Friday, August 28, 2009

A left turn in Japan

Prime Minister Taro Aso recently dissolved the Japanese parliament, and has called for elections to be held on the 30 August. All signs point to the ruling party, the bourgeois Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), losing power for the first time since 1955 - excluding a 10-month period at the beginning of the 1990s. Right-wing observers are now talking about a ”political revolution” in Japan.

An interesting article in The New York Times talks of a “broad upwelling of frustration” in Japanese society. The article states that the frustrations are beginning to express themselves politically, seeing as the ruling party is almost certainly going to lose power. Japanese politics has seemed stable for decades, since the same party has been in government for more than 50 years. This makes the current change all the more interesting, and significant.

The New York Times article points to the economy as the decisive factor. The headline “Economy spells trouble for leading party in Japan” alone states this clearly. The article quotes a professor of economy, Masary Kaneko from the Keiko University in Tokyo:

“Voters are finally being pushed into action because their livelihoods are starting to crumble.” The article states that the current wave of mass layoffs following the economic crisis has been the decisive factor.

Living standards are falling

According to the World Bank, the average household income has also fallen to a 19-year low. The nation’s per capita gross domestic product declined from the third highest in the world in 1991 to 18th last year. Throughout the last period, ordinary Japanese people have seen an increasingly insecure economic situation.

Since 1990, there has been a large rise in temporary work contracts. Post-war Japan was known as a country where you worked at the same place all your life, and where layoffs and unemployment were basically relatively unknown phenomena. All social measures, even housing, were handled through the workplace. This underlines the seriousness of losing your job in Japan.

Unemployment

These days a third of all workers in Japan are hired on flexible and temporary contracts - if they even have a job. 216,000 workers have been laid off since October last year. The youth have been hit especially hard, as they are the ones with most flexible contracts. In May, the unemployment rate for youth between the ages of 15 and 24 rose to 9 percent. That is almost double the average unemployment rate.

The temporary and flexible workers also receive a lower salary than their contracted colleagues. At factories like Toyota and Canon, they receive less than half. In this way the Japanese capitalists hope to divide and weaken the working class.

Safety disappeared

The Japanese economy is fast in decline. The Japanese economy fell at an annualised rate of 15.2 percent in the first quarter of this year, its steepest decline on record. Even if later quarters should help to cushion the fall (which is far from certain), we are still talking about a dramatic and steep fall, which has shaken the consciousness of broad layers of the Japanese working class and youth. All sense of comfort has vaporised like water on a red-hot frying pan.

Meanwhile, working conditions have also deteriorated and wages have dropped. The number of Japanese earning less than 2 million yen per year (15,000 euro) has risen to more than 10 million. The conditions at large factories like Toyota and Canon have become even more unbearable. Most Japanese still remember the story of a 45-year-old worker at Toyota, who died because he had been pressured to work 80 hours of overtime every month. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. In Japanese there is a word for “sudden death due to overtime” – karoshi. This fact shows the inhumane pressure that ordinary Japanese workers suffer.

Communists gain

It is this atmosphere of merciless pressure on the working class, together with a sudden wave of mass layoffs, which has started a change in the political landscape of Japan. It now seems likely that second biggest party – the bourgeois Democratic Party (DPJ) will take office after the elections in August. Opinion polls give this party around 30 per cent of the votes, as against 20 percent for the LDP.

However, what is really interesting is the clear shift to the left, which can be seen in the support for the Communist Party, the JCP. The JCP is set to surpass the New Komeito Party, a Buddhist conservative party in coalition with LDP. This will make the JCP the third largest party in Japan.

Youth turn Communist

According to an article in the Telegraph, the JCP has gained 14,000 members over the last 18 months. One in four of these new members is under the age of 18. This indicates a clear shift to the left amongst Japanese youth. This is a generation that grew up without having experienced the relative stability and sense of safety that existed in Japan during the post-war boom. This generation has only experienced hard conditions – conditions that have led important layers of the youth to come to revolutionary conclusions.

The JCP daily, Akahata, (the Red Flag) has also increased in circulation in the last period. The paper now has a circulation of 1.6 million copies. The JCP claims well over 400,000 members in 25,000 branches. This makes the JCP the second largest Communist Party in the G8-countries, only the Russian Communist Party is bigger.

Literary socialism

The growing support for the JCP is interpreted even by conservative commentators as a clear sign of the desire for radical change in society. A 42-year-old worker form a Tokyo-based transport company said: "Companies are only interested in their profits and protecting their management. They do not care about their staff. They see us as disposable."

This worker voted for the New Komeito Party in the last elections, but now he has turned to the JCP.

The shift to the left is also apparent in literature. A classical Japanese novel, Kanikosen, written 80 years ago by Takiji Kobayashi, a communist who was murdered by the state, about a group of workers at a crab-factory ship in northern Japan, struggling against the employers, has become a best-seller. It has sold well over 500,000 copies. A manga comic with the same story has sold more than 200,000 copies.

Karl Marx’s Capital has also been published as a manga comic. 6000 copies were sold in the first two days alone after it was published.

JCP leaders steer right

At the same time as this shift to the left is taking place in society, the leaders of the JCP have maintained a course to the right. These leaders openly state that they do not want a socialist revolution, but a “democratic revolution” to make “democratic changes in politics and the economy”.

The party leaders, such as former party Chairman, Fuwa Tetsuzo, are talking about “achieving socialism in Japan in stages” and “following a course towards socialism through a market economy.”

The leaders of the JCP will be pressured by objective conditions. Japanese capitalism is in a deep crisis. In such a period, the open declarations of the JCP leaders in favour of the market economy means accepting sackings, wage decreases and cuts in the public sector. That is the exact opposite of what the party’s supporters want. The new generation of communists want to fight for radical change, while at the same time, the leaders do everything they can to stay within the boundaries of the status quo. This is a finished recipe for internal struggle in the JCP.

The DPJ will be discredited sooner rather than later when they take office. They will only be elected due to the hatred of LDP. Those voters who want to kick the LDP out of office in order to achieve “something else” will find that the DPJ is just another ruling class party. This will mean even bigger opportunities for the JCP. In order to enable the JCP to take advantage of these opportunities, and offer an alternative to unemployment, poverty and the capitalist crisis, a clear defence of the working class is needed. This can only be done on the basis of real communist policies – a return to Marxism. During the course of events, through experience, more and more people in and around the JCP will, without doubt, be drawn in direction of the ideas of Marxism.

(courtesy : www.marxists.com)

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Resolution Adopted at The Convention on Right to Food

This Convention for the Right to Food and against Price Rise

Expresses deep concern


At the relentless rise in the prices of essential commodities. The prices of rice, wheat, edible oil, and salt have risen by 12 per cent to 20 per cent, and the prices of some vegetables have doubled. The cost of pulses has more than doubled, and the price of arhar (tur) dal is now Rs 100 a kilo. Sugar at Rs 30 a kilo is the consumer’s bitter lot. The widespread distress caused by high prices will be intensified by the scourge of drought, which has hit crores of rural families in at least 246 districts (as on 20th August 2009) in India. India has more food-deprived and malnourished people than any other country in the world, and is ranked 66 out of 88 countries with respect to the World Hunger Index compiled by a United Nations organization. The current rise in food prices, which puts food out of the reach of a vast majority of the people particularly poor women and children, serves to worsen the situation.
This Convention for the Right to Food and against Price Rise

Holds

The policies of the Central Government responsible for the price rise. These policies include
  • the pre-budget hike in the prices of petrol by Rs 4 a litre and diesel by Rs 2 a litre; ·
  • the refusal to ban futures trade in essential commodities, leading to speculation (reflected in the high increase in the transaction in futures trade) and higher prices;
  • weakening the public distribution system and making cuts of up to 73 per cent in allocations of food grain for APL sections to the States in the last two years;
  • granting, under pressure from sugar lobbies, permission to export sugar, thus causing shortages and high prices;
  • failing to ensure – by means of public investment in infrastructure, the provision of affordable credit, inputs 1 and extension services, and remunerative support prices to farmers – self-sufficiency in the production of a range of crops, including cereals, sugarcane, pulses and oil seeds, thus causing shortages, high prices and dependence on imports.
Reiterates
The need for a change in these policies

Emphasizes
The urgency for a food security legislation that will meet the globally accepted definition of food security for a household, which is: “access by all members at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life.” Such legislation must be brought without delay.
That food security cannot be linked to faulty poverty estimates made from time to time by the Planning Commission but must be recognised as a universal right. When the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector has estimated from NSS data that 77 per cent of India’s population spends less than 20 rupees a day, anything short of recognition of the right to food as a universal right and terminating the targeted PDS, which has excluded large sections of the poor from the public distribution system, is gross injustice.

This Convention for the Right to Food and against Price Rise

Considers inadequate and ill-conceived
The Government proposal for legislation as elaborated in a note circulated to all State Governments,

and opposes the specific proposals to:

(1) limit food security benefits to those whom the Planning Commission declares to be “below the poverty line,” an aggregate that represents massive statistical underestimation. Under this proposal, all rights to decide poverty estimates are to be vested in the Central Government, even though State Government estimates of below-poverty-line households, which total around 11.5 crore households, are more than 40 per cent higher than those of the Central Government. In other words, large sections of the poorwill be legally excluded from the right to food.

(2) cut down family quotas from 35 kg to 25 kg.

(3) get rid of the Antyodaya scheme, thus depriving the poorest of the poor of the benefits they receive today. Consequently, the price at which rice is sold to Antyodaya families will be raised from Rs 2 a kilo to Rs 3 a kilo, and the amount of rice they receive under the scheme reduced by 10 kilos a month.

(4) eliminate all subsidies and access to the public distribution system for all APL households, which means that any person earning more than a meagre Rs 11.80 a day in rural areas and Rs.
17.80 a day in urban areas will be out of the Public Distribution System and will be left to the mercy of the market and uncontrolled prices.

(5) restrict the legal entitlement to rice and wheat and exclude other essential commodities such as sugar, pulses, edible oil, and kerosene. Many States, for example, Kerala, have made other
essential commodities available at subsidised rates.

This Convention for the Right to Food and against Price Rise

Asserts

That such legislation as has been proposed will lead not to food security, but to food insecurity. Indeed, it has been estimated that cuts in the present allocations as proposed by the Central Government will lead to a saving of at least Rs 4,000 crore. India still proposes to spend only 1.18 per cent of its GDP – budgeted at Rs. 52,489 crore in 2009-10 – on crucial food subsidies, a share that is less than in many other countries of the world. Financial constraints can never be an excuse to curtail the right to food, and even less so when the Government is prepared to forgo taxes worth Rs 4 lakh crore rupees in a single year, as in the 2009-2010 budget, by means of concessions to corporates. According to one estimate, concessions to corporates in the last two years have amounted to Rs 700 crore a day! The annual amount of tax foregone is many times more than the cost of a universal public distribution system.

Regrets

That the Government has not sufficiently included the rights and concerns of farmers in the proposed food security legislation. On the contrary, instead of policy measures geared to increase food grain production and procurement, including the production and procurement of cereals such as ragi, jowar, bajra, and their distribution through the PDS where such grains are the preferred choice of consumers, the Government note speaks of the necessity of imports to meet domestic requirements. In the context of recent experience, when the UPA Government paid more for imported wheat than it was prepared to give as MSP to Indian farmers, it is essential that any food security legislation ensure expanded public procurement and fair prices to Indian farmers for a variety of crops, including wheat, rice, millets, pulses, oilseeds, and sugarcane. It is equally important to step up public spending for the development of rural infrastructure, and extension services and to ensure the availability of inputs at controlled prices. That the Government has not taken into account the necessity to strengthen the public distribution system, which is essential to ensure food security. On the contrary, targeting and lower allocations have made 5 lakh fair price shops unviable. Measures must be taken to strengthen as well as streamline the PDS, to root out corruption and make the system more accountable to the
needs of the people by means of monitoring and vigilance committees. That the Government has not included other food schemes such as mid-day meal scheme and ICDS nutrition programme in the proposed legislation

This Convention puts forward three sets of demands related to food security:

Demands against Price Rise:
  • Ban all future trade in essential commodities
  • Strengthen the public distribution system. Restore allocations to the States which were slashed for APL sections
  • Ensure dehoarding and take strong action against hoarders and black marketeers
  • Withdraw the price hikes in petrol and diesel
In Drought-Affected Areas
  • Ensure distribution of food grain to all affected families in drought hit areas on an emergency basis
  • Help State Governments through urgent allocation of resources to start widescale NREGA projects to ensure real incomes of at least rupees one hundred per work day in drought areas. Remove ceiling of 100 days and give work on demand. Where required food grain can also be used as part payment along with cash
  • Ensure regular supply of drinking water
  • Ensure fodder for cattle
Demands for Food Security legislation
  • Scrap targeting, make PDS universal; entitlements under this Act must be delinked from Central poverty estimates
  • 35 kg of food grain at Rs 2 per kg per nuclear household to be provided by Central Government
  • include other items, such as pulses, sugar, cooking oil and kerosene, at subsidized rates in the legal guarantee
  • incorporate all food and nutrition schemes of the Central Government such as the mid-day meal scheme and ICDS nutrition programme in the proposed legislation
  • promote national self-sufficiency in production of food grain, pulses, sugarcane, and oilseeds through public investment, provision of extension services and appropriate land use policies with guaranteed fair prices for farmers and expanded public procurement, implement land reforms strengthen the public distribution system of fair price shops and ensure accountability
This Convention calls for a nationwide struggle on the above demands. The struggles should aim to force a change of policy and bring some relief to the people.

Control Price Rise! Ensure Food Security for All!

UPA government responsible for price rise: CPI(M)


Criticising the United Progressive Alliance government for its failure to tackle the problem of food security, accentuated by the spectre of drought in many parts of the country, a national convention rolled out a set of demands, including universal public distribution system.

Organised by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Wednesday, speakers at the convention For the Right to Food and Against Price Rise, held the Centre's policies responsible for the rise in the prices of essential commodities.

Moving a resolution at the convention, CPI (M) Polit Bureau member and MP Brinda Karat said these policies included the pre-budget hike in the prices of petrol and diesel; refusal to ban futures trading in essential commodities; weakening of the public distribution system by slashing allocations; allowing sugar export and then import, benefiting big companies at the expense of people and farmers; and failing to ensure public investment in infrastructure in the farm sector.

Ms. Karat said that while the CPI (M) was all for legislation ensuring food security in the country, it could not agree to the government's proposal of cutting down the allocation of foodgrains from 35 kg each month per family to 25 kg and raising the issue price from Rs. 2 to 3 per kg.

Besides foodgrains, the party wants the government to include pulses, sugar, cooking oil, and kerosene at subsidised rates and incorporate all food and nutrition schemes of the Central government into the proposed act.

In the draft resolution, the convention demanded promotion of self-sufficiency in production of foodgrains, pulses, sugarcane, and oilseeds through public investment, provision of extension services and appropriate land use policies with guaranteed fair prices for farmers and expanded public procurement and implement land reforms.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac and his West Bengal counterpart Asim Dasgupta, Polit Bueau members and CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat are taking part in the day-long convention.

(The Hindu)

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Centre failed to control prices of essential commodities: Brinda Karat


Expressing deep concern over the rise in prices of essential commodities, the CPI(M) on Monday demanded that the Centre should take effective steps to provide relief to the people from the crushing burden compounded by drought in various parts of the country.

“Relentless increase in prices of essential commodities has impacted the people, more so on account of severe drought, which, the Agriculture Minister says, is affecting 50 per cent of the districts. The Prime Minister’s speech notwithstanding, it is the signal failure of the Central government as there is no relief for the people,” the Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat said.

Addressing a press conference here, the CPI(M) MP said while people wanted concrete steps, unfortunately the government was trying to shift the responsibility and blaming States.

Instead of providing drought relief, the Centre had slashed the over 70 per cent of allocation of Above Poverty Line foodgrains. On the sugar front, the Centre’s polices led to sharp hike in the prices with only sugar mills making profits while both sugarcane growers and people suffered. “It is a sugar scandal in the offing,” she said.

Ms. Karat said the government announced Rs. 81 a quintal for sugarcane instead of Rs. 125 recommended by the Agriculture Prices Commission, leading to a decline in production. It allowed exports by providing incentives and permitted duty-free import since January.

“Neither the consumers nor the farmers benefited from the government’s sugar policy while some big companies did,” she said. There were no estimates of the imported raw sugar stocks in the country being held by big firms, sweet-making or cola companies.

The CPI(M) leader said the proposed food security Act should universalise public distribution system, be delinked from Central government poverty estimates, provide 35 kg of foodgrains at Rs. 2 a kg per nuclear household, include provision of pulses, sugar, cooking oil and kerosene at subsidised rates, incorporate Central government’s food and nutrition schemes, and promote national self-sufficiency in production of foodgrains, pulses, sugarcane and oilseeds through public investment.

(The Hindu)

Republican Left Democratic Front launched; to contest in Maharashtra

he Republican Party of India (RPI - United) and the Left Democratic Front came together on Monday and announced their intention to contest all 288 Assembly seats in tandem in the forthcoming elections in Maharashtra.

RPI (United) leader Ramdas Athavale told the media that his party would now be part of a new front called the Republican Left Democratic Front (RLDF).Along with the RPI (United), the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP); the Communist Party of India (Marxist); (CPI-M); the Communist Party of India (CPI); the Samajwadi Party; the Janata Dal (Secular); Lok Bharati; the Swabhiman Shetkari Sanghatana led by Raju Shetty who was elected MP from Hatkanangale; Socialist Front; Lok Jan Shakti Party; Rashtriya Samaj Paksh; Samajwadi Jan Parishad; Socialist Front; Lok Bharati; and the Satyashodhak Communist Party are part of the new front.

The various factions of the RPI recently formed a united front in Maharashtra. It also took a decision not to ally with the Congress or the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The only major leader who is not part of this unity is Prakash Ambedkar of the Bharip Bahujan MahaSangh.

Mr. Athavale has been talking of an RPI unity since his defeat in the Shirdi Lok Sabha seat, which he believes was due to the Congress party's dirty politics. He also refused an offer of a Rajya Sabha seat from the Congress ally, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Mr. Athavale said the RLDF was secular and would represent all poor and backward sections.

In Maharashtra, the main focus would be on the development of the Scheduled Castes, Adivasis and farmers. He dispelled fears that he would be swayed by offers from the Congress or the NCP before the polls and said he would resist such moves.

In the past, Mr. Athavale has been an ally of the NCP and in the last Lok Sabha he was supported by the Congress. “I will not change my stand and stay loyal with the Third Front and will not ditch them,” he said.

The Congress and the NCP have headed a government that has led to price rise, load shedding, corruption, and other issues. The RLDF would address these issues and prepare a social and economic development programme for the State, he said. Seat-sharing among the RLDF allies will be decided at a later stage.

It will hold a rally on September 12 at the Shivaji Park to launch its election campaign. In the last Lok Sabha election, the third Front had contested 12 seats

(The Hindu)

Friday, August 21, 2009

Left, Dalit formation to fight BBMP elections

The coming Bruhat Bengalur Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections will have a new formation, which includes Left parties and Dalit organisations, contesting from all the 198 wards.

The alliance plans to approach the electorate on the broad agenda of addressing the widening gap in access to amenities between the high-income groups and corporates and those living in the lower-middle class areas and bourgeoning slums in the city.

Called the Civic Front, the alliance includes Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India (CPI), Praja Vimochana Chaluvali, Dalit Sangharsha Samiti (Ambedkarvada), Republican Party of India, Indian National League and the Karnataka chapter of the AIADMK.

The draft of the agenda of Civic Front, to be released on August 25, says that the city has seen a spurt in wealth generation, but this is cornered by just 20 per cent of people belonging to the top income group.

Resources cornered

Citing a government document prepared for Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) projects, it says that the top 20 per cent of the population enjoy 63 per cent of the total amenities. The lowest 20 per cent have access to a mere 1.5 per cent. “The BBMP administration is pre-occupied with providing amenities for the domestic and foreign corporates. The corporates and the rich are getting facilities at their doorstep. Land, water and the environment of the city are being ruined for their sake. The discrimination is so glaring that there is serious unrest and discontent among a majority of people,” it adds.

It says further that the living conditions are miserable in the areas inhabited by the poor, workers of the unoganised sectors, dalits, backward classes, minorities and other deprived sections. It adds that the conditions under which the people of the middle classes live are no better. “Thus those sections of the people who have toiled and are toiling to build this city are being constantly pushed into conditions of constant anxiety, insecurity and deprivation,” says the draft.

Mavalli Shankar, convener of the DSS (A), says that the main question Civic Front addresses is: To whom does Bangalore belong? “We need to question the forces driving the developmental agenda which is geared to support the real the estate lobby and corporates. We hope to provide an alternative vision to this,” he said.

CPI(M)’s Bangalore district secretary K. Prakash says that the Civic Front is not a new political party, but a forum of like-minded people and organisations. “We want to involve local residents’ associations also and work on a long-term basis beyond BBMP elections,” he says.

(The Hindu)

Centre flayed for signing ASEAN trade pact

Thiruvananthapuram: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has decided to resort to direct action against the Free Trade Agreement signed by India with ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations).

A two-day Kerala State committee meeting of the party, which concluded here on Tuesday, resolved to form a human chain from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod on October 2 in protest against the agreement, which, according to it, would destroy the agriculture and allied sectors of the State. The party urged all those who loved Kerala to become links in the chain. The meeting stressed the need for a strong protest against the Centre’s policy, which jeopardised the lives of three crore people.

The party felt that the agreement was tailor-made to demolish the agriculture sector of a State that derived its strength mainly from cash crops. Products from ASEAN would start flowing into the domestic market of the State soon. As both production and productivity were higher in those countries than in Kerala, the local market would surrender to them completely. Even the products of developed capitalistic countries would reach Kerala through ASEAN.

The future of Kerala’s major produce such as coconut, rubber, pepper, coffee, and tea would become crisis-ridden. The fish species available in those countries were similar to the ones caught in Kerala. Marine products too would enter the country as part of the deal. Traditional industries, including handloom, would be in trouble.

Deal signed in haste

Kerala had warned the Centre in advance about the repercussions of the agreement. The Prime Minister had given an assurance to the State’s representatives that the agreement would be signed only after consultations with the State. But the assurance had been flouted and the deal signed in haste. The Centre had not even come forward to disclose the details of the agreement. It was an instance of the undemocratic way in which the Centre functioned. The Centre had adopted such a stand notwithstanding the fact that agriculture was a State subject. It was the steps initiated by the National Democratic Alliance government in October 2003 which had culminated in the agreement. The agreement, which allowed free flow of products, services and investments without any import duty, undoubtedly carried the globalisation process ahead.

KANNUR: Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat on Wednesday demanded a constitutional amendment to ensure that all international treaties are ratified by Parliament.

Addressing a party rally here, organised in connection with P. Krishna Pillai Day, Mr. Karat said the recent free trade agreement (FTA) with ASEAN was signed without taking Parliament into confidence and consulting the States. The treaty would affect farmers, especially those in Kerala. Cash crops in the State and domestic industries would be badly affected by the FTA.

“We demand that all such international agreements be ratified by Parliament. The Constitution has to be amended,” he said. The Centre could not take unilateral decisions as the country had a federal set-up.

Mr. Karat said Union Ministers A.K. Antony and Vayalar Ravi were understood to have expressed their objections to the agreement.

The CPI(M) leader called for a strong people’s movement to oppose the neo-liberal economic policies of the Manmohan Singh-led government. The government continued to implement the policies that had widened the social and economic inequalities. It was implementing the policies advocated by the United States.

Food prices had gone up since the Congress-led government came to power three months ago. The agricultural sector had to be strengthened to ensure food security, he said.

Referring to the party’s demand for universal public distribution system, he said the targeted PDS being introduced by the Centre would in no way ensure food security.

It was the duty of the Left parties to take up people’s issues, he pointed out. The Bharatiya Janata Party was in serious crisis in State after State, Mr. Karat said, adding people had refused to support the communal agenda of that party.

Left convention

Earlier, at a function at Iritty here, Mr. Karat said a national convention of Left parties would be held in New Delhi on August 26 to chalk out a campaign against the policies of the Central government.

Thrissur: CPI(M) Polit Bureau member S. Ramachandran Pillai has said that the Centre tried to keep the ASEAN trade pact, which has a devastating impact on the country’s economy, a secret. Speaking after inaugurating a convention of Karshaka Sangam here on Thursday, he alleged that the Indo-ASEAN Free Trade Pact was signed without any discussion.

The Left parties would organise national campaign against the pact if the Central government refused to review it, he added.

“The country should have learnt lesson from the free trade agreement with Sri Lanka. The ASEAN trade pact will cripple the farm sector, which is already in crisis due to global economic meltdown. Fisheries, handloom and small-scale industries also would be adversely affected.” The CPI(M) would form a human chain against the agreement October 2.

(Courtesy : The Hindu)

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Absence of Left parties making UPA reckless


TIRUPATI: M.K. Pandey, all-India president of the CITU said that the absence of Left parties in the UPA combine’s second innings was making it go indifferent and turn reckless even on matters of international and national ramifications.

It does not have even the common minimum programme which the UPA-I had, he said and charged that buoyed over the Left’s absence in its team, the Manmohan Singh government was back at its dangerous game of dancing to the tunes of the World Bank.

Mr. Pandey was addressing the four-day national convention of the CITU which got underway at Tirupati on Tuesday with a massive rally. He said despite the economic slow-down, if PSUs like LIC, BSNL and so on were able to withstand the rigors of the recession it was because of the strong presence of the Left parties in the UPA-I combine, putting brakes every time the Manmohan Singh government tried to dabble with the PSUs in the form of disinvestment, privatisation.

The CITU leader gave a call to all the trade unions to put aside their ideological differences and forge themselves together into a formidable force so as to check the UPA government’s anti-people, anti-labour and pro-World Bank policies.

The convention being attended by cadres from all over the country would deliberate mainly on four major issues viz; comprehensive legislation on the unorganised sector to provide succour to those engaged in the field, controlling price spiralling, combating economic slowdown and protecting PSUs against disinvestment designs of the UPA government.

Among other speakers were Mohammed Ameen, MP and national general secretary, CITU, G. Veeraiah, CITU State president, P. Hemalatha, national secretary, Sudha Bhaskar, State general secretary, P. Somaiah, State president of Agricultural Workers Union, K. Kumar Reddy, district CPI (M) secretary.

AUGUST 19 - P KRISHNA PILLAI MEMORIDAL DAY



P. Krishna Pillai (1906 -1948)
P. Krishna Pillai is the founder leader of the Communist movement in Kerala. His life, style of social and public work, leadership, humanism and above all his communist ethics will always be a textbook for all generations to learn and imbibe. Popularly known as ‘Comrade’ , Krishna Pillai was born in 1906 in Vaikom. He became an orphan at the age of fourteen. He went to Allahabad at the age of 21 to learn Hindi and returned to work as an activist of Dakshin Bharatha Hindi Prachar Sabha. When he took the position of flag bearer in the march from Vadakara to Payyannur to participate in the salt sathyagraha in January 1930. Krishna Pillai’s life became intertwined with modern Kerala’s history.

He was in the forefront of organizing the national movement, Congress Socialist Party and late the Communist Party in Kerala. Krishna Pillai became a part of all these movements which came into being in the onward course of progressive Kerala. These was hardly any nook or corner in the state where he had not set foot, ushering in the minds of change and proclaiming the spirit for struggle.

Krishna Pillai was the Secretary of the first Communist group formed in Kozhikkode in 1937. he had to do many jobs for a living. At the same time he was active in Hindi teaching and in the national movement. Suffering and imprisonment became part of his life. He was one of the Pioneers in organizing the coir workers in Alappuzha, cotton mill workers in Kozhikkode, Beedi and weaving workers in Kannur and the peasants in Malabar.

He participated in the secret conference in Pinarayi - Parappuram which saw the birth of Indian Communist Party unit in Kerala and became its first secretary. He travelled extensively across the state. He could recall by name almost all the important activists of the party in Kerala. Moving from one village to another he recruited cadres into the party and set up underground shelters for the party workers when the party was banned. His legendary life came to an end during one of his underground days. Krishna Pillai became inseparable from the working class movement and the life of ordinary people in the state. The undying spirit of a Communist could be seen in his last moments also, when he was bitten by a snake on 19 August 1948. while he was staying in an underground shelter in Kannarkattu is Alappuzha. The last words uttered by him ‘Comrades, Forward!’ are a constant source of inspiration for the Communists in Kerala then and now.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Ruling party using money power to win Tamil Nadu bypoll


Seeking votes: Harur MLA P. Dilli Babu (third right) campaigning at
Athiganur village in Bargur constituency on Thursday

BARGUR: The ruling party is using money power to win the Bargur Assembly by-election, said P. Dilli Babu, Harur MLA, on Thursday.

Mr. Babu campaigned for S. Kannu, Communist Party of India candidate, at Athiganur village near Mathur.

He said the farmers in Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts were a worried lot because of failure of monsoon. Sugarcane growers were the worst-affected. Though he had demanded setting up of mango pulp unit to help farmers get good price for their produce, his pleas fell on deaf ears, Mr. Babu said.

Price rise

D. Raveendaran, district secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist), accused the DMK government of being responsible for price rise in the State since it was part of the Central Government. He said because of the wrong economic policies of the Union Government inflation was mounting. After the left parties’ withdrew support to the UPA government, the coalition government at the Centre had started privatising public sector undertakings, thus making way for the multinational companies to enter the country.

Later, Krishnagiri cultural troupe performed ‘Thappattam’ in Madaraalli, Mathur, Kodamarappatti, Balathottam, SIPCOT, Parandapalli, Ananthur, Pochampalli and Santhur villages along with the CPM campaign team.

Left party leaders T. Pandian and N. Varadarajan will address a series of meetings in the constituency on Friday.

(The Hindu)

Thursday, August 6, 2009

We accept Opposition challenge: Buddhadeb


KOLKATA: Refusing to be cowed down by the setback the Communist Party of India (Marxist) suffered in West Bengal in the recent Lok Sabha elections, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said here on Wednesday that the party accepted the challenge thrown to it by the Opposition.

Addressing a function organised by the CPI(M) to celebrate the 121st birth anniversary of Muzaffar Ahmed, a pioneer of the Communist movement in the country, Mr. Bhattacharjee said: “A dangerous element is on the prowl in State politics… it is holding on to the party in power at the Centre with one hand and the Maoists with the other. But we will not retreat in the face of the threat it poses. We will face the challenge with all our might.”

The 2009 Muzaffar Ahmed Sriti Puroshkar was presented on the occasion to Hiren Bhattacharjee, a veteran figure in the Left’s cultural movement, for his book titled “Sanskriti Bhogbad O Mulyabad.”

Vijay Prasad, a professor at the Trinity College, Cambridge, was also given the award for his book in English titled “The Darker Nations: A Biography of the Short-lived Third World.” Though he did not turn up for the event, a letter of thanks he sent was read out to the audience.

Without naming the Trinamool Congress, Mr. Bhattacharjee said in his address that the party had taken to politics of killings and destruction since the April-May Lok Sabha elections. “Its senior leaders were inciting the people to attack CPI(M) workers and leaders.”

Taking a dig at the ‘Maa, Mati, Manush’ slogan of the Trinamool Congress and its call for bringing about a “change,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said: “Such theatrical emotions cannot solve people’s problems. It cannot be our future… what do they want to change? Do they want to subvert all the good work that the Left Front government has done in the past 33 years?”

Speaking of the poll debacle, Mr. Bhattacharjee said: “It demands introspection as to why we find ourselves in this situation. We have to come out with a solution.”

Biman Bose, Secretary of the CPI(M)’s West Bengal State Committee, said that people had taught the party a lesson and given it a chance to correct wayward party workers.

“That some people did not vote for us does not mean that they have rejected us. They wanted to teach us a lesson for the wrong-doings of a certain section of our activists… even we will not endorse such behaviour henceforth.” Mr. Bose said inefficient party workers would be shown the door unless they corrected themselves immediately.

(the hindu)

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

114th Death Anniversary of Frederick Engels

Republishing the orbituary by Com. V I Lenin on Frederick Engels the great teacher of scientific socialism.



What a torch of reason ceased to burn,
What a heart has ceased to beat!

On August 5 (new style), 1895, Frederick Engels died in London. After his friend Karl Marx (who died in 1883), Engels was the finest scholar and teacher of the modern proletariat in the whole civilised world. From the time that fate brought Karl Marx and Frederick Engels together, the two friends devoted their life’s work to a common cause. And so to understand what Frederick Engels has done for the proletariat, one must have a clear idea of the significance of Marx’s teaching and work for the development of the contemporary working-class movement. Marx and Engels were the first to show that the working class and its demands are a necessary outcome of the present economic system, which together with the bourgeoisie inevitably creates and organises the proletariat. They showed that it is not the well-meaning efforts of noble-minded individuals, but the class struggle of the organised proletariat that will deliver humanity from the evils which now oppress it. In their scientific works, Marx and Engels were the first to explain that socialism is not the invention of dreamers, but the final aim and necessary result of the development of the productive forces in modern society. All recorded history hitherto has been a history of class struggle, of the succession of the rule and victory of certain social classes over others. And this will continue until the foundations of class struggle and of class domination – private property and anarchic social production – disappear. The interests of the proletariat demand the destruction of these foundations, and therefore the conscious class struggle of the organised workers must be directed against them. And every class struggle is a political struggle.

These views of Marx and Engels have now been adopted by all proletarians who are fighting for their emancipation. But when in the forties the two friends took part in the socialist literature and the social movements of their time, they were absolutely novel. There were then many people, talented and without talent, honest and dishonest, who, absorbed in the struggle for political freedom, in the struggle against the despotism of kings, police and priests, failed to observe the antagonism between the interests of the bourgeoisie and those of the proletariat. These people would not entertain the idea of the workers acting as an independent social force. On the other hand, there were many dreamers, some of them geniuses, who thought that it was only necessary to convince the rulers and the governing classes of the injustice of the contemporary social order, and it would then be easy to establish peace and general well-being on earth. They dreamt of a socialism without struggle. Lastly, nearly all the socialists of that time and the friends of the working class generally regarded the proletariat only as an ulcer, and observed with horror how it grew with the growth of industry. They all, therefore, sought for a means to stop the development of industry and of the proletariat, to stop the “wheel of history.” Marx and Engels did not share the general fear of the development of the proletariat; on the contrary, they placed all their hopes on its continued growth. The more proletarians there are, the greater is their strength as a revolutionary class, and the nearer and more possible does socialism become. The services rendered by Marx and Engels to the working class may be expressed in a few words thus: they taught the working class to know itself and be conscious of itself, and they substituted science for dreams.

That is why the name and life of Engels should be known to every worker. That is why in this collection of articles, the aim of which, as of all our publications, is to awaken class-consciousness in the Russian workers, we must give a sketch of the life and work of Frederick Engels, one of the two great teachers of the modern proletariat.

Engels was born in 1820 in Barmen, in the Rhine Province of the kingdom of Prussia. His father was a manufacturer. In 1838 Engels, without having completed his high-school studies, was forced by family circumstances to enter a commercial house in Bremen as a clerk. Commercial affairs did not prevent Engels from pursuing his scientific and political education. He had come to hate autocracy and the tyranny of bureaucrats while still at high school. The study of philosophy led him further. At that time Hegel’s teaching dominated German philosophy, and Engels became his follower. Although Hegel himself was an admirer of the autocratic Prussian state, in whose service he was as a professor at Berlin University, Hegel’s teachings were revolutionary. Hegel’s faith in human reason and its rights, and the fundamental thesis of Hegelian philosophy that the universe is undergoing a constant process of change and development, led some of the disciples of the Berlin philosopher – those who refused to accept the existing situation – to the idea that the struggle against this situation, the struggle against existing wrong and prevalent evil, is also rooted in the universal law of eternal development. If all things develop, if institutions of one kind give place to others, why should the autocracy of the Prussian king or of the Russian tsar, the enrichment of an insignificant minority at the expense of the vast majority, or the domination of the bourgeoisie over the people, continue for ever? Hegel’s philosophy spoke of the development of the mind and of ideas; it was idealistic. From the development of the mind it deduced the development of nature, of man, and of human, social relations. While retaining Hegel’s idea of the eternal process of development, Marx and Engels rejected the preconceived idealist view; turning to life, they saw that it is not the development of mind that explains the development of nature but that, on the contrary, the explanation of mind must be derived from nature, from matter.... Unlike Hegel and the other Hegelians, Marx and Engels were materialists. Regarding the world and humanity materialistically, they perceived that just as material causes underlie all natural phenomena, so the development of human society is conditioned by the development of material forces, the productive forces. On the development of the productive forces depend the relations into which men enter with one another in the production of the things required for the satisfaction of human needs. And in these relations lies the explanation of all the phenomena of social life, human aspirations, ideas and laws. The development of the productive forces creates social relations based upon private property, but now we see that this same development of the productive forces deprives the majority of their property and concentrates it in the hands of an insignificant minority. It abolishes property, the basis of the modern social order, it itself strives towards the very aim which the socialists have set themselves. All the socialists have to do is to realise which social force, owing to its position in modern society, is interested in bringing socialism about, and to impart to this force the consciousness of its interests and of its historical task. This force is the proletariat. Engels got to know the proletariat in England, in the centre of English industry, Manchester, where he settled in 1842, entering the service of a commercial firm of which his father was a shareholder. Here Engels not only sat in the factory office but wandered about the slums in which the workers were cooped up, and saw their poverty and misery with his own eyes. But he did not confine himself to personal observations. He read all that had been revealed before him about the condition of the British working class and carefully studied all the official documents he could lay his hands on. The fruit of these studies and observations was the book which appeared in 1845: The Condition of the Working Class in England. We have already mentioned what was the chief service rendered by Engels in writing The Condition of the Working Class in England. Even before Engels, many people had described the sufferings of the proletariat and had pointed to the necessity of helping it. Engels was the first to say that the proletariat is not only a suffering class; that it is, in fact, the disgraceful economic condition of the proletariat that drives it irresistibly forward and compels it to fight for its ultimate emancipation. And the fighting proletariat will help itself. The political movement of the working class will inevitably lead the workers to realise that their only salvation lies in socialism. On the other hand, socialism will become a force only when it becomes the aim of the political struggle of the working class. Such are the main ideas of Engels’ book on the condition of the working class in England, ideas which have now been adopted by all thinking and fighting proletarians, but which at that time were entirely new. These ideas were set out in a book written in absorbing style and filled with most authentic and shocking pictures of the misery of the English proletariat. The book was a terrible indictment of capitalism and the bourgeoisie and created a profound impression. Engels’ book began to be quoted everywhere as presenting the best picture of the condition of the modern proletariat. And, in fact, neither before 1845 nor after has there appeared so striking and truthful a picture of the misery of the working class.

It was not until he came to England that Engels became a socialist. In Manchester he established contacts with people active in the English labour movement at the time and began to write for English socialist publications. In 1844, while on his way back to Germany, he became acquainted in Paris with Marx, with whom he had already started to correspond. In Paris, under the influence of the French socialists and French life, Marx had also become a socialist. Here the friends jointly wrote a book entitled The Holy Family, or Critique of Critical Critique. This book, which appeared a year before The Condition of the Working Class in England, and the greater part of which was written by Marx, contains the foundations of revolutionary materialist socialism, the main ideas of which we have expounded above. “The holy family” is a facetious nickname for the Bauer brothers, the philosophers, and their followers. These gentlemen preached a criticism which stood above all reality, above parties and politics, which rejected all practical activity, and which only “critically” contemplated the surrounding world and the events going on within it. These gentlemen, the Bauers, looked down on the proletariat as an uncritical mass. Marx and Engels vigorously opposed this absurd and harmful tendency. In the name of a real, human person – the worker, trampled down by the ruling classes and the state – they demanded, not contemplation, but a struggle for a better order of society. They, of course, regarded the proletariat as the force that is capable of waging this struggle and that is interested in it. Even before the appearance of The Holy Family, Engels had published in Marx’s and Ruge’s Deutsch-Franz\"osische Jahrb\"ucher his “Critical Essays on Political Economy,” in which he examined the principal phenomena of the contemporary economic order from a socialist standpoint, regarding them as necessary consequences of the rule of private property. Contact with Engels was undoubtedly a factor in Marx’s decision to study political economy, the science in which his works have produced a veritable revolution.

From 1845 to 1847 Engels lived in Brussels and Paris, combining scientific work with practical activities among the German workers in Brussels and Paris. Here Marx and Engels established contact with the secret German Communist League, which commissioned them to expound the main principles of the socialism they had worked out. Thus arose the famous Manifesto of the Communist Party of Marx and Engels, published in 1848. This little booklet is worth whole volumes: to this day its spirit inspires and guides the entire organised and fighting proletariat of the civilised world.

The revolution of 1848, which broke out first in France and then spread to other West-European countries, brought Marx and Engels back to their native country. Here, in Rhenish Prussia, they took charge of the democratic Neue Rheinische Zeitung published in Cologne. The two friends were the heart and soul of all revolutionary-democratic aspirations in Rhenish Prussia. They fought to the last ditch in defence of freedom and of the interests of the people against the forces of reaction. The latter, as we know, gained the upper hand. The Neue Rheinische Zeitung was suppressed. Marx, who during his exile had lost his Prussian citizenship, was deported; Engels took part in the armed popular uprising, fought for liberty in three battles, and after the defeat of the rebels fled, via Switzerland, to London.

Marx also settled in London. Engels soon became a clerk again, and then a shareholder, in the Manchester commercial firm in which he had worked in the forties. Until 1870 he lived in Manchester, while Marx lived in London, but this did not prevent their maintaining a most lively interchange of ideas: they corresponded almost daily. In this correspondence the two friends exchanged views and discoveries and continued to collaborate in working out scientific socialism. In 1870 Engels moved to London, and their joint intellectual life, of the most strenuous nature, continued until 1883, when Marx died. Its fruit was, on Marx’s side, Capital, the greatest work on political economy of our age, and on Engels’ side, a number of works both large and small. Marx worked on the analysis of the complex phenomena of capitalist economy. Engels, in simply written works, often of a polemical character, dealt with more general scientific problems and with diverse phenomena of the past and present in the spirit of the materialist conception of history and Marx’s economic theory. Of Engels’ works we shall mention: the polemical work against D\"uhring (analysing highly important problems in the domain of philosophy, natural science and the social sciences), The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (translated into Russian, published in St. Petersburg, 3rd ea., 1895), Ludwig Feuerbach (Russian translation and notes by G. Plekhanov, Geneva, 1892), an article on the foreign policy of the Russian Government (translated into Russian in the Geneva Social-Demokrat, Nos. 1 and 2), articles on the housing question, and finally, two small but very valuable articles on Russia’s economic development (Frederick Engels on Russia, translated into Russian by Zasulich, Geneva, 1894). Marx died before he could put the final touches to his vast work on capital. The draft, however, was already finished, and after the death of his friend, Engels undertook the onerous task of preparing and publishing the second and the third volumes of Capital. He published Volume II in 1885 and Volume III in 1894 (his death prevented the preparation of Volume IV). These two volumes entailed a vast amount of labour. Adler, the Austrian Social-Democrat, has rightly remarked that by publishing volumes II and III of Capital Engels erected a majestic monument to the genius who had been his friend, a monument on which, without intending it, he indelibly carved his own name. Indeed these two volumes of Capital are the work of two men: Marx and Engels. Old legends contain various moving instances of friendship. The European proletariat may say that its science was created by two scholars and fighters, whose relationship to each other surpasses the most moving stories of the ancients about human friendship. Engels always – and, on the whole, quite justly – placed himself after Marx. “In Marx’s lifetime,” he wrote to an old friend, “I played second fiddle.” His love for the living Marx, and his reverence for the memory of the dead Marx were boundless. This stern fighter and austere thinker possessed a deeply loving soul.

After the movement of 1848-49, Marx and Engels in exile did not confine themselves to scientific research. In 1864 Marx founded the International Working Men’s Association, and led this society for a whole decade. Engels also took an active part in its affairs. The work of the International Association, which, in accordance with Marx’s idea, united proletarians of all countries, was of tremendous significance in the development of the working-class movement. But even with the closing down of the International Association in the seventies, the unifying role of Marx and Engels did not cease. On the contrary, it may be said that their importance as the spiritual leaders of the working-class movement grew continuously, because the movement itself grew uninterruptedly. After the death of Marx, Engels continued alone as the counsellor and leader of the European socialists. His advice and directions were sought for equally by the German socialists, whose strength, despite government persecution, grew rapidly and steadily, and by representatives of backward countries, such as the Spaniards, Rumanians and Russians, who were obliged to ponder and weigh their first steps. They all drew on the rich store of knowledge and experience of Engels in his old age.

Marx and Engels, who both knew Russian and read Russian books, took a lively interest in the country, followed the Russian revolutionary movement with sympathy and maintained contact with Russian revolutionaries. They both became socialists after being democrats, and the democratic feeling of hatred for political despotism was exceedingly strong in them. This direct political feeling, combined with a profound theoretical understanding of the connection between political despotism and economic oppression, and also their rich experience of life, made Marx and Engels uncommonly responsive politically. That is why the heroic struggle of the handful of Russian revolutionaries against the mighty tsarist government evoked a most sympathetic echo in the hearts of these tried revolutionaries. On the other hand, the tendency, for the sake of illusory economic advantages, to turn away from the most immediate and important task of the Russian socialists, namely, the winning of political freedom, naturally appeared suspicious to them and was even regarded by them as a direct betrayal of the great cause of the social revolution. “The emancipation of the workers must be the act of the working class itself” – Marx and Engels constantly taught. But in order to fight for its economic emancipation, the proletariat must win itself certain political rights. Moreover, Marx and Engels clearly saw that a political revolution in Russia would be of tremendous significance to the West-European working-class movement as well. Autocratic Russia had always been a bulwark of European reaction in general. The extraordinarily favourable international position enjoyed by Russia as a result of the war of 1870, which for a long time sowed discord between Germany and France, of course only enhanced the importance of autocratic Russia as a reactionary force. Only a free Russia, a Russia that had no need either to oppress the Poles, Finns, Germans, Armenians or any other small nations, or constantly to set France and Germany at loggerheads, would enable modern Europe, rid of the burden of war, to breathe freely, would weaken all the reactionary elements in Europe and strengthen the European working class. That was why Engels ardently desired the establishment of political freedom in Russia for the sake of the progress of the working-class movement in the West as well. In him the Russian revolutionaries have lost their best friend.

Let us always honour the memory of Frederick Engels, a great fighter and teacher of the proletariat!

Monday, August 3, 2009

HOMAGE TO COMRADE Subhash Chakrabarti


Comrade Subhas Chakrabarti was a popular leader who served the Party with dedication. His death is a loss for the Party and the working class movement in West Bengal.


Press Release

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) expresses deep grief at the passing away of Comrade Subhas Chakrabarti, member of the West Bengal State Secretariat, trade union leader and minister in the Left Front Government. Subhas Chakrabarti began his political activities from his school days when he joined the student movement in the late fifties. He was the all India General Secretary of the Students Federation of India between 1977 and 1979. He became a member of the West Bengal State Committee of the CPI(M) in 1971. During the period of semi-fascist terror in West Bengal, Subhas Chakrabarti boldly faced the attacks and organised the student and youth movement. Later he began working on the trade union front and he was till the end the Vice-President of the state CITU. Comrade Subhas Chakrabarti was a popular leader who served the Party with dedication. His death is a loss for the Party and the working class movement in West Bengal. The Polit Bureau conveys its heartfelt condolences to his wife, son and other members of the family.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

REMEMBERING COMRADE SURJEET


Prakash Karat

IT is a year since Comrade Harkishan Singh Surjeet died on August 1, 2008. With this came to an end an eventful life that made a big contribution to the Communist movement in the country.

Surjeet belonged to a generation in the Communist Party whose political activities spanned both the pre-independence period of the struggle against British imperialism and the subsequent post-independence era. His membership in the Congress party, the Congress Socialist Party and the Communist Party reflected his evolving political and ideological outlook.

His early work in organising the peasantry was motivated by the dual goal of drawing in the peasantry into the fight against imperialism and to spearhead the struggle against feudalism. His lifelong association with the peasant movement was based on the understanding that the tasks of the democratic revolution were not completed with independence in 1947.

The early experience of the tumultuous anti-imperialist movement in Punjab and the subsequent communal strife and division shaped his outlook in two areas -- firstly he developed an uncompromising stand against communalism. He was unwavering in his belief that communalism if it succeeds will spell the destruction of India as a modern secular State. Secondly, more than anybody else he understood the importance of national unity in the context of imperialism trying to break up and subvert big multinational states. He fought against all forms of communalism and the divisive separatist movements. This stemmed from his basic Marxist outlook that saw these forces as disruptive of the unity of the working class.

Surjeet made a valuable contribution in the struggle for establishing and defending the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism disavowing revisionist and sectarian positions. As the leader of the CPI(M) with the widest experience of the international communist movement, he played a key role in the period when the Soviet Union was dismantled and the setbacks to socialism occured. As general secretary, he steered the Party through a difficult period. He constantly stressed the need to creatively apply Marxism-Leninism to Indian conditions and not mechanically copy the model of other countries. Comrade Surjeet was a master tactician. He was the most skilled in creating opportunities by which political-tactical line of the Party could be advanced.

This skill was seen in the period when the Left sought to build an anti-Congress unity without compromising with the BJP in the period between 1987 and 1991 and later when a unity of secular parties had to be built against the BJP and the communal danger without allying with the Congress. If the idea of a third force in Indian politics against the Congress and the BJP emerged as a possibility in the late 1980’s and efforts were made to translate it into a viable proposition, much of the credit for this goes to the tireless and skillfull endeavours of Surjeet.

Surjeet was imbued with the spirit of internationalism. His firm commitment to fight imperialism and defend socialism never wavered even when an adverse situation developed in the early 1990s. Surjeet was the prime mover of the campaign to organise solidarity with Vietnam, Cuba and Palestine on different occasions.

What stood out in the life of Harkishan Singh Surjeet was his devotion and commitment to the Communist Party. He would expend all his energies and time to implement and make success all the Party's decisions. His only concern was how to develop the Party and advance the cause of the democratic revolution and socialism.

We deeply miss his presence at this juncture when the Party has to face many challenges. But we should be fortified in our resolve by the example he has set and the legacy he has left behind for us.
(Peoples Democracy)