From Comitato Sostegno GP India and
CPI (M-L) NAXALBARI;
Comrades,
This conference is taking place at an opportune moment in the history of the
development of the class struggle, not only from the perspective of the
history of development of the Maoist movement in India but also from the
perspective of the critical juncture of the socio-economic and political
phase the world as a whole is presently going through. In a world marked by
aggressive moves of the sole super power US imperialism, the rapid advance
of people's war in Peru led by the PCP and later, from 1996, of the people's
war in Nepal led by CPN (Maoist) came as new rays of hope for the
downtrodden and the toiling masses of the world. But these movements could
not sustain their role of strengthening the Maoist pole; firstly, due to the
setback in Peru caused by consecutive arrests of top leadership of PCP and
later the confusion created by ROL attack and secondly, due to the betrayal
of the Prachanda-Bhattarai revisionists in Nepal. This was worsened further
with the dissolution of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM)
which was shaping itself as the embryonic centre of the world Maoist
movement. It fell victim to those very trends mentioned above, which came
from within it, along with Avakianism propounded under the guise of 'New
Synthesis' by the RCP, USA. It is in this background that this conference
attains higher significance. It is not just an act of showing solidarity to
our struggling comrades in arms in the dense forests of Central Eastern
India but it is shouldering the momentous task of spreading the message of
revolution guided by Maoism, which is an urgent need of the hour,
particularly in these times of global imperialist crisis. The CPI (ML)
NAXALBARI extends its wholehearted support to this endeavour. Our party
salutes the International Committee to Support People's War in India for
conceptualising and successfully implementing it. We extend revolutionary
greetings to all those who are attending this seminar and also to all those
who, like us, participate indirectly.
The Maoist movement in India, popularly known as the Naxalite movement, was
initiated in the late 60s under the leadership of Com Charu Muzumdar, fondly
known as CM. As opposed to the revisionists and the centrists' trend of not
taking a clear stand on ideological issues, CM dared to take a defiant stand
supporting the international struggle that Mao Tsetung initiated against
Krushchovian revisionism in general and later the GPCR targeting the
capitalist roaders within the CPC. This breakthrough from the revisionist
eclectic approach ushered a new revolutionary high tide launched by the
Naxalbari armed peasant struggle of 1967. It spread like prairie fire. This
heightened a countrywide revolutionary situation. The movement was brutally
attacked by heavy repression. CM was martyred and the party center ceased to
exist. The revolution suffered a setback for some years. But such was the
ideological solidity and revolutionary determination ensured by CM that the
embers of Naxalbari continued to light up new revolutionary flames every
time there were setbacks. The flames of Naxalbari never died as there were
armed struggles spread out in various areas. Some of them overcame
shortcomings and developed to defend the armed struggle and advance with
consistency. In the process the experience of the revolutionary classes got
enriched. These continuations of Naxalbari influenced and transformed lives
in vast swathes of their areas of work. The merger of the two main Maoist
parties directly engaged in people's war, into the CPI (Maoist), brought
about a qualitative and quantitative change. The people's war has now been
raised to the position of a countrywide recognized revolutionary pole, a
pole that stands in total opposition to the counter-revolutionary pole of
the ruling classes and imperialism. The ruling classes, who were dismissing
it till recently as insignificant, are now forced to acknowledge it as the
biggest internal threat they face.
One notable feature of the people's war of India in the present juncture is
that it is concentrated in regions predominately populated by Adivasis
(indigenous peoples). The politicised masses of these regions, led by CPI
(Maoist), have developed the revolution to a position where they have taken
control of their destiny, their lives, into their own hands. They are
establishing a new power. They are building a different society- vibrant
with their tribal traditions, yet modern enough to imbue new values. They
are not doing this for their own selves alone. No, they see it as part of a
larger project concerning the whole country and the whole world. They have
been able to do this and achieve such a lofty vision with the force of arms,
guided by proletarian ideology, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, and led by a
communist party. This is an immediate fight to end exploitation, oppression
and block aggressive moves of big corporates and the state. More
importantly, it is a long term struggle projecting a different type of
society. Quiet similar to the struggles of Naxalbari four decades ago, this
struggle has the potential to unleash the power of the revolutionary masses
by signalling a new spirit in the lives of the millions suffocated by the
oppressive system and enthusing them with a new plausible dream of
liberation.
The society being created is one that ensures sustainable development,
children friendly education, growing emancipation of women, a halt to
domination and plunder of foreign and Indian exploiters, a new culture that
rebuilds Adivasi traditions (instead of mocking them as backward) with
advanced content. The illuminating fact is that all of this is being mainly
created by Adivasi tribes who are despised as 'primitives' by so-called
civilised society. The 'backwards' are teaching the 'forwards'. This hits at
the very pillars of Brahmanism, the core of all reactionary anti-people
thinking in our country. The motivation this could give to the numerous
oppressed and exploited sections in the country is a real threat for the
rulers. The advance of revolution could not but bring up a powerful
counter-revolution. This is now seen in India.
The reactionary Indian state has carried out a major buildup of reactionary
armed forces encircling the Maoist controlled region, targeting a wide area
ranging from Jharkhand to Andhra Pradesh on the North-South axis and West
Bengal - Odisha to Maharashtra on the East-West one. This encirclement and
suppression campaign named Operation Green Hunt has the blessings of all the
major ruling class parties including revisionists like the CPI (Marxist).
Advanced military-technical support and equipment from the US and Israel are
being used. While the spearhead of the reactionary force are the
para-military, the army too is being deployed under the guise of setting up
training camps.
But, despite the big propaganda done by the rulers to justify their
repressive moves, their attacks roused stiff resistance. This came not just
from revolutionary forces. No, it draws on a wide spectrum of democratic and
progressive forces, ranging all the way to Gandhians. There is a reason for
this.
Over the past two decades the Indian state has opened up the doors to a
wholesale penetration of imperialist globalisation. This has pushed millions
to the utmost depths of misery. Peasants have been forced to commit suicide
in the lakhs (hundred thousand). In the name of promoting export zones,
lakhs of peasants are being forced out of their land, with little or no
compensation. Workers have been thrown out of jobs or forced into lower
paying casual work. The youth have been denied education by sharp increase
in fees caused by privatisation. It is the particularity of the political
scene today in India that the whole range of ruling parties from extreme
right to sham left is in government, either at the Center or in one or the
other State. All of them, irrespective of political colour, aggressively
push globalisation policies. All of them brutally suppress those who resist.
Amidst this the Maoist led revolutionary movement stands out as a solid
fighting front. All who have concern over the conditions of the country and
its people recognise, at one or the other level, even if unevenly, that the
destruction of the Maoist pole will have widespread ramifications affecting
all resistance struggles. This is the material basis of the widespread
opposition to Operation Green Hunt, correctly termed as a 'War on the
People'.
This is the underlying dynamics of the growing polarisation, the dividing
line, centered on Operation Green Hunt and resistance to it.
Operation Green Hunt, though directly aimed at the people's war, is also
used to target every one and anyone who are strongly opposing the
government's
policy decisions. Numerous fascist laws have been enacted for this.
Democratic organisations are banned. Trade union, youth, women's and even
human rights activists are regularly attacked. The case of Dr. Binayak Sen,
a renowned civil liberties activist and a world famous people's doctor, who
was arrested and imprisoned on cooked up charges, is as an example. But this
proved to be counter-productive for the state. Such attacks sharpened and
broadened resistance. Courageous individuals like Arundhati Roy and Jan
Myrdal dared to break the repressive cordon in the war zones and bring out
the truth of the communist fighters, masses and their leaders. Meanwhile
fierce counter-attacks by the Maoists have struck fear in the paramilitary
and boosted the morale of masses all over the country. The hesitation and
inability of government forces to face up to the People's Guerrilla
Liberation Army and the People's Militia was time and again leaked out to
the media creating an embarrassing situation for the Home Minister and his
government. The government forces often refuse to step out of their
fortified camps. And when they do, they massacre villagers.
The ruling classes soon realised that if they don't use new tactics their
offensive will back fire. So they started diffusing the situation by
announcing that they are backing off from the offensive and will review the
whole operation. Thus they managed to divert the attention of the media and
then put in a blanket ban on all media reporting. They are now going ahead
with a much more repressive campaign, but without a whisper. Of course,
despite some successes in killing important leaders of the CPI (Maoist) and
pushing back the revolutionary forces in some areas, they still haven't made
any overall headway. But the hard necessity of a political offensive to
expose the dual tactics of the Indian state remains. The need to expose the
truth and garner as much support as possible in this adverse condition is
the urgent need of the hour. There is a need to reorganise and reinitiate
the people's struggle against the Indian state's 'War on the People' on a
broader and sharper foundation. This struggle must be flexible in the forms
and platforms it employs so that it can link up with the whole spectrum of
opposition that is visible today. Within this the defence of the people's
war and the new society it builds must have a central position, not
necessarily always as the criterion of unity, but certainly as the guiding
pole.
The fact that a uniquely wide resistance has come up against Operation Green
Hunt, a state campaign precisely meant to crush revolution, is not
incidental. It is directly related to the strengthening of the revolutionary
pole through the advance of the people's war. As we explained earlier the
aggressive penetration of globalisation and the broad resistance to it sets
the wider context. But, within that, revolutionary armed struggle stands out
not just for its defence against reaction but also for its offensive that
destroys the old and builds the new. This much is undeniable even for those
who disagree with Maoism and oppose violence. In these times when the limits
of passive resistance are shown up more sharply by the torrents of
globalisation, a grudging acceptance of the right of people to resist by all
means has emerged and secured its place in the discourse of resistance in
India. This is a new feature of the political situation in India. This does
not immediately translate into support for people's war nor is it stable.
But it is there and holds great potential for furthering the political
churning triggered off by Operation Green Hunt and resistance to it. The
Indian revolution would be all the poorer in its resources if this is lost
sight off and the resistance to Operation Green Hunt is reduced to the
matter of supporting a fight to protect resources. It is like missing out US
imperialism's world strategic aims in the Iraq war and seeing it mainly as a
war for oil. The question of control over resources is certainly involved.
But this is neither the sole issue, nor even the main one. The important
thing to be grasped is the political, strategic, aim of Operation Green
Hunt.
Commenting on the world situation a recent resolution adopted by the Special
Meeting of RIM parties observed: "The devastations of imperialist
globalisation, wars of aggression and the devastating economic crisis of the
imperialist system and its impact on proletarians and the broad masses have
awakened worldwide a wave of struggles and revolts. In this context a
potential new wave of the world proletarian revolution develops and emerges,
with the people's wars led by Maoist parties as its reference points and
strategic anchor."
This is the framework within which we must address and advance the support
for the people's war in India and elsewhere. The people of the world need
these 'reference points' and 'strategic anchors' ever more. They demonstrate
in a concentrated manner, in deeds, the way out from the horrors of the
imperialist system, the road to communism. They drive in with tremendous
power the need for proletarian leadership, the Maoist vanguard, the guiding
ideology of MLM. Within this, without being arrogant, we note the obvious
fact that the successful advance of people's war in a strategically placed
country like India with its tens of millions of masses has a special
importance.
In the wake of Operation Green Hunt, unity of Maoists has acquired added
urgency in view of the enemy's concentrated attack. India is a country of
sub-continental proportions, with numerous nationalities and indigenous
peoples, living in regions of great diversity in physical and social
conditions. The task of completing the unification of Maoists into a single
party is inevitably bound up with achieving a higher synthesis of the
experiences and insights gained by various Maoist forces working in these
diverse conditions. This is also vital in the spreading out of the people's
war throughout the country, leading to victory of the new democratic
revolution. We contribute to this through dedicated efforts to open up a new
war front in the ongoing people's war in India and the initiative we have
taken to realise unity.
We conclude. Building broad support to defend the people's war, building
broad resistance to inhuman repression - both complement one another. They
must not be counterposed. There is a new reality, a transformed situation,
being created by the development of the people's war. It is being created in
conditions of devastation, of globalisation and the imperialist crisis. But,
within that, it is the people's war, the revolution to seize power and build
a new democratic society, which creates it. The wide resistance to Operation
Green Hunt is well informed by this reality. The stakes have been raised.
The sight must also be high. The banner of people's war, Maoist led
revolution, must be boldly held up, as it is by this conference.
Once again, we wish it all success in its determined effort to build support
for the people's war in India and spread its message to all corners of the
world. Let this be a first step. Let us have more support and dissemination
of all the people's wars in the world, notably that of the Philippines,
which persists and advance with great tenacity.
LAL SALAM!
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) NAXALBARI
November 2012
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