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Artesian wrote: >The only issue I am raising at this juncture, and \ the key issue, is the execution of CPI-M militants, by the Maoists. Is this happening? Artesian poises a simple direst question and he deserves a straightforward answer. Members of the CPI-M are being killed by Naxalite insurgents. That is obviously true. Members of the 'Peace March' militia armed by the police are being killed by the insurgents. Members of the Indian security forces are being killed by the insurgents. Some of these killings are no doubt unbelievably violent and grotesque as is the killing of insurgents and their families and supporters. 'War is all hell' as I recall someone said and I know this this no more brutal form of war than an insurgency/civil war. The question also follows why are members of the CPI-M being killed in this war zone? According to Vijay they are the real revolutionaries struggling to help the people by way of reforms through 'democratic institutions.' The members of the CPI-M are thus martyrs at the hands of a criminal gang of Maoists who are themselves the biggest obstacle to the liberation of the people. There is a 'popular front' problem now in that the CPI-M functions as the government for a bourgeois state whose 'democratic institutions' have spawned a protracted war by some of the poorest and most oppressed people in India against their oppression. So, just what are the CPI-M cadre doing in this war? Are they community organizers or are they agents of a state which seeks to disposes many of the people from their land for the sake of multinationals? How revolutionary are militants so deeply involved in the 'democratic institutions' of a ruling class seeking to maintain and extend their privileges in synch with American imperialist interests? Are they passing out leaflets in these villages or are they members of a party death squad hunting down Naxalite supporters with weapons obtained from the police? I do not have all the answers but I at least know the right questions to ask. There are no simple answers in this rebellion and it is a huge mistake to write the Naxalites off as Maoist thugs cheered on by deluded intellectuals. I believe there should be a critical look at all the issues with an awareness of the major shortcomings of the CPI-Maoist as explored recently on the Kasama site from the perspective of another revolutionary group in India: Debate over Analysis & Strategy: A Critique of India’s Maoists <http://kasamaproject.org/2010/01/23/ debate-over-analysis-and-strategy-a-critique-of-indias-maoists/> By the same token, I have seen nothing about the CPI-M that suggests it is anything other than reformist party so entwined with the power of a corrupt bourgeois regime that it is a inseparable from it. Is India any closer to socialism and a 'People's Democracy' because the CPI-M has almost a million members and wields power in three provinces? Here is one version of the death of some of those cadre posted on the Revolution in south Asia site as an introduction to Vijay's Counterpunch article. I am sure there are many others <http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/> >Vijay Prashad is an unwavering supporter of the ruling >party in West Bengal, the Communist Party of India-Marxist >(CPM), which has lorded over the tribals and other oppressed >in that state for nearly 30 years. >He played a key initiating >role in a letter from US intellectuals (some of whom later >withdrew their signatures when Arundhati Roy and other >intellectuals and activists in India made a prompt response) >denouncing >the uprising of tens of thousands of peasants >in Nandigram against a huge petrochemical plant that was >being forced on them by the CPM, which touts imperialist >“globalization” as a panacea for the people of West Bengal. >In this article, Prashad neglects to inform his readers >that the CPM >members killed by enraged adivasis in the >Lalgarh area were either working with the police as informers >or had a history of brutality against the people. He also >does not mention that the Maoists blow up schools when >the military moves into an area because they evict the >students and teachers and use the schools as their bases. >In contrast to Prashad’s claim that the Maoists have >“no plans to immediately assist the grievances of the >various tribal communities,” dozens of Indian journalists >have seen with their own eyes that the Maoists in the >Dandakaranya region and around Lalgarh have been working >with tribal peoples for years–and in some areas for decades– >to redistribute land, build irrigation systems, roads, >schools and health centers, and develop tribal cultures >on the verge of extinction. See Is Lalgarh Showing the Way? >by Amit Bhattacharyya for a detailed description of this >alternative model of people’s development. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
