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Internet Edition: January 16-31, 2006
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VOICE OF PARTY |
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Online Archives
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Condemn the brutal killing of adivasis in Orissa! On January 2, police in Orissa brutally fired upon thousands of adivasis who had gathered to protest against the building of a boundary wall for a proposed Tata Steel plant in Kalinga Nagar, Jajpur, killing at least 12 persons. Numerous others are battling for their lives after sustaining severe injuries. With great anger, People's Voice condemns this outrageous act of state terrorism directed against masses of people struggling to defend their livelihood and way of life.
The police firing in Kalinga Nagar was no 'unfortunate accident', as various state government functionaries and capitalist representatives have pronounced. It was a deliberate and cold-blooded attempt to cow down the brave people whose struggle to defend their lives and means of survival is threatening the schemes of both Indian and foreign big capitalists to extract superprofits from the rich mineral wealth of the region. Spurred on by the ongoing liberalization and privatisation drive, the BJD government of Naveen Patnaik is going all out to sell off the land and natural assets of Orissa to the highest bidder at the fastest possible rate. It has already signed 43 MOUs worth Rs 118,000 crores with various multinationals and Indian big capitalists such as the Birlas and Tatas to open mines and set up aluminum and steel plants. In the Jajpur region alone, 13 steel plants are being set up. One survey estimates that nearly 41% of the unexploited bauxite reserves in the state, 68% of chromite, 26% of iron ore and 20% of manganese ore will be consumed by these projects in just the next 25 years. These plans are being made without a thought for the interests of the adivasi and peasant residents of the areas concerned. The government first acquires land from the people for a song, and then sells off the land to the capitalists at ten times the price. The displaced people are left in abysmal conditions. Even those evicted from their lands decades ago to make way for dams and hydroelectric projects such as the Hirakud dam are yet to be rehabilitated. However, the courageous, united and mass struggle of people in Orissa against these plans is a big spoke in the wheel of these plans of the big capitalists and the state government. The people of Orissa have been struggling for years against big projects that have sought to eject them from their beautiful and productive agricultural and forest land. In the 1980s they forced the government to cancel its plans to establish a missile testing range in Baliapal, through a two year long mass struggle that prevented even a single government functionary from entering their region. Since the late 1990s, residents of Kashipur have been waging a determined fight against the proposed aluminum plant, a joint venture of Hindalco and the Canadian company Alcan. In Gandhamardhan, Chilika, Indravati, Kotagarh, Lakhari, Paradip, and other places as well, the people have fought persistently against so-called “development” projects which they know from bitter experience will leave them destitute and destroy their way of life and their land and forests. In the process, they have had to courageously face the bullets of the state forces. Just six months back, adivasis in Kalinga Nagar were savagely beaten up by police for protesting against the acquisition of their land by for the Tata Steel plant. In numerous other struggles, adivasi and other fighters have been shot down in cold blood by the police. The police atrocities in Orissa are the clearest demonstration that the state is an instrument in the hands of the exploiting classes as a whole to put down the resistance of the exploited. The big capitalists from all over India and abroad are rushing to Orissa to partcipate in the loot and plunder of its resources, and the state is doing everything possible to facilitate this and to put down people's opposition, including slaughter on the scale just witnessed in Kalinga Nagar. But they are finding that the struggle of the adivasis and peasants of Orissa, which includes men and women and the young and old, is not easy to put down. The adivasis at Kalinga Nagar have vowed to intensify their struggle. They say that it is not an issue of compensation, but of their right to their land. The working class all over India must come out in support of their heroic struggle, which is an important part of the overall struggle to defeat the big bourgeoisie's drive for globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation and defend the livelihood and rights of the working people. |
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Communiqué of the Central Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India The Fifth Plenum of the Fourth Central Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India was held on 28 th December, 2006, shortly after the conclusion of the 25 th anniversary celebrations of the founding of the party.
The Fifth plenum assessed very positively the Consultative Conference organised by the Party on the economic program of democratic renewal of India. The comrades of the party from different regions and different areas of work participated actively and enthusiastically in this Consultative Conference. The Fifth Plenum decided that this important work of enriching and further developing the economic and political program of workers’ and peasants’ rule must be taken forward without letup. The Fifth Plenum called on the party organisations in different regions to step up their agitation, propaganda and organising work within the working class. It called on the entire Party to work untiringly to ensure that on May Day this year, our working class marches in unison in all the industrial centers of our vast country around its own economic and political program. The plenum took important decisions towards developing the work amongst the peasantry, the women, and the youth during this year. It concluded in a militant revolutionary atmosphere. Full of great pride in the work of the Party in these 25 difficult years and conscious of the great challenges ahead, confident in the line of march of the Party, all the comrades left the Plenum with renewed determination to turn the year 2006 into a year of decisive advance for the working class movement in India. |
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Consultative Conference on the Economic Program of Democratic Renewal of India The Central Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India organised a Consultative Conference on 26-27 December, 2005 to discuss the economic program of democratic renewal of India. Delegates from Party organisations from different regions and fronts of work participated vigorously in this Consultative Conference. The conference analyzed the objective situation, the operation of the laws of capitalism today and the main content of the economic program of the bourgeoisie. It drew important conclusions about the program of the working class, around which the workers and peasants and all the working people of India can and must be politically united at this time. Our Party concluded at our Third Congress, held in January, 2005, that the class struggle is becoming more intense and the objective conditions are maturing for the revolutionary tide to turn. Preparing the subjective conditions has become especially urgent. We noted that elaborating the vision of the political power and the economic system of the rule of workers and peasants and a voluntary Indian Union is the key task to be taken up for solution at this time. The Consultative Conference on the economic program of democratic renewal was organized by the Central Committee in order to address this task set by the Third Congress. Initiating the discussion at the consultative conference, Comrade Lal Singh pointed out that the Indian working class must have its own program in order to play its historic role as the leader of all the oppressed; and of the forward march of society from capitalism to socialism. The ultimate aim of the working class is to end the exploitation of one person by another, by building socialism through revolution, up to its final stage of communism, a classless society. The program of the working class must have this as the ultimate aim, and be consistent with modern communist theory. It must also clarify how to get to our ultimate aim; that is, clarify what are the immediate steps that can be taken to redirect society towards the goal of socialism and communism. Comrade Lal Singh pointed out that we have gained considerable experience in organising the workers, peasants, women and youth around the program for the democratic renewal of India, to become the masters of society and reorient the economy to fulfill their needs. We adopted this program at our Second Congress in October 1998. We decided to organise the working class and its allies to take up this program and further develop it in the course of the class struggle. The experience of the class struggle has given rise to new questions and we are devcloping the program in the course of dealing with these questions. The most important question that is demanding attention from everyone at this time is: What is to be done with the econ omy to see that it fulfills the claims of those whose toil creates the wealth? Members from different parts of the country and from abroad participated actively in the discussions, held in groups and summed up at plenary sessions. Questions and lessons emerging from practical experience were discussed in the light of modern communist theory and the conception of rights and duties in Indian thought. The Conference concluded in an atmosphere where the delegates from the different regiions and fronts of work hailed, through their interventions, the Party's decision to elaborate on the economic program for democratic renewal, and confirmed that bringing this work to the next stage was crucial for the advance of the struggle of the workers and peasants of India towards the rule of workers and peasants and a voluntary Indian Union. |
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Condemn the attack on the office of CPI(M)! A conflict between workers and their employer is being twisted and portrayed in the media as a fight between Ayurveda and communism, represented by Swami Ramdev versus Comrade Brinda Karat. A crowd claiming to be followers of Swami Ramdev carried out a violent attack on the Delhi office premises of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). People’s Voice condemns these anti-communist acts that are being carried out in the name of defending ancient Indian wisdom. Passions have been aroused around this issue. It is necessary for all thinking people to study the facts dispassionately and sift the truth from lying propaganda. The origin of the trouble was in a dispute between the workers employed in the production of Ayurvedic medicines in one of the establishments managed by Swami Ramdev. The workers who were thrown out of their jobs were fighting to get reinstated. Their struggle was being supported and championed by the CITU and CPI(M) MP Brinda Karat. In the context of this struggle, the workers and their leaders accused the management of various misdeeds. Is it a crime for workers who have been thrown out of work to expose the misdeeds of their capitalist employer, as part of their struggle to get back their jobs? Does it become a crime just because the employer happens to be a Swami who has a mass following? Ever since the birth of the communist movement in India, the reactionary bourgeoisie has resorted to the false propaganda that communists are foreign agents, that they are against Indian thought, against indigenous medicine such as Ayurveda, and so on. The facts tell a different story. Indigenous systems of medicine have been grossly neglected in India, where the bourgeoisie and its “patriotic” parties such as the Congress Party and BJP have been in command. Less than 5% of the health budget is devoted to indigenous systems, while more than 95% is allocated to allopathic medicine. Under the influence of Euro-Centric thought, these bourgeois parties which have ruled in India for over 58 years since independence have relegated Indian and Asian schools of medicine to the margins. While pride of place has been given to the teaching of allopathy, and dog eat dog competition prevails for getting into the medical schools, other schools of medicine have been left to fend for themselves and stagnate. Indigenous medical practices and knowledge of the Chinese people flourished under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. The champions of western allopathic medicine used to ridicule the medical theories and methods of the Chinese doctors 50 years ago, but they have been forced to recognise and respect them today. Indigenous systems of medicine are flourishing today in Cuba and in North Korea, two other countries where communists are in command. The progress of Indian society requires the most advanced theory, which would inherit the best of Indian thought material, take into account the developments in scientific knowledge and technology on the world scale, and be suited to the conditions of our country. This is the communist outlook. Workers have every right to fight for their rights and against dismissals and persecution at the work place, independent of who the employer may be. This is a question of principle that all communists uphold. |
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Condemn the terrorist attack on scientists in Bangalore! People's Voice condemns the terrorist attack on scientists at the Indian Institute of Science, (IISc) Bangalore on the evening of December 28, 2005. The scientists, from various scientific and technological institutions all over India and other countries, had been attending a conference at the IISc and were on their way to dinner within the campus, when heavily armed masked terrorists opened fire on them, killing one scientist and injuring four others. People's Voice extends its heartfelt sympathies to the families of those killed and injured in this dastardly attack. Who stands to gain from such a dastardly act of terror? The working people and scientists of our country clearly stand to lose. Who gains by creating a climate of anarchy and violence all over the country? People must think seriously about this question and not blindly believe the speculations and allegations in the media. The terrorist strike in Bangalore comes in the wake of the bomb scare in parliament, the killing and injuring of hundreds of people in market places on the eve of Diwali in Delhi, as well as the strike in Ayodhya earlier in the year. These attacks are taking place at a time when ever larger sections of our people, including the scientific community, are coming out on the streets and opposing both the economic course pursued by the UPA government, as well as its strategic alliance with the US imperialists. Terrorist attacks serve to divert attention from the rulers and focus it instead on some mysterious enemies. The terrorist attack in Bangalore took place at a time when the Indian and Pakistani people are pushing hard to pressurize their governments to work for an atmosphere of peace and friendship in the region, and move forward both on the peaceful settlement of the Kashmir problem, as well as on the oil pipeline linking Iran to India via Pakistan. It is known that the US is expressly opposed to any moves that block its domination and influence in this region, and would like India and Pakistan to be at loggerheads. It is also known that the US intelligence agencies are extremely active in India and working closely with their Indian counterparts. The Indian state claims that it had prior information of the possibility of a terrorist strike in Bangalore. Why then were no efforts made to foil the strike? It cannot be ruled out that apart from everything else, the targeting of the premier scientific institution was to spread terror psychosis in the academic, scientific and research institutions across the country so as to justify increasing policing of such institutions and stepped up attacks on democratic rights and liberties in the name of countering terrorism. Terrorism began to be used as the preferred weapon by the Indian ruling class in the early 1980s against the peoples of India. It has been used to justify increased state terrorism and to discredit the peoples fighting for their rights. In Punjab, the North East and Kashmir, the central intelligence agencies infiltrated the fighting forces, and set up killer squads to carry out wanton terrorist strikes. The ruling class organised to communalise the atmosphere, to disorient, divide and divert the people from their struggles. Throughout this period of over 22 years, state terrorism and individual terrorism have accompanied the ruthless pursuit of the anti-worker, anti-peasant and anti-national economic reforms program. Terrorism is thus part of the offensive of the bourgeoisie to suppress the peoples and their rights, so as to transform India into a world class imperialist power. Thinking Indians must draw appropriate lessons from history. The base of terrorism in India is the rule of the Indian big bourgeoisie, in contention and collusion with the biggest imperialist powers of the world. The struggle against terrorism must therefore be directed against the dictatorship of the big bourgeoisie. People must persist with their demand that the state is duty bound to provide protection, and when attacks on lives occur, to apprehend, convict and punish the guilty. |
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Struggles of forest communities mount Millions of people living in the forests, including large number of tribals, have been agitating for their rights over their traditional lands and sources of livelihood. They are demanding that the State pass a law recognising these rights and ensuring mechanisms for enforcing these rights. Forest communities have been victims of brutal injustice for literally hundreds of years. Areas which are termed “forest” actually include the homes, fields, pastures and community lands of millions of people, many of whom are tribals, who have tended and lived off them for centuries. Most of the lands tended by forest communities do not have formal ownership titles, a fact used first by the British and then by the Indian government to deprive these communities of their lands and livelihood. In order to exploit the timber and other resources of forests, the British colonialists declared vast tracts of forest lands which had been inhabited and managed by forest communities to be “government” forest. Vast tracts of lands, in the areas that are now Uttaranchal, Orissa and Himachal Pradesh, all land that was not recorded as 'privately owned' or 'cultivated' were declared to be “state forests”. The rightful inhabitants were at the mercy of the government ; they were declared ‘encroachers’ on their own traditional lands and put under constant threat of being evicted and hounded out. Though the Forest Department of the Indian Government formed in 1947 agreed in principle that rights of communities living in forests would be respected, it continued and extended the same process of exploitation and expropriation. Since forest lands are rich in natural and mineral resources, the Indian bourgeoisie wished to exploit these areas freely. Recently, over 94.8 lakh hectares of community land in Madhya Pradesh was declared the sole property of the Forest Department. More than 4 million people who live inside the areas that have been declared 'national parks' and 'sanctuaries' and many more millions more who live in the larger 'reserved and protected forest' areas are treated as criminals merely because they are living on lands that have traditionally been their homes. Forest officials and guards wield tremendous power in these areas and regularly carry out extortion, torture, sexual abuse and even killings of people from the forest communities with impunity. In Maharashtra and Assam, the forest officials used trained elephants to flatten entire villages, while in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chattisgarh, and other states, houses and villages have been burned to the ground. In recent cases that have come to light in Burhanpur and Khandwa districts of MP, standing crops of 231 families and the homes of 29 families have been destroyed. To justify this brutal injustice to the forest communities, the Indian state has been carrying out the utterly false propaganda that the forest dwellers, who are merely living off their traditional sources of livelihood, are destroying the forests and its flora and fauna. On the other hand, forest communities have insisted that they are fully aware of the role that forests play in their lives and know fully well that they themselves would be the first victims of forest destruction. They have used their traditional knowledge to maintain and nurture forests very well. Since 1931, 7,000 Van Panchayats in Uttaranchal have been protecting forests entirely on their own, with no assistance from the Forest Department and these forests are flourishing very well. Thousands more communities are doing the same in Jharkhand, Orissa, Chattisgarh and other States. On the other hand, the Ministry of Environment and Forests has blatantly violated all scientific conservation norms and even the Forest Conservation Act 1980 on several occasions, by giving clearance to big monopoly corporations to set up industrial and mining projects in the forest lands, to loot and plunder natural resources wantonly for their private profit, leading to the devastation of those forests and the environment. During the winter session of Parliament in late 2005, massive demonstrations of adivasis and others took place at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. ‘Jail Bharo” protest campaigns were also organised in different parts of the country. These agitations were to protest against the atrocities committed on tribals and other forest peoples as well as to draw the attention of the government to the shortcomings in The Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2005. This Bill was introduced as a result of decades of struggles of people living in forest communities, as a measure of recognizing some of their rights. The working class and toiling people of India fully support the struggle of the people living in forest communities. This is an important part of the struggle of the working and oppressed people against the big bourgeoisie, Indian and foreign, which wants to expropriate even the most deprived sections to maximise their profits. People's Voice hails the united struggle of tribal and non-tribal forest communities for legal recognition of their rights over their lands as well as for enforcing mechanisms to empower the forest dwellers to assert their rights. |
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Sri Lankan President visits India Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse concluded a 4-day visit to India at the end of December. This visit, the first that Rajapakse undertook to any foreign country since being elected to office a few weeks ago, was viewed with great interest because of the growing role that the Indian government is playing in Sri Lanka's affairs, and specifically because of Rajapakse's indication that he wanted India to become a co-chair of the peace talks between his government and the LTTE. Rajapakse's visit comes at a time when Sri Lanka is standing at a very difficult and complex point in its recent history. The nearly 4 year long ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil militants in the north headed by the LTTE is fast eroding. The dialogue between the two sides has practically come to a standstill, and the politics of assassination and mutual suspicion, as well as the severe violation of human rights, are all on the increase once more. Among the people, there is a deep yearning for an end to the conflict and for peace, but there is also a feeling of helplessness as the activities of the various parties and groups over the years has so deeply polarised the polity, that the way out is not clear. An added danger for Sri Lanka is that so many foreign powers, each with its own interests, have got involved in the country's internal politics. Norway has been the mediator in the peace talks for several years. Under the guise of international donor conferences, which have linked financial aid to Sri Lanka to the government-LTTE talks, the US, Japan and the European Union have also got involved. Now India, which had backed away from direct involvement after the failure of its so-called “peace-keeping” expedition to Sri Lanka in the 1980s and the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, is showing great interest in the political situation in Sri Lanka, encouraged by earlier the former government of Kumaratunga and now even more by Rajapakse. Kumaratunga's government had concluded a defence cooperation agreement with the Indian government. The Indian government is also actively pursuing “development” activities in the highly sensitive eastern region of the country, which includes the Trincomalee naval base. During Rajapakse's visit, some agreements were concluded to facilitate this. Although the Indian government did not formally agree to co-chair the peace talks, its embassy in Colombo is actively involving itself in bringing about a rapprochement between the ruling party and some Tamil groups in Sri Lanka, possibly to undercut the domination of the LTTE over Tamil politics. The Indian working class and people should oppose any move by the Indian government to get more closely involved in the political affairs of Sri Lanka. Closely linked as we are by ties of geography, history and culture with the people of Sri Lanka, the Indian working class and people have deep sympathy for the desire of the people there for peace and an end to conflict. We have full confidence that a solution can be found through the persistent efforts of well-meaning people in Sri Lanka itself, on the basis of respect and guarantee for the human and democratic rights of all the peoples, including the Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, and others. It is an illusion to think that the Indian state can ever play a meaningful role in bringing about an acceptable peace and justice for all sections of the people in Sri Lanka. Interference in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka by the Indian ruling class, that nurtures great ambitions of being the overlord of this region, and is a master at the art of intrigue and playing off one party against the other, can never be in the interests of the people of Sri Lanka. |
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