Financial Bankruptcies Rock the US, Bombs and Communal Violence Rock India
Seven years after 9/11, fear of a different kind seems to have gripped
the US. Riding on a spate of mega bankruptcies, a huge dark shadow has
resurfaced in the US, reminding the whole world of the Great
Depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s. When flagship American
financial giants tumble like ninepins and the state has to bail out
companies that claimed to ’insure’ people against risks of every kind,
it is not difficult to see why the fear of 1929 should once again
spread like a contagion.
If the fear that pervades the American system appears familiar, no
less so are the ways the system tries to overcome the fear and
’reassure’ itself. Mega bankruptcies have triggered massive bailout
packages, forcing the state to shelve its ’free market’ doctrine and
nationalise the huge losses left in its wake by the deflating
financial bubble. The bankruptcies have exposed the bluff daily dished
out by the proponents of privatisation who equate privatisation with
efficiency, and the bailout packages have once again made it clear how
capitalism cannot survive without heavy periodic doses of state
intervention. Globalisation has made no difference to the classic
capitalist principle of privatisation of profit and nationalisation of
loss.
We must also remember the other classic fact about US imperialism.
Every time the vulnerability of the American system gets exposed, the
system responds with its tested and trusted policy of systematic
economic and military aggression to export its crisis to other parts
of the world. The excuses have ranged from ’free trade’ and
’development’ to ’democracy’ and a ’terror-free world’; but the
pattern has been the same – a combination of war, hot and cold, and
relentless economic expansion. Even as financial chaos spreads like
wildfire in the US market, Venezuela and Bolivia are having to cope
with renewed US-inspired coup attempts, the ’war on terror’ has
spilled over from Afghanistan into Pakistan and in Georgia the US is
seeking a new base to encircle Russia and target Iran.
Any crisis faced by the US these days has a louder resonance in India
too, for the Indian ruling classes have pushed the country into a
tight strategic embrace with the crisis-ridden superpower. Every time
Wall Street sneezes, Dalal Street in ’aamchi Mumbai’ promptly catches
the contagious cold. The Sensex takes a nosedive, wiping out billions
of rupees in a few seconds even as prices of almost all essential
commodities soar through the roof. The powers that be ask us to
celebrate the crisis imported straight from America and promise
redemption through an ever more comprehensive strategic partnership
between New Delhi and Washington. And even as the US continually
twists our arms over the nuclear deal, bombs explode at regular
intervals all over urban India to warn us that we are fast turning
into a typical outpost of the US ’empire of terror’.
If the neo-liberal economic policies exposed the entire Indian economy
to systematic American penetration, the nuclear deal and the ’war on
terror’ now threaten to invite increasing American ’involvement’ in
India’s domestic affairs. Meanwhile, in the wake of the recent blasts
in Delhi, the BJP has renewed its clamour for re-enactment of POTA and
the Congress, while ruling out the return of POTA, has promised
tougher anti-terror laws. Beyond the domain of legislation, the
competitive anti-terrorist rhetoric of the Congress and the BJP
continues to fuel anti-Muslim prejudices across the country. The Sangh
brigade is using this environment to the hilt to refuel its communal
fascist agenda and anti-minority campaign. The Sangh’s campaign of
anti-Chirstian violence has already spread from Orissa to Chhattisgarh
and Karnataka, and in UP, Sangh outfits are working overtime to whip
up anti-Muslim communal frenzy. They are even physically preventing
lawyers in UP from taking up cases of Muslims who have been charged
with perpetrating or abetting any terrorist activity.
In the name of tackling terrorism, the US has imposed a global war on
the world. Similarly, in India, the Sangh brigade has been using
anti-terrorist rhetoric to intensify its campaign of communal fascist
violence. Nothing could pose a bigger threat to India than a
combination or convergence of these two ominous trends under the
patronage of the state and the ruling classes.
Peasants Up Against Another Singur-Type Plot In Bengal
(Report by WB Secretary Partha Ghosh, of a CPI(ML) Delegation’s visit
to Koshigram)
Deposing at a public hearing regarding the state-owned West Bengal
Power Development Corporation Limited WBPDCL’s 1000 megawatt (2 x 500
MW) power project at Koshigram village under Katwa sub-division in
Burdwan district, 403 peasants have till date recorded their position.
A five-member CPI(ML) Liberation team comprising Comrades Kartick Pal,
Biman Biswas,Meena Pal, Sajal Pal and myself, along with Comrade Ashok
Chowdhury, a district level leader of the party, visited the village
which would be worst affected if the project takes shape, and met with
the functionaries of Krishi Jami Krishak o Khetnajur Bachao Committee
(Save Agricultural Land, Peasants and Agricultural Labourers’
Committee – KJKKBC). Even the day we were there over 60 persons
deposed before the public hearing and all but two spoke against the
undemocratic acquisition.
When the project implementation took off in August 2005, the WBPDCL
acquired 650 but now the area, forcibly acquired, has increased to
1030 acres in nine mouzas of not only this village but others under
the police station of Mongolkot and Ketugram. The entire region is a
fertile multi-crop tract. Apart from three DVC canals, there are nine
deep tubewells, 200 submersible pumps and four river lift irrigation
arrangements – a distinct impress of a flourishing farming area.
The resentment has been growing since 2005. In the recent panchayat
elections, the CPI(M) was completely routed here, with all the six
panchayat seats were won by the Congress. Our conversation with the
villagers reveals that the winning candidates primarily belong to the
KJKKBC rather than the Congress. The Trinamool Congress has very
feeble presence there, if at all.
We organized a meeting which was attended by about 500 people. Apart
from Comrade Kartick Pal and myself, Tapan Ghosh spoke on behalf of
KJKKBC while its secretary Rabindranath Rai took the chair. People
came from other villages like Shrikhanda, Bonkapasi, Sitahati, Ban
Nagra and Bagdola – all facing eviction threat. Attendance of women in
large numbers was notable.
The consensus at the meeting was that there were far less costly
alternatives to the WBPDCL’s land grab policy, ostensibly for
augmenting power production to meet growing demand for electricity.
Raj Bhawan March
Two thousand people had held a march in Kamarkundu on 10th September
demanding alternative land and livelihood for the victimised peasants
and bargadars. A compensation of a minimum of one lakh rupees as
rehabilitation cost along with alternative means of livelihood for the
displaced agricultural labourers was also demanded. CPI(ML) also
demanded that the deal between the West Bengal state government and
Tata Motors be made public. The protesters had also criticised the
fact that the CPI(M) is even ignoring the latest talks between
government and opposition, which were mediated by the Governor, for
the sake of absolute benefit of Tata. Immediate punishment for the
killers of Tapasi Mallick and Rajkumar Bhul was also demanded. On
September 19, the West Bengal State Committee of CPI(ML) held a March
to the Raj Bhawan, reiterating the above-mentioned demands. A
procession, which was joined by scores of people from Singur, marched
from College Square to Esplanade where a public meeting was held. The
meeting was addressed by CPI(ML) leaders. Subsequently, a delegation
comprising of Partho Ghosh, State Secretary, Kartick Pal, PBM, Sajal
Adhikary, SCM, Shyamapada Dhara, an agricultural labourer from Singur
and Tarapada Kole, an unregistered sharecropper from Singur, met the
Governor and submitted a memorandum. Shyamapada Dhara and Tarapada
Kole told the Governor about the miserable conditions in which they
led their lives after land was acquired for the Tata Motors plant. The
delegation urged the Governor to visit Singur and examine first-hand
the condition of the affected people. The delegation also demanded
that work under NREGA be started at Singur and urged the Governor to
clarify the stand of the state government with regard to the September
7 agreement since it was signed in his presence. The Governor assured
the delegation that all demands would be conveyed to the state
government and he would sincerely consider visiting Singur.
Floods in Assam and Orissa: Same Story of Negligence and Devastation
Assam faced its usual yearly bout of severe floods, while Orissa is
facing a unprecedented flood fury that is threatening to break the
record of the Kosi floods in Bihar. In these cases, too, however, the
catastrophe is less natural and more man-made–specifically, made by
negligent Governments.
An NDTV report (September 03, 2008) observed about Assam that "the
misery this time is entirely manmade. At Kendukona in lower Assam,
embankments constructed in 2008, have already given away... While
predicting a natural disaster may still be difficult under Indian
conditions, there is no reason why a work of civil construction like
an embankment constructed as early as April should give away."
At Orissa, where embankments on the Mahanadi have given way at 61
places, it is a man-made tragedy. Analysing weekly data released by
the Central Water Commission, and daily data from the Orissa
government about water flow in the Mahanadi river and reservoir levels
in the Hirakud dam, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, an
NGO, has pointed to a total disconnect between information and action
by the government. It has highlighted how despite having a flood
control cushion, apathy in operating the dam—filling up the reservoir
to full capacity before the end of the monsoon, in violation of an
official expert committee recommendation—has led to an avoidable flood
disaster. As Orissa confronts the enormously destructive floods,
CPI(ML) will do all it can to aid the relief efforts, and will also
demand accountability about the role of Government negligence in
causing the floods.
Three Days Among the Flood-Affected
(As recounted by activists of AIPWA and AISA who visited the affected areas)
A 17-member team of AIPWA and AISA activists, led by Shashi Yadav,
National Secretary of AIPWA, Sangeeta Singh, National Council member
of AIPWA, and AISA National Vice President Abhyuday, left for Purnea
from Patna. Travelling in the jam-packed general bogey of the Capital
Express, we reached Katihar, and from there to Purnea.
At Purnea, AIPWA leaders Shashi Yadav and Sangeeta Singh along with
Madhavi Sarkar were let in the Government mega shivir (mega camp),
thanks to Madhavi Sarkar’s identity of being the slain MLA Comrade
Ajit Sarkar’s wife. But the officials prevented other members of the
team from entering, claiming that the entry of ’outsiders’ was
prohibited. When the DM was contacted on phone, he said ’visiting
hours’ were from 8-10 am only– as though the place were not a relief
camp but a jail or a hospital! We found that flood victims from all
over have come to the relief camp but are not being given room in the
camp. Officials are making announcements on mikes, telling people to
return home since the waters have receded.
We met around 50-60 people, many of them women and children, waiting
outside the camp. One youth among them said there was nothing to eat
in their village and they had somehow managed to reach the mega camp,
but here too they were being chased away. When we along with the local
CPI(ML) leaders took up the issue, some of them got registration in
the mega shivir.
At the mega shivir, we found that there were no special arrangements
for women and children. Women told us that when they went to the camp
doctors for their own and their children’s treatment, they were
scolded and told, "Just because you see a doctor doesn’t mean you have
to concoct an illness."
When a large number of flood victims including many women and children
from the Bela Refugee Colony, post Basmatiya Bazaar, in Araria
district, tried to enter the Purnea Maranga mega shivir, they were
stopped at the gates and spent two days on the streets, depending on
the charity of local people. We spoke to Dilip Chandra Das, Kajoli
Das, Vibhendra Chandra Das, and Dayal Varma from among these people
and heard that eventually tired of being hungry, they broke the bamboo
barricades and entered the mega camp, but were beaten up and thrown
out by police and officials. We took up their case with the DDC, who
told us that these people were from Araria and so we cannot provide
for them. We insisted that now that these people are here, and in dire
need of help, the officials cannot refuse to feed them on any
bureaucratic pretext. As this stand-off continued, JD(U) leader and
Chairperson of the State Women’s Commission, Lacy Singh along with
another JD(U) goon Babbu Jha came up and began abusing and threatening
us. They boasted that they could get us lathicharged or even shot at,
and in fact Babbu Jha even boasted that he was the biggest local
goonda. These abusive threats to flood victims and flood relief
activists by representatives of the ruling party were captured on
videotape by students. We stood our ground and challenged the police
to do whatever lathicharge or firing they liked–we would not budge as
long as there were hungry flood victims who were being denied relief.
Eventually the DM intervened and ordered the administration to feed
those people. But we heard that later, after we left, those people
were once again chased away.
At Purnea, we met Sunita from Forbesganj whose foetus died in the womb
itself due to negligence of doctors at Sadar Hospital. Yet, the
hospital refused to perform the operation to clean out her womb.
Writhing in pain she was taken to a private nursing home, where the
foetus was removed and the woman’s life saved. The Government has
announced relief of Rs. 10, 000 to anyone giving birth to a child
(Rs.11,000 in case of a girl child) – had this amount been given to
Sunita, she could have paid off her hospital bills. As it is, the
hospital refused to let her leave till she paid her bills. So having
lost her home and also her child, a traumatised Sunita was further
forced to face the callousness of both the Government and the private
health system. She could leave the hospital only when local people
came together to collect funds, even in a time of their own
misfortune, and helped her to pay off the bills. Many other women and
children have needlessly died due to lack of medical care.
Next, we left for Murliganj, which entailed an 8-hour-long journey by
train, tempo, on foot and by boats, accompanied by Com.Bharat Bhushan.
The people we met there told us we were the only team to have come to
check on their fate. They warmly recalled the role of Bharat Bhushan
and other party comrades in the first days of flooding. We heard many
narratives of people’s courage in helping each other to survive the
flood. People used electricity wires to get 60 people across the
flooded water to safety. They said no Government aid or relief had
reached them – not even food, though foodgrains are rotting in the FCI
godown nearby.
We met Ashok Mandal of Murliganj who told us that around 50 people of
two wards of Jorgama panchayat are missing. There is no provision of
medical care though diarrhoea cases abound. Mahendra Bharti, a CPI
comrade who is a member of the Zila Parishad too met us and warmly
appreciated the role of our party comrades in the rescue and relief
work. He too said we would now have to wage struggles for
rehabilitation of people – the Government machinery was going to
remain as callous as ever.
CPI(ML)’s Lucknow Convention
On September 17, a State-level Cadre Convention was held at Lucknow on
’The Present Situation and Our Tasks’. The Convention was attended by
some 300 district- and block-level Party activists and key organizers
on different mass fronts. It was inaugurated by Politburo member and
UP incharge Ramji Rai, following which State Secretary Sudhakar Yadav
placed a comprehensive action plan to make the forthcoming 3rd
national Conference of AIALA scheduled to be held at Ballia on 7-8
November a resounding success. Representatives of different district
units and mass fronts endorsed the action plan and resolved to use the
occasion to galvanise the entire mass base of the Party and reach out
to agricultural labourers and poor and middle peasants in large
numbers in a monthlong statewide Mazdur-Kisan Adhikar Abhiyan
(campaign for worker-peasant rights).
The campaign will focus on the pressing demands of the rural poor and
the aggrieved peasantry concerning NREGA, BPL, land and forest rights,
opposition to state-sponsored corporate land-grab, loan waiver for
peasants and payment of sugarcane dues and the larger issues of
communalism and suppression of democracy. The month-long campaign will
culminate in a big worker-peasant rally in Ballia on November 7
preceding the actual proceedings of the conference. Party General
Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya delivered the concluding address at
the convention and called upon the entire Party organization in the
state to rise to the occasion and take the Party’s work on the
agricultural labour and peasant front as the key to expanding and
asserting the party’s political role in the state.
The convention was presided over by a five-member presidium comprising
CCM and AIALA National Secretary Krishna Adhikari, UP Kisan Sabha
Convenor Ishwari Prasad Kushwaha, AIALA State Secretary Sriram
Choudhury and Party State Committee members Sunil Yadav and Ram
Darash.
AICCTU Dharna in Lucknow
The Uttar Pradesh State Unit of the All India Central Council of Trade
Unions (AICCTU) held a Dharna in front of the State Assembly on
September 22 against the Mayawati Government’s anti worker,
anti-peasant policies. The dharna was addressed by AICCTU General
Secretary Swapan Mukherjee among others. He lambasted the State
Government saying those very Dalits and working poor who brought her
to power have been and are being betrayed by this Government. Labour
laws have been bulldozed and nowhere is the minimum wage act being
honoured. Recently the Pay Commission said that no family can survive
on wage of less than Rs.200/-, and in keeping with this fact the UP
Government must fix the legal minimum wage at Rs.200/-. This urgent
step is not being taken by the rulers anywhere in the country and this
is just taking many lives of poor people and workers-peasants. The
AICCTU General Secretary called for supporting the Kisan-Mazdoor
Adhikar Abhiyan to be launched by CPI(ML) in October, a campaign which
would culminate in the massive Kisan-Mazdoor Rally at Balia on
November 7 2008. The dharna was also addressed by AICCTU State
President Hari Singh, State Secretary Anil Verma, Com.Raghunath Prasad
of Building Workers’ Union, State leader Com. Babulal, M.Valmiki of
Kanpur Jan Sansthan Karmachari Sangha, Comrades Rampravesh Yadav,
Anjani Chaturvedi and Netram. Comrade Swapan also addressed the State
level dharna of Gram Rozgar Sewaks (Village Employment Volunteers). A
13-point demand letter was sent to the Governor through the City
Magistrate.
AIALA’s Initiatives in the South
KARNATAKA: A convention on "Rights of Livelihood of Agrarian
Labourers" was held at Gangavati, one of the backward taluks of
Northern Karnataka region. The Convention was preceded by an
impressive rally of hundreds of activists wearing symbolic red shawls.
The convention highlighted the real issues of agrarian labour in the
state where the ’Red Shawl’ Movement of agrarian labourers was gaining
ground against the hitherto dominant ’Green Shawls’ Movement led by
rich farmers and kulaks represented by Raitha Sanghas. AIALA is
possibly the only organization in the State that is trying to give a
shape to the aspirations of agrarian labourers, small and marginal
peasants as a class while almost all other organizations are only
exploiting this most oppressed class.
Comrade Swadesh Bhattacharya called upon agrarian labourers to give a
fitting reply to the anti-farmer, anti-poor BJP government in the
state and pointed out the failure of ’secularism’ of the JD(S) and
Congress variety that failed to check the growth of communal forces in
the state. He also criticized the growing domination of mining and
real estate mafia in state politics, particularly in the BJP
government.
Comrade Ramappa, state secretary of CPI(ML) called upon agrarian
labourers to recreate the anti-imperialist tradition of Kittur Rani
Chennamma and Sangoli Rayan against the growing stranglehold of
multinational and corporate houses in agriculture in the state. He
also urged them to develop a new wave of Left movement of agrarian
labourers in the state against the compromises of Raitha Sanghas and
opportunist politics in the state. Comrade Bharadwaj presided over the
convention.
The subsequent Cadre Meeting was very lively and encouraging. The kind
of issues that were discussed by activists displayed increasing ties
with grassroots and indicated the process of internalization of AIALA
in rural society of Karnataka. The meeting resolved to increase
membership and to intensify struggles on NREGA related issues apart
from raising issues of ’Bagairhukum’ lands, BPL cards, housing sites
and ’Ashraya Mane’.
PUDUCHERRY: Puducherry is a state where rural labour constitutes
around 10% of the total population while the share of agriculture in
the state GDP is less than 5 percent. But, Karaikal, part of
Puducherry which is closer to rural areas of Tamil Nadu and was the
worst affected by tsunami is still dominated by issues of rural
labour. Issues related to implementation of NREGA are so grave that
not a single day passes without any protest. Job cards are not issued
to all rural labourers, neither is employment provided for more than
eight days. Wages are not paid in full even to those who managed to
get some days of work.
With the decreasing share of agricultural income, the government is
planning to build an airport in an area of 700 acres of cultivable
land. The project is expected to displace hundreds of small and
marginal farmers covering three villages, who will also lose
cattle-grazing land. A much greater number of agrarian and rural
labourers will also lose their livelihood.
In this backdrop, a Convention on airport-related issues and its
effects on rural labour was held at Karaikal on 4th September. Comrade
Swadesh Bhattacharya came down heavily on the anti-poor policies of
the Congress government and the convention was presided by R
Alagappan. Comrades Balasundaram, State Secretary of TN,
Balasubramanian, State Secretary of Puducherry, E Jayapal, Karaikal
District Secretary and P Sankaran, President of Action Committee of
Airport Project, among others, also addressed the convention.