PEOPLE'S VOICE
PEOPLE'S VOICE |
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| Internet Edition: Jan 16 - Feb 15, 2004
Published by the Communist Ghadar Party of India |
| TABLE OF CONTENTS
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| Open Letter Dear friends, As you
know, various anti-imperialist forums are being held at the same time
as the World Social Forum in Mumbai. The deep disunity in the Indian
communist movement is reflected in the fact that it is the communist
leadership from different factions of the movement who are playing
a major role in each of these forums. This disunity of the Indian
communists is a sign of their immaturity in the sphere of theory and
ideology. It is a sign that a dominant section of Indian communists
is submitting to various forms of bourgeois ideology. Who gains
from having parallel forums, at a time when lakhs of people are converging
in Mumbai, not only from all across the country but from all over
the world, in a show of strength against imperialist war and against
globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation? The answer is simple.
Only the enemies of the working class and people, that is imperialism
and the bourgeoisie, gain from this. It is
easy to blame one another for the disunity. However, the burning question
is not merely to determine who and what factors are responsible. The
point is to change the situation. One of
the factors that will greatly contribute to the unity of all the progressive
forces is the elaboration of the theory and the general line of march
of the struggle against imperialism, in India and on the world scale.
The general line must clarify how imperialism can be overthrown and
what kind of system should replace it. It must clarify those tendencies
within the anti-imperialist movement against which the ideological
struggle must be waged. It is only around this general line that the
unity of all the anti-imperialist forces can be built. Our party
considers the communist movement as one and the restoration of communist
unity as the most pressing task before the Indian communists today.
Consistent with this aim of restoring the unity of Indian communists,
our party has decided to participate in all forums in Mumbai this
month. We request
each and every one of you, communist and anti-imperialist fighters,
to pay attention to two vital tasks during the discussions and debates
in Mumbai. Firstly, there is a need to organise, to strengthen unity
in action against imperialism. Secondly, there is need to step up
the ideological struggle against those within the movement who are
spreading illusions about capitalism, and about social-democracy or
a ‘middle’ road between capitalism and socialism. We believe
in “One working class, one programme, one communist party” in whose
ranks all Indian communists will militate. Only such a party can act
as the vanguard of the Indian working class, and lead the struggle
against capitalism and imperialism. Looking
forward to working together in the struggle to overthrow the imperialist
system in India and throughout the world, Yours sincerely, |
| CGPI
contingent at the anti-imperialist forums in Mumbai:
In
all the forums, people contested the claims of the capitalists and imperialists
that there is no alternative to globalisation,
liberalisation and privatisation.
Declaring that there IS an alternative, communists and anti-imperialist
fighters discussed ways to demolish the old man-eating system of imperialism. Through
numerous dances, street plays, skits, pamphlets and posters, the peoples
showed their thorough opposition to the “War against terrorism” and
declared George Bush the biggest terrorist. They showed their opposition
to the World Trade Organisation, IMF, World
Bank and other institutions of the imperialists
to exercise their domination and control over nations and peoples of
all continents.
Antiwar
activists from Asia and all over the globe used the occasion to assess
the global anti-war movement against the occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan
and Palestine. Building on the successful worldwide protests of February
15, 2003, they charted out the future course of action. They decided
to organise a worldwide day of protest action
on March 20, 2004 — the first anniversary of the US led aggression of
Iraq. Activists of the Communist Ghadar Party of India participated in all the anti-imperialist forums, including the WSF and the Mumbai Resistance. They distributed the Open Letter from Comrade Lal Singh, General Secretary of the CGPI, addressed to the communists and anti-imperialist fighters on the question of ending the disunity in the movement. They distributed tens of thousands of copies of the Statement of the Communist Ghadar Party of India – explaining the line of March — in Marathi, Hindi and English. They engaged the participants in vigorous discussions. They also led an organised discussion on “The geopolitics of war and peace in Asia”. This discussion session attracted wide participation from different parts of Asia and other parts of the world. |
| On
the Call for a Second Green Revolution: The rulers of The Government
of India has unleashed an advertising campaign under the caption ‘India
Shining’. This campaign paints the picture of Indian peasants growing
flowers, fruits and packaged foods for the world market, to achieve
“enhanced efficiency, greater productivity, and richer harvests”.
It claims that “incomes will improve and opportunities will brighten”
for the millions of peasants in the country, through the ‘Second Green
Revolution’. This idea
of a Second Green Revolution is being floated by the spokesmen of
the Indian bourgeoisie precisely at a time when the Indian peasantry
is finding that not only are rich harvests rare and uncertain, but
even when the harvest is good they can end up in debt. They are at
the mercy of the world market, which is dominated by giant monopoly
corporations. Not only
do the poor peasants face the prospect of sinking into debt and losing
their land today, but even the middle and rich peasants are facing
increasing insecurity. The uncertainties of nature have been compounded
a hundred times by the volatile capitalist markets dominated by the
monopolies. As a result, the decade of the 1990s has witnessed widespread
anxiety and growing incidence of suicides in rural In such
conditions, the promise of prosperity and security by relying on the
world market is nothing less than a cruel joke on the Indian peasantry.
Behind this idea stand the greedy capitalist monopolies, Indian and
international, with their vision of converting the entire land and
waters of One of
the most important lessons from the first Green Revolution is that
a purely technological approach cannot solve the problem of backwardness
in Indian agriculture or lift the masses of peasants out of their
poverty and misery. That Green
Revolution was a technical-scientific revolution launched by the Government
of India towards the end of the 1960s, with imperialist ‘aid’ and
credits. It was preceded by bourgeois land reforms in The first
Green Revolution did indeed lead to prosperity, but only for a minority
among the peasantry, and that too only for a period of time. At the
same time as it produced wealth at one pole, it led to lakhs of peasants
sinking into debt and losing their land, at the other pole. Since
private property was the basis for the application of advanced technology
under the Green Revolution, the benefits were inevitably restricted
to a minority. Only those farmers could hope to prosper who had large
enough plots of land in their hands, and access to assured irrigation,
bank credit and guaranteed state procurement. Pockets of prosperity
emerged during this period, in the midst of an ocean of poor and marginal
peasants, who were pushed deeper and deeper into poverty, indebtedness
and landlessness. By the
mid 1980s, the first Green Revolution had run its course in The root
cause of the poverty and misery of the masses of people in rural The root
cause of the poverty and misery of the masses of people in rural Capitalist
agriculture has grown alongside the perpetuation of feudal relations
of bondage, including caste based oppression. As a result, the tiller
of the land in any part of India is at the mercy of one or more set
of exploiters from among the big corporations and multinationals,
the big landlords, capitalist farmers, money lenders, wholesale traders,
and the government agencies and banks that act on behalf of the exploiters.
In the
name of liberalisation, even the partial and uneven support extended
by the Government of India to agriculture in the past has been cut
down further since 1991. Input supply and output purchase – that is,
the trade between the peasants and the rest of society – is coming
under the increasing domination of multinational and Indian big corporations. In order
to liberate the masses of Indian peasants from their old and new bondage,
what is required is a social revolution. The social relations involved
in tilling the land and in selling the produce need to be transformed.
The orientation of state intervention in agricultural production and
trade needs to be changed. Today
the state intervenes with the aim of facilitating the plunder of the
land and natural resources for maximum private profit in the hands
of Indian and international monopoly capital. This must be replaced
with a new orientation, with the state intervening to make sure that
prosperity and protection are secured for all the working people.
State intervention in agriculture must ensure three things, namely:
(i) security of livelihood to the tillers of the land, (ii) supply
of food in adequate quantity and quality and at affordable prices
to the urban population, through a strengthened and expanded Public
Distribution System, and (iii) that the difference in living standards
between urban and rural India is gradually narrowed and eliminated
over time. The social
revolution required in the conditions of present day What is
required, in the strategic sense, is not another edition of the Green
Revolution, but an Indian edition of the Red Revolution that was carried
out by the workers and peasants of Such a social revolution will open the door to the benefits of modern science and technology becoming available to all members of society. Only then will it actually become possible to end the era of backwardness and pettiness of life in rural India. |
| Modernisation of Agriculture under Socialism The Soviet experience was a remarkable example
of modernisation of agriculture in the interests
of the vast majority of the peasantry and of all the working people
of the country. The peasants
in Czarist Russia were extremely oppressed and pauperised,
not unlike the majority of peasants of The Soviet
government assessed that if peasant farming was to develop further,
the State must assist the peasants to collectivise
and reap the benefits of combined labour
and large-scale cultivation. The Communist Party elaborated the vision of
transforming the small isolated peasant farms, through a process of
gradual amalgamation, into large-scale collective farms. The Soviet
state introduced the collective principle in agriculture on a voluntary
basis, first in the selling and then in the growing of farm produce.
Through persuasion and practical demonstration, more and more peasants
were convinced of the superiority of collective property over private
property. The state extended free and subsidized services,
including tractors and mechanics for the collective farms to use.
It regulated and guaranteed trade between the cities and the
countryside at stable prices. At the
end of 1929, with the growth of the collective farms and state farms,
the Soviet government repealed the laws on renting of land and hiring
of labour, thus depriving the capitalist
elements among the farmers, the ‘kulaks’, of their means of accumulating
capital. This led to the elimination of the last of the exploiting
classes, and transferred the most numerous labouring
peasantry from the path of individual farming to the path of cooperative,
collective farming. By the
1930s, after the accelerated development of the collective-farm movement,
the peasants were able to plough virgin soil, utilize neglected land,
to obtain machines and tractors and thereby double or even treble
the productivity of labour. The peasant,
by joining the collective farm, was able to produce much more than
formerly with the same expenditure of labour.
The grain produced was far cheaper than before, and finally, with
stable prices, the millions of poor peasants who had formerly lived
in penury attained material security. Agricultural
production grew at a steady and remarkable rate in the 1930s, for
years together. At a time when the capitalist world was going through
the worst depression ever, Soviet agriculture continued on an upward
trend, year after year without interruption or crisis of any kind.
The extreme unevenness in the production and marketing of food grains
between the regions was corrected. The subsequent
reversal of the policy of collectivisation
and the restoration of capitalist private property in the countryside,
at the time of Khrushchev, led to the reversal of the gains of socialism.
Shortages of food and deteriorating economic conditions of
the peasantry became stark in the 1970s and 1980s.
The relations of production were no longer in conformity with
the developed state of productive forces. To
sum up, the prosperity of agriculture in the |
| On the occasion of the 55th
Republic Day: On Making
tall promises to the toiling masses and delivering whatever the big
capitalists and big landlords want – this has been the practice of
the Congress Party, which has ruled India for the majority of years
since the Republic was founded. The promises being made today by the Vajpayee
Government and its spokesmen show that the practice of the BJP is
no different from that of the Congress Party. The BJP
spokesmen and the big capitalist media have created a major hype that
“India is shining”. They are trumpeting that there is a “feel good”
factor about India at the present time.
They are making wild promises to the people to make them share
this “feel good” factor, hoping to convert it into the key factor
for winning the coming Lok Sabha
elections. There
is nothing remarkable in the fact that the Indian economy is growing
at about 8% in the current year, faster than in most recent years.
Such occasional years of high growth have been there in the
past as well. Usually, when there is one good monsoon after
several years of drought and bad crops, the economy experiences a
high growth rate. If the good
monsoon coincides with the upward turn in the business cycle of Indian
capitalism, then the high growth rate is more pronounced. One year
of high capitalist growth does not mean anything is going to change
very much as far as the workers and peasants are concerned.
The big capitalists, who finance the parties such as the BJP
and the Congress Party, are feeling good because their rates of profit
have already begun to rise. They are hoping that even higher profits can
be secured through more intense exploitation and plunder of the land
and labour of India as well as of other countries in the coming
years. Capitalist
growth, by its very nature, is uneven and moves from one crisis to
another, with occasional bursts of high growth in between.
Both when it grows rapidly and when it slows down or goes into
crisis, capitalism accumulates wealth at one pole and multiplies poverty
at the other pole. The workers
and peasants of India can feel good only when the capitalist orientation
of the Indian economy is ended; and the economy is re-oriented towards
fulfilling the needs of all the toiling people.
Only then can India experience steady economic growth, without
crises and interruptions, leading to steady enhancement in the living
standards of all the workers and peasants. In order to re-orient the economy, it is essential for the workers and peasants to become the rulers of India. It is essential to replace the Republic of the capitalist and landlords with a Republic of the workers and peasants. This is the necessary condition for India to shine for the working people. |
| SAARC
Meeting in Islamabad: The meeting of the heads of government of the
seven SAARC countries ( This meeting
was due to be held a long time back, but could not take place as scheduled
because of the tension between India and Pakistan. Previous meetings
too, when held, often only heightened rather than reduced tensions,
because India and Pakistan used the forum to abuse each other.
This time around, India and Pakistan used the occasion to come
to some agreements about bilateral issues and the situation allowed
for some multilateral treaties as well. However, the Indian State
played its role as the big power in the region, forcing conditions
on the other States before talks on peace and economic cooperation
could take place. This is in the style of other imperialist states
that demand this or that concession as a condition to negotiate economic
agreements. At the
insistence of the Government of India, the SAARC summit had to adopt
a ‘declaration against terrorism’, as the condition for developing
an agreement to promote people to people exchanges and trade among
the South Asian countries. Following the lead of US imperialism globally,
India is putting great pressure on those SAARC countries with which
it shares land borders, to forcibly suppress national liberation struggles
in the name of “curbing terrorism”.
According to the scenario painted by the Indian rulers, India
is the “victim”, while all those other countries are guilty of harbouring
or aiding terrorist activity directed against India. Pakistan, Nepal,
Bhutan and Bangladesh have all been targets of this shrill propaganda
and pressure from the Indian State. The peoples
of South Asia share common or overlapping histories and cultures but
have been kept apart mainly because of the legacy of colonialism and
the continuing imperialist intrigues until this day. The strategic
geographic position of the South Asian land mass, as well as its natural
and human resources have made it geopolitically very important for
Anglo-American imperialism. In the last decade, US imperialism has
increasingly interfered in this region and assumed the mantle of “peacemaker”
between India and Pakistan. It is a well-documented fact that both
India and Pakistan have been two of the favoured
customers for sales of weapons from the US and from other countries
including Britain, France, Israel and Russia. The role
of the US and other imperialists is the key obstacle to peace and
cooperation between countries in this region. The US and Britain in
particular, have a long history of intrigue and pitting one country
in this region against the other. These days, the US is striving to
extend its strategic domination over the whole of Asia in the guise
of its “war against terrorism.” Its open interference in the affairs
of the region and that of the different countries here has reached
new heights. The pressure to open doors to US military and intelligence
“advisers” and “experts” and to political “facilitators” is increasing
all the time. Most recently, the US government has entered into a
strategic military alliance with India. At the same time, it has declared
that it is interested in entering into a like alliance with Pakistan,
and that these are not mutually exclusive. The second
obstacle to long-standing peace in this region is the imperialist
ambition of the Indian ruling class. These have been amply demonstrated
in its conduct with its neighbours in the area. Capitalising
on its overwhelming size and resources and strategic position in the
subcontinent, the Indian bourgeoisie has either directly aggressed
upon or interfered in the affairs of neighbouring
states, or applied enormous economic and military pressure to get
its way on various issues. While
paying lip service to intra-regional cooperation, the Indian central
state has in fact preferred to use its clout to deal separately with
each of the other states in the region and has been suspicious of
ties developing independently amongst the others. It has given very
low priority to developing intra-regional cooperation, while attaching
the greatest importance to developing its ties outside, particularly
with the big imperialist powers. All this has been greatly resented
by the other governments and peoples who regard India as the big bully
of the region. Genuine
peace and cooperation in this region can advance only if the imperialists
are kept out of this sub continent and the Indian Ocean. Imperialism
and peace are mutually exclusive, as imperialism needs war to advance
its interests. India, Pakistan and all the states of this region have
to refuse to be instruments of imperialism. They must refuse all imperialist “assistance”
in settling mutual and internal political issues. The Indian people’s
experience tells us that the Indian capitalist class is neither capable
nor willing to take such a resolute and principled stand against imperialism. On the contrary, this class has been the willing
collaborator of US imperialism in pursuing its own imperialist and
expansionist ambitions. The Indian bourgeoisie cannot be trusted, either by the neighbours or by the people of our country. It is up to the Indian working class, led by its Communist Party, to lead the struggle for peace and cooperation with our neighbours, based on the principle of recognising and defending the sovereignty of all nations and peoples, and the principle of developing economic and cultural exchanges of mutual benefit to the countries and peoples of this region. |
| Indian communists and the question of democracy Karl Marx established, with the authority of science,
that democracy is a class question. Even though all Indian communists
swear allegiance to the science of Marxism, the most serious and
harmful form of class conciliation continues to take place precisely
on the question of democracy. There
are parties in the Indian communist movement that have merged completely
with the political process of bourgeois democracy. Such parties
appear merely as competitors with bourgeois parties for capturing
the seats in the Parliament and for a share of the existing power
at the state level. Since
the 1960s and the major split of 1964, the Indian communist movement
has remained divided and the working class largely confused on the
question of democracy. The line of ‘peaceful and parliamentary path
to socialism’, promoted by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
(CPSU) since its 20th Congress, has
been embraced by a large contingent of the communist movement in
our country. This line promotes the illusion that by gradually increasing
the number of seats won by the Communist Party through the elections,
it is possible to establish worker-peasant rule and build socialist
society some day. Followers
of the parliamentary path have been running a coalition government
in West Bengal for the past 26 years. While this ‘left-front government’
led by the CPI(M) has worked for the further
development of capitalism in The
Communist Party, the vanguard of the working class, must champion
the theory and practice of proletarian democracy. It cannot and
must not merge with bourgeois democracy and become an electoral
machine. Its aim is not merely to replace one party or coalition
in power by another, while the vast majority of people – the workers
and peasants — remain excluded from the exercise of power. The aim
of the Communist Party is to replace the existing power of capital
by the power of the workers and peasants. The
system and political process of representative democracy is designed
to keep the bourgeoisie in power and keep the working class firmly
out. The party of the working class can and should participate in
elections at appropriate times, to advance the class struggle and
popularize the independent program of the working class. But it
must never become part of the process of legitimizing the rule of
the bourgeoisie. It must never create illusions about bourgeois
democracy or hide its class content from the masses. The
peaceful and parliamentary path, which was promoted by the CPSU
and influenced the movement in India, was criticized, among others,
by the Communist Party of China (CPC). However, the theory of ‘New
Democracy’ that the CPC advocated was based on a four class alliance
including the Chinese national bourgeoisie, which was honoured with a star in the national flag of the People’s
Republic of China. The
theory of New Democracy found currency amongst the revolutionary
forces that arose in India to fight the theory of the peaceful and
parliamentary road to socialism. The followers of this theory claim
that the principal enemy and block to social progress in India is
feudalism, and that the strategic aim at this stage is an anti-feudal
revolution with the peasantry as the main motive force. This fallacious
analysis leads to the underrating and abandoning of the leading
force, the most organised sections of
the working class, located in the cities. It creates harmful illusions
about the possibility of eliminating the remnants of feudalism and
democratizing Indian society within the framework of modern day
capitalism, led by the ‘national’ bourgeoisie. It conciliates with
the notion of a progressive bourgeois front that can bring about
a “vibrant capitalism”, as an intermediate stage before socialism. The
analysis presented in the Report to the Second Congress of the Communist
Ghadar Party of India, in October 1998,
shows convincingly that it is capitalism that defends and perpetuates
the remnants of feudalism in India. It is capitalism that protects
the imperialist and colonial interests. It is capitalism that is
the motor behind the drive of the bourgeoisie towards globalization
through liberalization and privatization. It is therefore not permissible
for communists to create any illusions about the possibility of
a “reformed” capitalism or a middle path led by the ‘national’ or
‘secular’ bourgeoisie. In opposition to the attempts of the bourgeoisie
to line up the peasantry and other oppressed behind rival parties
and bourgeois fronts, communists must strive to win over the peasantry
to the aim and program of the working class to eliminate capitalism,
all remnants of feudalism, colonialism and imperialism. It is
theoretically false to posit any kind of democracy as being an intermediate
stage between bourgeois democracy and proletarian democracy. It
is not possible to have such an in-between political power because
of the antagonistic contradiction between the interests of capital
and labour, between the bourgeoisie and
the proletariat. Capitalism has reached the stage of imperialism,
a stage where the contradictions are objectively very sharp and
can be resolved only through the revolutionary transformation from
capitalism to socialism, which requires the replacement of bourgeois
democracy with proletarian democracy. In the
name of fighting bourgeois democracy, there are some in the movement
who boycott the electoral arena on a permanent basis. They advocate
protracted people’s war to overthrow the state, and advocate the
encircling of the cities from the countryside. Experience shows
that this theory and such tactics do not serve to defeat the bourgeoisie
on the question of democracy. Rather, they feed into the bourgeois
tactics of state versus individual terrorism. Without a vision and
program for the advancement of proletarian democracy, and the working
class and peasants united around it, the state of the bourgeoisie
cannot be replaced with a worker-peasant state. The
reactionary bourgeoisie and its politicians today declare that either
one has to accept the rules of bourgeois democracy or be condemned
as a terrorist. They want to create the impression that there is
no alternative to bourgeois democracy. The
first practical example of an alternative to bourgeois democracy
was the Soviet Union, which was a new form of state and political
power, led by a new kind of revolutionary party of the working class.
The creation of this power heralded the era of proletarian socialist
democracy, in mortal combat with bourgeois capitalist democracy.
This struggle is continuing to this day, even though in new forms.
In the
first phase of socialism in the Soviet Union, a broad democracy
of the working people was established that affirmed and guaranteed
the rights of all the toilers. Once the economic base of socialism
had been constructed and the exploiting classes had been eliminated,
the need arose to further strengthen the role of the masses in decision
making. However, while the 20th Congress of the CPSU proclaimed the creation of a ‘state of the whole
people’ and a ‘party of the whole people’, the Soviet state was
in fact turned into a party dictatorship. This led to the complete
marginalization of the role of the working masses in decision making.
The party dictatorship led by the Soviet revisionists became the
instrument for the restoration of capitalism and the ultimate disintegration
of the Soviet Union itself. The
working class and communist movement needs to draw the appropriate
lessons from this negative experience so as to advance the struggle
for a democracy of the toilers and tillers of the land. One of the
main lessons is the necessity for the working class, peasantry and
the progressive forces to work in unison to replace the party dominated
process of representative democracy with a system of direct democracy
that guarantees the empowerment of the masses of working people. Bourgeois
representative democracy is facing an extremely acute crisis of
credibility today. A growing majority of people are disgusted with
their elected representatives and with the criminality of single
party and multi-party dictatorships. They are disillusioned with
a political process in which the Ministers are not accountable to
the Parliament, which in turn is not accountable to the electorate.
This crisis is growing more acute, not only in India but throughout
the capitalist world. Indian
communists must use the crisis of bourgeois representative democracy
to boldly put forward the program for the Navnirman
of India – a program to replace party dictatorship, which is the
dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, with the democratic dictatorship
of workers and peasants; a program to reconstitute the Indian Union
and redefine its foreign policy so as to affirm the rights of all
nations and peoples and establish lasting peace in South Asia; and
to re-orient the Indian economy to provide prosperity and protection
for all the toiling masses. An immediate
and urgent task is to build and strengthen people’s committees,
as the organs of class struggle at the base of society, in the factories,
mohallas and villages. Organs of struggle
at the base of society will be the foundations of a revolutionary
front against the bourgeois offensive. They will become the foundations
of the worker-peasant state of the future. The workers and peasants
must be organised to replace the talk-shop
parliament with elected bodies in which they themselves can sit,
and ensure that the will of the majority actually prevails. The struggle must be intensified against those within the communist movement who conciliate with bourgeois democracy and the party dominated political process, thereby tying the working class to the tail of the parliamentary opposition. In particular, the influence of those who conciliate with the social-democratic platform of the Congress Party and call for an alliance with various sections of the bourgeoisie in the name of a ‘secular front’ to “save Indian democracy” must be exposed and defeated. At the same time, the line of advocating permanent boycott of the political process in the present conditions must also be rejected. |
| Prepare
for the coming revolutionary storms! Statement
of Communist Ghadar Party of From “War
against terrorism and fundamentalism” is the bogey that is being used
by the The aim
and motive of the “war against terrorism” is world domination, through
monopoly control over markets, zones for the export of capital, sources
of cheap labour, raw materials and energy supply chains. Capitalism
is a system where social production is oriented towards securing the
maximum rate of private profit by a wealthy minority that owns the
means of production. Capitalism reached the stage of monopoly
capitalism, or imperialism, at the beginning of the 20th century. Since then, the degree of monopoly and
concentration of wealth and power has only grown higher. Globalisation,
liberalisation and privatisation constitute the aggressive program
of imperialism and the reactionary bourgeoisie on the world scale
today. It represents the further continuation and accentuation
of the drive of monopoly capital to reap the maximum rate of profit,
through the exploitation, ruin and impoverishment of the majority
of peoples of all the countries of the world, as well as through wars
and militarisation. The parliamentary road, state terrorism and individual
acts of terrorism, gangsterism and criminalisation of politics — are
the preferred weapons of imperialism to advance its agenda today. Imperialism
is the source of fascism and the restriction of democratic rights.
It allies and props up the most backward social forces in all countries,
spreads racism, communalism and obscurantism, to facilitate its domination
and plunder. Today it is targeting people of the Islamic faith
as part of its offensive against the anti-imperialist movement. Imperialism
means acute poverty at one pole, with unimaginable riches in very
few hands at the other pole. It means the division of the world into
a handful of subjugating and colonising powers, on the one hand, and
the majority of dependent and subjugated nations and countries, on
the other hand. Imperialism
means the inevitability of wars between competing capitalist states
over markets and territories, wherein the working people are ordered
to kill each other for the sake of the empire building aims of their
‘own’ bourgeoisie. The so-called nation building exercises in
The anger
of the broad masses of peoples is rising against the war crimes of
imperialism and against the highway robbery that is going on in the
name of economic ‘reforms’. It is rising against the concentration
of political power in the hands of unpopular governments that claim
to have the ‘mandate’ of the people to act against their interests.
The deepening conflict between the exploiters and the exploited is
also leading to the intensification of contradictions within the bourgeois
imperialist camp. These
developments confirm that imperialism is the last stage of capitalism,
wherein all the contradictions of the capitalist system—the contradiction
between labour and capital, between a handful of imperialist states
and the vast majority of the peoples, and the contradictions amongst
the different imperialist powers—are raised to the highest level.
Imperialism is the eve of the proletarian revolution, the eve of the
destruction of capitalism and its replacement with socialism.
The alternative
to imperialism is scientific socialism, the first stage of communism.
Socialism is a system based on social ownership of the means of social
production. In a socialist society, production is oriented not
to maximise private profit, but towards the maximum satisfaction of
the constantly rising material and cultural requirements of the whole
of society. There
is no doubt that the world is witnessing the gathering of revolutionary
storms on the horizon. This is an indication that the time is
ripe for action aimed at eliminating imperialism from the face of
the earth, so as to secure lasting peace and guaranteed prosperity
for all the nations and peoples of the world. However, for the brewing
revolutionary storm to develop and successfully sweep away the moribund
system of imperialism, the movement needs to consolidate its political
unity. In order
to defeat imperialism, it is essential for the people of each country
to organise against capitalism in their own country, which is the
base for the imperialist domination and plunder. There is need to
link the struggles against capital in individual countries with the
international struggle against the imperialist offensive. History
shows that when the Russian working class and people, led by the Bolshevik
party, waged uncompromising struggle against imperialism, they won
important victories. The Great October Socialist Revolution
in 1917 successfully broke the chain of imperialism and one sixth
of the globe was liberated from imperialist enslavement. This dealt
a mighty blow to the global imperialist system, and accelerated the
anti-imperialist struggles in all countries around the world. The
chain of imperialism was once again broken when the forces of the
anti-colonial and anti-fascist struggles swept through The imperialist
chain is bound to break again in the 21st century, in one or more countries. How soon this
will happen depends on whether the anti-imperialist forces organise
to strengthen their unity in action and strengthen political unity
around their common aim of defeating the imperialist offensive. It
will depend on whether the communists in every country rally around
one Party and one program of revolution and socialism. Anglo-American troops, out of No to the violation of national sovereignty under any pretext! Oppose all imperialist warmongering
and interference in No to the negation of individual and collective rights in the name of fighting terrorism! Defend the right of every state to set its own policy free from external dictate! Workers and Oppressed Peoples of the World, Unite! * * * The Indian
bourgeoisie is emerging as one of the most pro-active forces behind
the antisocial offensive in the name of globalisation, liberalisation
and privatisation. Sections of the ruling circles are eager
that The monopoly
business houses of The Indian
bourgeoisie has preserved the political institutions left behind by
the British colonialists, and further perfected these institutions
to intensify the plunder of the land and labour of The struggle
of the workers, peasants, women and youth of The movement
against the privatisation and liberalisation program has managed to
push the bourgeoisie on the defensive, at least for the time being.
This shows that it is possible to halt this juggernaut of market oriented
reforms, provided the workers and peasants wage an organised and united
struggle, without compromise or conciliation of any kind with capitalism
and the bourgeoisie. There
is rising and widespread anger among the majority Indian people against
the exercise of political power by criminal self-serving parties of
the bourgeoisie. The The recent
elections in four states on 1st December showed the growing disgust of the electorate
with their elected representatives. It also revealed the fundamental
flaw in the political process of Indian democracy – namely, that while
people cast their votes, they have no say in the course of society.
The power to set the course for What is
required, on an immediate basis, is the building and strengthening
of the worker-peasant alliance, as the backbone of a popular front
against the bourgeoisie. Such a popular front is a network of
politically united organs of struggle of the workers, peasants, women
and youth. It will have at its foundation samitis in the factories,
mohallas and villages. Such a popular revolutionary front can and
must be built in the course of the struggle to halt the program of
privatisation and liberalisation. It can and must be built in
the course of the struggle against state terrorism, communal violence
and all forms of fascist attacks against the fundamental rights of
the people. The popular revolutionary front will replace the
existing system of party dictatorship with the dictatorship of workers
and peasants. They will replace the existing Indian Union with
a voluntary union of consenting peoples who wish to live together
for mutual benefit. With political
power in their hands, the workers and peasants will affirm their rights
and re-orient the economy to fulfil their needs. They will end
the imperialist domination and plunder, and sweep away all remnants
of feudalism. They will eliminate, step by step, the economic
basis of capitalism and build socialism. They will defend the
right of each constituent of the Nayi sadi ki hai yeh maang, Hindostan ka Navnirman! Lal Kile pe lal nishan mang raha hai Hindostan! Hum hain iske malik! Hum hain Hindostan! Mazdoor, Kisan, Aurat aur Jawan! * * * History
shows that compromise and conciliation with imperialism leads to disaster
for the peoples of the world. It is precisely when the Communist
Party of Soviet Union compromised with US imperialism in its 20th Congress
that socialism began to decay within the The leadership
of the CPSU began to create illusions about peaceful coexistence with
imperialism, to cover up their own conciliation. They spread
illusions that newly independent countries such as The root
cause of the degeneration and decline of socialism in the Social-democracy
is a form of bourgeois rule and ideology. It seeks to reconcile
the class contradictions, both within the ranks of the exploiters
and between the exploiters and the exploited. It seeks to achieve
class peace at the expense of the exploited masses. The social
welfare states of Europe and the Nehruvian regime in India based on
the ‘socialistic pattern of society’, were examples of social-democracy
in power. When out of power, social-democratic parties play
the role of diverting the progressive forces from the path of revolution,
by creating the illusion of a reformed capitalism and of a peaceful
capitalist world without wars. Conciliation
of the Soviet leadership with social-democracy led to the deterioration
of socialism into a hybrid society, with capitalism flourishing at
the base within the shell of socialism. As the discontent of
the masses grew with this hybrid system, the champions of the capitalist
system used this discontent to pave the way for the destruction of
even the shell of socialism. Starting with glasnost and
perestroika in the 1980s, the ‘neo-liberal’ offensive backed by world
imperialism led to the complete disintegration of the Soviet Union
and its replacement by a classical capitalist state in Russia in 1991,
with supreme power concentrated in the hands of the President. Declaring
that “red is dead” and that there is no alternative to capitalist
reforms, imperialism and the bourgeoisie escalated their anti-communist
and antisocial offensive in the 1990s, with the call for globalisation,
liberalisation and privatisation as the prescription for all countries.
While they claim to be liberalizing society, what they are out
to build is fascism – that is, the brutal dictatorship of the most
reactionary, rapacious and bellicose sections of finance capital.
They are striving to build fascism while maintaining the process of
“free and fair elections”, which provide the parties of big capital
with legitimacy and a ‘mandate’ to continue attacking the livelihood
and rights of the people. Liberalisation
under the present conditions is nothing but a euphemism for unbridled
robbery and domination by the monopoly bourgeoisie. Liberalism as
an ideology was consistent with the early stage of capitalism.
Ever since capitalism developed into monopoly capitalism, to the stage
of imperialism, the economic power of the monopolies gets combined
with the political power of the state. All traces of liberalism between
one section of the bourgeoisie and another gave way to cut throat
monopolistic competition. There
is no possibility that imperialism will lead to free competition.
The ‘free market economy’ of today has nothing to do with freedom.
It is a euphemism for the monopolists to hold the entire society to
ransom, claiming that the state has no obligation to anyone excepting
the big business interests. While
pursuing their fascistic ‘neo-liberal’ offensive, imperialism and
the bourgeoisie are deploying social-democracy to disorient and disrupt
the growing resistance to this course. Social-democracy is presenting
itself as the moderate alternative to all extremes, spreading illusions
about the “free and fair elections” and about a ‘middle’ road once
again, through the building of all kinds of parliamentary coalitions. Life experience
of the Indian people with the various coalitions and social-democratic
‘alternatives’ have shown that they only serve to reconcile the toiling
masses to the status quo, as they do not upset the capitalist orientation
of the economy. The Left-Front Government in West Bengal, for
instance, preserves the system of capitalism and implements capitalist
reforms, while justifying itself to the workers and peasants as the
“best that is possible within the given circumstances”. A middle
road is objectively not possible, as it is not possible to fulfil
the greed of monopoly capital and also fulfil the needs of the workers
and peasants. In spite of the negative experience of the past
with the ‘middle’ road, the conciliators with social-democracy are
persisting on this path. Today they are calling for a ‘secular
front’ as the alternative to the ‘communal-fascist’ front led by the
BJP. They are diverting the progressive forces from the task
of building the worker-peasant alliance, as the backbone of an anticapitalist
and anti-imperialist revolutionary front. Social-democracy
and those who conciliate with it seek to compromise the movement against
imperialism on all vital questions of principle – be it the national
question or that of democracy, or the struggle against communal violence,
or against fascism and war. On the
question of the nation, social-democracy promotes the Eurocentric
notion that there is no alternative to the European bourgeois model
of the nation state. It prevents the working people of India
and of each country to build on their own philosophies, economic and
political theories. It prevents them from developing their own
state structure and set the direction of their economy and culture
in their service. While
pretending to oppose the Anglo-American aggression on Iraq, the social-democrats
and their conciliators justify the suppression of national rights
within India, such as of the Kashmiris, Nagas and Manipuris, in the
name of defending “national unity and territorial integrity”.
Those
within the communist movement who conciliated with social-democracy
have ended up supporting the Soviet aggression on Czechoslovakia in
1968 and on Afghanistan in 1979. They argued that it was just
for a socialist government to send its troops into another country,
for the purpose of a ‘progressive’ regime change. However, if
regime change by an external force is justified in one context, it
becomes justifiable in every context. In effect, the conciliators
with social-democracy became apologists for imperialist aggression
and violation of national sovereignty. Social-democracy
compromises the struggle against fascism and communal violence by
towing the imperialist line that ‘fundamentalism’ is the main source
of danger. In India, social-democracy spreads the harmful illusion
that the Indian State has secular foundations and is to be viewed
as a weapon in the struggle against communalism and ‘fundamentalism’.
While
promoting the parliamentary struggle as the main or only form of struggle,
social-democracy and its conciliators seek to divide the ranks of
the progressive forces on the basis of making the method of struggle
the main issue. By demanding that all political forces must
submit to parliamentary democracy or be branded as terrorists, social-democracy
fosters splits and divisions among the fighting ranks. Imperialism
and the forces of reaction wish that we, the anti-imperialist forces,
remain an unorganised mass of disparate groups, without a common vision
and an independent program of action. They wish that the forces
of resistance remain divided, with some under the wing of social-democracy
and others marginalised and branded as terrorists. They wish
that the working class movement remains divided, with various factions
competing for space within the bourgeois coalitions and parliamentary
fronts. This wish of imperialism and the bourgeoisie can and
must be smashed. The fighting
forces need to get together, not only to exchange ideas and air their
views, but also to take collective decisions and fight for their implementation.
We must decide on measures to strengthen our unity in action against
the fascist and military offensive of imperialism, and against globalisation,
liberalisation and privatisation. We must develop mechanisms
to strengthen unity around our common political aim and around one
program to achieve that aim. Reject social-democracy and the ‘middle’ path! Unite in Action against the imperialist offensive! Build the anticapitalist front in each country as part of the global anti-imperialist front! |
Crisis of US occupation forces in Iraq deepens The resignation of the CIA leader in The Danish
army has confirmed that 36 mortar shells found buried in Southern
Iraq in early January 2004 did not contain chemical agents. It had
been earlier reported by the US - led coalition that these shells
could contain ‘blister gas’. The US – imperialist
led coalition has thus once again failed to produce evidence of WMDs
banned by the United Nations, the main basis for launching the war
against Iraq. Meanwhile,
the resistance in Iraq continues to build up. Hundreds of thousands
of people in Korea
and Japan have witnessed massive protests against the decision of
the governments of these countries to trample on the will of the people
and send troops to Iraq in the service of the US - led coalition. At the
World Social Forum meet in Mumbai in January thousands of Korean and
Japanese anti-war protesters were in the forefront of anti - war protests
as well as the concluding march on January 21, 2004. There militant
forms of protest was a sign to the whole world that the Asian
peoples will not tolerate the The anti-war
coalition occupied an important space in the World Social Forum as
well as the other anti-imperialist forums in Mumbai in January 2004.
They worked out plans to develop the struggle to oust the US led occupation
forces and make them pay reparations to the Iraqi people. They decided
that they must firmly oppose any efforts of US imperialism to install
a puppet regime in Iraq in violation of the will of the people. It
has been decided to observe March 20, the day on which |
Cuban government condemns treatment of Guantanamo Bay prisoners A Cuban parliament statement
issued at the end of December 2003 has described the The Cuban
parliamentary statement has pointed out that the prisoners are totally
isolated, without the possibility of communicating with their families
or access to appropriate legal defence. “They commit very serious
attacks on human dignity, in an atmosphere of hysteria and fear nurtured
by About
660 people are being held at the As the
The
manner in which people from a far away land, Afghanistan, have been
incarcerated for years on end in a desolate concentration camp in the most indescribable conditions, without being able to
communicate with their families and without legal aid is a gives the
lie to the imperialist claims that they are upholders of human rights.
In fact, the crimes being committed by the Anglo American imperialists
in |
Revelations on Halliburton and MI 6’s lies: It was revealed on December 2003 that a subsidiary
of the Oil Company Halliburton, which was responsible for supplying
gasoline in The prices
charged to the US government by Halliburton’s subsidiary, Kellogg,
Brown Root (KBR), which has been importing refined petroleum products
into Iraq under a mission awarded without competitive bids have been
widely criticized in the US. In early December 2003, the US Defence
Department’s auditing agency supported the allegations. The Pentagon
auditors found that KBR has been charging $2.27 a gallon to deliver
petrol from Kuwait - nearly double the price of a similar contract
for petrol from Turkey at $1.18 Thus, the company may have charged
up to $61 million too much for delivering gasoline to Iraqi citizens.
The ensuing hue and cry has forced the US imperialists to declare
that new contractors would be brought in to replace Halliburton. Only a
few weeks ago, the US imperialists asserted that they were fully justified
in awarding “reconstruction” contracts in Iraq only to companies from
those countries whose governments supported the war. It is thus amply
clear that greed was and remains one of the key reasons to aggress
upon and continue to occupy Iraq. The UK Defence
Secretary Geoff Hoon has said that British
troops will still be in Iraq on New Year’s Day 2005. This is a clear
admission that the aims of the Anglo – American imperialists are not
merely to find and destroy enigmatic ‘weapons of mass destruction”
but to stay put and control and exploit the land and labour
of the Iraqi people. Former
UN chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter told reporters in the House
of Commons that he was involved personally with Operation Mass Appeal
between the summer of 1997 until August 1998
when he resigned from the UN. Mr Ritter
said the MI6 operation was designed to “shake up public opinion” by
passing dubious intelligence on Iraq to the media. “The government,
both here in the UK and the US, would feed off these media reports,
continuing the perception that Iraq was a nation ruled by a leader
with an addiction to WMDs (weapons of mass destruction).” The last
few weeks have seen the imperialist chieftains and their spokesmen
unable to cover up their own deceit. In a Christmas message to troops,
UK Prime Minister Blair claimed that the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) had
found “massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories”.
He said the discovery showed Saddam had attempted to “conceal weapons”.
Without realizing that it was Mr Blair had
made the claim, Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority,
publicly denied this. When told that the claims were made by US imperialism’s
staunchest ally Mr Blair, Mr Bremer was forced to backtrack. All the premises based on which the coalition led by the US imperialists aggressed on and occupied Iraq have been revealed to be patently false. In fact, it has now been revealed that very calculated and deliberate campaigns of deceit have been run in the mass media by the intelligence agencies for years on end. Thus, the imperialists have been literally preparing the grounds for aggressing on Iraq for the past several years. The issue of oil contracts is perhaps just one which went a little too far, even by the imperialists own standards of greed. It is thus inevitable that the people of Iraq resent being occupied by such cruel, chicanerous and rapacious forces such as the Anglo – American imperialists. |
Hutton Commission of Inquiry aims to cover up colonial annexationist aims Sir, There
is much excitement in the air about the report of the Commission of
Inquiry headed by the Law Lord, Lord Justice Brian Hutton regarding
the involvement of 10 Downing Street in the matter of the Iraq dossier,
and the leaking to the press of the identity of the ‘mole’ from the
Ministry of Defence Dr. David Kelly, who had allegedly told the BBC
that there had been inclusions in the dossier that the Blair Government
knew to be dubious. It is rumoured that heads will roll soon because
of the compromise of truth by the Blair Government and perhaps by
Mr. Blair himself. Also at stake is the credibility of the BBC. Whatever
the outcome of the report, it is a perfect time for all thinking individuals
to ask many questions. The whole
affair of the Commission of Inquiry continues to perpetuate the myth
that in the sphere of governance there is considerable accountability
and indeed that there is a system of checks and balances in the United
Kingdom. It also causes much confusion in the public mind about the
real motive of the infamous dossier which was to pave the path to
an unprovoked and illegal war of occupation against a hapless third
world country. Indeed, the present war of occupation is a crime with
few parallels in the post World War era. The real reason for the war
which is that of colonial annexation and control of production and
supply of petroleum has been hidden behind the smoke screen of weapons
of mass destruction and other lies. The crime of 10 Downing Street
is not merely whether or not it mislead the public, the crime is that
it is an integral partner in the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’
which seeks to establish a new world order (also known as the New
American Century) by the use of brute force. It is well known that
public opinion in the UK has always been against the war. Therefore
the question of whether or not the public opinion has been misled
is a moot question. Another
question that arises is, of course, the role of the BBC itself. It
has been established by several media watch dog bodies that the BBC
was the foremost cheerleader for the war against Iraq. However, the
BBC would like to also occupy the space of informed and objective
opinion. By pretending that it blew the whistle on the Blair Government’s
activities, it would like to perpetuate the myth of a free and fair
press in the UK. Progressive forces should not be swayed by the hysteria
that is going to be generated by the Hutton Commission report and
should be steadfast in their determination towards building their
own organizations and tools of dissemination of opinion. Sincerely,
B. Khanna Leicester |
US tries to deflect attention from its credibility crisis by talking about “democracy” Sir, The ‘weapons
of mass destruction’ issue has again cropped up in a significant manner
with the resignation of the United States Chief of the program Mr.
Kay tendering his resignation. He is supposed to have expressed his
frustration and is now of the opinion that there probably never were
any weapons of mass destruction in the first place. There is speculation
in the press about the possibility that there had been an ‘intelligence
failure’ and worse that part of the so called programs of the regime
of Saddam Hussein remain hidden in Syria. In other words, there is
a pretence that the war against Iraq is not a war of colonial conquest
to capture choke points of the world economy, but was always a war
that was fought on terms of good faith of pre-emptive action. The
credibility of the Bush Government is now at an all time low across
the world, and in order to deflect attention from this, at the World
Economic Forum the Vice President Mr. Cheney spoke of the need for
democracy in Iran and other middle eastern countries. These events
emphasize the urgency for the need to organize progressive opinion
to stop further disasters from taking place. Sincerely,
|
| CPM led governments call for "crushing terrorism"
in the north-east It has been widely reported that over the past
couple of months, the Royal Bhutanese Army and the Indian Army have
unleashed a fascist reign of terror in the region near the border
with In a letter
to the Central government, the Tripura Chief
Minister has hailed the “thoroughgoing drive” of the Royal Bhutan
Army to flush out “terrorists” and “militants” from Bhutanese territory.
He has urged the Prime Minister to “impress upon Bangladeshi leaders
the necessity of busting the terrorist camps operating in their territory.
. . They must take a leaf out of Bhutan’s book and launch a drive
to flush out the extremists from their territory, in order to deal
a decisive blow to insurgency throughout the north-east, including
Tripura”. Earlier, the West Bengal chief minister too had
similarly urged the Central government to assist in “flushing out
extremists and naxalites”. The
problems of “terrorism”, “insurgency”, “separatist forces”, etc. that
are today being sought to be crushed by these army operations, are
all part of the unresolved political problems of the north-east.
They are a part of the colonial legacy, a consequence of the cruel
and unjust division of the subcontinent and forcible subjugation of
the nations and peoples of the north-east. The Indian state has always
treated them as a “law and order” problem and used brute force of
arms to crush the sovereign aspirations of the peoples of the north-east.
The peoples of the north-east have never accepted their forcible inclusion
into the Indian Union, nor have they ever been cowed down by the fascist
state terror that the Indian state has continuously unleashed against
the people there. This state terror is continuing and being stepped
up in recent times, as the above reports show. The brutal state terror that the Indian state continues to launch against the various nations, nationalities and peoples that are today included formally within the Indian Union constitute a heinous violation of human rights. They are part of the state terror and fascist violence that the state of the Indian bourgeoisie continually uses against the masses of the working and oppressed people. It is well-known that the British colonisers referred to the peoples fighting for their liberation from the colonial yoke as “terrorists”. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Indian bourgeoisie, which took over the colonial state apparatus after 1947, should use the same terminology and continue the same legacy of repression. However, it is indeed unforgivable that there are some who call themselves “communists” and yet chant in unison with the state of the bourgeoisie, on the question of “defending the unity and territorial integrity” of the present-day Indian Union, on the issue of “flushing out” and “crushing terrorists and separatists”, rather than organising the workers, peasants and all the oppressed peoples, nations, nationalities and tribal peoples, with the vision of building a new India, in which sovereignty shall be in the hands of the oppressed peoples and the Indian Union shall be a voluntary union of free nations, nationalities and peoples. |
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