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ML Update
A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine
Vol.-5; No.-38; 18-24 Sep 2002
The World Shall Never Comply with Washington's Wishes
A week after the first anniversary of 9/11, it is natural to wonder how much
and in which way the world has really 'changed'. With all its superpower
surveillance system, Washington was caught completely unawares by the lethal
terrorist strikes a year ago. The colossal human dimension of the tragedy of
terror with nearly 3,000 people drawn from different countries perishing
within minutes overwhelmed the whole world. But the human dimension least
bothered Bush and his men. They were haunted by the pathetic loss of America
's superpower aura of invincibility, the sudden collapse of the global myth
of Fortress America.
The response that followed therefore was an arrogant attempt to reclaim that
lost aura. For the first time in modern history a country declared war not
against another country but against an elusive individual and his secret
network. An endless global war, not limited by constraints of history or
geography, time or space, was launched to hunt down Osama bin Laden, dead or
alive. One year down the line, the target remains as elusive as ever.
Washington has directed the focus back on Iraq. A regime change in Iraq is
the latest battle cry.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan has borne the heaviest brunt of the war in its first
year. The Talibans have been ousted and a puppet government installed. But
the writ of the new government obviously does not run beyond Kabul and Mr.
Karzai can only be described as a glorified Mayor of a besieged capital
whose survival depends solely on his Western backing. The warlords are all
claiming their respective pounds of flesh and American security forces
stationed in Afghanistan now have to face increased guerrilla attacks and
terrorist threats.
Under these circumstances, many coalition partners of Washington who had
extended unqualified support in the initial phase of the war are obviously
having second thoughts. The American plan to 'celebrate' the first
anniversary of September 11 by bombing Iraq back to the Stone Age has had to
be temporarily deferred. The Anglo-American air attack on Iraq has evoked
strong words of reservation and criticism, if not outright opposition. The
late August Shanghai communique released by China and Russia once again
invoked the doctrine of collective security and rejected the US course of
unilateral action.
Germany and France have openly insisted on UN-backed collective action. In
fact, the present German chancellor's strongly articulated opposition to US
unilateralism, a pleasant contrast to his initial offer of unconditional
support to the US in the wake of September 11, is likely to prove the
strongest factor in his favour when he faces the electorate on 22 September.
Is this the 'changed' world Washington had cherished in the aftermath of
September 11? The more the US treats the world as a unipolar one and seeks
to assert its unilateral hegemony, the more the world refuses to comply with
Washington's wishful dictates. The Johannesburg global summit on sustainable
development and the UN General Assembly, the two global gatherings that more
or less coincided with the first anniversary of September 11 have amply
reflected the world's refusal to accept President Bush's angry and arrogant
outbursts as the last word.
CPI(ML) Shocked over Tragic Rajdhani Accident, Demands
Resignation of Nitish Kumar
CPI(ML) expressed deep sorrow over the tragic loss of lives in Howrah-Delhi
Rajdhani Express accident near Rafiganj on 9 September. "At a time when the
Railway Ministry is busy in pompous celebration of the 150th anniversary of
Indian Railways and populist politics in the name of zonal restructuring,
this tragedy has come as a shocking reminder of the shoddy state of affairs
in railways", the party said.
The Party said, "the government of the day is preoccupied with the
disastrous gameplan of disinvestment and downsizing . It is least bothered
about the quality and maintenance of essential services in the country. The
criminal negligence of the safety and security of the age old tracks and
bridges makes Indian Railways the most unsafe in the world". The Party said
that Railway Minister Nitish Kumar must own the responsibility of this major
accident and resign from the post.
Closure of Three Fertilizer Units Opposed
The CPI(ML) has strongly opposed the latest decision of the central
government to close down three fertilizer plants - at Barauni (Bihar),
Durgapur (West Bengal) and Sindri (Jharkhand) - on the plea that they are
sick industries. Describing the government's decision as "anti-peasant and
anti-worker", the Party has said that at a time when the government is
importing chemical fertilizers every year by spending a huge amount of
foreign exchange, these plants are being shut down without any efforts to
modernise them". The party called upon the people of affected states to
resist this move.
CPI(ML)'s First
Conference in Gwalior
The first district conference of Gwalior was concluded on Sep. 16 with a
resolve to strengthen the left movement in the region by countering the
growing threat of communal fascism and by defeating the stale feudal
remnants prevailing in social and political spheres over the region. The
Conference was inaugurated by Polit Bureau Member of the Party Swadesh
Bhattacharya. Com. Swadesh said in his speech that democracy and sovereignty
of the country is being successively threatened by the BJP led government in
the center. He termed Modi's Gaurav Yatra as 'Kalank Yatra'('Shame March')
and said that the government in Gujarat must be dismissed immediately in the
interest of the people of the state and the nation. He also called upon the
delegates to intensify the people's movement against the anti-people
policies issued by the Digvijay Singh Govt.
The Conference was attended by delegates from various cross-sections of the
people, men and women, including construction workers, urban poor,
unemployed youth, minorities, dalits and people from different professions a
nd was addressed also by the CC member and incharge of Madhya Pradesh com.
Rajaram besides Devendra Singh Chauhan and Gurudutt Sharma. A thirteen
member committee was elected with Vinod Rawat as its Secretary. The
Conference was peceded by a colourful rally.
Flood Victims Form Human Chain in Patna
Thousands of flood victims from the districts of Darbhanga, Samastipur,
Madhubani and Sitamarhi formed a 'human chain' in Patna on September 13 and
protested against the criminal negligence being betrayed by the governments
in Delhi and Patna. They said that if the central and state government don't
come forth with a comprehensive plan of action for permanent solution of
flood, they would launch a militant mass movement in whole of north-Bihar. A
memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister as well as the Chief Minister was
also sent in this regard. A Large numbers of women also participated in this
programme. Protesters announced that if their demands were not fulfilled
they would be free to ban the entry of Ministers, MPs and MLAs in
Mithilanchal.
This protest programme was led by CPI(ML) Mithilanchal incharge Dhirendra
Jha.
Agitation in Gaya District
The CPI(ML) has launched a series of protests in Belaganj block in Gaya
district of Bihar on the issue of embezzlement of funds meant for old age
pension and for the people below poverty line by the B.D.O. in connivance
with the mukhiya of Belaganj Panchayat. The agitation is continuing since
September 2 braving police and administration's repressive measures against
the protesters. The Party has brought this issue to the notice of Home
Secretary of Bihar, through a memorandum, and asked him to instruct the Gaya
police and administration to stop targeting the protesting people and
instead take action against the corrupt BDO and Mukhiya of the Panchayat.
A relay dharna was organised in Belaganj from Sep. 2 to 7 and a protest
demonstration was held at Commissioner's office in Gaya on Sep. 11.
Meanwhile, Chandu Ram, a member of the Party district committee and
secretary of the block unit of Khet Mazdoor Sabha, began his fast-unto-death
from Sep. 8. He was picked up and forcibly sent to hospital on Sep. 11 on
the instructions from the BDO and threatened of his life if he doesn't call
off the agitation. The BDO and his goons also picked up Party district
secretary com. Brajesh and office secretary com. Mohan Kumar from the party
office and took them to the police station to lodge a fake case, but police
somehow refused to file a false FIR and arrest them. In the meantime com.
Chandu Ram successfully managed to escape from the hospital. The party unit
in Gaya has now further intensified the struggle. The fast-unto-death was
resumed in front of DM office the next day with 10 more comrades
accompanying com. Chandu Ram. The 14 September was observed as 'protest day'
in Gaya against this incident and on 15 Sep. Party called a 'Belaganj Bandh'
which was a good success.
Workers Protest Anti-Labour Policies of
WB Government
A large number of workers in Kolkata were arrested while protesting against
the recommendations of the Ravindra Varma Commission on Labour reforms,
non-implementation of minimum wages Act in the state, to take back the black
agreement on Jute mills, and for a judicial inquiry into the killings of
workers in three incidents of police firing on peacefully protesting workers
which occured in Darjeeling, Murshidabad and Hooghly. Nearly 500 workers and
AICCTU activists were arrested when an impressive protest demonstration of
more than a thousand workers reached Esplanade from Subodh Mullick Square.
This protest was called upon by the AICCTU state committee of West Bengal
and led by the State Secretary of AICCTU Basudev Bose.
AISA-RYA Protest in Patna
Activists of the AISA and the RYA held a protest demonstration in Patna on
September 9 against US-British air attacks on Iraq. They burnt the effigies
of the US president Bush and the British prime minister Blair. The agitation
was led among others by RYA state president Kamlesh Sharma, its secretary
Paramhans Kumar and AISA leaders Abhyuday, Navin, Dharmendra and Vikrant.
Protesters also demanded so called 'Gaurav Yatra' to stop. They demanded
dismissal of Narendra Modi govt. and imposition of President's rule with a
non-RSS new governor in the state.
CPI(ML) Protests Against Closure of Fertilizer Units
On September 13 the CPI(ML)'s Dhanbad unit held a demonstration,
participated by hundreds of people, to protest the proposed closure of
Sindri Fertilizer Company. Several Party leaders and activists including
Upendra Singh, DS Diwakar, Tarun Sarkar, and Manoranjan were arrested along
with around 140 supporters by the police.
The protesters also demanded proper rehabilitation measures for more than
five thousand people living in Jharia colliery area who are now being
displaced by the government.
Also in Nirsa, 48 people led by Party's area committee secretary Harendra
Singh were arrested while protesting on the same issues.
District Convention of Kamgar Union
On 15 September East Delhi district convention of All India General Kamgar
Union was held at Krishna Nagar. Around fifty delegates from elected bodies
of seven units of AKGKU in East Delhi participated in it. The convention
elected a 20-member district committee with Ram Abhilash as its president
and BKS Gautam as its secretary. In the light of the recent formation of
Construction Workers' Welfare Board by the Delhi Govt., the convention
discussed ways and means to utilise it in the favour of workers. It also
resolved to launch movement to pressurise the government to firmly implement
the labour laws punishing the guilty of violating them. It was also decided
to hold a demonstration on 16 October at the labour office and submit a
memorandum on these demands.
Sankalp Rally in Bettiah, Bihar
Even after 55 years of independence, West Champaran district of Bihar
virtually remains under the rule of half a dozen feudal estates each
possessing thousands of acres, and around a hundred feudal lords illegally
occupying hundreds of acres of land. On the other hand there are landless
and poor peasants and agrarian labourers facing brutal attacks by feudal
goons and police in case they demand ceiling surplus land or minimum wages.
By now struggle has been launched against many of them under Party's
leadership on the question of land in Mainatanr, Sikta, Majhaulia,
Chanpatia, and Bagaha blocks. Also, landless agrarian labourers have risen
in strike movement demanding minimum wages, and their impact was so
widespread that even the elephant-trainers, servants looking after livestock
and housemaids serving big feudal lords had struck work. Naturally these
movements have faced ruthless attacks of mercenary gangs of criminals in
most of the places.
However, in the face of organised strength and militant temper of the poor
often they had to beat a retreat and at many places they were even chased
away. Successes in land and wage movements have made big landlords quite
desperate and the nexus of landlord-mafia
goons-politician-police-administration has started launching vehement
attacks on the tolas of landless and poor peasants that have been centers of
struggle. Even the force of several police stations was mobilised under the
command of a DSP to launch raid on a tola inhabited by just 70 landless
households in the name of nabbing four accused culprits of petty theft!
Police have resorted to firing in many cases, poor peasants have been victim
of custodial deaths and even the agitators have been killed in cold blood.
The latest example of police brutality particularly targeting our Party
activists was witnessed at Bettiah when on 9 August, while observing
'Champaran Bandh' Comrade Ramji Patel was shot dead at point blank range by
the police within the Bettiah railway station premises. Against this,
protest was launched all over the state. The district committee has resolved
that there will be no let up in the protest until the SP of the district is
punished. In course of this protest campaign, the Party held a massive
'Sankalp Rally' in the memory of Comrade Ramji Patel at Mainatanr on 13
September. Addressing the rally Party General Secretary Comrade Dipankar
Bhattacharya said that this is the third time in the history of this
district that toiling people are waging a major battle against the feudal
order of this district. First, during the British period, it was Gandhi who
took over the leadership and the movement earned popular peasant support for
the Congress for the first time in its history, but soon the Congress
started openly siding with the Zamindars and conveniently forgot the
question of land reform. Then, during the 1940s and onwards, the Communist
Party took up the question mobilizing the broad masses of peasantry, but due
to the compromising attitude of its leadership, which later abandoned the
course of agrarian revolution, the task remained unfinished. This time the
poor peasants, agrarian labourers and toiling people have rallied under the
banner of the CPI(ML) in a determined struggle against the feudal order for
the second independence. To the social forces that are still vacillating, he
appealed to firmly stand by the cause of the poor and oppressed against the
repressive landlords in the region. He also appealed to the women to take
part in large numbers in the struggle against feudal-politician-criminal
nexus for their rights and dignity.
This time it is the final battle being fought by the most downtrodden of the
countryside for a radical change. So the rural poor have decided that
however fierce be the repression, all the necessary sacrifices will be made,
and there will be no rest till the landlord-mafia regime is overthrown. And
CPI(ML) is determined to lead this struggle through to an end.
The meeting was also addressed by Rameshwar Prasad, General Secretary of
Bihar Pradesh Khet Mazdoor Sabha, Virendra Prasad Gupta, Party incharge of
West Champaran district, BPKMS leader Vidyanand Vikal, district Party
leaders Nandji Ram, Sunil Rao, Rustam Ali, Dayanand Dubey and others.
CPI(ML) to Hold Convention in Gujarat on September 28
Although saffron forces' plans to misutilise constitutional provisions in
order to subvert its basic democratic premise received a jolt when the
Election Commission in its order refused to hold the Legislative Assembly
elections in the state immediately to constitute an assembly before October
6, and the Supreme Court too in its observation ruled out any intervention
in Election Commission's fixture of holding elections, the Sangh Parivar has
not slackened its campaign of subverting the democratic norms. Led by killer
Modi they have unleashed an unrelenting venomous propaganda campaign against
the minority which is clearly violative of the secular spirit of our
constitution. To protest this saffron campaign the CPI(ML) alongwith several
anti-BJP non-Congress left and democratic organisations will hold a
convention on "Strengthen Democratic Resistance against Communal Fascist
Designs of Saffron Forces" on 28 September in Ahmedabad. Activists and
concerned citizens from neighbouring states like Maharashtra and Rajasthan
and also from Delhi and some other parts of the country will join workers
and activists from Ahmedabad and elsewhere in Gujarat to attend this
convention and take out a joint anti-fascist march for justice and
democracy.
Meanwhile, reiterating the demand for the dismissal of Narendra Modi govt.
and immediate promulgation of Presidesnt's rule in Gujarat as well as
appointment of a credible and non-RSS Governor, the CPI(ML) has demanded an
immediate stop to the so-called 'Gaurav Yatra' being held by the
RSS-BJP-VHP-Bajrang Dal in Gujarat. In a statement issued recently the Party
said, "for political confidence to be restored among the genocide victims in
the state, the Modis, the Singhals, and the Togadias have to be arrested and
punished." The Party strongly condemned the anti-Muslim abusive statements
made recently by Narendra Modi who said that relief camps were closed
because those were being used for substantially increasing Muslim population
in the state.
The Party ridiculed the claim of the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in
the United Nations General Assembly that the Gujarat genocide was an
aberration. The Party said, "Whatever happened in Gujarat was a planned
systematic state-monitored genocide and it has shaken the foundation of
Indian democracy. Gujarat covets the din and bustle of a living and
civilised society where the common man and women can pick up the threads of
communal harmony, rebuild their lives and resume their struggle for justice
and democracy in a climate of mutual respect and trust". The Venue of the
Convention is Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hall, situated behind Ahmedabad
Railway Station.
State Conference of Paschimbanga Gana Sanskritik Parishad
The state conference of the cultural organization Paschim Banga Gana
Sanskritik Parishad9 West Bengal Peoples' Cultural Forum) was held at Ashok
Nagar, North 24 Paraganas in West Bengal on 7-8 September. It was
inaugurated by senior leftist intellectual Jyotiprakash Chattopadhyay. Many
renowned cultural personalities were present in the inaugural session. The
programme was conducted by Arijit Mitra, editor of 'Nabanna'. The inaugural
session was rendered attractive by the songs by Ajit Pandey, Brati Mazumdar
and Suvendu Maiti. In his inaugural speech Jyotiprakash Chattopadhyay
recalled the experience of the cultural movement of the yesteryears and
highlighted the pioneering role of Romain Rolland. He concentrated on the
responsibility of cultural activists against national terror.
On 8 September the cultural report of Gana Sanskritik Parishad was tabled by
Nitish Roy and more than 20 delegates participated in the lively discussion
on cultural movement.
In all 130 people participated in the two-day programme. The conference
passed a ten-point resolution, opposing state terrorism and demanding
release of political prisoners. The conference voiced its opposition to the
Sangh Parivar's Gaurav Yatra in Gujarat and its concern on increasing
saffron infiltration in the Northeastern states. It decided to proliferate
the organization and popularize 'Nabanna', the mouthpiece of Gana Sanskritik
Parishad. It also resolved to hold workshops on songs, drama, mime and
painting and forge a team of singers and street drama activists who would go
to villages to carry the cultural message of the Parishad. And lastly, it
decided to launch a movement to oppose the horrific deaths of children in
the state.
The conference reelected Nitish Roy as secretary, Dr Debasis Mukherjee,
Sitanshu Chakravarty and Arijit Mitra as joint secretaries. The programme
successfully ended with the song 'Hum honge kamyaab'.
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