Elaan is born!

EDITORIAL (Vol. 1, Issue 1, August 2009)

While launching “elaan”, the clarion call of the New Socialist Movement, one cannot but recall the opening lines of the “Manifesto of the Communist party” written by Marx-Engels way back in 1848:

"A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies…”

Yes, a spectre, though young and embryonic, has indeed come into existence to become the beacon for the struggling masses of Gujarat and ofcourse, the spectre to fear, hate and to be exorcised by exploiters of all hue! Ever since the middle of the nineteenth century, the capitalist world has been fondly waiting for the spectre of communism to vanish and they really believed that it had happened with the fall of Soviet Union in 1990s; the old communist parties that carried out the gigantic historical tasks of transforming the Soviet Union and China from backward semi feudal stage to the post second world war advanced societies, were perhaps not equipped to lead the peoples struggle in the post colonial period after the second world war. Dialectics, however, do not cease to operate. Like the fresh new leaves after the grey autumn, new ideas bloom. New parties are born. Some struggle to break away from the past whereas some are born free.

The soil of Gujarat however, has never been fertile for any communist movement to take roots; the working class movement under the Majoor Mahajan Sangh, influenced as it was by Gandhiji’s ideas of trusteeship, not only destroyed the working class militancy but stifled the growth of any progressive or revolutionary ideas. This void allowed the BJP led forces to capture the centre stage and create a formidable rightist state machinery by 2000. All political opposition was subdued including the weak CPI(M) and CPI. Under these fascistic conditions, the dialectical opposite was born. The New Socialist Movement (NSM) which was functioning as a quasi-political organization ever since 1989 alongwith its two sister organizations, the Gujarat Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) and the Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM), decided to shed its ambiguity and declare itself as a political party in 2002.

The birth of NSM was a direct consequence of the situation created after bloody massacre of the Muslims who were systematically butchered with the help of the State machinery in 2002. NSM firmly stood by the side of the minorities and led a militant anti-communal struggle in every possible front including in the legal battles. In the specific conditions of Gujarat on and after 2002, the party adopted an anti-communal, pro-democracy mass-line within a broad anti-globalization coalition. Different struggles of different marginalized sections were brought under a common banner and the communal division was combated through joint struggles.

Elaan will be initially published in English and Gujarati language and will share with the readers its experiences of the past seven years both in the sphere of practice as well as theory.

The happenings in West Bengal are ofcourse of foremost interest to all communists since the events of Nandigram, Singur and now Lalgarh reflects the deep malaise of the left forces in India. We deal with that event as well as the latest development in the Nanavati Commission at the other end of the country. The consolidation of the trade union struggles under the banner of the Trade Union Centre of India at the national level would perhaps create the genuine revolutionary mass organization that the left movement desperately needs today. We are proud that the first issue of Elaan starts with the clarion call to the working class to participate in the national protest day on 13^th August, 2009.

Elaan is not just the declaration of the struggle of the New Socialist Movement but is a determination to be the voice of the new left!