HISTORIC TALK BETWEEN SOUREN BOSE AND CHOU EN LAI- IN PEKING –A LANDMARK EVENT IN HISTORY OF COMMUNIST MOVEMENT TOWARDS BUILDING MASS LINE- Part 2

50th anniversary on October 29^th –Harsh Thakor

 

 

In the view of Zhou “Wrongly C.P.I.(M.L) termed work in trade Unions Union as defensive and economist. Only the party Organization is militant and offensive. It is not good that you are setting up the two antagonistically. You regard a small number of secret squads engaged in secret assassination as offensive, but term the economic struggle of the broad masses as defensive. This is eclectic.”

 

In view of Comrade Kang (Sheng/ 康生) of CPC “When we started armed struggle, we achieved success only when we mobilized the broad masses. Into launching agrarian struggles. In our view the Indian party has not solved the question of relationship between agrarian struggle and guerrilla warfare. The CPC we organized armed forces to defend our land and guerrilla organizations to defend our activities.”

 

Comrade Bose replied after being asked whether they had any specific land policy and how they distributed land along the peasants. “We have no specific land policy, with which the peasantry can be mobilized, establish armed forces so as to seize political power.”

 

Comrade Zhou “In August 1^st Nanchang uprising, we attacked the Kuomintang. This orientation was correct, but policy wrong. However we erred through wrong policy in evading villages, at that time, and penetrating the cities.”

 

It contains the suggestions of C.P.C. leader Chou En Lai.

On October 29th, 1970 premier Zhou gave his views on the C.P.I.(M.L.) of Charu Mazumdar to Com. Bose.

This is an invaluable work on mass line re-printed by Red Flag publications.

Notable, is the premier's view of Lin Biao's (林彪) military theory and how it is alienated from political line. I recommend all readers to obtain this leaflet.

1. The Chinese party grew and developed by fighting alien trends-both left adventurism and right deviation.

2. The Chinese Revolution became successful with 3 magic weapons a. The Party b. People's Army c. the United Front.

3. To call a chairman of one party as the chairman of another party is wrong and it will would the national sentiment of the working class of a country.

4. Your idea of united front is wrong stating that it will come into being only after the formation of base areas. The United front comes into being at every stage of struggle, again it breaks down.

The worker-peasant unity is its main basis. The characterization of the entire bourgeoisie as comprador is wrong. Some exploiter sections have to be united.

5. It is wrong to reject open trade Union, open mass organizations and mass movements and to solely uphold secret assassination. Formally we misunderstood what you meant as annihilation. 'We used to think that the idea is taken from Chairman's war of annihilation'. But from 1970 issue of liberation we came to understand that this assassination meant secret assassination.

6. You have wrongly and mechanically applied Chairman Lin Biao's theory of people’s war. It was only a military affair having no relation to political and organizational questions. During the anti-Japan war resistance we had an army of 10 lakhs, at that time some army comrades raised the slogan that positional and mobile warfare were the only means to mobilize people.

7. The formulation that a revolutionary does not make his hand red with the blood of class enemies then he is not a communist.

With this yard stick a Communist party would not remain a communist party.

8. No emphasis on agrarian revolution and slogan in connection with seizure of State power. No agrarian programme and state power is counter-posed to land problem.

9. Without mass struggle and mass organization the peasant's armed struggle cannot be sustained. The CPC supported Naxalbari struggle not merely as a struggle of seizure of state power.

Red article in 'Spring Thunder' published in China to support Naxalbari.

10. The authority and prestige of a leader cannot be created but has to be developed.

11. The general orientation of C.P.I. (M.L.) is correct but it's policy is wrong.

 

In November 1979 Souren Bose with five other Comrades namely Kanu Sanyal, Kola Venkaiah, Chowdhury Tejeswar Rao D. Bhuvan Mohan Patnaik and D. Nagbushan Patnaik  wrote an open letter to all the party members propagating that Charu Mazumdar refused to make a self-criticism and take suggestions from the CPC advice. It held Charu Mazumdar responsible for deviating from the path of glorious Naxalbari uprising. They held him principally responsible for left adventurist deviation and should have accepted the suggestions of the CPC. It pleaded to party members to prepare a review of the struggle in their respective areas; start discussions throughout the party; and try to rectify the mistakes in the light of Naxalbari as laid down in the article "Spring Thunder”, and by accepting the suggestions of the glorious CPC. All Comrades were grossly critical of the victimization of Comrade Sushitall Roy Chodhury who was vehemently critical of the left adventurist line.

 

 

EVALUATION OF CHARU MAZUMDAR AND C.P.I.(M.L.)

 

In my opinion, whatever the gross errors it is erroneous to blame Charu Mazumdar completely and the whole central Committee should be held responsible. After 1970 itself the C.P.I.(M.L) lost its centralization and split into factions led by Satyanaran Singh and Charu Mazumdar. Charu did not live long enough to make a self-criticism or rectification.

 

Sushital Roy Choudhary was grossly critical of Mazumdar's line of ‘annihilation of class enemy'. Professor Amit Bhattacharya felt it was untimed in 1971 for C.P.I.(M.L.) to initiate a self criticism. The most authentic criticism was by the Central Team of the C.P.I.(M.L.) in 1977, Although Central Organizing Committee, C.P.I.(M.L.) and Andhra Pradesh State Committee of C.P.I.(M.L.) undertook constructive criticism upholding mass organizations and mass movements they persisted with line of “annihilation of class enemies"

 

Suniti Kumar Ghosh was critical of CM for his long silence regarding CPCs criticism of the CPI (ML) agenda. In his view although the criticisms were known to Charu Majumdar for a long time he did not act upon it. Suniti Ghosh felt it was unfair to blame Charu Majumdar for the mistakes attributing the errors to the entire CPI (ML) Party. Gosh never openly criticized Charu Majumdar for his errors but attributed it to party leadership as a whole. He was critical of many leaders and intellectuals for solely putting the blame on Charu. Sushital Roy Choudhary was very critical of the party’s line terming it ‘left-adventurist’ and ‘neglecting class and economic straggles.’ “Sushital Roy Chowdhary pioneered the criticism of the left adventurist aspects of the C.P.I. (M.L) virtually creating a revolt within the C.C. by making the most objective analysis by all comrades, in an article. He felt that although it initially adhered to the path of people’s war it went on to vitiate totally with left adventurist practice. He called for “resisting the ultra-left adventurist trend raising its head in the party.” Sushital was very critical of talking of the exclusive era of self sacrifice, authority of “Charu” and isolated urban actions.

 

 

DOCUMENT OF LATE COMRADE KONDAPALLI SEETHARAMIAH ON TACTICAL LINE

The C.P.I.(M.L.)Peoples War Group  formed on April 22nd 1980 after self criticism document of Comrade KS in 1977  did not mechanically copy the Chinese experience analyzing the complexities or peculiarities of the Indian terrain and thus the need to form different guerrilla zones silmuntaneously. It was a significant contribution made by late Comrade Kondapalli Seetharamiah that unlike China Indian state had a centralized character ,which made it far more difficult to create base areas in the countryside and thus had to build up not just one but several guerilla zones encompassing the Indian villages with the aim of creating a countrywide upsurge and bring about a change in the objective balance of forces between the enemy and ourselves in the course of time. No Comrade could have paid a better tribute to Souren Bose and Zhou En Lai.

His work on ‘Our Tactical line’ crystallized the ideological spark of Chairman Mao to give it shape to the Indian context like none else of that time in India. With dialectical summary and precision it laid down the path of agrarian revolution, building of united front, nature of the different classes of the peasantry and the unique characteristics of the Indian revolution. In deep depth it theorized how the Indian parliament was mere pigsty and how morally India was semi-fascist. Elaborately he explained why India was semi-colonial and semi-feudal and why the principal contradiction was still between feudalism and the broad masses. With clarity similar to that of CPC in Chinese Revolution he chalked out the various stages of guerrilla war. A plan was summarized on how people’s armed squads would be created in areas of resistance. This would lead to a formation of a guerrilla zone. The document dealt with ‘China’s Path is our Path’, “On party Building,’, ‘On United Front’, ‘On Aquarian Revolution’, ‘On Urban Work.’ Below I am posting a set of notable excerpts from important chapters.

                         

ON TACTICAL LINE (EXCERPTS)

CHINA’S PATH IS OUR PATH

 

‘The path of our revolution is the path adopted by the Chinese revolution. the strategical essence of the Chinese path is to build base areas in the vast backward countryside where the enemy is weak, to extend from isolated points  into vast expanse, and from small areas into extensive ones, and then to gradually encircle the cities and finally seize power in the cities to win nationwide victory.’

‘India has 6 principal characteristics of revolutionary war.

1. India is a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country

2. The enemy is big and powerful having a centralized administration and modern army.

3. Our Communist party is still weak and fragmented.

4. India is the land of many nationalities whose aspirations develop their own language and strive for free and full-fledged development. Due to acute contradiction of various nationalities like the Nagas, Kashmiris, Mizosand Kukkies on one hand and the Indian ruling classes on the other., many armed struggles have arisen, for right of self determination or even secession.

5. Our advancing agrarian revolution is gaining more and more support each day.

6. Our revolution is developing in a period when Imperialism is receiving its ultimate death blow.’

‘It follows from the first, fourth, fifth and last characteristic s that it is possible for our revolutionary forces under the hegemony of the communist party to grow and defeat its enemy. It follows from the 2^nd and 3^rd characteristics that it is impossible for our revolutionary forces to develop rapidly and defeat enemy quickly. So it is certain, our revolutionary war will remain protracted and may even be lost if mishandled.’

‘No doubt comparatively greater development of India’s industry, transport, Communications, and to the fact of its having a strong centralized administration and modern army are obstacles to launching Peoples War. However it does not negate the essence of the protracted nature of India’s revolutionary War which was proved in the peasant armed struggles of Naxalbari and Srikakulam.’

AGRARIAN REVOLUTION

‘An agrarian revolution is the axis of our democratic revolution, in the rural areas our party must popularize  the agrarian programme among the peasantry, especially the poor peasants and agricultural workers  and should arouse, mobilize, organize and arm them in struggles to make the agrarian revolution successful. The main features of the agrarian programme will be confiscation of all lands, orchards etc. of landlords  including usurers, religious and other institutions ,and their distribution free of charge amongst peasants  and agricultural workers, and cancellation of all debts of the peasantry.’

‘The party must formulate slogans of action in accordance with the level of consciousness of their peasantry and preparedness for struggle.’

‘From the beginning the party should concentrate on educating the peasantry with the politics of seizure of power. If the peasantry lacks the perspective of seizure of power and establishing people’s democracy while carrying the struggle forward, the peasant struggle however extensive and string, will certainly end towards economism. Our perspective in building mass organizations should be to transfer all those mass organizations of the people into an auxiliary body and a transmission belt linking our party with the people.’

‘To mobilize all sections of people to carry out the tasks we must construct strong mass organizations. like peasant associations agricultural labour organizations etc.The students and youth should give priority to arouse the rural masses towards agrarian revolution.’

‘The landlords and the reactionary state machinery will certainly launch all sorts of brutal attacks to crush the peasant struggle and extinguish the revolutionary spark. The peasant struggle can survive and extend only through combating the brutal attacks of the landlords and state machinery. To withstand the onslaught of the enemy and to make counter attacks against the landlords the peasantry would need to form strike committees ,struggle committees, village defense squads and village associations .The peasant associations themselves cannot combat the enemy.’

‘From the very beginning the party should educate the peasantry to face the onslaught of the landlords with arms and build the village self-defense squads. The struggles in this phase will be waged in a series of waves and therefore the party should consciously use the intermittent intervals between one struggle and the next to consolidate the results of the struggle. Here, consolidation means educating the people with the politics of seizure of state power, further strengthening of their respective mass organizations, making them realize the necessity to establish unity with other sections of anti-feudal or anti-imperialist masses against the common enemy improving their socialist consciousness, extricating them from all influences of revisionism, and building the party with the militants sprouting from mass struggles. Only through the formation of a village Committee can the party fulfill the above tasks.’

‘Throughout this stage of guerrilla zone fight between the people’s armed forces and the state’s armed forces will be the main form of struggle and the armed squads under a centralized military command ,which is the embryo of the People’s Liberation Army ,will be the main form of organization. In this period all other forms struggle and organization have to serve the above main forms of struggle and organization. So, the peasant armed squads will merge into the guerrilla squads swelling their number. The guerrilla armed squads will be different from the peasant armed squads in that they are politically more conscious, better organized with militarily strict discipline under centralized command and are more mobile. In th guerrilla zone for a long period, series of armed clashes ensued between the guerrilla squads and states armed forces will be progressively weakened and the guerrilla squads could strengthen so much as to wipe out the power of the enemy and establish people’s power. In the final stage on the eve of establishment of liberated base area, the nature of the confrontation will turn into mobile warfare. And the guerrilla squads transform into a regular army.’

‘During above phase 4 major tasks have to be addressed. 

1. Overthrow of feudal authority and establishing people’s authority.

2. Confiscation of land of landlords and feudal institutions and distribute among landless and poor peasantry.

3. Get armed and build people’s militia.

4. Stop payment of taxies and levies to the state.

5. Stop payment of all debts and interests to the landlords and money lenders.’

‘In order to carry on the guerrilla warfare effectively and transform the guerrilla zone into a liberated base area, the guerrilla squads must carry on the armed struggle in close coordination with the people. The people must be roused into action and mobilized into a active struggle. Village Committees should be formed under the dictatorship of the proletariat at village level. Village committees should be formed to perform task of revolutionary councils based on level of mass upsurge and consciousness. These councils will be the effective weapons of destroying the old state power and building up the people’s power in the manner people’s democratic dictatorship was established in the Russian Revolution. It must be remembered that mere guerrilla squads alone cannot bring about victory and the former mass organizations would be inadequate as bulwarks of combat.’

‘A guerrilla zone can be truly established only by

1. The building up of regular guerrilla forces under the centralized command with strict military discipline

2. Building up of sufficient mass base under the leadership of the proletariat.

3. Building of the real people’s organizations consciously dedicated to the seizure of political power.’

‘The guerrilla forces strategically rely on such base areas in performing their strategic tasks and achieving the object of preserving and expanding themselves and destroying enemy forces and winning gradually the nationwide victory. In view of the unified administration and the strong centralized military command in the hands of the ruling classes in India, it is certain that the guerrilla zones which undergo transformation into revolutionary base areas will face many twists and turns, but it is also certain that they will emerge and expand in a series of waves, as the reactionary rule is weak in the countryside.’

‘In the entire course of the peasant armed struggle the party should be in command in mobilizing and arming the peasantry for armed struggle. In adopting the form of struggle of the organization the party should subject itself to level of people’s consciousness, organizational strength of the people and their preparation for struggle, but under no conditions on the subjective wishes of the leadership. When the struggle transforms from one phase to another the party but beware of not losing the initiative. It must make all the necessary preparations for the next phase. Finally the party must not break the vital link wit the people and should relentlessly rely on them.’ 

URBAN AREAS

As per the strategy of our revolutionary war, we can gradually encircle and seize power in cities only after building and expanding base areas in the vast countryside. As such, in urban areas, we have to be on guard accumulating and preserving our forces and should not resort to battles for long times to come, i.e. until the stage of encircling the cities is reached. Because urban areas are the strongholds of the enemy our revolutionary elements are easily vulnerable to suppression and therefore we must take extra precaution to safeguard our elements from exposure, and enemy’s attack from the very beginning consciously.

The party according to it’s strength, should pay attention to the work among the working class. However we should not organize separate tare Unions of our own causing yet one more split in the divided regions of the working class., but guided our elements to work within the existing unions themselves. It must endeavour to achieve real unity of the entire working class through struggles and rid them of the reactionary and revisionist influences and to bring them out of the mire of economism. We must make all efforts to spread revolutionary politics and inculcate socialist consciousness among the workers through sustained work. The militants emerging from the partial struggles must be organized into secret party units through whom we guide the general work in the trade union.

UNITED FRONT

From the tactical point of view, India’s ruling classes are strong as they are backed by US Imperialism and Soviet Social Imperialism. To overthrow them and establish people’s democracy it is necessary to mobilize and unite all the forces of the working class, the revolutionary united front of all classes, strata, parties, groups and individuals opposed to the four enemies of the Indian people. The alliance of the working class and the peasantry will form the basis of the United Front that will include the urban petty bourgeoisie, the small or national bourgeoisie and the rich peasantry. The latter will be a vacillating and unstable ally of the proletariat.

United Front Organizations will come into existence in different form son various issues and at various levels. On certain particular issues several mass organizations, parties, groups and individuals may come together to form united front.

The United Front can be a powerful weapon in making the democratic revolution successful it is built under the hegemony of the proletariat. So, problem of hegemony over the front is as important as the United Front itself in the revolution. It is the working class that can firmly lead the Democratic revolution to the end successfully. Because it is the most consistent revolutionary class of all anti-imperialist and anti-feudal class, to build anti-imperialist and anti-feudal united front  as a powerful weapon in Democratic Revolution  means building United Front under the hegemony of the working class basing on alliance of workers and peasants.

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