Communists must focus on building the worker-peasant alliance!

Statement of the Central Committee of Communist Ghadar Party of India, 20th Sept, 2009

Elections to the state legislative assembly in Haryana will take place on October 13. The big capitalists, Indian and international, see this as an opportunity for the Congress Party to consolidate its position in the country, by getting re-elected in this rapidly growing state that overlaps with the National Capital Region of Delhi. 

Among those contesting against the ruling Congress Party in these elections are the Indian National Lok Dal and the BJP. While these parties have allied with each other in the past, they have failed to reach an understanding this time. Each one of them will be contesting on its own. As a result, the Congress Party is expecting to get re-elected on the platform of having brought about rapid capitalist growth in Haryana.

Rapid growth of capitalism over the past 20 years through globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation, has given rise to super rich capitalist families in Haryana, like the Jindals and Munjals. The Congress Party can take credit for having brought enormous prosperity for a tiny minority. At the same time, it has given rise to extreme insecurity of livelihood for the majority, who are workers and peasants. The Congress Party is primarily to blame for this.

The new jobs created in industry and services have not been enough to absorb those seeking work from within Haryana. There is widespread discontent among unemployed youth, educated girls and workers hit by the global crisis.  Working people in the cities are angry about the lack of basic services such as water supply and all-weather roads.  In the rural areas, millions of peasants feel betrayed by all the parties that have ruled in Chandigarh and New Delhi since the state of Haryana came into being in 1966.

It was the Congress Party which architected the linguistic division of Punjab, followed by the launching of the Green Revolution, which gave Haryana the role of being a leading producer of basic food grains for the whole country.  The policy of expanding production and public procurement of wheat and rice from Haryana was followed as long as the big bourgeoisie found it useful.  Starting in 1991, the very same Congress Party began the process of scaling down government intervention in food grain markets, as part of the liberalisation and privatisation program.

Yields of wheat and paddy, which rose steeply during the seventies and eighties, have been stagnating since 1990. Growing the same crop repeatedly, using the same kind of chemical fertilizers, has led to declining soil fertility.  The Congress Party, which was the architect of this policy, now says the peasants must diversify; which means they should grow other crops. However, there is no government procurement or support price for any other crop. 

Peasants are being asked to fend for themselves in an increasingly global market. They are being asked to enter into contracts with giant capitalist corporations – to rise or sink depending on global market trends. Some of the peasants have tried their luck with cotton, some with vegetables, and others with oilseeds or sugarcane, but have been hit by uncertainty of yields, and high volatility in commodity prices.  Many of them have turned back to growing wheat or paddy. They are facing higher risks, unreliable power supply, lower level of state procurement and price support. Majority of them are sinking deeper into debt.  Many face the prospect of losing their land to banks or to some capitalist corporation or real estate developer.

The Congress and BJP, as well as other parties of the capitalist class in Haryana, claim that attracting the capitalists of India and the world to invest in this state is the only way to generate employment. They claim this will assist more and more peasants to shift out of farming. 

It is indeed a fact that more and more peasant families are sending their sons and daughters to find jobs in the towns, in order to secure their livelihood.  However, only some of them are able to find jobs.  Those that do are finding that capitalist employers are not providing job security, nor complying with any of the laws that are supposed to protect labour rights.

Workers in the rapidly growing industrial and service sectors face super-exploitation at the hands of their employers. Food prices are rising rapidly while wages and salaries are lagging far behind; few among the workers have won the right to regular cost of living adjustments. The much trumpeted Special Economic Zones, including the Reliance SEZ to be set up on 25,000 acres of land, are models for making workers toil long hours, most of them hired on contract and denied long-term benefits.

Those workers who form unions and fight for their rights face violent suppression by the state police forces. People of Haryana cannot forget that the present Congress Party government of Hooda began its tenure with the notorious police attack on a peaceful protest of workers of the Japanese multinational Honda Motors. Brute force continues to be used to prevent workers from forming unions and fighting for their rights.  It is used against any section of society that dares to oppose the capitalist course being followed.

Capitalist growth has resulted in declining forest cover, falling ground water table in various districts, and loss of fertility of agricultural land as a result of mono-cropping. Working people in the numerous industrial townships face crowded and unsanitary living conditions, without even safe drinking water. Women workers face serious security threats. Crime is on the rise in many towns and districts. 

The Congress Party stands clearly exposed today as a party of the biggest capitalists of India and their foreign partners. It is openly declaring that “We will guarantee maximum profits to capitalists who invest in Haryana!” The interests of peasants and of the growing working class have been blatantly subordinated to the greed of the capitalist class. 

While the Indian National Lok Dal speaks of defending the interests of peasants, and of unemployed youth and women, its track record shows that it is not a real alternative to the Congress.  When in power, it has struck deals with capitalists and real estate barons.  It has fallen in line with the same path of globalisation of production and capital, through liberalisation and privatisation, revealing that it is also a party of the capitalist class.

The betrayal of the majority of peasants by the capitalist parties provides a political opportunity for the working class to win peasants over to its side.  However, in order to make use of this opportunity, the working class needs to be united. Workers in large-scale enterprises need to be effectively fighting against their super-exploitation and denial of their rights. Only a united and fighting working class, with communist leadership, will be able to take political initiative to build unity with the peasants and other discontented sections in society, so as to defeat the bourgeoisie. 

It is essential for communists to devote their energies towards organising the struggle of the young and growing industrial and service sector workers, to help them form unions and resist their super-exploitation. 

It is essential for communists to make a clean break with the line of tailing behind the Congress Party or some other capitalist party. Communists must lead an independent workers’ and peasants’ political front.

Haryana needs a new vision within the vision of a new path for India.  There is need for a harmonious path of blossoming as a modern industrial-agricultural economy, and a civilized society.  Secure livelihood and prosperity for the toiling majority cannot be left to chance.  Central and state governments must guarantee secure livelihood and all other rights and dignity of all those who work. 

Who can establish such a government that would defend the rights of all workers and peasants, without exception, and strive to harmonise their interests, while curtailing the greed of the capitalists?  Only a powerful political alliance of workers and peasants can do so.  The immediate need is to build such a political force – a party or front of a new type – which is not sectarian but works to harmonise the interests of the vast majority of hard working people.  Such a force is urgently needed in Haryana, as also in every state and the country as a whole.

The existing political process and electoral system is designed to bring one or another capitalist party to power, using workers and peasants as vote banks. The first step is for workers and peasants to reject this role of being vote banks for one or another party of the capitalist class. Communists and other organisers of workers, peasants, women and youth must help build people’s samitis everywhere, to select people’s candidates to contest those of the capitalist parties.

The people of Haryana have a rich tradition of collective action to defend and promote the common interests of all. In the Ghadar of 1857, people of this region displayed remarkable courage and unity that cut across caste and creed.

The people of Haryana must draw on their revolutionary tradition to build the worker-peasant alternative today.  It cannot be a parliamentary front built from the top, by leaders of various parties. It has to be a people’s front that is based on political unity at the base, in every village and mohalla, every industrial township and factory. 

The Communist Ghadar Party of India calls on all communists, and all activists of workers’ and peasants’ unions, of women and youth organisations in Haryana, to work together to develop the real alternative to the capitalist parties and their narrow-minded agenda. Let us join hands to build the popular front that can end the super-exploitation and plunder of our land and labour, and reorient the economy to provide for all. 

Inquilab Zindabad!