From: "cpimllib" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, 25 Dec 2001 20:17:14 +0530 To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;@tonto.eunet.fi> Subject: ML Update, Vol.4; No.52; 27 - 12 - 2001. ML Update A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine Vol.-4; No.-52; 27-12-2001 Stop Adventurism, Restore Diplomatic Ties with Pakistan The winter session of Parliament had begun with a bang and ended prematurely with a whimper. Following the CAG's disclosure of the coffin scam and other major irregularities in defence purchases, the demand for the resignation of Vajpayee's Tehelka-tainted Man Friday reached a new crescendo. Indeed, the Bofors and HDW scams of the Rajiv Gandhi era and even the sensational Tehelka disclosures seemed to pale into insignificance before the coffin scam. This country may have seen any number of scams in recent years, but it is certainly not ready to accept the fact that coffins imported in the name of Kargil martyrs should be used to fill the coffers of the country's corrupt rulers and bureaucrats. The opposition also seemed quite determined to foil the government's bid to enact POTO. But that was all before December 13. The long shadow of the mysterious terrorist attack of December 13 completely changed the course and complexion of the remaining session of Parliament. The session was brought to a premature end and all contentious issues were buried under a conspiratorial consensus. Once again, key issues of national security were allowed to remain shrouded in silence. This blind attitude to issues related to national security and defence preparedness and purchases has certainly not helped the country become any stronger or its security environment any less penetrable. We are now told that senior members of Parliament secretariat are involved in handing over defence-related documents to foreign embassies. The absence of a serious parliamentary scrutiny of all defence-related issues has only enabled an endless chain of scams to flourish in the 'security' of national ignorance. The premature end of Parliament's winter session and the competitive cries of 'teaching Pakistan a lesson', emanating equally from almost all quarters of the opposition, have left the BJP free to pursue its own course. By all accounts POTO would now be re-promulgated and applied indiscriminately. The recall of our High Commissioner from Pakistan and the decision to suspend the Delhi-Lahore bus service and the Samjhauta Express are calculated steps aimed at creating a war-like situation and unleashing war hysteria in the country. Instead of calling for military restraint and intensification of diplomatic efforts with Pakistan, most opposition leaders including former Prime Ministers like VP Singh and IK Gujral have only lauded the diplomatic adventurism and are goading the government to stretch this adventurism right into the military domain. The BJP could not love it more. Going to actual war with Pakistan is fraught with serious consequences and America is not likely to allow that much of freedom to the Vajpayee government. A war-like situation and the attendant climate of war hysteria, on the other hand, promise all political benefits of a war without much actual costs and risks. Indeed, the Sangh Parivar is now desperate to sandwich the country between 13 December and 12 March. While it invokes the shock of 13 December to secure a free hand to whip up jingoistic frenzy, the threat of March 12 is being used as the proverbial sword of Damocles to keep the minorities and all secular forces on tenterhooks. Such a lethal dose of jingoism and communalism, it hopes, will be able to suppress all burning issues of the day. This is the BJP's tested and trusted tactic to defuse, divert and distort popular resentment over the lingering economic recession, all pervading agrarian crisis, mounting unemployment, and above all, the non-performance and growing crisis of credibility of the government. If this is the BJP's gameplan for the February elections and the forthcoming budget, the responsibility of all committed secular democratic forces is clearly to foil it. The Tehelka and coffin scams have exposed the dirty goings-on inside our defence establishment. American intervention in the sub-continent has acquired dangerous proportions. Any escalation of tension with Pakistan, any course of diplomatic and military adventurism, will transform the Indo-Pak relations into an Israel-Palestine kind of permanent hostility and allow the US to tighten its strategic stranglehold on the entire region. This can only lead to terror of a more extensive and permanent kind. If we want to minimise the threats of terrorism, de-escalation of tension with Pakistan and restoration and deepening of diplomatic relations is the only option. War - whether it's an actual war or a war-like situation - is not an acceptable alternative. The message must be sent loud and clear to all those who are engaged in high-pitch war-mongering. CPI(ML) Condemns Decision to call back Indian High Commissioner from Pak In a press statement on 21 December, the Party strongly condemned Vajpayee-led NDA government's decision to call back India's High Commissioner from Pakistan and suspend operation of Delhi-Lahore Bus Service as well as Samjhauta Express running between India and Pakistan. The Party has advised the Central govt. to desist from such acts of diplomatic adventurism, because it would only aggravate the already prevailing tense and war-like situation in the region. Homage Veteran communist leader and a leading light of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights, Comrade Biren Roy breathed his last in Calcutta at midnight, 8-9 December. He was 86. He had joined the Communist Party in 1936. After the 1964 split, he did not join either the CPI or the CPI(M), but remained active in the CITU and preferred to work for communist unification. Comrades Kalyan Goswami and Kartick Pal paid floral tributes to the departed leader. Veteran CPI(M) leader in Kerala and a leader of AIDWA, Comrade Susheela Gopalan passed away on December 18 after a grim battle against cancer. A parliamentarian for two terms, Comrade Susheela was a key national figure in the movement for women's liberation led by communists. She was one of those few outstanding first-generation women leaders in the communist movement and her sad demise is a big loss to the left and women's movements in the country. Our homage to both the leaders. Sankalp Diwas (Pledge taking day)Observed Throughout the Country on 18 December Remembering late General Secretary of CPI(ML) Comrade Vinod Mishra on the third anniversary of his demise on 18 December, which was observed as Sankalp Diwas, various programmes were taken throughout the country. In many places mass meetings/Seminars against communal fascism and imperialism were held, whereas at other places cadre conventions or meetings took place where Com. VM's articles were discussed or future tasks were planned. UTTAR PRADESH In Bhatpar of Deoria district, a mass meeting was held. In Pilibhit, an anti-imperialist march was taken out and a demonstration was staged before the district collectorate in protest of the forest department's drive to evict the people from 9 villages. In Allahabad, a Party class was held and in Shankargarh area of this district, a two-day study camp was held. In Kanpur city and its rural area, study camps were held separately. In Lakhimpur Kheri, a General Body Meeting was held at Krantinagar and the local Party office was inaugurated there. In Gorakhpur, a peasants' meeting was held in the Town Hall. In Chandauli, various programmes were held in which state secretary Com. Akhilendra Pratap Singh participated. In Lucknow, a meeting of Party members was held, in which the last article of VM was read out and a talk was held. PUNJAB Observing Sankalp Divas on 18 December was a unique occasion for Chandigarh because it was the first activity taken up there under the Party banner. On this occasion, a seminar on "Communal fascist onslaught and challenges before democratic forces" was held at Punjab Pustak Bhawan. While Prof Jagmohan Singh, a civil libertarian and nephew of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh, was the main speaker, Com. Swapan Mukherjee, CC member chaired and state spokesperson of the Party, Com. Maninder Singh Randhawa conducted the seminar. Noted dramatist Gurusharan Singh, ex-editor of Chandigarh based left Punjabi journal Deshsevak Prof. Prem Singh and Party leader Sukhdarshan Natt also addressed the seminar. Representatives of various ML forces and MCPI were also present. On this day, district-level cadre meetings were held in Mansa and Ludhiana. Punjab is going to polls shortly and the cadre meetings were aimed at gearing up the activists to meet the challenge. The cadre meeting at Ludhiana was addressed by CC member-incharge of Punjab Com. BB Pandey and that of Mansa by Com. Rajvinder Singh Rana, state leading team secretary, Com. Jita Kaur and other members of SLT. HARYANA In Haryana, a seminar on "Caste, class and dalit-backward question" was held at Shiv Public School in Karnal. Paying homage to Com. Vinod Mishra, Party state incharge Com. Prem Singh said that CPI(ML) has always stood by the cause of workers, agrarian labourers and poor and middle peasantry. It is on the basis of this class line Party has taken up all the issues and maintained its independent identity. WEST BENGAL In Calcutta, a meeting was held against POTO and POCA in Students Hall, College Street. Speakers including Santosh Rana from PCC CPI(ML), Saifuddin from CPI(ML) ND, Manik Mukherjee from SUCI, Sujat Bhadro from APDR and Kartick Pal from CPI(ML)-Liberation condemned the POTO and its West Bengal variant POCA (the proposed Prevention of Organised Crime Act). Lambasting the hypocrisy of the CPI(M) in criticising POTO while bringing in a similar draconian legislation in the state, they also took the Buddhadev government to task for empowering the police to even disconnect power supply to consumers to push through power sector reforms and evicting hutment dwellers and hawkers through the use of force. TAMIL NADU Vinod Mishra memorial meetings were held in Coimbatore and Tirunelveli. The meetings condemned war hysteria being whipped up by the Vajpayee government utilising the December 13 incident and its determination to enact the draconian POTO despite all-round opposition to it. The meetings also criticised the decision of the Jayalalitha government to go in for wholesale reforms, its highhanded suppression of the struggles of organised sector workers and its offer to extend issue based support to the Centre in this backdrop. The meetings were addressed by CCMs Balasundaram and Kumarasamy respectively. The Tirunelveli meeting was also addressed by CPI District Secretary MS Thenu and CPI(M) District Executive Member KG Bhaskaran. ANDHRA PRADESH An agricultural labourers' convention of about 400 people was organised at Yeleswaram in East Godavari district on 18 December. Apart from demanding an agricultural labour legislation in Andhra Pradesh, the meeting also discussed certain specific problems of local agricultural labourers working in banana fields and resolved to organise a strike to tackle those problems including the question of equal wages to women labourers. CCMs N.Murthy and Bangar Rao and leader of the ALU Arjun Rao addressed the convention. BIHAR At Paliganj of Patna, a massive anti-POTO meeting was held in which around 3,000 people participated. It was addressed by Party Politburo members Com. Ram Naresh Ram and Nand Kishor Prasad. In the same district, around 1,000 people partricipated in the mass meeting held at Dhanarua, 500 each at Maner, Punpun and Janipur and 150 at Fatuha. In Patna town, a cadre convention was organised with 200 participants, addressed by Com. KD Yadav, RN Thakur, Ashok Kumar, Pradeep Jha, Manohar and Murtaza Ali. In Bhojpur, a cadre convention with 300 participants war organised at Arrah. It was addressed by Com. Amar and Santosh Sahar. Jan Sanskriti Manch and Kala Commune held a three-day poster exhibition in the memory of Vinod Mishra. Around 130 cadres participated in a convention on present situation and our tasks in Jahanabad. Party state secretary Com. Ramjatan Sharma, Com. Shyamchandra Chaudhary and Dr Ramadhar Singh addressed the convention. A meeting was held in Aurangabad and a cadre convention was organised in Gaya. In Nalanda, district conference of Khet Mazdoor Sabha was held in which 260 delegates took part. It was addressed by Gen. Secy. of Khet Mazdoor Sabha Com. Rameshwar Prasad, Rajendra Patel and Gajendra majhi. In Banka district, a cadre covention was organised for the first time on 18 December opposing POTO, addressed by Prabhat Kumar and Bindeshwari Mandal. In Purnea, a cadre convention was held at Brajesh Gram in Dhamdaha subdivision. In Rohtas, a cadre convention with 125 participants was held, addressed by Com. Pawan Sharma. In Katihar, a mass meeting participated in by 600 people was held at Kachna (Barsoi) addressed by the Party MLA Mahboob Alam and Sudama Prasad. A cadre convention was organised in Muzaffarpur, addressed by Com. Meena Tiwary and Krishna Mohan. At Raxaul of East Champaran, a demonstration was held before SDO and a meeting was held, addressed by Com. Vishnudev and Prabhudev Yadav. In West Champaran, a cadre convention was organised at Chanpatia. A cadre convention was held at Polo Maidan, Darbhanga. Here, a number of comrades earlier belonging to CPI(M) including state president of Janwadi Lekhak Sangh, Urdu poet Uwaish Ahmed Daura, joined CPI(ML). It was addressed by Com. Dhirendra Jha. In Madhubani, town-level convention was held and a town leading team was formed, whereas in Samastipur, 150 comrades participated in a convention. DELHI Party's Delhi State Committee organised a seminar on combating communal fascism. Addressing the seminar Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya said that VM recognized the threat of communal fascism 15 years ago even as people thought that India was safe because of constitutional amendments declaring it as a secular republic. During the Ayodhya movement VM held that to talk of secularism alone was inadequate. Com. Dipankar traced three sources of communalism and pointed out that it had gained strength by winning recognition as nationalism even as the other definition of nationalism as represented during the freedom struggle and the tradition of Bhagat Singh began lagging behind in asserting itself in the post independence period. He said that BJP could consolidate itself early on as everyone accepted Indira Gandhi's rhetoric of India's unity being threatened while BJP used religion to do the 'uniting' act. The anti-imperialist struggle fumbled in this period and this brand of false nationalism under the garb of cultural nationalism began to establish itself. He pointed out that the economic changes in the last 15years proved to be the other source of communal fascism and the new economic policy helped in setting BJP's agenda. The combination of colonialism with communalism resulted in the partition in 1947 and during globalization communalism was emerging as fascism within the country. It has been appearing as history revision, POTO, temple construction at Ayodhya, and as the Kashmir Question. He said all this was in line with their principle agenda of reconstructing the nation as a Hindu Rashtra and hence had to be countered with an equally determined democratic agenda. Elaborating on the democratic agenda he said that it needed to be broad based but at the core of it should be the firmness associated with the struggles of workers and peasants. Any lapse on this would only weaken the democratic movement. Com Dipankar drew a parallel between the attack on the Parliament and the fire in Reichstag in February1933 which Hitler utilized to the hilt in extending his agenda. He said the war cries, POTO etc. are to be seen as attempts to cure what Advani feels is a 'soft society' by bringing in his idea of an 'effective state'. In the past some believed that the North-South divide would prevent the fascist growth but the compromises made by the regional parties of the South India with BJP makes it clear that this theory has failed. Similarly those who thought that OBC and Dalit parties would prevent growth of fascism got a sense of their theoretical failure when BSP tied up with BJP. Justice Sachar equated the struggle against WTO with that against POTO and said that POTO anyway was being brought in even before the attack on Parliament and BJP was using December 13 for paving the way for furthering its agenda. He cautioned that in the communal frenzy that was being generated, it was possible for ideologically weaker forces to flow in support of government's policies. Noted journalist Praful Bidwai said that the communal fascist nature of the government was coming forward in three ways. The forced entry into the disputed site at Ayodhya and Sangh outfits threat of keeping the 12 March deadline, the forcible imposition of POTO and now the threat of war by the government. He said that India was trying to get into the league of Israel and US and was trying to call for a war, which he warned would have dangerous implications. Social scientist and National Secretary of Samajwadi Jan Parishad Yogendra Yadav said that a Home Minister who had no time for addressing the distraught Manipuri people when their Assembly was being burnt down was on television day and night declaring the danger from Islam and a Prime Minister who did not shed a tear for the thousands dying of starvation deaths wept for the September 11 attack in US. Prabhash Joshi paid tributes to VM and compared communal fascism with Ravana whose life force could be taken away by a youthful radical force like CPI-ML. Polit-Bureau member Comrade Swadesh Bhattacharya chaired the seminar and Delhi State Secretary Rajendra Pratholi thanked the participants. Kumarsamy Reelected President of Dunlop Union Com. S. Kumarsamy, CC member and working president of AICCTU recently got elected as the president of Dunlop Federation Employees Union for the 7th consecutive term. This is a significant victory because it was achieved against a powerful campaign against us by the union of the ruling party AIADMK. Social Uprising Rocks Argentina Last week, the government in Argentina fell twice in 48 hours. Following a nationwide general strike, massive and spontaneous protests started, in which supermarkets in 20 cities in 10 different provinces, including the country's capital, were looted, and the entire cabinet was forced to resign. Then the President De la Rua himself resigned following the Peronists' refusal to join a National Unity government. Around a week ago, the IMF refused to give Argentina the $1.3 billion scheduled for disbursement. Hours before his resignation, Washington refused him any help, despite the fact that De la Rua was the first Latin American president to commit troops to the peace force in Afghanistan and he was inclined to negotiate with the US to erect military bases in northeastern Argentina on the borders of Brazil and Paraguay, areas suspected by the US to be pro-Bin Laden enclave. The previous Peronist government of Carlos Menem, which introduced the policies of shock, privatization and cuts in government spending, had also collapsed in a similar situation in 1999. Now in Argentina, committees are being organized in working class neighborhoods and starting to link with each other on a regional basis. Dozens of gun shops and police stations have been looted for weapons. In the provinces, reports of assaults of local police stations abound. The army reported that thousands of rank and file soldiers did not return to their garrisons. Despite brutal police repression in which 2000 people were arrested all over the country, around 30 people killed and over 900 wounded on Dec. 20, people organized self-defense committees, cut off access roads to their areas of control and erected barricades in working class neighborhoods. Tens of thousands are marching in downtown areas of the country's major cities. The violence and repression are likely to continue. The crisis will only deepen with a desperate working class and this will have enormous repercussions in Latin America. At least two judges ordered De la Rua and his former Minister of Interior not to leave the country and announced their intention to investigate their responsibility of both in the recent killings and violence. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that 'explosive' inequality had caused the bloody riots in Argentina, and only a wealth-distributing revolution could defuse such a social and economic time bomb. The interim President has announced that the new president may look into the formation of a government of "National Unity" for sixty days. People feel, they won in bringing down the De la Rua regime. All this, apart from bringing a new headache to Bush regime, raises serious doubt about the effectiveness of the IMF and the financial policies of the US. Wall Street traders and financial experts are putting the blame for Argentina's current crisis on IMF and the US administration. IMF Warns of Worldwide Recession Recently the IMF has predicted that the global economy will sink dangerously close to a recession in 2002 and "there is a significant possibility of a worse outcome." The IMF has revised its economic forecasts sharply downward in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which it said had "damaged consumer and business confidence around the world." This gloomier outlook raised the specter of the first synchronized global recession since 1975, which many private economists believe is a virtual certainty with Japan and the U.S. in recession and Europe sliding toward one. A synchronized recession is difficult to escape as no country or region will rebound sufficiently in 2002 to serve as an engine for growth. The IMF predicted only a 0.7 percent growth rate in the U.S. and 1.3 percent in Europe next year, while Japan's economy was projected to decline by 1percent. IMF forecasts world economic growth of 2.4 percent in 2002, down 1.1 percentage points from its pre-Sept. 11 outlook. Economists say global growth of less than 2 percent qualifies as a world recession. Even this forecast was described as "too optimistic " by US economists. "It is hard to see where the positive growth is coming from" they said. In fact IMF shied away from predicting a world recession, according to an economist of Institute for International Economics in Washington. It would be beyond the reach of U.S to claim the role of locomotive to growth. It has already fall into recession as officially admitted belatedly. It won't have the typical rebound of consumer demand as in the past. "Nor will business investment serve as catalyst for growth. Tax cuts that Congress approved last June and additional spending since the Sept. 11 attacks could add $375 billion in extra may be a fiscal stimulus to the U.S.economy over the next three years. But the world economic down is bound to further pull down the U.S. Export drastically. "I anticipate a relatively subdued U.S.economy until the fourth quarter of 2002," said John Vail, chief strategist for the global derivatives division of Fuji Securities in Chicago. The most alarming part of the report was its emphasis on the risks for sharper economic downturn. "The possibility of a worse outcome remains the major policy issue at the current juncture". It cited such risks as a "lingering effect on consumer confidence, the dampening impact of consumer indebtedness, and a continuing overcapacity of business to produce". The worst effect will be for the working people, in the form of massive job losses. Bourgeoisie may have to face social uprising in many countries. __________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.cpiml.org __________________________________ _________________________________________________ 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] __________________________________________________
