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Volume 46 No. 14 Organ of theSOCIAL IST UNITY CENTRE OF INDIA (COMMUNIST)

March 1, 2013 Founder Editor-in-Chief : COMRADE SHIBDAS GHOSH Price : Rs. 2.00

Everyone who knows anything of history also knows that greatsocial revolutions are impossible without the feminine ferment.Social progress may be measured precisely by the social positionof the fair sex (plain ones included).

KARL MARX( Letter to Kugelmann )

5 May, 1818 14 March, 1883 9 December, 1879 5 March, 1953

A recent severe clash betweentwo armed groups, one standing forthe Trinamool Chhatra Parishad(TMCP) and the other for theChhatra Parishad (CP), the studentwings respectively of the TrinamoolCongress, TMC, the ruling party inthe state of West Bengal and theCongress, the ruling party at theCentre, went well beyond theimmediate issue of filing ofnomination papers for student unionelection of a local College atGarden Reach, Kolkata. Certainly it

was one of the many, almost usual,violent incidents centring roundstudent union elections that aretaking place in the state with the

TMCP in virulent offensive role,aided and abetted by the police-high ranking political leaders-college administration, in the sameway as the SFI , the student wing ofCPI(M) used to act less than twoyears earlier. But in course of eventsthe Garden Reach clash let openstill more stings and venoms.

The contenders were largelytwo groups of goons ledrespectively by two mafia dons, one

some Md. Iqbal, local TMCcouncilor-cum-Borough chairmanand the other Mukhtar. Both of themonce helped CPI(M) to wadethrough grabbing votes in their own

Under capitalism there are no real liberties for the exploited,nor can there be liberties are the privilege of the exploiters.Under capitalism the exploited masses do not, nor can they ever,really participate in governing the country, .even under the mostdemocratic regime, under conditions of capitalism, governmentsare not set up by the people but by the Rothschilds and Stinneses,the Rockefellers and Morgans.

J . V. STALIN(The Foundations of Leninism)

TMC role vis-a-vis mafia activities at Garden Reach of Kolkata

Latest of anti-people activities of Mamata-led government

fanning up mounting disillusionment of peoplemafia style. After all, the state haspassed through a change only lessthan two years back! I t was enoughfor these dreaded and powerfulmafia dons to change theirpositions, with Iqbal taking refugein the TMC and helping TMC in thelast electoral wins and Mukhtarswitching over to the Congress.Garden Reach, the venue anddockyard of Kolkata, istraditionally and notoriously ruledover by mafia dons and gangstersfor the thousand and one lucrative

legal- illegal sources of the portincluding the presently hiked illegalreal estate business, all along withthe backing of the governments,irrespective of their hues. Ferocityand vulnerability of the area and thereach of the long hands of the donswill be evident from the facts thathere, nearly three decades backduring CPI(M) rule, one top-rankingpolice official, the DC(Port), washacked to death when he dared toraid a den single-handedly and animportant eye-witness of themurder reportedly committedsuicide inside the Police

headquarter Lalbazar, itself.This time too, the incident really

reflected a fierce tussle between thetwo mafia dons, Iqbal and Mukhtar,to win control of the area. In that

tussle, as the full glare of electronicmedia gadgets revealed clearly topeople of the state, the said TMCcouncilor venomously instigated hisgroup in broad daylight in the openarena of a public road. A charge bya band of youths followed. One ofthe youths, identified as a TMCactivist, extortionist and gun-wielding bodyguard of thecouncilor, shot at point blank rangeand killed a police official on thespot. It further revealed that thepolice official might have tried to

intervene in the attack on a youthwho belonged to none other than the

TMC itself. The youth was injured,the official dead. The assailantalong with a few others also armedand charging, were nabbed. Butsoon there were pressures on thepolice; a prominent minister of the

TMC government, known to beinfluential from his closeness to theChief Minister as also influentialover the mafia-dons of the area asthe king-pin, was found in the TVfootage holding Mukhtarresponsible for the killing andpleading innocence for the TMC

councilor, Iqbal. The killer youthand his associates were also spared.

Garden Reach game planStrikingly the CM known for

her immediate action-reaction-pronouncements maintainedmeaningful silence and inaction andkept herself busy in enjoying abreak with music and fresh air at theseashore of Digha, a tourist spot,thereby letting the events followtheir own course. As it appearedfrom the series, the course of eventsthat might have been laid out by thesaid minister included framing,arresting and thus eliminating theCongress strongman on charges ofkilling. Who the target of shots

really was, may be a moot question.The injured TMC activist couldhave been a soft target to easilyframe up the opponent strongmen,the police official daring tointervene, coming up in course ofevents. However, in the face ofincreasing confusion and resentmentin people and even the police ranks,the Commissioner of Policeapparently failed to oblige andultimately intervened; the killerswere arrested; Iqbal was sought for.

The CM, so far inactive and silent,summarily transferred theCommissioner from the post,

apparently on the ground of hisdelayed action. But people of thestate did not fail to see through themove: the Commissioner failed to

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Contd. on page 7

Riding on peoples movement to power, TMC nowhell bent in crushing movement to serve ruling class

comply with the TMC wish for

nabbing Mukhtar and letting offIqbal and his gang. It may berecalled that about a month back,the same powerful TMC ministerreportedly threatened policemen ofdire consequences when they daredto trouble the don Iqbal, who hadconfined them as they went to hisoffice to take some of his aides intocustody on some definite charges.As the report goes, the CM alsoreprimanded the concerned TMCminister. However, the lattercontinues his activities with fullvigour standing by the side of theCM in later government

programmes tending one to look atthe reprimand as an eye-wash, aface-saving measure.

In sum and substance, the mafiaraj of Garden Reach, which datesback to the Congress rule since theindependence and which found amore organized shape during theCPI(M) rule through the last threedecades, continues in full flare yettoday. For power and pelf forthemselves, both sides, the mafia rajand the major political partiescoexist intertwined, of course theruling party always having theadvantage. Today these criminals

not only control their businesstaking shelter behind the politicalparties, they enter politics, becomecouncilors, borough chairmen oreven ministers, thus completing thefull cycle of criminalization ofpolitics. Even student politics is notspared, that is also viciouslycriminalized by the major parties.

The recent incident attests to theindelible fact that the TMC followssuit in the most deplorable way. Theknot between politics and criminalsremains intact. Not only that. Theaction and reaction of the important

TMC leaders, including their

supremo, Mamata Banerjee clearlyviolate all norms of ethics and

justice; in clear defiance of brazenfacts unveiling in public andtransmitted statewide throughout thestate through TV, they transgresseven the minimum norms ofadministrative neutrality. Asdazzling instance of nakedfavouritism for petty party interestin serious matters of law and order,administration and governance, theytry to hoodwink people by takingaction against only the small frieslike the youths arrested who arelargely pawns in the hands of main

culprits, the mafia-dons, and shieldtheir own favourites among thelatter upon whom they survive andtarget opponents who stand in theway.

Of course, the Garden Reachincident was not any isolated

phenomenon. The TMCs sustenanceupon the criminals and goons haspermeated down even to theremotest villages. As it has been inGarden Reach, a large section ofdreaded criminals who once actedfor the CPI(M) are now switchingover to come in service of MamataBanerjee and her party and are beingplaced high up in activities. Thematter has reached such a pass thatalready there is developing a bitterpower struggle between these newlywedded party high-ups and therelatively older guards who had beenactive during the TMC rise to power.

For people, such criminalizationof politics is never going to bepalatable, be it with the CPI(M) orthe TMC. The latter came up ridingon a massive surge of massmovements that had burst forthagainst the suffocating situation inthe state created by the last CPI(M)-led rule for over three decades. Alarge section of the common massesfrom all walks of life was allured bythe TMC pre-poll pledge for freeingthe state from the noose of virtuallyfascistic dictatorial domination,where every bit of social activitieswas monitored by the local CPI (M)

activists and leaders in petty partyinterest and in close collaborationwith a corrupt nexus of panchayats-administration-police-anti-socials-promoters-contractors-industrialhouses-big business-corporate sectorin both rural and urban areas. Anydemocratic movement wasruthlessly crushed as was evidentmost fearfully at Singur andNandigram against villagersprotesting forcible grabbing of theirlands. However, questions werealready coming up in the mind ofthose people from series ofinstances, activities and behaviours

of the TMC leaders-ministers-activists even during this brief ruleof slightly less than two years of the

TMC government. The GardenReach incident, one of the latestadditions to that series added fuel tothe fire kindling up resentment, evenwrath in them.

TMC pouncing upon massmovements

The TMC was pledge-bound tosave people from such fascisticattack of the CPI(M) on democraticmass-movements on the burningproblems of peoples life and on

democratic rights of people. In thisshort time of its being in power, the

TMC government has made ashameless turn around. Forgettingabout the rich heritage of students

movement before and afterindependence, it issued fatwa

against school students joiningmovement against abolition of classpromotion through examination,known popularly as pass-failsystem. Brushing aside the longhistory of struggle of thegovernment employees to win theirlegitimate rights, Mamatagovernment issued orders againsttheir taking part in general strike. Asit stood in the last All India GeneralStrike at the call of central tradeunions, at the success of the strikein the state even in the face of allformans (fiats) issued by the TMCsupremo Ms Banerjee, she, visibly

perturbed, dared to pitch forbanning those political partieswhich would issue call for bandh.Among the issues that helped the

TMC gain massive support was themovement against eviction offarmers and villagers in the name ofdevelopment and industry.However, soon after assumingpower, the TMC government firedupon villagers protesting eviction asfor example at Loba of Dubrajpur inBirbhum district of the state. Evenwith the Singur case, where forciblegrabbing of fertile land of farmersin the name of setting up Tatas

small car factory, was resolutelyfought against by the villagers andwhere Mamata Banerjee pledged toreturn the grabbed land at least tothose unwilling villagers, the highlyexpecting villagers found the sameMamata Banerjee now evading theissue throwing it into the vortex oflegal battles. One fine morning thestate was shocked to find how aprofessor was harassed and arrestedwith humiliation for the simplereason of uploading a cartoon on theCM. Curiously enough,immediately later, CM herself didnot refrain from sarcastically

mimicking the prime minister in aTV interview. A TMC leader, astrong-arm blue-eyed boy describedby his higher leaders as vibrantactivist, dared to barge into theprofessors room of a college andabuse, even assault professors,including lady professors, presentthere, for being supporters of adifferent party.

Still not as countless andferocious as they had been during theCPI(M) rule, these incidents andmany such others going on reportedor not, attest to the fact that the TMCas the ruling party and Mamata, its

all-powerful CM, cannot tolerateany opposition or even slightest ofcriticism, leave aside opposition, andinfringe upon freedom of thoughtand expression, if it does not match

its intent and brand. They are evenready and active to crush democratic

rights and movements of people,much in the line the CPI(M) treadedupon. And along with robbingpeople of their legitimate rights andthe only important means ofsurvival, democratic massmovements, the TMC governmentand its supremo Mamata Banerjeehave started depending on the brutepower of police-administrationacting in close nexus with thecriminals- gangsters and mafia donsall over the state. Day-to-day sociallife is being controlled by a band ofextremely corrupt, arrogant, oftenviolent strong-arms, who are

popularly identified as notoriouscriminals of the locality and who notinfrequently are locked into mutualclashes. It is also true that many ofthese notorious faces were knownCPI (M) goons having changedcolour overnight with the change ofregime. But for the people theyremain the same tyrants, the samemiscreants. The Garden Reach caseis the latest example of such nexuswith criminals forsaking all norms ofethics- justice and administrativeneutrality.

TMC does not spare education

But the present brief TMC ruleis ornamented not just with thismalady. One particular issue thatMamata Banerjee and her partyhinged upon was their pledge to freeeducation and educationalinstitution from deplorableinterference and intervention by theruling party. Such interference wasvirtually institutionalized by theCPI(M) through using governmentalpower, police-administration, andvicious band of goons to extendfirm grip of the party upon thegoverning committees or bodies ofschools and colleges or the court-

council of universities or the studentunions of colleges and universities.Appointment at all levels from apeon to the vice-chancellor, grantingof even due benefits to teachers andemployees, all day-today activitieswere controlled by the CPI (M)bosses and headquarters. Evenstudent union elections were marredwith threat, even physical assault onstudents of opponent organizationswith the help of branded hated anti-socials from outside; thoseamenable were allured with offer of

jobs and other privileges as well asfinancial gains through illegal

means; the highest administration ofschools and colleges already loadedwith their pet elements intervenedunscrupulously in helping the SFI ,

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Contd. on page 4

Comrade Provash Ghosh at the Delegate Session of 3rd AIMSS Conference

Comrade President and ComradeDelegates,

First of all let me convey myrevolutionary greetings to thefraternal delegates who have comefrom abroad and to all the delegatespresent here. Comrades, barringfew small states, almost entire Indiais represented here. And yourepresent millions and millions ofoppressed women of our country.

You have gathered here at a very

critical situation when all spheres oflife in our country i.e. economic,political, social, cultural, ethical,moral in all respects arecontinuously sinking towardscomplete ruination. Responding tothe call of All India MahilaSanskritik Sangathana (AIMSS),you all have joined this conferencewith a view to chalking out the dueremedial course i.e. course ofrevolutionary struggle to uphold thecause of women, the interest of theentire society.

Rising graph of crime onwomen

You know, the rulers boastfullyclaim that the country is advancingvery fast. J ust a few days back, theyobserved the 64th republic day withusual grandeur. Every year, theyritualistically observe republic dayon 26th January, independence dayon 15th August and claim that Indiais developing rapidly. They project arosy picture of the countrysprogress. On the other hand we findmillions and millions of haplessmothers crying for food in thestreets with their babies in the laps.Millions of children are dying ofstarvation and without medical

treatment. When the dusk sets in, wefind another darkness descending onthe land. Thousands and thousandsof mothers and sisters come out tothe streets to sell their bodies inorder to somehow maintain theirfamilies. Women-trafficking hasassumed an alarming proportion.Even six and seven year old girl isinitiated into flesh trade. There are alarge number of fake marriageswhere the so called husbands keepthe wives for few days to satisfy lustand then sell them in the market ofprostitution. This has become aroaring business in our country. In

place of flowers, the wedding nightsare having beds of thorns. Findingthe husband a drunkard anddebauch, shocked wife eitherbecomes mad or commits suicide.

(Speech delivered by Comrade Provash Ghosh, General Secretary,SUCI(C), at the delegate session of the 3rd All India Conference of AIMSSat Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, on 31st January, 2013)

There is galloping rise in the numberof dowry killing, honour killing,female foeticide and infanticide.Eve teasing, kidnapping, rapes, gangrapes are on a spiral. Yet, the rulersclaim that the country is advancingfast. In what direction is this

it has been said that the root of allevil is woman. All other religionsalso reflected same views. This isthe attitude of religion to women.On the other hand, we findparliamentary institutions andsacred constitution.

The apologists of bourgeoisdemocracy claim that parliamentarysystem guarantees equal right toboth man and woman. They say that

was matriarchal. But they could notscientifically analyze why theearlier society was matriarchal, whyand how it was replaced bypatriarchal society. It remainedunexplained till the emergence ofGreat Marx and Engels. Bourgeoishistorians, who studieddevelopment of human society,provided irrefutable evidence thatthe first society was matriarchal.But Marx and Engels for the firsttime developed a scientificphilosophy by coordinating,correlating and generalizing all the

particular laws of science, andthereby discovered that like nature,society is also law governed. Theyhad shown by applying dialecticalmaterialism that in a society there isa base i.e. the production system,composed of production relationsand productive forces. Based uponthat, the superstructure exists.Superstructure is constituted ofphilosophy, ideology, politics,culture, morality, family life,political and social institutions etc.At a given time, a particularsuperstructure develops on the basisof a particular base, and that

superstructure acts conducive to theinterest of a particular base. In aclass divided society, the dominantruling class controls thesuperstructure. The religiouspreachers held that the divisionbetween man and woman,domination of man over woman hasbeen created by god and hence thesame are unchangeable and eternal.

The bourgeois ideologues also saidin a roundabout way that like thatdivision between manual labour andmental labour, there is divisionbetween man and woman. Thisdivision is also absolute. Marxism,on the contrary, showed that there isnothing eternal in either nature orhuman society. Everything changes.A particular phenomenon appears ata given time, and then it goes out ofbeing yielding place to a newerphenomenon. It is law governed.Here let me read out what greatEngels said on the question of howdivision between man and womanand domination of man over womanarose in the society: In an oldunpublished manuscript the worksof Marx and myself in 1846 I findthe following: The first division oflabour is that between man andwoman for child breeding. And

today I can add: The first classantagonism which appears inhistory coincides with thedevelopment of the antagonism

there is jurisprudence to providejustice to all, justice to women.They hold that there is police-military to provide security to thecountry, to the women. But whathave we been witnessing? We findthat all these are false, nothing butmockery and hypocrisy. These

bourgeois leaders are frauds,hypocrites, corrupt in every respect.Always they lie to deceive people.What is the reality? Reality is thatthere is monstrous slavery, brazenrule of monopolists, multinationalsand corporate sectors and thewomen are languishing in slaveryand servitude. Even when thebourgeoisie in the initial days of itsrising played a progressive role, itsattitude towards the women wasdiscriminatory. It was said that thebourgeois democracy is by thepeople, for the people, of thepeople. But their categorization ofpeople did not include women.Women were denied voting right.Even they were denied education.Women in the western countries hadto fight for few decades to earn theright to have education, right to voteand the right to contest electionsand be elected. Because, afterfeudalism, capitalism alsoestablished another form ofexploitation. So, you can understandthat the pioneers of bourgeoisrenaissance and parliamentarydemocracy could not freethemselves from the narrowconfines of patriarchal attitude.

Only Marxism explained thecause of subjugation of women

The bourgeois scholars andhistorians, it is true, discovered inearlier time that first human society

years old mother. A very horriblesituation is prevalent in our country.

Attitude of religion towardswomen

When such crimes and violenceon women are soaring in number,cries and wails of oppressed womenare renting the air, prayers, worship,

namaz and devotional songs aregoing on in the temples, mosquesand churches in a very peacefulatmosphere. As usual, the priestsand clergies are praying to thealmighty God. But, tears and cries ofthe oppressed women do not reachthese holy shrines, do not piercethrough the four walls of thesesacred institutions. Repressed,persecuted women are crying,appealing to Yamraj (the god ofdeath), to save them by grantingdeath. But, these priests and clergiesare instead preaching them religioussermons, advising them not to

express grievances or give vent todiscontent but only accuse their ill-fate for all their miseries andsufferings, accept their predicamentas an endowment of god andconsider what they are having asdivine mercy. They are told thatsince they had committed sins in theprevious lives, they are punished intheir present lives. So they ought toaccept this suffering peaceably,happily, unconditionally and onlythen would they achieve salvation.Do you know what has been theattitude of religion towards thewomen? Sankaracharya, the Hindu

religious preacher who was calledBhagawan Sankaracharya had noqualms in saying that women arethe gate to hell. In Christianity also,there is story of Adam and Eve and

advancement then? It is saidthat a society can be calledcivilized on the criteria of itsattitude to the women. If that be

so, could our society be calledcivilized at all? If this iscivilization, what then isbarbarism? Even in the barbaricstage also, we did not find thesetypes of bestial acts like rapesand gang rapes, rape of a twoyear old girl child, of a seventy

Comrade Provash Ghosh addressing

Educate, inspire, and organize millions of women with

the great revolutionary ideology of Marxism-Leninism-

Shibdas Ghosh Thought to achieve emancipation

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Contd. frompage 3

Comrade Provash Ghosh at All I ndia Womens Conference

While defenders of capitalist rule boast progress,rapes, gang rapes, child rapes galore

between man and woman inmonogamy marriage, and the firstclass oppression with that of thefemale sex by the male. Monogamywas a great historical advance, butat the same time it inaugurated,along with slavery and privatewealth, that epoch, lasting untiltoday.(1) Here Engels had shownthat how with the appearance ofslave system, patriarchy replacedmatriarchy in society. And hefurther pointed out that so longthere would remain class division,division between rich and poor,exploiter and exploited, there would

remain this patriarchal society.Great Comrade Lenin alsodiscussed the question ofsubjugation of woman undercapitalism and commented: In allcivilized countries, even the mostadvanced the position of woman issuch as justifies there being calledas domestic slaves. Not in a singlecapitalist country, not even in thefreest republic, do woman enjoycomplete equality? We say thatthe emancipation of the workersmust be brought about by theworkers themselves and similarlythe emancipation of woman workersmust be brought about by thewomen workers themselves.(2)

Great Comrade Stalin also said:Not a single great movement of theoppressed in the history of mankindhas also being able to do without theparticipation of the workingwoman.(3) Comrades, in humanhistory, it is only Marxism-Leninism which placed before themankind how matriarchal societywas replaced by patriarchal societyon the basis of ownership of meansof production. When the means ofproduction turned into a means ofproperty ownership and the slave-master system ensued to mark the

beginning of slavery, the patriarchalsociety came into being. AndMarxism has taught us that thispatriarchal domination would endonly when class exploitation wouldbe finally abolished followingoverthrow of capitalism.

The Indian contextIn this background let us

examine the situation of ourcountry. It is known to you all thatIndian renaissance started with RajaRammohan Roy. But he could notcompletely free himself from thesupernatural and spiritualistic

outlook. He believed in Vedanta,and Almighty Brahma. But heintroduced certain progressivereforms. He fought for abolition ofthe infamous custom of Satidaha

in which women were burnt alive on

the burning pyres of their deadhusbands. After that, we gotVidyasagar, the first secularhumanist, of our country. He wasthe first man who denounced theVedanta, the Gita, the Veda and allsuch religious scriptures. Heemphatically stated that these all arefalse. Discarding all these, he calledfor introduction of scientificeducation, emphasized onmaterialistic thinking. He was anagnostic, materialist. He fought forwidow remarriage, abolition ofchild marriage and polygamy,introduction of secular education

and woman education. Facingtremendous obstruction from themale-dominated feudal society, hesaid with much pain, You think,with the demise of their husbands,womenfolk turn into lifeless statues;they no longer feel the stings ofsorrow, the pangs of pain; thepowerful carnal desires are uprootedat once What a matter of deepsorrow. A country whose men haveno compassion, no virtues, no senseof justice and injustice, nodistinction between good and evil,no judiciousness, whose prime taskand sole virtue is to comply with

religious injunctions and customs;may the unfortunate womenfolk notget born in the country.(4) He saidanother remarkable thing. Pleasetake a due note of it. Although hedid not have the opportunity to beacquainted with ideas of Marx andEngels, still it struck his mind that,The women are relatively weakerand due to faulty social regulationquite subservient to man. (5) But,the situation was completelyreversed by Vivekananda, anotherrenowned personality of the soil. Onthe one hand, he raised the bannerof nationalism while on the other

hand he raised the banner ofVedanta. And by that, virtually heobstructed the advancement of thesocio-cultural movement initiatedby Vidyasagar. Now let me referwhat Vivekananda preached as idealof women. Speaking on the questionof education, he said: The womenof India must grow and develop inthe footprints ofSita. Sita is unique.She is the very type of true Indianwoman, for all the Indian ideals ofa perfected woman have grown outof that one life ofSita There shewill always be, this glorious Sita,purer than purity itself, all patience,

and all suffering Any attempt tomodernize our women, if it tries totake our women away from thatideal of Sita, is immediately afailure as we see every day.(6)

Again let me read out what

Gandhiji, the prominent nationalleader, said on this question: Menand women are complimentary toeach other. Man is supreme in theoutward activities and therefore heshould have a greater knowledgethereof. Home life is entirely thesphere of women and therefore indomestic affairs, in the upbringingand education of children womenought to have more knowledge.Unless courses of instruction arebased on a discriminatingappreciation of these basicprinciples, the fullest life of manand woman cannot be developed

It is fromSitaandDraupadi, SabitriandDamayanti that women todaycan derive strength and guidance forheroic conduct. (7) Now I amquoting Rabindranath, another veryimportant personality of IndianRenaissance. On womanseducation his observation was likethis: Since physical structure andnature of mind of women aredifferent from those of men, theirspheres of activity are naturallydifferent. From a kind of rebelliontendency, a section of women refuseto accept this basic truth. Theyargue that fields of activities of both

men and women ought to be thesame. This is nothing but a meremanifestation of accumulatedgrievance. Reason for this grievanceis that men in course of pursuit oftheir own specific activities havebecome dominant in variousspheres. On the contrary, the womenin most of the areas are obliged toremain obedient to men. They donot consider this obedience asinevitable. If men in course ofexercising their power against thevery soft nature of women keepthem subjugated by binding them insuperstitious beliefs, then it has to

be admitted that slavery of womenis natural. The moot point is that itis only natural for women tobecome mother and wife. Butslavery can never be natural forthem. Women by nature are muchaffectionate, tender in feeling. Ifthey were not so, children could notbe reared, families could not be heldtogether. Society has always givenimportance on this affectionatenature of women; hence the veryobligation of women to society liesin giving love and affection. On theother hand, society alwaysemphasized on the physical strength

of men and hence mens obligationlies in protecting society with theirstrength.(8) Now you see thatVivekananda, Gandhiji andRabindranath reflected same views

on woman as opposed to what

Vidyasagar believed. Later, it wasSaratchandra, the revolutionaryhumanist litterateur, who carriedforward and further developed theideas of Vidyasagar. While theoutlook of Vivekananda, Gandhijiand Rabindranath was governed byspiritualism, religious andtraditional beliefs, the approach ofVidyasagar and Saratchandras wasscientific, materialistic. Acontroversy arose at the time offreedom movement centring on thequestion of participation of womenin it. While conservatives andtraditionalists opposed any such

participation of women in freedomstruggle, eminent uncompromisingnovelist Saratchandra stronglysupported the same and said, Forindependence of the country, it isessential to have combined initiativeof both men and women. Otherwise,nothing would happen. I know thatif both boys and girls come out towork together, there will be barrageof slanders from various quarters.Let them do so. Should we stopworking because some slanderersare shouting aloud? How can thosewho cannot forsake so called nameand fame for the sake of the country,

claim to have made sacrifices?(9)Saratchandra also provided veryvaluable lessons for woman so thatthey could free their mind fromshackles of traditionalism. Thesewere discussed in his celebratednovel, Shesh Prashna (The lastquestion) where he said: Amongvarious happenings in life, marriageis one - nothing more than that.(10)

Further he said: Those who issuedthe edict that wives are only meantto bear child, did not only showedaffront to women but shuttered theroad of their own development.(11)

He fought vehemently against the

concept of Putrarthe kriyotevarja i.e. a wife is necessary onlyfor giving birth to a male child. Onthis he said, Those who made towear ornaments with the variegatedopulence of coaxing words anddeclared that fulfillment of life liesin becoming mother had deceivedthe entire womenfolk.(12) So far asI know, these advanced views ofSaratchandra even could not befound in the literature of WesternRenaissance period. You know thatgreat Marxist thinker ComradeShibdas Ghosh with muchappreciation characterized

Saratchandra as a powerfuluncompromising humanist thinkerof Indian Renaissance and foundhim having come very close to the

Contd. on page 5

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thoughts of socialist revolution. Soyou see that there were twodiametrically opposite trends inIndian Renaissance. One wasadvocated by Vivekananda,Gandhiji, Rabindranath; anotherheld aloft by Vidyasagar andSaratchandra. But the former wasthe dominant trend because ournational freedom movement was ledby the Indian national bourgeoisiewho, for definite socio-politicalreason, assumed a compromisingattitude towards feudalism andspiritualism. So they backed andbrought to the fore the views of

Vivekananda, Gandhiji andRabindranath. And there was noproletarian revolutionary movementin our soil then because of absenceof a genuine Marxist party. Thepseudo- Marxists or self-styledcommunists did not highlight theviews of Vidyasagar andSaratchandra. As a result, thedominant Indian mindset evenamong the city-based educationistslet alone the rural illiterateuneducated masses was moulded inconformity with the teachings andpreachings of Vivekananda,Gandhiji, and Rabindranath. And

that worked behind determination ofthe attitude towards women even ofeducated people.

Present India is no differentThis we are witnessing even

today. I am not touching upon thepolitical question of Indian freedom

struggle. I would like to point out

only one aspect. Had there beenemergence of a genuine Marxistleadership at that time, situationwould have been different. Thatleadership could have upheld thesecular humanist banner ofVidyasagar and Saratchandra andworking in the continuity of thattrend could give rise to yet moreadvanced proletarian culture afterbringing about necessary break dueto change of era. It happenedafterwards when tears and deep sighof the millions and millions ofoppressed workers, peasants,common people and women gave

birth to the real Marxist leadershipconcretized in Comrade ShibdasGhosh, the great leader of theproletariat. It was Comrade ShibdasGhosh who accepted Marxism-Leninism, the highest revolutionaryideology of this era, applied itcorrectly and concretely in theconcrete situation of our country aswell as in the obtaining concreteinternational situation and in theprocess elaborated, developed andenriched Marxism-Leninism furtherand brought its understanding to anew height which we call ComradeShibdas Ghosh Thought. He also

provided the most advanced conceptof proletarian culture and morality.Based on Marxism, ComradeShibdas Ghosh explained to theIndian women that, The societyonce was also matriarchal. Whenthe question of private propertyarose in the wake of introduction ofagriculture, the society becamepatriarchal. After agriculture wasintroduced, men were able toestablish their domination onproduction and division of labourFrom then onwards startedsuppression of women At thattime, men and women fought

pitched battle against each other fora long period This fight went onwith a view to forcing the women toaccept the domination of patriarchyin society. But the same womenfolkhad to yield to such domination inpassage of time.(13) Then he added,Men and women both make humansociety. So, in the struggle for socialprogress, social development andsocial revolution, as men have theirrole, women, have also to play equalrole... In this revolution, that is, inthe achievement of freedom fromboth capitalist domination andexploitation, lies the emancipation

of both men and women. Both are toequally join this struggle. This isfree for all strata of women middle class women, peasantwomen, and women of working

class. You join this struggle with

your total might. This is the onlyreal path of emancipation. There isno second path.(14) This is theguideline provided by ComradeShibdas Ghosh. I am not here tooffer you any guideline as suggestedby your leader. I am speaking onlyon the basis of the guidelineprovided by Comrade ShibdasGhosh. For the first time in ourcountry, he provided the guidelinefor the struggle of emancipation ofwoman. But he sounded a caution aswell. He said, In course of abidingby the rules and regulations ofpatriarchal society, women have

come today to such a pass that theyhave not only been habituated infollowing the same, these creedsand dictions have become part andparcel of womans life in the formof blind superstitions. Today,women themselves have fallenvictim to those superstitions. So, itis often found that in many aspects,women themselves are against theliberty of woman.(15)

Women are cloistered inobscurantist thoughts

Why is this happening? It isbecause the dominant trend of

Indian Renaissance hadcompromised with religion. And allthe religious scriptures,mythological stories are composedin such a way as if women are bornonly to serve the man as slaves andthat is the only means for theirsalvation. For thousands andthousands of years starting fromslave society, feudalism tocapitalism, patriarchal society hasbeen dominating over the women.And for thousands of years, womenhave been educated to endure itwith pleasure. Mothers,grandmothers have been educating

their daughters, and granddaughterson that line. The next generation inturn is also educating its daughtersaccordingly. This education startsright from the early childhood of agirl. A girl is told that after all sheis a woman, she would have to bemarried and a husband would comein her life. So, she cannot afford tomove in this or that way, to speak orconduct in a way she likes, evencannot burst into laughter on beingamused. She has only to prepareherself to be an obedient servingwife tuned to abide by the likes anddislikes of her husband. She only

has to be a mother and that too ofboys and not girls. Sons arewelcome, daughters are not. A girlalso is habituated to think that if sheis not married, her future is doomed.

On the other hand, it would be hard

for her to remain unmarried becauseshe would have to face questionsfrom her relations and friends as towho would look after herparticularly when she becomesolder, her health breaks. Whatwould then be her future? In hermarried life, if she cannot become amother of a child, particularly of aboy child, she would be condemned,humiliated, tortured and evenmurdered. Sometimes a woman alsoturns insane, even commits suicideif she finds her married life acomplete failure or is unable tobecome a mother. Even if a woman

is successful as a teacher or doctor,as scientist or economist or aspolitician such achievements areconsidered by her and others asuseless until she becomes a wife ormother. She feels that herwomanhood is unaccomplished.

This is the prevailing mentality. Forthousands and thousands of years,such belief has been ingrained in thecells, blood corpuscles, flesh andbones of women, such customs andhabits become part and parcel oftheir life. Instinctively they feel likethis. There is no dearth of folk tales,songs and dramas which preach

such thoughts, eulogize such brandof womanhood and thereby seek toeducate the women to remainconfined to such mindset.

Shackles must be brokenSo, serious ideological and

cultural struggle is necessary tobreak these shackles. You cannotfree the women from this slavishmentality merely by adoptingresolutions, publishing booklets ordelivering rostrum speeches. Itnecessitates profound wisdom, in-depth knowledge, immensepatience, perseverance and

tactfulness to launch and conductthe struggle for womensemancipation. India is a very vastcountry. You are to educate millionsand millions of women. To educateothers, you must be educated first.And you cannot have this outlookwithout correctly grasping ComradeShibdas Ghosh Thought, the mostdeveloped understanding of thescience of Marxism-Leninism.Comrade Shibdas Ghosh alsoreminded the menfolk that theywould also not be free if their wivesare kept in chains. A man cannot bea communist without being free

from patriarchal mentality. This isalso a very difficult struggle. Aftermarriage a man considers that hiswife is his property. Wife also

Comrade Provash Ghosh at All I ndia Womens Conference

Patriarchal domination would end only whenclass exploitation would be finally abolished

Contd. frompage 4

Contd. on page 6

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PAGE SIX MARCH 1, 2013 PROLETARIAN ERA

considers that since she has givenher body and everything to herhusband, she has become hisproperty. Views are prevalent thatwomen are to stay indoors, confinedto the kitchen, bed rooms andchildcare as domestic slaves. Just afew days back, Mohan Bhagavat,the chief of Hindu fundamentalistRSS, expressed this mentality whilecommenting on the gruesome gangrape of a 23 year old Delhi girl.According to him, women in thecities and towns are inviting theirown problems by crossing theLakshman Rekha, that is the line

of traditional thoughts andrestrictions. Such does not happenwith village women whom he calledwomen ofBharat. In other words,women could be raped, gang raped,molested and even killed if theydared to cross the boundary line ofdomestic confinement as imposedby the patriarchal society. As if,women interned in home or living inthe villages are not falling victim torape, gang rape, molestation, tortureand domestic violence.

To change this mentality andinflict a crushing defeat on all suchvile thoughts of vested interest, what

is imperative is a fierce painstakingideological and cultural struggle. Sowe need good theoreticians, ablepropagandists and good organizersfrom amongst the women. You haveto produce dramas, compose songsto propagate your views in aestheticvehicle. You have to educate thevillage women in their ownlanguage. You cannot eliminatereligious approach to life so easily.A prolonged ideological and culturalbattle is necessary. So long there isclass division, so long the society isdivided between rulers and ruled,exploiters and exploited, the

thoughts of the rulers would exist.So long human beings cannotdetermine their own destiny, theproverbial saying that manproposes, god disposes continues togrip the mind; so long men are notdawned upon by the scientificoutlook to unravel all the mysteriesof nature and correctly understandthe history of social evolution andprogress, belief in supernaturalentity, an invisible hand workingbehind the nature and pre-determining everything, would notcease to exist. Similarly, so long lifewould remain hellish, full of

unbearable suffering and plight, amystic belief in heaven in the otherworld where life is contemplated tobe free from all miseries andmaladies and abounding in

happiness would continue to have an

illusory beckoning, as a kind ofconsolation. Only socialistrevolution would facilitate abolitionof the very material base for suchreligious thoughts to sprout from.

Women liberation linked upwith overthrow of capitalism

This class divided system is thebreeding ground of religiousthinking. On the other hand if youcan develop mass movementscombining with this imperativeideological and culture struggles,you would be able to correctlyeducate thousands and thousands of

suffering people including themultitude of hapless women. Thiswill work as counteracting force, asanti-thesis against this oppressivepatriarchal society. The process ofabolition of patriarchal society willstart with overthrow of capitalismand establishment of socialism.Although under socialism, womenwould be equal economically andpolitically, still there will beremnants of patriarchal mentality inthe realm of superstructure. So,serious determined cultural andideological struggle is necessary insocialism as well to eliminate even

the last vestiges of such mentality.More advanced is socialism in theprocess of relentless conduction ofthis struggle, faster will be removedthe left-overs of patriarchy insuperstructure. Ultimately when thestage of communism is reached,there will be the completeelimination of this patriarchaloutlook. Those who are votaries offeminist movement also demandliberty of women. But they ignorethe fact that this patriarchal societydid not evolve accidentally butcame in the process of developmentof production system at a particular

stage of production. As I havealready said, when society becameclass divided, matriarchal societywas replaced by patriarchal society.And this will remain till theabolition of class division. So byignoring class struggle, overlookinginexorable social laws and byshouting slogans against menfolk,organizing debates or seminars toshare privileges enjoyed by men,one cannot achieve womenliberation. Men also shouldunderstand that without theemancipation of woman, their ownemancipation would continue to

elude them. So emancipation ofworkers and peasants, emancipationof the entire society is linked upwith the struggle of emancipation ofwoman. Men and women must

conduct this struggle combinedly.

Struggle must be directed againstthe capitalist system not againstmen. So while developingdemocratic movement on thelegitimate demands of women, forliberation of women, main objectshould be to strengthen therevolutionary movement againstcapitalism.

Task imperative of AIMSSactivists and leaders

Next point comes how toorganize the suffering women in thisstruggle. There are differentcategories of women, educated

women in the cities and towns andilliterate woman in the slums andvillages. In the cities, educatedwomen are either engaged fully indomestic work or shouldering dualresponsibility of working in officesor institutions as well as lookingafter the household activities. Wefind poor women working as labourin tea gardens, textile factories,construction work, mines andagricultural fields. Undoubtedly, aswomen, they face some commonproblems. At the same time, thereare some specific problems also foreach category of women. Our

leaders, organizers must minutelystudy those specific problems.

Those problems are to be solvedparticularly and specifically. Theeducated comrades who are comingfrom middle class families must not,out of petty bourgeois mentality andcultural mooring, keep themselvesfenced off from those who arecoming from slums and village life.Along with other related struggles,it also forms a part of the beginningof the process of their beingdeclassed. Do this unhesitatingly,happily and mix with the women ofthe slum areas. You should love the

women who are engaged asdomestic maids as your own sisters.If you feel any barrier in your mind,fight out that petty bourgeois mentalcomplex. Among the middle classwomen, on the one hand there isdominance of religious superstitionswhile on the other hand, bourgeoisindividualism, hankering forluxurious way of life, consumerism,ultra-modernism are widelypervasive. While you would beworking among them, unknowinglyyou might as well be influenced bythose unless you are culturallyprepared and tuned properly. They

suffer from middle class vacillation,opportunism, careerism. You haveto fight those phenomena as well.Among the poor women, there isprevalence of religious customs,

traditions, casteism. But they are

more militant in their struggle.Since they work together in thefactories, mines and tea gardens, itis relatively easier to unite them.AIMSS must send activists to allsections of suffering women. Youhave to combine all, unite all, andeducate all of them in the commonstruggle for emancipation. I repeatthere are some problems common toall women. But there aredivergences, differences,particularities and peculiarities aswell. By applying Marxian science,you will have to meticulously studyall such differences and diversities

to develop AIMSS with immensepatience and proper knowledge. Iwill tell the senior leaders that mostof you might have become old, butmentally you should remain youngforever. More you can graspComrade Shibdas Ghosh Thought,younger you will remain in mind.

You need to develop your juniorcomrades as your own children. Outof anger, do not behave with themas an oppressive mother-in-law.Educate them, rear them withaffection and love. They maycommit mistake. So what? You alsocommit mistake, we also commit

mistake. So do not be harsh,impatient. Your attitude should be

just like a caring mother, who couldnot complete school education, butencourages her daughter to study forthe post graduate education withpride. You need to develop the

junior comrades like that. Let themsupersede your standard throughstruggle. That will be your success,not failure. Junior comrades shouldrespect the senior comrades asmother. Today, this organization hasgrown so big. But, at the initialstage, the senior leaders had to facemany difficulties. Being educated

and inspired by Comrade GhoshThought they braved many odds. Sorespect not only their age andexperience, respect their strugglealso. Learn from their struggle.Leaders must win the respect andlove of the juniors by continuouslydeveloping their ideologicalstandard, by dint of their higherculture, heightened organizationalability, dedication and devotion. Setexamples before the juniorcomrades. Create congenialatmosphere, so that junior comradescan express their mind, theirdifferences and criticisms

unhesitatingly and with ease.Differences are to be resolved onlyby arguments, must not besuppressed. Combine both

Comrade Provash Ghosh at All I ndia Womens Conference

Men also should understand that without the emancipation ofwomen, their own emancipation would continue to elude them

Contd. frompage 5

Contd. on page 9

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PROLETARIAN ERA MARCH 1, 2013 PAGE SEVEN

Contd. frompage 2

Contd. on page 8

TMC pledge for freeing educationfrom petty party control falls flat

students wing of the CPI(M). Such

disastrous attacks on education andeducational institutions had drivenpeople to desperation, people thusleading them to expect remedy fromthe TMC. But to their utter dismay,the TMC made a volte- face.

As mentioned above, the TMChas picked up the torn pages of theCPI (M)s manual to establish itsparty rule and moves the same wayto curb opposition. Whileclamouring for freeing educationalinstitutions from the CPI (M) brandof partycracy and establishdemocracy, the TMC governmentbrought amendment to the

provisions for selection procedureof the Vice-Chancellors and theDeans. In the search committee forappointing VCs of universities itreplaced the UGC nominatedrepresentative by the governmentnominated representative. The moveopposed by a sizeable section ofteaching community thus keeps theoption open to appoint the TMCyes men in these key universityposts. As to the question of policies,as indicated above, the TMC isemphatically implementing thedisastrous union government policyof no detention policy up to class

VIII stage of school. And whenstudents stood up to protest thispolicy, the TMC came down heavilyupon them.

The TMCP, in their turn, mostarrogantly carry on their unabashedhooliganism and wanton violence incolleges and schools, includingharassment of principals or VCs,threat or even thrashing of studentsduring admission or elections,extortion of money at the time ofadmission, demanding promotion enmasse despite failure inexaminations to establish theirunopposed control on educational

institutions just as SFI did it earlier.And that in such cases they areblessed with the indulgence of theparty bosses, just as the SFI activistswere by their party leaders, asbecame evident with the CMbrushing aside TMCP activistsheckling the principal of the RaigunjCollege as a childish act of smallboys. Wherever there develops anychance of opposition, which in factis growing, the TMCP preventsfiling of nomination papers of theopponent candidates or stalls evenelection itself, creating an ambienceof threat and intimidation aided and

abetted by the goons from outsideand administration of the institution,often instructed or dictated upon byhigher leadership includingministers of the party. More

ominously on the plea of curbingpolitical interference, the VC of the

Calcutta University proposed andthe CM endorsed imposing of banson any meeting- demonstration,even deputation to the authorityduring the working hours. What wasstriking is that the proposal wasmooted in the wake of, rathermaking a plea of, an untoward clashbetween two factions of the TMC-supporter employees themselveswithin Calcutta University campus.

Thus without taking the miscreantsof their own party to tasks, be they

TMCP activists or employees orothers, the TMC is forcing blanketcoercive measure upon democratic

rights and movements of students-teachers and employees.

TMC and corruptionThe situation is no different on

other questions, say for instance onissues of corruption or of atrocitieson women. Limitless corruptionmarked the CPIM) rule and wasglaringly evident, among others, ingross irregularities in the PublicDistribution System (PDS) andration dealers penetrating even theremotest parts of the state such as inthe J angalmahal area whichgenerated widespread and intense

movement of village people againstthese corrupt ration dealers. Therewere also massive corrupt deals inthe real estate business particularlyin urban outskirts and many suchothers whose heat people of thelocalities had to face every day,every moment.

Here again the TMC rule mayclaim the credit of attaining a nearlyequal position in continuing andperpetrating corruption. Whateverinstances that have surfaced duringthe brief TMC rule include fiercesquabbles among greedy sharks inreal estate deals all over the state.

For instance, in the Garden Reacharea alone decadesold legacy ofburgeoning illegal constructionsand their multi crores of rupeesworth of earning for the local mafia-dons and their associates, as well asthe political- criminal- police nexus,is being maintained faithfully evenduring this TMC rule with Iqbal, oneof the main accused in the recentGarden Reach case and enjoying thepatronage of an important minister,holding a key role in the real estatebusiness, pitted against other mafiassome of which are allegedly close toa member, mayor-in-council of the

same TMC-ruled KolkataMunicipal Corporation.

With the PDS the monitoringand vigilance committees whichwere started on paper by the

CPI(M)-led government underpressure of peoples movement in

2007 and were taken up again by theTMC government are on the vergeof dying their natural death, notworking or not setting up as yet oreven not meeting at all. A new SMSalert system to give consumersdetails of allotments relies on theration dealers for names and contactdetails of consumers, which boilsdown to the fact that personsallegedly responsible for theft ofPDS materials are being asked tohelp their own watchdog to keepvigil on them. To add more, one

TMC MP, a lawyer by profession,has taken a brief from a client in

fighting corruption in the state fooddepartment headed by his own partycolleague.

Among other instances, therehas emerged the case of much-hypedand much-discredited multi-crorescam of purchase and installation oftrident street-lights by the KolkataMunicipal Corporation, whoseveracity is proven by the recentorder of curtailing at least onefourth of the bills of the suppliersthat carried spurious amounts.

TMC and atrocities on womenThe rule of a chief minister

posed before the elections as acompassionate lady who used torush to the victims at the slightestindication of injustice andoppression, has however beenmarked with a completely contrarypicture from the actions andutterances of hers as CM after thepolls on issues of atrocities onwomen. It might have started withthe Park Street rape case in whichthe hapless victim risking all threatsof ostracism dared to make FIRherself. The case and her attemptwere thrown into complete jeopardy,with the CM promptly declaring that

it was a fake. The aftermath wasas expected. Under pressure ofpeoples opinion, a few of themiscreants were arrested no doubt,but the main accused was left atlarge. The police dilly-dallied withvital evidences, even reportedlylost the video footage showingclear identity of the culprits fromtheir own custody making theintentions obvious to any sensibleperson. And most strikingly, theresponsible high-ranking policeofficial who had taken initiative tocarry on the probe truthfully to bring

justice to the victim was summarily

transferred to an unassuming post,obviously for her going against theCMs view of fakeness of thecase. A similar case of a rape victim,even thrown out of a running train

in a district of the state, was brushedaside by the CM as being a

concoction of a supporter ofCPI(M). In the Kolkata megapolisitself, a youth had immolatedhimself before the police stationafter being framed for theft androbbery because of his daring tostand for a teenager, who was beingraped for over a year by a localmafia king having close liaison withthe local police. The police was notrecording even a FIR for the crime.But the compassionate CM andher party, did not feel anycompunction even to sympathizewith either the rape victim or theyouth. On the contrary, the CM

keeps herself busy with inauguratingfairs and festivals across the state orin patronizing local clubs withliberal assistance from the paltrystate funds seemingly with a view togarnering their support in electionsfor her TMC government, perfectlymatching with the deeds andmeasures of the last CPI (M)government. The TMC governmentin the finest tradition of itspredecessor has decided to issuenew licenses for liquor shopsostensibly to earn revenues and the

TMC leaders have been sponsoringor involving themselves in vulgar

shows at different localities. It is anopen fact that the rise in crimeparticularly on women is showing adirect link with rise in consumptionof liquor and in the acute culturaldegeneration reflected, amongothers, in the spate of vulgar dances-films- pornography etc., particularlyamong the youth.

So these are few of the vitalchanges that have followed thechange in government in WestBengal. Naturally aftermath of suchchanges could only include a fastrise in shattering of dreams of alarge section of people who had

expected the change to go in favourof common people. They are beingfast disillusioned, disenchanted. Atthe back of their mind they stillretain the image of the TMC risingto power riding on the surge ofpeoples movement against fascisticonslaught of the CPI(M)-ledgovernment with so many pledgesand assurances for people.

TMC, a party wedded to thecapitalist system: Ourforewarning

The question that now tormentsthose people is how could the TMC

take such a sharp turn backwardswithin this brief period of its rule.

They had still alive in their memory,how CPI(M) once a partner of the

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Contd. from page 7

People face twin danger in TMC and CPI(M)regrouping with ruling class backing

leftist movement, threw aside the

banner of leftism and became adreaded force against peoplesmovements from the day it startedto subserve the ruling class and inreturn to anyhow grab power andpelf for themselves. But manypeople missed it and may miss itstill, that the TMC has always beenno more than a bourgeois partywedded to the reigning capitalistsystem, thus basically a vote-basedpolitical party sustaining upon theparliamentary system. So evenduring the height of movementswhich brought them to power, whenthe entire state was resonant with

the peoples slogan that CPI(M)must go, the TMC never stood inreal support of militant movementssustaining long with peopleorganized in peoples committeesthat were to act as instruments ofstruggle. It preferred that the peopleremain confined to some agitationalforms of movement with isolatedprocessions, squatting and hungerstrikes that were to be dragged intoelectoral ends, whereby the partycould usurp peoples resentmentagainst the CPI(M) rule and reapelectoral benefits.

Yet when our Party called upon

first left parties other than CPI(M)and after they declined on the TMC,for a unity necessary at a particular

juncture for thwarting the savageattack of the CPI (M) governmenton peoples movement, the TMCsensing the mounting anti-CPI(M)mood of the people of the stateresponded to our call. Even at thattime and repeatedly later, we alsopointed out that the TMC was afterall a bourgeois outfit and hencethere ought not to be any harbouringof illusion about what it could do forpeople. Our unity was based onthree conditions: i) development of

movements against the anti-peoplepolicies of both central and stategovernments, ii) maintenance ofequidistance from both Congressand BJP and iii) no smear campaignagainst Marxism-Leninism on theplea of CPI(M) and its misdeeds.Agreeing on these conditions, the

TMC came into unity with us first atthe local levels of Singur andNandigram and then at the statelevel. The movement attainedheightand people of the entire state stoodfor the unity. Even hundreds ofthousands of left-minded peopledisgusted with CPI(M), stood up in

support of that unity finding that theSUCI(C) was in it. It was also truethat so long as the unity persisted,the TMC could not attack Marxism-Leninism and leftism since they had

the SUCI(C) with them. The entirestate roared CPI(M) must go, a

demand which people generatedright from the fields of movementled by that united combination.However, our apprehension cametrue as the elections drew nearer. Onthe eve of 2009 parliamentaryelections, arguing that the votesagainst CPI (M) must not be divided,and actually eyeing greater electoralgains, the TMC decided to go forseat-sharing with the Congress fora few constituencies. Even opposingthis understanding our Partysupported the TMC candidates asour allies in mass-movement,fighting against both the CPI(M)

and the Congress in the elections.Subsequently, on the eve ofAssembly elections, at the smell andprospect of rising to thegovernmental power of WestBengal, even before it took that seat,the TMC with the understandablepurpose of currying favour with themonopolists, the corporates and bigindustrial houses and chambers ofcommerce, indicated in no uncertaina term that they would no more bea participant in the programmes ofobserving bandhs, general strikes orcreating road blockades. They alsoforged alliance with the Congress.

To match with this plan, even whentalks with us were going on, the

TMC leadership, to thebewilderment of people, suddenlyand unilaterally declared theircandidate list offering us only twoseats totally unmatched with ourorganizational strength in differentconstituencies of the state. Thus theunity and alliance between us the

TMC which had grown based on thenecessity of peoples movementsonly, but virtually became defunctduring and after the parliamentaryelection, was in further jeopardy.Even then, solely from the objective

of defeating CPI(M) we supportedthe TMC candidates in theAssembly election. At the sametime, we categorically pointed outthat if the TMC came to power, wewould not join the government andsit in the opposition bench. Wewarned people that notwithstandingall tall claims and pledges of the

TMC leadership, the change desiredby the people would not come aboutwith the TMC assuming power. Itcannot come so long as the capitalistsystem exists in the country. Wemade it a point that IF the TMCsincerely desired to run the

government with due honesty, itmight at best be able to containcorruption to some extent in certainareas, restrain the police a bit fromtaking bribes, bring some relative

neutrality in the police-administration, stop killings and

contain political violence, put a reinon extortion and forced collection oflevy and abate to the extent possiblethe reign of hoodlums that wereprevalent in this state during theCPI(M) rule and refrain fromcurtailing democratic rights ofpeople and from crushing peoplesstruggles with coercive machinery.Come what may, whether the TMCrose to power or not, people wouldhave to continue their sustainedorganized massive democraticmovements forming strugglecommittees and based on higherethical and moral values on the

burning problems of their life, thatwould relentlessly aggravate withintense capitalist exploitation. Onlythat would be the guarantee to resistrecurrence of instances like fascisticonslaught on Singur and Nandigrammovements.

Subsequent history is known topeople. The latter had their victory.

The CPI(M) was ousted and theTMC formed the government withsupport of the Congress. Our PartySUCI(C) remained in theopposition, raising inside theAssembly peoples voice on oneand hundred issues that have been

coming up.

People have to fight twindanger of TMC andregrouping CPI(M)

As the TMC formed thisgovernment, the IF we hademphasized vanished into thin air.On the other hand, the dangerousforce of CPI(M) which had goneinto the shells after being routedstarted to pop up again. Totallydiscredited for its prolonged ruleand virtually demoralized, so farCPI(M) was not being able toregroup itself and stand up. But with

people becoming more and moredisillusioned with the TMC, theruling class and its subservientmedia have started frantically tochannelize this disillusionment intodeveloping into a support for theCPI(M), sprucing up its tarnishedimage and trying to push all itsmisdeeds onto the backburner. Thelatter, the dreaded force, too, istaking full advantage of the scopethe TMC bluntly makes open to itand is dreaming to stage acomeback with this backing of theruling class. The whole attempt is tokeep people entangled in nasty vote

politics and alternate between theCPI (M) and the TMC.

People of West Bengal thus facetwin danger from which they mustfree themselves for survival. So long

as they will keep on expecting thisor that benefit from the government

formed by one or the other of thesetwo vote- hankering parliamentaryparties, they will have to remaintrapped within the vortex ofbourgeois parliamentary politics.

The only course that remains beforethem is developing sustainedorganized powerful massmovements on every issue ofexploitation, discrimination,oppression and deception. Theprevailing capitalist system willuninterruptedly generate all these tofleece and subdue people. Theparliamentary parties, notwithstanding all their tall claims and

pledges will only serve the rulingclass for power and pelf and willalways try to allure people with theillusion of gaining benefits throughthe parliamentary process. Asagainst that people need to step uptheir struggle, in course of whichthey would be able to freethemselves from the illusion ofparliamentary politics and thusmake their struggles conducive tothe ultimate battle of overthrowingthe system itself.

While defining this vital truthComrade Shibdas Ghosh, FounderGeneral Secretary, SUCI(C) and one

of the foremost Marxist thinkerselaborately said : One thing shouldbe kept in mind regarding thechange of government throughparliamentary elections. Whenpeople get disgusted and resentfulagainst the government, anothergovernment steps in throughelections. The common people holdsome persons to be dishonest, theythink that it will bring them good ifonly the dishonest were removedand in their place honest men wereinstalled. Bourgeois parliamentarypoliticians resort to this type ofpropaganda with the object of

confusing the people under cover ofa principle or ideology. So Iwould caution the workers, peasantsand the common people not to beswayed by this type of deception.Because, through a change ofgovernment alone, the basicproblems of the common people hadnever been resolved, will never beresolved. Whatever democraticrights may be conferred, whateverlaws may be enacted and whateverprogrammes to provide relief to thepeople are adopted in theparliamentary system, emancipationof people cannot come about by

that. On the contrary, the conditionof people would worsen day by dayby these (Speech on August 15,1967, quoted from SW, Vol. III,p.46-47 )

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PROLETARIAN ERA MARCH 1, 2013 PAGE NINE

Contd. frompage 6

collective functioning andindividual initiative. Fight outbourgeois vices like meanness,competiveness, jealousy, self-projection and hankering for name,fame, post. Encourage the comradesto study regularly Comrade ShibdasGhoshs works, other Marxistclassics, books of Saratchandra andother writers of Renaissance period,life and struggles of all greatrevolutionaries including womenrevolutionaries. Organize regularpolitical classes. Engage each andevery member in some social,cultural, welfare activities and

thereby make each of them active.Apply your brain patiently to findthe means to involve a newcomer,observe which task she wouldreadily and happily accept andaccordingly assign work to her.Educate them how to turndisadvantages into advantages,convert failure into success. Whiledeveloping struggles on womanproblems, you should expresssolidarity with the struggles ofworkers, peasants, students, youthsand all exploited people.

Cultivate higher human

qualities and emotionalfacultiesRemember, love, affection,

emotion these are all higherhuman elements, as said byComrade Shibdas Ghosh.Relationship becomes beautiful, onthe basis of love and affection. But,what kind of love and affection? Isit the love for the wealth of anaffluent man or attraction towardsthe physical charm of a woman? Youmust respect and love higheremotional faculties, higher mentalwealth and treasure, beauty of atender caring mind. Otherwise thatwill be simply deception. Real lovedoes not make one weak butprovides them strength. But, inmany literatures, you will find loveand weakness have been shown assynonymous. I have developedweakness because I love you. I amblind to whatever culture yourepresent, whatever behaviour youshow, whatever bent of mind youreflect, because I am weak. Can itbe appreciated as a genuine love?Definitely not. But, I feelstrengthened if my love is based onideology, on ethics. Genuine lovedoes not make one blind, does notobstruct ones course of

development, does not pull one fromthe back. Rather, it stimulates one inadvancing more as a true humanbeing, encourages one more infulfilling social obligation, in

developing social struggle. As I love

all fathers, so I love my father. Myrespect for my father represents myrespect for fatherhood. As I love allmothers, so I love my mother. Mylove for my husband stems from myrespect for true manhood. Similarought to be the nature of my love formy children. This is the concreteexpression of love, concreteexpression of universal love. Butrelationship differs in form. Form ofmy approach to my father is notsame with that to my mother. Myform of approach to my husband andbrother is not one and the same.Love is there but form of expression

is different. But if love is divorcedfrom morality, ethics, culture, andideology, it would simply remain asempty word. If the root is cut, thetree can bear no leaves, flowers orfruits. If one is alienated from socialobligation, ideology, morality, onecannot have genuine love. It will bereduced to mockery of love. Onlyone who is committed torevolutionary ideology, can sacrificefor social struggle, can have loveand affection for all.

Comrades, definitely you arewitnessing how rapidly family livesare being destroyed. Most of thehomes are no sweeter, but bitter.Utter selfishness, meanness, ego-centrism, life bereft of any moralvalue are pervading all family lives.As capital is the master in acapitalist society, so is money in thefamily today. Elder age, wisdom hasno say. As earning individual profitby exploiting others is the soleobjective of capitalism, so is self-satisfaction, self-enjoyment andserving self-interest at the cost ofother family members in family life.In most of the married lives, there isno mutual trust or respect. Instead,dark shadows of doubts, conflictsand quarrels, absence of peace mark

the marital life today and the worstsufferers are the children. Olddisabled parents are deserted byearning sons. What a patheticsituation! These are the ugly face ofdying capitalist civilization today.Higher human elements andfaculties like love, tender feelings,finer sensibilities, sense ofresponsibility cannot exist if thevery society is dried up,dispossessed of any moral values.Individual conscience is theconcrete expression of the socialconscience. But today, feudalreligious values are dead, bourgeois

humanist values are almostexhausted and proletarian moralvalues are yet to be known to themajority of population. So there is acomplete vacuum in the realm of

morality. As a result, degraded

bourgeois culture and base instinctsare eating into the very vitals of life.Bereft of any moral values peopleare becoming dehumanized. Theseall constitute the root cause of allsocial maladies.

Comrades, I remind you of anappeal of Pritilata Waddedar, thefirst woman martyr of Indianfreedom struggle. Do you know whyshe sacrificed her life at the age of21? She came from a poor familyand got job of a school teacher aswell. Sacrificing all, she joinedfreedom struggle and courtedmartyrs death only to convey to this

patriarchal society a message thatwomen can also fight for freedom,can die for freedom. With an appealto the Indian women to join thefreedom struggle, she sacrificed herlife. J ust before being hanged,Bhagat Singh, the legendaryrevolutionary, made a fermentappeal to the Indian mothers. Hesaid he would smilingly face thegallows with the hope that mothersof India would give birth to manyBhagat Singhs. Revolutionary PoetNazrul also appealed to the Indianwomen to become mothers of moreKshudirams. These appeals stillremain to be responded to. Today wecan do that by responding to the callof Comrade Shibdas Ghosh andthereby, being armed with Marxismand proletarian morality, join theanti-capitalist revolutionarymovement.

Organize peoples movementalong correct revolutionarypath

Comrades, whatever may be theextent of political ignorance,frustration, apathy and moraldegradation, there is a silver liningof hope as well. Acute problems oflife are forcing people and evenwomen to come out and fight.Illiterate women in Nandigram, inSingur and in other places in thecountry also fought gallantly toresist illegal land grab shoulder toshoulder with the fighting men.Rape, gang rape, brutal killing,baton charge, tear gas shelling orbullets could not bend them. Delhiwas once considered to bepolitically very cold, very apatheticand self-centric. But this time wefound a different Delhi. A bestialgang rape stoked the fire of protestand galvanized the entire country.Unprecedentedly large number of

women also came out to the streetand bravely faced water cannons,tear gas, lathi charge. We findsporadic, scattered outbursts ofdiscontents here and there on

different issues. But, what is

necessary is that correct leadershipto guide these spontaneousmovements ideologically, culturallyand organizationally and turn theminto well organized, sustainedstruggles. Entire India is crying forthis leadership. Only you canprovide this leadership, if you caneducate yourself on the basis ofComrade Shibdas Ghosh Thought.So my appeal to you all: respond tothis urgent need of the hour. Here I,as the General Secretary of theSUCI(Communist), represent thenoble desire of all great men ofhuman civilization. I represent the

revolutionary dreams of great Marx,Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao andShibdas Ghosh. I have placed beforeyou their appeal as I have been ableto understand. So end of thisconference should not be the end ofyour task. There should be a newbeginning, beginning of a new phaseof struggle. You take up moreresponsibilities. Dont wait forwhether you are given anyresponsibility. You yourself take upthe responsibility. Work collectivelyand individually as taught byComrade Shibdas Ghosh. Face thesituation very bravely, courageously.Situation is very favourable forrevolutionary struggle. People desireprotest, people desire struggle,people desire change of the system.Every day this desire is beingexpressed. What can il lumine thereal path of emancipation? OnlyMarxism-L enini sm-ComradeShibdas Ghosh Thought can do that.

You will have to educate, inspire,and organize millions of womenwith this great revolutionaryideology. I hope you will fulfill thismission. With these words Iconclude here. I thank all of you. Ithank the leaders and workers ofAIMSS and the host state committee

for their untiring effort towardsmaking the conference a grandsuccess.

Long Live Marxism-Leninism-Shibdas Ghosh Thought!

Red Salute to our leader, teacher,great Marxist thinker

Comrade Shibdas Ghosh!Long Live AIMSS!

1.Origin of family, private property &State Engels, 2. Women andCommunism- Lenin, 3. Women andCommunism Stalin, 4, 5. VidyasagarRachana Samagra (collected works), 6.Education Swami Vivekananda, 7.Harijan, 27th Feb, 1937, 8. Woman

Education Rabindra Rachanabali(works) 11th Volume, 9. SaratRachanabali, 5th Volume. 10, 11, 12.Sesh Prashna, SaratchandraChattopadhyay. 13,14,15. On Woman'sEmancipation Shibdas Ghosh

Comrade Provash Ghosh at All India Womens Conference

Alienated from social obligation, ideology andmorality, there can be no genuine love or affection

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RNI No. 13932/67P. R. No. KOL / RMS / /145/ 2013-2015

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF : PROVASH GHOSH

Edited & Published by Asit Bhattacharyya from 48 Lenin Sarani, Kolkata 700013 and printed by him at Ganadabi Printers and Publishers Private Limited,52B, Indian Mirror Street, Kolkata 700013. Phone : 2249-1828, 2265-3234 E-mail : suci_cc@vsnl.net, proletarianera@gmail.com, Website : www.suci-c.in

SUCI (C) vehemently criticizes hike in passenger fares and freight charges through cunningcamouflage in the union Railway budget 2013-14 and calls upon people to rise in protestComrade Provash Ghosh, General Secretary, SUCI (C), has issued the

following statement on 27-02-2013:Having assured the countrymen of no raise in the tariff after the

recent steep fare increase across the board by 21 per cent thrust upon in

January last through most undemocratic executive legislation route, theUnion Railway minister has defrauded them by imposing one further hikein passenger fare albeit under the camouflage of increase in reservationfees in all AC classes, tatkal charges, clerkage and cancellation chargesfees and at the top of it, additional 50% raise in the supplementarycharges for all classes in superfast trains, knowing fully well that withmost of the express trains being designated as superfast, the latterincrease would virtually be across the board. Moreover, the Minister hassaid that he is not effecting any revision in basic passenger fare for nowwhich is indicative of having the option to raise the fare any day and anynumber of times.What is more dangerous is that in order to arbitrarilyincrease the fare structure as and when it is so decided, the RailwayMinister in a brazen move to subvert the power of elected parliament, hasproposed to set up a separate Railway Tariff Authority which would bevested with the power of revising the fares and surcharges and need notget the same passed in the House. Similarly, there is one more doze of

freight charge increase of around 6% and there is provision for at leasttwo more upward revisions a year through introduction of dynamic fueladjustment component which would further jack up the prices of allcommodities including essential items transported through railwaysmaking people bleed white more profusely.

While there has been persistent demand for augmenting revenue bycurbing rampant corruption, massive pilferage and severe wastage,bringing in economization of expenditure as well as exploring othersuitable avenues, the Minister did not utter a single word in this respect.It is, therefore, obvious that huge drainage on account of the aforesaid

factors would go up unabated in the days to come causing further increasein budget deficit figure and the government, chewing the cud of meetingthe deficit, would impose burden of further fare and freight tariff hikeson the suffering people. It also goes without saying that in absence of any

categorical assurance about the time frame of implementing the promises,submitting due action taken report at regular intervals and thus makingthe ministry accountable to the citizenry, all the ritualistic promises ofimproving passenger amenity and safety as have ritually emanated fromthe present Railway Minister as well are all mere hoax. Moreover, whendeterioration in every sphere of railway operation like late running,dilapidated conditions of the coaches and rakes, unhygienic maintenanceand improper track monitoring have reached a point beyond endurance,the Minister has not uttered a single word in recognition of this deficiencyin service. Whereas the number of accidents of serious nature is occurringfrequently posing serious threat to physical security of the passengers, theRailway Minister preferred to ignore this life and death question and onlyrepeated customary intention to address the safety issue.The Ministeralso has taken the scheme of eventual privatization of the Railways a stepahead by adding more areas to be run on the so called Public-Privatepartnership (PPP).

Needless to mention that notwithstanding all din and bustle for publicconsumption, the so-called opposition particularly the pseudo-Marxistshave been taking no step to build up organized peoples movement againstthe barrage of anti-people policies and decisions of the central governmentwhich is allowing the latter to roll out its grinding wheel of oppression withalacrity. The BJP, it could be noted, is giving a pass to this budget in itsnasty electoral interest albeit with some show of opposition. We ferventlycall upon the suffering people to come forward and develop powerfulunited sustained movement against these assaults one after another andcompelthe despotic government to stop pursuing the ruinous policies.

SUCI (C) vehemently condemns theHyderabad bomb blast and calls uponpeople to rise up against all mindlessterrorist activities and utter failure ofthe government to provide safety and

security to peopleComrade Provash Ghosh, General Secretary, SUCI(C), has issued

the following statement on 22-02-13 We vehemently condemn the most cowardly act of orchestrating

twin bomb blasts in Hyderabad yesterday which has reportedly tookaway 16 precious innocent lives and caused grievous injuries tomany more who are fighting with death in a critical condition. Suchorgy of mindless violence and shameless killing of innocent,unarmed people only precipitates division and disunity among thesuffering multitude, serves the interest of nasty vote bank politicsand thus causes severe harm to development of peoples unitedstruggle against growing exploitation, oppression and injustice.

It is highly deplorable that the bourgeois government, whoclamours round the clock to be firmly dealing with and containingterrorist activities, has once again registered a case of abject failureand utter callousness in protecting the life and property of thecommon people it is pledge-bound to secure as per its basicobligation to the citizenry. It is queer that the state coercivemachinery, armed to the teeth and supported by all modernintelligence mechanism, which ruthlessly suppresses class and massstruggles is virtually dysfunctional in preventing such wanton killingand destruction of the common civilians. In view of this, the boastfulclaim the government makes about launching a virtual war againstterrorism and the assurance it renews periodically about guaranteeingsafety and security of the countrymen turn out to be nothing buthoax and shedding of crocodile tear. We appeal to all the people ofthe country to raise their voice against this chicanery of thegovernment and its pretentious posture of taking on terrorism withall seriousness and compel it to take necessary action to secure theirlife and property.

All India UTUC congratulates working classfor successful general strike and called uponto prepare for prolonged united organized

struggle to force the government yieldIn a statement issued on 22 February, Comrade Sankar Saha, General

Secretary, All India UTUC congratulated the working mill ions of our countryfor their spontaneous massive participation in Two-day nationwide GeneralStrike on 20-21 February, 2013 at the call of all the Central Trade Unions topress the long-pending 10-point demands." He further said, " The demandsincluded, inter-alia, adoption of concrete measures for containing price-rise andemployment generation, no contractorisation of perennial nature of works, nodisinvestment in central and state PSUs, assured Pension for all, strictimplementation of Labour Laws and stringent punishment for violation of suchlaws, universal coverage of all sections of workers irrespective of scheduledemployments under Minimum Wages Act, withdrawal of ceilings as prescribedin PF & Bonus Act and enhancement of Gratuity etc. The successful strike notonly clearly reflects undisputed support of the working people in favour of thesedemands but altogether growing anguish and determination against the policies

of reforms, liberalization and privatization which are but the offshoots of thepolicy of globalisation being pursued by the governments at Centre and in thestates irrespective of political affiliation for more than two decades. This is forthe first time the country has witnessed the two-day long nationwide strike inpost-independence period called by the all central trade unions to build up unitedmovement on an agreed common minimum programme despite their ideologicaldifferences.

Thus in all the states and in all sectors of economy as well as in unorganisedsectors, everywhere the workers took to streets in thousands voicing theirdemands defying all sorts of threats, intimidations, arrests, organized armedattacks and even a brutal killing of a striker of Haryana and raising slogansagainst the imperialist globalisation.

The two-day Strike also brought to the fore the growing urge of the workingpeople to build up united sustained militant struggle adhering to Unity-Struggle-Unity against the anti-people and anti-worker policies.

In view of the above, we urge the entir