• Call of the Central Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India on the eve of the 14th Lok Sabha Elections

• Liberalisation and the question of remunerative prices:
  Oppose the attacks on the peasants in the name of ‘pro-poor’ policy

• On the occasion of the 135th Birth Anniversary of Lenin:
  Imperialism remains the source of war and the eve of the Proletarian Revolution

• The Iraq war and the inter-imperialist crisis

• Imperialist strivings of Indian rulers cannot lead to peace in the subcontinent

• Sharpening of inter-imperialist contradictions in this period

• Victory to the heroic Iraqi people!

• People's initiatives challenge the present political process

• Now privatisation of parks!

Call of the Central Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India on the eve of the 14th Lok Sabha Elections

While elaborating the Call, Comrade Lal Singh stressed that communists should lead the struggle to build peoples’ committees in every constituency with the aim of preparing the necessary conditions for transferring decision-making power into the hands of the people.

He pointed out that communists must not adopt tactics that serve the bourgeoisie by delivering the workers and peasants as "vote banks". Rather, they should adopt such tactics that will further intensify the crisis of bourgeois rule and pave the way for a worker-peasant rule. They should call on the working people to resolve not to vote for the BJP, Congress Party or any other candidate who collaborates or conciliates with the imperialist vision and anti-people program of the big bourgeoisie.

The 14th Lok Sabha elections, called about four months ahead of time, will take place over the next 30 days. The NDA government took the decision to advance the elections, at the command of the big monopoly corporate interests. The rulers decided to advance the elections at a time when the mass movements of workers and peasants and all the oppressed are on the upswing. The assembly elections in MP, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh in December 2003 showed the great anger of the working masses against the program and agenda of the bourgeoisie, resulting in the defeat of the Congress governments in those states.

The decision to advance the Lok Sabha elections must be seen and understood against the background of the following factors:

• the privatisation program of the bourgeoisie has become stuck, as a result of the massive and mounting opposition of the working class and working intelligentsia;
• the trade liberalisation agenda faces the unrelenting opposition of all sections of the peasantry;
• sections of the middle and small capitalists, and large sections of the rich peasants, have raised the banner of opposition to the course being pursued in the interests of the Indian and international monopoly bourgeoisie;
• powerful mass opposition has created roadblocks for the Indian big bourgeoisie in its striving to strike a strategic military alliance with the US in the name of waging the "war against terrorism", forcing the rulers to carry out such collaboration in secret;
• there is widespread anger among the people against the cynical and horrible communal pogroms organised by parties in power, as in Gujarat in 2002, and the movement to punish the guilty has gained momentum over the past two years;
• both the main parties of the bourgeoisie have been thoroughly exposed as the architects of criminal and communal politics, as the organisers of genocide;
• the attacks on democratic rights, through fascist laws such as POTA, and through Supreme Court rulings banning the right to strike, have evoked countrywide protests;
• the movement in defence of human rights, including national and minority rights and the right to conscience, has grown in depth and scope, questioning the very philosophical basis of the conception of rights in the Indian constitution;
• political and governmental crises have been rocking almost all state capitals, with rival bourgeois parties and politicians starting to use POTA against each other;
• more and more people are realising that the existing electoral process is nothing but a means to impose the agenda of the big capitalists, and a means to divide, divert, criminalise and further communalise the polity.

In short, the crisis of credibility of the bourgeoisie and its main ruling parties was at its worst when these elections were announced.

The game plan of the big bourgeoisie is to use the elections to disperse and split the fighting forces, as well as to settle the contradictions within the ranks of the ruling class. Nature provided a good monsoon in 2003; and the big bourgeoisie wants to grab this chance to equip itself with a ‘fresh mandate’ to get out of the impasse regarding its program of globalising through privatisation and liberalisation.

Promising crumbs to all the downtrodden sections and sops to the middle strata, the NDA government dissolved the Parliament without even presenting a proper budget for 2004/05. To fool the gullible, it has embarked on a major disinformation campaign, selling the dream of a shining India. It has timed the elections such that the majority of the peasantry would be engaged in harvesting, and the majority of youth would be engaged in examinations. Keeping the fighting masses away from politics is the cornerstone of this plan.

The big bourgeoisie is using the election campaign to line up the masses of people on the side of the BJP-led alliance or on the side of the Congress-led alliance. Both the BJP and the Congress Party share the same imperial vision and are committed to the same program of globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation. They are committed to the program of unleashing communal and fascist terror against the toiling masses and to fulfil the ambition of the big bourgeoisie to develop India into an imperialist superpower.

Vote for Atal Behari Vajpayee if you want India to shine – this is the first call of the big bourgeoisie. However, for those who disbelieve the BJP, and those who have been disillusioned by 6 years of NDA rule, the Congress Party is being offered as the ‘choice’. The big bourgeoisie is covering its bases, ensuring that one or the other of its most trusted parties comes to power.

Following the elections, the party that forms the government will claim that it has the ‘mandate’ to forge ahead with second generation reforms. The ‘reforms’ on the agenda, starting June 2004, are known to include the following:

• amending labour laws to suit the multinationals and big Indian monopolies to
• make closures of factories easier (the present law requires government permission for closure of a factory employing more than 100 persons)
• make it even more difficult to build trade unions (increasing the initial number of workers required to declare themselves members as well as making it mandatory to ensure that only employees can be members of the union)
• make contract labour the norm rather than the exception in all sectors of the economy — to reduce the standard of living of working people and to make it extremely easy to hire and fire workers.
• acceleration of privatisation in education, health care, water, municipal and sanitation services, financial sector, power, petroleum, rail and air transport;
• amendment to agricultural marketing laws and land leasing laws, to facilitate and expand contract farming and leasing of land by Indian and foreign monopolies;
• introduction of Value Added Tax by central and state governments to shift the burden of indirect taxes on to the backs of the workers, peasants and small entrepreneurs; and
• further hikes in ‘user charges’ – that is, the rates to be paid for drinking water, electric power, bus and rail transport, education and other public services.

Following the elections the bourgeoisie will declare that it has a mandate to develop an India where the accumulation of wealth will continue to grow in the hands of a few, while unemployment and poverty will multiply among the toiling masses and heightened insecurity among the middle strata. The bourgeoisie will claim it has the ‘people’s approval’ for fascist laws like POTA, and for stepping up the attacks on democratic rights. The rulers will claim to have the mandate to pursue strategic geopolitical and military collaboration with the US.

The dream and plan of the Indian bourgeoisie are imperialist and anti-people in nature. The pursuit of superpower status, in collaboration and contention with the US and others, spells disaster for the workers and peasants of India and of other countries.

The "developed India" that the bourgeoisie wants is an India whose capitalists plunder the land and labour of the Indian peoples as well as other peoples of Asia and the world. It is the vision of an imperialist military power which, for the sake of expanding foreign markets and spheres of influence of Indian monopoly capital, facilitates maximum plunder of Indian land and labour by international monopoly capital. In the name of job creation through ‘outsourcing’, multinational companies will be supplied with cheap Indian labour for capitalist super-exploitation and with Indians as cannon fodder for imperialist wars of aggression and conquest, as was the case in British imperial times.

The big bourgeoisie has advanced the date of the 14th Lok Sabha elections, with the aim of gaining legitimacy for its anti-people, anti-national and fascistic program, aimed at achieving its imperialist vision.

                        *                      *                      *

Throwing a big spoke in the wheel of the bourgeoisie are the workers, peasants, and all those who are opposed to the agenda being imposed by the big bourgeoisie and its parties, headed by the BJP and Congress Party.

Workers, peasants and working intellectuals, including scientists, teachers, doctors, nurses paramedical staff and others, are asserting their rights and demanding that their claims be fulfilled. Working people in the cities and the villages have started organising mass meetings in their constituencies. More and more people are beginning to recognise the need to build and strengthen their own fighting political organisations, in their places of work and residence. Mass organisations are looking for ways to push forward their demands on to the agenda of political debate.

Peasants in various regions have publicised their charter of demands and want to examine every candidate from the standpoint of this charter. Professionals in the cities are forming political ‘watch dog’ committees, through which they wish to examine the candidates and their manifestos. In many constituencies across the country, there is popular response to the call not to vote for either the BJP or the Congress Party. There is popular support in some places for boycott of the elections. These initiatives are being actively prevented by the police. They are being prevented in the name of protecting ‘law and order’ during the elections.

Movements for the protection of the environment, for punishing the guilty of communal massacres and for providing relief to the victims, against war and the imperialist politics of aggression, the national movements for self-determination, the movement against state terrorism and defence of human rights including the right to conscience, and the movement for the fulfilment of the basic needs of all — are all coalescing into a powerful force, with an explicit demand for political power. There is a growing awareness among these activists that the existing representative democracy, dominated by big capitalist parties headed by the BJP and the Congress Party, does not allow the vast majority of people any space to pursue their interests.

New forms of political struggle have begun to emerge. Mass political fronts are daily being formed, which are trying to intervene in the electoral arena with their own candidates. Defying the barriers of money and muscle power, including campaign costs estimated at Rs. 25 lakhs on average, activists from the people’s movements are pooling their meagre resources, to resist the pressure that there is no alternative except to vote for the BJP or the Congress Party. Potential voters are demanding an undertaking from their candidates, that if they get elected they will remain loyal to their campaign promises. They are demanding from candidates a contract that they will resign from the Parliament if they decide to join any party financed by big business interests after getting elected. They are discussing and devising ways to keep their control over their elected representatives.

A fighting program is taking shape in the course of the mass struggles. It is taking shape in the form of various popular demands, including:

• immediate halt to the program of globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation;
• withdrawal of POTA and other black laws;
• the right to strike as a universal right of all wage workers and salaried employees, in all sectors without exception;
• the right to work and the right to livelihood as fundamental justiciable rights;
• security of land holding, of assured input supply and procurement at remunerative prices for all peasants;
• the rights of women, as human beings and as women, to be defended and guaranteed by the state;
• education and employment to be available as a matter of fundamental right to all the youth;
• food, shelter, sanitation, clothing, electricity, drinking water, pucca roads, education and health care as fundamental human rights that the state has to ensure for all members of society;
• the demand that the Indian State must stop collaborating with the US in military or geo-political terms and follow a principled anti-imperialist policy towards lasting peace in South Asia;
• the demand for a suitably high-powered body to ensure punishment of all those guilty of genocide and communal crimes; and
• the right of the electorate to recall their elected representative at any time.

                        *                      *                      *

The duty of Indian communists in this situation is to stand at the van of the movement for fundamental changes. In order to do so, communists must boldly put forward the vision of an India where the vast majority of working people, and not parties of vested interests, hold political power and make all the decisions. Communists must fight, not for power in their own hands, but for power in the hands of the masses of workers, peasants, women and youth.

The duty of communists is to lead the struggle to build people’s committees in every constituency, with the aim of preparing necessary conditions for transferring decision making power from the hands of political parties into the hands of these constituency committees.

Far from presenting themselves as belonging to one or the other fronts of the bourgeoisie, communists must strive to consolidate the political front of the broad masses against imperialism, capitalism and the big bourgeoisie, with the worker-peasant alliance as its backbone. The worker-peasant alliance, with communists at the head, can and must emerge as that political force that will not merely talk about an alternative but actually bring it into being.

Communists must not adopt such tactics that serve the bourgeoisie by delivering workers and peasants as ‘vote banks’ for one or the other parliamentary front. Communists must adopt such tactics that will further intensify the crisis of bourgeois rule, and pave the way for worker-peasant rule. They must organise the working class and broad masses to push forward their own independent agenda, preparing to take the reins of power and the destiny of India in their hands. In order to effectively contest the bourgeois imperialist program and vision of India as a superpower, communists must arm the fighting forces with their own vision, and immediate program consistent with that vision.

The times are calling on all Indian communists to contribute to the elaboration of the vision of an India where the toiling masses are the rulers, and where the State intervenes in the economy in such a way as to ensure prosperity and protection for all.

Learning from the experience of working class rule in the 20th century, communists must lead the struggle to innovate new political institutions and instruments of state power, which will ensure that the masses of toilers and tillers hold on to political power. The present talk-shop parliament must be replaced by new kinds of elected bodies, which are responsible for taking decisions as well as for ensuring their implementation — bodies that regularly render account to those who elected them. Constituency committees must oversee and carry out selection, election, initiation of new laws, reporting to the electorate and recall.

The existing political process is dominated by political parties. It must be replaced by a people dominated political process. In the new process, the role of political parties must be not to seize power for themselves but to provide consciousness and organisation, to enable the toilers and tillers to rule themselves. Parties that are guilty of criminalising the polity, and of genocide against the people, must be barred from participating in the polity.

With political power in their hands, the workers, peasants and all other marginalised sections of society will be able to ensure that the economy is reorganised to ensure prosperity and protection for all. They will be able to provide guaranteed employment for every adult member of society and secure livelihood for all the toilers and tillers of the land. In progressive stages, they will replace private ownership and control over the means of social production, by a system where the toiling masses will collectively own the means of production and prevent them from being plundered for private profit. They will build a society without any exploitation, a society that fulfils the claims of all its members.

The times are calling on communists to lead the efforts to build unity around the immediate program for reorienting the course of India towards the long-term vision elaborated above.

As an essential part of the immediate program, communists must lead the struggle of the working class in defence of public property; and against the privatisation program of the bourgeoisie. There can be no compromise with any transfer of public assets into private hands, no matter whether such assets are ‘strategic’ or not, whether they were created through an Act of Parliament or through some other means.

The immediate program must include measures to restrict the space for private profiteering, starting with external trade and domestic wholesale trade. Social control over these spheres of the economy is an immediate necessity for building a strengthened public distribution system, ensuring that agriculture provides food for the urban masses as well as a secure livelihood for the peasantry. There can be no compromise with the agenda of trade liberalisation, with respect to agriculture, industry or services.

There can be no compromise with state terrorism and national oppression within India in the name of "war against terrorism" or in the name of defending "national unity and territorial integrity". The imperialist course of India and the colonial legacy must be replaced with a principled anti-imperialist course.

From a factor for imperialist war and domination over peoples, India can and must become a factor for peace, lasting friendship and mutually beneficial relations among the states and peoples of South Asia. India can and must emerge as a civilised power, seeking not to dominate anyone but to defend the rights of all, and to develop mutually beneficial international relations.

                        *                      *                      *

The Communist Ghadar Party of India calls on all the workers, peasants, working intellectuals, women and youth, to resolve not to vote for the BJP, Congress Party or any candidate who collaborates or conciliates with the imperialist vision and anti-people program of the big bourgeoisie.

The Communist Ghadar Party of India calls on all the progressive forces to support only those who fight consistently and uncompromisingly for the alternative program, to lift Indian society out of the crisis and empower the toiling majority.

The Communist Ghadar Party of India calls on all the progressive forces to join hands to build people’s committees in every electoral constituency, as primary mechanisms for converting the toiling and oppressed masses into the rulers of India.

Let us defeat the plan of the big bourgeois class to use these elections to legitimise its imperialist and anti-people program. Let us use the 14th Lok Sabha elections as the occasion to build and strengthen the broad popular front that is capable of defeating the bourgeois offensive and establishing the rule of the toilers and tillers.

Immediate halt to the program of liberalisation and privatisation!

Withdraw POTA and other black laws!

Enshrine the right to strike as a universal right of all wage workers and salaried employees!

Enshrine the right to work and the right to livelihood as fundamental justiciable rights!

Security of land, assured input supply and procurement at remunerative prices for all peasants!

Guarantee the rights of women, as human beings and as women!

Education and employment are fundamental rights of all youth!

Halt Indo-US military and geo-political collaboration!

Fight for a principled anti-imperialist policy towards lasting peace in South Asia!

Ensure punishment of all those guilty of genocide and communal crimes!

Enshrine the right of the electorate to recall their elected representative at any time!

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Liberalisation and the question of remunerative prices:
Oppose the attacks on the peasants in the name of ‘pro-poor’ policy

The policy of liberalisation of agricultural trade has led to increasing insecurity for the peasantry. Rural indebtedness has reached unprecedented levels. As a result, there is widespread opposition from peasants in many parts of the country to the agenda of globalisation and trade liberalisation. Peasants are demanding that the State should ensure procurement of their produce at remunerative prices. The proponents of liberalisation assert that this demand has become outdated and must be given up today. Arguing that state intervention in agricultural trade in India has favoured only the rich peasants and not the poor in the villages, they present liberalisation as a ‘pro-poor’ policy.

By liberalisation, what is meant is that the State should open the sphere of agricultural trade for private corporations and agencies and withdraw any form of guarantees for the livelihood of the peasants. The peasants are supposed to ‘fend for themselves’ in the world market. They are supposed to seek prosperity in competition with global and Indian monopoly corporations, each of which is thousands of times bigger than a peasant.

The world market for agricultural products is dominated by monopoly trading corporations. Monopoly usually implies high prices. In the case of agriculture, however, they imply low prices paid to the peasants. This is because the monopoly corporations are traders in agricultural commodities, not the producers. They buy what the peasants produce, at the lowest possible price so as to reap the maximum rate of profit.

Experience all over the world has shown what happens to those peasants who become dependent on the capitalist trading monopolies. Such corporations control the supply of inputs, as well as the purchase of crops. They enter into direct deals with the peasants – big, medium and small — supplying them with seeds and other inputs, and contracting to buy their produce. They offer attractive prices to begin with, to lure the peasants. Once they have them in their grip, they manipulate the prices to their advantage, leading to the ruination of the peasants, as has happened in East Asia and Latin America, as well as among various sections of the Indian peasantry.

Under the old policy regime that was initiated in our country in the 1960s, the Central Government procured crops at administered prices, which were set at a level that would at least cover the costs of production for some among the peasants. Such procurement was assured only for wheat and rice, and that too only in some selected areas of the country.

The experience of the 1970s and 1980s showed that the procurement policy of the Indian State had a limited purpose and limited results. The ruling bourgeois class wanted to be free of depending on food aid from the United States; and therefore felt the need for a ‘buffer stock’ of wheat and rice. Policy and programs were geared to fulfill this need. The granaries of the Food Corporation of India became well stocked. This strengthened the hands of the ruling class in relation to foreign powers. But the stomachs of workers and peasants were not filled adequately, not to speak of the stores in their homes. Only a minority among the peasants prospered, and only for some time.

Since 1991, in the name of economic ‘reforms’, even the limited state support extended to agriculture has been cut back. Pointing to the limitations of the old policy regime, first the Narasimha Rao Government and now the Vajpayee Government has been cutting back on procurement and price support to the peasantry. Leaving peasants increasingly to the mercy of the "market forces", namely the monopoly capitalist companies, has resulted in rising numbers of bankruptcies and suicides among the peasantry.

Indian monopoly companies, owned by the Ambanis, Tatas, Birlas and other big business houses, have major interests in the fertilizer and pesticide sectors. Both Indian and international monopoly capitalists have big new plans for investing in agri-business exports out of India. Under the pressure of such big business interests, the Central Government and state governments are cutting back on support to the peasantry. Thus, the so-called pro-poor policy is in fact being dictated by those who are super rich.

Far from withdrawing state support for agriculture, what is needed is to reorient and expand this support, to ensure security of livelihood for all the tillers of the land, in all parts of the country. Supply of inputs and procurement of agricultural crops by the State at stable and remunerative prices is a just demand. It is not only in the interests of the peasants and all those who make their living out of the incomes earned from agriculture. It is also in the best interests of the urban working people and the general interests of society. If agricultural prosperity can be secured, so can adequate supplies of food at affordable prices for the urban population. A secure and well fed population is a condition for Indian society to prosper.

There must not be any compromise on this question under any pretext. The working class and the communist movement must uncompromisingly defend and fight for the demand that the State must guarantee stable and remunerative prices for the crops produced by the peasants. This will become a reality when the workers and peasants become the rulers of the country.

The political parties of the bourgeoisie have failed to ensure protection and prosperity on a stable and continuing basis for the peasantry. Today, they are presenting liberalisation as the answer. In the name of "pro-poor reforms", they are pushing the agenda of the biggest and most influential section of the bourgeoisie, to raise the plunder of agriculture to new heights. This is an agenda that means heightened insecurity and ruin for the peasantry.

In the context of the current campaign for the 14th Lok Sabha elections, peasants must join hands with the working class and resolve not to vote for the BJP, Congress or any other party or politician who supports or compromises with the liberalisation agenda in any form. They must unite around the alternative program for establishing worker-peasant rule and reorienting the economy to provide secure livelihood for all.

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On the occasion of the 135th Birth Anniversary of Lenin:
Imperialism remains the source of war and
the eve of the Proletarian Revolution

Defeating the arguments of those in the communist movement who claimed that imperialism was a stage of capitalism wherein contradictions can be resolved peacefully, Lenin emphasised the urgent necessity and possibility of a social revolution led by the working class – as the only way out of imperialist wars and continued bondage. Lenin showed that imperialism is moribund capitalism, the highest and last stage wherein all the contradictions of the capitalist system are taken to their extreme. These include the contradictions between the bourgeoisie and the working class within capitalist countries, between imperialism and the oppressed nations and peoples, and amongst the imperialist powers and monopoly combines – with the contradiction between the capitalist and socialist systems being the fundamental contradiction. It is a period of general crisis and periodic wars, which can be ended only by resolving the fundamental contradiction through revolution. Lenin taught that the alliance of the working class with all the nations and peoples oppressed by imperialism is the key to isolate and defeat the bourgeoisie, in individual countries and on the world scale.

Lenin showed that inter-imperialist wars are a logical outcome of the imperialist system. The periods of inter-imperialist ‘peace’ grow out of imperialist wars, and in turn would give rise to new imperialist wars. In his celebrated work "Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism", written 89 years ago, Lenin wrote:

"Let us assume that these imperialist countries form alliances against one another in order to protect or enlarge their possessions, their interests and their ‘spheres of influence’ in these Asiatic states; …. Let us assume that all the imperialist countries conclude an alliance for the ‘peaceful’ division of these parts of Asia; … There are actual examples of alliances of this kind in the history of the twentieth century, for instance, the attitude of the powers to China. We ask, is it ‘conceivable’, assuming that the capitalist system remains intact — and this is precisely the assumption that Kautsky does make — that such alliances will be more than temporary, that they would eliminate friction, conflicts and struggle in every possible form?

"It is sufficient to state this question clearly to make it impossible for any reply to be given other than in the negative; for any other basis under capitalism for the division of spheres of influence, of interests, of colonies, etc., than a calculation of the strength of the participants in the division, their general economic, financial, military strength, etc., is inconceivable. And the strengths of these participants in the division does not change to an equal degree, for the even development of different undertakings, trusts, branches of industry, or countries is impossible under capitalism. Half a century ago, Germany was a miserable, insignificant country, as far as her capitalist strength was concerned, compared with the strength of England at that time; Japan was the same compared with Russia. Is it ‘conceivable’ that in ten or twenty years’ time the relative strength of the imperialist powers will have remained unchanged? Absolutely inconceivable.

"Therefore, in the realities of the capitalist system, and not in the banal philistine fantasies of the English parsons, or of the German ‘Marxist’, Kautsky, ‘inter imperialist’ or ‘ultra imperialist’ alliances, no matter what form they may assume, whether of one imperialist coalition against another, or of a general alliance embracing all the imperialist powers, are inevitably nothing more than a ‘truce’ between wars. Peaceful alliances prepare the ground for wars and in their turn grow out of wars; the one conditions the other, giving rise to alternating forms of peaceful and non peaceful struggle out of one and the same basis of imperialist connections and relations within world economics and world politics". (Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Chinese edition, pp. 144-145).

The development of events since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the bipolar division of the world fully confirm these teachings of Lenin (see box on facing page). While the spokesmen of imperialism try to create the impression that the threat to world peace today comes from mysterious gangs of terrorists, communists must recognise and appreciate, on the basis of analysing the unfolding events with the lens of Lenin’s teachings, that it is the imperialist system that poses the real threat to peace.

Inter-imperialist contradictions have grown acute today, including those within NATO, between those who are for a uni-polar world and those who want a multi-polar imperialist world. Contradictions and rivalry among the big powers is bound to grow even more intense along with the sharpening of the anti-imperialist movement and the class struggle within each country.

Is it possible to stay the hands of the imperialist warmongers? Yes, it is possible for the working class and peoples in each country to stay the hands of their "own" bourgeoisie, and to isolate the warmongering powers on the world scale. The resistance struggle of the Iraqi patriots is staying the hands of the US and its allies, serving as a glorious example for all the nations and peoples of the world at this time.

The imperialist system needs to be eliminated worldwide, as the necessary condition to eliminate the breeding ground and source of imperialist wars. The working class in each country must organise against its own ruling class for the victory of revolution against capitalism and imperialism. At the same time, the communist party must be always prepared for the event of imperialist war breaking out. It must prepare the working class and toiling masses to prevent the war, and in case it breaks out, to actively turn it from an imperialist war into a revolutionary civil war for the overthrow of imperialism and the bourgeoisie. This is what the Russian working class did in 1917. This teaching of Lenin remains fully valid to this day. It will remain valid as long as imperialism remains alive.

The occasion of the 135th birth anniversary of Lenin is an occasion for communists and leaders of the working class of all countries to study his teachings and analyse the present on the basis of these teachings, so as to intensify preparations for the coming revolutionary storms.

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The Iraq war and the inter-imperialist crisis

There have been some remarkable world events in the last month which deserve a thorough discussion.

The first important event was the bombing of trains in Madrid, Spain and the subsequent defeat of the ruling party in the general election that took place within days. The socialists who will now come to power have assured the country that the Spanish troops that were deployed in Iraq against the opinion of upwards of 90% of the population will be brought home. This represents that extent to which there is lack of unity even among main stream political parties in Spain on the question of participation in the illegal and immoral war of conquest led by the USA and the UK.

Furthermore, more recently, there has been fierce fighting across several towns and cities between the coalition forces and sections of the population of Iraq. According to CNN, the 'roots of insurgency' in Iraq run deeper than previously thought. This statement completely hides the facts of the matter that what the coalition forces are seeing is a war of liberation that is being fought against agressors by forces that would like to see sovereignty restored to its rightful owners. Although Colin Powell speaks of 'returning sovereignity' by June 30 the people of Iraq do not accept the arrangements that the US wants to put in place as legitimate.

All progressive thinking peoples across the world must think clearly about what the tragic events of the last year in Iraq mean for the future.

Sincerely, S. Grover, New York

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Imperialist strivings of Indian rulers cannot lead to peace in the subcontinent

There is an air of calm in the country as it goes forth into the upcoming general elections to the Lok Sabha.

The main stream media has already portrayed the victory for the so-called NDA as a 'fait accompli.' It is also evident that the main opposition party the Congress is not mounting a visible challenge. The people of India, on the other hand, know that little will be accomplished by the next Government that will come into power after the election, in the basic spheres of political empowerment and economic well being. It is now expected that the new Government will continue on the path of militarizing the economy and will strike a path of collusion as well as contention with the big powers. With the USA and the UK bogged down in the conflict in Iraq, India will start wondering how best it can carve out its own place in the sun in the emerging world. While there is much celebration in India at the so called 'peace initiative' of the Vajpayee Government, little is known about what the long term goals of Indian foreign policy are.

In the meantime, there are political crises on an unparalleled scale in India's immediate neighbour Nepal, and a big reorientation has taken place in Sri Lanka with the new Government that has come into power. There is little hope that all the outstanding problems of these countries will be solved any time in the future. Progressive forces must be vigilant about the possible adventurism of the Indian foreign policy in the times to come. It is not unlikely that the domestic crises in each of these countries can serve as an excuse for intervention in diplomatic and military terms by India.

Indeed it has been pointed out in the columns of PV that the Indian bourgeoisie and their state cannot be trusted either by the people of India or by those of the peoples of its neighbours. Progressive forces must work in a diligent manner towards a new India that is peace loving and is principled.

A.Narayan, Bangalore

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The US-France-Canada axis that has engineered the coup d’etat in Haiti is facing opposition from the peoples and governments of the region. The Caribbean states have stoutly opposed the illegal regime planted by the US and its allies in Venezuela. Military interventions in Philippines and Indonesia, the threat of war against North Korea and Iran, the war of occupation of the Zionist state of Israel against Palestine - all these are provoking widespread opposition from the peoples, as well as opposition from the governments of various countries. They are contributing to the sharpening of the inter-imperialist contradictions on a world scale.

Fourteen years ago, the Cold War was officially declared over. The leaders of the states of Europe, North America and Japan met in Paris to come out with the so-called Paris Charter. The Paris Charter tried to establish a new equilibrium amongst the powers of Europe and North America in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The call was given for establishing a ‘new world order’ based on ‘multi party democracy’ and the ‘free market’. Behind the cover of this call, the victors of the Cold War carried out wheeling and dealing to share the ‘spoils of victory’.

Yugoslavia has been carved up through military means, while Czechoslovakia has been carved through ‘peaceful’ means -- between the US, German, French, Italian, and British interests. Taken as a whole in Europe, the NATO powers are increasingly divided between those working for US-British domination of Europe and those working for a German-French domination of Europe. Within Russia itself, the European powers, the US and Japan are colluding and contending with each other for establishing dominant positions through the export of finance capital.

In 2001, the US seized the initiative provided by the September 11, 2001 terrorist strikes to implement its plans for the conquest of Asia. Afghanistan was brutally aggressed upon and occupied by a US led coalition. It was aimed at challenging Russian imperialist interests in the oil rich countries of Central Asia and establishing control of the US and its NATO allies over the region. It was also a strategic move to counter the advantages gained by Germany, France and other European powers in Eastern Europe.

Today, US imperialism has emerged in a stronger position within the inter-imperialist rivalry over Central Asia and South Asia, as a result of the occupation of Afghanistan . This has intensified the contradictions amongst the imperialist powers. Questions are being raised in many countries and among many peoples as to what have we gained by participating in the US-led "war against terrorism". The rebellion of the peoples – in Iraq and in Afghanistan -- is further intensifying inter-imperialist contradictions.

The US is waging a war for monopoly control over oil resources of the world. It sees this as necessary to establish and consolidate itself as the sole superpower of the world. Today, outside of the major imperialist powers, the chief sources of oil and gas are in West Asia and Central Asia, as well as in Indonesia, Venezuela and Nigeria. All these countries have become hotbeds of conflicts.

Iraq is one of the major oil producing nations and occupies a strategic position in oil rich West Asia. US imperialism organised the first Gulf war in 1991 to establish control over Southern and Northern Iraq as well as strengthen its domination over the entire region. It used the UN to impose an embargo on Iraq to destroy its economy as well as weaken it militarily and isolate it politically. The regime of Saddam Hussein began to strengthen links with the German-French interests as well as with Russia. Iraq started linking itself with the Euro as opposed to the Dollar as currency of trade, contributing to the strengthening of the Euro against the Dollar. German, French and Russian interests became involved in oil in Northern Iraq. In these conditions, the US imperialists and their British allies launched the war on Iraq unilaterally to engineer a re-division of Iraq's oil wealth in their own favour, disregarding the concerns of the European and Russian imperialists. The divisions in the United Nations over the invasion of Iraq underscore this.

The new government of Spain has been forced to declare that it will withdraw its troops from Iraq unless there is a UN approved arrangement. The desperate efforts of the US to rope in India and Pakistan in the war have not succeeded thus far. Meanwhile, the US and Britain have been forced to retreat from earlier positions; they are trying to find a way to entice Germany, France, Russia and others to have a share of the loot of Iraq, in return for bailing them out of the present crisis.

The struggle for control and influence over the United Nations has become feverish. Various powers like Germany, Japan, India, Brazil and South Africa are trying to get a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. In terms of participating in the war and occupation of Iraq, many countries including India have declared that they will do so if there is UN approval.

Why has getting UN mandate become a precondition? If things and phenomena are analysed dispassionately, imperialist powers like Germany, France and Russia want to ensure that a UN mandate is given only if they are given their ‘rightful share’ of the spoils. There are other players, big and not so big, who are also angling for their respective shares of the loot and for their own space within a multi-polar imperialist world.

The sharpening of inter-imperialist contradictions is a sign of the weakness of capitalism at its final stage. Divisions within the enemy camp constitute an indirect reserve for the proletarian revolution.

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Victory to the heroic Iraqi people!

The US commanders are aghast at the very scale of the current uprising, stretching from the town of Kirkuk in the north to the far south. The present uprising also indicated the coordination between different sections of the Iraqi people and the failure of the US–led forces to split them on communal lines. It has involved several thousands of people in major towns and cities, including Baghdad, Basra, Baquba, Amarah, Nasiriya, Ramadi, Karbala, and Kut. Fighting patriots overwhelmed the Ukranian forces in Kut and took control of the town. Several other towns too are out of control of the US–led coalition forces.

The heaviest fighting has been reported from the town of Fallujah, which was besieged by the US forces in order to "teach its residents a lesson". The people of Fallujah have been known for their staunch resistance to the US–led occupation of their country throughout the last twelve months. US troops closed off entrances to Falluja with earth barricades and then subjected the town to the most vicious bombardment using artillery, planes and helicopter gunships. The top US military commander General Ricardo Sanchez said that the people of Falluja would have to decide between supporting the patriots or his troops – indicating clearly the punitive nature of the operation in which over 500 people have been killed and over 1000 injured.

Far from being overwhelmed by the superior firepower of the US imperialists, the people of Fallujah have been putting up a very stout resistance, forcing the US military commanders to offer a cease-fire. The people of other cities of Iraq have been organising actions in support of the people of Fallujah. In Baghdad and other cities, residents have been lining up to give blood and donate food and water to residents of Falluja. The viciousness of the US military operation has been condemned by several of its own supporters. The Iraqi interim Human Rights Minister, Abdel Turki, and a member of the Iraqi Governing Council’s rotating presidency, Iyad Allawi, both resigned in protest, while another member Adnan Pachachi, called the operation illegal and completely unacceptable. It is reported that even the British government has expressed its unhappiness over the inhuman brutality of the US military operations.

The patriots have inflicted significant causalities on the US–led coalition forces as well. In the first eight days of April, over 40 of them have been acknowledged to have been killed, more than the monthly total for most months since Baghdad fell a year ago. In the central and southern regions of Iraq, patriotic forces calling themselves the "Mehdi Army" are attacking the coalition forces. In the southern city of Nasiriya, Iraqi patriotic forces waged pitched battles with Italian coalition troops. Policemen appointed by the US–led coalition authority too joined the protests against the US military in Basra. Thus, the present uprising has drawn in people from all sections of Iraqi society.

While the US–led forces invaded Iraq almost exactly a year ago to "liberate" the Iraqi people, they are now reportedly trying to find themselves an "honourable exit strategy" and have been making overtures to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the UN in this connection. The US Senator, Edward Kennedy has described Iraq as "George Bush’s Vietnam". It is eminently possible that the US–led armies in Iraq will have to face the same ignominy that they had to in Vietnam several years ago. The patriotic Vietnamese people drove out of their country the US imperialists, armed with the most sophisticated weapons and using the deadliest "scorched earth" tactics, and set an example for the patriotic peoples all over the globe. The Iraqi people have the historic responsibility today, to repeat the feat in the twenty first century. Freedom–loving people all over the world have come out in millions to protest against the invasion and occupation of Iraq. By forcing the US–led forces out of their country, the Iraqi people will fulfil their aspiration of deciding for themselves the future of their land.

Victory to the heroic Iraqi people!
Death to Anglo–American imperialism!

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People's initiatives challenge the present political process

After the 14th Lok Sabha elections were announced, the big political parties of the bourgeoisie have set about the task of nominating their candidates and gathering all their money and muscle power to impose these candidates on the people. All the major parties have released their election manifestos, which promise all kinds of things to the people. But any discussion on the needs of the people is being studiously avoided. The key issues being discussed in political rallies and in the press and media by the Congress and BJP are not at all concerned with the demands of the workers or peasants or other sections of people.

Various people’s initiatives have emerged to change this situation and demand an active role for the people in the political process.

Lok Raj Sangathan, which works for the empowerment of people, has advanced the call for building people’s constituency committees that will be the decisive factor in selecting candidates in the respective constituencies. The constituency committee will put forth a set of demands by the people, which have to be addressed by the candidate canvassing for their support. The role of the constituency committee does not end with the election process. It will continue to ensure that the candidate elected by the people works for their concerns and not for the concerns of the exploiters. If the candidates fail to deliver on their promises, then the committee will demand that they be recalled. The committee will also function as the mechanism for the people to initiate legislation in the Parliament. LRS has set up a "Lok Manch" in the central Mumbai constituency and is in the process of setting up some committees in other areas.

The Rajasthan Jan Morcha, an alliance of progressive fronts, organisations and individuals, has put forward demands to defend the sovereignty of the country and reorient the economy in the direction of socialism to serve the interests of the tribal people, dalits, women, workers and peasants. It has demanded job and food security for all. The Morcha has particularly demanded an active role for the people in deciding policies and enacting legislation in their interests.

The National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has announced that the People’s Political Front will be fielding people’s candidates in several constituencies across India to bring the rights of working people for a decent and secure livelihood to the centrestage of the electoral debate and end the marginalisation of people.

In Tamil Nadu, an initiative to put up "water candidates" has been announced by peasant activists. These candidates will contest the elections in the name of "water" and will highlight the acute shortage of drinking and irrigation water in the area and the duty of the state to create conditions for the equitable distribution of water.

In fact, millions of people are so disgusted with the current political process that several people’s organisations have demanded that people should have the right to reject all candidates in a constituency, if they feel so, to express their opposition to the prevailing state of affairs proactively. Since this option is not available, people in many parts of the country have decided even to boycott the polls.

For example, migrant workers in Orissa, one of the poorest sections in the country, have decided to boycott the forthcoming elections to protest the failure of the government to provide them better amenities. The workers are accusing the state government and all the political parties of failing to solve the long-standing issues raised by them. Hit by recurrent droughts, thousands of farmers across Orissa who have lost all their land and belongings, have migrated to different parts of the state in search of their livelihood.

For communists the issue in the current Lok Sabha elections is to build a broad political movement that challenges the present marginalisation of the people from the political process and demands that the concerns of the people should be at the centrestage of the political debate today. These people's initiatives present an opportunity to build the political unity of people cutting across party lines and advance the movement for democratic renewal.

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Now privatisation of parks!

Privatisation has intoxicated the BJP ruled Nagercoil Municipality. The Nagercoil Municipality is represented in the Lok Sabha by the Surface Transport Minister of state, Mr. Pon Radhakrishnan. The Nagercoil Municipality which has the annual income of 14 crores has partly privatised the sanitation of the town, maintenance of the street lights and leased out a public notified park.

The CPR Public Municipal Park was opened to the public free for the last 60 years. Many young and old people used to visit the park and enjoy the evenings. After taking over of the Municipality by the BJP, the Municipal Council has spent about Rs. 60/- lakhs for the renovation of the park and now it has leased out the park to a private party, permitting him to collect Rs. 3/- as entrance fees for the park. The lease amount is only Rs. 1300/- per month. How can a poor old man spend daily 3 rupees to visit the park and spend his evenings?

The Municipal Council, which has 5 BJP Councillors in a council strength of 51, has manipulated to elect a BJP nominee as chairperson to its favour with the help of money and muscle.

Capitalism has played even in the environmentally proned basic facility like park.

The park is on government land and the tax payer's money is spent for renovation of the park. But revenue from it goes to a private party who even shows popular cinema films inside the park without paying entertainment tax to net more entrance fees.

Yes, a few capitalists "shine" but not the poor.

Yours faithfully
Lal Mohan,Nagercoil

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