Terza parte
INTERVIEWER: Similarly, many of the areas in which your Party and the PLGA are active are rich in natural resources, such as coal and bauxite. These resources are sought-after by large multinational capitalist corporations, who are invited by the fascist old Indian state to steal the resources for themselves, and many people are forced from their homes to give these corporations access to the resources. Can you go into more detail about the practices of imperialism in India, and how the CPI (Maoist) and PLGA resists this imperialism?
COMRADE BASAVARAJ: Our country is not a poor one but it is a country of poor people. there are green forests in our country. There are ever flowing rivers, fertile cultivable lands, invaluable, abundant mineral resources. This apart, there are crores of toiling workers and farmers. Crores of government and private employees, lakhs of educated and intellectual toilers and crores of youth are there in the country.
700 kinds of indigenous, tribal people constitute 8.5 percent of the population. But, majority of the people of the country are suffering from hunger, illiteracy, superstitions, ill health, unemployment, poverty and other such problems. They are fighting in various forms to solve the fundamental livelihood problems and for democratic rights. The natural wealth, resources, the abundant labour power and local technology is not being used in the interests of the people of the country the initiative and efficiency of the broad masses is not explored but their democratic rights are supressed in the interests of a few comprador bureaucratic capitalists, landlords and imperialist MNCs.
To be more specific, there are abundant natural wealth and mineral resources not only in the forests and semi-forest areas of the indigenous, tribal and non-tribal people of the country but in the areas of revolutionary movement, i.e., the areas where the Party, PLGA, Mass Organisations and in some areas the RPCs are working such as the states of West Bung, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Tamilnadu and Karnataka (Western Ghats).
India produces 90 kinds of minerals such as iron, coal, bauxite, mica, manganese, silver, gold, lime stone, granite, Aluminium, copper and cement. Procurement of diamonds is going on as a big trade. India happens to be one of the 5 big producers of important minerals. 25 percent of mineral resources of India are in Jharkhand. 70 percent of the bauxite resources and 28 percent of iron ore resources re in Odisha. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have coal and bauxite mines. Iron, mica, gold, diamonds, coal, Uranium, bauxite, Corundum, dolomite and cassiterite are abundant in Bastar and Sarguja of Chhattisgarh. There 9 crores of tons of iron ore in Surjagarh hills of Maharashtra. There are several mineral resources in both the forest and plain areas of almost all the states.
The exploitation of these resources started and spread right from the time of British occupation of India. The British declared their authority on the forests, minerals, land and water resources through various Acts (such as the India Forest Act 1867, Forest Act 1878, Land Acquisition Act 1894, India Forest Act 1927). The loot of natural resources was intense in the phase of industrial capital and finance capital when there was intense exploitation and oppression and cruel political authority. Political suppression too intensified during this time including exploitation of forcible cheap labour. Agricultural policy of the country was changed according to the needs of the market for colonialists and their world market. Large forests were cut for laying Railwaylines. British imperialists allowed TATA, Birla and other such comprador big capitalists of the country to establish industries for their war needs during World War I and thus they too joined the loot. They started large scale iron ore and coal mining for iron and steel industries.
India became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country after transfer of power in 1947 and since then, it had been under the indiscriminate exploitation and oppression of several imperialist countries. The Indian feudal, comprador capitalist classes that seized state power in collaboration with the imperialists have been serving them and are unleashing indiscriminate exploitation and oppression. With the change of political power, the Indian comprador capitalist, feudal class changed into comprador bureaucratic capitalist class. Whichever parliamentary parties those belong to, the central and the state governments that represent the exploitive ruling classes of our country are implementing the policies of economy, industry, minerals, agriculture, education and health in favour of imperialist, comprador bureaucratic capitalist and feudal classes. Those are creating infrastructure facilities in favour of them and are following domestic and foreign internal policies. Those are implementing LPG policies in all sectors since 1991.
See these examples! Indian government established National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) in 1958 to look after survey of mineral resources, mi- ning, production, sale, exports, establishment of steel industries and other such things. This made an agreement with Japan Steel Mill in 1961 and vacated 22 tribal villages to start iron mines in Bailadilla in Dantewada district of Bastar division in Chhattisgarh state, the present Dandakaranya struggle area. No one was provided rehabilitation. Since production started in 1968, the iron ore from Bailadilla is being looted at a dead cheap rate of Rs. 50 to Rs. 400 per ton by Japan, China and Korea imperialists. ESSAR and other comprador bureaucratic capitalist companies are also looting it. You must have been aware that iron ore costs Rs. 5600 to Rs. 10000 per ton in the world market.
Iron ore needed for mini Steel Plants and sponge iron industries is not given at least at the export price to the small and medium kind capitalists of Chhattisgarh.
This led to the closure of nearly 150 industries and ten thousand workers are on the streets. The mines are being spread further. There are a lot of such examples.
More than two dozen of goods trains move on the Kirandul-Visakhapatnam Railwayline built in the name of ‘development’ and to provide facility to the people and there is only a single passenger train. What for is the Railway line claimed to be a big engineering feat? The rise in water and air pollution is leading to the danger of ill health and destruction of the people, cattle, forest animals and fish. Presently Dalli-Raoghat-Jagadalpur Railway line is being laid in the same name of development. In fact the railway line is meant for shifting of mineral sources from the proposed mines in Rajnandgaon and Bastar divisions of Chhattisgarh and armed forces.
The government allowed the laying of ESSAR pipeline of a comprador capitalist company by reducing Rs. 550 per ton to supply iron ore through rail costing only Rs. 80 per ton. Iron ore powder is being shifted through pipelines from Bailadilla to Visakhapatnam.
Water resources of Bastar are going waste into Bay of Bengal for this shift. This is causing water shortage in Bastar. ESSAR company used land in a stretch of 20 meters for laying the pipeline at a length of 267 kms but did not pay a single paise for the displaced. It also cut thousands of hectares of forests.
Here is one more example. The government is not supplying the necessary coal produced in Chhattisgarh to the industries of the small and medium kind capitalists of the state. Moreover the Modi government stopped supply of coal since August in the name of coal crisis for the past 6 months. The Chief Minister (of Congress party that is in opposition at the centre) himself appealed in vain. Hundreds of small and medium kind industries are in the danger of closure. Meanwhile in the name of solving coal crisis big comprador capitalists are being supplied with large amounts of coal and on the other is importing coal at high prices from other countries. This is a traitorous, anti-people policy of the government.
There is yet another surprising instance. Government sold a stretch of 23 km of Sivnadh river that flows through Durg district of Chhattisgarh to Radias Water Limited in 1988. The conditions of the agreement mention the responsibility to purchase water from the company. The company laid fencing on both sides of the river to the extent it took on lease.
The people of the scores of villages on both sides of the river are not utilising the river waters and have been deceived. Who gave the authority to the government to sell the natural river and river waters to private companies? It is interesting to know that the farmer people destroyed the fencing declaring their authority on the river.
In Raigarh district of the same state comprador bureaucratic capitalist Jindal built his empire of Steel and electric industries. He displaced ten thousand farmer families from 1990 to 2010 for this purpose.
These farmers and the agricultural labourers became migrant labour. Jindal acquired the lands of these villages with the support of the revenue administration of the government. He also seized the pool that the villagers have been using for generations.
The central and the state governments are handing over the public sector industries in the name of disinvestment as a part of the LPG policies at dead cheap prices to the comprador capitalists and MNCs. Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO) one of the vital public sector industries said to be Indian Navaratnas costing Rs.5000 crores had been handed over to Sterlite company with 50 percent partnership by the then BJP government in the centre in 2003. In addition to it, the mine pot bauxite mines in Ambikapur also were given to Anil Agarwal of Sterlite company. There are lot of such examples from each and every state all over the country.
The exploitation of these resources that began during the rule of Congress party intensified further during the BJP rule. Since 1991 when LPG policies came to be implemented in a full fledged manner, the central and the state governments are making hundreds and thousands of MoUs with comprador bureaucratic capitalists and imperialist MNCs for the export of mine- rals, for the construction of heavy industries, for mining of various kinds of minerals and construction of big dams. The central and the various state governments are holding summits with imperialist, comprador capitalist corporate companies and are opening the doors wide for exploitation of resources. Forums are held in various imperialist countries to make such agreements. Since Modi came to power he is further speeding and intensifying the exploitation of these resources in the name of ‘Make in India’, ‘Make in Maharashtra’ and ‘Make in Gujarat’ and such others. These ‘Make in’ festivals are being held frequently in all the states. Let us see some instances to understand how this game takes place.
According to an estimate, since the transfer of power the central and the state governments displaced 5 crore people in the name of ‘development’ schemes.
In Jharkhand 15 lakh tribal people have been displaced in the past three decades for the construction of industries, mines, dams, roads and railway lines.
While 40 percent of them are tribal people, 25 percent are Dalit people. 75 percent of the displaced are not rehabilitated. The rest of the 25 percent have been provided nominal rehabilitation. Similarly, 40 percent of the land acquired from the displaced is of the tribal people. since 2005, we see that Arcelor Mittal, POSCO, Vedanta, Sterlite industries (Vedanta resources), Phelps Dodge, ACC Riotento, CRA, De Beers, Anglo- American exploration, BHP Minerals, Proem Alcon, Norse Hydro, Aston mining, Lloyd company and other such imperialist Steel and Mining corporate companies have been given permission in a big way to take up survey of minerals such as iron, coal, gold, diamonds, bauxite, mica and silver in Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. In addition to these, Indian comprador bureaucratic capitalists and mining corporates such as TATA, Jindal, Birla, ESSAR, Adani, Nouka and other such companies also issued permissions for mining.
This alone gives us the understanding as to how and how much the corporate companies gain super profits. Utkal Alumina Company is going to mint Rs. 2,80,000 crores in the coming 25 years at a cost of Rs. 4500 crores through mining in 8000 acres.
The governments gave permission to 760 Special Economic Zones (SEZ) all over the country by 30th November 2007. The number must have increased by now. Paramilitary, police forces, goonda gangs and brokers have been deployed to forcibly seize 2 lakh hectares of land from the farmers and tribal people of 20 states for this. Mukesh Ambani displaced 2 lakh 50 thousand people of 35 villages in Navi Mumbai for Reliance SEZ and seized 35 thousand acres of land. Agricultural lands and forest lands of the farmers and the tribal people of various states of the country are being utmost bureaucratically seized for the sake of industrial corridors, coastal corridors, export zones, ports and other such things and Express highways, Super highways, Airports, Sagarmala, bullet trains/speed trains and entertainment parks necessary for those are being laid as a part of infrastructure.
Modi government gave permission to comprador capitalist Gautam Adani to construct ports, Airports, 900 cold storages and 900 multiplex cinema halls. It gave heavy subsidies to take up mining. The central and the state governments leased two deposits spread over lakhs of acres in Hasdeo Aranda coal mines in Hasdeo forest in Korba, Sarguja and Surajpur districts. People are making intense struggles against the cutting of forest by Adani under the banner of ‘Hasdeo Jungle Bachao’ committee. Valuable teak and other trees, animals and floral species are on the verge of extinction. In Odisha, the central and the state governments together issued 97 thousand hectares of lands on 600 mining leases. But the fact that 46 percent of families in Odisha are living below the poverty line tells us that the profits out of mining are going to corporate companies, political leaders and higher officials and no one else.
The farmers of Jagatsingpur have been putting down the attempts of the government to displace 22 thousand farmers to acquire 4 thousand acres of land for the Steel Plant of a MNC POSCO of South Korea. Vedanta Sterlite Company is making severe attempts to explore bauxite from Niyamgiri hills costing the identity of the Kuvvi tribal people. for the purpose it deployed Paramilitary forces in the area and expanded carpet security. The tribal peasantry is daringly facing this. Bauxite mining and industries of domestic and foreign corporate companies such as Vedanta Resources, Vedanta Aluminium, Sterlite India, Odisha Mining Corporation, South-West Odisha Mining Corporation, Hindalco, Birla group, Utkal Aluminimum Industry Limited (UAIL), ALCAN of Canada and NALCO in Koraput, Bolangir, Kalahandi and Raigarh districts. Thousands of tribal people of primitive tribes of Kasipur, Gopalpur, Gandamardhan, Jajpur, Kalinganagar, Jagatsingpur, Keonjhar and Serengdaga were displaced. The process is still going on.
In the name of nuclear electric industries, thermal electric industries, bauxite mining, industrial, coastal and oil corridors that are utmost dangerous to the survival of the people, natural wealth and the wealth on sea coast is being handed over to the MNCs and comprador capitalists like Adani. Several projects such as Polavaram and Kavvala Tiger zone, Singareni Open cast coal mines and other such several projects are laid in Telangana displacing the tribal people.
Attempts are going on to seize Lakhs of acres of crop lands and forest lands of the tribal people by the Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra governments with the support of the armed forces to implement the agreements with MNCs and comprador capitalists.
There are iron ore, quartz, quarries, Silica cell, China clay, Limestone, White clay and Uranium are abundant in the forests and hills on the border of Rajnandgaon, Kanker and Balod districts. Although the people have been firmly facing these mining activities under the leadership of the party, ITBP, BSF camps have been set up in scores of numbers and few of these projects are being run under constant attacks on the people. With the weakening of the people’s movements, mining is going on in Ahladi, Barbaspur, Ari Dongri, Mahamaya, Pallemadi, Chargaon and other mines.
While the various mines in Chhattisgarh have been given to TATA, Jindal, ESSAR, Adani and NECCO Companies on lease the mines in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra have been given for lease to TATA, ES- SAR, Arcelor Mittal, Jindal Steel, Vedanta, Lloyd, Riotento, De Beers, BHP Bili tin and other corporate companies.
As we see the exploitive governments are handing over the natural wealth and mineral resources of the country to imperialist MNCs and domestic comprador bureaucratic capitalist companies. Thus lakhs of hectares of crop lands and forest lands are going into the hands of the domestic and foreign corporate companies. Tribal communities such as the Mariah, Koya, Halba, Dhurva, Batra, Koyatur, Koyagal, Korga, Raj- gond, Gond, Lohar, Kotadval, Koyyal, Kolam, Pra- dha, Thoti, Nayakpod, Kondareddy, Kondadora, Bhagatu, Savara, Jatabu, Kuvvi, Kotwal, Koliya, Koyamali, Chenchu, Korval, Korna, Kolha, Kol, Dharu, Kondi, Kondh, Dongaria, Sabara, Komundal, Keriya, Hora, Hokya, Koltal, Kotia, Bil, Bilal, Juvang, Santhal, Munda, Uraov and Ho and non-tribal communities such as Gando, Gasiya, Harara, Marr, Panara, Panka, Pradha, Yadav living in the forests traditionally are going to lose their survival, identity and self-respect.
Their language, culture and life style are going to become extinct.
One important aspect needs to be brought to your notice. On one hand agreements are being made to hand over the wealth and natural resources of the country to the imperialists and comprador capitalists and on the other several draconian new Acts have been being made to suppress the movements that arose and are goingon against the implementation of these agreements. ‘UAPA’ and NIA have been provided with more powers and the old draconian Acts have been amended. The Chhattisgarh state government brought forth the Chhattisgarh Special People’s Security Act in 2005 itself. Since then thousands were arrested under the Act.
People, especially tribal people of all the states and these areas of the revolutionary movement are fighting relentlessly against the exploitation of these resources. Tribal people are fighting daringly for their right to ‘jal-jungle-zameen’ (water-forest-land) for their right to live, for their existence, identity and self-respect. Party, PLGA and RPCs are standing in support of the struggling people. partyis directly and indirectly leading these people’s struggles. It is guiding those struggles. In some places, people themselves are getting down to struggles inspired by the party, PLGA and RPCs and under the influence of the class struggle and people’s war under the leadership of those. Lakhs of people of the country are participating in these people’s struggles. Earlier Salva Judum, Sendra and other repressive campaigns and later Operation Green Hunt in order to eliminate the leadership of these struggles and suppress them, thus facilitate the way for the exploitation of resources and labour, market control and political hegemony. Moreover the campaigns are also intended to total elimination of the RPCs that are the organs of people’s state power that emerged as the ray of hope for the Party, PLGA and the oppressed people of India and the revolutionary movement on the whole. Presently ‘SAMADHAN’ strategic multi-pronged offensive is going on in the utmost intensive level. As a part of it carpet security is strengthened and expanded. Corporatisation-Militarisation is going on in an intense and speedy manner in Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra (Dandakaranya), Bihar-Jharkhand, Odisha, Telangana, AOB, Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh (MMC), Western Ghats. The exploitive ruling classes are laying roads, bridges, pipelines, railway lines on war footing to facilitate the movement of armed forces and to exploit the resources at dead cheap rates, in the nam of infrastructure.
People understood that these police camps, roads, bridges and railway lines are only to displace them from their water-forest-land, to eliminate their survival, to loot their resources and to eliminate the RPCs that they fought for a long time and established and are fighting with dare and determination against those. The struggle of the Silinger tribal people of Bastar that is going on militantly for the past 15 months stands in the forefront as an icon of these struggles.
Tribal people have been holding indefinite dharna against the new police camps being set up in Parasnadh hill area of Jharkhand, in cut off area of Andhra Odisha border area, in Vechaghat, Gompad, Singaram, Burji, Pusnar, Vechapal, Poosuguppa, Gondod, Gornam and other places of Dandakaranya. State is making brutal attacks on them. Lathi-charge, tear gas, illegal arrests, firing, sabotage and mortar shelling have become an ordinary feature. People are continuing their struggles denying government repression and encountering the government Para- military and police forces. They are obstructing mining. PLGA retaliation is adding to these struggles. The support of the students/youth, tribal and non-tribal people, intellectuals, prominent democrats at various levels is instilling self- confidence and firm determination in these struggles. Thus these people’s struggles, people’s retaliation and people’s war are taken up in coordination and to stop the implementation of the agreements of the governments with corporate companies.
Party and the people stopped the mining in Raoghat that was initiated in the 1990s. TATA had to withdraw its plan to set up a Steel Plant in ten thousand acres of tribal land in Lohandiguda due to the 10 year long people’s resistance. ESSAR Steel plant planned in 4 thousand acres of land of Dhurli, Bhansi and Kamalur villages also had to be withdrawn due to people’s resistance. The construction of Bodhghat mega dam planned on River Indravati is yet pending. People and PLGA under the leadership of the party are coming in the way of many such mining projects.
Heroic people of Singur of West Bung fought back the plan to construct a Nano car industry by TATA through their struggle. People of Nandigram of the same state chased away a MNC Salem group of Indonesia through their struggle. People of Salbani of West Bung stopped the expansion of Jindal industries through the historic Lalgarh struggle. Kuvvi tribal people chased Anil Agarwal the owner of Sterlite Vedanta industries from Niyamgiri of Odisha. Comprador rulers indulged in police firing on 2nd January 2006 on the militant demonstration of 15 thousand people of 15 villages against the construction of TATA Steel plant of Kalinganagar and helped for its construction. However the Odiya people are against POSCO in Jagatsingpur. People, intellectuals and artists of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are together fighting against bauxite mining in Visakha, Mali and Devamali hills and Uranium mining in Nallamala mountains. 13 people were murdered and above 100 were injured in brutal firing to suppress the people’s struggle going on in a militant manner against the proposed Sterlite Company in Toothukudi of Tamilnadu. People of Western Ghats are against mining of iron ore mining. The people of Gadchiroli are fighting against mining in Surjagarh, Damkodivahi and Korchi in Maharashtra. Tribal people of Amdai, Tulad, Taralmetta, Pittodmetta/Nandaraj hill of Bastar are making a relentless struggle against mining.
The central government decided to establish a military base in the name of training centre of the Military in Maad area that happens to be the residence of Mariah tribe one of the ancient tribe in a place called ‘Abuzmaarh’ of Narayanpur district in Bastar division.
The earlier BJP government of Chhattisgarh made an agreement to hand over one-fourth of Marh to Indian Army. There are several mineral resources in Marh.
This is one of the big strategic areas of the country. The Indian government deployed thousands of Indian Army forces from 2011 to 2013 in Marh and trained them in jungle warfare. The Indian government temporarily stopped the deployment of the Army with the severe protest movement of the people of Dandakaranya, democratic intellectuals, human rights and social organisations of the country.
Large amount of forest land of the states of revolutionary movement is transferred for National Parks, centres for conservation of wild animals, tigers, leopards, reserves of bisons, tourist centers and field firing ranges for which hundreds of villages are turned into a graveyard. Thousands of families and lakhs of people are being displaced. People are opposing all these attempts.
Tribal people achieved certain rights in the form of Acts through struggles going on for decades. Few rights have been given to the tribal people in the Indian Constitution. In fact these Acts, rights are never totally implemented. But they have been a base to formulate demands for struggle. Few of the Acts possessing such pro-people aspects are the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, the 1996 PESA, the rights of Gram Sabhas, Forest Lands identity Act 2006, Forest Conservation Act 2013. Various state governments formulated various Acts in the respective times banning the purchase or seizure of tribal lands in areas of Fifth Schedule. PESA, Forest lands identity Act 2006, Forest Conservation Act 2013 clearly mentioned that the lands of tribal people must not be seized by the central and the state governments for the sake of any kind of development plan, industries, mines and dams without the permission of Gram Sabhas. India signed the paper of statement of rights of tribal people issued by the UNO General Assembly on 13th September 2007. Section 30 of the paper clearly said that no military actions should be taken up on the lands of the tribal people without their consent and permission.
However, until date, none of the lands allotted and leased to the comprador capitalists and imperialist MNCs and also the lands allotted for the central and state government projects had been given the permission of the Gram Sabhas. All those have been issued by the governments in the name of permission of fake Gram Sabhas without the knowledge of the concerned people. permission of Gram Sabhas was not asked for the camps of the police, Paramilitary and Army forces set up in our struggle areas. People are fighting to implement these rights, to lift all the camps established without the permission of the Gram Sabhas and to not construct any projects without the permission of the Gram Sabhas. The ‘Pathalgarhi’ struggle that started in Jharkhand and North Chhattisgarh with the slogan ‘our village our government’ spread to Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and South Chhattisgarh on the borders.
Now the fascist Modi government trampled the rights of the tribal people through issuing Forest Conservation Ordinance on 24th June 2022. This is a gross violation of tribal people’s rights, the Constitution and tramples the same. Through the ordinance the central government can allot the lands of tribal farmers and the forest lands to the domestic and foreign corporate companies and for public-private projects without the permission of the Gram Sabhas and the land owners. The party has the important task to expand, unite, consolidate these people’s struggles against the anti-people, anti-tribal fascist policies and Acts of the government and take them forward towards the direction of forming an anti-imperialist, anticomprador bureaucratic capitalist, anti-feudal people’s struggle front all over the country and to mould them in the direction of intensifying and expanding people’s war.
In fact, the struggles against displacement, the Paramilitary and Special police camps are entwined with the problem of land and existence. All these are anti-imperialist, anti-comprador bureaucratic, antifeudal struggles. These struggles have to be linked with People’s War/Guerrilla War and intensified and expanded.
All what the exploitive ruling classes are doing in the name of development is nothing but their intense exploitation and not the development of the people. It is nothing but an anti-development and traitorous model to indiscriminately loot the resources of the people that devastates them, destructs the environment and puts the country in debt. It is the model that utilises the natural wealth and resources not for the entire people and the country but for the imperialists and comprador exploitive ruling classes. We need to oppose and fight back this model of development. The genuine model of development shall be to conserve the resources, develop them, protect environment, utilise them in a discriminate manner for the needs of all the people and the country and for the future generations. The New Democratic state power that is built by destroying the state power of imperialism and comprador exploitive ruling classes through Protracted People’s War in the leadership of the proletarian party alone shall implement the genuine model of development. Only then we can achieve genuine all round development of the people. Only thus we can control the indiscriminate exploitation of the resources and preserve them. These attempts began and are continuing in the leadership of the organs of people’s state power under the leadership of the party in the areas of struggle in a primary level.
INTERVIEWER: One major problem facing the International Communist Movement is the problem of revisionism. Revisionism comes in many forms: Trotskyism, Khrushchevism, Electoralism and Dengism are just a few. How large of a problem is revisionism in India, which parties would you judge to be revisionist in nature, and how does the CPI (Maoist) combat revisionism in India?
COMRADE BASAVARAJ: Yes. As you said revisionism is one big problem that the International Communist Movement is facing. Since Marxism came into being as the theoretical weapon of the proletariat, it came forth in various forms in the name of Marxism itself. It is still coming forth and shall do so in future also. The danger of revisionism shall arise until the success of the World Socialist Revolution and also until Communism is established. Whichever form it arises, its theoretical origins lie in bourgeois/petty bourgeois ideology. The interests of the revisionists harm the interests of the proletariat and the toilers and help those of the bourgeoisie. Thus revisionist practice does not help to destroy the capitalist-anti-development classes and to prepare for armed revolution or lead it but to the existence and status quo of the present society. As long as these exist between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie during revolution and after it, it is manifests in various forms in the proletarian party also as a conflict. We must enlighten the Party ranks politically and develop the political consciousness of the people that as long as communists are needed for the society the danger of revisionism exists in various forms. We have to unite and strengthen the party fighting against revisionism. We need to take up several cultural revolutions to transform Socialist democracy into a great force under the proletarian dictatorship in the country/countries where political power is seized, with appropriate line and policies. Marx and Engels formulated the proletarian revolutionary theory of Marxism. Since then while on one hand the bourgeois theories attack Marxism, on the other hand, there are many in history who claimed themselves to be Marxists and distorted it in various forms and opposed its essence.
By the end of the last decade of the 19th century, Marxism defeated all the bourgeois, petty bourgeois opportunist trends in the International Communist Movement and achieved a stable place as the scientific theory of the international proletariat. Marx and Engels made a fierce struggle against these trends for nearly half a century and defeated them.
After capitalism transformed into monopoly capitalism-imperialism, in the process of creative application of the fundamental principles of Marxism to the concrete practice of Russian revolution and world proletarian revolution, in the process of making a theoretical, political struggle against the various kinds of revisionists such as Bernstein, Narodniks, Economists, Mensheviks, legal Marxists, liquidators, Kautsky, Trotsky and dogmatic Marxists such as Plekhanov, Lenin preserved the proletarian science of Marxism, enriched it and enriched it to a new and higher stage. Thus it developed into Marxism- Leninism. Lenin considered revisionists as the agents of imperialism hidden in the ranks of proletarian movement. He criticised and fought against them.
Comrade Stalin preserved and developed Marxism- Leninism through the struggle against the Trotskyites, Zinovievists, Bukharinists, bourgeois agents and various kinds of opportunism hidden in the Soviet Communist party.
The Communist Party of China under the leadership of Comrade Mao made ten internal struggles against left, right and opportunist trends in the process of Chinese Revolution and defeated them. It accomplished New Democratic Revolution and built Socialism. Thus it showed a path for a change in the semi-colonial, semi- feudal systems in Asia, Africa and Latin America and to the New Democratic Revolutions and Socialist Revolutions in those countries. It developed the path of Protracted People’s War. In the process, as a part of the struggle in the international plane against international revisionism, it fought against imperialist agent Tito and revisionists such as Togliatti and Thorez and preserved Marxism-Leninism and developed it.
It led the international theoretical struggle against Khrushchev’s modern revisionism through the Great Debate in the leadership of Comrade Mao. Great Debate helped the genuine proletarian revolutionary forces fighting against revisionism to form new Marxist-Leninist parties on the basis of Marxist-Leninist principles all over the world and facilitated the path to advance. During this period, Comrade Mao led a two line struggle against the main centre of the modern revisionists of the capitalist roaders in the leadership of the die-hard revisionist Li Shao-chi. Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was taken up in the leadership of Comrade Mao in the CPC against modern revisionism. GPCR helped as a catalyst to sensitise the theoretical, political struggle against revisionism in various Communist Parties in the international plane. Lin Piao who stood in the forefront together with Mao in GPCR spoke leftist jargon in the veil of Mao Thought and brought forth the revisionist line in no time and tried to seize power in a traitorous manner. He proved to be a conspirator. After the demise of Comrade Mao, the Hua-Deng modern revisionist clique led a counter revolutionary conspiracy, seized power and restored Chinese capitalism in the place of Socialism and bureaucratic capitalism in the place of Socialist state. After Russia, revisionism gained hegemony in China in the condition of which the Communist Parties of several countries of the world degenerated into right opportunist parties and revisionist parties. Revolutionary movements of few countries also came to an end.
The modern revisionist line of Deng caused extreme harm to the revolutionary communist movement in our country also. Especially the CPI (ML) Liberation in the leadership of Vinod Misra turned Dengist and degenerated into a revisionist party. The DV group (one of the groups in the earlier UCCRI ML) is a Dengist revisionist splinter group. Our party and several Maoist parties and forces of the world took up the historic lessons of GPCR, and condemned the modern revisionism of Deng with the utmost powerful weapon of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. These parties are also fighting back the various forms of revision that came forth due to the influence of Deng including the revisionism in the veil of Maoism and all shades of revisionism. CPI (ML) [People’s War], one of the two revolutionary streams of the united CPI (Maoist) commented wrongly about the second world in regard to the three world theory for some time. Anyhow it soon rectified its mistake.
Later the CPN (M) brought forth ‘Prachanda path’ in the leadership of Prachanda-Bhattarai traitorous clique. RCP (US) in the leadership of Bob Avakian brought forth another modern revisionist theory; socalled Avakianism. Several Maoist parties and forces including our party opposed and theoretically exposed these two trends.
We need to especially expose the China Socialimperialism that is the China revisionism and fake Socialism that came forth with the fake slogan of ‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’. Modern revisionist parties in power in the name of Communist parties in Vietnam, Cuba and North Korea and the modern revisionist parties that do not hold high the proletarian international flag in their country and internationally, that do not implement Socialism, that do not strive for the success of World Socialist Revolution shall not be genuine Communist parties. They help to continue the capitalist systems as opportunist parties.
We must expose the opportunism of these parties. Thus we must develop the revolutionary consciousness and alertness of the people of the world. Our party program declared the correct Marxist position about proletarian internationalism and the relations between the countries.
Coming to our country, our party was formed from amidst the theoretical, political struggle against revisionism and neo-revisionism. Later it countered right-opportunist, left adventurist and many kinds of opportunism and revisionism that arise inside and outside the party, fought against those trends inside and outside the party and reached the present state.
After the success of Great October Revolution in Russia in the leadership of the great Marxist teacher Lenin in 1917, Marxist-Leninist theory became popular in our country. Communist Party of India (CPI) was formed in 1925 under the influence of the theory-revolution and as a result of the heroic militant class struggles of the proletariat against British imperialism.
Although there were numerous opportunities, due to the wrong line followed by the party leadership at the time, it could not play the leading role in the national liberation/democratic movement. The Communist party always denied to recognise the actual class nature of the Gandhian, bourgeois, feudal leadership.
Therefore it failed in adopting the genuine path of revolution, in bearing revolutionary initiative and in fighting with the leadership. Therefore it wrongly understood the comprador bourgeois class as national bourgeois class, tailed Gandhian leadership and were unwilling to adopt genuine strategy-tactics to combine the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism to the concrete practice of Indian Revolution. The leadership made grave mistakes in analysing the classes in Indian society. It failed severely in identifying with the heroic broad masses, especially the peasantry. It rejected to learn from the successfully advancing China Revolution in the leadership of Comrade Mao Tse-tung and the CPC and to creatively apply the path of PPW that it adopted and its great experiences to the concrete conditions of our country.
It did not take up the path of armed struggle for seizure of political power in national liberation movement. By the time the objective revolutionary situation in India is very favourable. But the right opportunist leadership of the Communist Party was always unwilling to take up the correct path of PPW for armed national liberation and democracy. In fact the leadership of the Communist Party helped the bourgeois class to divert the anti-imperialist militant movement of the people. It entered into an opportunist alliance with the Congress, was not independent in the United Front, felt that everything is possible through unityand took the revolutionary people as a tail to the Gandhian leadership. Moreover, the Communist party leadership betrayed the great Telangana peasant armed struggle and fell neck deep into the mire of parliamentarism and revisionism in the deceptive name of utilising parliament. In fact the objective condition was unprecedentedly favourable to advance Agrarian Revolution and it had the path of great PPW and the success of China revolution showed by Comrade Mao. But they acted otherwise.
However, heroic ranks of the communist party joined hands with the struggling people and led several revolutionary struggles. Thousands of comrades laid down their valuable lives to achieve the great cause of accomplishing NDR in India as a part of the World Socialist Revolution.
Genuine revolutionary forces representing the revolutionary ranks in India fought against the wrong right opportunist, revisionist lines of the leadership that was leading CPI, against its backstabs and later on with the modern revisionist CPI (M). this struggle attained total new dimensions in the end of 1950s and in the 60s. The Great Debate taken up under the leadership of the CPC in the leadership of Comrade Mao Tse-tung against the Soviet modern revisionism of the leadership of Khrushchev stood as the symbol of this new beginning. Just like how the Great Debate intensified and led to the GPCR that shook the earth, the struggle against the modern revisionist CPI (M) leadership further intensified and reached the state of divorcing the party. The beginning of GPCR stood as a milestone for this process. In the direct influence of this process, the forces that represented the struggle against initially the CPI revisionism and later the modern revisionism of CPI (M) leadership supported Marxism-Leninism-Mao Thought (now Maoism) theoretically and more importantly in their revolutionary practice and internalised it. Thus Comrade CM, Comrade KC and the great leaders of the first rank and Maoist forces came on to the stage in a large number to condemn the program of the 7th Congress of CPI (M) as revisionism. The great Naxalbari rebellion that took place in 1967 May under the leadership of Comrade Charu Mazumdar became the opening for ‘Spring Thunder in India’. Since then, the historyof the Communist movement in our countrytook a new qualitative turn. It not only greatly exposed revisionism and permanently divorced from it but, for the first time, stood as the symbol for ious application of the bright path of seizure of conscpolitical power through PPW, the path of MLM and that Comrade Mao already put forth.
Thus Marxism-Leninism-Maoism stood as a line of theoretical political demarcation between the revisionists and genuine revolutionaries of India.
Naxalbari inspired armed peasant struggles at various levels in nearly ten states of the country. In the process genuine revolutionaries organised as two main revolutionary streams in 1969—the CPI (ML) and the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC). The 8th Congress of CPI (ML) was held in 1970. However, due to the left tactics that the party followed at that time, the right and left alien trends internally and due to the brutal offensive of the enemy all over the country, the movement temporarily setback. Within a short while after the 8th Congress revolutionary disrupter Satyanarayana Singh attacked Comrade CM with his right opportunist line in 1971 and split the party.
West Bengal police arrested Comrade CM on 28th July 1972 and murdered him in police custody. Most of the leadership in the Central Committee and the various State Committees of the CPI (ML) and ranks of the party either became martyrs, were arrested or scattered. With lack of a centre of the party it became organisationally very weak. There was theoretical confusion. CPI (ML) split several times. Many parties/ groups were formed. The central level leaders and the respective state leadership left without being arrested worked with the theory and politics as per their understanding. During this time several strong trends of right and left adventurism came forth. In the later period on one hand there were attempts of unity of genuine communist revolutionaries and on the other once again splits and formation of new groups.
Although the movement temporarily setback, the revolutionary movement gradually gained strength and advanced amidst several ups and downs, learning lessons from earlier experiences and daringly facing enemy repression making enormous sacrifices in the leadership of the CPI (ML) and MCC. Both these Maoist revolutionary streams made determined fight against the various kinds of opportunism inside and outside the revolutionary all over the country, based on the correct path of revolution and continued the legacy of all the revolutionary aspects of the Indian Communist movement. On the other hand the two main revolutionary streams united the genuine revolutionaries working as separate parties/groups, sections and as individuals and ultimately merged into the CPI (Maoist) on 21st September 2004 as a single centre of Indian proletarian vanguard. This attained utmost importance in the history of Indian Revolution. With the merger of CPI(ML) Naxalbari with the CPI (Maoist) on 1st of May 2014, the unity of various revolutionaries of India as revolutionary parties and groups is complete.
Now let me tell you the stand of our party towards the various left parties in India in the present conditions.
The main theoretical task of the party today is to theoretically face and defeat the post-modern trends, especially the revisionist trends. If our party does not fight against revisionism theoretically and politically, it would be impossible to accomplish NDR in the country.
Various revisionists are trying to divert the advanced sections from the path of revolution. They are trying to divert the revolutionary people into parliamentary, legal and peaceful paths, with their post-modernist revisionist ideologies.
When the left alliance of the CPI and the CPI (M) in power in Kerala and Bengal, the ruling class parties in the centre and the states that formed the government with their support followed imperialist dictated, procomprador ruling class policies. Especially when the CPI (M) was in power in West Bengal, TATA, Birla, Ambani, Jindal and other comprador bureaucratic capitalists of the country and MNCs like Salem were given the lands of the farmers at dead cheap prices by forcibly acquiring them. These social fascists deployed police and Paramilitary forces on the people’s struggles and unleashed severe repression. They indulged in fake encounters and massacres. Murders, atrocities, loot, house burning, arrests, tortures and corruption were normal. In Kerala where it is presently in power also, the government is implementing pro-imperialist policies and handing over the natural resources at dead cheap price. It is suppressing our party, people and workers opposing their policies under iron heel. They prove through their anti-people suppressive policies that they are nothing less than the BJP and Congress in serving imperialism.
Presently CPI and CPM and the ruling class (inclu- ding the regional ruling class) parties have a considerable influence on large sections of the Indian organised working class. Especially the majority of workers and employee organisations of public sector industries, banks, insurance companies, coal and iron mines and other such sectors are under the leadership or influence of these parties. They are in the way of building a militant working class movement in India.
The Trade Unions of these two parties are confined to give call for General strike one or two times a year.
In the present conditions where the onslaught of international Finance Capital is intensifying day by day and the central and the state governments are trampling the rights that the workers achieved through struggle for decades, con- ditions are favourable to build a strong workers’ movement. But the two parties are a hurdle for the same. At times they murmur about privatisation of public sector enterprises, Foreign Direct Investment in the retail sector, retrenchment of workers and casual-contract labour system, in practice they act as agents supporting these polices.
Our party exposes their class collaborationist politics.
Our weakness in urban-working class sectors is confining the development of People’s War.
Our Party needs to advance in the direction of building a strong revolutionary Trade Union movement. The Central Committee of our party called upon all the left parties and forces for united struggles against the state repression unleashed by the exploitive rulers on the oppressed people, the attacks of the Brahmanic Hindutva Fascist forces, against displacement and other such people’s problems. In some states our Mass Organisations are taking part together with the Mass Organisations of CPI.
Now I wish to tell you about the various opportunist parties in the veil of MLM. CPI (ML) Liberation and CPI (ML) Red Star follow right opportunist path in the veil of MLM. These parties left armed struggle, uphold parliamentarism and help the bourgeois parties and revisionist parties such as the CPI, CPM and SUCI. CPI (ML) Liberation took up the revisionist path of Deng in early 1980s and left armed revolution. These parties make heinous, cruel ill propaganda that our party is violent. We need to expose the real character of these two parties much more among the people.
Some Trotskyites working in the working class make ill propaganda that India turned to be a capitalist country, that PPW is outdated and that CPI (Maoist) is a terrorist organisation. They are not at all concerned with rural India and are not even taking up the working class struggles in a militant manner. They allege the PPW and the CPI (Maoist) that is leading it and join the ruling classes in propaganda.
Apart from these there are few more ML parties that follow right opportunist line. All these parties propagate MLM theoretically and politically. They mobilise the people in their areas of work on economic problems and political problems in legal methods. Their people’s struggles are never militant. These parties are open organisations. They show reasons like revolutionary conditions is yet not matured, that the people are not yet ready for armed struggle, that there is no spate of revolution in the country or that they are making preparations for revolution and confine themselves
to legal, partial struggles and postpone People’s war indefinitely. CP Reddy, Satyanarayana Singh led two or three groups (New Democracy, Janashakti and others) have armed squads in undivided Andhra Pradesh.
Anyway, they utilised the squads only to collect funds from the contractors, for votes and to maintain the hegemony of their groups but not to make armed struggle. As per their understanding taking up military formations to make people’s war is left adventurism.
Almost all these parties got into the mire of elections in the name of tactics. Forces of the erstwhile UCCRIML factions are seen here and there in the country but they are not building class struggle anywhere in the country. They do not exist anywhere except in Punjab.
Our party had been making a severe theoretical, political struggle with CPI, CPM, and also Liberation, Red Star, New Democracy, Janashakti, Lin Piao group and other ML groups. At times we even had physical conflicts with New Democracy, Janashakti and Liberation groups. Subsequently we overcame this physical confrontation through mutual discussion and at times through unilateral ceasefire from our side. We are making political, theoretical struggle against the right opportunist line of these parties and making efforts to form broad United Forums together with their Mass Organisations and other organisations on the economic and political problems of the broad oppressed people, especially of the farmers, workers, middle classes, against the Brahmanic Hindutva Fascist forces, against the repression of the exploitive governments, against displacement and for civil rights.
We are working together in such forms. We are ready to work together in future. We need to make more initiative to work to- gether with all the forces that are ready to fight against the Indian exploitive ruling classes, against their antipeople, traitorous fascist policies and in the interests of National Democratic Revolution and for building United forums.
We are aware that there are activists in the lower level in the various right ML parties who work with an aspiration for revolution and dedicated to the people.
Depending on the development of People’s War in the country they might think of the genuine path of revolution. We hope they would break the chains of revisionist, post-modernist, right opportunist and left adventurist ideologies and unite with genuine revolutionary communists. We also wish they would travel in this direction.
On the whole, we can advance the revolutionary movement towards success only by making a theoretical fight against revisionism in various forms, exposing the real nature of the bankrupt leadership and defeating it. Our party developed only by exposing and defeating the right and left opportunism through theoretical, political struggle inside and outside the party since the Naxalbari Spring Thunder until date.
Our party could sustain amidst the ebb and flows and develop only through making efforts to the best of its strength with a proper Marxist stand in the theoretical struggle in the International Communist camp. Therefore the Program and Constitution and the Political Resolution of our party wrote clearly about the importance of the struggle against revisionism. Although we faced betrayal, blows and temporary defeats from the revisionists in the veil of the Communist Party who represented the bourgeois class even in the theoretical sector not only in practice but until establishing Communism through the process of Socialism by destroying world capitalist system, ultimately we shall defeat them in the theoretical sector and all the sectors and definitely achieve success. This is what we tell always not only in our party but also in the revolutionary camp and to the people. This is what we tell even at the international plane.
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