A pubic meeting was organized on January 21, 2007, in Kanpur to discuss the challenge before the working class. This meeting was held in the prevailing conditions of continuous onslaught on the livelihood and rights of workers and peasants and working people by the big bourgeoisie and its governments. Hundreds of workers from Kanpur and nearby areas of Uttar Pradesh as well as activists from other parts of India participated in the meeting. The proceedings of the meeting were conducted by Comrades Mona Sur and Mohamad Sami.

Addressing the gathering, the spokesperson of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, Comrade Prakash Rao pointed out that the key challenge before the working class was to establish its own rule in alliance with the peasantry, and put an end to the rule of the bourgeoisie. To achieve this mission, the working class must ensure that the most class conscious, militant fighters of the class organize themselves in the communist party which will lead them in establishing the rule of workers and peasants.

There are two kinds of political parties — parties of the bourgeoisie and the party of the working class.

The agenda of the parties of the bourgeoisie is set by the bourgeoisie, and the bourgeoisie makes sure its agenda is implemented by one or the other bourgeois party, depending on which serves its interests best at the moment. The bourgeoisie needs the workers and peasants only as a source of votes at the time of elections, or to be its street fighters, or to shout slogans in rallies.

The communist party is a party of the working class. It is a part of the working class, and its agenda cannot be different from the agenda of the working class. The agenda of the communist party is to organize and lead the working class to become the ruling class.

If a communist party starts using the workers and peasants in the same way as bourgeois parties do, then it has transformed itself into a bourgeois party. The tragedy of India is that the communist party that was established in 1925 in Kanpur did not remain true to its name, to its class. The same is the case with various other parties that call themselves communist. This is why Singur and Nandigram are happening today, this is why these so called communists led the textile mills of Kanpur to closure in 1990, and then declared it a “victory”!

It is to end this betrayal that advanced elements of India’s working class established the Communist Ghadar Party of India in 1980. Comrade Prakash Rao told the assembled workers: "as I said to you yesterday and again this morning at the gate of the Elgin Mills, we cannot keep declaring that so and so betrayed us, and then leave it at that. If we want revolution, if we want to be able to distinguish between the real upholders of the red flag and the betrayers, we ourselves must dare to become red, to become communists and build the Party! This is the way forward that we must take".

He further pointed out that the bourgeoisie had worked out various methods to divide the working class. The working class is being divided by the bourgeois parties on the basis of their party affiliation, on the basis of religion and region, and on the basis of caste. In this connection the most criminal activity is being carried out by the agents of the bourgeoisie who masquerade as communist parties. It is extremely important for us to understand that the fundamental credo of the working class is to overthrow the capitalist system from its very foundations and establish a new system free from all forms of exploitation and oppression.

Comrade Prakash Rao concluded by saying that this year is the 150 th anniversary of the great Ghadar of 1857. We look at 1857 not from some nostalgic point of view or to merely remember the martyrs, but to draw appropriate lessons to assist us in the main task facing us today, which is the overthrow of the rule of the bourgeoisie and the establishing of the rule of workers and peasants. This is the approach of our Party, the Communist Ghadar Party of India, in all its work.

The meeting was addressed by speakers from a number of organizations, including Mazdoor Parishad, Chattisgarh Mukti Morcha, Lok Raj Sangathan, Mahila Shakti Sangathan, IIT Employees Union, Kanpur Trade Union Council, JK Cotton Mills Sangharsh Samiti, Peoples Front, Bangladesh-India-Pakistan Peoples Forum, Kapada Mill Mazdoor Union, Nirmaan Mazdoor Panchayat Sangam, Bluestar Employees Union, Kanpur Dainik Mazdoor Samiti, Hind Mahila Sabha, Delhi Shramik Sangathan, PDFI, Mahila Shakti Sangathan, Jan Shakti Manch, CPI(MA) and ICTU.

The meeting declared its complete support to the struggling workers of Elgin for the immediate reopening of the mill.