Italy - actions of PCm Italy for boycott elections in Palermo

pc 31 Gennaio- Ancora una volta Bersani contestato a Palermo

Un gruppo di lavoratori e studenti del Circolo di proletari comunisti, oggi pomeriggio a Palermo davanti al teatro Zappalà, è stato presente con uno striscione e diversi slogan a contestare P.L.Bersani e la sua "grande ammucchiata". Una contestazione all'ennesima visita indesiderata del candidato premier del PD ovvero del principale partito che ha sostenuto il governo anti-popolare Monti.

Noi boicottiamo (attivamente) queste elezioni perchè si svolgono sulla pelle dei lavoratori e sappiamo (perchè lo dicono loro stessi) che nessun passo indietro sarà fatto rispetto agli accordi presi con Monti...
probabilmente Monti sarà il capo del governo, chiunque vinca. 

  Detto questo, alla faccia dell'art. 21 della loro costituzione, che tra le sue righe recita " Tutti hanno diritto di manifestare liberamente il proprio pensiero con la parola, lo scritto e ogni altro mezzo di diffusione" siamo stati "minacciati dagli agenti della digos e come al solito rimaniamo in attesa delle "sostanziose multe" che ci propineranno con una scusa qualunque. Ci hanno filmato/fotografato com'è sono soliti fare i servi dello stato, questo non ha impedito una lunga denuncia sul ruolo del PD riguardo le politiche anti-popolari del governo, in particolare la riforma Fornero, l'attacco ai giovani con il taglio alla spesa sociale con gravi ricadute su istruzione e sanità, il ruolo del PD nello scandalo MPS, lo striscione recitava ironicamente sulla falsa riga delle dichiarazioni di Bersani in merito: "Non solo non vi votiamo! Vi sbraniamo".

denunciando l'atteggiamento intimidatorio della digos

E ancora è stato denunciato il PD in quanto partito della repressione da Torino (vedi le vicende circa la Tav e l'attivo squadrismo del servizio d'ordine di partito durante il corteo del primo maggio scorso) a Niscemi (sulla vicenda recente No Muos e le prese per i fondelli della Giunta Crocetta che dopo i grandi proclami di solidarietà ai cittadini quest'ultimi sono stati aggrediti dai soliti servi dello stato). Il partito che vota per la guerra e per l'acquisto di cacciabombardieri F-35. In breve il partito che ha le mani in pasta come tutti gli altri, altro che alternativa! Davanti tutto questo, le minacce di denunce e multe da parte della digos e del vice-questore appaiono ben poca cosa, è stato detto.

All'arrivo di Crocetta accompagnato da Lumia è partita una contestazione conto il neo-presidente della Regione e la sua "rivoluzione" che consiste nel disinteressarsi dei problemi dei lavoratori negando persino incontri come succede verso molte vertenze in corso. Poco dopo, all'arrivo di Bersani, un ondata di fischi e slogan hanno costretto il candidato premier a entrare in fretta e furia, come del resto ormai è abituato a questo tipo di accoglienze in Sicilia come in molte parti del paese. Il circolo continuerà con la campagna di boicottaggio elettorale attivo senza sconti per nessuno di questi personaggi responsabili dello scaricamento della crisi capitalista sulle spalle della maggior parte del popolo mentre loro contemporaneamente vivono nel lusso. la farsa elettorale va smascherata in quanto tale e contrastata con la lotta attiva per gettare le basi della costruzione del partito rivoluzionario, unica via per il cambiamento reale delle condizioni di vita di operai, lavoratori e masse popolari!

pc 30 gennaio - manifesto elettorale

né Monti né Berlusconi
nè Bersani, nè ogni lista di 
falsa  opposizione 
               
boicottaggio elettorale
 
lotta a fondo contro ogni governo dei padroni

 la lotta e non il voto per difendere le tue condizioni di vita e di lavoro


la rivoluzione proletaria e non il voto può rovesciare il governo e lo stato dei padroni

il potere deve essere operaio ! 

free revolutionary prisoners in imperialist jail - free Georges I:Abdallah - from La cause du peuple

Nouveau report de la libération de Georges Ibrahim ABDALLAH : la fuite en avant de l'État français

Publié sur  : http://liberonsgeorges.over-blog.com

Une nouvelle fois, ce 28 janvier, l'exécution de la décision de justice, qui permettrait à Georges Ibrahim Abdallah de quitter la prison française pour retourner dans son pays, a été différée !

L’État français, au travers de ses magistrats du Parquet, multiplie les procédures dilatoires inédites pour retenir emprisonné Georges Abdallah.

Son départ vers le Liban dépend en effet de la signature d'un arrêté par le ministre de l'Intérieur, laquelle signature se fait attendre depuis le 21 novembre !

Ces incessants reports, ces nouveaux "obstacles" ne font que révéler l'entêtement obtus d'un État qui a fabriqué de toutes pièces l'"affaire Abdallah" depuis près de 30 ans.

De Tunis à Beyrouth, en passant par Ramallah, le soutien au militant révolutionnaire, au résistant Georges Abdallah ne cesse de s'étendre.

En France, l'indignation s'accroît de jour en jour. Les protestations de toutes sortes* se multiplient, dénonçant la chape de plomb qui pèse sur les mensonges d'État : les gouvernements de droite et de "gauche" valident tour à tour les mensonges des précédents, embrassent la même allégeance aux exigences étasuniennes, agissent en puissance qui se croit encore coloniale vis-à-vis du Liban, qui réclame son ressortissant.

Selon le tribunal d'application des peines, la libération de Georges Abdallah est "subordonnée" à la signature d'un arrêté d'expulsion, mais rien n'indique que toute procédure doive être gelée "en attendant" que le gouvernement français reconnaisse les décisions de ses juges.

Nous n'attendrons pas le 28 février pour obliger le pouvoir politique à céder devant la mobilisation internationale. Aujourd'hui, la seule exigence, qui doit se faire entendre plus fort encore, c’est   "Libération immédiate de Georges Abdallah !"

Le Collectif pour la libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah (CLGIA)

Paris, le 29 janvier 2013


* Hier soir, par exemple, à Asnières, le discours de Manuel Valls a été interrompu aux cris de "Libérez Georges Abdallah !" lancés par une dizaine de personnes présentes dans la salle… et expulsées aussitôt manu militari.

V.I. Lenin – Necesitamos partidos que estén en contacto efectivo y permanente con las masas - exactly opposed a this leninist, but also maoist conception of the proletarian communist party is the praxis of cybermaoist groups ... note of PCm Italy

V.I. Lenin sobre el partido que necesitamos.

  by granmarchacomunismo

V.I. Lenin junto camaradas bolcheviques



Y en efecto, en la época del capitalismo, cuando las masas obreras son sometidas a una incesante explotación y no pueden desarrollar sus capacidades humanas, lo más característico para los partidos políticos obreros es justamente que sólo pueden abarcar a una minoría de su clase. El partido político puede agrupar tan sólo a una minoría de la clase, puesto que los obreros verdaderamente conscientes en toda sociedad capitalista no constituyen sino una minoría de todos los obreros. Por eso nos vemos precisados a reconocer que sólo esta minoría consciente puede dirigir a las grandes masas obreras y llevarlas tras de sí. Y si el camarada Tanner dice que es enemigo del partido, pero al mismo tiempo está a favor de que la minoría de los obreros mejor organizados y más revolucionarios señale el camino a todo el proletariado, yo digo que en realidad no existe diferencia entre nosotros. ¿Qué representa una minoría organizada? Si esta minoría es realmente consciente, si sabe llevar tras de sí a las masas, si es capaz de dar respuesta a cada una de las cuestiones planteada en el orden del día, entonces esa minoría es, en esencia, el partido. Y si camaradas como Tanner, a los que tomamos particularmente en consideración, por tratarse de representantes del movimiento de masas -cosa que difícilmente se puede decir de los representantes del Partido Socialista Británico, si tales camaradas están a favor de que exista una minoría que luche decididamente por la dictadura del proletariado y que eduque en este sentido a las masas obreras, esa minoría no es, en esencia, otra cosa que el partido. El camarada Tanner dice que esta minoría debe organizar y llevar tras de sí a todas las masas obreras. Si el camarada Tanner y otros camaradas del grupo Shop Stewards y de la organización “Los Trabajadores Industriales del Mundo” (IWW) reconocen esto -y cada día, en las conversaciones con ellos, vemos que en efecto lo reconocen-, si aprueban una situación en que la minoría comunista consciente de la clase obrera lleva tras de sí al proletariado, deben convenir en que el sentido de todas nuestras resoluciones es precisamente ése. Y entonces la única diferencia existente entre nosotros consiste en que ellos evitan emplear la palabra “partido”, porque entre los camaradas ingleses existe una especie de prevención contra el partido político. Conciben el partido político algo así como los partidos de Gompers y de Henderson, partidos de politicastros parlamentarios, traidores a la clase obrera. Y si conciben el parlamentarismo como el inglés y el norteamericano de nuestros días, también nosotros somos enemigos de ese parlamentarismo y de esos partidos políticos. Necesitamos partidos nuevos, partidos distintos. Necesitamos partidos que estén en contacto efectivo y permanente con las masas y sepan dirigirlas.

Extraído de V.I. Lenin, Discurso acerca del papel del Partido Comunista. IIº Congreso de la Internacional Comunista (23 de julio de 1920). Obras Escogidas, Tomo XI. Editorial Progreso, Moscú, pp. 187,188.

Greece - 36 trade union leaders of PAME were brutally attacked and arreste

Yesterday, Wednesday, February 30th, 36 trade union leaders of PAME, members of its Executive Secretariat and Presidents of trade unions were brutally attacked and arrested inside the Ministry of Employment.
The Greek government of “Law and Order” did hot hesitate to brutally attack against the dozens of representatives of trade unions (Presidents, Secretaries, etc) who demanded a meeting with the Minister of Employment, in order to protest for his provocative and antilabour statements on social security. Those who daily butcher workers’ rights, ordered the forces of riot police to attack against the workers.
If the government believes that with these attempts, they will terrorize PAME and the class trade union movement they will be proven wrong once again.
We reassure them, and their bosses, that their barbarity will only result to new, great storms of workers’ struggles. PAME calls all workers, all trade unions, from Greece and all over the world to massively condemn the governmental violence and oppression, to escalate and intensify their struggles.

Down with the Law and Order of the Capital
Law is what is right for the worker

PAME is now on continuous demonstrations and protests demanding the immediate release of the arrested.
PAME will issue statement very soon
Nikolas Theodorakis

 

CPN-Maoist forms five commands

KATHMANDU, Jan 30: Centralizing power of the party organization, CPN-Maoist has formed five commands dissolving its six geographical and two non-geographical bureaus keeping in mind the party´s upcoming struggle programs. The meeting of the party central committee on Tuesday held at the party head office in Buddha Nagar also reshuffled responsibilities appointing party top leaders, including -vice-chairman CP Gajurel and general secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa, as command in-charges. The party will make its struggle programs public on Wednesday by holding a press meet. “The commands have been formed by downsizing the bureaus in a bid to streamline party activities,” said Jayapuri Gharti Magar, central committee member.
The Maoists had formed such commands also during the insurgency. General Secretary Thapa has been appointed in-charge of the central command. Thapa held the same post during the insurgency. Similarly, vice-chairman Gajurel has been appointed in-charge of the international command. Gajuel also held the same post during the insurgency. The central command is supposed to be very important as it also comprises the capital. Newa, Tamsaling, Bhojpura and Mithila state committees would also be under the central command. Earlier, Bhojpura and Mithila state committees were under the Madhes bureau. Similarly, Khadga Bahadur Bishwakarma has been appointed in-charge of eastern command comprising Kirat, Limbuwan and Kochila state committees. Similarly, mid-western command would be headed by party leader Indra Mohan Sigdel.
The mid-western command would comprise Tamuwan, Magarat and Abadh state committees. The Abadh state committee was under the Madhes bureau in the past. There was no mid-western command during the insurgency. Likewise, Dharmendra Banstola has been appointed in-charge of the western command comprising Bheri-Karnali, Tharuwan and Seti-Mahakali state committees. Similarly, Kul Prasad KC has been appointed in-charge of Tamsaling state committee. Hit Man Shakya has been reappointed as in-charge of Newa state committee.
The remaining state committee in-charges retain their positions. The CPN-Maoist has a total of 14 geographical and non-geographical state committees. The meeting also removed the post of co-in-charge from the party´s organizational structure. There were more than one co-in-charges in the state, district and area committees. “The struggle programs to be made public by the party will be publicity-oriented,” said Anil Sharma Birahi, central committee member.

support people's war in India -ANURADHA GHANDY ON COLONIAL AND POST-COLONIAL ANTI-BRHAMINICAL AND DALIT LIBERATION MOVEMENTS BY ASIT DAS

Apart from historicizing the caste question in its emergence and feudal mode of production, Com. Anuradha wrote perceptibly in the Anti-Brahminical and Dalit Movement in Colonial and Post-Colonial India, including mapping the anti-Brahminical Bhakti Movement. Her writings on Phule, Ambedkar, Periyar and Dalit assertions in Maharashtra assumes importance because those were important milestones in the sub-altern resistance to Brahminical oppression in India.

The anti-Brahminical movements in India, especially in Maharashtra, are important because the specific characteristics of Indian caste feudalism and the way it was transformed and yet essentially maintained by British colonial rule, defined the specific anti-feudal tasks of the Indian revolution. The most basic anti-feudal task the land question took on, was the extremely complex features as a result of Indian caste feudalism. Because of the way in which hierarchical relations were maintained within the village and among the exploited classes themselves, and because of the way in which productive work for the land was institutionalized through the jajmani/palotedarisystem, it was insufficient to look at the land question simply in terms of landlordism. Similarly, the slogan of ‘land to the tiller’ was abstract and insufficient in the Indian context without understanding the overall Brahminical domination. For the fact was that much of the land had two tillers– the cultivating middle caste peasant, whether tenant or ryot, and the Dalit field servant, whose connection to the land was equally long-standing.

 

The very inequality among the exploited, institutionalized through the feudal caste hierarchy, meant that the need for creating unity in the context of resolving land question was crucial. It is hard to see how this could be done without a specific programme of action constituting poor peasants including Dalits, as well as caste Hindu toilers who would have the responsibility of seizing and distributing the village lands and instituting necessary programmes of co-operative and collective agriculture.

 

Though attempts were begun by the Dalit castes from the late 19^th century to organize themselves, the various sections of Dalit liberation movement really began to take off from the 1920s in the context of the strong social reform and anti-caste movements, which were beginning to develop a genuine mass base. The non-Brahmin movements in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu especially provided an important support. It is not accidental that Jyotirao Phule, the mali (gardener caste) who lived in the middle of the 19^th century, made the initial ideological advances and formulated a theory of Brahminism and ‘Irani Aryabhat’ conquest turning the Aryan theory upside down to identify with the original ‘non-Aryan’ Shudra and anti-Shudra inhabitants of the country.
 

Dalits, to some extent, were organizing the 19^th century also. An early attempt in Maharashtra was the movement of Gopal Babu Wangankar. Much organizing focused on the effort to regain their rights to serve in the British Indian Army, which they had helped till the 1870s, but which was then withdrawn from them. It was in the 1920s, however, that the Dalits began to organize strongly and independently throughout many regions of India. The most important of the early Dalit movements were the Adi-Dharma movement in Punjab (organized in 1926); the movement under Ambedkar in Maharashtra, mainly based among Maharas, which had its organizational beginnings in 1924; the Nama-Shudra movement in Bengal; the Adi-Dravida movement in Tamil Nadu; the Adi-Karnataka movement; the Adi-Hindu movement mainly centered around Kanpur in UP; and the organising of the Pulayas and Cherumans in Kerala. (For details see Mark Juergensmeier, “Adi Dharm: Origins of a Revolutionary Religion” University of California Press; Eleanor Zelliot, “Learning the Use of Political Means: The Mahars of Maharashtra”. In: Rajni Kothari, ed, "Caste in Indian Politics", Orient Longman, 1970. J.H. Broom-field, "Elite Conflict in a Plural Society: Twentieth Century Bengal" (University of California Press, 1968).

 

In most of the cases the Montagu - Chelmsford Reforms provided a spark for this organization of Dalits, but the crucial background was the massive economic and political upheavals of the post-war period. The movements had a linguistic-national organizational base and varied according to the specific social characteristics in different areas, but there was considerable all-India exchange of ideas and by the 1930s this began to take the shape of all India conferences with Ambedkar emerging as the clear national leader of the movement. The founding of the Scheduled Castes Federation in 1942, and its later conversion into the Republican Party, gave Dalits a genuine all-India political organization, though this remained weak, except in certain specific localities, and did not by any means constitute the entire Dalit movement (Bharat Patenkar, Gail Omvedt: The Dalit Liberation Movement in Colonial Period). Writing about the Non-Brahmin movement in Maharashtra led by Jyotiba Phule, Com. Anuradha says, "The movement began with the founding of the Satyasashodak Samaj in Pune. The rise of Satyasashodak Samaj (SS) took place in the context of a rise of Brahminical Hindu revivalism in western India in the 1870s, with its base in Pune, which put the upper caste reformers on the defensive. After working as a social reformer for almost 20 years, Jyotiba Phule founded the SS in 1873 in Pune. The main task of the SS was to make the non-Brahmins conscious of their exploitation by the Brahmins. Phule himself belonged to the malicaste, a caste involved in the cultivation of vegetables, and their trade in the vicinity of Pune. His family was middle class and he was educated in a mission school. The SS did not restrict its activities to any particular caste and worked among the various non-Brahmin (NB) castes in the rural areas of Thane, Pune and later in other districts in Bombay Province and Berar. They also worked among the workers in the textile mills of Bombay. The songs, booklets and plays written by Phule used a popular hard-hitting style and language to expose the various ways in which the Brahmins duped the people, especially the peasants. The SS interpreted the racial theory of the origin of caste in the context of popular tradition - the Aryan invaders had enslaved the local peasantry, the rule of Baliraja, the peasant king was defeated - showing the links of the SS with the democratic sentiments of the peasantry.

 

In Phule's time, the SS campaigned for social reform - they rejected their own feudal-style marriages and adopted the SS marriages, which were based on principles of equality, mutual respect and loyalty between husband and wife. The SS reform campaign in Phule's time led to a strike by barbers who decided not to tonsure widows leading to tensions in the village. Phule ran a paper called Din Bandhu. His main supporters were Telugu contractors and workers in the textile mills. The first reformist organization among the textile workers of Bombay, the Mill Hands Association, was formed in 1890 by N.M. Lokhande under Phule's guidance. This association represented the grievances of the mill workers till it was pushed aside by the militant trade unions that emerged among the workers in the aftermath of the First World War. Phule promoted modern agriculture among the peasantry and personally bought land to experiment and set an example before them. He was influenced by the democratic American writings of Tom Paine and the principles of liberty and equality. He wrongly believed that British rule had destroyed the role of Brahmins and brought modern education to all castes, and hence was a supporter of the colonial rule in the country.
 

After Phule's death, the activists of the SS continued to work. The fact that units of the SS were formed in villages not only in the districts like Ahmednagar, Satara, Kolhapur, but also in the Berar region in Amravati, shows that the growing peasant consciousness was being mobilized through the SS in the beginning of the 20^thcentury. Their propaganda struck a chord among the peasantry. Campaigns against social problems like drinking and against untouchability were taken up. The SS also took up the problems of the peasants, promoting co-operatives among them. The contradictions in the rural areas were expressed by the SS as a conflict between the Shetji/Bhatji and the Bahujan Samaj (money lender/priest and the masses).
 

The SS functioned systematically, holding annual conferences after 1910, and bringing out a magazine. SS tamashas (the dramas) have toured the villages, singing songs and putting up performers to spread their message. The basic content of the activities was anti-feudal. The propaganda of an SS tamasha led to a spontaneous revolt of the peasants against Brahmin landlords in 1919 in Satara. The peasants were demanding a reduction in the rent. They broke idols and abused the gods and the wives of the Brahmins. This revolt was not supported by the landlord sections of the NBs in the rural areas. Nonetheless, SS activity continued and SS activists were involved in peasant agitations in other districts in the 1920s. The SS attacked the feudal authority in rural areas and aroused the democratic consciousness of the peasants. The SS campaigns led to the exodus of Brahmin landlords from the villages in western Maharashtra. It laid the ground for the militant anti-imperialist struggles led by the peasantry in the region in the 1940s, like the Patri Sarkar movement in Satara, when a parallel authority was set up against the British.
 

The SS Movement was the main movement in the early part of the 20^th century in Maharashtra through which the anti-feudal, anti-caste sentiments of the peasant masses of the middle castes were expressed. It dealt a blow to Brahminical hegemony and feudal relations in the countryside. But since the leadership of the movement restricted their attack to caste ideology and failed to put forward a programme to break the foundations of the caste system, in the concentration of land, the main means of production, they could reform the caste system and feudalism and not break it. Hence, they were unable to fulfil the interests of the lower caste (Anuradha Ghandy: “Caste Question in India”).
 

The anti-Brahmnical movement was an important milestone in colonial and post-colonial India to challenge the Brahminical hegemony and struggle for democratization in Tamil Nadu. E.V. Periyar Ramaswamy Naicker “Periyar” played a stellar role in this. Apart from this, there were social reform movements like the Madras Hindu Social Reform Association formed in 1892 for promoting education of women, reform of marriage, abolition of untouchability, etc. However, the Self-Respect Movement led by Periyar was much more radical and mass-based, though Periyar also used the platform of Justice Party, which has a more landlord upper caste base. Writing about Periyar’s Self-Respect Movement and the Justice Party, Com. Anuradha says, "The Justice Party was led by and clearly represented the interests of big landlords and merchants from among the upper castes among the non-Brahmins only. Periyar's movement was based on wider support of the rising working class, the middle class and the traders, especially in urban centers like Erode, Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem, Tiruchirapalli, Tuticorin and other towns. At its peak, the Self-Respect Movement took up the activities of propagating against money lenders’ exploitation and the problems of the peasantry.
 

While the Justice Party took a strong pro-British stand, anti-colonial intellectuals among the non -Brahmins, many of whom were active within the Congress, for instance, Kesava Pillai, EVR, and Dr. Varadharajulu, formed the Madras Presidency Association in 1917 to press for full communal representation for the non-Brahmins.
 

E.V. Ramaswamy "Periyar" formed the Self-Respect Movement "Suyamariyathai Lyakkam" after he walked out of Congress in 1925 for their unwillingness to support separate representation for the non-Brahmins. The conservative, pro-feudal, pro-Varna positions of the Congress leadership had led to tensions within Congress - between Brahmins and non-Brahmins. Periyar’s movement was concentrated in Tamil areas of the Presidency. It was oriented towards the oppressed castes, including the untouchables, and he took active steps to involve women and the youth. They ran a magazine called “Kudi Arasu”. Militant attacks, with an atheistic approach, were launched by the Self-Respect Movement, not only on Brahmins, but also on the religion itself, on superstition, caste dimensions and caste privileges. Periyar wanted to arouse self-respect and feeling of equality among the lower castes. They upheld the pride in Tamil language and opposed the use of Sanskrit. They propagated a ban on the use of Brahmin priests for marriages and popularized self-respect marriages; they opposed the use of the Thali, called for the abolition of caste names, and ridiculed the epics like the Ramayana. Periyar’s style was direct, propagandist and very popular. By struggling for the equality of all castes and breaking the hold of religion, the movement paved the way for a materialist analysis.
 

In the 1930s, the Self-Respect Movement, under the influence of communists in Tamil Nadu, and the influence of Periyar’s trip to the USSR, supported socialism. Communists like Singaravellu propagated materialist philosophy and socialism through the magazine. During that period, two trends were active within the Self-Respect Movement, one which wanted to take up anti-capitalist propaganda and activity. The Self-Respect socialists began organizing on problems of the peasantry along with their regular conferences. Under the influence of the CPI leaders, the Self-Respect socialists (Samadharma group) merged with the Congress Socialist Party in November 1936 (Anuradha Ghandy: “Caste Question in India”).
 

The Revolutionary left alternative complementarity of anti-capitalist and anti-caste movements -

the move away from traditional Marxist theory was initiated from the 1970s when serious efforts were made both theoretically and politically to build bridges between Communist and Dalit Movements. The Dalit Panthers made serious efforts in this direction in the early 1970s. This was followed by two important interventions by Marxist scholar activists in the 1980s.
 

Dalit Panther Manifesto written in 1973, defined Dalits as not only the SC and Buddhist converts, but also laboring class, agricultural laborers, landlords and poor farmers, nomadic tribes and Adivasis. This way of definition is different from conventional categorization and it reflected very strong class factors. Similarly, the manifesto spelled out landlords, capitalists, money lenders, imperialists and bureaucrats as enemies. The political parties, depending on religious sentiment and casteism, and the government patronizing them, were also blamed as Panther’s enemies. The ideologue of the group Namdeo Dhasal, emphasized that not only caste system but also class system, should be eradicated. He further argued "casteists, capitalists, and religious leaders are all controlled by the Hindu feudal system. Therefore, issue of untouchability has not remained to be only psychological or mental slavery".
 

This perspective of Indian social system reminds us of a slightly different version of historical materialism than advocated by the traditional Marxist. This attempt at bringing together the twin agenda of anti-capitalist and anti-caste struggle rested on asserting the materiality of caste exploitation. It firmly rejected the relegation of caste to superstructure and untouchability to the realm of mental or cultural subjugation. In the early 1980s, an important intervention was made to explain the continued relevance of pre-capitalist relations in the “modern time” (Kumar Sanjay Singh: Foreword to Annihilation of Caste by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Published by Students for Resistance; Delhi, 2012). Writing about the Dalit Movement in Maharashtra after Ambedkar, Com. Anuradha says, "Discontent with the existing political and economic situation among the youth of the newly converted Dalits burst forth in 1973 in Bombay, in the form of the Dalit Panther Movement.” The general political and economic situation among the youth of the newly converted Dalits burst forth in 1973 in Bombay, in the form of Dalit Panther Movement. The general political and economic crisis in the country, the revolutionary upsurge of students and youth around the world, the frustration of the newly educated Dalit Youth who found their desire for equality smothered, confronted by discrimination and unemployment, led to the emergence of the Dalit Panther Movement. The Movement challenged not only Congress rule, but also the corruption ridden RPI leadership.
 

On 15 August 1973, Raja Dhale wrote an article in “Sadhana” exposing the hoax of Indian Independence. Dhale abused the Indian flag since it had given the scheduled castes neither equality nor freedom from oppression.
 

The issue of “Sadhna”was banned by the Maharashtra government. This was the spark that gave birth to the Dalit Panthers. A literature of protest burst forth, attacking all forms of discrimination, mocking at those "immersed in plastering withering leaves" expressing the anguish of the injuries ploughed into their banks, calling upon countless suns aflame with blood to advance setting afire town after town. Namdev Dhasal, Yeshwant Manohar, Daya Pawar, Keshav Mesharam and many others achieved overnight fame. The literature of revolt vowed to take revenge for the centuries of oppression; it sprang up on notice boards, in slums, in small magazines and posters. Taking inspiration from Black Panthers, this movement gave itself a name - Dalit Panthers. Meetings were held, the Bhagwat Gita burnt; campaigns to break the practice of untouchablitiy in various forms were organized. In a short span of six months, militant organizational units sprang up in innumerable slums of Bombay and Pune. The state, taken aback by the spontaneous growth and the intensity of this movement, launched attacks on the Dalit Panthers, not directly, but through Shiv Sena. Minor reasons were utilized in order to arrest activists of Dalit Panthers, and to beat them up in order to prevent them from spreading. (Anuradha Ghandy: “Caste Question in India”).
 

Ambedkar
 

The anti-caste or anti-Brahmincal movement in India cannot be understood without discussing the phenomenal contribution of Dr. Ambedkar. He not only led the Dalits, but also had written extensively on the caste system and Dalit liberation strategies. His annihilation of caste is an extremely important tract for any serious anti-caste struggle. Writing about the "Annihilation of Caste”, Dr. Anand Teltumbde says, "What the communist manifesto is to the capitalist world, Annihilation of castes may be to the caste India!”Unlike Marx and Engels, who consciously wrote the Communist Manifesto as the clarion call for proletariat to revolt, Babasaheb Ambedkar did not have any idea that the presidential speech he was drafting to be delivered in the annual conference of Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal of Lahore in May 1936 would turn out to be the manifesto against the Hindu Caste System. Because of its hard-hitting attack on the Hindu religion, which in his analysis came out to be the source of caste system, the organizers of the Hindu Reformist Mandal had cancelled the conference and the undelivered speech, therefore, was published in the book form. The period in which this text was written is the momentous period in Ambedkar’s life. As is well known, Ambedkar has started off with the civil rights movement of the untouchables, which he thought would sensitize Hindus to undertake due reforms within the society to remove untouchability and other inhuman practices vis-a-vis the then untouchables. But the bitter experience in the very first struggle of this kind at Mahad, where the Dalits were brutally attacked for having dared to pollute the Chardar Tank, impelled him to rethink this approach. Although he tried to persist with it by calling a satyagraha after eight months at the very same Chavdar Tank, which was again thwarted by the caste Hindus, this time with an injunction from the court, and also supported some of the temple entry movements thereafter undertaken by his followers, he turned his focus towards the political arena. In the Round Table conferences he had successfully won separate electorates for the untouchables decimating the spirited opposition of Mahatma Gandhi. However, when Gandhi declared his fast unto death against this Communal Award, provoking in turn the entire caste Hindu hostility against Dalits, he had to compromise by accepting the increased number of reserved seats for Dalits but through joint electorates (Dr. Anand Teltumbde: Forward to Annihilation of Castes Students for Resistance Delhi).
 

Communists ignored his struggles as "Superstructural" and hence unimportant. This conduct of the communes led him away from them. Lamenting the increasing divergence and hostility between these two camps of proletariats today, viz., left and Dalits, one is tempted to imagine the revolutionary possibilities if the communists had duly empathized with and cohered with Ambedkar’s vision.
 

Evaluating Ambedkar's important role in Anti-Caste and Dalit Liberation Movement, Com. Anuradha writes, "Following the tradition of the earlier Non-Brahmin Movement Ambedkar did not participate in the nationalist movement though Ambedkar was aware of the exploitation of the British and Depressed classes realized that they needed Swaraj to develop the movement, he felt that it could not take on two enemies (i.e., the upper castes and the British) at the same time. So they targeted their attack on the caste system. Throughout his political career, Ambedkar was a firm opponent of Gandhi and he exposed the hypocrisy of the Congress leadership on the issue of eradicating untouchability.
 

Ambedkar played a very important role in mobilizing the lowest castes in Maharashtra to struggle against caste oppression and to demand equality. He gave the people, suppressed for centuries, a self-identity in which they developed a pride in being from the Mahar Community, and he gave them the self-confidence that, given equal opportunities, they were no less than members of the higher castes. The almost total conversion of the entire Mahar Community to Buddhism in 1956 served to encourage this sense of identity and pride. The pubic rejection of Hinduism which sanctifies inequality and caste discrimination and public conversion to a religion based on egalitarian principles, is another symbol of desire for equality. It includes also a rejection of the old feudal ideology of Brahminical ritualism.” (Anuradha Ghandy: Caste Question in India”) Underlying the necessity of Marxists having a correct understanding of Ambedkar’s role in revolutionary struggles, she writes, "There has always been a controversy on the evaluation of Ambedkar among communist issues like his attitude to communists, his attitude to violence or his role in trade union movement have been presented to judge Ambedkar. But what is significant in such an evaluation, form a Marxist point of view, is his objective role, in the process of democratic transformation of society.

The democratic transformation of India required a revolutionary struggle against the backwardness and semi-feudal agrarian relations in rural India. The Caste System had been part of the pre-capitalist feudal economy. Caste ideology was part of the traditional feudal culture and ideology. Therefore, to smash the caste system and actively fight caste-based oppression were an integral part of the democratic transformation of our society. Ambedkar and the Dalit movement led by him were an important part of this democratic current against caste feudalism. By asserting the identity of the Dalits, by demanding equality, by attacking the feudal ideology of Hinduism, Ambedkar fought for democracy in social life. But Ambedkar did not connect the caste system with wider agrarian relations in a comprehensive manner. He did not conceptualize the role played by the British in perpetuating and defending this backward exploitative agrarian economy. Hence, his movement remained one part of anti-feudal current. And this led Ambedkar to place hope in constitutional means for gaining political equality. Ambedkar was a leading liberal reformer of his time. He is a source of inspiration for the Dalits not only in Maharasthra, but in other states as well. For Dalits, who have acquired education but face caste discrimination, who demand equality but are denied it in various ways, subtle and crude, he is a symbol of their identity and desire to gain equality (“Caste Question in India”).

Taking to task the mainstream parliamentary left parties like CPI and CPM for their mechanical and opportunistic attitude towards anti-caste struggle, Com. Anuradha writes, "In India the traditional communists (CPI, CPM, etc.) have generally, viewed class struggle as primarily, an economic struggle. They have, most often viewed the caste struggle as dividing the people. What they did not realize is that the people are already divided on caste lines and the basis of unity must be equality (and that higher caste prejustices must be fought in order to gain equality). Also, class struggle is not merely an economic struggle, it is a struggle between the oppressed and the oppressor for control over the main means of production and the political life of society. It includes the struggle in economic, political, social and ideological spheres, and the key aspect of revolutionary class struggle is not economic struggle but political struggle - the struggle for the seizure of political power. In rural India, this struggle for political power involves the smashing of the feudal and caste authority. In the countryside, and also the setting up of new bodies (where the higher castes are not allowed to automatically dominate) through which peoples power is exercised.

The reason why the revisionist CPI and CPM have basically negated the caste question are three:

· First, they did not view the agrarian struggle as primarily anti-feudal and so did not see the significance of attacking caste oppression as part of the anti-feudal struggle.

· Second, because of their reformist politics, and their immersion in economic struggles and electoral battles, caste oppression was not merely negated but brushed aside, as the bulk of the organized workers are from the higher castes and the biggest vote banks are also from the higher castes.

· Third, because of a mechanical linking between the base and the superstructure, they did not feel the need to fight casteist outlook and maintained that common economic struggles will automatically bring together all castes and remove caste bias. Ideologically, they replaced dialectical materialism with mechanical materialism and assumed a one-to-one relationship between the base and superstrucuture by further maintaining that, with the transformation into socialist society all caste biases will automatically disappear. Influenced by the theory of productive forces whereby, they maintained that social relations of production will automatically change with a development of the productive forces. (Anuradha Ghandy: The Caste Question Returns. In: Scripting the Change - Selected Writings of Anuradha Ghandy; Daanish Books, New Delhi).

Com. Anuradha had a sharp eye on the Mandal Kamandal debate and anti-reservation struggles. About the opportunist and anti-Dalit prejudices of the ruling class parties and the reactionary nature of anti-reservation agitations, especially the anti-Mandal agitation, she writes, “ In an attempt to check the BJP’s efforts to dislodge it, the Janata Dal Government announced the implementation of reservations for the OBCs. But this was widely opposed by the upper castes in the form of anti-reservation agitations. The extent of the upper caste control over the government bureaucracy and prestigious professions can be seen from their violence and aggressiveness against the implementation of the Manda Commision. The Comprador bureaucrat bouorgeoise and its media gave wide publicity to this agitation which was restricted to elite institutions. The techniques they used, like self-immolation to those their opposition, also gave their agitation mere publicity. The upper caste sections of the bureaucracy also support the agitation. The agitating students were from ABVP and NSUI, although both the Congress and the BJP opportunistically remained silent during the agitation.

While recognizing the implementation of reservation policy for OBCs, will in spite of income limits, favour the landlord elite sections of the OBC castes and in that only a few castes may gain, yet the fact is that most of the OBCs are poor and landless peasants or those eking out of their subsistence in their traditional occupation. Reservations will provide only a very few small sections among them a secure middle class existence, for the majority the agrarian order to be overturned in order to give security and a better life. But the middle castes have hardly been represented in the administration and they have a right to their share in this sector.

The extent of caste prejudice and caste feelings that are nurtured and bred among the so-called modern sections of the upper castes has been revealed by the vehemence of the anti-reservation agitations. There is a need to oppose the anti-reservation agitations for what they are – an attempt by the reactionary sections of the uppermost castes to maintain their monopoly over the states’resources and prestigious lucrative professions with their vicious elitist castes biases. It is nothing but an indirect attempt to perpetuate the caste system by keeping the Dalits and the lower sections of the OBCs as menials and labourers to be exploited at will (Anuradha Ghandy: “Caste Question in India”).

against British intervention in Mali

UK to send troops to Mali for war "War on Terror" in Africa : British Prime Minister Cameron in Algeria

Democracy and Class Struggle  says Cameron's and the Head of MI6's visit to Algeria confirms the interlinked events in this region.


Britain does not want to be left out in the battle for resources from Africa - The Ango/French Entente Imperialism is planning the re- Colonialisation of Africa in the 21st century.

The visit of Cameron to Algeria is part of the new Imperialist design.

In reality, the dispatch of French commandos to the uranium mines in Niger only underscores the overriding economic and geo-strategic motives behind the French military intervention in Mali. Under the cover of a supposed war against Islamist “terrorists” and a defense of the central government in Mali, French imperialism is using its military might to tighten its grip on its resource-rich former African colonies.

From Brazil - hommage to comrade Tonhao

Homenagem ao companheiro Tonhão

 

 

Reproduzimos este artigo da Liga Operária em homenagem ao companheiro Tonhão, falecido recentemente. A reportagem de A Nova Democracia cobriu o ato realizado em Belo horizonte em sua homenagem e publicará um artigo sobre a sua vida e luta nas ‘Figuras da Classe Operária’ na próxima edição.

Por Liga Operária

O Companheiro Tonhão foi, acima de tudo, um revolucionário, um combatente da classe. Como tantos heróis anônimos do proletariado, Tonhão não é uma figura conhecida. Ele nunca buscou reconhecimento pessoal, sempre se dedicou inteiramente à causa de libertação de nosso povo e do socialismo.
Filho de uma família de operários revolucionários, nasceu em 3 de outubro de 1947 no povoado de Marinhos, município de Brumadinho, em Minas Gerais. Viveu, trabalhou e lutou a maior parte de sua vida em bairros proletários das regiões industriais de Belo Horizonte e Contagem.
Sua mãe, uma camponesa que ao vir para a cidade nos anos de 1940 se tornou uma proletária, foi o primeiro membro da família ao ingressar nas fileiras do Partido Comunista e conduziu todos seus filhos para a militância.
Em meados da década de 1960, Tonhão e um grupo de companheiros romperam com o PCBrasileiro dirigido por Luiz Carlos Prestes, fundaram a Corrente Revolucionária e, logo em seguida, aderiram à Ação Libertadora Nacional, dirigida por Marighella.
Atuou na histórica e vitoriosa greve dos metalúrgicos da Belgo e Mannesman em 1968, que obrigou os generais a ceder um aumento aos trabalhadores.
Participou de diversas expropriações de bancos e outras ações armadas, entre elas se destacou a expropriação do Banco de Minas Gerais, também em Ibirité, ação na qual foi preso após enfrentar o cerco policial para possibilitar a retirada de seus companheiros. Cumprindo uma orientação da ALN de não se entregar vivo aos verdugos do regime militar, Tonhão deu um tiro no próprio peito, mas sobreviveu. Ainda no hospital foi torturado pelos covardes carrascos militares. Passou anos na prisão e manteve irredutível posição de defesa da luta armada e da revolução.
Após ser solto, enfrentou diversos problemas de saúde, mas continuou apoiando como pôde a luta de nosso povo. As sequelas físicas e mentais provocadas pela prisão e torturas debilitaram muito a sua saúde. Suportou e enfrentou todas essas dificuldades com firmeza e dignidade.
Em 19 de janeiro, na sede do Sindicato dos Metalúrgicos de BH/Contagem e Região, foi realizado um ato em homenagem a esse bravo companheiro que faleceu em 2 de setembro do ano passado, após enfrentar um câncer e uma grave cirurgia para reparar problemas circulatórios resultantes de um tiro que recebera em um enfrentamento com a polícia nos anos de 1960.
Várias pessoas entre familiares, companheiros de luta, dirigentes sindicais e representantes de organizações classistas compareceram ao ato convocado pelo Movimento Feminino Popular e pela Liga Operária. Com canções e poemas revolucionários, depoimentos sobre a vida e luta de Tonhão rendemos nossa sincera homenagem reafirmando nosso firme compromisso de prosseguir com a sua luta.

Publicado por dazibao rojo en 12:29 a.m. No hay comentarios:

in the next days issue of acts with all interventions of international conference support people's war hamburg 24 november

A presentation of these acts will be organised in various countries with the presence if International Commitee
News about new phase of actions in the world will be presented and debated
all peoples, parties and  organisations that want to realise these events

info-contact
csgpindia@gmail.com

Unofficial traslation

The meeting of the International Committee to support people's war in India was held in Italy on January 19th to assess the great success of the International Conference held in Hamburg on November 24 last year.

All the forces part of the Committee attended the meeting or given their support in various forms.To them were added other participants from Spain and Brazil.

After the introducing speech and the debate, the meeting has made several decisions, in all fields of activity, that will be included in the report being prepared that will submitted internationally for the discussion, by sending directly to all the participating and interested forces.

The first decisions are:

1) The issuing, within this month, the booklet of the Conference in English, Italian and Spanish, and, in the next months, relying on the forces that wish to take up this task, in French, Spanish, other languages (Turkish, Hindi, Arabic, etc..).

2) The participation of the Committee in different countries at the international initiatives for 8^th March and 1^st of May.

3) To promote a new militant international day of struggle, to be held within springtime, in forms coordinated with the Committee, in as many as possible countries in the world. The date will be agreed following the consultation with all the forces of the international conference.

The meeting calls all forces and the comrades to join more and more in the ranks of the International Committee under the slogans and spirit of the great International Conference of Hamburg.

International Committee to support people's war in India
January 2013

csgpondia@gmail.com

France : Manifestation à Lille pour Georges Abdallah

Quarante personnes,  ont manifesté ce dimanche pour la libération de Georges Abdallah. La manifestation a traversé les marchés d’un quartier populaire de Lille avec de terminer devant la préfecture. Appel a été lancé pour le samedi suivant.

¡Abajo la intervención imperialista en África!

Apenas acaban de retirar las tropas (de combate) de  Afganistán (aún quedan 1.400 efectivos para "formación" y "logística"), cuando el imperialismo francés ya interviene en Mali.

Al hablar de intervención militar:

·         No podemos olvidar que son los imperialistas americanos los que han apoyado las fuerzas reaccionarias en Afganistán para luchar contra la invasión del social-imperialismo soviético.

·         No podemos olvidar que es la intervención imperialista americana la que ha destruido Iraq y sembrado el caos.

·         No podemos olvidar las resoluciones ignoradas de la ONU contra la política colonialista de Israel en Palestina.

·         No podemos olvidar las diferentes intervenciones imperialistas en los países árabes apoyando las nuevas fuerzas reaccionarias, para conquistar los mercados y círculos de influencia y confundir la justa revuelta popular.

África se ha convertido en el campo de batalla económico entre los imperialistas occidentales, los nuevos imperialistas (China, Rusia) y los países emergentes (Brasil e India). Los antiguos imperialistas  que conservan intereses en África gracias a la colonización y al colonialismo moderno  quieren  defenderlos a toda costa, mientras que los nuevos imperialistas y los países emergentes buscan conquistar a todo coste otros nuevos.

Es en este contexto que el imperialismo francés interviene regularmente de diferentes maneras en  África para proteger sus intereses, como ha ocurrido recientemente en Costa de Marfil. También se está preparando para reforzar su presencia en Somalia. Muchos países están incluso preocupados por las cláusulas de confidencialidad de intervención francesa en caso de desestabilización del poder.

El imperialismo francés, que sostiene los antiguos perros guardianes de Mali, tiene hoy como objetivo proteger los intereses de Francia, es decir, continuar y ampliar el saqueo organizado de materias primas. La intervención contra los grupos islamistas es el pretexto que utiliza Francia para justificar su intervención militar.

Por supuesto que las fuerzas fundamentalistas islámicas son reaccionarias y enemigas del pueblo, utilizando la miseria causada por el imperialismo. Pero es importante darse cuenta de que la "amenaza islamista" es tan sólo un pretexto usado por los imperialistas para neutralizar las revueltas populares en África y desviar la ira del pueblo en Europa y otros países. Es una maniobra más para enfrentar a una parte de la clase obre a contra otra e implantar una salida fascista de la crisis. Con el tiempo no se excluye la movilización para una nueva guerra de reparto a nivel mundial. El objetivo de los gobiernos, de izquierdas y de derechas, es mantener a toda costa la dominación del capitalismo sobre todos los pueblos del mundo.

Pero hay fuerzas en el mundo que se oponen a los explotadores y opresores y que dirigen la guerra popular bajo la dirección de partidos comunistas  maoístas como está ocurriendo en India, Filipinas, Turquía, mientras que en muchos países crecen y se reconstruyen los nuevos partidos comunistas maoístas para preparar y extender la guerra popular contra los imperialistas y perros guardianes, independientemente de la máscara bajo la que  se esconden, laicos o religiosos.

Como se declaró en la Conferencia Internacional de Apoyo a la Guerra Popular en la India, que reunió a representantes de fuerzas revolucionarias de 20 países, el mejor apoyo posible a los pueblos en lucha es el de desarrollar la lucha revolucionaria en nuestros respectivos países. Aquí en Francia, nuestra primera tarea consiste en oponerse a nuestro propio imperialismo. Esta es la única manera de acabar con el imperialismo, el sistema capitalista de explotación y opresión, la única manera de poner fin a la guerra.

¡Abajo la intervención y las maniobras del imperialismo en África!

¡Viva la lucha de los pueblos contra los perros guardianes y los reaccionarios de todo tipo!

Partido Comunista  maoísta de Francia

Organizaciones maoístas y organizaciones antiimperialistas en varios países europeos realizando varios programas en solidaridad con la Guerra Popular en marcha en nuestro país – son todos fenómenos favorables.

“¡Oponerse a las brutales ofensivas de las clases gobernantes indias! ¡Intensificar la Guerra Popular y derrotar la `Operación Green Hunt´ - `Guerra contra el Pueblo´!" - Comunicado de Prensa de la Comisión Militar Central del Partido Comunista de la India (Maoísta) – 30 Noviembre 2012 (Extracto)

La  crisis financiera del capitalismo mundial se está profundizando y extendiendo aún más. Los imperialistas se enfrentan entre sí para saquear todo tipo de fuentes (humanas, materiales) en los países atrasados además de aumentar la explotación sobre los trabajadores y las clases medias en sus países a fin de superar esta crisis. Los ataques sobre los sijs, asiáticos orientales, surasiáticos, musulmanes y árabes aumentaron enormemente mientras el racismo aumenta desmesuradamente en los países imperialistas. Los obreros, jóvenes, mujeres y clases medias se movilizan en varios países europeos contra estas políticas económicas neoliberales. Los partidos proletarios y organizaciones populares progresistas vuelven a cobrar fuerza. Las luchas antiimperialistas se intensifican en varias formas en todos los países atrasados. Mientras gobernantes pronorteamericanos han alcanzado nuevamente el poder tras la Primavera Árabe bajo otro disfraz, el pueblo está comprendiendo inevitablemente la necesidad de escoger el camino revolucionario. Las luchas de resistencia de las nacionalidades oprimidas continúan en varios países. El pueblo musulmán se alzó como una tormenta por todo el mundo contra la película norteamericana que insultaba al Islam. El avance de las Guerras Populares en Filipinas e India, las fuerzas revolucionarias separándose del PCUN (M) en Nepal oponiéndose a su línea revisionista; fuerzas maoístas actuando en países como Turquía, Perú, Bangladesh, etc. Organizaciones maoístas y organizaciones antiimperialistas en varios países europeos realizando varios programas en solidaridad con la Guerra Popular en marcha en nuestro país – son todos fenómenos favorables.

Nota: La traducción al español es responsabilidad de Gran Marcha Hacia el Comunismo (Madrid)

Foreign Troops, Out of Mali! - (From the Partisan No. 33)

As the France-led military intervention in Mali goes into its second week, our Canadian government has been more than happy to help out in the western imperialists’ plot to secure its exploitative access to the region’s energy and mineral resources.
Since January 17, the Canadian government has been flying in troops, military supplies and machinery to aid the French military’s fight against loosely-allied forces of Islamist militants that have taken over much of northern Mali and some cities in the south.
While many Malians in the South despise these rebels, the conflict is far from being one our government wants us to believe: Islamicist terrorists versus a terrorized population. Many of the rebel groups have significant support from the population, especially in the country’s north. In fact, many analysts say the conflict is less about a push for Islamic rule and more about self-determination for the Tuareg desert people, who live in the region including Mali, Algeria, Libya and Niger and have been continually marginalized and dispossessed as international and national bourgeois forces pursue their insatiable appetites for the region’s gold, uranium, oil and natural gas.
It is the region’s resources alone explain the West’s interest in Mali. The reality that instability in Mali can trigger instability in surrounding weak states, thereby threatening France and other government’s prioritized access to cheap resources, adds to France’s motivation.
France is notorious for locking governments of its former colonies, including Mali and many of its neighbours, into woefully unfair financial and resource deals. Mali’s currency is partly controlled by the French and the French own huge shares of key industries in Mali and other former French colonies.
This military intervention is nothing new. France is also known for continuing a close military relationship with its economic friends in power; in recent years, the French have shored up capitalist dictators in Ivory Coast, Gabon, Chad, Niger and the Republic of Congo.
So why has Canada gotten involved in this intervention? Let’s throw the terrorist threat justification out the window. The idea that these small, extremely fractious groups could enact terrorism on an international scale is laughable. Besides, numerous recent interventions around the world, including in Libya and Afghanistan, prove that morality or ideology have nothing to do with military policy, it comes down to securing economic footholds.
As our comrades at the Parti Communiste Maoïste de France (PCMF) explain in a statement on the intervention, “The ‘Islamist threat’ is used as a pretext by the imperialists to fight the popular revolts in Africa and deflect the anger of the people in Europe and other countries [away from their own governments and toward Islamacists].”
Canada feels responsible to support the Western imperialist bloc in Africa as it competes with other imperialist blocs. “Africa has become the economic battlefield between the Western imperialists and new imperialists (China, Russia) and emerging countries (Brazil and India),” the PCMF adds.
Canada itself is reaping heavy profits from mining in the continent (including the displacement and destruction of communities and livelihoods). In volatile African countries that pose many challenges to quick-and-dirty profits, imperialist allies know they need to help each other out once in a while.
For the capitalist imperialist forces, invading a weak country like Mali is relatively inexpensive and brings huge economic rewards. The cost comes to the people of Mali —they’re the ones who suffer as their government hands over its resources at rock-bottom prices to the French and other imperialist overlords.
* * *

workers struggle in India

>GurgaonWorkersNews no.54 - January 2013
>
>www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com
>gurgaon_workers_news@yahoo.co.uk
>
>For the January 2013 issue of GurgaonWorkersNews we translated reports of
workers employed at two Kelvinator/Whirlpool fridge factories in Faridabad,
which in the early 1990s accounted for 40 per cent of India's total fridge
production. The reports were published and circulated between 1989 and 2000 by
the still existing workers' newspaper Faridabad Majdoor Samachar. They describe
the struggle against the re-structuring process in a multi-national white wares
manufacturer, the difficult relation between workers' initiatives and trade
union representation. The reports reflect the political consciousness of
workers concerning the main contradiction in capitalist society: the increase
in productivity causing greater relative immiseration of the producers. The
reports could therefore stand by themselves as workers' collective memories and
be passed on to workers engaged in current struggles.
>
>The re-structuring process at Kelvinator/Whirlpool in Faridabad took place in
a wider context. Under the pressure of the 1990 global slump and subsequent
'neo-liberal offensive' the production of fridges, washing machines and other
long durable consumption goods experienced a massive concentration process and
attack on the work-force in terms of speed-ups and on their wage levels. We
stumbled across material written by Franco Barchiesi and Andries Bezuidenhout
on the re-structuring and final closure / re-location of Kelvinator fridge
factory in South Africa in the late 1990s. We also dug out older reports about
the struggle against re-structuring at Bosch Siemens washing machine factory in
Berlin, written by comrades of wildcat in the mid-2000s, telling the story of
re-structuring and struggle since the 1980s. 
>
>If we relate these global experiences to each other a picture emerges which
questions the quite wide-spread leftist assumption that 'neo-liberalism' post-
1990 was an 'evil policy', a greedy scrapping of former welfare or charity or
an expression of wrong political decisions on the (inter-)national level: the
leftist critique of the ANC's 'broken promises' in South Africa, or of the neo-
liberal BJP model of 'Shining India' or the 'New Labour' 'German Model'. We can
see that it was a contradictory structural response to the 'global profit
crisis', which had it's main reason in the undermined, but still substantial
collective power of the working class on shop-floor level in the 1980s. In the
workers' reports we find traces of this power.
>
>At Kelvinator fridge factory in Faridabad workers organised weekly visits at
management offices in rotating groups of 20 to 30 workers of different
departments in order to enforce safety measures. This collectivity survived
into the early 1990s: "In July 1992 a three years agreement was forged between
union and management. For the workers in the lamination division the agreement
meant that for a 170 Rs monthly wage increase for the first year their fixed
daily target increased from 1,400 to 1,800 rotor stators. The agreement also
meant that for the lamination workers the 250 to 500 Rs monthly incentive bonus
was also done away with - consequently the 170 Rs wage 'increase' of the
agreement results in 80 Rs to 330 Rs monthly wage loss. Workers have started to
fight back. They say that they don't want the new agreement, they want wages
according to the old rate. Both management and union insist on the new
agreement. In reaction, in January 1993, workers in
> the skewing, die casting, welding departments undertook some steps. In
January 1993 all workers started to curb their production output to the fixed
target defined by the management's time study. Management was very troubled by
this fact and started to dish out charge-sheets (for future suspensions) and
issued warnings. This tug of war continued for five months when finally on 28th
of May management gave in. Management started to pay the old incentive scheme
of 250 to 500 Rs per months again. "
>
>We find a similar situation in Berlin in the 1980s: "In the beginning of 1987
young second-generation Turkish workers organised a slowdown strike against the
steady rise in unit-quotas at the assembly line. They did this so well that
that the employer couldn’t enforce the new quotas, not even with foremen, spare
men, snitches and forced transfers of workers around the factory. After a while
the workers even reduced the quota. Finally they agreed on more spare men at
the line. The workers learned a great deal during their struggle, they could
flip the cooperation at the line at their will. When they had idle time during
reorganisation they could force their ideas about how many machines they wanted
to produce. Since fall 1987 they didn’t need to protest against legally
obligatory overtime: they just subtracted the machines they had produced in
overtime the days after from the “normal units”. “If we wanted to, we just
reduced the units
> anytime”."
>(Bosch Siemens Hausgeraetewerk - Washing Machine Factory in Berlin)
>
>The attack in the 1990s on this workers' collectivity had various forms. The
re-structuring on the shop-floor level by changes in work-organisation and
automation was only enforceable through the 'credit financed' redundancy
programs (severence payments, early retirement schemes), which let to a general
increase in unemployment and subsequent casualisation. The old work-force was
then surrounded by a growing mass of temporary employment. The threat of 're-
location of production' to low wage regions was in the air - to Eastern Europe
in the case of Germany, Swaziland in the case of Kelvinator in South Africa - ,
financed by neo-liberal 'cheap money' politics. Most of the features of neo-
liberalism in the 1990s (share-holder options, company consultancy,
marketisation of inner-company relations, trade liberalisation) have to be seen
in this regard of 'softening' workers' strongholds.
>
>Between 1994 and 1999 Kelvinator/Whirlpool in Faridabad reduced the 
workforce by 40 per cent, the company paid 50 crore Rs (1 crore = 10 million)
as 'voluntary retirement money' to 2,075 workers. This was possible after a
lost struggle in 1991 and nearly six months of lock-out of workers. We find a
very similar situation in South Africa and Germany. In all cases the re-
structuring was co-managed by the trade union institutions. In Faridabad the
unions negotiated first the increase of production targets through incentive
schemes, then subsequently the lay-off money for superfluous work-force. The
NUMSA at Kelvinator in South Africa agreed to two-tier wage systems on the shop-
floor in the mid-1990s in order to 'save the company'. In Berlin, in 1992
management decreased production. In the three years which followed more than
1000 workers left the factory, mostly with seemingly 'handsome' compensation
payment. The IG Metall union actively tried to isolate
> the attempt of workers at Berlin washing-machine factory to extend their
protests against further layoffs in the mid-2000s. As legal and
sectorial/national institutions the trade unions had no means to stop the
attack of the 1990s, which lead first to their own erosion and then to their
collaboration.
>
>As a system of social (re-)production the 'victory of capital' in terms of
undermining workers' power and increasing productivity aggravated it's inner
contradictions. The mountains of cheap washing machines and fridges grew as
fast as structural unemployment and the masses of working poor. While promising
proletarian women that their entry in the wage labour market will be
compensated with 'appliances' reducing time for housework, the 'deluge' of
cheap washing machines in the global north was accompanied with a demise of
'the family' as a re-productive unit. At Bosch Siemens in Berlin 2,100 workers
produced 450,000 machines a year in the mid 70's. In the mid 90’s 2,500 workers
produced more than one million washing machines and more than 200,000 tumble-
dryers. During the same period structural unemployment increased by 10 per cent
and temporary work proliferated rapidly. In South Africa the amount of
households owning fridges increased only slightly
> between the end of 1970s (670,000) to 2001 (770,000), despite 'cheap
production and cheap imports'. In India the demise of the peasantry throughout
the 1980s and 1990s produced such large amounts of urban poor that given the
wage levels of house servants it seems uneconomic for most middle-class
families to consider buying a washing machine. Even with a 'double income', at
a monthly wage level of around 5,000 Rs for industrial workers, a new Whirlpool
fridge for 20,000 Rs is out of reach. 
>
>The crisis continues. Whirlpool, announced in October 2011 to cut 5,000 jobs,
about 10 percent of its workforce in North America and Europe. The crisis hits
a production system which has become globalised throughout the 1990s, fridges
are produced by young workers in SEZ's in Poland under similar conditions as
their are produced in other parts of the globe. Compared to the crisis in
1990/91 the crisis in 2008 has deeper structural characteristics: further
discovery of 'low wage regions a la Pearl River Delta or markets a la former
Eastern Bloc seem unlikely and the Toyotist (holistic team-work with company
anthem in the background) or robotic alternative has lost its sheen during the
1990s - it is back to old-school Taylorised drudgery. The following reports
demonstrate that the working class was beaten during the 1990s mainly because
their struggle was not able to overcome the legalistic and company-limited /
national framework. This poses challenges
> for the future and reiterates the importance of continuous organisational
and internationalist efforts like Faridabad Majdoor Samachar.
>
>Continue reading on website...
>
>1) Kelvinator, India
>2) Kelvinator, South Africa
>3) Bosch Siemens, Germany
>
>News from India's Special Exploitation Zone -