At the call of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, hundreds of workers and political and social activists participated in a militant public rally on 18 January 2009 in the Maharashtra High School Maidan in Mumbai. The rally was organised on the theme “unite for peace in South Asia”. It was organised to expose and oppose the nefarious designs of the US imperialists in instigating India and Pakistan to go to war with each other. At the same time, the rally was organised to expose and oppose the collaboration of the ruling bourgeoisie of our country with the US imperialists in these war preparations under the name of fighting terrorism.

At a time when the bourgeoisie of our country has left no stone unturned to confuse and line up the working class and people behind their war plans, the Mumbai rally was a powerful manifestation of the resolve of the working class and working people to reject the chauvinist, war mongering course proposed by the reactionary bourgeoisie. It was a clarion call to the working class and people of our country, to unite and throw the US imperialists out of the South Asian region. It was a call to unitedly defeat the plots of the bourgeoisie to divide the working class and people and disrupt our struggles against exploitation and oppression. It was a powerful appeal to the workers and working people of Pakistan to join hands to throw the US imperialists out of our region.

Many other parties and organisations worked actively to propagate the message of the rally, including the Lok Raj Sangathan, Ladaku Garment Workers Union, and Socialist Unity Center of India. In preparation for the meeting the activists of the CGPI had plastered key stations with posters announcing the Public Meeting. Tens of thousands of leaflets announcing the rally were distributed in Marathi, Hindi, Urdu as well as English amongst the people. Hoardings had been put up in key areas of the city. Activists held many street corner meetings in the working class chawls of the city. They engaged the workers and especially the youth in discussion on the need to oppose the war preparations of the bourgeoisie. The interest of workers was such that they came from far flung areas of Greater Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nagpur, to express their opposition to reactionary war.

On the day of the meeting, the Maidan was beautifully decorated with slogans declaring “Down with the Indo-US strategic alliance and the US imperialist intervention in our region!”, “Down with the attempts of the US imperialism to provoke war between India and Pakistan!”, “Down with US imperialist interference in South Asia!”, “Who benefits from war? Big capitalists, not people!”, “Down with the attacks on our rights in the name of anti terrorism!”, “Food, shelter, livelihood – not war!”, “Expel US imperialism from this region! The backdrop of the stage sported the main slogan of the meeting “unite for peace in South Asia”.

The evening began with a lively cultural program, with songs sung by young comrades of CGPI, followed by several songs of the working class in Marathi by Shahir Sambhaji Bhagat group. Comrade Prakash Rao, spokesperson of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, delivered the main speech. The gathering was addressed by representatives of many other organisations.  Among the speakers were Narayan Ghaghre, state committee member of the Communist Party of India, A H Faro of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Comrade Tyagi of Socialist Unity Center of India,  Comrade Sundar Nawalkar of Samrajavad Virodhi Shramik Manch, Shri Girish Bhave, Convenor of the Maharashtra Committee of Lok Raj Sangathan,  Comrade Govil of CPI-ML (Liberation), Shri Shyam Sonar of Republican Panthers, Shri Madhu Chandorkar of BSNL Employees Union-Jan Jagaran Abhiyan, Shri Sami Bubere of Sahyog Cultural Society, Shri Shashi Sonavane of the Lok Sashan Andolan, Comrade Patil of Peasants & Workers Party, Comrade Mukhtar Khan of Janwadi Lekhak Manch, Ramesh Chonda of All India Forward Bloc, Kusum of Purogami Mahila Sangathan, Com Praveen Nadkar, leader of Indian Federation of Trade Unions, Comrade Subroto Das, leader of Kamgar Ekta Chalwal, Shri Haldankar of All India Youth Federation and Shri Vinod of Hind Naujawan Ekta Sabha.

Prakash Rao began his address referring to the lessons of the historic strike of Mumbai textile workers which began 25 years ago. He pointed out that the bourgeoisie is extremely clear of its class interests and attacks the working class and peasantry viciously, with all its armed might as well as by sponsoring divisions through its agents. Night or day, bourgeoisie does not forget its class interests. Look at the experience of the workers of the oil sector, whose strike was attacked as “anti national” by this bourgeoisie and its media, and against whom the armed forces of our country were deployed! Same was done to crush the struggle of transporters. We workers must defend our own class interests, our own mission, which is separate from that of the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie is waging a war against us, in collaboration with the imperialists. Today, to advance their own interests, against the workers and peasants of our country, as well as internationally, the bourgeoisie is collaborating with US imperialism in whipping up frenzy for war against Pakistan.

Speakers dwelt on the nefarious games of the US imperialists in inciting war between India and Pakistan, to advance their own imperialist interests. They pointed out that the colonialists had deliberately organised the bloody partition of our country, and Anglo-American imperialism has pursued the long-term strategy of playing India and Pakistan against each other, to prevent the working class and people from uniting and overthrowing the rule of capitalists and imperialists in this region. They pointed out that the experience of Iraq, whose ruler Saddam Hussain played the US game of attacking Iran and Kuwait, and Pakistan which has played the US game in Afghanistan, is a lesson for all. Iraq has been occupied by the same US imperialists, and Pakistan is caught by the throat by the US imperialists. Those ruling cliques who play the US imperialist game bring disaster on their people. Instead of learning lessons from history, the anti-national ruling bourgeoisie of our country and various political parties who are servants of this ruling class are playing the American game today. They are doing so for their extremely narrow interests, regardless of terrible consequences for the working class and people of India.

Speakers pointed out that the essence of history of our subcontinent was that the British could rule over us only by dividing the people along religious lines. The imperialist powers today are also using the same method throughout the globe. In reality the people of the subcontinent want to establish and normalize relationships among themselves. Today the US imperialists are afraid of the unity of the people and want to impose a war to cause further divisions.

Messages of support for the meeting from Retd. Retd. Admiral L Ramdas, Retd. Justice H. Suresh, Citizens for Peace, and the Bombay Catholic Sabha, were read out in the meeting. A young school girl concluded the program by rendering a beautiful poem where she vividly described the suffering war causes on the working people. The meeting ended in a militant atmosphere with slogans against imperialism, fascism and war and calling for revolution.