In this Issue
Cooperation, Not Confrontation, Should Be the Basis of India’s China Policy
The October 1 celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the foundation of the People’s Republic of China has attracted worldwide attention. Considering the historical baggage of backwardness with which modern China had begun its journey and the size of China’s billion-plus population, China has indeed come a long way in these six decades. With “made in China” products virtually swamping the global market, the whole world obviously recognizes China’s economic prowess. The 2008 Beijing Olympics saw China emerge as the number one sporting nation. Compared to China’s economic strength, its voice in the strategic domain of international relations has of course been rather soft and subdued, but of late China seems to have begun stepping up its role in this arena too.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, for a few years the world looked quite unipolar with unchallenged US domination in every sphere. But over the last one decade, the aura of American power has started fading. With every passing month, the burden of the economic, human and political cost of the US-led military misadventure in Afghanistan and Iraq is becoming increasingly heavy and unaffordable. The US has also had to bear the brunt of the global financial crisis and the recession that has revived memories of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The steady rise of China marks a striking contrast to this unmistakable decline of an overstretched superpower.
China of course does not seem to be in any hurry to assert its status as a rising global power. The keyword in Chinese foreign policy parlance is not superpower but multipolarity as opposed to a unipolar world. In its quest for a multipolar world, China is seeking closer strategic cooperation with Russia and the Central Asian republics within the framework of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and closer bilateral and multilateral economic cooperation with major developing countries like India and Brazil (the combination of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) can indeed be a powerful bargaining bloc). Apart from pressing for restructuring of the IMF, China has also come up with the idea of ending the US dollar’s prolonged reign as the universal currency of international exchange. China has suggested that as a medium of international transaction, dollar should be replaced by a supranational currency basket like the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) used by the IMF.
While China’s record in terms of domestic economic advance is quite extraordinary and its growing role as a balancing force against unipolar imperialist domination is undoubtedly significant, a lot is however left to be desired when one judges China by the yardstick of socialism. Much of the initial post-revolution gains achieved by the toiling masses towards genuine liberation and social progress have been lost in the wake of post-1978 modernization. Disparity, social as well as regional, is assuming critical proportions, even as the working people in both rural and urban areas are faced with growing unemployment and insecurity. By the Chinese state’s own admission, corruption is quite rampant despite the law meting out stringent punishments and frequent death sentences against perpetrators of economic crime. No wonder popular anger is also exploding in different parts of China at regular intervals, with the state often unleashing repressive measures to handle such protests.
For communists and anti-imperialists the world over the sixtieth anniversary of the victory of the Chinese revolution is an occasion to gather inspiration and strength from the historical transformation of a backward country into a powerful modern nation even as the problems facing China demand close scrutiny and critical introspection. At the same time it is imperative that we must boldly denounce and resist the American design to encircle China. In India the pro-US lobby has been working overtime to project China as a big imminent threat. The US military-industrial complex wants to capture India’s lucrative defence market by promising to enhance India’s military capacity vis-à-vis China. Such a course will not only make India ever more dependent on the US but also cripple whatever democracy we have by subordinating the country’s economic and political agenda to the disastrous logic of war and militarization. We must learn from our past history and save the country from this US-prescribed road to disaster. Avoiding the path of confrontation, India must move towards comprehensive cooperation with China.
CPI(ML) Statement on Amousi Massacre
The recent massacre at Amousi, (Khagaria, Bihar) which claimed 16 lives, is being misrepresented by the media as a ‘caste war’ or a ‘terrorist’ incident. The fact is that the incident is a damning fallout of the Nitish Government’s betrayal of the landless dalits on the question of land reform. A CPI(ML) fact-finding team has established that a land dispute arising from land grab by landlords and subsequent illegal transfer of such land to peasants, compounded by the failure of the Government to ensure occupation by rightful dalit holders of papers for Bhoodan and ceiling-surplus land is the basis of the incident.
The setting up of the Bihar Land Reforms Commission headed by D Bandopadhyaya had raised some hopes of justice among the dalit landless. But the Nitish Kumar Government, belying tall talk of empowering ‘Mahadalits,’ appeased the feudal forces (who are the primary constituency of the JD(U)-BJP Government) and backtracked from implementing the recommendations of the Commission. This backtracking gave a boost to the landowners and feudal forces all over Bihar to aggressively evict bataidars (sharecroppers) and parchadharis (holders of land-slips).
At Amousi, the CPI(ML) team found that 165 Mushahar families, who were promised land under Bhoodan and ceiling-surplus land redistribution measure, are yet to receive land. In the last 15 days, these Musahar families had laid claim to the land for which they possessed parchas, by sowing crops on the land. But the peasants of Charua who are disputing possession of the land, got their cattle to destroy the crop and sowed their own crop there instead. They were staying at Amosi in makeshift homes only to keep guard over the crop.
Clearly, the horrific bloodshed could have been avoided had the Government implemented the recommendations of the Land Reforms Commission and settled the long-standing land dispute by ensuring that the Dalit families got possession of the land that was theirs by law, and for which they even had the legal parchas. The incident exposes the hollowness of the Nitish Government’s promises to ‘Mahadalits.’
After the incident, the police is now targeting innocent Musahars, including even children. It is urgent that the Amousi carnage be probed by an independent agency, and the recommendations of the Land Reforms Commission be strictly and swiftly implemented, if the Amousi type of carnage is to be avoided in the future.
CPI(ML) Fact Finding Report on Amousi (Khagaria) Massacre: A 3-member CPI(ML) fact-finding Team comprising CC Member and AIALA General Secretary Dhirendra Jha, AIALA State Jt. Secretary Vidyanand Vikal and peasants’ leader Com. Visweswar Yadav visited the site of the Amousi massacre on 3 October. They were accompanied by local CPI(ML) comrades Subhash Singh, Arun Das, Kirandev Yadav, Baleshwar Paswan and Bechan Sada.
The team found that Amousi village in Alauli Block, Anandpur Maran panchayat, is predominantly populated by Musahars. Much of the land of Amousi village and the Anandpur Maran panchayat have for decades been illegally occupied by zamindars from Samastipur, Begusarai, Munger as well as various other parts of Khagaria. At the time of zamindari abolition, these zamindars had flouted the ceiling laws by filing false returns.
Peasants from Icharua village, around 4 kilometres away from Amousi, would cross 3 rivers to cultivate land in Amousi. These people had made makeshift settlements where they stayed while overseeing cultivation, and where they would keep cattle too. With most of Amousi land being controlled by farmers from Icharua, there has been a raging dispute over land ownership and crops between the Musahars of Amousi and the occupying peasants of Icharua.
Bhikhan Sada, Sarpanch of the Amousi (Anandpur Maran) panchayat, informed the team that 130 families of Amousi village have received 70 bighas of Bhoodan land as recorded under Khata no. 2, Khasra no. 1540. These lands have also been duly measured. By falsely registering these lands in the name of the peasants of Icharua, the landlords have promoted dispute and tension. Apart from this, Musahars have also got parchas for ceiling surplus land. The civil administration has sided with the powerful peasants and land owners and has further complicated the matter instead of resolving it by protecting the rights of the dalit poor. The Musahar community says that they had laid claim to the land by sowing urad crop, but the peasants from Icharua had got their cattle to destroy the crop and had replaced it with their own crop. The Musahars hold that outsiders perpetrated the massacre. Paro Singh, survivor of the massacre, has held that while outsiders participated in the massacre, the villagers of Amousi perpetrated it.
In spite of the predominance of Musahars in Alauli Block, there is so much landlessness here that, for lack of land, they are unable to avail of Indira Awas housing, and no school can be constructed at their tola. The CPI(ML) team found that most of those killed in the massacre are marginal peasants; however, Icharua is a village of local neo-rich.
The Administration, instead of investigating the incident thoroughly, is instead targeting the local mukhia from the Musahar community, implicating the entire community and framing innocents. When the administrative and police forces reached Amousi village, children came forward to serve them water. 8 of these children have been taken into custody. Clearly, the administration is intent on punishing the entire Musahar community. A police officer (on conditions of anonymity), told the team that the civil administration is trying to cloud the real issue: had the Bhoodan parcha holders been given occupation of the land that is their rightful due, this incident would never have happened. He said that in the Khagaria sub-division itself, there are tensions over land disputes at 52 places, and if they are not resolved, major incidents might occur.
The team found that in Khagaria district, even today, absentee landlords continue to hold large tracts of land, and local strongmen and leaders of various ruling class parties are buying these lands at throwaway prices. As a result, the landless and sharecroppers are being evicted on a large scale, escalating tensions generated by land disputes. If the Government does not take swift steps to implement land reforms in favour of the landless, such unfortunate incidents will continue to occur and the Nitish Kumkar Government will be squarely responsible for them.
In Bihar, Congress regimes used to protect landlords and powerful landed rich, the RJD Government continued with the same game. The LJP, too, has in this area played the same politics, with their leaders buying up large tracts of disputed land and evicting Musahars. The Nitish Government chants the mantra of ‘mahadalits’ but in the name of countering ‘Maoists’, landless Musahars, Mallahs, dalits and poor are being targeted by this Government. The truth is that in the last many years in Khagaria district, especially in this area, many Musahar youth have been killed, innocent Musahar youth framed in dozens of false cases, branded as ‘Maoists’ and jailed. After this incident, this phenomenon has increased even more.
The CPI(ML) team has demanded full protection and suitable compensation to all the victims’ families, and a high-level probe into the entire incident. The team has also demanded that all landless families be given 1 acre of land each, parcha holders be ensured occupation of the land that is their due, sharecroppers be given identity cards, an immediate stop to the fake registry of land by absentee landlords and criminal cases to be booked against them. The CPI(ML) team also demanded an immediate stop to the harassment and repression against innocent Musahars on the pretext of this incident, and withdrawal of all false cases which have been slapped on them; also full protection for the Musahar villages.
The CPI(ML) has launched a state-wide campaign towards a ‘Land Reforms Conference’ to be held in Patna on 10 October, in which 5000 landless people and unrecorded tenant cultivators from all over Bihar will participate. The party has also planned to hold a Land Reforms Conference in Khagaria district itself.
Condemn the Use of Draconian UAPA to Implicate Intellectuals and Activists in West Bengal
The West Bengal Government’s use of UAPA to muzzle democracy is highly condemnable. After the arrest of Chhatradhar Mahato, the West Bengal Government has also arrested activists of a Lalgarh Solidarity Platform, and has threatened to book intellectuals and activists who have provided guidance, support or funds to the Lalgarh movement, or even who have merely demanded Mahato’s release, under UAPA. Clearly, not only are mass movement leaders being equated with terrorists, even solidarity with mass movements or raising issues of democratic rights is now being construed by the West Bengal Government as ‘abetting terrorism’. The attempt – not only by the CPI(M)-led Government in West Bengal but also by the Congress-led Central Government all over the country – seems to be to threaten, silence and discredit intellectuals and activists who have raised their voice against the State. The CPI(ML) condemns the veiled threats issued by the state administration to artists, intellectuals, teachers and students who supported the Lalgarh movement and extended financial help. We demand an immediate end to such draconian attempts at muzzling dissent and discrediting democratic movements, and the immediate release of all leaders of mass movements and activists of solidarity platforms.
On 1st October the Kolkata District Committee of CPI(ML) organized a procession from the city's historic Subodh Mullick Square protesting against the Union Home Ministry's threats of banning the CPI(ML) and demanding the unconditional release of PSBJC leader Chatradhar Mahato and withdrawal of police and paramilitary forces from Lalgarh. Party activists blocked Esplanade Square and burned Union Home Minister P.Chidambaram’s and WB’s CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s effigy. In his short speech Com. Partho Ghosh, State Secretary, CPI(ML), said that the state is under an undeclared emergency administered by bureaucrats. He demanded that the Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary make their assets public. Anybody sympathizing with mass movements is being targeted by the state machinery by using the bogey of Maoism. Com. Ghosh said that the arrest of Mahato by policemen posing as journalists has maligned the journalistic profession. Any attempt to make arbitrary arrests will lead to a huge mass upsurge in the state.
Flood relief efforts: Brief report
Severe flooding in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka has caused large scale death and devastation. The CPI(ML) Andhra State unit has rushed to join rescue and relief efforts. In Kurnool, one of the worst affected districts, fisher-people belonging to the party were very active in rescue efforts. In Vijaywada, the Auto Workers’ Union affiliated with AICCTU collected funds for flood relief, and a fund collection drive has also been launched by the party all over the State. A CPI(ML) team led by State Secretary Comrade N Moorthy and comprising State Committee members D Harinath, Nagamani, P Satyanarayana, and Janardan are visiting affected areas and relief camps near Vijaywada.
The CPI(ML) has demanded that the floods be declared a national calamity; urgent relief and rehabilitation measures be undertaken; affected families must not only be compensated for deaths, but for the devastation of their fields and homes; food grain rations must be provided free of cost to all families in the affected areas for one year.
CPI(ML) Dharna at Khajuri
At a protest dharna organised by the Delhi State Committee of the CPI(ML) 30 September, the preliminary findings of a fact-finding team into the Khajuri Khas school stampede were released. However, police forcibly disrupted the dharna. CPI(ML) condemned this crackdown on a peaceful dharna, and also demanded release of the local protestors who had been arrested the previous day. The CPI(ML) demanded a CBI probe into the school stampede on 10 September which had claimed the lives of 5 girls.
The fact-finding team, comprising Professor Azra Razzack, Dr Farah Farooqui, academics from Jamia Millia Islamia, Kavita Krishnan of AIPWA, Radhika Menon of Forum for Democratic Initiatives, Omprakash Sharma, Rahimuddin and Vinod Kumar of Building Workers Union, and Ram Abhilash of Delhi State Committee, CPIML, concluded that there was indubitable evidence that sexual violence on girl students had sparked off the stampede. The team held that the Delhi Government is attempting to whitewash the issue of sexual harassment that led to the stampede. It also held the Government's neglect of poor children’s education at the cost of wasteful extravaganzas like Commonwealth Games responsible for the stampede situation.
AICCTU's All-India Protest Day
AICCTU organised protest demonstrations, rallies and dharnas on 1st October all over the country for demanding withdrawal of false and fabricated cases brought against S. Kumarasami, National President of AICCTU in the case of of Pricol Ltd., Coimbatore, institution of a high level inquiry into this incident and stopping of indiscriminate arrests and witch-hunt of workers in Coimbatore in this case.
This protest day was in continuation of protests taking place all over Tamil Nadu and other parts of country for previous one week. In Mansa, Punjab, a big rally participated by thousands of workers took place. Some of the major centres where protests were held include, Lucknow, Ranchi, Puducherry. Through these protests memorandum were sent to CM of Tamil Nadu from different parts of country.
(Protest Letter sent to Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from trade unions and other organisations of United Kingdom)
To
M.Karunanidhi
The Chief Minister
Govt. of Tamil Nadu
Chennai
Sir, We are writing to express our grave concern about the continuing witch hunt of workers at Pricol Ltd in Coimbatore and the fabricated case brought against S. Kumaraswami, National President of AICCTU, and to request your urgent intervention in this matter.
The tragic death of Mr. Roy George, Vice-president of Pricol Ltd., Coimbatore on 22 September 2009 occurred, as you are aware, against a background of deeply disturbing actions of Pricol Ltd Coimbatore. Not only has the company continually and openly flouted labour laws, and even the orders of the Tamil Nadu government on 29th June 2009 that the demands of the workers be met, but it has continued to victimise and harass the workers, particularly the women workers. It has also pressurised and blackmailed them to try to force them to leave their union, the AICCTU. The workers however have refused to leave their union and have continued to struggle through a variety of peaceful and democratic means.
We urge you to intervene immediately to stop the ruthless victimisation of workers which has followed the incident of 21st September.
It is shocking that S. Kumaraswami, the National President of a centrally recognized central Trade Union Organization, AICCTU and a practicing lawyer in the Tamil Nadu High Court has been falsely implicated and named in an FIR, particularly when he was not even present when the incident took place and prior to this had been continually urging the workers to resist all forms of provocation which the management was engaging in.
We urge you to act to ensure that the fabricated case against Mr Kumaraswami is immediately dropped
Yours sincerely, Bob Crow, General Secretary, National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), UK; John Leach, National President, National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), UK; Avtar Singh Jouhl, General Secretary, Indian Workers Association GB, UK; Eve Turner, Secretary, Ealing Trades Council, London, UK; Oliver New, National Executive, RMT, UK; Harpal Brar, Editor, Lalkar Magazine, UK; Naeem Malik, South Asian Alliance, Birmingham, UK; Kalpana Wilson, South Asia Solidarity Group, London, UK |
Our Recent Efforts against False Cases in Pricol Incident
22 September 2009: Newspapers and TV channels raise hue and cry against the tragic incident. Coimbatore SP says that 9 workers are arrested and a special force constituted to arrest others. An emotional debate afoot in internet. CII and the like vent their anger against TUs and want AICCTU and CPIML to be banned. Dy.CM TN says that law will take its own course. Central Labour minister seeks report on the incident from TN govt.
25 Sept: Com. Bharathi makes all out efforts and gets a resolution passed by the Madras High Court Association against the false implication. Our press meet is well covered by the media with the same importance of the management news. MD and ED of Pricol are compelled to react and in the due course accept termination of 150 permanent workers and illegal deduction from the salary on different occasions. A press meet in Coimbatore. Again extraordinary attendance. Com. NK asked the TN Govt. to take over Pricol while answering the question of the media about management view that it will no more invest in Coimbatore. This becomes head lines in the following day newspapers.
26 Sept: First State Conference of AISA held in Chennai. The delegates stage a demo demanding withdrawal of false implication and stop police hunt for workers.
27 Sept: Mr. Kuselan issued a press release and says that he is ready for one day strike on the issue. Following day we tried to meet the DGP, Police.
29 Sept: 10000 pamphlets released from Chennai. Workers hold demonstration in Chennai. Solidarity Forum released 1000 pamphlets and organized a protest in Kumananchavadi near Poonamalli. We met the Additional DGP and explained our position. He immediately sent letter to DIG Coimbatore. AIPWA team met State Women’s Commission Chairperson and demand to stop police harassment on women workers. She appoints a one-woman commission to look into the issue.
30 Sept: Comrades AS Kumar and Bhuvana met Labour Minister. He speaks to the Collector, Coimbatore. All TU resolution sent to press. Appeal is taken among broader section. Demonstration held in Tirunelveli, Pudukottai and Tiruvallore districts. Progressive Advocates Association and MRF Workers Seeramaippu (meaning reorganising) Movement of Tiruvottiyur release posters.
01 October: Demonstration in Chennai and around thousand workers participated. CITU, AITUC and AIUTUC leaders attended the demonstration. Comrades from Tiruvallore and Kanchipuram districts also participated in the demonstration. Demonstrations were held in Villupuram, Kumbakonam, Cuddaore, Namakkal, Kanyakumari, Trichy, Salem, Dindugal and Madurai. A public meet was held in Pudukottai town. Pricol workers who arrived at Chennai on 30th evening, met the Labour Minister and demanded that the police harassment should be stopped. We received a call from the Dy.CM’s office to meet him on 2nd October. New Democratic Workers Union staged a demo in support of Pricol Workers.
02 Oct: A 6-member team led by Com. NK Natarajan, including 2 Pricol workers who are AICCTU State council members met the Dy. CM. He was all ears for half an hour and said that he will speak to the CM and Labour Minister and then decide what to do. We also stressed for TU Recognition Amendment Act and getting Presidential Assent for Standing Orders Amendment Act which will protect the welfare of the trainees at least to a certain extent. Progressive Advocates Association held a press meet. Media contacted us and came to the office and covered news about the meet with Dy.CM.
03 Oct: Pricol Workers organized a meeting of department in charges and 42 attended the meeting. They said they felt stronger than before and prepared to face anything to protect their rights. AIPWA and Workers Rights Forum held a demonstration. In Coimbatore, over 120 people led by democratic forces held a rally. They were arrested and released later. Coimbatore DCL calls for a tripartite peace talks. All TU demo held in Ambattur.
04 Oct: TN Democratic Construction Workers Union organized a demo in Chennai. A Public meeting was held in Suthamalli of Tirunelveli district.
05 Oct: Demonstration in Kanchipuram and a memorandum was submitted to the Colletor who promised to forward it to the CM. Demonstration was held in Tiruvallore district by AICCTU-AIALA
06 Oct: Press meet in Coimbatore in which Com. Swapan Mukherjee, All India GS, AICCTU and Com. Shankar, All India Vice-President, AICCTU, comrades NK Natarajan and S Balasubramaniam, National Secretaries, AICCTU attended. Com. Swapan demanded that the Supreme Court’s directions should be implemented and that Govt. should intervene. A hall meeting was held and comrades Swapan, Shankar, NK, S Balasubramaniam addressed the gathering. The appeal was released in Coimbatore in pamphlet form. AIPWA held a demo in Chennai. 30 workers including all women were granted bail. 12 of them including all women released today and others will be released tomorrow. We took all out efforts to counter every offensive of the management. And the struggle is on…
Protest Demonsration in Puducherry against TN Govt: AICCTU Puducherry state council conducted a massive protest demonstration on 1st October, demanding the withdrawl of false case against the National President Com. S Kumaraswamy by Tamil Nadu Police in the Pricol executive’s death case. The demonstration led by Com. P Shankaran of AICCTU, was participated by a large number of workers, and members of the mass organizations like RYA, Movement for Protection of Homeless and Democratic Domestic Workers Union.
Hundreds Pay Tribute to Comrade Basru and Vow to Fulfil His Unfinished Tasks
In the last issue of ML Update we carried the shocking news of the demise of Comrade Ibnul Hasan Basru, member of the Party’s Central Committee and a senior communist leader of Jharkhand. On the morning of September 30, his body was taken to Kolkata by air. From Delhi Comrade Prem Singh Gehlawat joined Comrade Basruji’s family members to accompany his body. Several comrades from Kolkata and adjacent districts like North 24 Parganas and Howrah and several members of the Party Central Committee and West Bengal State Committee including Comrades Dipankar Bhattacharya, Kartik Pal, Partha Ghosh, Kalyan Goswami, Basudev Bose and Jayatu Deshmukh were present at the airport to receive the human remains of the departed leader.
As the last journey proceeded by road from Kolkata to Jharkhand, comrades of Hooghly, Bardhaman and Dhanbad districts gathered along the GT Road near Dhanekhali, Asansol and Nirsa to pay tribute to their beloved leader. By evening the procession reached the Party office at Bagodar where his body was kept by the side of Comrade Mahendra Singh’s statue to enable comrades to have a last glimpse. The next morning, the funeral procession reached Jamua. Hundreds of Party members and admirers of Comrade Basru stood in silence for two minutes and paid floral tributes before the funeral procession moved towards the burial ground. Condolence meetings are going on in Giridih district and elsewhere in Jharkhand and comrades are vowing to fulfil the unfinished tasks and dreams of the departed leader.
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