Image Courtesy: Velivada
As appeared in www.saag.org
The Maoists of Asia look upon the year 2006 as an important landmark in their joint struggle against what they project as American imperialism, Chinese revisionism and Indian comprador capitalism. This is because the 50th anniversary of what they describe as the joint struggle of the peasants, workers and other exploited sections of the world against modern revisionism falls this year.
2. According to them, Mao Zedong launched this struggle after the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party in 1956 in which Nikita Khrushchev, the then General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, criticised the policies pursued by Stalin. They say that this struggle against revisionism reached a new and higher level when the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was launched by Mao in May 1966, but since the death of Mao in September 1976, the struggling masses of the world “have been confronted with the betrayal of socialism and the restoration of capitalism in China.”
3. In a joint statement disseminated through the Internet to mark the 50th anniversary, the Communist Party of India (Maoist), the Communist Party of the Philippines, the Communist Party of Turkey (Marxist-Leninist) and the Communist League of Indonesia have strongly criticised the post-Mao Chinese leadership for betraying the ideology of Mao and for taking China on the road to capitalism.
4. The statement says: ” For as long as Comrade Mao was alive, he was able to lead the Chinese proletariat and people from victory to victory in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution against tremendous odds and against powerful adversaries. But soon after his death, the enemies of the Chinese proletariat and people made a coup and reversed his proletarian revolutionary line in carrying out socialist revolution and construction. Since then, China has increasingly taken the road of capitalist restoration. The full restoration of capitalism in China vindicates the teaching of Comrade Mao that socialism is lost when the revisionist line prevails within the ruling communist or workers’ party and that eventually the bourgeoisie within the party and state succeeds in unleashing a coup and overthrowing the proletariat. Comrade Mao has bequeathed to us a legacy by which we can combat and defeat modern revisionism and by which we can revive and further develop the forces of socialism.”
5. The statement adds: “For the entire year of 2006, we must undertake general campaigns and specific activities of theoretical and political education. We must confront the problem of modern revisionism as the most venomous enemy of the revolutionary cause of socialism. We must condemn the betrayal of socialism and of Comrade Mao’s proletarian revolutionary line by the Chinese capitalist roaders. We must renew our determination and efforts to carry out the historic mission of the proletariat, which is to carry out socialist revolution and construction. Upon the temporary success of modern revisionism against Marxism-Leninism and the dictatorship of the proletariat, monopoly capitalism headed by US imperialism has been able to launch the worst attacks against the proletariat and the oppressed peoples, such as “freemarket” globalization, racism, repression and wars of aggression. In response to the escalation of oppression and exploitation, the proletariat and people are intensifying their resistance through armed struggle and other forms of resistance. It is the internationalist duty of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties to unite and to arouse, organize and mobilize the proletariat and people in their respective countries and in the world at large in the struggle for national liberation, democracy and socialism against imperialism, revisionism and reaction. By celebrating the 50 years of struggle against modern revisionism, we renew our commitment to persevere in the revolutionary struggle and strive to win ever greater victories under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.”
6. To mark the 50th anniversary of the joint struggle against modern revisionism and in connection with the observance of the forthcoming May Day, the CPI (Maoist) has also disseminated through the Internet statements and articles criticising the present Government in New Delhi headed by Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh, explaining why it has stepped up its insurgency since the present Government came to power in 2004 and highlighting the successes of the Maoists during the last two years.
7. It accuses both the previous Government led by Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee and the present Government led by Dr.Manmohan Singh of following a policy of repression of the adivasis (tribals), the backward classes and other exploited sections of the Indian society. According to it, the only difference between the two Governments was that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was never in power before 1998 in New Delhi, was crude in its methods of repression, whereas, the Congress (I), which had been in power for many years since 1947, is sophisticated in its repression.
8. It accuses the Manmohan Singh Government of following a policy of making tribals fight tribals by setting up so-called self-defence groups in states where the Maoists are active and by using tribal police officers recruited in the North-East for the repression of the Maoist tribals of Central India. It says that it was for this reason that the Maoists attacked the self-defence groups and a group of Naga police officers deployed in Bastar in the state of Chattisgarh, killing 10 of them.
9. It also accuses the Manmohan Singh Government of inviting American counter-insurgency experts to train officers of our security forces in order to make their operations against the Maoists more effective. It says in one of its statements: ” To counter the guerrilla war, the rulling class is training its armed forces under the direct supervision of US Army experts in counter-insurgency and jungle warfare in the hills of Manipur, Hyderabad and in the Army training school at Kanker in Chhattisgarh. Apart from this, new para-armed forces are being raised recruiting local adivasi youth such as the Sengel battalion (in santhali and mundari language this means fire). Besides this, in Jharkhand too, the govt. is dividing the people to suppress the revolutionary movement, making the poor people fight each other in the name of Adivasi/non-adivasi or in the name of Jharkhandi adivasis versus other adivasis. The rulling class is also organizing reactionary elements to build a lumpen gang – the Nagrik Suraksha Samiti. They are forcing ordinary people to join the Samiti against the revolutionaries and indulging in killing of revolutionaries, activists and their sympathizers. They are adopting brutal methods, after killing the people they poke arrows into their bodies and term this ‘sendara’ which means in santhali language – hunted. This is just like the Salwa Judum in Chhatisgarh. Here, in Jharkhand this is going on under the leadership of the former CM (Chief Minister) and national Vice President of the BJP, Babu Lal Maradi.”
10. Among its notable successes since the Manmohan Singh Government came to power, the CPI (M) cites the raid on the armoury of the Home Guards at Girdhi in Jharkand on November 11,2005, during which it claims to have captured 193 rifles and two pistols, the Jehanabad jail break in Bihar in which about 1,000 Maoists raided the jail and freed their detained cadres, the blowing up of a supposedly mine-proof vehicle of the Central Reserve Police Force in Chhathisgarh killing 27 CRPF personnel, the seizure of explosives from a dump guarded by armed guards of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) in Bastar and the wiping out of 10 Naga police officers in Bastar.
11. Commenting on the rule of the Manmohan Singh Government, it says: ” Two facts stand out in the two years of its rule: first, the blinding speed of implementation of the policies of opening up to imperialism, particularly the US; second, increasing fascist terror on all dissent, while particularly targeting the Maoists. Hardly a day passes when there is not a report of a takeover of some company or the other by foreign capital. Besides all this, the most pernicious onslaught in the past year or two is in the sphere of mining. Just the three states of Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhathisgarh have signed MoUs of about Rs.4 lakh crores (about $ 90 billion) for iron ore mining and steel production. Huge contracts have also been signed for bauxite. The companies involved are primarily the big compradors — Tatas, Jindals, Ruias, etc — and MNCs. This is set to create mass displacement of forest dwellers, primarily tribals. In fact, today, the entire economy is being geared to dependence on imperialism by making it import-export oriented. And now, over and above this, major plans are there to evict lakhs from their habitat, with little compensation.”
12. On the visit of President George Bush to India on March 1 and 2,2006, it says: ” From the nature of the visit it is clear who stand with the imperialists and this US gangster and who are the genuine patriotic forces of the country. This imperialist scum would not be able to last in this country even for a single day if it did not get the collaboration from their agents and stooges within the country. Their robbery, their loot, their plunder of our country could be stopped easily if these collaborators were not there. It is these comprador elements that are the worst traitors of the country and it is they who need to be exposed and targeted for what they really are — lackeys of the imperialists and particularly the US. These top politicians, bureaucrats, big business, etc are in fact the chief tools through which the imperialists push their policies in the country. So an attack against the imperialists, particularly the US, is inconceivable without hitting at their stooges within the country. The time has come to build a broad and powerful movement by uniting all the possible forces against imperialism and particularly the US. Let the sparks ignited during the Bush visit turn into a prairie fire that will burn to ashes the imperialists and their stooges within the country. “
13. Supporting the protest demonstrations of the Muslims against the caricaturisation of the Holy Prophet by a Danish cartoonist, the CPI (M) says: ” The CC (Central Committee), CPI (Maoist), calls upon the people of India to fight shoulder to shoulder with their Muslim brethren against the sinister designs of the imperialists led by George Bush to whip up racist, anti-Muslim sentiments, their attempts to portray Islam with terrorism and thereby achieve their aim of plundering the resources of the Islamic countries through wars of aggression.”
(The writer, Mr. B.Raman, is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: itschen36@gmail.com )
