ML Update : A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine Vol.-3; No.-42; 25-10-2000 Editorial The Historic Blunder Paves Way for A Redundant Farce As we write these lines, the much-awaited CPI(M) plenum is on in Tiruananthpuram. As plenums go, this is probably the third all-India plenum in the CPI(M)’s history of thirty-six years. In addition to the usual exercise of triennial Party Congresses, the CPI(M) is known to organise all-India plenums to clinch major programmatic or organisational questions. In 1968, the CPI(M) had held a special all-India plenum in Burdwan in West Bengal in the backdrop of the growing inner-party debate between the official leadership and the revolutionary pro-Naxalbari wing as well as the continuing Great Debate in the international communist movement against Khruschev’s thesis of peaceful transition. The centrist position adopted at the 1968 plenum however could not prevent large-scale desertion of revolutionary elements from within the party and on 22 April, 1969 communist revolutionaries reorganised themselves under the banner of the CPI(ML). The second plenum was held ten years later at Salkia near Calcutta in the wake of the CPI(M)-led Left Front’s emphatic post-Emergency electoral victories in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. The plenum was intended to generate an expansionary thrust especially in the Hindi belt, but the subsequent period has only witnessed a still greater regionalisation of the party as the party experienced tremendous growth in the three states where it held power while steadily losing ground in the rest of the country. The current plenum is intended to update the party’s 1964 programme, a need felt way back in 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union and East Europe. But following the 1996 experience of the United Front government and the refusal by the party of the offer of prime ministership made to Jyoti Basu by certain constituents of the United Front, which Basu openly criticised as a ‘historic blunder’, the question of updating the party’s programme started revolving around the key issue of the CPI(M)’s direct participation in a bourgeois central government. The growing rightward journey of the party has quite naturally strengthened rightward forces and trends within the party and even though the party has for the time being managed to weather the ultra-right pressure of openly rejecting certain cornerstones of Marxist-Leninist theory and practice like democratic centralism and dictatorship of the proletariat, the plenum is now paving the way for the party’s open and official acceptance of the line of participation in a bourgeois central government. To placate the far right within the party, a new convention was created by merely striking off the name of dissident leader Saifuddin Chowdhury from the party’s membership roll instead of straightway expelling him from the party. Ironically, Chowdhury and his followers are still bent upon creating their new party of the ‘reformed left’ in close collaboration with the ‘secular and democratic’ Congress. The CPI(M) leadership can chastise Chowdhury for indiscipline, but they are hardly left with any moral or ideological-political authority to question Chowdhury’s political proclamations now that they themselves are essentially toeing the same line. In spite of the new programmatic green signal for participation in a bourgeois central government, one wonders if the party will be faced with a similar opportunity in the near future. Unfortunately, the man who was offered the premiership of the UF government in 1996, is now on the verge of retirement. The party’s estranged allies of the United Front and National Front days show no immediate signs of severing their ties with the BJP and returning to the CPI(M)’s version of a grand secular alliance with the Congress. And most ironically, the programmatic revision to accommodate the beckoning of power at the Centre comes close on the heels of the Election Commission’s verdict rejecting the CPI(M)’s long-standing status as a recognised national party. One can of course plead for an updating of the EC’s criteria for national parties, similar to the CPI(M)’s exercise of ‘updating’ its programme, but the fact remains that for all practical purposes the CPI(M) indeed makes sense only in the three states of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. To Hegel’s observation that ‘all facts and personages of great importance in world history occur, as it were, twice’ Marx had added the corrective clause: ‘‘the first time as tragedy, the second as farce’’. If there was something tragic about Basu’s fulmination over the so-called ‘historic blunder’, the ongoing exercise to programmatically rectify that blunder can only be termed a redundant farce. Press Conference Resist Bihar's Fragmentation into Mafia-dominated Fiefdoms Party General Secretary Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya in a press conference in Patna said that more than bifurcation, the real challenge to Bihar emanates from the continuing fragmentation of the state into numerous tiny fiefdoms being carved out by rival criminal gangs and private armies backed by the political parties commanding power in Patna and Delhi. The govt. has failed to provide even a minimum sense of security to the state's population, and the hollowness of Laloo Prasad's slogan of social justice has been thoroughly exposed by the spate of massacres perpetrated earlier by the Ranvir Sena and now also by the Akhilesh Singh gang in the districts of Nawada and Nalanda. Following the recent incidents in Biharsharief and Siwan, it has lost the claim of containing the threat of communalism as well. The partners of both NDA and RJD-Congress coalition are competing among themselves to promote criminalisation and are squarely responsible for the state's alarming descent into absolute anarchy and chaos. While development has never been even a priority slogan for the scam tainted state government, no Union Minister or so-called core group of Bihar MPs has succeeded in securing for Bihar any concrete measure in terms of industrialisation or infrastructural investment. Only a powerful democratic movement can save Bihar from this growing crisis. To this end, CPI(ML) has already launched a Bihar Vikas Andolan. While making a plea to make question of development of Bihar the central agenda of politics, Com. Dipankar said that the needs and aspirations of the toiling masses and the youth and students must be placed at the centre of Bihar's development. In this battle of development and democracy, CPI(ML) is eager to unite with every positive pro-development democratic force in a decisive fight against the vested interests and well-entrenched social and political forces which are inimical to development and democracy. Commenting on growing regional disparity in the country as a result of a relentless flight of capital away from backward states like Bihar to more advanced regions, he said that the Party stands for a close integration of the struggle for development of Bihar with the countrywide campaign against the devastating impact of the new economic policies. He condemned the so-called ultimatum and death sentence issued by anarchist MCC to 11 MLAs and MPs from Jharkhand including Com. Mahendra Singh, a CC member and popular third-term MLA from Bagodar, he appealed to the democratic opinion in Bihar and Jharkhand to denounce this anarchist threat and reject this anti-democratic politics of intimidation and killing. Initiatives Thousands of Party and Student Activists Arrested in U.P. Assembly Gherao (Encirclement) Party and students-youth activists in thousands gheraoed the Assembly in Lucknow on 20 October against state terror, unemployment, price rise and police-mafia raj of BJP for democratic rights. Police conducted lathi charge at two places; at GPO square Party activists including several women were injured, and right in front of the Assembly a woman and a Party worker received serious injuries. Demonstrators blocked the road in front of Assembly for several hours. Later police arrested them and took to police lines in buses. There demonstrators held a meeting. Student-youth Struggle Committee had given the slogan of Assembly gherao against fee hike, reduction in seats and RSS-BJP conspiracy to malign AMU in the name of ISI. AMU students were attacked by Bajrang Dal and VHP goons at Aligarh railway station when they were boarding train to Lucknow to participate in gherao. Nevertheless 150 students of Struggle Committee of AMU led by Zeeshan Ali succeeded in reaching Lucknow. Com. Akhilendra Pratap Singh, Secy. of Party State Committee, CC member Com. Krshna Adhikari, Lal Bahadur Singh, Gen. Secy. of RYA, Sunil Yadav, Gen. Secy. of AISA led the gherao. Along with them Com. Ambarish Rai, Purushottam Sharma, Madan Singh, Yashwant Singh, Md. Salim and Ramkishor Verma of RYA and Rakesh Singh and Ajit Yadav of AISA were also among the thousands of activists arrested during the gherao. While condemning BJP govt. for police atrocities on poor and minorites and inciting communalism, Com. Akhilendra proclaimed that soon a front of struggling forces will be forged against state terror, defense of democratic rights and other material demands of the people. New Wave of Farmers Movement in Punjab Protesting against government’s policy of not procuring rice on the pretext that it had got damaged, farmers have taken course of militant mass movement. On October 9 a massive rail roko ( Rail blockade) was organized in Ferozpur-Bathinda section paralyzing the traffic in the whole section. Road traffic was also completely paralyzed at many places on national highway. From October 12 onwards, rail traffic was thrown completely out of gear due to massive rail roko.( Rail blockade) Akali government tried to divide the movement by announcing lower prices for procurement, Rs.515 per qnt. for quality rice and Rs.485 for coarse rice, but this failed to divide the movement when farmers insisted on Rs.540 per qnt. as announced earlier, and demanded compensation to the farmers who had sold their rice to the traders at a lower rate. Ultimately the Akali government had to retreat and announced procurement of rice at Rs.540 and the centre earmarked Rs.350 crores to be paid as compensation for distress sale. Party comrades played a leading role in the agitation in Mansa-Bathinda belt and mobilized the whole Party in support of the movement. RYA organized rasta roko on October 12 in solidarity with the agitating farmers. On October 11, AISA and Punjab Students Union organized one-day strike against the withdrawal of bus pass facility in private buses under state transport and also in solidarity with the farmers. After a long gap, we are witnessing a state-wide agitation against Akali-BJP governments and the centre. Particularly in Malwa zone, left organisations from the ML stream have played a leading role in it. Reports from Chhattisgarh Party and Chattisgarh Mazdoor Kisan Samiti ( Workers-Peasant Forum)staged a dharna (Passive Picketting) on September 26-27 in Berla block of Durg district on the demands of proclamation of Berla block as famine-stricken subdivision, starting the relief work immediately, granting of unemployment allowance of Rs.1000 monthly, distribution of 5 acre land to each landless and poor peasant and other local demands. Around 150 landless peasants participated in the dharna. As the SDO was absent despite prior information of the dharna given to him, the block office was jammed. Later assurance was given by SDO and program implementation minister to take action so as to fulfil the demands. When 26 contract workers, who were not paid by the employer after they were sacked, came to Centre of Steel Wokers (CSW) affiliated with AICCTU, the latter staged a dharna on September 25 at Boria Gate of BSP. A 5-member delegation led by A Shekhar Rao, President of CSW met the Asstt. General Manager and also submitted a memorandum in this regard to the Managing Director of Bhilai Steel Plant as well as the D.M. of Durg. Agitation will be intensified if the demands are not met, the union said. Protests & Resistance Demonstration in Neyveli Against Petroleum Price Hike NLC trade union struggle council which comprises of AICCTU, AITUC, UTUC-LS, AATU, and VPS-NTU staged a demonstration in Neyveli on 13th Oct. against price hike on petroleum products. Com. M. Selvaraj, R. Ravichandran and T. Pitchai Muthu President, Gen. Secretary and Treasurer of AICCTU led the demonstration along with other TU leaders. Plantation Workers Dharna (Passive Picketing) in Andaman Plantation Crops Workers Union and members of AICCTU in Andaman jointly held a dharna-cum- demonstration before the director of CARI at Port Blair on 23rd Sept. for more than 6 hours. Thereafter, a procession was taken out from CARI gate to Bathu Basti junction. Workers strongly protested the non-compliance of the high court judgement by the CARI management and continuation of the anti-labour policies. The union has won all the labour cases in the labour court as well as in the high court, but both the director and the Ministry of Agriculture did not respect the judicial verdict. The central authorities sitting in Delhi, instead of conducting inquiry on allegations, have extended support to CARI director Alhawat who is looting the department, said the workers. The unions warned further intensification of agitation if the management continue to follow the anti- labour policies. BJP-ABVP Attack on Students in Garhwal University Campus Condemned Following the recent AISA victory in Garhwal University and Pithoragarh-Rudrapur colleges, BJP-led ABVP mobilised its hundreds of its state conference delegates armed with lethal weapons to attack PG hostel in Garhwal University, Srinagar on 16-17 October midnight, with a conspiracy to kill Yogesh Pandey, AISA incharge of Uttarakhand and other AISA leaders. They beat hostel residents and broke window panes and nets. The operation was led by SHO of Srinagar and the local BJP MLC Tirath Singh Raut was directing it from the local police station. On the next day, Oct. 17, the SHO of Srinaar was transferred to police lines because of powerful protest by the students. Still no culprit has been arrested and the administration is trying to cover up the incident and save the attackers by portraying the attack as a clash between students. Party's Uttarakhand Committee has in a fax message to UP Home Secretary appealed to intervene and punish the criminals. Exposure This Barbarism Has To Be Resisted At All Costs While the state is turning more and more repressive, criminal mafia gangs are being openly and brazenly assimilated in direct power politics, violence against women is surpassing all the past records with each passing day. Over the period of one and a half month from September to mid October this year, at least twenty cases of rape and parading women naked have been reported in Bihar alone. In September, a gang of rowdies comprising sons and relatives of powerful political leaders and officials forced entry into Mother Teressa Girls' Hostel, torn the clothes of girls, raped several of them and made their escape good. On Sept. 30, four Harijan women on their way back home were raped near Saraswati Bigha in Gaya. Police refused even to lodge an FIR. Next day, the rapists dragged these women out of their houses and paraded them naked in the village. In Hazaribagh, near Darugaon two Harijan women were raped and then paraded naked in broad daylight. In Chatra, a gang of criminals entered a village, foced into houses and raped four women. It was only after two days that they dared to report to the police station. Police however took no action and the same night these women were dragged out of their houses and gang-raped. In Madhubani, one women of Balwant Bigha was dragged out the village naked, raped and then sent back to the village. In Purnea, a woman of Bagdha-Chandpur (PS Jagdishpur) was identified as a witch, stripped off, tortured and raped for 12 days in presence of her husband and son. On 13th day her daughter was stripped off and taken to the canal outside the village and raped there. Are we living in a civilized state? The list is unending. During January-April 2000, there are 221 cases of rape, 159 of kidnapping of women, 51 cases of rape-and-murder or parading naked and torture, 144 cases of dowry killing and 247 cases of cheat reported in Bihar (facts are based on a report published by a news agency in New Delhi on Oct. 21). Only a powerful rise of democratic resistance, by women organisations in particular, can check these black forces pampered by the repressive state. This task has to be undertaken to strengthen the overall democratic movement in Bihar. International Fidel Leads Million March Against US Blockade Over 1 million Cuban people marched against the sinister amendments that strengthen the blockade and curtail the right of Americans to travel to Cuba, as well as the theft of Cuban assets frozen in the US. The two hour long Great patriotic march led by President Fidel Castro, began on Oct. 18 at 9 a.m. in front of the U.S. Interest Section. Along with anti-imperialist slogans, the slogan of revolutionary combatants, “Forward, Cubans, the homeland is proud of you!” was raised at the march, echoing a phrase from the Cuban national anthem that reverberated entire Havana. The amendment to step up blockade against Cuba by strengthening the existing restrictions on U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba was ultimately passed by the senate on Oct. 18, in spite of oppositions. Cubans answered with the defiant million march on the same day and exposed the imperialist lie behind this notorious amendment. The false impression sought to be created by the amendment, that it relaxes the blockade, was repudiated by the International Action Center, New York, which condemned the amendment calling it a sham because "It claims to allow sales of food to Cuba, but at the same time it bars the federal government and US banks from financing shipments that would make these sales possible". Noting that it was an infringement of the constitutional right to travel, it further said, “In November, hundreds of people from the US will defy the travel ban by attending the Second World Conference in Solidarity and Friendship with Cuba in Havana". Over 4,000 people from 100 countries are expected to attend the conference, whose main purpose is to mobilize international support for an end to the U.S. blockade. Humiliating Defeat to Walesa in Poland Lech Walesa, former Solidarity leader, who headed the first counter-revolution to end communist rule in Poland, suffered a crushing defeat in the presidential election on Oct. 9. Walesa polled a meagre 0.8 % of the vote and ended up in the seventh place. His humiliation was more painful because Aleksander Kwasniewski, who was re-elected, had polled 54% vote. Mr Walesa’s popularity has fallen deeply since the last presidential election five years ago, when as a sitting president he lost to Mr. Kwasniewski in the second round by 500,000 votes. Thus the so-called anti-communist "hero" of early nineties has been summarily rejected by the Polish people. 'Strengthen the Party' Campaign Proletarian Leadership Must Not Entertain Petty Bourgeois Illusion The petty bourgeois democrats, those sham socialists who replaced the class struggle by dreams of class harmony, even pictured socialist transformation in the dreamy fashion — not as the overthrow of the rule of exploiting class, but as the peaceful submission of the minority to the majority which has become aware of its aims. This petty-bourgeois utopia, which is inseparable from the idea of the state being above the classes, led in practice to the betrayal of the interests of the working classes, as was shown, for example, by the history of French revolutions of 1848 and 1871, and by the experience of “socialist” participation in bourgeois Cabinets in Britain, France, Italy and other countries at the turn of the century. The overthrow of bourgeois rule can be accomplished only by the proletariat, the particular class whose economic conditions of existence prepare it for this task and provide it with the possibility and the power to perform it. While the bourgeoisie break up and disintegrate the peasantry and all the petty- bourgeois groups, they weld together, unite and organize the proletariat. Only the proletariat — by virtue of the economic role it plays in large-scale production — is capable of being the leader of all the working and exploited people, whom the bourgeoisie exploit, oppress and crush, often not less but more than they do the proletarians, but who are incapable of waging an independent struggle for their emancipation. By educating the worker’s party, Marxism educates the vanguard of the proletariat, capable of assuming power and leading the whole people to socialism, of directing and organizing the new system, of being the teacher, the guide, the leader of all the working and the exploited people in organizing their social life without the bourgeoisie and against the bourgeoisie. By contrast, the opportunism now prevailing trains the members of the workers party to be the representatives of the better- paid workers, who lose touch with the masses, “get along” fairly well under capitalism, and sell their birthright for a mess of potage, i.e., renounce their role as revolutionary leaders of the people against the bourgeoisie. (State and Revolution, Lenin, CW, Vol: 25, p.408,409.) _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
