December 16-31, 2006

Let us prepare to establish a Workers’ and Peasants’ Government!

Statement of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, 13 th December 2006

Comrade workers!

The general strike on 14 th December is a show of strength by the Indian working class. We must show the rulers of India that the working class will not put up with the escalating attacks on our rights and livelihood. Neither will we accept the attacks on our peasant brothers and sisters.

The Congress Party led UPA Government took charge in 2004 claiming it had an agenda that is different from the BJP led NDA Government. It claimed that it would implement reforms with a ‘human face’. Facts show that this government is pursuing the agenda of the biggest capitalist houses, just like the previous government. It has become abundantly clear that the ‘human face’ of the Manmohan Singh regime is only a mask to hide the monstrous nature of the agenda being pursued.

The agenda and aim of both the NDA and UPA governments have been to rapidly expand the wealth of the big bourgeoisie. Between 1999 and 2006, the wealth of the Reliance family has expanded from Rs. 5000 crore to Rs. 100,000 crore – that is, by 20 times. The number of persons with accounted wealth over Rs. 100 crore has risen from 100 to about 400 in these seven years. Their total wealth has risen by seven and a half times – from Rs. 80,000 crore to Rs. 630,000 crore. And this does not even include the massive unaccounted wealth in their hands.

The big business houses – headed by these 400 super-rich families – want India to become a first rate imperialist power by 2020. They want to develop a strategic partnership with US imperialism to achieve their own imperialist aims. They want Mumbai to overtake Shanghai and Delhi to look like Washington, D.C. It is this dream of the big bourgeoisie that is being fulfilled by both the UPA and the NDA, by the Supreme Court and other organs of state power in our country.

For the sake of fattening the big capitalists and fulfilling their imperialist aims, workers are being denied the right to job security. Our homes are being demolished for the sake of building ‘dream cities’ for the big bourgeoisie. Our real wages are shrinking due to the soaring prices of essential articles of consumption. Our savings, pension and provident funds are under the threat of being raided by the capitalist profiteers. Lakhs of workers are being thrown out of work as capitalists close down factories and sell the land to reap super-profits. Public services are being converted into private profit making businesses. The privatisation policy is being pursued in a new form, called ‘public-private partnership’.

Precious lands belonging to peasants are being handed over to the big business houses so that they can grow bigger through real estate speculation. Thousands of peasants continue to be driven to suicide every month. Tribal peoples, fisherfolk and other communities are being displaced and ruined for the sake of fulfilling the big bourgeoisie’s dream. Small shopkeepers in cities are being attacked for the sake of expanding space for giant shopping malls, in the interests of Indian and international capitalist corporations.

Comrade workers!

There are parties and netas within the working class movement who are creating confusion about the difference between the Congress Party and the BJP. It is this confusion that is holding back the forward march of the working class movement today.

The Congress Party and the BJP have the same agenda. They serve the same class aims. Only their posturing and tactics are different.

When the BJP led coalition was in power, the struggles of the working class developed into a powerful and united force, because there was no confusion about whose interests the government represents. Today, when the Congress led coalition is in power, confusion is being created because the leaders of the Left Front are part of The National Advisory Council headed by Sonia Gandhi. This confusion is the main difference between BJP rule and Congress Party rule.

The massacre of Sikhs in 1984 was carried out when the Congress Party was in power. The destruction of Babri Masjid in 1992, and the communal violence that followed, was organised when the BJP was in power in Uttar Pradesh and the Congress Party in power in New Delhi. The terror unleashed against Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 took place when the BJP was in power both in the state and at the centre.

We cannot afford to be fooled by the fact that the BJP talks of ‘Hindutva’ while the Congress preaches ‘secularism’. Hindutva and secularism are two sides of the same coin. The Congress Party and BJP are two arms of the ruling class, working to divert the people and drown their struggles in blood.

Two and a half years of the UPA government shows that this government was brought to power by the big bourgeoisie, with the aim of reconciling and weakening the struggle of the working class against capitalist reforms. The bourgeoisie has continued on its course, confident that the support of the ‘Left Front’ will keep the workers and peasants confused and disunited.

As long as the bourgeoisie remains in power, the course of India is not going to change. In order the change the course of India in favour of the toilers and tillers, it is necessary for the working class to become the ruling class, in alliance with the peasants. It is necessary to usher in a Workers’ and Peasants’ Government that will reorient the economy to ensure that it serves the toilers and tillers.

For too long has our movement been held back by those who ask us to vote for this or that bourgeois coalition. The time has come to build our own political front. We must build a common front of workers, peasants, women and youth, with the aim of becoming the masters of India.

What the Indian working class needs today is not a parliamentary front led by Sonia Gandhi or V. P. Singh or some other politician of the bourgeois class. What we need is a people’s front that is built from below and is led by the communists. Such a front can put forward popular candidates from among the workers and peasants, selected by them and not by any party behind their backs.

Let us build a fighting front around the following demands and slogans:

Halt the policy of liberalisation, privatisation and ‘public-private partnership’!

Guarantee the rights of labour in all sectors, for all employees without exception!

Protect pension and provident funds from being handed over to private profiteers!

Halt demolitions and build workers’ housing at state expense!

Ban SEZs and return all farming lands seized from peasants!

Ban all sale of land to capitalists and establish social control over land use!

Establish a Universal Public Distribution System by banning private corporations from the sphere of external and internal wholesale trade!

Guarantee cheap input supply and public procurement of crops at remunerative prices!

Suspend debt service payments to external agencies and use the money saved to fulfill the people’s basic needs!

Punish the guilty of 1984, 1992, 2002 and other communal crimes!

Repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and all other black laws!

Renew the political process to end the domination of capitalist parties over elections!

Mazdoor kisan ka hai yeh naara!

Hum hai iske malik! Hindostan humaara!