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S.Artesian wrote:
>
> I think the issue of importance is the execution of militants, no?... and
> that the criticism of their flaming liberalism is a little misplaced
> when a
> party that "prefers" a right wing government is setting militants aflame.
>
> In case anybody missed the paragraph, here it is:
>
> "The Maoists-TMC has now killed over two hundred people since late 2007
> (most are members and supporters of the CPM, with just a few being
> members
> of other political parties that are either in the Left Front or else
> affiliated with it).
No, no, David, the key paragraph in Vishay's Counterpinch article
is the one I quoted:
> Rather than make the case that there is space within the (however
> limited) democratic institutions, people like Arundhati Roy trumpet the
> armed road. Patient work through the democratic institutions produced
> the important developments for the Dalit [oppressed caste] movement and
> the working-class movement. For example, Reservations for
> underprivileged castes did not come from the armed struggle. It was a
> direct beneficiary of the use of the democratic institutions. The gun is
> an anthem for the deracinated middle class romantic, but not the glory
> song for the dispossessed, for whom only suffering comes at the gun's
> mouth. It is the dispossessed who die in these armed struggles, both
> from the guns of the revolutionaries and those of the State.'
I'm surprised to see that you appear to accept this argument
(which, self-criticism department, I probably should have tagged
'Hysterical Liberalism'); after all, it would suggest condemnation of,
among others the struggles in Nepal, those of the Tamil people and,
earlier, those of the Vietnamese--- and, on the other hand, the
acceptance of the 'historic compromise' of the CPI-M, which has been
aggressively pursuing primitive accumulation, displacing peasants in
order to give land to capitalist industry (all on the logic of
developing productive forces).
So, David, do you accept this account of the 'mayhem'?Who are these
'Maoists' who are engaged in 'mayhem'? According to Arundhati Roy
(Guardian, 30 October 2009):
> Right now in central India, the Maoists' guerrilla army is made up
> almost entirely of desperately poor tribal people living in conditions
> of such chronic hunger that it verges on famine of the kind we only
> associate with sub-Saharan Africa. They are people who, even after 60
> years of India's so-called independence, have not had access to
> education, healthcare or legal redress. They are people who have been
> mercilessly exploited for decades, consistently cheated by small
> businessmen and moneylenders, the women raped as a matter of right by
> police and forest department personnel.
Clearly, Roy should 'trumpet' the CPI-M's record of demonstrating
the beneficiary use of India's democratic institutions instead of
talking about those 'Maoist murderers'. Indian state policy now, she
notes, is to launch a full assault-- beginning with a propaganda war
(introduced here by Vijay). But, how, she asks, 'will the security
forces be able to distinguish a Maoist from an ordinary person who is
running terrified through the jungle? Will adivasis carrying the bows
and arrows they have carried for centuries now count as Maoists too? Are
non-combatant Maoist sympathisers valid targets? When I was in
Dantewada, the superintendent of police showed me pictures of 19
"Maoists" that "his boys" had killed. I asked him how I was supposed to
tell they were Maoists. He said, "See Ma'am, they have malaria
medicines, Dettol bottles, all these things from outside."'
As for the precise details of this story of 'Maoist mayhem' that David
appears to accept, I'll leave it to comrades in India to comment. I do
note, however, that this 'Maoist-TMC' offensive appears to be denied by
Mamata Banerjee ('whose authoritarian populism draws from both Juan and
Evita Peron' according to Vijay), leader of the TMC.
michael
--
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
Director, Programme in 'Transformative Practice and Human Development'
Centro Internacional Miranda, P.H.
Residencias Anauco Suites, Parque Central, final Av. Bolivar
Caracas, Venezuela
fax: 0212 5768274/0212 5777231
www.centrointernacionalmiranda.gob.ve
[email protected]
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