• One year of UPA government: The "human face" mask is wearing thin

• Who gains and who loses by allowing FDI in retail trade?

• Jobless growth - A manifestation of increasing capitalist exploitation: Part-II

• Communal Violence (suppression) bill: Another fascist attack on the rights of people

• India-China-Russia Strategic Alliance

• Huge Rally by Bolivian People Against Selling Out of Energy Resources

• Fierce Fighting in Iraq: Crisis of Occupying US Imperialist Forces Intensifies

• Brutal police terror on political activists

• A timely call

One year of UPA government:
The "human face" mask is wearing thin

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One year after the UPA government came to power, the Congress Party and its allies are trying desperately to whip up some enthusiasm among the masses of people, by loudly proclaiming their "achievements", which, they themselves have to admit, are as yet hardly noticeable! The BJP and its allies in the opposition, on the other hand, are busy making declarations about the "failures" of the UPA government, comparing how they did better and are trying to enthuse the people into believing that they can do better if given a chance once again.

Meanwhile, for the working masses of urban and rural India, the attacks on their livelihood and rights continue unabated. The media hype surrounding the UPA government's USP, the "employment generation scheme" is accompanied by the harsh ground reality of ruthless destruction of productive assets and loss of livelihood of tens of thousands of workers and peasants, as a result of the policies of privatisation and liberalisation. While the UPA government and its supporters boast about their pro-agriculture policy, peasants in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and other parts of the country are up in arms, agitating for remunerative prices for their produce, for assured inputs such as water, electricity and seeds at affordable prices and against their devastation due to the trade liberalisation policies.

After all this, if anything is left of the "human face" mask, it is quickly torn to shreds when we recall that the much-hated POTA has been replaced by a law that retains all the most draconian aspects of POTA and other fascist laws of the arsenal of the Indian state. Cynically disregarding the voice of tens of thousands of people of Manipur and the North Eastern states, against the AFSPA and the blatant violation of human rights by the armed forces under that law, the UPA government has shamelessly declared that the law is necessary for "defence of the unity and integrity" of the country.

While singing paeans of peace with our neighbours, the UPA government continues on the path of stepped-up militarisation. While the fascist monarchy in Nepal cracks down on the impoverished and devastated people there, the UPA government has decided to resume arms supplies to Nepal, to assist in crushing the struggles of our neighbouring brethren. The increasing engagement of the UPA government with the US imperialists, British imperialists and other major powers is threatening to draw our country and this entire region into a bloody war, even as the ruling Indian bourgeoisie stakes its claim for a place in the game of redivision of the world amongst the big powers.

The budget of the UPA government reflects the same priorities as the previous governments. Militarisation and interest payments to finance capital continue to consume the revenues of the government. There is still not enough money to provide for education, health, housing and other needs of the people. On the contrary, homes of working people are being demolished to “beautify” the cities and make them attractive for the Indian and foreign elite.

If some supporters of the UPA government would like to claim that it is at least "secular", we need to note that this government has proposed a communal violence (suppression) bill that seeks to attack the ordinary people, the victims of communal violence, with no less draconian measures than in other fascist laws and with no provision whatsoever for people to punish the guilty.

The UPA government came to power a year ago, claiming that it had the people's mandate against liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation, against communal violence, state terrorism and fascist attacks on the people, against war and against the growing insecurity of life and livelihood of the toiling masses. One year has amply proved that it is incapable of satisfying these demands of the people; instead, it is only interested in serving the interests of the big monopolies, Indian and foreign.

What the working class and masses of toiling people want are assured livelihood as a right and an end to the attack on their livelihood through the policies of privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation. Workers suffering the consequences of privatisation want that privatisation should be reversed. Peasants are demanding remunerative prices for their produce and assured inputs at affordable rates, as a matter of right. People want an end to communal violence and punishment of the guilty, as a right, an end to state terrorism of all forms and security of life. Workers, peasants and all toiling people of India want the right to have a say in taking vital decisions that affect their lives. We do not want mere assurances of good intentions, as those voiced in the Common Minimum Program, that tries to reconcile the interests of the exploiters and the exploited. There can be no "common" meeting ground between the interests of the exploiters and the exploited! The working and oppressed masses want, not the "minimum", but the maximum program, as their right! We want the right to determine our own future. And to achieve this, we are fighting and will continue to fight for the real alternative, the rule of the workers and peasants and a voluntary Indian union.

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Who gains and who loses by allowing FDI in retail trade?

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Recently there has been much debate in the media about opening up the retail sector to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The Ministry for Commerce and Industry has been studying the current working of the retail sector. Simultaneously, it has been holding talks with major retail global players. The seriousness with which the government is pursuing this can be seen from the fact that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself granted audience to the CEO of Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world. The Ministry has been holding talks with other global players like Tesco and others. While the Minister for Commerce and Industry, Kamal Nath has claimed the existing retailers will not be affected and the move will increase employment, experience tells people that it will have just the opposite affect. There is widespread apprehension that opening up of retail sector to FDI will lead to destruction of livelihood of a huge section of the Indian population.

More than a decade of 'reforms' in India has essentially brought about curtailment of labour rights and freedom in deploying Indian and foreign capital. This has increased the level of exploitation of labour to new heights and now the foreign capitalists want to invest in India to benefit from this favourable business environment. In the present conditions, when the Indian big bourgeoisie is striving to be counted amongst the global players, their imperialist interest is coinciding with the interest of the foreign bourgeoisie in globalising the exploitation of labour by removing all national barriers in the flow of capital and ensuring that the capitalist exploitation can be carried out with minimum hindrance. The current debate on FDI needs to be looked at in this context.

The retail sector in India is characterised by very small retailers from road side shops and redi wallahs to small shops in every locality. Let us contrast the groceries retailing situation in India with that prevailing in North America. In most big cities in the US there are only about a dozen big grocery retail outlets to serve the population. The fraction of retail handled by small grocery stores is a very small fraction of the total. In India, on the other hand, every locality has dozens of small grocery stores. Very large retail outlets have only recently started to come up in big cities. They handle a miniscule portion of the business right now but it has been estimated that this segment will grow at 20% per annum or more.

For securing the maximum profits, the foreign investors are negotiating various rebates and concessions such as, concessions in acquisition or lease of land for setting up their stores and offices, rebates in central and local taxes, relaxation in labour laws and curtailment of labour rights.. In this regard it is important to note that recently the Wal-Mart Corporation pressurised the Governor of Maryland state in the USA to veto a bill passed by both houses of the State requiring large corporations to provide health benefits for their employees. Thus the employees of Wal-Mart in Maryland have been deprived of health benefits and the company has been allowed to maximize their profits at the direct expense of American workers!There is no doubt that this and other concerns are being negotiated by Wal-Mart prior to its foray into India. . This also explains why the issue of FDI in retail is being discussed in the Home Ministry, Law Ministry and other ministries to consider a gamut of changes ranging from labour laws and Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to Agricultural Produce Marketing Act to Urban Land Ceiling and Rent Control Acts. It appears that the foreign investors do not want to be bound by applicable land ceilings but want to bind their employees with the provisions of the ESMA to enforce draconian working conditions and take away their right for collective action!

Besides the attack on the livelihood rights of small shopkeepers, the entry of FDI in the retail sector poses a serious threat to the health of Indian consumers. In the drive to make bigger profits, it is well known that food stores in North America use various preservatives and treatment of produce to give it better shelf life and looks. Various scientific studies have linked the use such chemical treatment to increased rate of cancer. However, in spite of such evidence, the government has not been able to ban the use of preservatives, as large retail corporations wield enormous power to scuttle any such legislation. The higher technology that Minister Kamal Nath has mentioned to justify FDI in retail also includes use of such chemical treatment.

People who want to avoid such food items with chemical preservatives have to go to special organic food stores and pay much higher prices for these. The higher prices for untreated food is a result of the monopoly position of large retailers. The large retailers exercise control on what is produced in the country because their contracts can make or break the fortunes of farmers and food processors. Since much of the food is procured for supermarkets, the food growers have no choice but to comply with their requirements. Only very small farms cater to the needs of the organic food stores.

Government's assurance of employment generation by FDI in retail appears dubious at best. Given that large retailers use the latest 'technology', they can run large stores with crores of Rupees of daily business with a small number of employees. For example, a technology is now available that can put a micro-chip radio label (RFID) on each item in the store. The RFID system can keep track of inventory automatically. In fact it is entirely possible that employees at the cash register could be eliminated altogether by such system. Whether or not the FDI in retail brings in such technology immediately, the number of employees is likely to be small in spite of the large volume of business that these large retailers will be doing. Writing on the wall is also clear about the existing small retailers, whose business will soon become unsustainable and will be forced to go out of business. It is clear that over the years the number of people who would be able to earn their livelihood from retail will reduce drastically.

Apart from the totally false promise of employment generation, Kamal Nath has hinted at various provisions for protecting the existing small retailers, in anticipation of opposition from this section. It is being suggested that initially FDI in retail sector may be allowed only to the extent of 26% of total investment and limited to only in certain geographical areas but not the others. The latter move is solely to suit Wal-Mart rather than out of consideration for the livelihood of small shopkeepers. Of course, when the big bourgeoisie is ready, these limits can be easily extended or removed altogether.

FDI, like all other capitalist investments, is motivated by extraction of the maximum profits from the exploitation of the workers. Opening the retail sector for FDI is most definitely not the demand of toilers and tillers of this land. The real issue, that the media has not raised, is that FDI in retail sector is another attack on the toilers and tillers of our country. It will most definitely lead to curtailment of the labour rights for those employed in retail industry and the use of high technology will certainly increase the level of exploitation of our people. It is also a threat to our sovereignty. By any definition, such a move must be considered anti-national! The toilers and tillers of our country are not going to gain from FDI in retail sector. What they will benefit from is our own investments in areas that address the basic needs of the toiling masses instead of squandering them in unproductive expenses for debt repayment and war related investments. They will benefit from developing our economy self reliantly to serve the needs of the people and trading with other countries in mutually beneficial manner rather than the current direction of economy in favour of a handful of exploiters.

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Jobless growth - A Manifestation of Increasing Capitalist Exploitation
Part II

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The first part of this series explained that during the years of reform and "economic growth", far from creating new jobs, the Indian bourgeoisie has actually cut down jobs in the organized sector to maximize profits. All these years, the bourgeoisie has been trying to accelerate economic growth not to address the huge problem of unemployment, but to capture new markets and earn windfall profits. In its drive to become competitive, the bourgeoisie has shrunk the organized working force, and resorted to outsourcing production to smaller units employing casual labour. This part explains why this phenomenon of jobless growth is an inevitable feature of capitalist growth in conditions of increasing hegemony of finance capital and prolonged capitalist crisis accompanied by more frequent bouts of over and under production.

Jobless Growth

During the nineties and till today, the world economy has been torn by economic upheavals of the likes rarely seen before. The initial years of the nineties witnessed some economic growth, spurred mostly by the IT industry. This period was also characterised by heavy speculation in the stock market. When the IT bubble burst several countries went into recession and economic stagnation. The entire south-East Asian region was hit by an unprecedented economic crisis leading to huge losses in assets and livelihood. The second largest economy in the world, Japan, has been going through a prolonged period of economic stagnation, interspersed with years of actual economic contraction. Several countries in the European Union are yet to come out of the crisis even today. The United States, the biggest imperialist power, has been grappling with record trade deficits, accompanied by high unemployment and economic stagnation.

In India too, there were ups and downs in economic growth. During the initial years of the nineties the economy grew at a fairly rapid rate, to be followed by a slowdown during the final years of the nineties. The bursting of the IT bubble had its negative effects in India too. Millions of people lost their life savings in the stock market crash of the late nineties. What characterised this period was the increasing hegemony of finance capital in the economy, frequent crises in several sectors of the economy, stock market booms and busts and above all jobless growth.

In spite of high rates of economic growth, the actual employment in the organised sector actually declined. Between 1997-2002, total estimated employment in the organised sector declined by over 10.4 lakhs from 282.4 lakhs to 272 lakhs. The employment in the public sector has declined by over 4% during this period while in the private sector it has declined by about 3%.

What is the reason for this phenomenon of capitalist growth accompanied by stagnation in employment or even absolute decline in numbers of employed? As capitalism advances, the proportion of capital that goes to purchase labour power (called variable capital) diminishes, in relation to the capital advanced to purchase the material means of production (called constant capital). In India, during the years of economic reforms and capitalist growth, the productive powers of labour have increased to such an extent, that the ratio of variable to constant capital has declined to a very low level. This changing composition of capital is reflected in the employment elasticity. According to official data, employment elasticity for output growth has declined over the years in India. The elasticity has fallen from 0.52 during 1983-94 to 0.16 during 1993-20001. That is, for every additional unit of capital, if 0.52 jobs were created during 1983-94, only 0.16 jobs were created during 1993-2000!

Fig-1: Rapid growth in labour productivity

Thus, in the capitalist system, the continuous increase in the productivity of labour does not lead to the liberation of the workers from long hours of toil. On the contrary, increase in the productivity of labour only enslaves the labourers further to capital. It leads to the intensification of exploitation of the employed work force, on the one hand, and an expanding army of unemployed on the other hand. Data from the Annual Survey of Industries precisely prove this point. (Fig-1)

But, while each worker created 50% more value during these years, the capitalist paid proportionately less wages to their workers, on the whole according to a December 2003 study by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). (Fig-2)

One reason for this is that jobs were outsourced to small scale units. The capitalist, thus, made a double profit--first, by reducing the regular workforce and getting more work done per worker, and second, by outsourcing part of the work to casual workers and paying them a pittance. To counter the tendency of the rate of growth of capitalist profit to fall with greater infusion of technology and machines, the capitalists resorted to further intensification of capitalist exploitation.

Fig-2: Drop in share of wages

A large number of companies in both the public and private sector have reduced their workforce in the post-reform years in this way. New projects which have come up during these years have not created enough jobs to compensate for this loss.

Data from the Annual Survey of Industries point out that, in medium industrial establishments, while the capitalist made a one-time investment of Rs 20 lakhs per worker, he got nearly Rs 14 lakhs worth of value added by the worker every year. The capitalist earned back the investment within 1 ½ years and thereafter expropriated the worker regularly, paying him a lesser and lesser share of value created as wages.

All these reiterate the fact that unemployment is a fellow traveller of the capitalist system. As capitalism advances, lesser number of workers are required to generate an equivalent value. The capitalists also need a large army of unemployed so that they can beat down wages and exploit the worker more. So, the bourgeois propaganda that capitalist growth by itself can solve the unemployment problem is a huge lie.

The lasting solution to the problem of unemployment lies in putting an end to the exploitative capitalist system and replacing it with the socialist system. Only in a socialist system, where the means of production are not in private hands, but are the common property of society as a whole, the surplus generated will be consumed by social need and not private greed. The orientation of the economy to satisfy the material and cultural needs of the toiling people will ensure uninterrupted extended reproduction, totally eliminating periodic crises. Thus, in a socialist system, the increase in the productivity of labour will directly result in raising the standard of living of the labourers, including the quantity and quality of their leisure time.

It is with this vision of reorienting the Indian economy, and of replacing capitalism by socialism, that workers and peasants should strive to establish their own rule in India.

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Communal violence (suppression) bill: Another fascist attack on the rights of people

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One of the promises that the UPA government made when it came to power last year, as part of its Common Minimum Program, was that it would enact a law to curb the problem of communal violence. It had to make this promise in the face of overwhelming mass opposition to the communal genocide in Gujarat in 2002 and the demand for punishment of the guilty. Towards this end, on April 22, 2005, the Home Ministry of the UPA government finalised the draft of a bill called the Communal Violence (Suppression) Bill, which is now being studied by the PM's office and the National Advisory Council (NAC) headed by Sonia Gandhi.

However, a study of the provisions of this draft bill raises the very serious question as to whether this bill will actually help to put an end to the problem of communal violence or whether it will be yet another fascist attack on the rights of the people, in the name of doing so (See Box).

Would the provisions of this bill help to curb the kind of communal genocide that occurred in Gujarat in 2002 or the genocide against the Sikh community 20 years ago, or the innumerable other cases of heinous communal violence and massacres that have taken place?

It has been widely acknowledged that the communal genocide in Gujarat in 2002 was state-organised, as also the communal massacre of Sikhs in 1984 and the violence against muslims following the destruction o f the Babri Masjid in 1992-93. The role of the major political parties, the Central and state governments and the state machinery in organising and executing the communal violence and massacres has been proven time and again. However, our rulers, taking over from the legacy of the British colonialists, always spread the lie that the people are communally divided, while the government and the state machinery are instrumental in maintaining communal harmony and peace. This bill is also based on the same perverted logic. It gives sweeping powers to the Central government to declare any region as "communally disturbed", to deploy the armed forces to search, arrest and fire upon people, merely on the basis of suspicion.

The evidence provided by countless victims and witnesses of the Gujarat massacre, the 1984 and 1992-93 communal pogroms clearly shows that the police and armed forces failed to control the violence or to protect the people who were targeted precisely because they received orders from their political bosses, to allow the communal violence to spread. It was not for lack of powers to control it. How will giving the police and armed forces more coercive powers, as the bill proposes to do, help to solve the problem? Will the army and police "search, arrest or fire upon" well-known politicians and ministers instrumental in organising and abetting the communal violence, against whom there is confirmed evidence of scores of people, not just "suspicion"? Or will their guns be turned on the victims and those trying to help the victims and stop the violence from spreading, as has actually happened in all the previous cases of state-organised communal violence cited above? Armed with the provisions of this bill, some of which are as draconian as other black laws such as the UAPA or its predecessor, POTA, or the AFSPA, the armed apparatus will only attack the people with far more impunity! Many innocent people will be harassed or persecuted, simply on the grounds of "suspicion" of having "abetted the offence".

When the hand of definite political parties in power, either at the Centre or in the State, in organising the communal violence has been shown beyond doubt, how can the suppression of communal violence then be left in the hands of the Central or State governments, as the Bill proposes? Several jurists and concerned citizens' groups have made very concrete proposals for a law that will hold the government in power, the concerned political parties and the state machinery accountable for their role in the communal massacres and render exemplary punishment to the guilty, irrespective of their position or power, based on the recommendations of the victims and activists of the peoples' organisations. But the UPA government has cynically chosen to ignore such proposals. The proposed Bill has no provision to enable citizens' groups or people's organisations to take legal action against a government in power, against political parties, members of the security forces or state officials.

In all the previous cases of communal violence stated above, many political leaders and others enjoying patronage of the political parties of the ruling class, who have been named guilty by witnesses, continue to go scot-free and no action has been taken against them. This continues, even after political parties in power at the Centre or in the State have changed. Commissions of enquiry are periodically set up by the government, to de-fuse the anger of the people, but in most cases, after dragging on for years, they reveal very little, if anything, of the truth. Can it be expected that "special courts" set up by the government will take legal action against its own legislators and officials?

The repeated incidences of communal violence and the fact that the guilty are never punished, is a direct consequence of the fact that under the prevalent political system, political power rests in the hands of a minority, the big bourgeois ruling class, which makes all the vital decisions concerning the society. The vast majority of toiling people are completely deprived of political power and have no say in taking decisions that affect their lives. The laws as well as the agencies that enforce the laws, all serve the interests of the ruling big bourgeoisie and not the interests of the vast majority. That is why, even after there is so much evidence against the organisers and perpetrators of communal violence, there are no mechanisms in the present system, for the people to enforce their will, to enact and enforce implementation of laws that will actually defend the rights of all sections of the people and punish all those who violate these rights.

It is essential that communists and all those concerned with the problem of ending communal violence and ensuring justice for the people should first and foremost, expose and smash this lie that people are communally divided while the state works to maintain communal harmony and peace. Organising communal violence and bloodshed, to divide the working and oppressed people and divert them from the path of united struggle against the anti-social offensive of the bourgeoisie -- this has always been the preferred weapon of the ruling bourgeoisie in India, which they have inherited from their British colonial masters and further perfected. Life experience of our people clearly shows this. We cannot afford to fall prey to the illusion that one section of the ruling bourgeoisie is "more" or "less" communal that another. We have to insist that the prevention of communal violence and genocide and the defence of the rights of the people, including the right to conscience, cannot be left in the hands of the state, which is the organiser and perpetrator of communal violence.

People's organisations all over the country, who have been persistently demanding punishment of those guilty of organising communal violence, have to take the struggle further. We must actively oppose the passage of this proposed bill, which actually seeks to intensify the fascist attacks on the rights and liberties of the people of all communities. It seeks to do so by cynically manipulating the sentiments of our people against communal violence. We have to fight for establishing mechanisms by which people will be empowered to defend themselves and to take action against all those who are guilty of organising and abetting communal violence, whether they be legislators, members of political parties, state officials or anyone else. Only then can we hope to put an end to the repeated occurrence of communal violence and genocide.

An outright attack on the democratic rights and civil liberties of citizens The Communal Violence (Suppression) Bill, 2005 contains provisions that are an outright attack on the democratic rights and civil liberties of citizens. Some of these are: Whenever the State Government or the Central Government is of the opinion that one or more scheduled offences are being committed in any area by any person or group of persons, which involves the use of criminal force against religious, racial, language or regional group/caste/community or use of criminal force or violence is committed with a view to create disharmony or feelings of enmity between different religious/racial/language/regional group, caste or community, it may by notification declare such an area as "communally disturbed." The period specified under this notification may be not in the first instance exceed thirty days, but the State or Central Government may amend such notification to extend such period from time to time by any period not exceeding thirty days at any one time Once the area is declared "communally disturbed", as per the Bill, the Centre can deploy armed forces and nominate one or more Central officers -- not below the rank of Additional Secretary -- to "coordinate steps taken for dealing with the situation." Where any area has been declared as a communally disturbed area, "any commissioned officer, warrant officer, non-commissioned officer or any person of equivalent rank in the armed forces" can: Fire, even cause death, after "giving such due warning as he may consider necessary." Arrest, without warrant -- and use "such force as may be necessary" -- any one who has committed a cognizable offence or "against whom a reasonable suspicion exists that he has committed or is about to commit a cognizable offence." "Enter and search without warrant any premises" to make any such arrest or to recover property "reasonably suspected" to be stolen property Stop, search, seize any vehicle suspected of carrying any person who is believed to have or has committed or is "about to commit" a non-cognizable offence. Power to break open any "door, almirah, safe, cupboard, drawer or other thing, if the key thereof is withheld." No prosecution, suit or legal action can be instituted, except with the previous sanction of the Centre, against any person in respect of anything done under the Act. Clause 21 of the Bill gives a special court (established by notification) an extraordinary power to direct—on being satisfied with a complaint or a police report -- those likely to commit an offence to "remove himself beyond the limit of such area not exceeding six months, as may be specified in that order." Failing which, the people may be "removed in police custody." Under Clause 28 of the Bill, if it is proved that an accused has given any money to a person accused or "reasonably suspected" of a scheduled offence, the "special court shall presume, unless the contrary is proved, that such person has abetted the offence." Similarly, the next clause says that if fingerprints of the accused were found at the site of the offence, the special court "shall draw adverse inference against the accused."

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India-China-Russia Strategic Alliance

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The Foreign Ministers of India, China and Russia are due to meet on June 2 at Vladivostok to discuss strategic cooperation between the three countries. The idea of a trilateral association of these three huge and populous countries was first mooted back in 1996 by Russia. At that time, both India and China responded with great caution, and the initiative did not proceed much beyond the stage of discussions in the academic circles of these countries. However, in the last two to three years, the momentum has picked up, and leading officials of the three countries have been meeting regularly on the sidelines of other international gatherings, such as the UN General Assembly. During his recent visit to India, the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao for the first time openly spoke of the trilateral cooperation as being good for global peace and security. The upcoming Vladivostok meeting will be the first stand-alone meeting of this kind, being held specifically for this purpose.

There are various reasons for the growing interest in the governments of India, China and Russia in enhancing their cooperation. These have mainly to do with the growing US imperialist domination and aggression both globally and especially in Asia. Russia has been greatly alarmed by the very open efforts of the US and its agencies to to encircle Russia by challenging Russian influence in the former Soviet Republics by engineering political disturbances, such as in Ukraine and Georgia and in the Central Asian republics. One of the ways the US has penetrated the Central Asian republics is by involving itself in the exploitation of the oil and gas resources there. Russia is hoping to undermine this by cooperating with China and India in exploiting these resources, since both these countries have shown great interest in this in recent times.

China, which had shown the most coolness earlier to the trilateral initiative, is also deeply suspicious of US moves in Central and South Asia, in addition to the US campaign against China in the spheres of trade and human rights. India which has its own imperialist aims, specially in Central Asia, and which wants a source of oil that is not under US control, is also interested in developing relations with Russia and China.

The significance of a strategic alliance between India, Russia and China has not gone unnoticed by political commentators and governments both in the East and the West. These three countries are among the largest in the world, and together they account for about 40% of the world's population, and nearly one quarter of its land area. Their combined economic and military power is also formidable. However, the question is: can these three powers really act in unison in the present international circumstances? And more importantly, what would be the benefit to the peoples if they did do so?

There is no doubt that the official establishment in America views any strengthening of trilateral cooperation between India, China and Russia as a threat to its own interests, and that it would try by every means to put obstacles in the way. The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to India recently was intended to draw India more tightly into military and security cooperation with the US. India is building a strategic relationship with the US. The US has enormous clout with Russia, whose economy is still struggling to recover from the demise of the Soviet Union. China too does not want to spearhead any major confrontation with the US, as long as its territorial integrity and system are not directly threatened. In these conditions, it remains to be seen how far the trilateral relationship will develop.

All the imperialist and reactionary powers of the world are at the present time engaged in intense manouvering, in the striking of new alliances, and in arming and rearming themselves for an eventual conflict for the redivision of the world. Both the US drive for conquest of Asia and the world, to emerge as the sole leader of a uni-polar world, and the drive of various other imperialist powers for a multi polar world are factors for war. The moves of Russia, China and India to forge some kind of alliance must be seen in this context. The working class and peoples need to exercise utmost vigilance over all such developments. The cause of peace must not be left in the hands of the imperialist and reactionary states.

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Huge Rally by Bolivian People Against Selling Out of Energy Resources

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Protesters in Capital La Paz

Thousands of protestors, many of them indigenous people, marched through La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, on May 16, 2005, to demand that the President approve a bill seeking to raise taxes on foreign energy firms. The protest was very massive, and thousands headed to La Paz from the sprawling city of El Alto. The protestors also blocked several highways. Thousands of cocoa farmers, miners and other toiling people participated in a 200 km long march to La Paz.

The bill, already approved by Congress, seeks to raise the taxes paid by foreign energy firms to 50% of their revenues President Carlos Mesa, obviously backed by "business groups", refused to sign the bill into law, saying that the level of taxes would be then "unworkable". Peasants, farmers and workers, on the other hand, want the bill to be made stricter, an in fact have called for the nationalization of Bolivia's energy industry. Bolivia's greatest natural resource is energy, and the working people feel that only nationalization of this resource will help all of them to benefit from it, rather than a handful of local and foreign energy companies. By going out of his way to accommodate the interests of the rich, President Mesa is clearly seen as a stooge of the foreign oil companies. In October 2003, plans to export natural gas led to a wave of protests and the present President's predecessor had to quit office in their wake.

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Fierce Fighting in Iraq:
Crisis of Occupying US Imperialist Forces Intensifies

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In the last six weeks, over a thousand people have been killed in the course of fierce fighting in Iraq. The US-led occupying forces were hopeful that 'stability' would return after the elections held earlier this year and the formation of a provisional government. They have tried to prop up the order which they want installed by all means, including playing up different sections of the Iraqi people against each other. However, the intensity of the fighting all over Iraq shows that the arrangement that the imperialists wish to force on the Iraqi people will not be easily accepted by them. The occupying forces are getting more and more embroiled in the crisis of their own creation.

The US imperialist forces occupying Iraq have resorted to the most brutal military force to curb the patriotic people fighting them. Over 300 people were detained, for example in a single operation in western Baghdad in the fourth week of May 2005. Thousands of US-led troops fought patriotic forces in north-west Iraq in a week-long operation code named "Matador", in which at least a hundred patriots were killed. Hundreds of people were forced to flee the town of Qaim into the desert as a result of the attack by the US-led forces. The patriotic forces have been striking at the US-led forces and their collaborators all over Iraq. On May 23, 2005, in Baghdad, they shot dead the commander of a new unit set up to fight "insurgents". Attacks by patriotic forces are being reported every day, from Samarra in central Iraq, from Baghdad, from Kirkuk and many other towns.

The US imperialists have also made provocations against Syria. During the military operations in northwest Iraq, they used air-strikes, forcing the Syrian forces along the border to take up defensive positions. US Secretary of State Rice pointedly accused the Syrian government of aiding and abetting the patriotic forces in Iraq during a visit to Iraq in the middle of May 2005. Even though three months have passed after "elections" were held in Iraq, there is no credible government there. Rice sought to downplay this failure of the US imperialists by saying that the Iraqi people were "emerging from a long national nightmare of tyranny into freedom", a process requiring "a lot of patience". In actual fact, it is the US-led aggression and occupation of Iraq that is seen all over the world as one of the most barbaric and tyrannical acts in a long series of horrendous acts by US imperialism.

It is also clear that the US-led forces and their collaborators are resorting to the most dastardly means to drown the struggle of the Iraqi people in a spiral of communal violence. Just before Rice's visit, the bodies of 34 people, obviously Sunnis, who had been brutally murdered, were discovered. One of the leaders of the Shias, Moqtada Al-Sadr, while calling for an immediate withdrawal by the US-led occupying forces, declared that "the occupier is trying to make up a sectarian war between the Sunnis and Shiites". He also demanded that the coalition release all detainees forthwith.

The patriotic people of Iraq have braved the most ferocious attacks from an enemy whose military and technical might is the most formidable in the world. They have made life hell for the occupiers and their collaborators. While the US imperialists earlier claimed that they would be withdrawing their military from Iraq after putting in place an Iraqi government, it is now clear that they will be in no position to do so in the near future. In fact Rice was forced to admit as much during her visit in May 2005. The crisis of the occupying forces, a crisis that is of their own creation, is intensifying further. The people of the entire world are looking forward to their receiving a crushing defeat at he hands of the valiant Iraqi peosple.

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Brutal police terror on political activists

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Sir,

I bring to the attention of the readers of PV the incidents in Andhra Pradesh where several party workers of the Telugu Desam Party and an Assistant Sub Inspector of Police were killed during the filing of nomination for the Penukonda Assembly by polls on May 13, 2005. Many of the victims were killed due to police fire and some due to the ensuing stampede, while the police officer was killed due to injuries resulting from stone throwing.

The Congress Government of Mr. Y. S. Rajasekhar Reddy must take responsibility for this brazen act. On the other hand, the Telugu Desam party which had been in power for a long time in A. P. must now be finding out how it feels to be at the receiving end of state power. Having suppressed people's movements, carrying out routine extra-judicial killings in the name of confronting the 'naxalite menace', it is now getting a dose of its own medicine. It is well-advised to do some soul searching in these times when its fortunes are not doing very well.

Such events of loss of life are a daily event in our country and show the colonial legacy represented by the security forces and the actions they carry out is alive and well. All democratically minded persons must condemn this act of state brutality.

V. Suryanarayana,
Hyderabad

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A timely call

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Sir,

I am writing to congratulate the CGPI on its May Day call urging the working class to unite behind the need to oppose the anti-social offensive of the big bourgeoisie. Your call came at the time the UPA Government was completing a year in office, after its surpise election in 2004.What was not surprising in this period was that it has essentially continued the anti-social policies of the NDA Government, which in turn was perfecting the logic unleashed by the previous Governments, which had set sail on the course of liberalization, reform and privatization.

The last decade has shown that the Indian masses are completely against all these policies. The concomitant crises have manifested themselves in electoral instabilities at the state level of several states, while at the Centre 'stability' has become the keyword. It is unlikely that the big bourgeoisie will be able to continue on its path of maximizing its profits without stability. There are those in the revolutionary camp who wish to provide stability on an anti-communal, anti-liberalization platform, in the form of an oft-talked about third front. It has to be pointed out that even such a platform would be one that would in essence be a pro-capitalist one. It is the content of the anti-social offensive of the bourgeoisie that has to be combated, and not just its form. A program of educating the rank and file of the working class in this regard is necessary at this time.

Sincerely,

A. Narayan,
Bangalore

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