THE REPUBLIC ON SALE

Mukul Sinha



As 26th January approaches each year, we find little children in tattered clothes scurrying across the traffic signals to sell their tricolor merchandise to the occupants of the whizzing cars that stop at the red signals. The approaching “Republic Day” gives them some hope to sell their stock of plastic flags for perhaps a better meal!

While the poor to survive have to sell the symbol of our republic, the rich are selling the republic itself. The choice of who would be the Chief Guest of the Republic day celebration is also decided not on the stature of our guest but on financial consideration. This year, the President of South Korea Mr. Lee Myung Bak was invited to preside over the Republic day parade, guess for what reasons? Because the South Koreans are investing the highest amount to establish the gigantic POSCO!

POSCO, is the world's fourth largest steel producer and one of the most competitive steel companies in the world. POSCO-India's proposed investment is the highest ever Foreign Direct Investment in India. The company has ambitious expansion plans in India, hoping to invest some $19 billion in the country. Five years ago Posco unveiled plans to build India's largest steel mill in the State of Orissa on the Bay of Bengal.

Because of local opposition, though, the project has suffered extensive delays and Posco hasn't even secured a 4,000-acre property promised for the steel plant. For more than four years the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samity (PPSS) has been bravely resisting attempts to displace over 30,000 people in Jagatsinghpur District of Orissa by POSCO, which wants to set up a steel company and a port on their lands. The Korean steelmaker is hoping the visit to New Delhi by South Korean President Lee Myung Bak will clear the way for its $19 billion in proposed investments in India.

The republic which was meant to be of the people by the people and for the people to empower the common man has now become the podium for auction to the highest bidder. May be in the next republic day we find the displaced children of Jagatsinghpur of Orissa selling their tricolor flags in your city with the small prints behind the flags “made in South Korea”!

NSM remembers Gandhi on 30th January his death anniversary

When Godse pumped bullets in the frail body of Gandhiji on 30th Jan 1948, he really killed the greatest leader that the indigenous capitalism had ever produced. The prominence of his image as a man of peace and non-violence has really covered up his real historical role as the mass organiser. On this day we try to recall some of his strategies of mass movement that shook the British Empire.

The picture of Gandhiji which is perhaps well-known is one where he is spinning yarn with traditional 'charkha.' That charkha was the symbol that countered the great spinning mills of Britain that heralded the industrial revolution of Europe. The traditional charkha thus became the focus of unity of nascent Indian bourgeois. Having created the most powerful symbol of struggle, Gandhiji's call for boycotting foreign clothes and goods was a natural consequence of resistance of nascent national capitalism to imperialistic market domination. The masses of people coming out in the streets to burn foreign clothes became the powerful tool of resistance to imperialism. It would be incomplete if we do not remember the famous Dandi-March in this connection. He had defied the authority of British Empire on one hand and highlighted the indigenous production on other hand.

In the era of globalization the present Indian big bourgeois would however like us to remember Gandhiji not as the agitational leader that took on the British imperialism but as a harmless icon of peace and non-violence.

Hero of “dev” becomes brand ambassador

Nirjhari Sinha



It is a common belief in India that the tourism in Gujarat has not taken off primarily because of the prohibition policy of the Gujarat. Amitabh Bachchan on Monday accepted the Gujarat government's offer to be the new “brand ambassador” for the State to promote “tourism”; Does he have plans to bring in his famed “Madhushalas” in Gujarat?? Ironically, the greatest ambassador of Gujarat, Mahatma Gandhi would have swooned at the idea of “madhushala” being promoted to develop Gujarat!

In his letter of acceptance to Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Bachchan said: “You have very graciously considered my appointment as brand ambassador for Gujarat. I accept the offer with great humility. I hope we will be able to work together for the betterment of Gujarat.” While it is always welcome for any person to come and work for the benefit of the State, in the instant case, it started with the tax exemption for his film “Paa”. It is also heard that Amitabh Bachchan has plans to establish a major Film establishment for which he is looking for land in Gujarat. The development is thus not one sided but involves a quid pro quo.

From being a close friend of Rajiv Gandhi, being bailed out by Amar Singh during the ABCL debt-crisis to being a ambassador of Narendra Modi's Government are really very contradictory relations. One may say totally different roles. But then isn't he the greatest actor of all? In Govind Nihalani's film “Dev” he with great élan had played the role of the Police Officer who gave up his life to give justice to a Muslim boy as a sequel to the 2002 Gujarat riots. We may also recall his famous dialogue from that movie when the Chief Minister tells him that the ratio of the deaths of Hindus and Muslims in police firing was not fair. Would Shri Bachchan remember that memorable role of his and also remember that there cannot be any genuine development without peace and justice?

'ALVIDA' TO JYOTIBABU

Mukul Sinha



Jyotibabu is a perfect study of contradictions; a leader who rose during the Great Debate that shunned the “bourgeois parliamentary road to socialism” but will be forever remembered as the longest surviving communist Chief Minister of the bourgeoisie assembly! His elite upbringing in an affluent Bengali family, legal education in London and Marxist indoctrination during the pre-second world period, made him into the Jyotibabu as we knew him, a communist aristocrat. A distant taciturn leader who managed his party, Government and the people like a patriarch. But his ascent to the leadership was rather radical.

The primary differences between the Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU) and the Communist Party of China (CPC) in the early 1960s were (1) whether socialism could be built in one country, (2) whether the socialist system and capitalist system could coexist and (3) whether the communist parties could use the bourgeois parliamentary system to achieve socialism. All these three issues arose from the CPSU thesis that the “class struggle” had largely come to an end after the establishment of the Soviet Union!

The debate over these issues that came to be known as the “Great debate”, had split the communist parties world over. The undivided Communist party of India (CPI) had also split in 1964 into the CPI and CPI (M). CPI (M) led by Namboodripad and Jyotibabu opposed the CPSU line of parliamentary road to socialism.

At a CPI National Council meeting held on April 11, 1964, Jyotibabu sided with the radical Council members who walked out in protest, accusing Dange and his followers of "anti-unity and anti-Communist policies". They later on organised a convention in Tenali, Andhra Pradesh July 7 to 11. A large portrait of the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong at the Tenali convention indicated the tilt of the radical faction.

In 1967 a peasant uprising broke out in Naxalbari, in northern West Bengal. The insurgency was led by hardliner district-level CPI (M) leaders Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal. The hardliners within CPI (M) saw the Naxalbari uprising as the spark that would ignite the Indian revolution. “Spring Thunder over India” was published as an editorial in People's Daily, organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on 5 July 1967, hailing the Naxalbari movement. The Naxalbari movement was however violently repressed by the West Bengal government of which CPI(M) was a major partner, causing an abrupt break in CPI(M)-CPC relations. Jyotibabu was the home minister of that Government!

Thus ended the radicalism of Jyotibabu and for the next one decade {1967 to 1977}, he retraced his steps back to the CPI position of parliamentary road. In 1977 he became the Chief Minister of West Bengal as the leader of CPI (M), a position he held till his retirement in 2000. From the era of “Great debate” to being the longest surviving communist Chief Minister of a bourgeois assembly, is indeed a long march. We cannot give you a parting red salute Jyotibabu but we do say alvida!

Living in Hell: Struggle for Survival

Those who labor to build cities are destined to be excluded from the cities they built. This has been the history of the slum dwellers all over the world. Consigned to the fringes of the city, they make their jhuggi-jhopdis and live in the filth and dirt of the “effluent zones” of the cities. The residents of the “affluent zones” hate the sight of these miserable “encroachers” but have to tolerate their existence as they are still useful for maintaining the city as casuals and domestic workers. But as the city expands, the bull-dozers push them out farther just as garbage is removed. The story of the mega-city Ahmedabad is no different and thousands of slum dwellers have lost their shanties in the last few years to the bull-dozers.

For over two decades, Jansangharsh Manch has mobilized such slum dwellers to help them in their struggle for survival and scores of rallies and meetings have been held during this time to demand a proper housing policy for the marginalized sections. The struggle to save the 242 residence of Salatnagar has perhaps assumed epic proportions since this cluster of slums despite being demolished once by the Corporation and burnt down in the 2002 riots, stills survives.

On 19th December, a large meeting was held in Piplaj, the “new Andaman” for the slum dwellers of Ahmedabad. Whenever a slum is demolished, as an “alternative” accommodation, the slum dwellers are given a small plot of land in Piplaj, which till recently was a desolate, remote area in the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Though two years have passed after the establishment of this new cluster that houses the residents of Mahakali, Banas and other slums which were demolished, there are still no civic amenities like water, streets and gutters. The meeting resolved to fight for the JNURM facilities and a better future.

Earlier, on 4th December, a similar meeting was held in the Motera area by the residents of Valijibhai-ni-kuan to voice the same demand for improving the civic amenities like gutter, streets, drinking water and lights.

The Indo-American Chopsuey

Mukul Sinha



What did Obama serve Manmohan Singh when he invited him for the great American dinner on 24th November?? American Chopsuey? Nobody knows why it is called American Chopsuey, but it is one of the most common recipes in the Chinese restaurants. It is basically a stir fry vegetables sautéed in sauce served over crispy noodles. And where did Obama learn to make American Chopsuey? From the Chinese of course, when he had visited them in early November.

That perhaps is the story of all products in the world today. Call it whatever you may; turn it around and you will always see the small print, 'Made in China.' Nay, it is not just limited to material products alone. In almost every field of human activity, the Chinese dominate including the field of sports as they have recently demonstrated in the Beijing Olympics. Yet China has to play second fiddle to America.

If we for the time being restrict our attention to the rise of three nations, we will notice they have a common period of sprouting. America, China and India changed qualitatively in the post second world war as compared to its health prior to the Second World War. America jumped into the seat of the most powerful and wealthy nation whereas China and India attained its political independence, albeit in different ways.

Led by Mao, the Chinese peasantry smashed the semi-feudal, semi colonial social structure that made China pregnant with not a socialist revolution but an aggressive capitalist mode of production. Deng Ziao Peng rightly diagnosed the nature of the embryo in 1976 and in the next one decade had delivered the fastest growing capitalist child that started running before it crawled.

India on the other hand, led by Jawaharlal Nehru, opted for the capitalist path using the public sector as the foundation and an apologetically slow land reform. Despite socialist slogans, the real intention was never to empower the people and thus after six decades of Independence , 40% of the population still languishes below the poverty line. The Globalization of nineties and thereafter has ofcourse benefited the monopoly capitalists of India who hope to gain by their close collaboration with America.

The relation between America, China and India is becoming more akin to the monkey and the two cats which were fighting over a loaf of bread. The monkey, pretending to deliver equal justice, eats away bits of the bread of both the cats but the antagonism between the cats blinds them to the treachery of the monkey. That is where Deng Ziao was wrong when he had said that, “ it does not matter whether a cat is black or white as long as it can catch the mice” . Deng was commenting against the Mao's line that the worker must learn socialist politics as much as he learns productive skills. For Deng, politics did not matter, as long as the workers gave production- the standard capitalist mantra. But Deng was wrong. The color of the cat matters. The capitalist cats can only fight and allow to be fooled by the monkey; exactly what China and India is doing in the present time. As nations, China and India should unite and cook their own Chopsuey.

The American Unemployment Exchange

Sriram

America has always boasted about a superior production system and claimed to be the work house of the world. But when the September results of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics came out, it showed that unemployment for the month was 10%. This was higher in 2009 than in 2008. For any economic crisis to be classified as a depression, like what happened in the US in the 1920s, the unemployment rate has to be around 20%. At the rate that unemployment rate has been rising, America appears to be heading towards one.

With finance capital given a free, de-regulated hand in the present era, crises in capitalism are emerging with greater frequency. One of the reasons for the periodic rise in unemployment in the US is because of footloose capital that shifted to low-wage production regions like Mexico and China in the cold pursuit of profit. With each crisis come the need to understand what the working-class needs to do in order to usher in more progressive change and ensure job-security.

This holds a lesson for a country like India, which still has the bulk of the market for its production within the domestic base and need not allow itself to be subjected to the fleeting nature of monopoly capital. Any industrialization process aimed at stable and long-term economic growth needs to be tied in strongly to the domestic market and a steady controllable resource base which would protect the gains of that industrialization.

How does this relate to the working-class in India? It is imperative that, in order to hold on to secure and viable work, unions across the country demand that economic production and growth not be subject to whims of monopoly capital. Apart from agitation and collective-bargaining at the site of production, it is imperative for trade unions to fight to secure production and therefore secure workers rights. This can happen if there is a broad-based coalition across unions to ensure that the economic growth of the country is not at the mercy of marauding footloose capital.

This has been exemplified by some of the struggles led by the GFTU including the most recent one against the privatization of public utility institutions like the AMTS, as well as larger federations like TUCI, which has been agitating against the hijacking of the economic integrity of India by imperialist capital. It is imperative that like-minded unions join forces in these large struggles in conjuncture with the local struggles at the factory-floor.

The Invisible Conflict

Mukul Sinha



As the paints spread across the canvas, they chart out not just visible outlines but imprint the ideas of the artist. The dialectical development of ideas finds its place on the canvas as contradictions of different hues and Pravin Mishra's abstract paintings were no exception. What set apart Pravin's work from others were the uninhibited strokes that boldly told the story of his inner mind. While most of the paintings displayed by Pravin in the Hutheesing Visual Art Centre in Ahmedabad in November were remarkable, one painting was indeed outstanding, the hands that unitedly pulled the rope from one side while the other side was invisible. That precisely is the story of all development, the story of invisible unity and the struggle.

Bharat Zala and Vinod Pandya win NDTV RTI Award

There was a time when apart from the Upper castes, no other person had the right to know. In case the dalit or the lower caste ever dared to learn, they were severely punished. The Manusmriti prescribed the punishment of pouring molten lead into the ear of a dalit who heard the Gita! From those black days of our society, we have atleast come to the new horizon of knowledge. The Right of Information Act does, to some extent, empower the people as the law now permits, to a limited extent, his/her right to know.

But just the right to know alone does not benefit the poor unless the information is converted into a powerful tool of struggle. Two members of Jan Sangharsh Manch, Bharat Zala and Vinod Pandya have demonstrated the strategy of converting information received under the new law into actual benefits for the struggling masses. Bharat used the information received in relation to the flood affected farmers whereas Vinod successfully used the information received regarding the primary teachers to reach help to the cause of the farmers and primary education. As a recognition of their effort they have been chosen from Gujarat for the RTI award by NDTV which carries with it a cash award of one lakh rupees. On behalf of NSM, we congratulate our activists and urge them to continue their good work.

The Colonial Hangover: The Bhopal meet of the CPI(ML)

Mukul Sinha



The special session held by the CPI(ML) at Bhopal between 7th and 12th November, 2009 to deliberate on their ideological line was noteworthy atleast for two reasons: Firstly, the meeting was held in a very democratic manner and secondly, a sincere attempt was made to break from the past and do “concrete analysis of concrete conditions”, as was repeatedly asserted by the spokesmen of the party.

Three delegates from New Socialist Movement attended the meeting as representatives of fraternal party. Delegates from 14 states also attended the session alongwith delegates from Germany and Argentina.

While presenting the party's line on International situation, Shri Sanjay Singhvi emphasized the shift of his party's position from the past CPI(ML) position of 1970. It was declared that post second world war period ought to be described as neocolonial period and the American Imperialism has established its hegemony over the world and nations like India were merely neocolonial states devastated and looted by the American Imperialism. The status of Afghanistan and Iraq were virtually that of colonies of America.

While New Socialist Movement believed that shifting from the old CPI(ML) line of semi-feudal, semi-colonial was a welcome change, the concept of the neo-colony was not acceptable as it does not in any manner describe either the mode of production or the political economy of globalization. NSM believes that during the era of globalization, the erstwhile nation states are forming a network to safeguard the flow of capital across the world and capital itself was fast losing its “national” tag.

To maximize the extraction of surplus in the era of falling profits, the monopoly capitalists of developed and even developing nations enter into various types of agreements and contracts while at the same time compete with each other to maximize their own share. Thus the flow of surplus is no longer linear or unidirectional and therefore the idea of neo-colony with America as the fountain head is no longer a correct analysis of the present day's concrete conditions. The immense enrichment of the Indian and Chinese bourgeoisies clearly establishes that they have been able to accumulate capital and a far higher rate than before. Be that as it may, the debate initiated by CPI(ML) at Bhopal is most welcome.

SEZs: New Mechanisms for Extraction of Surplus

Sriram



No scheme of the Indian government has evoked as much controversy in recent years as the creation of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) for industry aimed at exports. This has resulted in the displacement of poor farm families and villagers, brutal land acquisition, and gross human rights violations by the state at the behest of private capital. Thus far, the argument in the mainstream Indian media has tended to revolve around displacement and compensation, with an unspoken sentiment that if adequate compensation was given there would be no problems with SEZs.

The crux of the argument needs to change to address whether there is economic validity in SEZs. The stated rationale is a wholly economic one and constituted, in a nutshell, economic growth led by mostly private investment capital and the promotion of exports. However, this economic rationale falls apart when examined closely. While industrialization aimed at exports might be important, it has to be diversified in order to protect it from the whims of the international market. Past Indian SEZs have made neither a particularly high contribution to exports, nor are they diverse. In 2004-05, SEZs accounted for barely 5 percent of India's exports.

Among the stated benefits of the SEZ scheme has been an increase in employment and improvement in infrastructure. There is little evidence to suggest that either will happen with the SEZ plan. Employment generations are merely a guideline and not even a mandated requirement for approval. On the contrary, large corporations have always lobbied from the state, “labor flexibility". However, due to the relative strength of unions and other formations in India, this was impossible to implement throughout the country, which is why separate zones were required. In SEZ, the rights under the labor laws are now taken away.

One of the most important impacts of investment resulting in growth is widening the tax base of the national exchequer, which can then be used for a variety of social security measures, public sector undertakings, public health systems, scientific research, public education, subsidies for farmers, further industrialization measures, and a host of other social programs. The revenue loss coming from SEZs will amount to more than $40 billion over the next 5 years, by some conservative estimates, and possibly much more. This money could feed the country's 320 million hungry people for a couple of years or provide employment to at least 2 members of every rural family for the next 5 years! It does not bode well for Indian society to take this kind of a fiscal blow to cater to private capital and convert public money into private capital.

The SEZs have likewise seen no real infrastructure development except in real estate growth and speculation. It has already been reported from different areas that such land mafia are using the SEZs to carve up huge chunks of overpriced real estate.

The final argument given by Indian policy-makers for SEZs is the supposed Chinese success. The reality is that SEZs in China have resulted in arable land loss, inequities in development, rampant real estate speculation, labor violence and abuse, increasing crime including smuggling, sex trafficking, and child labor, as well as huge resource and environmental costs.

The widespread protests resulted in the federal government announcing a suspension of all land acquisition for establishing new SEZs in February 2007 until a new rehabilitation program for displaced people was realized. This temporary retreat on the part of the government represented a significant victory of sorts for the various movements and gave particular cheer for those believing in participatory democracy and people's enfranchisement.. But it is this variety that has exemplified the popular nature of resistance against SEZs and proved that a truly people-friendly and democratic industrialization alternative should be sought.

[This article is based on a much long paper written by the author for the political journal Socialism and Democracy, which can be found at: http://www.sdonline.org/46/ananthanarayanan.htm]

The Two Indias: One declares war against the other

Mukul Sinha



For quite some time the Prime Minister has been trying to persuade the country that the “Maoist” are the greatest threat to the security of India. May we ask a humble question to our Prime Minister - which India does he have in mind? The India that has enriched itself enormously during the two decades of globalization or the India that does not get two square meals?

In the recent UNDP report, the poverty in India has once again been high lighted. Out of the human development indicator issued for 182 countries, India occupies the 134th Rank. In 2007 its rank was 126 where as in 2008 it was 128. No lesser person than Amrtyasen has stated that in the course of globalization and privatization the poor in India being pushed outside the development.

Most of the governmental projects are made keeping the middle class in mind and whatever little is adopted for the poor never reaches them due to corruption. The human development indicator is prepared based on education health and income of individual and in all these three, India is extremely backward even as compared to Bhutan and Srilanka. In area of public health 20 lakhs children die under the age of 5 every year of which 28% die due to want of potable water.

In our country the poverty line (BPL) is decided on the basis of consumption of calories. Those who consume between 2100-2400 calories are considered outside the BPL .By this yardstick as per the planning commission 28.5 % are within BPL but committee appointed by the Rural development ministry headed by N C Saxena has put this figure at 50% since to consume that amount of calories, a person has to spend Rs 1000/- in cities and Rs. 700/- in village instead of Rs 535 and 356 estimated by planning commission. The claim of government that globalization has reduced the percentage of poverty since 1999 is thus fully belied. The lakhs of farmers who have committed suicide in “developed “states like Maharashtra and Gujarat also expose the hollowness of government claim. On the other hand, the enormous wealth accumulated by a hand full of Indian capitalist led by Ambanis and Tatas would go to show that privatization and globalization has only helped the rich to become richer.

Keeping in mind the above facts and figures, let us examine the threat perspective posed by “Maoists” as alleged by the Government. It is said that the “Maoist” consists of around 5000 or so rag-tag militia carrying assortment of guns and explosives. Can it be believed that the mighty Indian State with millions of military, Para-military, police and other forces armed with the most sophisticated weapons can be threatened by such a rag-tag militia?

It may not be an altogether coincidence that ever since P.Chidambaram became the Home Minister of India, the war cries against the “Maoists” have become louder. It may be interesting to recall that Shri Chidambaram was previously the Board member and also the counsel of the Vedanta Group of companies which through Sterlite Company hold major interest in mining and minerals including BALCO in Chhattisgarh. It is also a geographical coincidence that mines and minerals are below the ground in remote areas inhabited by adivasis, the class of people which the “Maoists” allegedly support. It would therefore be reasonable to draw the inference, that it is not really the rag-tag “Maoist” militia that bothers the Indian State but the millions of adivasis and other poor people who live in the remotest areas of this county who are sitting on the billions worth of valuable minerals. We do not agree with the violent methods of the “Maoist” but we also do not agree with the threat perspective that is being touted by the Government. It is not a war against another army but it is a war against the poor to appropriate their share of wealth.

JET Airways Pilots Refuse To Fly

as reported by Sanjay Singhvi


In December last year, the management of Jet Airways called upon all sections of the workmen to voluntarily accept a cut in wages and allowances. Many sections of the workers accepted. The pilots of Jet Airways were, at that time, organised into a society known as the Society for the Welfare of Indian Pilots (SWIP). SWIP communicated to the management that the pilots would be ready to accept any reasonable cut in wages if the foreign pilots were removed. Jet airways employs both Indian and international pilots. However, it pays almost double to international pilots than it pays to Indian pilots.

The management, however, refused to have anything to do with SWIP claiming that they were only a “welfare body” and not able to negotiate on behalf of the pilots. It went ahead and cut the allowances of the pilots unilaterally, resulting in a cut in allowances to the tune of up to 40% for pilots. In response, the pilots decided to form a union.

The management soon came to know of the formation of the union and on 29th July 2009 summarily dismissed the General Secretary and the Joint Secretary of the union. On 22nd August 2009 issued a strike notice to the management that a strike was called for 7th September if the management did not take back the dismissed pilots in the meantime.

On midnight of 7th September, pilots of Jet Airways, in a rare display of unity started reporting sick. The whole of the airlines operations ground to a halt. After 5 days of total strike, the pilots signed a settlement in which the four dismissed pilots (two more had been dismissed after the start of the action) were reinstated.

GFTU salutes the JET Airways pilots for their militant movement.

BJP-CPM Alliance in Bengal: Turning a full circe

In the election of the president of Baxirhat Panchayat held on 12 October 2009, the BJP candidate Madhavi Pradhan won with the support of CPM members. The Congress and Trinamul Congress boycotted the election realizing that they were outnumbered by CPM- BJP combine. As the CPM gets cornered by in WB by Trinamul Congress it has adopted an unusual and unprincipled tactics of supporting the candidate of any other political party to defeat the Trinamul candidate.

In recent past election of the Mayor of Siliguri Corporation CPM backed the Congress candidate and defeated Trinamul candidate. To justify the support to the BJP candidate, Baxirhat zonal committee's president Sri Dhananjay Rabhasaid that to resist the violence unleashed by Trinamul we decided to support the BJP candidate. The party position after in the 29 seats Panchayat Committee is the CPM won 10, Trinamul 8, BJP 8, Congress 2 and Independents 2.

60th Anniversary Of The Peoples Republic Of China: Celebrating The End Of Maoism

Mukul Sinha



At the time when the Government of India has banned the Communist Party (Maoist) and declared an all out war against the Maoist party, the Chinese Government had no qualms to organize one of the biggest marches on 1st October, 2009 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the revolution holding high a massive picture of Mao-Tse-Dong! The irony is that Mao still lives in India whereas in China, Mao is just a sanitized icon! To understand this great contradiction, it would necessary to trace the brief history of the “Cultural Revolution” that led to the rise of Deng Ziao Peng, the architect of the capitalist China.

It was perhaps the greatest triumph of history when the poor peasantry under the leadership of Mao overthrew the feudal rule in China and proclaimed the Peoples Republic of China on the Sept. 30, 1949. The Soviet Union was the closest ally of the new republic but with the death of Stalin and the rise of Khrushev, the Sino-Soviet relations plummeted. Khruschev was bitterly critical of Mao and his Commune programme. On July 18, 1959, Khruschev publicly attacked the Commune movement while speaking at Pozan, Poland. At the same time, the then defense Minister of China, Marshal P’eng Te-Huai also attacked the Commune programme and other Maoist policies. The simultaneous attacks of Khrushchev and P’eng Te-Huai were obviously more than a coincidence. Under such shady circumstances, CCP had no other alternative but to dismiss P'eng Te-huai in Sept. 1959. This dismissal is of great importance in the Cultural Revolution

By the end of 1964, the Chinese party had split in two camps. One led by Mao Tsetung representing the revolutionary faction and the other led by Liu Shao-chi and Deng-Ziao Ping, the pro-Soviet faction representing the bourgeois classes in China.

THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION:

The faction led by Liu Shao-chi fired their first slavo, not in the political sphere but in the cultural field. They came out with the anti-Mao play titled 'Hai Jui Dismissed from Office'. This play was written by Wu Han in the year 1959. Wu Han was a historian and a close associate of Peng Chen, the Mayor of Peking belonging to the Liu Shao-chi group. The play dealt with the arbitrary dismissal of ‘good’ ministers Hai Jui by the evil emperor. Mao Tsetung wrote in the People's Daily (29-5-1967) attacking the play:

'THE CRUX OF THE DISMISSAL OF HAI JUI LIES IN THE DISMISSAL ITSELF. EMPEROR CHIA-CHING DISMISSED HAI JUI; IN 1959 WE SACKED P'ENG THE-HUA. P'ENG THE-HUA IS HAI JUI'.

The intense struggle that ensued since 1966 raged till 1969 and though this struggle goes under the name of “Cultural revolution” in reality it was an intense struggle for capturing the State power between the two factions. At the end, the rightist forces under the leadership of Deng emerged victorious and the final curtain was drawn on the revolution with the death of Mao in 1976.

THE PRESENT:



After the rightists captured the State power, they did something that no other capitalist country had attempted. Deng did not dismantle the monolith State structure of a single party rule. On the contrary, keeping the red flag flying and a benign Mao staring down the Tiananmen Square, Deng changed all the production relations.

Till 1988 there was no law to employ more than eight workers in a non governmental organization. However many private organizations in connivance with local party leaders used to take advantage and they used to be called red-cap capitalist. During the end of nineties they started coming out in open giving up their red caps. The local and small sectors government organizations (SOE) were privatized and in most cases the managers of SOE became the new owners. Outside the agricultural sector about 50% of the production is under private ownership of this around one third are party members which includes “Siahiya” entrepreneurs who were earlier the leaders of the party. . Ofcourse one aspect is generally known some of the entrepreneurs were friends and relatives of party leaders.

Recent figures show that out of 3300 Chinese citizens, who have property worth 1.4 crores dollars, 2932 are children of some or the other highly placed party members. Many nationalized organizations are being run by powerful political families. In last few decade new political –manager class has arisen which has taken control of properties. The monopolistic political power has created especially an aggressive capitalist and corrupted system. Any international business deal between Chinese and foreign company there is always a political interference, secret deals and bribes. During the end of 2008 the richest man of China, Huang Guangui was arrested as the party leaders feared that some one had become more powerful than them.

The land market has grown so fast that promoters in connivance with local party leaders demolished the houses in the old areas by bulldozers over night. The residents wake up in the morning to find the word “Chi” written in white on their wall and this word means to demolish. There can not be any protest or any hope of compensation.

Today, unlike the Government of India, the fears of Imperialist America are the wealth of China and not Mao who has become merely a sanitized icon in his own country!

COUNTLESS ENCOUNTERS: Death in Uniform

Mukul Sinha

“Aab tak Chappan” became a great hit amongst the movie goers of this country. The story was woven around the heroic but ruthless eliminations of the members of the underworld by the Mumbai police sharp shooter, Shri Daya Nayak. The name of the movie suggested the immediate count of the dead and a countless to follow…


Mumbai Encounter Specialist: Daya Nayak

Encounter has now a days become an euphemism for cold blooded killing by men in uniform Shockingly, those who do it and those who get it done, are treated with awe and respect by the common people. In a recent television talk show held by a national channel of repute, almost all the hands went up in affirmation when the audience was asked whether they approve of extra-judicial killings!

Several factors may have contributed to this convoluted perception. The long delays in law Courts to punish the culprits, the inherent violence within the capitalist society, the war- mongering between the countries, the rabid propaganda against terrorism, the underworld-politician nexus etc have led to this mindless sanction to the deaths in uniform. Little do the people know that besides a few exceptions, most of the “encounters” are premeditated custodial deaths aimed for personal or political benefits!!

Reacting to one such exposure in the Isharat Jahan case, Shri Jaynarayan Vyas, the minister-spokesman of the Gujarat Government ruefully lamented that despite the fact that in other States there were more numbers of “encounters”, Gujarat always gets singled out for adverse criticism. Statistically Shri Vyas is right but why indeed does Gujarat gets singled out??


Gujarat Police Encounter Specialist: DG Vanzara

The reason is not far to see. The burning of the S6 coach of the Sabarmati Express near Godhra railway station on 27th February, 2002 which was dubbed as an Islamic terrorist attack, the violence against the minorities that followed and the series of encounters between 2002 and 2006, all appeared as parts of a whole political plot. The two electoral victories of BJP in 2002 and 2007 led by Narendra Modi appeared to be the consequential result of the communal divide created by the violence and encounters.

The encounters in Gujarat thus appear to have a direct nexus with the peculiar communal politics of the state unlike the encounters of Maharashtra, U.P., Bihar etc which are primarily directed at pecuniary gains. The killing of Sadik Jamal on 13th January, 2003 near the Galaxy Cinema, Naroda at Ahmedabad and dubbed as a terrorist attempt at the life of Narendra Modi is an eye opener in this regard. Ketan Tirodkar, the person who had profiled Sadik as a terrorist, has confessed before the MCOCA Court in Mumai in his own application MCOC Case No. 4 of 2003 as under:

7. “In first week of January, 2003, Accused No.1 (Daya Nayak) told me that he wanted to oblige a big politician in Gujarat by giving an ISI agent or some similar militant for an encounter killing. … I had met one Sadiq Mehtar aged about 18 years in Dubai, who was a house-help of Said Tariq Parveen. This Sadiq had lost some of his dear ones and his house in the Gujarat Ethnic riots. … Accused No.1 saw him and thought him to be the only easy target available after some drafting to build his profile as a militant. So Accused No.1 and myself made a profile of Sadiq about his being in Dubai in the company of “D” gang members Salim Chiplun and others and had come to India on the contract of LeT for eliminating Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

8. Then on 11.1.2003, as planned by Accused No.1 I asked Sadiq to come to the Traffic Police Post on the Andheri Flyover where Accused No.1 had kept the Gujarat Police in wait. Said came there and we both boarded the vehicle and came towards National Park. Two persons and a lady were standing there, at the gate of National Park dressed like journalists, carrying shoulder bags. I introduced them to Sadiq and alighted from the vehicle and they went away towards Gujarat. Two days thereafter I read in newspapers that Sadiq was killed in police encounter in Gujarat.

The above confession made by Ketan Tirodkar, a one time right hand man of Daya Nayak, clearly establishes the fact that people like Sadiq, Isharat, Kausarbi, Sohrabuddin etc who have died are not merely statistics but innocent citizens of this country who have met their death in uniform at the alter of communal politics. That is what sets the encounters of Gujarat apart from all others.

INDIA DURING THE THREE PHASES OF GLOBALISATION

Mukul Sinha

In the first phase, i.e. from 1600 to 1947, the Indian subcontinent has been either under the Mogul rule or the British rule. The last hundred year of the British rule completely ruined the economic development of the country as it was used the Indian resources and labour for its own capitalist development. At the end of their rule, the Britishers left India with GDP consisting of just about 5.8% industrial income and around 70 to 75% of agricultural income; the rest came from small scale and cottage industry. India was but a very poor under developed semi-feudal country.

The second phase saw India adopting a secular democratic polity accompanied by a “mixed economic” policy, experimenting with the public sector undertakings with the help of Soviet union to build the infra structural industries. In the domain of foreign policy, India adopted the non-aligned policy sending a confused message that it was going to chart out a path independent of the on going process of globalization.
In the third phase however, starting from about 1990, alongwith the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Indian ruling classes integrated itself within the global capitalist network. Strangely, it did gain in the bargain for a peculiar reason. The use of the computer in every possible sector increased the demand for the trained and computer skilled labour and the Indians with their good back ground in mathematics and English, did extremely well in adopting the computer. Thus started rise of the service sector with the Indian companies leading the pack. Today, we have still 25-30% income coming from the traditional industrial sector but over 62% of the income coming from the service sector; the rest come from the agricultural sector (17 to 18%).

While on one hand, the IT companies started contributing to the national GDP by 1990s, the existing major players also gained from the access to the global market. Reliance, Tatas, Adanis etc enriched themselves from the new equation. But all the enrichment took place at the cost of the Indian working people.

Be that as it may, the Indian economy seems to have gathered some momentum and the ruling classes are losing no time to sing paeans for Globalization. A little scrutiny would show that the claim of the Indian ruling class regarding the advantage of its integration with the global capitalism is totally hollow. The Indian economy does not contribute the value addition (except in a few sectors) but is actually helping the global players to substitute higher wage labor by the Indian lower wage labor. Outsourcing is being done to cut down the cost of production and increase the profit levels of the multinationals. The Agricultural production has in fact become stagnant at the year 2000 level. To enrich the Indian monopoly Capitalist class, Special ecomomic zones, Special Investment Zones etc have been created, where the Industrial houses are exempted labour laws and payment of taxes; where the land for such purpose is forcefully acquired at the cost of the peasantry.

The worst feature of the third phase is the complete reversal of the constitutional goals. Despite adopting the capitalist mode of production as the fundamentals in 1949, our constitution did envisage a secular, egalitarian and an equitable society. By making the equal treatment under law as a fundamental right and the Directive principles to guide the making of statutory law, the founding fathers had perhaps hoped for welfare state where the rights of the weaker sections, minorities and marginalized would be protected. But alas! Globalization trampled all such fond hopes. Instead, a violent communal politics gripped the country ever since mid-eighties.

Crisis to Crisis: Eighty Years of Globalization

ARTICLE (Vol. 1, Issue 2, September 2009)

The financial crisis of 2007–09, began in July 2007 when a loss of confidence by investors in the value of securitized mortgages in the United States resulted in a crisis of liquidity (i.e. the free-flow of money/capital). The perceived credit risk in the general economy rose alarmingly in July 2007, reaching a peak on October 10, 2008. In September 2008 stock markets worldwide crashed and entered a period of large-scale downward trend, and a considerable number of banks, mortgage lenders and insurance companies failed in the following weeks. Although America's housing collapse is often cited as having caused the crisis, the financial system was vulnerable because of monetary policies in the US and Europe that made the cost of credit negligible therefore encouraging such high levels of unrealistic non-payable loans/debts.

The apparent cause of the financial crisis is the collapse of the $8 trillion investment in the US housing market. In September 2002, some economists had predicted that the collapse of the housing sector would jeopardize the survival of numerous financial institutions engaged in the housing sector. It was commonly claimed during the first weeks of the financial crisis that the problem was simply caused by reckless, sub-prime lending. However, the sub-prime mortgages were only part of a far more extensive problem affecting the entire $20 trillion US housing market: the sub-prime sector was simply the first place that the collapse affecting the housing market showed up.

People who had increased their wealth substantially with the extraordinary run-up of stock prices were spending based on this “increased” (paper) wealth. This led to the consumption boom, with the savings rate out of disposable income falling from 5% in the mid-90s to 2% by 2000. The stock-wealth induced consumption boom led people to buy bigger and/or better homes and other commodities beyond their means, since they sought to spend some of their new stock wealth on housing etc. This high-consumption low-savings bubble began to burst in 2007, as the building boom led to so much over-supply that prices could no longer be supported. Prices nationwide began to fall rapidly, with this process accelerating through the fall of 2007 and into 2008. As mortgage payment became impossible to fulfil, more homeowners faced foreclosure. Voluntary foreclosures took place when people realized that they owe more than the value of their home, and decided that paying off their mortgage is in effect a bad deal. In cases where a home was valued far lower than the amount of the outstanding mortgage, homeowners were able to effectively pocket thousands of dollars by simply walking away from their mortgage. This destroyed the Fannie Mays and Freddie Macs and the domino effect took the rest of the world under.

The root cause of the current crisis is the same as the great depression of 1929 – the surplus values locked in commodities could not be extracted and circulated. The Great Depression was a worldwide economic devastation starting in 1929 and ending in the early 1940s for different countries. It was the largest and most important economic devastation in modern history of the capitalist system.

Marxist descriptions of political economy emphasizes the tendency of capitalism to create unbalanced accumulations of wealth, leading to over accumulations of capital and a repeating cycle of devaluations through economic crises. Marxism holds that recession and depression as unavoidable under free-market capitalism as there are no restrictions on accumulation of capital other than the market itself. The end of the depression in the U.S is associated with the onset of the war economy of World War II, beginning around 1939.

In the current situation, the commodities have been sold due to the easy and cheap credit which could not be paid back. Now the financial institutes have the possession of commodities (like houses, cars etc) through mortgage foreclosures which they cannot sell, instead of shops and factories having unsold commodities during the great depression. That is why the first to collapse are the financial institutions bringing down the stock markets with a delayed collapse of the production system leading to increasing unemployment (in the USA it is approaching 8%). The current crisis will lead to another great depression if the production system collapses – a convenient yardstick is the unemployment percentage (loss of jobs). If it crosses 20%, President Obama of the USA will have no option but to admit that the current recession is indeed another great depression! This is the true picture of great, stable, reliable, benevolent, beautiful, and free-for-all Capitalism.

In search of the true shade of red: the tragedy of Lalgarh

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

Mukul Sinha

It took more than 40 years for the CPI(Maoist), the metamorphosis of CPI(ML), to prove that history does indeed repeat itself but when it does, it does so as farce. In 1967, the peasant uprising in Naxalbari sent red jitters all over the country, while in 2009 the red has faded out in a place ironically called Lalgarh!

In April, 1969, the CPI(ML) was born out of the CPI(M) as an aftermath of the Naxalbari uprising in 1967. A section of the CPI(M) led by Charu Mazumdar and Kanu Sanyal the Siliguri District Committee of the CPI(M), supported a violent peasant uprising in 1967, in "revolutionary opposition" to the CPI(M) leadership. Led by Charu Mazumdar, initially an All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries was formed in November 1967, as an inner-party pro-China splinter-faction of the CPI(M). On April 22, 1969 the AICCCR formed the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), breaking away from the CPI(M)

The insoluble contradiction and the pathological hatred between the CPI(M) and CPI(Maoist) in 2009, goes back to these formative years. With time, the differences multiplied between the two parties, with the CPI(M) preferring the parliamentary path towards “socialism” and the CPI(ML), later on the CPI(Maoist), opting for revolutionary “armed struggle”. On the land question, the protagonists of Naxalbari declared the appropriation of land by the use of revolutionary force whereas the CPI(M) chose to carry out the land reform in accordance with law that partially led to their vote bank amongst the Bengal peasantry for 30 years.

Nandigram and Singur have however changed that cultivated pro-peasantry image of the CPI(M). The bankrupt policy of the CPI(M) to ally with the big Indian bourgeoisie and global capital to fuel their industrial development dug their grave in Lalgarh too. The tragedy is that the Maoists are lending a helping hand to the Trinamool Congress to dig that grave. Stuck to the jungles in search of their semi-feudal line, the Maoist put into practice their theory of “annihilation of class enemies” on the fattened cadre of CPI(M) and slaughtered several of them. What a farce my comrades!

The two leading “communist parties” of India going for each others jugular in Lalgarh would have warmed the hearts of the rightists but for their own deep differences. After the debacle in the 15^th Loksabha elections, the rath of L.K.Advani seems to have got stuck in the virulent mud of failed Hindutva. Varun Gandhi’s limb-chopping histrionics did not disturb the minority moral whatsoever; in fact such vulgarity united the minorities behind Congress and chopped off whatever little chance the BJP had to come near the power centre.

And who is smiling? Take a look at Manmohan Singh; or even Mamta. They are grinning and busy demolishing the left and posing as the allies of the poor peasants! Strange are the changes bourgeois elections can bring about within a short period. The centrist party that was struggling against the onslaught of the left and the right, leapfrogged into the seat of power. Symbolically Tatas may nurture their Nano in either West Bengal or Gujarat, bastions of the left and right respectively, but the Big Bourgeoisie of India has obviously chosen Congress to bat for them.

While the Indian big bourgeoisie, their loyal agent Congress and its allies like Trinamool are consolidating their positions, it is a tragedy that the left forces are in such disarray. Instead of alleviating the sufferings of the Adivasis of Lalgarh, the Maoist have only aggravated their agony and shockingly, it is the CPI(M) which is responsible for their suffering in the first place. In the confusion of colours at Lalgarh, will the people find the true shade of red?

Hooch Tragedy in Gujarat and JSM's intervention

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

Sriram Ananth

The tragic death of over 150 people, primarily from the toiling unorganized labour class, brought to light the deep contradictions and class-based hypocrisy in Gujarat’s longstanding policy on prohibition.

History has shown us that prohibition has never worked as a policy, giving rise to the mafia and organized criminal syndicates in the US in the 1920s and 1930s, that ultimately also infiltrated trade unions. Due to prohibition Gujarat has an alternate, underground economy on both country-made liquor as well as Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL). This alternate economy runs into many thousands of crores, with the tentacles of corruption and beneficiaries stretching right from the petty beat constable all the way to MLAs and MPs. In a stark manifestation of ludicrous hypocrisy, the Gujarat state government even asked the central government for Rs. 3000 crore as compensation for losses incurred due to the implementation of its own prohibition policy in the name of Gandhi! This they calculate as approximately 10% of the alternate liquor econonmy occurring to the state, which pegs the economy at around Rs. 30,000 crore, even from a conservative standpoint as per the state’s own calculations.

The hooch tragedy resulted in numerous organizations as well as the corrupt Congress Party opposition in the state going on rallies demanding stricter implementation of prohibition and calls for further punitive measures. Nowhere were the actual victims seen as worthy of attention, with some portions of public discourse even suggesting that they be refused compensation since they were drinking.

The class-oppressive nature of the discourse was easy to see, as the elite and upper classes would have no cause to worry since they would be able to access high-quality bootlegged liquor!

Once again it required the intervention of Jan Sangarsh Manch in a dharna on July 17^th in front of the Town Hall in Ahmedabad, to expose the hypocrisy of the prevailing discourse, and demand compensation for the victims in addition to punishment for the state and police officials involved in the hooch tragedy. Furthermore, in a sharply progressive deviation from the oppressive mainstream climate on the issue, JSM called for a review of prohibition in the state and a state-wide debate on the merits of such a problematic policy. JSM also offered full legal support to the families of the victims in their struggle for justice.

Indeed the immediate chord struck in the hearts of the affected people with JSM’s stand could be seen in a spontaneous rally supported by JSM at Kantodia Vaas, the main site of the tragedy and a centre for illicit country-made liquor. At the rally the masses readily stood with JSM and were steadfastly keen on engaging in a struggle for the justice due to them.