Document from CPI(Maoist)

Advance with resolute determination in the path of People's War to fulfill the aims of our great martyrs !

Let us comprehend and pound the deceitful LIC policy of the enemy and preserve the leadership and our subjective forces !

Let us strengthen the Party and advance the People's War !

Call of the CC, CPI (Maoist) to party ranks, PLGA commanders-fighters and revolutionary masses to observe Martyrs' Memorial Week with revolutionary spirit from July 28 to August 3, 2012

Dear comrades,

In the course of striving with utmost dedication for the success of the New Democratic Revolution in India in the path of Protracted People's War as shown by the founders of our party, great leaders and martyrs Comrade Charu Mazumdar and Comrade Kanhai Chatterji, for the establishment of socialism and ultimately communism nearly more than 150 worthy daughters and sons of the proletariat and ordinary people have laid down their most invaluable lives. Many among them have lost their lives in fake encounters carried on by the government armed forces. Our party Central Committee pays humble red homage to all our beloved martyrs and dedicates itself one more time to the fulfillment of their aims. It calls upon the party, PLGA, Revolutionary People's Committees (RPCs), mass organizations and revolutionary masses to observe with revolutionary

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spirit the Martyrs' Memorial Week in memory of our beloved martyrs from 2012 July 28 to August 3 holding aloft their sacrifices and pledging ourselves one more time to fulfill their aims. We observe these revolutionary memorial days to pay homage to the martyrs while bearing in mind their memories, to rededicate ourselves to fulfill their dreams and advance forward for fulfilling our aims by filling our hearts with their inspiration. These days simultaneously fill us with infinite grief, boundless inspiration and paramount responsibility. Let us surmount all kinds of difficulties and hurdles created by the enemy classes to stop us from observing the Martyrs' Memorial Week as a revolutionary occasion in order to learn from their inspirational lives and practice and to pledge to carry forward their lofty aims even while overcoming our grief. Let us hold high the red flag left to us by those valiant fighters who laid down their lives in battle and aim our guns at the enemies in People's War and advance forward with great determination !

The most reactionary Indian ruling classes with the complete support, guidance and all kinds of help from the imperialists, particularly the US imperialists are carrying on the countrywide, multi-pronged Operation Green Hunt and it is increasingly becoming more dreadful, horrible and most oppressive to the masses in its second phase. Our beloved martyrs have laid down their lives while valiantly fighting this back. Majority of them have lost their lives while defending the successes of the People's War, the people, the party, and the people's army, while defending and expanding the newly emerging and sustaining new democratic power organs in the guerilla zones and the guerilla bases. They fought back the enemy valiantly and laid down their lives thus adding new chapters in sacrifice to the history of People's War. Some comrades have died in accidents and due to illness and they were primarily martyred due to lack of medical facilities in enemy repression. Some died due to the tortures of the enemy and in jails. Whatever may have been the manner in which they died the aspiration, selfless practice and sacrifices of all these martyrs are aimed at liberating the people of our country and the oppressed masses of this world from all kinds of exploitation and oppression.

That is why their martyrdom is loftier than the Himalayas and worth remembering. The Martyrs' Memorial Week of this year particularly brings us unbearable grief and supreme inspiration of a great martyr. The leader of the Indian Revolution, general of People's War, our Politburo member and the beloved leader of the oppressed masses Comrade Mallojula Koteswara Rao alias Kishenji was martyred in a fake encounter on November 24, 2011 caught in a dragnet of the central and Bengal state governments and the Bengal state and central intelligence agencies. This cruel murder by Sonia-Manmohan-Chidambaram-Pranab Mukherji-Jairam Ramesh fascist ruling class clique in connivance with the Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamta Banerji caused immense loss to the Indian revolutionary movement. Comrade Koteswarlu was born into a middle class family in 1954 in Peddapally town of Karimnagar district, Andhra Pradesh. In his 38 year long revolutionary life he developed from an organizer to a Politburo member and won a permanent place in the hearts of the masses as a hugely popular leader. He carried on his revolutionary activities in Andhra Pradesh, Dandakaranya, Bengal and other North Indian states. As a crucial member of the higher committees (state and central) that take decisions which could turn the movement and advance it, he took up important responsibilities and played a great role. It was creative and full of revolutionary commitment. He played a laudatory role in standing firmly with the party line and conducting two-line struggle in the party against opportunism that raised its head in the party and in strengthening the party by imparting ideological and political education through Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. He played an exceptional and inspirational role in developing North Telangana and Dandakaranya into guerilla zones with the aim of building base areas, in building the people's army of PLGA, in expanding and developing the revolutionary movement in North and East India, in building New Democratic power that emerged in an embryonic form and is developing, in strengthening the party by uniting the revolutionary forces, in maintaining solidarity relations with foreign revolutionary organizations and in creating the deluge of Lalgarh people's rebellion.

As a party leader he worked day and night to develop the People's War in all the areas he worked. He paid special attention to revolutionary propaganda and publication of revolutionary literature and magazines and inspired the Indian people to enter revolutionary practice by imparting them revolutionary politics. He dedicated his pen to the liberation of the oppressed masses and wrote articles, poems and did translations. The unprecedented level of responses from revolutionary masses, parties, intellectuals, various sections of people, from several areas in our country and internationally have severely condemned the conspiracy of the Indian ruling classes in murdering him and paid homage to him befitting a great leader. The hatred of our party, PLGA and the revolutionary masses towards the ruling classes that have murdered our beloved leader by torturing him in the most inhuman and cruel manner has doubled. Though his loss for the Indian revolutionary movement is irreparable, the movement, party and PLGA that developed due to the sacrifices of our thousands of martyrs including that of Comrade Kishenji, the invaluable experiences they imparted and the revolutionary

ideals they established are an assurance for the fact that many more leaders like Comrade Kishenji would come forward. Let us hold aloft the high ideals and values established by Comrade Kishenji in his life, long revolutionary practice and even in death. Let us make them a part of our practice at every step and advance forward.

In the past one year we have lost two state level leaders one each in DK and NT and a Regional Committee level leading comrade in Asom. Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) member Comrade Harak (Srikanth) died at the age of 48 on February 26, 2012 due to severe illness relating to heart disease. North Telangana SZC member Comrade Gundeti Sankar (Seshanna) died an untimely death at the age of 47 due to snake bite on March 18, 2012. Comrade Srikanth worked in the Red Flag party and later joined our party in 1993. He worked in the urban and plain areas of Chhattisgarh among workers, youth, and students and in the cultural field. He worked in the Gadchiroli division of DK since 1998 and was elected into the DKSZC in 2005. He led the Gadchiroli division movement till the end and became the beloved leader of the people there. Though he had severe heart related illness he was always smiling and spread cheer and won the love of the cadres. He was an editorial board member of the Prabhat magazine (DK zone political organ) and contributed to the magazine and propaganda work. The untimely death of Comrade Seshanna due to snake bite while he was tirelessly working to revive the North Telangana movement is an irremediable loss to the party and particularly to the NT movement. Seshanna had 30 years of long experience in the movement and developed from a squad member to a state level leader. He was a brave fighter who never left the people even amidst several repressive campaigns of the enemy. He wrote many literary pieces especially about martyrs. He worked in the political, military and propaganda spheres and led the cadre and the people. Though this is a severe loss to the NT movement it has been proven in history that this land of struggles would give birth to many more leaders like Seshanna.

Nearly 30 comrades were martyred in the Bihar-Jharkhand-North Chhattisgarh Special Area during battles with the enemy forces. Some comrades were martyred in the hands of counter-revolutionary armed gangs like PLFI and Jharkhand Jan Mukti Parishad. Like in other revolutionary movement areas, in this Special Area too the Indian ruling classes are intensifying the military offensive in an unprecedented manner and are also implementing reforms and conducting psychological warfare, thus intensifying their effort to pave the way for the loot of immense mineral, forest, water and land resources. The most reactionary `Saranda Action Plan' is also part of this. The Adivasi and other oppressed masses are advancing forward in the revolutionary path under the leadership of the party and the PLGA by valiantly fighting back such repressive policies of the government. All the comrades who were martyred in B-J such as comrades Yogendra Oraon, Pancham Paswan, Gulach Munda, Bhagabat Marandi, Sri Krishna Mahato, Tapeswar Ganju, Anil Ram etc laid down their lives in battles with the enemy while preserving the natural riches that rightfully belonged only to the local people and while defending the emerging people's political power there.

Repression intensified in Bengal, Odisha and North-East states all of which fall under East Regional Bureau of our party. Apart from murdering Comrade Kishenji in Bengal, three more comrades were killed in the name of encounters in Lalgarh. In Asom where the revolutionary movement spread and is strengthening, the army, paramilitary and the police conducted a fake encounter in May 2012 and killed four of our comrades in cold-blood. P. Chidambaram who was shouting at the top of his voice about the expansion of Maoist movement in Asom and its borders finally quenched his thirst for blood with this fake encounter. One of the martyred comrades is the Asom leading committee comrade Siddharth Burgohain. The other three comrades were Comrades Rajiv Gogoi, Arup Chetia and Kamla Gogoi. Earlier Comrade Pavel, a commander was martyred in Asom during a military action. These losses are severe for us due to the strategic significance of the movements of oppressed nationalities and the revolutionary movement of the North-East not only for the Indian revolutionary movement but also for South Asia. However, there is no doubt that more people's leaders would emerge from among the people of North-East who are increasingly mobilizing vastly on their day to day issues, against big dams and displacement as part of their national liberation aspirations. Under the Odisha State Organizing Committee area, Comrade Mitu (ACM) was martyred in an encounter with the police in January 2012. Central Regional Company Comrade Ungal was martyred in an accidental mine blast on January 4, 2012 and Comrade Ravi was martyred due to illness in December 2011 when this company went to Odisha to conduct military actions there.

In Dandakaranya, Kangerghati LGS commander comrade Mahesh died a hero's death during an ambush conducted on the enemy forces on October 11, 2011 near Netanar. On August 16 2011, comrades Badru, Gopi, Akash and Ramsai valiantly resisted the police forces that surrounded them and were martyred after killing a STF jawan. The brutal police hurled grenades on a huge scale and finally torched the house they were in.

Comrades Paklu and Mangli were martyred while fighting the enemy forces valiantly in an ambush conducted by the PLGA near Bhejji on March 26, 2012. West Bastar Action Team commander Comrade Pramod was martyred in the hands of a body guard while trying to annihilate people's enemy Rajkumar Tamo. Comrade Mangu Paddam (Sukku), a DVC member working for expansion of the revolutionary movement in central India as part of Chhattisgarh-Odisha Border State area was martyred while fighting the enemy forces in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh on January 27, 2012. He worked in North Bastar area of DK and PLGA for a long time and worked in the extension area since mid-2010. This is a big loss for the extension area movement.

In North Telangana, comrades Sukkal (ACM) and Somal (Militia) were killed in a fake encounter in Charla of Khammam district. Comrade Sutari Papa Rao (LGS commander) was martyred in Sayannapalli encounter in Khammam district. We have lost some very valuable women comrades in the past one year. Comrade Swaroopa (Sunita) who served in the technical field under the AP state committee and the CC since 28 years and as a tailor in DK in her last years died due to breast cancer in March 2012. A secret, selfless activist who served the people, she protected the higher level leadership of the party like the pupil of her eyes during her long tenure in the technical field. In her entire revolutionary life she faced several problems like illness, losing her life partners, patriarchy, loneliness etc but she overcame them with the inspiration of the martyrs and with Bolshevik spirit and set an ideal. On August 20 2011, Comrade Ramko Hichami (Ranita) was surrounded by the enemy forces in Makadchuvva village in Gadchiroli of DK. But she did not waver even for one second and with great valiance and bravery wiped out three CoBRA/C-60 commandos and injured four more jawans with her .303 rifle and died a hero's death. A battalion level of armed forces, thousands of bullets, dozens of hand bombs and mortar shells were deployed against her but with great determination she faced all these and stopped the enemy forces in their tracks for hours together and inflicted losses on them. Comrade Ranita is the President of the Chadgaon Area Janatana Sarkar, a brave fighter and the beloved daughter of the oppressed masses who registered a valiant chapter in her name with red letters in the history of People's War and emergence of New Democratic Society. On 31-5-2012 Comrades Sameera, Ameela and Aruna were martyred in an encounter with the enemy forces in Mainpur division belonging to the Chhattisgarh-Odisha Border movement. Comrade Sameera was born in Nalgonda district of AP. She worked in the protection platoon of the AP State Committee and was a brave fighter who defended the state leadership by putting her life at stake in those years. She became part of DK movement since 2009 and worked among the women in East Bastar. Later she worked in the Gobra LOS area in Mainpur division and developed into AC secretary and won a place in the hearts of the oppressed masses there as their most beloved leader. Comrade Aruna was born in DK and learnt her lessons in revolution there. She is a senior ACM who won the confidence of the party and people in Mainpur. Comrade Ameela was a great cultural artiste even while she was in DK and held many a promise as an active ACM. Mainpur division that is playing a crucial role in expanding the revolutionary movement in central India faced irreparable loss with this. These most reliable and beloved young women martyrs to the party and the people would live on forever in our memories. Their martyrdom would be written in red letters. Comrade Sombari of Darbha division died in a heartrending manner due to burns during a military action. This young women fighter was paid great homage by the people and her fellow PLGA fighters.

Comrade BSA Satyanarayana was a leader of the working class movement, editor of the workers' magazine `Sramajeevi', a people's lawyer and a leader working tirelessly for the release of political prisoners. He breathed his last on June 22, 2012. In his nearly four decade long revolutionary practice the services he rendered for the rights of workers, civil rights and political prisoners are invaluable and an ideal to be emulated by all those who stand on the side of the oppressed people. Our CC is paying humble and red homage to his great memory.

In the past one year several incidents of ordinary people, activists of mass organizations and revolutionary people's governments dying in police firings, due to tortures in police custody and dying in fake encounters after being abducted from their homes and killed in cold-blood have occurred. Particularly, in an indiscriminate police firing that reminded one of the Jallianwalah massacre in the Basaguda area of Bijapur district in DK on 28-6-2012, the notorious CoBRA and police forces surrounded the people from all sides and killed 17 unarmed people including women, children and school children belonging to Sarkinguda, Raju Penta and Kothaguda villages. Tens of them were injured. Two more villagers were killed in nearby Imlipenta taking the toll to 19.

This would remain another example for the increasing fascist nature and cruelty of the enemy.

Comrades

Sodi Nani (Militia platoon deputy commander), Venjam Kelu (Militia member), village patel Madkami Maasa of Chikpal in South Bastar, Podiyami Maasa, senior mass organization activist Comrade Negi Yadav of Innar village in East Bastar division and some more persons were either killed in fake encounters or in police lock ups in various areas in DK. As part of Operation Haka carried on by the enemy paramilitary and police forces numbering about 3000 in Maad area, Dunga Dhurva of Toke village was beaten to death. Akali Devi and her

son were killed in a contractor's firing in Tirra village of Gumla district in Jharkhand.

Comrades,

The increasingly intensifying imperialist economic crisis is seriously impacting the Indian economy too. The imperialists, particularly the US imperialists and the comprador rulers of semi-colonial, semi-feudal countries are trying to cruelly crush any kinds of forces that prove a hurdle to their investments, loot of resources and markets in order to come out of their crisis. The occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, direct intervention in Libya and still continuing intervention in Pakistan and Syria, threats to Iran and North Korea, launching of country-wide, multi-pronged, most reactionary operations like Oplan Bayanihan and Operation Green Hunt respectively in Philippines and India to cruelly suppress the revolutionary movements are all aimed at fulfilling their economic and political interests. Central, East and North-East states which are home to immense mineral, forest and water resources have been specially targeted by them. Even while brutally suppressing all kinds of revolutionary, democratic and patriotic forces that are opposing the indiscriminate country-wide loot of resources, exploitation and oppression, the ruling classes are carrying on a massive military offensive targeting our party that is arming the people, the PLGA and the revolutionary people's power organs.

Though we have faced severe losses in terms of leadership and subjective forces in this offensive, in our strong areas the revolutionary movement sustained itself and is posing a challenge to the enemy. It is causing losses to the enemy forces during various tactical counter-offensive campaigns. Revolutionary movement is expanding to new areas and in some places it is expanding internally inside guerilla zones. We are striving hard to Bolshevize the party. Apart from this, particularly our party is ideologically and politically exposing the fake development model of the ruling classes. It has built an alternative develop model though in an embryonic form in DK, B-J, Bengal and AOB. Division level Janatana Sarkars have been formed and are working in DK. Our party is striving to fight unitedly with the nationality liberation movements in our country and other movements of the oppressed masses and communities and standing in support of them. Since the days of Naxalbari and Srikakulam movements to this day, any acts, laws pertaining to the rights of

poor peasants and Adivasis or reforms had all been promulgated by the ruling classes in the name of reducing the influence of the Maoist movements. To this day any debate about development cannot take place without discussing about the Maoist alternative development model and the political and economic alternative posed by the Maoists. The reason behind is the significance of the political line of our party and its People's War practice. As our party with its unparalleled sacrifices and correct political alternative is considered a ray of hope by the oppressed masses of our country, the state is trying to crush our party and its leadership as soon as possible. That is why it is resorting to a massive military offensive on us.

The political successes achieved, the advances in People's War, the expansion of guerilla warfare and revolutionary movement, establishment and development of people's political power, the support and solidarity that our New Democratic Revolution (NDR) is getting in our country and abroad cannot be imagined without the sacrifices of martyrs and the ideals and values that they imparted to the society and established inside the party. It is with the inspiration of the great practice of comrades Charu Mazumdar, Kanhai Chatterji and our thousands of martyrs and with the spirit of their sacrifices that our party is able to overcome all kinds of unfavorable conditions and advance forward for the success of NDR.

Comrades,

The material conditions in our country and the world are increasingly turning favorable to the revolution. All kinds of social contradictions are sharpening and are making the people to join movements and increasingly making them choose the revolutionary path. If we have to advance the revolution in our country towards victory by utilizing this excellent revolutionary condition, then we must fulfill the following immediate tasks with the aim of fulfilling the central task given by our 9th Congress-Unity Congress i.e., developing guerilla warfare into mobile warfare and developing PLGA into PLGA to turn Dandakaranya and Bihar-Jharkhand into liberated areas.

If we are to advance the revolution towards victory by utilizing the excellent material conditions, then we will have to improve our subjective conditions too as rapidly. Preventing losses to our subjective forces, particularly preventing losses to top leadership is one of the most important tasks faced by our party. It is true that people give birth to revolutionary leaders in the course of revolution. But it is equally true that once we lose such leaders, leaders who had gained decades of vast experience and have been guiding the party with unwavering confidence on the people and the revolution, it is not so easy to give birth to such leaders again.

It is a general principle that our aim in war is to preserve our forces as far as possible and inflict losses on the enemy forces as far as possible. We must take the preservation of our leadership, reduction of losses to our subjective forces and prevention of unnecessary losses seriously and strive to achieve the same subordinate to the above general principle.

Our failures and shortcomings in studying the deceptive LIC strategy of the enemy and taking up countertactics by understanding the tactics taken by the enemy to wipe our leadership and subjective forces as part of that strategy are the reason behind the serious losses we are facing. For this, a change must occur in our work methods in accordance with the material conditions, level of the movement and our tasks. Our work methods must be improved such that the three magic weapons for the victory of revolution – party, people's army and united front get consolidated and strengthened. This would create a basis for us to reduce our losses. Likewise, we must bolshevize the party ideologically, politically, militarily and organizationally in order to preserve our subjective forces and strengthen them.

Increasing our mass base is crucial in solving all the problems we are facing at present. A strong mass base would also be a fundamental pre-condition for fulfilling the losses that occurred. So we must strive to sustain a strong mass base and to build it. For this sake, we must politically mobilize the people and consolidate them. We must mobilize the masses in various movements and struggles and particularly we must mobilize the peasantry vastly and militantly in agrarian revolutionary movement. On the whole we must mobilize the revolutionary masses actively in People's War. We must display lot of skill so that we can defeat the civic action programmes, fake reforms, attacks of killer gangs and deceptive war that are being carried on as part of LIC policy and mobilize the middle class people and the intellectuals basing ourselves on workers and peasants.

We must further intensify the guerilla warfare in those zones in our country where it is raging intensely. We must expand it to a vaster area. The enemy would employ every kind of counter-revolutionary method to limit our guerilla zones and movement areas to smaller areas and to end the war in as little time as possible (by wiping us out or by qualitatively weakening our fighting power). We must defeat their efforts by vastly mobilizing the masses, intensifying and expanding the guerilla warfare, consolidating and expanding the people's power organs and guerilla bases, expanding the guerilla areas, developing the movement step by step by sustaining the successes of People's War and by extending the war so that it continues in a protracted manner.

Arming the people further to strengthen people's political power and guerilla bases where we have built them and expanding them to more areas is one of the most important tasks facing us. We must develop all kinds of mass agitations and class struggles, particularly land struggles and anti-displacement struggles, arm the people who get consolidated in those struggles and inspire the people to build people's political power by rejecting the state rule of the ruling classes and to establish liberated areas by building a strong people's army.

Mobilizing people actively in People's War would be crucial for this. Deployment of army in Bastar, opening army training schools, giving special training to a Brigade of forces, building new battalions every year, huge increases in military budget, building of the necessary infrastructure for deployment of Air Force, buying-hiring and usage of helicopters and UAVs are all part of the multi-pronged massive military offensive Operation Green Hunt (OGH). The deployment of army in Bastar is not just for wiping out the movement there but also to damage the movements in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Maharashtra that border Bastar and also the movements in Jharkhand, Bihar, other North and East Indian states and the movements in South and Western India, thus aiming to wipe us out in the whole country. That is why we must put special efforts to build a vast and militant mass movement in our movement areas, in our country and abroad opposing the deployment of army in movement areas and concretely in Bastar.

In the massive special operations carried on by the enemy forces at a Brigade level recently in DK, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, COB and AOB, UAVs were used. They are completing all preparations for deploying them on a vast scale (for gathering information, bombing and firing). We must mobilize on a big scale people of all sections against the usage of UAVs-drones. We must link this with the movements that are arising against the usage of drones internationally, particularly in countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq, Palestine etc. We must strive to mobilize international support opposing the deployment of army and usage of drones in our movement areas. In fact, the lakhs of armed forces, paramilitary, police forces and the number of helicopters deployed in our movement areas is more than the number of armed forces or Air Force planes or helicopters of the majority of countries in the world. We must place this fact in front of the people of our country and the world and mobilize them.

The colonial rulers before the transfer of power in 1947 and later their stooges brought forth brutal laws such as AFSPA, UAPA, MCOCA, CSPSA apart from other draconian laws such as PD Act, NSA, Prevention of Arms Act etc and are crushing the right to live and other fundamental rights of the people. Preparations have been intensified to establish the NCTC (National Counter-Terrorism Centre) that would become the most notorious of all such oppressive institutions. This is modeled on the NCTC of US and would be formed and run under the guidance of the US imperialists. This is aimed at completely suppressing the fighting people with no control whatsoever. The ruling classes are going to use this as an instrument to establish military, dictatorial and emergency type of rule. If this institution is formed, then civil rights would lose all meaning. This is going to turn dangerous not only to the Indian people but to the entire people of South Asia.

The aim of the ruling classes is not only to wipe out the revolutionary movement but also to brutally crush the people who are fighting for their just demands, the nationality liberation movements of Kashmir and North- East people, all kinds of democratic movements and anti-displacement movements. That is why they are bringing in draconian laws and are turning the judiciary more authoritarian and intensifying the `War on People'. At present one of the important aspects of the enemy repression is to arrest our comrades (right from CC to party members and ordinary people), foist false cases on them and incarcerate them in jails for years together. They are being meted out death sentences or life sentences, their bails are rejected or even if they get bails they are arrested at the jail gates again and new cases are being foisted on them. The political prisoners are not given even basic facilities, especially medical facilities and are being tortured in various manners. On the other hand the rights of the people are being crushed on a daily basis in innumerable instances and massacres are perpetrated on them reminding one of Hitler's rule. That is why building a mighty and united civil rights movement that could fight back all this powerfully and strengthening it is one of the most important tasks in front of us.

Comrades,

Observe Martyrs' Memorial Week with revolutionary spirit in every nook and corner of our country. In order to defeat the country-wide offensive OGH that is being carried on as part of the LIC deceptive war of the enemy, hold aloft both in our daily lives and also during this occasion the values, ideals, sacrifices, bravery, valiance, dedication towards the people and commitment that we learnt from the lives and practice of our beloved martyrs. Propagate them among the people on a vast scale and creatively in various forms.

Publish the selfless life histories of the martyrs, build martyrs columns and pay great homage to them. Paint red the previously built martyr columns and beautify their surroundings so that people can pay homage to the martyrs in front of these columns not only on this occasion but also during all revolutionary occasions year long. Publish and release various kinds of propaganda material in the form of pamphlets, posters, banners, folders, calendars, booklets etc on martyrs and propagate them hugely among the masses.

In the movement areas all over the country people are continuing the revolutionary tradition of building martyrs' memorial columns in hundreds of villages. However, in several places the police and paramilitary forces are destroying these columns either completely or partially and forcing the people to destroy them.

People are resisting this in several places. They are rebuilding the destroyed columns with renewed determination. We must further increase the consciousness of the people to condemn the destruction of martyrs' memorials, to intensify resistance in various forms to preserve them, to build and rebuild them, to inaugurate martyrs' columns in each village and to fight bravely and valiantly for fulfilling the aims of martyrs. Meet the families, relatives and friends of martyrs on this occasion and make them a part of the meetings and programmes conducted in this week. Let them inaugurate the martyrs' columns and give speeches on the inspiring lives of the martyrs in the meetings. Inspire them to carry on the aims of the martyrs. Enquire about the problems faced by the martyrs' families, try to solve them and give them the assurance that the revolutionary movement would always stand in their support. On the whole, observe these solemn and inspiring days as occasions to rededicate ourselves to the fulfillment of the aims of the martyrs.

With Revolutionary Greetings,

Central Committee,

July 5, 2012
Communist Party Of India (Maoist)

International Dimensions of Prachanda's Neo-revisionism

International Dimensions of Prachanda's Neo-revisionism

  by Com. Basanta

I had authored an article about 6 years before. It was entitled: "International Dimensions of Prachanda Path". The article, published in the 10th issue of The Worker, Party organ in English, had created debate in the international communist movement. Is Prachanda Path really a creative development of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism or merely a deviation from it was the question under debate at that time. Given the development of people's war in leaps, one after another, it was also not an easy task for them to take position against it. But, most of the revolutionary parties did not assimilate it rather they opined that it resulted from the ideological deviation on the part of CPN (Maoist). The wave of Prachanda Path, which was said to be the synthesis of the experiences of 5 year's long stormy people's war, had stretched all across the world. It was not unnatural too. Party had defined Prachanda Path as a series of particular ideas generated by the Nepalese revolution. I had prepared that article as our party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), comprehended it at that time. Unsurprisingly, Prachanda was happy with the article.
After 6 years now, I am writing again a short article centring on Prachanda. It is titled: "International Dimensions of Prachanda's Neo-revisionism." Some readers may think that Basanta is correct because Prachanda has taken a U-turn from his earlier Marxist-Leninist-Maoist position. Someone may say that to think of Prachanda, who considers Marxism as a vibrant science and applies in practice accordingly, a revisionist is the result of mechanical and dogmatic thinking on the part of Basanta and his team-mates. Again someone may say why did Basanta and his teammates fail to identify Prachanda's neo-revisionism in the past rather eulogized it as Prachanda path? This debate will obviously surface in the days to come. The revolutionaries will regard that Basanta is correct; but the revisionists and liquidationists will do its opposite. Naturally, this article will not make Prachanda happy this time.
Everyone is aware that an intensive and extensive two-line struggle was on between Marxism and right revisionism inside the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) mainly for the last four years. But, in the recent days, there has been a turn in this process and the revolutionaries, dissociating from the party led by Prachanda, have built up a new party. As a member of this new party, the Communist Party of Nepal – Maoist, I am here with this article. We have not yet synthesized the entire experiences acquired during the tumultuous period of people's war and the period that followed. The forthcoming Party Congress will do it. For now, we have taken only a preliminary position according to which the people's war had definitely amassed new experiences but it was not correct at that time to synthesise them in the form of Prachanda Path. The national convention organized on June 15, 2012 summed up the strength and weakness of the revolutionaries also. It concluded that there were three kinds of ideological mistakes namely fideism, liberalism and metaphysics with them. These weaknesses were manifested mainly on the question of ideological synthesis i.e. Prachanda Path and the centralisation of leadership. On the other, the convention unanimously concluded that the appropriate terminology to denote Prachanda's ideological and political degeneration is neo-revisionism.
The neo-revisionism noticed in Prachanda has been manifested in different form than it had in the past revisionists, who used to attack upon the basic principles of Marxism in a direct and straightforward way. Like for example, Proudhon and Lassalle opposed the scientific socialism with the arguments that the process of continued reforms and strict discipline in the bourgeois society can pave the way for capitalism to reach communism. Bernstein concluded the basic principles of Marxism like class struggle and the theory of surplus value have been outdated. Khrushchev took position against the role of violence in revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat under socialist society. Liu Shao Chi and Teng Hsiao Ping stood against the theory of continued revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat put forth by Mao Tsetung. They one-sidedly emphasized upon the development of productive forces as opposed to the Maoist principle of grasp revolution and promote production. In our context, Prachanda has not made him stand yet in open against the basic concepts of Marxism as the aforesaid leaders did in the past. He has been doing it in the name of creative development of MLM.
When the situation develops to a new level, the old logics are not sufficient for the political parties to support their new position. It is true not only for the Marxists but also for the revisionists and other parties as well. Mao has said that revisionists are the reactionaries who mislead people in the guise of Marxism. So in the new situation the revisionists need to find new logics to misguide the revolutionaries. Prachanda understands it well. So he has been steadily sowing seeds of revisionism since long in the guise of creative application and development of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. He has not yet directly opposed the dictatorship of the proletariat as Khrushchev did. But, the development of Marxism which he has claimed is in fact the development of revisionism. In this way, revisionism has been replacing Marxism in the party led by him. The classical and modern revisionism openly oppose the basic tenets of Marxism including the dialectical and historical materialism, theory of class struggle, role of violence in revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat etc. etc. But, the neo-revisionism does the same in essence but in the pretext of opposing dogmatism, creative application of Marxism and the originality of revolution. To arrest the essence of Marxism in the name of its creative application and development has been the main characteristics of neo-revisionism. In this way, the features in points of Prachanda's neo-revisionism can be cited as follows.
Prachanda has been slowly attacking upon the universality of Mao's contributions. In the wake of party unity that took place with the Unity Centre - Masal, the UCPN (Maoist) had adopted Marxism-Leninism-Maoism/Mao Tsetung thought as its guiding principle. He argues that there is no difference as such in using two terminologies, Maoism or Mao thought, so long as they are done to mean the universality of Mao's contributions. It is indeed his artful deceit to blur the difference between Maoism and Mao thought which respectively refer to universality and particularity of Mao's contributions. By so doing he has been weakening the grasp of Maoism in the party and the revolutionary movement as well.
Mao has said that the struggle for production, class struggle and scientific experiment are the three sources of knowledge. In addition, he has stressed Marxism goes on developing through an infinite spiral of practice to theory and theory to practice. But quite the opposite, Prachanda claims that Marxism has become a matter of common knowledge for him. He had said in a CC meeting held about five years before. By so saying he has stood against Maoist theory of knowledge and of course Maoism itself.
Marxism believes that an entity is the unity and struggle of opposites and the struggle between them helps one transform into another. However, Prachanda has brought about a conciliatory concept of Fusion of two opposites which stands against Marxist principal. It is merely a different form of expression of 'two combine into one', not 'one divides into two'. In the course of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Mao had strongly criticised 'two combine into one' as a reactionary philosophy serving bourgeois interest. Mao said 'one divides into two' is the law of dialectics.
Prachanda says that the world situation has undergone considerable changes and these changes necessitate the development of MLM. It is absolutely correct. But a strange, in the pretext of the development of Marxism, he has been attacking upon the basic principles of Marxism itself and in this course he has been developing revisionism. On the one hand, he presents the Federal Democratic Republic as a synonym of New Democratic Republic, and on the other, he says that in order to prevent counter-revolution in the 21st century it is necessary to develop democracy. While arriving here, it has been crystal clear that these logics were brought about to pave the way for assimilating bourgeois parliament by the party and consequently reversing revolution in the name of preventing counter-revolution. In fact, the development of democracy in the 21st century has been a tool to replace the democratic or proletarian dictatorship by the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.
Prachanda had put forward a concept of non-class nature of State Power and the possibility of peaceful development of revolution in Nepal in the Balaju Expanded Meeting held in 2007. He tried to justify his arguments by the fact that Nepal Army and the PLA were kept inactive in their respective barracks. Prachanda stopped saying this again after the delegates in the convention strongly opposed it. In fact, it was merely a polished form of the 'state of the entire people' and 'peaceful transition' propounded by Khrushchev. But now all these things have been transcribed in their documents in a disguised form.
Insurrection and revolution in decision and parliamentary exercise in implementation i.e. revolution in word and reform in practice has been his characteristics. In all of the meetings from Chunwang to Palungtar via Kharipati, he has been raising the question of people's insurrection and the need to build up four bases to achieve it. However, except for misleading the revolutionaries he never put stress on building four bases to prepare for insurrection. His speciality has been not to take on preparation seriously till there is time and plead for reform at the last in the excuse that necessary preparation is not complete.
Communist revolutionaries are the followers of proletarian internationalism. At the time of preparation, initiation and continuation of the great people's war in Nepal he used to lay much emphasis on party's international task. But for now proletarian internationalism has become a big bone stuck at his throat. He sometimes talks of RIM and CPI (Maoist) to mislead the revolutionaries inside his party. In the document that he placed before the last expanded meeting, organised by the neo-revisionist group led by Prachanda, he has written a phrase reading, "For the development of international communist movement … … it is necessary to go ahead by maintaining relation with the revolutionary parties and groups in and outside of RIM in a planned way". On the contrary, he has been working hard to make both imperialism and expansionism happy by rudely criticising RIM and the CPI (Maoist). Not only that, he had sent a condolence letter along with a central committee representative to please his masters in India when Jyoti Basu, a leader of revisionist CPI (Marxist) and the ex-chief minister of West Bengal, had died. On the other, Prachanda did not dare to issue even a statement when the Indian ruling class killed comrade Azad, the spokesperson and comrade Kishenji, the politburo member, of the CPI (Maoist). In this way, not comrade Azad and comrade Kishenji, but Jyoti Basu and Manmohan Singh have become international fraternal comrades for Prachanda.
Prachanda-Baburam group has now appeared in a little different form in the context of maintaining relationship between the line and organisation. The revisionists in the past used to firstly build, in general, a reformist line and then transform the whole party organisation to fit into it. But, the speciality of this group has been to continue saying people's insurrection as the path of revolution to mislead the masses but create such a situation in the party that there can be no insurrection at all. One of the ways they have done to serve this purpose has been to make party organisation a crowd of yes-men, anarchists and wrong elements that cannot lead revolution.
Prachanda has deviated from the basic theory of new democratic revolution. He has defined new democratic revolution in such a way that it is completed in two stages - once against feudalism and next against imperialism. In fact, it does not go along with the characteristics of the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution. In the course of the new democratic revolution, sometimes there is major threat upon democracy and sometimes upon national sovereignty and the form of struggle is sorted out to respond to the given threat. But it does not mean that there are two stages of revolution: one against feudalism and another against imperialism. The feudalism and imperialism are inseparably interconnected with each other and the state power in such a country simultaneously represents the interests of both of them. It is the characteristics of the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution. Therefore, to destroy the reactionary state power that represents the interest of both feudalism and imperialism and build a new one in its place is the first step towards making the new democratic revolution in a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country. Prachanda and his clique have gone too far from this reality.
In one context he has said that the end of monarchy is a kind of completion of the new democratic revolution in Nepal. It is utterly wrong. In an interview he says, "Now it leads to a conclusion that the remaining task of new democracy (a part of which has been completed) and the strategy of socialist revolution have converged into one. The remaining task of new democracy and task of completing the socialist revolution by way of people's insurrection and armed insurrection have converged into one strategy rather than completing new democratic revolution at one stage and socialist revolution at the other." (Krambhanga, year 1, Vol. 2, November 2011, page 11)
Aforesaid quotation means that the new democratic revolution has been accomplished in Nepal. It does not agree with what Marxism-Leninism-Maoism says about the new democratic revolution, which is accomplished only after feudalism and imperialism both are brought to an end. Monarchy has been abolished in Nepal but it has not brought about any basic change in feudalism and the feudal mode of production as well. The agents of Indian expansionism are dominant in the state power. The national independence is in grave danger. Country is going towards Sikkimisation. Then, in such a situation, how did the new democratic revolution complete in Nepal? Does the new democratic revolution mean republic, federalism and secularism only? Has the anti-feudal and anti-imperialist people's power been established in Nepal? Certainly not. His position that the new democratic revolution has been almost completed and the socialist revolution is the next task in hand is nothing other than a neo-revisionist fraud brought forward to confuse the people and get stuck in the bourgeois democratic republic with the blessing of imperialism and Indian expansionism. It is in fact an ugly example of betrayal against the Nepalese people and the nation on the part of Prachanda.
Mao has said that party, army and the united front are three magical weapons of revolution. He says, "A well-disciplined Party armed with the theory of Marxism-Leninism, using the method of self-criticism and linked with the masses of the people, an army under the leadership of such a Party; a united front of all revolutionary classes and all revolutionary groups under the leadership of such a Party -- these are the three main weapons with which we have defeated the enemy." Mao has pointed out here at the crux of the problem by identifying the urgency of party, army and the united front to make revolution a success.
Did the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) resemble with the one that Mao has referred to in this quotation? No, not at all. How did Prachanda work ideologically and politically to loosen the grasp of revolution in the party has been mentioned before. In addition, he opened the door to bourgeoisify party by gathering a crowd of bureaucrats in the higher committees and that of the anarchists and yes-men in the lower ones. Party committees became so bulky and clumsy that neither there was an encouraging environment for discussion, criticism and self-criticism nor for practicing collectivity. It created such a situation in which the system of collective decision and individual responsibility got replaced by that of individual decision and collective responsibility. Now, none must be confused with the fact that it was a plan designed to gradually disorient cadres from the communist system and conduct and by so doing transform the communist party into a bourgeois one. It is Prachanda's neo-revisionist characteristic that weakened ideological grasp and bourgeoisified party by way of wrong organizational methods. Prachanda, in this manner, liquidated party's revolutionary character from all the aspects of ideology, politics and organization.
Prachanda has made the People's Liberation Army, Nepal that was built with the concept of "People have nothing without people's army" surrender before the Nepal Army. He said it is integration. The people's Liberation Army, Nepal that was organised to accomplish new democratic revolution in Nepal, exercise democratic dictatorship upon the class enemies after new democratic revolution has been accomplished and prevent counter-revolution in the whole course of building socialism has been dissolved in the name of integration. It is a counter-revolutionary step taken to please the imperialism and expansionism and heartily open the way for reconciliation with their agents. He said it was a daring step aimed at building peace in Nepal. What a ridiculous argument is this? Lying also has a limit. One can hardly find such examples of class and national capitulation and shameless treason in the history of the world communist movement.
Another important weapon for revolution is a united front formed under the leadership of a revolutionary party. What kind of forces shall be involved in the united front is decided by the principal contradiction of the then society and it is built under the leadership of a party of the proletariat by incorporating entire forces that have contradiction with the principal enemy. The party led by Prachanda had analyzed that the contradiction formed of the comprador, bureaucratic bourgeoisie and the feudal and their master Indian expansionism at one pole and the entire Nepalese people at the other is the principal contradiction in the Nepalese society. But he did not take any initiative to build a united front among the entire patriotic, republican, progressive, leftist and revolutionary forces under the leadership of the party of the proletariat against the aforesaid reactionary alliance. Contrary to it, he kneeled down before the reactions and surrendered the remaining achievement of revolution to them. What can this act be said other than naked submission to the domestic and foreign reactions?
In the beginning of the 21st century, the world proletariat had had a high regard for Prachanda as their emancipator and imperialist marauders had disdained him as their grave-diggers. It was a matter of pride and glory for the world proletariat. Now he is in a quick race to become just its opposite. It is a matter of grief for the oppressed people of Nepal and the world as well. Nevertheless, it is not the sentiment but ideological and political line and the vanguard of the proletariat that lead the toiling masses to revolution. Therefore, sooner the Prachanda's neo-revisionism is unmasked and defeated the faster can the world proletariat re-establish MLM in the world communist movement and liberate the oppressed people from the yoke of imperialism. The revolutionaries have no alternative to it. To weaken the ideological and political struggle against neo-revisionism is in fact to nurture it. Therefore, the urgent need of the day has been to intensify the ideological and political struggle against all shades of revisionism in general and Prachabda's neo-revisionism in particular. And it is the supreme task of the revolutionaries now in Nepal and the world as well. Let all of us strive for this.

August 10, 2012

A report from Manipur

Bomb attacks at 3 places

IMPHAL, August 25: A hand grenade was today morning found at the courtyard of an Assistant Engineer of PHED Konthoujam Ibochou (aged 55) of Sagoltongba Awang Leikai, Imphal West.

Police retrieved the bomb and exploded it in a safe place, according to police reports.

On the other hand, two bombs were exploded at Nongren Maning Leikai of Imphal East at the residences of former Pradhan Leishangthem Tarpon and Loitam Chinglen (aged 50) by unknown elements last night.

The Maoist Communist Party, MCP has today claimed the attacks made yesterday evening at 10 PM at the residents of Leishangthem Tarpon, Pradhan, Gram Panchayat of Nongren Chingnunkhok and L Chinglen of Nongren, Imphal East under Lamlai Police Station.

In a statement released to the Press, "Comrade" Nonglen Meitei, secretary, publicity and propaganda, they fired several rounds of ammunition were aimed and fired at L Tarpon residence “as a warning” and claimed the attack as part of their struggle for a “new democratic revolution”.

The MCP in their statement also urged the general community to support their act and cause based on Maoism, though not advisable to use a bomb, justified their act of bombing within the vicinity of innocent civilians and general community and further stated that they would leave no stone unturned for anything to retain ones rights from leikai to leikai and from leirak to leirak.

Comrade Sharad,

Maoist Communist Party, Manipur.

RDF statement against the imposition of ban by Andhra Pradesh government

 Maoistroad agree and relaunch the appeal to condemn the ban imposed on RDF by the Andhra Pradesh government, and fight for its immediate withdrawal.

August 16, 2012
Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF) has been banned by the Andhra Pradesh government on 9 August 2012 through Government Order No.430 under Andhra Pradesh Public Security Act 1992. This comes as the latest of the anti-people repressive measures that the Andhra Pradesh government have persistently adopted to over the last few decades to crush democratic voices and peoples’ movements under the garb of fighting Maoism. This comes as another glaring example of the hollowness of Indian government’s claim as ‘largest democracy of the world’. We strongly condemn this act of banning and criminalisation of our organisation and demand the immediate withdrawal of this authoritarian ban.
The Government Order brands RDF as “unlawful” and bans it “with immediate effect”. The GO links RDF with the banned CPI(Maoist) by calling it a “frontal organisation” of the Maoist party. Falsely implicating RDF as “part of Tactical United Front”, it dubiously enlists the following as “unlawful activities” of the organisation:
(1) Subserving the interest and objectives of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) whose avowed objective is to overthrow the lawfully established Government by means of force and violence through terrorist activities involving the use of firearms and explosives;
(2) Urging people to fight against the Police and join the Maoist movement;
(3) Opposing and demanding stoppage of anti extremist combing operations of the police and security forces in the left wing extremism affected area of the States and there by abetting and encouraging the violent activities of Maoist;
(4) Organising dharnas, rallies and other forms of agitations in support of the unlawful activities of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and
(5) Opposing lawful actions of police and criminal justice system and inciting the people to take violence against the democratically elected government established by law.
The arbitrary and knee-jerk reaction of the AP government in banning RDF in the state comes just three months after the organisation successfully held its First All India Conference in Hyderabad on 22-23 April 2012. The indication of the AP government’s response was visible during the conference as well. It banned the Public Rally of 23 April in an arbitrary manner by serving us a letter which alleged that some Maoists were present in the conference and that the Rally would ‘disturb’ the law and order situation of the state. Under instructions from the state government, Andhra Pradesh police also arrested a team of 35 cultural activists from Chhattisgarh on false charges and prevented them from attending the conference.
There is no organisational structure of RDF in Andhra Pradesh at present. It is therefore ridiculous to attribute the so-called unlawful activities to our organisation. Presently only the RDF All India President Varavara Rao (member of Virasam or Revolutionary Writers’ Association) and Vice-President Ganti Prasadam are our members from this state. The only activity conducted under the banner of RDF in Andhra Pradesh after the Conference was a round-table meeting that raised voices of protest against the recent massacre of 20 adivasis in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh. This was a well attended meeting with the participation of several prominent intellectuals, writers and representatives of civil rights organisations besides being attended and addressed the meeting by three senior editors of newspapers. Is there any basis or justification for terming such a meeting as ‘unlawful’?
Opposing and resisting the massacres of adivasis or protesting against the police and armed forces’ operations in the tribal tracts is being frivolously mentioned in the Government Order as unlawful activities. All democratic individuals and organisations across the country and the world have been opposing and demanding a stop to the paramilitary operations in the tribal regions of central and eastern India in the name of fighting the Maoists. RDF too has been consistently raising its democratic voice against all forms of state and ruling-class violence – be it massacres, murders in the name of encounters, torture, arrest and burning down of tribal villages, and so on. By criminalising dissent and silencing democratic political opposition through the ban on RDF, the government has once more exposed its fascist fangs.
RDF held a day-long dharna against the Bijapur massacre on 31 July 2012 at the Parliament Street with space allotted by the Delhi Police in front of the Parliament Street police station. A number of prominent speakers and democratic organisation from different parts of India participated and addressed the dharna. A number of renowned public personalities of the country including Justice Rajinder Sachar, Dr. B D Sharma, Bojja Tharakam, professor of economics, Jean Dreze, prominent Hindi writers and poets like Madan Kashyap, Manglesh Dabral and others joined their voices with us against the massacre of adivasis. After the dharna RDF submitted two memorandums with a charter of demands to the President Mr. Pranab Mukherjee as well as UPA and NAC chairperson Ms. Sonia Gandhi. In fact, we requested both the President and Ms. Gandhi for a meeting with a delegation of concerned citizens, which was duly acknowledged. Does the Andhra Pradesh government consider these activities too as unlawful?
We stand against the draconian instrument of ban which the government have consistently used to stifle political opposition. In 2005, Revolutionary Writers’ Association (Virasam) was banned by Andhra Pradesh government. Varavara Rao and G Kalyana Rao, two members of the organisation acted as the emissaries of CPI(ML) Peoples’ War and participated in the talks with the AP government. The same government banned their organisation and arrested them soon after the talks broke down. Virasam waged a successful struggle along with intellectuals, writers and democratic forces against the Andhra Pradesh government to withdraw the ban.
Similarly, Odisha government imposed a ban on RDF, Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangh, Kui Labang Sangh, Bala Sangam, Daman Pratirodh Mancha and Krantikari Mahila Sangh in June 2006 under sections of the colonial CRPC of 1881 amended in 1967 as Criminal Amendment Act. RDF has been consistently fighting against these bans. After Daman Pratirodh Manch challenged the ban in Odisha High Court, it did not approve of the ban and suggested that these organisations should register their names and fight elections. A second option given by the High Court was that the organisations should approach the government to review its decision. The case at present is before the Supreme Court which has issued notice to the Odisha government to file its affidavit.
RDF strongly condemns the ban imposed on the above organisations by the Odisha government and and demands their withdrawal. We demand that the Andhra Pradesh government revoke the ban on CPI(Maoist) and six mass organisations – All India Revolutionary Students Federation (AIRSF), Federation of Workers of Singareni Coal Mines, (Singareni Karmika Samakhya or SIKASA), Radical Students Union (RSU), Peasants and Workers Association (Rythu Coolie Sangham), Radical Youth League (RYL) and Revolutionary Workers’ Federation (Viplava Karmika Samakhya or VIKASA). We also demand that the ban imposed by the central government on CPI(Maoist) and 30 other organisations under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) be lifted immediately.
RDF is a peoples’ democratic organisation working at the all-India level, raising issues and demands of the masses. We consider this ban as a direct assault on the democratic rights of the people to organise and protest against the anti-people policies of the government and the ruling classes. RDF refuses to be cowed down by this authoritarian ban. We pledge to resolutely stand amidst the people and join shoulder to shoulder with all democratic and revolutionary organisations in the country and worldwide to fight against this undemocratic and criminal ban on our organisation. We declare that we will take up all means of democratic protests, rallies, meetings and dharnas to put pressure on the AP government to withdraw the ban. We will also explore all judicial avenues to remove the ban and to challenge the draconian AP Public Security Act, 1992.
 RDF appeals to all the democrats and democratic organisations in the country and worldwide to raise voices against the authoritarian, arbitrary and undemocratic ban imposed on our organisation by the Andhra Pradesh government, and fight for its immediate withdrawal.

Varavara Rao
President
Rajkishore
General Secretary

Filipino Canadian Proletarians Join Forces With the PCR-RCP!

Filipino Canadian Proletarians Join Forces With the PCR-RCP!
 
We, the Filipino Canadian Proletarian Committee of Cote-des-Neiges, Montréal have announced our intention to add our forces to the growing strength of the Parti Communiste Révolutionnaire – Revolutionary Communist Party (Canada). The leadership and contributions of the PCR-RCP are to be found in the building of the proletarian movement that is needed in Canada and the necessary international communist movement and it is with revolutionary pride and social responsibility to the Canadian working class that Filipino Canadian proletarians based in the west end of Montréal join the dynamism of their Marxist-Leninist-Maoist comrades.
Since the 1970s there has been a rich revolutionary movement among the Filipino Canadian proletariat, largely because of the solidarity built around the struggle against Marcos' dictatorship in the Philippines. Through the 1980s and 1990s and early 2000s support and solidarity work by Filipino Canadian comrades continued for the Philippine revolutionary movement. As the consciousness of Filipino Canadian proletariat continued to be raised about the struggle “back home” there was a growing need to resolve the issues of the Filipino Canadian people as part of Canadian working class.
Mass organizing with the anti-imperialist and working class perspective has garnered a wealth of experience in organizing Filipino Canadians in Québec among the various sectors of youth, women, workers and cultural artists is a large source of the capacity building and education of the Filipino Canadian comrades from Montréal. We are still a dynamic group composed of the different sectors with strong links to the mass base of Filipino Canadians in Montréal. Solidarity and unity with other progressive immigrant organizations, migrant justice groups, anti-racist collectives and feminist allies continue to be the strong foundation of our on-going struggle and commitment for a socialist society towards communism.
In 2012 the Filipino Canadian Proletarian Committee of Cote-des-Neiges was formed, shaped by the experience of comrades surrounding the issues of systemic racism, patriarchy, political repression and anti-imperialism. With the coordination between the Filipino Canadian Proletarian Committee of Cote-des-Neiges and the PCR-RCP for the mobilization of May Day in Montréal coupled with initiatives surrounding the Québec student uprising, the decision was made to join the PCR-RCP.
The red flags have been raised and commitment to the proletarian struggle and education as well as to the Canadian and international working class has been rendered

Let’s march forward together towards the proletarian movement that is much needed in Canada!
Towards stronger internationalist communist solidarity!
Long live the PCR-RCP (Canada)!

Newsletter from the Political Information Bureau (August 26, 2012), RCP Canada

Interview with G.N.Saibaba

Interview with G.N.Saibaba in Varberg Sweden, 14-15th april 2012

(The transcript of the interview is checked by Saibaba)

Indiensolidaritet: Can you say something about the political work you do in India?

Saibaba: I work for an organization called Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF). It is a federation of revolutionary mass organizations working among different oppressed classes and sections of the Indian society. Revolutionary students’ and youth organisations, revolutionary peasants’ organisations, revolutionary workers’ organisations, revolutionary cultural organisations as well revolutionary womans’ organisations from different regions across India are constituents of RDF. Thus RDF is a large network of revolutionary organisations reaching out to all sections and strata of the society.

From the year 2009 onwards began the Operation Green Hunt, the Indian state’s genocidal war on the poorest of the poor in India. All of us in our organization RDF work with other parties, groups, democratic organisations and individuals to raise our voice collectively and unitedly against the present military onslaught on the people and the extermination campaign against the people of India. We see this massive military operation as a continuation and the latest addition in the war waged by India’s ruling classes against the people of the subcontinent for last many decades – be it in Kashmir, North East, Punjab, and now in central and eastern India. So we are at one level involved in the basic struggles of the people and at another we are working along with a large network of political forces and carrying out a countrywide campaign against Indian state’s anti-people policies, particularly Operation Green Hunt.

Indiensolidaritet: The way we see it, there are two lines regarding solidarity work in Europe. One line is trying to unite people on an anti-imperialist and anti-feudal basis and another one focuses more on Maoism. What do you think about this?

Saibaba: Yes, there is this perception and understanding of how to develop the solidarity movement for the peoples’ struggles and the particularly on the military attack on the people that is going on in India. So what I can see is that there are large sections who think that, the large sections of the people of India and the larger confrontation is more important to focus on, to tell the world outside India. There is another section of organizations which hold that the present campaign by the Indian state is targeting the revolutionaries in India and therefore the revolutionaries should be supported directly. What is important today is that the people of India – the poorest of the poor 80 percent of the country who live an extremely perilous existence – are looking forward to a basic change in their lives. The poorest section of humanity in the world therefore is waging a defiant struggle in India under the leadership of the revolutionary Maoists who are from among their own. So if you take the larger picture of what is happening in India, you can see that this is a great resistance against the loot of the land and minerals by the corporate sector. Monopoly capital in its desperation to dominate the world’s resources would like to overcome its crisis by exploiting the cheap raw materials in India and other oppressed countries. It’s an attempt by the imperialists, by the monopoly capital on the world scale, to transport their burden of the economic crisis upon the shoulders of the poorest of the poor in India.

Removing the people from their homes and hearths has become pertinent for the corporations backed by the government to capture the valuable mineral resources which are estimated to a value of several trillions of dollars. So the resistance movement is built up by the indigenous people, the poorest of the poor, the millions and millions of the wretched of the earth. To crush this movement and to silence all the people the Indian government has sent more than 250,000 armed personnel to these regions backed by its air force and navy. You therefore can see the importance of the struggle. Of course the revolutionary forces are involved – they work in these areas and organise the people, but the question is much larger. It is an anti-imperialist struggle of the people, led by the revolutionary Maoists. This is a larger question because this resistance exists not only in the central and eastern parts of India where the Maoist movement has a strong presence, but extends to every part of India even where the Maoists are absent. So in our view, we have to take into account this anti-imperialist struggle as a whole. We have to recognize that this is a larger struggle of the people of India who are not led by the revolutionaries everywhere simply because they do not exist in other parts. So the international solidarity should be to the entire movement. The other section of the people who feels that the revolutionary movement is a target too is not wrong in their perception. Yes, the revolutionary movement is a target of attack. In fact the Indian prime minister has termed it “the largest internal security threat” way back in 2005 reflecting the intent of the ruling classes to finish off the revolutionary movement. But what is important to recognise is that the anti-feudal and anti-imperialist struggle spanning over entire India and the revolutionary movement in India which exists in a considerable part of the country are interrelated. We cannot separate this two. The larger anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle is very important and we must not lose sight of it. We must stand in solidarity with the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle of the common people of India. The Indian ruling classes and the imperialists have planned many genocides and massacres but the people have successfully resisted them so far through coordination and collective struggle, not allowing any of these corporate houses to intrude and take over their lands and resources.

So we in India feel that to give support to the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggles of the people is also to give support to the revolutionary movement in India. Therefore we need not and should not separate these two and give support only to the revolutionaries as if the revolutionaries exist outside and separately from this struggle. The revolutionary struggle in India is a part of the larger anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle going on in the subcontinent.

Indiensolidaritet: How can we support the people’s struggles against exploitation in general and against Operation Green Hunt in particular?

Saibaba: First of all I will have to give you a larger picture of the present situation back home in India and for this, a longer explanation is needed. Operation Green Hunt is a highly orchestrated and well planned military campaign against the people of India. This operation is modelled by the Indian state and the imperialist forces led by the US along the line of what was called the Red Hunt in the 18th century North America. Through the Red Hunt campaign, the land of indigenous tribal people in that continent was usurped and violently taken over by the European explorers and invaders. They also planned and executed the systematic elimination of the tribes of Red Indians who chose to resist this genocide. The history of the US tells us that this process of extermination of an entire population of indigenous people in North America was termed as Red Hunt. The invading Europeans believed that a good Red Indian is a dead Red Indian. The Red Indians had to be annihilated to establish the country which came to be called the US. There was no place for the tribal people in this New World created by the colonial explorers from Europe. Thus the country called US was constructed on the dead bodies of the Red Indians. Very much the same concept of annihilation and extermination of an entire population operates in this military campaign called Operation Green Hunt. The ruling classes of India call it Green Hunt for two reasons. Firstly, the military experts, strategists and authors who are on the payroll of the Indian state tell us that the hunt – or in more political terms the Indian state’s war on people – is taking place in the greenest regions of the Indian subcontinent. Central India and Eastern India have high hills and expansive forests, and is one of the greenest areas of the subcontinent. From the perspective of environmental concerns, we can call this the lungs of the earth. The ecosystem of this region consisting of mountains, forests, rivers, minerals, vulnerable ecology – they sustain life on earth and in this sense are the protectors of all of us. This is one of the very few regions of the world which have still remained untouched by imperialism/capitalism and therefore are very important for our survival as well as for the earth to survive. So it is in this green region that the Operation Green Hunt is being conducted. If successful, you can well imagine that this operation will turn greenery into barrenness. By forcibly evicting or exterminating the tribal people and thereafter facilitating the entry of multinational, private and government corporations, this war will destroy our very lungs and threaten our existence itself. So you can very well imagine the self-destructive nature of this Green Hunt.

Secondly, at another level the security analysts claim that Operation Green Hunt is termed so because the revolutionary fighters wear olive green uniform and are the targets of this hunt. But this mode of thinking too reflects the same 18th century ideology behind the Red Hunt in the US. It is interesting to note that in September-October 2009, one of the ministers in the Indian government who is leading this Operation Green Hunt went to Afghanistan and the US and soon after his return announced this Operation Green Hunt. He did not explicitly term it Operation Green Hunt. He said it is a paramilitary operation. Later the same minister denied that there is anything called Operation Green Hunt. But lower level officers in each of the regions where this operation is being conducted exposed his lie by frequently referring to Operation Green Hunt. Government of India still denies it by saying that there is no Operation Green Hunt. The reason for that denial is not difficult to see. In 2009 when the Indian interior minister announced this operation there was a massive protest from the intellectuals and the democratic forces from all over India. They immediately withdrew the nomenclature, though the operation has continued with ever greater intensity in different parts of India from then till now. Nevertheless, the resemblance of India’s Operation Green Hunt and US’s Red Hunt goes deeper than just the name – in intent, purpose and intensity they are very much similar. “Mr Chidambaram’s war” (the interior minister) an essay by Arundhati Roy describes how Operation Green Hunt has three objectives: 1. Occupy 2. Dominate 3. Hold. If you go to the website of the India’s interior ministry you can see these words. It is interesting to note that it is the same terminology that the U.S. is using to describe its strategy in Afghanistan. It doesn’t matter whether Indian state acknowledges or denies the term or the war it is waging on the people because the war is there on the ground. The entire people of India call it Operation Green Hunt.

We can understand Operation Green Hunt as a “war on the people of India” as well, and this is the main focus of the campaign. The ruling classes may play as much with words, but the truth is that it is a “war on the people of India”. What is this war about? The U.S. and other imperialists from European Union have sent military forces to Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and other places and are fighting imperialist wars of occupation against the people of these countries. In India too the imperialists have the same designs as in Afghanistan and Iraq, and elsewhere, i.e., to grab all the natural resources, be it natural gas, petroleum, bauxite, coal or any other available resource. They have not yet sent in their military forces to India, even though imperialists are aiding the Indian government with military strategists, army generals, intelligence input, weapons, surveillance equipment, and so on. These imperialist warmongers think that these resources which belong to the people of India can be grabbed without directly involving themselves in a war. This is because Indian rulers are completely subservient to the imperialist forces and are fighting this war on behalf of the imperialists. The Indian government is fighting a war for the US and European imperialists and others by using the army of India and the paramilitary of India. The servile Indian rulers are sending our own army against our own people. The imperialists are planning and conducting this war in India by simply sitting in their own countries and executing it through the Indian government in waging their war. This is the true nature imperialism since beginning of 20^th Century. The Indian government, the rulers of the country and India’s big corporations too are eagerly playing to the tune of the imperialists with a hope of earning some crumbs as spoils of war thrown at them. It is shameful for all of us citizens of India to see that the of army and paramilitary forces of our own county, which are supposed to protect Indian “sovereignty” and the Indian people’s freedom are being used to completely sell-out our “sovereignty” and to kill our own people in millions through genocides and massacres.

So it is a strange thing for the people in our part of the world, but this is the reality today. I would like to say that the campaign for the poorest of the poor in India who are fighting and resisting the imperialist onslaught is important to the people all over the world because the fight of the Indian poor people is not merely to defend themselves. It is against imperialism and against the monopoly bourgeoisie. And your fight against monopoly capital and our fight against its lackeys in India can build solidarity and come together to save humanity itself. This is a fight not to save the people of any particular country, but to save humanity and the entire earth, the only known place for human existence which is threatened by monopoly capital. So we have a larger reason for unity and a larger ground for solidarity. We must not see the national borders as barriers to our common fight since the question of the destruction of nature, natural resources and the people of global is concern today. Therefore the solidarity across the borders and the building of a common fight is something that the international community of democratic forces is the need of the hour.

Indiensolidaritet: So what does it mean this solidarity work for the peoples’ struggles and for the Indian government?

Saibaba: The solidarity movement for the Indian peoples’ struggles which is to be internationally established is very important and has the same significance today as the solidarity movement for the people of Vietnam during the sixties and seventies and for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan in the past decades. The Indian government’s war on the people is planned in a large scale and involves carefully planned genocides of the indigenous people of India who constitute a population which is larger than the population of Germany and Sweden put together. It is the indigenous people in the eastern and central India – the adivasis – who are targeted by the Indian rulers with active aid from the imperialist forces and the corporate sector. The biggest of the corporate houses from Europe and the U.S. have deep interests in this area. But they know that their interest will not be served unless the people, hundreds of millions of people, are removed from their ancestral land. Not coincidentally, these areas are also the areas which figure among the strongest resistance struggles in the world today. This massive war on the people by the imperialists and the Indian rulers together threatens to massacre these people and as democrats of the world we cannot afford to allow this to happen. In the 17th, 18th and 19th century the European bourgeoisie eliminated millions of indigenous people of Africa, North and South America, Australia and New Zealand. This could happen at that time because an international solidarity of democratic forces was absent or extremely weak. But in the present, at least since the days of the Second World War, there is a conscious international democratic solidarity which effectively raised their voices against the American war in Vietnam. They supported the democratic resistance against the U.S. military campaign in Vietnam and launched several campaigns that helped the Vietnamese people to gain strength and confidence. Similarly, an international campaign today will strengthen the resistance struggle of the people of India and will give them the confidence. They would be assured that the democratic voices of the world are with them and that the people of India are not alone in their struggle against imperialism and feudalism and to establish a new society. Indeed, a new society is already taking shape in these areas of struggle in India and it is our duty to inform the entire world about it. So is the significance of the international solidarity campaign. This is the need of the Indian people and also of the people of the democratic society at an international level. It is a historical task of the democratic forces of the world to defend and stand in solidarity with these fighting forces.

Indiensolidaritet: Can you tell us something about the solidarity work in relation to the Indian government? Is it somehow disturbing them that this solidarity exists?

Saibaba: Yes, the Indian government is worried about this international campaign for the fighting people of India. This is because the campaign also makes it clear that the tall claims of the Indian state – that it is one of the largest democracies of the world, that the economy of country is growing faster than other countries and that India is going to be the next superpower in Asia after China, and so on. All these falsehoods will come to light once the international campaign exposes the truth that India is not really a democratic state but is an autocratic and totalitarian state. It doesn´t allow democratic descent and there is no internal democracy in India. And also the so-called high economic growth in India is at the expense of millions of people. Today in India, 80 percent of the people live on less than half a dollar a day on overage in a year. This is worse than a subsistence economy, for in half a dollar a day you can´t even get something to eat and survive. In other words, the quality of life for the vast majority of Indian people is worse than that of the sub-Saharan populations, with the difference that the population in India is several hundred times more than that of all the sub-Saharan countries put together. We can say that instead of having the largest democracy in the world India has the largest population stricken by poverty, exploitation and oppression.

So the government of India is already worried about the international solidarity campaign which has the potential to expose the reality that it wants to hide from the world. When the international campaign takes shape and speaks up, it will be very difficult for the Indian government to maintain the falsehood that India is a democratic state. India’s growth story is like the history of colonial economies which grew out of internal and foreign exploitation. This growth rate is very vulnerable because it is sustained through exploitation, suppression and massacre of the vast masses of people for the benefit of a small minority. This economic growth is inhuman and temporary, since only a few families in India are reaping its benefits while the majority of the people are getting severely facing its brunt. And these realities are coming out now. The western media never brought out these realties to the international community. The Indian government suppresses such information and the imperialists too like to project India as a developing economy or lucrative investment destination. It is a fact that the imperialists don’t want the facts and realities of India to come out. The international campaign alone can bring out these facts and present them before the international community.

Indiensolidaritet: You mentioned earlier that it might be so that the Indian government will be more careful in its genocidal campaigns if there is a large public opinion that knows what’s really going on in India, behind all these lies.

Saibaba: Yes, the international campaign and your voices against the genocidal war in India have forced the government of India to rethink about its genocidal campaign. It has already started happening. For example, several protest demonstrations at Indian embassies in several countries in Europe, the US and South America put pressure on the Indian government. Initially in 2009, the government of India planned to complete the war on the people within three years. They wanted to evict the people from tens of thousands of villages within three years using army, paramilitary and other coercive forces. But the campaign within India and outside, particularly the international campaign, forced the Indian government to go slow on its plans. Though the Indian government went through with its deployment, it slowed down the military campaign and during these three years the peoples’ resistance got precious time to consolidate, build its defence and gain more strength. As a result, the carrying out of the military campaign became much more difficult for the Indian government in the last three years.  The resistance grew and expanded during this period and thus the international campaign has direct impact on the people who are resisting. The people also gained confidence and strength. One more example that I remember is as follows. Last March the government of India declared in the parliament that the campaign taken up by some organizations in India and outside has portrayed the government of India in poor light and that there is no war on the people of India. It was called a false propaganda to smear the image of the Indian government. This shows that the government of India have not been able to politically counter our collective international campaign and is forced to claim it as a false propaganda campaign. Officials of the government in the parliament say that the campaign actually has exposed the government of India. This shows how the government of India is concerned about maintaining its image which it feels is under threat due to the campaign. The real relevance of the international campaign began to be felt by by the Indian government itself. Thus the international campaign stands for the benefit of the people and for the protection of the peoples’ movement. It is a kind of legacy for the world people.

Indiensolidaritet: Of all the struggles we are supporting, the Naxalite movement is very important. What is the Naxalite movement of today?

Saibaba: You may know of the history of the Naxalite movement. The first ever armed rebellion of the tribal people in post-1947 period took place in the North Bengal village of Naxalbari in 1967. It opened up a new arena of class struggle and came to be known as the Naxalite movement. An important characteristic of this movement is that it is a peasants’ armed rebellion led by the proletariat. It is primarily an agrarian revolution, similar to what happened in China during the thirties an forties of the last century. The struggle that started from Naxalbari inspired the youth, intellectuals and the workers of India in every part of the country because they understood that any kind of struggle in India has to be based on the peasantry who constitute the vast majority of the population. Soon after 1967 the Indian government sent its army to suppress that movement and completely crushed that movement in Naxalbari, the one village. But Naxalbaris sprang up everywhere in India in the 1970s and 80s. In 600 regions in India they modelled themselves along Naxalbari uprising and today the armed revolutionary movement that is going on in vast parts of the countryside in India are a continuation of the Naxalbari uprising. Naxalbari has given the Indian people a vision and a future model of the struggle that runs along the axis of agrarian revolution. The understanding that the agrarian revolution will liberate the vast majority of the population following the proletarian ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism which is later called Maoism spread among the masses.

So, after the suppression of the Naxalbari uprising since the late 1960s the predominant trend of the peoples’ struggles is the path of Naxalbari, if are a keen researcher of history of all peoples’ struggles since 1947 in the subcontinent. That is why it is said that Naxalbari is the only path of struggle in India. This is the slogan you can see in every street, in every wall for the last 40 years. It is the writing on the wall in the subcontinent, despite all major attempts by Indian and Western European historians to hide this fact from the history writing. There is no doubt to say that the ideological position and trajectory of the Indian revolutionary movement has been shaped by the Naxalbari movement. Today the vast swathes of rural India are gripped by the ideology of Naxalbari – a revolutionary breakthrough which was aptly termed as “Spring Thunder in India” by China under Mao’s leadership. So the Spring Thunder is continuing and that is the basic line of struggle in India and constitutes the largest revolutionary resistance movement in India today, though this has not happened without colossal ups and downs.

Indiensolidaritet: As I understand it, there are several parties or groups that you can say belong to the Naxalite movement. Which are these parties?

Saibaba: In the 1970s there were mass uprisings in about 600 places following a split in the communist movement in India. The undivided communist movement represented by the Communist Party of India (CPI) split into CPI and CPI(Marxist) in 1964. In 1968 CPI(M) further split and CPI(Marxist-Leninist) was formed under the leadership of Charu Mazumdar. But in the decade of 1970s the Marxist-Leninist movement got split into several parties due to the differences on the questions of how to conduct the revolutionary struggle, attitude towards the Indian parliament and the attitude towards the imperialist forces and the Indian ruling classes. The splitting of the Marxist-Leninist party and the movement into small factions was the major trend in the seventies. But the decade of 1980s saw the consolidation of the major Marxist-Leninist parties in important regions of the country. The formation of major parties took place during this time. You can see three strands in party building – the party in South India called itself CPI (ML) (Peoples’ War) while in North India two parties emerged – Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and CPI(ML) Party Unity. These three parties worked in three different areas in isolation from each other and without knowing much about each other. But they considerably expanded the revolutionary areas and later they came together.

But let me also tell you that there are other ML parties which do not believe in taking up armed struggle but they want it to start much later in the course of struggle. This can be understood as Phase Theory which many revolutionary parties in India conform to. According to this theory, in the first phase one has to prepare the masses through open and legal mass resistance struggles. In the second phase, underground organisation of the movement is carried out, while in the third phase the armed struggle is started. Though these parties had large mass base initially, due to their faulty understanding, they became smaller and smaller. This Phase Theory did not work. But the first of the three revolutionary parties I have mentioned started armed struggle straight away, as they did not believe in phases of revolution. They analysed that a revolutionary situation already exists in Indian society and the people can be organized for an armed movement. Even they believed and understood that armed forms of struggles predate their own existence. Hence they need to lead them with the MLM ideology at the centre. They succeeded while the rest of the groups became weaker and alienated from the oppressed masses. The revolutionary classes and individuals in the society came together in the larger revolutionary groups and these groups expanded over time. On the other hand, those groups which believed that they should spread the revolutionary ideas by going to the parliament or believed that they should start the armed struggle much later, could not carry forward the revolutionary movement. They remained for forty years in the same preparatory stage and are now smaller forces – almost non-existent – even foregoing their character as revolutionary forces. But those who believed from the very beginning that the phase theory is wrong, that the Indian parliament has no relevance in India and that the peoples struggles’ can and should start with armed struggle became major revolutionary forces. They joined hands and merged in 2004 to become Communist Party of India (Maoist) – the largest and the most formidable revolutionary force in India. About ten smaller ML parties still exist, but they have no relevance, leading no major struggle, thereby existing only on paper mainly. One such organization is called CPI(ML) Liberation which contest parliamentary elections in some pockets of the country. People consider it to be a revisionist group like the CPI and CPI(M) which has no radical or revolutionary content and relevance. On the other hand, CPI(Maoist) has emerged as the single largest Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Party of the country after the coming together of all revolutionary forces in India. The movement it leads is still called the Naxalite movement because its origins lie in the Naxalbari village.

Indiensolidaritet: Ok, but I also heard that there are parities called CPI(Naxabari) and CPI(ML) (Janashakti) that exists and some people also call them progressive.

Saibaba: As I said, there are about ten parties including CPI(Naxabari) which is a small group with a revolutionary spirit. They have not gone down the path of other parliamentary Marxist-Leninist groups. They are close to CPI(Maoist) than the revisionist ML groups. Similarly, two or three other very small parties which have a revolutionary content are much closer to CPI(Maoist). But the rest of the parties, CPI(ML) New Democracy, CPI(ML) Kanu Sanyal and some lesser known parties called CPI(ML) Provisional Committee, CPI(ML) Second Central Committee etc. have no revolutionary content left in them and are more or less like the revisionist parties. They hardly have any influence among the people.

Indiensolidaritet: We are using the flag of the Revolutionary Peoples’ Councils and its logo for our organization. Can you say something on how and where this peoples’ government is developed?

Saibaba: The Revolutionary Peoples’ Councils (RPC) have come up gradually, particularly in Bastar encompassing south Chhattisgarh. There are about a few thousand of such RPCs in Bastar, and some of them have also come up in Odisha, Andrah Pradesh, Jharkandh and Bihar. But in Bastar RPCs and the peoples’ government have developed to a higher level. In the rest of the areas too they are developing in the same direction. The RPCs are called Janatana Sarkars in the local language in Bastar. Janatana means ‘of the people’ and sarkar means ‘government’ – ‘peoples’ government’. In the political language of the revolution they are called Peoples’ Revolutionary Councils. They are formed and elected by the people in a direct election where the entire village sits together and elects. The ruling-class elements in the village have no voting rights while all the people from the oppressed classes have voting rights. Once the peoples’ government is elected it acts like a government of the village which has several committees, such as the development committee, the health committee, the education committee, the security committee and the peoples’ militia. Peoples’ militia works under the village government or the RPC. The government has full political power and it works for the people. If any elected member is not functioning according to the expectations and interests of the village and people, the constitution of the RPCs provides the right to the people to recall the member and re-elect another person in his/her place.

The peoples’ government or the RPCs promote and develop indigenous technology in industry and agriculture. They don’t depend on the technology or the so-called development model that are imposed by imperialists and the ruling elite. The very idea of development according to peoples’ own technology, knowledge and skill is part of this experiment. The effort of the RPCs is to raise the level of peoples’ consciousness and cultural level. The technology they use is in consonance with the consciousness and the level of the peoples’ culture so that there is no feeling of alienation between work and knowledge. In the process, they completely reject the technology developed and promoted by imperialists and the comprador bourgeoisie which are oppressive and exploitative. So the development that is experienced in the villages with RPCs is based on a self-reliant economy. The hundreds and thousands of these committees and councils have established a self-reliant economy based on their own needs, own resources and their own technology. This is a complete negation of the model of ‘development’ dependent on imperialism, imperialist technology and imperialist funds which has been introduced by Indian rulers in 1947. It is through this imperialist technology and imperialist investment that the exploitation of our country and resources has taken place. ‘The revolutionary people and the revolutionary peoples’ councils completely reject this. So in these areas of central and eastern India where agriculture was developed only to a rudimentary level, the people through RPCs have developed agriculture and fisheries, small-scale industry and so on. As a result, for the first time in the history of these regions, the vast masses of the people have successes in creating surplus, and socialise it without allowing it transform into capital.

The RPCs have systematically carried out land distribution among the indigenous people and other oppressed people, so that there are no landless people in the areas under RPCs today. RPCs put the surplus back in collective agricultural farming, while everybody gives their voluntary labour. The people produce their crops and a portion of it goes to the common pool overseen by the peoples’ government. The rest of the produce is distributed among the people as per their requirements. It is not just only the agricultural produce that the people collectively control, but the RPCs also regulate all trade and commercial activities in their purview to establish and ensure non-exploitative exchange. But they still require necessities like medicine and other products that the RPCs do not produce. So the surplus produce that remains after being used for the village is sent to the market. So the surplus that is generated in the village is used for the welfare of the village, again socialising it. But this is welfare from a revolutionary perspective, and has nothing to do with the government’s welfare schemes which are launched to keep social discontent under check. The surplus generated in this manner serves the people in that the RPC uses it for their health, education and other requirements apart from putting it back for the development of agriculture and industry, i.e., for further revolutionising production. In this way a new society is being built in India by the most oppressed of the people. As a part of this process, the feudal and reactionary cultural practices are being discarded on the one hand while imperialist culture and exploitation is being resisted on the other. RPCs are the foundations of this new society. The revolutionary movement wants to expand the RPCs from the village level to the block level and gradually a larger government will be formed at the district level. With the development of RPCs in different parts of India, the power of the Indian rulers will be overthrown and peoples’ power will be established in their place. Peoples’ power is at the centre of these Revolutionary Peoples Councils. Like the slogan of “All Power to Soviets” in revolutionary Russia, “All Power to the People” is the slogan of the revolutionary movement in India. The RPCs have all the power, which is the implementation of the slogan “All Power to the People”. This is the guiding principle with which the RPCs function in all spheres of social life in the revolutionary regions.

Indiensolidaritet: Do you know how the Maoist party is related to the new government?

Saibaba: The peoples’ government has the party committee within its core. It is not the case that all the people in this government are party members, but a section of them are. When representatives to the RPCs are elected, both party members as well as non-party members will be there. The party functions through these party committees within the RPCs. So you can understand that the RPC is like a united front, because there are communists, non-communists and general people. CPI(Maoist) does not believe that Revolutionary Peoples Councils should be run by the party alone. In the RPCs, members of the party work with the common people who have traditional wisdom and knowledge of the struggle. Like in a united front, in RPCs, Maoist party forces and non-party forces come together to form the peoples’ government. The party members elected to the government function as per party ideology to develop revolutionary consciousness among other members of the Revolutionary Peoples Council.

Indiensolidaritet: How is the Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) related to the peoples’ militia? Is the peoples’ militia the backbone of the PLGA?

Saibaba: As far as my study and understanding of this vast movement goes, I can say that the militia is constituted by the participation of a large number of people in the villages, and therefore the militia is called the basic force. Behind the militia functions the Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army. So the PLGA is very much dependent on the militia. The peoples’ militia is the basic force and the PLGA is the main revolutionary army. But all basic requirements related to the defence of the revolutionary areas and the revolutionary movement are taken care of by the militia because they are the largest force in number and it should be the principal force. However, the growth of the peoples militia can only begin after the PLGA is established in an area. But once people’s militia develops, the PLGA goes to the background. Then, the PLGA is called in only when the militia needs reinforcement. Otherwise the PLGA does not take the main role in the armed struggle. So the first on the frontlines of the revolutionary armed struggle is the peoples’ militia followed by the PLGA. This is what I have understood in the emergence and development the people’s militia in different areas of Central and Eastern India over the last two decades of the history of this trajectory.

Indiensolidaritet: Some people might say, “Oh the party is controlling everything”. What do you think?

Saibaba: People who do not know how a revolutionary party like the CPI (Maoist) functions or those who would like to malign the Maoist party may say such things. But then there places where wrong things are practised or mistakes happen. But then it is not to be understood as the policy of the CPI (Maosit).  But if you see the reality and closely follow the movement, you can understand that the CPI (Maoist) gives primary importance to the agency of the common people in their area. It is the people who themselves take the initiative in struggles. There are many examples of this. The roadmap of how to develop a village in a revolutionary way or how to develop guerrilla warfare is not centrally given by the CPI (Maoist). In these areas the people know of this through practice through their own history of struggles. For example, the indigenous people have a long history of waging guerrilla fight. They fought the armies of the Mughal emperors and the British colonialists in hundreds of rebellions in all of the last three hundred or more years of their known history, and this is equally true of their earlier history as well – a peoples’ history which is yet to be written. They might not have termed it as guerrilla warfare, but the history of the peoples’ uprisings in these areas is invariably of guerrilla fight. There were about 150 armed rebellions against the British by the tribal people mostly written but many more which were not yet properly written– the indigenous people – and in each one of them they won while the British were defeated. The mighty force of British imperialists was defeated by the tribal people with superior knowledge of the terrain and but with simple bows and arrows. They seized the weapons of the imperialist invaders and used them against the British. Not always more developed social formation has won over the less developed social formation. One such massive uprising is the Bhumkal Rebellion of 1910 in the Bastar region. The rebellious tribal people used sophisticated guerrilla methods against the British forces and defeated them. In popular memory all these methods are still alive because they have taught each other and passed on the experience of guerrilla warfare from one generation to the other. Therefore, it is not the CPI (Maoist) who taught guerrilla warfare techniques to the indigenous people. Rather, it is the indigenous people who taught them how to wage guerrilla warfare. A public intellectual in India called B D Sharma who worked with the adivasis for the last 50 years always reminds us about this in his public lectures and writings. In this example we can see that the initiative, assertion and creativity in every stage of the struggle come from amongst the people, including the development model they have chalked out for themselves. In the revolutionary movement the people are at the centre. The Maoists give utmost importance to the peoples’ initiative, assertion and participation, particularly the people’s agency in the revolution. Any party which places itself at the centre can’t become an instrument of revolutionary change because it’s the people’s agency that develops to transform the society in toto that that can play this role. So the people and their party advance the movement together. This is really where the party has played its role – by creating the conditions for the people to take initiative and unleash their full potentials, creativity and regeneration in the making of a new society free from exploitation and oppression. And then the history is created by the masses of people themselves, whose agency is central to this process.