Republic Day Resolve 2002:

Freed India from this Saffron Prison and American Shadow

The 'diplomatic' traffic between Washington and New Delhi has perhaps never been as dense as it is today. Even as Advani returned from Washington and Powell left the Indian soil, Fernandes was in Washington pleading with Rumsfeld for closer military ties. Who knows, with the sky over India and Pakistan remaining overcast with war clouds, 'closer military ties' could even be a euphemism for yet another consignment of commission-coated coffins for our would-be martyrs? Meanwhile, a ship loaded with World Trade Centre debris is being emptied at the Chennai port.

White House officials and the American media must be getting confused telling one visiting Indian minister from another. After all, they all chant the same mantras to worship Washington. Not so long ago, Bush did not even know the name of India's Prime Minister. And now White House has to deal not just with Vajpayee, but Advani, Jaswant Singh and even George Fernandes. Little wonder, American correspondents have begun to address Jaswant Singh as Mr. Prime Minister!

While the Indian government remained obsessed with Powell's second visit since September 11, the Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji has just quietly gone back after a week's visit during which trade and travel, and mercifully not terrorism and war, remained the key agenda. Come March 28 and Beijing and New Delhi will be directly air-linked. Zhu also put forth China's plans to raise the level of bilateral trade between China and India from $ 3 billion at present to a target of $ 10 billion.

For the last two decades China has been steadfastly following this new line of letting economics do all the talking. The Chinese voice could not be heard much either during the Gulf War a decade ago or during the current American war and its aftermath in Afghanistan. But by choosing to visit India in the midst of mounting Indo-Pak tension and growing American intervention in the region, China has in its own way sent out a message to the US.

The visits of Zhu Rongji and Colin Powell represented two alternative courses for India's foreign policy. A policy of closer cooperation between India and China, the world's two most populous countries, could prove to be instrumental for a heightened Asian assertion against the US-led hegemony of the West. The saffron establishment of India however considers China to be India's biggest potential threat and the US as the greatest natural ally. But this 'alliance' is only a euphemism for strategic subservience or 'glorified slavery' which can only reduce India to the status of a pitiable appendage of the US and the Western powers.

As the country gets ready to observe yet another Republic Day, the nation must make a choice. Far from recovering India's fabled ancient strength and glory, saffronisation has meant a body blow to our inner strength as a nation and hence also to our dignity as a nation in today's world. Internally, saffronisation has already played enough havoc with our economy and education. The VHP goons are once again out on the streets with their vicious plans to hold the country to ransom over Ayodhya. And externally, we are fast being reduced to just another country desperate to submit itself to the writ of Washington.

This Republic Day, let us make a firm choice. Let us renew the republican spirit by making a pledge to desaffronise the society and the polity. Let the whole of India resonate with this Republic Day resolve: India Shall Be Freed from this Saffron Prison and American Shadow.

CPI(ML) HELD 'Powell Go Back' Protests

In response to the CC's call for organising an anti-saffron, anti-imperialist campaign, Party members throughout the country organised 'Powell go-back' protests on 18 January. In West Bengal, Party activists organised protests rallies throughout the state, burnt Powell's effigy and held meetings. In North Dinajpur, rallies were held in Raiganj, Kaliaganj and Itahar, in which altogether 300 activist particepted. Similar programes were held in Krishnanagar, Barasat, Hooghly, South Dinajpur. In Kolkata, a demonstration was held before the American Consulate Building. Despite prior information to the police, the activist assembled near the Birla Planetorium were encircled by a heavy contingent of police force so as to prevent the rally. Nevertheless the effigy of Colin Powell was burnt and the street meeting strated. Com. Arijit Mitra, Jayatu Deshmukh and Partha Ghosh comdemned the police action and asked the activists to break the police cordon. Around 40 comrades were immediately arrested and taken to the police station. After two hours when the police wanted to release the agitators on PR bond, asking them to appear before the magistrate later, they refused to take the bail and started shouting slogans against police highhandedness. At last the police officials retreated and released the comrades unconditionally.

In Delhi, a meeting was held at Parliament Street after a protest march. Party CC member Swapan Mukherjee and other party leaders including Rajendra Pratholi, Ranjit Abhigyan and Kavita Krishnan and Sunita addressed the meeting. Jan sanskriti Manch General Secretary Ajay Singh also joined the march and addressed the meeting. Com. Swapan said that the US is playing a cunning game between India and Pakistan in dictating the terms of negotiation between the two neighbouring countries and held that the people in this subcontinent are capable of resolving all outstanding issues through a constructive bilateral dialogue without any American intervention. Speakers called for immediate demobilisation of troops on both sides of the border and charged the US administration with scripting a plan to destabilise the whole of South Asia. An effigy of Powell was also burnt there.

'Powell Go Back' protests were also held in Patna, Arrah, Gaya, Muzaffarpur and Samastipur in Bihar. In Pilibhit in U.P., protest demonstration was held.

RYA Protest Fee Hike

Members of the RYA led by Com. Jayatu Deshmukh and Subrata Sengupta demonstrated in fromt of the Public Service Commission office in Kolkata on 17 January against the recent hike by the state govt. in job application fees. The PSC application fees have been increased from Rs. 10 to Rs. 100, Rs. 200 and Rs. 300 for various categories of public sevice examinations, even the application form price have been increased from Rs. 2 to Rs. 20. The canditates who had assembled there to submit their application forms also joined the demonstrators. CPI(M) co-ordination committee members tried to heckle the demonstrators but they failed due to the intervention by the employees of the office. The RYA has decided to launch a statewide agitation on this issue.

Presidency College Students Forced SS Ray to Leave College

On 18 January, when Siddharta Sankar Ray entered the Presidency College in Kolkata to submit some old photographs to the college authorities, the students of the that college started shouting slogans "Com. Saroj Dutta's murderer go back", "killer of 70s Naxalite students go back", "Siddharta is shame to our college". Ultimately Siddhartha had to flee from the place due to the powerful protest. Party's W.B. state committee congratulated the Presidency college students for this courageous act.

People Resist Police

Police from Sikta, Mainatanr and Gopalpur PS in Bihar raided the house of Com. Rustam Ali at Vishambhar village of Sikta PS in West Champaran of Bihar for confiscation. Com. Rustam is a member of Distt. Committee. People of the area assembled in no time and tried to resist the arrest. Police resorted to indiscriminate firing in which one woman was killed and seven persons including a girl child were wounded. The reason behind the police attack was that Com. Rustam Ali had resisted a local Samata leader's attempts to evict dalits from the land of which they had parcha. A Party team comprising Com. Satyadev Ram, MLA, Nandji Ram and Sunil Rao visited the spot immediately after the incident. Party has demanded that the familiy of the deceased be given a compensation of Rs 5 lakh and the OC of Gopalpur be immediately suspended.

AISA Dharna in All Bihar Universities

Demanding elections to the student unions and end to educational anarchy and saffronisation and privatisation of education, AISA organised dharna in all Bihar universities and submitted their memorandum to the vice chancellors. In Patna University, the dharna was held at the Main Gate, addressed by AISA leaders and students of the university. In Darbhanga, a march was taken out. Dharna was held in Muzaffarpur.

A meeting of AISA convenors was held on 12 January in Patna. The meeting took stock of the situation in the state and decided to organise a massive March to Rajbhawan in Patna on 30 January to press these demands.

AIPWA Distt. Conference

Gaya (Bihar) District Conference of AIPWA was held on 6 January. Before the conference a women's rally was brought out. It was inaugurated by Com. Saroj Chaube. A 17-member committee led by Rita Barnwal and Kusum Trivedi was formed. The conference resolved to intensify the struggle on the issue of social security and decided to organise women in large numbers for Feb 12 Rally.

AICCTU Dharna at BSL

As INTUC union in Bhilai Steel Plant (Chattisgarh) got split, the management took the stand to recognise no union in the Plant and thus refused to hold negotiations with any party on the pending issues pertaining to the workers. Protesting against this, AICCTU demanded that a coordination committee of all trade unions be given the power to negotiate until election with secret ballot is held among BSP workers to elect the union office bearers. On this demand, AICCTU activists were holding a dharna at BSL gate on 12 January, when an INTUC group led by Gajendra Singh launched attack on them, injuring some of the protestors. Against this vandalism the AICCTU has launched an agitation which the workers are joining in in increasing numbers. The report of AICCTU protest was widely covered in the media.

Area Conferences Held in Delhi

In Delhi, second conference of Mandawali Area was held on 13 January, attended by 43 delegates and 33 observers and guests. Area conferences were also held in Narela, Mangolpuri, Noida and Mahrauli respectively on 23 December, 9 January,13 January and 14 January. The conference of DTC sector was held on 11 January. In these conference, planning is being made to step up protest movement opposing war jingoism against Pakistan, sell-out to America in defence and foreign policy matters, imposition of POTO and deterioration of economy, besides local issues. This apart, preparations for participation in the coming municipal corporation elections are also being discussed. Members of the state committee Ranjan Ganguli, Kavita Krishnan, Sunita, Santosh Roy, Shankaran, Rajiv Dimri, Gautam and state secretary Rajendra Pratholi attended these conferences.

AISA March in Delhi

On 11 January, AISA held a march from Jantar Mantar to Parliament Street protesting UP govt. threat to ban AISA. They burnt the effigy of Rajnath Singh, CM of UP, demanding his resignation. A 5-member delegation led by AISA president Kavita Krishanan met Resident Commissioner of UP and submitted a memorandum.

Election Manifesto in UP Released

In its election manifesto released for the UP State Assembly elections, 2002, CPI(ML) has called upon the voters to cast their ballot in favour of party nominees in order to defeat BJP and build a powerful left resistance against police-mafia raj so as to ensure democracy and development. "Defeat BJP, cast away illusion for Congress, repudiate the opportunist politics of BSP, reject SP and paralysed Lok Morcha and vote for CPI(ML) to ensure powerful left and revolutionary opposition" is the main theme of the 12-page manifesto.

The manifesto points out that saffron forces in the election fray are focussing on terrorism, reservation and Ayodhya. They have converted UP into a police-mafia state making it top the list of states in the matter of suppression of weaker sections, dalits, adivasis and backwards. Systematic cuts have been made in development expenditure and agricultural labourers are not getting employment even for 100 days a year due to introduction of harvestors. Unemloyment has touched a newer height. The manifesto also points to the fact that neither Mulayam nor BSP raised voice on massacres of dalits and adivasis and BSP has sided with BJP on all crucial occasions. For people's struggle to attain their rights and betterment of livelihood, Party has put forward a 23-point agenda in the manifesto.

The list of constituencies and candidates in UP is below:

1.	3-Afzalgarh	Yashpal Singh
2.	6-Bijnor	Abdul Rahman Dube
3.	18-Moradabad Rural	Shaukin Khan
4.	19-Thakurdwara	Dr Harswaroop Singh
5.	42-Barkhera (S.C.)	Jawahar
6.	44-Puranpur	Krishna Adhikari
7.	53-Paila (S.C.)	Jawahar Lal
8.	56-Nighasan	Kranti Kumar Singh
9.	64-Hargaon (S.C.)	Arjun Lal
10.	66-Machhrehta (S.C.)	Danaku Ram Chaudhari
11.	84-Mohana	Shiv Kumar
12.	93-Rae Bareli	Vajay Vidrohi
13.	113-Katehari	Bal Mukund
14.	114-Akbarpur	Chhotelal Gautam
15.	147-Colonelganj	Mahesh Singh
16.	150-Captainganj	Shyam Manohar
17.	188-Bhatpar Rani	Rajesh Sahni
18.	192-Ghosi	Rambriksh Ram
19.	195-Azamgarh	Jaiprakash Narain
20.	208-Sikanderpur	Sriram Chaudhari
21.	211-Ballia	Ramdhani Singh
22.	216-Zamania	Ishwari Prasad Kushwaha
23.	221-Dhanapur	Shravan Kumar Maurya
24.	222-Chandauli (s.c.)	Suryanath Ram
25.	223-Chakiya (s.c.)	Ramkrit Kol
26.	224-Mughalsarai	Tilakdhari Singh
27.	225-Varanasi Cantt	Dr. Rakesh Singh
28.	228-Chiraigaon	Ganesh Patel
29.	244-Dudhi (S.C.)	Bigan Ram Gaud
30.	245-Robertsganj (S.C.)	Ishwar Dayal
31.	246-Rajgarh	Basmati Kol (F)
32.	247-Chunar	Ramkrit Biyar
33.	248-Majhwa	Devraj Sahni
34.	249-Mirzapur	Md. Salim
35.	253-Bara	Hansraj Kol
36.	261-Allahabad West	Md. Shahab
37.	274-Kanpur Cantt.	Sadhana (F)
38.	317-Orai	Ramesh Singh Sengar
39.	403-Muzaffarabad	C. S. Gunjan
List of assembly constituencies in Uttaranchal, Punjab and Manipur where CPI(ML) is contesting :
UTTARANCHAL
1	34-Srinagar
2	39-Nandprayag
3	40-Karanprayag
4	47-Salt
5	49-Someshwar
6	53-Dhari
7	55-Nainital
8	56-Ramnagar
9	60-Pantnagar-Gadarpur
PUNJAB
1	60- Ludhiana (Rural)
2	115-Mansa
MANIPUR
1	46-Saikul ST

Left Ideas Begin to Gain Hegemony in Argentina

[Great popular uprising, storming of the presidential palace, fall of five presidents within ten days were the collapse of neoliberal show case.The new govt. of Eduardo Duhalde frozen bank accounts,devalued peso, tighten the emrgency control, 'Argentinians feeling devalued' continue their fight to give up the bankrupt economic path and to get rid of the corrupts.

Prof. JAMES PETRAS,who worked for the past two years with the unemployed movement in Argentina recently talked to Socialist Worker, U.S.A . Excerpts: ]

*The driving force for these massive mobilisations has its roots in the large-scale, sustained activities of the unemployment movement.

Following the example of the unemployed workers, you had a coming together of various strands of the population. You had the great mass of unemployed who were involved in some kind of informal economy. You had employed workers who hadn't been paid because the accounts of their employers are frozen. And you have a great mass of public employees and shopkeepers and others forming a very broad front against the bankers.

*The bankers have been able to get their money out. By using the purchase of Argentine stocks on the New York Stock Exchange, they have no problem getting their money out of the country.

So this is very much a class phenomenon, in which the unemployed workers formed one pole, drawing the workers, the petty bourgeoisie and sectors of the middle class to the politics of extra-parliamentary struggle, the rejection of the major bourgeois parties.

The mass action and mass confrontations did more to change the political agenda and the physiognomy of the government than all the general strikes and symbolic protests of the trade unions in the last five or 10 years. The general strikes are important when they have a social content - when the workers occupy the factories and come out and face the government.

The most important factor is that mass action, more than all the ritual strikes of the trade union bureaucracy, led to the ouster of the main leaders of neo-liberalism and the main spokespeople for US banks and US imperialism in the government.

*Certainly, the degree of hostility to all the bourgeois parties and the degree of militancy of great mass of people would describe a pre-revolutionary situation. There are thousands of local activists and militants who engage in these activities, and there is a broad radicalisation of consciousness among hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Argentinians today - unprecedented in recent times in Latin America. . In none of these growing mass confrontations - that are reaching proportions of hundreds of thousands in different cities - has there been any organised vanguard.

*New government of President Duhalde is a provocation. He's a man of the right. Despite what the press says, he is capable of mobilising right-wing street fighters - fascist-like groups that can draw on lumpens and some disoriented unemployed to challenge for hegemony in the streets and take pressure off the police. There already has been one major confrontation with, of course, the police taking the side of Duhalde's Peronist thugs.

We're dealing with a country that has a long tradition of trade union action. General strikes are more common in Argentina than in any country in the world. This is the country that has the biggest concentration of unemployed industrial workers in the world today. And the largest number of unemployed workers organised and engaged in direct action. What is missing is a recognised political leadership that can carry this dynamic process forward to the creation of a workers' government.

We should keep in mind that Washington will not rest until it buries that movement. And I think what you might see is the maintenance of the civilian political facade and the return of the military as a determining factor in politics. As we saw with the dictatorship of 1976, it took 30,000 dead and disappeared to bury the mass movement. This time, there are many, many more activists and militants than there were at the height of the mobilisations in the 1960s and 1970s.

* There are Marxists and socialists ho are involved in these organisatons. But they are there as militants within the movements. They are not certainly the dominant force. And they don't have the following in these movements to give leadership and direction-at least at this time.

what you have is three levels. One is the grass roots, which is suffering horrendous deprivation. Here's a country that is one of the leading meat and grain producers in the world, and the workers are hungry. They don't have beef, they don't have pasta, they can't feed their kids - and they watch the trains taking tens of thousands of tonnes of meat to Buenos Aires to be shipped to Europe.The second level is the emerging leadership, which has a conception of structural changes that we might call anti-capitalist and populist. And then we have a third level, in which the issues of socialism and of revolution come into play.

While the government continues to avoid the measures to ameliorate the problems, increasingly the power within these mobilisations is moving toward the left. A month ago, the issue of foreign debt repudiation was a left-wing issue. Today, it's the mainstream. The issue of massive public works was a left-wing issue. Today, it's moved into the mainstream. The re-nationalisation of basic strategic industries had a very small group of supporters. Today, it's gaining tens of thousands of adherents. Intervention in the banks was an issue for the minority. Today, it's become a major issue. So the whole political debate has moved to the left, as left ideas begin to gain hegemony.

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Denounce, Expose and Protest All Attacks on India's Sovereignty, Democracy and Secularism

Join the January 25 Protest in the form of Human Chain Against Growing Imperialist and Communal Fascist Danger to the Indian Republic

Assemble at 3 p.m. at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Terminus Firozshah Kotla Ground, I.T.O., Delhi

mail to: cpimllib@bol.net.in

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