_ From: "AUCCTU" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [L-I] [ INDIA] ML Update, Vol> 40; No. 40; 03-10-2001. [from :cpimllib] >From :<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ML Update : A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine Vol.-4; No.-40; 3-10-2001 The Message from Muzaffarpur What happened at Muzaffarpur in Bihar on 26 September was nothing short of a mini uprising of the masses. How many times have we heard reports of police shooting down unarmed unorganised people airing their grievances against sundry cases of injustice and the administration clamping down curfew to scare away those who survive the police firing! All that happened at Muzaffarpur too, but there was a difference. Defying curfew, the masses were out in thousands and they fought pitched battles with the police and burnt down as many as four police stations and outposts. The incident that triggered off this mass explosion could have happened on any day in any corner of Bihar. On his way to school, a five-year-old boy of a bank employee is kidnapped in broad daylight. The poor rickshaw-puller, who tries to offer some resistance, gets badly injured, but the local administration could not care less. The officials are all busy supervising the felicitation of two ministers: Ramai Ram, local MLA and RJD minister in Rabri cabinet, and Shahnawaj Hussein, BJP minister from Bihar in Vajpayee�s central cabinet. A few days later the boy is found dead; his body hacked into three pieces. The administration however chooses to join issue with the father over the identity of his dead son! Enough was enough! Muzaffarpur exploded in rage. Bank employees all over the district were already on strike since the boy was kidnapped on September 20. Cutting across all divides, the entire town now came out on the streets. The insensitive administration of course knew no other way to pacify the aggrieved people than clamp down curfew and shoot down a dozen protesters. Like an arrogant king, Laloo Yadav stayed ensconced in Patna and dismissed the entire upheaval as a political conspiracy against his government while one of his ministers called it a �sponsored show�. Meanwhile, the police chief of the state got busy theorising kidnapping as �a low-risk, high-return industry� flourishing in an environment of massive unemployment. Kidnapping in Bihar is long known to have acquired the status of an industry. In fact, together with other branches of organised crime, it constitutes one of the biggest sources of accumulation in an all-pervasive atmosphere of deindustrialisation and destruction of productive forces and possibilities. But Bihar knows it too well that this extortion industry is flourishing not just on private initiative, it is a joint sector industry with enormous backing from the state sector. If Bihar has to survive it has to overthrow the criminal-police-corrupt politician nexus that has pushed it perilously close to the brink of destruction. The RJD-Congress government of Bihar cannot however be held exclusively responsible for the state�s criminalised economy and polity. The BJP-led NDA opposition stands equally indicted. The explosion of popular anger at Muzaffarpur has thus also brought to fore the question of a democratic political alternative. Even as Bihar gets ready to celebrate the centenary year of Jay Prakash Narain, and all his discredited disciples engage in hypocritical hyperbole invoking his political legacy, it remains the task of sincere communists and socialists in Bihar to respond to this challenge. As revolutionary communists, we must do all we can to seize the moment and march forward. CPI(ML) Expresses Concern on Kashmir Incident, Condemns Ban on SIMI and Attack on Freedom of Dalit-Adivasis in UP CPI(ML) expressed deep concern over the militants' attack around the State Assembly in Srinagar. The Party has mourned the death of all those killed in this ghastly incident. Party said that the BJP-led NDA Govt. at the centre as well as the State Govt. of Jammu and Kashmir stand indicted for their utter failure to save innocent lives in the valley. CPI(ML) termed the ban on SIMI as a "decision taken under political malice to serve communal motives". Party held that the Govt. could take action against SIMI leaders only if it had evidence against them. Party strongly deplored the statements made by Union Home Minister LK Advani and UP CM Rajnath Singh in support of misdeeds of Bajrang Dal and said that to give a blank cheque to an anti-national communal fascist organisation like Bajrang Dal and banning SIMI at the same time is clearly aimed at infusing communal venom into the atmosphere surcharged with war jingoism. With these signals Sangh Parivar and Vajpayee Govt. in fact want to initiate a new phase of communal frenzy in the country. Party strongly condemned the witch-hunt of Muslim youth and toiling people under the pretext of the ban both in BJP-ruled and non-BJP-ruled states, the LF-ruled West Bengal included. CPI(ML) strongly condemned UP Govt. for identifying Kol (tribal), Chamar and Mushahars (dalits) in Chandauli-Mirzapur and Sonebhadra districts as Naxalites and on that pretext compelling them to register the names of their visiting relatives in police stations. Party has demanded withdrawal of the order. Mass Uprising in Muzaffarpur, Bihar CPI(ML) Intensifies War against Mafiadom and Police Barbarity; Calls Bihar Bandh, Launches Jan Abhiyan The battle against state-sponsored mafiadom and police barbarity was further intensified in Bihar following the incident of kidnapping and subsequent killing of a five-year old son of a bank employee in Muzaffarpur on 20 September. The dubious role of police, particularly after the body of the child was found, sparked off widespread anger and protest not only throughout the district, it engulfed the whole of north Bihar. When on 26 September, thousands of people cutting across caste and community borders took to the streets in a mass upsurge, the police that had done nothing to nab the culprits brutally lathicharged the protestors. This further enraged the people and there was virtually a war between the mafia-criminal friendly police on the one hand and common people on the other. The police opened fire, killing at least 10 persons and injuring more than 100, and then an indefinite curfew was imposed in Muzaffarpur town. But people refused to disperse and burnt at least four police check posts and a number of police vehicles. No local politician belonging either to BJP-Samata or RJD dared to come out before the masses. In Patna, agitating legislators of CPI(ML) and some other opposition parties stalled the proceedings in the Assembly and demanded resignation of Rabri Devi and immediate suspension of the DM and the SP of Muzaffarpur. Party MLAs said that this barbaric act is the fallout of competitive criminalisation between RJD on the one hand and BJP-Samata on the other. Ultimately to hoodwink the people the govt. ordered a judicial probe into the incident. But this failed to pacify the people, and for three days, defying the curfew they continued the movement against loot, killing, kidnapping with overt and covert backing of the government. Being in the thick of the movement, CPI(ML) resolved to carry it forward and announced "black day" to be observed on 27-28 September and Bihar Bandh on 29 September. A party team comprising Com. Satyadev Ram, MLA and Mithilesh Yadav, RYA president reached Muzaffarpur on 28 Sept. and met the injured in hospital. Party General Secretary Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya reached Muzaffarpur on the Bandh day and led the march on the streets of Muzaffarpur along with scores of Party leaders, activists and supporters and concerned citizens. Despite the trauma caused by three days of curfew, people's response was significant. Marchers observed two-minute silence at Saraiyaganj tower and Town Police Station in the memory of those killed in police firing. Com. Dipankar also addressed the protest meeting held at Muzaffarpur on the bandh day. Not only the districts in the north, but also in south Bihar and even in several districts of East Bihar the bandh called by CPI(ML) evoked noticeable response. In Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Siwan and Motihari, train services were disrupted, many state highways and some important national highways were blocked for several hours. In the whole of Bihar, more than 2000 Party supporters were arrested by police. All commercial establishments remained closed and transport system was almost paralysed. Police resorted to lathicharge at Bettiah, Narkatiyaganj, Jahanabad, Darbhanga, Paliganj (Patna) and Sameli (Katihar). A number of Party leaders got injured in the lathicharge. At Dulhin Bazar (Patna), police even fired at the agitators. Addressing a press conference in the evening, Com. Dipankar called upon the people of Bihar to join hands in order to change the content and direction of politics in Bihar, which has degenerated to the level of massacres, loot, kidnappings and police barbarity. He announced the Party's commitment to sustain and develop the movement against mafiadom and police barbarity to a higher level. He demanded that the govt. must arrest the SP of Muzaffarpur and institute a case of murder against him. Party has announced to launch a statewide week-long "Jan Abhiyan" from 2-8 October and hold a rally at Muzaffarpur on 9 October. From 10-12 October, a march will be taken out from Khudiram Bose Memorial at Muzaffarpur to Patna, covering around 100 km., which will be led by Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya. On October 13, a massive "Resistance Rally" against killings and police barbarity will be held in Patna. CPI(ML)'s 'Anti-War Campaign' Echoes anti-Imperialist Sentiments of People Nationwide Party's "anti-war campaign" from 24 to 29 September evoked massive response of left, anti-imperialist, democratic and peace-loving people. In Bihar, Party organised anti-war people's march in Patna and several other district headquarters on September 26. Led by Party GS Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya and several other Party leaders including Com. KD Yadav, Rajaram Singh and Dr. Shahida Hasan, marchers covered the main roads of Patna. The march culminated in a mass meeting, where Com. Dipankar called upon the peace-loving patriotic and democratic Indians to reject and resist the US war of aggression and saffron Vajpayee Govt.'s shameless surrender to the US. He said that whereas in the '80s US priority was to defeat USSR in the cold war, the focus has now shifted against China and Islamic countries. He expressed solidarity with the anti-war demonstrations and agitations building up in Washington and otther centres of US against the US war games. In Delhi, large number of Party activists and supporters took out an impressive anti-war protest march on September 29 from Mandi House to Parliament Street. Carrying placards reading "Killer US has struck again, it is Operation Total Injustice", marchers shouted slogans "Bush-Vajpayee, hands off war efforts", "Asia will be turned into the graveyard of imperialism", etc. An anti-war meeting was held before Parliament Street Police Station, addressed by Party leaders Com. Swadesh Bhattacharya, Kumudini Pati, Rajendra Pratholi, Ranjit Abhigyan, Kavita Krishnan and NM Thomas. Com. Asit Ganguli, an RSP leader also addressed the meeting. Speakers decried Vajpayee's surrender to US war efforts and involving Indian people in imperialist war machine as cannon fodder, and "Americanisation" of Kashmir issue, by tagging it with America's so-called 'war on terrorism' and leaving the onus of resolving it on Bush administration. Subsequently, the agitators burnt the effigy of George Bush. In West Bengal, Party along with other ML groups and Shramik Sangram Committee organised 'Anti-war People's March' in Calcutta on Sep 24. It started from Subodh Mullick square to reach US Information Center at Park Street. Party leaders Com. Kalyan Goswami and Basudev Bose; 'New Democracy' leader Com. Pradip Singh Thakur, COI(ML) leader Com. Subrato Bose and Com. Tushar Bhattacharya led the march. On 29th September, protest programmes were taken in different parts of the state. In Krishnanagar of Nadia district, 150 Party activists staged a procession shouting slogans against American imperialism and their war efforts against Afganisthan and the effigy of president Bush was burnt. Rally and effigy burning programmes were also held in Bhadreswar, Boinchi and Dhanekhali in Hoogly district and in Jalpaiguri and Siliguri. An anti-war march was staged in Raiganj of North Dinajpur and a street corner was held at Barasat of North 24-Paragana. In U.P., Party and all its mass organisations took out a massive anti-war march in Lucknow on September 27 attended by hundreds of people from several districts. Starting from Char Bagh and passing through main streets of the city, the march reached State Assembly where it a meeting was held, addressed by Party State Secy. Com. Akhilendra Pratap Singh, Lal Bahadur Singh, Arun Kumar, Ramesh Sengar and others. Similar marches were also held at Varanasi on September 28 and Kanpur and other places on September 29. At Jaipur in Rajasthan, hundreds of people took out an 'anti-war march' on September 29. It reached Raj Bhawan, where an anti-war meeting was held, addressed by State Secy. Com. Mahendra Chaudhary and others. At Kakinada in East Godawari and Bishannapeta in Krishna districts of Andhra Pradesh, anti-war marches were taken out. State Party Secy. Com. N Murthy led the march at Kakinada. At Port Blair in Andaman, anti-war people's march was held on Sep 29. It was led by Com. NKP Nair, Sadasivam and Gopal. In Assam, anti-war marches were organised on 29 September in Guwahati and several other districts. In Tripura, marches were taken out in Agartala, Udaipur and Amarpur. Everywhere the speakers condemned the Vajpayee Govt. for endangering India's sovereignty and independence by turning into a pawn in the US war game and diverting the attention of the people from their struggles against hunger, unemployment and poverty. They also lambasted at RSS-BJP for fanning another round of communal frenzy by vitiating the atmosphere already laden with war jingoism. AIPWA Workshop in Bihar A two-day state-level workshop was held on 22-23 Sept. at Samastipur. The workshop, participated in by around 75 cadres from 16 districts was inaugurated by Kumudini Pati, Gen. Secy. of AIPWA. Among the topics discussed were 'Impact of globalisation on women agricultural labourers' (paper presented by Saroj Chaubey); 'Impact of globalisation on education' (Meena Tiwari); 'Bihar - a critique of the development schemes' (Shashi Yadav) and 'All-round development of AIPWA'. The participants felt that introduction of machines in the agricultural sector had rendered a large number of women jobless. The women workers were being forced to migrate to other areas. Under liberalisation scheme, the govt. has winded up all govt. educational facilities, as a result a good number of girls are being denied education. AIPWA cadres who have won recent panchayat elections spoke of rampant corruption in govt. schemes and RJD legislators' pressure on administration that was hindering development. So it must be made a political issue, they felt. It was also felt that all-out initiative in responding to the political situation and resolving organisational problems was the key to achieve targeted membership. AICCTU Activities in Delhi Hundreds of workers, mainly from construction and other small scale sectors, gathered at Ambedkar Park, Jwala Nagar (Shahadra) on 25 Sep. to demonstrate before the labour office. The JNU branch of Jan Sanskriti Manch performed a street Play Sarkar ka Jadoo. From there the demonstrators led by Com. Gautam, East Delhi incharge of AICCTU, Himmat Singh, office secy. of AICCTU, CPI(ML) State Secretary Com. Rajendra Pratholi and leaders including Com. Sunita, Ram Abhilash and union leaders Com. Nek Singh, Asfak, and Vikas reached the labour office and handed over a 12-point memorandum to the Dy. Labour Commissioner. A mass meeting was organised there, addressed by Party and AICCTU leaders. At Rohini, workers of small & cottage industries and construction etc. protested against police atrocity on 23 Sep. Lok Swar of JSM performed cultural programme. Com. Rajendra Pratholi, Com. Himmat Singh, Com. Rajan, and Taslimuddin addressed the gathering. Agri. Labour Assn. Conference in W.B. First State Conference of Agriculture Labour Association (ALA) in W.B. was held at Rabindra Bhaban in Bardhaman District on 22-23 September. Prior to the conference, two padayatras of agriculture labourers, one from the village Karanda where six agriculture labourers were brutally killed by CPM goons in the year of 1993 and the other from Dewandighi, were taken out, which met at Curzon Gate, culminating in a mass meeting addressed by Party Gen. Secy. Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya, Bihar agrarian labour leader Com. Rameswar Prasad, Party State Secy. Com. Kartick Pal and West Bengal ALA leader Com. Srikanta Rana. Com. Dipankar in his speech said that the ALA is the basic class organisation of rural proletariat. Attempts should be made to bring even the backward section of the class under the organisation. The association should maintain its initiative and dynamism under all circumstances and become an independent organisation of agriculture labourers. Then there will be no dearth of cadres for CPI(ML). He also said that the resistance against attack of enemies should not be taken merely from the military view point, rather the rural poor including the agriculture labourer should be mobilised in the movement so that the demands including that of punishing the enemies would be met. Agricultural labourers are leaving CPM due to their pro-rich policies and joining the revolutionary camp; this is causing panic among the goons and killers. Com. Rameswar Prasad hoisted the red flag and innagurated the conference attended by 434 delegates from 12 districts of the state. A draft document was placed before the conference by Com. Srikanta Rana for discussion. The draft emphasise developing ALA as an independent class organisation with a strong mass base. The association will make consistent efforts to lead agricultural labourers to the revolutionary goal of radical transformation of the society. In the discussion, the question of developing resistance movement became a major agenda. The draft demands a comprehensive legislation for agriculture labourers centering on land, increase of wage, employment throughout the year, identity card, insurance, pension, food, education, medical facilities etc. The conference was held in a living atmosphere full of enthusiasm. It also adopted a resolution against the war efforts by the Bush administration. The conference elected a state council of 43 members and a executive committee of 17 members. It elected Com. Sajal Pal as president and Com. Srikanta Rana as secretary of the association. 1st Bihar Khet Mazdoor Sabha Conference With a massive rally on 26 September, the two-day founding conference of Bihar Pradesh Khet Mazdoor Sabha (BPKMS) began at Mairwa in Siwan district of Bihar. Linking the rally to nationwide anti-war campaign called by the Party, the central slogan of the rally was "Against imperialist imposition of war, for land and freedom". Addressing the rally, Party PB member Com. Swadesh Bhattacharya, while emphasising the role of political assertion of agrarian labourers, said that under the pretext of combating terrorism on global scale, the US imperialists and saffron Indian govt. have conspired to divert people's struggle against hunger, unemployment and poverty, and use them as cannon fodder instead, but the Indian people will never allow this to happen. He appealed to all the democratic and peace-loving people to defeat the imperialist challenge. The conference was attended by 480 delegates from all over Bihar, representing almost all regions. The brief, precise draft document presented by Com. Rameshwar Prasad notes that in Bihar the political assertion of the class of rural proletariat is growing and their interests are clashing with those of old feudal forces as well as new kulaks and upstarts. Mobilising agrarian labourers as a separate class in an independent organisation has become an unavoidable precondition for the revolutionary transformation of any kind in the rural economy, society and politics. All routes of struggle for development and betterment of Bihar pass through the process of agrarian labourers' liberation, participation and political assertion. BPKMS is a broad class forum of agrarian labourers, poor peasants who sell labour, workers operating modern agricultural machines, those engaged in construction work, social forestry, fishery, milk production etc. This forum will try to organise all agrarian labourers as a politically conscious class against feudal-capitalist exploitation combining anti-feudal and anti-government struggles. During the discussion delegates opined that in order to fulfil the tasks, agrarian labourers under influence of whosoever political formation should be approached and the target should be to enroll all agrarian labourers of Bihar in this organisation. Why at all agrarian lablurers would go to other organisations? Emphasis should be given on building resistance groups. Also, solidarity must be expressed with peasants fighting against adverse impact of globalisation and liberalisation. The conference took a target of expanding the membership to 1,000,000. The conference elected a 67-member council and a 23-member executive body. Com. Satyadev Ram and Rameshwar Prasad were elected president and general secretary respectively. Vajpayee hatao, Mehnatkash bachao, Desh bachao! (Oust Vajpayee, Save the Wrokers, Save the Nation!) 5th Conference of All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) 8-9-10 October, 2001 Town Hall, Dhanbad Join Massive Workers' Rally October 8, 2001 _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
