Thursday, November 26, 2009

Food Security Act will create food insecurity: Prakash Karat


Bangalore: The proposed Food Security Bill by the Centre will only add to the existing food insecurity rather than improve access to food, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat has said.

Speaking at a mammoth rally organised by the Left parties here on Wednesday, he pointed out that the Bill had proposed giving rice or wheat at Rs. 3 a kg, while seven States in the country were already giving it at Rs. 2 a kg. He blamed the “Centre’s skewed policies” of allowing forward trading in essential commodities as the root cause of spiralling food prices.

The policies being pursued by the Centre were disastrous, he warned, even as agrarian crisis was deepening and food grain production plummeting.

The government had failed to see food as a fundamental human right even as India is home to the largest number of hungry and malnutrition people, he said. Hoping to sustain high growth even as price rise is eroding the lives of people was ridiculous, he added.

One of the principle demands put forth by the Left parties was universalising of the Public Distribution System.

Mining

Speaking on mining, Mr. Karat came down heavily on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for extending an invitation to foreign firms to invest in mining in India even as “illegal plundering and looting of mineral resources by India private companies” was on in full swing.

Mr. Karat said that the National Mineral and Mining Policy should be altered so that the mining sector was strictly regulated and ore used domestically. “Allowing short-term plunder” like at Bellary would exhaust all ore deposits within the next 30 years, he warned.

(courtesy : the hindu)

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

On Liberhan Commission Report


Press Statement
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
The Liberhan Commission which took 17 long years to complete its inquiry into the demolition of the Babri Masjid has made a clear and sharp indictment of the RSS, the BJP and other constituents of the sangh parivar. Several top BJP leaders have been named as being responsible for the crime committed. The report demolishes the defence put out by the BJP that it was a spontaneous movement which went out of control and lays bare the meticulous planning which went into the demolition. It shows the utter disregard for the Indian constitution by the BJP and the sangh parivar.

However the report fails to pinpoint the failure of the Central Government to take action at the appropriate time to prevent such a crime. In fact, as is well known, in spite of the repeated requests made by senior political leaders in the secular opposition at that time and the unanimous resolution of the National Integration Council asking the Narsimha Rao Government to take all measures to protect the Babri Masjid, it showed itself to be weak and vacillating in the face of the communal offensive. By giving a virtual clean chit to the then Central Government, the Commission has laid itself open to the charge of a political bias.

The nation now wants to know what action the Central Government is going to take. The Action Taken Report placed by the Government on the basis of some of the Commission’s recommendations is weak and inadequate. It displays a lack of political will to bring those responsible to justice. In the past also those who have been indicted by Commissions for communal violence have got off scot free as in the case of the Sri Krishna Commission report. It is incumbent on the Central Government to prosecute, within a timebound framework, all those named and to expedite the proceedings of the cases currently in the courts. The sangh parivar and its constituents far from showing any repentance are making efforts to use the report to once again rouse communal passions. People of this country will no doubt reject such sectarian politics.

Orissa State furthering interests of big firms: Left parties

BHUBANESWAR: Senior leaders of three major Left parties – Communist Party of India(Marxist), Communist Party of India, and Forward Bloc – on Tuesday lambasted the Naveen Patnaik Government for allegedly furthering the interest of big companies and neglecting the cause of the farmers of the State.

The leaders also blamed the United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre for its faulty agriculture policy and anti-farmer approach of Orissa government which were forcing farmers commit suicides.

The rally jointly organised by the three parties was addressed by CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan, and West Bengal Minister and Forward Bloc leader Naren Dey.

More than 2,50,000 farmers had committed suicide in the country during the past on decade due to the anti-farmer policies being pursued by the successive government, Mr. Karat said.


Price rise

The leaders also criticised the State government for handing over large patches of agricultural land to big companies such as Vedanta and Posco-India.

As regards the multi-crore mining scam, the leaders demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation be handed over the cases pertaining to the scam for investigation. All those involved in the looting of the State’s rich mineral resources should be brought to book, they said.

The leaders also came down heavily on both the Centre and the State government for their failure to curb price rise.


They further criticised the State government for it failure to ensure proper functioning of the public distribution system. All poor families should be issued below poverty line cards, they demanded.

The State level leaders of the three parties who addressed the rally demanded for revival of the Lift Irrigation Corporation to help the farmers. They also demanded land rights for the landless tribals and poor families.

Koothuparamba Martyrs Day

History Belongs to them, they were the FLAMES of Revolutions. They were the CRUSADERS against - Injustice, They fought against inequality incessantly. They rebelled the brutality of so called omnipotent powers that be. They sacrificed everything for the downtrodden and oppressed, And to tried to redeem them. They negates Autocracy, Feudalism Imperialism, Fanaticism and Inhumanity that came and to come. They will eternally remain in the golden pages of History. Everything else will be wiped off to oblivion SPARTACUS is the epitome for all those who fought against human servitude. Revolutionary scientific pioneers can be named by a single term GALILEO. Blood that shed at the streets of CHICAGO is the Symbol of Unconquered minds of the workers and peasants the world over.

Koothuparamba' is a symbol of historical struggle by the youth and students. It was a struggle against the imperialist policies and globalization propaganda of the government of Kerala. The incident happened on 25th November 1994 when the people gathered on the streets of Koothuparamba to protest against the privatization and commoditization of education. Police fired against the unarmed youth and students. Five brave and daring youths were shot dead in the police firing. Comrades K.K. Rajeevan, Madhu, Shibulal, Babu and Roshan have become the five stars of our movement against privatisation and commercialisation of education.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Orissa :Three Left parties criticise Naveen



Convention to be held on farmer suicides

Revival of Lift Irrigation Corporation demanded


BHUBANESWAR: The three major Left parties of the State on Friday came down heavily on the Naveen Patnaik Government and blamed it for the spate in farmers’ suicides in the State.

The three parties – Communist Party of India(Marxist), Communist Party of India, and Forward Bloc – also criticised the State government for going soft on those involved in the multi-crore illegal mining scam.

They announced that a State level convention will be held in the city on November 24 on the issues of farmer suicides, mining scam, drought and price rise.

Among the senior leaders who were scheduled to address the rally include CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan and Forward Bloc leader and West Bengal Minister Naren Dey. The leaders of the three parties said that the measures that the State government had announced after the farmers started committing suicide after suffering crop loss due to a bad monsoon and pest attack were not sufficient help the farmers.

The leaders who addressed the presspersons were CPI State Committee Secretary Dibakar Nayak, CPI(M) State Committee Member Santosh Das, and State Secretary of Forward Bloc Santosh Mitra.

They demanded that the State government immediately revive the Lift Irrigation Corporation that had been closed several years ago to increase the irrigation cover. About 12,000 of the total 15,000 lift irrigation points that existed in the State wee lying defunct, they informed.

The leaders also criticised the announcement of the State government that a large number of ponds would be established on agricultural land to help farmers irrigate their crops. “How will the scheme help when there was little rain,” they queried.

They further blamed the government for the decline in agricultural productivity in the State. The agricultural production had decreased with the government allowing the plunder of the mineral resources in the name of industrialisation, they said.

Courtesy : The Hindu

Socialism is the way forward


Mr. Yechury suggested that the time was ripe for international communist movements to intensify popular struggles and launch an offensive against the rule of capitalists.

Disputing the current approach in handling the international financial crisis and terming it as a typical capitalist solution, an international meeting of communist parties and workers on Friday advocated that socialism is the only way forward in the long run.

While tracing the genesis of the economic crisis, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury said it was neither the result of greed of some individuals nor an aberration but inherent to the dynamics of the capitalist system that is based on human exploitation.

Mr. Yechury suggested that the time was ripe for international communist movements to intensify popular struggles and launch an offensive against the rule of capitalists.

“This period has also seen the rising resistance to such growing imperialist hegemonic efforts. But it must be noted that much of the struggles launched by the working class and the exploited sections have essentially been defensive in nature… Resistance in the nature of mounting the assault on the rule of capital is yet to take a decisive shape. From this meeting a powerful call must go to all contingents of the international communist movement to intensify popular struggles to mount this assault on the rule of capital… Socialism is the only way…” he said.

Global crisis

On his part, the leader of the Communist Party of China delegation, Ai Ping felt that while many people blame the global financial crisis in the U.S. on speculation or on excessive lending, the crisis is no different from others in history which were caused by the inherent contradiction of capitalism.

New attacks and reordering the world for profit maximisation under the dictates of international finance capital, Mr. Yechury said defines neo-liberalism and how the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank imposed structural conditionalities while disbursing loans ensured compliance to neo-liberal reforms.

He said in the absence of a powerful political alternative, capitalism will emerge from this crisis but at the expense of further intensifying exploitation and through the process of accumulation through encroachment.

Mr. Ping informed delegates from 49 countries and 55 parties how China adjusted its macroeconomic policy, increased government spending to boost domestic demand and improve peoples’ lives which saw its GDP grow by 7.7 per cent this year.

In his address, CPI secretary Pallab Sengupta felt the most powerful peoples’ movement in the world today was aimed against the capitalist system for a world of social and economic justice and socialism.

Interestingly, vice chair of the Communist Party of the United States Scott Marshall narrated how the financial crisis was affecting the working class in his country. He said at a time when economists were declaring the recession was over, the U.S. was still losing around 2 lakh jobs. He saw fresh signs of labour solidarity and saw the election of President Barack Obama as opening the door for a new fight for economic justice, peace and equality.

The three-day meeting will conclude on Sunday with a public meeting where a declaration will be adopted.

Courtesy : The Hindu

Friday, November 20, 2009

11th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers Parties - 1st day

Press Release 1st Day

New Delhi: November 20, 2009

Intensify popular struggles and expand solidarities in the wake of current world capitalist crisis. This seems to be main direction emerging from discussions on the inaugural day of the 11th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers Parties, being jointly hosted by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India.
In the brief inaugural session, CPI(M) Polit Bureau Member and head of International Department of the Party, Sitaram Yechury presented the main theme of the meeting, 'The International Capitalist Crisis, the workers and people's struggle, the alternatives and the role of the communist and working class movement'. CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and CPI general secretary A B Bardhan were also present along with scores of other leaders from the Cps of the world.
The delegate session began at 12:15 a.m. Discussion began with countries of American continents. In pre-lunch session Oscar Martinez Cordoves (C P Cuba), Jose Reinaldo Carvalho ( C P doB), Patricio Echegaray ( C P Argentina), Antonio Pavel (C P Mexico) and Scott Marshll (C P USA) addressed the session. Manzurul Ahsan Khan (C P Bangladesh) also addressed the delegates.
All speakers from parties of Latin American countries underlined that for the progressive forces and processes in their region, the coming to power of Obama in USA does not indicate any favourable change. It represents only new and more intelligent tactic of Empire to stall the march of progressive forces in the region. They underlined various steps taken by US under Obama to strengthen forces of reaction in the region. The coup d'etat in Honduras was repeatedly mentioned in this context.
Cuban representative specifically debunked this media created impression that Obama administration has begun dismantling the half century old criminal blockade against Cuba. He underlined that Obama has powers but no political will to change US imperial methods. Scott Marshal of CP USA said that Obama's victory in the election was an outcome of the struggle to defeat the reactionary right regime of Bush. He also underlined the significance of largest US trade union organisation, AFL-CIO, rediscovering its working class roots, as represented by its 2009 convention.
CP Bangladesh representative underlined the fact that imperialism encouraged and supported fundamentalist and reactionary forces in their country, including the two year long military supported dictatorial rule, that working class and people of Bangladesh had to defeat to restore democracy in the country.
International meeting is to continue it's discussion in the evening session which would see Manik Sarkar speaking on behalf of CPI(M) and S Sudhakar Reddy of CPI, Ai Ping of Communist Party of China and Pak Gyong Son of Workers Party of Korea among others.

Socialism, the only alternative to global financial crisis: Yechury


Suggesting it is time for all international communist movements to intensify popular struggles and launch an offensive against the rule of capital, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury said socialist way should be the alternate in meet the global financial crisis.

``This period has also seen the rising resistance to such growing imperialist hegemonic efforts. But it must be noted that much of the struggles launched by the working class and the exploited sections have essentially been defensive in nature…Resistance in the nature of mounting the assault on the rule of capital is yet to take a decisive shape. From this meeting a powerful call must go to all contingents of the international communist movement to intensify popular struggles to mount this assault on the rule of capital…Socialism is the only way…’’ Mr. Yechury said.

The CPI (M) MP and Polit Bureau member said this at the inaugural session of the 11the International Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties’’ being attended by 55 delegates from 49 countries, and 55 parties. The meeting being held for the first time in India is co-hosted by the CPI and the CPI (M).

Remarking on the timing of the meet, he said, the ``capitalist’’ crisis that affected the world is neither the result of greed of some individuals nor an aberration but inherit to the dynamics of capitalist system that is based on human exploitation.

Forces of world socialism suffered reversal since the collapse of the Soviet Union and East European countries allowing imperialism to consolidate its hegemony in all sphere, he said noting that the growing resistance in parts of the world is yet to develop to the desired levels.

New attacks and reordering the world for profit maximisation under the dictates of international finance capital, Mr. Yechury said defines neo-liberalism. The first way is to have policies removing restrictions on the movement of goods and capital across border with trade liberalisation displacing domestic producers.

The second route is consolidating capital accumulation through deflationary policies by limiting government expenditure in the name of fiscal discipline, rolling back of State sector globally, that allows opening up of new areas for private accumulation.

``The structural conditionalities imposed by the International Monetary Fund and separately by the World Bank while disbursing loans ensured compliance to neo-liberal reforms’’, he said.

Mr. Yechury said in the absence of a powerful political alternative, capitalism will emerge from this crisis but at the expense of further intensifying exploitation and through the process of accumulation through encroachment.

While the current crisis would be overcome, he predicted a major systemic crisis for the world capitalism was in the offing and cautioned that the USA will try to thwart it by transferring the burdens. This would be done by intensifying exploitation through accompanying political and military might.

In his address, the CPI sectary Pallab Sengupta felt today the most powerful peoples’ movement in the world was aimed against the capitalist system for a world of social and economic justice and socialism.

Courtesy : The hindu

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Action sought against those hoarding essential commodities


Secretary of the State unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxists) V.J.K. Nair said here on Wednesday that the Government should ban forward trading in essential commodities to control price rise.

Addressing a joint conference of CPI (M) and Communist Party of India (CPI) workers on Price rise and food security at the Town Hall, he said that if the Government did not stop forward trading, prices of essential commodities would go beyond the reach of common man.

Mr. Nair said that people were finding it difficult to buy foodgrains owing to price rise. On the other hand, farmers were not getting any profit in spite of prices of foodgrains being high in the market. This indicated that middlemen were the actual beneficiaries, he said.

He alleged that multinational companies (MNCs) were making an all-out effort to control the Indian market and promote commercial crops. Mr. Nair said that the Government should take stringent action against those hoarding essential commodities.

He claimed that daily income of 70 per cent of the people in the country was not more than Rs. 20. In such a condition, it would be difficult to achieve economic stability, Mr. Nair added.

H. Vasantha Rai, member of the State committee of the CPI, said that the economic policy being implemented in the country was only making rich people richer and the poor poorer. It was a market-driven policy. Arjun Sengupta, chairman of National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector, in his report on social security, submitted to the Union Government, had stated that economic developments taken place in the country since the Independence had benefited only 30 per cent of the population. This indicated the direction on which the Indian economy was moving, he said.

He said that 35 lakh people had applied for 20,000 clerical posts in a nationalised bank recently. This showed the extent of unemployment in the country.

B. Madhava, president of the Dakshina Kannada unit of the CPI (M) said that the Government should address the nutrition problem being faced by workers in the country.

P. Sanjeeva, secretary of the district unit of the CPI, and K.R. Shreyan, State secretariat member of the CPI, were present
(Courtesy : The Hindu)

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Tribute To A Valiant Fighter : COMRADE BSR

The Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Saturday declared open the P. Srinivasa Rao Memorial at Thiruthuraipoondi in Tiruvarur district.

Srinivasa Rao was a freedom fighter and who also fought for the cause of farm labourers.

Mr. Stalin paid floral tributes to the portrait of Srinivasa Rao inside the building after its inauguration. The memorial has come up at a cost of Rs. 25 lakh. The Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi gave an assurance in the State Assembly on April 10, 2007 that a memorial will be constructed for Mr. Rao at Thiruthraipoondi in recognition of his services to society. Accordingly, the memorial has been constructed opposite the bus stand at Thiruthuraipoondi on the Tiruvarur-Thiruthuraipoondi road and handed over to the Information and Public Relations Department.

Comrade BSR was born in 1906 in south Canara area of Karnataka, part of erstwhile Madras presidency. After finishing his school education in his native place, he continued college education in Bangalore. Responding to the call of Mahatma Gandhi, Comrade BSR quit his college studies and joined the freedom movement. He was one among the leaders who picketed against the sale of foreign clothes in Madras city in the later part of the thirties. Comrade BSR became a member of the Communist Party in Tamilnadu along with P Ramamurthy, Jeevanandam and others. In fact, he was inspired by Amir Hyder Khan when they met in Trichy central prison during those times. At the time of his death, he was a member of the national council and the state secretariat of the Party.

In 1943, the Tamilnadu state committee of the Communist Party decided to send Comrade BSR to Thanjavur to mobilise the peasants and agricultural labourers. In the early part of the 20th century, there was a huge concentration of land in the hands of few landlords, Mutts and zamindars in Thanjavur district. The entire district was under the domination of the landlords and the economy and the lives of the people in the villages were under the iron grip of the landlords. Among all the districts of Tamilnadu, the age-old caste system and caste oppression of the dalits by caste Hindus was the worst in Thanjavur district compared to other districts in Tamilnadu. Majority of the dalits were pannayals (bonded labourers) in the 1940s. Majority of the cultivating tenants were caste Hindus. All the landlords were caste Hindus and some of them were from upper castes. The dalits had to face both feudal and caste oppression. In the 1930s there was a certain spontaneous upsurge among the dalit pannayals and tenants in East Thanjavur. In this background Comrade BSR was sent to Thanjavur to mobilise the peasants and agricultural labourers. When he went to Thanjavur he could speak Tamil but not read and write. Still he was successful in building a powerful communist and peasant movement in East Thanjavur. He was able to grasp the socio-economic situation in East Thanjavur then and dedicated himself to mobilising the oppressed people against caste and feudal oppression and also against the colonial rulers.

Comrade BSR was given a rousing reception at Kalappal village presided over by Kalappal Kuppusamy. (At the instigation of the landlords Kalappal Kuppusamy was poisoned to death in Trichy central prison in 1948) While thanking the organisers Comrade Srinivasa Rao said “You all were in mother’s womb for ten months and your mothers gave birth. Your landlord and their agents were also like that. You are also a human being like your landlords. Like them you also have two legs and two hands. What is the difference between you and them? If you are hit, hit them back. It is not only illegal to whip the pannayals and forcefully pour cow dung liquid into their mouth, it is inhuman too. If they try to impose punishment like this, you should chase them and attack them. If the goons come to attack, you tie them to a tree. If any one of you is attacked, the entire village should rise against the attack and defend you. Your unity and the strengthening of Kisan Sabha are more important. Hoist the Red flags in all the villages” This was how Comrade BSR spoke to the people. He ate with the dalits, stayed with them and spoke their language. In 1943 the first unit of the Kisan Sabha was formed in Thenparai village. Struggle against untouchability, struggle for wage increase and protection of tenants, and struggle for land began all over the district. Units of the Party and Kisan Sabha were formed in all the taluks of East Thanjavur. Besides this, Comrade BSR concentrated on developing cadre system in the Party.

The peasant movement had to face police repression. During 1948-51, the Communist Party and the peasant organisations were banned in these districts. Comrade BSR along with other leaders had to function underground in this period. Many a settlement was reached between the landlords and the Kisan Sabha abolishing the worst form of untouchability and for wage increase and other demands later.

He was able to build a strong leadership of Communist party in the districts consisting of people from both dalits and caste Hindus. In the 1952 assembly elections, the Communist Party won six assembly seats out of 19 seats in Thanjavur district. It is pertinent to note here that the undivided CPI won 14 seats in the entire state out of which six were from Thanjavur district.

On August 20, 1952, the Kisan Sabha held a conference against the eviction of tenants form the lands at Thiruthuraipoondi. About 60,000 tenants and pannayals attended the conference. Newly-elected Congress state government brought out an ordinance abolishing pannayals system and also protecting tenants from eviction. After the promulgation of Pannayals Protection Act (1952) the relationship between the landlords and the pannayals changed as landlords and agricultural labourers. As the situation changed, peasant movement raised new demands. Comrade BSR was not only an organiser of the movement in East Thanjavur but also the state general secretary of Tamilnadu Kisan Sabha. On his initiative, state-level picketing was organised by Kisan Sabha in 1961 demanding amendments to the land reforms legislation bill introduced by the state Congress government. He toured all over the state organising the picketing. Around 20,000 Kisan Sabha volunteers courted arrest. He was very frail and as he restlessly campaigned, he became ill and died on September 29, 1961.

Comrade BSR lived for 54 years and worked for 19 long years in East Thanjavur. His dedicated work contributed to the development of communist movement and peasant movement in not only East Thanjavur but all over the state. Though the dalits of East Thanjavur are still poor and economically backward, they are comparatively free from worst forms of caste oppression and untouchability. They earn agricultural wages above the level of minimum wages notified by the state government form time to time.

The relentless struggle of the dalits and downtrodden agricultural workers – who were subjected to innumerable insults and inhuman exploitation –against all odds even today, is only because of the kisan movement and the foundation of leadership provided by Comrade B Srinivasa Rao and others. Comrade B Srinivasa Rao is a legend even today in every hutment of East Thanjavur. He lives in the memory of his comrades-in-arms even today and would continue to glow in the memories of generations to come as a comrade who broke the back of the feudal oppression and class exploitation. The opening of his memorial is a fitting tribute to his memory and to remind the younger generation to keep the vigil till the bourgeoisie-landlord social order is razed to the ground.


DYFI for making Karnataka State hunger free

Convention to be held in Bangalore on November 25

‘Union Government adopting an anti-poor stance’


The State unit president of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), N.L. Bharatraj, announced here on Tuesday that the DYFI would organise a convention in Bangalore on November 25 to urge the Government to make Karnataka a hunger-free State and check the rising prices of essential commodities.

He was speaking to presspersons here. The Government should provide rice/wheat up to 35 kg for every poor family at Rs. 2 a kg every month, Mr. Bharatraj demanded.

The B.S. Yeddyurappa Government should follow the Kerala model where 14 commodities, including oil, detergents and cloth, were sold in ration shops under the Public Distribution System, he said. The Kerala Government had opened over 4,000 shops to sell various products at lower than the market price for the benefit of the poor, he added.

Mr. Bharatraj accused the Union Government of adopting an anti-poor stance, and said it helped the large corporate companies with huge concessions in tax every year. The unit system introduced by the State Government in fair price shops should be scrapped, Mr. Bharatraj demanded.

The DYFI would fight for more effective public distribution system, ensuring food security to the poor, restricting retail multinational chains, punishing hoarders, ensuring effective functioning of midday meal scheme, enhancing daily food allowance to students in SC/ST and BCM hostels, bringing down prices of petrol and diesel, taking up rehabilitation of the flood-affected people in the State and increasing the wage under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act to Rs. 150 by removing the 100-day cap, Mr. Bharatraj said.

Organisations such as the Karnataka Pranta Raitha Sangha, Centre of Indian Trade Unions, Janawadi Mahila Sanghatane, Krishi Koolikarara Sangha, and Students Federation of India had extended support to the State-level convention, he added.

Secretary of the Kodagu unit of the DYFI P.R. Bharat criticised the Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC), and said that power failures and unscheduled power cuts had become common in the district.

(courtesy : the hindu)

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Micro Finance Sector Development and Regulation Bill : AIDWA demands wider consultations

The Union Government should hold wider consultation with different stakeholders before coming out with the planned Micro Finance Sector Development and Regulation Bill if it should really benefit the women SHG movement, according to All India Democratic Women’s Association general secretary Sudha Sundararaman. Interest cap

“The Bill being formulated now is only beneficial to the private micro financial institutions and is not addressing the demands of women SHG members for a cap on interest levied,” she said.

Ms. Sundararaman was talking to reporters here on the sidelines of the special state conference organised by AIDWA for women SHGs here on Tuesday.

According to her, the Bill should go through process of re-drafting to erase the fundamental flaws in it before got implemented.

On interest ceiling, Ms. Sundararaman said that the government should mention it in the Bill instead of allowing the private micro finance institutions to determine the rates of interest on the credit extended, which could be detrimental to the interests of women.

The interest ceiling fixed should be ‘realistic’ and ‘affordable’ to the women SHG members.

Allocation

She said that it was indeed a pity that the Centre had cut short the allocation towards the corpus created under the head of ‘Rashtriya Mahila Kosh’ (also known as National Credit Fund for Women) for this financial year vis-À-vis last fiscal.

Instead, the Centre should have made more budgetary allocation to help skill development of women and support to market the produces made by women SHG members at remunerative prices.

Criticises practice

She also criticised the practice of certain State Governments of using the SHG to operate fair price shops and anganwadis just to ‘pass the responsibility.’

“If SHG welfare is the real aim, the groups should be given assistance for capital and operational expenditures,” she said.

Ms. Sundararaman wanted the Tamil Nadu Government to take a leaf out of the successfully implemented ‘Kudumbashree’ initiative in Kerala, which credit linked poor households with the banks.

AIDWA state general secretary U. Vasuki was present.

(Courtesy : The Hindu)

Karunanidhi belittling Bengal’s efforts: N.Varadarajan

CPI (M) State Secretary N.Varadarajan said West Bengal had re-distributed at least 30,000 acres in 2006-2007 as part of implementation of the Land Ceiling Act, in response to Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi’s statement that Tamil Nadu’s track record in land reforms is comparable with that of West Bengal.

Mr. Karunanidhi himself had made the statement earlier in response to Mr. Varadarajan’s observation that the Mandal Commission had recognised West Bengal’s achievement in land reforms. The CPI (M) State secretary said Mr.Karunanidhi was belittling West Bengal’s efforts.

West Bengal’s contribution to redistribution of lands was 21 per cent of the country’s effort.

The total number of beneficiaries was 28 lakhs, he said in a statement.

In 1990, a total of 95,000 acres were taken over by the government and 94,000 acres were redistributed.

Post-1991, after the economic liberalisation policies came into effect, land redistribution had nearly come to a stop in the country, but West Bengal continued.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Don’t portray land retrieval movement as law and order issue: N. Varadarajan


CPI (M) State secretary N. Varadarajan on Monday asked Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi not to portray the ‘land retrieval movement’ to reclaim the government lands allegedly held by Karnataka Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran as a law and order issue.

He also rejected the Chief Minister’s accusation that the CPI (M) was concentrating more on Mr. Justice Dinakaran’s land while adopting a silent attitude towards former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s holding in Siruthavur.

“The Siruthavur issue is lying idle because Justice Sivasubramanian, who was probing the land grabbing allegations, has been given additional responsibilities. The CPI (M) cannot be held responsible for it.

As regards the Chief Minister’s allegation that the CPI (M) was adopting double standards, one for Tamil Nadu and another for West Bengal, he said West Bengal’s achievement in land reforms had been recognised by Mandal Commission.

(Courtesy : The Hindu, Photos : Gavaskar Theekathir)

Monday, November 9, 2009

Maoists will be driven out :Buddhadeb Bhattacharya


“I will rid West Bengal of Maoists’ presence,” vowed Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at a rally at Debra on Sunday.

He was winding up a two-day visit to West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district.

On the progress of the joint operations by security forces to flush out Maoists from the Lalgarh area, Mr. Bhattacharjee said: “It is not easy to establish control over such a vast area. We are now controlling the area. Now, we are entering the villages and forest area.”

So far the joint forces have been able to recover control over nearly 12 police stations, he told journalists at Midnapore earlier. “It is commendable, but still we have to improve our performance,” he added.

On the possibility of holding talks with the Maoists, he said, “the question doesn’t arise. They must abjure violence and surrender arms.”

On being asked about the need for increasing the deployment of security forces, he said that earlier there were 17 companies in the area and the Centre sent an additional six companies. “It is enough for our operations.”

Mr. Bhattacharjee also assured that schools in which police camps were set up would be vacated by November 15.

His remarks came after meetings held over two days with the district authorities of the three Maoist-affected districts of West Bengal – Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia.

Mr. Bhattacharjee, alleged at Debra that the Trinamool Congress was working together with the Maoists in a bid to overpower the CPI(M).

“While the Central government has described the Maoists as the biggest threat to internal security, one of the constituting political parties (Trinamool Congress) is aiding them,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said.

“The Trinamool Congress is leading their (Maoist’s) way – pointing out our party offices, leaders and workers so that they can be attacked,” he said.

The Maoists, whom he described as an “army of killers,” don’t have the benefit of the poor in mind, he said. “Maoists can only extort money from people or force them to come for rallies by pointing a gun at them.”

OCTOBER REVOLUTION MEMORIAL RALLY


7 November in Moscow held a march and rally in honor of 92-th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution.The action, which was held under the slogan: "the ideas of Marx and Engels, Lenin and Stalin - to live and win!", "Stop the genocide of the people!", "Capitalism - the dustbin of history!", Brought together more than fifteen thousand people.



Speech by President of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, GA Zyuganov at a rally on November 7 in Moscow.
Dear friends
The twentieth century - a century of the Great October Revolution, the age of Lenin and Stalin. This is the century of the Soviet Union and our Great Victory in May 45 th!
In the twentieth century was born a real social justice, and our country first broke into the Cosmos. We have created strategic nuclear parity and have protected the planet from nuclear war. But as soon as our leaders have betrayed the ideals of the October Revolution, Friendship of Peoples and Justice, the disaster. Over the past twenty years under Vlasov's flag country has not achieved a single victory. And the authorities have made some terrible crimes.
The crime of the first associated with the loss of great power and vast territories, which we collected nearly a thousand years.
The crime of the second - the destruction of 70 thousand enterprises and entire industries, without which we have no future.
The crime of the third due to the loss of security and defense. Since Peter the Great nearly three hundred years, we have a great military power, and now leading a wretched existence.
Next crime - is the loss of social achievements, which gave the Great October Revolution, from the universal and free education to secure old age.
We believe that one of the most serious crimes is the dismemberment of the Russian people and the loss of the ideals for which we fought for hundreds of years.
Charges for these crimes formally charged the current authorities at the last plenum of the Central Committee. believe that the course which was held for twenty years, should be recognized as criminal and illegal. his conduct of the citizens to give their consent. March 1991 a referendum the people entrusted to preserve a Union government and protect the socialist homeland.
Today, the situation for our country is becoming increasingly complicated. The crisis has highlighted the flaws of the current bandit-capitalist system, which has no future. Two previous global crisis ended two world wars. In the first case, our country saved the Great October Revolution, and the second - victory in May 45 th.
the planet is writhing in agony. Nearly 200 countries fall into the abyss of the crisis, and only 12 states, led by socialist China, showing growth on the basis of the current year. China, the growth rate of 6-8%, followed by the socialist Vietnam - 6%, and more brotherly Belarus. Regarding the so-called Western democracies, then they fall on all counts. But in the deepest hole was Russia. She dragged there personnel stubs of Yeltsin's team, which picked Putin. have a decline in GDP - 11%, industrial production - 16% of the light and textile industry - 26% of manufacturing - 21%. Stopped almost all conveyors and blast furnaces. Today, the country's 8 million unemployed, and at the end of the year will be 10 million. Therefore, we believe that this course is a criminal and should be revised.
The current composition of the government is unable to solve the challenges it faces. Even President Medvedev recently was forced to admit that the country has come to a complete standstill, that the comprador bourgeoisie does not want to produce products and develop production. It trades in raw materials and imported products. on our shelves 80% of foreign consumer goods. We go to Chinese pants, smell, Dutch flowers, eat Turkish apples. And our producers thrown out of the economic relations. State even bread can not buy from the peasants.
We believe that those who in the government led by key sectors, should resign. a new budget represents Kudrin, who last year claimed that everything will be fine, but Russia will remain a safe haven. Actually profukali $ 200 billion, almost a third of the gold stocks.
Russia's economy led the group "liberals", who continue to believe that only the free market will adjust everything. Armed Forces, military industry, defense order disposes of the "general tubaretkin" who does not understand anything in military affairs, and not even the commander of the battalion. of Education Fursenko brought us "woman-egeyku" actually ruined classical Russian and Soviet school.
We offer a country other policies related to Creatrix under the light of the ideas of the Great October Revolution. Its essence is this: we can now accumulate huge amounts of money for the revival of production, social programs, free education and healthcare. To do this in the near future to hold a referendum on the nationalization of the mineral resource base. will belong to the people, all must receive the income from what we mine, and not only 15 of oligarchic clans. Incidentally, none of the Russian oligarchs in the course of the crisis has not shown that an effective owner.
We believe that the key sectors that determine the pricing, should be controlled by the state.
We believe that we must urgently decide on the establishment of four state banks: the Central, construction, industrial and agricultural.
Should guarantee everyone a living wage, decent wages and pensions.
$ 200 billion, which still remained from the 420, available before the crisis should be immediately invested in the real sector of production.
We are confident that we can correct the situation. But for this we need to establish a broad national-patriotic union, headed by the Communist Party. Today with us at the headquarters of protest action by trade unions and women's organizations, students and youth, veterans and military-patriotic movement.
Young people are now actively join in the party, participate in our work. year's Red Square, we tied three thousand pioneering tie. I want to express special thanks to our young people, faithful to the ideas of October, and to congratulate her on a holiday!
Dear friends
We - the people of Victory. its history we are almost seven hundred years spent in battles and campaigns. tasted teeth all: Germans, Frenchmen, Englishmen, Finns, Hungarians, Turks, Persians. Entente forces fourteen states tried to strangle the young Soviet republic.
Today, all TV channels are trying to debase, to sling mud at Lenin, Stalin, and our history. But Lenin was a brilliant politician on earth. He created a progressive ideology, organized a great party. He revived zero five million army. Lenin the four years proposed four policy options: from War Communism to NEP and electrification plan. He is a short time has led the country from Kerensky, who measured the meters, the gold pieces. Lenin was able to re-unite the power.
Country under the banner of Lenin and Stalin headed for ten years has built six thousand factories and won a great victory. the next decade, we have managed to create a nuclear-missile shield, and then break into the Cosmos.
Dear Comrades
Without ideals of October, without justice, without the friendship of peoples, without respect for human labor in our state have no future.
Long live the Great October Revolution, long live socialism, long live the new victory!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

November Revolution’s Lessons Are Relevant To Date


92 ANNIVERSARY OF GREAT OCTOBER SOCIALIST REVOLUTION

Sukomal Sen

THE November Socialist Revolution, which occurred in Russia on October 17, 1917 according to the old Russian calendar and on November 7 according to the revised calendar, was not only a world-shaking event; it has relevance also in today’s world that is passing through an unprecedented crisis of world capitalism and grave recession. The latest world crisis of capitalism completed its first anniversary on September 15 this year and its impact on the working class and the poor of any capitalist country is yet to fully unfold. This world crisis has added to the practical importance of the November revolution.

Today, imperialism is recklessly sharpening its destructive war machine and threatening the entire world with its hegemonistic designs by sheer force or by diplomacy. In its ruthless pursuit of profit, the imperialists have designed the neo-liberal economic model to dominate the world market and deepen the exploitation of the working class and common people.

It was Russia which, in 1917, broke the weakest link in the capitalist chain and was the first country in the capitalist world to establish the rule of the working class. The most important aspect of the Russian Revolution was that it put an end to the exploitative rule of the bourgeoisie.

If the Soviet socialist state came to an end in 1991, it was because of grave distortions and deviations from the basic tenets of Marxism. Marxists all over the world are engaged in finding out its causes.


MARX’S THEORY OF REVOLUTION

How revolutionary changes take place? According to Marx, the contradiction that develops within a class society, between the developing productive forces and the existing property forms, constitutes the key to instability and revolutionary change. It is in these terms that the rise and fall of the ancient and feudal modes of production and the development of the capitalist mode could all be understood. The most visible sign of this contradiction under capitalism was to be found in “the epidemics of overproduction” and economic crisis, bringing into bold relief the incompatibility between the social character of production and the system of private appropriation. Marx originally thought that revolutions against capitalism would arise in the most developed capitalist countries, such as Britain, France and Germany. Late in his life, however, he looked to less developed countries on the periphery of the capitalist world, particularly Russia, which he hoped would serve as a detonator for revolution within the core of the system. This pointed towards the idea, widespread in the twentieth century, that the system would tend to break down at its weakest link --- in the underdeveloped or “backward” nations.

The ingenuity of Lenin was that under his leadership the Bolshevik Party identified and attacked this “weakest link” and successfully organised a revolution in Russia, a capitalistically backward country.

The theory of revolution is the concentrated expression of Marx’s view of historical development, that is, of the sequence of social formations in history. In their struggle for a living and in their interaction with nature, men develop certain instruments, tools, forms of division of labour and experiences, which Marx described as productive forces. Then he described as production relations the relations governing men’s existence, which are essentially dependent on who owns the means of production. He saw the driving force of social development in the historical tendency towards establishing production relations (or property relations) which correspond to the level of development and the character of productive forces at any time. In this “law of motion of history” --- always activated by social classes whose interests coincide with the developing tendency --- he saw the key to understanding the sequence of the various forms of social order (primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism), though not quite according to the simple linear scheme later to be drawn in various textbooks of Marxism. On the evidence of the transition from feudalism to capitalism, of bourgeois revolutions (one might say of West European history in general), he methodically and concretely modified the law of historical motion and with it the theory of socialist revolution. In his Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy he expanded the particular to the general as to how an epoch of revolution begins.

Marx assumed, both in Communist Manifesto and in Capital, that the recurrent capitalist crises would become continually more violent and all-embracing. In these “epidemics of overproduction,” the social character of production revolts against capitalist property relations and demands social ownership of the means of production.

Economic crises bring this conflict into the open. According to Marx, “The ultimate reason for all real crises always remains the poverty and restricted consumption of the masses as opposed to the drive of capitalist production to develop the productive forces as though only the absolute consuming power of society constituted their limit.”

Let us recall another passage in Capital:

“The monopoly of capital becomes a fetter upon the mode of production, which has sprung up and flourished along with, and under it. Centralization of the means of production and socialisation of labour at last reach a point where they become incompatible with their capitalist integument. This integument is burst asunder. The knell of capitalist private property sounds. The expropriators are expropriated.”

But the transition to socialism is not automatic. It is enforced by the revolution of the working class, for it is this class, itself “the greatest productive force,” which suffers more than any other from the conflict between the productive forces and production relations. The socialisation of the means of production is of special interest to the working class which has “to set free the elements of the new society with which old collapsing bourgeois society itself is pregnant.”

PROLETARIAN DICTATORSHIP

For the state to be created after smashing the centralist, parasitic state apparatus, a state led by the working class and one which gradually socialises the means of production, Marx used the term “dictatorship of the proletariat.” Within this concept was implicit the vision of grand struggles and victories, and also of increasing democracy for the mass of the population. Marx wrote to his friend Josef Weydemeyer on March 5, 1852:

“And now as to myself, no credit is due to me for discovering the existence of classes in modern society, nor yet the struggle between them. Long before me, bourgeois historians had described the historical development of this struggle of the classes and bourgeois economists the economic anatomy of the classes. What I did that was new was to prove: (1) that the existence of classes is only bound up with particular historical phases in the development of production: (2) that the class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat: (3) that this dictatorship itself only constitutes the transition to the abolition of all classes and to a classless society.”

Marx’s concept of the state under the leadership of the working class and the functions of such a state was further elaborated in the light of the events in France from 1848 to 1852, and made more concrete by the Paris Commune of 1871. He regarded the short-lived Paris Commune as the first case of a workers’ government, which by its practical actions and the measures it adopted had proved that the transition to socialism is bound up with a fundamentally new state system. Such a state system is no longer a state in the old sense of the word, because, after the smashing of the old state apparatus, it develops forms of popular control over the executive and the bureaucracy which correspond to the vision of the abolition of all central political power. In The Civil War in France, which appeared immediately after the defeat of the Paris Commune, we read that the nineteenth century saw the development of “centralised state power, with its ubiquitous organs of standing army, police, bureaucracy, clergy and judicature” --- a power whose origins went back to the Middle Ages. With the intensification of class antagonism between capital and labour, the state power more and more assumed the character of a national power of capital over labour, of a public force organised for social enslavement, of an engine of class despotism. After every revolution marking a progressive phase in the class struggle, the purely repressive character of the state power stands out in bolder and bolder relief.

AGENCY OF SOCIAL CHANGE TODAY

But which is the agency of social transformation today? For that, we have to look to the word “proletariat” as summed up at the time of Marx. At that time, the word often meant industrial proletariat. The industrial working classes are on the whole manual workers, from mining to various branches of industrial production. To confine the social agency of change to manual workers was, obviously, not Marx’s own position. Marx was very far from thinking that the concept of “manual workers” would provide an adequate framework of explanation of what is required for radical social change. We must recall that he was talking about how through the polarisation of society ever greater numbers of people are “proletarianised.” So, it is the process of proletarianisation --- inseparable from the global unfolding of the capitalist system --- that defines and ultimately settles the issue. That is to say, the question is how the overwhelming majority of individuals fall into a condition whereby they lose all possibilities of control of their lives, and in that sense become proletarianised. Thus, again, everything comes down to the question of “who is in control” of the social production process when the overwhelming majority of individuals are “proletarianised,” whether they are working in financial institutions, government machinery, commercial institutions and even the modern InfoTech and other mot modern and automated industries. For every one of them serves the interests of capital and is degraded to the condition of utter powerlessness, just as the most wretched members of society --- the “proletarians” --- were at an earlier phase of development.

There are degrees and possibilities of control, up to a certain point in capital’s history, which means that some sections of the population are more in control than others. In fact, in one of the chapters of Capital, Marx was describing the capitalist enterprise as almost a military operation in which you have officers and sergeants, and the foremen overseeing and regulating the direct labour force on the authority of capital. Ultimately, all of the control processes are under the authority of capital, but with certain leverages and possibilities of limited autonomy assigned to the particular overseeing sections. Now, when we talk about advancing “proletarianisation,” it implies a levelling down and the negation of even the most limited autonomy some groups of people formerly enjoyed in the labour process.

We can just think of the once sharply stressed distinction between “white collar” and “blue collar” workers. As we know, propagandists of the capital system who dominate the cultural and intellectual processes like to use this distinction as yet another refutation of Marx. They argue that in modern societies blue collar manual work altogether disappears, and the white collar workers, who are supposed to enjoy a much greater job security (which happens to be a complete fiction), are elevated to the “middle classes” (another fiction). But even about the postulated disappearance of blue collar workers, we would say bourgeois intellectuals may hold on but not so fast! For if we look around the world and focus on the crucial category of the ‘totality of labour,’ you find that the overwhelming majority of labour still remains what one might describe as ‘blue collar.’ In this respect, it is enough to look upon the hundreds of millions of blue collar workers in India, for instance.

DEVELOPMENT OF MARX’S FRAMEWORK

The Marxian historical framework undergoes development with the change of time. Marx was writing in the middle of the nineteenth century and died in 1883. Things have changed immeasurably since then. The tendencies of transformation, which we witnessed in the recent past, with their roots going back to the first few decades of our century, are of such character as Marx could not even dream about. Above all, this concerns the way in which capitalism could adjust and renew itself, so as to postpone the maturation of its antagonistic contradictions. Marx was not in a situation to assess the various modalities and the ultimate limitations of state intervention in prolonging the lifespan of this system. A key figure in the twentieth century economics was John Maynard Keynes whose aim was to save the system through the injection of massive state funds for the benefit of private capitalist enterprise, so as to regulate the overall production process within the framework of undisturbed capital accumulation.

However, of late, “monetarism” and “neo-liberalism” have pushed Keynes aside and are out to do away with state intervention altogether, thinking of “rolling back the boundaries of the state.” But, in reality, nothing could be worse than such self-serving fantasies; the need of the state in contemporary capitalist system is greater than ever before, including the time of the two and a half decades of Keynesian precepts in the capitalistically advanced countries. The present crisis of world capitalism confirms this point. This kind of development is totally new, as compared to Marx’s lifetime; massive historical changes have indeed occurred since Marx.

To mention yet another important consideration in regard to this question, Marx was to an extent already aware of the “ecological problem,’ i.e. the problems of ecology under the rule of capital and the dangers implicit in it for human survival; in fact he was the first to conceptualise it. He did talk of pollution and insisted that the logic of capital --- in its pursuit of profit in accordance with the dynamic of self-expansion and capital accumulation --- cannot have any consideration for human values and even for human survival.

In March 1998, the world celebrated the 150th anniversary of The Communist Manifesto. The question is: has humanity got another 150 years to go? Certainly not, if capitalism survives. What we have to face is either total catastrophe due to this system’s monstrous exploitation and wastefulness, or humanity must find a radically different way of regulating its social metabolism. Rosa Luxemburg once warned the communist movement by posing the choice: Socialism or barbarism!

SIGNIFICANCE OF CLASS STRUGGLE

The state sanctifies acquired wealth and privilege, defending them against the communist tradition of earlier societies and creating conditions in which private fortunes and inequality increase. “Because the state arose from the need to hold class antagonisms in check, but because it arose, at the same time, amid the conflict of these classes, it is as a rule the state of the most powerful, economically dominant class, which through the medium of the state, becomes also politically dominant, and thus acquires new means of holding down and exploiting the oppressed class” (Frederich Engels, Origin of Family, Private Property & State, Chapter IX).

The implication of Engel’s analysis here is that any government, whatever be its complexion, seeks to limit the class struggle or opposes the workers’ militant protest, and thus it ultimately helps the capitalists to protect their privilege of property and their exploitation of the workers.

Moreover, depending too much on the bureaucratic state machine, a government ultimately serves the interests of capital.

The Marxist concept of revolution retains its validity for a profound ongoing revolutionary transformation of all facets of social life. One must not take the concept of revolution to mean “one big push that settles everything once and for all,” nourishing the illusion that you win if you cut off a few heads. To Marx, revolution always and meant a “social revolution.” No doubt, it is relatively easy to break a few heads, to kill some people in a “big push” to overturn something; and this is what the Maoists operating in India mean by a revolution. But this is not certainly what Marx meant by the term.

But we know from bitter experiences that it did not work in the past and it cannot work now. So we have to go back to what Marx said about social revolution, we must also point out that this concept of the social revolution. Originally, it was a concept that emerged from Babeuf and his movement during the turbulent aftermath of the 1789 French Revolution. Babeuf’s group was then accused of a “conspiracy” and he was executed at that time, while in reality he was pressing for “a society of equals.” The same concept reappeared in the 1830s and during the revolution of 1848. In those times of revolutionary upheaval, the idea of “social revolution” was in the foreground and Marx very rightly embraced it.

In a radical social transformation, the new mode of controlling the social metabolism must embrace every segment of society. In this sense the concept of revolution remains as valid today as ever before. A revolution, in this sense, not only eradicates but also implants. Creation is as much a part of this process as destruction. Marx once said becoming “radical” meant “to grasp matters at their roots.” This meaning of being radical it retains its validity as a pert of the concept of social revolution.

The Marxian concept of social revolution holds its relevance for the revolutionary struggle in India also. Any deviation from this concept is bound to cause untold harms to the revolutionary process.

At is true that the Soviet setback in 1991 gripped the world communist movement into an ideological bewilderment and many communist parties are still to recover from that shock. Some of the parties have turned social democratic, opposing the concept of class struggle and believing in ‘enlightened capitalism,’ or ‘globalisation with a human face’ etc. In fact, it means hindering the revolutionary developments and in the end serving the interests of capital, at a time when world capitalism is tottering under the grave shock of an unprecedented crisis.

Thus the lesson of November Revolution in today’s world is to unwaveringly adhere to the Marxist concept of social revolution and advance the revolution struggles in the respective countries.
(peoples democracy)

Friday, November 6, 2009

Cancel Disinvestment :- Left Parties

The Left parties strongly condemn the decision of the Union Cabinet to disinvest shares in all profitable public sector units, listed and unlisted, to the extent of 10 per cent.
The government has also declared its intention to bring down the government's stake in these enterprises to 51 per cent. By this, the Congress-led government has laid out a road map for the privatisation of the public sector units as it will require only a small step to bring down the government stake to a minority i.e. below 50 per cent.
The government is undertaking this measure under the fraudulent pretext of ensuring "people's participation" in the public sector.
The government has gone back on its previous commitments. Shares of the navaratna companies are being put on the block for sale. Further, the government had committed not to utilise the corpus accruing through the sale of shares in the National Investment Fund, only the interest on the funds were to be utilised. Now with a sleight of hand this has been suspended for three years so that the proceeds from disinvestment can be utilised for meeting the fiscal deficit. The plea that this fund will be utilised for social sector programmes is an eyewash.
The Manmohan Singh government has embarked on this patently anti-national step along with measures to remove the cap of FDI in various sectors and open up more areas to foreign capital including vital sectors like the media.
The Left parties appeal to all patriotic forces and political parties to demand cancellation of the disinvestment measures.
The Left parties will chalk out plans to organise strong resistance to the privatisation moves. It will actively mobilise and lend support to the struggles of the public sector employees and the working class against disinvestment.

Prakash Karat
A.B. Bardhan
General Secretary, CPI(M)
General Secretary, CPI
T.J. Chandrachoodan
Debabrata Biswas
General Secretary, RSP
General Secretary, AIFB

Thursday, November 5, 2009

POLITICAL PATRONAGE TO MAOISTS

Editorial - Peoples Democracy
Probe This Nexus!

THE Maoists have staged a daring stoppage of the Bhubaneswar-Delhi Rajdhani in the Jhargram-Kharagpur section, near Banstala station and holding it for over five hours. Mercifully, there were no casualties, thanks to the joint operations conducted by the security forces which resulted in the safety of the passengers and the release of the train. From the graffiti on the train, scripted by no hapless tribal but by someone well heeled, it can be inferred that this was done to demand the release of Chhatradhar Mahato, leader of the Maoist-backed People's Action Committee against Police Atrocities, recently arrested by the police.

The whole incident raises many questions that need to be probed. All those who have travelled by Rajdhanis or Shatabdis know that the train hurtles at speeds of around 120 kilometers per hour and even when obstructions are noticed on the track, application of emergency breaks would lead to damage to both the tracks and the train. In this case, however, the train peacefully ground to a halt.

The minister of Railway's first reaction, typical of the usual hyperbole and absurdity, was that the CPI(M) cadre had blocked the train to malign her image! However, when the graffiti exposed the perpetrators of this outrage as belonging to the Maoists, the minister expressed her desire for a dialogue and even conveyed to those holding the train hostage to suggest a venue! Further, one of the Trinamool Congress ministers in the union cabinet, Sishir Adhikary, soon after the incident, boasted to the media that he had prior knowledge that such an attack would take place. Surely, the prime minister needs to probe the source of such `knowledge' by his ministerial colleague and inform the nation.

The collaboration of the Trinamool Congress with the Maoists has been detailed in these columns earlier as well. Chhatradhar Mahato was a local Trinamool leader before becoming the head of the so-called People's Committee. The self-declared and publicity hungry spokesman of the Maoists, Kishenji, had earlier declared to the media that the Maoists wish to see Ms Mamata Banerjee as the future chief minister of Bengal. He has also suggested that as they had helped the Trinamool earlier in Nandigram and now in Lalgarh, they expect the Trinamool to return the favour. Clearly, this has once again confirmed that the Maoists began their operations in Bengal under the political patronage and protection provided by the Trinamool.

It is precisely due to this political collaboration between the two that the Trinamool, till we go to press, has not condemned this Maoist outrage of stopping and damaging the train. It is again precisely due to this political arrangement between the two that the Trinamool Congress has been asking for the withdrawal of the central forces in the operations against Maoist terror in Bengal. Ironically, such blatant support for the Maoists and their terrorist activities comes from a party that is in that very union cabinet headed by the prime minister who on repeated occasions had stated that Maoist violence constitutes the gravest threat to India's internal security. The tragedy for the country is that this UPA government is continuing, displaying no discomfort, despite such a blatant contradiction. The prime minister owes an explanation to the country on this score.

In the meanwhile, there are reports of growing unrest and insecurity amongst the railway employees. A leader of the Railway Men's Union in Purulia has expressed grave doubts on the security of railway personnel who are not being provided adequate forces to protect themselves from growing Maoist attacks on railway stations, tracks and other railway facilities. The situation will not improve, they feel, as long as the Trinamool chief is the Railway minister because of the close political collaboration between them.

These are issues that warrant a serious probe. Can the safety of the Indian Railways, one of the most important instruments of our country's unity and integrity, be jeopardised at the altar of crass political opportunism of protecting and patronising the Maoists? And, consequently, permit the Maoists to mount grave threats to our country's internal security? The prime minister and this UPA-2 government need to assure the people that India's internal security is not being compromised. A thorough investigation into all these issues must be urgently ordered and those culpable of damaging the interests of our country that threaten the lives of the innocent people must be made accountable.

(28 October, 2009)