‘Maoism’, State and the Communist Movement in India
Arindam Sen
(This is the first part of a three-part article to be continued in the next couple of issues – Ed.)
In our last number, and partly also in some previous issues, we discussed the contours of the Indian state's ongoing war on "left wing extremism", a sister project of the national-international "war on terror". From previous reports and bits of information the big picture that emerged there was that the Salwa Judum - meaning "Purification (or Peace) Hunt" in the Gondi language – which started in June 2005 as India’s most scandalous PPP (where private stands for Tata, Essar and other business interests, public stands for Chhattisgarh state government (ruled by BJP) and the union government (ruled by Congress) – see box) has since spread over the entire country in diverse forms and with greater or lesser intensity. The UPA Government’s politico-military offensive against Maoism constitutes a veritable war on the people of India, a multipronged assault on their basic democratic rights. The central as well as state governments are bent upon using the state-Maoist confrontation as a pretext to suppress people’s struggles on basic issues and crush the voice of protest and resistance against the state-sponsored corporate plunder of the country’s resources.
The growing opposition that the footfalls of emergency have evoked from wide cross-sections of the Left and democratic forces calls for a broad unity of these forces. But meaningful unity-in-action - as opposed to formal, passive unity-in-resolutions - can only be built on the basis of a critical appraisal of the issues in discourse as well as a clear understanding of our points of agreement and disagreement on these issues and on our tasks in the present situation.
“The Biggest Grab of Tribal Lands after Columbus”
A civil war like situation has gripped the southern districts of Bastar, Dantewara and Bijapur in Chattisgarh. The contestants are the armed squads of tribal men and women of the erstwhile Peoples War Group now known as the Communist Party of India (Maoist) on the one side and the armed tribal fighters of the Salwa Judum created and encouraged by the government and supported by the firepower and organization of the central police forces. This open declared war will go down as the biggest land grab ever, if it plays out as per the script. The drama is being scripted by Tata Steel and Essar Steel who wanted 7 villages or thereabouts, each to mine the richest lode of iron ore available in India. There was initial resistance to land acquisition and displacement from the tribals. The state withdrew its plans under fierce resistance. ... A new approach came about with the Salwa Judum, euphemistically meaning peace hunt. Ironically the Salwa Judum was led by Mahendra Karma, elected on a Congress ticket and the Leader of the Opposition, supported whole heartedly by the BJP led government. …Behind them are the traders, contractors and miners waiting for a successful result of their strategy. The first financiers of the Salwa Judum were Tata and the Essar in the quest for “peace”. …640 villages as per official statistics were laid bare, burnt to the ground and emptied with the force of the gun and the blessings of the state. 350,000 tribals, half the total population of Dantewada district are displaced, their womenfolk raped, their daughters killed, and their youth maimed. Those who could not escape into the jungle were herded together into refugee camps run and managed by the Salwa Judum. Others continue to hide in the forest or have migrated to the nearby tribal tracts in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. 640 villages are empty. Villages sitting on tons of iron ore are effectively de-peopled and available for the highest bidder. The latest information that is being circulated is that both Essar Steel and Tata Steel are willing to take over the empty landscape and manage the mines.” - Draft Report of “Committee on State Agrarian Relations and Unfinished Task of Land Reforms” under Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, VOL. I
Violence, Non-violence, and Negotiated Peace
As opposed to the brave fight put up by a number of journalists and authors, the role of corporate media in the current discourse has been mostly negative. Barring stray stories, it hardly takes notice at the continuous flow of piecemeal feudal, communal, mafia and police violence and the violence of starvation. And now that organised violence of the state interspersed with Maoist armed actions dominate the scene, the big media finds it convenient to harp on the hackneyed debate on violence and non-violence and end up justifying state monopoly of violence as the road to peace.
Taking a step forward, eminent intellectuals, activists and others have come up with calls for peace through dialogue. “The Citizens’ Initiative for Peace”, for example, has issued the call “Stop Offensive, Hold Unconditional Dialogue”. It has demanded that the government should first stop the offensive, and this should be reciprocated by Maoists, to facilitate a ceasefire. Amit Bhaduri and Romila Thapar on their parts have argued, “An alternative form of intervention ushered in through a multi-lateral dialogue involving all the concerned parties is not merely an option, it is imperative.” The idea of involving the people in any dialogue is most welcome, but to determine who are, or represent, "the people" will remain problematic. Moreover, the question of involvement of democratic bodies or other stakeholders should arise only when the talks are not supposed to be limited to the narrow confines of state-Maoist truce but covers broader social issues like land rights and development with dignity.
Starting from an opposite stance, “Concerned Citizens on “Maoist” Violence”, which includes Prabhat Patnaik, Irfan Habib, Utsa Patnaik, Amiya Kumar Bagchi and others, concentrate fire against Maoists while also criticising “acts of oppression committed by members of the exploiting classes or individuals in the state apparatus” (only individual errant members — not the ruling classes or the state as such!). On this premise they urge upon the state to “restore its presence and credibility in tribal areas whose interests it has largely been ignoring” (a social democratic endorsement of Rahul Gandhi’s comment that Maoism grows where the state fails!) and recommend dialogue “with those "Maoists" who are ready to give up the path of armed struggle”.
One might be taken aback to see renowned Marxist intellectuals conveniently forget that every state – even the so-called welfare state, which India is not - is an instrument of class dictatorship of the oppressors on the oppressed. But did not the ruling ‘Marxists’ in West Bengal rely on the repressive state apparatus to tackle movements in Singur, Nandigram, and in an earlier era, Naxalbari? Did they not, even where they were not in power, always recommend strong-arm tactics of the state to crush popular upheavals as, for instance, in the case of the Assam movement of late 1970s and early 1980s? In Punjab too, in the name of combating Khalistani terrorism, the CPI(M) went to the extent of comprehensive collaboration with the state, which eventually led to splits in the party and considerable erosion of its mass base. It is one thing to mobilise the masses against divisive and communal forces or even anarchist activities for that matter, but to wage a joint campaign in collaboration with the ruling classes is a totally different proposition. More recently, it was Buddhababu’s state terror on innocent adivasis in the wake of the Maoist landmine blast in November 2008 that triggered the latest phase of the Lalgarh movement, with the CPI(M) government then unleashing a vicious circle of escalating state repression and Maoist killings. In this context, it should not really come as a surprise that academics who are more concerned about Maoist violence than about state terror, should champion the statist logic of shock-awe-negotiate!
Under pressure from all quarters, even the fire-spitting Chidambaram has offered to negotiate "on any of their [Maoists’] concerns" -- such as forest rights or SEZ -- "provided they stop violence". Also he has reportedly agreed to attend a public hearing in Dantewada, a Maoist hotbed in Chhattisgarh’s south Bastar. This seems to be his way of appearing amenable to political openings and signalling a possible peace offensive, even as he spurs on the security forces. For the Indian state, which has to its credit a long record of sterilising and assimilating militant movements, negotiations and agreements with insurgent groups are nothing new. In the North East for example, armed outfits have been put on leash. In many cases they stay in designated camps with sophisticated arms and ammunitions and engage in extortions and violence on a limited scale; the quid pro quo being that in elections they must use their firepower to mobilise votes for the ruling party, namely the Congress. Of course, this has been made possible only because the demands of these groups have generally been in the nature of statehood/greater autonomy/bigger state (such as Greater Nagaland) which is not the case with Maoists.
The basic demand of the Maoists – socialism or new democracy – is not negotiable, for that entails destruction of the existing state to begin with. This is a difficulty for both sides of the proposed negotiations. And if Maoists enter into dialogue on partial/secondary demands such as land reform within the purview of existing laws, they stumble upon the second problem: they lack the mechanism of democratic organisation that would mobilise the broad masses to enforce an agreement even if one is arrived at. This was very clearly demonstrated in Andhra Pradesh, at the time their most important stronghold, where some sort of agreement was reached. The government, true to its class character, reneged on its promise. The newly formed Communist Party of India (Maoist) could do practically nothing while the government subsequently used the information it gathered and the network it developed during the dialogue days to crush the Maoists both from within and without. The Maoist claim that they were negotiating from a position of strength proved to be an empty boast.
But did not the Maoists score a resounding success in the recent case of kidnapping the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Sankrail police station in West Bengal? In a sense, they did. It was a meticulously executed operation that attracted the maximum possible media attention, enhanced Maoist leader Kishenji’s public profile big-time and succeeded in achieving the specific demand placed. And what was that demand? Release of a group of old and innocent adivasis women, arrested in Lalgarh on absolutely false and legally untenable charges. Obviously the demand was so formulated that the government would find it easy to accept. After the give-and-take (release of the OC and the adivasis) it was business as usual between the state and the Maoists in Lalgarh. Even this much was achieved by Maoists because the state administration, working under pressure of the huge groundswell of sentiment for the visibly bhadralok OC and his family, and suffering from the indecision and weakness that characterizes any administration during a period of change of guard (in this case from Left Front rule to TMC-Congress rule) was in no position to take up the gauntlet thrown by Maoists. In fact there are reports that armed forces of the state reached very near to Kishenji’s hideout early in the day the OC was released, but retreated under orders from the top when Kishenji warned that the OC’s life would be at stake unless the forces went back. In any case, the entire episode took place under exceptional circumstances and it is very doubtful if such a feat can be repeated under other, normal circumstances.
In the light of Andhra and Bengal experiences and given the actual balance of forces between the warring parties as well as the absolutely antagonistic nature of the conflict, it would appear that a dialogue between them, if at all it takes place, would hardly provide any “solution” to the “Maoist problem”. At most it can lead to some breathing space in the confrontation that would go on after the ceasefire and continue to claim all the “collateral damages” in people’s lives and livelihood that all of us are so concerned with. However, now that the CPI (Maoist) spokesperson Azad, while refusing to lay down arms and calling the governments’ peace proposal “a propaganda ploy” has agreed to the possibility of a “ceasefire” if several conditions like stoppage of state terror and repeal of black laws are met, the next few months will be closely watched.
Development, Democratic Space, and Beyond
Along with dialogue, development – the lack of which common sense regards as the root cause of “Naxalite/Maoist insurgency” – has figured as a major concern of pro-people forces. On this ground too, the government is in no mood to give a walkover to its detractors. In early November 2009 we saw Manmohan Singh conversing with chief ministers to wean the tribals away from the Maoists. More recently West Bengal Chief Minister Budhhadev Bhattacharya met police and administrative officials of West Medinipur district and took them to task for utter failure of the grand development plans announced soon after the initiation of para-military campaign in Jangalmahal (Lalgarh and adjoining areas).The reply he got was that nothing could move until Maoists were flushed out. The PM too had endorsed this typical bureaucratic-militarist logic in his aforesaid meeting, but at the same time he identified what he considered to be the basic fault line leading to a “dangerous” situation: "There has been a systematic failure in giving the tribals a stake in the modern economic processes that inexorably intrude into their living spaces … The alienation built over decades is now taking a dangerous turn in some parts of our country.”
How much is this concern for development worth? What are the ground realities? Conditions in tribal areas in West Bengal from Amlashol to Lalgarh are well documented; for Bastar in Chhattisgarh let us hear from a rather unexpected witness: tough cop KPS Gill.
“Politics itself is an extortion network – more so now, in the name of development and industrialisation; land acquisitions and SEZs. When you have political leaders saying that development should be part of the response mechanism, ask them what they mean by development in Chhattisgarh. How does a good road affect a man who has no transport whatsoever? Of what use is the road for a tribal with two bare feet?... We are in a great, vicious circle of violence because today development is corruption driven. …take Jharkhand, where you have a governor whose foremost achievement is corruption. I have always maintained that corruption and operations against organisations of this nature cannot go together. …I know what the police officer in charge of Bastar was doing. He was taking Rs 35,000 per man to transfer them out of Bastar. This was in the knowledge of everyone. …Property ownership is very very important, but the State can’t seem to find ways to give tribals property ownership in this huge forest.”
In this backdrop he believes that “Operation Green Hunt is going to be a big failure. Who is the State hunting? And once an operation fails, it is a very difficult task to repeat it. This is what the American forces are facing in Afghanistan. We need to consider: do we want to be in a similar situation?”
Gill said all this in an interview to Tehelka Magazine (Vol 6, Issue 42, dated October 24, 2009). Is the recent emphasis on development an attempt to address the concerns of people like him?
The fact is, brute force and palliatives – or coercion and hegemony in Gramscian terms – have always and everywhere complemented each other in propping up oppressive regimes; only their relative proportions have changed over time and place. To look at the record of the present dispensation, the April 2008 “Report of An Expert Group to the Planning Commission” titled “Development Challenges in Extremist Affected Areas” argued that a socially responsible decentralised state could and should wean people away from the Naxalites/Maoists and provide the basis for negotiations with the Maoists. Very recently Rahul Gandhi reiterated the development angle precisely when Chidambaram was spitting venom against Maoists/Naxalites. Gullible people saw in this an inner-party contradiction, much as they loved to see a conflict between Vajpayee and Advani during the NDA regime. Far from it, from Nehru through Indira and Rajiv to Sonia-Pranab-Manmohan-Rahul, the country’s premier ruling party has mustered great skills in the art of speaking in two voices. It is in this tradition and as parts of the same game-plan that logistical arrangements for further intensification of military offensive come blended with vague (and conditional) offers for dialogue while elimination of “left-wing extremism” - an infinitely expandable category that can include workers’ struggle for trade union rights (as in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu) or landless labour’s agitation for promised homestead land (as in Mansa, Punjab) or anything else – is held out as a precondition for peace and development.
We the people of India must not allow ourselves to be duped and distracted by such clever political campaigns of the ruling classes. We must continue with our basic struggle for land and livelihood, justice and democracy, dignity and development; and as an important part of this broader movement we must now concentrate on a straight demand: Immediate end to all forms of state terror!
Up to a limit this struggle can and must be fought, as Nandita Haksar suggests, by “enlarging the democratic space within the system”. Even that, however, is possible only when the movement has a holistic, as different from fragmented, issue-based approach to life and politics and is informed by a clear vision of the future that we wish to hammer out of the present. In other words, there is but one way to resist the contraction of the democratic space and expand its frontiers: to build sustained movements, primarily workers’ and peasants’ struggles, which not only seek to achieve what the Indian Constitution promises us, but aim to go beyond.
And here we confront not just the forces of status quo - the ruling parties, the Indian state with all its apparatus of deception and oppression- we also stand face to face with the Maoists. We have to engage them, if only because they too claim to be working for the same goal – demolishing the existing state and ushering in real, wholesome, people’s democracy. If there is some substance in this assertion, one should actively support them. If the opposite is true, if Maoism happens to be a trend harmful to advancement of popular struggles, then our duty should be to politically combat it as such in the immediate and long term interests of the people of India. A theoretical-political assessment of Maoism thus becomes necessary at this point.
CPI (Maoist): Strategy and Tactics
To begin with, let us hear what Maoists themselves have to say about their strategy and tactics.
According to the document Strategy and Tactics,
“In the concrete conditions of semi-colonial, semi-feudal India where bourgeois democratic revolution too has not been completed and uneven social, economic and political conditions exist, the objective conditions permit the proletarian party to initiate and sustain armed struggle in the vast countryside.
“… No peaceful period of preparation for revolution is required in India, unlike in the capitalist countries where the bourgeois democratic revolutions were completed and armed insurrection is the path of revolution.”
Now, “semi-colonial, semi-feudal” – is this an immutable category with a set prescription for revolution applicable equally to pre-revolutionary China and present-day India? Don’t you see the enormous changes in Indian countryside – let alone urban areas – since Naxalbari, not to speak of the differences with China as it was some 70-80 years back?
“… No peaceful period of preparation is required”! On what ground do you base this assessment? And how do you propose to work in towns, cities and easily accessible plain areas which have strong enemy networks, and where the masses, while engaging in ‘drab everyday struggles’, is not yet ready for an armed showdown with the state? Actually you don’t know, and that is why you do not and cannot work in these areas.
In your schematic understanding, nationwide armed insurrection is prescribed for countries which have completed the democratic revolution, and the path of protracted war for countries where this revolution has not taken place and which are characterised by strong feudal survivals, uneven development etc. Now, many -- though not all -- of the latter features were present in Russia (e.g., democratic revolution was not completed before February 1917) but Bolsheviks went in for insurrection. Can’t you think of an Indian path of revolution which may have ingredients of revolutionary experiences in Russia, China and maybe other countries but based mainly on the present characteristics of Indian society and polity?
Your General Secretary says in an interview in Open magazine, October 2009, “…it is true that our movement is stronger in the forests than in the plains and urban areas. This focus is linked to our path … of protracted people’s war. … But, it is not correct to say that we have ignored the plain areas.” Good that you have a strong presence in forest areas, but would you please tell us in which “plains and urban areas” you have a “movement”? Why can’t you honestly say that your party line of singular emphasis on armed struggle does not provide any scope for such work?
In your opinion “boycott of elections, though a question of tactics,” (this is your concession to old-fashioned Leninism) “acquires the significance of strategy in the concrete conditions obtaining in India” (here you develop Leninism to the higher stage of your Maoism!). In other words, permanent boycott in a permanent revolutionary situation! It is futile to engage in serious theoretical debates with you; however we must put the historical record straight.
First, Lenin showed in Left Wing Communism - An Infantile Disorder that the question of participation or boycott is in no way related to the “degree of reactionariness” (to borrow a phrase from Lenin) of a particular parliament. Incidentally, the Russian Duma, which the Tsar convened and disbanded at will and which was as a rule dominated by Black Hundreds and other reactionary elements (thanks also to the patently anti-poor curia system) was arguably much more reactionary and impotent than our parliament.
Second, Lenin showed in the above pamphlet as well as in numerous other works like Against Boycott that under normal circumstances participation is almost obligatory for communists. It should also be noted that, out of about a dozen occasions, Bolsheviks boycotted elections only twice: once correctly (1905) and on the other occasion (in 1906) it was a small tactical mistake (as Lenin reckoned later). On all other occasions, even during the high tide before November Revolution and immediately after (in the elections to Constituent Assembly), they participated.
Third, the argument that participation in elections and parliaments have led to degeneration of many parties invites the retort that espousal of armed struggle too is known to have had the same effect on many armed groups/parties in India and abroad. Blaming a particular form of struggle for degeneration betrays a very superficial way of looking at things and has nothing in common with Marxism-Leninism.
We know you are in no mood to listen to all this ‘revisionist’ logic. We also know what you actually do during election times. About that, later on.
In sum, the whole thrust of your strategy and tactics and therefore your activities is premised on the illusion that as in China during 1930s and 1940s, here too “armed revolution is confronting armed counterrevolution”. You visualise a permanent revolutionary situation. You do not know how to build approach roads to revolution, how to work patiently among the masses, taking their existing level of consciousness and activism as your point of departure and step by step raising that level through all forms of struggle, mainly extra-parliamentary but not excluding parliamentary forms, so as to gradually change the balance of class forces, which invariably gets reflected in people’s heightened consciousness and organisation, towards a mature revolutionary situation. You are ignorant of the essence of revolutionary tactics:
“Marxist tactics consist in combining the different forms of struggle, in the skilful transition from one form to another, in steadily enhancing the consciousness of the masses and extending the area of their collective action, each of which, taken separately, may be aggressive or defensive, and all of which, taken together, lead to a more intense and decisive conflict.” (Lenin, Collected Works, Volume 20, P 210)
Incapable of grasping such revolutionary dialectics of the proletariat in theory, Maoists can only indulge in petty bourgeois revolutionism in their practical activities, as we shall see in our coming instalments where we examine their genesis and modus operandi.
HIGHLIGHTS:
The question of involvement of democratic bodies or other stakeholders should arise only when the talks are not supposed to be limited to the narrow confines of state-Maoist truce but covers broader social issues like land rights and development with dignity.
There is but one way to resist the contraction of the democratic space and expand its frontiers: to build sustained movements, primarily workers’ and peasants’ struggles, which not only seek to achieve what the Indian Constitution promises us, but aim to go beyond.
Lenin showed in Left Wing Communism - An Infantile Disorder as well as in numerous other works like Against Boycott that under normal circumstances participation is almost obligatory for communists.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
ML UPDATE 12 / 2010
MLUpdate
A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine
Vol. 13, No. 12, 16 – 22 MARCH 2010
No Going Back on 33% Reservation for Women in Assemblies and Parliament
On March 8, 2010 when the whole world observed the centenary of the International Women’s Day, the UPA government tabled the Women’s Reservation Bill (WRB) in the upper house of Indian Parliament. It was a classic case of killing two birds with one stone. Only a week ago the government had presented the annual budget leaving the whole country fuming with rage over soaring prices. The budget had not only added fuel to the inflationary fire, it had refused to extend any relief to the common man while pampering the rich with all kinds of sops. At one stroke, the women’s bill shifted the spotlight away from the post-budget protests and split the emerging unity in the opposition camp down the middle. At the same time there could be no better way for the Sonia-led Congress to try and project itself as the most vocal champion of the women’s cause on the occasion of the IWD centenary!
Even as the likes of Lalu Prasad, Mulayam Singh and Sharad Yadav raved and ranted against the WRB, Sonia said the Congress was ready to take every risk to change the society! But only a couple of days after the bill had been rushed through the Rajya Sabha, the UPA managers declared that the bill would be presented in the Lok Sabha only on the basis of a consensus. Meanwhile, there are renewed talks of a smaller quota of only 20%. It has taken not even 100 hours for the much-trumpeted Congress readiness for risk-taking to evaporate, and in the name of building consensus, the Congress is now back to its old game of dilly-dallying and putting the bill back into cold storage!
The heated debates over women’s reservation bill have of course helped unmask many political faces. Lalu Prasad has let the cat out of the bag by coming out unabashedly as a desperate defender of male domination in society. Warning the Congress and the BJP that women’s reservation would not secure them the votes of women, he said women would vote only according to the wishes of male members in their families! Hukumdev Narayan Yadav, BJP MP from Bihar, described the WRB as a death warrant he would never sign. Similar views have been attributed, albeit anonymously, to many other BJP and Congress MPs as well. Ironically enough, parties like BSP and TMC which are led by powerful women leaders, also avoided supporting the bill.
While most parties opposing the bill exposed their unmistakably patriarchal political streak, it is no less important to recognize and remember the true face of parties like the BJP and the Congress which would like to be seen as great advocates and promoters of women’s empowerment. The BJP not only has the most conservative and retrograde views on most issues concerning women’s rights and social progress, the Sangh brigade is infamous for perpetrating and justifying the most brutal kind of communal and feudal violence against women. As the oldest ruling party in the country, the Congress too must be held squarely responsible for the historical marginalization of Indian women, which has been further aggravated under the pro-corporate pro-imperialist policy regime promoted by the Congress.
The opponents of women’s reservation have found it convenient to repeatedly stall the bill by pitting caste and community against gender. The progressive women’s movement can call their bluff by incorporating specific provisions for women of backward castes and minority communities within the overall ambit of 33% reservation. The panchayats have long had 33% reservation for women and Parliament has now rightly raised it to 50%. Let there now be no excuse for thwarting or truncating the idea of one-third reservation for women in Assemblies and Parliament. The UPA government must not be allowed to backtrack from 33% reservation for women on any pretext.
Hundred years ago, the communist and progressive forces within the international women’s movement took the lead to launch the International Women’s Day, and over the last hundred years, it is these forces that have pushed forward the battle for women’s liberation and equality of sexes in the face of every obstacle. In India, it was the progressive women’s movement which had raised the demand for women’s reservation in legislative bodies as a means to promote women’s participation in politics as well as to sensitise the process of legislation to the needs and aspirations of women. It was again the women’s movement which sustained the campaign for women’s reservation over the last two decades in the face of crude patriarchal resistance and clever political ploys of ruling class parties.
Today in the centenary year of the International Women’s Day it is ironically the Congress which seeks to paint itself as the pioneer of women’s reservation even as it colludes with the opponents of the bill to once again put it on the back-burner. The progressive women’s movement must again wrest the initiative, push the bill through to the end, and carry forward the larger battle of women’s liberation towards bigger victories.
Condemn Israel's Decision to Approve Construction of Hundreds of New Housing Units in the West Bank
(Statement issued by International Department of the CPI(ML)Liberation)
New Delhi, 13 March 2010: Even as US Vice President Joe Biden is in Israel to launch a much-touted four-month long peace accord between Palestine and Israel, the Israeli Ministry of the Interior has announced a decision to approve construction of 1600 new housing units in Palestine's West Bank. This decision, underlining Israel's occupation of Palestine and its arrogant assertion of a policy of apartheid, exposes the US-brokered peace process as a farce.
It is instructive to recall that the Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict headed by Justice Richard Goldstone had in 2009 noted that Israel's 22-day war in Gaza between December 2008 and January 2009 amounted to a war crime, and that the military operations were preceded and followed by several measures to "further deepen Israel’s control over the West Bank, including East Jerusalem" including "increased land expropriation, house demolitions, demolition orders and permits to build homes in settlements, greater and more formalized access and movement restrictions on Palestinians, new and stricter procedures for residents of the Gaza Strip to change their residency to the West Bank." According to the Goldstone Report, measures like expansion of Israeli settlements and demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank "point to a convergence of objectives with the Gaza military operations." The Goldstone Report had called for an end to the impunity hitherto enjoyed by Israel and had recommended a punitive process for the "collective punishment" imposed by Israel on the people of Gaza. The Report and its recommendations were rejected by the Obama Administration and used its veto power to block a vote on the question in the UN Security Council.
Israel's decision to approve construction of 1600 new housing units in Palestine's West Bank is nothing but a brazen assertion of the "impunity" (conferred by US patronage) for the "collective punishment" it continues to impose on the people of Gaza – not just through outright war but by daily measures that deepen Israel's control over the West Bank.
CPI(ML) condemns the decision by Israel to construct new housing units in the West Bank. Any genuine peace process in Palestine can only begin with an acknowledgement of the crimes of war and occupation committed by Israel and a process of justice for the same.
More Reports of IWD Centenary Events
Reports of protests and demonstrations by AIPWA and other organisations in various states on the centenary of International Women’s day appeared in the previous issue of ML Update. Following are more reports of similar programmes on IWD.
KARNATAKA
HD Kote, Mysore: As part of the Centenary International Women’s Day celebrations, a Women’s Struggle Day was observed by All India Progressive Women's Association (AIPWA) and Samata Vedike on 14 March. A district level convention on “Agrarian Women Labourers and Gender Awareness” was held at Ambedkar Bhavan in HD Kote taluk of Mysore dist. More than 300 women from Sogalli, Uyyamballi, Sathigehundi, Nanjanathapura and other villages took part. The programme was flagged off with revolutionary songs by Mallamma and team from Uyamballi, and Samata members.
Senior Samata leader Meera Nayak spoke about the relevance of International Women's Day for the rural toiling women. A gender awareness programme in the form of the game of musical chair with each participant holding a placard on a women’s issue – dowry, child marriage, sexual abuse, trafficking, female foeticide, domestic violence and so on, was co-ordinated by Dr Shanthi and Dr Roopa Rao. Nearly 30 women sportively took part in this game from various villages. After the game, Dr Shanthi and Prof Roopa Rao discussed about sexual harassment at workplace.
Dr Rati Rao, VP of AIPWA, initiated an interactive session on 'NREGA- Experiences of Women’ highlighting their struggles for job cards, wages, projects and so on. Many women from AIPWA and All India Agricultural Labourers’ Association (AIALA) shared their experiences of struggles related to NREGA. Women from Sathigehundi shared their struggles for opening a fair price shop and the subsequent struggles against corruption and irregular supply of rations. Mallige, Gowri and Nandini from ‘Mahila Horaata Okkuta’ also participated in the programme and rendered revolutionary songs.
Com. Javaraiah, District Secretary of CPI(ML) spoke on the need for enhancing the political edge of the women’s movement and called upon the women to join the struggle against the communal BJP government in the state. The convention concluded with a revolutionary song by Samata team.
The convention was preceded by preparatory meetings at Uyyamballi on Feb 27 with 80 women, at Sathigehundi on March 3 with 50 women, in which Dr Shanthi and Dr Rati Rao addressed the gathering. Comrades PA Kumar and Kemparaju and panchayat members also actively participated.
Bangalore: Mahila Horaata Okkuta, an umbrella organization of more than 25 women’s organizations in Bangalore, has taken shape to carry out joint programmes during Centenary Women’s Day. As part of the Okkuta, AIPWA, led by Com. Gandhimathi, State Secretary of AIPWA, took part in a convention on unorganized women workers in NGO Hall, Bangalore, on 7 March and a cultural evening at Samsa Bayalu Mandira in Ravindra Kalakshetra on March 8. Okkuta will hold more than ten programmes in the month of March.
Uttar Pradesh: Thousands of women in Lucknow, Varanasi, Allahabad, Gorakhpur and Moradabad marched on the 8th against price rise and spiralling violence against women, and for immediate passing of the Women’s Reservation Bill.
In Lucknow 500 women members of AIPWA marched with their banners, flags and placards from City Station to Shahid Smarak challenging the anti-women forces and shouting slogans also against the Mayawati’s rule under which attacks on women has increased. The AIPWA leaders held Mayawati’s Administration officials responsible for the large number of deaths of women and children in the stampede at an Ashram at Mangarh in Pratapgarh. This march was led by AIPWA’s national VP and UP’s Convenor of Tehrik-e-Niswan Com. Tahira Hasan, CPI(ML)’s CC member Com. Krishna Adhikari and AIPWA’s State President Com. Vidya Rajwar. Women resolved to uphold and take forward the legacy of a century of women’s emancipation struggles.
AIPWA’s State Secretary Com. Premlata Pandey led the 700 strong march in Gorakhpur. Comrades Kusum and Kripa Verma led the march of 350 women in Varanasi, Namrata Tiwari and Shubhra led the march of 400 women in Allahabad and Anita Rajput led the march of 350 women at Moradabad.
In Assam, an AIPWA Rally was held at Guwahati with 1500 women from different districts of Assam. The procession marched through the city and culminated in a mass meeting addressed by AIPWA Assam leaders and leaders from tribal (Missing and Tiwa) women's organisations and CPI(ML) Politburo member Rubul Sarma. A seminar was then held at Guwahati Press Club on 'Globalisation and Women’s Movement' organised by Jonaki Bat (the AIPWA publication).
In Andhra Pradesh, a human chain was organized in Anantpur, West Godavari, and in Vijaywada R Nagmani held a meeting with 50 ASHA workers. Women's Day protests were also held against price hike, violence on women and state terror at 8 mandals of East Godavari.
On the eve of IWD a convention was held at Mylavaram on 7th March participated by 150 women.
Construction Workers' March to Parliament
On 15 March 2010, under the banner of the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU)-affiliated All India Construction Workers’ Federation (AICWF), hundreds of construction workers from different states held a March to Parliament against hike in fuel rates, price rise and to demand implementation of the Central Construction Workers’ Act 1996 throughout the country.
The procession was led by AICCTU General Secretary Swapan Mukherjee, the General Secretary of the Federation RN Thakur, President of the Federation S Balasubramanian, V.President SK Sharma, Dashrath Sinhali from Gujarat, Harkesh Bugalia from Rajasthan, several construction workers’ leaders from Bihar, AICCTU Delhi State Secretary Santosh Roy, President NM Thomas, AICWF leaders like VKS Gautam, Ardhendu Roy from Delhi and Anthonymutthu and Iraniappan from Tamilnadu and AIPWA Secretary Kavita Krishnan.
While the Construction Labour Act has not been implemented throughout the country even 14 years after its enactment, the pro-corporate Acts like SEZ are implemented promptly even at gunpoint. Six crore workers of the flourishing construction industry do not even get a living wage and any protection from skyrocketing price rise. As the majority of these construction workers are migrant workers, they face attacks at the hands of regional chauvinistic forces. The March to Parliament gave a call for an all-out protest against the budget 2010 and intensification of movement of unorganized workers including construction workers.
The March also demanded Rs.200/- as national level minimum wage with inclusion of VDA for all unorganized workers, provision of Inter-state I-cards to migrant workers, enacting the Food Security Act, BPL cards to all construction workers, equal wages for women workers and other demands. A 15-point Charter of demands was submitted to Labour Secretary, Govt. of India by a four-member delegation.
More Protests against Price Rise
Tirunelveli: A well attended street corner meeting orgainsed by the Party was held in Suthamalli of Tirunelveli in Tamilnadu against price rise on March 13. At Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh a protest meeting led by Com. Vinod Rawat burnt an effigy of UPA Govt. on 6th March.
Puducherry: A massive demonstration against hike in fuel prices and price rise was organised at Puducherry on 11 March by the AICCTU and the Movement for Protection of the Houseless. It was led by Comrade Udakar, VP of the LPG Cylinders and Distributive Workers' Union (AICCTU). Demands raised by the protestors included: Supply of 50 kg rice/wheat at Rs.2/kg and 5 litres of kerosene at Rs.2/litre to all PDS card holders; Monthly rent subsidy of Rs.1000 to all families who do not own RCC houses or who live in rented houses; Monthly minimum wages of Rs. 11,000 to all trade/industry workers and provision of 14 essential items in PDS shops. Women participated in large numbers in the demonstration.
The demonstration was addressed by Com. Balasubramanium, State Secretary of the CPI(ML) who demanded a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore rupees instead of Rs.1000 crore in the National Commission of Unorganised Workers for their Social Security and CS Sagaraj, President of the Movement for the Protection of the Houseless.
5th March: TUs Protest in Puducherry and Karaikal
As part of nation-wide protest call by central trade unions, on five points charter, namely against price rise, strict implementation of labor laws, against disinvestments of public sectors units, amendments in the unorganized workers social security Act 2009 etc., AICCTU, AITUC CITU, UTUC volunteers blockaded roads in front of post offices and banks at nearly ten places in Puducherry and Karaikal regions on 5th March 2010. Nearly two thousand workers including women, youth, and agricultural labourers courted arrest.
AICCTU Beedi Workers Workshop at Tirunelveli
As a part of the membership drive among beedi workers some macro and micro investigations were taken up and with the findings of these preliminary investigations a workshop was held in Tirunelveli on March 14. A paper was presented which narrated the socio-economic and working conditions of the beedi workers. 65 comrades including 37 women participated. Comrades Kumarasami, NK Natarajan, and KG Desikan attended the workshop.
The following demands were raised in the workshop, and these demands will be highlighted in a campaign in the villages among beedi workers 15 days from April 1 onwards: Include all beedi workers in the BPL list; Scrap loans of beedi workers upto Rs.20,000 per worker; Construct 10,000 houses per year out of the cess fund; Increase salary to Rs 150 per day; Amend Beedi Cigar Working Conditions Act and Tamilnadu Rules suitably at the earliest so that they encompass millions of home workers instead of a few thousand industrial workers; Lakhs of beedi workers are not covered by welfare legislations– conduct a census of beedi workers immediately; Stop spending 65% of cess fund on administrative expenses, let the government bear these expenses; 12 inspectors for 6 lakh workers is a travesty of justice; appoint at least 60 inspectors and implement labour laws strictly and improve sanitation and health conditions in beedi neighbourhoods.
AIALA Demo in Tamilnadu
All India Agricultural Labourers’ Association (AIALA) organized a panchayat-level demonstration in Tamil Nadu (March 5-15) demanding inclusion in BPL list, work under MGNREGA, Rs.200 daily wages under MGNREGA, homestead land and patta. A Signature campaign on these demands was taken up and the signatures were submitted to the authorities through demonstration. These campaigns were held all over TN in 36 panchayats of 15 blocks. 12433 signatures were obtained and 9375 rural poor were mobilized in the demonstrations. In all about 10400 memoranda were submitted by them in Pudukottai (10 panchayats in 4 blocks), Cuddalore (1 panchayat), Villupuram (8 panchayats in 3 blocks), Tanjore (3 panchayats), Nagai and Tiruvallore (4 panchayats in 2 blocks each) and Madurai (4 panchayats).
Demonstrations were organized in front of four Panchayat Offices in Madurai District on March 10. At Ramaiyan Patti Panchayat, more than 200 women assembled in front of the Panchayat Office with empty pots. The village President, a Dalit woman, had sanctioned more private connections (reportedly in exchange for bribes) to high caste people and they were diverting water from the supply line with their motorized connections, causing water scarcity to all the poor people. Protestors demanded immediate disconnection of all motorized connections. The protest followed a week-long campaign on this issue. The powerful households responded by warning the President with dire consequences if she dared to disconnect. Under pressure, the President fled from her office on the evening of 10 March. The protesters demanded that the President personally appear and receive the petition, but she remained adamant. Protestors led by Comrade Usha decided to march to the house of the president, but the police denied permission and warned of severe action. When the protestors declared their intention to violate police orders, the police had no option but to instruct the President to appear in person. The President then came and received the petitions and promised disconnection of all illegal connections; she also demanded that the Party should defend her actions. With assurance from both sides the struggle came to an end.
In Kattakulam more than 100 protestors assembled demanding disclosure of the BPL list and details of NREGA. The protestors demanded that names of the BPL beneficiaries listed should be made available for public scrutiny so that the list commands credibility. The officials agreed to provide a copy of the list within a week.
In Kutaladampatti more than 300 assembled after completing NREGA work. The President of the Panchayat escaped the scene. In Andipatty nearly 100 assembled in the evening in front of the Panchayat Office. The Panchayat President and Clerk met the people and promised to provide the present BPL list and also agreed to provide BPL certificate to the people who apply for any welfare scheme.
IIMS Launched in Kerala
Indian Institute of Marxist Studies (IIMS) launched its Kerala Chapter on 14 March through a meeting at Trivandrum. The meeting also elected Com. KM Venugopalan as the convenor of the Kerala Chapter with a core group to coordinate its activities.
Marxism, a universal philosophy having enough potential to enrich itself through practice is under attack from various quarters as it is generally being viewed through the prism of so-called 'Marxist' party in Kerala- CPI(M), which has made Marxism a dogma to suit its own convenience. Internationally also, many variants of social democracy and revisionism are being peddled in the name of Marxism. In such a backdrop, the meeting felt the need to retrieve the revolutionary essence of Marxism in today's context.
The meeting also felt the need to have a forum for healthy debates and exchange of ideas that can explore Marxism from a revolutionary point of view against the prevalent revisionist and social-democratic viewpoint in the state. The forum will have no pre-conceived notions and will act as a forum for interaction of various revolutionary Marxist and progressive ideas on various fundamental and burning issues of the day. It will also try to interact with all like-minded Left individuals, organisations and the people who want to interact with Marxism.
Annual GBM of RYA at Puducherry
The annual General Body Meeting of the Puducherry unit of Revolutionary Youth Association (RYA) was held on 21 February 2010 at Comrade Bhagat Singh Nagar (Muthialpet) in Com. Chandrashekhar Hall. Puducherry and especially the Muthialpet area were decorated with wall writing, banners, festoons and flags. The Hall was decorated with photographs and quotations of communist leaders.
The meeting was inaugurated and addressed by Com. S Balasubramanium, State Sectetary, CPI(ML), who called upon youth to unite with the struggles of the oppressed and defend the country against imperialist policies. Com. P Ravikumar presented the draft document. Youths from all areas of Puducherry and Karaikal regions took part in the GBM and actively participated in the lively discussion.
The GBM unanimously elected a 15-member State Committee and 9 office bearers with P Ravikumar as Secretary and A Alagappan as President. A 20-point resolution was adopted by the house. It was decided to recruit 2000 members organised in 20 branches by the year 2011. A convention will be held on March 23 (Bhagat Singh martyrdom day) with the demand: "Replace the imperialist symbol of the Dupleix statue with one of Bhagat Singh). A signature campaign will be launched on this issue.
AISA-RYA Protest March in Giridih against Greenhunt
On 11 March, AISA and RYA held a Protest March in Giridih, Jharkhand, from Jhanda Maidan to Tower Chowk, where a mass meeting was held. The March raised the slogan – "We want an end to Greenhunt, Corruption and Corporate Loot – We want Education and Employment.' The meeting was addressed by AISA's National Vice President Aslam, AISA's Jharkhand Convenor Hemlal Mahto, RYAState VP Rameshwar Chowdhury and CPI(ML) leaders such as Rajesh Yadav and Parameshwar Mahto and others.
ML UPDATE 12 - 2010.pdf
A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine
Vol. 13, No. 12, 16 – 22 MARCH 2010
No Going Back on 33% Reservation for Women in Assemblies and Parliament
On March 8, 2010 when the whole world observed the centenary of the International Women’s Day, the UPA government tabled the Women’s Reservation Bill (WRB) in the upper house of Indian Parliament. It was a classic case of killing two birds with one stone. Only a week ago the government had presented the annual budget leaving the whole country fuming with rage over soaring prices. The budget had not only added fuel to the inflationary fire, it had refused to extend any relief to the common man while pampering the rich with all kinds of sops. At one stroke, the women’s bill shifted the spotlight away from the post-budget protests and split the emerging unity in the opposition camp down the middle. At the same time there could be no better way for the Sonia-led Congress to try and project itself as the most vocal champion of the women’s cause on the occasion of the IWD centenary!
Even as the likes of Lalu Prasad, Mulayam Singh and Sharad Yadav raved and ranted against the WRB, Sonia said the Congress was ready to take every risk to change the society! But only a couple of days after the bill had been rushed through the Rajya Sabha, the UPA managers declared that the bill would be presented in the Lok Sabha only on the basis of a consensus. Meanwhile, there are renewed talks of a smaller quota of only 20%. It has taken not even 100 hours for the much-trumpeted Congress readiness for risk-taking to evaporate, and in the name of building consensus, the Congress is now back to its old game of dilly-dallying and putting the bill back into cold storage!
The heated debates over women’s reservation bill have of course helped unmask many political faces. Lalu Prasad has let the cat out of the bag by coming out unabashedly as a desperate defender of male domination in society. Warning the Congress and the BJP that women’s reservation would not secure them the votes of women, he said women would vote only according to the wishes of male members in their families! Hukumdev Narayan Yadav, BJP MP from Bihar, described the WRB as a death warrant he would never sign. Similar views have been attributed, albeit anonymously, to many other BJP and Congress MPs as well. Ironically enough, parties like BSP and TMC which are led by powerful women leaders, also avoided supporting the bill.
While most parties opposing the bill exposed their unmistakably patriarchal political streak, it is no less important to recognize and remember the true face of parties like the BJP and the Congress which would like to be seen as great advocates and promoters of women’s empowerment. The BJP not only has the most conservative and retrograde views on most issues concerning women’s rights and social progress, the Sangh brigade is infamous for perpetrating and justifying the most brutal kind of communal and feudal violence against women. As the oldest ruling party in the country, the Congress too must be held squarely responsible for the historical marginalization of Indian women, which has been further aggravated under the pro-corporate pro-imperialist policy regime promoted by the Congress.
The opponents of women’s reservation have found it convenient to repeatedly stall the bill by pitting caste and community against gender. The progressive women’s movement can call their bluff by incorporating specific provisions for women of backward castes and minority communities within the overall ambit of 33% reservation. The panchayats have long had 33% reservation for women and Parliament has now rightly raised it to 50%. Let there now be no excuse for thwarting or truncating the idea of one-third reservation for women in Assemblies and Parliament. The UPA government must not be allowed to backtrack from 33% reservation for women on any pretext.
Hundred years ago, the communist and progressive forces within the international women’s movement took the lead to launch the International Women’s Day, and over the last hundred years, it is these forces that have pushed forward the battle for women’s liberation and equality of sexes in the face of every obstacle. In India, it was the progressive women’s movement which had raised the demand for women’s reservation in legislative bodies as a means to promote women’s participation in politics as well as to sensitise the process of legislation to the needs and aspirations of women. It was again the women’s movement which sustained the campaign for women’s reservation over the last two decades in the face of crude patriarchal resistance and clever political ploys of ruling class parties.
Today in the centenary year of the International Women’s Day it is ironically the Congress which seeks to paint itself as the pioneer of women’s reservation even as it colludes with the opponents of the bill to once again put it on the back-burner. The progressive women’s movement must again wrest the initiative, push the bill through to the end, and carry forward the larger battle of women’s liberation towards bigger victories.
Condemn Israel's Decision to Approve Construction of Hundreds of New Housing Units in the West Bank
(Statement issued by International Department of the CPI(ML)Liberation)
New Delhi, 13 March 2010: Even as US Vice President Joe Biden is in Israel to launch a much-touted four-month long peace accord between Palestine and Israel, the Israeli Ministry of the Interior has announced a decision to approve construction of 1600 new housing units in Palestine's West Bank. This decision, underlining Israel's occupation of Palestine and its arrogant assertion of a policy of apartheid, exposes the US-brokered peace process as a farce.
It is instructive to recall that the Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict headed by Justice Richard Goldstone had in 2009 noted that Israel's 22-day war in Gaza between December 2008 and January 2009 amounted to a war crime, and that the military operations were preceded and followed by several measures to "further deepen Israel’s control over the West Bank, including East Jerusalem" including "increased land expropriation, house demolitions, demolition orders and permits to build homes in settlements, greater and more formalized access and movement restrictions on Palestinians, new and stricter procedures for residents of the Gaza Strip to change their residency to the West Bank." According to the Goldstone Report, measures like expansion of Israeli settlements and demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank "point to a convergence of objectives with the Gaza military operations." The Goldstone Report had called for an end to the impunity hitherto enjoyed by Israel and had recommended a punitive process for the "collective punishment" imposed by Israel on the people of Gaza. The Report and its recommendations were rejected by the Obama Administration and used its veto power to block a vote on the question in the UN Security Council.
Israel's decision to approve construction of 1600 new housing units in Palestine's West Bank is nothing but a brazen assertion of the "impunity" (conferred by US patronage) for the "collective punishment" it continues to impose on the people of Gaza – not just through outright war but by daily measures that deepen Israel's control over the West Bank.
CPI(ML) condemns the decision by Israel to construct new housing units in the West Bank. Any genuine peace process in Palestine can only begin with an acknowledgement of the crimes of war and occupation committed by Israel and a process of justice for the same.
More Reports of IWD Centenary Events
Reports of protests and demonstrations by AIPWA and other organisations in various states on the centenary of International Women’s day appeared in the previous issue of ML Update. Following are more reports of similar programmes on IWD.
KARNATAKA
HD Kote, Mysore: As part of the Centenary International Women’s Day celebrations, a Women’s Struggle Day was observed by All India Progressive Women's Association (AIPWA) and Samata Vedike on 14 March. A district level convention on “Agrarian Women Labourers and Gender Awareness” was held at Ambedkar Bhavan in HD Kote taluk of Mysore dist. More than 300 women from Sogalli, Uyyamballi, Sathigehundi, Nanjanathapura and other villages took part. The programme was flagged off with revolutionary songs by Mallamma and team from Uyamballi, and Samata members.
Senior Samata leader Meera Nayak spoke about the relevance of International Women's Day for the rural toiling women. A gender awareness programme in the form of the game of musical chair with each participant holding a placard on a women’s issue – dowry, child marriage, sexual abuse, trafficking, female foeticide, domestic violence and so on, was co-ordinated by Dr Shanthi and Dr Roopa Rao. Nearly 30 women sportively took part in this game from various villages. After the game, Dr Shanthi and Prof Roopa Rao discussed about sexual harassment at workplace.
Dr Rati Rao, VP of AIPWA, initiated an interactive session on 'NREGA- Experiences of Women’ highlighting their struggles for job cards, wages, projects and so on. Many women from AIPWA and All India Agricultural Labourers’ Association (AIALA) shared their experiences of struggles related to NREGA. Women from Sathigehundi shared their struggles for opening a fair price shop and the subsequent struggles against corruption and irregular supply of rations. Mallige, Gowri and Nandini from ‘Mahila Horaata Okkuta’ also participated in the programme and rendered revolutionary songs.
Com. Javaraiah, District Secretary of CPI(ML) spoke on the need for enhancing the political edge of the women’s movement and called upon the women to join the struggle against the communal BJP government in the state. The convention concluded with a revolutionary song by Samata team.
The convention was preceded by preparatory meetings at Uyyamballi on Feb 27 with 80 women, at Sathigehundi on March 3 with 50 women, in which Dr Shanthi and Dr Rati Rao addressed the gathering. Comrades PA Kumar and Kemparaju and panchayat members also actively participated.
Bangalore: Mahila Horaata Okkuta, an umbrella organization of more than 25 women’s organizations in Bangalore, has taken shape to carry out joint programmes during Centenary Women’s Day. As part of the Okkuta, AIPWA, led by Com. Gandhimathi, State Secretary of AIPWA, took part in a convention on unorganized women workers in NGO Hall, Bangalore, on 7 March and a cultural evening at Samsa Bayalu Mandira in Ravindra Kalakshetra on March 8. Okkuta will hold more than ten programmes in the month of March.
Uttar Pradesh: Thousands of women in Lucknow, Varanasi, Allahabad, Gorakhpur and Moradabad marched on the 8th against price rise and spiralling violence against women, and for immediate passing of the Women’s Reservation Bill.
In Lucknow 500 women members of AIPWA marched with their banners, flags and placards from City Station to Shahid Smarak challenging the anti-women forces and shouting slogans also against the Mayawati’s rule under which attacks on women has increased. The AIPWA leaders held Mayawati’s Administration officials responsible for the large number of deaths of women and children in the stampede at an Ashram at Mangarh in Pratapgarh. This march was led by AIPWA’s national VP and UP’s Convenor of Tehrik-e-Niswan Com. Tahira Hasan, CPI(ML)’s CC member Com. Krishna Adhikari and AIPWA’s State President Com. Vidya Rajwar. Women resolved to uphold and take forward the legacy of a century of women’s emancipation struggles.
AIPWA’s State Secretary Com. Premlata Pandey led the 700 strong march in Gorakhpur. Comrades Kusum and Kripa Verma led the march of 350 women in Varanasi, Namrata Tiwari and Shubhra led the march of 400 women in Allahabad and Anita Rajput led the march of 350 women at Moradabad.
In Assam, an AIPWA Rally was held at Guwahati with 1500 women from different districts of Assam. The procession marched through the city and culminated in a mass meeting addressed by AIPWA Assam leaders and leaders from tribal (Missing and Tiwa) women's organisations and CPI(ML) Politburo member Rubul Sarma. A seminar was then held at Guwahati Press Club on 'Globalisation and Women’s Movement' organised by Jonaki Bat (the AIPWA publication).
In Andhra Pradesh, a human chain was organized in Anantpur, West Godavari, and in Vijaywada R Nagmani held a meeting with 50 ASHA workers. Women's Day protests were also held against price hike, violence on women and state terror at 8 mandals of East Godavari.
On the eve of IWD a convention was held at Mylavaram on 7th March participated by 150 women.
Construction Workers' March to Parliament
On 15 March 2010, under the banner of the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU)-affiliated All India Construction Workers’ Federation (AICWF), hundreds of construction workers from different states held a March to Parliament against hike in fuel rates, price rise and to demand implementation of the Central Construction Workers’ Act 1996 throughout the country.
The procession was led by AICCTU General Secretary Swapan Mukherjee, the General Secretary of the Federation RN Thakur, President of the Federation S Balasubramanian, V.President SK Sharma, Dashrath Sinhali from Gujarat, Harkesh Bugalia from Rajasthan, several construction workers’ leaders from Bihar, AICCTU Delhi State Secretary Santosh Roy, President NM Thomas, AICWF leaders like VKS Gautam, Ardhendu Roy from Delhi and Anthonymutthu and Iraniappan from Tamilnadu and AIPWA Secretary Kavita Krishnan.
While the Construction Labour Act has not been implemented throughout the country even 14 years after its enactment, the pro-corporate Acts like SEZ are implemented promptly even at gunpoint. Six crore workers of the flourishing construction industry do not even get a living wage and any protection from skyrocketing price rise. As the majority of these construction workers are migrant workers, they face attacks at the hands of regional chauvinistic forces. The March to Parliament gave a call for an all-out protest against the budget 2010 and intensification of movement of unorganized workers including construction workers.
The March also demanded Rs.200/- as national level minimum wage with inclusion of VDA for all unorganized workers, provision of Inter-state I-cards to migrant workers, enacting the Food Security Act, BPL cards to all construction workers, equal wages for women workers and other demands. A 15-point Charter of demands was submitted to Labour Secretary, Govt. of India by a four-member delegation.
More Protests against Price Rise
Tirunelveli: A well attended street corner meeting orgainsed by the Party was held in Suthamalli of Tirunelveli in Tamilnadu against price rise on March 13. At Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh a protest meeting led by Com. Vinod Rawat burnt an effigy of UPA Govt. on 6th March.
Puducherry: A massive demonstration against hike in fuel prices and price rise was organised at Puducherry on 11 March by the AICCTU and the Movement for Protection of the Houseless. It was led by Comrade Udakar, VP of the LPG Cylinders and Distributive Workers' Union (AICCTU). Demands raised by the protestors included: Supply of 50 kg rice/wheat at Rs.2/kg and 5 litres of kerosene at Rs.2/litre to all PDS card holders; Monthly rent subsidy of Rs.1000 to all families who do not own RCC houses or who live in rented houses; Monthly minimum wages of Rs. 11,000 to all trade/industry workers and provision of 14 essential items in PDS shops. Women participated in large numbers in the demonstration.
The demonstration was addressed by Com. Balasubramanium, State Secretary of the CPI(ML) who demanded a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore rupees instead of Rs.1000 crore in the National Commission of Unorganised Workers for their Social Security and CS Sagaraj, President of the Movement for the Protection of the Houseless.
5th March: TUs Protest in Puducherry and Karaikal
As part of nation-wide protest call by central trade unions, on five points charter, namely against price rise, strict implementation of labor laws, against disinvestments of public sectors units, amendments in the unorganized workers social security Act 2009 etc., AICCTU, AITUC CITU, UTUC volunteers blockaded roads in front of post offices and banks at nearly ten places in Puducherry and Karaikal regions on 5th March 2010. Nearly two thousand workers including women, youth, and agricultural labourers courted arrest.
AICCTU Beedi Workers Workshop at Tirunelveli
As a part of the membership drive among beedi workers some macro and micro investigations were taken up and with the findings of these preliminary investigations a workshop was held in Tirunelveli on March 14. A paper was presented which narrated the socio-economic and working conditions of the beedi workers. 65 comrades including 37 women participated. Comrades Kumarasami, NK Natarajan, and KG Desikan attended the workshop.
The following demands were raised in the workshop, and these demands will be highlighted in a campaign in the villages among beedi workers 15 days from April 1 onwards: Include all beedi workers in the BPL list; Scrap loans of beedi workers upto Rs.20,000 per worker; Construct 10,000 houses per year out of the cess fund; Increase salary to Rs 150 per day; Amend Beedi Cigar Working Conditions Act and Tamilnadu Rules suitably at the earliest so that they encompass millions of home workers instead of a few thousand industrial workers; Lakhs of beedi workers are not covered by welfare legislations– conduct a census of beedi workers immediately; Stop spending 65% of cess fund on administrative expenses, let the government bear these expenses; 12 inspectors for 6 lakh workers is a travesty of justice; appoint at least 60 inspectors and implement labour laws strictly and improve sanitation and health conditions in beedi neighbourhoods.
AIALA Demo in Tamilnadu
All India Agricultural Labourers’ Association (AIALA) organized a panchayat-level demonstration in Tamil Nadu (March 5-15) demanding inclusion in BPL list, work under MGNREGA, Rs.200 daily wages under MGNREGA, homestead land and patta. A Signature campaign on these demands was taken up and the signatures were submitted to the authorities through demonstration. These campaigns were held all over TN in 36 panchayats of 15 blocks. 12433 signatures were obtained and 9375 rural poor were mobilized in the demonstrations. In all about 10400 memoranda were submitted by them in Pudukottai (10 panchayats in 4 blocks), Cuddalore (1 panchayat), Villupuram (8 panchayats in 3 blocks), Tanjore (3 panchayats), Nagai and Tiruvallore (4 panchayats in 2 blocks each) and Madurai (4 panchayats).
Demonstrations were organized in front of four Panchayat Offices in Madurai District on March 10. At Ramaiyan Patti Panchayat, more than 200 women assembled in front of the Panchayat Office with empty pots. The village President, a Dalit woman, had sanctioned more private connections (reportedly in exchange for bribes) to high caste people and they were diverting water from the supply line with their motorized connections, causing water scarcity to all the poor people. Protestors demanded immediate disconnection of all motorized connections. The protest followed a week-long campaign on this issue. The powerful households responded by warning the President with dire consequences if she dared to disconnect. Under pressure, the President fled from her office on the evening of 10 March. The protesters demanded that the President personally appear and receive the petition, but she remained adamant. Protestors led by Comrade Usha decided to march to the house of the president, but the police denied permission and warned of severe action. When the protestors declared their intention to violate police orders, the police had no option but to instruct the President to appear in person. The President then came and received the petitions and promised disconnection of all illegal connections; she also demanded that the Party should defend her actions. With assurance from both sides the struggle came to an end.
In Kattakulam more than 100 protestors assembled demanding disclosure of the BPL list and details of NREGA. The protestors demanded that names of the BPL beneficiaries listed should be made available for public scrutiny so that the list commands credibility. The officials agreed to provide a copy of the list within a week.
In Kutaladampatti more than 300 assembled after completing NREGA work. The President of the Panchayat escaped the scene. In Andipatty nearly 100 assembled in the evening in front of the Panchayat Office. The Panchayat President and Clerk met the people and promised to provide the present BPL list and also agreed to provide BPL certificate to the people who apply for any welfare scheme.
IIMS Launched in Kerala
Indian Institute of Marxist Studies (IIMS) launched its Kerala Chapter on 14 March through a meeting at Trivandrum. The meeting also elected Com. KM Venugopalan as the convenor of the Kerala Chapter with a core group to coordinate its activities.
Marxism, a universal philosophy having enough potential to enrich itself through practice is under attack from various quarters as it is generally being viewed through the prism of so-called 'Marxist' party in Kerala- CPI(M), which has made Marxism a dogma to suit its own convenience. Internationally also, many variants of social democracy and revisionism are being peddled in the name of Marxism. In such a backdrop, the meeting felt the need to retrieve the revolutionary essence of Marxism in today's context.
The meeting also felt the need to have a forum for healthy debates and exchange of ideas that can explore Marxism from a revolutionary point of view against the prevalent revisionist and social-democratic viewpoint in the state. The forum will have no pre-conceived notions and will act as a forum for interaction of various revolutionary Marxist and progressive ideas on various fundamental and burning issues of the day. It will also try to interact with all like-minded Left individuals, organisations and the people who want to interact with Marxism.
Annual GBM of RYA at Puducherry
The annual General Body Meeting of the Puducherry unit of Revolutionary Youth Association (RYA) was held on 21 February 2010 at Comrade Bhagat Singh Nagar (Muthialpet) in Com. Chandrashekhar Hall. Puducherry and especially the Muthialpet area were decorated with wall writing, banners, festoons and flags. The Hall was decorated with photographs and quotations of communist leaders.
The meeting was inaugurated and addressed by Com. S Balasubramanium, State Sectetary, CPI(ML), who called upon youth to unite with the struggles of the oppressed and defend the country against imperialist policies. Com. P Ravikumar presented the draft document. Youths from all areas of Puducherry and Karaikal regions took part in the GBM and actively participated in the lively discussion.
The GBM unanimously elected a 15-member State Committee and 9 office bearers with P Ravikumar as Secretary and A Alagappan as President. A 20-point resolution was adopted by the house. It was decided to recruit 2000 members organised in 20 branches by the year 2011. A convention will be held on March 23 (Bhagat Singh martyrdom day) with the demand: "Replace the imperialist symbol of the Dupleix statue with one of Bhagat Singh). A signature campaign will be launched on this issue.
AISA-RYA Protest March in Giridih against Greenhunt
On 11 March, AISA and RYA held a Protest March in Giridih, Jharkhand, from Jhanda Maidan to Tower Chowk, where a mass meeting was held. The March raised the slogan – "We want an end to Greenhunt, Corruption and Corporate Loot – We want Education and Employment.' The meeting was addressed by AISA's National Vice President Aslam, AISA's Jharkhand Convenor Hemlal Mahto, RYAState VP Rameshwar Chowdhury and CPI(ML) leaders such as Rajesh Yadav and Parameshwar Mahto and others.
ML UPDATE 12 - 2010.pdf
ML UPDATE 11 / 2010
MLUpdate
A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine
Vol. 13, No. 11, 09 – 15 MARCH 2010
Uphold the Glorious Legacy of International Women’s Day
8 March 2010 marks the centenary of International Women’s Day – a hundred years from the time when the working class women’s movement first thought to observe ‘Women’s Day’ to celebrate their day-to-day struggles and assert the goal of women’s liberation.
International Women’s Day (IWD) inherits and represents the legacy of a glorious struggle for equality, dignity and emancipation that started long before the formal adoption of this day by women’s wings of socialist and communist parties—in fact well before the first socialist/communist parties were born. Even if we leave apart the previous periods of history, we cannot forget that the French Revolution of 1789, that great harbinger of modernity, was started by plebeian and semi-proletarian women of Paris. It was the same contingent that literally woke up and mobilised their men folk in the wee hours of 18 March 1871 against conspiratorial activities of the Versailles government, thereby launching the struggle for Paris Commune.
What communism did to this centuries-old struggle for women’s enlightenment and emancipation was to raise it to a qualitatively new level by consciously integrating it, both politically and organisationally, with the united movement of all the downtrodden for revolutionary transformation of the entire oppressive social order. IWD, a product of this integration, served to mobilise more and more women in the communist movement. The democratic revolution in Russia that overthrew the Tsarist monarchy in 1917 was actually started on IWD, with women workers in Petrograd spontaneously going on strike and demonstration. Guided by their proletarian class instinct, they ignored local Bolsheviks who advised restraint, and started the offensive. In our country we observe Naxalbari Day on 25 May to pay tribute to the eight women comrades who along with two babies they carried and one male comrade became the first martyrs of Naxalbari in 1967.
These are but a few of numerous historic instances of working women playing vanguard roles in epoch-making emancipatory struggles involving both sexes. Today, simultaneously with their growing involvement in productive activities, women are brilliantly carrying forward this legacy -- not just in the arena of various mass movements, but in all walks of life from politics to sports, in academic, artistic, scientific and literary pursuits, and so on. Like in the past – and here lies the great merit, the special significance, of women’s struggles and achievements – they are doing this in the face of tremendous negative discrimination and all sorts of resistance offered by semi-feudal and capitalist patriarchy.
In the centenary year of IWD, the issues and slogans raised by the revolutionary women’s movement a hundred years ago continue to resonate with renewed relevance in the women’s movement of today. The first Women’s Day was marked by militant women workers raising demands for women’s rights at the workplace as well as the right to vote. Today, in the wake of the global economic crisis and policies of liberalisation, women are bearing the brunt of retrenchment and also being disproportionately represented in the most exploitative sectors of the economy.
While women’s political participation has increased, full and equal participation continues to be a far cry. In India, the slogan of enhanced political participation has found expression in the demand for 33% reservation in Parliament and Assemblies that successive governments have betrayed for the past decade, and even on the occasion of the IWD Centenary, the Indian Parliament witnessed a display of violence and patriarchal sentiment against the Women’s Bill.
‘Bread, Land, Peace’ – the rallying cry for Russian women on March 8 1917 – assumes great significance today: not only in the context of women’s resistance against imperialist wars and occupation in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, but also for women in India resisting price rise and hunger, repression in the course of struggles against land grab, and state repression.
In keeping with the growing assertion of women, especially toiling women, their active participation in the communist movement has increased manifold. But has there been a corresponding increase in the role of women in the communist organisation? Do we see larger numbers and enhanced activism of women members, organisers and leaders? In spite of years of efforts and some partial success, we cannot really claim that. The IWD Centenary is an occasion for renewed and energetic efforts in this direction.
A hundred years ago, communists imparted a new revolutionary dimension to the women’s movement of the period. Today, the occasion of the centenary of IWD should serve to highlight and reassert that legacy – and also to take the legacy of IWD and the historical achievements of the women’s movement as a precious resource and inspiration to meet the challenges for the women’s movement today.
Pass Women's Bill Without Further Delay
(Statement issued by the Party on 8 March 2010 in New Delhi)
On the occasion of the centenary of International Women's Day today, the Rajya Sabha has again witnessed unseemly acts like tearing of the Women's Bill (for 33% Reservation) and anti-woman remarks by several political leaders opposing the Bill.
While the tabling of the Bill is welcome, it must be remembered that it was long overdue, and it is only the past 14 years of women's movement that has forced the Congress-led UPA to present the Bill in the Rajya Sabha.
Leaders like Laloo Yadav are indulging in blatantly anti-woman propaganda in the name of opposing the Bill, and the RJD and SP have withdrawn their support to the UPA Government on this issue. Laloo Yadav claims that he wants representation in the Bill for OBC women; but his remark that "India is a male-dominated country and here women will vote only where their husbands tell them; ...If I ask my wife, Rabri Devi, to vote for a particular party, do you think she will vote for another party?" reveals the patriarchal basis for his opposition to the Bill. It proves that those opposing the Bill are in fact wishing to preserve the "male-dominated" character of society and deny women an independent political voice. Parties like JD(U) are also displaying rank opportunism on the issue of the Bill, with different leaders speaking in calculatedly different voices. These forces are all banking on the fact that for the past 14 years, Congress and BJP alike have paid no more than lip service to the Bill, and they hope that this time too, aggressive propaganda against the Bill will once again be made an excuse by the Congress to postpone the passage of the Bill.
We demand that the Congress-led UPA ensure the passage of the Women's Reservation Bill without a single day's delay.
Central Committee, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation
On Women's Day Centenary
AIPWA Marches
Against disruption in Rajya Sabha on 33% Reservation Bill
Against Price Rise
Violence and State Repression
On the occasion of the centenary of International Women's Day on 8th March 2010, All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA) held militant demonstrations in various states and districts across the Country and raised slogans- 'Salute 100 years of Women's Liberation Struggles! Onwards to Achieve Liberty, Equality and Dignity!' Women also raised spirited slogans against price rise and state repression. Massive protest marches and other events on 8 March were held by AIPWA at New Delhi, Jaipur, Patna, Lucknow, Allahabad, Banaras, Guwahati, Chennai, Madurai, Karnataka and many other places.
New Delhi: AIPWA participated in a March to Parliament from Mandi House organised by the Centenary Celebration Committee. AIPWA mobilised women from various jhuggi clusters, women workers as well as students of All India Students' Association (AISA) from JNU, DU and Jamia Millia in this March, who raised colourful banners and placards and shouted slogans highlighting the legacy of 100 years of Women's Day and women's liberation struggles. Health workers of the All India CGHS Employees Association (Women's Wing) led by the Women's Wing General Secretary Rajkumari Ujjainwal also marched along with AIPWA in the procession. The demonstration here was addressed by AIPWA’s National Secretary Comrade Kavita Krishnan and JNUSU Vice President and AISA leader Shephalika Shekhar among others.
Bihar: On 8th March, huge rally was organised jointly by AIPWA and Parivartan Kendra in Patna. The rally began from Gandhi Maidan and it reached the Legislative assembly gate at R block crossing. Two thousand women from Patna and Vaishali districts participated in the rally. The main demands of the rally were- (1) Pass the Women’s Reservation Bill without any further delay, (2) Police and Judiciary should be alert and sensitive towards the issues of violence against women, (3) Closing down the liquor shops opened by the State government in Bihar and (4) women’s right to property among several other demands. Rally was addressed by AIPWA’s General Secretary Comrade Meena Tiwari and Parivartan Kendra’s Secretary Varsha Bela. The participants in the rally resolved to conduct various different programmes to celebrate the 100 years of Women’s day.
On 9th March, another protest rally was held by AIPWA in Patna to protest the disruption and violent attitude shown to the Women’s Reservation Bill in Rajya Sabha. Rally started from AIPWA office on Birchnad Patel Marg and concluded at the Dakbuglow Chowraha. The rally was led by comrades Meena Tiwari, Saroj Chowbey and Shashi from AIPWA and Varsha Jawalgekar from Parivartan Kendra.
West Bengal: The WB unit of AIPWA organized a militant, well decorated procession on 8 March in Kolkata. Slogans like Salute to Hundred Years of Women’s Liberation Struggles, intensify struggles for Equality and Freedom, Pass the 33% Reservation Bill Now, Fight Against Price Rise, Violence and State Repression, Withdraw Operation Green Hunt rent the air as hundreds of working women marched from College Square to Dharmatala.
Jharkhand: More than a thousand women from AIPWA, Hul Mahila Ekta Manch and Mahila Ulgulan Sangh jointly held a militant demonstration in front of the State Legislative Assembly in Ranchi and blockaded the main entrance for 3 hours demanding passage of the Women’s Bill and stop operation Greenhunt. The AIPWA members for the protest here came from three districts- Ranchi, Lohardaga and Gumla. Several protest demonstrations comprising hundreds of women were held in Giridih dist. - in Bagodar, Saria, Birni, Rajdhanwar and Jamua. Deonstrations were also held at Garhwa and Ramgarh. In Dhanbad the AIPWA members sat on a dharna at the Randhir Verma Chowk.
Tamil Nadu: In Chennai, a demonstration was held on March 8, highlighting the issues of working women. Women took part in the demonstration which was led by Com.Devaki, State Vice-President, AIPWA. Com.Kuppabai, State VP, AIPWA, Com.Shenbagavalli of Villupuram spoke in the demonstration. Com.AS Kumar, AICCTU DGS, also addressed the gathering.
In Tirunelveli 75 women held a demonstration demanding homestead patta among other demands. Com. Thenmozhi, State President, AIPWA, addressed the demonstration. The demonstrators raised slogans demanding passage of the Women's Reservation Bill and controlling price rise.
In Kanyakumari, a convention was held in which 200 unorganised women workers participated. Com. Mary Stella, State Secretary, AIPWA, and Com. Anthoni Muthu, State Vice-President, AICCTU addressed the convention.
In Tanjore a demonstration was held in which dozens of rural women participated and demanded passing of the Women’s Reservation Bill and controlling price rise.
Rajasthan: Hundreds of AIPWA members from across the State- Udaypur, Banswara, Ajmer, Kishangarh, Pratapgarh, Chittaurgarh, Bhilwara, Tonk and Jhunjhunu – held a militant demonstration at the Chief Minister’s office in Jaipur. In the morning the women marched in a rally from Shaheed Smarak to CM’s office where they raised spirited slogans and held mass meeting for two hours. AIPWA’s National President Com. Srilata Swaminathan along with other AIPWA leaders led the rally and demonstration here.
Later a delegation of AIPWA also met the CM Mr. Ashok Gahlaut and presented their list of demands which includes among other to- extending NREGA to all the districts and guaranteeing 50 percent employment for women with minimum wage at Rs.200/8hr, NREGA to be extended to town areas and urban centres also with 50 percent jobs for women, those living in unauthorised bastis be urgently provided land pattas and all eviction attempts be curbed immediately, old age pension for all needy women, their name be included in BPL list and they be given ration cards, and Chairperson for the State’s Women Commission be urgently appointed.
Upon assurance from the CM for addressing these demands, the delegation let it known that if there is no progress they will intensify their agitation.
Chhatisgarh: Rally and public meeting was organised by AIPWA at Bhilai in Durg district on 8 March. The women in the rally and mass meeting resolved to intensify their struggle for land, livelihood, peace, equality and dignity. The rallyists also demanded strict implementation of labour laws and re-inducting all retrenched sanitary women workers. The women also condemned the growing violent attacks on women in the name of Maoism.
Meeting was also held at Bungoli vill. in Raipur and Jagdalpur under Bastar districts on 8 March.
MARCH 5 – Central TUs’ Jail Bharo/Satyagraha Day
Tamil Nadu: All India Central Council of trade Unions (AICCTU) participated in the All Trade Union protest on March 5 all over the State demanding to rein in the escalating price rise, expansion of PDS, implementation of worker welfare legislations, no disivestment, extending benefits to the unorganized workers without any pre-conditions. Protests took place at 10 centres throughout the State.
In Chennai and Erode over 300 AICCTU workers participated at 6 centres. In Tirunelveli, 100 unorganised workers participated in the road block held at 2 places. In Kanchipuram and Trichy around 50 workers joined the protest.
Chhatisgarh: AICCTU leaders participated in a joint dharna at the Employment chowk of Bhilai Steel Plant. TU leaders from CITU, AITUC, INTUC, HMKP, HMS and BMS participated in the dharna. A memorandum for the PM was handed over to the DC.
From Circular of Central Committee Meeting
(Chittaranjan, 4-6 March 2010)
The Party Central Committee met at Mihijam (Chittaranjan) in Jamtara district of Jharkhand (bordering Bardhaman district of West Bengal) from 4 to 6 March, 2010. The meeting was hosted by comrades of All India Railway Party Committee in cooperation with other concerned comrades of Jharkhand and West Bengal. The deliberations and decisions of the CC meeting are summarized below.
1. Budgets 2010-11: This year, the budget session came in the backdrop of sky-rocketing prices with food inflation being as high as 20%. Even the economic survey identified the price situation as a big worry. Yet the budget has made absolutely no attempt to extend any relief to the common people. Instead, the hike in petrol and diesel and fertilizer prices and the increase in excise duty and service tax will have a cascading effect on prices of most goods and services adding to the back-breaking burden on the common man. The budget claims to have showered benefits on 60% taxpayers – but the threshold level for tax benefits is an annual income of Rs. 400,000. This then is the government’s real definition of aam aadmi and inclusive growth!
Apart from tax sops for the middle and upper-middle class and the corporate sector, this year’s budgets have also delivered a big push towards privatization or greater opportunities for the private sector. While the railways are promoting public-private partnership in a big way, the setting up of Coal Regulatory Authority and the policy of RBI granting banking license to private banks and NBFCs mark a major reversal of the perspective of bank and coal nationalization.
To suit the neo-liberal market-driven model, the tax system is being relentlessly restructured with further dilution of direct taxes (taxes on income and wealth) and greater accent on indirect taxes (taxes on goods and services) which do not distinguish between the rich and the poor.
We must conduct a sustained campaign against price-rise, for greater allocation for agriculture, rural development and social sectors including health, education, housing, employment guarantee schemes and social security measures and reversal of the pro-privatisation measures announced in the budget. Generally speaking, the central slogan for the campaign against price-rise can be: “Check Prices, Give us Jobs – Carry out Land Reforms.” Apart from demanding a roll-back of price hikes, we must intensify struggles for wage increase and on PDS related issues (struggle for inclusion of all poor families in BPL list, for expansion and strict implementation of PDS, against hoarding and black marketeering, and against the corrupt dealer-politician-bureaucrat nexus responsible for PDS loot) as well as for increased procurement prices and subsidies in all our areas of work.
The CC has called for month-long campaign against price-rise and other related issues throughout the month of March culminating in statewide rallies and demonstrations between 23 and 31 March. Assam will hold decentralized demonstrations in district headquarters on March 23 while Jharkhand will organise a state-level mass rally in Ranchi on the same day. Orissa will organize a state-level programme in Bhubaneswar on March 27 and Bihar will have a state-level Jan Adhikar Rally in Patna on March 30. Delhi and Punjab will jointly organize a protest meeting outside Parliament on March 26.
2. Operation Green Hunt: Operation Green Hunt is the centerpiece of a more generalized campaign of larger state offensive against the democratic movement. In many of our areas of work, we are also facing heightened state repression and administrative harassment and even conspiratorial media coverage at times. While organizing appropriate and timely protests in all such cases, we must send fact-finding missions to some key theatres of Operation Green Hunt, Chhattisgarh in particular. While state repression and Maoist retaliation are escalating, the UPA government and Maoists are both talking about talks. We call for immediate cessation of Operation Green Hunt and initiation of talks in a conducive atmosphere.
3. BPL and Food Security: As many as three official reports (Tendulkar Committee Report, NC Saxena Committee Report and Arjun Sengupta Committee report) have rejected the existing Planning Commission estimate of poverty and the artificial ceiling of 28%. We call for automatic inclusion of all agricultural and rural labourers, small and marginal farmers and unorganized workers in the BPL. The UPA government had promised to enact a Right to Food Act which remains unfulfilled even after the second budget of UPA-II. The government’s draft proposal in this regard is extremely inadequate; we must press for a minimum monthly provision of 50 kg foodgrains at Rs. 2 per kg for every BPL household.
4. Ranganath Mishra Commission Report: The UPA Government is sitting over the Ranganath Mishra Commission Report which recommended reservation in education and employment for deprived sections of the Muslim community and for extension of SC recognition to Dalits who have converted to Islam or Christianity. We call upon the government to accept and implement the Ranganath Mishra Commission recommendations without any further delay.
5. Telengana, Second States Reorganisation Commission and Article 244A: Having agreed to the demand for creation of a separate Telengana state, the Congress is now playing a dangerous game of dilly-dallying and dividing the people on this issue. We call upon the UPA government to immediately fulfil its promise of a separate Telengana state, implement Article 244A to grant Autonomus State status to Karbi Anglong and NC Hills districts of Assam and also set up a Second States Reorganisation Commission for a favourable and time-bound disposal of all other pending popular demands of statehood.
6. Centenary of International Women’s Day: This March 8, the International Women’s Day turns 100. AIPWA has already drawn up some year-long plans for the centenary year. The women’s department and education department and the entire Party organization should also get involved in a planned and concerted manner. For the women’s organization, the focus should be on spreading the IWD message (commemorative programmes should preferably be organized in 100 centres across the country) and AIPWA network with special emphasis on working women and girl students, while for the Party the focus should be on developing and promoting women cadres on different levels and fronts.
7. All India Peasant Conference: As directed by the 8th Congress of the Party, the CC has resolved to launch an all-India peasant organization through a national peasants’ conference. The conference will be held in Patna on May 10 (the 1857 anniversary day).
The main slogan for the conference will be “SaveFarmLand, Farming and Farmers – End the Reign of Plunder and Disaster” and “National Peasant Conference for Dignity, Democracy and Development”. The peasant association will inherit and uphold the anti-feudal anti-imperialist legacy of peasant revolts and communist-led peasant movement starting from the colonial period. In particular, the Patna conference will uphold the radical legacy of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati (founder of AIKS in 1936 who had played a pioneering role in the anti-zamindari peasant movement in Bihar) and his vision of worker-peasant solidarity and thwart the ruling class design of using peasants as corporate and feudal pawns and pitting them against agricultural labourers. In the context of today’s agrarian crisis, the peasant association will fight against feudal remnants and growing corporate domination and imperialist intervention and press for implementation of comprehensive land and tenancy reforms, necessary assistance and facilities for poor and middle peasants, and increased public investment in agriculture.
8. Bihar Assembly Election and Patna Rally: A State level rally – named Jan Adhikar rally (People’s Rights Rally) – has been planned in Patna on March 30. It will challenge the official euphoria of Nitish Kumar’s ‘growth miracle’ and Mahadalit rhetoric by highlighting the key issues of land reforms, employment guarantee, agricultural and industrial development, and the actual conditions and aspirations of the rural poor.
9. Panchayat Election in Jharkhand: Jharkhand is the only state where panchayat election has not been held till date. The Supreme Court has recently cleared the way for panchayat elections. We must insist on, and prepare for, early holding of panchayat elections in compliance with the provisions of PESA (Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas) and 50% reservation for women.
AIALA’s Massive Demonstration in TN
From March 5 to 8, All India Agricultural Labourers’ Association (AIALA) organized panchayat level demonstrations in TN demanding inclusion of names in the BPL list, work under MGNREGA, Rs.200 daily wages under MGNREGA and homestead land and patta. In Pudukottai, on March 5, over 1100 rural poor went to the panchayat offices in 3 panchayats and submitted 1200 memoranda. In Tiruvallore on March 5 over 450 participated in a rally and demonstrations held in one panchayat. On March 8 rally and demonstrations were held in 2 panchayats in the same district in which 500 rural poor participated. In Villupuram, on March 8, demonstrations were held in 3 panchayats with 800 rural poor submitting their memorandum to include their name in the BPL list. In Nagai, on March 6, demonstrations were held in two panchayats in which 400 participated. In Tuticorin, around 100 rural poor participated in demonstrations held in 2 panchayats.
Andhra Pradesh: CPI(ML) Khammam District Committee held a protest demonstration at Sathupalli (Khammam district) near APSRTC Bus stand with nearly 100 members and staged Dharna. They submitted a memorandum to the Tahsildar. Raised slogans against the UPA government and its anti-people and anti-workers budget. The demonstration was led by Bandaru Venkateswararao, Secretary of Sathupalli, Dist. Secretary CK Damodar addressed the meeting.
ML Update -13-11 pdf.pdf
A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine
Vol. 13, No. 11, 09 – 15 MARCH 2010
Uphold the Glorious Legacy of International Women’s Day
8 March 2010 marks the centenary of International Women’s Day – a hundred years from the time when the working class women’s movement first thought to observe ‘Women’s Day’ to celebrate their day-to-day struggles and assert the goal of women’s liberation.
International Women’s Day (IWD) inherits and represents the legacy of a glorious struggle for equality, dignity and emancipation that started long before the formal adoption of this day by women’s wings of socialist and communist parties—in fact well before the first socialist/communist parties were born. Even if we leave apart the previous periods of history, we cannot forget that the French Revolution of 1789, that great harbinger of modernity, was started by plebeian and semi-proletarian women of Paris. It was the same contingent that literally woke up and mobilised their men folk in the wee hours of 18 March 1871 against conspiratorial activities of the Versailles government, thereby launching the struggle for Paris Commune.
What communism did to this centuries-old struggle for women’s enlightenment and emancipation was to raise it to a qualitatively new level by consciously integrating it, both politically and organisationally, with the united movement of all the downtrodden for revolutionary transformation of the entire oppressive social order. IWD, a product of this integration, served to mobilise more and more women in the communist movement. The democratic revolution in Russia that overthrew the Tsarist monarchy in 1917 was actually started on IWD, with women workers in Petrograd spontaneously going on strike and demonstration. Guided by their proletarian class instinct, they ignored local Bolsheviks who advised restraint, and started the offensive. In our country we observe Naxalbari Day on 25 May to pay tribute to the eight women comrades who along with two babies they carried and one male comrade became the first martyrs of Naxalbari in 1967.
These are but a few of numerous historic instances of working women playing vanguard roles in epoch-making emancipatory struggles involving both sexes. Today, simultaneously with their growing involvement in productive activities, women are brilliantly carrying forward this legacy -- not just in the arena of various mass movements, but in all walks of life from politics to sports, in academic, artistic, scientific and literary pursuits, and so on. Like in the past – and here lies the great merit, the special significance, of women’s struggles and achievements – they are doing this in the face of tremendous negative discrimination and all sorts of resistance offered by semi-feudal and capitalist patriarchy.
In the centenary year of IWD, the issues and slogans raised by the revolutionary women’s movement a hundred years ago continue to resonate with renewed relevance in the women’s movement of today. The first Women’s Day was marked by militant women workers raising demands for women’s rights at the workplace as well as the right to vote. Today, in the wake of the global economic crisis and policies of liberalisation, women are bearing the brunt of retrenchment and also being disproportionately represented in the most exploitative sectors of the economy.
While women’s political participation has increased, full and equal participation continues to be a far cry. In India, the slogan of enhanced political participation has found expression in the demand for 33% reservation in Parliament and Assemblies that successive governments have betrayed for the past decade, and even on the occasion of the IWD Centenary, the Indian Parliament witnessed a display of violence and patriarchal sentiment against the Women’s Bill.
‘Bread, Land, Peace’ – the rallying cry for Russian women on March 8 1917 – assumes great significance today: not only in the context of women’s resistance against imperialist wars and occupation in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, but also for women in India resisting price rise and hunger, repression in the course of struggles against land grab, and state repression.
In keeping with the growing assertion of women, especially toiling women, their active participation in the communist movement has increased manifold. But has there been a corresponding increase in the role of women in the communist organisation? Do we see larger numbers and enhanced activism of women members, organisers and leaders? In spite of years of efforts and some partial success, we cannot really claim that. The IWD Centenary is an occasion for renewed and energetic efforts in this direction.
A hundred years ago, communists imparted a new revolutionary dimension to the women’s movement of the period. Today, the occasion of the centenary of IWD should serve to highlight and reassert that legacy – and also to take the legacy of IWD and the historical achievements of the women’s movement as a precious resource and inspiration to meet the challenges for the women’s movement today.
Pass Women's Bill Without Further Delay
(Statement issued by the Party on 8 March 2010 in New Delhi)
On the occasion of the centenary of International Women's Day today, the Rajya Sabha has again witnessed unseemly acts like tearing of the Women's Bill (for 33% Reservation) and anti-woman remarks by several political leaders opposing the Bill.
While the tabling of the Bill is welcome, it must be remembered that it was long overdue, and it is only the past 14 years of women's movement that has forced the Congress-led UPA to present the Bill in the Rajya Sabha.
Leaders like Laloo Yadav are indulging in blatantly anti-woman propaganda in the name of opposing the Bill, and the RJD and SP have withdrawn their support to the UPA Government on this issue. Laloo Yadav claims that he wants representation in the Bill for OBC women; but his remark that "India is a male-dominated country and here women will vote only where their husbands tell them; ...If I ask my wife, Rabri Devi, to vote for a particular party, do you think she will vote for another party?" reveals the patriarchal basis for his opposition to the Bill. It proves that those opposing the Bill are in fact wishing to preserve the "male-dominated" character of society and deny women an independent political voice. Parties like JD(U) are also displaying rank opportunism on the issue of the Bill, with different leaders speaking in calculatedly different voices. These forces are all banking on the fact that for the past 14 years, Congress and BJP alike have paid no more than lip service to the Bill, and they hope that this time too, aggressive propaganda against the Bill will once again be made an excuse by the Congress to postpone the passage of the Bill.
We demand that the Congress-led UPA ensure the passage of the Women's Reservation Bill without a single day's delay.
Central Committee, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation
On Women's Day Centenary
AIPWA Marches
Against disruption in Rajya Sabha on 33% Reservation Bill
Against Price Rise
Violence and State Repression
On the occasion of the centenary of International Women's Day on 8th March 2010, All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA) held militant demonstrations in various states and districts across the Country and raised slogans- 'Salute 100 years of Women's Liberation Struggles! Onwards to Achieve Liberty, Equality and Dignity!' Women also raised spirited slogans against price rise and state repression. Massive protest marches and other events on 8 March were held by AIPWA at New Delhi, Jaipur, Patna, Lucknow, Allahabad, Banaras, Guwahati, Chennai, Madurai, Karnataka and many other places.
New Delhi: AIPWA participated in a March to Parliament from Mandi House organised by the Centenary Celebration Committee. AIPWA mobilised women from various jhuggi clusters, women workers as well as students of All India Students' Association (AISA) from JNU, DU and Jamia Millia in this March, who raised colourful banners and placards and shouted slogans highlighting the legacy of 100 years of Women's Day and women's liberation struggles. Health workers of the All India CGHS Employees Association (Women's Wing) led by the Women's Wing General Secretary Rajkumari Ujjainwal also marched along with AIPWA in the procession. The demonstration here was addressed by AIPWA’s National Secretary Comrade Kavita Krishnan and JNUSU Vice President and AISA leader Shephalika Shekhar among others.
Bihar: On 8th March, huge rally was organised jointly by AIPWA and Parivartan Kendra in Patna. The rally began from Gandhi Maidan and it reached the Legislative assembly gate at R block crossing. Two thousand women from Patna and Vaishali districts participated in the rally. The main demands of the rally were- (1) Pass the Women’s Reservation Bill without any further delay, (2) Police and Judiciary should be alert and sensitive towards the issues of violence against women, (3) Closing down the liquor shops opened by the State government in Bihar and (4) women’s right to property among several other demands. Rally was addressed by AIPWA’s General Secretary Comrade Meena Tiwari and Parivartan Kendra’s Secretary Varsha Bela. The participants in the rally resolved to conduct various different programmes to celebrate the 100 years of Women’s day.
On 9th March, another protest rally was held by AIPWA in Patna to protest the disruption and violent attitude shown to the Women’s Reservation Bill in Rajya Sabha. Rally started from AIPWA office on Birchnad Patel Marg and concluded at the Dakbuglow Chowraha. The rally was led by comrades Meena Tiwari, Saroj Chowbey and Shashi from AIPWA and Varsha Jawalgekar from Parivartan Kendra.
West Bengal: The WB unit of AIPWA organized a militant, well decorated procession on 8 March in Kolkata. Slogans like Salute to Hundred Years of Women’s Liberation Struggles, intensify struggles for Equality and Freedom, Pass the 33% Reservation Bill Now, Fight Against Price Rise, Violence and State Repression, Withdraw Operation Green Hunt rent the air as hundreds of working women marched from College Square to Dharmatala.
Jharkhand: More than a thousand women from AIPWA, Hul Mahila Ekta Manch and Mahila Ulgulan Sangh jointly held a militant demonstration in front of the State Legislative Assembly in Ranchi and blockaded the main entrance for 3 hours demanding passage of the Women’s Bill and stop operation Greenhunt. The AIPWA members for the protest here came from three districts- Ranchi, Lohardaga and Gumla. Several protest demonstrations comprising hundreds of women were held in Giridih dist. - in Bagodar, Saria, Birni, Rajdhanwar and Jamua. Deonstrations were also held at Garhwa and Ramgarh. In Dhanbad the AIPWA members sat on a dharna at the Randhir Verma Chowk.
Tamil Nadu: In Chennai, a demonstration was held on March 8, highlighting the issues of working women. Women took part in the demonstration which was led by Com.Devaki, State Vice-President, AIPWA. Com.Kuppabai, State VP, AIPWA, Com.Shenbagavalli of Villupuram spoke in the demonstration. Com.AS Kumar, AICCTU DGS, also addressed the gathering.
In Tirunelveli 75 women held a demonstration demanding homestead patta among other demands. Com. Thenmozhi, State President, AIPWA, addressed the demonstration. The demonstrators raised slogans demanding passage of the Women's Reservation Bill and controlling price rise.
In Kanyakumari, a convention was held in which 200 unorganised women workers participated. Com. Mary Stella, State Secretary, AIPWA, and Com. Anthoni Muthu, State Vice-President, AICCTU addressed the convention.
In Tanjore a demonstration was held in which dozens of rural women participated and demanded passing of the Women’s Reservation Bill and controlling price rise.
Rajasthan: Hundreds of AIPWA members from across the State- Udaypur, Banswara, Ajmer, Kishangarh, Pratapgarh, Chittaurgarh, Bhilwara, Tonk and Jhunjhunu – held a militant demonstration at the Chief Minister’s office in Jaipur. In the morning the women marched in a rally from Shaheed Smarak to CM’s office where they raised spirited slogans and held mass meeting for two hours. AIPWA’s National President Com. Srilata Swaminathan along with other AIPWA leaders led the rally and demonstration here.
Later a delegation of AIPWA also met the CM Mr. Ashok Gahlaut and presented their list of demands which includes among other to- extending NREGA to all the districts and guaranteeing 50 percent employment for women with minimum wage at Rs.200/8hr, NREGA to be extended to town areas and urban centres also with 50 percent jobs for women, those living in unauthorised bastis be urgently provided land pattas and all eviction attempts be curbed immediately, old age pension for all needy women, their name be included in BPL list and they be given ration cards, and Chairperson for the State’s Women Commission be urgently appointed.
Upon assurance from the CM for addressing these demands, the delegation let it known that if there is no progress they will intensify their agitation.
Chhatisgarh: Rally and public meeting was organised by AIPWA at Bhilai in Durg district on 8 March. The women in the rally and mass meeting resolved to intensify their struggle for land, livelihood, peace, equality and dignity. The rallyists also demanded strict implementation of labour laws and re-inducting all retrenched sanitary women workers. The women also condemned the growing violent attacks on women in the name of Maoism.
Meeting was also held at Bungoli vill. in Raipur and Jagdalpur under Bastar districts on 8 March.
MARCH 5 – Central TUs’ Jail Bharo/Satyagraha Day
Tamil Nadu: All India Central Council of trade Unions (AICCTU) participated in the All Trade Union protest on March 5 all over the State demanding to rein in the escalating price rise, expansion of PDS, implementation of worker welfare legislations, no disivestment, extending benefits to the unorganized workers without any pre-conditions. Protests took place at 10 centres throughout the State.
In Chennai and Erode over 300 AICCTU workers participated at 6 centres. In Tirunelveli, 100 unorganised workers participated in the road block held at 2 places. In Kanchipuram and Trichy around 50 workers joined the protest.
Chhatisgarh: AICCTU leaders participated in a joint dharna at the Employment chowk of Bhilai Steel Plant. TU leaders from CITU, AITUC, INTUC, HMKP, HMS and BMS participated in the dharna. A memorandum for the PM was handed over to the DC.
From Circular of Central Committee Meeting
(Chittaranjan, 4-6 March 2010)
The Party Central Committee met at Mihijam (Chittaranjan) in Jamtara district of Jharkhand (bordering Bardhaman district of West Bengal) from 4 to 6 March, 2010. The meeting was hosted by comrades of All India Railway Party Committee in cooperation with other concerned comrades of Jharkhand and West Bengal. The deliberations and decisions of the CC meeting are summarized below.
1. Budgets 2010-11: This year, the budget session came in the backdrop of sky-rocketing prices with food inflation being as high as 20%. Even the economic survey identified the price situation as a big worry. Yet the budget has made absolutely no attempt to extend any relief to the common people. Instead, the hike in petrol and diesel and fertilizer prices and the increase in excise duty and service tax will have a cascading effect on prices of most goods and services adding to the back-breaking burden on the common man. The budget claims to have showered benefits on 60% taxpayers – but the threshold level for tax benefits is an annual income of Rs. 400,000. This then is the government’s real definition of aam aadmi and inclusive growth!
Apart from tax sops for the middle and upper-middle class and the corporate sector, this year’s budgets have also delivered a big push towards privatization or greater opportunities for the private sector. While the railways are promoting public-private partnership in a big way, the setting up of Coal Regulatory Authority and the policy of RBI granting banking license to private banks and NBFCs mark a major reversal of the perspective of bank and coal nationalization.
To suit the neo-liberal market-driven model, the tax system is being relentlessly restructured with further dilution of direct taxes (taxes on income and wealth) and greater accent on indirect taxes (taxes on goods and services) which do not distinguish between the rich and the poor.
We must conduct a sustained campaign against price-rise, for greater allocation for agriculture, rural development and social sectors including health, education, housing, employment guarantee schemes and social security measures and reversal of the pro-privatisation measures announced in the budget. Generally speaking, the central slogan for the campaign against price-rise can be: “Check Prices, Give us Jobs – Carry out Land Reforms.” Apart from demanding a roll-back of price hikes, we must intensify struggles for wage increase and on PDS related issues (struggle for inclusion of all poor families in BPL list, for expansion and strict implementation of PDS, against hoarding and black marketeering, and against the corrupt dealer-politician-bureaucrat nexus responsible for PDS loot) as well as for increased procurement prices and subsidies in all our areas of work.
The CC has called for month-long campaign against price-rise and other related issues throughout the month of March culminating in statewide rallies and demonstrations between 23 and 31 March. Assam will hold decentralized demonstrations in district headquarters on March 23 while Jharkhand will organise a state-level mass rally in Ranchi on the same day. Orissa will organize a state-level programme in Bhubaneswar on March 27 and Bihar will have a state-level Jan Adhikar Rally in Patna on March 30. Delhi and Punjab will jointly organize a protest meeting outside Parliament on March 26.
2. Operation Green Hunt: Operation Green Hunt is the centerpiece of a more generalized campaign of larger state offensive against the democratic movement. In many of our areas of work, we are also facing heightened state repression and administrative harassment and even conspiratorial media coverage at times. While organizing appropriate and timely protests in all such cases, we must send fact-finding missions to some key theatres of Operation Green Hunt, Chhattisgarh in particular. While state repression and Maoist retaliation are escalating, the UPA government and Maoists are both talking about talks. We call for immediate cessation of Operation Green Hunt and initiation of talks in a conducive atmosphere.
3. BPL and Food Security: As many as three official reports (Tendulkar Committee Report, NC Saxena Committee Report and Arjun Sengupta Committee report) have rejected the existing Planning Commission estimate of poverty and the artificial ceiling of 28%. We call for automatic inclusion of all agricultural and rural labourers, small and marginal farmers and unorganized workers in the BPL. The UPA government had promised to enact a Right to Food Act which remains unfulfilled even after the second budget of UPA-II. The government’s draft proposal in this regard is extremely inadequate; we must press for a minimum monthly provision of 50 kg foodgrains at Rs. 2 per kg for every BPL household.
4. Ranganath Mishra Commission Report: The UPA Government is sitting over the Ranganath Mishra Commission Report which recommended reservation in education and employment for deprived sections of the Muslim community and for extension of SC recognition to Dalits who have converted to Islam or Christianity. We call upon the government to accept and implement the Ranganath Mishra Commission recommendations without any further delay.
5. Telengana, Second States Reorganisation Commission and Article 244A: Having agreed to the demand for creation of a separate Telengana state, the Congress is now playing a dangerous game of dilly-dallying and dividing the people on this issue. We call upon the UPA government to immediately fulfil its promise of a separate Telengana state, implement Article 244A to grant Autonomus State status to Karbi Anglong and NC Hills districts of Assam and also set up a Second States Reorganisation Commission for a favourable and time-bound disposal of all other pending popular demands of statehood.
6. Centenary of International Women’s Day: This March 8, the International Women’s Day turns 100. AIPWA has already drawn up some year-long plans for the centenary year. The women’s department and education department and the entire Party organization should also get involved in a planned and concerted manner. For the women’s organization, the focus should be on spreading the IWD message (commemorative programmes should preferably be organized in 100 centres across the country) and AIPWA network with special emphasis on working women and girl students, while for the Party the focus should be on developing and promoting women cadres on different levels and fronts.
7. All India Peasant Conference: As directed by the 8th Congress of the Party, the CC has resolved to launch an all-India peasant organization through a national peasants’ conference. The conference will be held in Patna on May 10 (the 1857 anniversary day).
The main slogan for the conference will be “SaveFarmLand, Farming and Farmers – End the Reign of Plunder and Disaster” and “National Peasant Conference for Dignity, Democracy and Development”. The peasant association will inherit and uphold the anti-feudal anti-imperialist legacy of peasant revolts and communist-led peasant movement starting from the colonial period. In particular, the Patna conference will uphold the radical legacy of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati (founder of AIKS in 1936 who had played a pioneering role in the anti-zamindari peasant movement in Bihar) and his vision of worker-peasant solidarity and thwart the ruling class design of using peasants as corporate and feudal pawns and pitting them against agricultural labourers. In the context of today’s agrarian crisis, the peasant association will fight against feudal remnants and growing corporate domination and imperialist intervention and press for implementation of comprehensive land and tenancy reforms, necessary assistance and facilities for poor and middle peasants, and increased public investment in agriculture.
8. Bihar Assembly Election and Patna Rally: A State level rally – named Jan Adhikar rally (People’s Rights Rally) – has been planned in Patna on March 30. It will challenge the official euphoria of Nitish Kumar’s ‘growth miracle’ and Mahadalit rhetoric by highlighting the key issues of land reforms, employment guarantee, agricultural and industrial development, and the actual conditions and aspirations of the rural poor.
9. Panchayat Election in Jharkhand: Jharkhand is the only state where panchayat election has not been held till date. The Supreme Court has recently cleared the way for panchayat elections. We must insist on, and prepare for, early holding of panchayat elections in compliance with the provisions of PESA (Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas) and 50% reservation for women.
AIALA’s Massive Demonstration in TN
From March 5 to 8, All India Agricultural Labourers’ Association (AIALA) organized panchayat level demonstrations in TN demanding inclusion of names in the BPL list, work under MGNREGA, Rs.200 daily wages under MGNREGA and homestead land and patta. In Pudukottai, on March 5, over 1100 rural poor went to the panchayat offices in 3 panchayats and submitted 1200 memoranda. In Tiruvallore on March 5 over 450 participated in a rally and demonstrations held in one panchayat. On March 8 rally and demonstrations were held in 2 panchayats in the same district in which 500 rural poor participated. In Villupuram, on March 8, demonstrations were held in 3 panchayats with 800 rural poor submitting their memorandum to include their name in the BPL list. In Nagai, on March 6, demonstrations were held in two panchayats in which 400 participated. In Tuticorin, around 100 rural poor participated in demonstrations held in 2 panchayats.
Andhra Pradesh: CPI(ML) Khammam District Committee held a protest demonstration at Sathupalli (Khammam district) near APSRTC Bus stand with nearly 100 members and staged Dharna. They submitted a memorandum to the Tahsildar. Raised slogans against the UPA government and its anti-people and anti-workers budget. The demonstration was led by Bandaru Venkateswararao, Secretary of Sathupalli, Dist. Secretary CK Damodar addressed the meeting.
ML Update -13-11 pdf.pdf
ML UPDATE 10 / 2010
MLUpdate
A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine
Vol. 13, No. 10, 02 – 08 MARCH 2010
Budget 2010:
Big Bounties for the Corporate Biggies,
Empty Rhetoric and Soaring Prices for the Aam Aadmi
This budget belongs to the aam aadmi,” said Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his budget speech. But what really is the UPA’s yardstick for the aam aadmi? Pranab Mukherjee has defined the aam aadmi for our benefit. The aam aadmi is not one of those 80 crore Indians living on a daily budget of less than Rs. 20, he is one with an annual taxable income of Rs. 400,000 or more. The 60% tax-payers who were handed out tax benefits in this year’s budget all belong to this bracket. In fact, the ones to get an annual tax reduction of more than Rs. 50,000 belong to the Rs. 800,000-plus club. While direct taxes fell by Rs. 26,000 crore, indirect taxes which do not distinguish between the rich and the poor, rose by Rs. 45,000 crore. An aam aadmi budget indeed!
While the budget has done nothing to check soaring prices, it has done everything to add fuel to the inflationary fire. The hike in petrol and diesel prices coupled with the pre-budget 10% hike in urea prices is sure to trigger a widespread upward push in prices affecting common consumers and small agricultural producers alike. The government has also announced the policy of decontrolling fertilizer prices leaving big fertilizer companies free to fix prices, while the Kirit Parekh panel report on deregulation of fuel prices is very much under consideration. With fertilizer and fuel prices continuing to be pushed upward, food prices too can only go up.
Any serious attempt to tackle the growing problem of food insecurity and food inflation should involve a two-pronged approach – expanding and improving the public distribution system to provide immediate relief to the needy and addressing the structural roots of persistent agrarian crisis. The budget does neither. None of the Finance Minister’s cosmetic measures and ‘bold’ announcements – extension of debt repayment period by six months or talks of promoting green revolution in the eastern states of Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa with a budget of Rs. 400 crore or developing ‘pulses and oilseed villages’ – go beyond the familiar realm of tokenism. While agriculture and peasants continue to get a raw deal, agribusiness and food processing industry have plenty to celebrate.
As usual, the corporate biggies are the biggest beneficiaries of the Finance Minister’s generosity. The amount of revenues foregone – and much of it translate directly into corporate gain – has reached a phenomenal Rs. 500,000 crore. This means a whopping Rs. 57 crore every hour or nearly 1 crore a minute (P Sainath in The Hindu, March 2, 2010)! There is of course much more for the corporate sector in this year’s budgets than these concessions and sops – a clear push towards faster and wider privatization. Public-private Partnership is the keyword in the railway budget and the railway’s “Vision 2020” and the General Budget too has opened major new avenues for the private sector. Disinvestment sale target has been raised to Rs. 40,000 crore, coal sector has been further opened up and most crucially, the RBI has been directed to hand out banking licenses to private players including NBFCs.
The budget makes noisy claims about rural employment, rural reconstruction and social security, but once again the claims find no reflection in allocations. A Social Sector Security Fund has been launched with an outlay of only a paltry Rs. 1,000 crore. The NREGS, now peddled in the name of Mahatma Gandhi, has a modest allocation of only Rs. 40,000 crore, and if the poor are lucky enough to get an Indira Awas sanctioned, the allocation is only Rs. 45,000 in plain areas and Rs. 48,000 in hilly areas (and this includes the mandatory commission deducted by the nexus of panchayat representatives, block officials and sundry middlemen). Contrast this to the relentlessly rising defence outlay which now stands at Rs 147,000 crore and the mother of all allocations – tax exemptions and revenues foregone that add up to Rs. 500,000 crore, and you know how serious the government is about its new-found catchphrases of employment guarantee and social security!
Budget 2010: Promoting Inflation and Putting the Burden on the Aam Aadmi
UPA-II’s Union Budget 2010 does nothing to rein in runaway inflation – rather, it proposes to promote inflation and make sure that the lion’s share of the burden of inflation is disproportionately borne by the poor and working people. Meanwhile, the ‘Sensex salute’ that followed the Budget announcement is a testimonial tribute to the Budget’s policy of promoting privatisation and continuing with generous tax sops to the corporate sector.
While announcing an excise hike of Re 1 per litre of petrol and diesel, the FM also indicated that proposals for steep rice in fuel prices in the Kirit Parekh report on fuel price deregulation will be taken up by Petroleum Minister Murli Deora in due course. The Damocles sword of even sharper rise in prices thus continues to hang over the people.
The budget does nothing to tackle the pressing issue of food inflation either by way of strengthening and expanding the public distribution system or by addressing the structural roots of the persistent and deep agrarian crisis which lies at the heart of food insecurity and food inflation. The Budget makes no move to hike public investment in agriculture or irrigation, or to increase the inflow of rural credit. Apart from some token announcements – such as Rs. 400 crore for ‘green revolution’ in some Eastern Indian states, and some talk of developing ‘climate resilient agriculture’ and developing ‘pulse and oilseed villages,’ or extending the deadline for farm loan repayment by another 6 months, the budget has no initiative on the agrarian front.
The increase in allocation for rural and social sectors is also extremely inadequate. NREGS has got just Rs 40,100 crore. The Indira Awas Yojana scheme's unit cost has been raised only marginally to Rs 45,000 in plain area and Rs 48,500 in hilly areas – while agricultural labourers across the country have long been demanding a minimum grant of Rs 1 lakh for housing. A ‘Social Sector Security Fund’ has been announced – but backed with a meagre allocation of just Rs 1000 crore.
In contrast to the inadequate and token allocations for agricultural investment, rural development and social security, the allocation for defence is a whopping Rs 147,000 crore.
Meanwhile the Budget goes full steam ahead with the agenda of privatisation. The government will raise Rs 25,000 crore from disinvestment of its stake in state-owned firms; banking privatisation is being promoted with RBI to give license to some more private sector players and NBFCs; “a firm view on opening up of the retail sector” has been recommended; and gradual coal sector privatisation is also clearly on the agenda what with the setting up of the Coal Development Regulatory Authority.
A particularly disturbing aspect of the budget lies in the field of tax revenue. Direct tax yield is set to decline by Rs. 26,000 crore (corporate surcharge has been reduced from 10% to 7.5%) while indirect tax revenue is estimated to increase by Rs. 45,000 crore (thanks primarily to an across the board excise hike of 2%). This makes the tax system in India further regressive because the brunt of indirect taxes is always borne disproportionately by the poor and low-income consumers who constitute the overwhelming majority of buyers in Indian markets.
The CPI(ML) calls upon the Finance Minister to withdraw the hike in petrol and diesel and excise duties, expand the public distribution system, provide at least Rs. 10,000 crore for the social security fund, and increase rural and social sector allocations while reducing the defence outlay and increasing corporate tax. The CPI(ML) appeals to the working people and mass organisations of the rural poor and peasants as well as trade unions and student-youth and women's organisations to exert pressure on the government to withdraw inflationary measures and corporate sops and ensure immediate relief for the common people.
Dipankar Bhattacharya
General Secretary, CPI(ML)(Liberation)
Protests against anti-people Union Budget
Delhi: CPI(ML) Delhi State Committee, All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) and the All India Students’ Association (AISA) jointly held a protest demonstration on Parliament Street in New Delhi and burnt an effigy of the UPA Govt. on 3rd March for its inflation stoking budget. The demonstration was addressed by Com. Santosh Rai of AICCTU, Com. Aslam from AISA’s Jamia unit and Com. Sandeep Singh from JNU.
Tamil Nadu: AICCTU, CITU and AITUC jointly held a demonstration on 2nd March in Ambattur Estate. Over 150 workers participated in the demonstration and raised slogans against the UPA government and its anti-people and anti-workers budget. The demonstration was led by Com. Munusami, AICCTU State Council Member. Com. AS Kumar, DGS, AICCTU, Com. Baluchami of CITU and Com. Jagannathan of AITUC spoke in the demonstration.
Uttar Pradesh: State-wide demonstration was held by the CPI(ML) in UP on 27th February to protest the Union Budget and hike in the prices of petrol and diesel. Effigy of the budget was burnt in many towns and cities including Lucknow. Speakers addressing the demonstration in Lucknow accused the UPA Govt. with making no effort worth the name to address the agrarian crisis which is the root cause of food insecurity and spiraling inflation of food prices.
Anti-budget demonstrations were also held in Gorakhpur, Jalaun, Chandauli, Sonbhadra, Mau, Maharajgunj, Balia, Ambedkar Nagar, and Khiri apart from many other places.
People's Long-Suppressed Anger against Crminal-Police Nexus Erupts
The area under Vijaipur police station in Gopalgunj Dist. of Bihar has been witnessing all sorts of crimes perpetrated by locally strong and dominant feudal elements and not only protected but supported by the local police. The arrogance of these elements and the police had reached a level which made them think they could do anything and nothing would happen. They were right in context of the Nitish Kumar’s administration and policing, but they learnt a whole new lesson in people’s justice. People led by CPI(ML) leader Com. Amar Nath Yadav (also an MLA from Darauli in Siwan) showed them that oppressive and intimidating quantum of force lying with the nexus of police and criminals is no match to people’s force when they are united.
Here are just a few recent examples of their crime and blatant arrogance:
=On 10th January Babloo and Mannu Pandey of Parsauni village under this police station badly beat up a 15 year old Suman Sharma and her mother because they were opposing sexual harassment of the teenager by them. Despite FIRs, protest marches, dharna at the District Headquarters and even demand from the District Magistrate the Police did not arrest them.
=Village mukhiya has been controlling the NREGA work and getting it done as per his desires. Police in nexus with hooch mafia Munna Pandey implicated eight Party members in false cases when they tried to stop this illegal control and functioning of NREGA employment.
=Poor villagers somehow earn their livelihood by extracting sand from the Chakhni bank of Gandak river. Munna Pandey began with extorting Rs.60 from these poor labourers per vehicle and increased the mount to Rs.500. Despite extorting such obscene amount, he used to beat them up frequently. He also supplied his toxic hooch to distant places under the police protection and in return the police got Rs.30,000 per month. Munna Pandey’s income could be imagined from the fact that in a year he acquired a SUV and illegal firearms. Meanwhile he has murdered quite a few innocent people.
=Lumpens and feudal elements hanging around his poultry farm on the outskirts of the village would everyday pass lewd comments at the school going girls.
When even after 20 days of the FIR the culprits in Suman Sharma case were not arrested the Party decided to hold a Women’s court on 14th February. Munna Pandey, who also has allegiance to crime’s bigger Satish Pandey gang, tried to attack a preparatory meeting in progress at Gurumia Tola in the village. Next day the Party organised thousands of people and completely razed his illegal liquor business. Not only local Police but even the Sub-Divisional Plice, being the patron of this business rushed to the site (poultry farm) to protect Munna Pandey and his illegal business. The irony is that the police slapped false cases of robbery on 18 Party members despite thousands of assembled people demanding from them to arrest the harassers of Suman Sharma. Next day when 25 Party activists set out for people-to-people contact programme, Munna Pandey’s goons opened fire on them. By the time hundreds of CPI(ML) members organised to beat the goons back, they found that the police force had arrived to save its protégé. Despite repeated demands for their arrest and search of their houses for illegal weapons the police always acted contrarily thus openly demonstrating that Nitish Kumar’s police has fully become protector of criminal elements. The long accumulated anger of peasants and labourers against blatant injustice and daily humiliation gradually reached a point where it erupted in severe thrashing of the entire lot on 6th February with Police Station incharge being the main recipient of people’s justice. His personnel, seeing the severe thrashing fired 14 rounds to intimidate people, which only helped in intensifying people’s anger. Party leaders intervened to appeal to the people to spare the Police officer’s (Ugranath Jha) life. Later huge police force arrived along with senior officers- DM and SP, who were quick to sense people mood. They also had to release Prajapati, who was forcibly and illegally arrested earlier.
The immediate catalyst for this heroic action by the people was a sudden and mindless attack by the police led by Ugranath Jha on the villagers of Parsauni on the morning of 6 February. They spared no one- old, children, women, youth, no one. Everyone was beaten black and blue. To terrorise them the police also took away one Premsagar Prajapati with them to the police camp. Soon the word spread and Party mobilized people (who shed their minor differences among them) from several nearby villages and marched to the Police Camp.
Latest reports are that no liquor business or shops are functioning in the area legal or illegal after the razing of Pandey’s business. The extortion amount at the Gandak’s bank from where sand is extracted has also come to an end. The obstacle (large speed breaker, where the school going girls had to get down from their bicycles and suffer the lewd remarks) constructed in front of the poultry farm has been razed too (by the administration) and the police camp has been removed too from the school.
Police officer Ugranath Jha has been suspended, still Babloo and Munna have not been arrested. Party is preparing for a bigger struggle.
Women’s Court: was held as scheduled on 14th February, addressed by All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA’s) National General Secretary Com. Meena Tiwari, who congratulated the assembled women and people and said that people have already given their verdict on 6th February that whether it be criminals, feudals, rapists, police or the Administration and State Governments supporting them, they would also face the same fate as Ugranath Jha if they continue with their blatantly anti-women, anti-people, anti-peasant, anti-worker attitude. She also urged the people to punish those still at large who harassed teenager Suman Sharma. Other women speaker said that women and people should unite to punish the rapists and harassers if police fail to act. In the end the Jury gave a five-point verdict.
AIPWA’s Reports from Gaya
Recently, the AIPWA successfully launched a campaign for the arrest of a rapist in Gaya Dist. of Bihar. One Lalji Yadav, who is local strong man of Manpur area, raped a 20 year old and pregnant Rinku Devi of Village Goga when she had gone out to collect dry woods and twigs for cooking fuel. The victim is from a mahadalit caste. Under public pressure the police lodged an FIR but deliberately delayed the medical test of the victim to help the accused. The victim lay in wounded condition at the Govt. hospital for many days. The AIPWA and CPI(ML) intervened and pressurized the Administration and Dist. Civil Surgeon for a proper and unbiased medical test. In the past several incidents of massacre and rapes has kept the dalit and mahadalit family in terror of further retaliation by feudal forces if they protest such incidents of rapes. This time AIPWA’s initiatives and fact-finding got wider coverage and AIPWA also declared of SP’s gherao and huge demonstration on 5th February if the rapist was not arrested. The rapist Lalji Yadav surrendered one day before the gherao of the SP. However, the demonstration was held with large participation of women from Goga village. The Mukhiya of Goga village, who is herself from mahadalit family, has also expressed her desire to join the Party, while many mahadalit families in and around Goga village are joining the Party. During all this, the local units of JD(U), BJP, RJD and the congress MLA made attempts to scuttle the whole issue and were pressurizing the police for it. However, AIPWA’s militant initiatives have ensured the rapist was sent to the jail.
In another incident a woman in Gaya who had been abandoned by her husband and forced to live in difficulty away from him was rehabilitated by AIPWA in the man’s house. The man had been pretending to be an unmarried single.
AIPWA VP and PUCL VP Dr. Rati Rao Booked Under Charges of ‘Sedition’ and ‘Spreading Rumour’
Dr E Rati Rao, a senior scientist, long-standing activist of the women’s rights movement, Vice-President of PUCL-Karnataka and Vice President of AIPWA has recently been served with a police notice under IPC Sections 124A and 505, and Sections 14 and 15 of Press & Regulations Act by the Mysore police.
Rati Rao was Editor of an in-house PUCL-Karnataka Kannada language bulletin (called PUCL Varthapatra) for private circulation among PUCL members – and the basis for the notice is apparently the fact that a copy of this bulletin was found by the police during a raid on the home of a suspected ‘Maoist’ a couple of years ago.
Rati Rao has been singled out on a weak pretext because she has been active in exposing the atrocities against Dalits in Chitradurga, in mobilising the rural poor women to demand their rights in Karnataka, and has recently participated in a National Convention against sexual violence and state repression in Raipur.
The charge against Dr. Rati Rao is part of a calculated campaign of harassment of civil liberties and democratic activists and crackdown on dissent that has marked the BJP regime in Karnataka and the ‘Operation Greenhunt’ of the central government. Recently, various human rights activists and groups including PUDR, PUCL, APDR have been named and branded as Maoist front outfits in an FIR against Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police.
The sections under which Dr. Rati Rao has been booked are Section 124 A (Sedition), Section 505 (False statement, rumour, etc., circulated with intent to cause mutiny or cause communal discord) and sections of the Press Act that do not apply to the PUCL bulletin since it was only for in-house circulation. It is ironic that the Karnataka police does not book the Sangh outfits for spreading rumours galore of ‘love jehad’ and ‘forced conversion’ etc to target Muslims and Christians nor for violating the Constitution – while people who have devoted their lives to defending constitutional liberties are accused of sedition and activists seeking to bring facts to light are booked for ‘spreading rumour’!
CPI(ML) condemns the trumped up charges against a respected member of the democratic rights and women’s movement and demands that the charges be immediately withdrawn. CPI(ML) also demands that the names of human rights groups and activists be removed from the FIR against Kobad Ghandy.
CPI(ML)’s State-wide Campaign in Bihar to Expose Nitish’ Mahadalit-mockery
CPI(ML) organised a week long State-wide campaign in Bihar “Nitish Kumar’s anti-Poor Betrayal” from 15-20 February asking the Nitish Govt. to stop the political-drama of Mahadalit and EBC love and fulfill the demands of all the poor and Mahadalits of Bihar. On the last day of the campaign militant demonstrations were held at the block and divisional headquarters throughout the State. Rejecting Nitish Kumar’s false promises and political mockery, on 20 February tens of thousands of Mahadalits and other members of rural poor demonstrated in front of block and subdivisional offices of Bihar. Their slogans were: “Check Prices, Give us Jobs – No Escape from Land Reforms” and “We want Land and Housing – Not Crumbs of Deception but Guaranteed Rights.”
A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine
Vol. 13, No. 10, 02 – 08 MARCH 2010
Budget 2010:
Big Bounties for the Corporate Biggies,
Empty Rhetoric and Soaring Prices for the Aam Aadmi
This budget belongs to the aam aadmi,” said Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his budget speech. But what really is the UPA’s yardstick for the aam aadmi? Pranab Mukherjee has defined the aam aadmi for our benefit. The aam aadmi is not one of those 80 crore Indians living on a daily budget of less than Rs. 20, he is one with an annual taxable income of Rs. 400,000 or more. The 60% tax-payers who were handed out tax benefits in this year’s budget all belong to this bracket. In fact, the ones to get an annual tax reduction of more than Rs. 50,000 belong to the Rs. 800,000-plus club. While direct taxes fell by Rs. 26,000 crore, indirect taxes which do not distinguish between the rich and the poor, rose by Rs. 45,000 crore. An aam aadmi budget indeed!
While the budget has done nothing to check soaring prices, it has done everything to add fuel to the inflationary fire. The hike in petrol and diesel prices coupled with the pre-budget 10% hike in urea prices is sure to trigger a widespread upward push in prices affecting common consumers and small agricultural producers alike. The government has also announced the policy of decontrolling fertilizer prices leaving big fertilizer companies free to fix prices, while the Kirit Parekh panel report on deregulation of fuel prices is very much under consideration. With fertilizer and fuel prices continuing to be pushed upward, food prices too can only go up.
Any serious attempt to tackle the growing problem of food insecurity and food inflation should involve a two-pronged approach – expanding and improving the public distribution system to provide immediate relief to the needy and addressing the structural roots of persistent agrarian crisis. The budget does neither. None of the Finance Minister’s cosmetic measures and ‘bold’ announcements – extension of debt repayment period by six months or talks of promoting green revolution in the eastern states of Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa with a budget of Rs. 400 crore or developing ‘pulses and oilseed villages’ – go beyond the familiar realm of tokenism. While agriculture and peasants continue to get a raw deal, agribusiness and food processing industry have plenty to celebrate.
As usual, the corporate biggies are the biggest beneficiaries of the Finance Minister’s generosity. The amount of revenues foregone – and much of it translate directly into corporate gain – has reached a phenomenal Rs. 500,000 crore. This means a whopping Rs. 57 crore every hour or nearly 1 crore a minute (P Sainath in The Hindu, March 2, 2010)! There is of course much more for the corporate sector in this year’s budgets than these concessions and sops – a clear push towards faster and wider privatization. Public-private Partnership is the keyword in the railway budget and the railway’s “Vision 2020” and the General Budget too has opened major new avenues for the private sector. Disinvestment sale target has been raised to Rs. 40,000 crore, coal sector has been further opened up and most crucially, the RBI has been directed to hand out banking licenses to private players including NBFCs.
The budget makes noisy claims about rural employment, rural reconstruction and social security, but once again the claims find no reflection in allocations. A Social Sector Security Fund has been launched with an outlay of only a paltry Rs. 1,000 crore. The NREGS, now peddled in the name of Mahatma Gandhi, has a modest allocation of only Rs. 40,000 crore, and if the poor are lucky enough to get an Indira Awas sanctioned, the allocation is only Rs. 45,000 in plain areas and Rs. 48,000 in hilly areas (and this includes the mandatory commission deducted by the nexus of panchayat representatives, block officials and sundry middlemen). Contrast this to the relentlessly rising defence outlay which now stands at Rs 147,000 crore and the mother of all allocations – tax exemptions and revenues foregone that add up to Rs. 500,000 crore, and you know how serious the government is about its new-found catchphrases of employment guarantee and social security!
Budget 2010: Promoting Inflation and Putting the Burden on the Aam Aadmi
UPA-II’s Union Budget 2010 does nothing to rein in runaway inflation – rather, it proposes to promote inflation and make sure that the lion’s share of the burden of inflation is disproportionately borne by the poor and working people. Meanwhile, the ‘Sensex salute’ that followed the Budget announcement is a testimonial tribute to the Budget’s policy of promoting privatisation and continuing with generous tax sops to the corporate sector.
While announcing an excise hike of Re 1 per litre of petrol and diesel, the FM also indicated that proposals for steep rice in fuel prices in the Kirit Parekh report on fuel price deregulation will be taken up by Petroleum Minister Murli Deora in due course. The Damocles sword of even sharper rise in prices thus continues to hang over the people.
The budget does nothing to tackle the pressing issue of food inflation either by way of strengthening and expanding the public distribution system or by addressing the structural roots of the persistent and deep agrarian crisis which lies at the heart of food insecurity and food inflation. The Budget makes no move to hike public investment in agriculture or irrigation, or to increase the inflow of rural credit. Apart from some token announcements – such as Rs. 400 crore for ‘green revolution’ in some Eastern Indian states, and some talk of developing ‘climate resilient agriculture’ and developing ‘pulse and oilseed villages,’ or extending the deadline for farm loan repayment by another 6 months, the budget has no initiative on the agrarian front.
The increase in allocation for rural and social sectors is also extremely inadequate. NREGS has got just Rs 40,100 crore. The Indira Awas Yojana scheme's unit cost has been raised only marginally to Rs 45,000 in plain area and Rs 48,500 in hilly areas – while agricultural labourers across the country have long been demanding a minimum grant of Rs 1 lakh for housing. A ‘Social Sector Security Fund’ has been announced – but backed with a meagre allocation of just Rs 1000 crore.
In contrast to the inadequate and token allocations for agricultural investment, rural development and social security, the allocation for defence is a whopping Rs 147,000 crore.
Meanwhile the Budget goes full steam ahead with the agenda of privatisation. The government will raise Rs 25,000 crore from disinvestment of its stake in state-owned firms; banking privatisation is being promoted with RBI to give license to some more private sector players and NBFCs; “a firm view on opening up of the retail sector” has been recommended; and gradual coal sector privatisation is also clearly on the agenda what with the setting up of the Coal Development Regulatory Authority.
A particularly disturbing aspect of the budget lies in the field of tax revenue. Direct tax yield is set to decline by Rs. 26,000 crore (corporate surcharge has been reduced from 10% to 7.5%) while indirect tax revenue is estimated to increase by Rs. 45,000 crore (thanks primarily to an across the board excise hike of 2%). This makes the tax system in India further regressive because the brunt of indirect taxes is always borne disproportionately by the poor and low-income consumers who constitute the overwhelming majority of buyers in Indian markets.
The CPI(ML) calls upon the Finance Minister to withdraw the hike in petrol and diesel and excise duties, expand the public distribution system, provide at least Rs. 10,000 crore for the social security fund, and increase rural and social sector allocations while reducing the defence outlay and increasing corporate tax. The CPI(ML) appeals to the working people and mass organisations of the rural poor and peasants as well as trade unions and student-youth and women's organisations to exert pressure on the government to withdraw inflationary measures and corporate sops and ensure immediate relief for the common people.
Dipankar Bhattacharya
General Secretary, CPI(ML)(Liberation)
Protests against anti-people Union Budget
Delhi: CPI(ML) Delhi State Committee, All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) and the All India Students’ Association (AISA) jointly held a protest demonstration on Parliament Street in New Delhi and burnt an effigy of the UPA Govt. on 3rd March for its inflation stoking budget. The demonstration was addressed by Com. Santosh Rai of AICCTU, Com. Aslam from AISA’s Jamia unit and Com. Sandeep Singh from JNU.
Tamil Nadu: AICCTU, CITU and AITUC jointly held a demonstration on 2nd March in Ambattur Estate. Over 150 workers participated in the demonstration and raised slogans against the UPA government and its anti-people and anti-workers budget. The demonstration was led by Com. Munusami, AICCTU State Council Member. Com. AS Kumar, DGS, AICCTU, Com. Baluchami of CITU and Com. Jagannathan of AITUC spoke in the demonstration.
Uttar Pradesh: State-wide demonstration was held by the CPI(ML) in UP on 27th February to protest the Union Budget and hike in the prices of petrol and diesel. Effigy of the budget was burnt in many towns and cities including Lucknow. Speakers addressing the demonstration in Lucknow accused the UPA Govt. with making no effort worth the name to address the agrarian crisis which is the root cause of food insecurity and spiraling inflation of food prices.
Anti-budget demonstrations were also held in Gorakhpur, Jalaun, Chandauli, Sonbhadra, Mau, Maharajgunj, Balia, Ambedkar Nagar, and Khiri apart from many other places.
People's Long-Suppressed Anger against Crminal-Police Nexus Erupts
The area under Vijaipur police station in Gopalgunj Dist. of Bihar has been witnessing all sorts of crimes perpetrated by locally strong and dominant feudal elements and not only protected but supported by the local police. The arrogance of these elements and the police had reached a level which made them think they could do anything and nothing would happen. They were right in context of the Nitish Kumar’s administration and policing, but they learnt a whole new lesson in people’s justice. People led by CPI(ML) leader Com. Amar Nath Yadav (also an MLA from Darauli in Siwan) showed them that oppressive and intimidating quantum of force lying with the nexus of police and criminals is no match to people’s force when they are united.
Here are just a few recent examples of their crime and blatant arrogance:
=On 10th January Babloo and Mannu Pandey of Parsauni village under this police station badly beat up a 15 year old Suman Sharma and her mother because they were opposing sexual harassment of the teenager by them. Despite FIRs, protest marches, dharna at the District Headquarters and even demand from the District Magistrate the Police did not arrest them.
=Village mukhiya has been controlling the NREGA work and getting it done as per his desires. Police in nexus with hooch mafia Munna Pandey implicated eight Party members in false cases when they tried to stop this illegal control and functioning of NREGA employment.
=Poor villagers somehow earn their livelihood by extracting sand from the Chakhni bank of Gandak river. Munna Pandey began with extorting Rs.60 from these poor labourers per vehicle and increased the mount to Rs.500. Despite extorting such obscene amount, he used to beat them up frequently. He also supplied his toxic hooch to distant places under the police protection and in return the police got Rs.30,000 per month. Munna Pandey’s income could be imagined from the fact that in a year he acquired a SUV and illegal firearms. Meanwhile he has murdered quite a few innocent people.
=Lumpens and feudal elements hanging around his poultry farm on the outskirts of the village would everyday pass lewd comments at the school going girls.
When even after 20 days of the FIR the culprits in Suman Sharma case were not arrested the Party decided to hold a Women’s court on 14th February. Munna Pandey, who also has allegiance to crime’s bigger Satish Pandey gang, tried to attack a preparatory meeting in progress at Gurumia Tola in the village. Next day the Party organised thousands of people and completely razed his illegal liquor business. Not only local Police but even the Sub-Divisional Plice, being the patron of this business rushed to the site (poultry farm) to protect Munna Pandey and his illegal business. The irony is that the police slapped false cases of robbery on 18 Party members despite thousands of assembled people demanding from them to arrest the harassers of Suman Sharma. Next day when 25 Party activists set out for people-to-people contact programme, Munna Pandey’s goons opened fire on them. By the time hundreds of CPI(ML) members organised to beat the goons back, they found that the police force had arrived to save its protégé. Despite repeated demands for their arrest and search of their houses for illegal weapons the police always acted contrarily thus openly demonstrating that Nitish Kumar’s police has fully become protector of criminal elements. The long accumulated anger of peasants and labourers against blatant injustice and daily humiliation gradually reached a point where it erupted in severe thrashing of the entire lot on 6th February with Police Station incharge being the main recipient of people’s justice. His personnel, seeing the severe thrashing fired 14 rounds to intimidate people, which only helped in intensifying people’s anger. Party leaders intervened to appeal to the people to spare the Police officer’s (Ugranath Jha) life. Later huge police force arrived along with senior officers- DM and SP, who were quick to sense people mood. They also had to release Prajapati, who was forcibly and illegally arrested earlier.
The immediate catalyst for this heroic action by the people was a sudden and mindless attack by the police led by Ugranath Jha on the villagers of Parsauni on the morning of 6 February. They spared no one- old, children, women, youth, no one. Everyone was beaten black and blue. To terrorise them the police also took away one Premsagar Prajapati with them to the police camp. Soon the word spread and Party mobilized people (who shed their minor differences among them) from several nearby villages and marched to the Police Camp.
Latest reports are that no liquor business or shops are functioning in the area legal or illegal after the razing of Pandey’s business. The extortion amount at the Gandak’s bank from where sand is extracted has also come to an end. The obstacle (large speed breaker, where the school going girls had to get down from their bicycles and suffer the lewd remarks) constructed in front of the poultry farm has been razed too (by the administration) and the police camp has been removed too from the school.
Police officer Ugranath Jha has been suspended, still Babloo and Munna have not been arrested. Party is preparing for a bigger struggle.
Women’s Court: was held as scheduled on 14th February, addressed by All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA’s) National General Secretary Com. Meena Tiwari, who congratulated the assembled women and people and said that people have already given their verdict on 6th February that whether it be criminals, feudals, rapists, police or the Administration and State Governments supporting them, they would also face the same fate as Ugranath Jha if they continue with their blatantly anti-women, anti-people, anti-peasant, anti-worker attitude. She also urged the people to punish those still at large who harassed teenager Suman Sharma. Other women speaker said that women and people should unite to punish the rapists and harassers if police fail to act. In the end the Jury gave a five-point verdict.
AIPWA’s Reports from Gaya
Recently, the AIPWA successfully launched a campaign for the arrest of a rapist in Gaya Dist. of Bihar. One Lalji Yadav, who is local strong man of Manpur area, raped a 20 year old and pregnant Rinku Devi of Village Goga when she had gone out to collect dry woods and twigs for cooking fuel. The victim is from a mahadalit caste. Under public pressure the police lodged an FIR but deliberately delayed the medical test of the victim to help the accused. The victim lay in wounded condition at the Govt. hospital for many days. The AIPWA and CPI(ML) intervened and pressurized the Administration and Dist. Civil Surgeon for a proper and unbiased medical test. In the past several incidents of massacre and rapes has kept the dalit and mahadalit family in terror of further retaliation by feudal forces if they protest such incidents of rapes. This time AIPWA’s initiatives and fact-finding got wider coverage and AIPWA also declared of SP’s gherao and huge demonstration on 5th February if the rapist was not arrested. The rapist Lalji Yadav surrendered one day before the gherao of the SP. However, the demonstration was held with large participation of women from Goga village. The Mukhiya of Goga village, who is herself from mahadalit family, has also expressed her desire to join the Party, while many mahadalit families in and around Goga village are joining the Party. During all this, the local units of JD(U), BJP, RJD and the congress MLA made attempts to scuttle the whole issue and were pressurizing the police for it. However, AIPWA’s militant initiatives have ensured the rapist was sent to the jail.
In another incident a woman in Gaya who had been abandoned by her husband and forced to live in difficulty away from him was rehabilitated by AIPWA in the man’s house. The man had been pretending to be an unmarried single.
AIPWA VP and PUCL VP Dr. Rati Rao Booked Under Charges of ‘Sedition’ and ‘Spreading Rumour’
Dr E Rati Rao, a senior scientist, long-standing activist of the women’s rights movement, Vice-President of PUCL-Karnataka and Vice President of AIPWA has recently been served with a police notice under IPC Sections 124A and 505, and Sections 14 and 15 of Press & Regulations Act by the Mysore police.
Rati Rao was Editor of an in-house PUCL-Karnataka Kannada language bulletin (called PUCL Varthapatra) for private circulation among PUCL members – and the basis for the notice is apparently the fact that a copy of this bulletin was found by the police during a raid on the home of a suspected ‘Maoist’ a couple of years ago.
Rati Rao has been singled out on a weak pretext because she has been active in exposing the atrocities against Dalits in Chitradurga, in mobilising the rural poor women to demand their rights in Karnataka, and has recently participated in a National Convention against sexual violence and state repression in Raipur.
The charge against Dr. Rati Rao is part of a calculated campaign of harassment of civil liberties and democratic activists and crackdown on dissent that has marked the BJP regime in Karnataka and the ‘Operation Greenhunt’ of the central government. Recently, various human rights activists and groups including PUDR, PUCL, APDR have been named and branded as Maoist front outfits in an FIR against Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police.
The sections under which Dr. Rati Rao has been booked are Section 124 A (Sedition), Section 505 (False statement, rumour, etc., circulated with intent to cause mutiny or cause communal discord) and sections of the Press Act that do not apply to the PUCL bulletin since it was only for in-house circulation. It is ironic that the Karnataka police does not book the Sangh outfits for spreading rumours galore of ‘love jehad’ and ‘forced conversion’ etc to target Muslims and Christians nor for violating the Constitution – while people who have devoted their lives to defending constitutional liberties are accused of sedition and activists seeking to bring facts to light are booked for ‘spreading rumour’!
CPI(ML) condemns the trumped up charges against a respected member of the democratic rights and women’s movement and demands that the charges be immediately withdrawn. CPI(ML) also demands that the names of human rights groups and activists be removed from the FIR against Kobad Ghandy.
CPI(ML)’s State-wide Campaign in Bihar to Expose Nitish’ Mahadalit-mockery
CPI(ML) organised a week long State-wide campaign in Bihar “Nitish Kumar’s anti-Poor Betrayal” from 15-20 February asking the Nitish Govt. to stop the political-drama of Mahadalit and EBC love and fulfill the demands of all the poor and Mahadalits of Bihar. On the last day of the campaign militant demonstrations were held at the block and divisional headquarters throughout the State. Rejecting Nitish Kumar’s false promises and political mockery, on 20 February tens of thousands of Mahadalits and other members of rural poor demonstrated in front of block and subdivisional offices of Bihar. Their slogans were: “Check Prices, Give us Jobs – No Escape from Land Reforms” and “We want Land and Housing – Not Crumbs of Deception but Guaranteed Rights.”
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