big bourgeois rulers, shows that the world economy continues to operate according to the objective laws discovered by Marx. The world developments are revealing that capitalism, at its present stage of imperialism, is unable to grow without wars of conquest and re-division of territories among the big powers, exactly as Lenin predicted. Lenin discovered the law of uneven development of capitalism in the stage of imperialism. He showed that imperialism inevitably means wars for the re-division of the world. He showed that lasting peace requires nothing less than the overthrow of imperialism.

The Soviet Union disintegrated because the Bolshevik Party, at the head of the socialist state, began to deviate from the scientific principles of Marxism-Leninism, starting from the 20^th Congress held in 1956. Departing from the Marxist theory of class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Soviet party, led by Khrushchev, renounced the class struggle, began to preach class peace and declared that the Soviet Union was a ‘state of the whole people’. Declaring that there was no need to wage the class struggle against the bourgeoisie any more, they lowered the vigilance of the working class. The Soviet leadership began to preach the possibility of peaceful transition from capitalism to socialism. A new capitalist class was allowed to emerge in the Soviet Union, while maintaining the outward appearance of socialism. This new bourgeoisie gradually destroyed socialism and restored the capitalist system, first in a hidden form and later on in an open form.

Khrushchev and those who followed him at the head of the Soviet Union revised the theory of Marxism and are therefore called revisionists. Revisionists typically conciliate with social-democracy and deny the need for the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. They prettify the capitalist system and its parliamentary democracy. They spread confusion on the difference between the State and the government. Even today, there are parties in the communist movement who are always preoccupied about bringing about a change of government, but never concern themselves with the revolutionary transformation of the state and society.

There are parties in the communist movement that are calling on the Indian working class to defend the ‘secular and democratic’ foundations of the present-day Indian State. Such parties are promoting an aim that has nothing to do with the aim of the working class. The aim of the Indian working class is neither to defend the existing state nor to improve or perfect it. As Marx taught, the aim of the working class is to smash the existing state and establish a worker-peasant state in its place.

The workers of India are demanding a politically united movement and leadership today. They are demanding unity around a single program aimed at bringing workers and peasants to power. They are demanding united communist leadership of the working class movement. Such unity demands a stern struggle against those who are deviating from the program of Marxism. To uphold Marxism in India today means to fight for working class unity around the immediate program for the renewal of India, aimed at establishing a worker-peasant republic in place of the existing capitalist-landlord republic. Political unity around this program will pave the way for restoring the unity of Indian communists in one party.

On this 120^th anniversary of the death of Karl Marx, People’s Voice conveys its revolutionary greetings to all its readers. Let us take up the call of the times. Let us arm the working class with the scientific theory of revolution, with the fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism and its further development through the experience of the class struggle. The workers need to be armed with the most up-to-date theory and ideology so that they can see through the diversions and all the plots of the bourgeoisie and those parties within the movement that revise and distort Marxism.

Workers of India – let us unite around the program for India’s renewal and the establishment of a worker-peasant republic! As Marx said, we workers have nothing to lose but our chains. We have a whole wide world to win!

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Conference of communists on Indian state and revolution held in Maharashtra

The Conference was inaugurated with an address by Comrade Prakash Rao, spokesperson of the Central Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India. In his opening remarks, Comrade Prakash Rao pointed out the significance of the holding of this Conference at the present international and national juncture, with war clouds threatening Iraq and the region, as well as the mounting opposition of the working class and people of India and the whole world on all fronts to the savage capitalist-imperialist offensive. Tracing a broad sweep of world historical developments over a century and a half since the proletariat emerged on the scene of world history with its independent mission of being a grave digger of the capitalist system, the spokesperson elaborated on the glorious contribution of the founder of our doctrine of scientific socialism, Karl Marx, whose 120th death anniversary fell on March 14. Karl Marx was a revolutionary who lived and worked in the conditions when Germany and Europe were seething first with the bourgeois revolution and later on with the proletarian revolution. The questions of the state and revolution preoccupied Marx, as reflected in the Communist Manifesto as well as other works of Marx and his lifelong and close comrade in arms, Frederic Engels. The lessons of the Communist Manifesto, published by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels 155 years ago, remain valid till today. Comrade Prakash Rao elaborated on the principal contributions of Marx in the fields of political economy, philosophy and scientific socialism. Marx's contribution to understanding the inner laws of capitalism, including the theory of surplus value, the theory of class struggle and the dialectical and historical materialist world outlook, were discussed in the context of dealing with the tasks facing the communist and workers movement in India and the world, and of the revisionist distortions on the question of the state and the theory of class struggle in the twentieth century.

Papers dealing with the class character of the present day Indian state, the organs and institutions of this state, the role of state intervention in the Indian economy, as well as with the specific role of communalism and secularism in the strategy of the Indian bourgeoisie and its state, were presented in the Conference. Vigorous group discussions took place after each set of presentations. The group discussions were summed up and presented to the entire conference at the beginning of each new session.

The concluding session witnessed spirited and thought-provoking interventions by several communists. All of them appreciated the spirit of the conference and its aims, as well as the content and seriousness of the presentations. There was a demand that such discussions amongst communists must be held frequently and systematically to address the crucial problems of Indian State and revolution. In his concluding remarks to the Conference on Indian State and Revolution, Comrade Prakash Rao explained that the Indian working class was one, and that it had one program. Indian communists must now deliberate on what is the program of the working class in the conditions of our society and our times, in the present national and international context. This proposal met with an enthusiastic response from all the participants. The Conference concluded on a note of enthusiastic revolutionary optimism while appreciating the grave and difficult challenges facing Indian communists today.

The Conference of communists on the Indian State and Revolution drew wide and enthusiastic participation from communists belonging to different parties and groups all across Maharashtra. It underscored the fact that the Indian communists are extremely serious about addressing the key problems confronting the revolution, and welcome the initiatives being taken to advance it.

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Condemn the armed invasion of Iraq!
The Anglo-American aggressors must be punished for this crime!
Statement of the Central Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, March 23, 2003

Defying world public opinion, violating international law and bypassing the United Nations, the Anglo-American imperialists have launched their brutal bombardment and armed invasion of Iraq. There is no justification for this naked imperialist act of aggression. The Communist Ghadar Party of India condemns this war as an international crime, a brutal and unjustified violation of the sovereignty of Iraq. The Indian working class and people must and will stand on the side of the people and nation of Iraq, in defence of their right to have the political system of their choice, free from outside interference of any kind.

The international community matured in the 20^th century on the basis of recognising the right of every nation and people, big or small, to determine their own destiny, their own state system and institutions of governance. It is on the basis of affirming this principle that the United Nations came into being, following the worldwide condemnation and defeat of Hitlerite fascism. According to the principle of sovereignty and the right to self-determination, the question of what kind of state and system of governance should exist in any country can and must be decided only by the people of that country, not by somebody else. This principle has been brutally violated by the US and British imperialists, who have openly declared that the aim of this war is to dethrone Saddam Hussein and achieve a ‘regime change’ in Iraq.

In typical Hitlerite fashion, the Anglo-American imperialists are repeating lies on a daily basis to make people accept these as the truth. While they have invaded and occupied Iraq with their troops, with the intent to enslave an independent country and people, they are calling it ‘operation Iraqi freedom’. While raining death and destruction with the most deadly weapons in their possession, they claim that their aim is to save the world from ‘weapons of mass destruction’.

In spite of their lying propaganda, the Anglo-American imperialists are unable to hide the fact that their real aim has nothing to do with the welfare of the Iraqi people. Nor does it have anything to do with security or with saving the world. Their real aim is territorial conquest, while everything else is a pretext. They want to gain control of the strategically important territory of Iraq, including its rich oil reserves, and strengthen the positions of US imperialism and its allies in west Asia. It is part of their strategy for the conquest of Asia and for the establishment of a unipolar world under US dictate.

US President Bush and British Prime Minister Blair claim that they represent a "coalition of the willing". It is a coalition of imperialist marauders who are willing to commit crimes in defiance of world public opinion. It is a coalition of those who want to trample in the mud all the recognised principles of international relations for the sake of their own narrow self-serving aims.

The anti-war demonstrations show that the peoples of the world are not willing to put up with such aggression and violation of national sovereignty. As a result of the growing strength of this anti-imperialist movement, several governments that were former allies of the US have come out in opposition to the war in Iraq. This shows the weakness of imperialism and the strength of the anti-imperialist forces on the world scale.

The Communist Ghadar Party of India condemns the use of force by the US and British imperialists against Iraq as unjust and criminal. The struggle of the people of Iraq to defend their nation from external aggression is entirely justified and enjoys the support of the people of India and all countries. The CGPI hails the struggle of the peoples against this war and demands that the Anglo-American aggressors be punished for this crime!

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Anglo-American onslaught meets with stiff resistance from Iraqi and world's peoples:
Increasing isolation and ignominy of imperialists
Uphold and strengthen the unity of the peoples of the world against imperialist terror!

The Anglo-American imperialists had arrogantly declared initially that they would be welcomed with roses in their campaign, which they had code-named "Iraqi Freedom". They claimed that their advance into Iraq would cut through any opposition like a hot knife through butter. Only a few days later, they have had to admit that it was no cakewalk, and that the opposition of the Iraqi people was "stiffer than they had expected". According to the perverted logic of the imperialists, it is "fear of the regime" which has prevented the Iraqi people from welcoming their "liberators". In actual fact, irrespective of what the people of Iraq feel about the regime of Saddam Hussein, it is abundantly clear to them that the Anglo-Americans are marauders who are out to kill, maim and lay waste to their beloved country with the arrogant abandon that only the bloodthirstiest regimes can muster.

The Anglo-American imperialists initially claimed that their target was only the regime of Saddam Hussein. However, the manner in which they have wantonly killed hundreds of civilians and others with the most horrendous weapons and destroyed property worth millions belonging to the Iraqi people, has shown how this claim too was an out right lie. The valiant Iraqi people have risen up to thwart the invaders with every drop of courage they can muster.

It is clear to the Iraqi people and the people of the world that they must fight to their last breath or else look forward to a dismal life of subjugation, exploitation, plunder of their natural wealth and increasing immiseration. It is clear to them and to their governments, that if Iraq succumbs easily today, any one of their countries could be the next target. They recall that the Gulf War of 1991 was likewise not a war of liberation, but a war through which the big oil monopolies, American and other, made tens of billions of dollars in profits, while the American armaments industry also made an estimated profit of 40 billion dollars. The war against Afghanistan was likewise a war for the redivision of Asia, and for protecting the strategic interests of the western imperialists.

The Anglo-American imperialists' premise for commencing the war was that the regime of Saddam Hussein was hoarding weapons of mass destruction and was a threat to the peace of the entire world. Days later, even bourgeois newspaper editorials have commented that if at all anyone has weapons of mass destruction and is a threat to world peace, it is the Anglo - Americans and their wantonly destructive war machine! Who are the Anglo-American imperialists, in any case, to decide which regime a country should have and which regime should be permitted to have weapons?

In their own capitals and in every major cities, the Anglo-American imperialists are being condemned day after day in major demonstrations of the people. Demonstrations involving lakhs upon lakhs of people have been organised in all corners of the globe. From the Oscar awards ceremony to every major sporting event, from letters to the editors' columns to hundreds of internet sites, and through thousands of emails, the teeming millions opposed to the unjust war are using every opportunity to voice their opposition to the unjust and cruel imperialist war of aggression. In the process, many have even questioned the very premises on which the imperialist system is based. The most broad-based unity of the peoples is being forged in the course of this opposition to the unjust imperialist aggression.

The intolerable, Hitlerite crimes which the Anglo-Americans are committing today, have perhaps few parallels in history. The anger of the peoples of the world is increasing with every passing day. It is the force of the people which has made so many notoriously pliant regimes wary of supporting the Anglo-American aggression on Iraq. Only spineless sycophants such as the Indian Prime Minister can lament the "failure of the Security Council in hastening Iraq's disarmament", rather than come out clearly condemning the dastardly aggression. Strengthening and increasing the breadth of the anti-imperialist movement is the need of the hour. Indeed, it is this which will make the war criminals Bush and Blair and their ilk answer for the crimes they have committed and are continuing to commit!

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Massive protests all over India against the US aggression on Iraq

In New Delhi, mass protest actions and rallies have been organised each day, at Jantar Mantar and at the American Embassy, organised by various political parties, trade unions, mass organisations and coalitions against war. Hundreds of workers, women, youth and political and social activists have come out in these mass actions. They have denounced the US invasion of the sovereign country of Iraq, carried out in flagrant violation of international norms and world public opinion, and demanded that the US should immediately get out of Iraq.

Similar protest actions have been organised in Kolkata, Mumbai, Bhopal, Bangalore, Lucknow, parts of Rajasthan, Kanyakumari and many other parts of the country. One feature of these protests is that they have been extremely widespread, taking place in small towns as well as district headquarters. In Jammu and Kashmir, massive anti-war protests, involving hundreds of youth and activists, have been taking place in several different parts of the state every day since March 20. On March 21, the police burst tear gas shells and resorted to lathi charge on anti-war demonstrators near Maisuma, in an effort to break up the demonstration.

The protestors are demanding an immediate halt to the war and immediate withdrawal of all coalition forces, on ground, and in the sea and air, from Iraq. They are demanding that the government of India should firmly denounce the US aggression on Iraq and refuse to co-operate with or assist the US war plans in any way.

These mass protests are an indication of the mood of the working class and people all over the country. The broad masses of people in every part of India are full of anger and hatred for the Anglo-American imperialists and the war they have unleashed on the sovereign nation and people of Iraq. Our people are also disgusted with the stand of the Indian government, which has not yet openly and unequivocally condemned the barbaric US-led invasion of Iraq. Through all these actions, our people are expressing their solidarity with the suffering people of Iraq and their aspiration for a world in which the independence and sovereignty of nations and peoples will be respected and cannot be brutally violated on account of the hegemonic ambitions of the big powers.

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Martyrs Day celebrated in Nohar, Rajasthan:
Hundreds of Lok Raj Sangathan activists protest against war on Iraq

Prior to the start of the program, the portraits of the martyrs and a hoarding had been put up in the chowk. Activists of Lok Raj Sangathan and AISF garlanded the portraits and commenced the program with stirring songs by Kalu Ram, Ramdas and others on the life of the martyrs.

More than ten speakers spoke on the occasion and they were heard with rapt attention by the audience. The life of Bhagat Singh and the ideals for which he sacrificed his life were described with telling force by the speakers. Assessing the socio-political situation in India today, a strong conclusion that emerged from the presentations was that the ideal for which Bhagat Singh and his comrades-in-arms fought and sacrificed their lives – that of a society where there is no exploitation of man by
man – still remains elusive for the Indian people. In fact, each passing day brings in more misery and exploitation. This state can only be ended by means of a thoroughgoing democratic renewal of Indian society. Speaker after speaker condemned the anti-social offensive of the rulers in the name of globalisation through privatisation and liberalisation.

The speakers were unanimous in their condemnation of the US imperialists for launching an unjust and unilateral war on Iraq, without
sanction from the UN and ignoring the widespread protests throughout the world of millions of peace-loving people. Through incontestable facts the speakers established that a prime motive for attacking Iraq was the greed of the US imperialists to capture the oil resources of the west Asia region in the interest of multinationals. It was pointed out that the Indian people should be very concerned about these developments and must urge the government to take an unequivocal stand against the war, since the US imperialists’ attempts to conquer west Asia are but a prelude to their attempt at conquest of Asia as a whole.

A lively skit was performed as part of the program. A drama troupe consisting of young dramatists from Sirsa put up a thoughtful nukkad natak reminding everyone of Bhagat Singh’s work and exposing the state-organised communal and fascist attacks on the people.

The fact that the Indian people are thoroughly marginalised in today’s political process, in which they have no say in running the country’s affairs or on deciding the priorities of government, was highlighted. This led to the question being raised of building committees of people’s organisations in each town and village. Participants enthusiastically responded to the call that the time has come to mobilise all sections of the people and set up people’s committees in every nook and corner of the country so that the program for genuine empowerment of the people can be taken up with all seriousness and resolve.

In a fitting conclusion, the participants took out a militant march on the main road of Nohar, waving placards condemning the unjust war against Iraq and shouting militant slogans against the US imperialists and their cronies. Thousands of peopled lined the streets and watched from balconies as the demonstrators wound their way through the main road. When the demonstrators reached the main intersection near the railway station, a symbolic rasta roko was held to express the indignation of the Indian people against the rain of bullets and bombs that the US imperialists have been hurling against the innocent civilians of Iraq.

The meeting was chaired by Com Mangal Singh. Among the participants were Hanuman Prasad Sharma, Com Om Pir Sahu. Com Niyamat Ali, Beghrag Kola, Dr. Chandan Singh Bagh, Sunil Kumar Dahiya, Com Mehboob, Ashok Varma and others.

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Letters to the Editor

The Editor,

Comrades,

On Thursday 20^th March, 2003, British and US warmongers launched one of their many aggressions against Iraq – this time it was an all-out invasion, using many absurd justifications such as "liberating Iraq", "bringing democracy", "weapons of mass destruction", "threat to world peace", "Saddam is a brutal dictator", "war on Saddam", etc. Such utter nonsense, such lies and distortions, can never be the basis of any war. Thousands of missiles are being rained on Iraq every day and night along with a huge ground offensive. This is being carried out as the Anglo-American mass media churns out "for the liberation of the Iraqi people"!

British troops have returned to their old colonial haunts, whether in Afghanistan or Iraq. Kuwait was created by the British imperialists from the territory of Iraq in 1928.

The rulers of both India and Pakistan are totally blind to the emerging tragedies in the region. Instead they are toeing the line of US imperialism by going into collaboration with outside forces. Ruling classes of Pakistan have no qualms on the presence of US troops on its border or its territory. Instead they are concerned about waging war against India and claiming the whole of Kashmir. Such acts will only advance the cause of imperialism and subjugation of the subcontinent.

Within this scenario, space is opened up for the communist and workers’ movements to seize the initiative for the empowerment of the people through revolution.

Yours sincerely,

A.Ashfaqullah, London

Dear Editor,

Here are my thoughts on the war of aggression unleashed by the US against the people of Iraq. I hope that you will kindly publish it in Mazdoor Ekta Lehar/People's Voice.

On March 20, 2003 the world has entered a completely different phase in the attempts at

global domination by the hated imperialist power, the United States of America. Leading a so-called coalition of forces from the United Kingdom, Australia and some others, it has started a war of aggression against the sovereign nation of Iraq, on the pretext that the

latter has in its possession 'weapons of mass destruction' and that it poses a threat to the 'freedom loving nations of the world.'

Unlike the first Gulf War of 1991 when Iraq had violated international law by invading Kuwait, there is no reason for action by the Security Council, and indeed the Security Council had not authorised any action against Iraq's supposed material breach of obligations under the resolution 1441. It is unprecedented that some members of the United Nations, who had failed to obtained its sanction, have gone ahead with their military action in the name of "collective security".

It has to be pointed out that the muted or practically inaudible reaction of the Indian Government is unpardonable. The people of India have consistently been against the imperialist behaviour of the USA, and it is imperative that the Government take a position in consonance with this. A justification for the silence under the pretext that India would like to play a 'proactive' role in the 'post-war reconstruction' of the country is not acceptable, since it does not amount to a principled position on the matter. There is much talk of the impending 'humanitarian crisis' and what the Western powers and the 'international community' are going to do about it. It is the US and its allies that must take full responsibility for the catastrophe that is confronting the people of Iraq. All progressive minded peoples of the world must unite against this aggression and call for an immediate cessation of military strikes on Iraq.

Yours truly,

R. Narayan, Bangalore

The Editor

People’s Voice & Mazdoor Ekta Lehar

Dear Editor,

We have now made it a regular feature in our unit meetings to discuss the various articles and news items appearing in People’s Voice and Mazdoor Ekta Lehar. We are particularly glad to note the strides that the papers have made in both content and form. We were quite excited to see the critical review on the recent Union Budget and would like to share with you and through you, other readers, some of our thoughts.

We see that there have been changes particularly in the rate of custom duties on a wide variety of things. To what extent would these adversely affect the employment opportunities of the working class has not been spelt out. Mere reduction in custom duties to satisfy the requirements of the WTO is bad policy in both economical and political terms. Unless the budget memorandum contains a detailed note on this vital question, any critical analysis will be incomplete.

Whatever be the changes in the excise duties and customs duties it must be recognised that these indirect taxes account for the bulk of the tax revenues. And these revenues are ultimately collected from the common man. The richer classes who are liable to pay income tax, property tax or corporation tax – i.e. direct taxes – seem to be let off lightly in every budget. These taxes as a proportion of the total tax revenue continues to be at an unhealthy low level. Those who can afford to should be taxed more stringently, for their incomes are generated through the efforts of the entire society and more particularly the labour of the working class. But then it is perhaps unreasonable to expect such a move from the bourgeois governments that we have now.

The most unsatisfactory feature of the present state of affairs is that in spending these huge amounts of money running into hundreds of thousands of crores of rupees, there is no accountability as far as the common people are concerned. The common man is entitled to know the manner in which these funds are spent supposedly for his betterment by way of better education, better roads, safe water and sanitation, better health and nutrition and so on. It is time people at various levels organise themselves into Sangarsh Samitis to make the State accountable for what they spend of the people’s money and why.

Yours truly,

Jaya

The Anglo-American imperialists are the violators of all international conventions!

The Editor,

People’s Voice/Mazdoor Ekta Lehar

Sir,

Ever since the aggression on Iraq by the Anglo-American forces began, the imperialist-controlled news media, such as BBC and CNN, have been giving a most biased reportage, trying to justify the aggression, even as world public opinion, including in US and Britain, continues to express itself as overwhelmingly opposed to the war and to the American and British imperialist regimes who have unleashed this war.

One example of this is the big furore that has been created over the alleged "ill-treatment" of American prisoners–of-war by the Iraqi regime. The Iraqi news media is reported to have shown pictures of some American prisoners-of-war, which the British and American governments are screaming is allegedly "a violation of the Geneva Convention". American and British government spokesmen are being interviewed on the T.V. daily, where they are repeatedly harping on this issue, obviously in an attempt to discredit the Iraqi regime and people and justify their continued aggression on Iraq. Spokespersons of the Iraqi government have clearly stated that the prisoners-of-war will be given proper treatment in terms of food and medical attention.

Meanwhile, the news media has been repeatedly showing pictures of Iraqi prisoners-of-war, huddled together like animals, locked up in barbed wire cages by the coalition forces. This, of course, is not to be considered as violation of any convention! And what moral right do the Anglo-American imperialists have to talk of "violation of human rights and international conventions"? The peoples of the world have not yet forgotten the treatment meted out to the prisoners-of-war that these same imperialists transported from Afghanistan to the American torture camps at Guantanamo Bay, within the sovereign state of Cuba, on the mere grounds of "suspicion" of having been associated with the Taliban regime! These prisoners-of-war have been treated worse than animals and subjected to the most inhuman torture. This too had caused much public indignation at the time, which the US imperialists managed to silence by their overpowering propaganda on the "war against terror".

As far as violation of international conventions is concerned, about which the US and British imperialists are acting so holier-than-thou, we cannot forget that these imperialists have violated the highest of international conventions by aggressing upon Iraq, without obtaining UN sanction and in the face of open condemnation of the majority of the world’s nations and peoples.

The nations and peoples of the world today are demanding international laws and conventions that should apply equally to all sovereign nations, big or small. They are demanding that the UN should enforce these equally on all states. They are demanding an international order in which the rights of sovereign nations and peoples shall be strictly respected and not brutally violated by any power simply by virtue of its superior economic or military might.

The Editor,

People’s Voice

Sir,

One of the important questions facing the masses is that of human rights, rights inalienable to human beings, the denial of which will negate the definition of human. There are many issues in this field that expose the bankruptcy of the international and national bourgeoisie. Notable examples are the black laws enacted by countries that include our own, Israel, UK and the USA. One recent example is the detention of a poet in Andhra Pradesh under the infamous Prevention of Terrorism Act. This should not come as a surprise to any one, since the law has wired into it right from the beginning, arbitrariness and severity on an unparalleled scale. The Indian rulers periodically enact laws of this kind, e.g., the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act. Then they wait until the uproar over their use (or abuse) from the masses becomes so thunderous that each law has to be revoked, only to be replaced later by an even more draconian one.

Such laws do little to prevent so-called acts of terror, as evidenced by the attack on the refinery at Digboi. Indeed, it has been pointed out in the pages of PV over and over again that laws of this kind only serve to increase chaos and anarchy and should be fought tooth and nail by the working masses. Other examples include the use of brutal state power and military might by the state of Israel in its own and in the occupied territories. The most egregious use of these laws, which violates all international laws and principles of natural justice, is that of collective punishment, where the homes of families of suspected militants and other members of Palestinian groups are destroyed.

A final noteworthy example that I wish to point out is that of the rights of those detained in the so-called war against terrorism. At no point in history has any state – in this case, the US -- kidnapped citizens of another country under the mere pretext that they were associated with a particular organisation (the Taliban), and incarcerated them on the soil of another sovereign country (Cuba, Camp X-Ray on Guantanamo Bay). The mere suspicion that an individual is linked with an organisation that may or may not be linked with other terrorist organizations (the Al Qaeda) is sufficient grounds for indefinite detention. This is in contravention of all international law. The most recent egregious extension of this logic has been the advocacy of 'physical pressure', to borrow vocabulary from the practices of Israel, which in simpler language is torture. The idea of applying ‘physical pressure’ on suspects comes from no one less than the well known 'liberal' Professor of law at Harvard University, Alan Dershowitz. This also exposes the phony divide between 'conservatives' and 'liberals', who are merely two wings of the bourgeoisie. These examples will serve as a timely reminder to the working masses that they can no longer look to any institution of the bourgeoisie for defence of human rights. Only in the fight against the present conditions will the new conditions for the liberation of human rights arise, based on modern definitions.

Sincerely, A Narayan,
Bangalore

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Introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) in place of States’ Sales Taxes:
The working class would recommend the total abolition of indirect taxes

Under the existing tax regime in India, indirect taxes account for about 70% of total tax revenue collected by the central and state governments. These indirect taxes are added to the price of goods and services consumed by workers and peasants. They are a form of taxation that hides from the masses of people what they are paying to the state. The introduction of state level VAT is nothing but a replacement of one kind of indirect tax by another kind of indirect tax. The workers and peasants have nothing to gain or lose from such a change, whereas it makes some difference to the profits of capitalists and traders in various sectors. The workers and peasants will gain if indirect taxes are abolished and replaced with direct, visible taxation, so that every member of society can see who is paying what.

One of the aims of the VAT is to change the relation between the central and state government taxing powers, in the direction of greater centralisation and uniformity. The big capitalist monopolies, Indian and international, welcome such a change because they are interested in maximum plunder of an all-India capitalist market. Uniformity of taxation across states is a most favourable condition for such plunder. The replacement of the existing General Sales Tax, levied by state governments, by a VAT, will not lead to any change of importance in the relation between the workers and the capitalists. However the working class should oppose this proposed change from the standpoint of defending the rights of the state governments from increasing encroachment by the central government. The Indian Union, as it is presently constituted, is a legacy of British colonial rule and negates the national rights of all the peoples who constitute present day India. Some limited taxing powers are granted to state governments under the 1950 constitution, one of which is to levy a General Sales Tax (GST) at the first point of sale of any commodity within the territory of that state. Every state government has the freedom to set the rates at which the GST will apply to different categories of commodities. The introduction of VAT is aimed at limiting this freedom in the interests of the capitalist monopolies and imperialist states that want a uniform Indian market for maximum plunder.

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Rejecting illusions of power, Indian women must step up the struggle for real political power!

Even as the women expressed the demands of their ongoing struggle in large numbers on this day, the government was promising to push ahead with the bill on the reservation of a 33% quota for women in legislative bodies. This is but an attempt to rub salt on open wounds. Through decades of struggle, Indian women have seen the actual role of the Indian State as an instrument in the hands of the ruling class to keep women humiliated, oppressed, exploited and subjugated. The daily life experience of Indian women brings out in stark relief how the oppressive and barbaric medieval customs, the capitalist system, the remnants of feudalism and the imperialist domination are reinforced by the Indian State and all its institutions. The existing political system and process of multi-party parliamentary democracy has become increasingly exposed as an instrument to keep the masses of people, including the masses of women, away from political power. It is becoming increasingly clear that real empowerment of women or of any section of the exploited and oppressed cannot be realised within the existing system of parliamentary democracy. However, the bourgeoisie is persisting in its efforts to keep alive the illusion that the reservation of a quota in Parliament for women can actually empower Indian women.

A section of the women’s movement is conciliating with the Indian ruling class on the question of political power, by making reservation of seats in parliament and assemblies one of their main demands on March 8.

Political power, as it is constituted in the system of multi-party parliamentary democracy, excludes the vast majority of toiling and oppressed people. Political theory and actual experience reveal that, in essence, this is the rule of the bourgeoisie behind the facade of democracy. This party-dominated political process of "representative democracy" ensures that only the will of the bourgeoisie, i.e. the capitalists, landlords and other exploiters, prevails in society. The interests of the masses of workers, peasants, working men and women cannot ever be affirmed and safeguarded by this system. In this political process, different political parties compete for the favours of the bourgeoisie, for their chance to administer and manage power. The Indian bourgeoisie has remained in power by concentrating power in the central State, while establishing a power-sharing arrangement with different sections of the bourgeoisie which claim to represent this or that oppressed caste, region, religion, tribal people or nationality. Through this subterfuge, the ruling class has actively prevented the masses of people from having any say in the affairs of society.

The women's movement in India has had bitter experience of the betrayal of its interests by every political party that has come to power. None of these political parties has been able to safeguard the security of women, or guarantee them livelihood and a life of dignity.

The reservation of quotas for women is nothing but the politics of accommodation practised by the bourgeoisie. In the colonial period, the politics of accommodation was implemented and perfected to divide and disorient the struggle of Indian people for liberation. The politics of accommodation, that is, bribing a minority of the fighting forces with a share of the plunder, went hand in hand with the ruthless suppression of the mass of fighters for freedom. Those accommodated within the colonial system would sing hymns in favour of colonial rule, and speak of the futility of fighting for the overthrow of the colonial rule. The Indian state since then has pursued the same carrot and stick policy with the revolutionary forces. For example, the Indian workers and peasants, women and youth, looked to the communists for leadership in the struggle for deep-going transformations. A section of the communist leadership was co-opted or accommodated into the system, while those who refused to be accommodated were targeted as Naxalites and extremists and ruthlessly attacked. It must not be forgotten that the political accommodation of women as women began precisely in the early nineties when the Indian women’s movement was threatening to become a powerful force for real social transformation. Women have been asserting that they will not be vote banks for this or that political party, that they do not want to be the mere recipients of policy measures, the "target" of legislation. The political accommodation of women began with the reservation in local bodies (urban and rural), in response to women's demand for political and economic empowerment. The government initially announced representation for women in local bodies by declaring a certain number of panchayat and municipal constituencies as "reserved" for women. Many all-women panchayats/municipalities came into being and women sarpanches and corporators were elected as representatives. It took but a few years for it to be revealed that those local bodies had no substantial power and no teeth to legislate, and women sarpanches in such a system made no real difference to the conditions of women.

The extension of reservation to the state assemblies and the Parliament was proposed once more in response to the rising struggle against the marginalisation of women. It served as a ploy to co-opt a section of the women, creating illusions of power, and as a method to keep the mass movement of women tied to the existing system. It is very necessary for the ruling class to create illusions about this system. But should communists perpetuate this illusion? Life experience shows us that this politics of reservation has divided the progressive movement and prevented it from advancing with one strategic political aim – that of making a clean break with the existing political system and political process and building an alternative political system and process, in which the masses of exploited people, women and men, will be truly empowered to take decisions concerning the society.

In the 1970s, when a section of the communist movement unequivocally rejected the parliamentary process as the path to emancipation of the exploited classes, it gave a great impetus to all movements for emancipation, including the women's movement. These communists rejected the path of compromise with the bourgeoisie and boldly declared war on the bourgeois state. They gave the call for revolution, for political power in the hands of the working and oppressed, as the way forward for the emancipation of the exploited. Today, in a regressive turn of events, some communists are preaching that reservation for women in legislative bodies will create favourable conditions for the movement for women’s emancipation. The question that needs to be addressed, however, is whether this reservation will take the movement even one step further in the struggle for creating that alternative political system and process in which political power will really belong to the working and oppressed. The creation of the alternative requires making a clean break with the existing system, with which people are already so disillusioned, and not perpetuation of the illusion that somehow this system can be made to work for interests of this or that section of the oppressed. The women's movement has to reject and break free from this illusion.

The Soviet experience in this regard has been the source of inspiration for the women's movements across the globe. The organised movement for the revolutionary transformation of society, guided by Marxist-Leninist theory, with the full participation of women in it, was what brought about such a profound change in their material conditions and consciousness. The Soviet power of workers and peasants was the instrument to create the conditions for the emancipation and empowerment of women. The failure to continue the struggle for the continuous broadening and deepening of democracy in the society and the lowering of vigilance on this front, fostered by the Khrushchevite leadership when it came to power in the Soviet Union, was the beginning of the retrogression of socialism in the Soviet Union, eventually leading to its total collapse, with devastating consequences for the Soviet women.

Women have always fought militantly against every kind of injustice and oppression. Women have been and remain in the forefront of the struggle against capitalist exploitation, against state-organised communal and fascist violence, against every assault on the rights and dignity of any section of the oppressed, against imperialist domination and war. All the lies and deception of the existing system of parliamentary democracy have been exposed time and again, and there is complete disaffection with the orientation of the economy and the political system. The women's movement must dare to put forward and champion the alternative to this system. A new political process must be established in order that those who labour - the working masses of men and women - can take power in their own hands and decide their own destiny.

Women must get organised as women, cutting across all cultural and social barriers, in mahila sangarsh samitis. Women should participate in large numbers in organising the struggle for empowerment of people, participate as workers against the capitalist offensive, as peasants against the imperialist domination of agriculture and trade. Women should be in the forefront of the sangarsh samitis at their work places and residential areas. Women must demand their right to determine the orientation of the economy and society. Women are a vital part of the working class struggle to replace the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie with worker-peasant rule. This is the fundamental condition for their emancipation.

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