International Situation
UNSTABLE WORLD ORDER
1. The current world scene, particularly after the September 11 incidents of 2001, is marked by great disorder, turbulence, and instability, the like of which had been rarely witnessed ever since the days of World War ll. No country in the world remains unaffected by the ever-increasing crisis of the world capitalist system-the worst since the end of the World War. The US imperialists, in particular, by unleashing a series of wars of aggression, transformed the entire world into a powder keg. The stepped up brutal offensive of the US imperialists worldwide against oppressed nations, people and countries in the name of fighting terrorism in the wake of 9/11 attacks on America, has generated a powerful backlash in various forms. Thus a new situation has emerged where instability and turmoil have further deepened in various regions of the world.
The collapse of the Soviet superpower and the complete integration of the erstwhile bureaucratised capitalist states of East Europe and the Soviet Union into the world capitalist system during the 1990s have not mitigated the crisis of world capitalism but, on the contrary, has only aggravated it further.
The US economy, despite the short recovery during the second half of the 1990s, is in doldrums. The European Union, (Germany is the worlds biggest exporter - $ 893 billion in 2004) which has emerged economically as a real challenge to the US as a result of the closer integration of the member-states and the formation of a single market and a common currency, is unable to come out of the chronic recession. The downswing of the Japanese economy is continuing unchecked since the mid-1990s. Though the recent fissures in the EU and coming to power of the Chancellor in Germany (who is for closer ties with the US) have somewhat eased the immediate sharpness of the contradiction with the US, it is bound to intensify in the future due to inevitable contention for the limited markets.
2. This deepening crisis in the world capitalist system is the underlying basis for the chaos, turmoil and instability that have become the characteristic features of the contemporary world situation. The crisis has further sharpened all the fundamental contradictions in the present-day world, which, in turn, are leading to greater disorder and instability.
While on the one hand, the contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed nations and people is acting as the principal contradiction in the present-day world, on the other hand, the contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat in the capitalist countries and the contradictions among the various imperialist countries on the other have intensified and sharpened further.
The superpower rivalry, collusion and contention for redivision of the world market and for world hegemony-the hallmark of world politics throughout the 1970s and 1980s-has been replaced by rivalry, collusion and contention among the various imperialist powers since the beginning of the 1990s. As none of the imperialist powers is still in a position to fill the vacuum created with the exit of the Soviet superpower, US imperialism remains the sole superpower and the biggest threat to the world people.
The crisis has led to the mad scramble among the imperialist powers for the capture of markets, sources of raw materials and strategic areas, i.e. in the economic, political and military spheres. Hence as a result of it, several regions in the world have become transformed into bones of contention between the various imperialist powers, At the present juncture, the oil-rich West Asia has become the focus of the inter-imperialist contradictions as well as the contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed nations and people, since capture of oil reserves is an important pre-requisite for establishing world hegemony.
Starting with the first US-led war of aggression against Iraq in 1991, Afghanistan in 2001 to the occupation of Iraq in April 2003, the decade-long huge military build-up by the US in the countries of the Gulf, the threats of invasion of Syria, Iran and North Korea; the blank cheque by the US imperialists to the Israeli Zionist expansionists in their acts of genocide of the Palestinian population and neighbouring countries like Lebanon, apart from the brutal aggression and occupation of Afghanistan, have transformed West Asia into a powder keg and a bone of contention among the imperialist powers. Afghanistan is carved up into territories controlled by rival factions which are backed by imperialist powers like the US and Russia. The entire South Asia has become a vast arena of fierce struggle for markets by all major imperialist powers, with the US taking an upper hand.
This is also clearly witnessed in North Africa where the struggle between France and US imperialism (that has few interests in the African continent) are locked up in a bitter battle for control. This has led to wars in the Central Lakes region in Africa-in the former Zaire, in Congo-Brazzaville, in Sudan etc. Using Uganda as a pawn the US had gained important positions in Rwanda, Burundi and Zaire sidelining France. In Sudan, a combined campaign is unleashed by the US-backed countries of Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia to oust the Islamic government in the North by supporting the guerrillas in the South. The war between the French and American oil companies with the backing of their respective governments and their local allies led to thousands of deaths in Congo-Brazzaville in 1997 revealing the insatiable greed of the imperialist sharks and their mad scramble for natural resources. Of late, China too has jumped into the African cauldron and is a stron competitor for sources of raw materials.
The ongoing trade wars, the emerging trade blocs and the intense competition for the economic resources and political control over the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America indicate the intensifying inter-imperialist contradictions and the scramble for the redivision of markets and world hegemony. Moreover, the establishment of new military bases by the US imperialists in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries of the world, is a potential threat and hence is a cause of serious concern for the people of all the South Asian countries, particularly the people of India and Nepal including the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist forces.
All this incontrovertibly proves today that so long as imperialism exists, the source and possibility of war exists.
3. Although US imperialism is getting weakened as a result of the ever-deepening crisis in its economy, the intensified competition from the rival imperialist powers, and the world-wide resistance of the oppressed people, nations and countries, it is trying desperately to establish its hegemony over the world by using its tremendous military superiority and its grip in various fields. Since the beginning of the 1990s the US imperialism has become the biggest exploiter and oppressor of the world people, the biggest supporter of counter-revolution and reaction the world over, and the No.1 enemy of the world people. It has been using the United Nations as its tool for world domination and is facing opposition from an increasing number of countries including even its erstwhile allies in Europe. Through its despicable and predatory acts, the US imperialism stands isolated from the world people as never before. It is the enemy number one of the people’s revolutions in all countries.
Faced with intense socio-economic crisis at home and acute inter-imperialist contradictions with other imperialist powers, the US ruling classes had drawn up the strategy of establishing undisputed hegemony, after the collapse of the Soviet superpower while further hastening its realization, particularly after 9/11. Its new role as the sole superpower was played out for the first time in 1991in the first war of aggression against Iraq. The commonality of interests between the various imperialist powers in looting Iraqi oil, in suppressing the defiant regime in Iraq, and the inability of the other powers to take any other course of action in the given circumstances owing to their economic and military weaknesses, witnessed the unity of all the imperialist powers in the first US-led aggression against Iraq. The various imperialist powers are also united in their Globalisation offensive, as opening up the markets of the Third World countries remains the common goal of all. However, today the US imperialists are not in a position to accommodate the interests of other imperialist powers as was done in the phase of superpower rivalry. With the formation, consolidation and expansion of the EU as a formidable economic competitor to the US, the contradiction between them became more acute during the 1990s. The strategy of the US is to gradually snuff out the competition from other imperialist powers and establish its hegemony over the world market. Hence the US imperialists decided to go unilaterally in their wars for domination and sole control of the strategic regions and to grab the markets of these powers. After the first war of aggression against Iraq and prior to 9/11, the US had built a network of facilities in six Gulf countries. And after 9/11, it had succeeded in entering into new agreements for stationing forces in Pakistan and the countries of Central Asia.
In the name of fighting terrorism, mass frenzy is being whipped up against the Islamic countries throughout the world and against the immigrants in the US and Europe. A sense of mass insecurity is created by the media through a barrage of fabricated lies and myths about impending attacks by the terrorists on innocent citizens and, under this cover, fascist laws are being promulgated virtually in every country. Fundamental rights and personal freedoms are being snatched away in the name of security, and a massive reign of state terror is let loose on people’s movements, national liberation struggles and revolutionary movements. This global campaign against terror is actually an international conspiracy hatched by the imperialist powers and their reactionary lackeys in the Third World to drown the national liberation struggles, the growing militant people’s movements against imperialist war designs and globalization, and democratic and revolutionary people’s movements in rivers of blood, particularly the advancing wave of protracted people’s war in India, Nepal, the Philippines, Peru and Turkey. Thereby the imperialists want to carry out their plunder of the world people through their rapacious neo-liberal policies and to establish their own domination using their military might.
4. The so-called war against terror by US imperialism has actually ignited the sparks of anti-imperialist struggles and fanned the flames of struggles throughout the world, particularly in the West Asia, South Asia, Latin America, North Africa, including in the capitalist and imperialist countries.
To overcome the deepening economic, political and social crises, the imperialists and the US imperialists in particular, have unleashed the most brutal offensive against the countries, nations and oppressed people of the world. Utilising the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon, the US imperialists began to put into effect their long-cherished dreams of global hegemony. The plan for establishing undisputed world hegemony through aggression and war over the strategic regions in the world was drawn up long before 9/11 attacks. The latter were used only as a smoke-screen to step up the bloody campaign at a faster pace by misinforming and misleading the American people.
The US imperialists are desperately trying to control the strategic oil reserves in the Gulf region and their invasion of Iraq is a well-laid out plan to control the second largest reserves of oil. With over half of their oil needs dependent on imports which are estimated to grow to two-thirds within the next few years, the US imperialists had decided to unilaterally invade Iraq. Cheap and abundant supply of oil is essential for any imperialist country to compete in the world market and is a prerequisite for world hegemony. Iraq, under Saddam, had moved towards the EU, Russia and China to whom huge oil contracts were given. Moreover, the payments on oil sales were switched to Euros. If unchecked, this would have led to a massive erosion of the value of the dollar due to the worldwide rush to the Euro may create an acute crisis for the American economy that is surviving on the dollar-stocks held by countries all over the world. It would be a terrible disaster for the US ruling classes and spell an end to the American dominance.
American imperialism considers its military might as a trump card that can be used to prevail over other rivals in the struggle for resources. It has embarked on military adventures in classical colonial style where necessary as in Afghanistan and Iraq going unilaterally even without the fig-leaf of the UN. Thus the desperate and ferocious drive of American imperialism to restore and extend its position for world dominance is leading to an explosive situation in the contemporary world.
Vast areas of Asia, Africa and Latin America are continuing as the storm-centres of world revolution. The people’s wars in Nepal, India, Philippines, Turkey and Peru (though with some ups and downs) are advancing in spite of the active intervention by the imperialists and a brutal offensive by the reactionary ruling classes of those countries.
Popular uprisings and movements of the masses have overthrown governments and replaced them by anti-US governments in Equador, Nicaragua and Bolivia. Some of these are being manipulated by the US themselves which is evident by the election of a Contra chief as vice-president. In Venezuela, spontaneous mass mobilisations have re-elected four times the anti-US government of Hugo Chavez. The armed struggle in Colombia has grown and managed to maintain its base area despite severe repression. All this has been possible due to growing anti-US consciousness and rising inter-imperialist rivalry in the region.
The national liberation struggles are raging fiercely, dealing severe blows to imperialism and its lackeys. The struggles of the Palestinians, had entered a new phase beginning with their second intifada in spite of the compromising stance of Yasser Arafat and his shameless cringing before the US imperialists through infamous agreements such as the ‘road map’ that surrenders the long-standing aspirations of the broad masses of the Palestinians. Thousands upon thousands of Palestinian youth have taken up arms to resist the fascist attacks of the Zionist Israeli state that is acting as a surrogate of the US imperialists in West Asia. In 2006 the people of Lebanon led by the Hizbollah put up a heroic and world inspiring resistance to the US-backed Israeli aggression and defeated the powerful Israeli army.
The national liberation movement of the Kashmiris is continuing undeterred, bravely confronting the vastly superior mercenary armed forces of India. Although over 60,000 Kashmiri youth had been massacred by the Indian armed forces in the past 14 years and the entire state is converted into a vast concentration camp, it remains a powder keg. In 2006, the Tamil tigers who had been compelled to enter into peace talks with the Sri Lankan government by US pressure have taken advantage of the world situation i.e. primarily the US embroilment in Iraq and Afghanistan, to intensify their armed struggle for the Liberaltion of Tamil Eelam.
The struggle of the Chechens in Russia, despite the most brutal war of suppression unleashed by the Great Russian chauvinist state, that saw the decimation of thousands of people and terrible destruction of their territory, continues in its onward march towards liberation from Russian imperialist oppression. The Arab masses and the masses in the entire Islamic world as well as other world people, are particularly seething with anger at the most brutal aggression and occupation of Iraq.
In Iraq we see a classical anti-colonial war of national liberation by the Iraqi nation and people. The brave masses of Iraq, fired with fierce nationalism and anti-imperialism, are dealing deadly blows at the US-British White racist colonizers turning the situation into a nightmare for the colonizers. Caught in the quagmire of Iraq the US imperialists are finding it extremely difficult to undertake their long-cherished aim of invading Iran, Syria and North Korea. The brutal invasion of Iraq and the heroic resistance of the Iraqi people that is pinning down the mightiest army and the most sophisticated high-tech military arsenal ever heard of in human history, is becoming a catalyst for the unprecedented eruption of popular struggles not only in the West Asia but also throughout the world.
Massive anti-war mobilizations have been rocking the entire world with millions of people thronging the cities in all countries that had far surpassed the mass mobilizations that marked the world scene during the days of American invasion of Vietnam. So are massive mobilizations increasing against the globalization offensive of the imperialist marauders.
These world-historic events vindicate comrade Mao’s observation regarding the irresistible historic direction of the present-day world that “Revolution is the main trend”.
THE INTENSIFICATION OF THE GENERAL CRISIS OF CAPITALISM
5. With the advent of imperialism, the crisis of capitalism took the form of General crisis and ripened the objective condition for social revolution. The characteristic feature of the general crisis of capitalism in the era of imperialism is that capitalism as a whole is bogged down in a state of under-utilisation of capacity and permanent mass unemployment and inflation. The continuous massive destruction of productive forces through world wars and proxy wars, through under-utilisation of productive capacities of millions upon millions of people and the destruction of surplus commodities, even as millions of people languish in destitution; are all features of imperialism.
The general crisis of capitalism brought forth all the contradictions in the society to a bursting point-that between capital and labour, between imperialism and the oppressed nations, and between the various imperialist powers and monopoly capitalist groups. The conflict of the productive forces with the existing relations of production thus took on an explosive form ever since the advent of imperialism leading to fascism, world wars, and social revolutions. These will continue until the final victory of the World Socialist Revolution.
The general crisis of capitalism went through two phases.
The first stage of the General Crisis of capitalism began with the First World War and lasted till 1923. The weakening of the various imperialist powers as a result of the war had created an intense revolutionary crisis throughout the world. This was effectively utilised only in Russia. But the failure of the working class in other countries to seize power due to the betrayal by the Social Democrats led to a temporary stabilisation in the world capitalist system from 1923 to 1929. But even the economic expansion of this six year period was accompanied by under-utilisation in spite of absolute increase in industrial output. The stabilisation and boom were only temporary and they soon got bogged down into a more serious crisis in 1929 that could only be resolved through fascism and war.
The second stage of the general crisis of capitalism began with the Second World War and continued for a few years afterwards, due to the massive devastation of the economies of the major imperialist powers (barring the USA) during the war. East Europe, China, North Vietnam and North Korea became liberated from the yoke of capital and a powerful socialist camp emerged which became an effective lever for advancing world socialist revolution. As pointed out by Comrade Stalin, the disintegration of the single, all-embracing world market was the most important economic sequel of the Second World War.
By the mid-1950s all the major imperialist powers overcame the problem of the shortages and stabilised themselves with the help of US imperialism, which emerged as the undisputed leader of the imperialist camp. After surpassing the pre-war levels of output by the mid-50s their economies began to expand rapidly for nearly two decades before plunging into the economic crisis of 1973. The second stage of the general crisis thus ended by the mid-1950s.
The following political events led to the partial stabilisation of world capitalism in the mid-1950s.
· Restoration of capitalism in all socialist countries excluding China and Albania, particularly the restoration of capitalism in Russia, and the derailment and betrayal of the Communist movement by the revisionist leadership of the communist parties.
· Open betrayal of the anti-imperialist movements and national liberation struggles by the comprador bourgeoisie and feudal classes subservient to imperialism in several colonial and semi-colonial countries.
· Defeat of the revolutionary struggles in capitalist countries as a result of the betrayal by the revisionist leaderships of the various communist parties.
· Emergence of the US imperialists as the most powerful imperialist country at the cost of the adversaries as well as allied imperialist countries.
This long post-war expansion of the world economy was based on a number of special factors such as :
(a) The rebuilding of the war-ravaged economies of West Europe and Japan by the US-led imperialism to erect as a bulwark against socialism.
(b) Major regional wars in Korea and Indo-China and scores of local wars which generated a continuous demand for arms and other industrial goods and machinery from the imperialists.
(c) The emergence of peace-time permanent arms economies.
(d) The expansion of new markets in the Third World through the export of imperialist finance capital and also to reorient the semi-feudal relations to some extent in various countries.
(e) Rapid development of technology both in old industries and creation of new industries that led to rapid increase in productivity.
(f) Formulation and implementation of the Breton-Woods institution such as IMF, WB, UNO, dollar as the common currency, the initiation of GATT discussion and its conclusion to the formation of WTO
(g) And, the most important of all, state intervention in the economies both as buyer and consumer and enormous credit expansion in all sectors.
But all these had reached a saturation point by the early 1970s and the myth of an uninterrupted expansion of the world economy was shattered as it entered into a long period of stagnation from 1973. This crisis emerged on the surface in the backdrop of the devastating defeat suffered by the US imperialists in the heroic national liberation war of the Vietnamese and other Indo-Chinese people and the emergence of the erstwhile soviet social imperialism as a rival superpower for the redivision of the world.
Thus the annual growth rate of the US dropped to 2.6%, that of Western Europe to 2.2% and of Japan to 3.9% between 1973-89, from 4%, 4.7% and 9.6% respectively during the preceding period of expansion. Long-term decline in the average rate of profit in all imperialist countries, mass unemployment and inflation (or rather stagflation as the historically new post World War-II phenomenon was being called), and excess capacity in industries marked the capitalist economies in the period after 1973.
Thus overall, the crisis in the world capitalist system is permanent and absolute while the recovery is temporary and relative. Such is the nature of the general crisis of capitalism that encompasses the entire world.
6. The severe crisis in the world capitalist system since the mid-1970s arose out of falling rates of profit, over-production and excess capacity due to global recession and intense competition among the various TNCs and MNCs in a near-stagnant world market.
It drove international capital to re-structure the world economy and to seek unproductive and speculative spheres of capital investment. The Keynesian solution to the capitalist crises and the so-called welfare-state economics failed miserably in solving the inherent crisis and contradictions of the capitalist system. The neo-liberal economics or monetarist theory became the catchword of international capital since the mid-1970s. Later, a new offensive on the world people through globalisation, privatisation and liberalisation was brought forth after the mid-80s as the solution to the crisis. The spectacular advances made in information technology due to the development of satellite communications has made it possible for the flow of capital across national borders in seconds as well as for subdividing the production processes into several small operations spread across several countries but controlled from a single centre.
Thus the three factors, namely:
1) The need to relocate production to cheap wage areas by the giant TNCs and MNCs thereby also leading to the reduction of the wages in the capitalist countries;
2) The need to shift imperialist short-term speculative capital freely from one corner of the globe to another in search of maximum returns in the shortest possible time; and
3) The need to ensure re-payment of the debts incurred by the oppressed countries to the transnational banks and the imperialist governments, required that a world without borders be created for the free flow of capital, goods, services and labour across all countries without any restrictions whatsoever on the part of the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. This is the meaning of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation. And it is in order to achieve this objective that structural adjustment programmes were brought forth and began to be imposed on many countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America after the mid-1980s and even more countries during the 1990s. At the same time, the imperialist countries resort to protectionism through tariffs on the commodities from the Third World countries along with massive subsidies to their own products thus exposing their double standards.
The extent of globalisation of production and capital accumulation can be seen from the rapidly growing intra-firm trade, sales by foreign affiliates of TNCs, etc.
The American, European and Japanese TNCs and MNCs require the complete removal of investment and trade restrictions among countries and regions. To enhance the profitability of these global corporations and to facilitate their entry into the cheap wage areas of Asia, Africa and Latin America, the World Bank and its sister agencies launched massive programmes for developing infrastructure such as roads, railways, Tele-communication, power generation, etc. The policies of the governments of these countries are being changed to suit the new requirements of international capital.
Dictated by the needs of global accumulation, regulatory mechanisms in the form of the WTO are established to guarantee free spatial mobility of all forms of capital-money, productive and commodity capital. While the focus prior to the Uruguay round of GATT (1986-95) was on reducing restrictions on the mobility of commodity capital, it shifted to the creation of an un-fettered and un-regulated network for investment and realisation of capital following the Uruguay round and the formation of the WTO. Thus trade-related investment measures (TRIMS), trade related intellectual property (TRIPS), general agreement on trade in services (GATS), etc. are forced upon the oppressed countries to ensure free mobility of commodity capital, money capital and productive and speculative capital into all sectors.
Globalisation of production, by reducing the industries in the backward, oppressed countries to the status of mere parts of the global factories has led to unprecedented crisis in these economies which will worsen as the crisis in the world economy intensifies further.
Moreover, globalisation has led to the massive flows of short-term speculative capital (portfolio capital) into the oppressed countries. As a consequence, these economies have become most vulnerable to every crisis in the world economy. They are at the mercy of the whims and needs of speculative capital. Any sudden withdrawal of foreign funds can even lead to the collapse of economies as illustrated recently by Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and South Korea and earlier by Mexico, Argentina and other Latin American countries. The crisis has affected the greater part of the globe due to the close integration of the various individual economies. The crisis in the economies of the so-called Asian Tigers and the Newly Industrialising Economies (NIEs) has exposed the myth of the miracle growth spread by the World Bank-IMF-WTO combine. It has shown that even the fastest-growing economy may collapse any moment if its growth is based on the prescriptions of IMF-World Bank.
Presently, the so-called growth in the world economy is actually speculation-driven and does not correspond at all to the real economy. Of the four factors that seemed to buoy up the world capitalist economy, three—the high-tech and dotcom, the stock market, and the dollar build-up—have already taken a nosedive in the three years since 2000 and the real estate bubble is about to burst anytime. In fact, the bankruptcies that had come on the crest of the high-tech internet boom of the 1990s are mind-boggling—ITV Digital, World Crossing, Enron and now WorldCom, and so on, with the last two companies losing $70 bln and $90 bln respectively. Profitability is still 40% below its peak in 1997. The latest figures show that profits, as a share of income, have been falling in every year since 1997. There is little sign of any recovery in business investment. And the surge in the spending by the US government is only due to its “homeland security” and its so-called “War on Terror”.
Overcapacity plagues virtually every capitalist country and even some of the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America such as China, India, South Korea, Brazil, Mexico, and so on. Hence intense competition is even driving the prices of some of the commodities down leading to deflationary conditions. Excess capacity is particularly severe in computer chips, steel, cars, textiles, and chemicals. The world output gap-between industrial capacity and usage-is now close to its highest levels since the 1930s.
Debt- dependent growth today characterizes every economy in the world thus further extending the crisis in space and time.
While the US national debt was equal to its GNP by 1985, the average debt GNP ratio of the G-7 countries (USA, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada) reached 60% by the beginning of the 1990s. The entire debt of the 24 OECD countries in 1994 was $ 13 trillion, with the US leading at $ 5 trillion and EU at $ 4 trillion. Japan’s economy is now at its lowest level for six years. Prices are now back at 1990 levels. Such trends have not been seen since the 1930s. Japanese national debt is at 130% of GDP. The countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America are facing the most severe debt crisis with many countries declaring their inability to pay the debts incurred.
Not only is the growth rate of the world economy as a whole slowing, but the relative strength of the United States is continuing to weaken. In 1950, the United States accounted for about half of the world GDP, has fallen to around 1/5th by 2003. In 1960 US accounted for almost half of the worlds’s stock of global foreign direct investments, it reduced to around 20% by 2001.
The massive intervention by government in order to come out of the crisis through huge borrowings and deficit financing are turning futile. Today the prospects of a crisis of the speculation driven world financial and banking system have greatly increased. This will further accentuate the crisis of the capitalist economy as well as the debt-ridden backward countries. All these factors point to the unfolding of a revolutionary crisis on a world scale in the future.
7. The complete opening up of the economies of East Europe, Soviet Union and China due to their total integration into the world market has hardly been able to mitigate the severity of the world economic crisis. The Russian economy has recovered significantly from its chronic crisis in the 90s. Taking advantage of the growing world demand for oil and gas it has strengthened its economy and achieved growth. The Russian ruling classes have achieved a degree of stability not seen since the collapse of erstwhile Soviet Union. This growing strength of the Russian economy has reduced their dependence on the US and increased their ability to resist the US incursions into their spheres of influence. The US has already been ousted from many of the CIS countries and Russia is playing an active diplomatic role in West Asia and the Balkans.
China has become the fastest-growing market for imperialist capital and consumer goods and has been attracting massive foreign investment. Since 1978 China’s growth rate per year has been 9.5%. In 2005 it became the world’s largest exporter with 6% of the world total. It also became the world’s largest recipient of foreign direct investments. China today is the leading producer in the world for over 100 kinds of manufactured goods. The market for the goods it produces is very meager in China itself. There is pressure to produce cheaply and sell in foreign markets. Also the investments in many important sectors of the economy are being overdone leading to massive over-capacity and over-production. There has been a decline in the number of new workers for every percentage increase of output. Also there has been a large loss of manufacturing jobs - 15 million between 1995 and 2000. There is rising capital –labour ratio (organic composition of capital) at the same time as a tendency to over-production which can only be relieved if ever increasing exports are sold for declining prices. The boom in the Chinese economy is based on the two factors of ever-intensifying exploitation of the working class and peasantry at home and aggressive marketing of cheap commodities worldwide, including the USA. It is the interconnections with the world economic system which has enabled China to maintain its massive level of accumulation and keep at bay the economic crisis. Particularly important has been the ability of the US to absorb Chinese exports. But the US has been able to do this only by its ever- increasing borrowings from the rest of the world. (China lends 10% of its GDP to the US by way of Treasury bonds). The US, and to a certain extent, Europe, holds up the Chinese economy by buying its excess production as imports and the Chinese holds up the US economy by lending to maintain the present level of consumption. China also played an important role in the recovery of the East Asian economies from their crisis in the late ‘80s. China absorbs at least 30% of the exports from the East Asian economies. At the same time the Chinese boom has also provided a massive market for raw materials and agricultural products from previously recession-hit economies of Brazil and Argentina as well as oil form Venezuela. In that sense US sucks in imports from China while China in turn sucks in imports form East Asia and Latin America. This economic position of China gives it a position to assert itself politically and economically thereby intensifying contradictions in the imperialist world system. However, this whole development is based on a very delicate balance which can get easily disturbed leading to serious economic crisis of global proportions. It is also likely to increase its political and economic assertion thereby intensifying its contradictions with the imperialist countries.
8. All the fundamental contradictions in the world are getting sharpened, viz.:
i) The contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed nations and peoples;
ii) The contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat in the capitalist and imperialist countries;
iii) The contradiction among imperialist countries and among monopoly capitalist groups.
The fourth fundamental contradiction – the contradiction between the socialist camp and the imperialist camp – disappeared with the degeneration of the last socialist bases in Albania and China. After comrade Mao’s demise in 1976, because of the betrayal by the renegade Deng clique, the proletariat failed to prevent the capitalist restoration. The struggle between socialism and capitalism will continue to exist through out the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution. Today it is manifested chiefly in the ideological, political and cultural spheres and as a struggle between the two contending classes - the proletariat, representing the forces of socialism, and the bourgeoisie, representing capitalism. The victory of revolutions in one or a few countries and the re-emergence of a socialist camp will once again bring the fourth fundamental contradiction into existence.
Out of these contradictions, the contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed nations and people is the principal one. At present this contradiction influences and determines the other contradictions.
It is in the context of the intensifying general crisis of capitalism that one has to analyse the great changes that are taking place in world politics, particularly the collapse of the Soviet Union as a superpower and its political disintegration, the weakening of US imperialism and the inter-imperialist collusion and contention, the growing worldwide fascist offensive, the wars of aggression by imperialism led by the US for the exclusive control of world market and resources, the danger of world war and the increasingly favourable situation for developing revolutionary struggles all over the world.
SHARPENING OF THE FUNDAMENTAL CONTRADICTIONS
Asia, Africa, Latin America: The Storm-Centres of the world revolution
9. As imperialism had to beat a hasty retreat due to the unprecedented people’s upsurge in the colonies and semi-colonies in the wake of the decade-long revolutionary crisis following World War II, it began to adopt neo-colonial policies and methods of indirect rule, plunder, exploitation and control of these oppressed nations in place of direct colonial rule and plunder. Through its lackeys - the comprador ruling classes in these oppressed countries - imperialism increased its exploitation of entire nations by shifting the burden of its own crisis on to the backs of the vast majority of the oppressed people.
As imperialism got bogged down in the most serious crisis in its post World War II history, particularly from 1973, it further intensified its attacks on the oppressed nations trying to undermine even their so-called sovereignty. Through privatisation and liberalisation, sharp cuts in government expenditures, scrapping of subsidies, credit squeeze, devaluation, debt-to-equity swaps, free and unhindered flow of imperialist goods, services and capital, export-oriented strategy and such other anti-people policies, indigenous industry is being systematically eliminated creating unprecedented economic, social and political crisis in these countries. Unemployment and inflation have become permanent features of these economies, poverty and malnutrition have become the real growth sectors in the oppressed countries. Countries, which were self-sufficient in food grains, have been reduced to chronically famine-ridden regions dependent totally on imports for their very survival. Such a pathetic situation has been brought about due to the treachery and outright surrender of the ruling classes of the oppressed nations to the imperialists after the latter were compelled to adopt the neo-colonial policy of indirect rule, control and exploitation when they found it impossible to continue their direct colonial rule in the face of the growing tide of people’s struggles.
The crisis in the oppressed countries had become particularly acute since the beginning of the 1980s as they were compelled to repay the massive debts they had incurred during the preceding decades especially during the 1970s as a result of the excessive lending by the private commercial banks of the West, and more particularly, due to the high spending on armaments encouraged by the superpowers as part of their rivalry for world hegemony. As the acute recession in the advanced capitalist countries brought down the demand for bank loans since 1973, the commercial banks began to lend to the oppressed countries in order to find profitable outlets for their vast accumulated cash reserves. The total debts of oppressed countries in 1973 were $130 billion. It increased to $ 1.90 trillion in 1995 and to….at present. Most of these debts were used by the ruling classes either for arms imports and increasing their defence, or for importing luxury goods for the tiny upper elite or tucked away in Swiss Banks and converted into personal property as exemplified by Marcos, Suharto, Mobutu and the like. In turn, these comprador ruling elites, bowing to the dictates of the imperialists, sold out the interests of their countries to the omnipotent TNCs. Starting with Chile, several debt-ridden oppressed countries have been compelled to sell off their assets to reduce their external debts and to encourage foreign direct investment in every sector of the economy.
Earlier, until the onset of the crisis in the early 1970s, imperialist capital in the oppressed countries was mainly concentrated in mining, light industry and in the processing of key raw materials for their industries abroad. But in the past two decades, and particularly in the globalisation phase since the 1980s, most of the production units have begun to be shifted to low-wage countries.
In Mexico, two-thirds of state-owned enterprises have been privatised at throw-away prices. Seven out of 10 Africans suffer from malnutrition today. Malnutrition had spread to more than a third of the population of Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico. In oil-rich Venezuela, 80% of the population now lives below poverty line. In Peru, only 25% of the workforce is employed and 83% of the population is underfed.
In countries like Myanmar (Burma), Nepal and Bangladesh, under employment is as high as 40 to 50%. Exploitation of women and children is taking bizarre dimensions through the Export Processing Zones or Free Trade Zones and sub-contracting firms in the oppressed countries such as the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Thailand.
By 1996, out of a total world population of over 6 billion, 3.5 billion people (70%) shared a mere 5.6% of global income between themselves. The annual income of the world’s top 350 billionaires in that year was equal to the wealth of 2.5 billion of the world’s poorest people, representing 45% of the global population. 2.4 billion of the 6 billion people of the world lived below the poverty line.
Immeasurable wealth is being transferred from these countries to the imperialist countries through profits from imperialist investments in industry, service, trade, through technology transfer, royalties, monopoly prices, brain drain and numerous other ways.
Through their total monopoly over information technology, the imperialists have launched aggressive cultural invasion of the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America on a scale unheard of in world history. Just a handful of imperialist companies control virtually the entire electronic and print media, the Internet, and all sources of information that spread the imperialist-sponsored programmes, propaganda and culture throughout the world. Local cultures are being swamped and destroyed along with the national economies with the onslaught of globalisation.
By shifting the burden of its economic crisis on to the oppressed nations, imperialism has not only created social, political and cultural crises but also ecological crisis in these countries. The narrow short-term motives for profit of these TNCs has led to land, water and atmospheric pollution in most regions of the third world, to acid rain as in South Korea, to genocides through poison gas leaks as in Bhopal, destroying plant, animal and marine-life through dumping of hazardous industrial wastes into the seas, rivers and forests of the oppressed countries.
With the active support and financial help from imperialist agencies, NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations) are spreading their net in the oppressed countries. Governments are deliberately reducing expenditure on welfare schemes and instead giving NGOs the responsibility of welfare schemes and thus providing greater scope for such organisations. The NGOs try to create illusions among the masses and divert them, thereby helping imperialism.
The indiscriminate exploitation and plunder of the Third World countries by the imperialists has given rise to massive people’s movements, national liberation struggles and revolutionary movements led by the proletariat. It had accentuated the contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed nations and people of the world.
The revolutionary movement in Nepal led by the Maoists was successful in utilizing the gains it had made in the people’s war to generate a powerful people’s upsurge and got rid of the hated monarch Gyanendra. Nepal’s Maoists have formed base areas in vast areas of the country. But, the latest developments and the Party’s position on multi-party democracy is disturbing to Maoists throughout the world. The revolutionary armed struggle in the Philippines has not only held its own in the face of US backed repression but it has also managed to grow in the last few years. It continues to be an important centre of the Maoist led armed struggles in the world.
Armed struggle led by Maoists continues despite the setbacks in Peru. Turkey too faced heavy losses of leadership of one of the Maoist parties, but the Maoist movement continues to grow there. In spite of heavy losses the Maoist movement in Bangladesh is striving to sustain. There has been a recent birth of a Maoist Party in Bhutan and the re-organization of the Maoist party in Indonesia.
The people of Palestine have been continuously waging a bitter struggle against the occupying Israeli forces. Not only have there been massive mobilizations of the Palestinian people, the guerrilla fighters and militants have launched rocket and bomb attacks against the Israeli occupiers. The masses, fed up with the totally compromising approach of the PLO leadership, elected the militant Hamas into government in the recent Palestinian elections- thereby undoing all the work that the US and the European union had put into getting a PLO leadership which would accept an utterly subordinate position to Israel.
The people of Lebanon led by Hizbollah gave a humiliating defeat to the Israeli forces in a 33-day war in 2006. The whole war was initiated by the US whose main aim was to smash the Hizbollah in order to deal a blow to Iran and its influence on Shias in Iraq. But the Lebanese people led by the Hizbollah fought in a valiant manner inspiring the anti imperialist masses all over the world.
In Afghanistan, the coalition forces led by US imperialism is facing serious war of resistance from the people. The puppet regime of Hamid Karzai cannot even step out of its offices without the protection given by the US troops, leave alone govern the country. In fact, outside of Kabul, the Hamid Karzai government has no control and it is reported that over 30% of the country is in the hands of Taliban fighters. The remaining part of the country is divided between various warlords who are asserting their independence from the puppet regime.
The focal point of the anti-imperialist struggle in the present-day world has become Iraq. The Iraqi masses have, in the last 4 years of American occupation, intensified their armed struggle. US imperialism has got bogged down in war from which it is neither able to advance nor retreat. On an average the Iraqi guerrillas are daily launching 100 attacks on the occupying forces and their local stooges. The puppet government cannot function beyond a cordoned-off area in Baghdad. The heroic resistance of the Iraqi people is the main reason why the US imperialists are being inhibited from carrying out their threats on other countries. Also the Iraqi resistance has increased the contradictions within sections of the US ruling classes and also among the various imperialist powers. In fact the blows and losses that the Iraqi people are inflicting on the US-led forces is forcing public opinion in the US and the western countries against this illegal occupation. The US-led armed forces are also rapidly losing their morale to fight this patently illegal and unjust war on behalf of their country’s monopoly capitalists. The heroic Iraqi resistance is also having its effect on other contradictions in the world. For instance, all over the Arab world the masses are increasingly showing their disgust with their rulers for going along with or showing token opposition to the US occupation of Iraq. In Iran, the Iraqi resistance has emboldened the new government led by Ahmadinejad in opposing the US pressures on their nuclear program.
In Latin America, there have been spontaneous eruptions of anger by the toiling masses and middle classes against the effects of the economic crisis and the neo-liberal policies being followed by pro-US governments. The mass resistance to the various attempts to oust Chavez in Venezuela by the US has been a significant indicator of the growing anti-US and democratic sentiment in this continent. This has made the environment more favourable for anti imperialist political movements worldwide.
Vast areas of Asia, Africa and Latin America are continuing as the storm-centres of world revolution.
Resurgence of the proletarian and people’s movements
10. The capitalists have been resorting to various methods to counter the falling rate of profit and to shift the burden of their crisis onto the backs of the working class. These include: mergers to cut costs through the elimination of a part of the work force; increasing labour productivity through speedups; closure of less-profitable industry; and finally shifting entire production units to low-wage areas thereby exploiting the cheap labour of backward countries along with intensifying the rate of exploitation of the workers at home. Through restructuring the monopolist bourgeoisie aims at creating a high degree of job insecurity among the workers by creating a vast reserve supply of labour and thereby depressing the real wages to a miserable level. For example it is estimated that US corporations alone make a saving of $ 150 billion in wages by transferring jobs to low wage areas in the backward countries.
The workers in the imperialist countries are forced to wage bitter battles against wage cuts, speed-ups, retrenchments, scrapping of welfare measures and for other lost rights. Most of the states in the US run huge deficits and have scrapped most of the welfare measures. As a result, the blacks and the coloured people in the US have become the hardest hit. The inner city ghettos (slums) are growing in number. The living conditions of even middle class people are declining drastically. Contract labour, part-time and temporary jobs have become the feature of all the industrialised countries today. It is estimated that US corporations save as much as $ 300 billion through such measures.
The disparities between the rich and the poor in the capitalist countries had never been as acute as today. The top 1% of American families have never held so much of the nation’s wealth in this century as now. While they owned one-third in 1945, which fell to 22% in 1976, it had increased to around 43% today. The world’s richest man, Bill Gates, the owner of Microsoft, personally owns more wealth than the bottom 40% of US population. Whereas in 1980, the salaries and bonuses of the top business executives were 42 times larger than the pay of the average American factory worker, now they are 419 times larger. And, in sharp contrast, between 1983 and now, the poorest 40% of Americans saw their wealth shrink from $4,400 to just $900.
In the entire West Europe, Japan and America, workers are getting organised into more militant unions to win back their lost rights as the danger of losing jobs threatens every worker. During the last two years there have been major strike actions of workers and various types of employees i.e. teachers, health workers, public sector employees, etc., in Germany, France and England. Also there has been growing resistance to the racist and discriminatory policies against coloured migrant workers in Europe and in the USA. In France, poor migrant Muslim youth and toiling people revolt against the racist dealings of the state. For over five days the whole of France came to a stand-still owing to the violent mass protests of these populations.
In East Europe and the former Soviet Republics (particularly Russia and the Ukraine) and China, the working class struggles have gained momentum against privatisation, price rise, unemployment and the free market policies.
Social Democracy and modern revisionism are still a force in the working class movements in the imperialist countries and in the oppressed countries. In some of the countries like France, Germany, Italy, Spain, etc., the Social-Democrats are the direct representatives of the ruling classes. But the objective basis for the flourishing of Social-Democracy is gradually getting weakened due to the intensity of the General crisis of capitalism and globalisation of cheap labour. It has created more favourable conditions for the unity of the socialist revolutionary current in the advanced capitalist countries and New Democratic Revolutions in the oppressed countries.
The working class in the capitalist countries has been waging militant struggles not only on their class demands but also against imperialist globalisation and war. The massive mobilisations in Seattle, Prague, Washington, Nice, Genoa and elsewhere against the WTO, World Bank, IMF, and the G-8 summits shows the growing disillusionment among the workers towards the capitalist system despite the unending propaganda by the reactionaries about the final triumph of capitalism. The worldwide demonstrations in millions against the US-led war against Iraq and Afghanistan, particularly in the very heartland of capitalism such as the US and Western Europe, shows the increasing awareness of the workers regarding their world-historic role.
The unfolding of revolutionary struggles by the proletariat in the advanced capitalist countries will be of great significance in the worldwide militant people’s struggle against imperialism. Genuine proletarian parties based on MLM have already emerged, and are emerging, in several capitalist countries and it is certain that these parties and the working class parties in the oppressed countries that are spearheading the revolutionary struggles against imperialism and local reaction will unite and also forge a worldwide united front against imperialism and their lackeys.
Collusion and Contention among the Imperialist Powers
11. With the intensification of the General Crisis in the world imperialist system from the early 1970s, the contradictions between the American Superpower and the West European and Japanese imperialists began to surface openly in their economic rivalry for a greater share of the world market. They have become further sharpened during the 1980s, particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union as a countervailing superpower in the world arena. The inter-imperialist contradictions are getting acute due to the falling average rate of profit and the near-stagnant world market resulting from an overall decline in real incomes all over the world.
While the US’s share of the world’s stock markets was 70% in 1966, it dropped to 32% by 1990; while Japan’s share increased form 3% to 31% in the same period and Europe from 20% to 30%. In 1997, the total GDP of the USA was $ 8.1 trillion, while that of EU’s was $ 8.2 trillion. In the share of world trade - exports - the USA had 16% against the EU’s 20%. Of the total world’s debt securities, the US issues 37% to the EU’s 35%. And of the total foreign exchange transactions the US accounted for 42% to EU’s 35%
The first official US trade deficit in this century occurred in 1971. The US trade balance in manufactured goods fell from a surplus of $ 11.8 billion in 1981 to a deficit of $ 133.4 billion in 1986. Correspondingly, the global power of the dollar declined spectacularly since the early 1970s. By 1984, the US was transformed into a net importer of capital for the first time since the First World War. And in 1985, after serving for 65 years as the world’s creditor, the US became its largest debtor with $ 110 billion of foreign debt. The US current deficit which was zero in the beginning of the 1990s rose to $ 400 billion in 2000 and to $ 750 billion in the beginning of 2005. Military expenditures and debt servicing became the two most important components for the mounting federal deficit together accounting for 50 to 60% of the Federal budget. The US public debt quadrupled in the Regan-Bush era.
The 15-member European Union (EU), with Germany and France playing a prominent role, has emerged as a powerful force in world politics and is attempting to develop the biggest market in the world stretching up to the Russian borders. Currently the EU’s population of 37 crores is equal to the combined population of the US and Japan. 11 more countries of Eastern Europe and Baltics have applied for membership of the EU, some of which have the status of the Associate members.
Stronger unification of Europe will make it a strong challenge to the US in all spheres of the economy. The Euro can emerge as a strong challenge to the dollar; the European Central Bank can soon equal the international financial clout of the Federal Reserve of the USA; the EU is fast emerging as the world’s largest trading bloc accounting for one-fifth of the world’s income and an expected 40% of world trade; etc.
Japan has been the leading banker in the world and a close second to the US in being home to the world’s top 500 companies which include service as well as industrial enterprises. In 1994, 149 were Japanese while 151 were American. Of the top 20 companies 12 were Japanese and six were American. However, the severe recession, over the last few years has temporarily eaten away much of Japan’s lead. In 1997 of the top 500 TNCs, Japan accounted for 112 to US’s 175, and of the top 20, Japan had 9 to US’s 6.
Trade wars became particularly fierce between the US and Japan during the 1980s though US trade sanctions and pressures to import more of US goods had begun by 1973 itself. Japan had therefore begun to shift both its trade and direct investments from the US to other parts of the world. There has been a phenomenal increase in Japan’s trade surplus with the US and other countries of the world since the late 1970s. This made it the world’s biggest investor, lender and aid donor by the end of the 1980s.
After serving as the bulwark of reaction for almost three decades both as an oppressor of various nations at home and of the national liberation struggles in the third world, the Soviet Union collapsed as a superpower by 1990 and disintegrated after the August 1991 coup into several sovereign Republics. Though a loose coalition, called the CIS led by Russian imperialists, came into existence, comprising 11 former Republics, virtually each of the Republics is independent. The Soviet Union’s deceptive garb of socialism came apart and state monopoly capitalism, fascism and Russian chauvinism, which lay hidden behind the socialist mask for years, came out in their true colours. At last the correctness of comrade Mao’s remarks that revisionism had usurped power in the Soviet Union and East Europe after comrade Stalin’s death in 1953 and that, consequently, capitalism was restored and these were transformed into capitalist countries have been incontrovertibly proved by the above developments. In spite of the non-stop malicious propaganda by the reactionary bourgeoisie that communism is dead with the demise of the Soviet Union, the world proletariat and the struggling people are increasingly becoming aware that the crisis in the Soviet Union and East Europe was a crisis of state bureaucratic capitalism and what was dead was phony communism.
Russia which took over the mantle of the former Soviet Union has half the total population of the latter, retains 92% of the nuclear weapons, three quarter of its natural resources, and the largest oil reserves in the world. It continues to be a contending imperialist power in spite of losing its Superpower status. Yet it is caught in the most severe economic and political crisis and is not in a position at the present juncture to regain its control and domination over East European countries and over the oppressed countries that were formerly in the grip of the Soviet Superpower.
Russia still remains a formidable military power and a contender, however weak it may be, in the struggle for the re-division of the world. Of late, it has been having defence deals and agreements with countries like India and is gradually trying to assert itself more forcefully in world politics. And with its current economic recovery it is slowly becoming a force to reckon with. Its alliance with any of the other imperialist powers or capitalist countries like China could lead to a significant tilt in the world balance of power.
Today, though US imperialism is still acting as a superpower, it is not in a position to achieve complete world hegemony. And at the same time no other imperialist power is in a position to achieve world hegemony. Beset with severe crisis, every major imperialist power is busy establishing or consolidating regional trade blocs in order to achieve global hegemony based on the strength of their respective blocs.
The acute competition for the world market has intensified the economic and political contradictions among the major powers-the US, EU, Russia and Japan. As a counter to the EU, America had set up the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico as partners. Japan, on its part, is going ahead with plans to form its own regional trade bloc.
Protectionism has now become the general feature of virtually every capitalist country. Farm subsidies and steel subsidies have become particularly contentious issues. The US ruling class has been dictating ‘free trade’ to the rest of the world, while announcing protectionist policies for itself. A tariff of 30 percent on imported steel is now being imposed on its foreign competitors in an attempt to revive the decaying US steel companies. At the WTO summit at Cancun, Mexico, last October, the issue of farm subsidies by the US and the EU pushed the Summit into a stalemate.
The problem of overcapacity now plagues the world with products from East Asia and Latin America competing with those of the imperialist countries. Hence a new wave of protectionism is now sweeping across the world.
Besides the major imperialist powers, China too has emerged as another important player in world politics after the restoration of capitalism. It is a major military power in the present-day world possessing the largest armed force of around 30 lakh and para-military force of 12 lakh. It has the third biggest military budget after the US and Russia and has taken up the modernization of its armed forces on a massive scale. It has been continuing with nuclear testing despite protests from other countries. Its claim over the entire Sprately group of 250 islets, Coral reefs and atolls, rich in oil and gas, has become a source of conflict with South East Asian countries like the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei. China’s alliance with any of the imperialist blocs will have a significant impact on the world balance of power.
Thus while contending and colluding for a redivision of the world, the imperialist powers are, at the same time, united on the question of suppressing the struggles of oppressed nations and people. Hence the collusion among the various imperialist powers as in the brutal US-led aggression on Iraq; in enforcing TRIPS, TRIMS, GATS etc., on the oppressed countries; or in the IMF, World Bank, ADB, NIGA, IFC, IDA etc. (which are not the tools of American imperialism alone but of international capital - of imperialism - as a whole) should be understood as part and parcel of their contention for redivision of the world which is growing fiercer with every passing day. The TNCs of the various imperialist powers are united in their goal of destroying the indigenous industry of the oppressed countries, in opening up the latter’s markets to international capital, in exploiting their cheap land, labour, raw materials and other resources, and in enforcing trade sanctions, intellectual property rights etc., but, at the same time, all these TNC hawks are engaged in severe contention for grabbing a greater share of these markets.
In the wake of 9/11 incidents, the imperialist powers easily united behind the US to wage a war of aggression against Afghanistan. But France, Germany and Russia, together with China, objected to the war of aggression instigated by the US and United Kingdom against Iraq in 2003. There were clear contradictions between the US and UK on one side and the other imperialist powers on the other, based on differing interests in Iraq. But the US and UK had their way and ultimately the other imperialist powers compromised with them within the framework of the UN Security Council.
There are contradictions among the imperialist powers with regards to economic, trade, financial, political and security issues. But the imperialist powers can still make compromises among themselves so long as these can be made at the expense of the proletariat and people of the world and the semi-colonies and dependent countries. The various frameworks for imperialist compromise and agreement are still intact and operative though the crisis in the WTO has led to its paralysis ever since the Doha round began.
But the crisis of the world capitalist system and the crisis in each imperialist country are worsening. The economic and financial crisis is relentlessly driving the imperialist powers to redivide the world and expand their respective sources of raw materials and cheap labor, markets, fields of investments and spheres of influence. What appear to be constant amicable relations among the imperialist powers will eventually break after a period of imperceptible changes in the balance of strength among the imperialist powers.
The US has overextended itself in outsourcing the production of goods, in over-borrowing from certain countries like Japan and China and in "staying the course" in the quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan. In the process, it has aggravated its weaknesses and vulnerabilities in so many ways. Its own imperialist allies can become relatively stronger than before and can move into areas where US attention and strength have thinned out. As a result of its preoccupation with Iraq, the US capability to deal with other regions of the world has lessened.
The European Union has a growing economic interest that is at odds with that of the US in entire Europe, Africa and elsewhere in the world. Russia and China have made border agreements with certain Central Asian countries to counter US incursions. China is steadily spreading its interest and influence, mainly in the whole of East Asia, even as Japan banks on its partnership with the US and maintains a prominent imperialist role in the region. North Korea asserts itself and continues to defy and oppose US imperialism, though it has good relations with Russia and China.
In Latin America, as already mentioned, anti-imperialist rivalry is sharpening. Even in West Asia, countries like Syria and Iran continue their cooperation with Russia and China.
Under pressure of the crisis of the world capitalist system, imperialist countries can engage in proxy wars among their client states or back different conflicting parties within a client state. The severe socio-economic and political crisis of imperialism and the so-called global war on terror have laid the ground for fascism and inter-imperialist wars. In fact, the making of so-called anti-terrorist laws in the wake of 9/11 has intensified repression and spawned state terrorism within the US and on a global scale.
The growing crisis in the imperialist economies is intensifying all the contradictions in the world today, particularly the principal contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed nations and people of the world.
Collusion is temporary and relative while contention is permanent and absolute
The crisis of world capitalism has not only increased the danger of world war but also of local wars. Since 1945 until 1990, at least 125 local and civil wars and armed conflicts have taken place in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America leading to 40 million deaths and many more maimed and grievously injured. Along with the total number of casualties, if we take into account the total number of troops involved in these 125 wars, the quantity of weapons used, the destruction of property, the ruination of economies, and the total expenditure involved, it far surpasses the figures of the Second World War. The Superpowers were involved, either directly or indirectly, in most of these wars in the backward countries both to undermine the influence of each others’ adversary as well as to increase their weapon sales. Some of these countries which aspire to be regional powers are also stockpiling chemical and biological weapons along with an enormous arsenal of conventional weapons and are preparing for local wars.
Some of these countries like India, Pakistan, South Africa, Brazil etc., are sending their troops in the so-called peace-keeping missions of the UN which are actually sponsored by the imperialists, particularly the US imperialists. Thus, just as during the colonial period, even today the armies of the oppressed countries are being used as cannon-fodder in the wars that actually protect the strategic interests of the imperialists. In the same context, the arming to the teeth of some other countries like India, Pakistan, Israel, Argentina, Mexico, Taiwan, etc., is also increasing the destabilisation in the current world.
AMERICAN IMPERIALISM - THE NO.1 ENEMY OF THE WORLD PEOPLE
12. But even as the economic hegemony of America declined and its political hegemony is facing rough weather, it has been striving all the more desperately to establish through military means a ‘new world order” under its overall hegemony. While world imperialism is further weakened with the collapse of the Soviet Union as a superpower and intensification of the inter-imperialist contradictions, the American Superpower is scheming and chalking out gruesome plans to drown the people’s militant and just struggles in rivers of blood.
In order to safeguard its positions in the world market and its declining hegemony on the oppressed countries, US imperialism has been launching wars of aggression as in the case of Iraq and Afghanistan. It is indulging in interference, subversion, bullying and black-mailing as in the case of Libya, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and several other countries. It is directly suppressing revolutionary struggles of the oppressed people and nations as in Colombia. It is using surrogate states like Israel to suppress the legitimate struggles of the Palestinian nation.
To cover up their ugly deeds of subversion, intervention, bullying and direct aggression on the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, the US imperialists are propagating the myth of defending democracy, preserving world peace and stability, suppressing terrorism, protecting the weak and helpless nations, so on and so forth. They are also using the United Nations as an instrument to fulfill their nefarious designs as seen in the war of aggression on Iraq in 1991 and sanctions for over a decade as well as in Bosnia, Kosovo and other places.
An important feature in the war strategy of the US imperialists during the decade of the 1990s is the shift in emphasis to hi-tech war i.e., first bombing the target country from the skies thereby destroying the latter’s economy, basic infrastructure, the entire environment, terrorizing the civilian population and, only after these cowardly bombings from the air, advance its ground forces “bravely” into the territory of the country devastated by incessant bombing. Such carpet-bombing has been repeatedly resorted to in Iraq since 1991 by the US-British imperialists culminating in the most inhuman bombing in human history in March-April 2003; in the war of aggression by the US-led NATO forces against Yugoslavia in 1999; and in the incessant bombing of Afghanistan since October 2001. The nightmare of the Vietnam War still haunts the American psyche and hence the American ruling classes do not want to take the risk of involving their troops in ground war directly without carpet-bombing from above.
The US military budget has shot up from a steady USD 350 billion in the years before 9/11 to nearly USD 500 billion in 2006, or nearly half of the entire US annual budget. Actual military expenditures are even more, exceeding 50% of the total budget, since many items are hidden under apparently non-military items. The budget outlays for the Department of Defense (DOD), for example, do not include the expenses for prosecuting the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, part of which is listed as "supplemental expenses" and run up to more than USD 100 billion.
A large part of the additional expenses for 2006 and 2007 will go to expanding the US Special Forces by 15% or 66,000 troops, upgrading the weaponry of the Army, and developing new fighter jets, battleships, the star wars anti-missile defense system and other weapons systems. The Special Forces are the designated principal and core combat force for the overseas "war on terror", for training foreign forces, and carrying out covert intelligence and non-conventional operations, including abductions and assassinations.
By killing thousands and even lakhs of innocent people including children through the most brutal and crude bombings made possible ironically by the most sophisticated technology, the US imperialists have become the No.1 international terrorists and the greatest threat to world peace. Through all these heinous and dastardly acts, US imperialists have become more isolated than ever in world politics and have earned the wrath of the vast majority of the people the entire world over. The decade of the 1990s and the early years of the New Millennium, have seen a worldwide resurgence of massive anti-American protests by the oppressed people and nations condemning the American misdeeds.
Starting with the American aggression on Iraq in 1991 to the latest invasion of that country in March 2003, the American imperialists have earned the wrath of millions of people around the world who came into the streets burning US flags, attacking its embassies and expressing their anger through various forms of protests. The growth of anti-American sentiment and rage among the people of the Islamic world has compelled the governments of those countries to adopt on overtly anti-American stance. In the latest invasion of Iraq in March 2003, unlike earlier, the US was totally isolated with only Britain lending it full support. The entire Arab world, excluding Kuwait, opposed another attack on Iraq. Frightened by the growing anti-US protests by their people, even the most servile governments of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey opposed US policy and refused their territory for US attacks on Iraq. Its attempts to isolate Cuba, Iran and Libya have totally failed with not only Europe, but also even heads of state of Africa openly flouting US restrictions.
Moreover, with American imperialists desperately striving to keep NATO completely under its hegemony and forcing the member-countries to endorse its policies and to involve their armed forces in the US-led wars, the contradictions between the US and other members of NATO, particularly France and Germany, are growing. In addition, as NATO has been trying to extend its control to the frontiers of Russia by utilising the vacuum created after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact (Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic are the latest entrants to NATO), the contradictions between Russia and the US-led NATO are also growing acute. U.S. imperialism is taking best advantage of the further decline of Russian imperialism. It has begun to encroach into the Southern CIS countries such as Georgia and Azerbaijan.
The US is the No. 1 aggressor and terrorist of the world today. It has used the September 11 attacks to misrepresent itself as the champion of anti-terrorism and to terrorize the people of the world. US terrorism in Iraq alone has caused the death of 1.5 million people, including that of 700,000 children, in the period from 1991 to 2002, and more than 6,55,000 people in the period from 2003 to 2006.
In the US itself the people are increasingly opposing the war-mongering and globalizing policies of the American imperialists. Following the exposure of the torture of prisoners in Guantanomo Bay and Abu ghraib and the lies regarding the possession of WMD by Iraq the masses in America have shown their disgust by rejecting the Bush’s Republican party in the recent Congressional elections. In fact the so-called “war on terror” is fast losing any legitimacy in the eyes of the American people and a protest movement is gradually building up.
These inter-imperialist contradictions will also help the world proletariat and the oppressed people to isolate and hit at the US war-mongers.
American imperialism, as Mao had repeatedly pointed out, is only a “paper-tiger”. It is a “colossus with feet of clay”.
The oppressed people and nations of the world should unite and wage relentless struggle against US imperialism that is causing untold misery and suffering to millions upon millions of people. While hitting out at the US monster from every side, we should not lose sight of the grave threat posed by the European, Russian and Japanese imperialists to the world people.
Fascisation and Worldwide reactionary offensive on People’s Movements
13. Fascism has become a typical response of the ruling classes to the intensifying crisis of capitalism that has afflicted every sphere of life. Restructuring the economies has to be inevitably accompanied by fascist repression in every country that implements it. As the contradictions between the people and the ruling classes intensify; as unemployment, inflation, hunger, homelessness, insecurity and crime increase; the ruling classes are utilising the frustration among the people to bring in fascist forms of rule in order to crush all forms of people’s struggles, particularly the growing revolutionary movements.
The higher the concentration and centralisation of capital and production, the greater is the political reaction of these super monopolies. The TNCs have established military fascist regimes in several backward countries whenever their interests required it. The 200-odd TNCs that control the fate of the world today and dictate terms to the backward countries can pull down elected regimes and suppress even nominal democratic rights through fascist dictatorship in virtually every country of the world.
It has become imperative for the TNCs and the ruling classes of the various countries to install fascist regimes in order to make super profits; to extract the maximum possible surplus value from the working class; to restructure the economies; to shift the burden of the imperialist crisis onto the backs of the people and, most important of all, to suppress people’s revolts.
The September 11 attacks came in handy for the imperialists to enact Black Acts and fascist legislation in virtually every country in the world. The Patriot Act, the Homeland Security Act and other such laws are introduced in the US; anti-immigration laws and restrictions have become commonplace in entire Europe. POTA is enacted in India, and Black Acts curbing the fundamental rights have become the common feature in all the Gulf sheikdoms, Turkey, Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, China, countries of Eastern Europe, Baltic Republics, and all the countries of Latin America particularly in the past two years. The US imperialists also used Sept 11 to launch a worldwide campaign against Muslims in the name of war against terror. Thus a rascist frenzy has been whipped up against Muslims in the imperialist countries and elsewhere.
US imperialism is in the forefront in pulling down the defiant regimes and installing puppet fascist regimes everywhere. In Venezuela, it is trying to pull down the Chavez regime and install a puppet fascist regime. In Columbia, the US is training, funding and organizing Right-wing para-military groups that killed thousands of peasants and others suspected to have “Left” sympathies. In Israel, the fascist Ariel Sharon government assumed power and is overseeing the massacre of the Palestinians and running a reign of terror in all Palestinian territories. In Nepal, King Birendra was murdered along with his entire family members in a plot hatched by the US imperialists and their stooge King Gyanendra was installed on the throne.
A fear psychosis is being created in the minds of the people about terrorist bombings and the fear is used to unleash reactionary violence and to impose fascist rule everywhere.
Thus fascism is emerging as a worldwide phenomenon in order to crush people’s struggles and to divert them into reactionary channels. Its victory or defeat is dependent on the strength or weakness of the revolutionary forces.
The proletariat should fight all types of fascism, including social fascism, through militant and uncompromising struggles by isolating and fighting the extreme right-wing reactionary forces on the one hand, and the social fascists who act as scabs within the working class movement on the other. The final defeat of fascism, however, is possible only by overthrowing bourgeois-feudal rule through proletarian revolutions, establishing genuine working class states and eliminating the capitalist-imperialist system as a whole. If the working class does not seize the initiative, if it becomes a victim of social chauvinism and social pacifism, it cannot check the fascist onslaught on people’s movements and the basic human rights. Hence constant struggle should be waged by the working class and the oppressed masses against the growing fascist danger.
Utilize the Excellent Revolutionary Situation!
Build the Subjective Forces and Advance the World Proletarian Revolution to Victory!!
14. Today an excellent revolutionary situation exists world-wide, and as a result of the further deepening of the General Crisis of capitalism, all the fundamental contradictions in the contemporary world are sharpening day-by-day and imperialism has become further weakened. The monster of imperialism, even by combining all its forces, is finding it impossible to check the growing tide of people’s struggles all over the world. Masses are displaying their wrath against wars of aggression and bullying by imperialism, particularly US imperialism; against imperialist oppression of nations and people, against imperialist globalization and the neo-liberal policies, and against fascist measures and suppression.
Although imperialism is caught in severe all-round crisis and the objective situation in the present-day world is highly favourable for advancing the world socialist revolution, the Maoist revolutionary forces are not yet strong enough to carry out this task successfully.
The absence of strong revolutionary forces to lead the armed revolutionary struggles, including the various types of people’s struggles on various issues, has resulted in the growth of petty-bourgeois and bourgeois leaderships, strengthening of the religious fundamentalist forces, and fascist, social fascist forces. Most of these forces have been using the mass upsurge and wrath of the people to come to power and to divert the people from the revolutionary path.
The restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union and East Europe after the death of comrade Stalin in 1953 and the usurpation of power by the revisionist Khrushchovite clique by the mid-1950s, the degeneration of Hoxhaists Albania, the degeneration of CPC after the death of comrade Mao in 1976 and the consequent restoration of capitalism in China under the modern revisionist Deng clique are serious setbacks to the world revolution and the proletariat. These serious setbacks, besides the brutal suppression of the revolutionary movements in some countries, have created vacillations, pessimistic and defeatist tendencies at least for a while among certain sections of the oppressed people worldwide, particularly among the middle classes, about the future of socialism.
The imperialists and the reactionaries all over the world have unleashed the most vicious propaganda against socialism, communism and Marxism-Leninism-Maoism especially since 1989, following the mass upsurge in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and the collapse of the bureaucratised capitalist regimes led by the revisionist parties there. Desperate attempts are made to project these discredited regimes as communist. Post-modernism, post-Marxism etc., have come to the fore that deny the relevance of social classes, dub class analysis as economic reductionism, and claim that identities such as race, gender, caste, nationality are the contemporary reality. They assert that we have reached a period marked by “the end of ideologies”, ‘end of history’ and so on, that capitalism has finally triumphed as the only viable system, and that “there is no alternative”. They claim that the struggle for state power is corrupting and will invariably lead to authoritarian regimes, that central planning leads to bureaucracy. They project “civil society” as an alternative to the State and that in the economic sphere, market should be the regulator. Thus all these trends, some of which still don a “Left” garb, are apologists of the neo-liberal policies of international capital, neo-colonial forms of control and exploitation, and have emerged as a great obstacle to revolution. In the context of such a systematic attack by imperialism and the various post-modernist and post-Marxist trends against Marxist ideology, socialist system and communism, we must step up our effort to expose the bankruptcy of these theories take up campaigns to propagate MLM on a wide scale.
In fact, the massive anti-Communist and anti-Marxist propaganda by the reactionary media and the post-modernist talk of the “triumph of capitalism” following the debacle in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, ran out of steam within a very short period. In almost all these former bureaucratised capitalist states, the newly formed bourgeois parties became discredited, and by using the people’s faith in socialism, the ousted revisionist parties came back to power. Moreover, in almost all countries of the world massive anti-capitalist movements are on the rise, revealing the deep disgust and frustration of the toiling masses towards the rapacious capitalist system that has widened the cleavage between the rich and the poor as never before.
The temporary set-back in the socialist bases has not mitigated the crisis of capitalism even an iota but, on the contrary, has only exposed the cruel, exploitative, oppressive, inhuman, unjust nature of a system that cannot provide employment to millions upon millions of impoverished people who are prepared to sell their labour power just for a square meal a day, a system that destroys the productive forces and keeps its enormous productive machine idle even as the vast majority of people continue to perish, lacking the minimum necessities of life.
In fact, today, the development of productive forces has reached such a stage that conditions for socialism have become more mature. The high degree of concentration of production, which has been growing even more rapidly in recent times through mergers and acquisitions, has brought a high degree of concentration of workers in each industry. But in order to enhance the level of exploitation the bourgeoisie is resorting to huge contractualisation of labour. Monopoly capitalism in the imperialist countries and comprador bureaucratic capitalism in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America have further matured the conditions for the speedy transformation into socialism after the victory of the proletarian revolutions in these countries.
The objective situation, thus, is giving rise to new Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties worldwide and to a clear polarisation among the revolutionary forces. During the 1980s and 1990s, a few international initiatives were taken up by some of the Marxist-Leninist parties to bring together ideologically closer forces into a common platform. It is certain that the further advance of the people’s wars in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America on the one hand, and socialist revolutionary movements in the capitalist-imperialist countries on the other, would lead to a polarisation of the Maoist revolutionary forces worldwide. Meanwhile, it is another urgent task before the Communist revolutionary forces worldwide to forge a fighting front with all the anti-imperialist forces, i.e., the communist revolutionary forces, the national liberation movements, and the genuine anti-war and anti-globalisation movements, with the Maoist forces acting as the nucleus in the direction of providing leadership, to unitedly fight and defeat the new imperialist offensive led by US imperialism against the world people in the wake of September 11 attacks.
The revolutionary forces the world over should stand by each other, build solidarity movements, and help and learn from each other’s experiences. Unity of all the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist and anti-imperialist forces will undoubtedly weaken imperialism further.
The formation of the Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organsiations of South Asia (CCOMPOSA) is a path-breaking advance in the direction of coordinating the Maoist movements of South Asian region against Indian expansionism, imperialism and the reactionary ruling classes of the countries of the region and will help achieve the unity of all the fighting forces in the region and hasten the ongoing people’s wars.
The present crisis of the world imperialist system, particularly of the US imperialists, and the resultant war-mongering posture of the US imperialists, along with the countervailing results of the imperialist globalization, has sharpened all the fundamental contradictions; the contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed nations and people is an important factor determining the present turbulent situation. That is why, the storm-centres of revolution are increasingly providing extremely favourable situation for advancing the New Democratic Revolution as part and parcel of the World Proletarian Revolution.
The world proletariat and the fighting people are taking lessons from the failures in building socialism; and will continue the revolution until the establishment of communism world-wide with redoubled conviction and confidence. The oppressed people are fast realising that these defeats are but temporary in the zig-zag course of the protracted new democratic and world socialist revolution which will advance by breaking, first, the weakest links in the imperialist chain. No power in the world can stop this irresistible trend of ultimate doom of imperialism and victory of socialism.
Domestic Situation
1. We have noted that the present world situation is marked by great disorder, turbulence and instability rarely witnessed in world history. The U.S. imperialism has not only declared but also started wars of aggression against the world oppressed people and nations in the deceptive name of “war against terrorism”. There evil designs are nothing else except to establish their undisputed and naked rule over the world oppressed people and nations to recast the existing world relations according to their sole imperialist interests. This is the naked imperialist logic to tide over their deep rooted economic crisis. Another most glaring feature of the situation is that the people of the whole world, including the people of the imperialist countries along with the U.S. people themselves came forward in resisting these war-designs on a massive scale. The mighty wave of struggles against imperialist’s globalization is also continuing. The mounting resistance of the Iraqi people and the people of Afghanistan including the continuity of the glorious struggle of the Palestinian people shows that the U.S. imperialists are increasingly caught in the quagmire. Today it is US imperialism that is the no.1 enemy of the world people resorting to blatant aggression, domination and bullying of countries through out the globe.
2. The changes in the world situation generally play a more determining role in setting the course of changes in the internal situation of a country. This phenomenon continues to reveal itself more markedly in the socio-economic and political set-up of India. Recently this process has assumed a more naked and direct dimension. It is because of this fact that ever since the transfer of power in 1947, the comprador bureaucratic capitalist and feudal classes of India, continue to apply the policies serving the needs of the imperialists, are the main social props of imperialism. The comprador big bourgeoisie is a class that serves imperialism and is nurtured by them to survive and grow. Today, particularly after 1990 with a major offensive of finance capital under the banner of LPG, they have more brazenly started acting according to the naked dictates of the imperialists.
After the World War II the imperialist forces faced the anti-imperialist struggle in an unprecedented scale throughout the world and brought forth the more sophisticated, more deceptive and “more sinister” policy of neo-colonialism by replacing direct colonialism. Thereafter, the process of accumulation and regeneration of capital advanced under this deceptive policy. During this process different imperialist capitals predominantly reflected the feature of high degree of integration, with the leading role of the U.S. imperialists in it. The imperialist institutions like World Bank, IMF, GATT and UNO etc. were brought forth with this motive.
In India this process was reflected in the form of opening all its doors for the penetration of more than one imperialist country in economic, political and all other fields. Another notable factor is that during the subsequent years of so-called independence, these comprador bureaucratic big bourgeoisie and big landlord ruling classes continue to serve the imperialists faithfully. Subservient to the imperialist the Indian ruling classes kept the doors open for the loot and plunder of our country by the imperialist powers while fulfilling their own interests also by utilizing the imperialist contradictions.
As a result, just after the British imperialist went behind the curtain, the U.S. imperialists continue to assume the more dominant position in India for a period of more than a decade. There after, starting from the late 60’s the Soviet imperialists continue to exercise more dominant position for a period of more than two decades. Now again the U.S. imperialists are in the helm of the affairs. It is a fact that changes and shifts in the world situation played a more determining role in the shifts of these tilts.
3. Despite the shifts in the tilt, it is a fact that all the major imperialist powers continue to penetrate and extract wealth produced by the Indian people. It is also fact that after 70’s both the rival blocks of imperialist continues to operate in India, even though the social imperialists were in the dominant position. Both of them succeeded in establishing their hidden and open links among various sections of the ruling classes including there political representatives. The age-old “private sector” created and nourished by the British imperialists continues to be dominated by the western imperialists, particularly the U.S. imperialists. Another fact is that even though the total amount of the Soviet imperialists capital continues to remain less than those of the other imperialists powers, particularly the British and more particularly the U.S. imperialists, yet they exercised a commanding role in the over all economic and political set-up of India. The reason is that the Soviet capital was mainly concentrated in strategic and key sectors of the Indian economic. Hence their grip on the key sectors of the Indian economy, along with the more favourable geo-political position in this part of the globe, were the major factors which helped the Soviet imperialist in gaining more dominant position in India. Moreover, the Soviet capital was mainly concentrated in the so-called “public sector”, which was particularly encouraged by the Soviet imperialists and hence provided huge loans in the garb of “aid”. During this process they obtained not only a large number of preferential trade agreements but also succeeded in marginalizing the influence of the rival imperialists to a considerable extent. They also instigated the expansionist designs of the Indian ruling classes to establish their hegemony and monopolistic control over entire South Asia through them. The signing of Indo-Soviet military pact in August 1971 and creation of Bangladesh immediately after it were the events which clearly reflected the Soviet domination in the economic, political, military and all other spheres of India. In the economic sphere this disguised cozy relationship was brazenly named as a “non capitalist road of development” and a “step towards socialism”. The chieftains of the so-called communist parties of CPI & CPM brand also continue to sing the same tune, when the fact is that it was nothing but a typical and another form of imperialist domination.
4. In India the comprador capitalist class, which emerged in the colonial system itself, has their long history of existence. They were created, nurtured and brought up by the British imperialists themselves and were organically linked to feudalism from the very beginning. After the transfer of power the fusion of this comprador capital with state capital resulted in the comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie which assumed state power along with the big landlord class. During the period of Soviet domination this class was further strengthened due to the strengthening of the so-called public sector under Soviet domination. The nationalization of banking along with some other sectors, including the closure of privy purses of the princesses, were the steps taken in the above direction. Just as today this process is being reversed, under the naked directions of the U.S. led financial magnates, with the purpose of strengthening their control in the Indian economic and political system.
5. Beginning with the late seventies and eighties, as the Soviet imperialist economy was being stretched to the extreme limits, because of the over bearing military budgets, along with its technological lag and some other reasons, it became increasingly difficult for them to meet all the growing requirements of the Indian economy. In this back-drop the dominant sections of the comprador Indian ruling classes began to explore other imperialist sources for technology, capital goods, loans and flow without shifting their political orientation. This process was firstly reflected when the India government obtained a five billion dollars loan from the IMF with stringent conditionality. There after some other steps were taken by Rajeev Gandhi Govt. in the same direction. This process was more clearly enhanced by the PVN congress Govt. by adopting the new economic policy. After the collapse of the Soviet super power the Indian ruling classes began to tilt towards the US super power. This process further intensified both economically and more particularly politically when the BJP led NDA Govt. came to the fore. This tilt towards the US imperialists has been continued by the congress-led UPA government. In this process the U.S. imperialists assumed an even more dominant position in almost all the affairs of the Indian polity.
After that the US imperialists began to give more and more attentions towards India. Whereas before the collapse of the Soviet Union “India was really off the radar scope” of the US imperialists. But after that things began to change. When the BJP Govt. assumed office in Delhi the changing scenario took a new turn. Just after that US president Bill Clinton visited India, whereas before that no US president visited India for more than two decades. After that India became a hunting ground for the US dignitaries. This process was further accelerated after 11 Sept. Events, because these events proved to be a new turning point in the world situation. Hence the US imperialists declared India as their new “strategic pillar” in Asia. Specifying the significance and contours of this emerging relationship the US ambassador to India R.D Black Will himself stated on 27 November, 2002 that “twenty months ago, America and Indian policy makers did not address together the important issues of co-operative high technology trade, civil space activity, and civilian nuclear power. Today all three of these subjects are under concentrated bilateral discussion, and the top of both governments is determined to make substantial progress.” Not only that an unprecedented stream of Washington policymakers have traveled to India to reinforce these high level discussions, that too after Sept 11, 2001. Among them five top members of the Bush cabinet have traveled to India, some more than once. Their efforts have been underpinned by more than 100 high US official visitors at the rank of Assistant Sect. of state or higher, including chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers and direction of the FBI Robert Mueller. “These US policymakers, while robustly engaging with their Indian counterparts, have given attention to diplomatic collaboration, counter terrorism, defense and military-to-military teamwork, intelligence exchange, law enforcement, development assistance, joint scientific and health projects etc.” He also stated that, “Twenty months ago the American and Indian militaries conducted no joint operations, today they have completed six major training exercises”. Another fact is that US imperialist have waived almost all the sanctions which they impose on India after Pokhran II in 1998. Moreover the US imperialists have established their new military bases in Afghanistan and Pakistan which are very close to India while the Vajpayee Govt. have not objected over it.
6. All these facts speak for themselves that the Vajpayee Govt. has crossed all the previous limits in toeing the political and military policies of the imperialists, particularly the US imperialists. This limit has been more blatantly crossed after the 11 Sept, 2001 events. Actually, these events proved to be a blessing in disguise to them. When the US imperialist declared and launched a most vicious war of aggression against Afghanistan. Indian rulers brazenly declared their “unconditional support”, when it was not demanded even. Then they kept mischievous silence when the U.S.-British combined armed forces trampled underfoot the Iraqi sovereignty and subjugated it with their military might. After this occupation instead of asking the U.S. imperialist to leave Iraq, they continuously searched for an excuse to send their armed forces as mercenary forces to join this occupation. Not only that they also began to sing the U.S. tune of “war against terrorism” and “terrorism as the biggest danger” by simply adding the term “every kind of terrorism.” They promulgated the most draconian law POTA by replacing TADA in line with the anti-terrorist laws being pushed throughout the world by the imperialists, particularly US imperialists. They promulgated this law with the clear purpose of suppressing the rising wave of the people’s struggles including the Maoist led People’s War along with the nationality struggles and religious and other minorities. At the same time and in the same breath they declared our two Maoist parties/organizations - MCCI and CPI (ML) [PW] along with many other mass organizations as banned. Moreover, they let-loose the reigns of RSS-led Hindu fundamentalist and fascist type forces which organized a most horrific and dragon like dance of death over the corpuses of the Muslim minority in Gujarat. There after, the BJP stalwarts brazenly declared to repeat the Gujarat “Experiment” in other states. The mischievous silence of the US imperialist over these flagrant events removed all doubts about their tacit approval. In the same ways the BJP Govt. kept mischievous silence over the vicious carnage let-loose by the Israel watch-dogs of the US imperialists against the Palestinian people’s National liberation struggle. Not only that they welcomed the top dog of US imperialism and butcher the Israel PM Sharon with red carpet in Delhi.
7. In the matter of economic policies, rulers of the BJP led NDA Govt. has beaten all the previous records in opening the flood-gates to imperialists plunder. They continue to implement all the policies dictated by the U.S. led financial magnates, while they chanted the “swadesi” mantra all the while. In these regards they have left the PVN Govt. far behind in implementing these policies in the name of the “second phase of the reforms.” They have brought forth new industrial policy, the new agricultural policy, new trade policy, new textile policy, new coal policy and financial sector reforms etc. The new government is also toeing the same line.
In January 1991 the value of rupee to a dollar was 18.20, but dropped to 31.40 by May 1995. It further dropped to a record level of 48.50 during the year 2003, i.e. a drop of 170%. and the devaluation of rupee has touched a new low level. Not only that the Indian economy continue to drift in the debt trap. In 1980 the external debt was around rupees 30,000 crores. But by the time of PVN congress government it quadrupled to Rs. 1, 32,000 crores. There after during the BJP-led Govt. it crossed the new high level of rupees 5, 00,000 crores. Only 40% of that debt is at concessional rate of interest, while the remaining is being paid back at market rates. By 2001 the debt-servicing charges (i.e. repayment plus interest) have gone up from $8.2 billion (Rs.15,000 crores) in 1992 to $14 billion (Rs.65,000 crores) in 2003.
In recent years the dominant shape of capital inflow has mostly assumed the form of FDI and FII (Foreign institutional investors) ‘investment’, which is also known as portfolio investment. By the year 1997 the total amount of this ‘investment’ was about $9 billion (Rs. 36,000 crores), but today (By December 2003) it crossed the record level of $25 billion (Rs. 100,000 crores). In the year 2003 FIIs pumped $7.43 billion (nearly 30,000 crores), which is ten time high than the previous year. Not only the return on such capital is much higher but its nature is speculative also.
At the same time they have removed most impediments to the penetration of imperialist capital in almost all the sectors. They have speeded up the pace of “modernization” of industry and thereby sold away some major industries which were earning even huge profits even. They have encouraged increasing export-oriented production along with opening all the gates of the Indian market by relaxing import restrictions. They have removed all import duties form more them 1400 products of daily usages. They took this step even before the W.T.O. time limit to please the U.S. imperialists. They have removed all restrictions on the entry of imperialist banks. They have reduced or even scraped subsidies in the agriculture sector. Most of all they have adopted and started implementing new labour policy for freezing and banning strikes. They have surpassed all the previous Governments in acting as more faithful brokers to the imperialists, particularly the U.S. imperialists in providing then free access to the Indian market. Hence they allowed the imperialists to openly loot our cheap labour, land, raw materials, infra-structural facilities, people’s savings and other Indian sources. They have opened up even the thriving insurance sector to the imperialist capital along with providing numerous concessions in every trade.
8. The new Congress government is trying to hoodwink the people by raising hue and cry that they well gave ‘human face’ to reforms, that is, imperialist dictated policies. But actually they are bound to quicken their pace. Their out right subservient character and the growing needs of the imperialist, because of their deepening crisis, will force them to do so. Moreover, it is the same congress and the same Man Mohan Singh (now PM then FM) who brazenly brought forth and forcefully implemented these imperialists sponsored economic policies and that is why it began to be called as Manmohanomics. The naked support of the so-called left parties to the present Congress government with the fake posture of opposing its economic policies is a new fraud with the Indian people. Hence there left posture is bound to be exposed more than ever. Though the Congress government made a mock show of doing away with the disinvestment ministry, which, under BJP rule was selling the country’s assets (i.e.PSU) at throw away prices, it has been as actively allowing imperialist capital into even newer spheres of the economy. In fact one of its very first acts was to allow foreign capital take over India’s major airports. The budget proposals of 2004 too were an indication of the extent to which they are prepared to go in this direction. The UPA government has now allowed 100% direct foreign investment in coal mining. All restrictions on FDI are being removed and foreign banks and insurance companies are also being allowed to fully operate in the country. They are being allowed in a phased manner and by 2009 they will be given equal operational rights as the private and nationalized Indian banks.
There after the difference between sick and healthy units have lost their meaning. Now the sick one are being closed while the shares of the most profitable are being sold, that too at the throw away prices.
Examples of such selling of PSUs are numerous. Balco project of thousands of crores rupees in Chhatishgarh has been recently sold by the BJP rulers at through away prices. This project has been sold despite the strong resistance of the workers and employees of this project and despite the fact that it was earning huge profits and producing items for defence department. Now some major ports and airports are on the sale in the name of modernization. Airlines companies, oil corporations and projects and even further reforms in banking sector are on the list. Several PSU unites, even the thriving one’s, under the control of state governments are either being closed or sold of or are on the sale. All these anti-people steps of the central and state governments have aroused and arousing mounting protests from the workers and employees including wide sections of the people. The glorious struggles of the electricity employees in UP set-forth a glaring example against imperialist dictated steps of privatizing electricity board. But despite this the production and distribution of electricity in many states has been either all ready privatized or are in the list. In this regard the BJP-led central government has already cleared the deck by establishing a regulatory Authority and by empowering it with a new law to expedite these deals. Hence in several states this process is going on at various levels.
The same process is going on in the transport and communication sectors under the direct and open instructions of the US-led WB, in almost all the states. For constructions of roads too private companies and MNCs are being invited under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) schemes. Under this deal such companies are being authorized to collect high taxes directly from the vehicles playing on such roads. Besides this the BJP-led central government has proclaimed a high sounding scheme of constructing an express way for linking all the four corners of the country, that too, at the dictates of the imperialists and mostly for their benefit. The estimated cost of this scheme is said to be Rs.20, 000 crores, when actually it will cost nearly Rs.60,000 crores. For this scheme a huge loan with stringent conditions is already under way. Apart from this loan, already scarce funds from the public works schemes are being taken away. Hence vast majority of the people are being deprived of the funds required for even repairing the roads used by them.
Recently, the imperialists, particularly the US imperialists and their financial institutions have been allowed to directly deal with the state governments. That is why they continue to directly sanction conditional loans for setting up industries for constructing luxurious roads, hi-tech parks and hi-tech cities such as - Hyderabad and Bangalore - and others such infra-structural projects which are mostly benefited to imperialists and their henchmen in India. Various state Governments of various brands, including the so called left government of West Bengal led by CPM, are in the race of achieving such strangulated loans. The CPM led government of Buddhadev Battachraya in West Bengal has gone the whole way to make conditions attractive for imperialist and CBB capital. The most recent example is of Singur where they have gone against all public opinion to grab the land of the peasantry and hand it over to the Tatas at cheap rates. They are crossing all the limits in providing every kind of concessions and facilities to the imperialists and at the cost of sweat and blood of the people. In the same direction the BJP-led central government has decided to establish some special economic zones (SEZ) in some states where no Indian law will be operative. The Congress-led UPA government has sanctioned over 260 SEZ. The biggest land grab in Indian history is now taking place with lakhs of hectares of prime agricultural lands being taken over at rock-bottom prices by the government to virtually gift to the imperialists and the Indian CBB for the establishment of the SEZs. These SEZs will amount to virtual foreign enclaves within India. The UPA government has also opened up the doors to foreign and CBB capital to open up operations in retailing. US and European retailing giants are entering the Indian market in alliance with the CBB and setting up huge retailing outlets and malls.
Recently there has been a massive rush to seize the mineral wealth of our country with about Rs.5 lakh crores MOUs being signed just in the three states of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Orissa with the potential of displacing lakhs of forest dwellers, mostly tribals. The issue of displacement is one of the major issues facing the country today against which people are rising in revolt as in Kalinganagar. But this is not restricted to mining; SEZs, dams and other big ‘development’ projects like super-highways, and urban ‘renewal’ are also resulting in mass displacement. In fact the issue of displacement is becoming a major issue facing the people today.
Apart from the US imperialists, the EU, Japan and other imperialist countries are also in the race in sanctioning huge amounts as loan for the power sectors, expressways and telecommunications etc.
9. But the domination of U.S. imperialism does not mean that the penetration of other imperialist forces in the economic and political fields does not exist. Rather the influence of the E.U. countries, particularly of Germany, France along with Russia and Japan continue to increase. All of these have also meant that India has become more and more tightly interwoven into the whole world imperialist system. That is why today Indian people are more and more subject to the shocks and dislocations emanating from the motion of development of the imperialist system itself. The further penetration of all the imperialists in India has not only heightened the pressure below, thereby sharpening the class contradictions in the country, but has also increased the cracks and along with sharpening of the contradictions among the ruling classes themselves though it has yet to get crystallized.
Because of the imperialist dictated economic policies, particularly the policies of imperialist sponsored globalization, liberalization and privatization by both the central and state governments have not only greatly deteriorated the overall Indian economy but also the living conditions of the Indian people. These policies have not only squarely affected the living conditions of the working class but also all the labouring sections of the society, particularly the peasantry. Number of people migrating to the cities for their livelihood is increasingly swelling the city population. The condition of the middle classes, including the women, students, intellectuals, youths and even a sizable section of the national bourgeoisie have been seriously affected. Number of people living below the actual poverty line has increased up to 48%. Overall situation is that the countervailing effects of these imperialist sponsored policies have already started simmering on the surface in the form of a new wave of people’s struggle, particularly the struggles of the workers and peasants.
10. The working class has become victim of lay-off, retrenchments, wage-freeze and wage cuts, industrial accidents scraping of social security benefits and casualization of labour and speed-ups etc. including restrictions on even minimum trade union activities. There is a significant change in the composition of working class in the wake of globalisation policies. The composition of contract and casual workers among the industrial proletariat is on the increase. The jobs from the larger factories of the organized sector are being shifted to small factories in the unorganized sector. Besides, there is an increase in the proportion of the women workers in the low wage sectors. All these changes should be taken into account while formulating our tactics for work in the working class.
There has been a significant growth of the information, communication and entertainment industry in the country which is now employing tens of lakhs of workers. Also there is a growth of the retailing sector which is also employing lakhs of workers in the urban centres. Most of these workers are unoranised and there is an attempt to prevent their organizing. The workers in this industry have very little job security and the women workers who are present in large numbers face gender harassment. The exploitation of the workers in these industries is intense and offers great scope for organisaing the new generation of workding class in these new industries.
The over all crises are so-deep that the ruling classes are no longer in the position of providing even the minimum relief by accepting their mostly just minimum demands. As a result the workers in organized sectors, transport, Banking, insurance, power sectors including state and central employees and in other sectors are coming out or bursting in strikes at the state and all India level in spite of the threat of the reprisals by the management, including governments of all the ruling class parties. Today almost all the major trade unions are dominated by the revisionists and the pro-establishment sections but because of the growing working class struggles, emanating from the disastrous counter effects of the new economic policies, the pro-working class masks of these sections are increasingly getting exposed. Actually in the hearts of the vast sections of the working class the age-old leadership of these sections is losing their credibility. The ruling classes have been trying to restrict the rights of the workers to organize and struggle. In fact they are trying to withdraw the various rights the working class has won in the past decades through its struggles. The bourgeois courts are playing a aggressively anti labour role by passing a serious of judgments which seriously restrict the rights of workers to organize and struggle.
During the last few years the working class in the different sections and in different parts of the country has waged many valiant struggles, particularly in the mining sector against the imperialist sponsored new economic policies of the ruling classes. Moreover these struggles have generally outstripped the traditional trade union boundaries. In a word various section of the working class has not only largely expressed their pent-up wrath against these policies but is also expressing their revolting mind. They have no other alternative but to wage a life and death struggles against these policies and sweep away the existing boundaries. But the working class can advance towards realizing its historic mission only if primarily the deep-rooted influence of revisionism, reformism and economism is routed, concrete initiative and revolutionary policies are adopted within the working class and they are freed from the chains of the ruling class run trade unions, including those of the revisionist CPI/CPM. Thereby only under the steadfast leadership of its Maoist party, working class will be more forcefully able to mobilize and channelize all the struggles of the various sections of the people, particularly the struggles of the peasantry against imperialism and feudalism and leading towards establishing a new democratic India by smashing old India, and thereby advancing towards building socialism and communism on a world scale. That is, by advancing, strengthening and expanding the flames of the already going on protracted people’s war in various parts of the country under the leadership of our Party.
11.In India today after 59 years of so-called independence monopoly over land by big landlords still continuedespite some changes. Vast majority of the peasantry is still the most exploited and oppressed class. They are forced to live in most wretched and extremely poor conditions. Despite the hoax of all land reforms more than 30% of the land is concentrated in the hands of the landlords who constitute only 5% of the population. Extreme forms of semi-feudal exploitations are still continuing in the countryside. Some of the major prevailing forms of such exploitation are extortion of their produce through share cropping, which is robbing them of their produce up to 50%, bonded labour, usurious and merchant capital and other forms of extra economic coercion, like the Brahminical caste system is of enormous value to extract large surplus from the oppressed, particularly the Dalits.
The countryside is dominated by landlords, usurers, merchants and religious institutions. These class enemies continue to protect and instigate casteism, communalism, superstition and even maintain private armies or Goonda forces and perpetuates medieval oppression on the rural masses and Dalits, Adivasis, women, and minorities through often perpetrating massacres, rapes etc. It is this class of oppressors who hold social and political power and act as a prop for imperialism ensure perpetuation of decadent feudal culture along with paving the way for rotten imperialist culture in the vast countryside. This is still the overall dominant aspect of the rural society of India today.
12. Apart from the age-old semi-feudal exploitation and oppression, the condition of the peasant masses, particularly the poor and landless peasants, including the village workers, Adivasi and Dalit sections are being further deteriorated because of the imperialist sponsored policies. Now the agriculture sector is mostly placed at the mercy of the imperialists and CBB for seeds, pesticides, fertilizers and machinery. Government allocations for the agriculture sector have increasingly cut down from 2.6% to 1.5% in 1997-98 itself. Public sector investment in agriculture has come down from 14.1% in 1981/82 to 4.9% in 2000/01. Its share in gross capital formation has sharply declined from 11.2% to 7.1% in the same period. The Banking reforms by reducing priority sector lending have left the peasantry, particularly the poor and even the middle peasants at the mercy of the private moneylenders more than ever before. Peasant masses get 65% of their loans from these usurious moneylenders, including the rapacious traders, where as they get only 13.5% loans from the public sector Banks. The price hike of water, electricity, diesel, fertilizers, pesticides, machinery and all the agriculture inputs on the one and negligible on non-remunerative price for there produce, on the other has led to the virtual handing over of the lands of the entire poor peasantry including a sizeable sections of the middle peasants to the big landlords.
In some belts of so-called green revolution capitalist relations have been further introduced to some extent but they are very much distorted and disarticulated. These relations were introduced in the name of reforms but their real purpose was not only creating and extending the market for imperialist goods, and mitigating the food crisis the country was then facing, but also for derailing the people from revolutionary struggles. Because of this some new class forces have emerged in these pockets but the land question is no longer fundamentally resolved. For example in a state like Punjab where distorted capitalist relations have grown to quite some extent, it continues to be basically semi-feudal in character.
The ruling classes has already started encouraging further concentration of land by diluting and circumventing the nominal land sealing acts for removing upper limits under different pretexts. Of late big business has been grabbing huge amounts of agricultural land displacing lakhs of peasantry. The agri- business consortia, the hue and cry about the crop diversification and the contract farming in the name of helping the poor peasants are nothing but directed towards devastating the poor peasantry and a ‘section’ of the middle peasantry thus the so-called globalization of the Indian agriculture and the talks of initiating second green revolution, through introducing genetic modified crops, are nothing but aims at greater pauperization of the Indian peasantry, along with more tightly integrating it with the vulture-like net of the imperialist world market. These pockets have been more tightly interwoven or integrated in to the most strangulating net of the imperialist dominated MNC, just like Pepsi. The much trumpeted slogan “from the farm house to the seaport” is nothing but the proclamation for the new market oriented policy to serve the above process.
The policies of imperialist globalisation has hit the agrarian sector the worst, creating an agrarian crisis of gigantic proportions. In the past decade over one lakh peasants have committed suicide due to debt, crop losses and the falling prices of agricultural produce. Lakhs more have been impoverished even from their already existing horrifying conditions. This has worst affected the states of Maharashtra, AP, Punjab, Kerala. With the continuation and intensification of the imperialist-dictated policies the agrarian crisis is continuing to deepen and the situation is slowly turning into a burning cauldron, making the situation exceedingly ripe for the masses to turn en masse to the Maoists.
The increasing incidents of “suicides” by the poor and a section of the middle peasants in some parts of India are reflecting the severity of the over all deepened agriculture crisis. In India today food crisis is once again posing on the agenda along with the news of draught in one part and floods in another, while the stored stock of food-grains are increasingly rotting in the warehouse. All these contradictory features are the clear symbols of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal set-up under neo-colonial form of indirect rule, exploitation and control.
In various parts of the country, where capitalist relations have been developed to some extent, vast sections of the peasant masses including some sections of the rich and middle peasants continue to wage peasant struggles on various issues while focusing their attention on demanding here crises for their produce. The increase in the crises of fertilizer as a result of the reduction or withdrawal of subsidies, the lifting of infra-structural subsidies and the enormous increase in water, electricity, transport and diesel rates at the dictates of the imperialists institutions like IMF and World Bank, has also brought the peasant masses increasingly into such struggles. During the struggles mobilization of the vast section of the peasants, firing on these struggles at various places and killings of a number of peasants highlight the importance of the struggles. The increasing cost of agricultural production, adverse terms of trade and direction towards virtual scrapping the remunerative price system along with closing down the FCI, including the strangulating net of the usurers and other credit due to the imperialist sponsored policies is increasingly deepening and widening the objective bases of such like militant peasant struggles against the ruling classes and their state machinery including imperialism. Our Party must support and intervene more forcefully in such struggles no doubt on a clear cut revolutionary basis with the clear cut purpose of re-orienting these struggles in the direction of and as a part of the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal NDR struggles already advancing in various parts of the country. With the aggressive intervention of imperialism in the agrarian economy, not only the middle peasantry, but even large sections of the rich peasantry are being badly hit. As a result we see mainly a growth of the rich/middle peasant movement against imperialism and the state, It is incumbent that we unite with these movements to target imperialism, while at the same time to draw them into the overall anti-imperialist, anti-feudal movement, while exposing and isolating any opportunist leadership that takes a compromising stand on that issue.
13. Apart from the working class and the peasantry the conditions of other labouring section of the people is also increasingly getting more and more miserable because of these new economic policies. The ranks of the semi-proletariat like hawkers, rikshaw drivers, etc have swelled and they are subject to insecurity of income, long hours of work, and continuous harassment from the police and local authorities.
Due to enormous increase in unemployment, threat of further retrenchment, wage freeze, price rise, forced retirement in the so-called name of “golden hand shake”, cuts in social welfare scheme including subsidies, increase in work load and increasing repressive measures on the union activities, the living conditions of teachers, electricity workers and employees, and other various sections of the middle class employees are increasingly getting miserable and insecure. These sections, including doctors, college and University lecturers etc. are increasingly forced to take up the course of struggle for the realization of their demands. Recently the ruling classes had adopted more stubborn attitude in accepting even their most just demands. They take some flimsy steps only before election to cash in on their votes while afterwards not only do away with these gains but throw more burdens upon them. That is why the struggles of these sections are increasingly out stripping the usual trade union boundaries. But these struggles are being systematically reined in and betrayed by the revisionist and other reactionary leadership of these movements. Unless this leadership is thoroughly exposed and ousted and the reformist thinking that has deeply penetrated a section of the working class eradicated, it is hard to bring the working class within the stream of new democratic revolution. Yet, the increasing repressive measures by the ruling classes and their state machinery towards the struggles of these sections is widening the scope of support and even unity with the revolutionary democratic movement and also the advancing people’s war led by our party in various parts of the country. But with the hi-tech jobs in this period of imperialist globalisation a part of middle class which emerged as neo-rich is affected by consumerism. Particularly due to the implementation of the policies of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization after 90s, it has increased. Currently it has no more confidence on the revolutionary movement. But as the crisis is increasing it is inevitable for a large part of this class to stand in favour of the movement.
According to the new education policy, again dictated by the imperialist, cuts in subsidies and grants have paved the way fore increasingly privatizing the educational institutions. This process is continuously increasing the cost of education because of more and more rise in the already exorbitant fees. Moreover, the complete bar on new jobs and increasing unemployment due to privatization the student and youth are facing a completely uncertain future. Thus the increasing pace of the commercialization of education is not only depriving the weaker sections of the society from the education but also drawing the student into a new wave of the student struggle the struggle including the struggle of the youth id bound to intensify more and more because of increasing cuts in the budgetary allocation for education including the further deepening of the processes of anti-imperialist and anti-feudal consciousness among the student.
Because of the new industrial, financial and trade policies sponsored by the imperialist are continuously being pursued by the Indian ruling classes, large number of indigenous, small and medium industries are being closed or declared sick. By 1985 more than 1, 30,000 such like industrial units were declared as sick. By Feb. 2001 near about 40% of such units (i.e. nearly 52 thousands) were either closed or non traceable. Because the BJP government has crossed all limits in adopting these policies and all the restrictions for the penetration of the imperialist finance capital has been thrown open in all the industries, including the small consumer goods industries, as well as due to restrictions of Bank lending, increasingly larger number of such industries are bound to be hit hard. Recently, due to the new a textile policy, luck of handloom and power-loom units have closed down throwing out lakhs of weavers into the streets all over the country. This process has also affected some sections of the small and medium bourgeoisie forces, which are bound to take the course of struggles at least to some extent against these policies sponsored by imperialism and pursued by the Indian ruling classes.
14. Moreover, the living conditions of all the sections of the masses, particularly the poor and middle sections are continuously being tightened because of the spiraling rise of the prices of all essential commodities due to the more and more devaluation of the Rupee linked with the imports becoming dearer and dearer. Inflation had already touched the record level during the decade of 1990s itself. By encouraging exports at the cost of domestic need, essential consumer goods too have almost gone out of rich of the common man. Even the middle class sections are finding it extremely difficult to cope with the skyrocketing prices. The much trumpeted present growth rate of the Indian economy as highlighted in the statistical term is mostly deceptive. Actual fact is that the fiscal deficit has touched the record level of rupees 93,656 crores and the trade deficit to rupees 66,300 crores ($14, 430 million by January 2004). Besides this the Indian economy is increasingly being oriented on the lines of the so-called “tiger economies” of Sought Asian countries with the increasing pace of ‘portfolio investment’, hence the fate of this concocted growth rate is no longer different then these economies. It is bound to burst sooner or later. Much trumpeted “Feel good factor” proved to be the biggest and most humiliating fraud with the Indian people in the recent elections.
At the same time unemployment is soaring at a rapid pace. The number of people at the live register in the employment exchange itself has long before surpassed 4 crores. Where as the number of both the urban and rural unemployment has crossed the number of 14 crores. The ongoing neo-liberal policies are further aggravating this mounting problem. This is leading to slashing of the real wages of the workers due to the over supply of the cheap labour in the market. The retrenchment of workers and a bar on recruitment and new jobs including the forced retirement schemes are already in full-swing through subcontracting, automation and rationalization measures. Most of the industries, mines, services have been increasingly shedding their staff.
More than two crores children under the age of 14 are working under sub-human conditions and more than half the world’s illiterates live in India. Subsidies on health, education, transportation, drinking water, irrigation and electricity are being systematically eliminated and cost recovery schemes are being falsely introduced. The proliferation of the EPZs has been pushing more and more women into in human working conditions where they are both economically and sexually exploited. Now, with the SEZs being set up all over the country, where no labour laws will apply, the condition of the working class will get even worse.
14A. The imperialist-sponsored economic policies pursued by the ruling classes are also leading to terrible environmental degradation and ecological crisis and are increasingly placing the people’s lives including the plants and animals’ life in constant peril to the proliferation of dangerous pollution-emitting and chemical industries polluting land air, water, and climate.
15. Apart from the imperialist-feudal exploitation and oppression women are also subjected to male oppression and suppression through patriarchal institutions, like family, caste system, property relations and culture. Sexual harassment and other atrocities on women have increased in recent years, particularly because of so-called liberalization and imperialist Globalization and Consumerism. The so-called constitutional laws in providing equality to women have proved to be a hoax. The women masses, particularly the women from the landless and poor peasants are increasingly receptive to the revolutionary democratic politics and ideology. The fact is that “women represent half of the sky”. Without unleashing the fury of women as a mighty force of revolution, victory in revolution is impossible. Hence, the mobilization of toiling women in the revolutionary people’s war against imperialism and feudalism is a must. The equality between men and women can be realized mainly in the course of the revolutionary war and then further “in the process of socialist transformation of society as a whole”.
However, taking into consideration the deep-rooted ideology of patriarchy and family institution in backward semi-colonial, semi-feudal countries like India Comrade Mao warned that the final solution of the women’s question will require a fairly long period of time even after the establishment of socialism. Hence, he stressed on the need to continue the class struggle in the superstructure to uproot the old decadent feudal and bourgeoisie ideas, culture, customs and habits related to patriarchy and male domination even during the course of new democratic revolution. A large number of women are already playing and coming to play a powerful role in the armed agrarian revolution in the form of PPW led by our party. Their role in student movement, cultural and literary fields including all other struggles is increasing day by day. Maoist party must pay added attention in rousing, mobilizing, organizing and helping the women to come forward in joining various struggle, particularly the people’s war including the revolutionary women organizations.
We must continue our efforts in imbuing the policies of new democratic revolution among them and thereby help them realizing that there cannot be women’s liberation without the liberation of the oppressed masses from imperialism, feudalism and CBB. We must also continue to give our added attention in developing communist leaders from among them including promoting them to the appropriate party committees.
16. Besides the feudal and imperialist class exploitation and oppression the Dalit masses are also caught in the age-old vicious grip of the Brahminical caste system. That is why they are also the victims of untouchability, cast discrimination and upper caste chauvinism. The attacks on Dalits by the upper caste landlords and their goons along with the state machinery have increased recently. Due to deeply ingrained casteist thinking, particularly against dalits, even amongst backward castes, in many parts of the country there have been a growing number of attacks by a rising section of new feudal lords of these backward castes against dalits. This is particularly manifest in those areas where feudal authority is threatened by the increasing assertion of dalits, specially of their landless and poor sections. This is to be witnessed in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Bihar, UP, Haryana, Maharashtra, AP, MP and elsewhere. Many are unable to tolerate any rise in status, whether economic or educational of the dalits, or their increased assertion. The recent killing of four members of a dalit family in Khairlanji in Maharashtra resulted in massive protests by the dalit masses. Ignoring the reformist and reactionary dalit leadership lakhs of dalit masses all around the state came out on the streets and facing the police bullets and lathis gave a fitting reply to the killings. This struggle had an impact not only in the state but throughtout the country.
The obnoxious caste system and casteism is continuously being perpetuated by the ruling classes including imperialism for thousand of years. They continue to use and instigate this system to also divide the poor people so that they may continue their class exploitation and oppression. They use it for derailing their actual struggle directed against imperialism, feudalism and CBB.
Dalit section of the poor people is mostly the victim of these intrigues. Accordingly, the Dalits are being treated as second rate citizens. Even today 90 to 95% from among them are either landless and poor peasants or village labourers. Even today their struggles against the ruling classes for getting equal status in the society are being treated inhumanly and make victims of these vicious attacks by the ruling classes and their state machinery. These attacks are being manifested in the form of massacres and mass gang rapes.
Dalit question is in essence a class question. Hence the Maoist forces should carry on the struggle against caste oppression as a part of the NDR and also fight for their equal place in the society in all spheres by abolishing the caste system. They should also fight for equal rights and for special privileges including reservations for Dalits and other backward caste while exposing the hollowness of the ruling class politics in this regard. The struggle against casteism and untouchability should also be carried on in the ideological, political and cultural spheres. The massive outburst in Maharashtra against the brutal killings at Khairlanji indicates a growing disenchantment among the dalit masses with their reformist leadership and search for more militant leadership. There is a very fertile ground for the growth of the Maoist movement among the dalit masses. It is necessary for the party to utilize creative forms of organizing and build appropriate fronts in order to address the dalit question and utilize the current potentialities.
16 A Marx has said that it is the ruling ideas that are the ideas of the masses. In India what predominates is primarily imperialist and feudal ideas. It is basically this pro-imperialist and feudal culture that is being widely propagated by the ruling classes, and it is these ideas that have penetrated widely throughout society. Pro-imperialist culture basically destroys patriotic values, idealizing the west and promoting the elitist consumerist culture. Feudal culture is primarily the Brahminical caste-based culture of engrained superiority. This Brahminical culture puts its stamp on nearly all aspects of social interaction and thinking, from approach to labour, women, oppressed castes, other communities, marriage norms, birth, death, language, etc, etc and even has numerous caste symbols. Ironically the so-called modern imperialist culture easily adjusts with the archaic and retrogressive Brahminical culture. Both imperialist and feudal culture has to be continuously opposed and replaced by democratic and socialist culture and thinking.
17. India is a vast multinational country comprising various oppressed nationalities and tribes. In India no nationality occupying the overall dominating position likes China and also Russia. More so these nationalities are going through different stages of their development. India’s present boundaries were drawn by British imperialists. The current “unity” is based on the subjugation of many people and nationalities to an arbitrary central authority. Hence, this unequal and reactionary “unity” is very fragile. In such a situation what will replace present day India will also definitely depend on the ongoing revolutionary war and Marxist-Leninist-Maoist understanding. In this context it is one of the most basic tasks before our Party today.
In India today many nationality struggles in various parts of the country assuming various forms, including armed struggle, are going on and advancing. The overall picture reflects the rousing mood of the masses. The reactionary ruling classes and their imperialist chieftains, particularly the US imperialists, are desperately engaged in ruthlessly suppressing these struggles. The struggles of various nationalities, particularly the Kashmir, Naga, Assam, Manipur and other nationalities in the North Eastern region are continuing the armed struggle against the Indian state. These struggles continue to strike powerful blows against the most repressive armed forces of the reactionary ruling classes. Until now over 60 thousands toiling people have been killed in Kashmir in the last 15 years alone. Recently in Indo-Bhutan border, the Indian army in connivance with Bhutanese army has killed hundreds of ULFA, KLO, BODO etc. supporters and cadres in a military operation. Millions of Indian armed forces are deployed in these nationalities to suppress their movements brutally under the iron heel of the military might, but even then the burning flames of these struggles could not be extinguished. The people of these nationalities are struggling not only for their identity but also for the just cause of achieving their honourable right of self-determination including the right of secession. These struggles are striking powerful blows to the armed might of the Indian ruling classes, thereby objectively weakening them. In this context they are playing a positive role. Moreover these struggles are integrated part of the NDR.
Comrade Mao stated that “In the final analysis national struggle is a matter of class struggle.” National oppression in essence falls upon all classes comprising a nation except a small section of exploiters directly or indirectly in league with imperialism and the oppressors. But it is the masses of toiling people particularly the peasantry who bear the largest burden of the oppression of a nationality. Undoubtedly it is true that this is the real material basis operations beneath these struggles, viewing from this angle also these nationality struggles can achieve genuine liberation and the right of self determination including the right of succession as a part of the larger struggle directed against the Indian ruling classes and their imperialist chieftains, particularly the US imperialists. Our party must unequivocally support these nationality struggles and the struggle, for separate statehood and resolutely oppose the vicious attempts of the Indian ruling classes to suppress these nationality movements. While, firmly uniting with the people, each and every struggle of the nationalities should be supported if it is directed against the Indian state.
We must support the nationality struggles including the right of self determination along with the right of secession, on the basis of a common programme that targets the Indian ruling-classes. We must also firmly keep in mind that a section of the dominant leadership of these movements have time and again deserted these struggles sooner or later and joins the ranks of the ruling classes by striking a compromise with them for electoral gains. We must also continue to demarcate and also expose in positive terms the anti-people and negative tendencies often revealing themselves during these struggles. On the basis of our programme and independent initiative we must thereby seek to expose the compromising leadership and draw the movement as part of the new democratic revolutions in the Indian sub-continent.
18. Adivasis who constitute over 8% of the population are among the most oppressed and exploited people in the country. They face the exploitation of contractors, traders and the government etc. Also they face onslaught on their language, culture, and heritage. In addition to this in the name of development they are increasingly being evicted form their traditional lands and being forced either to migrate or forcefully rehabilitated in most inhospitable areas. In the past deforestation, building of dams and other projects were the cause of their displacement. Of late the imperialist capital and CBB have begun to evict the tribals in order to gain access to the rich raw materials and natural resources in the tribal pockets. Last year tribals protesting against their eviction and the lack of adequate compensation for years were fired upon and over a dozen tribals were killed in Kalinganagar. The issue of displacement and eviction of tribals is becoming a burning problem of all India significance. It is necessary that this issue is seriously taken up.
18. On the other hand, the Indian ruling classes and their imperialist chieftains, particularly the U.S. imperialists, are desperately engaged in keeping the broad masses, particularly the poor and landless peasants, comprising destitute Dalits, women, Adivasis and other oppressed sections under the iron heel of their already rotten exploitative and oppressive imperialist-feudal set-up. With this purpose they are also engaged in perpetuating, wiping up and fanning caste and communal passion particularly the Hindu fascism. Because they are increasingly loosing their credibility, hence they are desperately using the British policy of “Divide and rule”, so that they may let the people kill the people by fighting among themselves. That is why their desperately engaged in setting up and instigating the counter revolutionary gangs like RSS, Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena type openly organized gangs which danced a dragon like dance of death previously in Bombay and Gujarat and recently all over Gujarat. These Hindu fundamentalist forces must not only be opposed, exposed and fought politically and ideologically, but also the masses should be aroused to isolate the leadership. Though the Hindu fascist policy of the ruling classes is to turn the class struggle into a fratricidal war between communities, this is no simple divide - and - rule but a systematic thorough fascist policy of whipping up hysteria amongst the majority community making a scapegoat against the minorities, particularly Muslims. To fight this conspiracy of the Sangh gang including BJP it is first and foremost necessary at the local level to stand with the sections under attack - the minorities, particularly Muslims - and defend their rights, including that to their religion and as equal citizens of the country. But, while defending the minorities locally the Party must expose that section of the leadership that spreads the venom of fundamentalist ideology and at the same time must also continue to expose the fundamentalism of other religions. If the Party of the proletariat does not continue to focus its attention in advancing the actual class struggle, that is, the PPW, which will finally put an end to this threat, the mass of Muslims will be drawn into the clutches of the fundamentalists thereby facilitating the fratricidal war. In addition an intensification of the class struggle and people’s war in the country and its extension to areas involving minorities will prevent the Hindu fascists from raising their head, at the very start. Recently, the release of the Sachar committee report on the Muslim community and its recommendations has raised the question of the backwardness of the Muslim community and the need to correct this. There is need to take up many issues regarding the implementation of the Sachar committee report in order to mobilize the Muslim community and strengthen our base amongst them.
19. On the whole the accumulating effect of all the factors regarding the political and economic policies of Indian ruling classes, sponsored by the imperialists, briefly touched upon here having greatly intensified the economic and political crisis in the country. This crisis is increasingly rendering the Indian people’s lives, particularly the lives of the peasantry, working class and urban poor to extremely miserable conditions. As a result of it their struggles and clashes are clearly intensifying in the social and political sphere. The ongoing and advancing people’s war led by our party in various parts of the country is emerging on the central political stage. In this overall context including the context of the prevailing world situation all the major contradictions in the country are getting further sharpened. They are –
(i) The contradiction between imperialism and the Indian people;
(ii) The contradiction between feudalism and the broad masses;
(iii) The contradiction between capital and labour; and
(iv) The contradiction with in the ruling classes.
Because all these major contradictions are getting more and more sharpened hence the people’s struggles too are mounting against the exploitative and oppressive imperialist-feudal system in India today. But from among all these contradictions the contradictions between feudalism and the broad masses continue to be principal contradiction today.
Today the resolution of these contradictions is posed more than ever. This resolution requires that the reckless exploitation and unbridled rule of the Indian ruling classes along with the strangulating control and exploitation of imperialism needed to be put end. Only then chains of slavery can be shattered and there by the course of the solution of the most basic problems of the people can be illumined. Advancing in this direction the Indian people can achieve not only real independence and real democracy but also continue to advance towards realizing socialism and communism on a world scale. But this resolution or you can say the only alternative is to carry on and advance and complete the already going on protracted people’s war, the axis of which is armed agrarian revolutionary war, presently centering on the slogan “Land to the tiller and power to the revolutionary peasant committee” will constitute the main slogan in the period till the establishment of the guerrilla zone. Thereafter, in these Guerrilla Zones, with the development of the embryonic forms of people’s political power, the central slogan will be transformed into “Land to the Tiller - All Power to the Revolutionary People’s Committee”. In the course of the development of the Guerilla Zones towards Base Areas, this latter slogan will assume the main form.
20. The brave Indian people have a very rich legacy of such struggles. After the mighty Telangana movement of 1947-51, the great “Red Hurricane” like armed revolt of Naxalbari delivered a thunderous blow not only to the reactionary ruling classes along with their imperialist chieftains, but also greatly exposed the revisionist and reformist forces of the CPI and CPM brand. This revolt also illuminated the general path of the protracted people’s war for the long-cherished need of the Indian revolution. Thus this revolt opened a new chapter in the history of the real and going through revolutionary movement in India.
Although this movement suffered a temporary set back in the immediate aftermath yet the burning red flames of Naxalbari led by genuine Maoist forces continue to shine in India in one form or the other since last four decades. Today under the leadership of our Maoist party these flames are touching a new height in Andhra, Jharkhand, Dandakaranya, Bihar and other parts of India. That is why the reverberating slogan – “Naxalbari - Ek Hi Rasta” has assumed unprecedented importance in the present day high time.
Recovering from the initial and temporary set-back our two parties continue to stick to the path of protracted people’s war. This path was already illuminated by the great Mao Tse-tung and brought forth by our outstanding and front-ranking leaders like comrade CM & KC in the concrete condition of India. During the subsequent course of building and advancing the armed agrarian revolutionary war, that is the protracted people’s war, we have to traverse a very zigzag course in resuming our advancement. We also continue to face and resist the vicious repressive campaign of the ruling classes. Despite this we have achieved many remarkable successes. Starting from small pockets and with a small number of comrades and weapons we have succeeded in building many large and extensive areas of our struggle. We have built a relatively strong and valiant party based on a correct revolutionary MLM line. We have also succeeded in establishing red & staunch PGA/PLGA with the firm direction of building full-fledged PLA. Moreover the fighting spirit of our armed forces has reached the high level by capturing over 500 hundred arms through a daring campaign at the district headquarter of Koraput (Orissa) along with six PS and other targets and a daring ambush in the West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. This Koraput campaign and Saranda ambush signify a qualitatively new level of our movement. This level has been reached during the valiant course of conducting many heroic raid and ambushes against the enemy forces by our red armed forces, no doubt with the active participation and help of the masses. Our forces have developed several GZS and are in a process towards establishing some guerrilla bases, with the immediate and clear direction of establishing red base areas.
Besides this the peasant masses led by our party have succeeded in seizing and distributing many lakhs acres of land in our struggling areas. This land has been distributed by keeping in mind the slogan “land to the real tillers and political power to the revolutionary peasant committees” in the forefront. These committees are developing as a center of new power at the local level. These committees are in the process of developing as full fledged “revolutionary people’s committees”, with the further development of the revolutionary guerrilla war towards establishing red base areas from the developing GZS and guerrilla bases in the near future. This is the for-most task before our united party.
To some extent we have been able to build the rudimentary forms of a United Front through armed struggle and for armed struggle and on the basis of worker peasant alliance at the local level in these regions of armed struggle in the form of revolutionary peasant committees. This is being strengthened by advancing the armed struggle and the establishment of the new political power of landless and poor peasants, agricultural labourers, middle peasants and a section of the rich peasants as part of advancing the agrarian revolution. It is these rudimentary organs of power that must grow with the perspective of becoming the core of the NDF. In addition we have mobilized masses and different categories of mass organizations in anti-imperialist and anti-feudal movements at the country level which needs to be consolidated further in the direction of a tactical united front who also will serve the NDF and will act as its complimentary part. In addition to that and in the same direction we have also succeeded in building several mass organizations through revolutionary and other mass struggles, including revolutionary women organizations. We have also succeeded in mobilizing, organizing and recruiting a large number of women particularly from among the landless and poor peasants into our mass and other organizations including the army and the party. As a whole we have also succeeded in expanding and extending several areas of our strong influence in various parts of the country ranging from Assam to Punjab and from Uttarakhand to Kerala.
21. In building such a powerful movements thousands of our heroic martyrs have led down their lives while many other continue to come forward to take up their guns. And carry forward their unfinished mission. During the tedious course of preserving while advancing our guerrilla war we have also succeeded in thwarting and almost smashing the private armies of the landlords and evil gentry like Bhumi Sena, Bramharashi, Sunlight and Ranvir Sena and government sponsored counter-revolutionary organization like Gram Suraksha Dal. These Senas continue to be backed and instigated by the ruling class parties like BJP and their state machinery with the apt purpose of terrorizing the masses, particularly the peasants masses and to keep them away from our party and the PPW led by it. Today a section of the Ranvir Sena and Gram Suraksha Dal still continue to operate but its influence and strength has been considerably reduced. The struggle to eliminate to it is going on at a rapid pace.
In some parts of our struggle areas the State and Central governments are forming black hundred type organizations like Green Tigers, Kranti Sena etc, since the 90s, as part of the numerous repression forms. Such covert operations are part of the general counter-insurgency offensive against the Maoists.
In Dandakarayna the reactionary state has unleashed a counter-revolutionary campaign called the salwa Judum in order to crush the movement. Backed by the state and its armed forces, lumpens and other reactionary forces have been armed to attack the people and our party to force the people to submission and to disassociate from the movement. They initiated this campaign in 2004 with the aim of wiping out our movement in DK area in six months. Hundreds of villages have been destroyed and the people evicted and around one lakh tribals forced to live in state-sponsored camps. With the aim of draining the water to catch the fish – the same aim with which the British and US imperialists created ‘strategic hamlets’ in Malaysia and Vietnam respectively, the Indian state too has launched this campaign. The CBB like the Tatas and Ruias who have plans to make major investments in these areas are backing this reactionary campaign in order to smash our guerilla zones and people’s governments which are being established in this area.
In fact this is part of the multi-pronged all round offensive being undertaken by the JOC (Joint Operational Command) of the Central government, and backed by imperialism. A counter-insurgency scheme of Low Intensity Conflict strategy is being adopted by the rulers to crush the movement through a policy of reforms and ruthless repression with ever increasing intensity. Massive funds given by the imperialists is used to wean away the masses from the Maoists and entice comrades to surrender, while at the same time fascist repression is unleashed on the fighting forces, particular the leadership. In this AP was selected as a model by the World Bank and imperialists to crush the Maoists in India.
22. Moreover we have achieved these initial successes by facing and resisting and even giving a befitting replay to the most ruthless repressive campaigns let-loose by the reactionary ruling classes and their imperialist chieftains in the last 36 years. They have left no stone unturned in their nefarious and most ruthless campaign in exterminating our party and the advancing PW led by it. During these campaigns they have used most vicious and sanguinary methods, such as searching, looting imprisoning torturing and even raping women and above all killing thousands of heroic sons and daughters of the Indian people through the wicked method of fake encounters, thereby trampling underfoot all the civil laws including the international conventions.
The Congress-led UPA government has declared immediately on coming into office that the biggest threat to it is the Maoist-led revolutionary movement. In order to meet this threat the Central government has centralized the entire effort to crush the movement in their hands. Hundreds of battalions of para-military forces are being raised with the view to crush our movement. The intelligence apparatus has been strengthened. And hit-list of the top Maoist leadership has been made with the view to eliminate the leadership of the movement. Apart for this the armed forces have been given the brief to prepare for intervention in this war. Already satellite surveillance and air support is being given to the para-military forces to conduct operations against the people’s armed forces. On the other side they have begun a massive propaganda and disinformation campaign against the movement in order to discredit the movement and justify their brutal repression
Today they have established, a joint operational command comprising nine states under the command of the central government and permanently deployed thousands of paramilitary forces including Grey Hound type special command forces specially trained by Mossad and under the surveillance of the FBI. They have also declared that they will deal our movement just like they are dealing the Kashmiri people’s movement. Actually, they have declared a permanent war to exterminate the PPW led by our party without even openly declaring so. They and there print and electronic media are continuously engaged in maligning this PPW led by our party as terrorist and anti-social and even try to link it with the notorious ISI etc. when the truth of the fact is that it is they and their armed forces which are acting as terrorists and that too at the dictates of the imperialists, particularly the biggest terrorist of the world -the U.S imperialists. But despite their mountains of lies slanders and more so most ruthless and wicked suppressive campaigns the peasant war in the form of PPW led by our party is continuously surging forward and will surely continue to do so until victory, that too, with the active participation and support of the people, particularly the peasant masses.
23. Overall situation in India today is passing through an extremely explosive period. All the major contradictions of Indian society are increasingly intensifying. The contradiction between imperialism and broad masses of the people (including nationalities) along with the contradiction between feudalism and great masses of the people are assuming alarming dimension where as the latter is more determining the overall situation. The contradiction among the different factions among the ruling classes is also interacting as well as intensifying very sharply along with these contradictions. As a result of the increasing intensification of these contradictions two outstanding favorable features are clearly reflected in the developing situation.
Firstly, India is increasingly and more deeply being engulfed in a most critical economic and political crisis. Because of this there is no sign of recovery and permanent political stability in the whole ruling and parliamentary system and parliamentary ruling parties including the parliamentary politics stand exposed to a considerable extent. The faith of the toiling masses has been shattered from this system more than ever. The phenomenon of tearing apart including forging and breaking apart and nakedly opportunist alliance in the ruling class parties has assumed alarming dimension. The question of one party stable rule has already become a part of the history. They are devoid of any viable slogans to dupe the people. In the case of corruption one big scandal after another has utterly uncovered their ugly faces. Even the so-called left parties are fast loosing their ground. They are more and more openly resorting to severe repression to suppress the people’s struggles erupting on even most ordinary and just demands. Nakedly relying on vicious repressive measures and fanning of communal frenzy, particularly the fascist Hindu fundamentalism is the latest weapon of the Indian ruling classes. With the change of the colour and faces of the rulers in Delhi the Sangh Parivar are bound to continue their nefarious designs in fanning fundamentalism to gain back lost power. However, the project to install a Hindu fascist state has run into some problems. Significant sections of the ruling classes are not in favour of such a step at this time. They prefer to maintain a strong Hindu fascist presence in the form of a social and political force in order to sustain and nurture an extreme Right-wing and reactionary political environment. This is why they raise issues from the Hindutva agenda i.e. singing of vande matram etc on and off to keep it alive. Also large sections of the people are rejecting extreme forms of the Hindu fascist agenda. . The party of the proletariat continues the struggle against these forces as desired by the circumstances while keeping the edge of the people’s struggles directed against the new rulers along with CPI/CPM and their imperialist chieftains.
It is one of the major reasons that the dog fight among them is getting very sharp. Even if the polarization among them about who will ally with whom imperialists powers is not clearly crystallized. This may only take place when clear-cut blocs materialize at the international level. But one thing is clear enough that the contradiction among the US - British imperialists on the one hand and the EU and Russian imperialist on the other is also increasingly interacting behind this dog fight. That is why this dog fight is likely to intensify further and further. Our party along with other Maoist and revolutionary forces must utilize the favourable situation created by this dog fight. They must do so not only exposing the parliamentary politics and parliamentary system altogether, including the ruling class parliamentary parties, but they must also build a strong mass movement around the slogan “boycott election is a democratic right” of the people. More than that, they must also continue to concentrate their attention in advancing the protracted people’s war through appropriate military means, particularly during the election. It is only then they can effectively highlight the fact that the embryo of the real people’s democratic power growing in the countryside through the PPW is the only alternative which can lead the people towards smashing the old and establishing a new India.
Secondly, the deep going crisis ridden situation continues to provide a most favourable fertile ground for the newly rising tide of the peoples struggles. The burning flames of the great Naxalbari movement developing and gaining ground in Andhra, Jharkhand, Dandakaranya, Bihar and the adjoining areas are spearheading these struggles. Today the Naxalbari movement has developed to the unprecedented level in the whole history of the communist movement in India. A new and high phase of spring thunder has already begun. Both the force and flow of our movement are advancing towards accomplishing it’s historic mission. Most importantly, our two parties or two out standing Maoist streams have succeeded in building and strengthening PPW while operating separately. But now we have also succeeded in uniting into a single all India party based on MLM line thus we have succeeded in achieving the long and highly cherished need by the revolutionary minded and other people of the country including all our ranks and South Asian and international revolutionary Maoist forces.
Moreover, we have also developed closer relation with the international MLM forces. The formation of CCOMPOSA as a part of the developing coordination and growing trend of unity amongst international Maoist forces and is a step forward in this direction.Though the storm centres of world revolution continue to be Asia, Africa and Latin America, the revolutionary movements in South Asia, have, for the present, become an important centre of the revolutionary movements of the world. Protracted people’s war in Nepal led by the CPN (Maoist) has succeeded in evicting the reactionary and feudal monarchy of Gyanendra. They have established base areas in vast parts of the country and have built a significant People’s Liberation Army. However they are now preparing to join a government along with SPA and merge their armed forces with the reactionary army. This is a step which is being watched with grave concern by the revolutionaries all over the world.
24. With the setback in the International communist movement, particularly with the reversal in China, the imperialists have sought to portray communism as dead. As an alternative to communism they have been aggressively promoting theories of post-modernism, subaltern studies, etc. All these have been linked with the dissent movement in the world with the purpose of negating the role of class struggle in changing society. Though they have a radical and left appearance they act to diffuse organized attacks on the system and negate the only possible alternative i.e. socialism.
And as for revisionists, they hold a considerable influence over large sections of the organised working class. It is important to liberate this section form the stranglehold of the revisionists so that they can play their due role as a part of the proletarian vanguard. Countering and defeating these post-modernist and revisionist trends, particularly revisionist trends are a prime task of the Party. While revisionism remains the main danger in the world today, hence it can be most effectively fight out and defeated only by our ideology Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, along with widely propagating it and more particularly by creatively applying it to the concrete situations, i.e. various problems, events and phenomena, occurring from time to time, there by changing both the objective as well as subjective world. Without fighting these two trends, particularly revisionism ideologically, politically and organisationally it would be impossible to advance the new democratic revolution in the country to victory and go on moving forward toward achieving communism on a world scale.
25. The NGOs seek to divert the more advanced sections from the path of revolution. With their post-modernist and revisionist ideologies they seek to divert the revolutionary movement into acceptable and peaceful channels.
A massive network of imperialist funded NGOs have been set up throughout the country, particularly focusing in conflict and potential conflict areas to sabotage revolution. They play a counter-revolutionary role, utilising the vast funds at their disposal, to corrupt a section of the masses and wean them away from revolutionary activity. Not surprisingly a large number of the NGOs are being absorbed into the welfare schemes of the government itself at both central and state levels. It is our urgent task to thoroughly expose the ideology of these NGOs and isolate them from the masses.
26. Being subservient to imperialism, the CBB’s rapacious role is not confined to India alone. It has its eyes on the neighbouring countries of South Asia too and quite often intervenes in their political affairs. Backed by imperialist powers, India is playing an expansionist role, which is a great menace to the neighbouring countries of India. Through this aggressive expansionist role, the CBB of India, while serving the imperialists principally, has its own interests also in the region. The Indian comprador ruling classes continue to pursue their expansionist interests in South Asia. They seek to grab their markets and sources of raw materials. Not surprisingly, barely one week after coming to power the Congress External Affairs Minister went on a 3-day trip to Nepal, threatening the Maoist people’s movement there and blatantly interfering in the internal affairs of the country. The Indian government has played a major role in the entire events in Nepal seeking to maintain its expansionist control over the country whatever may be the new alignments coming to power.
Earlier the GOI directly sent its army into Bhutan, utilising the Bhutanese army as cannon-fodder to crush the nationality movements based there. Through their expansionist activities the Indian rulers are getting more and more isolated from the people of entire South Asia. Some of these South Asian countries fear that they may even be annexed like Sikkim. Through the nuclear blasts and the launching of the Prithvi and Agni missiles, the Indian ruling classes aim at instilling fear among the people of the countries of South Asia and to subdue them.
The Indian ruling classes are resorting to all methods of coercion to tie both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to their expansionist interests. They crudely intervene in the political conditions of the two countries. In Bangladesh they are seeking to rob it of its rich gas resources and starve it out of water from Indian water resources. With Sri Lanka they have signed most humiliating trade agreements to completely tie the Sri Lankan markets to Indian expansionist interests.
The anti-Pak war hysteria, though temporarily subdued due to US dictates, must also be exposed, while being on guard that the Pakistani ruling classes acting as the stooge of the US imperialists too have the need to arouse anti-Indian passions in order to divert people’s attention from the acute domestic crisis. For the present the US seeks peace between the two countries as part of its geo-political interests in Afghanistan and its economic interests to pipe Central Asian oil through Pakistan to India and beyond.
The Indian working class and its Party should support all the struggles of the people of South Asia against Indian expansionism and there imperialists chieftains and must expose and fight against all expansionist actions of the Indian ruling classes.
They have been using the SAARC primarily for the setting up a Free Trade Area to allow the free flow of goods from India, thereby seizing their markets. Of late, they also seek to use it for their so-called anti-terrorist policies throughout South Asia, to suppress people’s and nationality movements in the region.
The Indian working class should also expose the conspiracies and aggression unleashed by the Indian ruling classes to suppress the Eelam people’s struggle through such acts as banning the LTTE, and should extend support to the Eelam struggle and condemn the brutal genocide that was carried on by the Sri Lankan government on the Eelam’s people’s struggles.
Conclusion
27. The current situation in the country is marked by a deepening crisis and possibilities of great revolutionary advance. The prime reason for the change in Delhi was the policies of economic reforms which has a devastating impact on the lives of the masses. It is these same policies that also saw the downfall of Congress governments at the state level. Another factor for the defeat of the BJP led coalition was aversion of the masses against the crude policies of Hindu fascism, which saw the bulk of its stalwarts being defeated. Finally, the brutalities on the revolutionary movement, particularly in AP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhatishgarh, Orissa, etc took its toll on the NDA votes. But with the victory of the Congress neither is Hindu fascism nor economic reforms actually defeated. Immediately after coming to power the Congress has continued with the ‘reforms agenda just as the BJP. With defeat and out of power, the Sangh Parivar is likely to intensify their Hindutva agenda once frustration with the new Congress dispensation develops.
Besides, by introducing a budget that serves imperialist interests and intensified the destitution of the masses the Congress has bowed completely to imperialist dictates by passing the Fiscal Responsiblity and Budget Management Act. The imperialists have been consistently demanding reduction of the fiscal deficit. Now, with the FRBM Act the government is required to reduce the fiscal deficit by 0.3% every year and if this is not achieved it is forced by this legislation to cut public expenditure - which means further affecting the livelihood of the masses. Such a blatantly servile Act is unheard of in the entire post-47 history of the country and was passed with excessive haste just 3 days before the introduction of the 2004/05 budget. So, we see no matter which parliamentary party is in power all act to servilely implement World Bank / IMF/WTO - imperialist dictated economic policies in the country.
The so-called modernisation and hi-tech policies of the governments is only for a small elite class. The vast section of the masses, particularly the rural poor, are being pushed deeper into backwardness. Even this ‘modernisation’ is taking place with outdated equipment being dumped by imperialists in the country at inflated costs. Extreme poverty, whether rural or urban, deprives the masses of the very basic amenities, let alone modern living conditions.
The growing dog-fights in the country by the ruling class parties does not concern policies but is a reflection of the increasing crisis and squabbles over a diminishing cake. Besides, the growing contention amongst the imperialists internationally, will, continue to reflect in intensified ruling class squabbles. This growing instability in the enemy camp can be of great advantage for the people’s forces if it is effectively used for advancing the people’s war. Not only are the UPA and NDA at loggerheads but also within each formation the squabble are growing.
In addition, as a result of the policies of economic reforms the already impoverished masses are being pushed even further to destitution. The reforms will also badly impact the middle classes and even a section of the small bourgeoisie and traders. Employees and workers will continue to be retrenched. The rural population will be devastated and entire new generations will grope in the dark without fruitful employment or sources of income. Such a massive attack on the lives of the people will result in growing discontent breaking out into agitation and revolts. To suppress this revolt they are introducing the twin policies of ruthless repression and Hindu fascism.
It is to suppress this growing discontent that the rulers have been equipping themselves with draconian powers and continuously expending the strengths of the police, para-military, army and also the intelligence forces. The Congress for all its rhetoric is - likely to merely replace POTA with another legislation. It is silent on the most notorious Malimath Committee recommendations which defacto institutionalises POTA-type judicial methods. Not surprisingly the Congress PM’s National Security Advisor is India’s top counter-insurgency expert.
As part of its strategy of Low Intensity conflict the Congress government is preparing for massive attacks on revolutionary and nationality forces, just as the BJP did, while making a show of Talks. As part of its LIC strategy it utilises, alternatively both - ruthless repression and talks for ‘peace’ - in order to disarm the masses and revolutionary forces. Whatever immediate policy it may adopt for varied political expediency, the essence of state policy will be growing and intensified repression and ruthless attacks on the revolutionary and nationality forces.
So, today there is urgent need for the Party of the proletariat to mobilise the widest sections of the masses against the growing onslaught of imperialism on the country, against state repression together with support for all movements against imperialism and feudalism. This will be in addition to the central task of advancing the people’s war in the countryside. Such unity is inconceivable without exposing and isolating the leadership of the revisionists of all hues and imperialist-funded NGOs in the country and winning over their rank-and-file. These two forces, specially the revisionist, act as ruling class Trojan Horses within the people’s movement whose only purpose is to deflect and divert it into acceptable and peaceful channels.
In the light of the temporary decline in the nationality movements, with the desertion of the Naga leaders and ruthless crushing of most others, the enemy attacks are likely to be more focused on the Maoists and the people’s war led by them in the country. Therefore, the situation calls for great degree of alertness, intensification and extension of the people’s war and the opening numerous more political fronts to deflect and divert enemy concentration. While the situation today is fraught with danger, the opportunities for advance are immense.
In the light of the above excellent revolutionary situation when all the fundamental contradictions at the domestic and international level are sharpening at a rapid pace, it becomes all the more important for the Indian proletariat to sharpen all the appropriate and necessary weapons in its arsenal and seize the initiative firstly to carry on and advanced the armed agrarian revolutionary war that is protracted people’s war to build up the army and base areas and also mobilize the masses on a massive scale to create country-wide revolutionary mass upsurge. The ever-increasing revolutionary situation in the country can be effectively utilised to advance the ongoing People’s Democratic Revolution to victory only by consolidating the entire Party, establishing proletarian leadership at all levels from the grass-roots to the national level; purging the Party of all alien trends as and when they appear thereby Bolshevising it further; unifying all the communist revolutionary groups and individuals and spreading the proletarian politics and the ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism; building the broadest united front of all anti-imperialists and anti-feudal forces under working class leadership based on worker peasant alliance revolutionary class line and mass line in building guerilla zones and people’s army with the aim of establishing liberated areas which is our immediate task.
28. Our Principal and immediate political tasks :
A) Principal Task of the Party :
While adhering to the above basic orientation, our Party must take up the following basic, principal and immediate task to advance the ongoing People’s Democratic Revolution:
* Develop and intensify the people’s war throughout the country. Take up the basic and principal task of building PLA and Liberated Areas by advancing armed agrarian revolution. Take up concrete, time-bound plans to transform guerilla zones into base areas.
Orient all activities to precipitate implementation of the central task. Foil every attack of state and central governments, aimed at liquidating our party and PLGA and suppressing the peasant revolutionary struggles, by waging people’s war. Strengthen the Party, PLGA, and United Front and intensify the guerrilla war with the perspective of liberated area.
With the above perspective, all areas should be developed step-by-step in this direction. Where struggles are at a low level, they have to be intensified and expanded with the perspective of focusing towards building guerrilla zones. Build and strengthen the organs of political power and the Revolutionary United front, under the leadership of the landless-poor peasantry and agricultural labourer.
While the entire Party must focus its attention on the basic, principal and immediate task of building the PLA and establishing Liberated Areas, the masses of the entire country must be mobilized extensively and militantly on the current political issues and political tactical slogans and thereby be drawn into the over-all anti-imperialist, anti-feudal movement in the country. In addition, all sections and classes must be mobilized on their own demands, orienting these to the tasks of the New Democratic Revolution.
B) Other Immediate Tasks :
1. Widely propagate Marxism-Leninism-Maoism; that Socialism is the only alternative before the oppressed people of the world, explaining that the crisis in East Europe, Soviet Union and Yugoslavia is a crisis of state bureaucrat capitalism. Masses should be thoroughly educated regarding the reasons for the restoration of capitalism in all the erstwhile socialist countries, particularly expose the modern revisionists who are in power in China, Vietnam, North Korea and Cuba, and thereby raise the revolutionary consciousness and vigilance of the masses of the world. In this particularly the Chinese revisionists who come with the fake slogan of “Marxism with Chinese characteristics” need to be exposed.
We have to expose before the masses the real face of the revisionist CPI and CPI(M) and all types of the neo-revisionists particularly ‘Liberation’ hiding behind the ideological mask of Marxism-Leninism and Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung thought.
2. Warn the people that the end of superpower rivalry has not eliminated the danger of World War, that the underlying causes for inter-imperialist war i.e., the intense inter-imperialist contradictions in their contention for redividing the world market still exist and hence we should educate the people of the need to intensify the ongoing revolutionary civil war and to extend it throughout the country in order to advance the NDR to victory by utilising the revolutionary crisis arising in case of outbreak of world war.
3. Expose, oppose and fight back the bullying, blackmailing and arm-twisting tactics of the US superpower in India and other oppressed countries; support the struggles by the proletariat, oppressed nations and the world people against imperialism, particularly American imperialism; mobilise the people against the preparations of American imperialism to launch wars of aggression against oppressed countries; demand the withdrawal of all American military bases throughout the world; and expose that the real aim behind the imperialists’ (particularly US imperialist’s) talk of disarmament is to cover up the attempts for wars of aggression and their monopoly control of nuclear weapons in order to keep the oppressed countries under their control.
4.Mobilise the people politically against the new economic policies, the structural adjustment programmes and imperialist policy of globalisation pursued by the Indian ruling classes under the dictates of World Bank, IMF, WTO and other imperialist agencies, which have been driving the country into the complete stranglehold of imperialism. While concentrating our attack on American imperialism, we must also thoroughly expose and fight the attempts by the European (particularly Germany, France and Britain), Japan, and Russia to gain control of the Indian economy and the state. Imperialist’s role in the mass impoverisation of the people, the destruction of its natural resources and environment has to be thoroughly exposed and fought against.
5. Towards forming the national democratic front in the country the party will undertake the necessary steps for forming a frontal organisation of the unified party that will not only propagate the revolutionary politics openly but also build a strong and broad based mass movement against imperialism and feudalism and thereby project the revolutionary alternative before the people of the country. Party will also form a Tactical United Front (TUF) based on the wide mobilisation of various anti-imperialist, anti-feudal and democratic organisations and individuals. This TUF should unite various people’s movements and mobilise the broad masses of the country against imperialist war designs and globalisation, growing state repression and the communal fascist offensive led by the Hindutva forces. This alliance should declare its unequivocal support to the various democratic demands of the peasantry including their anti-imperialist and anti-feudal demands and the struggle of the masses. This front should thoroughly expose the fake opposition of those foreign-funded NGOs and the revisionist and their counter-revolutionary role of stabbing the people’s movements in the back. In addition to this the oppressed classes and sections must also be widely mobilized on their basic demands linking these to the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal tasks. In addition to based, the oppressed classes and sections must also be widely mobilised on their basic demands orienting these to the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal tasks.
6. Develop class struggles in the urban areas paying special attention to the working class. Since urban areas have great potential to become powerful centres of anti-imperialist, anti-CBB, anti-feudal struggles especially in the background of growing imperialist exploitation and stranglehold over our country’s economy due to the policies of globalisation and liberalisation. Party units in various states have to formulate specific plans for depolying forces in the urban areas. The needs of the armed struggle in the countryside should also be taken into the forefront while planning our urban work. As urban areas are strong centres for the enemy forces, strict precautions have to be observed.
7. Expose and resist the expansionist designs of the Indian ruling classes along with their imperialists chieftains in South Asia, their big-power chauvinism and the acts of aggression in the neighbouring countries; oppose anti-Pak war hysteria being whipped up by the Indian ruling classes and their political representatives; fight against the arms race in the Indian sub-continent fuelled by the Indian ruling classes and their sinister attempts to enhance India’s nuclear capabilities; support the struggles of the people of South Asia against Indian expansionism.
8. Mobilise the people against the fascist repression being unleashed in all spheres by the Indian ruling classes, fight against all black acts such as POTA, NSA, ESMA, Disturbed Area Act, Armed Forces Special Powers Act, ban on strikes etc. and fight for the withdrawal of all cases under POTA, TADA and other draconian laws.
9. Uphold the struggle of nationalities for self-determination including secession and condemn brutal state repression on these nationalities. Support the struggles of various nationalities like Kashmiris, Assamese, Nagas, Manipuris, Tripuris for the right of self determination including the right to secede and the struggle of the people of Telangana, Vidarbha and others for statehood, while at the same time the necessity of comprehensive programme for emancipation from exploitation and oppression should be propagated amongst the people.
10. Isolate and defeat the Hindu fascist forces; concentrate the attacks in particular on the BJP, RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and other Hindu chauvinist and fascist organisations. Support the struggle of the religious minorities against the Hindu chauvinist policies of the Indian State.
11) Fight against the brahminical caste system and particularly against the practice of untouchability. This must be conducted on a regular basis against all forms of brahminical thinking and caste biases and by building a strong movement to fight untouchabiity and against attacks on Dalits.
12) With the implementation of the present policies of LPG there is taking place the displacement of huge number of persons, particularly tribals. The gigantic mining projects, the large dams, the SEZs and big plants, and urban projects are leading to displacement on a massive scale. There is urgent need to fight this displacement and the very model of development that promotes it.
C) Political Tactical Slogans :
The political tactical slogans to be focused on are:
i) Intensify and advance the people’s war! Establish people’s political power!
ii) Build a mighty mass movement against the imperialist war designs and imperialist- dictated privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation!
iii) Expose, Isolate and defeat the more dangerous Hindu fascist forces, while exposing all other fundamentalist forces!
iv) Resist and defeat growing state repression and for the repeal of POTA and other Black Laws!
v) Fight the expansionist designs of the Indian ruling classes and their imperialist chieftains, particularly the US imperialists!
While taking up these immediate tasks and political tactical slogans, we must subordinate them to the question of seizure of state power through armed struggle and the establishment of the New Democratic State.
By steadfastly taking up the above immediate tasks and political tactical slogans our Party, in spite of being weak today, will grow into a strong and mighty force, and provide a real revolutionary alternative and leadership to the people of India.
29. Today the crisis-ridden world situation and the situation in India are very much favourable for accomplishing revolution. The war mongering US imperialists are increasingly caught in the quagmire in Afghanistan and more particularly in Iraq. The surging new tidal wave of the struggles of the world people, including the people of USA and other imperialists countries, against US imperialist war designs and also against imperialists globalization is greatly helping in surcharging the over all atmosphere of the globe. The conflict among the imperialist is also getting sharp and concentrating in the West Asia, although still under the over all control of temporary collusion. No doubt very recently the US imperialists have stepped up their interventionist activities in India and particularly in Nepal. Firstly they brazenly declared CPN(Maoist) as terrorist now they have listed MCCI and CPI(ML)(PW) – that have now merged into the new Party, CPI(Maoist) – in the same category. They have already sent some military forces there in the name of joint exercises & training. It is certainly a new cause of concern and challenge to the people of Nepal and India including the people of whole south Asian countries but it is certain that if they will not desist themselves and move forward to send their sanguinary armed forces in Nepal to suppress and extinguish the burning red flames of the surging Maoist PW, then both the people of Nepal and India including the people whole the South Asian countries will definitely come forward more forcefully to give them a befitting reply by joining their hands more closely. It is also possible that there after they will not be able to easily extricate themselves from the burning flames of mounting conflagration of the people’s wars in this part of the globe. Then the people of the whole world including the people of USA itself will definitely stand by our side.
Lastly, taking into account all the features of the over all situation although there are some negative factors and hence high dangers and challenges involved in the situation but favourable factors giving rise to more greater possibilities are greater than any times in the past history. No doubt, our party is facing big challenges and high times. But the overall situation is just like Comrade Mao Tse-tung’s fiery statement “A single spark can start a prairie fire” and “armed revolution is countering with armed counter-revolution”. In such a situation if we boldly but with utmost conscientiously move forward in advancing the protracted people’s war towards establishing full fledged PLA and red base areas the NDR will definitely advance by setting up a number of guerrilla zones and Base Areas throughout the country our forces and the brave peasant masses and the people of our country will definitely come forward to defend it, consolidate it and expand it further and further through wave upon waves towards final victory. It is the most pressing need and demand of the day. The people of the whole world including the international Maoist forces will certainly take our side actively. Road is certainly tortuous but future is definitely bright.
* Long live the CPI(Maoist)!
* Intensify the people’s War! Establish People’s political Power!
* Strengthen the PLGA and advance toward PLA and Liberated Areas!
* Build a mighty mass movement against the imperialist war designs and imperialist-dictated privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation!
* Expose, Isolate and defeat the more dangerous Hindu fascist forces, while exposing all other fundamentalist forces also!
* Root out brahminical caste system and its crudest manifestation in untouchability.
* Fight out the growing state repression!
* Fight the expansionist designs of the Indian ruling classes and their imperialist chieftains!
* Support the ongoing struggles of nationalities for self-determination, including the right to secession!
* Fight imperialism, particularly American imperialism - the No. 1 enemy of the world people!
* Fight against US war-mongering polices worldwide; oppose US/Israeli aggression on Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, etc!
* Educate and prepare the people against the danger of imperialist world war!
* Hold high the people’s war in Nepal, Peru, Philippines and Turkey!
* Long live the Indian New Democratic Revolution!
* Long live Agrarian Revolution!
* Naxalbari Zindabad!
* Revisionism is the main danger-fight out and defeat it!
* Hold high the great red banner of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!
* Workers and oppressed people of all countries unite !
* Long Live World Proletarian Revolution !
* Long Live Proletarian Internationalism!
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