http://sanhati.com/articles/5002/April 30, 2012
PUDR condemns the Central Governments admission of its `arrest or
kill’ policy against Naxalites, before the Standing Committee on Home
Affairs by the Home Secretary, Mr. R.K. Singh on April 4, 2012.
From the time, that the Prime Minister first identified `Left Wing
Extremism’ as the single largest threat, to the massive deployment of
paramilitary forces in anti-naxal operations under the code-named
Operation Green Hunt, to the latest disclosure, there can be very little
doubt over the fact that when it comes to Maoists, the Indian State
does not believe in respecting its commitments to constitutional norms
concerning lives and liberties of its citizens.
Fact findings conducted in Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and West
Bengal by PUDR and other democratic rights organizations have pointed to
cases of increasing intimidation, arrests, torture, custodial rape,
targeted killings and encounters in the course of Operation Green Hunt.
To date, none of the officials perpetuating such crimes have been
brought to trial. In fact Governments have gone out of their way to
award some senior officials like Ankit Garg SP of Dantewada, on whose
orders Soni Sori, a tribal accused of being a Maoist was raped and
tortured, with Gallantry medals.
Despite the Planning Commission’s own report on the social roots of
Maoism, the Indian State has persisted with military suppression and
refused to back down from its savage war for development.
The latest admission brings out the nature of the `dirty war’ being
fought by the Government to benefit corporatist development. It also
brings out the hypocrisy of the parliament and the opinion-makers who
acquiesce, if not sanction, policy of individual annihilation by the
government forces.
Paramjeet Singh and Preeti Chauhan
Secretaries
Monday 30 April 2012
Democracy and Class Struggle salutes May Day 2012 - To overcome the crisis of capitalism, proletarian revolution is the only solution !
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.in/
Bread or Blood ? The Cry from People of Wales in 1831 when they first raised the Red Flag in Wales.
“The conditions of bourgeois society are too narrow to comprise the
wealth created by them. And how does the bourgeoisie get over these
crises ?
On the one hand by enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces; on the other, by the conquest of new markets, and by the more thorough exploitation of the old ones.
That is to say, by paving the way for more extensive and more destructive crises, and by diminishing the means whereby crises are prevented.
On the one hand by enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces; on the other, by the conquest of new markets, and by the more thorough exploitation of the old ones.
That is to say, by paving the way for more extensive and more destructive crises, and by diminishing the means whereby crises are prevented.
The weapons with which the bourgeoisie felled feudalism to the ground are now turned against the bourgeoisie itself.
But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bring death
to itself; it has also called into existence the men who are to wield
those weapons — the modern working class — the proletarians.”
Marx & Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, 1848
165 years after its writing, this quote remains relevant. It allows us
to understand the situation in which the proletariat and the broad
popular masses in all countries find themselves, regardless of who leads the government: they live under a concealed dictatorship, be it a bourgeois democratic or a brutal one.
The imperialist bourgeoisie is looking for the maximum rate of profit;
it is using the crisis as a pretext to achieve this objective by
restructuring the system of production. Within this, the ruling classes
in the oppressed countries try to maintain and possibly increase their
share in the surplus. Such restructuring is affecting all countries; for
the working class and the masses, it means the delocalization of large
industries: plant closings, wage cuts, unemployment, debt,
impoverishment, etc. But in the places where the new plants are to be
opened, restructuring means land grabs, expropriation of local farmers,
frenzied exploitation, poverty wages, destruction of the environment,
etc.
Bihar ‘Centenary’: Official Myth and People’s Reality
Dipankar Bhattacharya
22 March, 2012 marked the first centenary of Bihar as a separate administrative unit. After the British colonial rulers were forced to undo the partition of Bengal, they shifted the capital from Kolkata to Delhi and downsized Bengal by according the status of separate states to Bihar and Odisha. Before quitting India in 1947, the British colonialists of course saw to it that Bengal was partitioned into not just two states but two countries. The march of history and the process of administrative reorganisation have however not stopped with the exit of the British. East Bengal did not accept the absurdity of being called East Pakistan for long and emerged as the independent republic of Bangladesh in December 1971. The geographical boundary of Bihar too has not remained the same, the southern part of the twentieth century Bihar has become Jharkhand in the twenty-first century.
From Nandigram to Nonadanga : The Change That Never Happened
The TMC regime came to power in West Bengal with a promise of ‘Poriborton’ (change) from the policies of state repression and eviction of the poor pursued by the erstwhile CPIM-LF Government. But the promise of change is unraveling fast, and all sections of the people in West Bengal are witnessing all-out fascist assaults on democratic rights. 
Land grab and brutal eviction of peasants at Singur and Nandigram had unleashed widespread resentment and protest, resulting in the unseating of CPIM’s Government and helping Mamata Banerjee’s TMC win power with her slogan of ‘Ma-Mati-Manush’ (Mother-Land-Humanity). Recent developments in TMC-ruled W Bengal, however, appear a cruel mockery of that slogan.
Land grab and brutal eviction of peasants at Singur and Nandigram had unleashed widespread resentment and protest, resulting in the unseating of CPIM’s Government and helping Mamata Banerjee’s TMC win power with her slogan of ‘Ma-Mati-Manush’ (Mother-Land-Humanity). Recent developments in TMC-ruled W Bengal, however, appear a cruel mockery of that slogan.
WHAT HUMANITY NEEDS Revolution, and the New Synthesis of Communism
http://revcom.us/
An Interview with Bob Avakian
At the beginning of 2012, an in-depth interview
with Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA,
was conducted over a period of several days by A. Brooks, a
younger-generation revolutionary who has been inspired by the
leadership and body of work of Bob Avakian and the new synthesis of
communism this has brought forward. Brooks is the author of "God The
Original Fascist" (a series of articles which appeared in Revolution
in 2005, and is available at revcom.us). From the outset and through
the course of this interview, Brooks posed probing questions, dealing
with a wide range of subjects, including: the challenges of building a
movement for revolution in a powerful imperialist country like the
U.S., and initiating a new stage of communist revolution in a world
marked by profound inequalities and antagonisms, and repeated
upheavals, but also the weakness of communist forces at this time; the
content of the new synthesis of communism, its vision of a radically
different and emancipating society and world, and how this applies to
many different spheres of society and social life, such as art and
culture and intellectual inquiry and ferment; previous historical
experience of the revolutionary and communist movements; and the
personal experience, as well as broader social experience, which led
Avakian to become a communist and contributed to his development as a
communist leader. The fact that Avakian did not know in advance what
the questions would be, and that many of them came up through the
course of the interview itself, adds to the liveliness of the interview
and the living sense of the method with which Avakian digs into,
examines from many angles, and "breaks down" the kinds of far-reaching
and often complex questions which were posed in this interview and
which have to be grappled with in confronting the challenges of
radically transforming the world through communist revolution.
Sunday 29 April 2012
20th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Rebellion
http://revcom.us/
It’s Right to Rebel Against Injustice!
Twenty years ago, April 29, 1992, the city of Los Angeles, the second largest city in the country, erupted in rebellion. Black people, joined by Latinos and people of many nationalities and coming from many different backgrounds, poured into the streets and refused to silently accept the unjust verdict which had just been rendered in the trial of the cops who brutalized Rodney King. The major news anchors in the country sat tight-lipped and nervous while walls of fire raged on the screens behind them. People were shown dancing in the light of those flames, venting their anger, fighting the police whenever and wherever they encountered them.
‘The State has to own up to the killings in Green Hunt’
http://www.tehelka.com/
GN Saibaba, Vice-President, Revolutionary Democratic Front Of India
|
Civil activists like Prashant Bhushan and
Binayak Sen have put out an appeal for the release of Sukma Collector
Alex Menon. Do you agree?
The collector of a district represents the government in a district. The government has to take responsibility for whatever atrocities and killings are happening in the name of Operation Green Hunt. It does not matter whether the collector is a good individual or not. Hundreds of people are being arrested and tortured. When there is no mechanism in place to look after their relief, the people are forced to this situation. This is the government’s creation. There is no point in saying that these things will not happen as if everything else is all right. This is a kind of war-situation where both the government and the CPI(Maoist) are locked in a battle of tactics and counter-tactics.
The collector of a district represents the government in a district. The government has to take responsibility for whatever atrocities and killings are happening in the name of Operation Green Hunt. It does not matter whether the collector is a good individual or not. Hundreds of people are being arrested and tortured. When there is no mechanism in place to look after their relief, the people are forced to this situation. This is the government’s creation. There is no point in saying that these things will not happen as if everything else is all right. This is a kind of war-situation where both the government and the CPI(Maoist) are locked in a battle of tactics and counter-tactics.
Maoists have said that they don’t
pick on doctors, teachers and honest officials. Why did this happen?
Menon was working for tribal welfare. How do you justify his kidnap?
Friday 27 April 2012
The Conspiracy of Silence by Hugh MacDiarmid from Scottish Vanguard
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.in/
At the Inaugural
meeting of the John MacLean Society recently in Glasgow, I spoke of the way in
which his significance and influence had been played down by the Labour Party
and the Communist Party, with the consequence that although he died in 1923, no
adequate biography of him has yet been published – only a very inadequate one
by Tom Bell, and a number of smaller and even less satisfactory accounts of the
man and his work by Tom Anderson, Guy Aldred, Harry McShane and others. There
is nothing new in this, of course. The conspiracy of silence has always been
one of the most effective weapons of the powers that be. They have always been
adept at the art of sweeping inconvenient truths under the carpet, and at the
associated arts of misrepresenting, falsification, and, in short, systematic
brain-washing and insidious indoctrination. That is why it is only now – half a
century after the events that the shameful lies, vicious intrigues, anda
deliberate distortions of our political and military leaders in the First World
War are only coming to light.
CISPA Snoops? 'We must know why Facebook, Google & Twitter support bill'
CISPA Snoops? 'We must know why Facebook, Google & Twitter support bill'
Thursday 26 April 2012
India: Odisha legislator Hikaka agreed to resign; has now been released by Maoists
IANS Bhubaneswar, April 26, 2012
Maoists release Odisha MLA Jhina Hikaka Maoists on Thursday released Odisha legislator Jhina Hikakain the state’s Koraput district after holding him captive for more than a month.Reporters and photographers surrounded a relieved and healthy looking Hikaka as he came with a group of villagers to a mango garden at Balipeta, over 500 km from here, at about 10.30 am. Emotions ran high when the 37-year-old Biju Janata Dal (BJD) legislator, wearing a green kurta, hugged his wife Kaushalya and seconds after both broke down in tears.
“We’re glad that he is safe and unharmed,” party colleague Baijayant Panda told reporters.
The leftwing extremists, who kidnapped Hikaka from Laxmipur in Koraput on March 24, had on Wednesday announced that a ‘praja’, people’s, court decided to release him after he apologised to the rebels and the local villagers.
A Maoist leader calling herself ‘Aruna’, in an audio message aired by a local television channel here, had said the decision to release him was taken after he promised to resign from the assembly and the primary membership of the ruling BJD.
————————-
Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/odisha-bjd-mla-jhina-hikaka-maoists/1/186054.html
Indian state ‘discovers’ red Naxal village
http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/
Posted by redpines on April 24, 2012
The
CPI(Maoist) has very deep roots among the people, gaining support in
areas that the Indian state was, apparently, not even aware of. The piece originally appeared at the Hindustan Times. Thanks also to The Prison Gates Are Open site for making it available.
By Harinder Baweja
April 22, 2012
Helicopters were kept on standby for casualty evacuation; targets were chosen with care after studying satellite images and the troops were warned — the encounters would be fierce and the naxals could be in the hundreds, even thousands. After weeks of planning, security forces armed with automatic rifles, satellite phones and Swedish Carl Gustav rocket launchers made their very first foray into the dense Abujhmad jungle, straddling the two states of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. Abujhmad, or ‘unknown hill’ — 6,000 sq km of thick forest — has not been surveyed since the British.
Sharpen your pencil: Not just to underline in Das Kapital
http://kasamaproject.org/
Posted by Mike E on April 24, 2012
“Recently, when I spoke in
Atlanta, I mentioned the importance of a political economy of modern
capitalism. And one brother said to me later ‘I really appreciated your
point about the need to study political economy.’
“And I suddenly realized that I had not made my point clearly. I’m not arguing that we have to study more political economy — I’m arguing that we have to create one. We have no communist political economy (from the whole last century!) to just go study.”
“Some of the current theoretical fashions among communists today (of focusing on studying Capital) are both
extremely positive (every communist should take theory seriously, and
everyone should study Capital once or twice in their lives! And such
study is a valuable place to begin preparations for political economic
analysis. But it is also associated with some misguided assumptions — in
those cases where the notion is that the analysis we need today simply
requires somehow erasing what Marxists have done since Marx — as if the
true answers are in the “basic texts” and have merely been obscured
since.
“It would be nice if such fundamentalist logic were true, but unfortunately it is not.”
“The political economy of the
twentieth century did (of necessity) require both negation and
affirmation of Karl Marx’s analysis. His great work Capital is
the analysis of capitalism (and its essential contradictions) that is
(inevitably) rooted in a particular stage and manifestation of the
capital relations. A number of things changed with the emergence of
colonialism and monopoly, and then with the domination of the whole
world by capital (and the subsequent shrinking of semi-feudal relations
and the reversal of socialist relations).”
* * * * * * * *
Karl Marx studies his world.
by Mike Ely
Keith starts by challenging my use of the term imperialism to describe modern capitalism:
“The casual use of terms like “imperialism” is problematic because: the term is essentially meaningless.I don’t think it is literally (or essentially) meaningless (as you say). But I do agree that virtually all our communist terminology is contested — and so to use it invites questions. There are no common accepted meanings to any of our communist terms — and part of our struggle is to develop a common language. (Notice our discussion of the term “nation“!)
Tuesday 24 April 2012
Sunday 22 April 2012
Photos show US involvement in Philippines counter-guerrilla operations
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.in/
PRESS RELEASE
CPP Information Bureau
21 April 2012
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today cited pictures taken by Reuters photographer Romeo Ranoco and published on the Yahoo! News website (http://ph.news.yahoo.com/photos/balikatan-exercise-slideshow/) and other outlets clearly showing that so-called joint military exercises between the US military and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are geared towards US involvement in local counter-guerrilla operations in the Philippines.
The pictures were taken on 19 April in Ternate, Cavite where a contingent of American soldiers engaged in war games with Filipino troops are shown portraying situations of armed engagement against the NPA. Several pictures show American soldiers engaged in mock ambushes against NPA fighters. One of the captions read: “US soldiers inspect a Filipino soldier portraying a communist rebel killed in an ambush during a Philippine-US troops joint military exercise…”
Changing face of ‘paribartan’ : movement in Nonadanga
http://sanhati.com/
April 22, 2012by Dwaipayan
Within 10 months of paribartan (meaning ‘change’ in Bengali), the TMC government has done a volte-face on the issues of land-grab, displacement, and government’s brutal reaction to an anti-eviction movement. In their election manifesto they had promised to build 10 lakh housings for slum dwellers and other downtrodden urban poor. “The evictees will get justice, and social infrastructural support”, read another promise in the same manifesto. But recent evictees of Nonadanga and street-vendors from various parts of the city have come to learn otherwise. In 2011, hawkers from Manglahat in Howrah, and those near Big Bazar in Sealdah were evicted. 2012 saw eviction drives in Howrah Maidan and VIP Bazar (near the E. M. Bypass in Kolkata) where over 3000 street vendors were thrown off-street. In continuation, on the 30th of March, Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) bulldozed three settlements in Nonadanga in the locality of Kasba - comprising of approximately 94 huts in Mazdoor Pally, 47 in Shramik Colony and 40 in Subhash Pally. “The government demolished our homes. We, the evictees of the Nonadanga slum, are spending our days and nights under the open sky. We want rehabilitation. Stand with us.” - reads a banner of the evictees who have been fighting under the Ucched Pratirodh Committee (Committee to resist Eviction) ever since. Since the first organized demolition drive, they have braved FIRs, police brutalities and repeated attempts at forcibly clearing the area in question. Galvanizing support from various left and democratic quarters, the Nonadanga movement has metamorphosed into a major social issue in Bengal.
Why Nonadanga?
Saturday 21 April 2012
Friday 20 April 2012
The Origins of May First
http://kasamaproject.org/
A
century ago, on May 1, 1886, a general strike broke across the United
States. Within days it would culminate in the events forever associated
with the name Haymarket. In 1889 the founding congress of a
new, second, Marxist International named that day, May Day, for
worldwide actions of the proletariat.
Haymarket 1886 and the “Troublesome Element”
By Mike Ely
During 1885 a circular passed hand to hand through the ranks of the proletariat in the United States. With the following words it called for class-wide action on May 1, 1886:“One day of revolt – not rest! A day not ordained by the bragging spokesmen of institutions holding the world of labor in bondage. A day on which labor makes its own laws and has the power to execute them! All without the consent or approval of those who oppress and rule. A day on which in tremendous force the unity of the army of toilers is arrayed against the powers that today hold sway over the destinies of the people of all nations. A day of protest against oppression and tyranny, against ignorance and war of any kind. A day on which to begin to enjoy ‘eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will.’”
* * * * *
A
century ago, on May 1, 1886, a general strike broke across the United
States. Within days it would culminate in the events forever associated
with the name Haymarket. In 1889 the founding congress of a
new, second, Marxist International named that day, May Day, for
worldwide actions of the proletariat.
Thursday 19 April 2012
Farewell letter from Che to Fidel Castro
Ernesto Che Guevara
« Year of Agriculture »
Havana, April 1, 1965.
Havana, April 1, 1965.
Fidel:
At this moment I remember many
things: when I met you in Maria Antonia's house, when you proposed I
come along, all the tensions involved in the preparations. One
day they came by and asked who should be notified in case of death,
and the real possibility of it struck us all. Later we knew it was
true, that in a revolution one wins or dies (if it is a real one).
Many comrades fell along the way to victory. Today everything has a less dramatic tone, because we are more mature, but the event repeats itself. I feel that I have fulfilled the part of my duty that tied me to the Cuban revolution in its territory, and I say farewell to you, to the comrades, to your people, who now are mine.
Long Live the Heroic Peasants in Naxalbari!
Charu Mazumdar
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.
http://revcom.us/
It’s Right to Rebel Against Injustice!
Twenty years ago, April 29, 1992, the city of Los Angeles, the second largest city in the country, erupted in rebellion. Black people, joined by Latinos and people of many nationalities and coming from many different backgrounds, poured into the streets and refused to silently accept the unjust verdict which had just been rendered in the trial of the cops who brutalized Rodney King. The major news anchors in the country sat tight-lipped and nervous while walls of fire raged on the screens behind them. People were shown dancing in the light of those flames, venting their anger, fighting the police whenever and wherever they encountered them.
Wednesday 18 April 2012
Tuesday 17 April 2012
Defend the Memory of Mao by Revolutionary Praxis
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.in/
Much is being made of the twenty-first anniversary of the publication of Wild Swans (1991) by the Chinese writer Jung Chang. The book is an account of her family’s experiences during the Chinese Revolution. Over thirteen million copies have been sold and many millions more people have read this book. Indeed, for many of the readers it is the only book they have ever read about modern China. This is most unfortunate because the book is an unremitting attack upon socialist revolution in China and the great communist who came to lead it, Mao Tse-tung,.
MAO BIOGRAPHY
In 2005 Jung Chang and Jon Halliday brought out Mao: The Unknown Story. According to this piece of propaganda, Mao was an entirely negative character from the moment of his birth. He is presented as lazy, greedy, vicious, murderous, incompetent, etc, etc. No positive qualities of any kind are mentioned, something that even many of the reactionary reviewers of the book noticed. Jung Chang’s method is to start out with the assumption that Mao was thoroughly rotten and then to select and distort evidence to sustain this false claim. This book has been widely criticised by serious China scholars.
ANTI-COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA
The promotion of Jung Chang’s books is part of the massive barrage of anti-communist propaganda which has intensified during the last twenty years following the final collapse of the Soviet Union. As it becomes clearer that capitalism - the oppressive system under which we live - is in decline, capitalists and those who serve them become ever more desperate to convince us that no alternative, especially socialism, is possible. Jung Chang and many other memoirists of life in the Soviet Union and China have become rich through their reactionary propagandising promoted by the capitalist media.
SEEK THE TRUTH TO SERVE THE PEOPLE
A century ago when Mao was young, the once great civilisation of China had been reduced by internal reactionaries and external imperialists to a state of disorder and destitution. Mao was one of the young Chinese who were determined to find a way to save China and turn it into a prosperous, modern society. It was the Communist Party of China, eventually led by Mao, which found the way forward which led to the defeat of internal and external enemies and the foundation of the People’s Republic in 1949. In China today Mao is widely respected and revered for the leading part he played in this great revolutionary struggle.
THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD
China during the nineteen fifties was a desperately poor society and bold measures were necessary to improve the people’s livelihood. In 1958 the Great Leap Forward was launched which aimed to boost agricultural production and lay the foundations for developing modern industry. This policy had mixed results as a result of several years of unusually bad weather and the neglect of agriculture in some parts of the country by peasants who were devoting all their time to industrial activities. It is true that some millions of people starved to death as a result.
It is Mao who has been blamed for the negative side of the Great Leap Forward although the policy was that of the whole Communist Party leadership. Jung Chang and other reactionary writers have used this episode to greatly exaggerate the numbers who died and to depict Mao as the biggest mass murderer in history. The capitalist-controlled media have eagerly propagated this nonsense. During the nineteen sixties and seventies the Chinese economy grew rapidly. By the time of Mao’s death in 1976, compared with 1949, the population of China had considerably grown, average live expectancy had increased by twenty-five years, great advances in health care and education had been made and China had developed a solid industrial base.
THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION
Learning from what was happening in the Soviet Union, Mao came to realise that there was a danger of capitalism being restored in China. The threat came not from old reactionaries or foreign imperialists but from “those in power taking the capitalist road” within the leadership of the Communist Party. People such as Liu Shao-chi (President of the PRC), Teng Hsiao-ping (General Secretary of the CPC) and privileged Party officials such as members of Jung Chang’s family wanted China to take a capitalist path of development, not a socialist one. Mao and his comrades called upon firstly the students and then workers and peasants to rise up and overthrow the capitalist-roaders. This unleashed ten years of sharp class struggle in China but eventually the capitalist roaders won out. On his deathbed in 1976 Mao said, “I have predicted that full-scale capitalist restoration may appear in China.”
CAPITALIST RESTORATION
Mao’s prediction that capitalism would be restored in China has come true. In 1976 China was the most equal society in the world whereas today it is the most unequal with the “Communist Party” led by billionaires. At the same time the workers and peasants have been losing many of the economic rights and social benefits they gained during the socialist period. Workers face job insecurity and loss of pensions. Peasants are having their land stolen from them by corrupt officials. But there is growing unrest and revolt among the Chinese people. As Mao said, “Wherever there is oppression, there is resistance.”
LONG LIVE MAOISM!
In India today there is rapid capitalist economic growth with the usual outcome: enrichment for a few and growing poverty for hundreds of millions of workers and peasants. Mao’s conception of people’s war is being applied by the Communist Party of India (Maoist) which is leading armed insurrection in many parts of India. The life and work of Mao is an inspiration to poor, oppressed people in many parts of the world. That is why capitalists and their literary apologists, such as Jung Chang, hate the memory of Mao and do everything they can to denigrate this great revolutionary leader.
DOWN WITH JUNG CHANG!
LONG LIVE MAOISM!
www.revolutionarypraxis.org
Contact: mail@revolutionarypraxis.org
Nonadanga: Political Profiles of the Arrested Activists
http://sanhati.com/
April 17, 2012
The dispossessed of Nonadanga are now on hunger strike, staying in an open field while facing constant police harassment. The demand is two-fold: rehabilitation, and the release of seven arrested activists. In view of the situation, Sanhati is publishing political profiles of the arrested activists.
***********
Debalina Chakrabarty, secretary of Kolkata based women’s organization Matangini Mahila Samiti, has participated in the people’s movements of Singur, Nandigram and Lalgarh. She has been a member on many fora, such as the SEZ Birodhi Prachar Mancha, resisting the aggression of neoliberal capital in West Bengal. She has also participated on various fact-finding teams, including one of the first reports to probe the socioeconomic effects of the purported Jindal SEZ in Salboni, West Midnapur district, West Bengal.
Samik Chakraborty is an activist with the Mazdur Kranti Parishad and is also a documentary filmmaker with the activist cinema group Canvas. Earlier, Samik was the state secretary and president of the Progressive Democratic Students’ Federation. Samik is currently a fulltime activist, being involved in many of the peoples’ movements in the past decade ranging from the movements in Singur, Laalgarh, lockedout factory workers’ movements in the Hooghly and 24 Parganas industrial belt, union struggles of Hindusthan Motors, Gorkhaland agitations, relief and rehabilitation demands for Aila affected people of the Sundarbans and more recently the struggle of the slum evictees of Nonadanga. As a member of Canvas, he was involved in shooting and producing a host of documentaries. Samik is also an activist of the Sanhati Collective.
Manas Chatterjee is a full time activist of CPIML Liberation. He is a member of the Party’s Kolkata District Committee, and Secretary of the Jadavpur local Committee. He is a veteran of many anti-eviction movements in the past, and has been at the forefront of the organisation of rickshaw workers in the Jadavpur region, as well as the organisation of workers in the industrial complexes of the region. He is a district committee member of Kolkata AICCTU.
Debjani Ghosh is one of the leaders of the student organisation USDF at Jadavpur University, and has been actively involved in many political struggles in and around Kolkata. She was one of the many students injured during the lathicharge by police inside JU campus in 2010 November. She has participated in the solidarity struggle for labourers at the Naihati Jute Mill in 2010. Recently, she had been arrested during the protests against the TMC government’s failure to release political prisoners and withdrawal of joint forces from Jangalmahal. She was also was one the 12 USDF activists arrested while setting up a commemorative dais on Sidhu Soren’s martyr day. She has been part of the protests against the arrest of PCAPA leaders and is also part of the efforts to bring the land deal in Singur back in focus, as recently as August 2011.
Siddhartha Gupta has been active in the anti-land acquisition movement of Bengal since 2006, as part of Gana Pratirodh Mancha. Earlier he had been a member of the Revolutionary Youth League. At the time of this arrest he was employed as a physician at a hospital in Calcutta. He has been actively involved in organizing several free medical camps and had also visited Lalgarh for providing medical care to the people there. On one such visit in 2011 August he along with Abhijnan Sarkar was arrested. Siddhartha was also associated with Shramjibi Swasthya Udyog and has been one of the few doctors who visited the POSCO resistance area on health mission.
Partho Sarathi Ray has been active in various democratic rights struggles for a number of years, as a member of various solidarity fora, both in West Bengal and across India. He has reported on a wide variety of peoples movements, from Lalgarhto POSCO. He has also written a number of fact-finding reports, e.g. on Falta SEZand South City Mall. He has also written a large number of analytical articles, on thepolitical geography of SEZs, the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India, the penetration of corporations in retail and the middle class of India. He has also contributed to various other magazines and journals, on similar issues. Partho is an activist of the Sanhati Collective.
Abhijnan Sarkar has been a member of the student group USDF and has actively participated in peoples movements in West Bengal for many years, as part of different solidarity fora. He is the editor of the periodical “Towards a New Dawn” in Kolkata. Abhijnan is also associated with the Sanhati Collective and has reported on the police repression on the Nari Ijjat Bachao Committee in Lalgarh.
Monday 16 April 2012
What Capitalism Delivers
by Richard D. Wolff
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/
Most Presidents preside over one or more capitalist downturns (recessions, depressions, crises, etc.). Every President since at least FDR generated a "program" to respond to the downturn -- as demanded by citizens and businesses. FDR and every later President promised that his program would "not only extricate the US from the present economic troubles but will also make sure neither we nor our children need face such downturns in the future." Obama is only the latest to do so.
No President has been able to keep that promise. The current capitalist crisis, now halfway through its fifth year with no end in sight, proves that preventing future capitalist downturns has eluded every past President and all his prestigious, high-priced economic advisers. Since President Obama's program is not basically different from earlier presidential programs, there is no reason to expect him to succeed either.
On Saturday the 14th of April members of the Irsp-Alba attended the annual Declaration of Abroath Rally held by the Scottish Republican Socialist Movement and along with the Pollock Thornliebank RFB Glasgow.
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.in/
Red
Salute from Socialist Republicans in Wales in the Great Unrest 2012
Group for A Welsh Socialist Republican Party for the annual Declaration
of the Abroath Rally
Sunday 15 April 2012
March for Mumia
March for Mumia - For Justice - Saturday 21st April 2012 - Brixton London
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Saturday 14 April 2012
The 99% Spring: “Everything Felt Wrong”
http://kasamaproject.org/
Posted by onehundredflowers on April 13, 2012
This was originally posted in nomadnewyork.
“Instead of enhancing an
existing movement with experienced activists who very badly want to be
involved, 99%Spring is attempting, very badly, to replace that niche and
attempting to formalize something that is organic.
There is none of the
excitement and the engagement that exists in the Occupy Movement. There
is nothing but a lame attempt to steal it. It’s like choosing stale
bread over bread that’s fresh out of the oven.”
99%Spring is a bust at co-opting Occupy Wall Street
Everyone knows that I’m a big fan of Van Jones, and it’s not just because he’s hot. That’s not why I chose to participate in 99% Spring, however.I’m not one of those people who goes around worrying allot about co-option. I assume that if we all have the same goals, it doesn’t matter much. I didn’t think that 99%Spring was out to co-opt Occupy Wall Street.
I was wrong.
The web site doesn’t tell you much about what 99%Spring is. The web site promises:
This Spring We Rise!So here we were. We were shown a movie of historical progressive movements on a lopsided screen with crappy sound. This happens. Not a big deal. We were educated about Harriet Tubman and the textile mills in Lawrance. The songs that my chorus sings ran through my head as I watched. People began to get restless and leave. It was mostly an older crowd. We were already activists. We already know this stuff. The organizers cut the movie short and we (200 of us) broke out into 4 separate groups.
April 9-15 we will gather across America, 100,000 strong, in homes, places of worship, campuses and the streets to train ourselves in non-violent action and join together in the work of reclaiming our country. History is calling; it’s time to step up.
There is no two line Struggle, but Class Struggle from Next Front Nepal
There is no two line Struggle, but Class Struggle . A real picture within UCPN (Maoist)
On 3rd April 2012, Comrade Mohan Baidhya ‘Kiran’ and Comrade Ram Bahadur Thapa ‘ Badal’ released a 11ptpress
statement. The essence of that press statement was to make clear
how Prachand is creating delusion within the party and misleading the
cadres. As they have mentioned that:
Hence
in total, this resolution has theoretically, politically and
organisationally gone farther behind the common resolution adopted by
the last Central Committee meeting. In this very resolution, no
attention has been paid on the issues that include new democratic
revolution, the defence of national sovereignty, opposition to feudalism
and imperialism/expansionism, four preparations and four bases etc.
In the last Central Committee meeting it was categorically pointed out that people will evidently have right to rebel if the constitution of People’s Federal Republic is not written and the peace process does not lead to a logical conclusion supported by dignified army integration. But in this resolution, unilateral emphasis has been laid on peace and constitution from this very government and no attention has been paid on the serious conspiracies being hatched and to be hatched by the reactionaries in relation to them. On the contrary, the comrades who caution against this have been labelled as standing against peace and constitution. Looking at from this angle, this resolution is directed, not against the class enemy, but against the revolutionary Marxist trend in the party and it has been manifested in practice too.
In the last Central Committee meeting it was categorically pointed out that people will evidently have right to rebel if the constitution of People’s Federal Republic is not written and the peace process does not lead to a logical conclusion supported by dignified army integration. But in this resolution, unilateral emphasis has been laid on peace and constitution from this very government and no attention has been paid on the serious conspiracies being hatched and to be hatched by the reactionaries in relation to them. On the contrary, the comrades who caution against this have been labelled as standing against peace and constitution. Looking at from this angle, this resolution is directed, not against the class enemy, but against the revolutionary Marxist trend in the party and it has been manifested in practice too.
In
conclusion, although there were partial differences between chairman
comrade Prachanda and comrade Baburam in ideology and the way of
thinking but for some time now and arriving at this resolution, the
difference is almost non-existent. This resolution, which has been
presented and adopted by the joint initiative of two ideological
factions, shows that the leaders of both factions are speedily moving
towards Pragmatism in philosophy, right revisionist liquidationism,
class and national capitulationism in politics, bureaucratic and
anarchist individualism in organisation. This is the real essence of the
resolution adopted by the bilateral coalition.
Tuesday 10 April 2012
Nikos Beloyannis
Democracy and Class Struggle says the court speech of Nikos Beloyannis resonates with the struggle in Greece today - watch the video and be inspired!
Monday 9 April 2012
Sunday 8 April 2012
Kolkata - Struggle of the evicted slum-dwellers of Nonadanga area
April 8, 2012
Many demonstrators, including Sanhati activists, arrested during protest meeting
KOLKATA (8.4.2012) - A day long sit-in demonstration to protest against Nonadanga slum demolition and forcible eviction was slated for today at Ruby junction. The evicted people have been staying in an open field under the scorching sun and the blinding rain for the last one week, facing police repression, but have refused to move away (see below for earlier reporting).
Star Ananda Video : Evicted slum dwellers of Nonadanga again in agitaion
The peaceful demonstration was broken by police, describing it as illegal despite having prior police permission and around 80 people were arrested and taken to Lalbazar police station, including women and children. Sanhati members Samik, Parag, Abhijnan and Partho were arrested, in addition to many other activists and residents of the slum. Peoples’ spirits are high and movement will go on.
Update 7.36 p.m. IST : Cases under section 151 are being slapped on the detainees.
Saturday 7 April 2012
Kolkata - Report of brutal lathicharge on protest by evicted slum-dwellers
April 5, 2012
Translated by Riten Mitra
Dear Sir,
We are a total of about 150 households and Nonadanga grounds has been our home for quite some time. Some of us have been here for the last two years, some six. There is another colony consisting of about 100 families, with an estimated mean population of about seven to eight hundred. We had all come to stay here from different parts of West Bengal. For the last 34 years, we have been victims of severe deprivation, working as cheap labor and trying hard to make ends meet in times of scarcity. Now we are to be ousted again. Where shall we go from here?
It is your government that replaced the old one for one, Tapasi Mallik. Then how could you drive away seven to eight hundred families at one go ? If we were just one or two households, like in the past, the shock would have been less. Are we to understand that the land which was deemed useless by the government, for the last 50 to 60 years, is now suddenly required ?
We are a group of helpless poor who have reached the limits of desperation. We appeal to you for the last time with the hope that you can come here and see our daily living conditions for yourself. If Didi could rush to the scene for one Tapashi Mallik, then she could surely hear the voices of 800 poor people and come here to see us. We look forward to seeing her. We hope that she comes and sees us.
Yours respectfully,
Nonadanga Majdur Palli
Thana-Tiljala
South 24 Parganas
April 5, 2012
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