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Sunday, December 30, 2012

Maoist Revolution from India


On November 24, activists from more than 20 countries gathered in Hamburg, Germany for a conference in support of the People's War in India.
The organizations and individuals present —around 250 total— pledged to support the Maoists in India who have organized to resist land grabs, brutal crackdowns on workers who protest poverty wages and the pollution of water and soil by multinational companies. As a result, thousands have been imprisoned, beaten and killed.
European comrades from countries including Norway, Italy, France, Sweden, Galicia and many more joined those from countries as far away as Brazil, Afghanistan, Palestine, Columbia, Canada, and Sri Lanka to declare their support for an international committee that will fight against imperialism and support the People's War in India.
The speakers discussed actions already taken and their plans to support the People's War into the future, including holding demonstrations at Indian embassies, circulating petitions, spreading documents of the Indian Maoists, holding educational lectures and organizing militant movements in their own countries to fight their own government's support for India's pro-capitalist policies.
"What we are doing now is not just a solidarity meeting," said a member of the Alliance Against Imperialist Aggression in Germany. "This meeting is the beginning of a new stage…in anti-imperialist activism and coordination."
Indeed, as a comrade from Afghanistan made clear, the imperialist powers have long been working across borders to wage war and suppress people's movements across the globe.
"They are already preparing the next ones against Syria or Iran or wherever," the German comrade said. "It is certain they won't stop voluntarily."
Speeches from resisters from around the world were punctuated with performances that included Swedish folk songs, German hip hop and Turkish revolutionary music.
The conference hit home how the Indian comrades face some of the harshest contradictions of global capitalism. As India rises to a heavy weight in global capitalism, the hyper commodification of basic goods including seeds and water is driving peasant farmers in India to suicide and impoverishing millions in the country.
A Filipino comrade pointed out that India has become "a living hell, especially for the workers, peasants, Dalits (low caste) and Adivasis (indigenous), who comprise 90% of the population." More than 85% of India's population must survive on 50 cents a day.
Women are also disproportionately affected by India's economic "growth" policies and its deadly crackdown on the Maoist uprising. For this reason, a feminist comrade from Europe pointed out "women are at the forefront of the people's war," noting that 94 of 290 division commanders in the Maoist ranks are women. Women also bear the worst of poverty, and are more likely to be raped as a weapon of war.
Representatives from the Revolutionary Communist Party of Canada were also present to declare their support for those who have "raised the red flag high once again" in India.
Bringing home the reasons leftists around the globe must stand up with the Maoists in India, the Canadian comrade explained: "Today the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army is our army. They are at the forefront of the revolutionary struggle against imperialism, feudalism and capitalism because of the importance of India in the global imperialist economy and geo- political order. The people's war in India has shaken the government, the comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie and the feudal landlords at their very core."





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