workers and oppressed masses of india, unite to save the ... · remain homeless three years after...

www.peoplesmarch.com Vol: 7, No: 4, April 2006, Rs. 12

Workers and oppressed masses of India,unite to save the country from becoming a

neo-colony of US Imperialism!

Fight against the traitorous policiesof the UPA govt. led by

Manmohan Singh!!Build uncompromising Struggles

by exposing all forms of Capitulation!!!

2 PEOPLE'S MARCH, April 2006

E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

[email protected][email protected]

Owned, Edited, Printed & Published by P. Govindan Kutty, Peroor house, Thripunithura, N.F. Ernakulam, Kerala — 682 301,Printed at Chithira Printers, 63/321, Poruvelil, Kannachanthodu Road, Kochi — 18

Contents

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Voice of the Indian Revolution

8

HumiliatingBush Visit :Pushes Indiainto the Arms ofUS Octopus

5FDI Crazy BudhaGovt. of WestBengal

Vol : 7, No. 4, April 2006, Rs. 12

Crisis, War, FascistTerror & GreatRevolutionaryOpportunities

PoliticalUnion Budget Favouring Comprador 20

and Rich with lip service to Poors

22

PEOPLE’S MARCH

People’s March Articles may be reprinted and translated in various Indian & ForeignLanguages without permission, provided the source (www.peoplesmarch.com) is credited

Press StatementRacist Cartoons of Prophet 25

Mohammad are Deleberate Conspiracyof Imperialists to Denigrade the MuslimCommunity

Message from CC(P) CPI(Maoists) 26on the 10th Annivarsary of Initiation ofPeoples War in Nepal

Communist Party of India (Maoist) 26strongly condemns the imposition ofEmergency in Philippines

Heroic Raid on Girdhi Armoury 27

EditorialMay Day Call 3

Report

International CallProposal to Celebrate Historic 28

Milestones in Struggle AgainstModern Revisionism since 1956 Bird Flu Hype & the Gigantic 18

Indian Poultry MarketThe Saga of Clemenceau — 19

Lives of Workers at Ransom

Editor: P. Govindan Kutty

PEOPLE'S MARCH, April 2006 3

Imperialist globalization is creatingdevastation on a scale rarely seen before inIndia and all countries of the world. Themagnitude of the devastation is horrifying.It is a silent genocide unleashed by themonarchs of finance and their lackeysthroughout the world. Wars of conquest addto the horrors. And amidst this devastation ahandful have made unimaginable wealth. Therecent visit of the biggest internationalgangster, Bush, to India was nothing but astep forward to increase the loot of thecountry and scheme with his servile agentsin the country to make India a pawn in itsgeo-strategic plans in Asia. The fawningservility of the Indian rulers as they fell at hisfeet, inspite of being kicked around, showsto what extent the UPA rulers and theirhangers on have stooped to sell off thecountry to these wolves of finance capital.

The extremes in wealth and poverty inIndia and globally are getting obscene. Suchacute levels of destitution on the one hand,and voluptuous and vulgar display of wealthon the other, bring the contrasts into sharpfocus. On the one hand we have a devastatedIndian countryside where impoverishmentis so acute that suicides have reachedepidemic levels; on the other hand urbanpockets are seeing a proliferation of mallsand elite urban enclaves. Internationally it isto be seen in the ghettoisation at one extremeand glitter of the fabulous and wealthy onthe other.

What exists today is not only obscene, itis brutally unjust, inhuman, cruel andcatastrophic — it is inexcusable to tolerate itfor even a single day. For, each day that itcontinues means thousands of more deaths,lakhs suffering the agony of starvation andmillions living life in utter destitution on thebrink of life and death.

But not satisfied with this devastation,the fundamentalists of the market economyare each day seeking greater and greaterdevastation and destruction to maximize theirprofits even further. Removal of all remainingsubsidies to the poor, cutting welfareexpenditure, reducing pensions andProvident Funds, hiking enormously healthand medicine charges, increasing charges ofelectricity, fuel and even water by leaps and

bounds, etc. etc.— are all on the agenda ofthe market megalomaniacs in India andworldwide.

And for those who don’t obey, there isthe gun, bombs and all the latest in WMDs.Iraq is being bombed back to the dark ages.So also Afghanistan. Iran is the next target,unless they capitulate before the imperialistvampires on their nuclear programme.

Opposition is tolerated and evenencouraged if it is harmless; and acceptableif one plays by the rules that they lay down.Foreseeing the likely opposition to theirdevastation, the rulers press into servicetheir own stooges to act as ‘safety valves’for this over-heated system. From the daysof the second international the revisionistshave proved to be the most faithful props ofthe establishment while pretending to be inopposition. Of course, with many openlyjoining the rulers (as the CPI/CPM in India)and their masks having got torn off, newelements have been found in the form of thepostmodernists and the NGO crowd. Thesehave been proliferating like mice gnawingaway into the genuine opposition anddemobilizing many a genuine dissident.

The situation can only go from bad toworse unless the masses resist this offensivein all ways. The reason for the continuingretrogression in the world economy is thatfinance capital is today a hundred times moreparasitic and moribund even from the timesLenin spoke of it. This can be seen from thefact that there has been a massive leap infinancial services compared to actualproduction. Financial services no doubtgenerate huge profits, but its profits notcreated through the production process butextracted through speculation and othersuch methods, as part of the growing casinoeconomy. This must necessarily beexceedingly fragile, creating a bubbleeconomy, and jobless ‘growth’. Such aneconomic structure brings unbelievablewealth to the owners of big capital whilepushing large sections of the populationoutside its ambit. It is this huge, and growing,world of marginalized masses that is resultingin its alienation on a scale never seen before.Because of a weak communist alternative itis tending, in some places, to take a religious

(and particularly Islamic) form.Some facts show the extent to which the

economies of the world have been distortedby the present so-called globalization. Forexample, in the year 2004 the worldwide tradein financial instruments in a single day wasmore than exports of goods for the entireyear. In 2004 the trade in derivatives and onforeign exchange markets was a huge $7.6trillion per day; while that of merchandiseexports for the whole year of 2003 was $7.3trillion (one trillion is equal to 1000 billion).Take another example in the growth of thefinancial markets. In the early 1980s thevolume of transactions of bonds andsecurities between domestic and foreignresidents accounted for about 10% of GDPin the US, Germany and Japan. By 1993 thefigure had risen to 135% for the US, 170% forGermany and 80% for Japan. By end 2003the figure rose to massive $15.7 trillion.

On the other hand while such huge sumstravel around the world with the speed oflightening, made possible by the dot.comdiscoveries, generating fabulous profits, themarginalized world reels in poverty anddestitution on a scale rarely seen.

Take the case of Africa which has beenravaged by internecine wars instigated byimperialist lobbies and powers. As per theUN’s own report from 2000, 1,200 people aredying every day in Congo — since 1997, 4million have died. In Sudan, 2 million civiliansremain homeless three years after the Dafurconflict ignited. According to the Red Crosshunger grips entire East Africa with 7 millionpeople affected by severe drought inEthiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, and Somalia. In1994, eight lakh Tutsis were massacred inRwanda while the UN ‘peacekeepers’ lookedon. Many other countries are ravaged bycivil wars backed by different imperialists,like the Ivory Coast and about ten othercountries; and in South Africa a quarter ofthe population have AIDS and a decade afterthe ANC took power 80% of the land is stillowned by whites. And amidst all thisdevastation the imperialists continue toextract their fortunes. According to a 2003World Bank report the maximum returns onevery dollar invested abroad are got fromAfrica. The British war industry has made

Workers and oppressed masses of India, unite to save the country from becoming a neo-colony of US Imperialism!

Fight against the traitorous policies of the UPA govt. led by Manmohan Singh!!Build uncompromising Struggles by exposing all forms of Capitulation!!!

MAY DAY CALL:


massive profits from Africa with arms salesrising to record levels. Over the last fouryears between 1999 and 2004 it hasquadrupled reaching the $ 1 billion mark. TheBritish imperialists give bullets not bread tothe starving millions of Africa so that theymay continue to kill each other in civil strife.And the US has imposed a ruthlesslyexploitative Act to ravage the African peopleeven more. The US-African Growth andOpportunity Act (between the US andAfrica) forces African trade ‘partners’ towithdraw subsidies given to local industriesand insists on privatization of social serviceseven in countries that are prone to drought.

In India the situation is much the same.The entire countryside is being devastatedand yet the government has plans to disbandthe PDS and raise the prices of foodgrainsfurther. It is dismantling the state purchaseof food grains, cotton and other agriculturalcommodities, destroying the alreadydevastated peasantry even more. Subsidiesare being cut and welfare expenditurereduced. India has the lowest publicspending on health care in the world (exceptfor four other tiny countries) and today over20% are not able to afford the rising costs ofmedical care and are forced to die agonizingdeaths. Debt has swamped the countrysidepushing thousands and thousands offarmers to suicide each year. The figures onlykeep mounting as government policy onlyacts to destroy them further. With companiesand the government resorting to labour-saving methods unemployment keeps risingand only the more well-off English-speakingelite can hope to find decent jobs in the ICE(Info-tech, Communications and Entert-ainment) and financial sectors. The situationhere too is going from bad to worse.

On the other hand enormous wealth hasbeen amassed by the wealthy. The 10 rich-est people on earth have a combined networth of $255 billion — roughly 60% of theincome of Sub-Saharan Africa. The world’s500 richest people have more than the totalannual earnings of the poorest three billionpeople (i.e. about 60% of the world’spopulation). Even from the poorest countr-ies the elite have staked away in foreigncountries a gigantic sum of $ 5 trillion.

The acute impoverishment of the millionsis the material basis for the wealth of the few.As, the greater the poverty the larger is thesurplus value or profits extracted. The twoclasses today stand diametrically opposedto each other more than ever before. The

ruling elites are not prepared to allow even apaisa of their profits to be reduced. In Indiaand worldwide the profits of the bigcompanies have increased by 50 to 80% andmore in the last year.

But the declining market for commoditiesand the extreme parasitic nature of financecapital today is pushing it from one crisis tothe next. This has resulted in a new round ofbankruptcies taking the number ofacquisitions to record levels in 2005. In thatyear M & As (Mergers and Acquisitions)reached a gigantic figure of $2.7 trillion. Thecrisis is particularly deep in the US — whichis the largest economy in the world and thesole superpower — with its gigantic (andrising) trade and budget deficits. This isleading to greater contention amongst themajor imperialist powers, wars of aggression(particularly by the US), and intensified lootof the backward countries. As yet thecontention is taking the form of diplomaticmaneuvering, trade wars and minorskirmishes of puppet forces particularly inAfrica. All reactionaries throughout theworld, with the US in the lead, are resortingto increased fascist methods passing offunder the signboard of ‘war against terror’.

But, this wave of reaction is not goingwithout a fight, even if not under communistleadership. Iraq and Afghanistan havebecome a hell for the aggressors. Particularlythe great Iraqi resistance refuses to die downeven after fake elections and desperateattempts by the US to pit Shias againstSunnis. The working class movement in theWest continues to revive, even if haltingly.So, also the anti-globalisation/anti-warmovement continues unabated. US Imperia-lism’s worldwide hegemonic designs face notonly problems in the Middle East but in otherparts of the world as well. Its attempts tobuild a Free Trade Area in Latin America havefailed; not only that in six countries of SouthAmerica governments have been voted topower that are in varying degrees anti-US. InCentral Asia a number of countries havekicked out the US bases and Russianimperialist re-assertion has put the US onthe defensive in these countries. Even inPalestine after nurturing a total puppet afterthe Arafat era, they have got the militantHamas in power, upsetting their calculations.In the new flashpoint of Iran threats ofsanctions and missile attacks by the US-Israeli combine (supported by Europe) havecreated resentment throughout the world,and further hatred for these gangsters.

In addition the Maoist movementsworldwide continue to grow in the face ofthe most brutal repression. However weak,wherever they have some roots in themasses, they continue to act as the vanguardof the struggle against imperialism and allreaction, in spite of the attempts by therevisionists and NGOs to isolate them.

In India too there has been a revival ofthe working class movement inspite of thedomination of the revisionist leadership. Themilitant response at Gurgaon, Kalinga Nagar,etc is accompanied by a strike wave in anumber of MNC and comprador companies.In the last six months there have been 25cases of industrial action resulting in atemporary shutdown in manufacturingactivities. Major companies that havewitnessed workers actions in the last sixmonths are big names like Grasim Industries,JCT Ltd, Gujarat Ambuja, ACC, CromptonGreaves, NRB bearings and Esab. Theprolonged agitation at the Toyota factory inBangalore continues. In October last yearworkers at the Hairhar factory of Grasimbrought production to a halt. So also theGujarat Ambuja plant and the NRB BearingHyderabad plant saw similar strike activityin January and February this year.

Besides this the peasants are risingagainst the neo-liberal policies as inRajasthan and elsewhere. The tribals, asKalinga Nagar have shown, have vowed tofight the mining mafia to the end thatthreatens their very existence. There isgrowing assertion amongst dalits who refuseto continue living under upper-castedomination under the horrendous practiceof untouchability inculcated over centuries.Women are more and more coming forwarddiscarding the yoke of patriarchy. And theminorities, particularly the Muslims, are nottaking the attacks by the Hindu fascists andState lying down. There is a generaldiscontent throughout the country, but itlacks a cohesive revolutionary leadership.

But with the genuine Maoists of thecountry now united (to a large extent) into asingle Party the hopes of all sections aregrowing. Though weak, it is the only hopefor the oppressed masses. Yet, with the unity,its striking power has increased, hittingpowerful blows at the enemy/governmentforces. The arms raid in Giridih andMadhuban, the continuous actions on theparamilitary forces in the wake of the State-sponsored terrorist onslaught called Salwa

Contd. on page 7


Nicholas Burns spent days prior to theBush visit trying to squeeze a humiliatingdeal on nuclear energy out of the Indianestablishment. Due to opposition fromsections of the Atomic Energy departmentand some top scientists the Americans couldnot initially get India to sign as per theirdemands. Days of arm-twisting by USnegotiators with full support from theministry of External affairs, did not work.Then, two days before Bush’s visitCondoleeza Rice, US Secretary of State, rangup Manmohan Singh saying that “hispeople” were making “ impossible demands”on the nuclear deal and threatened “Indiacannot have conditional safeguards andthat if it didn’t agree to permanentsafeguards there would be no deal”. Sheadded there were questions about India’sfuture reactors and that it must place all itsfuture reactors under safeguards. The PMwas panic stricken by the threats; so,breaking all protocol he personally went toreceive his majesty from the airport. As thelord descended at the airport, with hisentourage, the fumbling PM tried to pleadwith him that there was no real difference onthe nuclear deal, only a difference oflanguage. Bush ignored him and turned tohis valet — India’s National Security Advisor,M.K.Narayanan — ordering “I want thisdeal”. Not surprisingly, within a few hoursthe deal was struck.

It took the PM five days to present thefull deal to the country, giving the PrimeMinister’s Office sufficient time to put thenecessary spin to the agreement and gettingthe pro-US media hacks to create thenecessary environment. The deal was struckon the day after Bush landed, March 2nd ,while it was declared to the public and evenparliament on March 7 th. Sure enough, it hadpermanent safeguards mentioned in it! It alsosaid that “future reactors would be placedunder safeguards”. The demagogic CPM, forall their ‘anti-US’ shouting, said the deal isfine. The CPM is habituated to shoutingagainst the US generally, but not opposingconcretely any of its policies at the groundlevel. On March 5th itself Yechuri said theyhave no problem with the nuclear deal, theironly problem is the attitude to Iran.

Though the purpose of the Bush visitwas to push India deeper into its clutches in

all spheres — economic, political, defenceand energy sources — the nuclear deal wasto be the chief focus of this visit, as this hasnot only an economic dimension but also apolitical and strategic dimensions. Ineconomic terms the nuclear deal is likely toopen the door to US investments of a gigantic$100 billion in the energy sector of thecountry. Strategically it will help draw Indiaaway from dependence of Iran, Russia,Venezuela for its oil and gas — all states thatare anti-US to varying degrees.

With the US not even able to lay controlof Iraqi oil and with it ousted from much ofCentral Asia by Russia, its control of the keyenergy source — oil and gas — is likely tofalter in the future. So it is looking for analternative. Recently the US announced itsnew Global Nuclear Energy Partnership(GNEP) to push nuclear energy worldwideas the alternative. Ironically this is beenpushed under the banner of clearing the earthof green-house gasses and environmentfriendliness. In fact it is nothing but a new‘great game’ for the control of the energyresources of the world. Not surprisingly thisGNEP involves the recipient country givingup its right to reprocess spent fuel. Thedocument says “Under the GNEP, aconsortium of nations with advancednuclear technology would ensure thatcountries who agree to forgo their owninvestment in enrichment and reprocessingtechnologies will have reliable access tonuclear fuel”. In the GNEP India has beenput as a recipient country and not one of theconsortium of nations. Sure enough theagreement signed in India says the same andthe PM made a great show that there is aguarantee clause of supply of uranium.

By not allowing the processing of nuclearmaterial it can defacto control the country’snuclear energy needs by making Indiadependent on it (or its allies like Australiawhich has 40% of the world’s uraniumreserves) for its nuclear raw material. It makeslittle difference if there is a guarantee ofsupplying the nuclear fuel in the agreementor not — it makes sure that India is dependenton it; and it can any time be used as a leverfor domination and also profiteering (byhiking prices). Earlier, the US had stoppedsupplies to the Tarapore nuclear plant. Thisis the first method of forcing dependence onthe US through this agreement.

The second method of control is byputting as much as 65% of the nuclearreactors under the so-called internationalsafeguards (in effect means US supervision).Not only that, the agreement has forced thenewly renovated CIRUS research reactor,situated at the prestigious BARC, to beclosed down and shifted it to a new locationin order to bring it under safeguards. Besidesother factors, the huge expenditure onrenovation will go waste. Also all the nineresearch facilities, even the Tata Institute ofFundamental Research (TIFR), the VariableEnergy Cyclotron Centre and the SahaInstitute of Nuclear Physics, are all to be putunder the safeguard regime. Not only that,all future civilian thermal power reactors andcivilian fast breeder reactors will have to beplaced under the humiliating safeguards. Allthese will be “permanent” and not“conditional” as the earlier Tarapore reactorswere. Under conditional safeguards civilianreactors could be shifted to military and outof safeguards; now this will not be possible.

And to bring about all these changes toensure US control over the entire nuclearenergy programme of the country it will bethe Indian taxpayer who will have to pay thehuge amounts entailed in separating thecivilian and military nuclear facilities (whichearlier the scientists said would be impossiblein India) in order to bring it under safeguards— there is no reference even as to who willbare these massive costs. In every sphere ofthis nuclear agreement the Indian rulers havecapitulated to US demands and yet the CPMsays it has no problems with this agreement!!!The bulk of the media too, including thosecritical of the US, as The Hindu, have alsohailed this deal. In fact The Hindu hailed iteditorially on March 10th. Even the chairmanof the Atomic Energy commission, AnilKakodkar, who was earlier opposing manyof the clauses, went out of his way to publiclyhail it (March 9th) as a great victory. Such isthe servility of the Indian ruling elite,including the revisionists.

On the other hand the US is laying theground for squeezing even more concessionsfrom the deal (they have left sufficientloophole in it which can be interpreted invaried ways, and even some details are to bedecided later) saying it will be a hard task toget this agreement accept-ed by theCongress (necessary in view of the existing

Pushes India Deeper into the Arms of the US OctopusArvind

Humiliating Bush Visit:


non-proliferation laws in the US). In the nameof “getting it passed” they will no doubtextract even more later.

But it was not only in the nuclear spherethat the Indian rulers fell at the feet of the bigboss of international finance; they did so ineach and every sphere. Agreements weresigned in many other spheres binding Indiamore tightly with the US imperialists. Thiswas clear in the joint statement issued.

Particularly there was a big focus onagriculture where a number of agreementswere signed. Firstly it said that the two wouldexpand cooperation in agriculture bylaunching the Knowledge Initiative onAgriculture. Secondly, it said that India wouldconsider changing the current regulationsaffecting trade in fresh fruits, vegetables,poultry and dairy and almonds. Thirdly, theyagreed to cooperate more closely at the DohaRound of WTO trade negotiations (stuck upprimarily in the sphere of agriculture) to takeit to its conclusion — no doubt along USlines.

Then, there were agreements to furthertie India’s science, technology and spaceresearch to that of the US sciencelaboratories.

Then there was an assurance to intensifyefforts to develop a bilateral business climatesupportive of trade and investments byholding a public-private Investment Summitin 2006.

Then there were as many as fiveagreements in the info-tech sector and theso-called Knowledge Economy, which isalready totally tied to the US.

As already mentioned there are big plansfor cooperation in the energy sector with thepossibility of the US investing up to $ 100billion in the country — this is in a host ofareas including oil, natural gas, coal andcivilian nuclear energy.

There were plans for huge sales ofdefence equipment to India and deeper tiesin the defence sector. They agreed to enhancesecurity in the maritime domain. They wereworking to finalise a Logistics SupportAgreement. The joint statement alsowelcomed increased cooperation betweenthe US and India in the defence area, sincethe New Framework for US-India Defencerelationship was signed in June 05. The USis planning to sell 126 fighters to India.Boeing and Lockheed Martin are just twocompanies that have recently set up officesin India. Boeing expects deals of $15 billionin the next 10 years.

Finally, and most dangerous of all, it wasdecided that there would be much greatercooperation in fighting so-called terror —which would mean greater US involvementin counter-insurgency operations in Indiaand South Asia. This is a threat not only forthe peoples’ move-ments in India, but also inSouth Asia as it would entail joint IndianExpansionist and US imperialist operationsin South Asia. Not only here, India is part ofthe US geo-political campaigns throughoutthe world in the name of promotingdemocracy.

In fact just prior to his visit Bush in hisAsia Society speech, lauded the partnershipthe US and India had forged to spreaddemocracy around the world. He has been agreat supporter of the “World Movement forDemocracy” which is nothing but a tool forcounter-insurgency and to destabalise notso favourable governments (as hashappened in central Asia with the so-calledcoloured revolu-tions). It has itsheadquarters in the neo-conservative-ledNational Endowment for Democracy (NED).In 1999 the NED, with US funding, organisedits first international conference in Delhi!!India became a member of the “Communityof Democracies” during BJP rule. Now underthe UPA government it has joined the US ina “Global Democracy Initiative”.

Over and above all this there was agreater cementing of the relations betweenUS big business and their compradorcounterparts in India under the auspices ofthe US-India CEO Forum set up whenManmohan visited US last year. This Forum,chaired by arch stooge, Tata, is nothing buta weapon with which to push US/TNCinterests in the country through theircomprador business agents. In this Forumare Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Infosys’s NandanNilenkani, Biocon, ITC, Bharat Forge’sKalyani amongst others. Bush wasaccompanied by a mighty delegation of 50CEOs of US TNCs, including a big team fromthe Wal Mart (to push FDI entry in retail).Through the Forum these robber baronsdemanded: greater opening up of the financialservice sectors (particularly banking andinsurance) and the retail sector; developmentof the infrastructure and removal ofbureaucratic delays. The Forum at its meetingin Delhi put forward concrete demands ofthe Indian government: the setting up of a $5 billion infrastructure development Fund;make Mumbai a financial hub; facilitate large

number of Special Economic Zones; reformsin the power sector and in the institutes ofhigher education. This was stated openly;what went on secretly will only come to beknown when policy changes actually takeplace.

So there was hardly any sphere that wasleft out for tying up the country further toUS interests. But they were not satisfied witheven that. US arrogance went so far that Bushat his public speech at the Purana Quilaopenly dictated what India’s policies shouldbe, while the servile ruling elite quietly lookedon. He publicly launched a tirade against Iranand added that “India and the US werecloser than ever before and that thispartnership had the power to transform theworld”. No doubt like in Iraq!! At the PuranaQila his main theme was that India is a greatdemocracy and must stand with the US inpromoting “democracy” and “freedom”throughout the world. He added that thepeople of North Korea, Burma, Syria,Zimbabwe and Cuba all yearn for liberty fromtheir own enslavement. He further added thatIndia’s leadership was needed to “openmarkets throughout the world” (which it wasalready doing as indicated by its behavior atthe Doha WTO negotiations). He thankedthe Indian Navy of escorting ships throughthe Straits of Malacca after 9/11.

Also what was clear this time was that inhis visit to Pakistan Bush totally sided withIndia on all contentious issues between thetwo countries. In so doing he gave a fillip toIndian expansionist designs in the region.During his Pakistan trip all he did wasarrogantly lecture to the present rulers. Bushopenly humiliated Musharraf at the joint pressconference; he demanded that they were notdoing enough to fight terrorism; he refuseda similar nuclear agreement with Pakistansaying they were not to be trusted (sightingthe Khan affair); he demanded that the pollsmust be held fairly in 2007; and for the firsttime ever he refused intervention (orfacilitation) in the Kashmir dispute, saying itwas a bilateral affair to be settled betweenthe two countries. All these stands weremusic to the ears of the Indian expansionists.

But while the compradors of bothcountries were laying out the red carpet forthis international gangster and providing himunprecedented security, the people of bothcountries were turning out in lakhs to opposethe visit.

In India there was a veritable upsurge,


n n

particularly by the Muslim community andalso by progressives from throughout thecountry. There were mammoth demonstra-tions in Lucknow, Dehli, Mumbai andHyderabad and smaller ones all over thecountry. There were exhibitions, cartoons,posters, burning of his effigy and many acreative form of opposition. UP particularlywitnessed demonstrations and bandhsthroughout the State including Kanpur,Pratapgarh, Rae Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Bareil-ly, Lakhimpur Kheri, Meerut, Muzaffar-nagar,Daharanpur, Basti, Siddhatnagar, Gonda andMau (No doubt the recent bomb blasts inVaranasi will help turn anti-US sentimentsinto Hindu-Muslim riots). Maoists too joinedwith progressive forces in many parts of thecountry to protest Bush’s visit. People’sanger was so strong that many ruling classparties had to make a show of protest as well(while in effect supporting all the policies) asthe SP, CPI, CPM, Janata Dal (S), etc. Manyintellectuals also participated in these protestactions.

In Pakistan rallies shook all parts of the

country. On the eve of his visit a bombexploded killing a US diplomat. Theopposition boycotted the banquet given inBush’s honour.

In fact Bush was so panic stricken thatthe security provided to him was unprece-dented. In India 800 US intelligence officialsdescended on the country well in advanceto take control of his entire security. Mostpublic functions earlier planned werecancelled. The entire air-waves around hisplace of residence were jammed. In fact theonly place he visited was Hyderabad to givea fillip to the ruthless polices of the govern-ment against Naxalites and a pat on its backfor implementing pro-imperialist policies themost faithfully. He went out of his way tomeet a group of rural women to promote theSelf Help Groups which are being portrayedas an alternative to Maoist people’s assertionin the countryside.

From the nature of the visit it is clear whostand with the imperialists and this USgangster and who are the genuine patrioticforces of the country. This imperialist scum

would not be able to last in this country evenfor a single day if it did not get thecollaboration from their agents and stoogeswithin the country. Their robbery, their loot,their plunder of our country could be stoppedeasily if these collaborators were not there.It is these comprador elements that are theworst traitors of the country and it is theywho need to be exposed and targeted forwhat they really are — lackeys of theimperialists and particularly the US. Thesetop politicians, bureaucrats, big business,etc are in fact the chief tools through whichthe imperialists push their policies in thecountry. So an attack against the imperial-ists, particularly the US, is inconceivablewithout hitting at their stooges within thecountry. The time has come to build a broadand powerful movement by uniting all thepossible forces against imperialism andparticularly the US. Let the sparks ignitedduring the Bush visit turn into a prairie fire ofthat will burn to ashes the imperialists andtheir stooges within the country.

Judum in Chhathisgarh, and the Jehanabadjail break are just a few of the indicators of itsgrowing striking capacity. For the first timein our country the party of the proletariat isequipped with a peoples’ army (howeverrudimentary) to take on the ruthless andbarbaric force of the state.

On this May Day let us intensify thestruggle against all forms of reaction, againstthe massive imperialist onslaught,particularly the US, and against the mostdegrading sell-out of the interests of ourmotherland to the imperialists, particularlythe US imperialists, by the compradorgovernment of UPA led by Manmohan Singh.The Red Carpet welcome given to the No.1International terrorist George Bush by theManmohan Singh government is a greatinsult to the billion plus population of ourcountry. The nefarious Indo-US nuclear dealconcluded by the Congress-led UPAgovernment with the full backing of the BJP-led NDA coalition during the visit of Bushhas placed even the nominal sovereignty andindependence of the country at the feet ofthe US. Through this notorious agreementthese traitors have placed the country firmlyin the US orbit. In the name of strategicpartnership with the US, the Indian ruling

classes have become accomplices in theinnumerable crimes being committed by thewarmongering, criminal Bush. By votingagainst Iran in the IAEA and strengtheningits ties with the Zionist expansionist Israel,the Indian expansionist ruling classes haveproved themselves to be the tail of USimperialism—the principal enemy of theworld people. Let us resolutely fight againstthis sell-out to US imperialism that paves theway for our country being transformed intoa neo-colony. Let us fight against the policyof appeasement of the revisionist CPI andCPI(M), which have been sustaining theManmohan Singh government in the Centre,while making harmless noises about its neo-liberal agenda and surrender to USimperialism. These revisionists have placedthe interests of the working class and theoppressed masses at the feet of thecomprador ruling classes despite their radicalrhetoric. Let us support the heroic struggleswaged by the people of Iraq, Afghanistanand Palestinian territories, the growingmilitant protests in Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan,Pakistan and all over the world against USaggression, intervention, blackmail andbullying. In India too let us further intensifythe vast upsurge that developed against theBush visit into a powerful anti-imperialistmovement. Let us unite the vast masses of

our country and all the patriotic anddemocratic people against imperialism,particularly US imperialism, and thecomprador Indian ruling classes that havemortgaged the country’s interests to USimperialism and have become one morebulwark of reaction against the interests ofthe world people. Let us awaken the workingclass and oppressed masses for a newupsurge, which draws lessons from thedefeats of the Soviet and Chinese experience,to fire a confidence in its ability to build anew, just, socialist order.

Long Live May Day!Down with Imperialism and all theirLackeys!Beat Back the Aggressive Designsof US imperialism—No. 1 enemy ofmankind!

Intensify struggle, exposerevisionists, NGOs and allcollaborators!Unite all progressive forces to fightand destroy all Reaction!March Towards the SocialistAlternative! Long Live the NDR!

Contd. from page 4


On the occasion of May Day we takestock of the present situation in the worldand our country to assess the fastchanging situation and the growingpotential for the revolutionary forces. It isthese changes that have to be assessed toevolve effective tactics in the presentsituation of great volatility, within theframework of the general strategy.

International and domestic events aredeveloping rapidly. Both are in a deep flux.Development never takes place in a straightline; there are numerous twists and turns.Over the past year this is to be clearly seen.Ofcourse, this is taking place within thegeneral framework of the present periodmarked by the massive attacks of financecapital worldwide — economic, political,social, cultural, and even military —goingunder the signboard of ‘globalisation’.Particularly since 2001 and the 9/11 attacks,it is manifested by: a growing economic andpolitical crisis worldwide; increasing war-like policies of the number one imperialist,US imperialism, and greater unilateralism;greater and more ruthless attacks(economic and also military) by theimperialists, particularly the US imperialists,on the backward countries of the world;increased impoverisation of the workingclass in the developed countries and massscale destitution in the backward countries;and greater fascisation of the state in allcountries of the world in the name offighting the ‘war on terror’.

Though the above trend continues ingeneral let us assess the concrete situationwhich throws up great challenges to theproletariat on this May Day of 2006. Firstwe shall look at the international situationand then that in our country.

International SituationIn this we shall first look at the changing

economic scenario; then the situation inthe enemy camp of imperialism and theirlackeys; then we shall look at that of thepeople’s forces worldwide and thepotentials for advancing the revolutionarymovements.

Fragile Economy & Growing CrisisThough there has been a partial

recovery since the severe downturn in theworld economy in 2001, this has beenfaltering, weak and exceedingly fragile.

Many an economist are predicting anothercrash, notwithstanding the high growthrates shown by official data for the US.Besides, this halting recovery has beenaccompanied by jobless growth, leading tofurther impoverisation of the massesworldwide. Also much of the so-calledgrowth is illusory as it is not due todynamism in the economies of thedeveloped countries but the high growthrates recorded in the backward countries,most of which are based not on a soundeconomy but on imperialist inducedartificial booms accompanied to a largeextent by speculative capital.

If we look at the major economies thingsdo not look that bright. The stagnation inthe Japanese economy continued to beacute for the 15th year running. Though thegrowth rate in the last year picked up a bit,after having shrunk 0.5% in 2004, still itcannot be said that Japan is on its feetagain. For the euro zone area the growthrate was a bare 1.5% last year after recordinga 1% growth in 2004. French bankruptciesreached a 7-year high and the auto industry(the major export earner) registered astaggering decline of 11%. Its fourth quartergrowth rate in 2005 was down to 0.2%. InGermany it has reached an all-time high of11.5%. Unemployment in Europe continuedat 10% with no sign of declining. Japanwitnessed the crash of its fifth largest bank,Resona, and had to be bailed out with thegovernment spending $17 billion. Basicallythese two major imperialist blocks — theEU and Japan — continue to be ineconomic sluggishness in virtualrecessionary conditions.

In the US the official growth rate in theGDP recorded was 3.5%. Much of this hasbeen linked to the housing/real-estateboom, which is expected to burst any day.Besides, its economy is exceedingly fragile,with mountains of debt and deficits. Aftergigantic budget and current account (i.e.the trade deficit + service imports/exports)deficits in 2004 it has gone up even higherlast year. Last year the budget deficit was $400 billion and the current account deficit$780 billion (India’s total budget is just $104billion). In addition the dollar valuecontinued to decline vis-à-vis other majorcurrencies, particularly the euro. Theconfidence in the dollar as the only

international currency is on the decline andgovernments have already startedinvesting their reserves in other currencies.The US must get investments at the rate of$ 2 billion per day to cover its trade deficit.If governments start investing theirreserves in euros or other currencies theeconomy will be pushed to a crisis. Atpresent foreign creditors hold about $11trillion in US bonds or 43% of thesuperpower’s privately held national debt.If even a part of this was to be withdrawn itwould precipitate a crisis; such is thefragility of the US economy. Besides, thebenefits of the so-called high growth rateshave only gone to the elite. In the last twoyears a huge 1.1 million more people livebelow the poverty line than two years back— taking the figure of those below thepoverty line in the US to a massive 37million. The horrifying impact of the Katrinahurricane has gone to show the extent ofimpoverisation amongst a section ofAmericans, particularly the Afro-Americans. It is only the rich who havegained from the policies of globalization.Since 1973 the average income of the top1% has doubled and the top 0.1% hastripled.

The main growth areas have beenRussia, particularly due to the sky-rocketingoil prices, and a continuation of the growthcycle of the Chinese economy. Russia isonce again seeking to establish itsimperialist muscle, at least in its backyard.By 2004 Russia became the second largestoil exporter in the world and the largest gasexporter. With sky-rocketing oil prices thishas not only given Russia renewedeconomic clout but greater control over themost important energy source in the world.The rise of Putin and the take-over of thebiggest Russian oil company, Yukos, in2002, signaled the return of Russiaassertion. Yukos had planned to sell 44%of its stake to US oil giant ExxonMobil,when the owner was imprisoned and hisassets taken over by the government.

China too has become assertive all overthe globe with its growing economic power.Chinese goods now not only haveswamped Asian markets they have alsodeeply penetrated the US. It is heavilyinvesting throughout the world in oilcompanies. It continues with its growth rate

Crisis, War, Fascist Terror & Great Revolutionary OpportunitiesMay Day 2006:


of between 8 and 9%. The extreme levels ofexploitation of labour in China, with nolabour laws, have made it a hunting groundfor all imperialist companies and cheapgoods internationally.

If we turn then to the backwardcountries, the situation is getting worseeach day due to the continuous increase inthe imperialist/comprador loot. Not only dothe imperialists siphon off the loot formthese countries abroad so do thecompradors destroying the localeconomies. So, for example, according tothe Guardian, 50% of the cash holdings ofrich individuals in Latin America is now heldabroad and that some 30% of the GDP ofsub-Saharan Africa disappeared abroad inthe second half of the 1990s. The situationin the Middle East and North Africa is evenworse. The same will be the situation in thecountries of Asia. Over $ 5 trillion has beencorruptly removed from the world’s poorestcountries and lodged in the rich countriesor tax havens by these compradors. This isover and above the imperialist loot anyhowgoing on. So the compradors have ganged-up with the imperialist to siphon off thecountries wealth. So whatever may be thehigh growth rates shown its benefits donot reach the mass of people and is entirelyfocused on the elite? So also for examplein India, according to a study by Technopak(Economic Times Feb. 22 06), there are onemillion consumers (households) for luxurygoods who spend roughly Rs.4 lakhs peryear on luxury items per household. Thisitself is a market bigger than manycountries. This number is growing at 14%per year and the goal is to increase thisnumber to three million by 2010. Africa isvirtually in a state of chaos with westernrobber barons looting its natural resources,while Latin America is just coming out ofone of the worst crisis it has ever faced.

And in this situation of crisis has alsocome the new oil shock, which is furtherthreatening to destabalise the economiesof the world (ofcourse giving advantage tothe oil producers). With oil prices hoveringbetween $60 and $70 a barrel and expectedto go up to $100 (it was $22 a barrel twoyears back and at the time of the oil shockof the 1970s it was at the equivalent of $75-80 per barrel after taking account forinflation) the situation is threatening to goout of control. This is becoming a catalyticfactor to push the world economy, into an

even deeper crisis. It is hitting the oil-importing countries the worst — i.e. all thedeveloped countries except Russia.

Yet in this period with the viciousattacks of finance capital on the people’sstandard of living (in every way possible)there has been a gigantic leap in the profitsof major big companies. Those that arebeing pushed to bankruptcy are beingtaken over in a new wave of Mergers andAcquisitions which reached a record levelof $2.7 trillion last year. . So the Fortune 500top MNCs of the world saw net profits risea massive 15.2% in 2004 to $513 billion; inIndia the profits of the largest 1000companies surged 49% in the quarterending June 2005. To sustain this massiveloot the governments are resorting to evenmore exploitative measures and increasedfascist policies to crush all discontent, inthe name of fighting ‘terror’.

With the US dominating the worldeconomy (it accounts for a quarter of theworld market for commodities), the fragilityof its economy can have world widerepercussions. As the only superpower, itcontinues to be the number one gendarmeof the world. But, it realizes that in the giveneconomic scenario, with the rise of Europe,Japan and Russia, and the challenge fromChina, it can sustain its economic clout onlythough saber-rattling and aggressive warsof conquest. It continues to be the numberone enemy of the world people. But, it isgetting caught in a deeper and deeperquagmire.

US headaches & Imperialist Geo-politicsAs the Marxist teachers have taught,

politics is the concentrated expression ofeconomics; and war is the continuation ofpolitics by other means. The fragility of theUS economy entails that it continue itspolitical policies of unilateralism and war-mongering to upstage rival imperialistpowers and further its neo-colonial loot ofthe backward countries of the world. In allmultilateral forums — whether it is the UN,IMF/World Bank, WTO, Kyoto Protocol,IAEA, etc — it continues to act arbitrarily,making others buckle to its wishes orcarrying on regardless. It is the Bush clique,backed by the US military-industrial-financial complex, which call the shots.

The US administration in order topursue its imperial ambitions amidst itsexceedingly fragile economy, it is resortingto fascist terror at home and war abroad.

This can just be seen by its massiveexpenditure on defence. The defencebudget proposed for the current year is amassive $ 524 billion — a 71% increaseover 2001.

It has whipped up and depended onthe ultra-reactionary Christian fundamenta-lists for its major support base. It is increas-ingly racist against the Afro-Americanpopulation and Muslims. With the growingimpoverisation of the people of the country,Bush has initiated an attack on civil libertiesunparalleled in the history of the USA. The“Patriotic Act” gives the authorities thepower to obtain medical records, book-buying and library records, the right to breakinto houses without informing the owner,etc. And now, for the first time ever, thegovernment has the power to incarcerateanybody, indefinitely and without charge.To this, has been added massive doses ofChristian fundamentalism, and the fanaticattacks on blacks, Muslims, abortionclinics, etc. All judicial and other type ofemployments are done on ideologicalgrounds after detailed enquiries into theantecedents of the individual — anyonewith liberal views are kicked out. It is anOrwelian-type scenario with Big Brotherwatching everyone. Homeland Security isthe added weapon of state terror. It hascontinuously built up its terror apparatusat home with not only the so-calledHomeland Security but in December 2004 itpassed a new Bill, introducing sweepingreforms to the intelligence network.Through this Bill it set up the DNI which isa super secret service coordinating all othersecret services in the country.

Abroad it is gearing up for more warsof aggression by continuously enhancingits defence budget/expenditure. Notsurprisingly each successive year has seenmassive increases in the defence budgetof the USA. In the current year the Bushadministration has requested another huge$120 billion for the wars in Iraq andAfghanistan, bringing the total cost ofthese two wars to $ 440 billion; nearlyequaling the $ 500 billion spent in the 13-years of war in Vietnam. Its aggressiveposturing on Iran is an indication of itspolicies for the future which flows from theBush dictum “either you are with us oragainst us”. The more the US economygoes into crisis, the more aggressive andferocious it will have to be for two reasons:


First, as it will not be able to effectivelycounter the other imperialists throughpeaceful economic competition, it will useits military might for that purpose —particularly in grabbing or holding on tomarkets and sources of raw materials in thethird world countries. Second, the moresevere the crisis the more the need to extractmore and more from the backwardcountries; the more and more becomes itsinsatiable appetite for super-profits whichit will extract through greater pressuretactics, arm-twisting and, where necessary,wars of aggression. So today it is the worldssuper-cop, super terrorist and superpower— the number one enemy of the world’speople.

But its advance has been far fromsmooth; in fact in the last year it has had toface setback after setback in many parts ofthe world. Its only advantage has been thatits main contender, the EU, has beenrelatively more silent in challenging the US’sdomination compared to the time of theinitiation of the Iraq war.

(i) Imperialist ContentionLet us take the second point first — i.e.

is the E.U.’s temporary lethargy inchallenging the US. This is for two reasons— the US agreeing to share part of the loot;second, the EU’s own serious problems.As soon as Bush took power for the secondterm his first task was a high profile trip toEurope; here, instead of his earlieraggressive posture he took on a moreconciliatory role and gave to France andGermany a part of the contracts earlierdenied. But more importantly it is the EU’sown crisis that has prevented assertionagainst its main economic rival. It not onlyfaced a second year of stagnation in itseconomy, its attempt to consolidate the EUfailed when two of the major countries —France and The Netherlands — votedagainst the new EU Constitution. Thedivisions were further aggravated with thecoming to power in Germany of a more pro-US Chancellor (Christian Democrat). Sotemporarily the contention between thesetwo major imperialist centres has somewhatsubdued, though conflicts in the sphere oftrade continue to be as acute.

But the situation with the otherimperialist power — Russia — is exactlythe opposite. With its economy revivingand its wielding of oil/gas power, it hassought a new assertion, particularly against

the US and its ambitions in its backyard inthe erstwhile Soviet countries. In CentralAsia the US has faced a set-back over thelast year with Russia (together with China)re-asserting its influence in the region. Inspite of it huge efforts in fomenting “velvetrevolutions” (in Georgia, Ukraine andKyrgystan) through massive amounts ofNGO funds pumped in, it is now on theretreat. Ironically after 9/11 US sought tooust Russia from the region utilising theservices of Karimov of Uzbekistan, it is nowhe, at Russian behest, who is leading theoffensive to throw the US out of the region.After 9/11 the US formed the CACO (CentralAsian Cooperation Organisation) with fourcountries led by Uzbekistan and in just theone year of 2002 the US pumped in $1billion into the region. In a further bid toisolate Russia it formed the GUUAMalliance of five Central Asian countries.

But the process began to be reversedduring the last year or two. In April 2005Uzbekistan withdrew from GUUAM.Though the seeds for this reversal beganin about 2003 itself, it has taken a seriousturn during 2005. In addition, to counterthe US backed Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oilpipeline, Russia signed a $677 million dealwith Bulgaria and Greece to build a trans-Balkan pipeline to take 35 mt of Russianand Kazakh oil to the Mediterranean. InJune 05 Karimov (president of Uzbekistan)accused the US of stirring trouble in theregion and in the same month he signed adefence pact with Russia. On July 29th

Uzbekistan told the US to get rid of itsairbase within 180 days. Earlier, on July 2nd

the Presidents of Russia and China at theirSummit in Moscow, issued a declarationon the “World Order in the 21st Century”.Three days after the Summit, at a meetingof the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation,leaders of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan joined the twoin rejecting “attempts at monopoly anddomination in international affairs”. TheSCO called on the US to set a deadline forthe withdrawal of its bases from the region“now that the anti-terror campaign inAfghanistan is coming to an end”. OnAugust 18th Russia and China began thefirst ever military exercise involving 10,000troops from the navy, air force, army andparatroopers. This was watched over bythe defence ministers of both countries.

Putin’s pro-active policy in Central Asia

helped Moscow consolidate its hold overoil and gas flows in the region — whichwas eagerly sought by the US. Gazpromsealed a mega deal with Turkmeinistan tobuy all its gas exports. LUKoil signed a $930million deal to develop 250 billion cu metersgas field in Uzbekistan and Gazprom signeda $1.5 billion 45-year deal to exploit the gasof Uzbekistan. As much as 70% of the oil ofKazakhstan is pumped through Russia.Besides, Europe is to a large extentdependent for its energy sources on Russia.36% of Western Europe and 50% of CentralEurope is dependent on Russian Gas. Overand above this, in Sept.05 Gazprom andGermany signed a mega $ 5 billion deal fora gas pipeline to Germany. The route of thepipeline bypasses the pro-US countries ofUkraine and Poland.

Russia has also returned as a key playerin West Asia. Also, Russia is making gainsin the Arab world. On 30th June 05 Russiawas unanimously accepted as an observerstate to the Organisation of IslamicConference (OIC). This was granted as anexception to OIC rules and not granted toany other country. In recent years Russiahas built close relations with Israel whilecontinuing its relations with the Arab world.It has also re-built extensive ties with Egyptand Saudi Arabia. Not surprisingly bothRussia and China have deep economic tieswith Iran — Russia in the development ofits nuclear energy and China in its oil andgas production!!! This has implications onthe geo-politics of the Middle East.

Recently Russia and China have builtcloser ties in their international contentionwith the other imperialist powers. Russianimperialism is once again becoming animportant contender in the imperialistscramble. The boom in oil prices has tosome extent facilitated this, given its hugereserves. It has also used this as a weapon,as when it cut off the supplies to the Ukraineand asked the country to quadruple theprice overnight.

Meanwhile the US is seeking toconsolidate the Eurasia block. In Decemberlast year it signed a “historic militaryaccess agreement” with Romania toestablish four military bases in the BlackSea area. In the same month it also floatedthe new regional grouping entitledCommunity for Democratic Choice (CDC).This comprises nine countries from theBalkans, Baltic and the Black sea regions.


The conclave on Dec 2 05 at Kiev wasattended by the presidents of the Ukraine,Georgia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia,Romania, Moldova, Slovenia and Macedo-nia, apart from delegations from Azerbaijan,the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland,and observers from the US. Its main plankis anti-Russia and interestingly bothGermany and Turkey have been kept out.

So, contention proceeds apaceamongst the imperialist powers. Of course,as yet, none are willing or able to stand upwhen the US flexes its military muscle.

(ii) Bogged Down in West AsiaIn the Middle East & Afghanistan the

US is stuck in the quagmire of the Iraq andAfghan wars. The resistance to USoccupation continues to intensify and thenumber of body-bags returning home fromIraq continues to increase. There is increas-ing opposition to the war in the US itself,which took a quantum leap with the motherof a killed soldier going on a dharna againstBush. In Afghanistan US control does notextend beyond Kabul, making pipelinetransport of oil and gas from Central Asia anear impossible task. Of course Israelcontinues to act as its front-paw of the USin the Middle-East region and the so-calledwithdrawal of settlers from the Gaza stripwas nothing but a ruse to entrench itselfeven further in the region. Gaza, that has apopulation of 1.4 million Palestinians, andthe 8,000 settlers (there are 4 lakh settlersin the West Bank) was expensive to sustain,so a pull out was more feasible — eachsettler has been re-settled at a huge cost of$ 1 million per family and Gaza turned into aBantustan encircled in every way by theIsraelis. A media hoax was enacted to givethe impression of resistance from thosesettlers. But, here too from seeking a totalpuppet to run the PA (PalestinianAuthority), it has resulted in the Hamascoming to power. The US and Israel isthreatening all and sundry to not recognisethe new government; but even the servileEgypt government refused to bow to USdictates on this question. To make thembend Israel cut off giving the tax paymentsamounting to $50 million per month to,starve the PA into compliance; but the EUmade a special payment to the PA to tidethem over the next month (March 2006),after which the Hamas is supposed to takepower. Ofcourse, their aim is to pacify theHamas and bring them into the peaceful

‘mainstream’.Iran has become the new flash point in

West Asia. A missile attack on Iran, withoutcommitment of ground troops has been animportant US plan since the last two years.In Jan 2003 itself Bush signed theCONPLAN 8022-02, which envisages theuse of air power and does not preclude thedeployment of earth penetrating “mininukes” to target underground sites. In thesummer of 2005 Rumsfeld approved a topsecret “Interim Global Strike Alert Order”under which the US Strategic Command,which at one time focused on nuclear forcesalone, has been ordered to maintain round-the-clock readiness. Though the EU-3 werefirst negotiating with Iran, it now is totallyfollowing the US dictat. In the latest voteto refer it to the UN Security Council evenRussia and China hesitantly fell in line. Butaction will not be that easy as not onlyRussia and China are heavily involved inIran, but also Japan has huge investmentsthere and gets a large part of its oil suppliesfrom Iran. Besides, an attack on Iran willfurther push up oil prices which will hit theworld economy badly.

So the US is getting more and morebogged down in West Asia which is be-coming a noose around its neck.

(iii) Being Eased Out of Latin AmericaIn its very backyard of Latin America

the Free Trade Area of Americas (FTAA)which was to materialize on Jan 1, 05embracing 30 countries of Latin Americaand the Caribbean, has failed to materializedue to Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, andUruguay refusing to lift trade barriers. Notonly that, Chavez of Venezuela has goneon an anti-US offensive suggesting a LatinAmerican alternative — A BolivarianAlternative of Americas. He has alreadyfloated two projects — the Petrosur andthe Telesur. The Petrosur will bring togetherall state run oil companies of the region(Venezuela is the 5th largest oil-producingcountry in the world). Also Venezuela,Uruguay, Argentina, and Cuba have joinedhands to set up a TV station, Telesur. Thiswill have a strategic alliance with Al Jazeeraand have on its board European big-wigslike Le Monde Diplomatique editor (France),Tariq Ali (Britain) and others. Venezuelaalso struck huge oil deals with China inAugust 2005.

Frustrated in its attempts to form theFTAA the US finally formed a pathetic

CAFTA (Central American Free tradeAgreement) in June this year with the fivetiny banana republics of Costa Rica, ElSalvador, Guatemala, Honduras andNicaragua.

Already, in recent elections anti-USgovernments (to varying degrees) havebeen voted to powering country aftercountry; particularly Venezuela (besidesCuba) has been taking an openly hostileapproach to the Bush regime. Bolivia tooelected a candidate who has been anti-US.More than that, for the first time in thehistory of the OAS (Organisation ofAmerican States) — a virtual CIA outfit,60% of whose fund come from the US —has elected a secretary general against USwishes. The victor, Isulza from Chile, hasbeen an outspoken critique of the US warin Iraq. The OAS has been an instrumentof implementing the infamous MonroeDoctrine under which the US maintainedthe right to interfere in the affairs of theneighbouring countries.

The US is therefore facing seriousproblems in its once safe backyard.

(iv) Africa — land of CarpetbaggersIn Africa the scramble for control of the

rich resources is getting more intense. Theso called writing off the dept of the poorest18 countries at the last G-8 meeting is saidto be the signal for a new scramble forcontrol of Africa as it comes with strictmeasures of economic reforms to bemonitored by the World Bank under its newmegalomaniac president, Paul Wolfowitz.In this scramble China too has got involved.China effectively entered the new scramblefor Africa in 1996 - 1997, when it signed amajor oil agreement with the governmentof Sudan. China accelerated the scramblegame in December 2003 when it cancelledall the debts owed it by the neo-colonialregimes of Africa. This unilateral move, plusother promises issued by the Chineseregime to open its markets to preferentialtrade with 34 African countries, combinedwith the pressure exerted from thereparations and debt relief movementsforced the western imperialists to make thispublic relations manoeuvre and restructureAfrica’s debts.

Africa continues to be a land of thecarpetbaggers with business mafiaplundering it as in the dark ages. In thisthere are various militia factions backed byEuropean and US powers fighting for


control and domination over its rich mineralresources. Most countries of the continentcontinue to be ravaged in this way throughinternecine wars.

(v) Asia : The China ObsessionIn Asia the US is growing more

paranoiac of China’s growing influence.Here, the US has won some diplomatic gainwith the drawing in of India deeper intotheir geo-political axis. In this region theUS has a number of faithfuls in Japan,Australia, New Zealand, Philippines,Pakistan and now a deepening strategicpartnership with India. India is not only avery important market for its goods, it isalso an important economic base for itsmarkets in the entire region. Also given itssize it has become a key aspect of the USgeo-political plans in the region ofdomination and a counter to China. WithChina it has a love-hate relation. On theone hand, in the immediate sense, the hugeChinese market is of great importance forthe US in this period of crisis. On the otherthe Chinese economic growth isthreatening US markets throughout theworld. The bid of the Chinese oil companyto take over the key US oil manufacturer,Unocol, in June 05, is an indication ofChinese growing economic clout. Unocolhas been a key player in all the troublespotsof the world dealing with the Burmese junta,the Taliban, etc. A Unocol consultant,Zalmay Khalilzad, was the US ambassadorto Afghanistan for 18 months and is nowambassador to Iraq. Not surprisingly theUS government blocked the deal, thoughChina was the highest bidder. In USimperialism’s geo-political strategy for Asia,India will have an important role, particularlygiven its servile ruling classes. But heretoo China is giving it a strong fight.

(vi) US imperialism’s fractured clawsdraws Blood So, all over the world, though the US

seeks domination it is facing seriousproblems. The more it is pushed to the wall,the more fierce and aggressive it gets. Theappointment of leading neo-conservativesto international bodies, in the face ofmassive opposition, is an indication of itsaggressive plans for the future. The USdeputy secretary of defence and one of thechief architects of the wars of exterminationin Iraq, Afghanistan, etc and aggressivelypro-Israel, Paul Wolfowitz, has been made

President of the World Bank. And JohnBolton, a rabid UN-basher, has been madethe US’s permanent representative to theUN, inspite of vehement opposition fromthe US senate itself. His first job has beento propose the total rehauling of the UN tomake it more servile to US interests.

It is clear from all the above that theUS’s war-mongering and aggressivepolicies will become more ruthless,desperate and arbitrary in the future. Themore it is pushed to the wall, the more viciousit will become. And as the crisis deepensthe contention between the imperialistpowers is bound to grow, particularlyamongst the US, Russia and Europe. In thecoming year major re-alignments will takeplace in the relation of the reactionary forcesthe world over, with the US stumbling alongon new military adventures. Meanwhilefascist forces are growing in all countriesactively being promoted by the rulingclasses. The new flash point is Iran.

But the people of the world are nottaking this lightly and there has been a risein the mass movements throughout theworld.

People’s ResistanceThough the anti-war and anti-

globalisation movement which peaked in2003 has been at a lower level due to thepolitics of the social democrats and theNGOs that lead it, it has not died out. Themilitant street clashes in Australia last yearduring an imperialist meet against theinvolvement of the Australian governmentin the Iraq war are an indication of thecontinuing resentment. Such outbursts aretaking place regularly throughout mostcountries of the world, though on a smallerscale. In the US the sentiments for thewithdrawal of troops from Iraq has reachedlevels seen during the Vietnam War. Nowthe majority of the people are against thewar in Iraq.

Besides this there was an upsurge inthe working class movements, particularlyin Europe, Russia and even in rural China.

In the developed countries the biggestconflagration was in France which burnedfor nearly a month. Pent up anger of theblack immigrants exploded in over 20 daysof violence, resulting in the burning of10,000 vehicles and destruction of a largenumber of public buildings. Never, since1968 has France seen such an outburst ofpeople’s protest as occurred in October

2005. But this is not all; in the earlier part ofthe year France witnessed massive workersand student actions. In February last yeara strike wave swept entire France. Overthree lakh workers demonstrated againstthe government’s plan to extend theworking hour week. In total 3,21,000 peoplejoined 140 demonstrations across France.On February 5, some 500,000 peopledemonstrated across France, workers andstudents held industrial actions andprotests earlier that week in the run-up tothe general strike. On 8th March, between165,000 to 200,000 students held nationwidedemonstrations, protesting against thereforms to the curriculum at universities andsecondary schools. In Paris police used teargas against students in an attempt todisperse the protest. So, it was an allembracing strike. Same could be said aboutthe strike in France on 14th May 2003 whichwitnessed the greatest workers’mobilisation since the mass strikemovement of 1995.

In Germany the massive strikes at theOpel (General Motors) plant last Octoberwas accompanied by working class strikesin a number of other MNC companies. InMarch 2005 there was the march on Berlin.During the last couple of years people ofItaly have been in the forefront not only inthe anti-war movement but also in takingdirect working class actions. There were anumber of strikes in different sectors liketextile, steel etc. but the most important onewas the nation-wide strike on 18-03-05 inwhich millions of public service workerstook part. Reports mentioned that membersof the General Confederation of the LabourUnion paraded their flags in Rome. Thissolid action forced the negotiations to start,and finally in May 05, a pay increase of5.01% was agreed upon. Britain witnessedmassive strike activity last year throughoutFebruary and March against the huge cutsin pensions. In the USA tens of thousandsof workers have either threatened to go onstrike or have gone on strike. This isbecause the corporations have tried toreduce the impact of the current economiccrisis by firing workers, reducing salariesand benefits, freezing wages oroutsourcing jobs to other countries.

In January last year militant demonstra-tions struck Russia after the government’snew legislations to cut welfare measuresparticularly of pensioners and government


employees. Road and rail blocks, occupa-tion of government buildings were accom-panied by student protests and tacit sup-port from sections of the army and police.In China too the last two years have wit-nessed growing unrest, on a scale not yetseen in the country. The Chinese govern-ment itself admitted that there were 74,000mass demonstrations and riots during 2004.There have also been incidences of peopleopenly calling for the restoration of theearliest Maoist system and condemning thepresent capitalist rulers as betrayers ofMao. They have boldly faced prison sen-tences.

In the backward countries there hasparticularly been a surge of anti-imperialistmovements throughout Latin America,particularly targeted at US imperialism. Asthey do not have any revolutionary focusthese movements have only led to thedisplacement of one government afteranother, with anti-US governments inpower in six countries. Particularly stronghave been the movements in Bolivia,Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguayand the continuing armed struggle inColumbia. Also the extreme marginalizationof the populace in most countries hasresulted in a strong anti-imperialist Muslimbacklash all around the world. They havebeen the focus of Christian and Hindufundamentalist, as also racist/communalattacks and humiliation throughout theworld. Due to the lack of a militantcommunist alternative the masses haveturned to those in the battle against theoppressors — the fundamentalists. Thistype of opposition is also convenient forthe imperialists and reactionaries as it iseasily contained and it helps them fuel theirown fascist and racist propaganda.

But, at the forefront of the anti-imperialist movement of the world havebeen those led by the Maoists in Nepal,Philippines, India, Turkey and Peru. In spiteof brutal attacks they continue to surviveand grow. In the forefront of thesemovements is the people’s war in Nepal.With a powerful people’s army the Maoistsof Nepal have been hitting consistent blowson the monarchy. Today, around 70% ofthe country is in the hands of the Maoistsof Nepal. In India the merger of the twomajor Maoist forces has led to a quantumleap in their striking capacity which hasbeen witnessed in the course of the past

one-and-a-half years, since the merger.So, though the movements against

imperialism and reaction worldwide aregrowing, the one serious and continuingweakness in the prevailing excellentsituation is the weakness of the genuineproletarian forces. Though there has beena small growth in Maoist forces this hasbeen insignificant, relative to the potential.In most of the developed countries theMaoist forces are miniscule and many in aright reformist tendency. In most of LatinAmerica and Africa the Maoist forces areyet to regain their initiative. Only in Asia(that too only Nepal, Philippines and India)there has been some growth, and here toothe historic movements of Indonesia,Thailand, Malaysia, Burma, Bangladesh,etc are yet to revive.

A revival of the genuine communistforces of the world will lead to a qualitativeleap in the forces aligned againstimperialism worldwide. While intensifyingthe anti-imperialist struggle worldwide it isthe revival of the genuine communistforces in the world which alone will be ableto effectively lead the masses against theoncoming vicious fascist and brutalrepression.

Domestic SituationTwo facts stand out in the two years of

UPA rule: first the blinding speed ofimplementation of the polices of openingup to imperialism, particularly the US;second, increasing fascist terror on alldissent, while particularly targeting theMaoists. Both are, of course complimen-tary, as opening up the economy requiresbrutal attacks on the people’s livingstandards, and the resulting discontent hasto be pacified to make India a profitablehunting ground for the imperialist sharksand their comprador hangers on. Boththese are nothing but a continuation of thepolicies of the earlier NDA government. Inthis there is basically no difference betweenthe two, notwithstanding the presence ofthe CPI/CPM in the present government.The CPM’s main role as Congresscollaborator, is to diffuse anger by a showof mock dissent against UPA policies andto rush to hot-spots (as Rajasthan, Gurgaon,Gohana, withdrawal of the airport/railwaystrikes, etc) to somehow pacify the people,divert their attention, diffuse their militancyand, as a by-product, seek some morevotes.

All the ruling class parties have acommon approach of falling at the feet ofthe imperialists, particularly the US,implement the policies they dictate, nomatter how horrifying its impact on the livesof the people, and suppress by brute forceand fascist measures the people’sdiscontent. Only in the latter the methodsthey adopt may slightly differ — the BJPgang use the Hindutva communal card withcrude and open terror; the Congress, withits decades of experience in ruling thecountry, is more sophisticated in using theinstruments of terror, which are often evenmore cruel; and the CPM covers its terrortactics in ‘progressive’ rhetoric Bengal style.Also in choosing their imperialist mastersthe CPI/CPM tilt a bit towards the otherimperialist powers like Russia, Europe andJapan, while balancing with the US. But thecentral policy is of greater and greatercapitulation to imperialism, and particularlythe US. The Manmohan Singh’s govern-ment military agreements with the US, itsdeepening economic and political ties, itsgreater pro-US role in international forumsas on the IAEA vote against Iran, etc are allindications of the Indian rulers licking theUS geo-political boot. Besides, the majorcomprador big bourgeois houses, likeReliance, Tata, Birla, etc, the bulk of thepowerful NRI gang and the entire InfoTechsector, are deeply tied to the US/Britishbandwagon.

What we find is therefore a tighteningimperialist noose around the country’snecks having a disastrous impact on thelives of the masses. The country’s growthpattern is geared to the fattening of the topone percent of the country’s population(about 10 million) which itself is larger thanmost countries of the world. The rest aretotally expendable even if they starve anddie, the existing system could not care asthey are not a significant part of their marketcalculations. According to their owncalculation (a survey done by Technopakand reported in the Economic Times onFeb.20 2006) there are 1.6 millionhouseholds who spend a minimum of Rs.4lakhs per annum on luxury items (notincluding expenditure on services likehotels, tourism, travel, etc) — i.e. a minimumof Rs.64,000 crores (or $ 15 billion) per year;and if one includes services it would be tothe tune of Rs.1 lakh crores ($ 22 billion)per year — and this number they plan to


double by the year 2010. This 1.6 millionhouseholds or population of about 8 millionis less than 1% of the population of thecountry and just their expenditure on luxurygoods and services amounts to over 5% ofthe country’s GDP.

So the entire ruling class’s policy is toincrease the purchasing power of thissection (and increasing their numbers) byincreased impoverishment of the country.So cut subsidies and welfare measures forthe poor and middle classes, raise taxes onthe middle classes, reduce expenditure onrural development, etc, while at the sametime increase subsidies and tax cuts for therich and big business. In just one budgetof 2002 Rs.11,000 crores was gifted in thisway to the rich. The same policies arefollowed in every budget including thelatest. And as the imperialist strangleholdon the country tightens such policesbecome more fierce, more blatant, morecrude; and any attempt to oppose it iscrushed by brute force.

The result of such policies can be seenby the extent of the imperialist control thatalready exists.

The Imperialist OnslaughtHardly a day passes when there is not

a report of a takeover of some company orthe other by foreign capital. This takeoveris taking place in two ways: Firstly it isthrough FIIs (Foreign InstitutionalInvestments), where these FIIs aresystematically buying up the companies bypurchasing their share capital. This is beingfacilitated by the government relaxing thelaws to allow the open entry of FIIs in allsectors. The second is by the direct MNCpenetration through the FDI (Fixed DirectInvestment) route. These giants themselvesbuy up companies, either by purchasingexisting ones, or by ousting their partner injoint ventures. In addition new MNCinvestments come in on a large scale likeEnron and now the giant steel plant Poscoand in other spheres of the infrastructure.

The extent of FII penetration hasreached such levels that today the FIIs havedisplaced the FIs (Indian FinancialInstitutions like UTI, LIC, IDBI, etc) in thequantum of capital they control in industry.While FIIs hold 18% of the share capitalthe FIs hold a mere 7% today {EconomicTimes May 11, 05}. And the FII rate ofincrease is rapid, particularly in somesectors like the banks. Normally a 26%

stake is sufficient to be in control of thecompany. All government and RBI rules arebeing changed to facilitate these takeovers.A host of big companies already have wellover this 26% foreign capital — like HDFC,Satyam Computers, Infosys, ICICI Bank,Zee, NIIT, Gujarat Ambujam Cement, etc —where the imperialists dictate the terms.

Besides this the MNC takeovers areproceeding at breakneck speed, facilitatedby government policy and encouragementat both Central and State level. Here toonot a day passes without some MNC orthe other either ousting their Indian partneror increasing their stake in the joint venture.In this way the entire cement industry hasbeen virtually taken over in just the lastyear. A similar situation is to be seen inmining, electricity, pharmaceuticals,infrastructure and nearly all sectors of theeconomy — and this is not just in consumerproducts which is already near-fully inMNC hands. Now the UPA government ispushing for the takeover of Indian banks,telecom, real estate, airports, retail businessat a fast pace. Already 74% foreign capitalhas been allowed into banks, telecom,construction and it is a matter of time beforethey allow it in the other sectors. The PMsaid recently there is need to take boldsteps. And CPM chief of West Bengal saidthat we cannot stay in the old time-warp.Both sing the same tune. No wonder therehas been a spate of what are called Mergersand Acquisitions in the period of UPA rule— in India these are mostly acquisitionsby foreign companies of local ones. Thevalue of these acquisitions in the year 2004nearly doubled over the previous year to $7.5 billion and in the last year it hasincreased even further.

Besides all this the most perniciousonslaught in the past year or two is in thesphere of mining. Just the three states ofOrissa, Jharkhand and Chhathisgarh havesigned MoUs of about Rs.4 lakh crores(about $ 90 billion) for iron ore mining andsteel production. Huge contracts have alsobeen signed for bauxite. The companiesinvolved are primarily the big compradors— Tatas, Jindals, Ruias, etc — and MNCs.This is set to create mass displacement offorest dwellers, primarily tribals.

In fact today the entire economy is beinggeared to dependence on imperialism bymaking it import-export oriented. Not onlyis this detrimental to the indigenous growth

and overall health of the economy, but ithas been generating huge trade deficits, asexports far exceed imports. Last year thetrade deficit (excess of imports over exports)has been growing at the rate of about $4billion per month, which amounted to agigantic figure of roughly $ 50 billion bythe end of the year. This huge Rs. 2 lakhcrores of a trade deficit, can at any timelead to a balance of payment crisis (wherethere is no foreign exchange to pay intereston the foreign debt) as the external debthas itself risen by as much as 10% last yearto a gigantic $123 billion, entailing ever-increasing interest payments. The largeforeign exchange reserves are nothing buthot money of the foreign investors and theNRIs that can be taken out at a moment’snotice.

To facilitate the tightening imperialistgrip on the economy the UPA governmentis changing the basic laws of the land atthe dictates of their masters. VAT wasbrought in for this purpose earlier this year.Then the New Patents Act was brought inon Jan.1 05 as per WTO instructions. Thencame the Seed Bill. Now there is the SpecialEconomic Zone Bill, 2005 which treats suchzones as outside the territorial jurisdictionof Indian Customs and grants exemptionfrom all central taxes and labour laws. Thereis not a single sphere of the economy thatis remaining untouched with the stategovernments acting in similar fashion tothe Centre. Particularly in this year therehas been a huge jump in the sale of rawmaterial wealth to the imperialists with thesigning of contracts for iron ore, steel,aluminum (bauxite), coal, and many othermineral resources of the country. Not onlythis even the country’s water is being soldto them at a rapid pace as indicated by thefraudulent deals by the Delhi Chief Ministerto sell the assets of the Delhi Jal Boardcheap.

While all imperialists are competing fora cut in the Indian cake it is the US that arein the lead. Ofcourse others like Russia,France, Japan, etc are all making a grab andcompeting. The visit of the Frenchpresident just a few days before the Bushvisit is an indication of the intense scramblefor the Indian market. Particularly the rushfor the new multi-billion dollar nuclearmarket being opened up is stiffly competedfor by the US, France and Russia. Russiacontinues to have large military deals with


India. Over the last three decades the EUhas given over Rs. 10,000 crores foreconomic and developmental projects inIndia. The EU is working with about 120NGOs in sectors like health and educationin a big way involving 65 million euro. Andin spite of a lot of arm-twisting by the US infavour of Boeing the govt. signed a hugedeal for 43 aircraft for IA worth $2.2 billion;while signing an even bigger deal withBoeing. Many deals have also been struckwith France, particularly in defence. TheIran pipeline issue has also become a majorfocus of contention with the pro-Moscowsection of the rulers pushing for it and theUS vigorously opposing it. So, contentioncontinues, but it is the US that has theupper-hand.

Over the last few months the US hassignificantly tightened its grip over theeconomics, politics and the military of thecountry. This process took a gigantic leapwith the visit of the defence minister, PranabMukherjee to the US in end June last yearand immediately followed by that of thePrime Minister in mid-July.

The Defence agreement is for a periodof 10 years and binds the Indian armedforces in various ways to US militaryinterests. It acts to facilitate US militaryintervention within the country (tosupposedly combat terrorism) and utilizethe Indian armed forces as cannon fodderfor the US’s geo-political intereststhroughout the world, and particularly inAsia. The US openly states that US militaryofficials are “candid in their plans toeventually seek access to Indian bases andmilitary infrastructure.”

Then, during Manmohan Singh’s visitthe agreements signed were all-encompassing. They covered suchstrategic areas as nuclear and geo-political,as also in industry and finance, agricultureand even education. In Manmohan Singh’shigh-flying visit he was not onlyaccompanied by most top ministers but alsochiefs of business houses and topbureaucrats. For the first time ever topbusiness houses were part of the officialdelegation of the PM comprising the majorchiefs of the comprador big bourgeoishouses like, Ambani, Tata, Narayan Murty,Premji, Birla, etc. For the first time ever aCEO (the heads of these business empiresare called Chief Executive Officers) Forumhas been formed comprising ten CEOs from

Indian and US big business each. Thepurpose of this Forum is clear: to facilitatethe greater flow of US investment in Indiaand tightening the stranglehold of USfinance capital over the Indian economy.After this visit US companies in India havegot over-active, with the US Chamber ofCommerce demanding further liberalizationof the FDI regime to increase US FDI inIndia from the present $16 billion to $50billion.

The Bush visit (see article in issue)further pushed the Indian ruling classesinto the US strategic plans through thesigning a host of agreements. Particularlythe humiliating nuclear agreement waspushed through after a lot of arm-twistingof the top brass of the atomic scientificcommunity by the PMO. Besides importantagreements were signed on defence, energyagriculture, science and technology, etcthrowing open the country to even greaterloot by the US multinationals. To help thisprocess Bush was accompanied by 50heads of US TNCs. With the high-level CEOForum comprising heads of Indian bigbusiness (chaired by Tata) and US TNCsthe compradors of the country have beenmore tightly bound by to the USbandwagon. Not only that during this visitthe servile Indian rulers agreed to furtherUS strategic interests worldwide (as in Iranpr the WTO) in the name of promoting‘democracy’ worldwide and prising openother markets for US interests. WhetherVajpayee or Manmohan in India, or Clintonor Bush in the US the policies have beenthe same. This time the snub meted out toPakistan by Bush was even morehumiliating than the when Clinton wentthere. India is slowly developing into theIsrael of Asia, with the aim of using it topush US interests in the region, use it as amilitarist power to crush revolutionary andnationality movements, and with the long-term aim of containing China.

Besides the Indian rulers, with USbacking, are pushing their expansionistambitions in the region. India is thelaunching pad for most imperialist countriesfrom where it seeks to conquer the entireSouth Asian market. India’s comprador bigbourgeoisie also has always had its dirtyeye on entire South Asia. So the two’sinterests tie up. In fact during the past yearmost MNCs have begun appointing CEOsnot merely to look after Indian operations,

as in the past, but for entire South Asia.Besides the US is very much seeking to tieIndia into its military ambitions in theregion, particularly as a potential counterto China. For that reason in order to flex itsexpansionist muscles in the region theIndian government has been on a spree forpurchase of weapons.

In 2004 India became the largestimporter of arms in the world. Thisamounted to a huge $ 6 billion worth ofarms. Massive deals were struck particularlywith Russia (for the $1.5 billion AircraftCarrier), with Europe for the $1.8 billion 66Advanced Jet Trainers and with Israel of$2.2 billion which included the unmannedspy jets (Phalcon). And on top of all this ithas now, Sept 05, gone and signed amassive $3 billion deal with France forsubmarines. Such massive purchase ofsophisticated weaponry is only to serveits expansionist needs particularly in SouthAsia. It is also becoming more involvedinternationally as a tool of the imperialists(particularly US) to suppress people’smovements and act as cannon fodder forimperialist interests. In South Asia it hasalready taken Sri Lanka in its grip throughnumerous humiliating trade agreements andmilitary ‘assistance’. It utilized the Tsunamitragedy to further tighten this grip over thecountry. It has supplied the governmentwith huge quantities of arms. In BanglaDesh it has assumed an aggressive posture,provoking border clashes and dadagiri tomake it give a part of its large gas resourcesto India. And against Pakistan it keepsblowing hot and cold to get it to its kneesin order to force it to open up its markets toIndian goods. Bhutan is virtually made intoanother state of India and is forced to sell itlarge hydroelectric resources cheap toIndia.

So, in a word it can be said that theimperialist onslaught on the country,particularly that of the US, continues apacewith ever-fastening speed. The servileIndian comprador ruling classes arebending over backwards to welcome thesegangsters into the country.

Growing People’s Movements & Govt.Onslaught

Never before in post-1947 India havethe Indian masses been so pauperized asthey have been by the present imperialist-dictated polices of successive govern-ments. In the new dispensation the


government’s total neglect of agricultureis creating conditions similar to that whichexisted during British rule. It has cutinvestments to a fraction of what limitedamount was spent earlier; it has reduce bankcredit pushing the rural population deeperinto the arms of the moneylender; it has defacto scrapped the PDS stopping cheapgrain to the poorest; it is virtually scrappingprocurement pushing the peasants into thearms of the trading sharks; it is cuttingexpenditure on health pushing lakhs to theirdeath; it is raising prices of water, electricity,and all basic necessities impoverishing themasses even further. And now, over andabove this, major plans are there to evictlakhs from their habitat, with littlecompensation. It amounts to a virtual cold-blooded massacre of the alreadyimpoverished. In the urban slums thesituation is no better with employmentopportunities getting less and less — exceptof course for the English-speakingcomputer-savy upper middle classes.

The rulers have turned the entirecountryside and urban ghettos into a hellhole where lakhs are dying of sickness andhunger and thousands are committingsuicide out of desperation. Never before inthe history of our country have suicidesreached such epidemic levels. Such policiesare not merely callous, they are criminal,genocidal and inhuman — they are no lessthan the actions of war criminals and theunderworld mafia dons. In fact they are farworse and require of punishment equal tothe magnitude of their crimes againsthumanity. On top of this these criminalsare butchering in the most brutal way anywho dare to resist. Arrest, torture, disap-pearances and killing in fake encountershas become routine. Even ordinary tradeunion struggles are crushed by brute force.The judiciary has become of late into avirtual extension of the police/magistrategang. Forget the thousands involved in thebutchery of Muslims in broad day light inGujarat (except the nine recently convicted),even ordinary criminal actions go Scott freeif they involve the powerful as in the JessicaLal case and hundreds more. In this systemeven the limited democratic space hasceased to exist, and peaceful resistancecannot win it back as proposed by manyliberals and the NGOs.

What is more, though fascist Hindutvais temporarily at a lower level the age old

caste divisions and discrimination continueas part of this oppressive system, withattack on dalits being intensified. Uppercaste domination and elitism has beenmagnified in this period of globalizationwhich marginalizes the oppressed evenmore while pampering the elite. Dalitassertion is being brutally put down by theelite upper caste hierarchy with overtsupport form the state machinery.

But the people are not taking this alllying down; they are fighting back, thoughthe level of the struggle is no where nearwhat the situation calls for. Not only is thereneed to intensify the struggle to the levelto be able to reverse the policies but alsoto be able to successfully beat back theforces of state terror. This requires not onlymassive mass mobilization against rulingclasses but also sufficient people’s armedstrength to crush the terror of the police/para-military/army/intelligence combine.The monster looks invincible but it has feetof clay.

First this monster is not united; theyare deeply divided over squabbles over thespoils. In fact as the economic crisis increas-es and the inter-imperialist contradictionsgrow, this will magnify ten-fold. This canbe seen within all the political parties andamongst them. They fight like dogs for theloot and for power. This infighting weakensthem and makes them easier targets for thepeople’s movements. But, as yet they areunited against the people’s movementsparticularly those led by the Maoists. Theyare united in their attacks on the peopleand their repressive measures.

It is not just the Maoists that are beingtargeted but particularly all people’smovements. Maoists are being singled outas they are the only force in the countrythat have the ability to unleash an effectivestruggle against all the above mentionedpolicies. But the brutality with which thegovernments have attacked the peasantsin Rajasthan and the workers in Gurgaon isa clear warning to the entire peasantry andworking class that it will not tolerate eventhe smallest protest. In Gurgaon theadministration and police acted like theprivate army of a Japanese company. Soalso in Orissa the police and administrationact like the hired army of the miningcompanies. The Orissa government haseven changed the forest laws to be able toevict the tribals from the forests to allow

the compradors and MNCs to loot the vastmineral wealth of the State.

Today, the judiciary, including thehighest courts work and give judgmentsas merely and extended wing of the police.The governments surreptitious passing ofthe Code of Criminal Procedure(Amendment) Bill, 2005 in end July and itsattempts to bring in all the recommendationsof the Malimath Committee report will actto institutionalize the changes alreadytaking place. The government also hasimmediate plans for drastic changes in thelabour laws. Also POTA continues in itsnew avtar, and POTA victims, like theGodhra Muslims the Naxalites ofTamilnadu, etc continue to languish in jail.

The UPA has proved to be even moreruthless than the NDA and havingexperience of being rulers for generationsthey have been systematically building upthe instruments of repression recruitingmassively, particularly to the para-militaryforces which are being used for counter-insurgency purposes.

What is more, during the last six months,having made the Maoists the number onetarget of their wrath the new UPAgovernment with the CPI/CPM in tag, hasplanned a systematic and long-termstrategy for counter-insurgency andwidespread terror in the country, in whathas come to be known as low-intensityconflict. In successive meetings of ChiefMinisters, for the first time in the history ofthe Maoist movement in India, a politicalbody with CMs was formed and the HomeMinister and the Defence Minister willcoordinate the decisions and the operationsfor the first time.

Over the past one year there have beensystematic meetings of Chief Ministers, toppolice officials, all coordinated by the HomeMinister and even with the involvement ofthe Defence Minister. There has been hugerecruitment into the para –military andmassive induction of sophisticatedweaponry to crush the Maoists.

Similar preparations are taking place atthe State levels. Combining able personsfrom all the forces like the Civil police,Special state forces, Special elite forces,Paramilitary forces, as a main combatantgroup is the main form of state upgradingat this juncture in AP, Chhathisgarh, Bihar,Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Orissa, WestBengal, Karnataka, UP, etc. Allotment of


funds to modernize these forces is anotherimportant aspect, which the Centre andState governments are adopting.

In June 2005 the reactionary forces andthe state launched the as yet most brutalattack against the Maoists of Bastar in thename of Jan Jagran/Salwa Judum. InVietnamese style they have launched amurderous campaign on the massesthemselves that support therevolutionaries. They have resorted to apolicy of burn all, loot all, destroy all. Theyhave burnt down 70 villages, murdered over100 activists and ordinary villagers andgang-raped 40 women. They havedestroyed the crops, looted the cattle andother property, and put the people intoconcentration camps along the lines of theVietnamese style strategic hamlets. Theterror there continues, led by the Congressleader of the opposition with full supportfrom the BJP government of Chhathisgarh.

Similar Salwa Judum type structureshave been set up in the other states as well,particularly Jharkhand and also WestBengal, etc.

In addition to all this vast funds arebeing pumped in to wean the masses awayfrom the Maoists. A large amount of theseare coming from imperialist-fundedagencies, particularly the World Bank.NGOs are being pushed into the areas andhuge schemes have been adopted tosupposedly ‘empower’ the poor. Self Helpgroups are being set up in the countrysidein lakhs. As Mao said, communists mustbe like a fish in water, deeply integrated

with the masses. The purpose of theseschemes is to separate the fish from thewater in order to kill it. If the mass links areweak and if the people are not built intosolid organisations and militias at the grass-roots level and if consciousness is notdeveloped, the enemy can becomesuccessful in its strategy. This is the entirestrategy of LIC, utilising a combination ofrepression and reform.

But this terror has not cowed down thepeople and the people have been fightingback. There have been spontaneousmovements of the masses. Peasants,workers, tribals, dalits, etc have all beenfighting back. The heroic battle in KalingaNagar by tribals against their eviction bythe mining mafia is a clarion call for thecoming battles. In this battle which thetribals fought with bows and arrows 12 weremartyred, but they continued their strugglefor a month. Here too the brutality of thepolice was barbaric, cutting off their fingersand destroying their private parts(including that of women) before they werekilled. But the tribals were so adamant thatit even forced Sonia Gandhi and the HomeMinister to go and try and pacify them.

But in the lead in the battle for changein the country are the Maoists that havegained strength by their unity and theformation of the CPI (Maoist). They haveparticularly been effective in fighting backthe onslaught on them with stepped upmilitary actions. Since the unity the militaryactions have surpassed earlier times. Theraid on the Girdhi armoury, the Jehanabad

jail break, the blowing up of the mine-proofvehicle with 27 CRPF in Chhathisgarh arejust some of the notable actions. In Bastarthe vast masses have been mobilised inmilitias and they have been hitting back atthe terror forces of the state. Lately theseizure of explosives from a dump guardedby armed CISF in Bastar and the wipingout of about 10 of the Naga forces (whohave been in the forefront of the worstterror campaigns) in the midst of the worstpossible repression in Bastar, is a sign ofthe growing strength of the Maoists.

What is more the heroic struggles ofthe Nepali people under the leadership ofthe Maoists has advanced to to take control70% of the country. This is a great hopeand inspiration not only for the people ofneighbouring India but also the world. Soalso the Maoists movements are growingin other parts of the world, particularlyPhilippines, Turkey and Peru. Proletarianrevolutionary movements are alsoadvancing in other countries of the world.

On this May Day, while taking stock ofthe situation in India and the world, thereis utmost need for the proletarian/Maoistforces to increase their strength amongstthe masses, intensify the armed struggle,unite with all progressive forces against thecommon enemy and turn the tide againstthe imperialists and all reaction — in Indiaand worldwide. The deepening worldcrisis, and with it growing contradictionswithin the enemy camp, throws up greatopportunities to advance the revolutionarymovements worldwide and in India.

prisoners without trial for years without end, derives vicariouspleasure as his mercenaries inflict cruel torture on hapless prisoners,considers the UN Commission’s report regarding the conditions of500-odd prisoners in the hell-hole of Guantanamo Bay as unacceptable,has become a crusa-der of freedom of expression and free press!!

The CC, CPI(Maoist), calls upon the people of India to fightshoulder to shoulder with their Muslim brethren against the sinisterdesigns of the imperialists led by George Bush to whip up racist, anti-Muslim sentiments, their attempts to portray Islam with terrorism andthereby achieve their aim of plundering the resources of the Islamiccountries through wars of aggression. It is only by waginguncompromising war to wipe out the racist imperialist oppressorsand plunderers from the world that genuine democracy, freedom,equality and self-respect of nations, religions and all communitiescan be protected.

Azad,Spokesperson,

Central Committee, CPI(Maoist) 26 February 2006

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4. Publisher’s Name : P. Govindan Kutty5. Editor’s Name : P. Govindan Kutty6. Name and address of Individuals who

own the Newspaper and partners ofshare holders holding more than onepercent of the total capital : P. Govindan Kutty

Peroor House, Tripunithura,N.F. Ernakulam, Kerala

I, P. govindan Kutty, hereby declare that the particulars given above are trueto the best of my knowledge and belief.

Sd/-31.03.2006 Publisher

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TVs, radios, newspapers screamed day-and-night about the horrors of a pandemicof bird flu. For nearly a fortnight this wasthe main item and the scare beat even the‘terrorist’ scare of the Varanasi bomb blast.One TV channel, interviewing a lady fromAP, said that her two relatives diedimmediately after consuming eggs, whilethey were perfectly fit earlier. A reputablebusiness magazine screamed on the cover“50 million dead; is India Prepared”.Immediately chicken and eggs were takenoff the menu of government offices, armedforces, railways and even the parliament.Paranoia was spread across the country (asit has earlier been spread across the world)of a bird flu attack that could kill millions.The same business magazine (Business &Economy) said that it “could kill between5 to 150 million human beings even beforeany control mechanism starts to succeed”.

All this propaganda has been a gigantichoax. Not even one of the 95 patients whowere suspected to have the H5N1 virustested positive for bird flu. The chicken thatdied supposedly of bird flu was confinedto a small area of Navapur in Nandurbardistrict of Maharashtra. Even this is beingdisputed by the NECC (National EggCoordination Committee). Chicken bloodsamples first tested in a Pune laboratoryshowed no strains of the H5N1 virus.Finally it was ‘proven’ by a laboratory inBhopal; but mysteriously the samples thatwere to be sent to a London laboratory werenever followed up.

Most villagers know the dangers ofrearing chicken. Poultry farms have stricthygiene conditions to prevent the attackof the Ranikhet disease. Once hit by thedisease chicken on the entire farm die over-night. Even entire villages lose their entirechicken due to this disease. This has beengoing on for years. Earlier the local strainsof chicken were more resistant to disease;but with the onset of broilers they havebecome more prone and the attacks moreregular. So the death of chicken in largenumbers need not be the bird flu and couldbe due to the normal Ranikhet disease. Butin the entire media hysteria it was barelymentioned and made out such largenumbers of dead chicken could only be birdflu. Though the Agricultural minister agreedto have fresh samples tested at two Indianlaboratories and one foreign one, the final

conclusion was drawn only from the Bhopaltests.

One has to assess the events and mediahype in the background of two veryimportant factors — the gigantic Indianpoultry market of Rs.35,000 crores, and theaggressive pushing of the vaccine and drugfor bird flu monopolized by a US pharmacycompany.

First the market! The US has beendesperate to enter the Indian poultry marketfor long which is dominated by smallproducers and the Rs.1,300 crore Pune-based Venkateshwara Hatcheries. In theearly 1990s US chicken were all set to enterthe Indian market. It was said that thesehormone induce 5-8 kg chicken would besold as cheap as Rs.20 per kg. This wouldhave wiped out a vast section of the smallproducer and depressed prices for theordinary farmer, most of whom who breedsome chicken. Finally it was stopped dueto strong opposition by the poultry produ-cers in India and particularly VenkateshwaraHatcheries. Not surprisingly in this entireepisode Venkateshwara Hatcheries hasbeen targeted and accused while thegovernment has signed an agreement withBush to open up Indian markets foragricultural goods and poultry.

The Navapur poultry farms were mostlylinked to Venkateshwara Hatcheries. Thereare 52 registered farms here with 12 lakhbirds and another 100 unregistered ones.Small farms have just 100 to 200 birds.Navapur is the second biggest poultry farmindustry after Pune and the mainstay of thelocal economy. They employ over 5,000workers. The government spree ofdestruction did not distinguish betweeninfected farms and others and destroyed 3lakh chicken and 6 lakh eggs. In the firstfew days of the scare the poultry industrysuffered losses of over Rs.1,100 croresmostly due to the countrywide scare andall workers lost their employment. Havingsuccessfully hit the industry and the vastsmall producers it will help clear the pathfor the entry of big US fowls.

Now if we turn to the US pharma mafiawe will find a big conspiracy to push thedrug. Firstly it must be known that the H5N1is the deadliest of the 144 known strains ofthe influenza A virus, most of which haveexisted in harmless form in wild fowls forcenturies. It was probably introduced to

local poultry by migratory birds andmutated in crowded poultry-rearingconditions. The virus ONLY spreads tohumans through physical contact with theinfected birds and their excreta — IT DOESNOT SPREAD FROM HUMAN TOHUMAN. That is why for all the massiveinternational media hype there have been amere 170 cases of bird flu worldwide andjust 92 deaths as of today.

The only antiviral drug is Tamiflu,which itself is only partially effective withdangerous side-effects. And the onlycompany that owns the rights to this drugis the California biotech company GileadSciences. A major stake holder in thiscompany is none other that the US defenceSecretary Ronald Rumsfeld. According toFortune Rumsfeld holds a stake in ofaround $25 million. In the last few monthsthe bird flu scare and the big purchases byvarious governments has pushed the sharevalue up a massive 29%. This made thePentagon chief, already one of the richestmembers of the Bush cabinet, wealthier byat least $ 1 million. India too has stockpiled10 lakh doses of Tamiflu.

In a country like India which has one ofthe poorest public health care systems inthe world with lakhs dying each year ofmalaria, TB, diarrhea, etc (not to mentionstarvation and suicide deaths) this bird fluscare where not even one person has diedis merely a media myth helping create theproper atmosphere for the sale of USpharma company drugs. In fact today thehealth situation of the country has sodeteriorated that the number of poor whodo not seek treatment for financial reasonshas increased from 15 to 24% in the ruralareas and 10 to 21% in the urban areas inthe decade from 1986 to 1996.

The people of the country must vehem-ently oppose the imperialist/compradorscheming, and support the small producersstruggle against the entry of US poultryinto our country(which will also behazardous to public health as it will containhigh doses of preservatives in order to beable to sell after long transport time andalso contain large hormone content to fattenit). We must also expose the conspiracy ofthese multinational pharma companies whoare destroying our people with the help oftheir Indian compradors in order to makesuper-profits out of people’s suffering.

Bird Flu Hype & the Gigantic Indian Poultry Market

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French President Jacques Chirac on 15February ordered the decommissionedFrench aircraft carrier Clemenceau backhome, after the country’s top administrativebody ruled that the warship contained toomuch asbestos to legally be sent to India fordismantling. The Clemenceau, which hadalready been moored outside Indian territorialwaters as courts in India deliberated overwhether to let it in, will now be towed back tothe French naval base in Brest, where it willremain until a solution is found for itsdisposal.

Chirac announced the recall momentsafter the French Conseil d’Etat, the supremearbiter of the legality of governmentdecisions, cancelled the ship’s exportdocuments on the grounds that the vesselcontained more asbestos than previouslythought, and that it therefore fell afoul of EUlaws on industrial waste. He has also orderedan inquiry into how much asbestos the vesselcontained — one of the main areas ofcontention between the French governmentand environmental groups. Asbestos tradeis regulated by the Basel Convention on theControl of Transboun-dary Movements ofHazardous Wastes and their Disposal.

The ship was halted en route to India inJanuary, after an Indian Supreme Courtcommittee (SCMC) made an interim reportrecommending that the ship not be allowedto enter Indian waters. After the committeereturned a split final decision, with sevenmembers in favour of accepting the ship understrict conditions and three recommending itsreturn to France, the Supreme Court decidedon 13 February to create a new panel oftechnical experts that would determinewhether the Clemenceau should be allowedto enter the country. French gov-ernmentofficials had suggested that France wouldtake the ship back if the Supreme Courtdenied it permission to enter India.

The 27,300 tonne ship was headedtowards India after Europe had turned it back.The former flagship of the French Navy hadcome into service in 1961 and hadparticipated in most of the French Navaloperations. It spent 3,125 days in a total ofseven seas which, it had sailed almost 50times. More than 20,000 sailors had servedon board of this ship. The French Navyplaced the ship in special reserve after itcompleted 36 years of service and later theFrench ministry of defence decommissionedit. Since that time in 1997, the ship’s voyagehas been mired in controversy and it has

been looking for a shipyard for dismantling.Failing to find a shipyard in Europe willingto take the decommissioned aircraft-carrierfor dismantling, the French authorities choseAlang on the Gujarat coast.

Countries such as India, Pakistan andBangladesh have developed massiveshipbreaking industries in which low-wageworkers, poorly equipped to prevent bothdamage to themselves and the environment,dismantle ships for scrap metal. TheClemenceau had been purchased by anIndian company, Shri Ram Vessels Scrap PvtLtd. from the SDIC ( Ship DecommissioningIndustry Corporation), the Panama-registered private company retained by theFrench state to dispose of the ship.Controversy over amount of toxin on board

The controversy surrounding theClemenceau, which left France on 31December 2005, stems from the presence onboard of undetermined quantities ofhazardous materials, in particular asbestos,that were not removed before its departure.

French authorities say that theirassessment had indicated that 160 tonnes ofbrittle asbestos were originally present onthe ship. The vessel was sent to French scrapfirm Technopure, which, according to theFrench government that it had removed 115tonnes of asbestos, leaving 45 tonnes onboard. However, the French DefenceMinistry subsequently announced that thelandfill charged with disposal of the removedwaste had only provided documentationaccounting for 85 tonnes of asbestos. Thisthrew into question whether the full 115tonnes were taken out of the ship, or whether30 tonnes remained in the Clemenceau overand above the 45 tonnes that weresupposed to be on board. It is important totake note of another fact—Technopure hadinitially made a proposal to the SDIC fordecontaminating the ship for 6.3 million Eurosbut subsequently at the request of the SDIC,a less expensive proposal valued at 3 millionEuros was submitted, accepted by the SDICand executed. Under the revised proposalonly certain parts of the ship were coveredfor decontamination. The same company,Technopure, told the Supreme CourtMonitoring Committee (SCMC) in January,that a minimum of 500 tonnes of asbestoscontaminated materials were still on boardand much of this could and should havebeen removed in France before sending it tobe broken in India. Technopure also said thatit had removed 70 tonnes of the material fromthe ship for which it has proof from the

landfill but a lot more than 115 tonnes couldhave been removed without damaging thestructure or the seaworthiness of the ship.Furthermore, environmental group Green-peace and several scientists suggest thatthere may be more asbestos on board thanthe 160 tonnes identified during the prelimi-nary assessment. They say that the trueamount of asbestos on the ship could havebeen as high as 500 tonnes.

It is also possible that other carcinogenichazardous wastes, including polychloricbiphenyls (PCBs), are present on the ship.An NGO Basel Action Network (BAN) useda comparable US vessel to argue that theClemenceau likely contained a high amountof material contaminated with PCBs. It alsosuggested that the transfer of the ship toIndia violated the Basel Convention’s stipula-tion forbidding signatories to undertaketransboundary shipments of hazardouswaste without assurances that thedestination facility meets its definition ofenvironmentally sound management.

Further proof that Clemenceau is and hasbeen a toxic ship was given by sailors andmechanics who served on it. They nowsuffer from asbestois and various respiratorydiseases. Several people have died. The storyof asbestos in France is a scandal. By 2015there will be 100,000 deaths due to asbestospoisoning.

Despite the fact that the dangers posedby asbestos were well known in the late1970s, it was only in 1997 that France bannedthe substance after an intense pressure.There have been several high-profile anti-asbestos trials in France and a recent Senatereport rapped the government for deliberatelyignoring, under pressure from the asbestoslobby in the country, the dangers posed bythe substance. The National Association forthe Victims of Asbestos Poisoning in Franceand the shipyard workers unions have beencalling for a full decontamination anddismantling of Clemenceau in France. Forlong, the workers’ unions have called for thecreation of a specific site within a naval basewhere end-of-life warships could be disman-tled safely without damage to human livesor the environment. But the money intereststook precedence over the lives of the workers.Indian workers in the dock as well

Whether it is France or India, The livesof the workers have always been subservientto the greed for the profits. Alang yards havea long history of accidents, some of themfatal. Many of them have been caused by

— RashmiTHE SAGA OF CLEMENCEAU—LIVES OF WORKERS AT RANSOM

Contd. on page 21


The Union Budget 2006-07 presented bythe Finance Minister before the Parliamenton February 28, 2006 is a document favouringthe comprador and rich with lip service tothe poor. It has broadly maintained thecontinuity of its comprador features andcontents in conformity with earlier budgetssince 1991. Contents of the budgets havebeen consistent in pursuing greater intensityof liberalization, privatization andglobalization and restructuring the Indianeconomy in favour of the market and privateplayers, irrespective of the political partiesin power. The Finance Minister has tried tostrike an intelligent illusory balance betweenso-called political compulsions and so-calledfundamentals of economics. Politicalcompulsions are mentioned as the politicsof coalition government - pressure to adhereto the national common minimum programme,to consider the interests of the common manand also in view of the coming assemblyelections in the states. Fundamentals ofeconomics have placed a series of challenges– increasing unemployment, poverty,undependable and slow agricultural growth,crop failures, insufficient institutional creditsupport, farmers suicides, on the one handand widening trade deficits, pressure offinance capital to ‘rationalize’ custom andexcise duties, reduction of subsidies,disinvestments to get rid of publicexpenditure on public enterprises, etc., onthe other.

Hence, in order to minimize protests andsmoothen the sanction of the finance billmany important issues have been left to bedecided through off-budget policy decisionsfor the furtherance of the mandate ofeconomic reforms, which will no doubt takeplace after the elections.

The Finance Minister has introducedvarious new initiatives to accelerate the paceof economic reforms towards furtherintensifying privatization and restructuringthe Indian economy in favour of the marketand private players. Economic reforms witha human face have also got space for creatingillusions for public consumption to containthe resentment of the people. Food, fertilizerand petroleum subsidies shall engagecertain unpopular space of the off-budgetdecisions after the assembly elections.Infrastructure, social develop-ment, farmcredit, minority, gender, and weaker sections

have got focused for lip service in thisbudget. Economic reforms with substantialreduction in custom and excise duties forimport and production have given scope forcheaper import and production to please bigindustries. Custom duties have beenreduced from 15 to 12 per cent which willhelp the imperialists dump even more of theirproducts here. Excise duties for most of theitems have been reduced from 16 to 8 percent in order to promote sales and boostprofits of these manufacturers. Soft drinks,condensed milk and milk products, fish,plastic products, inorganic chemicals, lifesaving drugs, Naphtha, leather and foot wearranging from Rs.250 to 750, man made fibre,small cars, LPG stoves, writing and printingpaper, etc., will be cheaper as a result ofreduction in excise duties. Of course the bulkof the benefit will be taken by themanufacturer — so, for example we have notseen Coca Cola prices drop after the budget.No mention is found for any concessions tothe common man from the lowest rung ofsociety as on food items, salt, water. etc.

Thanks to a good monsoon, betteragricultural performance is expected in thecurrent financial year. But we have seenproduction gradually declining — between1999/2000 and 2004/05 rice production fellfrom 90mt to 87.8 mt; wheat from 76 mt to 73mt; and cereals from 196.4 mt to 192.7 mt. Itappears that realization is growing in favourof agriculture. But moving towards corporateagriculture may prove disastrous asalienation of small and marginal farmers fromthe growth process will bring devastatingadverse results for their liveli-hood andemployment and crises in agriculture maydeepen further. Mindless market leddiversification for value added productionwithout proper regulation at the cost of foodinsecurity will lead to the question of foodsovereignty, which needs to be addressedcarefully (massive imports of wheat havealready begun). Money-lenders still rule thecredit market and nothing has been proposedin this budget to curb their exploitative usurypractices. Revamping of the agriculturalcredit market and ensured wider coverage ofinstitutional credit support, together withdebt relief (NPAs written off by banks to bigbusiness goes into thousands of crores butthey are not prepared to spare a paisa fromthe farmer) is the foremost need of the hourto rescue farmers from the debt trap leading

to suicides. In addition most of the cottongrowers have been the victims of crop failurebecause of failure of seeds and pesticides.However, MNCs have been left scot-free andnothing has been mentioned on this count.Small Scale Industries have difficult daysahead added with further de-reservation of180 items. This sector has been pushed tocompete with the big manufacturing sectors.Introduction of FDI in the retailing sectorhas already been in place. Small microenterprises will have to compete with bothbig domestic and foreign capital retailers. Alarge number will get wiped out. It has definiteimplications on the employment front also. Itis unfortunate that concession on importduties to big industries and foreign capitalwill leave no room for survival of the SMEsin the market. Even the rail budget withcomfortable finances does not stop to giveconcessions to the rich and for private sectorparticipation.

The Employment situation has beenextremely disappointing. Even in theorganized public and private sectors it hasdeclined significantly. Total employment wasto the tune of 282.45 lakh person in 1997-98which has declined to 270 lakh persons in2003-04. Altogether loss of employment was12.45 lakh persons during 1997-98 to 2003-04. Much more would have been added inthe last two years but there is no furtherestimate provided for the said years in theEconomic Survey brought out by theGovernment of India. In the public sectoralone job loss during 1997-8 to 2003-04 wasabout 10 lakh persons. There is no significantmove for employment generation in the ruralareas other than the much toutedemployment generation through the NREGS.Rural unemployment is supposed to beaddressed through NREGS that too for 100days only through consolidation of theschemes of the government already inexistence. But the number of districts hasnot been increased. Implementation isanother dimension, which never takes place.The fate of this scheme is bound to meet thesame destination as was with other povertyalleviation programmes full of leakages tolumpen/political/elite elements of society.

The reduction in custom and other dutiessince 1991 has been making the stateexchequer poorer in subsequent years andyet they talk of reducing the fiscal deficit.The Fiscal Responsibility and Budgetary

- SiddharthUnion Budget Favouring Comprador and Rich with Lip Service to Poor


Management Act and Twelfth FinanceCommission’s recommendations forincreasing tax-GDP ratio, lowering fiscal andrevenue deficits and the debt GDP ratio andthe Rangrajan Committee’s recommen-dations for squeezing out subsidies onpetroleum, etc. are all aimed to widen the taxnet to meet World Bank stipulations on thefiscal deficit. In essence it means givingbenefits to the rich (and not taxing themadditionally) while extracting the bulk of theincreased tax revenue from the poor andmiddle classes. Although the annual averagegross primary deficit has been reduced from5 per cent to 2.65 per cent, average revenuedeficit has escalated from 1.88 per cent in the1980s to 4.9 per cent in between 1991-92 to2004-05. It suggests that there is a substantialflow out in the form of debt servicing.Because of the spiraling government debtthe interest payments in this financial year isexpected to be to the tune of Rs.1.34 lakhcrore. This implies that if India can avoid sucha wasteful flow of funds it could be used forconstructing more than one crore housescosting one lakh each for the homeless orthousands of school can be built to addressthe issues of human resource development.

The Human Development Report 2006suggests that growth of the Indian economydoes not correspond to improve-ment in theHuman Development Index. It implies thatgrowth does not address problems of literacy,health and income generation. This explainsthe contradictory existence of growth and

Massive Bonanzas to the Rich and Elite(Business Standard of March 2 06 stated in its Editorial:)

“Exemptions given in tax rules, for a variety of reasons have ended up giving veryspecial treatment to the favoured categories, at everyone else’s expense”. This editorialsay the Budget Papers for the first time reveal that for the year 2004-05 the figureamounted to a gigantic Rs.1,58,661 crores, was more than half the gross tax collectionsfor the year. This massive bonanza went to big business, the rich, the imperialist andtheir TNCs, the exporters and importers, the financial magnates etc. The edit adds“while exemptions are Rs.30,000 crores in the case of excise, it is twice that when itcomes to customs duty exemptions”. Now in the current budget “large tax benefitshave been offered to the Special Economic Zones”. The major beneficiary of coursehas been the corporate sector. It reports that the CMIE has estimated that “compared tothe statutory tax rate of 35.875%, the effective tax rate for the sample of companieswas a mere 19.37%”; and for those recording a gross profit of Rs.500 crores it was just16%. In other words the more money you make the less you have to give as taxes. Thegovernment and media make a hue and cry of the food subsidy of just some Rs25,000crores but not a word is mentioned of this Rs.1.5 lakh crore bonanza gifted to the rich!!!

inequality in India. Moreover, mere allocationof funds does not translate intoimplementation. This year’s EconomicSurvey shows to what a limited extent socialwelfare fund have actually been used in thelast year.

In a just and equitable system the poorwill not be taxed while the rest will face agraded tax system with the wealthy beingtaxed the most. What exists is exactly theopposite. In addition, the budgets since1990s that government has been aggressivelyin the interests of finance capital and the rich(See Box), which is necessarily antagonisticto the interests of the poor. Unless growth isreoriented towards distributive and social

justice, achieving the goal of povertyeradication will remain an academic exerciseon paper. Poverty eradication needssustainable development efforts in theinterest of the direct producers in the primary,secondary and tertiary sectors, particularlythe primary sector. Direct producers need tobe ensured control over the means ofproduction, exchange, distribution andconsumptions. Undoubtedly the presentruling comprador/feudal classes will notallow this reorientation. This is an uphill taskorganising a pro poor radical revolutionarymovement against the state through militantmobilization of masses in the interest of thepoor people of the country.

the presence of flammable materials on shipsthat are being dismantled, chemicals thatshould have been removed before the shipwas sent there, according to both the BaselConvention and domestic law. Prior to theSCMC regulations, safety gear was practi-cally unheard of at the yards. Even now thesafety equipments are minimal. The story ofthe workers is more or less the same—horrorstories of disability and death among theAlang labourers who dismantle ships withtheir bare hands to earn a living. Predictably,many of them are not even aware that the oldships they are breaking were constructedusing toxic substances. A study estimatesthat one in every four labourers in Alang islikely to contract cancer owing to workplacepoisons. A common saying amongst theworkers is, “Alang se Palang” whichtragically conveys the fact that anyone whoworks in Alang will sooner or later end up in

the hospital.On top of this the job opportunities have

also been continuously shrinking in Alang.The industry has been slipping into dol-drums for over a year. Up to December 2005,there were only 73 ships in Alang and about4000 workers—a far cry from the yard’s recordpeak during 1997-98 when Alang employedover 40,000 workers. Business used to begood not just for the shipyard owners andtheir workers, but also for the number ofancilliary industries that were dependent onshipbreaking like oil re-processing units, steelre-rolling mills and number of shops whichhad sprung up along the coast to trade theitems from the ships. But now the yard wearsa gloomy look. Often the rules imposed bySCMC are made the whipping boy by theship breakers for the killing of the trade atAlang. But the truth of the matter is that thepolicies of the state and central governmentsare to blame, mainly, the unfavourable duty

structures, additional tax burdens etc. Alsothe tax concessions being given to the steelindustry in Kutch mean that Alang steelcannot compete with Kutch steel in themarket. It is not the SCMC regulations thatare killing the industry but the policies of thegovernment coupled with the unwillingnessof the ship-breakers to spend from theirprofits and purchase the necessarydecontamination equipment.VOYAGE NOT OVER YET

Clemenceau might have gone back forthe time being but the issues involved arehere to stay. Inspite of Chirac’s decision tobring the warship back to French waters forthe duration of the legal processes in bothcountries, it could, in the foreseeable future,be sent back overseas for dismantling.Unless the workers and the citizens arisetogether, the interests of profits wouldalways try and hold the lives and safety ofthe workers at ransom.

Contd. from page 19

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Mr. Budhadev Bhattacharjee, ChiefMinister of West Bengal, went for a fiveday visit to Singapore and Jakarta. This wasa mission aimed at seeking foreign directinvestment (FDI) in West Bengal. On 25th

August, 05, Mr. Bhudhadev, on behalf ofWest Bengal Government, signed an MoUand other contract papers with the AntonySalem groups, a big business house ofIndonesia. Among his associates wereCPI(M)’s favourite promoter Rabi Todi,Harsh Neotia of Ambuja Cements, SanjibGoenka of the Calcutta Electric SupplyCompany, a real estate businessman, andPrasun Mukharjee, an international agentof MNCs. The CPI(M) is now very close tothese business houses, promoters andagents of MNCs. Mr. Budhadev is nowplaying the role of chief representative ofthese business houses and agents. Hedoes not hesitate to express their views inpublic within and outside the country. Mr.Budhdev is very happy to perform this role.After the successful completion of thismission in Indonesia, the politburo memberof the CPI(M) and Chief Minister of the W.Bengal govt. boastfully said in a publiclecture in Singapore – “you see, ascommunist, we can’t speak anymore aboutold dogmas. The world is changing. Weare also changing.” The elated ChiefMinister said further, “globalization is amust and nobody can halt this process”and “we will take advantage of thissituation” (The Hindu, August 28, 2005).This is really a profound realization ofCPI(M) and its politburo member Mr.Budhdev who has expressed his viewsopenly.

Mr. Manmohan Singh, the PrimeMinister of India, did not fail to takeadvantage of the situation. He not onlyshowed regard for, but also projected Mr.Budhdev as one of the best Chief Ministersof the country! Ofcourse, left minded peopleof West Bengal do not accept this profoundrealization of CPI(M). These dissatisfiedpeople put forward one after anotherawkward questions. The constituentparties of the ‘Left’ front — the CPI,Forward Bloc and RSP — expresseddiffering views regarding some of theaspects of the agreement with the Salemgroup, to save their own vote bank. Evenparties like the Trinamool Congress, BJP

and other constituent members of theNDA, who champion globalization, aretrying to utilize the situation posingthemselves as protectors of the peasants’interests. What then is there in thisagreement that has resulted in such a hueand cry?

The West Bengal Govt./Salem Group’sAgreement

It is projected that the agreement withthe Salem group, signed by the ‘Left’ frontgovt. of W. Bengal, is for the purpose ofindustrialization and urbanization of thestate. Translation of this agreement intoreality will help the state attract moreinvestment from within and outside thecountry and will provide more employmentopportunities. At present the foreign directinvestment, as it is maintained by theCPI(M) led ‘left’ front govt., is a must forthe economic development of the state. So,they think, this agreement will create afavourable atmosphere to attract moreforeign direct investment (FDI).

According to the agreement the W.Bengal govt. will provide 5,100 acre landmostly in South 24 Parganas to the SalemGroup, who will invest Rs. 4,400 crores andutilize the land for the purpose of buildinga Health city, knowledge park, Educationalinstitution, Bio-tech park, High-tech town,etc. etc. The Salem Group will begin theirwork after getting the land as agreed to.The area earmarked is adjacent to Kolkata.The other project is the construction of afour lane road from Barasat to Roychak tofacilitate smooth transportation. The govt.has already decided to hand over 390 acresof land in West Howrah for building a hightech township. This was declared by theconcerned ministry in the assembly oneyear earlier. Moreover the govt. is planningto allocate land to the Salem Group for hightech urbanization near the Dum DumAirport. The govt. has already handed overland in Howrah district to the Salem Groupand they have started a factory to producemotorcycles. In this factory a total of 250persons will be employed and within a shortperiod the production will be marketed.Many experts opine that this has no futureas other motorcycle industries are in crisisdue to the lack of a market. Within a shorttime it will be closed down. The land willthen be utilized for real estate business.

This mega plan, with such a huge

investment, will create job opportunities foronly 30,000 persons. It means, the cost ofcreating one job opportunity is on anaverage 1.5 crore. At present the number ofrecorded unemployed in the state is about70 lakhs. So, it will require Rs. 105,00,00,000crores to create job opportunities only forall the recorded unemployed. This amountis equal to seven thousand times ourpresent budget allocation! Even then, thepeople have to accept this mega plan ofMr. Buddha, as his party and ‘Left’ govt.think “globalization is must” ; and ,considering long term interests, they haveto serve the foreign investors whilesacrificing the interest of the people andthe state. But there are some economistsand politicians like Mr. Ashok Mitra, ex-Finance Minister of the ‘left’ front govt. ofW. Bengal and ex-MP who vehementlyopposed this Salem-Buddha agreement. Hethinks it is possible to create jobs for 30,000people by developing manufacturingindustry which requires only 100 acres ofland. Others consider this agreement as ananti-people one, as according to thisagreement the govt. will hand-over theproposed land to the Salem Group at anominal price and they will use the landaccording to their plan. The govt. will haveno say in it. The Salem Group will thenextract as much profit as possible, withoutgovt. intervention.

Scheme to serve imperialistsThis sort of industrialization and high

tech urbanization schemes will create a smallnumber of job opportunities while finishingoff a good number of small shop owners;destroy small vegetable shops, fruit shops,fish and meat shops, thereby renderingthousands of people unemployed. This isthe inevitable outcome of this model ofhigh-tech urbanization and industriali-zation, as, in the process of this type ofdevelopment, super markets, big bazaars,and multiplexes will come up, crushingsmall shop owners and traders. This is theexperience of the UK and other countrieswhere this model of industrialization andurbanization has been implementedfollowing the policies of globalization. InUK these Super Markets, big bazaars etc.destroyed lakhs of small shop owners andtraders. There are at present only four bigMNCs who control more than 80% of thesebusinesses. The Chief Minister of the W.

FDI Crazy Budha Government of West Bengal- M. Sunil


Bengal govt. is also following the same pathof globalization. His accord with the SalemGroup is for the purpose of makingarrangements to please the MNCs whodemand high-tech infrastructure as acondition for their investment. Neither the‘left’ front govt. nor their Chief Ministerwants to expose this hidden intentionbefore the people of State, though it is thepeople of the state who have to bear thebrunt of more intensified imperialistexploitation.

Who is Salem?Mr. Budhadev is undaunted, when

some prominent intellectuals andpersonalities have pointed out the brutalanti-communist role of the Salem family, thechief minister has replied that capital hasno colour. What else can one expect from apolitburo member of the CPI (M)? It maynot be wrong to say that had it beenpossible he would even invite Hitler forinvestment! Gen. Suharto, the crony of theU.S. Imperialists, instituted a coup d’et ta,destroyed the democratic system ofIndonesia, and within a short period killedabout 11 lakh Communist Party membersand other democratic people. The Salemfamily was very close to Suharto and wasdirectly involved in that ruthless, brutal,anti-communist campaign. The Salem familywas then a mere merchant. This turned hisfortune and with the favour of Suhartobecame a big industrialist (Lumpenbourgeois). After the fall of the Suhartoregime people of Indonesia, particularly,peasants burnt down 122 branches of theirbanks and destroyed many ATM corners.This Salem Group is now considered bythe ‘left’ front govt. as a potential investorand prudent industrialist. What type ofindustrialization can one expect under theauspices of this lumpen bourgeois?

A Scheme for real estate businessHundreds of peasants will be evicted

from their agri-land rendering themunemployed. This agri-land will be handedover to this lumpen bourgeois. Most ofthese agri-lands are fertile, and peasantsare harvesting crops twice or thrice in ayear. But the govt. is continuing to assurethem that it will acquire only fallow landand mono cropped land. That is nothingbut a blatant lie. Moreover, owners of theland will get a rate which will be less thanthe market rate. Most of this land will beused for urbanization and developing

infrastructure, which will lead to real estatebusiness. According to one estimate,published in the Sambad Pratidin, since1995 in every year on an average 58,324acre of agri-land is being transformed intonon-agri land for the purpose ofurbanization and industrialization. The draftreport of the North 24 Parganas districtconference of the Forward Bloc, one of theconstituent parties of ‘left’ front govt.reported: “In the state a total of 2,91,620acres of agri-land was transformed intonon-agri land.” Most of this land was notused for developing industries which couldcreate job opportunities. In fact, this landwas used to develop real estate business.The ‘left’ front govt. has also helped theirfavourite promoters or business housescum promoters, develop real estate on theplea of urbanization.

The ‘Left’ front govt., its constituentparties and particularly, the CPI (M) think“capital has no colour”, be it a productivecapital or speculative capital. So, promotersenjoy direct help from the govt. or from thepolitical leaders, and land of closed or sickindustries are being captured by thepromoters for developing housing estates,shopping malls, multiplexes, etc. etc.Pearless has developed housing estates onthe land of the Bagadaya Cotton Mill, aprivate Hospital on the land of the KrishnaGlass Factory, a housing estate on the landof Dabar, and a multi-storeyed housingestate on the land of Dhaka Ousadhalaya –all these have been developed for thepurpose of real estate business. The ‘left’front govt. itself utilized the land of theKanoria Cotton Mill and Beni Engineeringfor govt. housing estates. The Dum-DumRodeal factory area has been transformedinto the North city. Not only the factoryland but also agri-land areas are beingoccupied, evicting peasants. The land ofthe tea plantation industry like theChandmoni Tea garden was occupied bythe govt. and that was sold to Harsh Neotiaat a nominal price – only Rs. 14 cr, while,according to a govt. estimation, the pricewas Rs. 123 cr. Neotia sold that land makinga huge profit. Now, West Bengal hasbecome a hot spot for real estate business.This does not, of course, create anypermanent job opportunities.

Mr. Budhadev govt. : Follower ofimperialist policies

All the constituent parties, particularly,

CPI (M) of the ‘left’ front, are trying theirbest to convince the people that foreigninvestment is very much necessary for thedevelopment of the country and the states.The more a state govt. can have foreigninvestment in its state, the more the stategovt. considers itself fortunate. The foreigninvestors agree to invest only after havingfavourable conditions for their exploitation,without, as far as possible, governmentintervention. In fact, these investors are tobe pleased with the govt.’s anti-workforceattitude and policies. They are not at allbothering about the forms of govt.measures – be it a peaceful or non-peacefulone. The govt. should also take initiativeto meet their demands, providing land,labour, necessary infrastructure and as faras possible free access to naturalresources. When favourable conditions arecreated for foreign investment, theindigenous investors also come forward toavail these facilities for more intensifiedexploitation.

The ‘left’ front govt. under thestewardship of Mr. Budhadev, areimplementing all these pro-imperialistpolicies, whose party, the CPI (M), in itsdocuments opposes the WTO, IMF, WorldBank policies i.e. – structural adjustment,privatization, liberalization. It also opposesloans from international credit institutionslike ADB, DFDI etc. controlled by theimperialists and MNCs. All these arenothing but sheer pretension. The govt.led by them have long been following allthe policies directed by IMF, World Bank,WTO and have been salivating to begfavours of international credit institutions.Even they do not hesitate to follow therecommendations and advice of theimperialist directed consultancy firm McKinsey. They have been following theserecommendations and advice (i.e.directions). But one has to accept their skillin befooling the people and posing them-selves as an ardent anti-imperialist party.

The fact is that the Mr. Budhadev govt.have been accepting the conditions offoreign loan (i.e. from ADB, DFID etc.) andhave been following the structuraladjustment policies i.e. to downsize theworkforce and privatize govt. undertakingorganizations. In the first phase of itsreorganization of 29 organizations the govt.has adopted such measures as tocompletely close down 10 of those


organizations and has ordered employeesand workers to accept an early RetirementScheme, another name for retrenchment.Apart from these, 15 other organizationswill be reorganized allowing 74% privatecapital. The workers and employees of theseorganizations are ten thousands in number.This list includes organizations likeBritannia Engineering, Gluconet Health,Durgapore Chemical, Shalimar works etc.etc. For the purpose of reorganization Rs.210 cr. will be spent out of which Rs.180 cr.will be used for an Early Retirement Scheme(ERS). It means compulsory retrenchment.The percentage of retrenchment is rangingfrom 53 % to 74% of the work forceemployed in the above statedorganizations. (Ref. Secretary, UTUC, W.Bengal dtd. 26.08.05). This source furtherinformed that in the next phase as many as29 factories, including the State ElectricityBoard and five State TransportCorporations would be reorganized. It isestimated that Rs. 1,710 crores will be spentfor ERS. This is not all. The W. Bengal Govt.has planned even to close down completelythe Tantuja, Tantushree, and DairyDevelopment. Consequently 4,100 workersand employees have to accept ERS.Moreover, the govt. has deployed foreignconsultancy firms to get an estimation ofthe surplus workforce in its administrativedepartments. It is revealed from a surveyconducted in 29 departments out of totalof 50 departments of the State govt. that45,000 posts out of 1,74,000 are lyingvacant. And 72,000 posts for primaryteachers are also lying vacant. Thisimperialist directed policy of structuraladjustment not only entails moreunemployment but also stands in the wayof recruitment in the vacant posts.

CPI (M)’s sham anti-imperialistcharacter was further revealed, when in ’98,the ‘left’ govt. of Kerala, led by CPI (M)decided to modernize three electricitycenters. At that time BHEL (Bharat HeavyElectricals Limited) one of the ‘Navaratna’organizations, placed its proposal toprovide necessary technology at Rs. 116crores. But the Kerala govt. purchased thattechnology from SNC Lavlin, an unknownCanadian organization and paid Rs. 375crores. The West Bengal govt. formodernization of DPL did not hesitate tocancel attractive proposals of BHEL andplaced the order to a Company blacklistedis China. Are not these unique examples of

double-dealing? Even then, the barefacedleaders of the CPI (M) continue to blurt outanti-imperialist slogans and do not feelashamed of stating that the “Navaratna”organizations as “a symbol of economicSovereignty of India”.

‘Left’ front govt. : Champion ofImperialist interest

Mr. Budhadev and his party, the CPI(M) have resolved to satisfy the imperialistsand their indigenous agents. So itsPolitburo member, Mr. Budhadev, clearlyexpressed in Jakarta that “we have to reformour old policies. Otherwise, we will not beable to survive.” Further, in an interview tothe Jakarta Post, published in the Hindu,August 25, 2005, he told “our involvementin trade unions is an advantage ….. I tellthem : ‘look this is a new situation. We needFDI; we need infrastructure’ Issues likeproduction, productivity and the quality ofproduction are not the headaches of themanagement alone. You have to share them.Otherwise, industries will collapse and jobswill be lost. Now things have changed.”What more can a representative of the rulingclasses convey to the imperialist forces?

Now really things have changed in thisperiod of globalization! So, this sham anti-imperialist thinks that, it is necessary toperform a role that suits the very interest ofthe imperialists. This prompts the politicalrepresentative of the indigenousbourgeoisie and their allies to follow theprescription of the imperialist directedconsultancy houses like Mc Kinsey whocan only provide concrete scheme inimperialist’s interests. One of these schemesis the restructuring or the remodel ofmetropolitan cities with a high-techinfrastructure. As the Salem Group hasexperience to do such jobs under theguidance of MNCs, it has been entrustedwith the job. The main task of this Group isnot to provide job opportunities but todevelop imperialist needed infrastructure;an infrastructure, which is necessary toserve the bosses of imperialist financecapital. It requires glittering residential, 5Star hotels, shopping malls, commercialcomplexes and entertainment plazas. Thesebosses do not like to see poor people asthey create so many problems, includingsecurity. These ‘Development’ Schemes arealso not meant for eradication of poverty,rather it is the opposite. So, the poor arebeing driven out of these areas. The ‘pro-

poor’ govt. does not even hesitate to evictslums and colonies; hawker stalls of poor,unemployed people. And on the plea ofrehabilitation, the poor are pushed out ofthe cities.

The working people, workers,employees and peasants, are being evictedfrom their work place. Livelihoods ofthousands of people are being destroyedto cater to the needs of more intensifiedexploitation without providing them anyalternative. Mr. Budhadev’s govt. of WestBengal is following these policies. He isboastful in achieving success in entrustingan experienced firm like Salem Group forthis job!

CPI (M) the double–dealerThe CPI (M) is really creating a unique

history – a history of double dealing! Juston July, 2005 the West Bengal StateCommittee published a booklet – KrishakerHate Jami Chai (Demand, land in the handsof peasants). This booklet will help readersrealize their double dealing. We will place afree translation of the concluding para ofthe above booklet:

“In the whirlpool of capitalistglobalization, liberalization the livelihoodin all spheres, including agriculture is onthe verge of danger. Following theprescriptions of the WTO, the door is beingopened for the penetration of MNC’s capitalin all spheres – agriculture, industry,commerce, services etc. So far as landreforms are concerned, throughout India ithas begun to take an opposite direction.Loosening the Land Reform Act the effort toestablish big ownerships on land hasbegun. The state govt. of AP, MadhyaPradesh, and Orissa have already begun tohand over govt. fallow lands and evenagriland to MNCs. Food security of thecountry has begun to be endangered. In thenear future, perhaps, the people of thecountry will have to depend on importedfoods. Independence and sovereignty of thecountry will be endangered.”

And what is their PB member Mr.Budhadev saying? Let us place it in his ownwords– “I want to reach out to the captainsand tell them to come and see for themselvesthe kind of facilities on offer and the changesthat the state has undergone to become oneof the country’s major business capitals.”

Don’t laugh! This is the double-dealingcharacter of the politics of the CPI (M)!!

n n


The Central committee, CPI (Maoist),condemns the publication of the racistcartoons caricaturing the holy symbol ofthe Muslim community - ProphetMohammed - by the Western media whichis nothing but a sinister design of theimperialists led by George Bush to create aso-called civilisational clash between whatthey portray as “archaic and medieval”Muslim culture and “Western values” thatare supposed to promote democracy.

The publication of the racist cartoonscaricaturing Prophet Mohammed, first byJyllands-Posten of Denmark, and later byseveral papers in the West, is neitheraccidental nor has any relation to so-calledfreedom of speech and free press. It is notjust the Right-wing section of the mediaand the rulers that have been chanting themantra of freedom of speech but even theLiberals and some civil liberties activists ofthe West too joined the chorus overlookingthe sinister designs of the imperialists.

The popular fury that is vent out on thestreets across the world by the Muslimmasses is not just the result of the cartoonsthough it served as a flash point.Imperialism led by the 21st century Hitler,George Bush, has been demonizing theMuslim symbols; launching wars ofaggression on Islamic countries as inAfghanistan and Iraq; threatening toinvade or destroy Iran, Syria, Libya etc.;and endorsing every act of terrorismperpetrated by the Israeli Zionist racistregime on the Palestinians and other Arabcountries. The heartrending agony sufferedby the Muslims ever since the brutalcampaign unleashed by the imperialistmarauders led by George Bush in the nameof a permanent and global war against terror,using the 9/11 incidents as a pretext, isindescribable. The savage bombings,indiscriminate arrests, blood-chillingtorture of the detainees, as revealed by thehorrifying photos and videos of AbuGhraib; the denial of legal and human rightsto Muslim prisoners held without trial foralmost five years by the criminal Bushadministration in the concentration campin Guantanamo Bay and the terribleconditions prevalent there as revealed by

the latest report of the UN Commission onHuman Rights which recommended itsimmediate closure; the repeated humiliationof the Muslim citizens through surveillanceand interrogation in the US and Europeancountries; derogatory acts such astrampling upon and even urinating uponthe Muslim holy book of Koran; theportrayal of Muslims as villains andbarbarians by numerous films, novels andthe Western media; and several such racistacts have made the Muslims furious andalienated. No wonder, more and moreMuslims are pushed into the fold ofreligious fundamentalism and are willinglyvolunteering to join the so-called terroriststhanks to the global terror unleashed byGeorge Bush.

Thus it is due to such historical andcultural factors, that the racist cartoonsbecame the focal point for letting out theanger, disgust and agony felt by hundredsof millions of Muslims against the violence,oppression and exploitation perpetrated bythe imperialists and their globalcorporations in their insatiable thirst for oil,rubber, diamonds and super profits.

The western media continues to sprinklesalt on the wound by republishing thecontroversial racist cartoons of the Danishpress in several newspapers in France,Germany, the US, Australia and so on. Theso-called liberals and advocates of freespeech and free press maintain a criminalsilence at the repulsive, repugnant, brutaltortures inflicted by the mercenaries ofBush, Blair and Co in Abu Ghraib, Bagram,Guantanamo Bay, and in numerousconcentration camps maintained by the USand its allies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan,Turkey and even within the US. Nor arethey concerned about the massacres thatare being perpetrated in Falluja, Baghdad,Samara, and so on. For them, tortures,massacres, rape of women, destruction oftowns and houses by missile attacks, andinhuman economic sanctions causingdeaths of millions of Muslim people,including women and children, neverbecome issues. There is no outrage, nocrying foul, no tears shed for the victims ofsuch abuse and violence perpetrated by

the world’s so-called democracies. Thehorrifying, blood-chilling photographs andvideos from Abu Ghraib that would puteven a Hitler to shame draw no protests orcondemnation of the perpetrators of thesecrimes seated in the White Hose andDowning Street. Why wouldn’t these self-styled champions of fundamental rightsspeak of the fundamental rights of prisonersin the torture chambers of Abu Ghraib andelsewhere? It is clear that the so-calledfreedom of speech and press is a sham andwhat these hypocrites and frauds, maskedas liberals and democrats, mean is freedomfor publishing overtly racist, anti-Muslim,provocative and derogatory literature whilecensoring the inhuman, savage andcriminal deeds of imperialism led by butcherBush.

The ruling regime in Denmark led bythe Centre-Right coalition of Rasmussen,has racist constituents such as the rabidlyanti-Islamic and anti-immigrant DanishPeople’s Party and the ConservativePeople’s Party. Obviously, it has allowedthe publication of the cartoons withmalafide intent to make the Muslims thescapegoats for the ills of Danish societyand to tighten the immigration laws toprevent the flow of more people from theMuslim world into their country. In fact,Rasmussen’s coalition came to power withthe slogan of tax freeze and strict restrictionson immigration. The racist face of thissupposedly liberal regime in Denmark canalso be seen from the fact that it has deniedthe Muslims the right to build mosques inCopenhagen or cemeteries in Denmark. Itis with the same intent of whipping up anti-Muslim passions and thereby divert thepeople from the real issues confrontingthem that the ruling regimes in otherimperialist countries too allowed therepublication of the cartoons.

George Bush, as expected, defended thepublication of the cartoons in the name offree a press. This international terrorist whocares a damn for international publicopinion, rejects the Geneva Convention asinapplicable to his soldiers found guilty ofthe worst war crimes in history, maintains

Racist cartoons against Prophet Mohammed are a deliberate conspiracy of theimperialists to denigrate the Muslim community!

The so-called crusaders of free press are only apologists of neo-colonialism!!

PRESS RELEASE

Continued on page 17


On behalf of the CC(P), the entire Partyrank-and-file, the PLGA, the organs ofpeople’s power, the varied massorganisations and the revolutionary massesof India we send heartfelt revolutionarygreetings to the CPN (Maoist), PLA,URPCs in the Base Areas and the people ofNepal on the occasion of the 10 th

Anniversary of initiation of People’s Warin Nepal. The victories achieved in thisdecade of struggle have been a greatinspiration to our Party and the oppressedmasses of the people of India.

In this short time the revolutionarymasses of Nepal under the leadership of theCPN(Maoist) have been able to develop astrong party, powerful people’s army and aUnited Front that governs vast areas of thecountry in the Base Areas set up. They havesuccessfully been able to isolate the hatedmonarchy and have liberated vast parts ofthe countryside. They have taken thepeople’s war from the stage of strategicdefence to that of strategic offence in thisshort period of time. It is no doubt a historicadvance which inspires not only therevolutionary people of India but that of theentire world. They have helped create a newhope in the communist movement after thesetback in the Soviet Union and Chinathroughout the world beckoning a new waveof revolutionary struggles in the world.

As a fraternal Party from a neighbouringcountry, and that too a big country wherethe ruling classes have adoptedexpansionist designs to rob, loot, interfereand control that country and people, weassure the Nepalese people we will not restuntil we end such interference in the internalaffairs of a small neighbouring country. Westrongly condemn the Indian rulers forarming the RNA to suppress the people’smovement. We call for the scrapping of allunequal treaties with Nepal and the removalof all Indian comprador business interestsfrom Nepal. We are for building goodneighbourly relations between the twocountries on the basis of total equality, nomatter what the size of the countries maybe — based on the five principles ofpeaceful co-existence. Also, in the spirit ofproletarian internationalism we lend fullsupport to the ongoing people’s movementin Nepal; and call on the people of the entireworld to help in all ways to make the Nepalrevolution a success.

The people of Nepal and India havelong and deep cultural, social, economicand political relations. The two Maoistparties are further bound by a commonideological basis of the world proletariat,i.e., Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and acommon goal, i.e., establishment ofsocialism and communism on the entire

Message from the CC(P), CPI(Maoist) On the Occasion of the 10th Anniversary of theInitiation of People’s War in Nepal

PRESS STATEMENT

world. Both are fired by the spirit of proleta-rian internationalism. There is therefore noforce that can break this strong unity thatis developing in the course of the classstruggle in our respective countries. Weshall build solid bonds of unity againstimperialism and Indian expansionism. Weshall always stand by revolutionary peopleof Nepal in their time of need and willvehemently oppose any form ofintervention by the Indian rulers orimperialists against the revolutionarymovement of Nepal. We will give whateversupport necessary to safeguard the greatvictories of the Nepalese revolution.

Once again on the occasion of the 10th

anniversary of the initiation of the people’swar in Nepal we send our warmest revolu-tionary greetings to the CPN(Maoist), PLA,URPCs at various level in all the Base Areasand the revolutionary masses. We also payour sincere homage to the thousands ofheroic fighters and commanders of PLA,the members and leaders of CPN(Maoist)and people who have given their preciouslives for the libera-tion of their country andfor the great cause of establishment ofSocialism-Communism in the entire humansociety.

General SecretaryCommunist Party of India (Maoist)

Feb.10 2006

The Communist Party of India (Maoist)strongly condemns the imposition ofEmergency in the Philippines by the USpuppet government of President Arroyo.The government banned the rallies to beheld on the 20th anniversary of the “people’spower” and had arrested military officers,opposition leaders and have closed downall anti-Arroyo newspaper offices. Moredetails are yet to come to light.

There has been months of mass unrestagainst the anti-people polices of theArroyo government involving a largesection of the people of the Philippinesstretching from the parliamentaryopposition at one end to the revolutionaryforces of the country, including theNational Democratic Front of Philippines(NDFP). This government acting as astooge of the US has been systematically

selling out the country to the imperialistsand has even gone to the extent of invitingthe US armed forces into the country. Ithas been bogged down in all sorts ofcorruption.

Not only that even before thedeclaration of Emergency the governmenthas been using vigilante forces toassassinate leaders of mass organisationsand the trade unions. Over the last year ortwo about 50 of such leaders have beenmurdered by these killer forces. They havealso been ruthlessly using the militaryagainst the peoples forces led by the CPP(Communist Party of the Philippines) andeven against Moro nationality movement.In a recent action 16 Maoists were brutallykilled by the military forces.

Our Party strongly condemns theseactions and fully stands with the oppressed

masses of the Philippines. The people ofIndia stand shoulder to shoulder with thepeople of the Philippines in their strugglefor justice, democracy and socialism. Wedemand the immediate lifting of theEmergency in the Philippines and strongpunishment for those responsible for theassassination of the leaders of the massorganisations. The struggle of the peopleof the Philippines is part of our commonstruggle against the common enemy ofimperialism, particularly US imperialism. Thepeople of India firmly unite with the peopleof the Philippines against their reactionaryrulers.

General Secretary

Communist Party of India (Maoist)

March 1 2006

PRESS STATEMENT


On the historic occasion of 150 th

anniversary of Great Santhal Hul revolt, on11th November, 2005 the heroic raid andseizure of exploitative rulling class’s armory(Armoury of Home Guards) took pl;ace. Thiswas conducted by the brave sons ofJharkhand – the fighters of the People’sLiberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) in the landof Jharkhand, irrigated with the blood ofbrave fighters like Sidhu-Kanhu, Tilka Majhiand Veer Birsa Munda. The people ofJharkhand having dreams of establishing anexploitation free Jharkhand state were highlyenthused by this raid, strengthening thehope of realization of their dream. Thiscourageous act spread hopes not onlyamongst the people of the JharkhandiNationality but also amongst the strugglingpeople of various nationalities in entire India.

On the other hand, the exploitative rullingclass once again trembled with fear at thisaction. With the news of the raid on the GirdhiArmoury, not only the fascist BJP-Nitishgovt. of Jharkhand, together with theirbureaucrats, administration and policemachinery, but also the higher officers ofDelhi and the Central Govt. lost their sleep.

This action is an indication of thestrengthening of the PLGA towards thetransformation from the PLGA into a PLAand thereby advancing the struggle to ahigher stage.

The brave fighters of the PLGA stormedinto the district headquarters of Girdhi on11th November, 2005 to raid the Armoury ofthe Home Guards and fled unhurt seizing withthem 193 rifles and 2 revolvers. The policeand administration were stunned with thesurprise attack. The senior officers of policeand administration were so terrorized that

they locked themselves up in their room evenon getting information of the raid.

Under the direction of the CentralMilitary Commission and under theleadership of the Bihar-Jharkhand SpecialArea Military Commission, the PLGA fightersunder the leadership of Zonal command ofthe Jharkhand Regional Military Commissionundertook this heroic action, which wasaimed at equipping the cadres, company,platoons, L.G.S. and peoples militia squadswith these arms to establish a powerfulPeoples Liberation Army. This action wasconducted in the present scenario, where theclass enemy has been equipping itsparamilitary armed forces with sophisticatedarms such as AK-47, AK-56, Isans rifles etc.,providing them with night vision equipment,mine-proof & bullet proof vehicles and armyhelicopters, sophisticated communicationgadgets, global positioning systems andconnecting up the police mobiles in order tocounter the guerrilla war. Every police stationin the struggle area has been fortified. For allthese funds are flowing in hundreds of croresof rupees. In addition, to counter the guerrillawar the rulling class is training its armedforces under the direct supervision of USArmy experts in counter-insurgency andJungle war-fare in the hills of Manipur,Hyderabad and in the Army training schoolat Kanker in Chhattisgarh. Apart from this,new para-armed forces are being raisedrecruiting local adivasi youth such as theSengel battalion (in santhali and mundarilanguage this means fire).

Besides this, in Jharkhand too, the govt.is dividing the people to suppress therevolutionary movement, making the poorpeople fight each other in the name of

Adivasi/non-adivasi or in the name ofJharkhandi adivasis versus other adivasis.The rulling class is also organizing reaction-ary elements to build a lumpen gang – theNagrik Suraksha Samiti. They are forcingordinary people to join the Samiti against therevolutionaries and indulging in killing ofrevolutionaries, activists and their symp-athizers. They are adopting brutal methods,after killing the people they poke arrows intotheir bodies and term this ‘sendara’ whichmeans in santhali language – hunted. This isjust like the Salwa Judum in Chhatis-garh.Here, in Jharkhand this is going on under theleadership of the former CM and national VicePresident of the BJP, Babu Lal Maradi.

To cope up this situation the fighters ofthe PLGA have to seize sophisticated arms,apparatus and gadgets from the enemy’sarmoury to arm the vast militant masses andin this way strengthen the PLGA to form apowerful PLA. This army alone will be thegenuine people’s army, which will protect thepeople’s rights and dignity and will servethe people. Through building the PLA it willbe possible to establish base areas byfighting the well equipped police force ofclass enemy and smashing its localadministrative organs. Then only will it bepossible for the peasants-workers to buildtheir own revolutionary people’sgovernment. That would be the fulfillmentof the call to “transform the guerrilla zonesinto base areas and the PLGA in the PLA”given by the CC (Provisional) CPI (Maoist).And the Girdhi armoury raid is the first stepin the direction of achieving this goal.

Special Area Military CommissionCommunist Party of India (Maoist)

Date : 20.12.2005

On The Heroic Raid on Girdhi Armoury of Home Guards{Though we received this Press Statement late we are now printing extracts from it given its significance…. Editor)

Extracts from Press Statement

market” globalization, racism, repressionand wars of aggression. In response to theescalation of oppression and exploitation,the proletariat and people are intensifyingtheir resistance through armed struggle andother forms of resistance.

It is the internationalist duty of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties to unite and toarouse, organize and mobilize theproletariat and people in their respectivecountries and in the world at large in thestruggle for national liberation, democracy

and socialism against imperialism,revisionism and reaction. By celebrating the50 years of struggle against modernrevisionism, we renew our commitment topersevere in the revolutionary struggle andstrive to win ever greater victories underthe guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism

Uphold, defend and advance the teachingsof Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao!Carry forward the revolution against im-perialism, revisionism and reaction!Glory to the Great Proletarian CulturalRevolution!

Long live proletarian internationalism!Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!Initial Signatories:COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA(MAOIST)COMMUNIST PARTY OF THEPHILIPPINESCOMMUNIST PARTY OF TURKEY/MARXIST-LENINISTCOMMUNIST LEAGUE OF INDONESIA

(Note: Additional signatories may append theirsignatures before April 2006.)

Contd. from back page

Resistered with the Registrar of Newspaper of India under RNI No. KER ENG/2000/2051 Postal Regn. No. KL/EK/614/2004-06

Owned, Edited, Printed & Published by P. Govindan Kutty, Peroor house, Thripunithura, N.F. Ernakulam, Kerala — 682 301,Printed at Chithira Printers, 63/321, Poruvelil, Kannachanthodu Road, Kochi — 18

We, the undersigned, hereby proposeto all Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties andorganizations to celebrate the 50thanniversary of the struggle againstmodern revisionism and to undertakeactivities for the purpose of renewing ourcommitment to pursue this struggle,which started in 1956 in opposition to therevisionist content of the 20th Congressof the Communist Party of the SovietUnion (CPSU) in February 1956.

The struggle against modernrevisionism reached a new and higherlevel when the Great Proletarian CulturalRevolution began in May 1966. But alas,since the death of Comrade Mao inSeptember 1976, we have been confront-ed with the betrayal of socialism and therestoration of capitalism in China. We arechallenged to uphold Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, combat modern revisionism andits evil consequences and achieve greatervictories in fulfilling the historic missionof proletariat to achieve socialism.

In the 20th Congress of the CPSU, theSoviet revisionist clique headed byKhrushchov repudiated the fundamentalsof Marxism-Leninism and the revolution-ary achievements of Comrade Stalinunder the pretext of opposing “personali-ty cult”. It unveiled the phenomenon ofmodern revisionism in opposition to pro-letarian dictatorship and put the SovietUnion on the road of capitalist restoration.

It propagated bourgeois populismwith the notions of “party of the wholepeople” and “state of the whole people”and bourgeois pacifism with the notionsof “peaceful transition,” “peacefulcompetition” and “peaceful coexistence”.It used modern revisionism to undermineand subvert the international communistmovement. It pushed “peaceful coexis-tence” as the general line to opposeproletarian internationalism and to attackthe international communist movementand the national liberation movements.

Under the leadership of ComradeMao Zedong, the Chinese CommunistParty promptly issued in April 1956 theeditorial of the People’s Daily, “On theHistorical Experience of the Dictatorshipof the Proletariat”. This defended thetheory and practice of Marxism-Leninism

against the line of modern revisionism. Itdenounced the revisionists for sowing con-fusion in the international communist mov-ement and generating disorder and upris-ings against the socialist cause in Poland,Hungary and elsewhere in Eastern Europe.

The delegation of the ChineseCommunist Party pursued the anti-revisionist line in the Moscow meetings ofcommunist and workers’ parties in 1957 and1960. Thereafter, it proceeded to the criticismand repudiation of the growing phenome-non of monopoly bureaucrat capitalism andsocial imperialism during the long regimeof Brezhnev. Monopoly bureaucrat capital-ism masqueraded as socialism while thebureaucrats and businessmen connived tosteal from the state sector. In internationalrelations, the Soviet revisionists engagedin socialist phrase-mongering and in thepractice of imperialism.

Comrade Mao did not rest content withthe critique of modern revisionism as itarose and grew in the Soviet Union and inthe other countries of the Soviet bloc. Heexamined and analyzed the growth ofmodern revisionism in China, arising fromboth homegrown factors and externalinfluences. Thus, he launched the GreatProletarian Revolution in order to carry outthe theory of continuing revolution underproletarian dictatorship. This is to combatrevisionism, prevent the restoration ofcapitalism and consolidate socialism.

For as long as Comrade Mao was alive,he was able to lead the Chinese proletariatand people from victory to victory in theGreat Proletarian Cultural Revolutionagainst tremendous odds and againstpowerful adversaries. But soon after hisdeath, the enemies of the Chinese proletariatand people made a coup and reversed hisproletarian revolutionary line in carrying outsocialist revolution and construction. Sincethen, China has increasingly taken the roadof capitalist restoration.

The full restoration of capitalism inChina vindicates the teaching of ComradeMao that socialism is lost when therevisionist line prevails within the rulingcommunist or workers’ party and thateventually the bourgeoisie within the partyand state succeeds in unleashing a coupand overthrowing the proletariat. Comrade

Mao has bequeathed to us a legacy bywhich we can combat and defeat modernrevisionism and by which we can reviveand further develop the forces ofsocialism.

For the entire year of 2006, we mustundertake general campaigns andspecific activities of theoretical andpolitical education. We must confront theproblem of modern revisionism as themost venomous enemy of the revolution-ary cause of socialism. We must reaffirmthe written works and practical efforts ofComrade Mao and all other proletarianrevolutionaries to uphold Marxism-Leninism and combat modern revision-ism. We must defend the achievementsof Comrade Stalin and Comrade Mao insocialist revolution and construction.

We must reaffirm Comrade Mao’srevolutionary theory and practice ofcontinuing revolution under proletariandictatorship through the Great ProletarianCultural Revolution. We must condemnthe betrayal of socialism and of ComradeMao’s proletarian revolutionary line bythe Chinese capitalist roaders. We mustcombat the varied revisionist tendenciesthat deviate from the scientific essenceof Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and itsconcrete application to revolutionarypractice. We can do so by counteringnot only the traditional revisionist trends,classical and modern, but also variouslater trends, like Hoxaism and Trotskyism,which carry a revisionist content behindthe ultra-Left appearance,

We must renew our determination andefforts to carry out the historic missionof the proletariat, which is to carry outsocialist revolution and construction. Allthe evils that have beset the formerrevisionist-ruled countries should driveus to uphold Marxism-Leninism-Maoismagainst modern revisionism and to pur-sue the revolutionary cause of socialism.

Upon the temporary success ofmodern revisionism against Marxism-Leninism and the dictatorship of theproletariat, monopoly capitalism headedby US imperialism has been able to launchthe worst attacks against the proletariatand the oppressed peoples, such as “free

Contd. on page 27

PEOPLE'S MARCH, April 2006

PROPOSAL TO CELEBRATE HISTORIC MILESTONESIN STRUGGLE AGAINST MODERN REVISIONISM SINCE 1956

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