new democracy, december 2014

8/10/2019 New Democracy, December 2014

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/new-democracy-december-2014 1/36

Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML)

December, 2014December, 2014

NEW DEMOCRACY

1 2

Disillusionment Setting in

against Modi Govt.

Ever since coming to power at the Centre with a clear majority in LokSabha, BJP-RSS dispensation led by Narendra Modi has been blowing itsown trumpet of having restored investors’ confidence and kickstartedeconomic growth. However, being aware of the hollowness of its claims,Modi Govt. has been showcasing Modi’s foreign visits, portraying him almostas a rockstar drawing orchestrated crowds arranged by big teams of RSS-BJP cadres and govt. officials sent for the same. However, this show couldnot continue for long. The dire straits of the economy has started catchingup with the party in government which had claimed that price-rise,unemployment and corruption will “pack their bags” the day Modi is swornin. After six months in government, all indices of economic growth aredown. Rupee has fallen to over 63 per dollar and trade deficit has wideneddespite steep fall in the crude oil prices in the international market bynearly half. Index of industrial production has registered 4.2% contractionin the month of October 2014 and a mere 0.7% growth over last s ix months.Agricultural production is in stagnation. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley keepson making noises of spurring up growth with worn out phrases withdiminishing effect.

Narendra Modi Govt. had declared and taken to implementing economicpolicies of Manmohan Singh, rather removing speed breakers andbottlenecks in their implementation. This is the tragedy of repeating thefailed policies hoping for different results. Export led and FDI drivenneoliberal economic model pursued by Manmohan Singh Govt. had startedspluttering after world financial economic crisis had depressed westernmarkets and competition for the market share further intensified.Quantitative easing and fiscal stimulus could not restore the high growth inthe face of continuing crisis. In the background of allegations of megascams, corporate propped up Modi to rescue the neoliberal economicpolicies from the people’s anger. Modi has brought nothing new to the realmof economic policies except to fulfil the wish list of Manmohan Singh Govt.like cutting fiscal deficit, making anti-worker changes in labour laws andhanding over possession of mineral rich lands to MNCs and Indian corporate.Despite getting a bonanza of lower crude prices, Modi Govt. has reduced

funds for MNREGS and to scientific research. It has embarked on anti-worker amendments in labour laws pushing changes in apprenticeship act.It has stealthily done away with environmental norms for clearing projectsand is working to change LAAR.

Corporate, who had grown disillusioned with Manmohan Singh Govt.’s

ability to carry forward these “reforms”, are getting impatient with NarendraModi Govt. too. In a close door meeting of corporate bigwigs held onDecember 6 and reported by Economic Times (December 9, 2014) thesentiment expressed was that the hope generated by Modi’s ascension topower is waning.

Modi’s pitch for “Make in India” is a mindless imitation of the Chineseexperience. He has repeatedly invited foreign companies to start productionin India and has promised to remove all road blocks for them facilitatingtheir exploitation of cheap labour and market here. But the crucial questionthat he is probably not competent to raise and his advisors are content innot raising is “make for whom?” Indian share in world exports is abysmally

low and with European markets continuing to be in crisis, is not expectedto rise. Naturally Modi’s call is going unheeded. Reserve Bank of IndiaGovernor Raghuram Rajan has chipped in with his remark to replace “Makein India” with “Make for India” meaning thereby that production should beenhanced not for foreign markets for which there is little scope but fordomestic market. But capitalists do not make for satisfying needs of thepeople, but for profits. And that brings up the question of effective demandi.e. demand backed by purchasing power. The reality is that purchasingpower of the overwhelming majority of people is going down. Then how doyou make for India?

The whole ambit of the policies of Modi govt. is in the opposite direction.Modi Govt., going further on the course set by Manmohan Singh govt., is

just repeating the catchphrases of neoliberal economists that growth willfollow if capital, in Indian context primarily foreign capital, is allowed freereign. To facilitate this, workers’ wages are being further depressed byincreasing insecurity of employment through contractualization and doingaway with enforcement of labour laws almost completely. From peasantsincluding tribals, land is sought to be taken away striking at their means oflivelihood. FDI in retail to facilitate entry of foreign retail giants would generatefar less jobs than it would obliterate. In short the whole policy thrust is toimpoverish the people to attract FDI launching propaganda that this wouldsomehow ultimately benefit the common people. This obsession with FDI





NEW DEMOCRACY

3 4

is to please the corporate who have an umbilical linkage with imperialistcapital, through machinery and technology, capital and markets. It is failureof Modi Govt. on this front with resultant downslide of rupee exchange ratewhich is causing dismay among the corporate.

If we look at the macro-economic picture, the performance of

manufacturing industry is going down for past several years while agricultureis stagnant. These are the two largest employers in the country. The questionof infrastructure is unaddressed as the govt. has pinned all hopes on privatesector. Many of the corporate had pledged for development of infrastructurebut few had invested. Many of them had withdrawn during UPA regimeciting bottlenecks for the delay in projects. But even with Modi govt. pledgingto take care of the bottlenecks, investments are nowhere there. Indiancompradors have not come far from Bombay Plan (Birla Tata plan) markinginfrastructure development (with huge investments and slow rate of return)to the Govt. and now successive govts. are leaving this for private sector.This back and forth game has left large tracts of the country enmeshed inbackwardness and appalling lack of infrastructural development.

Coming to industry, particularly manufacture, there is a huge demanddeficit. Even as Modi is beat ing the drum both here and in foreign countriesabout 'Make in India’ Indian industry is working at 70% of the installedcapacity. Even capital goods sector is at 60% of where it was in 2011.With so much unused capacity what is needed is not make in India butconsume in India where overwhelming majority of people are in crying needof basic necessities of life. There is so much scope of expansion in Indiaand yet the successive govts. have been opposed to this course dictatedby the interests of classes they serve and represent.

India is home to large number of hungry and destitute, far in excess ofour share of the world population. A majority of women in child bearing age

suffer from anemia, a vast number of children suffer from malnourishment.A large number of our people suffer and die of diseases which are easilycurable. A recent report documented that India had nearly 40% of modernslaves (of the total of over 35 million) and our share in human trafficking isalso very high. Indian rulers can have satisfaction of having made India aworld leader in all these dubious fields. But all these do not move ourpolicy makers who are intent on maximizing profits of the corporate leavingvast masses in the countryside to vagaries of nature and savagery oflandlords, who have been the most reliable ally and social prop of thisimperialist dominated march of development.

The economic crisis in the country is much deeper, the hardships ofthe people much more unbearable and their sufferings much harsher thanrevealed by the official statist ics or admitted by ruling politicians. Most ofthem trade in empty promises and sell dreams only to intensify theirexploitation and oppression. Modi has proved to be a good exponent ofthis ruling class art, obviously aided by corporate media. Six months intopower and there is not even the beginning of any respite from unemployment,only providing employment to RSS hordes to foment communal troubleand to its henchmen preaching obscurantism. Though crude oil prices havecome down to nearly half with no role of Modi govt., this Govt. has nottransferred this reduction to consumers. Modi Govt . has increased exciseduty on petroleum products to mop up money from this drop in oil prices.Prices of medicines for common ailments and for emergencies have goneup sharply. Prices of essential commodities continue to be out of boundsfor the common people.

Is there no way out of this quagmire? The stat ing of the problem itselfsuggests the solution. The need is to increase the purchasing power of thepeople. This can only be done by improving the lot of the overwhelmingmajority of the people- workers and peasants. This can be done by carryingout land reforms by giving land to the tiller and helping development ofagriculture both by providing cheap inputs and guaranteeing remunerativeprices thereby improving the lot of the biggest work force of the country.The lot of workers can be improved by implementing labour laws andguaranteeing living wage to them in all branches of production. And for thistheir trade union rights must be respected and their living conditions beimproved. Only on the basis of agriculture and industry, the well being ofpeasants and workers, the economy can flourish. It is not that thiselementary truth is not known to the rulers. But they are bound by dictates

of imperialist capital and narrow interests of comprador big capitalists andbig landlords so they are unwilling to implement. Their development plankis not class neutral, it embodies interests of the ruling classes. And theirmedia does not let show any chink in the armour, does not let any policyalternative be projected.

With Modi Govt. unable to deliver on its promises, and patience of thepeople showing signs of wearing off, it is time to intensify struggles ofdifferent sections of people on most burning issues. These struggles willalso provide immense help to counter the RSS-BJP plan to foment communaltroubles and to communally polarize the society.





NEW DEMOCRACY

5 6

Bardhaman Blast-Beyond

the mainstream narrative

Amit Chakraborty

It is interesting to note that the Chief Minister of West Bengal, in apublic meeting on 24th November, stated that the Bardhaman blast whichoccurred on 2nd oct 2014 in Khagragarh could be a conspiracy hatched byIndian intelligence agency Research & Analysis Wing (RAW). This statementcreated a furore among RSS-BJP leaders along with the parliamentaryopposition including mainstream Lefts. Ms. Mamata Banerjee also saidthat she was in the Central Government for 23 years and she knows howthings happen!

Sarada scam has defamed Trinamool Government putting two of itsMPs into jail and at present CBI is putting pressure on Ms. Mamata Banerjee.This must have prompted her to put forward this sort of serious allegation.Shamik Bhattacharya, the newly elected BJP MLA from Basirhat statedthat Ms. Mamata Banerjee is the only Chief Minister of India who hasmade allegations against RAW in this way and he also criticized her senseof nationalism. Siddhartha Nath Singh, BJP leader, also criticized her.Question may be raised why Ms. Banerjee, who claims to be very honest,tolerated these sorts of conspiracies organized by RAW for last 23 years.

But whatever may be the intention of Ms. Banerjee, this statement needsserious appraisal.

What Happened in Bardhaman ?

On 2nd October 2014 a bomb blast occurred in Khagragarh, a smallvillage in Bardhaman district. Two persons died and one was seriouslyinjured. Immediately after the blast, before the investigation started, all thenational media and BJP leaders started saying that this is conspiracy byMuslim terrorists and West Bengal has become a safe haven for Muslimterrorists. They started an anti Muslim propaganda in the name of borderinfiltration by Bangladeshi Muslims.

Within a few days NIA & NSA came into the picture, top officers arrivedin West Bengal. They started raids in neighboring areas of Khagragarh.News of the arrest of ‘Jihadi’ Muslim terrorists, confiscation of arms andammunitions flooded the media. NIA chief & National Security Advisorboth of them visited West Bengal. It was like a Sherlock Holmes story!Wherever NIA went there was breakthrough and success! Electronic andprint media of Bengal started beating the drums for NIA. BJP ministersstarted blaming Trinamool Govt. for supporting Muslim terrorists andappeasing Muslims. The NIA raid in Khagragarh used a poor Muslim teenageboy to hunt out explosives. Only when he found something NIA heroesentered the room with sophisticated equipments. Such was their bravery!Media deliberately forgot to mention this. Only when Association forProtection of Democratic Rights (APDR) and some Muslim organizationsprotested against this, then only it came to the limelight. NIA claimed ithad confiscated JIHADI books! Media published their photos. People thoughthow efficient our NIA is! But actually those books were primer Arabic bookscalled ‘Nurani Kayda’ which are taught in madrasas along with some books

like ‘Mrityur Bhalo Upay’ a Bengali book of 124 pages quoting texts fromKoran and Hadis discussing the inevitability of death and another bookconsisting of 452 pages published in 1986 by Golam Mortaza named ‘ChepeyRakha Itihaas’ (The suppressed History) which has been highly appreciatedin academic circles. After bomb blast media and NIA informed us that itwas a ploy by Bangladeshi Muslim terrorists and Khagragarh was theirden. They claimed that Bangladeshi Mujahideens (JMB) were involved inthis incident. NSA chief Ajit Doval said India and Bangladesh are workinghand in hand against the terrorists. It is very fascinating to find that neitherRSS nor BJP mentions that Bangladesh, a Muslim majority country, isfighting against Muslim terrorists because this will expose their anti MuslimHindu fascist grand design. Moreover they are blaming West Bengal TMC

govt. but avoiding mentioning that the border is managed by BSF which isunder Central Govt. only.

What is beyond Bardhaman blast?

In the last Lok Sabha election Mr. Narendra Modi, in his electoralcampaign in West Bengal, raised the question of huge Muslim infiltrationfrom Bangladesh. In a recent article published in Economic & PoliticalWeekly (EPW) there is ample data which shows population increase inWest Bengal is lower than national average and also lower than Gujarat.





NEW DEMOCRACY

7 8

The population increase in Muslim majority districts of West Bengal likeNorth Dinajpur, Malda is either lower or same as population growth of WestBengal. This proves that infiltration issue was deliberately raised by Modito pursue communal division and hate campaign against Muslims. BJPleaders in Bengal followed in his footsteps. After coming to power at theCentre, BJP is eyeing the 2016 West Bengal assembly election. Now BJPhas stopped practicing countrywide communal riots and started practicingAmit Shah-Modi tactics of fomenting local communal riots and polarizingnon Muslim and Hindu - dalit votes. In the first three months of Modi’sregime Uttar Pradesh has witnessed more than 700 local communaldisturbances, Bihar about 170. With the ensuing Delhi assembly electionthere also communal conflicts are being regularly manufactured by RSSactivists and BJP MLA-MPs. In West Bengal they are trying to organize afew local communal riots. They have been successful in organizing a fewbut that is not sufficient to foment sharp communal division in West Bengal.They are organizing RSS and Goraksha Vahinis to raise communal tensionbut a bomb blast creates more news and sensation. So there is a bomb

blast!

There are few interesting twists & turns in Bardhaman incident whichshould be mentioned. One suspected terrorist was reported to have beenarrested from Dumdum in Kolkata. Immediately newspapers made headlinesof the arrest. National and state BJP leaders issued statements that Kolkatais the safe haven for Muslim terrorists. Finally we came to know that theman was arrested from Murshidabad but that never became a headline.One Ms. Fatima has been arrested. She has been alleged to be a Jihadi.Newspapers reported that she said that there was an Indian intelligencespy among the five involved in Bardhaman blast and he provided information.Now if this be so why cannot the blast be organized by intelligence team

for finally unearthing a Jihadi group of Bangladesh and BJP-RSS enjoyingthe benefit of blast. We are all aware from Malegaon bomb blast how Hindufascist RSS nexus are operating within Indian intelligence and securityorganizations. Now that BJP-RSS is in power, they will definitely help them.

In a recent article published in Outlook Magazine (8 th December 2014issue) there are several reports contradicting the NIA claims. The suspectedterrorist, Karim, who died in the Bardhaman blast was identified by hisfather Jamshed. But Jamshed denied this claim and told the Outlookcorrespondent that NIA people brought a decomposed body which was far

beyond recognition and insisted that Jamshed identify it as his son’s body.Moreover the blast victim’s post mortem injury description did notcorroborate with the decomposed body which was brought to Jamshed, thevictim’s father as claimed by NIA. Shakeel Ahmed, another blast victimand Mr. Hakim, another alleged Jihadi who survived the blast, were reportedto have stayed in Khagragarh house but the house owner Mr Chowdhury,who rented out the house, was never requested to identify the person byNIA. Mr. Parvez, a local police informer who first accompanied the statepolice force to the blast site, told that the victim’s right eye was blown offbut Karim’s body did not have such an injury. One Amjad Shaikh nicknamedKajal was claimed to be a Bangladeshi terrorist (JMB) but was actually aresident of Kirnahar of Birbhum district and was a SFI activist. His fatherhas said that he himself took his son to NIA and now NIA claims that theyhave arrested Kajal from his hideout! All these contradictory reports suggestthat NIA is either trying to hide something or is manufacturing a story.

The Bardhaman blast has given impetus to BJP organization in West

Bengal. After that BJP-RSS have started aggressive campaign in favourof Modi’s policies. Recently in Dumdum they blocked 60 trucks carryingcows to Bangladesh and released them on Jessore road. The cows startedrunning which created huge chaos in the locality. They said that thosecows were being smuggled to Bangladesh for slaughter. The media istightlipped and investigative journalism by media barons on this issue isabsent. But the question is: apart from cows many important items likeoil, food products are regularly smuggled across Bangladesh border? Arethey not illegal? Basically the cow issue will lead to a communal colourtherefore BJP is interested in it.

Conspiracy? RAW-Mossad-CIA-ISI-RSS nexus?

Now there are a lot of self contradictory reports observed in Bardhamanblast. Moreover few points need to be discussed further and one is theconspiracy issue in this bomb blast. Why is the conspiracy issue beingraised here?

The conspiracy issue has not been raised for the first time in a blastcase. If we remember Hemant Karkare’s death in Mumbai terror attack on26th Nov 2008, it is still a mystery who killed him and who instructed Mr.Karkare to fight terrorists without proper bullet proof jacket. It was Mr.





NEW DEMOCRACY

9 10

Hemant Karkare who was getting life threats because he was fighting Hinduterrorists of Malegaon blast. He unearthed the RSS connection in Malegaonblast. Why would he be killed by Pakistani terrorists when his investigationswould have exonerated Batla house accused and also Muslim boys arrestedfrom Azamgarh would have been acquitted? In an article published in TheMilli Gazette on February 2011 Mr. Amaresh Mishra, a Congress leader,has accused RSS and notorious Israel Intelligence agency Mossad nexusand alleged that Mr. Rakesh Maria, the Mumbai Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS)chief, is a Mossad agent.

Shyam Chand, former Minister of Haryana and author of Saffron Fascism,in an article ‘Ugly hidden face of terrorism : Vigilance is the price of liberty’published in Mainstream weekly September 2008 exposed the conspiratorialactivities of saffron terrorists. He said ‘Phone fakers were invented by theCIA & Mossad before 9/11 which was an inside job of both of them. Thesame phone fakers are used in India. Innocent people are arrested on thebasis of calls made through these phone fakers.’ He also said ‘The nexusbetween RSS & Mossad is worth investigation’.

Urdu Journalist Aziz Burney and Amaresh Mishra, during the terribleaftermath of 26/11 Mumbai incident, stated that the event was a CIA/ Mossad/RSS/ISI plot. They claimed that the IB knew about Headley, thedouble agent of CIA. They raised the fact that the SIM cards used by theten 26/11 terrorists were purchased by an Intelligence Bureau (India) (IB)informer. Till date, the investigations into the 26/11 case, which the IB washandling, have been unable to state as to how the ten terrorists got hold ofthese SIM cards. They alleged that if the chargesheet against Sadhvi Pragya& Raj Kumar Purohit in Malegaon blast is read then there will be ampleevidence to find that Hindutva group RSS took crores of rupees from ISIand IB was aware of it. The visit of a RSS linked intellectual to meet aMuslim fundamentalist leader in Pakistan and prime accused in Mumbaiattack, after BJP’s Lok Sabha election victory proves that the allegationmay not be baseless.

In this background the JMB (Jammat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh) terroristinvolvement in Bardhaman blast may be a greater conspiracy hatched byRAW-RSS-Mossad-CIA –ISI nexus which has given pro Hindutva BJPforce an advantageous position to consolidate their organization in WestBengal.

In search of 'other' voice

Post 9/11, the western world has tried to impose their anti terroristnarrative worldwide. Their state and media constructed ‘Islamophobia’ basedon ‘circumstantial evidence’ avoiding ‘direct’evidence. The fate of hundredsof innocent Muslims all over the world in the course of ‘Framed Damned

Acquitted’ state is an unfortunate reality. India is no exception to this.Recently Manisha Shetty has published a book –‘Framed, Damned,Acquitted : Dossiers of a very special cell’. In this book of 200 pages allthe innocent Muslim people who were framed by Indian state as Terroristsrelated to Al-Badar, Huji, Lashker –e-Taiba and finally acquitted by Indiancourts have been elaborately discussed. Late Subhadeep Chakraborty, adocumentary film maker, in his film ‘After the Storm’ has shown themiserable condition of innocent Muslims- who were framed by Indian securityand Intelligence agencies- after they are acquitted. In another film he hasshown six innocent Muslims who were killed by Indian state in a fakeencounter. Samir Khan, who was killed in 22nd Oct 2002 and finally proved

to be innocent by Gujarat High Court, was one of them. The story of Prof.Gilani in the parliament attack case and of several Muslim youth roundedup from Azamgarh repeats the same story. It is very unfortunate that theparliamentary Lefts are also speaking the same narrative. CPM leader &Ex-CM of West Bengal Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, during his tenure,had stated that Madarsas are the birthplace of Muslim terrorists. Immediatelyafter Bardhaman blast, CPM West Bengal state secretary Mr. Biman Bosereacted and issued similar statement as that of BJP. When we look at theBardhaman blast we should not forget all this history.

To conclude, we have to challenge the mainstream narrative of ‘waragainst terrorism’ with alternative logical data and other voice. RSS ploy in

Bardhaman blast appears to be part and parcel of that global conspiracy.Every secular democratic citizen must contend against them without dilutingthe fight against all forms of terrorism and fundamentalism.





NEW DEMOCRACY

11 12

Another Black Law : Consign it to

the dustbin of history

S. S. Mahil

First choice of Indian and international corporate, Narendra Modi, is atthe helm of affairs as Prime Minister of India. Modi, even before coming topower, had clearly said that he will not only continue the policies followedby Dr. Manmohan Singh, he will deliver where Manmohan failed to deliver.It makes the direction of the Modi government very clear. UPA govt. signedmany memoranda of understanding with Indian and Multinational Companiesbut most of those could not be put into effect because of people’s resistanceagainst the govt. efforts at displacing them to acquire land. Now it is morethan clear that Modi govt. is going to adopt all methods of high-handednessand resort to brutal repression to fulfill the promises given to the corporate.

Statements rejecting any dialogue with Maoists, sending of more forcesand allotting of more funds for suppression of “left wing extremism”,retrogressive and anti-worker amendments in labour laws and proposal ofanti-people amendments in land acquisition act (LARR) clearly show thedirection of Modi government. Following the footsteps of its senior partner,Punjab government led by Prakash Singh Badal is moving in the samedirection. Punjab government brought a draconian law, named “Preventionof Damage to the Public and Private Property Act, 2014” in the last sessionof Vidhan Sabha, which was summarily passed without any opposition byCongress party, the only opposition party in the assembly. Now it is lyingon the table of the Governor.

Punjab government passed two such draconian acts in the year 2010too. One was the Act with the same heading and the second one was“Punjab Special Forces Act, 2010”. There was widespread opposition tothese two black laws then. CPI (M-L) New Democracy had held a massivedemonstration against these laws. A joint front of mass organizations wasformed despite the opposition from certain forces, like CRPC (M-L) andCPM Punjab. Left wing parties of ruling classes and their massorganizations remained aloof from this struggle. This front organized protestsin many forms, including a massive rally at Ludhiana and a blockade ofChandigarh for one full day. Thus Punjab government was forced to withdraw

these two acts. Now Badal government left “Punjab Special Forces Act”and certain portion of the “Prevention of Damage to the Public and PrivateProperty Act” which was branded prima facie untenable in the court of lawand got the Prevention of Damage to the Public and Private Property Actpassed. People are once again fighting against it .

There are certain changes in this Act f rom the same Act of 2010. Firstthing is that in earlier Act there was a provision that any organization seekingto organize a protest, demonstration, dharna or procession will have totake prior permission from the Police Commissioner or DeputyCommissioner in which organizers will have to disclose the purpose, numberof participants and slogans which shall not be against the government, andpermission depended upon the sweet will of the concerned authority. Nowthis provision has been dropped. But it has been made more stringent insome other aspects. Here we will discuss some of the most anti peoplefeatures of this Act.

Sections 2 of this Act defines the forms of protests which will come

under this Act. Previously demonstration, dharna, procession were the formsof struggle which were covered under this Act. But in the present Act notonly above mentioned forms of protests but “agitation, strike, hartal, bandh,march, rail blockade and road blockade are also included. In Punjab acertain organization of unemployed educated youth is adopting a novelmethod of protest. They climb up the water supply tanks and refuse tocome down till their demands are met. One girl, an ETT teacher, died inthis and at many places they had to face police brutality. Though this formis not specifically mentioned in this Act but this also can be convenientlybrought under it. These new inclusions are very dangerous on two counts,one is agitation and the other is strike. The word 'agitation' has a verybroad meaning. Any article written, any press statement or any leaflet orpamphlet issued on the issue concerned can be said to be an agitationalmaterial. Not only that, even an indoor meeting, discussion on the matterconcerned can be called agitation. Any activity on a particular issue ofstruggle can be termed agitation. Secondly, inclusion of strike in the purviewof this act has very dangerous implications. This form of struggle is theweapon of workers, which they have attained after long drawn struggles fordecades. Industrial workers work inside the factory, especially in theorganized sector, which is the private property of factory owner and on themachinery provided by owner, so a worker can easily be trapped saying he





NEW DEMOCRACY

13 14

has damaged the property. Thus this law effectively takes away the rightof the workers, without even touching the labour laws and effecting anychange in those laws. Rail and road blockade, which was a very effectivemethod of struggle, is also affected by this law.

Section 2 of the Act also deals with the organizations which are covered

by this Act. This includes not only the political parties but massorganizations, class organizations, social organizations and religiousorganizations also. Its fangs are not limited to the political parties andother organizations but affect individuals and groups of individuals. Anotherdangerous aspect is that not only the persons who are rounded up or arepresent at the scene of occurrence are to be trapped but the leaders andmembers of the organization which organizes the protest can be implicated.

Another dangerous aspect of this Act is sub section C of section 2 ofthe Act, which defines the term “organizer” of protest. This states that notonly the unit of the organization which gives a call for protest but the wholeorganization shall be held responsible and all its members and all its leaders

shall be booked under this law. Person causing damage will not be the onlyperson to be booked but whole assembly will be punished, this is an effortto make the fighting toiling people leaderless. Persons who “organize, incite,advise, guide, assist, support and conspire” for an act are defined asorganizers. With such wider scope of the term “organizer”, persons providingplace/hall, tents and sound, supplying water and providing vehicles for thetransportation of the participants can be implicated. Practically, with thisdefinition of organizing, any protest will be virtually made impossible. Apartfrom it with this definition any person who supports such st ruggle, gives astatement in support, collects fund for struggle, provides a meal to thestriking workers, writes an article justifying the cause of struggle shall beliable for punishment under this Act. This Act effectively debars any strugglefrom getting any outside support.

Police videographed protests earlier too, but it was without any legalsanction but this Act not only provides legal sanction to such videographyrather makes it legally mandatory. Sub-section 2 of the section 3 dealswith this. Such videography shall be used as ev idence in the court of law.Earlier also this was admissible in the court but it was not taken as aprimary evidence, this has to be substantiated by some other independentevidence. This was so because photographs or video are evidence whichcan easily be tampered with, can be doctored, images can be superimposed.

With the advancement of technique this has acquired dangerous proportions.But according to this Act video will not only be admissible as primaryevidence but accused can be convicted solely on the basis of this evidence.This provision of this Act is violative of the Indian Evidence Act as it is incontravention of the Central Act.

Property in this Act is not properly defined. In the absence of a clearcut definition, the term property can be stretched to any length. For example,if in a crowded demonstration the cycle of a person suffers some damage,it can easily be termed as “damage to the private property”. Similarly if in acandle or mashal march any govt. hoarding catches fire it can be termedas damage to govt. property caused by fire.

This Act treats agitators as more dangerous than hardened criminalshence it has very stringent provisions of punishment for the so-calledviolators of this Act. In case “damage” to some private or governmentproperty occurs, then person can be awarded imprisonment for three yearsand fine up to Rs one lakh and in case “damage” is caused by fire or

explosion then the punishment can be imprisonment for five years and fineup to Rs. three lakhs. Not only punishment is stringent but the offenceunder the Act is non-bailable. When the accused applies for bail then thecourt will have to hear the prosecution. In case prosecution delays itsdeposition bail will be delayed automatically. Thus accused can be keptbehind bars for a fairly long period even without rejecting his bail.

Those who come onto the streets are generally poor people and thoseleading them are also generally economically challenged, so govt. throughthis Act wants to economically hit them. It is an effort to economicallydevastate the activists and the leaders of the people’s movement. The Acthas provision of heavy fines i.e. one lakh in case of “damage” caused

ordinarily and rupees three lakhs in case of “damage” with fire or explosions.Apart from this, the Act provides for compensation of the so called damage.The amount of the compensation is to be determined by a “competentauthority”, but the Act does not explain who can the authority be? What willbe the basis of its competence? How to judge the competence of the so-called authority? The Act is completely silent on all these questions. In theabsence of clarity on all these issues govt. can assume overriding andunlimited powers in the matter. In the absence of clear cut guidelines,Government can appoint any person or persons as “competent authority“;though he may or may not be technically equipped to handle the job. For





NEW DEMOCRACY

15 16

example if in a factory, workers go on strike and the management managesto damage some machine or any other property and get the workers bookedunder this Act, government may appoint the factory owner or one of hismen as “competent authority” and get the result he wishes. Secondly whatwill be the procedure to assess the damage? What will be the basis forassessment of the damage? What tools are to be employed to make suchan assessment? There is nothing in this Act; there is no detailed explanation.In this situation the so–called competent authority is given discretionarypowers - power without any checks to make the assessment of the damage.So in the case of strike in a factory, the owner is in a position to invokethis Act, get the person of his choice appointed as the “competent authority”and get an amount fixed as compensation according to his sweet will.Thus this Act gives license to the owner to economically ruin the workersand their leaders.

In the ordinary cases, if some one wants to recover some amount fromsome one, the normal course is that he should approach the court, contendhis case there and if court decrees his case then he can recover the money.But this Act places the recovery of fine and compensation under theRevenue Act. When Br itish colonialists conquered India, their main objectwas to collect revenue, so they enacted this Revenue Act and the sameRevenue Act is in vogue in India till date. Under this Revenue Act, there isno need to go to the court. The person from whom recovery is to be madecan directly be arrested and can be put behind bars; not only that hisproperty can be attached and recovery be made right away. This is aimedat economically ruining the struggling people and their leadership.

Normally, a police officer not below the rank of sub inspector can takecognizance of the case but under this Act this right is given to the headconstable. He can arrest anybody under this Act. So the pompous freedomsgiven in Article 19 of the Constitution are put at the mercy of a headconstable; these freedoms are a chained dog whose chain is in the handsof a head constable.

CPI (M-L) ND, Punjab unit has given a call to throw away this act lock-stock and barrel. Three political organizations, CPI (M-L) ND, INQUILABIKENDRA and LOK SANGRAM MANCH have come together on a commonplatform to fight it. Forty two mass organizations of peasants, rural labourers,industrial workers, students, youth and employees have formed a joint forumagainst the black law, named “Kala Kanoon Virodhi Morcha”. Forum of

three political organizations has held conventions at district headquarters.Mass platform has held demonstrations at district headquarters and heldthree massive rallies at Amritsar, Jalandhar and Barnala. Struggle iscontinuing.

Red Salute to Com. Umadhar Singh!

Memorial Meeting in Darbhanga

A memorial meeting in memory of veteran party leader Com. UmadharSingh was organized by the Bihar Committee of CPI(ML)New Democracyon 11th November 2014 in Laheriasarai, Darbhanga. More than a thousandparty activists from Darbhanga and other districts of Bihar participated inthe meeting.

Com. Y. Sambasiva Rao on behalf of the Central Committee of CPI(ML)-New Democracy garlanded the photograph of Com. Umadhar Singh andsubsequently the party leaders from different states and the assembledparty activists paid their floral tributes to the departed leader. One minute’ssilence was collectively observed in memory of Com. Umadhar Singh afterwhich the meeting began which was presided over by the spokesperson ofthe Bihar State Committee of the party Com. V.K.Patole and conducted byCom. Raj Kumar Yadav, Secretary of the Darbhanga District Committee.

Com.Y.S. Rao, while addressing the meeting, briefly described the

various aspects of Com. Umadhar’s political life and said that he spent 8years in jail for his anti-feudal struggles and after being released from jailimmediately plunged into struggle and led a successful struggle of landlessfor capture of landlord’s land. He organized the workers of Ashok papermill and led their struggle till his end. His commitment to struggle on thepeople’s problems was exceptional and is an example for all to follow.Com. Mrigank from IFTU, Delhi, highlighted his deep understanding ofeconomics and said that Com. Umadhar will remain a source of inspirationfor workers in their struggle against the pro-corporate agenda of the ModiGovt.





NEW DEMOCRACY

17 18

Com. Darshan Singh Khatkar, party leader from Punjab, said that Com.Umadhar was a militant communist from his student days who, beinginspired by the Naxalbari armed peasant struggle, left CPM to follow thepath of Naxalbari. Com. Khatkar said that issues of radical land reformsand confiscation of capital of foreign and Indian corporate which were raisedby Naxalbari are still relevant today. The independence of our country isformal and the democracy here is also formal. With the “Make in India”slogan, open invitation is being given for exploitation of the labour of workersof India and the loot of our natural resources. Various types of Black Lawsare being enacted for repression on the people and interference of para-military forces is increasing. Taking inspiration from the life of Com.Umadhar,party activists must forge ahead to intensify struggles.

Com. Sushant Jha, Secretary of the West Bengal Committee of theparty said that under the leadership of Com.S.N.Singh, along with Com.Rajkishore Singh, Com. Umadhar played an important role in building theMushahari struggle and directly led the revolutionary movement inDarbhanga. In the Bihar Assembly he effectively raised the issues of theoppressed people. The anti-imperialist and anti-feudal tasks in the countryremain incomplete and the responsibility for completing them is with us.

Comrades Rambriksh Ram (President, Bihar AIKMS), Byas Tiwari (IFTUstate General Secretary), Rudal (Muzaffarpur), Ramnath Yadav (WestChamparan), Ayodhya Ram (Sasaram), Shambhu Singh (Darbhanga) andLalu Ram of IFTU, Shamim Raza of Ashok Paper Kamgar Union and othersalso addressed the meeting. On behalf of the Bihar State Committee of theparty Com.V.K. Patole called upon party activists to take a pledge in thismemorial meeting to dedicate ourselves with renewed vigour to achievingthe goal of New Democratic Revolution for which Com. Umadhar struggledtill the end of his life. The meeting ended with singing of the Internationale.

The Centre and State rulers

are anxious to offer the

coastal belt to the corporateKrishnamoorty

The BJP and its (NDA) allies are making loud propaganda about imple-mentation of Modi's model from Gujarat, t rying to influence the people mainlymiddle class and the youth. Modi became PM at the Centre andChandrababu CM in AP state. The promise of ‘ Runamaphi’ (writing off theloans) of ryots also helped the victory of Chandrababu. Soon after heassumed power, Narendra Modi announced that he has no new policies butwill implement the policies of the UPA government briskly. He also reiter-ated that his government would offer a red carpet to the corporate. If there

were any hurdles for their establishment he would set aside all such com-plications, if necessary make amendments to the Acts as it is a must totake harsh decisions within one or two years in order to improve the eco-nomic development of the country. The previous UPA government deceivedthe people and served the corporate. The Modi government came to powerwith the maximum and open help of the corporate forces and is ready tohand over the riches of the country very rapidly and obediently. Mr.Chandrababu, following Modi, wants to implement reforms speedily byoffering everything to the corporate to get their favour in turn.

The then UPA government brought the SEZ Act in 2005 with the objectof offering fertile lands in broad coastal areas and a large part of forest

areas to the corporate for mineral extraction. Thereafter it declared INDIANINDUSTRIAL COASTAL CORRIDOR merging hundreds of SEZs. Both Modiand Babu governments took a firm decision to continue the SEZs. Duringthe last government's reign 'coastal corridor' was declared right fromIchapuram in Srikakulam district to Thada in Nellore district in the APcoastal area. As a part of the establishment of Coastal Corridor, differentSEZs, Pharma Parks, IT Parks, PCPIR, Thermal, Atomic Power Projectsand projects and industries most destructive for people would be estab-lished and to attract these, Govt. would liberalize economic policies. Thepresent govts. are also ready to establish them. As a part of the Coastal





NEW DEMOCRACY

19 20

corridor Modi govt. announced Vishakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corri-dor. PCPIR project comes under this purview. Let us discuss briefly aboutthe types of industries which Modi & Babu Govts. have declared for coastalarea.

From Vishakhapatnam to Kakinada in the radius of 640 kms, with an

investment of Rs.3 Lakh crores they are going to establish Petroleum,Chemical, Petro Chemical Investment Region (PCPIR). It spreads over anarea of 1 Lakh 50 thousand acres involving 97 villages of 10 Mandals(revenue blocks) in Vishakhapatnam and East Godavari districts. In thisproject, called VK-PCPIR, industrial institutions including petro indus-tries, mainly chemical and of chemical based products and jute industrieswould be there. Not only these, metal fabrication, machinery industries ofmaterial producing industries would be also there at secondary level. Inaddition to these, food and drink products, paper and printing, products ofnon-metallic minerals, electrical related machinery, automobile related in-dustries and their subsidiary industries would be established.

For the speedy and immediate transportation of the products producedin the PCPIR industries not only will Govts expand a majority of the roads,railways and airports but they will also build new infrastructure. They willexpand the national highways under PCPIR from four lanes to six lanesand the two lanes state highways to four lanes. They will build along thesea coast a 138 kms long, six or eight lanes express highway cum pipe-line from Gangavaram port in Vishakhapatnam to Kakinada port spending1937 crores.

As a part of Coastal corridor, Vishakha-Chennai industrial corridor areahas been declared a prestigious area by the Central Govt. Vishakha, EastGodavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore, Kadapa, Chittoor districts

in AP and Chennai, Thiruvallore in Tamilanadu are the areas covered. Inthis corridor they are establishing five Developments Centres, each in anarea of 10 thousand acres. These Development Centres are located atAtchyutapuram, Nakkapalli, Kakinada, Machilipatnam, Nellore and Chittor-Thiruvallore. Twenty Industrial Clusters are under these centres. Respon-sibility of supplying electricity, water, skilled employees to these estab-lished industries is with the Govt. It will develop Textile industries, Food-processing parks, Petro-chemical complexes. The Asian DevelopmentBank(ADB) will help with loan facilities for a period of first 5 years to cre-ate fundamental facilities in this corridor.

HPCL in Vishakha will be developed with GAIL partnership to its ca-pacity from 8.3 MMTAs to 15 MMTAs with a capital amount of 15 thousandcrores. In addition to that, in between Vishakha and Kakinada, HPCL andprivate partnership will establish a new major Greenfield refinery with acapacity of 15 million tonnes. So also, with a capital amount of Rs.5 thou-sand crores, a major Gas storage plant will be established in Gangavaramport in Vishakha. Gas will be imported from foreign countries, stored at thisplant and sold to the electric plants, manure industries and other indus-tries.

Govt. has decided to establish two floating, storage & reglassificationunits in Kakinada dependent on gas terminals. One of them isAPGDC(Andhra Pradesh Gas Development Corporation)- GAIL (GasAuthourity of India) partnership and the other has been established by pri-vate agency SHELL and Kakinada Sea Port Ltd. Govt. says that gas willbe supplied for industrial and domestic needs by APGDC constructing agas pipeline between Kakinada-Srikakulam. The government wants tostart a Petro-Chemical University in Rajahmundry of East Godavari districtto supply technical skilled section for petro gas industries.

Not only does Govt. plan to expand Gangavaram port of Vishakha, butalso new ports will be established. New railway lines will be installed link-ing these ports with important railway stations. With this idea the authori-ties sent a proposal to the Central Govt. to expand the Vishakha port withRs.100 crores. The Govt. permitted construction of another modern portwith Rs.2500 crores by GMR company at a distance of 30 kms from thepresent port in Kakinada. 2100 acres of land has been alloted from KakinadaSEZ to that Company for this purpose. So also Krishnapatnam port in Nelloredistrict will be linked with the Chennai-Bangalore industrial corridor. A multinational corporation (MNC) of Japan, Internation Corporation Agency, willextend its help to this corridor. Govts. have made up their mind to developthe Krishnapatnam port as an Industrial Hub. It was notified in the CentralBudget that a Smart city would be established here.

Recently the State Govt. announced its IT policy. It pronounced that ITHubs will be established in Vishakha, Kakinada and Tirupathi. The saidtwo (Vishakha, Tirupathi) Information Technology Investment Regions (ITIR)and Ten Electronic Management Clusters will be set up in the state. It hasdecided to establish Electronics & IT missions with Rs.600 crores budget.Permissions would be liberalised for IT industries. It is said that Govt. has





NEW DEMOCRACY

21 22

collected 50 lakhs sq ft. land that costs Rs.1500 crores through PPP methodfor the IT Hubs in Vishakha. The State Govt. has already allotted 10 acresto TechMahendra, 13 acres to Wave Electronics, 71/2 acres to Wipro com-pany in Vishakha. The govt. maintains that employment opportunities willbe available by 2020 through IT industry. So also Central Finance ministerannounced in his Budget speech that Kakinada will be developed as aElecronic Hardware Hub. The Govts. announced proposals for Metro RailProjects in Vijayawada, Vishakhapatnam and establishment of Cyber cityin Vishakha matching Hi-tech city in Hyderabad.

The State Govt has announced a Single Window method for the estab-lishment of industries of corporate companies. It gave a scope to get earlypermissions within four weeks of application without any hurdles. Revisedorders would be brought for removing the hurdles and for hardships due tothe Land Acquistion Act made by the UPA Govt. Environmental permis-sions also will be simplified. Not only that, it has declared that in thecoastal area, the CRZ rules are hurdles in the installation of industries.They will be reviewed and if necessary rectified. As a part of infrastructurefor the establishment of industries, water, electricity etc. facilities will beprovided. One need not mention subsidies in taxes.

The products of industries to be established in coastal corridor will bespeedily transported by railways and roads which will be expanded andnew ones constructed. Central govt. is converting the Chennai-Kolkatahighway near coastal area to 10 lanes. It has decided not only to developroad & railway lines but also to develop the inland navigation with lessexpenditure. The Centre has identified mainly three navigation routes. Theyare 1) Puduchery to Kakinada-767 kms through Buckingham canal, 2)Bhadrachalam to Rajahmundry-171 kms in Godavari river, 3) Wajeerabadin Nalgonda district to Vijaywada in the river Krishna-157 kms. I t said that

along with Chennai and Kakinada ports, the newly constructed ports willalso be linked.

The Govts. are going to spend lakhs and c rores of people’s money inorder to create infrastructure and develop facilities for all the above indus-tries to be installed in coastal corridor. In the name of National Develop-ment doors are being completely opened for the corporate sector to grabour natural and human resources. The maximum effect upto now of theliberalized economic policies implemented by the Govt. of PV NarasimhaRao in 1991 can be observed by the people of the country. The people of

the country have been experiencing the evil and cruel effects of thesepolicies. It is unfortunate that our rulers are more interested in serving theimplerialist forces rather than looking after the people’s welfare and lives.All the industries to be established and those already established in ourcoastal area are 90% anti people. They spoil the healthy lives of people.They are all existing due to the wishes of imperialist countries as they arereleasing pollutants and the people are very angry. Many of them have onlypoor technology.Govt is handing over lakhs of acres of rich crop lands incoastal area at very cheap rate. It has ruined the lives of thousands offarmers and fisher families and they are on the roads. As the agriculturallands are allotted to industries, yearly production of lakhs of tonnes ofdifferent food products would be slashed. Guarantee for food protection inthe future to the people will not be available. The required water for all theinstalled industries in the PCPIR in the coastal corridor will be suppliedmainly from Polavaram Project. It is decided to supply 1848 million litres ofwater daily through the left canal of this project. The present rulers are veryintent on supplying the required water to the industries and on completing

this project immediately, but not for any advantages to the farmers. It isclear that 300 villages will be submerged and 1.90 lakh people will berendered homeless. Polavaram project is for the imperialists and corpo-rate.

The Petro-chemical industries to be installed in PCPIR in coastal corri-dor will be a source of danger to the people. Danger always vests with theoil refineries, gas terminals, fertilizer, chemical and drug industries. Notonly the workers there, but the people living there will be facing most dan-gerous situations. The accidents in HPCL in Vishakha, NACL and Aurobindochemical industries in Srikakulam prove this. It is very important to noticethe recent unhappy and unfortunate incident in Nagaram village in East

Godavari district. It is clear that the lives of people will be endangered. Thegas pipes maintained by central govt. organisation GAIL, leaked and burntso that 21 persons were dead, another19 persons were severely injuredand hanging between life and death in a govt . organised project. We canimagine what type of dangers and accidents would happen in future.

People demanded and organised several movements stating that dan-gerous industries should never be established on their fertile and greenlands. People of Sompeta and Kakarapalli area in Srikakulam districtstruggled and took up large movements against the establishment of Ther-





NEW DEMOCRACY

23 24

mal power plants in wet lands and at the time of the then Govt’s policefiring, six persons were killed. So also in the same District, farmers andfishermen near Kovvada-Macchi lesam area are struggling hard against theestablishment of a dangerous Nuclear power project. But our rulers turn adeaf ear and do not care about these movements. Now the newly electedCentral and State govts. are very much interested in throwing away thepublic's interests. During the time of firing in Sompeta and Kakarapalli,Mr.Chandrababu Naidu being the leader of the opposition party, immedi-ately visited the places and said the projects which the people opposedshould not be installed at all. But now he does not utter a word about it.Prime Minister Modi announced that nuclear power should not be confinedto public sector. They are filling the country and state with danger anddangerous industries and bringing destruction to people’s lives. As againstthis many intellectuals, scientists and several organisations who work forpeople’s welfare have reiterated that ours is mainly an agricultural country.So, the rulers should primarly pay attention to develop the agricultural sec-tor and through the resultant products, suitable industries should be estab-

lished. They have also suggested the methods to save our country’s ad-vantages rather than to serve the imperialist powers. But our rulers haveturned a deaf ear to all this and they are expecting gifts from the multina-tional corporations. In another way they are deceiving the people announc-ing that agri-based industries will also be encouraged. Chandrababu de-clared he would give top priority to Food Parks in the state. Recently amultinational corporation of Thailand, CPF(India), submitted to our stategovt. that it will establish chicken processing units with Rs.1000 crorescapital, prawn processing and an export oriented plant and mills for foodproducts.

The policies implemented by the present Central and State govts. may

attract the youth and middle class and keep them under illusion for sometime. The main reason for this is the media. But the reality of Gujaratmodel will soon be exposed. In AP state the real face of Chandrababu willbe exposed. Serving the corporate powers with high speed and the result-ant bitter results will be clear before the people. Mainly the middle classand youth will shed illusions of development and employment. Then theanger of the people against the destructive methods of the rulers and theirstruggles against these methods will move forward shoulder to shoulderand hand in hand. That time is not far away.

Tribal leader Com. Haribandhu

Kadraka arrested on false

charges for opposing Vedanta’s

mining projectA strong opponent of Vedanta’s mining of Niyamgiri hills, tribal leader

of Rayagada district and Muniguda block president of Lok Sangram Manch(LSM) Com. Haribandhu Kadraka was arrested on 19th October on trumpedup charges. This arrest is part of a sinister design to remove and intimidateopponents of mining in Niyamgiri to favour Vedanta. Naveen Patnaik, whosegovt. had openly backed this project and has been the main promoter ofillegal mining in Odisha as demonstrated by MB Shah Commission reportand who is now bolstered by another supporter of Vedanta, Narendra Modiin power at the Centre, is out to crush the movement against illegal mining.

On 19th October Com. Haribandhu Kadraka was called by inspector-in-charge of local police station that the SP wants to meet him. After reachingthe police station in the afternoon he was told that SP is waiting at thenearby Bissum Cuttack police station and police got after him to go there.Haribandhu after reaching Bissum Cuttack did not find the SP there butwas forced to board a Bolero vehicle by armed police present there andsubsequently he was taken to the district police headquarters at Rayagada.There were levelled false allegations against him and the SP, SDPO andother police officers present there abused him in filthy language. The verynext day he was paraded in front of the media as a dreaded Maoist bycovering his face with a black cloth and showing some wires, Maoist banners

and live cartridges along with him. The SP told the press that a specialpolice party caught him while planting a land mine in the jungle. Elevencases related to Maoist violence under various sections including theinfamous UAPA were slapped on him. Now he is in Bissum Cuttack prison.

Haribandhu is a well-known political activist of Muniguda area and anactive member of CPI(ML)ND. As the block president of Lok Sangram Manchhe has been active on different issues of the people for the last 10 years.He has spearheaded the land movement in Muniguda area in whichthousands of landless people, particularly the tribals and dalits of many





NEW DEMOCRACY

25 26

villages on the foothills of Niyamgiri, have captured hundreds of acres ofagricultural land from the illegal possession of landlords. The police evenarrested him twice in the past by falsely implicating him in cases related toland movement. After the entry of Vedanta in Niyamgiri area our partydecided to stand with the Dongaria tribals in their resistance against theproposed mining plan of Vedanta. Since then, as the leader of Lok SangramManch, and CPI(ML), Haribandhu and other comrades of Muniguda areahave been in the forefront of the movement under the banner of NiyamgiriSurakshya Samiti. He himself belongs to Dongaria tribe and his villageRajulguda has been the entry point and centre of Niyamgiri movement.From mobilizing people for anti Vedanta agitation to making the SupremeCourt ordered Gram Sabhas in Niyamgiri successful, his role was verymuch positive. He has fearlessly stood against the onslaught of landlordsand dared to go against Vedanta facing many cases. As an activist he hasalways opposed the atrocities of police in the name of attacking Maoistsbut became the victim of it.

Hearing of his illegal arrest hundreds of people of his village and nearbyvillages demonstrated in front of the Muniguda police station on the sameday and on 27th October a joint rally of LSM and NSS was organized inMuniguda where more than three thousand people including a large numberof Dongaria tribals participated in the rally protesting against the illegalarrest of Com. Haribandhu and demanding his immediate release. Underthe Chairmanship of Comrade Subash Kulusika, a public meeting was heldin front of the police station where LSM state president Comrade KushanathPradhan, NSS leaders Comrade Lada Sikkaka, Comrade Bari Pidikaka,Comrade Dadi Pusika and Samajawadi Jana Parishad secretary LinagarajAzad addressed and slammed the Naveen Patnaik Govt for his anti peopleand repressive measures. The police and the govt. think that by arresting

Haribandhu they will suppress the voice of the people against mining andpolice repression but after the successful rally of Muniguda it proved to beday dreaming.

CPI(ML)-New Democracy appealed to people and all democratic forcesto oppose this cruel and blatant suppression of people’s movements byimprisoning activists under false and trumped up charges.

Foil the conspiracies of Naveen Govt. in favour of mining barons!

Bhubaneshwar : Mass Dharna in front of state assembly

On 15th November, the birth anniversary of tribal hero Birsa Munda,

hundreds of tribals of Rayagada, Kalahandi, Gajapati, Kandhamal and

Ganjam district congregated in front of the state assembly at Bhubaneshwar

to protest against the illegal arrest of Com. Haribandhu Kadraka underfalse and trumped up charges.

Organized jointly by AIKMS, LSM and Niyamgiri Surakshya Samiti(NSS) the Dharna was attended by almost all 'left ' and revolutionary parties,people’s movements and human rights activists including many progressiveintellectuals. Presiding over the Dharna, Com. Bhalachandra, CEC member

of AIKMS, said that since the Modi Govt came to power at the Centre there

is a renewed all out effort to curtail the rights of tribals, farmers and workersin the interest of corporate. Whatever rights were given in the Forest Rights

Act in the name of ending historical injustice is going to be amended to

loot our resources. Com. Haribandhu was implicated in false cases not for

any role in the activities alleged against him but for opposing the mining

plan of Vedanta in Niyamgiri hills. Vedanta is dreaming of taking away the

bauxite reserve of Niyamgiri after Modi Govt. amends the Forest Rights

Act so that there will be no right of the Gram Sabhas.





NEW DEMOCRACY

27 28

State president of LSM Com. Kushanath Pradhan also urged the peopleto fight back the offensive of Modi and Naveen Govts. to crush the voiceof common people. Speaking at the Dharna, Com. Lada Sikaka, Presidentof NSS, also criticized the Govt for implicating innocent tribals and massleaders like Haribandhu under the pressure of Vedanta and its dalals.

Addressing the gathering, CPI state secretariat member KhirodSinghdeo, CPM state committee member Sal Marandi, CPI(ML) Liberationstate secreatary Judhistir Mohapatro, CPI(ML) Red Star state committeemember Pramila Behera, CPI(ML) ND Gajapati district committee memberKaruka Sabara, Lok Sakti Abhijan state convenor Prafulla Samantara,veteran journalist Rabi Dash, human rights activist Biswapriya Kanungooalong with other leaders of LSM and NSS like Com. Kaduka, Com. SubashKulusika criticized both the Central and State Govts for their anti peopleand repressive measures and demanded the release of Com. Haribandhuimmediately. At the end a memorandum was given on behalf of theparticipating organizations addressed to the state Chief Minister.

Protest at Odisha Bhawan

On 28th November2014, Delhi Committee ofCPI(ML)-New Democracyorganized a protest atOdisha Bhawan, demand-ing withdrawal of all falsecases against Com.Haribandhu, especiallyblack law UAPA. Thepolice refused permission

for the programme; despitethat activists gathered atthe gate with big placards,raising slogans against pro-Vedanta anti-people CM.

The demonstrators were adressed by Delhi party secretary Com. Aparna andother speakers. The Additional Resident Commissioner met the Party'sdelegation and promised to convey the memorandum to the CM office.

AP: Struggle of Aurobindo

Pharma Workers

P. Prasad

A struggle is on in Aurobindo Pharma Company of Srikakulam Dist ofAP. These employees fought for the right of formation of union last year.They had resorted to 83 days’ strike from 7 -7-2013 to 1-10-2013. Arrests,false cases, kidnappings, suspensions dismissals etc. frequently took placethen. However finally they got victory, with support of solidarity movement.Union registration was done. IFTU union is functioning for last one year, insuccessful manner. Union also strengthened with increase of 450membership of chemists. With this new strength, our union gave a ‘charterof demands’ for wage revision to the management on 2-04-2014. In thisbackground, ongoing struggle began.

In erstwhile regime of Chandra Babu, i.e. in between 1995 – 2004, manynew industries as extensions of old units were established in North Andhracoastal region. Industrialists and corporate companies were encouragedby then Chandra Babu Govt. with tax concessions etc. One declared reasonwas to avoid pollution in Jeedimetla, Patancheru, Nacharam, Bala Nagaretc. industrial areas surrounding Hyderabad City. Aurobindo Pharma Unitwas also established in Srikakulam District 13 years ago.

Then Chandra Babu Govt established mainly four industrial belts in thiscoastal region, Pydi Bhimavaram, Chilaka Palem, Pusapati Gega andThagarapuvalasu. Mainly Pharma units like Aurobindo, Reddy labs, Mylan,

Andhra Organic Ltd. are in above area. Fertilizer units, Aqua units, BatteryMaking units, Chemical units are also there. Aurobindo unit is inPydibhimavaram Industrial Area.

One rivulet, Kandivalasa gadda, is dividing two Districts- Vijainagaramand Srikakulam (SKL) at Pydibhimavaram. South side of the rivulet is inVijainagaram dist and North side is in SKL Dist. Industries were establishedin Pydibhimavaram Village i.e. only on the north side. At Pydibhimavaram,Aurobindo, Reddy labs Andhra Organic Ltd. etc. big Pharma units wereestablished. Nearly 20 thousand workers are working (Total work force in





NEW DEMOCRACY

29 30

above said four Industrial Centres is about 50 Thousand).

Nearly 50% of Pydibhimavaram work force is belonging to VijainagaramDist. & 30% of it belongs to SKL Dist. Remaining 20% are fromVishakhapatnam and Godavari Dists. Historically Vijainagaram dist iseducationally advanced due to Gajapathi Rajas rule in British Colonial period.

Requirement of workforce for pharma units are skilled, mainly chemists.

Aurobindo Pharma was established in 1970s at Hyderabad, with only900 workmen, including chemists, but it extended to a total of 11 units. Oldand medium size ten units are located in four Dists, i.e. Hyderabad, RangaReddy, Medak and Mahabub Nagar. All these units have nearly 10 thousandwork force, but the 11th unit which is located in Pydibhimavaram has sixthousand work force.

These big corporate units were established in North coastal area at thecost of peasants and fishermen mainly. Thousands of acres of lands ofpoor peasants were taken by then Chandrababu Govt, by either fraud or

forcibly, with very low compensation. By pollution of these industries,fisherfolk community are losing their livelihood. Common people got heavylosses due to these industries, but village elders, contractors, politicianswere benefitted more and more by managements. In some other formscommon people were also established in other new professions and workswhich were emerging, mainly in service sector. Local people are followingruling parties, so they could not understand that they are main losers bythese industries. Moreover major section of rural people there, havingillusions that these industries will give them some type of livelihood in theform of shops, business, petty trades, contracts and also workmen etc.,one aristocratic political section (which is creamy layer) has emerged inthe rural area of industrial areas, having command on people. They are

dictating to common people there. All police stations and GovtAdministrative officers (MRO etc.) and labour dept. are in hands of bigcorporate companies. No independent law implementers are there. This isthe ground situation.

Without Nellimarla, there was no IFTU union in Aurobindo. More than100 chemists of Aurobindo are from Nellimarla workers’ villages. And nearly500 chemists are from villages of Nellimarla, Vijainagram and Gurla mandalswho know about Nellimarla struggle. (100 belong to Jute workers’ familiesdirectly, 500 belong to Nellimarla struggle impacted areas). Thus they came

to form union affiliated to IFTU in March 2013. And also considerablenumber of chemists are from villages of Aruna Jute Mill, East Coast JuteMill, Bobbili Jute Mill, all of who know IFTU.

Prior to formation of IFTU Union in Aurobindo, CITU & TNTUC affiliatedUnions were formed in some units in above said industrial areas. Though

those unions belonged to revisionist, reformist politics, they were alsocrushed by the state due to insistence of corporate. In some units CITUsustained after protracted repressive acts but after that they colluded oradjusted with managements. But when IFTU entered in Aurobindo, allcorporate companies of these industrial areas were united in makingattempts to foil it.

After 83 days protracted strike in 2013 (July to Sep), an agreement wasarrived at between both parties in Aurobindo, with three months transfer ofnine union leaders to Hyderabad & RR Dist units. This was part ofvictimization, but then we were forced to agree in view of broad interest oflivelihood of 2000 families. As our unity continued and became more stable,

management was forced to honour that clause of Agreement resulting innine union leaders returning to the original unit, which created moreconfidence in our members.

Management had agreed to recognize our union in the unavoidablesituation then, but planned to destabilize our union. Repeated attemptswere made by them in last one year. Soon after we succeeded, managementoffered promotions and increments to some of our union’s activists to buythem off but failed. Some of our core members were offered promotions asmanagers, asst. managers also but consciously our comrades refused andstood with union. Some were offered monetary benefits also.

When we conducted General body (GB) meeting on 14-12-2013 to electnew executive body in place of temporary Adhoc Committee, managementmade attempts to resort to divide and rule tactics. Most of our unionleadership belongs to Vijainagaram dist, because of their abilities andinitiative in formation and functioning of union and also role in struggle.Management indirectly encouraged SKL employees to take over the mainleadership of the union in the GB, but failed. At that juncture, our membersbelonging to SKL Dist understood management’s conspiracy. This regionalchauvinism was defeated by unity of employees. Actually, now some ofactivists belonging to SKL Dist. have emerged into core leadership of union.





NEW DEMOCRACY

31 32

At the end of year 2013 and beginning of year 2014, managementchanged their tactics towards our union. They frequently held talks withour executive body at plant level on occasion of some local disputes andtalked very positively. Management made attempts repeatedly to manageour body in a cordial way. But our body was alert in light of our direction.Finally management stated that the outside leader i.e. K. Sanyasi Rao,President (IFTU state ECM) should not be permitted into talks; they wantedto negotiate with only employees. But our body unanimously rejected this.

Many more tactics and tricks were played by management in this periodbut failed as a result of consciousness of our members. So managementfinally came to conclusion to crush our union on occasion of wageagreement.

Though we gave demand notice on 2-4-14, Labour Dept. did not takeinterest to organize joint meetings upto nearly 2 months. In 1st round oftalks management objected to participation of outside leader, i.e. SanyasiRao. In 2nd round of talks this continued. In 3rd round of talks, on request of

Joint labour commissioner, management on paper objected but practicallyallowed.

In 4 th and 5th and 6th round of talks the Union president participated intalks officially. It was a major victory for our union. Management was forcedto recognize our outside leader in negotiation process. After it, managementhas started new tactics. They objected to discuss wage increase toexecutives who are members of our union and also objected to agree tothem as workmen. Their argument was that executives are not entitled tobe members of a trade union.

In this Aurobindo unit there are 1800 chemists, 300 executives, 3700

contract workmen. Chemists and executives are commonly calledemployees. Here the word executives is not equal to executives of corporatelanguage. They are also workers in broad meaning. In neighbouring pharmaunits also, CITU, TNTUC etc. formed unions with executives and chemists.We showed some judgments that executives, supervisors etc. are also tobe treated as workmen as they have no administrative powers e.g. tosanction leave, but management did not agree. JCL agreed in words, but inpractice sided with management in the name of practical solution. Werefused to disassociate with executives.

At the time of last 83 days strike, our membership was only 1100including executives. At the end of strike it come down to around 800, butwe could get victory as our work force is mainly of core productive wings.But during this last year, our membership increased to 1600, including 130executives. We could consolidate our base. Then our struggle was for onlyright to formation of union but now our struggle is for wage increase. So,we are in advantageous position now, relative to the previous strike.

After we have given strike notice, management and Labour Minister joined and planned to crush our union All of a sudden, when negotiat ionsare going on, the state Additional Labour Commissioner wrote a failurereport and referred to Labour Court, Vizag, for adjudication. So strike isprohibited. If we went on strike, they planned to dissolve our union, in thename of illegal strike. We were in defensive position.

Management resorted to vindictive and repressive acts with help ofpolice. For petty reasons they started suspensions and illegal inter-transfers. Frequently police rushed into the factory and terrorized workers

in last part of Sep. and Oct. On occasion of Hudhud cyclone, our 300chemists fulfilled their duties continuously for 3 days (Oct 12, 13, 14) toavoid chemical blasts. Those who could not attend as transport facilitieswere paralyzed, have to be treated as on duty, as per practice and alsolaw, but management did not agree for it. Our union protested on 25th October.As counter action, management stopped 21 activists from entering for dutieson 26th Oct. Naturally, our employees reacted and came out.

Now Management version is that we are on illegal strike for wage revisionwhich is in labour court adjudication. Our argument is that we are not onstrike, instead, our employees were thrown out by management. Withinsistence of Labour Minister, the JCL also issued notice to us to give our

reply to management's letter. He sent the letter of management to us, withhis covering letter.

AP Labour Minister K. Acham Naidu, who is the brother of Late YerramNaidu (Ex TDP Lok Sabha leader) belongs to SKL Dist. and is subservientto corporate. Now he dealt Labour, Revenue, Police departments to savethe Aurobindo management. After being thrown on the roads, our employeeswere not allowed to hold protest programmes in front of the f actory. In 83days strike period, we maintained protest tent there, but this time there is





NEW DEMOCRACY

33 34

no choice.

Soon after Chandra Babu took oath as CM on 8-06-2014, the big corporateheads of north coastal region (VVS) met at a five star hotel inVishakhapatnam, and discussed two things. One is to represent to newCM for Tax concessions and the other to crush TU activities and maintain

industrial peace. Theirdelegation met CM in July.These developments show theAP Govt.’s attitude towardsworking class.

In 8th Oct. talks, the Add.Labour Commissioner openlytold our union delegation (infront of managementrepresentatives) that ChandraBabu has taken this issue and

is dealing directly. He advised us not to have hopes for solution. He saidthat even Labour Minister cannot interfere in this dispute to settle it, thoughhe belongs to SKL Dist. Labour Minister also told his inner political circlesthat he is not able to intervene in this dispute.

This year, Aurobindo has achieved more profits and is the 54 th richestfirm in India and 3rd richest company in newly formed AP State. Only dueto services of employees and workers have they got such profits.

Now, management is getting false cases foisted on our activists. Policeimposed prohibitory orders in Pydi Bhimawaram Industrial area. Our unionheld GB meeting in Vijainagaram town on 30-10-2014, and decided to hold

a rally and meeting on 4-11-2014. But police refused permission. Webargained continuously. Finally they agreed to a silent rally just an hourbefore rally time. Nearly 1500 employees with their Aurobindo uniformsgathered; this gathering shocked the management, Labour Minister, policeetc. So just prior to beginning of our rally, police in large number rushed tothe rally point and stopped it. They argued that we remove our flags andbanners as in their definition a silent rally means this. Time passed andPublic meeting time began operating. Taking into consideration all factorswe agreed. As protest, we wore black badges. But when we started againeven without flags and banners, police cancelled their earlier permission

also. This is the law of Labour Minister and CM of AP.

Previously we led heroic struggles in Jute Industry and we have lot ofexperiences. But now we are getting very new bitter experiences. Theservility of law to corporate is more blatant. Aurobindo employees areyoung and highly educated and are staunchly with us. They are learning

trade union lessons more speedily and keenly than Jute working class.“Modi-Chandra Babu” rule of law of corporate is suppressing workers.Aurobindo is young working class. This working class is fighting bravelyand fearlessly.

AIKMS Protest Dharna at Hyderabad

Don’t make it Telanganaof suicides

Since the formation of Telangana state and the Government of TRS,during the last 4 to 5 months more than 319 peasants have committedsuicide. The agriculture in Telangana is mainly dependent on rain waterand bore wells. There is a huge deficit in rainfall leading to the drying up ofthe fields and loss of crops. In addition to this, there are huge electricitypower cuts. This has further put the farmers at a loss. Ultimately creditstaken by farmers have increased. All these have demoralized poor andmiddle peasants and driven them to commit suicides.

The Government of Telangana is not timely in responding to the needsof the peasants. It is not taking act ions which provide succor to the peasant

community. Even as the rate of peasant suicides has reached around 5 to6 per day, the government has not taken action to help peasant. TRS hadpromised to waive the peasant loans during their election campaign buthas not taken any decision on those lines after they came to power. Rather,it has taken a u-turn on this after its promise of waiver. No decisionsupporting the peasants' needs has yet been taken.

With the demands of taking action to stop the suicides of peasants,demanding the stopping of power cuts, providing 9 hours power supply tothe peasants for agricultural usage, giving support prices for all the crops,





NEW DEMOCRACY

35 36

compensating the lost crops and other issues, All India Kisan MazdoorSabha (AIKMS) , Telangana State Executive conducted a Dharna at IndiraPark, Hyderabad on 30.10.2014. More than 1000 peasants participated in

this Dharna. This Dharnacontinued from 11:00 AM to 3.00PM.

The state President V.Koteswara Rao presided overthis Dharna. Vemulapal l iVenkataramaiah [CPI(ML) ND],Prof. Kodandaram, Prof.K.R.Chowdary, Sajaya, B.Chandra Reddy, CPM RythuSangham, Pagya Padma, CPI

Rythu Sangham, AIKMS leaders Gummadi Narsaiah, Ketchela Rangaiah,K.G. Ramchander, V. Prabhakar, G. Venkateswara Rao and othersparticipated in this Dharna.

The speakers expressed that the corporate has taken agriculture intotheir iron grip and trying to run it under their control, with the policies whichare favouring the MNCs. These are forcing the agriculture sector into deeplosses. The policies of State and Central governments are the main reasonfor the present situation. The speakers said that the India is occupyingthe prime position in terms of number of peasants committing suicides,and in India, Vidarbha is occupying the first position and Telangana is inthe second position.

The speakers felt “TRS is claiming to convert Telangana into GoldenTelangana but at least it is its duty not to make it a burial ground and

Telangana of suicides”. They requested the peasants to not lose theirconfidence and appealed to them to f ight against the corporate policies ofState and Central governments. They strongly criticized the TRSgovernment for having forgotten all its election promises, more particularlythe loan waiver that it had announced for the peasants.

It was strongly felt that a united struggle is necessary for preventingthe suicides of peasants.

The artists of Arunodaya gave cultural performances at the Dharna.

Rape in Uber Cab in Delhi

The MNC and the Comprador vs.

Women’s Security

Aparna

On the evening of 5 th December 2014, a young lady executive of anMNC in Gurgaon attended a party with her friends in a nearby area and wasdropped by a friend to South Delhi around 10pm. From here she took anUber cab for Inderlok. Taking advantage of the fact that the girl slept off inthe cab, the driver switched off his phone and thereby the GPS or trackingdevice on it, activated the baby lock system so that the girl could not openthe car doors to escape and raped her. He silenced her by threatening herwith a rod and himself citing the fate of the 2012 victim of 16 th December.He then threatened her against telling the police and dropped her home.

However she photographed the registration plate of the cab with her mobileand reached the police the same night (1.30am). The outcry in Delhi forcedthe Central Govt’s Home Minister to act fast to deflect attention from therole of the police. He made a statement in Parliament assuring justice,banning Uber in Delhi until it gets a license to operate and calling on allstates to impose such a ban.

Subsequently, a wealth of informat ion surfaced revealing much aboutthe various aspects involved. There also emerged opposers of the ban ledby none other than the Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkhari. His logicis that if there is a rape on a bus or a train (i.e. on a public transport) willthe train be banned? The point is, it is not that taxi but MNC Uber which

provides the private transport that has been banned just as the Govt. wouldsurely be targeted in the case of the train and could even be forced toresign if the movement on the issue was widespread enough.

As information accumulates, it becomes clear that this is a case wherethe willing Govt. has let loose an unregulated service provider onto thepeople while itself withdrawing from providing adequate services. Secondly,there are the rash of MNCs who couldn’t care less about the people ofIndia, but only want to exploit its numerically vast market as fast aspossible. The two are hand in glove.





NEW DEMOCRACY

37 38

Taxi Aggregation Services

The taxi industry has changed in the past few years. First came radiotaxi operators, with companies owning taxis (now all supposed to be fittedwith tracking or GPS services) and employing drivers, with a call centrewhich takes the bookings.

Uber is however a web based taxi aggregation service; i t is ‘A technologyplatform that links drivers and users’. Simply put, it means a middle man(though sophisticated) having contact with taxis on the one hand andcustomers on the other and taking a commission for putting them in contact.Uber has contact with a string of cabs on one hand and customers on theother who approach it through its app. These taxis, in Delhi, belong tosome owners with licensed tourist taxis or even to the drivers some ofwhom Uber itself finances to purchase their own taxis. Any owner can optto put his vehicles under Uber. These drivers usually have an all Indiatourist license and a character certificate from the police.

Each driver is given a smart phone (now Samsung) on which isdownloaded the Uber app, which also has the tracking device (a GPS). InDelhi, GPS is mandatory on autos and taxis on the vehicle. When thedriver switches of the phone he is untracable. Many newspaper reportssubstantiate that drivers simply have to go to the Uber of fice, submit theirlicence and character certificates, are given phones and some training foran hour or two chiefly on how to use the app.

Customers who desire to use Uber’s services must download its app ontheir mobiles. When they type in their requirements, the nearest driver willusually reach the customer within a few minutes. It is a quick service, it isalso relatively cheap for customers while the drivers have expressed

satisfaction that they are given adequate work and fairly. All this spellscertain efficiency and makes it popular among clients including womenwho actually presume the safety aspect. The company prides itself onhaving no verbal communication with the customer; the customer speaksto no one, simply sends in his or her requirements and is quickly given acab. This very aspect backfires on the customer. The company runs nocall centre; simply taking the commissions with no responsibilities once ithas made the contact; in distress the customer cannot immediately contactthe company. That is how it cuts costs to a minimum. In a telling example,in Germany two women named themselves Uber before this company

entered the scene there and they registered their phone no. in this name.They virtually became the call centre of the taxi service, getting calls fromirritated customers, from customers who accidentally left behind theirpurses, keys and cell phones in the cabs and didn’t know how to get toUber’s operatives urgently.

There are three major taxi aggregate serv ice providers in the country.Taxi for Sure is backed by Accel (venture capital fund) and Ola (the largest)is backed by Japan’s Soft Bank which recently gave it a 210 million dollarfunding.

Uber was born in San Francisco (US) in 2010. Its short history bringsout the problems. In the US, its dr iver assaulted a passenger in New Yorkwhile another committed sexual assault. It was banned in Berlin and Hamburgin Germany where it now operates an ordinary taxi service. In the first twoweeks of this December it has been banned in Spain, in Netherlands, inThailand for noncompliance with rules and in Vietnam. The point is Uber isnot answerable for passenger safety from the drivers.

Uber’s attitude to its customers? There are two experiences in Delhiitself where Uber entered only last year (It f irst came to Bengalaru). On 26 th

November 2014 a young NRI on a visit to Delhi complained to Uber againstthe lecherous behavior of this very driver. She was given a so-called ‘generic’response which means a noncommittal ‘we will look into the matter’ andnothing was done as is obvious in the next incident on 5 th Dec. The NRI girlhas since spoken out publicly, regretting that she did not actively follow upher own complaint.

The second of course, is Uber’s response to the current incident. EricAlexander, President of Uber Business Asia, gave the official comment on

the 8th

of Dec. post the ban. ‘We will compensate the victim financially, wewill obey the rules and we will remain in Delhi.’ All in one sentence and allaccorded the same priority it seems. So the question seems to arise thatwhat are the protests about when, even though the company was alertedabout the driver earlier, it is willing to give money to the victim. It is brash,it is business and it is all about the market –if the customer complains thecompany compensates. It is the arrogance of an MNC who knows it is notdisposable to the ruling dispensation which has sworn to be business friendlyand in whose view a woman’s right to personal security and to be notbodily infringed against her will is something to be offset by cash.





NEW DEMOCRACY

39 40

Uber is not going from Delhi; Rajnath’s statement only implies it has toseek a license. He has played for time till the issue cools off. Mr. Alexanderalso said that India is one of the top markets of Asia for Uber, neck to neckwith China and after the US. The rape incident came one day after Uberraised a billion dollars in funding for Asia and also snagged an evaluationof 40 billion dollars. It is used to dealing with criticism. In the US one of

Uber’s executives, Emil Michael, suggested at a dinner gathering that thecompany should allocate a million dollars to dig up dirt on the reporterscritical of it. A top Uber executive has been mired in allegations ofthreatening Sarah Lacy, an influential Silicon Valley blogger.

Where Does Governance Stand?

One of the facts to immediately come to light was that the guilty driverpossessed a character cert ificate from the Delhi police. How did he managethat, when he is a serial sexual offender, unconvicted no doubt. He is now32 years of age and the first complaint of sexual assault was lodged againsthim in his native district in UP when he was 21 years old. Three cases

have been lodged against him under the Goonda Act. Three years ago(2012) he raped a passenger who hired the radio taxi cab he was drivingfrom Gurgaon to Vasant Kunj. The case was closed this year for want ofevidence, though the judge castigated the police for shoddy investigation.The police did not represent the earlier cases, which would not have allowedhim to go scot free.

How did he get the current character certificate from the police-just fewmonths earlier? Knowing the police, scarcely anyone is asking this question.Police Commissioner, Delhi, says the certificate is forged. I t is signed bya DCP who was transferred from the concerned district in Feb.2014 whereasthe certificate was issued in June. Why does the PC not say the signature

is forged? Hundreds of drivers have been telling why. In the police stationsare agents who get them character certificates for a mere eight thousandrupees. That apparently is how all drivers having all India tourist licensesget their character certificates at least in Delhi.

When the police received the victim’s complaint they said that they hadno idea that there was such a service operating in Delhi. Over to DelhiTransport Department who now discovered that Uber is an unlicensedservice and has not obtained a no objection certificate to ply in Delhi.Considering that Uber has 500 taxis openly plying in the city since last

year, whose fault should this be? In August this year the company washauled up by RBI for flouting its directives. The Transport department alsosays that taxis with all India permits cannot be involved in point to pointdrops in a city. Why weren’t they stopped, why weren’t they detected?

Failure of Public Transport Provision

There is a desperate shortage of adequate and safe public transportservices, that too not only in Delhi. In Delhi, as the 16 th Dec. 2012 incidenthighlighted, DTC buses are unavailable even in late evening and that remainsthe case till date. Buses are overcrowded and inadequate and women facegender harassment commonly. Reacting has more chance of swingingpublic opinion towards the offender. Autorickshaws and taxi servicesregistered under the transport services over charge outrageously, are notalways found, do not always agree to ferry passengers and are consideredunsafe due to the behavior of the drivers. That is why those who can affordto do so avoid these buses and this also involves a numerically very largesection of working women who work late hours (in malls, in bars, as juniorexecutives in companies, as journalists, in call centres) and also otherswho want easily accessible, not over expensive transport. They go forthese private service providers like radio taxi operators (Meru etc.) andservices like Uber. They presume the safety aspect. Radio taxi operatorsare not always able to provide taxis when they promise, involve the user intalking to the driver etc. Besides, their norms for safety like a GPS on thevehicle were imposed after this very same driver, while operating a radiotaxi, raped a woman three years earlier. Not only does Uber cater to thissection, it offers cars of choice (BMWs) to those who can afford its higherservices. The former group has a sympathetic backing in students of variousuniversities of Delhi many of whom do part time jobs to stay alive in the

city, and also those students undergoing coaching in Delhi for variousexaminations. They too often work in call centres in night shift. This entiresection is vocal and is active in social media.

There are several discordant notes. The section which uses Uber is notat all against private services but it wants answerability from it, whereasgender safe services are not the priority of businesses. Then there is thepolity in which all parliamentary parties quite agree that privatization ofservices and withdrawal of public expenditure and involvement in these isthe answer and there is no serious policy any of them have to improve





NEW DEMOCRACY

41

42

public transport with a view to common people’s needs. The test case isactually Delhi where, despite the massive upsurge two years earlier whenthe UPA Govt. held power at the Centre and Congress in Delhi and nopolicy came forth, to the 49 day old AAP state Govt. which announced nopolicy in this regard, to the Modi Govt. dealing Delhi for the past six months.Not bothering in the least about providing adequate public transport really

involves contempt towards the basic need of people at large who mustcommute for work and cannot afford private transport.

The Congress criticized the rationale of banning a service for one rape,and wants ‘exemplary action’ against the accused. What is that- unlesssurety of punishment is considered rare enough to be exemplary? Theiropinion before Verma Commission for chemical castration was as muchdisliked as their rule. The AAP took to the streets to demand a ban onsuch services and when the conditional ban came, criticized it for being‘knee jerk’. There are interests of entire ruling class against ban on MNCs

– however condit ional the ban.

The situation calls for women to demand that Govts. must provide forsafe, efficient, adequate gender sensitive public transport services, foraction against the police officer who issued a spurious character certificateand also against policies which involve withdrawal of govts. from providingbasic services to the people.

Hundreds of Miles

Backwards

Mrigank

Inauguration of Modi’s friend’s Reliance hospital in Mumbai was doneby none other than the Prime Minister himself. While delivering his speechhe took a leaf out of the book of Dinanath Batra and started preaching.According to him this book contained references to history of ancient India,and it tells about the great heights of medical sciences that was reachedby those people. Let us quote him “Hum Ganeshji ki pooja karte hain. Koi to plastic surgeon hoga us zamaane mein jisne manushya ke shareer par haathi ka sar rakh karke plastic surgery ka prarambh kiya hoga.” & “Medical science ki duniya mein hum garv kar sakte hain ki hamara desh kisi samay mein kya tha. Mahabharat mein Karna ki katha, hum sab Karna ke vishay mein Mahabharat mein padhte hain. Lekin kabhi hum thoda sa aur sochna shuru karen to dhyaan mein aayega ki Mahabharat ka kehna hai ki Karna maa ki god se paida nahi hua tha. Iska matlab ye hua ki us samay genetic science maujood tha.Tabhi to Karna, maa k i god ke bina, uska janma hua hoga.”

These utterances are not in isolation but in continuation of the at temptsof this Government to change the definitions and perspective of history,science, symbols and reasoning. This is a glimpse of the efforts beingmade by this Government to fulfill the long term agenda of RSS i.e. to

establish that ‘Hindus’ or Aryans were most superior and this has to berestored. And this is done not by raising the level of competence but byintimidating others and terrorizing them to either succumb or flee andsecondly by corrupting and changing the mindset. It is the second aspectwhich is the main subject we shall deal here.

There is an all-round attack to making myths history and history myth,making science look obscure and project obscurantism as science,changing either the symbols or ascribing new values to them. This is avery dangerous practice. Dangerous because it is going to corrupt the minds

Read and Subscribe

CPI(ML) Organs

New Democracy EnglishPratirodh Ka Swar Hindi

Voice of New Democracy Telugu

Biplabi Ganaline Bengali

Inquilabi Sada Rah Punjabi

Lok Yudh Marathi

Sangrami Ekta Odia





NEW DEMOCRACY

43 44

of young ones, dangerous because it will curb the reasoning and scientifictemper (as much as is prevalent), dangerous because it will change themeaning and content and thus interpretat ion of history, dangerous becauseit will establish treacherous people as national heroes and will throw realheroes to the dustbin.

The rise of one Mr. Dinanath Batra to the level of a person advisingabout content of education, rise of Mr. YS Rao as the chief of Indian Councilof Historical Research, are not accidental. Though latter claimed to be nota member of RSS, but these claims do not hide the obvious. Batra, aformer headmaster of a school at Dera Bassi (border town in Punjab) andthen in Haryana, has a long track record of pushing his views into thesystem. He has been main functionary of RSS education wing Vidya Bharati.When one sees his views, they are not only shocking but outrightlyderogatory to other civilizations, and many of them are so imprudent thatone fails to find words to react. His texts are already being taught in Gujaratand they bears a foreword from then Chief Minister of Gujarat, NarendraModi. His book makes references to ancient Hindu texts and cites theincidents, events etc. as true and then goes on to interpreting the writingsas proven facts.

There are many examples. Let us have a look at a few of them. Hecites that royal couple were blessed with children after they worshipedcows, therefore taking care and respecting cows can be the cure forinfertility. As there is reference to Lord Ram flying an aircraft called PushpakVimana in Ramayana, it is enough proof that ancient Indians were wellversed in aeronautics. There are references to two kinds of raths ( chariots)-ashva raths and anashva raths. Former was pulled by horses and thelatter had to be a motor car. How else can it move without horses! He doesnot bother to ponder about the fuel that might be needed to propel such‘machines’. Fossil fuel was not available at that time and the onlyinflammable thing that was commonly used was ghee . He does not eventell as to why there is no description of details of their designs in any of thetexts. Why have we failed to find any remains of those anywhere?Harishankar Parsai, a noted Hindi satirist, once commented that it wasgood that they had made airplanes, but why not a bicycle? Mr. Batra forgetsthe fact that man has been fantasizing and this continued till flying deviceswere actually made. And this was not done just in India or by Hindus but allover the world. Leonardo da Vinci attempted to give real colour to this

fantasy by making a flying machine and failed miserably. But it was ascientific effort. There is no such report of such attempts earlier.

Citing again from Mahabharata he tells that there must have been well-developed stem cell research. There are references to births outside themother’s womb, like the birth of Kauravas and that of Karna. Lord Shiva

implanted the head of an elephant onto Ganesh. This is enough to provethat plastic surgery existed at that time. And much more. There are godsin Greek mythology having body of horse and a man's head, so should notwe infer that such advancements were existent even there? Interestingly,they had plastic surgery but not hip bone repair/replacement surgeryotherwise poor Duryodhana would not have died. They had television as‘evidenced’ by Sanjay incident but it probably was exclusive, otherwiseGuru Dronacharya could see the reality of Ashwathama's death. Pushpakexisted but still a bridge was required to go to Lanka. Why not air attacks?In fact these planes must have been more advanced than any of them wesee today as they did not even need a run way, had no propellers or jetpropulsion mechanism.

This is one aspect. Second is he denounces anything foreign. He evengoes on ridiculing Africans referring with ‘n’ word (use of ‘negro’ is bannedas it is associated with slavery and subjugation) and saying that they speaklike the sound of buffalos. He refers to it many times and derogates them.He tells us that god was making chapattis: f irst one could not be cookedproperly and Britons originated from there. Second one was burnt andAfricans originated from there. Third one was properly cooked and Indianscame from it.

He like others of his ilk also wants to restore Akhand Bharat encompassing Myanmar, Tibet, and Afghanistan. Only they know at which

time in history there was such a huge land under one rule called Bharata.He has been a sort of crusader for his cause. He was instrumental in

making Penguin pulp its publication “The Hindus: An Alternative History”by Wendy Doniger, getting Ramanunjan’s book on comprehensive accounton different Ramayans removed from Delhi University syllabus. He hadbeen filing law suits against NCERT, giving legal notices like he gave toThe Frontline Editor N Ram for using the term ‘Hindutva Terrorism’, albeitnot very successfully. It is Gujarat where he started tasting success andthen ensured banning or pulping of books. And now he is far too emboldened.





NEW DEMOCRACY

45 46

The other gentleman in discussion is YS Rao. He has been appointedas Chairman ICHR. He has very amusing views on history and methods ofhistorical research. Needless to say that they are not at all scientific orrational. He is a firm believer in Caste system and thinks it had played agreat role in olden days and has nothing to do with exploitation. He attributesall negative practices to Muslim rule in north India. He also believes

Ramayana and Mahabharata to be works of history and has started a projectto establish their dates. His logic for this is as amusing as his other logicsare. He says that man had not started writing fiction by then. So it cannotbe fictional. He challenges method of basing on material evidences andrationale as western influence. Collective memory of people is moreimportant in case of continuing civilization like ours is one of his method toestablish historical truth. No prizes for guessing his views on Babri Masjidand Ram Janmabhumi. He wishes to correct the wrongs of past 60 yearsduring his tenure as ICHR Chief.

The list is very long. Let us make a few points. These attempts areobviously to corrupt the minds of people particularly of young ones. Such

attempts were also made during previous NDA government. MM Joshi pushedJS Rajput to NCERT and even started a department of Tantrik Healing. Butthat government was not this bold and could only debate and made somesubtle changes. It is also not that Congress or any other government hasvery progressive perspective. History taught has been communal andeducation unscientific. That was not justified. But this government,emboldened by majority seats, is not only justifying this also glorifyingthese absurdities.

They are attacking the development of ability to think critically. Ratherone must assume something to be true as it has been believed to be so foryears. Can we expect to produce any good scientists, economists, historians

or other academicians with such training? In fact they do not want to. They just want people to be obedient servant s of the system. Now medicalscience will be directed towards achieving the ‘heights’ of ancient India.Disregarding current research, a rational approach, one will be submersedin vayu, kaff and pitta. The empirical observations and remedies will takeprecedence over scientific methods. Interestingly, when the yoga guruRamdev ran disguised in feminine attire after his hunger strike, he went tothe ICU of an allopathic hospital. It clearly shows that what they preach isnot what they believe. By doing this, people will remain intoxicated with

the glory of the past, while our entire research and development will becomefurther and totally dependent on outside world.

Likewise, there is a tendency of saying everything was there already inVedas. Or artificially giving scientific justifications to various customs andtraditions. This on one hand establishes the superiority of scientific methods

as that is what is used (though erroneously) to justify (science never usesreligious texts or customs to justify) its claims. This again is going to

jeopardize scient ific development as al l we need to do is read these textsproperly and there is nothing beyond it. The message is that all we need todo is to read and teach Ayurveda and Vedas. Everything is there. Oneshould stop schools of medicine, science and technology and thus savelots of money and time in "rediscovering"!

All this does not mean that there were no achievements in past. Butdefinitely not that far away in history. Indians have good work in mathematicsand astronomy. Now they are even mixing all this. True, Aryabhata hadmade many observations, but he was not of Vedic era. In fact he contradicts

many ancient beliefs. There is his famous debate with the then religiousleaders when he declared that earth is in space (shunya) and not held onthe horns of Nandi. Bhaskara, who gave many mathematical concepts,was also not of that era. Their achievements cannot be clubbed with theseepics and then used to testify myths. Secondly, India was not alone. Manyeastern countries had thinkers of great competence and there had beeninteraction among them. So many of these achievements were commonand it is difficult to ascribe it to someone in particular. Like the concept ofzero- whether it was Babylonian or Indian has always been a subject ofdebate.

A little on symbols too. They are trying to change or adopt the symbols

of the nation. Like, for example their sudden love for Sardar Patel, Gandhi,and Bhagat Singh etc. The reasons are simple. One- RSS does not haveany figure which is in the consciousness of people of this country. Simplynaming roads and buildings after Golwalakars and Hedgewars does nothelp. They cannot name a single name who has fought against British. Theonly name is of Savarkar, but he too, after apologizing to Br itish, has losthis value. There is also the fact that they do not consider British Raj asforeign rule. They date it to 700 years back when Muslim rulers ruled India,and hail British for removing them. But the common man in the country





NEW DEMOCRACY

47 48

cannot take this- therefore the need of new heroes. Their most popularface and possible nominee for Bharat Ratna, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has adubious history of being a police witness during 1942 movement. They arestealing Congress symbols like Gandhi and Nehru. Worst is stealing BhagatSingh. Release of his Jail Notebook by Modi was like hanging him again.Without even knowing or reading Bhagat S ingh, they are assigning new

values to him. This is disregarding the fact that he not only did not chooseto join Hindu Maha Sabha or RSS but opposed such views. His debateswith Lala Lajpat Rai etc. are well documented. But they will simply demeanhim and will make him some super hero who only fought against British raj.They are doing this cleverly, not only without giving the true views of theperson, but gradually adopting him and ascribing their values to him.

After reducing science to obscurantism, they are talking big ontechnology. Modi’s idea of digital India, talking of Android One in Kashmir,smart city, bullet trains etc. are just a few examples of the same. Even hispredecessors rode hi-tech hydraulic lift enabled Toyota vehicles and calledthem Raths, and used them to spread communal hatred. How do we perceivethe connection between the two? By reducing science to nonsense theyare achieving a few things. One, of course they are trying to prove theconcept of Aryan superiority. It is so dear to them. They want to prove thatanything of foreign origin is wrong and whatever was Indian is not just rightbut greatest. Nothing of any merit could have been developed outside.That is why they are most vehement to oppose the historical theories ofAryan invasion, for if this invasion is a historical truth then Aryan andVedic culture has come from outside and thus things from outside can begood. By doing this they also find a way to justify hatred for other religions.

They also curb critical and rational thinking by making people believe inwhatever has been stated in the scriptures as truth, by believing fantasiesto be fact, and then extolling these. Research will be directed towardsfinding out or establishing the fictitious work. Up to now we have been ableto criticize the nonsense irrational interpretation of history. But with thelikes of YS Rao at the helm, the methods of arriving at conclusions too isgoing to be irrationality. Thus the ability to challenge will be curbed and allnonsense will go unchallenged.

By doing away with scientific methods, they will curb the developmentof science particularly that of basic science without bothering that it is

basic science which can be the basis of any t echnological developmentlater. Thus, technological development too will be hampered and ourdependence will continue to increase. As it is they are not against thisdependence. Not just science but doing away with critical thinking andchanging entire education to some skill development programme to produceskilled man power to cater to the demands and needs of MNCs will also

ensure that we do not have social leaders. We will not have intellectualleaders capable of independent thinking. There will not be good economists,educationists, philosophers, poets, thinkers who could guide and leadsociety and of course there will not be good scientists.

This reminds one of what happened in Pakistan after General Zia ulHaq took over and forced scientific research to be Islamic research.Scientists started researching Jins (genie) and such concepts. NotedPakistani nuclear physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy observed- “The traditionalulema are indeed a problem, but they are not the biggest one; the biggestproblem is Islamism, a radical and often militant interpretation of Islamthat spills over from the theological domain into national and international

politics. Whenever and wherever religious fundamentalism dominates, blindfaith clouds objective and rational thinking. If such forces take hold in asociety, they create a mindset unfavourable for critical inquiry, includingscientific inquiry, with its need to question received wisdom."

It is not being asserted that the system prior to this was very scientificand rational. Governments, right from the beginning, were not interested inpeople being too capable of thinking. But it was not so overt. Vide provis ionof Constitution, which says that scientific temper should be developed,means at least in theory government was not in opposition to scientifictemper. So there was some following of this and at least people trying toestablish this had some acceptability. Even earlier we had Saraswati pujas,

breaking of coconut etc. before every official function and inauguration, somuch so that many scientific projects (including Mangalyan andChandrayan) were preceded with coconut breaking. But now it is brazen,intense and comes with justification. Irrationality and figment of fictionsare going to be the order. Many of the critics, including an article in organof CPM's “People’s Democracy”, have asserted the need to go back toNehruvian era. That era was not golden era. History had a communal flavorand role of Congress leaders was over glorified. Education system was notscientific and pro-people. Yes, there was some scope for willing people.





NEW DEMOCRACY

49 50

Nor were earlier economic policies pro people. In fact current policies are acontinuation of the same. But as there is greater crisis of imperialism,need for such retrograde policies are need of the hour. It is not accidentalthat RSS is being allowed to pursue this.

They want to keep people busy in reading Ramayana, Mahabharata

etc. and at the same time government will increase the plunder of people.They are shamelessly succumbing to the dictates of capitalists and bowingto imperialist powers, inviting them to exploit our cheap labour and naturalresources. And people should remain busy in reading scriptures, takingpride in the ‘glory’ of the past and remain drunk with chauvinism and notlook at this. For them patriotism will be fighting for Gita, Saraswati Puja,attacking critics of irrationality, at tacking minorities etc. They are not averseto foreign capital (all development programs are to be done by FDI),kowtowing to foreign finance (MNCs, imperialist powers and institutions).In fact the PM himself is going around inviting companies to come andexploit. Their national pride is not hurt in being dependent on these things(including Bullet train, Andriod One) of foreign origin. They will be happy in

getting the country looted by these MNCs and letting the large majority ofpeople (majority of whom are Hindus) be pushed back to further desolation.They are the same brand who lick the boots of Michael Jackson whileopposing Ghulam Ali. Their rhetoric is for public consumption and actionfor serving imperialism and its lackeys.

Glaring is the silence of scientific community and academicia in general.With the exception of one or two, no one from the scientific fraternity hasraised any voice. They seem to be either car ried away with so called Modiwave or, thinking of individual careers, are too scared to speak. This silencewill be very dangerous, for they may save their career but will spoil that offuture generations and the future of the country. Powerful stirring to challenge

irrationality is the need of the hour.

Intensifying Contradictionsand Increasing Conflicts

Intensification of the contradictions among imperialist powers in the

situation of decline of uni-polar and rise of multi-polar world has given riseto a number of wars and conflicts in the world. Continents of Asia, Africa,Latin America and Europe have a number of trouble spots and thecontradictions of the imperialist system are bursting forth with renewedvigour. Rise in people’s struggles against imperialist domination and lootin the backdrop of continuing world financial economic crisis and failure ofthe wars of aggression launched by US imperialism, has led to a worldwhere people’s struggles are rising and the reactionary ruling classes areturning to their machinations against these struggles ranging from brutalsuppression to deepening sectarian divides. Strange combinations are beingforged, foes are turning into friends and vice versa. Nothing is certa in except

uncertainty while erstwhile hegemon is refusing to decline ‘peacefully’.Conflict over Ukraine, over its forceful assimilation into western bloc by

western imperialist powers and Russian resistance against it and at anyrate its drive to carve out its own sphere of control in that situation, hasplunged this country into civil war. Russian imperialism has declared haltto its retreat and is willing to confront US imperialism and its allies. Thesituation is being called a renewal of cold war. Over four thousand havedied and over a million have been displaced in this war so far as ceasefirelingers amidst rising flames of war. Western imperialist powers have imposedeconomic sanctions against Russia hoping to bring the Putin regime to itsknees. Russia is facing economic difficulties due to these sanctions and

is fighting its way out by attempts to keep intact its old alliances and byforging new ones. Uncertain of the western market for its petroleumproducts, Russia has reached a huge deal with China, has struck a numberof agreements with Turkey. Putin was in India to test waters amidst IndianGovt.’s bonhomie with USA and its allies. Russia has also reached adefense framework agreement with Pakistan recently in view of changingsituation in the region and beyond and growing proximity of Indian rulerswith US imperialism and its allies.

European countries, beset with economic crisis or stagnation, are being





NEW DEMOCRACY

51 52

led to escalation of conflicts. The economic crisis is leading to rise ofworkers’ movements on the one hand and rightward shift in ruling classpolitics on the other. Huge countrywide strikes have been held in Greece,Spain, Italy, France and Belgium against the efforts of the ruling classesto shift the burden of the crisis onto the shoulders of working masses.Main ruling class parties are in decline in a number of countries as the

people reject ‘austerity programmes’ being imposed on them. On the otherhand rightist, anti-immigrant and neo-Nazi parties are rising in a number ofcountries. Centre is not holding as the social contract is being discarded.Europe is once again entering an era of great disorder and upheavals.

Middle-East, the region with most of the world’s petroleum resources,is bursting with contradictions. Contradiction between Western imperialistpowers and other imperialist powers on the one hand and the contradictionin the camp of western imperialist powers on the other has led to swiftchanges in the political landscape. Swift rise and even more swift overthrowof Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt demonstrates the changing alliances amongthe ruling classes in these countries and the imperialist powers. Upswing

of the people’s struggles for greater democratic rights against the pro-imperialist dictators has been drowned in the blood of sectarian clashesand military suppression. The pillars of US influence in the region, Israeland Saudi Arabia, are facing increasing challenges from different quarters.While Palestinians’ struggle for their national aspirations is gaining worldwide support with people’s pressure building in a number of West Europeancountries to recognize Palestine, aggressive Zionist rulers of Israel aregetting increasing isolated. On the other hand, Saudi monarchy is facingunprecedented challenges even as it is fighting for retaining its influence inthe Arab world and its share in the international oil market. Saudi rulers arebeing increasingly confronted by the rise of armed militias in a number of

Arab countries. Rise of Islamic State, which is a conglomeration of Salafists,Muslim Brotherhood and Bathists, has gained control over sizable territoryin Iraq and Syria. In a recent message, IS chief has called upon people ofSaudi Arabia to overthrow the monarchy comparing it to a snake. Largeproportion of the people of Saudi Arabia are opposed to the rule of Saudfamily and anti-monarchy feelings run high.

Equally alarming for the Saudi rulers is the rise of Houthi fighters inYemen. Houthi forces, which had been waging a war against Central Govt.in capital Sa’ana from their stronghold of Northern Yemen bordering Saudi

Arabia, had withstood air strikes from Saudi Arabia. They have recentlyadvanced to control capital Sa’ana ousting rival militias with some coverthelp from the armed forces of Yemen whose many officers remain loyal toousted dictator Al Saleh. Houthi forces have been able to impose a Govt.acceptable to them in the capita l and have extended their control in CentralYemen. They have clashed with local tribal chiefs, many of them aligned

to Al Qaeda. Houthis are Shias and Saudi rulers are hosti le to them sensingin them spread of Iranian influence. But Saudi rulers are not able to stemthe spread of Houthi control over Yemen, part icularly capital Sa’ana. Riseof Houthis has increased difficulties of Saudi monarchy which is alsoapprehensive of the struggle of Shias in Baharin for democracy. Shiasconstitute overwhelming majority of the population of Baharin. Saudi rulershad militarily intervened to crush the people’s struggle in that country.Saudi rulers are also worried about the unrest among the Shias in SaudiArabia who constitute majority in the South eastern region which is hometo most of the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Saudi rulers’ fears about increasein Iranian influence stem from all these factors.

However, rise of IS to the east and Houthis to the west has forcedSaudi rulers to acquiesce in the extension of talks between Iran and SecurityCouncil members and Germany on Iran’s nuclear programme. Influentialsections in Iran’s ruling hierarchy also want to reach a deal with Saudirulers apprehensive of its replacement by more aggressive Salafists inpower. Extension of these talks served US Admn. too who could not affordto reach an agreement with Iranian Govt. fearful of backlash from rulingelite at home and its middle-east allies particularly Israel and Saudi Arabiawhile extension of talks gives scope to co-ordinate its efforts against IslamicState.

The rise of Muslim Brotherhood in the wake of upsurge of people’s

struggles in Arab countries against corrupt dictatorial regimes supportedby imperialists, had sharply divided the US allies in the region. Rulers ofTurkey belonging to Muslim Brotherhood saw in this an opportunity to reclaimthe glory of Ottaman days, spreading its influence in Arab lands and targetedSyria for their military adventures. Turkey's rulers projected themselvesi.e. Islamists in power through elections, as the model for Arab countries.They opened their borders to the flow of fighters, arms and money to thewar against Assad regime in Syria. Saudi and other monarchies of the Gulfwith the exception of Qatar grew apprehensive of the growing strength of





NEW DEMOCRACY

53 54

Muslim Brotherhood which is opposed to these monarchies. Theyencouraged and financed coup in Egypt by Egyptian Army against PresidentMorsi. US imperialism, which had also built bridges with MB, ultimatelysided with Saudi monarchy. This led to rupture in pro-US camp in the middle-east with Turkey and Qatar ranged against Saudi and other monarchies asalso military rulers of Egypt. Though all of them were intent on ouster of

Assad regime of Syria, they sponsored their favourites among the rebelforces leading to clashes among them. Failure of rebels to oust Assad andbacking down of US Admn. from launching air strikes against Syrian Govt.led to deepening the cleavages in the pro-US camp in the region. With therise of Islamic State and its quick capture of vast swathes of territories,Kurds emerged as the key actors in combatting IS. This new turn alarmedTurkish rulers who treat Kurds’ struggle for their national aspirations as acause for alarm. Battlelines were further drawn when US Admn. launchedair strikes against IS in Iraq and Syria. Rulers of Turkey could not nowopenly support IS nor could abandon them. In this they were supported byFrench imperialists who too eyed to increase their influence in Levante. In

this cleavage stepped in Russia striking economic agreements with Turkey.On the other hand, Saudi rulers are trying to bridge their differences

with Qatar monarchy. Recent Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit inDoha was an attempt to bring all Gulf monarchies on a common platform toconfront challenges facing them. Obviously US imperialism has played animportant role in this immediate thaw in the relations among Gulfmonarchies, thereby further weakening Turkey and Muslim Brotherhood inthe region.

All these developments denote sharpening of contradictions amongimperialist powers with new forces emerging to challenge the existing powersand the borders carved out by imperialists after defeat of Turkey in FirstWorld War. However, these forces utilize the flag of Islam essentially tomaintain the social status quo only becoming new actors in the politicalarena challenging the existing rulers but not existing social relations. Ratherthey stand for further reinforcing them.

Continent of Africa is enmeshed in a number of wars where westernimperialist powers are militarily intervening directly or through their prox ies.A number of imperialist powers are engaged in scramble for Africa eyingits vast natural resources- oil, timber, mineral resources, diamonds and

the like. Imperialist intervention is intensifying internal contradictions inthese countries with different imperialist powers supporting differentclaimants to power. Tribal and religious differences are being utilized anddivisions deepened by imperialist powers in their drive to keep or bringmore and more areas under their control. USA, France, UK and other westEuropean powers remain the main players from earl ier times while China is

gaining influence in a large number of countries. Russia is trying to refurbishits old ties in the region while striking new ones as well. Af rican continentis witnessing a number of conflicts and even open wars. Conflicts in northern,western and eastern regions of Africa are becoming particularly sharp.People of African countries are falling prey to machinations of imperialistpowers who are robbing their natural resources in the name of maintainingorder and in the name of their war against terrorism.

Latin America is continuing to be a front against US imperialism and itsMNCs which have been robbing these countries since long. People of anumber of these countries have rejected the parties kowtowing to USimperialism and brought parties to power which are opposing US hegemony

in Latin America. They are forging regional blocs keeping US out of them,developing regional cooperation and forging trade and defense ties withEuropean countries, China and Russia. China is emerging a leading tradepartner and importer of raw materials from a number of these countries. USimperialism is getting increasingly isolated in Latin America. Latin Americancountries are questioning US blockade of Cuba continuing for over a halfcentury. Even Govts. of Latin American countries supported by USimperialism are not able to resist the anti-US mood in the region. They arealso compelled to become part of the regional blocs. In this situation ofincreasing isolation and the need to restore its influence in the region, USimperialism has, after a gap of over five decades, restored diplomatic

relations with Cuba. This is a clear admission that days of enforcing Munroedoctrine by force are over and US imperialism is forced to change its tactics.This is aimed at reducing the hostility of people of Latin American countr iestowards US imperialism.

One of the effects of intensifying contradictions of the imperialist systemhas been sharp reduction of prices of crude oil in the international market.It is trading at just over $60 per barrel down from over $120 per barrel inJune 2014. While downturn in the growth of world economy and projectionof further slowing of growth in the coming year is the main reason behind it,





NEW DEMOCRACY

55 56

there are some immediate precipitating causes also behind thisdevelopment. At the time of slow growth in the demand in the internationalmarket due to slow growth as well as to production of shale oil in US, oilproducing countries have decided not to reduce their production of oil. OPECin a recent meeting decided against production cuts. Saudi Arabia hasbeen the main force behind this decision. Saudi rulers have declared that

they would do everything to protect their share in world market. The sharpdecline in the crude oil prices has increased economic burden on a numberof oil exporting countries in whose economy oil exports are a major part ofGovt. revenue. Russia, Iran and Venezuela are among the countries affectedby this drop in oil prices. Iranian President Rouhani has termed this drop inoil prices as politically motivated, pointing a finger at Saudi rulers.Venezuelan economy is also suffering from this drop and increasing oilproduction to increase revenue is not the option at the moment. Thisreduction has aggravated the impact of western sanctions on Russianeconomy. Another effect of this drop in oil prices is also stated to be onshale oil extraction in the US which would be uneconomic at these rates.

On the other hand, short term impact on Gulf economies ruled by monarchiesand having small population would be minimal. However, long term effectwould be equally disastrous for them. Regarding oil prices, it is well toremember that in their determination, speculative capital plays a veryimportant role and growth rate projections of future demand is very importantfor speculation. This drop in oil prices would be helpful to mainly oil importingcountries like India but these countries too would suffer from depression indemand due to further slowing down of world economy as they are dependenton exports for their economic growth. However, it would also give anopportunity to oil producing countries to diversify their economies.

The intensifying contradictions among imperialist powers have led to

numerous wars as imperialist countries contend with one another to increasetheir areas of influence and market share in the situation of multipolar world.This situation, coupled with continuing of world f inancial economic crisis,its deepening in several countries and slow down in the growth of 'emergingeconomies' is creating increasingly favourable conditions for the growth ofrevolutionary movement, workers' struggle in developed capitalist countriesand national liberation movements in oppressed countries.

ON CHINESE FASCISM,

THE NEW AUTOCRACY

Zhou Enlai August 16, 1943

(Selected Works, Volume I, pp. 160-176)

I. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Ever since the formation of the Anti-Japanese National United Frontand the beginning of the War of Resistance, there has been a lack ofunderstanding both inside and outside the Party, both at home and abroad,of the essential nature of the rule of Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang, that

is, the rule of the big landlords and big bourgeoisie. It was Comrade MaoZedong who pointed out before the War of Resistance that Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang was wavering and passive and who stated in the earlystage of the war that it was conciliationist and two-faced. Today he hasgone further and pointed out that it is fascist. All these insights have beenhistorical clarifications of epochal significance. Therefore, I would now liketo discuss Chinese fascism.

I must take up a few queries first.

Someone may ask : Why didn’t we say earlier that Chiang Kai-shek’sKuomintang was fascist, rather than wait until now? Our answer is thatbefore the War of Resistance our policy was focused on winning theKuomintang over to the resistance, so we emphasized that it could changeand that it had a revolutionary aspect. At that t ime it was enough to pointout that it was wavering and passive. In the early stage of the anti-Japanesewar, our policy was focused on persuading it to join in a protracted war ofresistance and total resistance, so we stressed protracted war, unity andprogress and opposed capitulation, splitting and retrogression. This requireda deep understanding of the conciliationist and dual character of Chiang’sKuomintang. Now it is playing a smaller and smaller role in the resistanceand a greater and greater reactionary role. Furthermore, Chiang has written





NEW DEMOCRACY

57 58

the book entitled 'China’s Destiny'. If this is allowed to go on, it is bound tolead to defeat in the War of Resistance and the rekindling of civil war.Therefore, we must publicly reveal the fascist essence of the Kuomintangtoday. We did not lay so much stress on this in the past because it hadn’tgone so far as it has now, and not because there were no fascists in it.

Another may ask: Since Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang is fascist, howis it that it can put up resistance to Japan ? Our answer is: Comrade MaoZedong tells us that Chiang’s is a comprador - feudal fascism. Because ofits comprador aspect, when the Japanese imperialists invaded China, theKuomintang could rely on other imperialists in resisting the aggressors,and it played a revolutionary role, riding the wave of popular concern fornational salvation. But at the same time it has a feudal aspect, so now thatthe Allied countries are gradually coming to pay more attention to the Warof Resistance waged by the Chinese nation, it relapses into its formermode of thinking. It wishes to restore the ancient ways and opposeseverything foreign, thus playing a reactionary role. It is precisely becauseit represents the big landlords and the big bourgeiose that it always opposes,fears and oppresses the people, and its resistance can never bethoroughgoing. The proletariat and its political party must win and consolidateleadership in the national, democratic revolution and must never tail behindthe big bourgeoisie. Comrade Mao Zedong warned us on this point at aParty conference of the Soviet areas before the anti-Japanese war.

Then still another may ask: Since fascism means national aggressionand since Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang is resisting the Japaneseaggressors, why do we call it fascist? Our answer is that this is exactlywhy Comrade Mao Zedong calls it Chinese fascism. National aggressionis one of the characteristics of fascism, but not the only one. Chinese

fascism has all the characteristics of fascism pointed out by Georgi Dimitrovin his report except that of national aggression. Both in the past and atpresent, Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang has launched ruthless attacks onthe people, on the working masses. It has even unleashed civil war tosuppress the revolution and introduced rampant reaction and counter-revolution. It has thus become the arch-enemy of the whole Chinese people.It is only because China finds itself in the position of a colony or a semi-colony that the Chinese big landlords and big bourgeoisie are powerless toinvade other countries. Isn’t their treatment of China’s own minoritynationalities based on the sense of superiority inherent in Han chauvinism

and on the traditional notion of a “vassal nations” policy. Even in foreignaffairs, are there not people in the Kuomintang who advocate a greaterChinese federation which would include Annam, Thailand, Burma, Koreaand even the Malay Archipelago? Georgi Dimitrov once said: “Thedevelopment of fascism and fascist dictatorship itself assumes differentforms in different countries, according to historical, social and economic

conditions and owing to the national peculiarities or the international positionof given country.” Stalin also said long ago that the emergence of Germanfascism must “be regarded as a symptom of the weakness of thebourgeoisie, of the fact that the bourgeoisie is already unable to rule by theold methods of parliamentarism and bourgeois democracy, and, as aconsequence, is compelled in its home policy to resort to terroristic methodsof rule”. In a certain sense we can also apply this to the rule of China’s biglandlords and big bourgeoisie. We may say that Chinese fascism is theopen terrorist rule of China’s big landlords and big bourgeoisie, that is, ruleby Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang and bureaucrat-capital through specialagents.

Then again someone may ask: This being the case, why oppose onlythe reactionaries inside the Kuomintang and not the Kuomintang as a whole?Why call only for the abolition of fascism and not for the liquidation of thefascist chieftains? Our answer is: Because the pro-British and pro-Americanbig landlords and big bourgeoisie represented by Chiang Kai-shek’sKuomintang still have a dual character, and they have not yet reached thepoint of being purely reactionary. Since their banner of resistance has notyet been furled, the Kuomintang can still exert inf luence on certain persons,though their number is daily diminishing. Nor has it yet dared to call forfascism openly. (It has not yet dared to acknowledge its true nature publicly,not only because the War of Resistance is still going on, but also because

China’s big landlords and big bourgeoisie are too weak to assert theirindependence). Therefore, we oppose only the reactionaries inside theKuomintang, and not those Kuomintang members who are willing to resistthe Japanese and who favour democracy. Moreover, we hope they will joinus in opposing these reactionaries. Therefore, we advocate liquidating onlyfascism and hope these Kuomintang members will get rid of fascism oftheir own accord and truly put into practice the revolutionary Three People’sPrinciples and advocated by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. And we call for the disbandingof the fascist secret police only and not of the Kuomintang organization assuch. Since the big landlords and big bourgeoisie are becoming more openly





NEW DEMOCRACY

59 60

fascist every day and have even published the book, China’s Destiny,advocating the extremely reactionary view that the Communist Party shouldbe liquidated, we must draw attention to the nature of Chinese fascism andemphasize the danger it presents. This will be not only a warning and aneducation for the Chinese people, and first and foremost for the Party, butalso a most practical ideological lesson helping to rid the Party of any

tendency to capitulate to the big bourgeoisie.

Yet again, someone else may ask: Since this is how things stand, doesthe fascism of Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang have an ideology, historicalroots, a programme, tactics, an organization and activities? Our answer is:

yes, it has. We are going to take them up now under separate headings.

II. THE IDEOLOGY OF CHINESE FASCISM

Waving the banner of the War of Resistance and the Three People’sPrinciples, Chinese fascism nevertheless has its own ideology.

Chiang Kai-shek’s philosophical thought is characterized by extremeidealism. He is very fond of quoting the old saying, “The mind of man isrestless, prone to err; its affinity to what is right is small. Be discriminating,be single-minded in the pursuit of what is right, that you may sincerely holdfast to the Mean.” At the same time, he emphasizes the role played by the“mind” and gives an extremely idealist interpretation of Dr. Sun Yat-sen’sremark: “If I believe something to be feasible, I may one day bring it topass, although it may be as difficult as removing a mountain or drying up asea. If I believe something to be unfeasible, I will never achieve it, althoughit may be as easy as turning my hand over or breaking a twig.” Chiangwanted to eliminate the Communist Party, so he posed as if he believedthat “without sincerity nothing would be achieved”, and stated with a heavy

heart that if he could not resolve the problem of the Chinese CommunistParty, he would not be able to close his eyes even in death. In fact, this issomething he can never achieve because he is lacking in the virtue ofsincerity. Although he had acknowledged the legal status of the BorderRegion in his Lushan interview and despite the fact that it had been approvedby the 333rd session of the Executive Yuan, in reality he wanted to eliminateit and revoked the approval on his own authority. This is an example of hisinsincerity – as long as he can achieve what he wants, he does not evenbother with sincerity.

Chiang Kai-shek advocates a philosophy of “action first”. Its core ishaving the people blindly obey him and carry out his orders without knowingwhat they mean. When Chiang was following a policy of non-resistance, hedemanded that the people accept his internal pacification policy rather thanresist Japanese aggression. In the early period of the War of Resistance,he wanted the people to blindly follow his policy of part ial resistance. Now

he wants the people to blindly follow his passie resistance to Japaneseaggression but active opposition to the Communists. In fact, as early asthe civil war period, it was his boast that if he failed in the suppression ofthe Communists, he would commit suicide to make atonement to his fellow-countrymen, but he has never been true to his word. When he failed, hewas going to punish everyone who was even remotely connected with theenterprise, but he himself was never punished. Before the War of Resistance,he also boasted that, provided he had upwards of 600,000 genuinelyrevolutionary troops who would strictly obey his orders and operate underunified command, there could be no doubt that with his brilliant tactics hecould defeat these little Japanese bandits. But when the Japanese attackedShanghai on August 13, 1937, although the t roops who were strictly obeyinghis orders numbered more than 600,000, we never saw any sign of hisbrilliant tactics for defeating the Japanese. Now that the number of his owntroops – those who strictly obey his orders – is considerably greater than600,000 he stands ready to collaborate with Japan. It is apparent that hisphilosophy of “action first’ is not only an idealist philosophy for keeping thepeople in ignorance, but also a braggart’s philosophy, a gangster’sphilosophy, no different from Hitler’s.

To build morale, Chiang Kai-shek emphasizes “independence and self-reliance”. In fact, because of the comprador aspect of his nature, he relieson foreign power, and he is anything but independent; the feudal aspect ofhis nature sometimes leads to xenophobia, but that is not the same thingas national self-reliance. He stresses sincerity, but he is totally insincere.From the earliest Kuomintang-Communist cooperation to the present co-operation in the fight against Japan, he has been insincere with regard tothe Soviet Union, the Communist Party and the people, that is, to therevolution and the War of Resistance. When he talks about sincerity, hemeans that others should follow him with blind devotion, while he hasn’t ashred of sincerity in his dealings with others.

In his ethical teachings Chiang emphasizes an abstract morality based





NEW DEMOCRACY

61 62

upon the Four Principles and Eight Virtues. But as soon as we get down torealities, we find that he and the ruling group under him have completelyabandoned the Four Principles of “propriety”, “righteousness”, “honesty”and “honour”. They deprived Madame Sun Yat-sen of the freedom ofresidence; they deprived Lin Sen, Chairman of the National Government,of the right to convalesce; they are anti-Soviet and anti-Communist although

they have had assistance from both the Soviet Union and the CommunistParty; and they oppress the people although the people supported them.The whole government indulges in hoarding and speculation and is riddledwith corruption, yet no one is punished. Those who work with the enemyand betray the country or who trade in contraband and pocket the soldiers’pay likewise go unpunished. What sense does it make to talk about nationalloyalty and filial piety when you are cowardly in resisting Japan but takethe lead in waging a civil war? How can you talk of benevolence and lovewhen people are driven to the battlefield by your officials and are forced torise in revolt? How can you utter a word about faithfulness and justicewhen the War of Resistance has been going on for six years and you’restill collaborating with the Japanese aggressors, and when war has beendeclared against Germany and couriers are still being exchanged with thatcountry? How can you talk about peace and harmony when you incite Japanto attack the Soviet Union and your planes are bombing civilians in revolt?Obviously, these idealist moral principles of his are all hypocritical. But hetries to use them to befuddle people and get them to practice the virtues ofloyalty, filial piety, benevolence, love, faithfulness, justice, peace andharmony towards his Koumintang, so that he can oppress and attack themasses more freely.

Chiang Kai-shek’s conception of history is a rag-bag of feudal ideologycentring on a return to the ancients; it ref lects the traditional, all-pervasive

ideology of the exploiting class. In his China’s Destiny, Chiang writes, “Onthe basis of Confucius’ teachings, Mencius arose to draw a distinctionbetween justice and utility and between rule by power and rule throughvirtue.......... He refuted the teachings of Yang Zhu and Mo Di and rectifiedthe hearts of the people. He thereby laid the foundation for the orthodoxschool of thought which has enjoyed an unbroken line of development inChina over the past thirty centuries.” That is why he made much of thestudy of Collected Essays on Government Affairs of the Empire and ChenHongmou’s Five Treatises on Moral and Educational Subjects .

Chiang Kai-shek’s conception of the nationalities is Han chauvinism,pure and simple. He calls the Mongolian, Hui, Tibeta and Miao nationalit iesmerely “frontier inhabitants” and refuses to recognize them as nationalities.So far as his actions are concerned, he practices racial discrimination andoppression.

Chiang Kai-shek’s conception of the state is a one-party dictatorship ofthe big landlords and big bourgeoisie or, more precisely, a new one-mandictatorship-a fascist rule by secret police- under the facade of a nationalstate and a government by the entire people. The reason for this is that themore he senses the weakness of the big landlords and big bourgeoisie, theless he dares adopt bourgeois democratic methods, or even one-party rule,and the more he resorts to terrorism, the rule of secret agents and one-man dictatorship.

Chiang Kai-shek’s conception of war is that armed strength decideseverything. It is a combination of the warlord ideology common in modernChina (the traditional ideology of the Hunan and Anhui warlords, ZengGuofan, Hu Linyi, Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang) and Napoleon’s thesisof unification by force of arms. This is why we call it the “new warlordism”,or “new autocracy”. Because he attaches importance to military power alone,he thinks it impossible to mount resistance to Japanese aggressionindependently and looks to foreign aid. He openly declares: “[Japan] cantake all of China’s coastal areas and all regions contiguous to inlandwaterways not within ten days, but within three days, regardless of wherethey are – in the west, not just Chongqing, but even Chengdu; in the south,not just Guangdong, but Wuzhou and Yongning.” “If they [meaning theJapanese] issue the order, it will actually take them only three days tocapture all of China’s vital regions and subjugate our county.” And again:“What have we got to fight them with? We have neither weapons nor the

conditions for war operations: our economy, education, politics – is anyone of them up to operations against a modern country?” Therefore, hisnational policy concerning the War of Resistance has long been based onthe assumption that “the Soviet Union is the target of [Japan’s] army andGreat Britain and the United States are the targets of its navy. If Japanwants to swallow China, it must conquer Russia, gobble up the UnitedStates and defeat Britain.” But now that Japan, having neither conqueredRussia nor gobbled up the United States, has thrown its might againstChina, he has become worried, passively resisting while preserving his





NEW DEMOCRACY

63 64

either but are subjected to oppression? Both the Kuomintang and the ThreePeople’s Principles Youth League belong to Chiang and have long sinceceased to be the Kuomintang reorganized by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, or theKuomintang under which there was freedom of thought and various politicalgroupings coexisted.

Chiang Kai-shek’s view of the people is that they are just beasts ofburden. That is why he stresses Confucius’ remark, “The people may bemade to follow a course of action, but they should not be brought tounderstand it.” He wants the people to obey his words and abide by his lawso that he can exploit and rule them at will. So for all his talk of “democracy”,the Kuomintang’s power reigns supreme and democracy has long sinceceased to exist. The consultative councils at the various levels, the newcounty system, etc. are all just showpieces designed to deceive people.To go one step further, it is not even party power that is supreme, butmilitary power, the power of the secret agents.

Finally, Chiang Kai-shek’s economic thought is also that of the semi-

feudal and semi-colonial landlord and comprador classes. On the one hand,he prates about a planned economy aimed at industrialization, while on theother, he is longing for the utopian “great harmony” described in the Bookof Rites. Under the guise of the Principle of People’s Livelihood, in effecthe preserves the most backward and reactionary feudal and compradoreconomic thinking, that is, the concept of an agricultural China andindustrialized foreign countries. Not only is this thinking incapable of solvingthe economic problems of the people, it is bound to bankrupt China’seconomy even further; the peoples’ life will become still harder, and it willbecome still more difficult for the Chinese nation to extricate itself from itscolonial and semi-colonial economic status.

In Chiang Kai-shek’s ideology as outlined here, we can discern onlyChinese fascism, and no trace of the revolutionary Three People’s Principlesset forth by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. The idealist views and negative elements inDr. Sun Yat-sen’s thought have been developed by Chiang and have becomehis own ideology. But Dr. Sun’s thinking also included some rationalelements and quite a few revolutionary views, especially in his later yearswhen he drew close to the Communist Party, adopted a number of measuresfrom the Russian revolution and turned his Three People’s Principles intothe revolutionary Three People’s Principles. Chiang Kai-shek’s doctrine is

strength for a civil war on the one hand and standing ready to collaboratewith Japan on the other. As he places great stock in military strength, hesticks to the idea of internal unification by force of arms and stand for “ruleby the military”. During the eighteen years of his rule, f rom the Incident ofMarch 20, 1926, to the present, hardly a single year has gone by when hewas not fighting a war of some sort, and not a single hour when he was not

planning civil war. First there was the incident of March 20 before theNorthern Expedition, and after the expedition there was the split betweenthe rival governments in Nanjing and Wuhan and then cooperation betweenthe two. During the civil war there were wars both inside and outside theKuomintang. During the War of Resistance, there have been militaryoperations against the Communist Party and against other forces not hisown.

Chiang Kai-shek’s conception of political parties is to have all the partiesand groupings in the country dissolved into his Kuomintang and ThreePeople’s Principles Youth League. He openly states: “The Kuomintang isthe artery of our nation and the members of the Three People’s Principles

Youth League may be likened to new blood corpuscles.” And again: “TheChinese nation is able to exist only so long as the Kuomintang exists.Without the Kuomintang, there would be no China today....... In a word,China’s destiny hinges entirely on the Kuomintang.” Hence, he says, “alladults should join the Kuomintang and all youths the Three People’sPrinciples Youth League.” What a blatant exposure of the idea of onedoctrine, one party, and one leader! Yet he still has the effrontery to declare:“As for the different ideologies and organizations in the country, not onlydo I have no intention of obstruct ing them, but I even hope they will growand succeed, so long as they don’t set up separate regimes, oppose therevolution, organize armed forces or undermine the resistance, and solong as they really work in the interests of the state and nation and

revolutionary reconstruction.” I will not speak of the Chinese CommunistParty and the armed force and Border Region under its leadership, for theyare carrying on the resistance and are a revolutionary organization, armedforce and political regime. But why is it that other political parties, whichpossess neither armed forces nor political power, do not enjoy an iota offreedom and, far from “growing and succeeding”, are subjected tooppression everywhere? Isn’t it true that even some groupings inside theKuomintang, in particular that of Madame Sun Yat-sen, which sincerelyfollows Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s Three People’s Principles, enjoy no freedom





NEW DEMOCRACY

of quite another order and is nothing but China’s brand of fascism.

III. THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF CHINESE FASCISM

The fascism of Chiang Kai-shek and his ruling clique has its ownhistorical sources. Chiang always prides himself on being a disciple andstudent of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, but he has long since departed from the rightcourse. He turned traitor once, and now he has again betrayed Dr. Sun’srevolutionary Three People’s Principles.

Comrade Mao Zedong has pointed out that China’s fascism is acomprador and feudal fascism. To be specific, it is a combination ofbureaucrat-capital (that is, the capital, land, and tools of production areconcentrated in the hands of a handful of bureaucrats and financialmagnates) and secret police system. In Chiang Kai-shek we have a mixtureof warlord, stockbroker and underworld boss. His thinking is anagglomeration of all forms of reaction – past and present, domestic andforeign.

Let us take a look at Chiang Kai-shek and his ruling clique. Chianghimself comes from a feudal family. When the Revolution of I9II broke out,he started as a platoon leader under the warlord Zhang Zongchang, and onorders from Chen Qimei he arranged the assassination of Tao Chengzhang,a revolutionary political party leader in Zhejiang, and thus stole the fruits inthe recovery of Zhejiang by the revolutionary forces. Dr. Sun was successfulbecause he had been able to bring together his revolutionary party, theNew Army and the various secret societies. But by their gangster acts,Chen Qimei and Chiang Kai-shek created a split in the revolutionary partyat its very inception. At the same time they laid the foundation for thegangster politics which they have dealt in ever since the I9II Revolutionand which grew out of the alliance of the big landlords and big bourgeoisiewith the underworld gangs of Shanghai, all under the protection of theimperialists.

From 1917 to 1920, Chiang Kai-shek, Dai Jitao and Chen Guofu joinedforces in stock market speculation. Later this tradition was carries on byH.H. Kung, T.V. Soong and others. Then this comprador clique graduallybecame the nucleus of the group that has ruled China for the last twentyyears. It is true that when he was in Guang-dong, Chiang Kai-shek opposedthe Guangdong compradors who served British interests. But right from

the beginning, Dai Jitao and Chen Guofu, who stayed behind in Shanghai,opposed Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s Three Great Policies of alliance with Russia,the Communist Party and the workers and peasants. And no sooner hadChiang arrived at the lower reaches of the Changjiang River than he threwhimself into the embrace of the big bourgeoisie of Jiangsu and ZhejiangProvinces and took the lead in calling for opposition to the Soviet Union,

the Communist Party and the workers and peasants. So Chiang has neverreally recognized or carried out the three Great Policies set forth by Dr.Sun Yat-sen.

Although Chiang Kai-shek organized the Whampoa Military Academyand directed the Northern Expedition, he retained his warlord mentality andhis love of speculation after he “joined” the revolutionary ranks. Even inthe course of his study tour in the Soviet Union, what he really admiredwas not the Russian revolution but Napolean’s Russian expedition. In theearly days of the Whampoa Military Academy, he opposed the Sovietadvisor. When he got arms from the Soviet Union, he began to shout thatthe Third International62 was the nerve-centre of world revolution and that

China should follow its instructions. But not long afterwards, on March 20,he gave orders to surround and attack the residence of the Soviet advisorin Dongshan, Guangzhou. To educate the cadets at the academy, he didnot teach them revolutionary strategy and tactics, but first of all ZengGuofan’s and Hu Linyi’s Quotations on Military Affairs and The Life ofNapoleon. He led troops in the Eastern Campaign and was soon competingwith Xu Chongzhi for control of territory. His expulsion of Wang Jingweiwas a further instance of warlordism. He led the troops on the NorthernExpendition but expelled people outside his own c ircle in the various armiesand created his own private troops. Thus, even before the split betweenNanjing and Wuhan he was already thinking and acting like a new warlord.Nonetheless, so long as he was in the revolutionary ranks, he still had towave the revolutionary banner in order to exploit the strength of the peopleand expand his own forces and influence. But as soon as he went over tocounter-revolution, he became a butcher of the people. And the clique hewas leading followed his every step.

The ten years of civil was showed us this warlord, stock broker andunderworld boss in action. Whether he was dealing with struggles and warsinside the Kuomintang or with the “suppression of Communists”, heemployed the same methods. What’s more, he learned new fascist tricks

65 66





NEW DEMOCRACY

from Germany, Italy and Japan. Over the past ten years he has sent anumber of Whampoa students to study there and has invited the Germangeneral Von Seeckt, the Berlin police commissioner Blomberg and otherGerman secret agents to teach.

From the Xi’an Incident to the sixth year of the resistance he has given

a really marvellous conjuring performance. While we must not forget therevolutionary side of the dual character of the big landlords and bigbourgeoisie in a semi-colonial country as represented by Chiang Kai-shek,still less should we forget their other side, the reactionary side. And he isbecoming more and more experienced in playing his reactionary role. Withthe experience of a decade of civil war behind him, he has been brazenenough to wage a partial civil war in the present Was of Resistance. At thesame time, when he was sure which way the wind was blowing, he couldalso deliberately make a show of restraint. But we should not be taken inby him. There is nothing profound about him once we strip off his disguise.The best way to counter his action is to follow Comrade Mao Zedong’srevolutionary dual policy; adhere to the principle of waging struggles on

just grounds, to our advantage and with restraint; and adopt the method oftit-for-tat struggle.

IV. THE POLITICAL PROGRAMME AND TACTICS OF

CHINESE FASCISM

Although Chiang Kai-shek loudly propagated the Three People’sPrinciples, he never sincerely carried out the Three Great Policies in theperiod of the Great Revolution, and he ignored them completely in the periodof civil war. At the beginning of the War of Resistance, when he advertiseda programme of armed resistance and national reconstruction, he was simplydeceiving people. He interpreted the articles of the programme as opposingtotal resistance, opposing communism and opposing democracy andimplemented them in that way. As a result, he produced not a programmefor resistance and national reconstruction in accordance with the ThreePeople’s Principles, but a programme of fascism.

We may sum up Chiang’s programme in the following twelve points :

1. Carry out passive resistance, while preparing for a compromise withJapan;

2. Betray Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s Three People’s Principles, embraceGerman-Italian-Japanese fascism, oppose Soviet Socialism and rejectBritish and U.S. liberalism;

3. Work in collusion with the enemy and oppose the Communists inorder to sabotage the War of Resistance; make use of foreign aid to fight a

civil war;4. Clamp down on the activities of the minor political parties, bully and

humiliate the minority nationalities, ignore the difficulties of Chinesenationals abroad and turn a blind eye to the sufferings of victims of naturaldisasters at home;

5. Rely on military power, get rid of people outside one’s own circle,build up the secret police and usurp the power of the Koumintang;

6. Trample on rights of the people, deprive them of their freedoms,make use of the bao-jia [mutual-surveillance] system and imposedictatorship;

7. Rely on bureaucrat-capital to monopolize the economy, encouragecommercial speculation and disrupt industrial production;

8. Issue unlimited amounts of paper currency, raise prices ofcommodities, monopolize the people’s means of livelihood and exploit labourpower;

9. Concentrate the ownership of land at the expense of the people’sfood supply and press-gang able-bodied men for military service at theexpense of the labour force;

10. Allow corruption to go unchecked, increase taxes and levies, winkat trade in contraband and carry out arbitrary searches;

11. Ban books and persecute scholars, corrupt young people, threatenand cajole, destroy moral integrity; and

12. Violate law and discipline, debase the national morality, wreck theculture and ruin the nation.

Of course this programme of Chinese fascism is not openly proclaimedand will never even be publicly admitted. Yet it is being carried outnonetheless, article by article, item by item and, if anything, goes further

67 68





NEW DEMOCRACY

than these 12 points. This duplicity reveals the weakness of Chinese fascismas well as its shamelessness and cowardice. How can Chiang Kai-shek’sKuomintang lead the War of Resistance to victory when carrying out aprogramme like this? Without a doubt, it will lead China to splits,disintegration, chaos and collapse. It will lead the War of Resistance todefeat.

We Communists uphold resistance, unity, democracy and progress.We will never allow the War of Resistance to fail. As Comrade Mao Zedonghas pointed out, we must strive for leadership. We must first expand andstrengthen our own forces before we can give strong leadership to others,prevent the middle-of-the-roaders from wavering, isolate the die-hards andfirmly press ahead with our anti-Japanese Ten-Point Programme and ouradministrative programme embodying the “three third system”.

So far as the tactics of Chinese fascism are concerned, they are appliedflexibly, according to the general orientation of its programme and the dualcharacter of that section of the big landlords and big bourgeoisie represented

by Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang.Towards Japan the fascists pursue a policy of alternating fighting with

cajoling in the hope of entering into an advantageous compromise.

Towards Britain and the United States they alternately coax and threatenthem in the hope of get ting their aid with which to pursue the civil war.

Towards the Soviet Union, they blow hot and cold, hoping that theU.S.S.R. will contain Japan, thus making it easier for them to resolvedomestic strife in their favour.

In dealing with local forces and the minor political parties, they combine

threats and inducements in an attempt to sow dissension, isolate us andthus destroy their opponents one by one.

They treat national capitalists, enlightened landlords and senior membersof the Kuomintang now well and now badly in order to determine whether ornot these persons are loyal towards the ruling group.

They publicly suppress – and privately seduce – progressive men ofletters, intellectuals and students, so as to alienate them from us andmake them oppose us.

They keep a close watch on the toiling masses of workers and peasantsand obstruct all their relations with us.

Finally, as for their attitude towards us, everything is aimed at eliminatingus, though their tactics may vary from soft to tough. But the soft tacticsare only a temporary expedient and never mean a change for the better; at

the very same time they are preparing the next tough move. At times whentoughness doesn’t work, they can temporarily soften up a bit. Now take thedifferent periods. In the civil war period, Chiang Kai-shek took a hard line,imposing war on us, arresting our people and killing without mercy. Aroundthe time of the incident of September 18, 1931, however, he supplementedthis hard line with certain soft tactics, such as the policies of inducing ourpeople to recant and planting agents inside our ranks. Since the start ofthe War of Resistance, he has ostensibly turned to unity, but he engagedfirst in veiled strife, then in open struggle. Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintanghas changed its tactics from restricting and corroding the Communist Partyto attempting to liquidate us. I ts policy of using secret agents is well adaptedto the different tact ics adopted in these three periods. It we fail to recognize

the consistency with which Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang has opposedthe Communist Party, we will not be able to maintain keen vigilance andcarry on appropriate struggles against it. At the same time, if we fail torecognize the changes in its anti-Communist policy, we will not be able toanalyse and understand it correctly and deal with it according to differingcircumstances.

V. THE ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITIES OF CHINESE

FASCISM

Chinese fascism is organized. The fascist organization was nurturedinside the Kuomintang and then usurped control of the party; i t was nurtured

inside the Three People’s Principles Youth League and then gained controlof the League; It was nurtured inside the army and then began to rule thearmy. It is an organization of secret agents.

It consists of three branches :

The first branch – the CC Clique – is inside the Kuomintang. It existedin embryonic form in 1926 and after the defeat of the Great Revolution in1927 it was formally established with the Bureau of Investigation andStatistics of the Kuomintang Central Headquarters as its core and seat of

69 70





NEW DEMOCRACY

power. There are bureaus and offices of investigation and statistics fromthe central to the local levels. The power of the CC Clique, that is, thepower of the secret agents, envelops the whole party, reaching into thecountry’s administrative and educational systems, into some of theconstruction and communications institutions, certain financial and taxoffices and banks (e.g., the Bank of Communications and certain privately

owned banks) and into relief organizations, overseas Chinese associationsand women’s organizations. It has a grip on the cultural and propagandainstitutions, including the publishing industry, and the top priority of itspropaganda policy is to combat the Communist Party. The budgetary partyexpenditure of the Kuomintang for fiscal year 1943 is 284 million yuan, thebulk of which will be spent on party activities by the secret agents. Andthis figure does not include special expenses.

The second branch is inside the Three People’s Principles Youth league.Its predecessor was the Fu Xing Society which has become the organizationof secret agents inside the League. The Fu Xing Society existed inembryonic form in the Society for the Study of Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s Doctrines

and the Alumni Society of the Whampoa Military Academy. It was foundedas the Li Xing Society after the Incident of September 18, 1931 and latertook the name Fu Xing. It was incorporated into the Three People’sPrinciples Youth League at the beginning of the War of Resistance. Thespecial task force and the special t raining course under the leadership ofKan Ze were added, and it became the core of the secret agent unit insidethe league.

The third branch is inside the military system, in the Political TrainingSection and the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics of the MilitaryCouncil. There are a number of military secret agents in the Political TrainingSection under He Zhonghan, and even the officers hate them. The Bureau

of Investigation and Statistics of the Military Council was founded by DaiLi in 1932. In the early period, it was secret agent group of the Fu XingSociety under him; now it has become a full-fledged branch on its own. It isenormous, and it has many employees and a very large budget. The bureauitself is divided into departments, under which there are district offices,stations, groups and squads. Its tentacles reach far and wide. Under itscontrol it has the intelligence officer at the various levels, who are directlyunder the second office of the Military Command Department of the army;the commissioners of investigation and statistics in the military organs;

the supervision and instruction group in the border region; the PeacePreservation Department, from its head and the chief of its third sectiondown to intelligence personnel at the grass-roots level; and the civilian andmilitary police throughout the country (except for a few provinces). Theentire tax collection system of the country is supervised by its anti-contraband units and inspection departments. The communications

institutions are controlled by its supervisory departments and supervisorycentres. The intelligence agents among diplomatic personnel both at homeand abroad, including military attaches, are all under its administration andare sent out on its recommendations. It has customs officials and secretagents throughout the national economic structure. Work in the enemyoccupied and puppet areas is under its control. It is also responsible forplanning military actions and intelligence work to disrupt our army and theareas under our control. These last activities are carried out in parallel tothose of the CC Clique.

From all this it can be seen that China under the Kuomintang has becomea country ruled by secret agents. Moreover, the Kuomintang secret agents

have ties with the special agents of Japan and of the puppet governments.Both in their organization and in their activities, they are utterly reactionary,evil, and ruthless.

But, after all, the world is changing. World fascism is moving to itsdoom and Chinese fascism is no exception. China’s resistance will bevictorious in the end; the Chinese people have their own path to liberation.For all the efforts of Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang to keep China on theroad to fascism, the Chinese people will get to know the Chinese CommunistParty and accept its leadership and education, shake off the influence ofChinese fascism, avoid its traps and take the road to a bright future.

China will never succumb to fascism!China will become a New Democracy!

71 72

new democracy, december 2014

Documents