Why the Ruling Class is So Upset About Edward Snowden

http://kasamaproject.org/

 
Written by Gary Leupp

The Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, has the audacity to tell NBC News, “It is literally gut-wrenching to see” Snowden’s revelations… because of the “damage” they do to “our intelligence capabilities”! As though there were really an “our” or “us” at this point. As though we were a nation united, including the mindful watchers and the grateful watched.

No, there are us, and there are them. The tiny power elite that controls the mainstream press and cable channels, the corporations that dutifully hand over meta-data to the state (and then deny doing so to allay consumer outrage), the twin political parties, are sick to their stomachs that they’ve been so exposed.

This first appeared on Counter-Punch.

I don’t have a weak stomach, but I confess that watching TV news does get me nauseated. So I do so sparingly. I have of course been following the coverage of the Edward Snowden story, just to see how opinion is being shaped.

In the days immediately after June 5, when Snowden revealed that the U.S. government daily collects meta-data of all phone call records in the U.S. and beyond, the cable news networks seemed puzzled about how to deal with the story.

They couldn’t very well denounce Snowden out of hand, lest they be accused of being shameless lackeys of the state (even though that’s in fact what they are). They all like to posture as “fair and balanced,” so they did initially pose the question: is Snowden a hero, or a villain?

33 Years Anniversary of People's war in Peru by Harsh Thakor

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.in/

Marx  wrote in 18th Brumaire

 "Proletarian revolutions, like those of the nineteenth century, constantly criticize themselves, constantly interrupt themselves in their own course, return to the apparently accomplished, in order to begin anew; they deride with cruel thoroughness the half-measures, weaknesses, and paltriness of their first attempts seem to throw down their opponents only so the latter may draw new strength from the earth and rise before them again more gigantic than ever, recoil constantly from the indefinite colossalness of their own goals – until a situation is created which makes all turning back impossible, and the conditions themselves call out"

With this in view Democracy and Class Struggle will be publishing critical appraisals of Proletarian Revolutions not over the last century but in the last decades.

We begin with this contribution by Harsh Thakor on People's War in Peru. This article represents the personal views of Harsh Thakor and are not the views of  Democracy and Class Struggle.

Publishing materials of the  Organization of the Workers of Afghanistan (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, principally Maoist) does not mean we agree with them, because we do not.

Democracy and Class Struggle's position is that until we hear directly from Chairman Gonzalo outside of prison we do not accept he is the author of the peace accords any more than he was author of  letter supporting Nepalese neo-revisionist leadership .here

We will publish other evaluations of People's War in Peru we judge helpful in furthering the spirit of Marx in the above quotation on Proletarian Revolutions.

33rd anniversary of peoples war in Peru

From 1980 to 1992 the PCP led the greatest peoples war after the Chinese Communist Party.

Whatever be the errors in theory and practice the peoples war was a lesson to all the proletarian revolutionaries worldwide.

No protracted War resembled the Chinese revolution led by Com Mao as the Sendero Luminoso and it will be written in red letters in the annals of history.

It was remarkable the way the P.C.P’s army could engulf the cities from the countryside and resist the enemy forces.

It’s achievement in that period was comparable to that of the Vietnamese against the Americans.

Imagine fighting when being on the border of a great military superpower and with support of no Socialist Country.

Com Gonzalo made some outstanding contributions towards developing MaoTse Tung’s military theories and combining them with the massline. 

Obama - Hypocrite of the Century - Clare Daly

Turkey/North Kurdistan's Maoist Communist Party: "Resist and fight!"

• http://kasamaproject.org/

Written by Maoist Communist Party of Turkey/North/Kurdistan

The following is an improved translation of a statement of the MKP of Turkey/North Kurdistan, a revolutionary party that has been engaged in a people's war in North Kurdistan along with militant worker uprisings in the cities for decades.

Resist and fight

To our laboring masses, comrades!

Today communists and revolutionaries are being tested. This is the time for them to fight devotedly, without turning up their noses and declaring this a spontaneous action and without falling into the reserves of bourgeois cliques. The revolutionary movement and the so called revolutionary wave are the practice of the masses today. The masses are revolutionary, their response is democratic and the reason for getting on their feet and rebelling is legitimate. As a requirement of our leadership role we must be involved in the living revolutionary process, and stand side by side with the masses. Let us resist, let us fight, let us pay the price! We cannot be an idle audience while the masses are being tortured and led to their slaughter.

Our valued people

Against every kind of reactionary repression, against violence and against fascism, the country’s accumulated anger has filled the squares from every corner and the revolutionary uprising of the masses has rocked the power of the ruling classes and the state of the “Turkish Republic.” The erupting mass movement against bourgeois interests and exploitation and the massacre of nature continues. By taking their fate into their own hands and expressing their self-determination, the masses have once again shown themselves to be against the bourgeois neoliberal shits. Even the power of the AKP’s fierce fascist repression couldn’t stop the resistance, it did not remove the masses. Despite the hundreds in custody, suffering the trauma of knowing there are thousands injured, the tons of gas bombs covering the cities like clouds, the garbage, the terror of water cannons and the torture, the masses fight on undaunted and do not compromise. Despite the censorship of silence from the sell-out bourgeois press, the blades coming from the mouths of the resistance have been heard throughout the whole world and resistance has gotten global support.

As huge crowds are being oppressed by the ruling classes personified by the government of the AKP, who don’t even respect their own laws, the waves of democratic responses colliding with the order of fascist oppression and exploitation have become the nightmare of the AKP and the ruling classes are losing sleep over it. Though it started as a reaction of the broad masses to the massacre of nature in the final analysis the democratic fight against powerful and barbaric oppression is turning into a revolutionary uprising that has on its fifth day declared victory by forcing the government of the AKP and the Turkish ruling classes to take a step back!

Like all reactionary ruling classes the comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie in coalition with the bourgeois feudal government of the AKP has met the democratic demands of the masses as it has historically; repeated repression and violence against the resistance. They have tried to drown the uprising in blood. However, the rising masses have borne this heavy cost to make the demonstrations continue and expand. The protests in dozens of provinces in the country have mobilized hundreds of thousands to join with the resistance of Taksim Gezi Park.

Even with their repressive, fascist character, and complete arrogance, the AKP government was forced by the uprising masses to swallow its spit and take a terrified step back. The resisting and revolting masses have given rise to glory. The reactionary classes have again and again shown themselves to be paper tigers.

The government of the reactionary classes has always historically crushed and exploited the masses and has subjected them to every kind of pain. They do not even hesitate for a moment to apply reactionary violence to the sovereignty of the poor and oppressed of the world. The reactionary classes are organized and have the power of being the ruling class and with those advantages and also with their reactionary character and interests throughout history have treated the masses with contempt and through their recklessness have forced the masses to suffer barbaric pain and unseen rough treatment. The reactionary classes have alienated the labor of the masses and forced them to live in poverty, half-starved, half-full.

But the masses have reminded the reactionary classes of what they have forgotten: that the masses are the real heroes. By taking fate into their hands through revolutionary action the masses are putting their signature on history and turning the system upside down. The revolutionary masses have unforgettably proven that the contemptuous assertion that they are “three to five delinquents” and “marauders” is untrue. Today on this date the fascist AKP government has found themselves opposed by the revolting masses of different nations and ethnicities and marginalized belief groups of Turkey-North Kurdistan!

Erdogan, the leader of the AKP government and the “Turkish Republic”, underestimated the rising masses that he flagrantly and arrogantly referred to as “three to five marauders.” Taking his arrogance even further he threatened “As a party I could gather one million.” However, once “these delinquent marauders” have awoken they cannot be broken apart by empty threats, nor will they be frightened by the blood and stench of slaughter of vampire teeth, you cannot stop them! The one with warmongering and aggressive policies in Syria, the two-faced Erdogan that has hypocritically criticized the Assad dictatorship of bringing violence and slaughter to the masses has called those filling the squares “Marauders.” This is nothing more than his fear and panic of the masses’ uprising.

In order to extinguish the fire of revolt and to shift the focus from their response, while at the same time sending a message to their audience, the two-faced AKP government is putting on a “priest-executioner” play. While Bülent Arınç, Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek, and a series of AKP officials have admitted that the people’s demands are democratic in order to soften the masses, Erdogan cannot stop showing his teeth. In short, the ones like President of the Republic Abdullah Gül, Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek and Bülent Arınç attempt to soften the masses by responding that the people’s requests are democratic while the ones like Erdoğan, Mehmet Metiner, Şamil Tayyar and Melih Gökçek attack the rising masses to maintain their base.

The proletariat and the masses are not naïve and gullible enough to swallow this number. All of your tactics will hit that bronze wall and break apart your power. Resistance has not ended, it still goes on. The nightmare will continue for the reactionaries that have called the masses “Marauders.” Who is a marauder and who is a hero has quickly become clear and will continue to become clearer.

In Conclusion

We proletarian revolutionaries are looking beyond the bourgeois reactionary forces and fascist parties like the CHP and MHP (editor note: Republican People’s Party and Nationalist Movement Party, two Kemalist/national chauvinist reactionary parties) and see the democratic response of the masses uprising as a revolutionary response, and salute the resistance of the oppressed masses. It is our task and responsibility as revolutionaries to stand arm in arm with the popular masses during this conflict! With the same attitude we denounce the fascist oppression, torture and massacre, we will remain true to our practice of fighting against fascist oppression.

In order for a revolutionary movement to be successful a more effective, qualified and obvious leadership must be leading and revolutionary forces must be at the front. We call on all revolutionary democratic forces to unite in struggle! On this occasion we call on the different ethnicities and nations of Turkey-North Kurdistan and the poor and oppressed masses, all of our comrades, militants and supporters to join in resistance with the masses and wage war against the government and system of the reactionary classes.

In the final analysis we know that the angry fire and overwhelming strength of People’s War will knock down the reactionary order and overthrow the government of the reactionary classes. People’s War will win the final victory to establish the people’s power, build socialism and begin the march to communism! Whether big or small we must unite all elements of the democratic revolutionary dynamic and every kind of uprising of the masses with the ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and under the proletarian banner to conduct revolutionary struggle as an obligation of the revolutionary road.

No obstacle before the popular masses will last! Initiating revolution by the hands of popular masses is both legitimate and difficult. Because of that, going against the reactionary classes and walking down the road of democracy, freedom, and communism is our historic, progressive role and a requirement of the revolutionary method. When united, the fighting and resisting masses cannot be defeated. As such, every kind of reactionary difficulty that the reactionary classes cling to in the end is doomed to defeat!

The ones who write history are the revolutionary popular masses and their revolutionary action!

Long live the people’s legitimate, democratic resistance and struggle!

Long live the united people’s uprising!

Long live People’s War!

West Bengal : Report From Barasat – Rape Protests Are Still Alive

http://sanhati.com/

June 19, 2013

by Dipanjan

After the gangrape and murder in Kamduni village, some of us political activists and concerned individuals went to the village in solidarity with the protests of the villagers on 16th June. The following is just a short account of that…

I have never faced a family of a rape victim. So on our way from Madhyamgram station in Magic cars I was wondering what to say to the father or the brother of the raped girl whose femurs were broken before she was killed just 9 days back? Wouldn’t our words, even of sympathy, just seem superfluous to them? And how will the villagers take us, the people some of whom she had grown up with, played with, chatted with, and some days probably quarreled a little too, and to whom one day she returned in a body bag?

The village, when we reached, was not swarming with reporters or media vans. There were no ruling party or ex-ruling party politicians (some of whom are themselves tainted with accusations of sexual assault and abetment to it). The village was quiet, apart from a couple of reporters and a small theatre group from Kolkata.

Even quieter was the girl’s house. The father came to see us, the brothers too, all with dazed faces. There was little to say for us. The ritual expression of condolence was done too. After a few sentences, we headed out of the house slowly.

But Kamduni isn’t just a word for pain. It is a word for protest, Kamduni means a slap across the face of the state. This is the state that does not take any effective step in curbing the propensity towards sexual violence rampant in the society, rather it often uses sexual violence to silence the protesting voices of the people. The state wants to placate the people affected by rape with job offers and money – which is their way to soothe people’s anger. That is why the spontaneous outburst of anger is so important. They said a firm ‘NO’ to the money, they rejected the state trick to deny people justice. This I got an idea of by talking to others in the village. Some of them we met in their frontyards, some of them near the water tap, in front of the club, around the corner, in places where the touch of the girl probably still lingers. Some bits from those conversations:

“This is nothing new, it’s been happening since long,”

“No transport is available on this road. To get to school the children have to walk at least half an hour.”

“Hardly any street lamps here. We need more of them.”

“The girls are scared of going to school and college, how are they going to study?”

“We’ll see the end of it. We didn’t take the money, we didn’t take the job. We never will.”

“If Didi comes, she’s in for some serious words.”

“The wall around the rape spot must be brought down. That place is the den of antisocials. If the government doesn’t do it, we will.”

“Things like this have happened before. An old lady of this very neighbourhood got raped, but she took Rs.2000 from those criminals and didn’t go to the police. But that isn’t going to happen again.”

“We’ll wait till 18th. After that we’ll do what we have to.”

“We want the protests to spread everywhere. If you people do something in Kolkata, call us, we’ll all go.”

In the middle of it all we heard a different tune that is quite worrisome.

“We’re surrounded, people of a different religion are coming across borders, and our mothers and sisters are getting attacked by them.”

When asked why one would think so, we heard the previous sentence repeated – “we’re surrounded, people of a different religion…”. From the faces it could be understood that the words were taught to them, but have not been internalized yet. Our acquaintances there told us that Hindu Sanhati Mancha had held a gathering a couple of days back in Barasat. They were routinely campaigning in the village, distributing leaflets and putting up posters.

This is a serious danger. Our hope is riding on the spirit of the people of Kamduni which led them to reject compensation and will hopefully prove itself strong enough to resist such a tendency dangerous to people’s movements.

At the end, a rally took off. The rally started with around 40 of us ‘outsiders’ and ended in about 150 people united in their anger, condolence and protest. The villagers part of the rally called and brought the villagers standing by the side into the rally – “c’mon, you’ve got to rally!” This was an experience of a different flavor.

One thing I was wondering on my way back. What would have happened if we did this rally in Kamduni two months back? And that too on such a sensitive issue as rape? How does the scenario change with one incident and protests against it? How does a father living in financial destitution send a slap across the face of the state, rejecting a job offer and monetary ‘compensation’? Where does this strength come from? How do the people of Kamduni find the courage to stand up against power politics, even perhaps for the time being? Of course, there is more than one reason for it. But I think the Delhi incident of Damini and the nationwide protests against it is one of the reasons. And is this not how Delhi’s Damini and Kamduni’s Aparajita become one, even after their deaths?

18th July, 2013.

Dipanjan is an activist of Krantikari Naujawan Sabha, a student of Medical college, Kolkata.

- See more at: http://sanhati.com/articles/7359/#sthash.qzAl2Kdh.dpuf

India: Maoists Warn of Ruling Class Hysteria, Threats, Attacks, and False Promises

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.in/

COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST) — CENTRAL COMMITTEE

Press Release, June 11, 2013

See through the conspiracy of the ruling classes to launch bigger offensives on the people using the 25 May attack as a pretext

Unite, Fight back and Defeat the ‘War on People’

The gangster community that made Indian Parliament its lair is in panic. Terrified. Aflutter. Seething. Fuming. Up in arms. Baying for blood. Baring its fangs. Spitting poison. After all the May 25 Jeeramghati attack struck down one of their best trusted lieutenants in field. Quite Understandable.

Actually speaking, the scamster-gangster bunch does not care much for Mahendra Karma’s death because they knew that this was something waiting to happen even when they were carrying on mayhem and murder under Salwa Judum (SJ) which they all had contributed to create or let pester like senators watching gladiatorial contests in amphi-theaters, with Karma as SJ’s public face and with the support of fascist central and state mercenary armed forces. They are frightened more because in this country where every kind of exploitation, oppression, suppression, corruption and scam is carried on almost unchallenged, as the order of the day and shamelessly under public gaze, the fact that somebody ‘out there’ can bring these fascist scamster-gangsters to book and deliver justice is not so easy to stomach.

It is like finding oneself completely naked and vulnerable with all robes of Z plus securities and paraphernalia of security suddenly vanishing into thin air with the fury of the suppressed masses breathing down their necks. Highly explicable. A strong reason to be upset.

Who knows who will be next? More chillingly, what would be in store if people completely vexed with the increasingly unbearable treacherous, undemocratic, slavish and wicked anti-people deeds of the pet-dog politicians choose to consider this as an option to vent their ire to put an end to their habitual comprador performance? Even worse, what if they consider doing away with the whole bunch by overthrowing the parliamentary system as the Maoists vouch to and call upon the people to follow? Very worrying indeed.

And for once it is better that they be. They better understand that not every politician can get away with the kind of neo-fascist suppression of the poorest of the poor of this country that was perpetrated in the name of a Salwa Judum, a Sendra, a Shanti Yatra, a Shanti Sena, a Harmad Bahini, a Bhairav Bahini, a TPC or an Operation Green Hunt, can get away with selling the riches of our country one by one as a daily routine at breakfast, lunch and dinner to fill the insatiable black-hole belly of the imperialist beast, can get away with turning every word that gives meaning to our existence as human beings like freedom, independence, sovereignty, self-reliance and democracy meaningless. They better realize for the umpteenth time (counting all such instances since the days of a Spartacus) that a people crushed so cruelly can never take everything lying down forever. For once it is better that they be alarmed.

Karma, a medieval type land lord, architect of SJ, looter, sadist, rapist and enemy of his own tribe; most of his security men, cannon fodder but undoubtedly deployed to aid in his mayhem and massacre; some SJ leaders; and some top Congress leaders were wiped out in the 25 May incident. Unfortunately a few others who got caught in the initial firing also died in spite of our sincere efforts to minimize the casualties once the main targets were caught and Comrade Gudsa Usendi, the Spokesperson of our Party’s DK unit had already tendered apology for it. The list of brutalities perpetrated by Karma and his ilk could fill many a volume. Though not all, many of them have been documented in detail by the CPI (Maoist), revolutionary and democratic mass organizations, civil and human rights organizations, democrats, journalists and concerned citizens for all those who want to see.

There is no purpose to the various conspiracy theories doing their rounds in the media about the reasons for this attack other than diverting the people’s attention from the truth. An unabashed conspiracy by the corporate media to hide the truth about the brutality of the SJ and the role of the Indian Army, big corporate houses, central and state governments, the Congress and BJP parties and slaughterers like Karma in its creation and developing it into a man-eating monster. Such is its impatience to get rid of the Maoists that it did not even take into account that SJ was termed illegal by their own highest institution the Supreme Court. And all of them including Jairam Ramesh have once again repeated the most nonsensical and exhausted argument of ‘sandwich theory’ that Adivasis are being crushed between the armed forces on one side and the Maoists on the other. If they really believe in this then why don’t they demand first that the armed forces deployed in lakhs by the central and state governments be immediately withdrawn when they are agreeing that they suppress Adivasis? Their lies fly in their face with the fact that the overwhelming majority of Maoists are Adivasis in the strong areas of the movement. Our Party reiterates that we never work against the interests of the people. It is solely the ruling classes and their forces that suppress the people and our Party fights it back.

Let all the people’s enemies face the truth – the plain simple naked truth. Our Party and the PLGA defend the right of the people to defend themselves from oppressors and looters and on May 25 our brave PLGA guerillas led the people from the front to eliminate one of the arch enemies of the revolutionary people of India, particularly Dandakaranya people and more particularly Bastar people and some other people’s enemies as part of their broader resistance to big landlords and corporate exploitation and loot. And we take this occasion to deafeningly declare one more time that our PLGA would continue defending the people and their right to defend themselves and would lead them from the front as long as government forces, state-sponsored vigilante gangs and class enemies continue their ‘War on People’. For, the oppressed have nothing without the People’s Army.

This is as much as the 25 May incident is concerned. But what we really want to draw the attention of the people to is the perplexing way in which democracy comes up for discussion only when such attacks happen. Isn’t it too much of an oddity that it becomes the rarest of the rarest available commodity in the market square of the Parliament and is up for sale only when the toiling masses do a Bhagat Singh in some remote corners of our country? In fact, we are also weary of the manner in which we Maoists also make headlines only during such incidents. So for a change, why don’t we look at what is happening as a routine in our daily lives to make democracy or Maoism a topic of everyday relevance?

True to its social fascist character the CPI (M) politburo demanded “firm action” to put an end to “these Maoists depredations” and urged “all democratic forces to fight the politics of violence by the Maoists” and all the major political parties from Congress and BJP to SP and JD (U) went over the top in condemning this attack without speaking a single word about the actual reasons behind it.

Corporate media was at its lying best and bayed for the blood of the Maoists more than any other so-called democratic institutions, bootlicking scoundrel that it is. The meeting on internal security with the Chief Ministers and the later all-party meeting both held in the aftermath of the 25 May incident described it as a “direct attack on democracy and freedom”. The CMs unanimously declared – “We strongly disagree with the ideology of the Maoists. They want to overthrow parliamentary democracy and Constitution of India through violent means… this must be resisted with all our might.” They resolved “to use all legitimate means at their disposal” to counter the activities of the CPI (Maoist) and barked that they would not tolerate it or compromise about it.

“We appeal to the youth of the affected states to give up violence and pursue their goals through legitimate and democratic means. We assure them that we are sensitive to their concerns and will make every effort to bring them into the mainstream of social and political life,” the resolution added. The same feeling was expressed at the all-party meeting.

Democracy? Freedom? Whose and what for? Better ask the women who were raped/gang raped and/or killed and the children who have been witnessing and are even victims of atrocities/massacres that are being committed by vigilante gangs like SJ and armed forces on their families and villages what these hollow words mean.

The only democracy we see is democracy for the looters to hand over the riches of our country for peanuts to the imperialists and crave for their share in the remains. The only freedom we see is that of the armed forces to loot, destruct, rape, massacre and forcefully displace the oppressed masses for the interests of the imperialists, comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie (CBB) and the big land lords.

The Indian Parliament is one of the most rotten institutions in the world that allows and facilitates all this in the name of ‘democracy and freedom’. So what’s wrong in wanting to or calling upon to overthrow an institution that led the people of our country since six decades into a dark tunnel with no egress leaving no option but to destroy it? Have you not taught in schools that democracy is by the people, for the people and of the people?

Then do the people not have a right to reject it or even overthrow it when it exists and works exactly to harm their interests? Leave aside attacks like a Tadimetla or a Jeeramghati. They are tactics and an inevitable part of people’s resistance when lakhs of forces get deployed with huge gear of modern weapons to repress them as mentioned above.

Don’t reduce our political line and praxis to such attacks. CPI (Maoist) is a political party with a clear cut scientific ideology – Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, political line and political programme that would lead to the establishment of genuine democracy for the people of our country. Whoever wants to talk or write anything about Maoists better go through it first before labeling us with various names like terrorists, left wing extremists etc.

Briefly, it states – India is a semi-colonial semi-feudal country; the targets of our revolution are imperialism, the comprador bureaucratic capitalism and feudalism exploiting and oppressing the people of our country and are to be overthrown through New Democratic Revolution (NDR) to establish a People’s Democratic Federal Republic. Contradiction between feudalism and broad masses is the principal contradiction at present.

During the process of resolving this contradiction through the armed agrarian revolution, which is the axis of the new democratic revolution, that is, protracted people’s war, the resolution of other contradictions will be facilitated. The semi-colonial semi-feudal character of Indian society determines that the Indian revolution would have to pass through two stages. The task of first stage is to change the semi –colonial, semi -feudal society into an independent new democratic society through the resolution of the two fundamental contradictions of the present Indian society, i.e. the contradiction of the Indian people with imperialism and the contradiction of the broad masses with feudalism.

Again, in its continuity, the task of second stage is to establish the socialist system and continuing the revolution advancing towards communism on the world scale. This new democratic state will be the people’s democratic dictatorship exercised by the united front comprising the proletariat, peasantry, petty-bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie class under the leadership of the proletariat based upon the worker-peasant alliance. The state will guarantee real democracy for the vast majority of the people while exercising dictatorship over the tiny minority of the exploiters. This new democratic revolution will bring national independence uprooting the imperialist slavery, exploitation and control, and will establish the people’s democracy uprooting the feudal autocracy.

Workers, peasants and urban poor who form the overwhelming majority of the population in our country are living in utter poverty as victims of hunger, disease, inhuman feudal-imperialist exploitation and oppression and they would be liberated from all these through NDR. It uproots the Brahminical feudal hierarchical inhuman caste system that kept crores of Dalits and other oppressed castes in suppression since centuries and the feudal and imperialist patriarchal social system that had been exploiting and oppressing half of the population i.e., women. It destroys the Hindu chauvinist domination that had been oppressing the religious minorities in our country particularly on Muslims and Christians. Vast majority of the Adivasis have long been deprived of their land and other traditional means of livelihood without providing any alternative and have been the major victims of ‘development’ and ‘displacement’. They would live a life of dignity, freedom and self-reliance in a new democratic society.  Present day India is a prison-house of nationalities.

The New Democratic state would unequivocally recognize the right to self-determination of the nationalities including the right to secession and the New Democratic India would be formed only with those states that voluntarily stay within it. The rotten, decaying, antidemocratic, anti-people, obnoxious semi-colonial and semi-feudal culture that is dominating all the spheres of our life would be destroyed. Hatred for labour, patriarchy, superstition, autocracy, imperialist slavery, national chauvinism, communalism, casteism, blind greed, self-centredness, consumerist culture, and perverted sex-centered ideology and culture would be ended. Feudal culture which is primarily the Brahminical caste-based culture of engrained superiority would be extinguished.

This state will try its best to peacefully and fairly settle border, water and other disputes with neighbouring countries and will develop friendly relations with them. This state will never exert any expansionist behaviour with the neighbouring countries. This People’s Democratic State will establish unity with the international proletariat and the oppressed nations of the world; opposes imperialist war and aggression, bullying, subversion and interference etc. It will support and help by all means the revolutionary struggles and revolutionary war, especially the ongoing struggles under the leadership of various Maoist revolutionary forces against capitalism, imperialism and reaction the world over.

A succinct 25-point programme of the People’s Democratic Federal Republic or New Democratic State is clearly laid down in the Party Programme of CPI (Maoist) for anybody who cares to go through it. Let any debates on Maoists center on it.

The ruling classes are appealing to the youth to give up violence and pursue their goals through legitimate and democratic means. Fair enough? Isn’t it common sense that even to use ‘legitimate and democratic means’ you need some semblance of democracy at least? The workers organizations/trade unions, the peasant and agricultural laborer organizations, the women’s organizations, cultural organizations, student and youth organizations and even children’s organizations are banned. Voices of writers, cultural artistes, democrats, intellectuals and their organizations are stifled. Fundamental rights get curbed on a daily basis.

Draconian laws are promulgated or updated in the footsteps of the colonialists with unfailing regularity in step with the intensifying repressive measures. Courts side with the big scamster-gangsters, treacherous politicians, smugglers and criminals, while political and social activists and innocent people are thrown into jails, maimed with tortures and put to death. This is what the youth of our beloved country with huge potential to develop our country into a genuine independent sovereign prosperous democratic state is going through.

The lakhs of youth that have been murdered in cold-blood by the Indian security forces in Kashmir, North-East and in the vast rural tracts of Andhra Pradesh, Dandakaranya, Bihar-Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Maharashtra, UP, Karnataka, Assam, MP and other areas of revolutionary movement is the cream of present day India with independent creative thinking and productivity that is forming/joining democratic, national liberation and revolutionary organizations and parties to give a better shape to the future of our  beloved country.

 The glaring fact is that youth have taken up arms as a historic task of the oppressed masses to shape their future with their own hands relying on their own strength and their own people only after decades of recurring and frustrating failure of the Indian State to respond to their usage of ‘legitimate and democratic means’ to gain their genuine demands and rights. Appealing to them to give up arms for ‘legitimate and democratic means’ is not only putting things upside down but also a cruel joke. Youth have not taken up guns because they fancy them or in an atmosphere where there was no dearth of legitimate and democratic means or because they don’t value democracy. It is quite the opposite. They are taking up guns because they want genuine democracy. Our NDR promises exactly that, which is the exact opposite of the present pseudo one.

The government that did not even mention basic concerns of the people like land, education, health etc in the CMs meet and the all-party meet is now announcing training programmes to train thousands of youth and particularly the Adivasis and women and is promising employment to at least half the trainees. This comes under the ‘development’ package (the other being the ‘repression’ package, the package of death and destitution with which the youth are more familiar in reality). You pull away the land from under their feet, displace them from their centuries old abodes, isolate them from their traditional means of living in forests and lands and then give just a few thousands of them training that does not really make them self-reliant, with false promises of jobs for even lesser number of people.

What a convoluted concept of development! Low paid jobs for a tiny section even if provided would not be enough to fulfill the basic minimum needs of a family. With access to all traditional means of subsistence that were available while living in a forest cut off and the devaluation of the rupee, the situation turns even worse. The audacity with which the ruling classes declare that ‘they are sensitive to the concerns of the youth’ baffles. As all these are sham concerns the galloping rate of unemployment and underemployment becomes the ground reality. If they are really sensitive then why are PESA, 5th and 6th Schedules and FRA that the Indian Parliament had itself passed and are ‘serious concerns of the youth’ not being implemented? One must realize that all this is done as part of the psychological warfare against the Maoist Party to wean the youth away from it.

While the PM said government was willing to talk to all ‘extremist groups’ within the ambit of Constitution at the CMs meet, Home secretary RK Singh said there was no space for talks with Maoists after May 25 incident! So much for who decides such policies. However, our party had already several times in the past categorically stated our stand on going to talks with the government. We just want to draw the attention of the people and democrats who are advocating talks with the government or seize fire to the backdrop of such offers to judge for themselves the sincerity behind such offers – not a single day passes without some operation by armed forces being carried on in the Maoist movement areas to kill, destruct, torture and rape and several of our top leaders are languishing in jails in inhumane conditions since many years denied even basic amenities and bails.

Coming to the present context, the Indian ruling classes have already been making unprecedented preparations for another big offensive to finish off the Maoists but are now trying to use the 25 May incident as the pretext for it.

The upcoming elections are another strong reason behind this intensification and expansion of OGH. And it is by now a well documented and well established fact that all this is being done to forcefully implement the various MoUs for mining and other ‘development’ projects in Adivasi areas. We appeal to one and all to see through the ploy and don’t fall into the trap of thinking that incidents like May 25 are leading to more repression. In fact, massacres like in Edesmeta on May 17 where eight Adivasis including three children were killed by armed forces, just preceding it are part of the already intensified ‘War on People’. Along with massacres, the new offensive would mainly include air attacks, i.e. direct involvement of multiple units of helicopters of Indian Air Force and Unmanned Air Vehicles-Drones too. The Defence Minister said that Army would not be deployed but the fact is that the covert role of the Army has already increased manifold before and also after the May 25 attack. The preparations are on war footing like invading another country. The people of Edesmeta after the May 17 massacre put it poignantly – ‘they want to finish us Adivasis off’.

On this occasion, we once again appeal to the people who are fleeing from their villages after fascist massacres like Sarkinguda, Edesmeta etc fearing complete extinction not to do so and to stand united under the leadership of Krantikari Janatana Sarkars to fight back the Indian state’s offensive. The Party and PLGA vouch to defend you and your rights with our lives.

We appeal to the workers, peasants, students, youth, intelligentsia, democrats, women, Dalits, Adivasis and people of oppressed nationalities and religious minorities and all the organizations of these classes, communities and sections i.e., the vast masses of our country to see through the evil designs of the ruling classes, the arch lackeys of imperialists, particularly US imperialists that are once again uniting for another big offensive as part of the more cruel-inhumane-fascist War on People. Unite together as a mighty struggling force in an unprecedented and broadest possible manner to fight against it and to defeat the unjust war of suppression. Only by doing so we can march towards ending the ever threatening danger of the menace of state terrorism and achieving genuine democracy and real freedom and also save our youth – the most valuable treasure for the future of our country.

(Abhay)

Spokesperson, Central Committee, CPI (Maoist)

In a Guerrilla Zone: Two Reigns of Political Violence in Bastar by Bernard D'Mello and Gautam Navlakha

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2013/dn080613.html

The ambush on May 25 by Maoist guerrillas in the Darba Ghati valley (in the Sukma area of the Bastar region in southern Chhattisgarh), 345 kms south of the state capital of Raipur, of a convoy of provincial Congress Party leaders has shocked the Indian state apparatus.  The Z-plus and other categories of armed security personnel -- entitlements of the 'lords' of India's political establishment -- were no match for the guerrillas.  The main targets of the attack were Mahendra Karma, founder of the state-promoted, financed and armed private vigilante force, Salwa Judum (SJ), and Nand Kumar Patel, the chief of the Congress Party in the province and a former home minister of the state.

A press statement issued by Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) (CPI [Maoist]) on May 26states that the "goal of this attack was mainly to eliminate Mahendra Karma and some other reactionary Congress top leaders".  It pointedly reminds Chhattisgarh's state government leaders and state police officials "who are hell-bent on crushing the revolutionary movement of Dandakaranya" that they suffer from a "big illusion that they are unbeatable".  Mahendra Karma too falsely believed "that Z-plus Security and bullet proof vehicles would save him forever".  The statement also clarifies that in Chhattisgarh "there are no differences between [the] ruling BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] and opposition Congress in terms of policies of suppressing the revolutionary movement.  Only due to public pressure, as well as to gain electoral benefits, some of the local leaders of the Congress at times came [out] in condemnation of incidents like [the] Sarkeguda and Edsametta massacres".

The convoy was returning from a "Parivartan Yatra" ("March for Change") rally in Sukma and the Maoists knew not only that Karma and Patel were in the convoy, but even the route that it was to take.  The assassinations were thus meticulously planned and executed, though they took a two-hour long gun battle with the state forces to accomplish, a clash in which many who merely serve or protect (the latter, armed personnel) the oppressors, and do so because they have little choice, were either killed or injured.  The Maoist guerrillas reportedly even provided first aid to some of these persons who suffered injuries.

Righteous Indignation Against Maoist Violence

A Summer of Big Challenges and Intense Struggle

June 16, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

As spring turns to summer, the situation in the world, and in this country, is very intense. There is potential for eruptions “in the routine,” of one kind or another. We are seeing this right now in Turkey as massive struggle seemingly erupted “out of nowhere” and now the people must confront the force of the government and reaction. We are seeing it in a negative way in Syria, where the imperialists maneuver and intrigue in a horrific civil war, with unforeseeable and possibly explosive consequences. We may see this around Guantánamo, where the eyes of the world are on the hunger strikers standing up to America’s lawless torture dungeon. There is the quickening pace of natural disasters, aggravated by capitalism’s insanely heedless destruction of the environment—disasters which under this system almost inevitably give rise to dislocation, suffering, neglect, repression, and crisis.

A Cauldron of Contradictions

Part of massive outcry for justice for Trayvon Martin, Oakland, CA, February 2013. Photo: Special toRevolution

There is all that, and then there is what is going on right here, in the U.S. This week begins the trial of George Zimmerman, who has admitted to stalking and killing the Black youth Trayvon Martin. The eyes of millions and tens of millions are focused on this. On one side, there are the masses of people, especially Black people, who see the murder of Trayvon Martin as an outrage concentrating a whole chain of oppression and abuse and are determined to draw a line on this one, along with those from all walks of life who stand with the demand for justice and for an END to “open season” on minority youth. On the other side, there are those who defend the whole supremacist mentality and system represented by George Zimmerman, along with the police—who immediately treated the murdered Black teenager as the criminal—and the criminal justice system itself, which only even considered charging Zimmerman because of the massive outcry and protest. One way or another, what comes out of this showdown will set big terms for all of society on what will be tolerated... and what will not.

At the same time, in California, prisoners who have been locked down in the torture of solitary confinement for years and even decades have announced their determination to go on a hunger strike if their very basic demands for humane treatment and reforms are not met. 2.4 million people are kept in the U.S. prison system—the largest number of any country in the world. At last count, more than 80,000 were held in long-term solitary confinement—a practice that most of the world regards as torture. Whether these prisoners are crushed... or whether their sacrifice reaches millions and forces the state to back down... this too will have huge consequences.

Bay Area, California, June 2012: standing with Pelican Bay State prisoners facing sensory deprivation, isolation and brutality in the Security Housing Unit (SHU). Photo: Special to Revolution

Meanwhile, across the country, state legislatures are moving at a breakneck pace to outlaw abortion—and to thereby force women who become pregnant, for any reason, to become mothers. The restrictions on abortion, and the whole offensive to stigmatize those who need abortions and perform abortions, has already gone way too far and done way too much damage, while the voices of opposition to this have been way too muted and repressed. These new laws take it a whole leap further—will this be the summer that a full-throated opposition again erupts? Again, whether this happens—and how it happens—will have powerful consequences far beyond the summer on people’s lives and futures and how they understand them.

Add into that cauldron of contradictions BA Everywhere—the campaign to raise big money to get word out on Bob Avakian’s analysis of the SOURCE of these problems... and, even more, the SOLUTION to them. Scores and hundreds of people will be going all over, bringing forward thousands more to donate money to get the word out, in film showings and other forms, about the way out of this madness and the leadership to forge that way. Imagine, as all these contradictions and struggles simmer and bubble and maybe boil over, that THIS answer is out there as a dynamic force on the terrain, exercising a growing magnetic power... raising people’s sights... and spurring people forward.

But that is not all. There is, as well, the environmental crisis and the growing efforts and plans of people to act to stop this... there are the constant outrages by the police... there is the continuing exposure of repressive acts by the Obama administration... and there are yet other social and political faultlines, only some of which may be apparent right now. Any of these alone, or any combination of these, or even something totally unanticipated... could lead to what the RCP’s statement “On the Strategy for Revolution” calls “sudden jolts and breakdowns in the ‘normal functioning’ of society, which compel many people to question and to resist what they usually accept.”

Defending the right to abortion on the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, San Francisco, January 2013. Photo: Special toRevolution

The statement on strategy then goes on to say—and this is very important—that “No one can say exactly what will happen in these situations—how deep the crisis may go, in what ways and to what extent it might pose challenges to the system as a whole, and to what degree and in what ways it might call forth unrest and rebellion among people who are normally caught up in, or feel powerless to stand up against, what this system does.”

Taking off the mask: Prachanda grieves for India's Salwa Judum

Category: South Asia Revolution

 

Created on Wednesday, 12 June 2013 07:02

 

Written by zeenews

Last month, India's Maoists won a tactical offensive that led to the death of Mahendra Karma, the founder of the Salwa Judum, a government paramilitary organization infamous for routine torture, rapes, pillaging, and summary execution of tribal people suspected of sympathy with the Maoist movement. In response, Nepal's own leading counter-revolutionary, Prachanda, has issued a disgraceful and outrageous statement, grieving for the life of Mahendra Karma, and making no opposition to widespread slandering of India's Maoists with labels of "terror." This statement is both outrageous and extremely dangerous. The use of "terror" is a open invitation for war on the people and the Maoist movement, and in uncritically joining with statements from Nepal and India's reactionary politicians, Prachanda is paving the way for violent counter-revolution against the people. To anyone who had doubts that the UCPN(M) has embarked on the road of counter-revolution, here it is, your naked proof. -Eric Ribellarsi

This article for appeared on zeenews.

er Union minister V C Shukla.

Turkey's Civil Revolt: Istanbul Rising plus Livestream

"Incredible India" Home to Modern Slavery

“A Renewed Spring Thunder Over Dandakaranya” by Asit Das - A Reply to NAPMS statement on Bastar Incident

source:  http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.in/

National Alliance of People’s Movement has come out with a statement on the recent ambush in Bastar. Here with point is not of violence or non-violence, but is of politics. Because the organization which did it has a politics, and that is the most crucial factor. In every democratic society and nation, every individual has the democratic choice of the political action and the kind of politics one can choose.

If NAPM has the democratic choice of selecting what it can do, likewise the organization which did the ambush has the same democratic right to choose its own politics, which includes the choice of political decision, and it can also be the decision to eliminate the enemies of the people.

 Like the above organizations, I as a citizen of this country, which proclaims to be the largest democracy, also have equal democratic right to express my political opinion on the NAPM statement. And this right is guaranteed by the several clauses of the fundamental rights in the Indian Constitution to which NAPM proclaims its adherence and loyalty. By the same logic, NAPM or anyone should have no problem if I hold a different opinion.

My biggest problem with NAPM’s statement is their opinion about the relationship with Adivasis and Maoists, as both of them are totally different extrapolated entities. Here lies the basic flaw, hence the reason to reject NAPM’s opinion lock, stock and barrel.

I am totally appalled and have severe objections to the NAPM’s rejection of the revolutionary agency and political subjectivity to the Adivasis. This is the biggest historical injustice to the Adivasis, hence taking the side of the Adivasis I strongly oppose NAPM’s position which refuses to look at Adivasis as a political subject. Its tone, tenor and political analysis make Adivasis some kind of museumized hardened cultural identities which have to be protected by benevolent civil society.

This is quite patronizing, hence objectionable. This is akin to the colonial notion of the mans burden, hence reprehensible.

As a Marxist, I strongly believe as foretold by Marx that revolution is an act of self- emancipation of the working class, so the most important issue here is the agency of the exploited. Hence, only the underdog can beat its own chain. And here the poorest of the poor are engaged in a battle with the fascist Indian State to save their land, forest, livelihood and dignity. Here lies NAPM’s basic flaw and hence needs rejection.