International Conference on 24th November in Hamburg: the speech by India Solidarity - Norway

Dear comrades, Brothers and sisters,

Jan Myrdal, the famous progressive intellectual from Sweden and friend of the Indian Maoists, said in an important speech that the struggle of the Indian people is the struggle of the Swedish people. This truth should be fundamental in our movement to support the peoples’ war in India.

Our movement is a movement of solidarity, not charity. The basic contradiction between solidarity and charity is a question of unity. In solidarity, you give a hand to a comrade, someone you are united with. You walk a road together, with the same goals.

We must fight all tendencies towards turning solidarity into charity. We must fight ultra-left attempts to split the peoples of the world and treat a western worker as an enemy of the Indian people. Rather we want to put forward the idea of a common cause, a common enemy, of the peoples of the world.

The Indian comrades make grave sacrifices. The peoples’ war shows us the real meaning of putting the collective before the individual. They do not only put the adivasi, the cast less, the peasants and proletarians of India before them self. They put the faith of humanity, and the future of the working peoples of the world, before their own lives.

Our struggle must rally to support the sacrifices in such way, that it both helps the peoples’ war, and the peoples’ struggles in all countries. The solidarity with the peoples’ war must be both practical and political. We need both to help the Indian comrades in a concrete way, and rally political support. We want to be of assistance to the brothers and sisters who put their lives on the line. We also want to propagate their example and their ideology in our own people. The peoples’ war should be a beacon for a stronger, more militant and more active revolutionary movement also here in Europe.

We want to thank the organizers of this conference for bringing us together in solidarity. We are thankful and wish that this will strengthen the solidarity with the people of India, and their organizations of struggle.

India Solidarity in Norway salutes the conference and its participants.

We salute the Indian comrades and their struggle.

Victory to the peoples’ war!

Lal salam!