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Internet Edition: February 16-28, 2006
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VOICE OF PARTY |
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Online Archives
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Airport privatisation settlement a betrayal
What is the agreement on the basis of which the strike has been called off? According to news reports, the government will go ahead with the deals to award the Mumbai and Delhi airports' contracts to the two foreign players whose bids have been approved. The CPI and CPM leaders have convinced the workers and their unions to call off the strike, on the assurance of the government that workers who went on strike would not be victimised and there would be no retrenchment of the workforce following privatisation. It is claimed that the government has got an undertaking from the two foreign companies to absorb 65% of the workforce of AAI. AAI will retain 15% of the workforce, while the remaining workers are expected to retire in the next two years. The government and its apologists are doing propaganda that since air traffic is a growing business, workers need not worry about loss of jobs! The agreement brokered by the CPI and CPM between the government and the trade unions is a betrayal of the interests of the working class and the country, including the AAI workers. Past experience shows that the promises of the government to workers on job security are not worth anything. Neither are the promises of the capitalists, Indian or foreign, who take over the public assets. The agreement between the Left parties and the government in their Common Minimum Program, that profit making PSU's will not be privatised, is not worth the ink it is written on. Nor is the assurance of the CPM and CPI that they will "fight tooth and nail" against privatisation, Just as in the case of the Modern Food Industries Limited, which was a profit making enterprise sold to the multinational Hindustan Lever Limited, the multinational companies who will now acquire majority stake in Delhi and Mumbai airports are doing so to loot the public exchequer, to take over the huge assets of the AAI including its lands, to make a big killing. Just as in the case of MFIL, the exploitation of the workers will be intensified, there will be mass retrenchments and victimisations, as well as resorting to contract labour. The workers of the AAI must regroup and make plans to carry on the struggle, in the situation created by the strike being called off and the agreement signed on behalf of them by their leaders with the government. Already, there is talk of the privatisation of Kolkata airport, with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya enthusiastically voting for it. |
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The Struggle of the Indian Rail Workers is Just! Statement of the CGPI, 8 February, 2006 Comrades,
Over the past several years, the Indian rail workers have demanded that the government address their just demands, but the government on its part has been adamant in its attitude of turning a deaf ear to these demands. The Joint Consultative Machinery established to solve differences between the government and its employees has become inactive and lifeless. In these circumstances, the rail workers have been left with no alternative than to go on strike.
Expressing its inability to fulfil these extremely just demands, the government has been once again repeating its worn out excuse that it has a ‘shortage of funds’. But neither the rail workers nor the working people are ready to accept this excuse because it is clear that in order to fulfil the dreams of the big capitalists, government ministers and high officials, to buy weapons in the name of ‘security’ and so on, there is never ever any ‘shortage of funds’ for the government; on the contrary crores of rupees are always available for such reasons. In order to break the proposed strike of the 35 lakh government employees including rail workers, the government is threatening to apply the Essential Services Maintenance Act. The government had resorted to a similar tactic recently when airport employees went on strike against the decision of the International Airport Authority of handing over the airports of Delhi and Mumbai to multinational companies. This exposes the anti worker attitude of the government which is for removing all hurdles in the way of the growth and amassing of big Indian and foreign capitalists, is sacrificing the rights of the working people, making labour laws ‘flexible’ for the benefit of the bourgeoisie, etc. However, the rail workers have resolved to go an strike so as to teach a lesson to the government that to defend the rights of those employees providing essential services to the people is also very important and a primary responsibility of the government. The rail workers and all those employees going on strike will have to be vigilant against those elements in the working class movement who give the slogan of restricting the struggle of the workers to merely implementing the Common Minimum Programme of the UPA government. The UPA government is acing as the representative of the Indian and foreign bourgeoisie, and their pro-bourgeois and anti worker policies are being exposed day by day. In this situation, there should be no illusion about the ‘human face’ of the UPA government. Employees should strengthen their unity and remain steadfast over their complete set of demands and should reject those who compromise with their interests. This struggle of the rail workers and all central employees is a fitting reply to the anti-worker and anti-social offensive. As a large, organised, active and experienced component of the Indian working class, the CGPI calls on you to fulfil your duty to build an alternative to this anti-worker rule, where workers and all working people will enjoy power and where their interests will be defended. And in order to achieve this alternative you have the capacity to forge the unity of all the exploited and oppressed to take the struggle forward. |
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The US imperialist-led campaign to prepare the grounds for aggression on Iran by attacking its nuclear program as a danger to world peace, is gathering momentum. In the meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) held on February 2, Russia and China also agreed to go along with a US backed resolution to report to the UN Security Council that Iran is 'non-compliant' with IAEA rules. In a previous meeting on this issue in September last year, Russia and China had abstained from taking a position against Iran, even though the US had succeeded in getting the Indian government to vote in favour of its resolution. In every way, the pressure being mounted on Iran now seems like a horrifying replay of the pressure that was mounted on Iraq in the run up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Then too, the IAEA was used as the instrument to press charges that the then Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein was hiding “weapons of mass destruction”. The Iraqi authorities were badgered into agreeing to all kinds of inspections and other humiliating procedures. Where they defended their sovereign rights in any way, this was held up as a sign of theirs being an irresponsible and dangerous state, and was used to justify the subsequent military action against them. As is well known, three years after the US invasion of Iraq, no weapons of mass destruction or traces of their existence have been found. It is clear to all that the weapons issue was just an excuse for the US to install a regime and system of its choice in that country. Ever since the Iranian revolution of 1979, Iran's strong stance against imperialism has been a thorn in the flesh of the US. The US imperialists have tried in numerous ways to bring Iran to heel, by drumming up publicity against Iranian “fundamentalism”, inciting hostility among its neighbours, intriguing with oppositional figures within Iran, and other means. In the context of the current American strategy of establishing domination of Asia, subjugating this ancient and powerful country with one of the richest oil and gas reserves in the world has become crucial for the US. Labeling it as part of a so-called “axis of evil”, the Bush regime in the US has stepped up the demonisation of Iran as a prelude to military action. Bush has openly declared that with respect to Iran, “all options are on the table”, meaning unilateral military action. The pressure and siege being mounted on Iran by US imperialism is an intolerable affront to all freedom and peace-loving countries and peoples of the world!What right does the US, who holds the biggest and most dangerous nuclear arsenal in the world, and whose hands are stained with the blood of the peoples of Iraq and countries of the world, have to point the moral finger at Iran? The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, has expressed the contempt of his people for the bullying and threats leveled against them by such a discredited power. Fed up with the demands being placed on it, Iran has expressed its determination to restart its uranium enrichment program, suspended for the last two years, as part of its sovereign right to pursue a peaceful nuclear energy program. This is the time for the Indian working class and people to express in the strongest terms our outrage against the pressure being mounted on Iran and its people with whom we share close historical and cultural ties. With the experience of Iraq still fresh in our minds, we must unreservedly condemn the US-led campaign against Iran. Any US military action against Iran would tighten the imperialist vise on our own region of South Asia. We must express our utmost indignation at the cowardly and self-serving stand being adopted by the Manmohan Singh government, which has gone out of its way to support the US campaign against Iran. While refusing to be transparent about its policy on the Iran issue, the UPA government merely keeps parroting that it will take an “independent” stand based on “enlightened national interest”! The working class of India must demand to know whose national interest is served by becoming an accomplice in the US drive to subjugate Iran as part of its strategy to dominate Asia! The UPA government's tactics of keeping its cards close to its chest and then presenting its support of the US line as a fait accompli, is not just undemocratic, but a shameful policy that is an insult to the Indian people and damages our standing in the eyes of the world. In the world today, the battle lines are being drawn more and more sharply between US imperialism and its marauding activity, on the one hand, and those who stand on the side of peace and the freedom and equality of countries, on the other hand. While the US is marshalling all the support it can get using its military and financial clout, the forces of the anti-imperialist fighters are also growing larger day by day. As the people of one of the biggest countries of Asia, we the working class and people of India, must take our stand clearly on the side of those who stand resolutely opposed to US imperialism, and play the role expected of us. With one voice we must demand Hands off Iran! |
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A brief history of the atrocities committed by US imperialism in the last hundred years US imperialism has a long history of trampling underfoot the freedom of peoples. It has incited and waged war for its own selfish ends, blatantly violating the sovereignty of nations. It has propped up the most bloodthirsty dictatorships in the twentieth century, and has been responsible for the death, maiming and incarceration of millions of people. Below, the atrocities committed by US imperialism over the last one hundred years are recalled in brief. Having decimated the native American peoples in the ‘Indian Wars’ of the latter part of the nineteenth century, the US imperialists continued their genocide against the Native American peoples in the early twentieth century, looting their land and resources and hounding them into ‘reservations’. In the early decades of the twentieth century, US imperialism intervened actively to secure its position in Latin America. The now notorious US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for instance was set up as early as March 1901! It intervened in Cuban affairs at will, and prohibited Cuba from negotiating treaties with any country other than the United States. Later it backed the hated dictator Fulgencio Batista until his overthrow in the revolution of 1959 ,. Never reconciled to its loss of power in Cuba, it organised an abortive invasion (Bay of Pigs) in 1961, carried out countless assassination attempts against the Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and has attempted to economically strangulate the country through tough sanctions and regulations while inciting the most rabid anti-people cliques against the Cuban people and government. At the end of the nineteenth century, the US got involved in a war of conquest in the Philippines, and sent over a hundred thousand soldiers to occupy the islands. Using the most modern weapons available at that time, the US occupiers killed an estimated one million civilians, besides tens of thousands of Filipino soldiers, in the war which last over a decade. This war was marked by heinous atrocities, including a scorched earth policy, concentration camps incarcerating thousands of civilians, the torture, rape and murder of several thousand Filipinos following an infamous order to “kill every one over ten”. This war and the policy of replacing Spain as the colonial power in the Philippines was also opposed by several US citizens, including well known author Mark Twain and other members of the American Anti Imperialist League and other freedom loving US citizens. US imperialist occupation of the Philippines continued until 1946. Its interference in the Philippines however continues, and US imperialism fully supported the hated dictator Ferdinand Marcos who carried out its bidding from 1966 to 1986. In 1903, the US imperialists ensured the ‘independence’ of Panama from Colombia so that they could build the Panama Canal. As early as 1904, US imperialists promulgated the Monroe Doctrine, giving themselves unbridled rights to violate the sovereignty of Latin American nations. In 1909, they fomented a ‘rebellion’ in Nicaragua and forced the President of that country to resign; they later forcibly occupied Nicaragua from 1912 all the way upto 1933! Haiti too was under US imperialist occupation from 1915 to 1934. Similarly, the Dominican Republic was occupied by the US. US imperialists also intervened militarily in Mexico between 1914 and 1916, forcibly occupying the northern part of that country. Following the defeat of Germany and Japan in the second world war, US imperialists wrested many concessions from these countries, It occupied large portions of these countries for many years, and has maintained military bases with tens of thousands of troops and weapons of mass destruction till today. These military bases are not only a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the countries in which they are located, they have been used time and again to launch attacks on other peoples and nations. The US bases in Germany, for example, were extensively used to launch the 2001 war against Afghanistan and the war of occupation of Iraq in 2003. Over two million people were killed in the US–led invasion of Korea between 1950 and 1953. In the twenty year long Vietnam War (1965–1975) the number was several times higher. It may be noted that the US and its allies deliberately thwarted the holding of elections in Vietnam before the war because they feared that their stooges did not have a chance of coming to power in these elections. So much for US “respect for democracy”! Several tens of thousands of young people were conscripted in the US and forced to fight in this unjust war. Masses of youth and people in the US and other countries participated in widespread protests against this war and the atrocities committed by the US-led forces. The Vietnam conflict was marked by several heinous atrocites, such as the My Lai massacre in which hundreds of elderly people, children and women were killed; the use of environment-devastating chemicals and napalm bombs on a large scale and worse. In the bombing campaigns of Vietnam, Kampuchea and Laos, the US military dropped more bombs than in the whole of World War II! To this day, in Laos, one person every two days is killed or severely maimed by unexploded US bombs that litter their fields and villages. The main victims are children. However, despite using some of the deadliest weapons of mass destruction known then to mankind, the US imperialists eventually lost the war and had to ignominously withdraw from Vietnam in 1975. US imperialists backed the overthrow of the regime in Iran in 1953 and helped instal the hated Shah as its ruler. The Iranian revolution overthrowing the Shah in 1979 was one of the most telling blows suffered by US imperialism at the hands of the people. The list of leaders deposed by the US imperialists and their henchmen, and despots installed in their place is long indeed, and includes among others:
US imperialism has been particularly vicious against the peoples of the Arab world. It has been one of the chief backers of Zionism and the atrocities committed against the Palestinian nation and people. It is well known that the US incited Saddam Hussein to attack Iran following the victory of the revolution there, leading to the long war of attrition between Iran and Iraq in which tens of thousands were killed. After Saddam Hussein was emboldened to attack Kuwait, they used this invasion as a pretext to launch the first Gulf War in 1990. Following the defeat of Iraq in this war, the US–led forces imposed illegal ‘no–fly zones’ and imposed crippling sanctions against Iraq. These sanctions have been responsible for the starvation and deaths of tens of thousands of innocent civilians especially children. Using the attacks of September 11, 2001 as a ready pretext, the US imperialists invaded and occupied Afghanistan, leading to the killing of tens of thousands of people. It was amply clear that the US imperialists were weaving a web of lies when they accused the former regime of Iraq of possessing nuclear weapons and other WMDs. This was an excuse to invade and occupy Iraq in pusuit of their own strategic and selfish aims. Now, by labelling Iran and North Korea as part of a so-called “axis of evil”, the Bush regime has made it clear which countries are next on its agenda of aggression and war. Apart from these concrete instances of aggression, the US imperialists at all times maintain a huge arsenal of nuclear and conventional weapons that threatens the very survival of mankind. In addition it maintains military bases in far-flung regions of the world, and its ships and military aircraft and spaceships patrol the oceans and skies of the whole world, and even outer space, spying on all countries. People all over the world, including millions within the US itself, have participated in massive protests against the crimes of US imperialism. Today, Iraqi patriots continue to defy death and fight valiantly against the hated US-led occupiers of their country. US imperialist chieftains like Bush are indeed welcome nowhere on this planet. No wonder, since people the world over have made opposition to US imperialism and its chieftains a matter of principle, and greeted them with the most vigorous protests everywhere. |
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We cannot rely on the communal state to end state-organised communal violence The UPA government has introduced a bill in the Rajya Sabha called The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, 2005. It has called for public comments on this bill. The bill comes in the wake of country wide protests following the state-organised Gujarat genocide. Who is behind the organising of communal violence in India? Who is responsible for the partition of India, for the genocide of Sikhs in 1984, the Gujarat genocide of 2002 and the numerous massacres that have been organised all over India, in Assam and Manipur, Bhiwandi and Bhagalpur, Mumbai and Surat and so many other places? The Indian state and its apologists, including many in the communist movement, make out that people are communal while the state is basically "secular"; that only "some people" in the state apparatus are supposed to be "infected with the communal virus". Some political parties are labeled as communal whereas others, particularly the Congress, are labeled as "secular". The practical experience of the people reveals something entirely different. In 1857, Muslims and Hindus together faced the gallows of the British. It has been well documented that following the crushing of the First War of Indian Independence, the British parliament publicly discussed and endorsed the line of action that Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs must be made to attack one another and not allowed to unite, otherwise Hindostan would go out of the hands of the British rulers. And that is what the colonial power set out to do, with a vengeance (as it also did in Ireland and Palestine and many other parts of the world). At the same time, the colonialist rulers spread the notion that without their "beneficial" and secular rule, India would be torn asunder in a communal blood bath. The British colonial state was a communal state which divided the people according to religion, which openly and secretly financed and set in motion its agencies to organise communal massacres. In 1947, British imperialism organised, through its army, police, secret agencies and various political parties, the biggest communal holocaust and the partition of India on communal lines. The foundations of the Indian state constituted in 1950 are the same as the colonial state. The same classes, political parties and forces which had collaborated with the colonialists in the communal partition of India, came to power. Dividing and setting the people against each other on the basis of religion, caste and nationality has assisted this ruling class to maintain its unpopular rule over the workers and peasants, women and youth, of India. The periodic organising of communal bloodbaths by this state and its political parties is a bitter fact of life for our people. In 1984, every person on the streets of Delhi, Kanpur and other cities of India knew that the Congress Party had unleashed the genocide of Sikhs and deployed the state machinery for this purpose. In 2002, every one in India knew the role of the BJP in organising and carrying out the Gujarat genocide. People are concerned about how to deal with such a state and such parties, like the Congress and BJP, which routinely organise bloodbaths and get away scot-free. It is to cover up the role of the state and such political parties and take the initiative out of the hands of the people that the UPA government has placed The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, 2005 in parliament. If communal violence is indeed prevented, then where is the question of "rehabilitation"? The very title of the bill and its provisions on rehabilitation for victims indicate that the state has plans to organise more communal holocausts in the future. A state that is not going to organise communal violence will: (1) publicly expose how the earlier state-organised massacres, including 1947, 1984, 1993 and 2002 took place, (2) expose the role of those in power in organising these massacres, (3) take action to dismantle the apparatus of state terrorism, including communal genocide and (4) punish the guilty. Obviously the UPA government, led by the Congress Party, which has vast experience in organising genocides in different parts of the country, has no plans to do any of the above. The terms of reference of the Bill confirm this. The Bill has been framed with the fundamental premise that people have been organising communal massacres, while the state needs to be further strengthened to crack down on such people. However, everyone knows that the reality is different. The problem before us is that the state and its ruling parties are the organisers of communal massacres. The bill simply does not deal with this real problem. It cannot be expected to! Many people engaged in the struggle to end state organised genocides have raised the question of clearly identifying command responsibility, as established in the Nuremberg trials following the defeat of Nazi Germany. Establishing command responsibility will mean that those in the top positions of the state at the time of a communal genocide should be held responsible for the genocide and punished. This is a valid demand. This would mean that Atal Bihar Vajpayee, Narendra Modi, and the chiefs of police and administration in Gujarat must face trial for the genocide. It would mean that Rajiv Gandhi, Narasimha Rao, the police chiefs and administration chiefs of the various states where Sikhs were massacred in 1984 should be tried for the same. The Bill skirts this issue, as is only to be expected. Nazi Germany lost the war, so its leaders were tried by the victors. But in India, the Indian state retains the communal legacy, independent of which party is in power. Can we expect that this state will follow the principle of command responsibility, for the crimes it commits against the people? The fact that the UPA government has not done so and cannot do so once again confirms that there is no difference between the Congress Party led UPA and the BJP led NDA, as far as retaining and strengthening the apparatus for communal massacres is concerned. People of India have suffered greatly as a result of falling prey to the illusions that the state can be relied upon to protect them from the threat of communal massacres. Once again, the UPA government and its apologists in the Communist movement are desperately trying to create illusions that with UPA in power, people will not face communal terror, that the Common Minimum Program of the UPA government shows its sincerity to prevent communal violence and that passing a law of the kind that has been presented for discussion, will strengthen the hands of the UPA government in doing so. Those who promote these illusions are guilty of disarming the people. The people must not allow themselves to be disarmed. The twentieth century has shown two kinds of states. All the capitalist imperialist states - US, Britian, Germany, France, Tsarist Russia, present day Russia, Italy, and others have organised pogroms against this or that community, as part of state policy, both within their own countries and in their colonies. The Soviet Union was a different kind of state, where the workers and peasants had established their rule. One of the first acts of the Soviet state after its formation was to expose to the world all the documents detailing how the tsarist state used to organise communal pograms against Jews in Russia, as well as the various nefarious methods it used to expand its colonial empire. It is also a well-known fact that in the Soviet Union of Lenin and Stalin, there were no communal pogroms. The people who are fighting for an end to state-organised communal violence have to consistently keep exposing the role of the present Indian state in the organising of communal violence. We cannot rely on this communal state to end state-organised communal violence. We have to get organised in our places of work and residence, to defend people of all communities and resolutely thwart all attempts to instigate people of one community against another. Communists must clearly propagate amongst the people the need to make a clean break with the legacy of colonialism, which the present Indian state represents, and establish a new state of workers and peasants in its place. In doing so, the workers and peasants of India must and will destroy the apparatus of communal terror of the present state and punish all those responsible for genocidal crimes against our people. |
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Entry of monopoly capitalist corporations in retail trade The recent decision of the Indian government to allow up to 51% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in single brand retailing is a move to enable Indian giant corporations and foreign monopolies to establish their domination over retail trade, at the expense of crores of small shop keepers. There are crores of people who earn their livelihood from retail trade in our country. About 96 per cent of the shops in the retail sector have 500 sq ft or less of space. It is estimated that 4 crore people are directly dependent and another 8 crore indirectly dependent on retail trade. The size of the retail market in India is about US $180 billion, or 8 lakh crores of rupees. Retail trade contributes about 10% of GDP. The domination of monopoly capitalist corporations over retail trade will lead to the ruination of crores of small traders and shop keepers, and loss of jobs to many currently employed in such establishments. This will be one inevitable result, irrespective of whether the corporations are Indian or foreign owned. The small operators will be driven out of business, as they have been in the advanced capitalist countries of North America and Europe. The experience of those countries also shows other harmful effects of monopoly capitalist domination of retail trade. People are forced to purchase food in a form and at a price that is suitable for the profit making business of Wal-Mart and other retail chains. Unsuitable methods of preservation of perishable items, dictated by the drive for maximum profits, have led to the spread of diseases and ill health among the people. While bourgeois economists claim that giant malls run by private companies expand “consumer choice”, the reality is that people lose access to fresh and healthy food at affordable prices. Some of the Indian big business houses, such as the Tatas and Reliance, would like to consolidate their own position in retail trade before Wal-Mart and other global monopoly players are allowed to enter. For this reason, they have been resisting earlier proposals to completely open up the sector to FDI. The recent announcement declaring up to 51% FDI in single brand retailing is a compromise formula that seeks to protect the interests of Indian big capitalists while opening the door partially to foreign monopoly capitalists. Foreign companies can open retail outlets for one single brand, such as Sony or Hewlett Packard equipment, while shopping malls selling multiple brands can only be opened by the Indian big corporations, for the time being. The decision of the Manmohan Singh Government to allow 51% FDI in single brand retailing, implying that the field is open for Indian big business houses to open giant multiple brand retail outlets, is an attack on the livelihood of crores of small traders and shop keepers, as well as a threat to the general wellbeing of the toiling people as a whole. It is one more piece of evidence that this government headed by the Congress Party represents the interests of the same big bourgeois class as the previous BJP led government. It also shows that in order to defend the interests of the small shopkeepers, it is not enough to oppose FDI in retail trade; it is necessary to also oppose the entry of the Tatas, Reliance and other Indian monopolies into this sector. |
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Stop privatisation of Airports! Statement of CGPI, February 3 2006 The Communist Ghadar Party of India vigorously condemns the unilateral decision of the government to privatize the Delhi and Mumbai airports and extends its full support and solidarity to the agitating workers of the Airports Authority of India. The decision to privatize the airports in favour of GMR-Fraport and GVK-South African Airports has been made solely in the interests of the big monopolies and not in the interests of the workers and the people of India at large. The contract valued at a massive Rs. 5200 crores will transfer the entire airports and land belonging to the AAI to the bidders as well as give then the right to downsize the workforce and hike user charges. The decision to privatize the airports is despicable and totally unjust since it has been taken against the will of the 22,000 workers of the Airports Authority of India, who have till now managed the airports in the country and created all the reserves and assets of the AAI which the government of the big bourgeoisie wants to hand over to the multinationals now. How can the government–which represents a small minority of exploiters—arrogate to itself the right to sell the assets which belong to the people? The deal struck by the government with the two multinational combines is among the murkiest deals in recent times. For several years the government at the centre, both during the NDA rule and now during the UPA regime, has been trying to fool the people that a “public-private partnership” is required to run the airports in the country efficiently. Negating the fact that the two airports which are being privatized, the Delhi and Mumbai airports, account for 65% of the turnover of the state-owned AAI and had been profit making airports all along, the bourgeoisie pushed through the deal violating all norms, even by bourgeois standards, and foisting the most blatant lies on the people. It has been openly contested in the press that the consultants appointed by the government were actually the fronts for the bidders. The entire process of bidding finally resulted in just 2 bidders being selected for the two airports resulting in a single bid situation for each. To lend credibility to this criminal fraud, the government appointed a plethora of committees to come up with a “solution”. The government also arrogantly dismissed the recommendations of a committee, appointed by itself, which declared the AAI to be the most competent in the construction of the airports. This is one more instance where the double-tongued bourgeoisie, represented by its most trusted party at the centre, the Congress, violated the promise that it gave during the elections that profit-making public enterprises will not be privatized and that national security will not be jeopardized. The airport privatisation deal is unacceptable on both counts. All these manoeuvres of the government had created such a stink that finally an empowered committee of Ministers had to be appointed to see through this deal. The promises given by the government that the interests of the workers will be protected and that user charges will not be increased, are not worth a penny. After every privatisation deal the government of the bourgeoisie has not failed to assure the workers and public that their interests will not be compromised, only to betray them before the ink dries on the contract. Whether it is the privatisation of VSNL or Modern Foods or the power sector or many other instances, the capitalists who bought the public enterprises were allowed to retrench the workers, or even close operations wholesale, sell the surplus land, and raise user charges. The more the Minister swears that the government will safeguard the interests of the workers, the faster has been the breach of trust! The government of India represents the interests of the most profit-hungry and unscrupulous business houses and monopolies. Whether it is the BJP or the Congress ruling at the centre, it is the will of the big bourgeoisie that determines the course that the government pursues. This will cannot be stayed by persuasion or entreaties. This will can be broken only by the combined might of the working people of India. For the working class of India, this recent attack of the bourgeoisie is yet another call for forging their unity and strengthening their resolve to fight the bourgeoisie till the finish, without any compromise. This is yet another call before the workers and peasants of India to take things into their own hands and establish their own government where the interests of the vast majority of the people will be genuinely protected and the assets of the nation will be employed for their well-being and not for the aggrandisement of the exploiters. An attack on one is an attack on all! It is the duty of the entire working class of India and all progressive forces and individuals to stand in solidarity with the fighting workers and officers of the AAI and take the struggle to the finish. |
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