CHALLENGES OF IMPERIALISM Dr.Lenin1 1PVCHR <>,India, SA 4/2 A, Daulatpur, Varanasi-221002,UP [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Friends and Comrade, My Revolutionary salute to this distinguished gatherings. I think it is my great privilege that I have given opportunity to attend such an important conference. Really I suspect that whether I am worthy of it. Heartily I thanks to socialist party of Islamic solidarity for inviting me in this important international conference which is being organized at a time when the whole world particularly third world countries are facing the serious challenges of imperialism. I wanted to begin my speech stating the perspectives of the people of Varanasi city in respect of imperialism, which has been composed by Mr.Gyanendrapati, a popular poet of Varanasi. In Golden Jubilee year of Freedom Freedom means Freedom to choose in market And your choice, Decided by those who have Body-prowess of gadgets, Illusion- power of advertisement They like your freedom Freedom to be consumer-slave On summit of mechanical civilization Theyve not only made computers But your mind too, a computer Whose software they supply Home delivery, free, Absolutely free, You too, think better say Thanks you Smiling Society too, wont beer the weight of a rebel mind You dont jump in the market one fine day In these days of global market By and by alone, the market become your world And now the mind is handed over to the market The delicate mind, Shaped round like dung-cake by market Embossed with the fingerprints The dung-cake ready to be burnt down Like the deep dwelling oceanic fire and stomach-born(e) hunger-fire To keep the fire burning In the market-womb Whose ever-consuming appetite is global market Their shutters are ever open Through this poem we can understand that the whole world is under the control of imperialism and globalization. As a resident of Varanasi city, which is center of semi feudal and capitalist mode of production, I wanted to make you understand the actual meaning of imperialism through the views of common people of Varanasi city where castist and patriarchal tyrannies are still in existence as the remnants of Indian feudal system. Hindu fascist forces are trying hard to make us understand that caste system is permanent. On the one hand when the progressive movement against caste system and feudalism is expanding and gathering momentum, then at the same time Hindu fascist forces like RSS, VHP and BJP are trying hard to maintain status quo and all kinds of backwardness based on inequality. These feudal forces are dividing the people on communal basis to weaken the class struggle. Indians are still facing the communal riots. Recently communal massacre in the province of Gujarat is clear example of fascist upsurge. At international level imperialistic forces are very cunningly trying to avoid the struggle against imperialism by painting the peoples struggle as struggle between two civilizations. Imperialist philosopher like Huntington and his disciple George Bush are doing the same thing. Imperialism is crushing the peoples democratic demands in the name of terrorism. I think that communal fascism or terrorism and imperialism are two aspects of the same coin. They are complementary to each other. Imperialism is promoting militarisation. Stephen staples have rightly remarked in social justice magazine (vol. 27, No. 4) that Globalization and militarism should be seen as two sides of the same coin. On one side, globalization promotes the conditions that leads to unrest inequality, conflict and ultimately war. On the other side, globalization fuels the means to wage war by protecting & promoting the military industries needed to produce sophisticated weaponry. This weaponry is used --- or its use is threatened -- to protect the investments of transnational corporations and their stakeholders. So it has become very clear to us that American imperialism is conducting the trade of war among the nations and within the nations for their benefit and to control over the resources of third world countries. We have no way out other than to organize direct resistance against American imperialism. We must have to organize our resistance on the principles of equality; fraternity, secularism and democracy so that we could be able to save our national sovereignty. We must continue our struggle against war, occupation and foreign military rule to ensure our peace, freedom, and national sovereignty. In this respect we should remember the teaching of Benjamin Barbara. He says, Democracies prefer markets but markets do not prefer democracies. Today America is waging imperialistic war particularly against third world countries in the name of war on terror. US hegemony in the new global order has been the subject of much discussion. In the early 1990s, Washington set itself three objective: to make the global balance resulting from the end of the Cold War, to ensure its ideological lead and military supremacy, and to create an economic environment favourable to its own interests. For the most part these objectives have been achieved. Admittedly international balances are not static and hegemony does not mean absolute freedom of action. But no country or group of countries appears able to constitute a political counter-weight to the US in foreseeable future. As Thomas Friedman puts it, In the globalization system, the US is now the sole and dominant superpower and all other nation are subordinate to it one degree or another. The same writer wrote an article in the New Yark Times, which carried the illustration of an American flag superimposed on a fist. In the article, Friedman argued that for globalism to work, America cant be afraid to act like the almighty superpower it is. The hidden hand of market will never without a hidden fist. McDonalds cannot flourish without McDonnel Douglas, the designer of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valleys technologies is called the United States Army, Air Force and Marine Corps. Today each and every nation is being forced to adopt the policies dictated by World Bank, IMF and world trade organization, which goes against the principle of national sovereignty and which is opposed to the interests of marginalized communities of that nation. In India, Dalits, tribes, minority, children and women are facing starvation and crises of livelihood. Policies of food securities have been weakened due to this. In our city of Varanasi 41 weavers have died of hunger within two years or have committed suicide suffering from acute poverty. Today imperialism is affecting the all walks of life and creating crises. Today imperialism has been main contradiction for the people of third word countries and it has been compulsory to organize resistance against it. Imperialism is active at all fronts and squarely trying hard to maintain the existing structures of exploitation. Today there is no way out except to organize resistance internationally and locally against imperialism keeping in view the sovereignty of people of each country. People of whole world particularly people of third world countries are facing marginalisation. Therefore we have to mobilize them on the basis of secularism, socialism, equality and fraternity. I think that without destroying present structure of exploitation we cant construct new one, free from all kinds of exploitation. At the end I would like to stop my speech quoting the statement of a man named Chhotelal (Chhotelal belongs to Musahar community, Musahar are those persons who eat the rats for their survival). I am worth an earthworm. For you I am only an ant to be crushed. My human rights puny before your demon rights I may be insignificant come on. Agreed yet my claim over the earth is no way less than yours. DR.LENIN (ASHOKA FELLOW) & Shruti, PVCHR, SA4/2A, DAULATPUR, VARANASI-221002,UP,INDIA.PH.:+91-542-2586688 Mobile:+91-9935599333 Please visit: http://www.universalrights.net/heroes/display.php3?id=101 www.pvchr.org www.webspawner.com/users/pvchr www.pvchr.blogspot.com www.sapf.blogspot.com www.antiwto.blogspot.com www.rtfcup.blogspot.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ greenyouth mailinglist is the activist support mailinglist for kerala run by Global Alternate Information Applications (GAIA) To post to this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
