Message
to the Hamburg International Conference
Message
to the International Conference to Support People's War in India
Hamburg,
November 2012
CPI
(M-L) NAXALBARI
Comrades,
This
conference is taking place at an opportune moment in the history of
the development of the class struggle, not only from the perspective
of the history of development of the Maoist movement in India but
also from the perspective of the critical juncture of the
socio-economic and political phase the world as a whole is presently
going through. In a world marked by aggressive moves of the sole
super power US imperialism, the rapid advance of people’s war in
Peru led by the PCP and later, from 1996, of the people’s war in
Nepal led by CPN (Maoist) came as new rays of hope for the
downtrodden and the toiling masses of the world. But these movements
could not sustain their role of strengthening the Maoist pole;
firstly, due to the setback in Peru caused by consecutive arrests of
top leadership of PCP and later the confusion created by ROL attack
and secondly, due to the betrayal of the Prachanda-Bhattarai
revisionists in Nepal. This was worsened further with the dissolution
of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) which was
shaping itself as the embryonic centre of the world Maoist movement.
It fell victim to those very trends mentioned above, which came from
within it, along with Avakianism propounded under the guise of ‘New
Synthesis’ by the RCP, USA. It is in this background that this
conference attains higher significance. It is not just an act of
showing solidarity to our struggling comrades in arms in the dense
forests of Central Eastern India but it is shouldering the momentous
task of spreading the message of revolution guided by Maoism, which
is an urgent need of the hour, particularly in these times of global
imperialist crisis. The CPI (ML) NAXALBARI extends its wholehearted
support to this endeavour. Our party salutes the International
Committee to Support People's War in India for conceptualising and
successfully implementing it. We extend revolutionary greetings to
all those who are attending this seminar and also to all those who,
like us, participate indirectly.
The Maoist movement in India, popularly known as the
Naxalite movement, was initiated in the late 60s under the leadership
of Com Charu Muzumdar, fondly known as CM. As opposed to the
revisionists and the centrists’ trend of not taking a clear stand
on ideological issues, CM dared to take a defiant stand supporting
the international struggle that Mao Tsetung initiated against
Krushchovian revisionism in general and later the GPCR targeting the
capitalist roaders within the CPC. This breakthrough from the
revisionist eclectic approach ushered a new revolutionary high tide
launched by the Naxalbari armed peasant struggle of 1967. It spread
like prairie fire. This heightened a countrywide revolutionary
situation. The movement was brutally attacked by heavy repression. CM
was martyred and the party center ceased to exist. The
revolution suffered a setback for some years. But such was the
ideological solidity and revolutionary determination ensured by CM
that the embers of Naxalbari continued to light up new revolutionary
flames every time there were setbacks. The flames of Naxalbari never
died as there were armed struggles spread out in various areas. Some
of them overcame shortcomings and developed to defend the armed
struggle and advance with consistency. In the process the experience
of the revolutionary classes got enriched. These continuations of
Naxalbari influenced and transformed lives in vast swathes of their
areas of work. The merger of the two main Maoist parties directly
engaged in people’s war, into the CPI (Maoist), brought about a
qualitative and quantitative change. The people’s war has now been
raised to the position of a countrywide recognized revolutionary
pole, a pole that stands in total opposition to the
counter-revolutionary pole of the ruling classes and imperialism. The
ruling classes, who were dismissing it till recently as
insignificant, are now forced to acknowledge it as the biggest
internal threat they face.
One notable feature of the people’s war of India in
the present juncture is that it is concentrated in regions
predominately populated by Adivasis (indigenous peoples). The
politicised masses of these regions, led by CPI (Maoist), have
developed the revolution to a position where they have taken control
of their destiny, their lives, into their own hands. They are
establishing a new power. They are building a different society-
vibrant with their tribal traditions, yet modern enough to imbue new
values. They are not doing this for their own selves alone. No, they
see it as part of a larger project concerning the whole country and
the whole world. They have been able to do this and achieve
such a lofty vision with the force of arms, guided by proletarian
ideology, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, and led by a communist party. This
is an immediate fight to end exploitation, oppression and block
aggressive moves of big corporates and the state. More importantly,
it is a long term struggle projecting a different type of society.
Quiet similar to the struggles of Naxalbari four decades ago, this
struggle has the potential to unleash the power of the revolutionary
masses by signalling a new spirit in the lives of the millions
suffocated by the oppressive system and enthusing them with a new
plausible dream of liberation.
The society being created is one that ensures
sustainable development, children friendly education, growing
emancipation of women, a halt to domination and plunder of foreign
and Indian exploiters, a new culture that rebuilds Adivasi traditions
(instead of mocking them as backward) with advanced content. The
illuminating fact is that all of this is being mainly created by
Adivasi tribes who are despised as 'primitives' by so-called
civilised society. The 'backwards' are teaching the 'forwards'. This
hits at the very pillars of Brahmanism, the core of all reactionary
anti-people thinking in our country. The motivation this could give
to the numerous oppressed and exploited sections in the country is a
real threat for the rulers. The advance of revolution could not but
bring up a powerful counter-revolution. This is now seen in India.
The reactionary Indian state has carried out a major
buildup of reactionary armed forces encircling the Maoist controlled
region, targeting a wide area ranging from Jharkhand to Andhra
Pradesh on the North-South axis and West Bengal – Odisha to
Maharashtra on the East-West one. This encirclement and suppression
campaign named Operation Green Hunt has the blessings of all the
major ruling class parties including revisionists like the CPI
(Marxist). Advanced military-technical support and equipment from the
US and Israel are being used. While the spearhead of the reactionary
force are the para-military, the army too is being deployed under the
guise of setting up training camps.
But, despite the big propaganda done by the rulers to
justify their repressive moves, their attacks roused stiff
resistance. This came not just from revolutionary forces. No, it
draws on a wide spectrum of democratic and progressive forces,
ranging all the way to Gandhians. There is a reason for this.
Over the past two decades the Indian state has opened up
the doors to a wholesale penetration of imperialist globalisation.
This has pushed millions to the utmost depths of misery. Peasants
have been forced to commit suicide in the lakhs (hundred thousand).
In the name of promoting export zones, lakhs of peasants are being
forced out of their land, with little or no compensation. Workers
have been thrown out of jobs or forced into lower paying casual work.
The youth have been denied education by sharp increase in fees caused
by privatisation. It is the particularity of the political scene
today in India that the whole range of ruling parties from extreme
right to sham left is in government, either at the Center or in one
or the other State. All of them, irrespective of political colour,
aggressively push globalisation policies. All of them brutally
suppress those who resist. Amidst this the Maoist led revolutionary
movement stands out as a solid fighting front. All who have concern
over the conditions of the country and its people recognise, at one
or the other level, even if unevenly, that the destruction of the
Maoist pole will have widespread ramifications affecting all
resistance struggles. This is the material basis of the widespread
opposition to Operation Green Hunt, correctly termed as a ‘War on
the People’. This is the underlying dynamics of the growing
polarisation, the dividing line, centered on Operation Green Hunt and
resistance to it.
Operation Green Hunt, though directly aimed at the
people’s war, is also used to target every one and anyone who are
strongly opposing the government’s policy decisions. Numerous
fascist laws have been enacted for this. Democratic organisations are
banned. Trade union, youth, women’s and even human rights activists
are regularly attacked. The case of Dr. Binayak Sen, a renowned civil
liberties activist and a world famous people’s doctor, who was
arrested and imprisoned on cooked up charges, is as an example. But
this proved to be counter-productive for the state. Such attacks
sharpened and broadened resistance. Courageous individuals like
Arundhati Roy and Jan Myrdal dared to break the repressive cordon in
the war zones and bring out the truth of the communist fighters,
masses and their leaders. Meanwhile fierce counter-attacks by the
Maoists have struck fear in the paramilitary and boosted the morale
of masses all over the country. The hesitation and inability of
government forces to face up to the People’s Guerrilla Liberation
Army and the People’s Militia was time and again leaked out to the
media creating an embarrassing situation for the Home Minister and
his government. The government forces often refuse to step out of
their fortified camps. And when they do, they massacre villagers.
The ruling classes soon realised that if they don’t
use new tactics their offensive will back fire. So they started
diffusing the situation by announcing that they are backing off from
the offensive and will review the whole operation. Thus they managed
to divert the attention of the media and then put in a blanket ban on
all media reporting. They are now going ahead with a much more
repressive campaign, but without a whisper. Of course, despite some
successes in killing important leaders of the CPI (Maoist) and
pushing back the revolutionary forces in some areas, they still
haven’t made any overall headway. But the hard necessity of a
political offensive to expose the dual tactics of the Indian state
remains. The need to expose the truth and garner as much
support as possible in this adverse condition is the urgent need of
the hour. There is a need to reorganise and reinitiate the people’s
struggle against the Indian state’s ‘War on the People’ on a
broader and sharper foundation. This struggle must be flexible in the
forms and platforms it employs so that it can link up with the whole
spectrum of opposition that is visible today. Within this the defence
of the people’s war and the new society it builds must have a
central position, not necessarily always as the criterion of unity,
but certainly as the guiding pole.
The fact that a uniquely wide resistance has come up
against Operation Green Hunt, a state campaign precisely meant to
crush revolution, is not incidental. It is directly related to the
strengthening of the revolutionary pole through the advance of the
people’s war. As we explained earlier the aggressive penetration of
globalisation and the broad resistance to it sets the wider context.
But, within that, revolutionary armed struggle stands out not just
for its defence against reaction but also for its offensive that
destroys the old and builds the new. This much is undeniable even for
those who disagree with Maoism and oppose violence. In these times
when the limits of passive resistance are shown up more sharply by
the torrents of globalisation, a grudging acceptance of the right of
people to resist by all means has emerged and secured its place in
the discourse of resistance in India. This is a new feature of the
political situation in India. This does not immediately translate
into support for people’s war nor is it stable. But it is there and
holds great potential for furthering the political churning triggered
off by Operation Green Hunt and resistance to it. The Indian
revolution would be all the poorer in its resources if this is lost
sight off and the resistance to Operation Green Hunt is reduced to
the matter of supporting a fight to protect resources. It is like
missing out US imperialism's world strategic aims in the Iraq war and
seeing it mainly as a war for oil. The question of control over
resources is certainly involved. But this is neither the sole issue,
nor even the main one. The important thing to be grasped is the
political, strategic, aim of Operation Green Hunt.
Commenting on the world situation a recent resolution
adopted by the Special Meeting of RIM parties observed: “The
devastations of imperialist globalisation, wars of aggression and the
devastating economic crisis of the imperialist system and its impact
on proletarians and the broad masses have awakened worldwide a wave
of struggles and revolts. In this context a potential new wave of the
world proletarian revolution develops and emerges, with the people's
wars led by Maoist parties as its reference points and strategic
anchor.”
This is the framework within which we must address and
advance the support for the people’s war in India and elsewhere.
The people of the world need these ‘reference points’ and
‘strategic anchors’ ever more. They demonstrate in a concentrated
manner, in deeds, the way out from the horrors of the imperialist
system, the road to communism. They drive in with tremendous power
the need for proletarian leadership, the Maoist vanguard, the guiding
ideology of MLM. Within this, without being arrogant, we note the
obvious fact that the successful advance of people’s war in a
strategically placed country like India with its tens of millions of
masses has a special importance.
In the wake of Operation Green Hunt, unity of Maoists
has acquired added urgency in view of the enemy’s concentrated
attack. India is a country of sub-continental proportions, with
numerous nationalities and indigenous peoples, living in regions of
great diversity in physical and social conditions. The task of
completing the unification of Maoists into a single party is
inevitably bound up with achieving a higher synthesis of the
experiences and insights gained by various Maoist forces working in
these diverse conditions. This is also vital in the spreading out of
the people’s war throughout the country, leading to victory of the
new democratic revolution. We contribute to this through dedicated
efforts to open up a new war front in the ongoing people’s war in
India and the initiative we have taken to realise unity.
We conclude. Building broad support to defend the
people’s war, building broad resistance to inhuman repression –
both complement one another. They must not be counterposed. There is
a new reality, a transformed situation, being created by the
development of the people’s war. It is being created in conditions
of devastation, of globalisation and the imperialist crisis. But,
within that, it is the people’s war, the revolution to seize power
and build a new democratic society, which creates it. The wide
resistance to Operation Green Hunt is well informed by this reality.
The stakes have been raised. The sight must also be high. The banner
of people’s war, Maoist led revolution, must be boldly held up, as
it is by this conference.
Once again, we wish it all success in its determined
effort to build support for the people’s war in India and spread
its message to all corners of the world. Let this be a first step.
Let us have more support and dissemination of all the people’s wars
in the world, notably that of the Philippines, which persists and
advance with great tenacity.
LAL
SALAM!
Communist
Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) NAXALBARI
November
2012
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