Sunday 30 December 2012
Saturday 29 December 2012
THE INTERNATIONAL UNITY OF THE COMMUNISTS REQUIRES THE DEFEAT OF AVAKIANIST REVISIONISM, CENTRISM AND ALL FORMS OF REVISIONISM!
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.in/
Once again they denounced the revisionist betrayal of the revolution in Nepal, they recognized the collapse the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement as leading center, rejecting the revisionist theory of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and of the Revolutionary Communist Party,USA that they led that movement to bankruptcy. They called the Marxist Leninist Maoists to fight for the international unity of the communists demolishing the false revisionist theories and eclectic positions of centrism, tracing a deep demarcation between Marxism and opportunism across the general line of the international communist movement as a firm basis for unity to build the new International.
Following that correct line today in this new birth anniversary of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, teacher in an irreconcilable struggle against opportunism, we denounce the so called Avakian's new synthesis, adopted in 2008 by the Revolutionary Communist Party, United States (RCP,USA) as a form of revisionism, the main danger in our time for the unity of the International Communist Movement.
Fight Violence Against Women Across the Country- Viplav Sanskritik Manch
http://sanhati.com/
December 29, 2012
FIGHT VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACROSS THE COUNTRY!
The horrific gang-rape of a young student in the Munirka-Mahipalpur area on December 16th has sparked off wide protests in Delhi. Thousands of people, young and old, have congregated at police stations, India Gate and the CM’s residence expressing their outrage at the brutal incident and the government and police’s lax attitude.
But instead of sensitively listening to people demanding ‘justice’ for the young woman, the Delhi government has created an Emergency like situation and attacked protestors with tear gas, smoke grenades, water cannons and lathi charge! It is heartening to see that common people have braved the systematic force used by the government and still collected in the area. Women with young children, elderly people, families on a Sunday outing, young girls in a discussion on violence they face, activists, journalists-were indiscriminately beaten up by the Delhi Police and Rapid Action Force (RAF) at India Gate on 22-23 December. Metro stations around India Gate are closed and Section 144, which prohibits the assembly of more than 5 people in a public space, has been applied in the area. It’s striking to see the government acting so swiftly and efficiently against peaceful protestors, when during riots, emergencies or when common people are harassed, they are nowhere to be found.
Friday 28 December 2012
Monday 10 December 2012
Sunday 9 December 2012
The Famished Architects of Shining India
http://sanhati.com/excerpted/5853/
December 1, 2012
by Tathagatha Sengupta
At first sight, the main underlying reasons for the phenomenon of seasonal mass migration from western Orissa to Andhra Pradesh and other southern states could be ascribed to inadequate rainfall leading to agricultural crises. Most of these areas, covered by the so-called KBK (Koraput-Bolangir-Kalahandi) districts allow only one crop per year. This means migration of a highly impoverished population of about 4 lakh people every year under desperate economic conditions, mainly to the urban centers and thereabouts of Andhra Pradesh, to work in the numerous brick kilns and construction works. Although the role of nature behind this annual catastrophe can not be denied, but as one digs deeper into the socio-economic and political conditions of this region, other man-made factors emerge that are quite hard to ignore.
Tale of Three Villages
Let us look into the case studies of a few villages in Bolangir district. The village of Ganjaura (Turrekela block), deep inside a reserve forest, is inhabited mainly by tribal families, and a few dalit and OBC households. The village was formed around 1865, and vanished temporarily around 1932-35 when people left following a massive cholera attack. It was resettled again in 1965. The forest department of independent India used to effectively rule this village till 2 years back, before the officers fled from this area out of the fear of CPI (Maoist) squads. The end of their dictatorship was marked by an incident in 2009 when a drunken forest officer, with a few forest guards, visited the village during a village meeting and started abusing the people. The women of the village retaliated, and beat up the forest officer and his cohorts, to the point that the officer actually defecated in his pants, and ran off.
Let us look into the case studies of a few villages in Bolangir district. The village of Ganjaura (Turrekela block), deep inside a reserve forest, is inhabited mainly by tribal families, and a few dalit and OBC households. The village was formed around 1865, and vanished temporarily around 1932-35 when people left following a massive cholera attack. It was resettled again in 1965. The forest department of independent India used to effectively rule this village till 2 years back, before the officers fled from this area out of the fear of CPI (Maoist) squads. The end of their dictatorship was marked by an incident in 2009 when a drunken forest officer, with a few forest guards, visited the village during a village meeting and started abusing the people. The women of the village retaliated, and beat up the forest officer and his cohorts, to the point that the officer actually defecated in his pants, and ran off.
Saturday 8 December 2012
"Boycott Elections!" International Significance of the Slogan
Published: Liberation, December 1968
Source: Selected Works of Charu Mazumdar
Transcription: CPI-ML
HTML Markup: Nik McDonald for MIA, June 2006
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2006). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.
Source: Selected Works of Charu Mazumdar
Transcription: CPI-ML
HTML Markup: Nik McDonald for MIA, June 2006
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2006). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.
The year was 1937. German, Italian and Japanese fascism, the three advanced detachments of world imperialism, were conspiring to redivide the world among themselves. German and Italian fascism intruded on the stage of Spain as active supporters of General Franco.The world working class came out in support of the united front government of Spain, and an International Brigade was formed with people who came from different countries. But unfortunately Franco succeeded in smashing the resistance put up by the International Brigade and in imposing his brand of fascism on Spain.
Just at that time, the Communist Party of China headed by Chairman Mao liberated a small area, Yenan, and stood up to oppose Japanese militarism. Not only that. It smashed all the boasts of Japanese militarism and began to create one liberated zone after another by rousing the poor peasants in the Japanese-occupied areas. These liberated zones not only survived the fierce Japanese attacks but also struck back hard at Japanese imperialism. At that time the Communist Party of China headed by Chairman Mao Tse-tung had not only to fight Japanese imperialism but also had to resist the reactionary Kuomintang government led by Chiang.
Then the Second World War broke out. The colonies of the older imperialist powers crumbled like a house of cards. The colonial people saw before their eyes how the so-called powerful imperialist powers fled before Japanese aggression like a dog beaten and with its tail between its legs. German fascism brought all the imperialist powers of entire Europe (excepting the British) under its heels through its superior military technique and strength. The old imperialist powers proved unable to meet the onslaught of fascism. With the entire industrial wealth and resources of Europe at their disposal, the power-drunk German fascists launched an aggression against the Soviet Union, the only state at that time where the working class held power. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union headed by the great Stalin soon recovered from the initial shock of this treacherous surprise attack and mobilized the entire Soviet people, imbued them with the sacred determination to defend the country and smashed all the boasts of the German fascist hordes. The defeat inflicted on German fascism in the battlefield of Stalingrad ensured the victory of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Stalin. The example of the great Communist Party of China inspired the world's people wherever they were oppressed by fascism and they rose arms in hand to oppose fascism and established rural base areas in order to fight it. That is how world fascism was destroyed. After the war when the old imperialists tried to reestablish their exploitation and rule, the wrath of the people of the colonial world, who had been roused and had realized their own strength, spread like a wild fire and the flames of armed struggle spread through the colonies and semi-colonies. At the time when the Communist Party of China led by Chairman Mao was advancing towards a decisive victory, there emerged in India, Telengana, where, under the leadership of the communist revolutionaries, a peasant guerrilla force was formed, hundreds of thousands of peasants were roused with the spirit of revolutionary resistance, and hundreds of villages were liberated.
No Peace without Justice - Support the Jaffna Students defend Tamil rights
We strongly condemn the Sri Lankan Military repression of a student Demonstration in Jaffna on Remeberance Day.
The continued rule by the Sri Lankan Military in Tamil areas is an insult to democracy as are the Sri Lankan Governments continued Land Grabs of Tamil Lands.
There can be no peace without justice.
We urge the people of Sri Lanka and our Tamil comrades to reject bourgeois nationalism with its pro imperialist movements and especially Indian expansionism .
The nature of any genuine nationalist movement should be anti capitalist and anti-imperialist.
The Sri Lankan Tamils fight for their self determination and should join the worlds anti-capitalist anti-imperialist movements.
Capitalist Global Imperialism planned the Tamils Genocide hand in hand with Indian expansioniism.
They fed Sri Lankan fascist president Rajapaksha.
We urge the Tamils who have a social conscience in the diaspora to take your place in the anti-imperialist movement thorough out the world.
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We urge the Left in Sri Lanka to also reject the anti marxist bourgeois cosmopolitanism that rejects the right of self determination for the Tamil people.
With a new anti imperialist revolutionary leadership coming forward in the Tamil community and the Singhalese Left rejecting bourgeois cosmopolitanism then a new chapter can be written in Sri Lankan history with the unity and harmony of all its people's.
Without class struggle against imperialism and its local cliques the Tamils will never achieve self determination and the Singhalese Left without rejecting bourgeois cosmopolitanism create their own barrier to a successful Tamil/Singhalese struggle for a better life for all working people..
Smash the twin evils of bourgeois cosmopolitanism and bourgeois nationalism - forward to a Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
March 26th Movement - British Isles
Democracy and Class Struggle - Wales
Pan- Afrikan Voice - London
Great Unrest Group - Wales
Naxalbari has not died and it will never die.:Long Live the Heroic Peasants in Naxalbari!
Published: Liberation, July 1971-January 1972
Source: Selected Works of Charu Mazumdar
Transcription: CPI-ML
HTML Markup: Nik McDonald for MIA, June 2006
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2006). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.
Source: Selected Works of Charu Mazumdar
Transcription: CPI-ML
HTML Markup: Nik McDonald for MIA, June 2006
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2006). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.
The social system that exists in India is semi-feudal and semi-colonial. So the democratic revolution in this country means agrarian revolution. All the problems of India are related to this one task. On this question of agrarian revolution there has been difference of opinion in Marxist circles from the beginning of this century and among Marxists the struggle between the two policies-the one revolutionary and the other counter-revolutionary-continues. The Mensheviks side-tracked the question of State power and searched for a solution in municipalization. Lenin declared a crusade against it and said that it was not possible to solve the problem by side-tracking the question of State power. He showed that however progressive the legislation framed by one might be, the present State structure could not implement it. The condition of the peasant will remain the same. That was why he said that only the democratic State of workers and peasants, led by the working class, could solve this problem. Only the other day even the Soviet Party writer, Yudin, while criticizing Nehru's Basic Approach, said that Nehru had not till then been able to solve the peasant problem. He challenged Nehru to show, in practice, how this problem could be solved in a peaceful way and added that Nehru would fail to do so. History has proved that, far from solving this problem, Nehru was not able even to bring about an iota of change.
Genesis of the Sinhala - Tamil Conflict by N.Sanmugathasan
It is just as well, at this point to study the communal problem as it arose at that time.
One of the main reasons why the Tamils occupied a better place in the government service and the professions under British rule than the Sinhalese did was due to the head start they had in the sphere of learning English although this was by accident and not design.
The American Ceylon Mission was started in the Jaffna peninsula by the American Methodist Missionaries in 1816. In her very recent book, "Communal politics under the Donoughmore Constitution" Jane Russell gives a good account of the services rendered by these missionaries to education in Jaffna.
According to her, the reason why the Mission chose Jaffna as the focus of its activities was because "the colonial government was anxious to avoid a clash with the English Missions and partly because its strategic position was the key to India which was the Mission's main target".
By 1822, 42 schools staffed by Americans who were fluent in Tamil, had been established in the peninsula. In 1823, was set up the Batticotta (not to be confused with Batticaloa) Seminary at Vaddukoddai. This was the first English school in Asia. It was a free boarding school whose standard has been compared to that of a University, It taught English, Tamil prose, Mathematics, Greek, Latin History, Geography and. Philosophy.
Friday 7 December 2012
Monthly Review Volume 64, Number 7 (December 2012)
http://monthlyreview.org/
As we write these notes at the beginning of November climate change is once again in the headlines in the United States and around the world. This is because of the devastating impact of Hurricane Sandy, not only on islands in the Caribbean, but also on the northeastern United States and particularly New York and New Jersey, with the impact of the storm dramatized by the damage to New York City. Coincidentally almost twenty-five years ago it was a heat wave experienced in New York, coinciding with climatologist James Hansen’s famous testimony to Congress, that first made global warming a public issue, and increasingly an international one with the formation that year of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Whether Hurricane Sandy’s destruction in New York and New Jersey will lead to a similar elevation of climate change as a public issue this time around remains to be seen.
SPEECH FROM THE GALICIAN COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT PEOPLE´S WAR IN INDIA AND THE CONSTRUCTION COMMITTEE OF THE MAOIST COMMUNIST PARTY OF GALICIA (SPANISH STATE) ADDRESSED AT THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN SUPPORT OF PEOPLE´ S WAR IN INDIA (HAMBURG, 24 NOVEMBER 2012)
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.in/
Comrades,
A warm red salute from Galicia.
For the comrades that are part of this delegation, it is an honor to be able to address those participating and assert that, from this small country without state, from theFinisterrae of Europe, there are women and men that look with happiness the victories of the masses that today in India carry out revolutionary people´s war.
That learn from their struggle and how they carry out the application of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to the concrete conditions of revolution. There are men and women who firmly support the Indian sister people and work to apply also the road to revolution to the concrete conditions of Galicia.
We send our greetings to the Communist Party of India (Maoist), the heroic detachment who leads this glorious struggle which cannot be crushed no matter what sort of crimes are carried out against the people by the reactionaries.
A heartfelt lal salam in memory of comrade Azad, of comrade Kishenyi, that together with thousands of sons and daughters of the people, are today flames of the people´s liberation, of the people´s war that moves forward in spite of the repressive and criminal actions like Operation Green Hunt.
Tuesday 4 December 2012
Conflict in Egypt, Agendas of the Oppressors… And the Need for Another Way
by Alan Goodman | December 9, 2012 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Massive protests are sweeping Egypt, and many people who are part of them have aspirations for real liberation from oppression. At the same time, right now the terms of what is possible in Egypt are far too much defined by the interests of competing oppressive agendas, and a whole other way is needed to liberate Egypt. AP Photo
Massive protests are sweeping Egypt, triggered by Egyptian President Morsi’s November 11 decree that, among other things, radically restricted the role of Egypt’s judiciary. While it is difficult to get a clear picture of the forces in the field, they appear to represent a wide range of interests, agendas, and sections of society, including the ongoing aspirations of the people of Egypt for real liberation from oppression.
At the same time, right now the terms of societal conflict in Egypt are defined in the main by intense contradictions between two sections of the ruling class. Neither of these forces represents anything positive for the millions of Egyptian people who rose up with such inspiring courage in 2011.
The Uprising of 2011
The significance of, and the challenges facing the inspiring uprising in Egypt in 2011 were identified incisively in Bob Avakian’s statement, “Egypt 2011: Millions Have Heroically Stood Up…The Future Remains to be Written.”
That statement begins:
From A World to Win News Service
Bangladesh workers burned alive in death-trap garment factory
December 9, 2012 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
November 26, 2012. A World to Win News Service. On November 24, 121 garment workers died and at least 200 were injured in a fire that spread rapidly throughout the Tazreen Fashions factory in Ashulia, an industrial suburb outside Dhaka, Bangladesh. Many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition. Thousands of people flocked to the factory frantically looking for their relatives. Sabina Yasmine, a worker from a nearby factory, found the body of her daughter-in-law. Her son was still missing. ''Where is my son?'' she cried out. ''I want the factory owner to be hanged. For him many have died, many have gone.'' (Associated Press, November 24, 2012) Tazreen's clients include clothing retail giants from the U.S., Europe and Canada.
An electrical shortcircuit seems to have been the cause of the fire. This has been the reason for many other industrial fires, whether the factory building is a more modern one like Tazreen Fashion or an older construction in the heart of congested Dhaka. At Tazreen, there were no outside escape routes, such as exterior fire escapes, even though the building was nine floors high. There were ground floor fire exits, but they were locked.
Wednesday 28 November 2012
Tuesday 27 November 2012
Red Salute from Democracy and Class Struggle to Big Successful Conference in Hamburg in Support of People's War in India
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.in/
Press release
Internationalist gathers in Hamburg in Support of the People’s War in India
On the 24th of November the International Conference in Support of the People´s War in India took place in the city of Hamburg, Germany. Following the joint Call of the International Committee to Support of the People’s War in India and the Hamburg based League against Imperialist Aggression, internationalists from different parts of the world came together to exchange views on who to develop the international work in support of the struggle of the Indian people against imperialism, semi-feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism.
Delegations, organizations and individuals from Afghanistan, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Croatia Columbia, France, Germany, Holland, Iran, Italy, Kurdistan, Norway, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Galice and Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and many other countries participated in the Conference, Messages from India, Tunisie, Nepal.. Some 300 hundred persons attended the event.
Delegations, organizations and individuals from Afghanistan, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Croatia Columbia, France, Germany, Holland, Iran, Italy, Kurdistan, Norway, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Galice and Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and many other countries participated in the Conference, Messages from India, Tunisie, Nepal.. Some 300 hundred persons attended the event.
Communist Parties, revolutionary mass-organizations, revolutionary youth organizations and solidarity and anti-imperialist organizations from all corners of the world made statements of support to the Indian comrades. From many countries from where comrades and friends of the Indian Maoists were not able to attend with a delegation sent messages of support. A list of the participating Parties and Organizations and all the speeches and messages will be published in the upcoming days on the website of the Conference:www.indienkonferenz.tk
On the same webpage pictures from the Conference as well as information of the preparatory campaign - including the official video of mobilization, the graffiti paintings, posters and so forth – can be seen.
The Conference also contained a cultural program with music groups preformed Swedish folk music, German Rap and Revolutionary songs in Turkish, all in a profound anti-imperialist spirit.
An important statement was made by a Palestinian comrade, who pointed out who the struggle of the Indian people are linked to the resistance against the murderous Zionist Occupiers and their Yankee-imperialist masters. At the end of the speak slogans in support of the heroic Palestinian people resounded the hall. The organizers of the Conference stated a strong condemnation of the barbaric attacks on the population of Gaza.
Another important feature of the Conference was the great number of youth who participated, not only as participants but also as part of the organizing structures. This aspect, together with the truly internationalist character of the event, gave it a very vivid and dynamic character.
After the official part of the program delegates and participants continued to celebrate and long into the night revolutionary songs in many different languages and anti-imperialist, militant antifascist and communist slogans made the tune of a rejoicing feast of internationalism.
As a result of the Conference concrete steps have been made in the Coordination of the forces who support the People’s War in India. This without a doubt will have very real impact on the international work and lead to a stronger international campaign.
When we wrote the Call to the Conference we stated that we wanted it to be a vivid expression of proletarian internationalism. It was. Form the Hamburg Conference sounds a cry that says:
We stand with our comrades in India!
Victory to the People’s War!
International Committee to Support the People’s War in India
League against Imperialist Aggression (Hamburg, Germany)
Why are five Adivasi activists and Xavier Dias sent to Chaibasa Jail?
http://sanhati.com/articles/
November 27, 2012
The following is a note sent by Xavier Dias, before they surrendered, to let the world know the details of the case and the story of the battle of the people of Noamundi against the TISCO.
[For earlier article on TATA’s rapsheet, go here -Ed]
TISCO (Tata Iron & Steel Co.) presently known as TATA STEEL’s captive iron ore mine lies in Noamundi Jharkhand (India). It is one of their first mines operational since 1907 and supplying ore to its furnace in Jamshedpur. This is the homeland of the Adivasi people of India from whom resources were expropriated to convert the House of Tata’s from a opium trader to a full-fledged monopoly capitalist. One of the first in British India.
Noamundi prior to the arrival of mining was a 100% ‘Ho’ Adivasi territory. Today Tatas have a large township with massive mechanised mining including processing plants.
In 1991 on the festival of Holi,a rowdy group of TISCO employees molested a team of Adivasi women labourers on the construction site of the Companies Sports Stadium. The women had joined their hands and told these drunken workers that as their Baa Parob (festival of spring) was not yet performed in their village they cannot join them in the Holi celebrations. According to Ho tradition unless the village head priest Duri performs the Baa puja villagers under his jurisdiction cannot participate in similar festivals elsewhere. It’s a sacrilege. The TISCO workers forced themselves on the women and by applying colour on their breast and genitals molested them.
Friday 23 November 2012
The UN’s ‘grave failure’ in Sri Lanka demands an answer by Frances Harrison
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.in/
Democracy and Class Struggle was about to publish this article by Frances Harrison on Sri Lanka when we received this report from a Tamil Comrade on current situation in the country:
In Sri Lankan 109 young girls were forcefully recruited by Sri Lankan military.
Imperialist countries and Indian government helped the Rajapaksha regime to carry out the genocide. UN and some western funded NGOs are claiming the death toll is about 50 thousand within the last 3 days of the final war. However according the independent sources, the actual number may be up to 100 thousand. In order to silence the angry Tamils around the world, UN, European Union and US repeatedly asserted for the past four years that they would punish Rajapaksha government for War Crime. Once the government of Sri Lanka let the multinational to exploit the country, these imperial power and its components are discussing the so called development in Sri Lanka.
In the north of Sri Lanka where Tamils live predominantly, which is under the administration of Sri Lankan military and its paramilitary forces, young Tamil girls have been forced to marry members of the Sri Lankan army. The military introduces drugs among the School children. Prostitution is promoted as a tool for earning money by the military in the north and east.
In this context the Sri Lankan military recruited Tamil young girls.
Clearly the injustice continues to this day in Sri Lanka has does the silence about it. Silence is complicity, in not only hiding this appalling genocide but complicity in future genocides to come because nobdy had the courage to expose this one before the world.
It’s been called Ban Ki-moon’s Rwanda moment: a little-reported war three years ago on a tiny Indian Ocean island where tens of thousands of civilians were slaughtered, waiting for the United Nations to come and rescue them.
What happened in Sri Lanka in 2009 has come back to haunt the UN with the leak of an internal inquiry commissioned by the Secretary-General. The independent report concluded that the UN’s own conduct during the final months of Sri Lanka’s civil war marked a “grave failure.” There was damning criticism of senior staff, who “simply did not perceive the prevention of killing of civilians as their responsibility.”
Would the entire report have seen the light of day if a draft hadn’t been leaked to the BBC? A reluctant UN in New York had to publish the document, but chose to do so without its powerful executive summary that set the conflict in the context of post-9/11 global attitudes to terrorism that tragically skewed the reporting of the bloodshed. Internal communications show senior UN officials struggling to portray the proscribed terrorist group, the Tamil Tigers, as the ones primarily to blame for the killings.
But the latest UN report documents how UN staff members were in possession of reliable information that showed that the Sri Lankan government was responsible for the majority of deaths.
And that two-thirds of the killings were inside safe zones unilaterally declared by the Sri Lankan government purportedly to protect civilians. This was information senior UN managers decided not to share with diplomats when they briefed them.
What happened in Sri Lanka in 2009 has come back to haunt the UN with the leak of an internal inquiry commissioned by the Secretary-General. The independent report concluded that the UN’s own conduct during the final months of Sri Lanka’s civil war marked a “grave failure.” There was damning criticism of senior staff, who “simply did not perceive the prevention of killing of civilians as their responsibility.”
Would the entire report have seen the light of day if a draft hadn’t been leaked to the BBC? A reluctant UN in New York had to publish the document, but chose to do so without its powerful executive summary that set the conflict in the context of post-9/11 global attitudes to terrorism that tragically skewed the reporting of the bloodshed. Internal communications show senior UN officials struggling to portray the proscribed terrorist group, the Tamil Tigers, as the ones primarily to blame for the killings.
But the latest UN report documents how UN staff members were in possession of reliable information that showed that the Sri Lankan government was responsible for the majority of deaths.
And that two-thirds of the killings were inside safe zones unilaterally declared by the Sri Lankan government purportedly to protect civilians. This was information senior UN managers decided not to share with diplomats when they briefed them.
Orissa - PUDR Statement on the killing of villagers by paramilitary forces
http://sanhati.com/
November 22, 2012
The recent incident of paramilitary forces murdering five villagers and saying that they were Maoists in the Gajapati district of southern Odisha on the 13th November 2012, is yet another instance of a serious malaise of the body politic which PUDR has repeatedly raised and always condemns.
The local media has identified the victims of the staged encounter as Mr. Ghasiram Bagsing, Ayub Padra, Syamson Majhi & Sanatan Maillik of Brahmanigaon Police Station area & Laxmikanta Nayak of Tikabali Police Station area. The first three persons were prominent activists. They had raised the issue of corruption and dishonesty on the part of the Sarpanch of the Sirmuli Gram Panchayat Smt Kamla Patmajhi, her husband and ex-Sarpanch Karma Patmajhi and her other family members in the distribution and illegal sell of BPL rice. They spearheaded a campaign, lodged a FIR with the local police on 19 Aug 2012 for this case. The sarpanch was subsequently arrested along with her driver and BPL rice was recovered. They even mobilized villagers and had staged a dharna on the 11th October 2012, in front of Daringabadi Block Office, for the arrest of all members of the Sarpanch’s family involved in the illegal sell of BPL rice. Ghasiram Bagsing was an elected member of the Gram Panchyat Samiti.
Bal Thackeray, or, Why the Communists Did Nothing
http://sanhati.com/
November 22, 2012
by Saroj Giri
Right where Bal Thackeray was cremated, at Shivaji Park in Mumbai, another event had taken place in June 1970: “a twenty-five-thousand-strong funeral procession marched to Shivaji Park, the Sena stronghold, shouting anti-Shiv Sena slogans,” reports Gyan Prakash in his Mumbai Fables (Princeton University Press, 2010, p. 247). The reason: the murder of Krishna Desai by the Sena in June 5, 1970. Bal Thackeray was supposed to be directly involved in it.
Desai was the sitting Communist Party of India (CPI) MLA from central Bombay, a popular and militant working class leader. He was also one of those who went beyond the diktats of the official CPI leadership, which discouraged self-defence and direct action and could not integrate them in its overall political strategy. That evening of the day he was murdered, it is told that thousands of workers spontaneously came out to avenge the murder. This could have meant they would have ‘liquidated’ Bal Thackeray and his cohorts.
Wednesday 21 November 2012
Monday 19 November 2012
Israel's Murderous Assault on the People in Gaza... And the Need to Oppose These Crimes NOW
http://revcom.us/
by Alan Goodman | November 25, 2012 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
At this writing, a brutal wave of targeted and indiscriminate killing, destruction, and terror is being rained down on the Palestinian people in Gaza by Israel—an operation the Israelis are calling "Pillar of Defense." Health officials in Gaza say 46 people have been killed and 440 people wounded so far in the attacks. By the time you read this, that number will be larger (there have been three reported deaths on the Israeli side). This terror and brutality—overwhelmingly hitting at non-combatants in Gaza—is fully backed by the United States, with Obama insisting over and over that Israel's murderous bombardment of essentially defenseless people in Gaza is "self defense."
Israel's assaults on Gaza are taking place under cover of darkness—literally. Israeli missiles and bombs have, at this writing, knocked out power in Gaza, leaving people, hospitals, homes, and emergency responders without light. What few reports from Gaza make it into mainstream media coverage portray a reporter standing in pitch dark, describing sonic booms, earth-shaking bombs, and flames erupting high into the sky. The Israeli assault has already killed elderly people, children, and many, many other people who could not possibly be considered "combatants" in any military activity originating in Gaza.
Sunday 18 November 2012
Jana Andolan - The People's Movement in Nepal by Fritz Tucker
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.in/
Democracy and Class Struggle is pleased to publish this contribution to understanding the success and failings of the Nepalese Revolution by a critical thinker and supporter of the Nepalese Revolution - Fritz Tucker.
Jana Andolan
The People’s Movement in Nepal
By Fritz Tucker
Post-War Kathmandu
Every day, hundreds of European, American, Australian, and Israeli tourists walk the streets of Thamel, downtown Kathmandu. Nearby is the Narayanhiti Palace Museum, the Nepali Royal Palace that was converted into a museum after the Nepali People’s Movement of 2006 (in Nepalese, Jana Andolan II). Most of these tourists are unaware that the crowded, winding streets of Thamel were much more crowded in April 2006—filled, in fact, with millions of stone and torch-wielding Nepalis battling and defeating the automatic-rifle bearing Royal Nepal Army. With the Maoist and Royal armies confined to their barracks, Parliament’s blue-shirted police patrol the streets of Kathmandu, the village outposts, and the Indian borders.
Most of the urban rebels, party-affiliated or not, have gone back to their full-time jobs. Many of them work in one of Nepal’s largest industries, tourism. This is why a tourist doesn’t have to walk half a block to purchase a bicycle-rickshaw ride, tiger balm, hashish, a prostitute, or a trekking expedition.
Prachanda slapped by former supporter
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.in/
November 17, 2012 -- The leader of Nepal's 10-year Maoist insurgency was left shaken on Friday when a former supporter slapped the ex-guerrilla across the face, smashing his glasses. Police dragged away 25-year-old Padam Kunwar during the angry confrontation with Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal - better known as Prachanda, or the Fierce One - at a reception in the capital Kathmandu.
"We have arrested him but he is undergoing treatment at hospital after he was beaten up by Maoist members," police spokesman Keshav Adhikari said, adding Kunwar would be questioned later. The attacker, said to be an alienated former party member, grabbed the 57-year-old's hand and slapped him hard on the cheek, breaking the former revolutionary's spectacles, during a tea-drinking ceremony.
Saturday 17 November 2012
Saturday 10 November 2012
West Bengal : Condemn the police firing on protesting villagers in Dubrajpur! No matter which party is in power, it is the same story of corporate land grab and plunder!
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.in/
"The problem started during the Left Front rule. Since then we have knocked on the doors of all political parties — CPM, Congress and Trinamool Congress. All of them assured us that they would take up the cause but didn't do anything" – the protesters at Dubrajpur
In another case of police firing at the behest of corporations, an armed force of over 1,000 policemen entered Dubrajpur in West Bengal’s Birbhum district and opened fire on protesting villagers. Twenty villagers, including a woman and school children, were injured in the police firing with two of them in a serious condition. The police went there to recover the machinery of the DVC-EMTA Coal Mines which has acquired 600 acres of land from the area.
The background of the police firing: In 2010, during the then ‘Left’ Front rule, the DVC-EMTA Coal Mines was given nearly 600 acres of land for an open-cast mine. Since then, the people had been protesting against the land grab. After the TMC came to power in 2011 it continued with the project despite stern opposition from the people. In 2011 the villagers of Loba, Palashdanga and Juprai drove away the officials from the region and seized their instruments, demanding that the government pay them the compensation first. The TMC led state government and the DVC Emta Coal mines since then were working in tandem to recover the equipment. The industries minister Partha Chatterjee called up the local SP a few days back asking him to expedite the recovery. The TMC Birbhum president Anubrata Mandal even accompanied when the police was on its way to wreck mayhem.
The TMC led state government ordered the police firing. But, it was however quick to go into a denial mode right after the firing - even going to the extent of forging hospital documents of the injured to somehow prove its claims. Similar to what was said by the CPM during Singur, Nandigram and Lalgarh movements, the TMC is claiming that the “innocent” people of Dubrajpur were incited to violence by ‘misguided outsiders’. And when our ruling class politicians are talking about outsiders, how can they forget the Maoists? CPM always saw the hand of Maoists and TMC (as well as a nexus between the two!) whenever people rose up in revolt against its terror. And now the TMC is claiming that the Maoists and CPM may be behind the resistance in Dubrajpur! But seeing through this hypocrisy of both the TMC and CPM, the people of Dubrajpur who are currently protesting against the TMC led state government and its attempts of forceful eviction also refused to talk to the ‘Left’ front delegation that went to the area.
The TMC had replaced the CPM government more than a year back with the grand promise of ‘parivartan’. But it did not take long for the real face of this parivartan to unmask itself. Mamata Banerjee who had shed crocodile tears for the struggling people of Singur, Nandigram and Lalgarh did not take long to unleash the same state repression on the people, once she came to power. The continuing state terror in Junglemahal, the eviction of slum dwellers and arrest of activists from Nonadanga and now the police firing in Dubrajpur reveals how the TMC is united with all other parliamentary parties in carrying on with brute force all the anti-people policies of the Indian state. Only a revolutionary transformation of the present society, and not change of governments, will put an end to the corporate loot and plunder.
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