Vol. 14 Issue : 08
15/-
August An Eternal Symbol of Despicable
15, 1947 Betrayal of People of India
The BJP has been trying to pose itself to be the
champion of patriotism in India. So its leaders are urging
the people of India to celebrate the 75th year of so- called
“independence” as ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahostsav’. True to
the character of their predecessors the BJP is trying to
make people believe that they are part of the legacy of
the freedom struggle and Savarkar as their leader. It is a
well known fact that Savarkar surrendered to the British
rulers and betrayed not only the freedom movement but
acting as British agent brought the Idea of Hindutwa to
divide the people’s movement for liberation from the yoke
of imperialism. True to their nature of falsification and
betrayal, the BJP is trying to capitalize the patriotism of
the Indian people by this grand celebration of the
“independence day”, a day of despicable betrayal.
After the Second World War the imperialists all over
the world were mortally afraid of the future. On the one
hand the emergence of the USSR and East European
states moving in great strides on the path of socialism,
China was on the verge of a successful revolution and
the liberation struggles of the oppressed people were
surging forward, and on the other imperialists had been
economically and politically weakened. In this situation,
imperialists changed their policy—instead of ruling the
colonies directly to carry on the exploitation indirectly
by transferring power to their trusted agents in those
countries, known as neocolonial policy. In India too the
people’s movement for liberation was developing in great
strides. The British had no other choice but to transfer
power to the representatives of the comprador big
bourgeoisie and landlords to maintain their interest by
indirect means. But they did not forget to divide the
strength of the people and the country was divided into
India and Pakistan through partition based on religion.
Bulletin of the Central Committee of CPI(ML)
August, 2022 Rs.
Since then due to the weakening of British imperialism
some other imperialist powers especially the US
imperialists also started to step in and the transfer of
power became helpful for them to develop their influence.
Thus what happened on 15 August 1947 was that from a
colony India turned into a semi-colony. And what the
BJP is going to celebrate is to hide this hoax with eloquent
phrases like ‘development’, ‘progress’, ‘shining India’ etc.
and people are drowning in poverty and lack of democracy.
The peasants-the back bone of Indian economy-sunk
deeper in to indebtedness to local money-lenders and
landlords, and unable to come out of the indebtedness
have resorted to suicides. Many farmers are pauperized
and are forced to migrate as daily labourers to eke out
livelihood, to far away places as orphans.
Neither the five year plans, nor modernization and
industrilisation policies nor the latest ‘Make in India’
initiative could deliver the goods. The private sector,
especially modern sectors such as manufacturing and
service sectors dominated by multinational companies
have not created many jobs. The foreign direct investment
entered into India in the form of FIIs has played speculator
role in stock markets with utmost disregard to the interests
of India economy. Now India is facing a frightful situation
of balance of payments. Our economy has become totally
dependent on foreign capital.
The unemployment has reached the figure of 7.5%
indicating a forward direction. Unemployment rates among
educated in 9.1% where as the unemployment rate of
youth between the age 15-29 is 12.9%.
Wage rates of the workers and employees have
remained low and whatever may be of any increase it is
very marginal. Systematically the statutory rights of
workers are being removed. The labour laws have been

Founder Editor
KANU SANYAL
Editor-in-Chief
VISWAM
Editorial Board
Arvind Sinha
Shambhu Mahato
Nand Kishore Singh
Vol. 14 Issue : 08 August 2022
e-mail: clastrugle@yahoo.co.in
Web site: www.classstruggle.in
On Other Pages:
1. In Memory :
Social Transformation - Com. PJR
2. Economic & Political Situation :
PM MITRA
3. Document :
Socio-Economic and Political
Analysis of India’s
Casteism
4. An Observation :
23rd CPI(M) Congress
5. A View Point :
An Open Call to CRs
6. World :
Hands off the Communists
7. From the States :
- Karnataka Farmers Agitation
- HP Apple Growers
8. Poem :
We, the farmers of this country... 27
Oh! These Kisans!!
9. Memorial Meetings :
- Com. Tarimela Nagireddy
- Com. Charu Majumdar
10. Statement :
- Release Koora Rajanna
For Details :
Class Struggle
32-13-26/1, M.R.Puram,
Vijayawada, pin-520 010.
2 Class Struggle
May Day 1917 - J.V.Stalin
codified in to labour codes that negated the rights and entremets of workers.
The tribals are being displaced enmass forcibly from their natural habitats
in the name of economic developments and making them destitutes.
An ideological as well, physical war is unleashed against the minority
Muslim community greatly threatening its very existence.
Atrocities and attacks against dalits have surged to a significant level with
an ill intention of restricting them within the confines of Manudharmas,
Varnasram dharma straight joint frame.
The use of repressive laws not only against mass-movements but even
against a common individual who expresses dissatisfaction against the present
state of situation has increased by implicating them in the crime of sedition or
terrorism. UAPA is being used with utmost vehemence on any one who
expresses disapproval against the present state of affairs.
The judicial system that is supposed to uphold the constitutional spirit and
render justice too became worthless in protecting freedoms, fundamental rights
of the people against state repression and oppression merely chanting effectless
and empty comments to make believe the people of its extraordinary powers etc.
For most of the people life has become unbearable. According to National
Crime Records Bureau about 25,000 Indians died of suicide between 2018
and 2020. In 2019, an Indian citizen died of suicide every hour due to
joblessness poverty or bankruptcy.
On the other hand the top 10% grabbed nearly two-third of the wealth,
deepening the inequality as per the world inequality report.
This abysmal condition of state of Indian affairs even after 75 years of so-
03 called independence naturally raised the questions in the mind of any sane
person that whether our country is really an independent country? If so who
07 gained such an independence? Is our country really a democratic country as
being touted for all these years? How is that our so-called sacrosanct
constitution could not avert such an abominable state of affairs?
09 While trying to find answers to these questions, often our attention is
19 diverted towards the successive governments, and the ruling parties in power
and the policies implemented by them, finding some or other fault in them
satisfying our doubts, without actually going in to the root-cause viz the nature
21
of the “Independence” gained by us with the policy of “non-violence”.
Only when we critically examine history that led to the ‘Independence’ and
23 the history of freedom struggle and the role of Indian National Congress which
maintained its hegemony, we can arrive to the correct answers.
25 Various studies about the freedom struggle on the nature of the
‘Independence’ accorded to India by the British pointed out that the 15th August
18 1947 was merely a “transfer of power”.
26 R.Palme Dutt the veteran British Communist, who examined each aspect
relating to the freedom struggle and the attainment of ‘Independence’ on 15th
August 1947, has come to the conclusion that the meaning of the transfer of
power to Indians meant “…..a change from the direct rule of imperialism to its
27 indirect rule. It has elevated the Indian big-bourgeoisie from a previous
vacillating, compromising semi oppositional partners of imperialism, exercising
28 authority and repressive powers over the masses, uniting with feudal and
28 princely elements against the tide of popular advance…” (India Today, 1949).
He asserted that “…. India has not reached the goal of national independence
06 or the fulfillment of democratic revolution. India still groans under the double
yoke of imperialist exploiters and home grown exploiters – now drawn together
in close alliance”.
On August 15, 1947 the British government transferred power be queathing
all its Indian institutions organisations and services to the new Indian
contd. in page 08
In Memory of Comrade P.Jaswantha Rao :
Socialist Transformation of Society Is Inevitable
(This paper was submitted by
Having recognised that the
economic system is the foundation on
which the political superstructure is
erected, Karl Marx devoted most of
his attention to the study of economic
system. Where the bourgeois
economists saw a relation between
things, Marx revealed a relation
between people. An investigation of
relations or production in a given
historically defined society, in their
genesis, development and decline is
the content of Marx’s economic
doctrine. Thus Marx traced the
development of capitalism from the
first germs of commodity economy,
from simple exchange to its higher
forms of large scale production. And
Lenin continued this study and
established the capitalist laws that
developed it into monopoly capitalism
i.e. imperialism.
And the experience of the
countries is clearly demonstrating the
truth of the Marxism-Leninism to
increasing number of people every
year. To put in the words of Lenin
“Capitalism has triumphed all over
the world, but this triumph is only a
prelude to the triumph of labour over
capital”, i.e. the struggle of the
proletariat to overthrow capitalism.
It has become fashionable, even
for the so-called left, to proclaim that
the days of class struggle are over.
This version gained momentum with
the demise of social imperialism,
which capped the political and
ideological bankruptcy of the
revisionist forces the world over. The
idea that there could still emerge a
collective struggle on the basis of class
striving for socialism is being
rediculed. Though the imperialist
“Market Economy” advancing
apparent individualisation and
fragmentation, and at the same time,
August - 2022
Com. P. Jaswantha Rao at a seminar in 1997)
collectivisation of the forces of
production, is caught in its own
irreconcilable contradictions.
The December 1995 movement in
France, followed a year later by the
truckers blockade, the rebellion of
Zapatismo and the rise of working
class struggle and resistance in
Mexico; the collective action of
Korean working class in the form of
general strike; the civil war in Zaire
which paralysed the machinations of
imperialist forces and the advancing
peoples war in Philippines under the
leadership of Communist Party of
Philippines flies in the face of this
revisionist bankruptcy and theories of
globalisation that profess the end of
class struggles.
The aim of this paper is to expose
this poverty of philosophy from the
angle of Marxist political economy. Is
globalisation a new advanced stage
of capitalism, that made it invincible?
Has the national economies lost their
relevance due to recent changes in
the International economic relations?
Had the MNC’s transformed into
supranational and super-state
subjects? These are some of the
questions that this paper attempts to
answer.
The post-Marxist theories argue
that the universal capitalism of the
post-war world is dominated by liberal
democracy and a democratic
consumerism, and both of these have
opened up a whole new areas of
democratic opposition and struggle,
which are much more diverse than
the old class struggles. The implicit
conclusion is that these struggles
cannot really be against capitalism,
since it is now so total that there is
really no alternative. So in this
universal system of capitalism, there
can be, and can only be, multitude of
fragmented particular struggles within
the interstices of capitalism.
Post-Modernists have gone one
step further. Now, it is not even just a
question of universal capitalism; now
capitalism is so universal that it is
basically invisible, as air to us human
beings. We may play around in this
universal medium, and may be we
even carve out little enclaves, little
sanctuaries of privacy, seclusion and
freedom. But we cannot escape this
universal medium itself.
They see the globalisation as a
tide sweeping over borders in which
technology and irresistible market
forces transform the global system in
ways beyond the power of anyone to
do much to change. The TNC’s and
global governance organisations like
World Bank, IMF and WTO enforce
conformity on all nations and
“subsumes and subordinates national
level processes”. Hence, the class
struggles-the struggle of workers
against monopoly capitalists, struggle
of peasants against feudal lords, the
struggle of people against national
oppression etc. have lost their
relevance. One need not and cannot
change the system. But just fight for
some improvements.
These theories of globalisation are
based on myth, are not based on
sound analysis of what is more
complex social process called
imperialism and have profound
political implications which are
defeatist in nature, and disarms the
people.
Capitalism has always been a
global system. It created world market
before it advanced to the present
stage of imperialism. In the history of
mankind, the only social organisation
that brought the world under one
economic system is the capitalism.
3
Now, capitalism is expanding on a
global scale and huge sums of finance
capital is moving around the globe,
then this process has begun not in
1970s but in 1870s. Karl Marx vividly
described the compulsions of political
economy behind the capitalism’s
thrust into world markets.
“The bourgeoisie has through its
exploitation of the world market given
a cosmopolitan character to
production and consumption in every
country. To the great chagrin of
Reactionists, it has drawn under the
feet of industry the national ground
on which it stood. All old established
industries whose introduction
becomes a life and death question
for all civilised nations, by industries
that no longer work up indigenous raw
materials, but raw material drawn
from the remotest zones: industries
whose products are consumed, not
only at home, but in every quarter of
globe. In place of old wants, satisfied
by the products of the country, we
find new wants, requiring for their
satisfaction the products of distant
lands and climes. In place of the old
local and national seclusion and self-
sufficiency, we have intercourse in
every direction, universal
interdependence of nations..... The
bourgeoisie, by rapid improvement of
all instruments of production, by
immensely facilitated means of
communication, draws all, even the
most barbarian nations to civilisation.
The cheap prices of its commodities
are the heavy artillery with which it
batters down all Chinese walls, with
which it forces the barbarians’
intensely obstinate hatred of
foreigners to capitulate... In one
word, it creates a world after its own
image.” (Communist Manifesto)
This striking and prophetic image
of imperialism spreading through out
the world, battering down all Chinese
Walls, is further studied and analysed
by Lenin:
“Economic essence of
imperialism is monopoly capitalism.
This in itself determines its place in
4 Class Struggle
history, for monopoly that grows out
of the soil of free competition, and
precisely out of free competition, is
the transition from the capitalist
system to a higher socio-economic
order... Monopolies, oligarchy, the
striving for domination and not for
freedom, the exploitation of an
increasing number of small or weak
nations by a handful of the richest or
most powerful nations all these have
given birth to those distinctive
characteristics of imperialism which
compel us to define it as parasitic or
decaying capitalism..... When a big
enterprise assumes gigantic
proportions, and, on the basis of an
exact computation of mass data,
organises according to plan the
supply of primary raw materials to the
extent of two-thirds, or three-fourths,
of all that is necessary for tens of
millions of people; when the raw
materials are transported in a
systematic and organised manner to
the most suitable places of production,
sometimes situated hundreds of
thousands of miles from each other:
when a single centre directs all the
consecutive stages of processing the
material right up to the manufacture
of numerous varieties of finished
articles; when : these products are
distributed according to a single plan
among tens and hundreds of millions
of consumers-then it becomes evident
that we have socialisation of
production, and not mere interlocking;
that Private economic and private
property relations constitute a shell
which no longer fits its contents, a
shell which must inevitably decay. If
its removal is artificially delayed, a
shell which may remain in a state of
decay for a fairly long period (if, at
the worst, the cure of the opportunist
abscess is protracted), but which
must inevitably decay, if its removal
is artificially delayed, a shell will
inevitably be removed”.
Contrary to the expectations of the
admirers of imperialism, this gigantic
concentration and centralisation of
capital and process of production did
not bring in any harmonious
development, rather accented all the
contradictions of capitalism.
“It goes without saying that if
capitalism could develop agriculture,
which today is everywhere lagging
behind industry, if it could raise the
living standards of the masses, who
inspite of the amazing technical
progress are everywhere still half-
starved and poverty-stricken, there
could be no question of a surplus
capital. This argument is very often
advanced by the petty-striken, there
could be no question of a surplus
capital. This argument is very often
advanced by the petty bourgeois
critics of capitalism; But if capitalism
did these things it would not be
capitalism; for both uneven
development and a semi-starvation
level of existence of the masses are
fundamental and inevitable conditions
and constitute premises of this mode
of production. As long as capitalism
remains what it is, surplus capital
will be utilised not for the purpose of
raising the standard of living of
masses in a given country, for this
would mean a decline in profits for
capitalists, but for the purpose of
increasing profits by exporting capital
abroad to backward countries”.
Thus imperialism is the final stage
of capitalism will be removed by
socialism. As Lenin observed:
“Imperialism is the eve of social
revolution of the proletariat. This has
been confirmed since 1917 on a
world-wide scale”.
Hence globalisation is not new
phenomenon or development of
capitalism or imperialism into higher
stage. Rather it is inherent in the
capitalist logic; its form being decided
by the political and military needs
along with economic compulsions.
The imperialist international
financial institutions like World Bank,
IMF and WTO, came into existence
in the changed circumstances. The
old colonialism was replaced by neo-
colonial plunder and these financial
institutions became the instruments of
dominating the Third World Countries.
The World Bank facilitated the growth
of imperialist private capital in the
former colonies by advancing the so-
called soft-loans to infrastructure
projects which created basic
conditions for flourishing of MNCs. In
the name of developmental strategies,
the IMF forced the former colonies to
accept the structural adjustment which
served the penetration of imperialist
capital. The WTO helped the
imperialist countries to regulate the
international trade to their advantage.
These are nothing but instruments of
imperialist plunder and also become
the hotbeds of contention between
various imperialist powers.
The MNCs appeared on the stage
as a consequence of capitalist
development; relentless accumulation
of capital on a world scale; aided and
abetted by every greater concentration
and centralization of enterprise. The
main contributing factors to the
emergence of a new form of
international capital operation were:
1. The system of international
payments was reconstituted under US
leadership by the Bretton Woods
agreement; 2. Marshall Plan
stimulated the rehabilitation of US
native giants, and at the same time,
prepared a fertile ground for sprouting
of US corporations in Western
Europe; 3. World War II and its
aftermath galvanized business and
technological changes are rebuilding
of devastated Europe provided
opportunities for US. The changes
that contributed most to facilitate
sprouting of MNCs were: 1. Expanded
air transport; 2. Vast improved modes
of communication; and 3. Sophisticated
computers for the amassing and
analysis of data needed to plan for
global maximisation of profits.
With in a short span of a quarter
of a century the MNCs reached a level
in the international accumulation of
capital that their output away from
home base began to outdistance trade
as the main vehicle of international
economic exchange. As in the past,
August - 2022
the modern upsurge in transitional
production is also concentrated in the
hands of a relatively small number of
companies. But in contrast with the
former pattern, the leading firms are
no longer operating in only one or two
foreign countries but have truely
spread their wings: for example, two
hundred of these companies, among
the largest in the world, now have
affiliates in twenty or more countries.
Moreover, the MNCs were formerly for
the most part in raw material
extraction and to a limited extent in
banking. Today’s global firms have
invaded manufacturing and services,
and taken a major leap into
international banking and speculation.
Right from the onset of MNCs a
hundred years ago, the apologists of
imperialism used to speculate that
sooner or later the entire process of
production will end up in the hands of
few global companies and thus
virtually eliminates all competition. It
is important to note here that the very
forces that propel capitalism towards
more concentration and centralisation
of capital, by their very nature creates
obstacles in the elimination of
competition. The competition that
disappeared between the individual
capitalists with the onset of monopoly
capitalism had reappeared as cut-
throat competition between monopoly
groups and imperialist nations. After
the end of World War II, the US
dominance was a natural outgrowth
of great disparity between the US and
war devastated Western Europe.
Viewed abstractly, many expected that
this US hegemony would grow until
the world’s productive capacity would
be in the hands of few US global firms.
Contrary to this, the US dominance
is being challenged by other
imperialist countries.
Another speculation is that the
globalisation of capital will eventually
result in decline of the nation state
and few global giants will police the
international affairs. The concept of
nation state is vague as it contains
nation states of various nature. We
must draw a line of demarcation
between imperialist states and the
state of Third World countries.
The monopoly capital and its
home state are not mutually exclusive,
rather they are symbiotic.
1. Almost all the MNCs are infact
national organisations operating on a
global scale. Capitalism is and has
from its beginning being a world
system and this system has been
further integrated by the MNCs. It is
also equally important to recognise
that each capitalist firm relates to the
world system through the nation state.
2. The MNCs need social stability
in the countries where they operate.
For internal law and order, they need
a police force and for external stability
they need armed forces. The
dependence on armed forces as the
bedrock of business enterprise acts
to strengthen, not weaken, the nation
state.
3. The more the MNCs struggle
among themselves for market control,
more they need and rely on active
support (Political, Economic and
Military) of the State. The MNCs are
far from all powerful financially and
need active support and intervention
of state in the form of funds.
Thus the problems of maintaining
sovereignty of state arise from the
contradictions of monopoly capitalism.
In other words, the problems arise not
from the evils of MNCs alone or
presumed submission of state to
MNCs; but the problems are inherent
in the nature of imperialism.
As for the states of Third World
concerned, the problem is not so
simple as the submission of nation
state to the dictates of MNCs or World
Bank. What is really important and
decisive is that these countries,
suffered under the yoke of colonialism
and semi-colonialism for long years,
have evolved a mode of production, a
class structure and a social, cultural
and psychological milieu that are
subservient to imperialism. Depending
on this semi-colonial social order, the
MNCs and WB-IMF-WTO are playing
5
with their economies. So long as
these socio-economic conditions
prevail, even the supposed removal
of MNCs would not bring any basic
change and their subservience
continues.
“The trusts, of course, never
provided, do not now provide and
cannot provide complete planning.
But however much they do plan,
however much the capitalist magnets
calculate in advance the volume of
production on a national and even on
an international scale, and however
much they systematically regulate it,
we still remain under capitalism- at
its new stage, it is true, but still
capitalism, without a doubt. The
“proximity” of such capitalism to
socialism should serve genuine
representatives of the proletariat as
an argument providing the proximity,
facility, feasibility and urgency of the
socialist revolution, and not at all as
an argument for tolerating the
repudiation of such a revolution and
efforts to make capitalism look more
attractive, something which all
reformists are trying to do.” (Lenin)
The socialisation of labour, which
has manifested itself very strikingly in
the gigantic increase in the
dimensions and power of finance
capital, forms the chief material
foundation for the inevitable advent of
socialism. The intellectual and moral
driving force and the physical
executant of this transformation is the
proletariat, which is trained by the
capitalism itself. The struggle of the
proletariat against the bourgeoisie,
which manifests in multifarious forms
ever richer in content, inevitably
becomes a political struggle aiming
at the conquest of political power by
the proletariat. The socialisation of
production is bound to lead to the
transformation of the means of
production into the property of society,
to the “expropriation of expropriators”.
Such is the vision of Karl Marx
about the future society. And it
became the fact of life with the
victorious conclusion of Great October
6 Class Struggle
Release Comrade Koora Rajanna,
Central Leader, CPI(ML) Janashakti
We came to know that Central leader of CPI(ML) Janashakti,
Comrade Koora Rajanna who is suffering from illness was arrested
by police from a house in Medchal, Hyderabad on August 1st,
2022 from a press statement by Arunodaya Vimala. There are
reports that the police have arrested and produced him in Sirisilla
Court under several cases. We appeal that Com Rajanna be
released on bail immediately for medical facilities as it is reported
that he is suffering from serious illness.
Gurram Vijay kumar
2-8-2022
Central Committee, CPI(ML)
Revolution in Russia and New “Since cultural revolution is a
Democratic Revolution in China and revolution it inevitably meets
the advances they made in the resistance.....because the resistance
building of socialist society. For the is fairly strong. There will be
first time in the history of human reversals and even repeated
society, unemployment and poverty, reversals in this struggle. There is
which the capitalist society could not no harm in this. It tempers the
eradicate during its existence of more proletariat and other working people,
than 300 years, were eradicated in and especially the younger
Russia and China. A planned union generation, teaches them lessons
of agriculture and industry based on and gives them experience, and helps
the conscious application of science them to understand that revolutionary
and the combination of collective road has Zig-Zags and does not run
labour had removed hunger from the smooth”.
society. A new form of family, new (At a time when the world
conditions in the status of women and capitalist system unleashed
in the upbringing of younger ferocious attacks on Marxism and
generation had come into existence, communist movement, the CPI
which were still dreams in the capitalist (ML) Janashakti, COC organised a
countries. The achievements of series of programmes to
socialist system in Soviet Union and commemorate the 80th anniversary
China are well documented. Within a of Great October Revolution and
span of a quarter of a century, Soviet 50 th anniversary of the herioc
Union surpassed the capitalist world Telangana Peasants Armed
in science and technology. Struggle. This seminar was held in
Internationally the working class Hyderabad on 7 th , 8 th and 9 th
has suffered a temporary setback in Novemeber, 1997. It observed
the form of capitalist restoration in commemoration of Martyrs’ day in
Soviet Union and China. The bourgeois various districts of Andhra
ideologues wanted us to believe that Pradesh. Comrades Parimal Das
this revisionist betrayal as the failure Gupta, Kanu Sanyal, Kolla
of socialist system and Marxist Venkaiah, Manam Ramarao, Arvind
ideology. But from this set back the Sinha, P.K.Murthy, Ajmeer Singh,
working class organisation will grow Vijaya Saradhi, Mandla Subba
politically and organisationally stronger. Reddy, N.V. Krishnaiah attended
As Mao-Tse-Tung pointed out: and participated in this seminar.)
 PM Another Scheme to Appropriate Lands and Workers’ Rights
MITRA Punjabis Struggle against MITRA at Mattewara
The central government has been
talking about setting up mega textile
parks in thousands of acres for the
last few years. It says that countries
like Bangladesh, China and Vietnam
are ahead of us in this sector and
that Mega parks are the need of the
hour to compete with them, to provide
employment and to attract huge FDIs.
For this it brought PM MITRA -
Pradhan Mantri Mega Integrated
Textile Region and Apparel Park
scheme and allotted Rs. 4445 crores
for the next five years. In the first
phase, seven mega parks will be set
up with Rs 1000 crore funds from the
centre for each project. States should
vie for the parks through the
‘challenge method’ - that is, a State
gives the most subsidies to corporate
companies and challenges the rest of
the states to better it. In addition to
this scheme, another Rs. 10,000
crores is allocated under PLI
(Production Linked Incentive) scheme
for the development of MMF (Man
Made Fibres) sector. Reliance, the
world’s largest company in the
production of MMFs, which is on the
move to increase its capacity is mere
coincidence.
Where are we Competing?
Bangladesh textile parks are
already known as ‘sweat shops’ and
news about poor facilities for the
workers and frequent accidents in
these parks is a regular thing. We
have also seen that in China, workers
have to live in shambles attached to
factories and have to work long hours.
Also, Bangladesh has given duty free
access to USA and EU - no taxes of
any kind in these parks for the exports
and imports of goods from and to
those countries. Competing with these
countries is nothing but competing
with them in exploiting the labour.
Strengthening this fact, Textile Minister
Piyush Goyal ordered the states to
August - 2022
ensure affordable power, land and
‘effective’ labor laws for the
corporates.
SITP-Scheme for Integrated
Textile Park
Textile park is not new to India.
Already there is SITP scheme. Under
this scheme each park is allotted a
maximum of Rs. 40 crores from the
central government and have an area
of 25 to 75 acres. The center says it
did not get the expected results and
Mega parks are needed to pull more
FDIs.
STPIs are fully industrial parks
which means there is only exploitation
of workers. More ‘profits’ ‘demand’
more exploitation which can be
achieved in 2 ways: 1. Reforming
(diluting) the labor laws of the existing
workers 2. Bring more labour under
their exploitation – possible by
integrating everything from production
to export and bringing all types of
labour under their boots. Bringing
production into a park demands vast
acres of land and integrating
warehousing, logistics, exports etc
demands huge allocations from the
government. Thus came the PM Mitra
scheme with allocations of 1000 acres
lands and 1000 crores budget for
each park. So moving from SITP to
MITRA, allocations have increased a
whooping 25 to 40 times. How much
will the exploitation increase?
There is another problem with
SITPs. Most of the control lies with
the Center, thus acquiring land and
other statutory clearances from state
governments became a problem and
some SITPs have been cancelled due
to this. That is why this time the Center
has placed critical responsibilities like
land acquisition, electricity subsidies,
effective labor laws on the states. A
special purpose vehicle SPV formed
by corporate, state and center in a
PPP, will develop the Parks. The
states should use the share of their
rent collected on these parks for the
development of these parks. That is
these parks, developed with the public
money, will themselves consume the
rents they pay. In a word people do
not get anything from them except
offering cheap labour.
What is Inspiring?
Telangana’s Kakatiya Mega Textile
Park is an ‘inspiration’ for the PM
MITRA parks. The Telangana
government has allocated 1200 acres
of land in the first phase which can
be extended to 2000-3000 acres. 22
Companies have already made MOUs
committing Rs. 3900 crore investment.
Korea’s Youngone Company will be
making the highest investment of 900
crores in 300 acres within this park.
The same Telangana State
(undivided Andhra Pradesh) in 2002-
2003 set up the Sirisilla Textile Park
to support the weavers of Sirisilla, a
historically prominent weaving town
which for a time, became notorious
for weaver suicides. As this park is
really meant for the development of
the people, the allocations are a
meagre Rs. 7.73 crore funds and 237
plots (5-10 acres). After the formation
of Telangana, the government
announced that it will give all
government orders and orders for
Bathukamma sarees and for a while
it did it. But now the government says
production costs in the park are high
and that it will only give orders for
Bathukamma blouses only. As a result,
the weavers were pushed into debt
traps and they are forced to sell their
looms for 2 lakhs, which they had
bought for 7 lakhs. On one hand, the
parks setup for the development of the
people were ill funded and are made
sure they die while on the other, the
Mega parks for the corporates glitter
with billions of funds. This is one
example of the fate of workers in the
7
textile sector which provides largest
employment after agriculture sector.
Land Grab:
It is a bit tedious for the
governments to ‘acquire’ land on such
a large scale, as it has already
transferred most of the land to big
corporates and private parties. Hence
the government is adopting various
methods to ‘acquire’ people’s land.
The purpose of all these methods is
to snatch the community lands from
the people into its hands and then
transfer them into private hands. The
government’s claim of a facilitator is
just a marketing jargon to hide its
comprador nature.
In Telangana, the adivasi tandas
(Hamlets)will be turned into gram
panchayats so that they wont be a
protected ST lands anymore and thus
can be easily ‘acquired’ by
‘convincing’ the village sarpanch.
Punjabis show the Way Again:
In 2020, the then Congress
government came up with a mega
textile park on the lands of Sekhowal
village, near the textile town of
Ludhiana. It is adjacent to the eco-
sensitive Mattewara forest along the
Sutlej river. Punjab, the land of five
from page 02 August 15....
government. The Indian government
inherited imperialist policies along
with transfer of power as its own
policies to the detriment of Indian
interest which became clear in the
experience of these 75 years.
More over the ruling class and its
agents deceived the mass of people
in to believing that our constitution is
sacrosanct, though it is strikingly
similar to the 1935 constitution. The
constitution is nothing but a
superstructure built on the readymade
foundation carefully and laboriously
laid by imperialism.
That is why Ambedkar, chairman
of the drafting committee of the
‘Indian’ constitution had to admit that
“…… in politics we will have equality
and in economic life we will have
inequality…. We must remove this
8 Class Struggle
rivers is already facing ground water
depletion along with huge pollution of
its rivers. Also textile industry is a
highly polluting industry. And there are
serious allegations that water in some
areas became cancerous. So people
from all walks of life including AAP
party protested against it.
But whose lands are up for grab?
This is another dimension.
Dalits make up 32 percent of
Punjab’s population. According to
state laws, 32% of Shamlat lands
(common gram panchayat land) have
to be allocated to Dalits for cultivation.
Majority of the Sekhowal people are
Mazhabi Sikhs, a Dalit sikh community
displaced out of Amritsar city with the
promise of Shamlat lands elsewhere.
Finally after many struggles they were
allotted Shamlat lands for cultivation
in Sekhowal area. They have been
fighting for the lands for 35 years in
and outside the courts.
The then Congress government
duped the sarpanch saying that it is
acquiring two hundred acres for agro
nursery. The AAP government that
came month ago, announced on July
8th that they are allocating 1000
acres for this mega park out of which
contradiction at the earliest possible
moment or else those who suffer with
inequality will blow the structure of
political democracy….”
Com. T.Nagireddy in his famous
court statement ‘India Mortgaged’ has
asserted that…. “nothing has changed
(after August 15, 1947) except certain
forms of management of this society
in the interests of imperialist capital
collaborating Indian bourgeoisie and
feudal landlords. The content has
remained the same (of British colonial
rule) even though certain forms of
management have changed.
Com. TN rightly asserted that “any
citizen with a grain of patriotism in
him, should by nature revolt against
such a degrading state of affairs to
resurrect the great glory of the Indian
people and Indian nation” showing the
correct path the people.
416 acres (and not 200) are the
Sekhowal village lands. Sekhowal has
only 500 acres of Shamlat land. That
means the villagers are going to lose
their entire land that too with lies. They
held a gram sabha and unanimously
decided not to give any land to the
Park. Around 50 organisation formed
a Public Action Committee including
NGOs of Cancer patients and
environmentalists seriously agitated.
They organised a massive protest
against the Mega park. Just a day
before the protest, the Chief Minister
called for discussions and agreed to
shift the project from that area to
another area away from the water
sources. Incidentally, in a public stunt,
the Chief Minister drank river water
to prove that Punjab river water was
not polluted but was hospitalized the
very next day.
The first target of any government
or any scheme is the lands of the
Adivasis, Dalits and other oppressed
classes. However, this struggle proves
that if the people and mass
organisations unite into a dedicated
movement they will achieve success.
™
Com. TN rightly concluded that the
August 15, 1947 is nothing but “Indian
Bourgeoisie’s Despicable Betrayal”
and that the constitution finalised the
betrayal of Indian people by the
bourgeoisie represented by the so-
called national leadership.
The people of our country have
yet to win their independence.
Many people have sacrificed their
lives for our country’s liberation. Their
cause has to be carried forward. So
people have to examine to know the
true facts as they took place in history
and assert their destiny.
Stalin had warned that
“independence does not come as a
gift” – in the form of transfer of power
– but is possible only “by victorious
revolution”. This warning has become
true in the 75 years of experience of our
people and people’s urge for revolution
is continually increasing. ™
Document : Part-III

Socio-Economic and Political Analysis of India’s

Semi-Colonial & Semi-Feudal State Character
This document was written by a Comrade of CPI(ML) almost two years back. We are treating it as a
positive and good effort. This document summarized and composed various facts, figures, and analysis, as
given in Comrade T.Nagi Reddy’s famous book, “INDIA MORTGAGED” as well as from some survey reports.
Now we are giving Part-III of this document. Part-I and Part-II were published in June and July issues.
(E)
The Public Sector
The growth of the public sector in
India has received extremely high
complements from the circle of so-
called friends of India, especially the
Soviet revisionists. Professor
R.Uliyanovsky, in an article in Pravda,
August 4, 1970, writes that the state
sector of India “is growing stronger
and dominates in some branches. It
plays an important part in reducing
the power of the monopolies,
weakening the position of foreign
capital, and narrowing the gap in the
level of economic development in
different parts of the country”. Indian
progressives, led by the CPI
revisionists, have been crying hoarse
that, due to the growth of the public
sector, independent industrialization
of India is on the march towards a
successful culmination. It is necessary
and of utmost importance to study this
quotation to arrive at a few objective
conclusions as to the true nature of
this phenomenon in the Indian
economy.
It must be stated, at the very outset
that, the state sector is not a peculiar
feature of the Indian acquisitive
society. Intervention by the State in
the production process of a country
is a common characteristic of all
capitalist countries. As a matter of
fact, this has become absolutely
necessary to preserve and strengthen
capitalism itself. In the process, Britain
had to nationalize its coal and steel
industry. Galbraith, the ambassador
of the US in India, has written that
the public sector in America is very
much larger than India. Therefore, the
growth of the public sector, by itself,
August - 2022
does not denote the progressiveness
of any State.
In the earliest days of industrial
growth - i.e., more than 150 years
ago - the first foremost economist,
Adam Smith, had clearly forecast the
necessity of State Intervention in the
interest of private capital itself. He had
enunciated that the erection and
maintenance of public works - which
though in the highest degree
advantageous to a great society are
however of such a nature that the
project could never repay the expense
to any individual or a small number of
individuals and which therefore
cannot be expected to be undertaken
by individuals - had to be done by
the State directly and on its own
responsibility to provide enough
incentives for the growth of the private
investment.
F.Engels in his brilliant book, ‘Anti-
Duhring’, had stated that the growth
of capitalist productive forces “leads
first to various forms of joint-stock
companies and later on, when even
that method becomes insufficient, it
leads to direct ownership and control
of the means of production by the
State, as the official representative of
the capitalist society’. He further stated
that ‘the more productive forces it
takes as its property, the more it
becomes the real collective body of
all capitalists, the more citizens it
exploits. The workers remain wage-
earners, proletarians. The capitalist
relationship is not abolished: it is
rather pushed to an extreme”.
Therefore, the public sector or the
State’s direct intervention in
production is not a new feature. And
it does not mean that establishment
of the State Sector is a progress
towards the establishment of
socialism.
But then we are told that
intervention by the State in
underdeveloped countries, would play
a progressive role since it helps
mobilize the internal resources for
independent development of industries,
that is an instrument of anti-
imperialism used mainly for growth of
indigenous capitalism. If its character
is really anti-imperialist then the State
does play an extremely important
progressive role. Thus in an under-
developed country, intervention by the
State may be progressive if it enables
the country to fight for, and
consolidate, its independence vis-a-
vis imperialism. But State capitalism,
in alliance with foreign capital,
becomes a pure and simple means
of exploiting the people and
endangers the very independence of
the country. In such a situation, it can
never play the role of an instrument
of anti-imperialist and independent
industrial growth.
Industrial Policy Resolution
The growth of the public sector in
independent India had a base even
before 1947, when the basis of state
monopoly had already been laid by
the British Government in the 20 odd
ordnance factories managed by
Defence Ministry.
After independence was
proclaimed, the industrial policy
resolution announced by the
Government in 1948 was forthright in
its welcome of foreign capital.
Moreover, Prime Minister Nehru’s
statement later in clarification of the
resolution, that there should be no
9
discrimination against foreign capital
laid the foundation for the policy to
be implemented even in the public
sector. This aspect of government
policy should be constantly kept in
mind when one studies the future of
the state sector in our country.
The Second Five Year Plan
categorically stated that, in “a growing
economy which gets increasingly
diversified, there is scope for both the
public and private sectors to expand
simultaneously but it is inevitable, if
development is to proceed at the pace
envisaged and to contribute
effectively that the public sector must
grow not only absolutely but also
relative to the private sector”.
The area in which the public
sector will grow, and grow faster than
the private sector, were clearly
enunciated in the Industrial Policy
Resolution of April 13, 1956, where it
was promised that :
“In the first category there will be
industries the future development of
which will be the exclusive responsibility
of the State. The second category will
consist of industries, which will be
progressively State-owned and in
which the State will therefore generally
take the initiatives in establishing new
undertakings, but in which private
enterprise will also be expected to
supplement the effort of the State. The
third category will include all the
remaining industries, and their future
development will, in general, be left to
the initiative and enterprise of the
private sector.
Industries in the first category
have been listed in Schedule A of this
resolution. All new units in these
industries where their establishment
in the private sector has already been
approved will be set up only by the
State. This does not preclude the
expansion of the existing privately
owned units, or the possibility of the
State securing the co-operation of the
private enterprise in the establishment
of new units when the national
interests so require. Railways and air
transport, arms and ammunition, and
atomic energy will, however, be
10
developed as Central Government
monopolies. Whenever co-operation
with private enterprise is necessary,
the State will ensure, either through
majority participation in the capital or
otherwise, that it has the requisite
powers to guide the policy and control
the operations of the undertaking.
Industries in the second category
will be those listed in Schedule B.
With a view to accelerating their future
development, the State will increasingly
establish new under-takings in these
industries. At the same time, private
enterprises will also have the
opportunity to develop in this field, either
on its own or with State participation”.
It is now 15 years since the
resolution was passed by the highest
body of people’s representatives - the
Parliament. Now we should study the
results and see whether the contention
that public sector has become, and
is becoming, more and more a base
for private capital and much more so
for foreign capital is true. It can as
well be said that resolution does not
exist since it was stealthily thrown into
the dustbin even before the ink with
which it was written was dry. Let us
now examine a few cases to
concretize the above criticism.
COAL : Coal and Lignite was one of
the industries in Schedule A - i.e.,
those industries whose “further
development will be the exclusive
responsibility of the State”. Let us now
see how this particular resolve has
been implemented. Instead of
enumerating the facts, it would be
better to hear from the horse’s mouth:
the Estimates Committee of
Parliament in its report in 1962-63
gives the following facts.
“The industrial policy resolution of
1956 listed coal in Schedule ‘A’, thus
envisaging that its future development
was to be the exclusive responsibility
of the State”. (Page - 1)
“The industrial policy resolution of
1956 envisaged that ‘all new units’ in
the coal industry are to be set up only
by the State. This does not, however,
preclude the expansion of the
privately-owned units”.
“The Second Five Year Plan
clearly contemplated that the private
sector should raise its share of
additional 10 million tonnes from their
existing workings and immediately
contiguous areas”. (Page - 2)
“The committee was informed that
since the middle of 1956, the Central
Government had given its approval to
the private sector of the coal industry
to develop new areas in 49 cases in
various states”. (Page - 2)
“It is however seen that, out of 49
areas referred to above, 25 are
contiguous and 24 non-contiguous.
The representative of the ministry
explained during evidence that
Government took a pragmatic view of
the Industrial Policy Resolution and
interpreted it rather liberally”. (Page-3)
“The committee noted that in the
Second Five Year Plan, it had been
specifically stated that, “in future, the
policy of retaining all new undertakings
in coal in the public sector should be
more strictly followed... The expansion
of production by the establishment of
new collieries will be undertaken wholly
in the public sector”. The committee
feel that the present policy of the
Government in allowing non-
contiguous areas to the private sector
is strictly not in consonance with the
Industrial Policy Resolution and the
decision contained in the Second Five
Year Plan. The rather Liberal
interpretation of the Industrial Policy
Resolution is not conducive to the
proper development of industry”.
(Page - 3)
Now it is clear that, in 1956 itself,
the Government had started condoning
the growing encroachment by the
private sector into spheres reserved
for the public sector by the Industrial
Policy Resolution of 1956.
OIL : This is the field in which the
Soviet Union has played an important
role as a catalyst for foreign oil
companies to enter the public sector.
This is a field in which the Soviet
Union and the foreign oil companies
seem to be playing a role more and
more complementary to each other.
With the increase in aid to this sector
Class Struggle
from the Soviet Union, there has been
an increasing penetration of foreign
oil companies into the public sector
in this industry. The co-operation
between the public sector and the
foreign oil companies should have put
the Soviet Union to shame for having
been used by the comprador
bourgeoisie to play the role of
improving relations between the
foreign oil companies and the public
sector. Here, too, the Government of
India put the industrial policy
resolution into cold storage, and
allowed the foreign oil companies not
only to establish their branches of
refineries in India but also to expand
their production.
But the country is being told that,
other than the private refineries, which
were already established in 1956,
every new development in the oil
sector is progressing only under the
public sector. This is not quite true.
After the three public sector refineries
established with Soviet and Romanian
help, oil has come almost entirely in
the fold of the so-called joint sector -
collaboration between public sector
and foreign private capital, with
complete domination by foreign
finance.
On this question, too, it is better
to allow the Estimates Committee of
Parliament to give a few details. The
Estimates Committee in its 34th Report
(1962-63) has the following to report:
“The Industrial Policy Resolution of
April 1956 specified that the future
development of mineral oil, will be the
exclusive responsibility of the State”.
Yet, “the laying and operation of the
crude oil pipeline was the responsibility
of the Oil India Ltd., in which the
Government of India and Burma Oil
Company had an equal partnership
in the ratio of 50:50”. (Page 8)
.... The Committee was informed
that crude oil was supplied by the Oil
India Ltd., a company in which the
Government of India holds 50 per cent
shares. The crude oil produced by
this company is sold only to two
customers Viz., Government of India
for the use of Indian Refineries Ltd,
August - 2022
(2.75 million tonnes) and Assam
Refineries (0.25 million tonnes) -
making a total of 3 million tonnes in
all. Clause 8 of the agreement entered
into between the Oil India Ltd., and
the Government on June 27, 1961,
which provides the-formula for the
pricing of crude oil applied to both
the customers is given below :
(1)The price of crude oil would be
based upon the C.I.F price of the
Middle-East crude oil of equivalent
quality at Calcutta.
(2)On this C.I.F price of the Middle-
East crude is a certain discount to
be given by the Oil India Ltd.
(3)The discount is to be so calculated
that it would give Oil India Ltd. a
net return of 10.8 per cent of its
paid up capital (which is Rs. 28
crores) after payment of all taxes
including taxes payable on
Dividends. (Page : 13-14)
........It was stated that at present
the Indian Refineries Ltd. was paying
a provisional price of Rs. 72.79 per
tonne for its suppliers of crude oil.
Since this price formula, referred to
above was based on a total off-take
of 3 million tonnes...... and the actual
off-take was only 5 lakh tonnes, for
the proportionately higher price would
have to be paid to the oil to ensure a
minimum dividend of 9 per cent.
(Page-14)
“It will be seen that, even at
present, Indian Refineries Ltd. is
paying about Rs. 84 per tonne
(including Rs. 12 of sales tax per
tonne) for the indigenous crude oil
compared to about Rs. 71 to 74 per
tonne, paid by the refineries in the
private sector for the crude oil
imported by them”. (Page - 15)
Excellent Condition for Success
of Public Sector
In another report - the 28th report
of the year 1962-63, the Estimates
Committee, dealing with Indian Oil
Company’s marketing facilities,
reports about certain arrangements
made with the foreign oil companies
which resulted in a loss to the public
sector company but benefited the
foreign company.
It reports that since the Indian Oil
Company had no marketing facilities,
“the company had entered into
product exchange arrangements with
the other oil companies in the private
sector. “The Indian Oil Company” ‘was
marketing approximately 75 per cent
of its production through other oil
companies under the product
exchange arrangements. These
products were made available to the
other oil companies on outright sale
purchase basis. Similar reciprocal
facilities were not stated to be
available to Indian oil companies from
the other oil companies or their
refineries and the issue was at present
under discussion”. (Page - 20)
“It is further stated that on the
product exchange transactions, the
Indian Oil Company loses all the profit
margin provided on the Damle
Committee’s cost ‘build-up’...... The
Indian Oil Company earns no profit
from the sale of products, of the
Nunmati refinery, to other oil
companies under the product
exchange arrangements..... The
Indian Oil Company is not getting
reciprocal facilities to obtain the
products from these private sector
companies or their refineries”.
Therefore the Committee calls for
an “examination” and revision as early
as possible of the existing
arrangements and “that the terms of
such agreements should be drafted
in such a way as are capable of being
worked to the mutual advantage of the
parties concerned”. (Page - 20)
“In this connection (sale of the
imported Soviet oil) it has been stated
that as soon as supplies of H.S.D
landed for the first time from Russia
on Indian Oil Company’s account in
August 1961 the foreign oil companies
realized that, in the absence of retail
outlets, the Indian Oil Company could
sell only to bulk consumers, like D.G.S
& D. State Transport undertakings,
etc. In a bid to retain their business,
they quoted special lower rates to the
State Transport undertakings. To
secure business, the Indian Oil
Company, in its turn, had to enter into
11
contracts at comparative terms, which
resulted in securing the business at
very uneconomical rates”. (Page-22)
This particular instance is enough
to show how the foreign monopolies
are occupying the summits in the
public sector to reap profits as in the
case of the partnership of Burma Oil
Company, in Oil India Ltd, in the case
of product exchange arrangements
between Indian Oil Company and other
foreign oil companies; and further, as
in the case of sale of imported Soviet
oil, due to undercutting of prices. In all
cases, the public sector, instead of
curbing the monopoly designs for
super-profits, has played into their
hands.
Growing dependence on foreign
oil companies for imported crude even
in the case of public sector projects,
is having a distorting effect on our
foreign exchange bill. Successive
investigation made by the Shantilal
Shah Committee and the Damle
Committee have shown that we have
been paying through our nose for our
oil products because of our total
dependence on a few international oil
companies which dominate the world
market. In an editorial on petroleum
policy in the ‘Economic Times’ on May
25, 1969, it is said that “in 1968-69, of
the 16 million tonnes crude processed
indigenously, we imported as much
as 10 million tonnes...... projections
suggest that in the next 4 or 5 years,
the imports may be nearly two-thirds
of the crude oil required”. It is not only
a question of excessive payments in
foreign exchange. Much more, the oil
policy of the Government of India,
under the influence of the foreign oil
companies, has completely discouraged
the efficient use of our own raw
materials such as coal on a priority
basis, resulting in underproduction of
coal, closure of pits, and increasing
unemployment. The dieselization of
railways and increased use of furnace
oil in our industries is a case in point.
Thus the concessions and incentives
given to the oil companies clearly
show that India, more than being an
12
independent and sovereign nation, is
much more a semi-colony.
Any number of examples can be
given to show how the public sector
has become a profitable pasture for
the private sector at the cost of the
nation. Only through two examples, it
can be shown, how the private sector-
especially the foreign private sector -
is profiting directly from the public
sector.
Loss to Public Sector,
Profit to Private Sector
The UP Electricity Board suffered
a loss of Rs. 103.57 lakhs during
1967-69 due to underassessment of
power charges supplied to the
Hindustan Aluminum Company of
Birlas - one of the biggest industrial
giants in India built with US Funds -
almost under the control of the Kaisers
of America. Power minister Narayan
Dutt Tiwari, admitted in the State
Assembly on July 13, 1971, that the
State Electricity Board was suffering
a loss of Rs. 2.5 to 3 crores a year
because of the supply of power at
concessional rates to Birla’s Hindustan
Aluminum Corporation. This American
- owned firm is supplied power by the
Electricity Board at a rate of 1.99
paisa a unit, which is very much less
than the cost of production itself.
The public sector company, Indian
Drugs & Pharmaceuticals Ltd., sells
bulk drugs to the predominantly
foreign-owned drug industry in the
private sector. The drug industry
stamps tablets, packs and distributed
these drugs, at rates of profit touching
2000 per cent of the ‘production cost.
Productioncost is being put-up
under inverted commas because it is
not the drug companies that are
tableting, packing, and distributing
them. But we do not hear of the IDPL,
insisting that the price of the finished
drugs should bear a reasonable
relation (say five times even) for the
prices of the bulk formulations which
IDPL is supplying to the drug
companies. The information that has
been provided in a ‘Mainstream’ article,
October 16, 1971, clearly indicates
how Soviet help to the public sector
industry is helping the foreign
monopolies to reap exorbitantly high
profits to the detriment of the Indian
people.
Even so, the Soviet revisionists
proclaim through their books,
pamphlets, and the articles in their
newspapers, that the aid from the
socialist countries has undermined
the former monopoly position of the
imperialist powers in India. As it has
been quoted in the first paragraph of
this chapter, the Soviet revisionists
proclaim that the growth of the State
sector in India has played an important
part in reducing the power of the
monopolies. How false the statement
is can be seen from the above example
even though they are only a few.
Joint Sector and
Foreign Private Capital
This is not the end of the story. In
the name of the joint sector, and
establishing industries in the state
sector, more and more foreign capital
has acquired for its own benefit the
scarce Indian capital, through the
Government. The following few
instances taken from the Annual
Report on the working of the Industrial
Commercial Undertakings of the
Central Government, 1964-65 show
how foreign and Indian monopolies
have with vigour occupied position of
strength in the public sector to use it
for their own benefit as against
national interest.
Engineers India Ltd. was
incorporated on March 15, 1965, in
collaboration with Bechtel Corporation
for providing engineering, technical,
and consultancy services for petroleum
products, development of oilfields,
pipelines, petrochemical facilities,
fertilizer projects, and designing and
constructing general engineering,
mining and other allied products. Of
the shares of this company, 50 per
cent are held by the Government of
India and 49 per cent by foreign
companies.
The Indian Oil Corporation which
was set up by amalgamating the two
public sector companies, the Indian
Refineries Ltd. and the Indian Oil
Class Struggle
Company Ltd., has set up one plant
each in Calcutta and Bombay for
blending industrial and automotive
lubricants in collaboration with Mobil
Petroleum Co, of New York, on equal
partnership basis, known as the Indian
Oil Blending Ltd.
The Oil India Limited was formed
in February 1959 for the production
and distribution of petroleum products
in collaboration with Burma Oil
Company Ltd. The paid-up capital was
Rs. 28 crores, shared equally by the
Central Government and the Burma
Oil Company.
Indian Explosives Limited is under
the management of Imperial Chemical
Industries. Of the subscribed capital
20 per cent is held by the Central
Government and the rest by the ICI.
Machinery Manufactures’
Corporation Ltd. has an authorized
capital of Rs. 1.5 crores, and
subscribed capital of Rs. 69.71 lakhs
of which Rs. 25 lakhs (4.5 percent
tax free special cumulative preference
shares) were held by the Central
Government. The corporation is
managed by Mahindra & Mahindra as
managing agents, and is engaged in
the manufacture of textile machinery
like cards, carding engines, and
diesel engines.
Bolani Ores Ltd. of Calcutta was
formed in collaboration with Orissa
Minerals Development Co. Ltd., for the
supply of iron ore to the Durgapur
Steel Plant. The authorized and paid-
up capital of the company was Rs. 1
crore. The share capital is held in the
ratio of 50.5 to 49.5 by the Central
Government of India and Orissa
Minerals Development Co. Ltd.,
respectively. According to the
Monopolies Enquiry Commission’s
report, Orissa Minerals and Bolani
Ores are under the management of
Baird Heilgers, whose masters are
foreigners.
Manganese Ore (India Ltd.) of
Nagpur was registered on June 22,
1962, as a joint venture. In return for
all the fixed assets and shares taken
over by the new company, the Central
Provinces Manganese Ore Company
August - 2022
received shares amounting to 49 per
cent of the initial subscription of the
new company. The balance of 51 per
cent was subscribed in cash by the
Central Government and the state
governments of Maharashtra and
Madhya Pradesh, in equal proportion.
In a total of 8 undertakings, in
which Central and state governments
have invested Rs. 23 crores 59 lakhs,
the private sector, mainly foreign
monopolies, have invested Rs. 22
crores 76 lakhs. Thus, in the name of
the establishing public sector
industries, the Government of India
is providing large funds to the private
sector. Public Sector in name, but
private sector in fact! That is the policy
pursued by the Government.
There are other public sector
undertakings in which private capital
is allowed to participate in ‘share
capital’, major among them being
Cochin Refineries in which Phillips
Petroleum Company Ltd., USA has
been allotted to invest 25 per cent of
the paid-up capital.
The private sector has its finger
in most government undertakings,
either in the form of equity investments
or in the form of loan capital, direct
management of partnership on the
board of directors. The public sector
has thus become a happy hunting
ground for profits, a source of
increasing disparities in the control
of national wealth and distribution of
national income.
We have so far seen how private
capital, especially foreign private
capital has been making use of the
public sector towards its own ends.
We have also seen how the industrial
policy resolution of 1956 has been so
diluted as to make the private sector
the dominant force even in those
Industries where the Government had
promised to make the public sector
the dominant force. We shall now
proceed to study a few more industrial
sectors before we conclude.
Fertilizers
The Fertilizer industry, according
to the Industrial Policy Resolution of
1965, is one of those “to be
progressively State-owned and in
which the State will generally take the
initiative”. Like many other industries,
this industry too became, in course
of time, almost completely dependent
on foreign monopolies. After the
agreement, with American finance
capital for the establishment of a fertilizer
factory at Trombay in the public sector
with American loans in the latter half
of the 1950s, the Government of India
- as per the promise stealthily made
to the foreigners - allowed foreign
capital to invade the fertilizer industry
in the private sector.
This dependence on foreign
monopolies, for finance and technical
knowhow for increasing fertilizer
production in the country, has put off
installation of new capacity to use
indigenous raw material which was
available in plenty in our country in
the form of coal. Coal-based fertilizer
projects were anathema to foreign
monopolies who were interested only
in naphtha or liquid ammonia as raw
materials since these raw materials
could be had only from petroleum
refineries or imported. In either case
the fertilizer projects would be
dependent on foreign monopolies who
could dictate the prices of raw materials
and later the prices of fertilizers.
Consequently, several new fertilizer
projects which have been established
by foreign monopoly capital in our
country - such as the Coromandel
Fertilisers at Visakhapatnam, the
fertilizer factory at Kanpur, the so-
called mixed company at Madras, the
Goa Fertilisers - are a few of the most
important companies which have
dominated the fertilizer industry after
1960. To attract foreign capital
investment into this field, the
Government “had to climb down from
its rigid policies on several counts”.
Thus, it announced a series of
concessions over the financing,
production and distribution of fertilizers
to foreign monopolies. “Against bitter
opposition it went to the extent of
(allowing) majority share holdings for
foreign companies in this field”.
(‘Financial Express’, May 24, 1969)
13
 As in other industries, foreign
private capital was not satisfied with
having control only in the private
sector. They insist on entering the
public sector itself, as in the oil
industry. The Government had to give
in. Therefore, even in this field, the
so-called joint sector companies were
established. For example, Madras
Fertilizer “will be in the public sector
with equity participation by American
International Oil Company”. The
Government of India will hold 51 per
cent of the equity and the American
firm the remaining 49 per cent. The
Chairman of the Board of Directors
will be a nominee of the Government.
The Managing Director will be the
nominee of the American Company.
He will act on the advice of the Board
on which there will be equal
representation both for the
Government and the American
company. But the most important part
of the agreement is that, “the
arrangements regarding management
will last only for 10 years from the date
of the commercial operation or until
foreign exchange loans have been
fully repaid whichever is earlier”
(‘Hindu Survey of Industries’, 1966,
Page 75). The foreign exchange bill
will be about $ 35 million.
Thus the management of the
public sector companies has been
handed over to foreign monopolies,
for another 10 years from the date of
a commercial operation or until
foreign exchange loans have been
fully repaid. This is only one of the
examples of increasing collaboration
between the Government of India and
foreign companies in the establishment
of the fertilizer industry in this country.
Another example is Kanpur Fertilisers,
another ‘mixed’ company in which the
Government of India has invested in
the share capital and Rs. 16 crores
have been given as loans to this
industry from the Indian banks and
financial institutions. One can very
well see that the feeding of such joint
sector company, in which foreign hold
is strong, with loans either from the
Government of India or from Indian
14
finance institutions is nothing but
supplying them with scarce Indian
capital for the exploitation of the
country by foreign monopolies.
As early as in 1963 (on December
27), the Eastern Economists in an
article ‘The Battle for Industrial
Production’ had ironically declared
that “the public sector in the fertilizer
industry seems to have bitten off more
than it can chew”. On behalf of the
foreign monopolies, this Birla
dominated economic journal had
demanded of the Government that it
should revise its “policy of relying
almost wholly on the public sector”
and pleaded that “proper economic,
climate which is particularly important
as the foreign finance and technical
collaboration have to be enlisted”
should be created. The Government
of India readily gave into their
demands and gave up control over
fertilizer prices and trade.
We had previously noted that the
foreign concerns were interested
mainly to use the raw material of their
choice - either naphtha from their
refineries or liquid ammonia to be
imported - so that they, as producers
of naphtha, could dictate prices, or
as importers of ammonia, earn profits,
not only on the sale of fertilizers but
also on the supply of raw materials to
the industry.
Thus the fertilizer industry even
in the public sector was made
dependent on foreign finance, foreign
technology, foreign management, and
foreign raw materials - in addition to
completely controlling prices and
marketing. Can anyone in these
circumstances say that the public
sector industries and the credit from
the socialist countries “have
undermined the former monopoly
position of the imperialist powers”, as
Uliyanovsky has so consistently argued
in his book, “Asia and the Dollar”?
Mineral Revolution and
Foreign Role
To achieve a ‘mineral revolution’
through air-borne mineral surveys
under-taken by foreigners on a
turnkey basis with loans from foreign
finance capital, is the latest fad of the
Government of India. This only helps
to mortgage every part and every
sector of India to foreign monopolies.
Prof. K. V. Subramaniam, a well
known and eminent scientist in this
field, a member of the Committee on
Science and Technology was aghast
at the shameless manner in which “the
nation has been reduced to
bankruptcy and its economy has been
thrown open to foreign enterprise in
every conceivable form”. He gives a
resume of the steps taken by the
Government of India in ‘this regard to
the detriment of India’s interest. In an
article in ‘Economic Times’, he says:
“There are several remarkable features
about these contracts for air-borne
mineral surveys. The Government of
India approaches the US AID for a
loan to meet the foreign exchange
cost of the Khetri copper project and
receives a loan for Operation Hard
Rock, which it accepts with alacrity”.
“The Government of India then
approaches the French Government
for a loan for Khetri and receives
along with it another loan for another
air-borne mineral survey, the
knowhow for which is the same as
the one for Operation Hard Rock”.
When such interesting research
is taking place in the name of a mineral
survey, how can the Soviet Union one
of the biggest powers be left out? How
can the Soviet Union allow itself to be
left out? Therefore, “not to be outdone
by the others, USSR comes up with
its offer of an aeromagnetic survey
which is well within our own resources
in knowhow equipment and personnel”.
Mr. Subramaniam continues that
the latter two aerial survey contracts
were committed to foreign powers at
a huge cost to the exchequer, “despite
the clear recommendation of the
committee headed by late Dr.
D.N.Wadia, which included as
members leading geophysicists in the
country with experience of similar
aerial surveys conducted for the Oil
& Natural Gas Commission, that no
further commitments for aerial surveys
should be made with foreign agencies
Class Struggle
until the stage of being turned over to
the Operation Hard Rock had been
completed and the results evaluated”.
Operation Hard Rock was
launched in July 1967, two years
behind the original schedule. That to
this date, 1970, ‘after the passage of
nearly three years .........we are with
no prospects of any mine being
developed to the stage of being turned
over to the proper agency for
Operation, should be proof enough of
the degree of reliance that could be
placed’ on such agreements with
foreign powers.
Anyone would naturally ask as to
where the country is being led in the
name of the development of the public
sector? Is it not true that the public
sector has been made into one of the
most lucrative business operations for
foreign private capital and for Soviet
social imperialism?
Industrial Policy Resolution, 1956
It has been tried to show above,
how the Industrial policy resolution
has been nullified in various sectors
in the interests of private capital in
general and foreign monopoly capital
in particular. Dr. Paresh Chattopadhyay
in an article,‘Aspects of the growth of
State Capitalism in India’ has shown
that exceptions to Schedule A and B
have become an extremely normal
practice. Of the seventeen industries
listed in Schedule A of the Resolution,
“the future development of industries,
which will be the exclusive
responsibility of the State (and in
which) all new units will be set up only
by the State Seven industries at least
have been opened to private interests.
These are (1) arms, (2) heavy plant
and machinery, (3) heavy electrical
plant, (4) the processing of lead and
zinc, (5) the production of telephone
cables and telegraphic equipment, (6)
the generation and distribution of
electricity, (7) coal. The greatest shift
towards the private sector took place
in Schedule B, industries which, by
the terms of the 1956 Resolution,
were to be ‘progressively State-owned
and in which the State will therefore
generally take the initiative’. Of the
August - 2022
industries listed at least nine have
been heavily financed by the private
sector. (These are (1) aluminum, (2)
machine-tools, (3) ferro-alloys and
tool-steels, (4) basic chemicals and
intermediates, (5) antibiotics and other
essential drugs, (6) fertilizer
production, (7) synthetic rubber, (8)
road transport, (9) sea transport).
Quite logically, Nehru told the 1962
session of the Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry,
‘Private enterprise is a good thing.
The suppression of private enterprise
was bad?” (Socialist Digest: January
1969)
In almost all the industries that
have been listed above which have
been opened to private interests, it is
only the private foreign capital that
has had the biggest push. Therefore,
to say even in 1970 that the State
sector is growing stronger and that it
is playing an important part in
reducing the power of the monopolies
and in weakening the position of
foreign capital is grossly misleading.
Every committee that has been
set up by the Government of India -
such as the Mahalanobis Committee,
the Monopolies Enquiry Commission,
the Industrial Licensing Policy Inquiry
Committee have come out with
innumerable substantiating instances
and have categorically stated that,
“Government policy during the plan
period has been responsible.... for the
growth of the private sector and in the
process especially of big companies.”
(Report of the Committee on the
distribution of income and levels of
living 1964). D.R.Gadgil (late Vice-
President of the Planning Commission),
in his “Planning and Economic Policy
of India” had stated that, “accumulation
of gains and the rapid increase of
economic resources and power in
particular private hands can be
described as a deliberate objective of
official policy”.
This deliberate objective of official
policy has been successfully
implemented through the State sector.
At this stage, there is no use in
going into the details of various other
ways in which the State has helped
the private sector through the public
institutions such as the Finance
Corporations that have been
established, or certain financial
institutions that have been nationalized
like LIC, or through the nationalized
banks. There are different manner
through which the State Financial
Corporations have helped not only the
big houses in India but also the foreign
monopoly capital to dominate the
industrial scheme.
Defence Production in
Public Sector
The country is being informed that
our defence production is progressing
fast and that, therefore, we are much
better prepared even against the
combined forces of Pakistan and China.
The increased production figures in
the ordnance factories and other defence
undertakings are prepared to show
that India is growing in self-reliance
in defence production. The truth will
have to be pulled out by the ears from
this fraud of official propaganda.
Self-reliance has no meaning so
long as production is based on the
import of essential components and
raw materials and technical knowhow.
Malhotra, in Times of India, October
14, 1971, in an article on defence
production, ‘No End of These Imports
is in Sight’, reports certain important
facts which bring out our insight on
our entire dependence on foreign
powers and foreign finance capital for
defence production.
For example, for the Vijayanta
tank, the country has yet to import
the gun as well as the infra-red
equipment which gives the tank its
eyes for movement after dark.
Reliance on import is even greater
for not only MIG-21 but also for HF-
24, “even though it has been under
production since the mid-fifties”, is
however the distressing dependence
on foreign designs for almost all
improvement weapons and equipment
it will be naive to believe that any
foreign country is giving India or will
give it in future the very latest of its
designs”.
15
 Therefore, the question of
becoming self-reliant is a faraway
dream. On the other hand, our
defence equipment is for the most
part obsolescent. So long as the
country does not progress to stand
on its own feet in designing
development, it has to rely on the
foreign powers for the second-rate
obsolescent defence material.
“The painful story of the search
for a suitable engine for HF-24 is well
known”. What is not adequately
appreciated is that the air-frame itself
was not designed by the Indian
engineers but was designed by a
distinguished German, Dr.Kurttank.
The Leander class frigates, under
manufacture at Bombay’s Mazagaon
docks, are based on a design bought
from the Royal Navy and are being
built with British collaboration. How
foreign collaboration can hinder
progress, even for old designs and
obsolete makes, can be illustrated by
the fact that “it took Mazagaon docks
two and half years to build the hull of
the first frigate INS Nilgiri. But the
fitting of the ship is several months
behind schedule largely because of
the late deliveries by the British
collaborator”.
The Hulls of the second and third
frigates too, are ready. But the fittings
are delayed even more, since the
Heavy Electricals at Bhopal, another
collaboration industry in the public
sector, failed to deliver the turbines
and allied equipment in May 1970,
probably because the collaborator
had failed to supply the needed
components and other raw materials.
“There is no knowing when it will
arrive”. (‘Times of India’, October 14,
1971)
Our progress towards Self-
reliance with regard to the frigate
does not end here. In our eagerness
to improve the efficiency of the frigate,
the navy has asked for the
replacement of the British fire control
system by a Dutch one. The Dutch
designer had to be called. The navy
now wants to replace the British
(Vickers) gun with the Italian Bofar.
16
This will mean calling an Italian
designer.
As we are progressing towards
greater collaboration with every
available foreign technology and thus
becoming more and more dependent
on them, it is as clear as daylight that,
“China’s record has been even more
impressive (than that of Israel)
although the Russian design, which it
has vastly improved, was abruptly
withdrawn along with Soviet experts
in 1959”. (‘Times of India’, October
14th, 1971)
Dependence of Bharat Electronics
on foreign knowhow is an excellent
example of our continuing dependence
on foreign collaboration and ever-
continuing hegemony of the foreign
collaborator over our industry. Bharat
Electronics is one of our oldest public
sector undertakings, which is
producing quite a number of many
types of sophisticated radar sets for
defense, walkie-talkies for the police,
fish-finders, and tape-recorders,
apart from a wide range of components
for the entertainment industry. ‘Times
of India’ in an editorial on December
18, 1971, comments on the growing
dependence of this country not only
on foreign knowhow but also its
growing dependence on imports. “But
most of its output is still based on
foreign knowhow though it has been
in business for nearly two decades.
It has not only signed 40 long-term
agreements with as many as 19
foreign collaborators but also
extended many of them when they
expired. What is worse, the import
content of the equipment
manufactured by it, instead of decline
has increased from 30 per cent in
1966-67 to more than 35 per cent.
The cost of many items produced by
Bharat Electronics, compared to their
landed cost of the imported
counterparts, is high and a large part
of the undertaking’s capacity is under-
utilized”. In all probability, the cost of
the items produced by BEL is high
because the components imported by
the collaborators for this industry is
priced higher than the average price
in the international market, which is
generally the practice of all
collaborators in our country who
import raw materials and components
for the established industries at
extremely heavy prices.
Indian Oxygen, which is in the
private sector, is a subsidiary of British
Oxygen of UK which is said to be
under the control of Morgans of USA.
Indian Oxygen is headed by an
Englishman in India. It produces
extremely important strategic defence
materials such as high flying gases
used by our air-crafts, medical gases,
explosives, special electrodes, etc.
The entire air defence of our
country is very much dependent on
the supplies from this industry. The
high-flying gases and medical gases
used by Gnats, Jets, and MIGs, are
supplied from various factories of this
company which are located in
Calcutta, Asansol, Gauhati, Delhi,
Kanpur, Bombay and Madras. The
explosive known as loxite is produced
at Ranchi and argon gas at Asansol.
The equipment and spares and
specical electrodes required for
defence are supplied from Calcutta.
Ports in India depend on the supply
of marine gas from this company.
Light houses will cease to operate if
supplies are not made in time.
The work of the naval dock-yards
and ordnance factories, railway
workshops, aerodromes, etc., will be
affected if their supplies of gas are
sabotaged by Indian Oxygen.
Thus one of the vital production
schedules for our defence is left
entirely in the hands of an
international monopoly house which
is not only connected with the United
Kingdom but is ultimately controlled
by one of the most famous financial
tycoons, the Morgans of America; and
yet, to deceive the people, the
Government of late begun to talk in
terms of self-sufficiency in defence
production and self-reliance of our
defence industries.
When such slavish betrayals of
the nation’s interest by so-called patriots
are seen, heard, or experienced, one
Class Struggle
will think highly of what is called
‘treason against the Government’.
Let us now Conclude —
(1) The main purpose of the public
sector investment is to encourage and
help the growth of the private sector.
For example, production of steel in
the public sector has helped the
upsurge in the engineering industry,
dominated by foreign private capital;
machine tool production has helped
the private sector to grow.
(2) The public sector has helped to
mobilize scarce financial resource to
be used by foreign monopolies for
their growth through what are known
as joint sector ventures such as the
oil refineries in Cochin, Madras, and
Haldia, and in the fertilizer industry
as in the units at Madras and Kanpur.
(3) Production in the State sector,
siphoned off into private channels for
marketing has helped private capital
to reap super-profits such as in drugs
manufactured in Indian Drugs &
Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
(4) The main purpose of government
policies in the field of banking has
been to promote private enterprise
through the nationalized banks. The
system of financial institutions (IDBI,
ICICI, UTI, and so on), instituted after
1948, is mainly to provide capital for
investment in the private sector.
(5) As Gunnar Myrdal says in his
“Asian Drama”, “In weighing the
reasons for and against public
participation in the industrialization of
India, it should be stressed that the
interest of private business does not
normally conflict with expansion of the
public sector in big industry.
Government investment is meant to be
concentrated in heavy industries
where little private initiative is
forthcoming. To the extent that, these
investments create external economies
or provide goods, which would
otherwise be scarce owing to the
strained foreign exchange situation,
there should be on the contrary a
harmony of interests. Much
construction will also be done by
private contractors and the purchase
of various supplies will increase
August - 2022
demand in private industry. More
important, investment and pricing
policies pursued by public enterprises
are usually such that, by holding down
prices, they swell the profits of the
private sector. Thus, when put into
practice, the vaguely socialist notice
that public enterprises must render
services at a low price, in fact, boosts
considerably, the returns on private
capital. Instead of being used to
supplement government revenue and
help to mop up purchasing power, the
public sector functions to inflate private
profit”. (Page - 819)
(6) The management of public sector
units, as of the Madras and Cochin
oil refineries or Madras Fertilisers,
has been handed over to private
management - a demand the World
Bank has been making on India
consistently for several years. Thus
the public sector, which ought to have
played the role of curbing the profit
greed of Indian and foreign financial
sharks, is to the contrary becoming a
happy hunting ground for super-
profits for the foreign monopolies
which have been entered the
management of the public sector
concerns. They have got control over
quite a few industrial and financial
corporations - through empty
participation and loan capital.
Penetration of huge foreign monopoly
capital is growing uninterruptedly, not
only in the private sector but also in
the public sector. Thus the public
sector in India has practically no anti-
imperialist or anti-monopoly progressive
character, it has become a weapon
in the hands of foreign monopoly and
Indian big business - a combination
of foreign monopoly capital and
bureaucratic capital in the main.
In India, the State power is
ultimately in the hands of the comprador
bourgeoisie in alliance with the
landlords. This class, by its very nature,
cannot follow independent capitalist
development. This class cannot afford
to alienate itself from the landed vested
interests and foreign finance.
In such circumstances, the public
sector, instead of being helpful for the
growth of independent industrial
development, has become mainly an
instrument in the hands of domestic
and foreign monopoly capital. (‘INDIA
MORTGAGED’, Page - 333 to 356)
After going through such a
detailed description and analysis of
India’s socio-economic and political
activities during the period from 1947
to 1971, as given in Com. T. Nagi
Reddy’s marvelous book ‘INDIA
MORTGAGED’, there cannot remain
any doubt in the minds of anyone that
the Government of India, which is
none other than the representing
authority of the big bourgeoisie and
big landlord classes of our country,
has constructed the basic economic
structure of India in such a way that,
the country, to maintain its financial
balance, will always be bound to keep
on increasing its foreign loan year
after year, and the phenomenal speed
with which it is growing, India is going
to get enmeshed more and more
tightly into the stiff net of imperialist
finance capital. This objective reality
is quite clearly evident from the fact
that, according to RBI’s bulletin,
India’s overall budgetary deficit
covered by external assistance rose
from 9.2% in the First Plan to 30% in
the Second Plan to 49.2% in the Third
Plan, and which further shot up to
52.7% in 1955-56. Due to this
financial compulsion of the Indian
Government towards dependence on
loan capital to cover up its budgetary
deficit, the amount of foreign loan
received during the First Plan @ Rs.
201.7 crores, rose to a gigantic figure
of Rs. 39.88 lakh crores by the end
of March 2019. All these compulsions
of our over-dependence on imperialist
finance capital is nothing but a fall out
of the imbalance of financial
mechanism created by our big
bourgeoisie big landlord Government
within a very short period of receiving
the state power from the British
Government, intending to create such
a social-economic system, so that,
continuous and prolonged exploitation
of the toiling masses of our country
can be made effective forever, and
17
because of such economic adjustments,
our big bourgeoisie and big-landlord
classes, in the one hand are
continuously getting enriched and
accumulating enormous wealth all
along and on the other hand, their
masters, the imperialist powers are
earning super profits from their
investments in a backward and
underdeveloped country like ours. And
as an effect, the misery of the majority
of our people has become a certain
reality. This opposite state of affairs
of our big bourgeoisie and the general
masses of our country has perfectly
reflected in the various social survey
reports of the United Nations as well
as the World Bank. A detailed study
of these survey reports reveals the
following facts in short :
A) According to Harun Rich List
2018, China has the highest number
of Billionaires (819 persons), the
second-highest number of Billionaires
are in America (517 persons) and
India has the third-highest number of
Billionaire (571 persons). (One billion
= 1000 crores).
B) In the table of Harun Rich List
2018, among the 2157 companies in
68 countries in the world, there are a
total of 2694 Billionaires, whose total
assets having been increased by
31%, reached to 10.5 trillion dollars
(one trillion = one lakh crores), which
is 13.2% of the Global GDP.
C) In India, 57 Capitalists are having
total assets which are equal to that of
the sum of the assets of 70% Indian
people, i.e. about 90 Crores people.
D) According to a survey report of
the United Nations Development
Programme in India, the number of
people belonging to below poverty line
in 2005-06 was only 54.7%. This figure
seems to be very much under
estimated because according to
unauthorized sources, India’s BPL
population cannot be less than 70%,
which is evident in the poor standard
of leaving of the village and urban
toiling masses.
Thus, we have seen, how the big
bourgeoisie big landlord Government
of our country has gradually got
18
Karnataka Farmers Agitation
to Write-off Debts
Karnataka Gramin Bank has
trapped farmers in huge debts out of
their petty loans by charging them
with exorbitant fines over and above
its killer compound interests. It is
trying to auction their farm lands and
is refusing to give new loans. Farmers,
being made vulnerable and insecure
felt insulted and are committing
suicides. Under these circumstances,
AIKMKS affiliated Karnataka Rajya
Rythu Sangha is carrying out
agitations to stand with the farmers
and fight these unjust practises.
However, government and bank
officials were reluctant to act, so the
movement was intensified. An
indefinite fast was launched on June
27 at the Karnataka Gramin Bank
headquarters in Bellary after
campaigning in many villages and
deciding that each village would
participate in the dharna for one day.
Farmers from 28 villages carried out
dharnas seriously for 28 days. Many
more villages showed a eagerness to
participate. The participation of
farmers from various districts has also
increased day by day. In this situation,
the revenue administration, police and
enmeshed tightly into the net of
finance capital, despite telling a lot
about self-reliance and all. Now, the
question is, because of this economic
over-dependence on imperialist
finance capital, has it reached the
verge of losing its independence? It
is simply not possible to guess. But
certainly, it can be said that it has
reached an extreme position in this
regard. Because for some time now,
we have noticed that, the Government
has tilted towards ‘neo-liberal policies’,
it intended to sell off the ‘Navratna
Industries’, decided to de-centralizing
the Coal Sector, allowed 100% foreign
investment in Defence Sector,
adopted an anti-farmer and anti-
people Bill with regards to Agricultural
production, so as to allow the
bank officials requested farmers a
month’s time to hold talks with their
bank board and RBI officials and come
up with a conducive solution. Farmers
held discussions among themselves
and temporarily called-off the indefinite
dharna after holding a large meeting
of 300 people.
Farmers suffered severe losses to
their crops and incurred heavy financial
losses and are demanding complete
loan waiver or a one-time settlement
of 10 percent of the amount. The
Karnataka Rajya Rythu Sangha
(KRRS) has declared that the fight will
continue until this demand is accepted.
R.Madhava Reddy, President of KRRS,
said that they will wait till October as
requested by the bank officials and if
the issues are not resolved, they will
continue their agitations again.
As part of this agitation, thousands
of pamphlets were distributed in 100
villages over a month prior to the
dharnas. This program was attended
by union leaders and hundreds of
farmers every day. Lawyers, doctors
and various organisations participated
one day each in support of this
farmer’s movement. ™
indigenous big bourgeoisie as well as
imperialist agencies to penetrate into
our Agriculture sector. Can it all
happen and take place without the
dictations of the Imperialist forces?
Does it not indicate the complete
subjugation of our Government to the
Imperialist powers? Therefore, it can
be firmly said that the political
independence of our country is under
extreme threat.
Thus, feature-4 for our country
being of Semi-Colonial characteristics
is also beyond any doubt.
And finally, our country having
confirming all the four features of being
of a Semi-Colonial characteristic, as
mentioned earlier, it can be firmly said
that India is a Semi-Colonial country.
™
Class Struggle
 Theory and Practical Problems Concerning Casteism
Revolutionary Cultural Movement -Tamilnadu
Casteism has taken deep roots
and spread everywhere in Tamil Nadu.
It prevails as a social phenomena
which has not been faced by
communist revolutionaries in other
countries. Some detailed research
has been done on the growth and
development of caste. However, there
are some problems in arriving at final
and decisive conclusions. In this
approach-paper, our views on the
theory and practical problems
concerning casteism have been
compiled.
(1) Caste is based on birth; it
adopts endogamy; one profession is
chosen or assigned on the basis of
one’s own caste not on the basis of
one’s likings or aptitudes; it enforces
a particular system of food habits; it
creates various stratifications in the
social structure; it controls an
individual’s ethics; it does not allow
everyone to equally enjoy the
common comforts, meant for the
people.
(2) Does the caste system
belong to the base, or to the
superstructure of society? Caste is
the form of division of labour; it is the
outward expression of production
relations. In this sense, it belongs to
the base. At the same time, when it
emphasizes the marriage system,
food habits, ethics and preservation
of social stratification, it exists as a
part of ideology. In this sense, it
seems to be part of the super-
structure. Hence, caste should be
seen as interacting between the base
and superstructure of society.
(3) In our Tamil society, the
relation between caste and class is
yet another problem. Classes arose
as soon as the division of labour and
surplus production had emerged.
Hence, class is prior to caste.
However, after the caste system
August - 2022
becomes the form of division of labour
and part of the philosophy of life,
caste itself seems to be the
expression of class differentiation.
Particularly during the feudal age, it
existed as part of the class system.
That is, one caste was like one class.
However, when the feudal features get
disintegrated giving way to the
emergence of capitalist features, and
when one’s profession is chosen
based on aptitude and ability, the
essential elements of caste get
disintegrated. Within a caste, many
classes emerge. Here, the economic
aspect of caste begins to get
disintegrated. Though some changes
in the cultural aspects such as food
habits, beliefs and practices gradually
take place there is no change in the
cultural aspects such as the
preservation of social stratification,
prevention of enjoying common
comforts by everyone; here, the
ideological influence dominates.
(4) Let us consider the relation
between class struggle and casteism.
During the feudal age when class was
another form of caste, caste struggles
were the expression of some class
struggles. However, in the semi-feudal
structure, the situation is somewhat
complex even though there is change
in the economic sphere, in ideological
domination caste still plays a crucial
role. But the changes taking place in
the economic sphere are basic. The
theory propounded by the D.K. and
Ambedkar movement that only after
the abolition of castes, class struggle
could be carried out, treats class and
caste as separate. The situation of
conflict among the antagonistic
classes within a caste, and the
situation of conflict between the lower
castes consisting of the majority of
basic classes, and the ruling classes
belonging to upper castes, are
inevitable.
(5) The origin and development
of caste had links with simple
reproduction. It served the self-
sufficient mode of production of the
feudal age. However, during the
emergence of capitalism, it becomes
shakened, and the expanded
reproduction begins to spread. In
such a situation the economic basis
of caste gets disintegrated. But, the
cultural influence of caste remains as
a force. Even the places where
capitalist agricultural production
spreads, the cultural aspect of caste
is being utilised to rob surplus value.
In this sense, caste exists as a form
of non-economic coercion.
(6) Now let us explore the relation
between religion and caste. Though
religion is based on birth, there are
democratic rights to adopt any religion
as one likes. Religious conversion has
been existing since the age of
Thirunavukkarasar. But, caste
conversion has never been in
existence. Saiva-Vaishnava religions
have given place to the caste system
and discrimination. They have given
place to caste inequality. However, at
some stages of history when the
religions faced crises, a semblance
of caste equality was also maintained.
Only in this sense at one stage did
the Saiva Nayanars belonging to
various castes come to the forefront.
Ramanujachar preached the Vedas to
all people and made them Brahmins.
Today, in Ayyappa worship,
Adiparasakti worship, etc. democracy
and equality are being given to the
various castes. But these are all
temporary compromises arising
during critical periods. Even in this
situation, there is no complete
equality; they are capable of softening
the crisis in the Hindu religious world.
19
Some Hindu religious organizations
such as the RSS have imposed a
condition on their members not to
become members of any caste
organization. However, they have not
rejected caste discrimination.
(7) The role of caste is more
dominant in the political and social
spheres. In the regions where
capitalism has not developed, the
economic influence of caste remains
intact. Where capitalism has
developed (may be villages or towns)
the ideological influence of caste
continues to be powerful. The political
power of the landlords is more
tightened where feudalism still
continues to exist. Villages seem to
be the vote banks of some
parliamentary parties. No
Parliamentary party chooses its
candidates without considering the
majority caste of the concerned
constituency. Even where there is a
victory wave for a particular political
party, the above factor is taken into
account without fail. The caste
organizations which have emerged
independently (Vanniyar Sangam,
Nadar Sangam, etc.) have finally
joined some political parties. In every
region the organizations consisting of
the majority caste continue to be the
influential parliamentary party there.
Finally, these caste organizations give
the right of political power to the upper
classes of their respective castes to
rule over their lower classes.
(8) The caste system is a part of
the pre-capitalist form of production.
But, when a nationality emerges as a
nation, it develops itself with the help
of the capitalist mode of production;
So, the caste discrimination existing
within the nationality becomes an
obstacle to the development of that
nationality during the capitalist phase.
Hence, the movements which aim at
expediting the development of their
nationalities have to oppose caste
organizations. These two are mutually
interrelated. The earlier victories of
Periyar show this. When the forces
leading the nationality movement
20
made compromises with castes
ideologically, and also in practice with
caste organizations, they failed. The
anti-caste struggles of the movements
which had, accepted casteism as
mere Brahmanism, having in mind
only the cultural influence of caste,
finally shrank to mere anti-Brahmin
and pro non-Brahmin upper caste
struggles. Afterwards, the principle of
representation to all the forces in the
nationality disappeared.
(9) Demands for job reservation
for the educated and reservation in
education are the demands of caste
organizations. The difference in the
nature of the above demands during
the 1920s and today should be clearly
seen. Job Reservation is always a
fake concession given by the ruling
classes to recruit their administrative
colleagues from among their castes.
During the 1920’s the education for
jobs was urban-oriented. But, today,
education has also become village
oriented; lower class people also do
have it. Now-a-days the nature of this
demand has changed. It is a fact that
Job Reservation is a fake concession
given by the ruling classes; it is also
a fact that it has become an immediate
demand of the lower castes. However,
they should be seen as the by product
of the struggles waged by the lower
caste people. The demand of Job
Reservations and the related struggles
are being utilized to preserve caste
organizations. In the process of
raising class consciousness among
the basic working classes belonging
to these caste organizations, these
struggles should be developed as
class struggles.
(10) There are three approaches
to casteism :
(a) Approach of the Ruling Class :
The caste system paves the way for
their exploitation. They utilize, in the
guise of job reservation, the talented
youths among the Scheduled and
Backward castes to serve them. They
never demand the abolition of caste.
They consolidate their social base by
preserving the caste system.
(b) Approach of the Middle Classes
: These classes also never demand
the abolition of caste. They want that
caste discrimination should be given
up and equality should be brought
forth. The petti-bourgeoisie belonging
to the middle strata in some castes
and to the upper classes of lower
castes think that caste discrimination
can disappear if they improve their
respective castes. They liberally think
that only through some reforms like
job reservation, seat reservation in
education, etc. can everyone in their
castes rise to a higher level.
(c) Approach of the Proletariat :
The proletariat stands for the abolition
of castes. It sees caste oppression
as a part of total oppression.
From a proletarian standpoint one
can put forward two solutions to
abolish castes :
(a) Long-Term Solution : Abolition
of castes is possible only when the
economic and cultural elements of
caste are destroyed. The People’s
Democratic Revolution will see the
seizure of political power and the
economic basis will be changed. But,
even then, the ideological dominance
of caste will be there. If a cultural
revolution which can establish equality
among people by abolishing caste is
not carried out, the fruits of revolution
cannot sustain. Only through this long
term struggle, can the cultural
dominance of caste be destroyed.
(b) Immediate Programme : When
we say that only through the People’s
Democratic Revolution, can caste be
abolished, we should also support the
demands for the abolition of
untouchability, for educational
reservation and job reservation.
Though they are not permanent
solutions, they may be useful to
mobilize the common people
concerned with these problems to
participate in this just struggle. So,
while we oppose, reformism, we
should mobilize people by putting
forward their immediate social,
economic and political demands.
™
Class Struggle
An Observation :
23rd Congress of CPI(M) in Kannanur, Kerala
It is only a Ritual of the Party, its Leadership and the Cadre have not
Sincerely and Honestly Reviewed the Causes of Decline of the Party
The 23rd All India Congress of
CPI(M) is concluded at Kannanur of
Kerala. According to Prakash Karat
the polit-bureau member of CPI(M),
this conference has concentrated
only on one aspect. That is as to how
to develop its strength politically and
organizationally. That it had worked
out long term strategies to realize that
goal of revitalizing the party that has
reached to one of its lowest ebbs with
an erosion of its mass base in West
Bengal and Tripura adding to its rout
else-where. In its bid to rebuild and
strengthen itself nationally, the
delegates of the 23rd Congress have
discussed the draft political resolution
prepared by the Central Committee.
This exercise is praised to be the
particularity (specialty) of CPI(M)
itself in maintaining the internal
democracy in the party.
The draft political resolution
prepared by its CC states that
“.....there has been a further erosion
of our party’s independent strength
and our political intervention capacity
(2.147). It narrates that in West
Bengal the party had to face severe
repression through fascist attacks. It
informs that between 2011 and 2021,
it had lost 229 comrades and that
during this period more than 1,02,000
of the party members and
sympathizers are driven away from
their homes. More than 1,30,000 of
the members and sympathizers are
subjected to false cases (2.154) and
that in Tripura the party has been at
the receiving end of fascist attacks.
22 party members have lost their lives
47 of the party offices across the state
were attacked and vandalized.
Hundreds of homes of the members
and sympathizers including books and
August - 2022
furniture were destroyed. Many
comrades were injured” (2.156).
The draft resolution also stated
that “since the 16th Party Congress
we have been noting the need to
strengthen the party’s independent
strength and influence (2.164) and
while chalking out future direction the
main concern should be how to
strengthen independent role and
influence of the party” (2.165).
But no where either in the draft
resolutions or else where, the causes
or reasons for loosing the party’s
strength or influence is explained. No
where it is explained as to why the
party cadre in West Bengal and Tripura
were attacked, harassed, intimidated
and repressed by fascist forces’. It
is unknown whether these fascist
attacks etc had occurred due to some
other reason like election disputes or
other electoral machinations and
violence practiced by CPI(M). It is
surprising that has the CPI(M) held
state governmental power for decades
in West Bengal and Tripura had not
made arrangements for the defence
of its cadre and party organization in
the time of adversity. There is no
indication that the party its leadership
and cadre have sincerely and
honestly reviewed the causes of party
decline based on self criticism basing
on Marxist-Leninist orientation and
class perspective.
But it is apparent from the draft
resolutions that the assessment of the
party strength was done basing on the
election results during the period
since 22nd party congress and that
the party felt imperative that this
decline must be arrested and reversed
(2.167).
However the decline of the
strength of CPI(M) party could not
have caused because of its failure in
winning elections, but it out since it
failed to be a working class party by
abandoning the path of people’s
democratic revolution and failed to
build mass movements and
organization to over-throw the existing
semi-feudal and semi-colonial system
and the state, for the success of
revolution.
But the leadership of CPI(M)
adamantly refuses to draw this lesson
and correct their practice under the
guidance of Marxist-Leninist ideology
and building up of party on those lines
and perspective. They merely wish to
show themselves and the party as
communist and at the same time
pursue the part of parliamentary
elections to attain governmental power
and to impress people that such a
government itself is the people’s
democratic state.
This generation of CPI(M) is more
into a legal and constitutional party,
pursuing parliamentary path as its sole
purpose and goal is neither
unexpected not unforetold.
In 1964, during 7th Congress in
Kolkata the struggling section of CPI
formed a separate party which was
later named the CPI(M) to satisfy
Election Commission regulations
in1967.
From the beginning it took the
stand of equidistance in the
international ideological struggle, The
Great Debate, between Marxism and
revisionism.
As corollary, in the Programme,
there was equivocation on the path
of revolution between armed struggle
and peaceful transition.
“We (CPI(M)) failed because we
have been nursing illusions that
parliamentary democracy would
21
continue inspite of its negation in
West Bengal, in rest of India for a
considerably long period that our
party could function legally as before.”
“Our practice is based on deep-
rooted parliamentary legalistic
illusions and possibilities of peaceful
development of our party and
movement for a long period to come.
We are unable to shake off the
revisionist habits, thinking and the
mode of functioning in all mass fronts
and in party building.”
“First and foremost reason (for this
stable of sad affairs) is that even our
leading cadre have not yet grasped
the implications of our party being a
party of the proletariat attempting to
achieve people’s democratic
revolution”.
“Our present day practice and
functioning is based on constitutional
illusions and is essentially oriented to
elections from panchayat to
parliament and taking up economic
struggles without politicizing the
masses.” (emphasis is ours).
With such a scathing criticism
P.Sundarayya resigned for the
leadership post of CPI(M) in 1975
itself.
The observations made by
P.Sundarayya with regards to the
party organization of CPI(M) and its
functioning proved to be correct and
accurate. During the course of time
CPI(M) became a party of
constitutionalism exclusively attempting
to achieve governmental power
through the parliament and assembly
elections. Achieving governmental
power through parliamentary path
became its main stay.
The talk of CPI(M) about ‘peoples
democratic state’, mass and class
struggles and movements is purely
intended to make believe the people
that still it is a communist and a
revolutionary party and particularly to
keep the people belonging to middle-
classes in such an illusion.
The ‘updated’ party programme -
2020 of CPI(M) hails the virtues of
the constitution of Indian Republic
which was adopted in 1950 (actually
22
prepared by the imperialists in 1935
itself). Particularly the ‘directive
principles’ of the constitution. (3.27).
It recognizes the universal voting
system, parliament, state assemblies
as useful instruments to the people in
their struggles to protect democracy
and their rights. It describes the
present day parliamentary system, to
be a form of bourgeoisie rule, but as
an alternate form for the progress of
people. (5.22). It insists that protecting
parliamentary and democratic
institutions from the attacks of
authoritarianism and using them
skillfully for the interests of people is
of utmost importance (5.23 emphasis
is ours). It also states that “...it is
becoming clear that building of
socialism and communism cannot be
achieved under the leadership of the
big bourgeoisie and the present day
bourgeoisie and landlord state and
government. (6.2 emphasis is ours)
implying that the state and government
under the leadership will bring about
socialism and communism. It affirms
that “The CPI(M) will endeavour to
achieve the arrangement of people’s
democratic system and socialist
transformation through peaceful
means. Working-class and its allies
will strive to overcome the resistance
of reactionary forces and achieve this
transformation through peaceful
means (7.18 emphasis is ours). The
‘updated’ party programme concludes
that “in order to change the composition
of the strength of class forces and to
build people’s democratic front, CPI
(M) will take forward the task of
mobilizing” (8.9).
Thus the ‘updated’ party
programme has clearly and
categorically defined its path and goal
to be parliamentary leading to attain
governmental power. Despite high talk
about people’s democratic revolution,
socialism, communism, mass and
class movements, the updated
programme is nothing but a
programme of a constitutional petty
bourgeoisie parliamentary party; with
communistic pretentions. Such has
been the ideological bankruptcy of
CPI(M) - a glaring example of the neo-
revisionism of 21st century variety.
That is why the CPI(M) in its 23rd
Congress adopted the resolutions to
the effect “... to come together with
over insisting that” it is the ‘patriotic
duty’ of these forces. It adopted the
resolution “to take up the major task
of ensuring the main poll narrative
shifts from communally polarizing on
to the real issues of livelihood and
social issues during the elections” as
explained by Sitaram Yechuri, the re-
elected general secretary of CPI(M).
With the exclusive intersects of
electoral success only the CPI(M)
concentrated in revitalizing and
strengthening the party besides
resolving to build a so-called front of
Left and secular democratic forces.
The sole purpose and goal is the
winning of elections and entering into
governmental power. When it came
to the question of joining hand with
Congress Party in elections, CPI(M)
Congress conveniently made the
opportunistic decision of so-called
state wide understanding with
involving other parties. Thus it has
satisfied the West Bengal line of
joining hands with Congress Party in
state elections to fight with Trinamul
Congress at the same time satisfying
the Kerala party that had to contest
and fight with Congress Party in
elections.
Now CPI(M) has taken the LDF
government as a model for the party
and decided to take it to the rest of
the country. But then, the party
membership in Kerala is largely of
middle class, and the LDF government
is working mostly for the aspirations
of the middle class than for the
commitments to working class and
toiling masses. While CPI(M) is
posing as the champion of anti-
privatization in the country, the ‘New
Kerala’ document of Kerala Party calls
for private investment in health and
education. While CPI(M) in Maharashtra
is fighting against bullet train project,
in Kerala it is obstinately pushing the
semi-high speed rail project (silver
line project). The 23rd Congress J
Class Struggle
A View Point :
1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345
1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345
1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345
1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345
1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345
An Open Call to Communist Revolutionaries
1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345
1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345
1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345
1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345
1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345

This open letter of Comrade Arup Baisya is about the need for the unity of Communist
revolutionaries. In this letter he expressed his views, and approach about unity. We have no
agreement with his views, approach and concept. Any how we decided to present Comrade Arup
Baisya’s viewpoint about unity of communist revolutionaries for discussion. - Editor

The fundamental premise for unity
of communist revolutionaries is
definitely Marxism. Marxism is a guide
to action. So it is the action that guides
the path to unity of communist
revolutionaries. The communists are
not the historians who strive to know
what and how such and such things
appeared in the past, but discover the
past in its present to formulate an
action for the future. Communists dwell
on the present to know and influence
the future trajectory of society through
their action. So it is the action that
guides the future. The question of unity
is such an action that gives rise to a
guide for new action. Why unity is to
be achieved is more important than
how it should be achieved.
Communists are not moral foot-
soldiers; they are the actors, the role
of which is determined by the social
conflict. They have a vision for the
future and a mental theory to act
radically. This determined action is
dialectically intertwined with
multifaceted indeterminations. Can the
social conflict within a social relation
of production be fully determined? If
it is not, does it mean that communist
revolutionaries should wait for their
programme to be experimentally
proven and vindicated by the society
J of CPI(M) had skillfully
abided to discuss these contradictions.
Such has been the policy double
standard of CPI(M). All its rhetoric of
sharpening class and mass struggles
and strengthening the party is
exclusively for the purpose of electoral
gains to attain the governmental power
in some states and to win some
parliament seats. That is the inner
meaning of its efforts to revitalizing
its strength to “intervene effectively”.
August - 2022
in their actions? The maximalist stand
of doing nothing and waiting for the
opportune moment for vindication of
programmatic line, and minimalist
approach of emphasizing on only
doing something are both counter-
productive and end in status-quo its
quagmire.
Gramsci raised the “Southern
Question” in Italy and his proposition
was that Italian programme for radical
change, and united front and
communist unity against fascism
cannot be resolved without addressing
the “Southern Question”. He was right
in its essence, but he visualized it
within the framework of centre-
periphery relation, the relation
between developed capitalist region
and backward feudal region.
Communist revolutionaries in India
conceptualized the idea of revolution
mostly from Chinese experience of
backward feudal region and this
legacy is still continuing. In Indian
context, we cannot delineate the issue
as western or northern question. The
Russian experience had not helped
us much in understanding the Indian
social contour in the backdrop of a
global capitalism as a system. The
Russian revolution took place in a
different global context and internal
To attain this goal CPI(M) abided to
defend the constitution, constitutional
institutions, so-called secularism and
federalism etc, making its holy task.
There is no Marxism-Leninism,
communism, socialism not even
people’s democratic revolution in this
ritual exercise of 23rd Congress of
CPI(M) and one need not have any
illusions about the communist or
revolutionary character of CPI(M)!
- By Kannan
social dynamics of developed
capitalist region with proletarian
presence and region of peasant
commune with Russian specificities
and largely undisturbed by capital
penetration. It is true that the legacy
emanated from Naxalbari peasant
uprising and carried forward by the
communist revolutionaries in India
could not settle the question of later
development of intermingling and
overlapping social territorial spaces in
its entirety within a global capitalist
system. The great Indian mode of
production debate in the 1970s could
not also settle the question in either
side of the two camps. The mode of
production debate is never-ending
and it cannot be settled through
experiences and studies because
experiences are varied and studies
are always incomplete. But all
practicsing Marxists can realize from
their practice that there are certain
changes in social relations of
production. In addition to the land
reform in ownership pattern, the co-
operation of peasantry in production
and struggle against corporate
domination has been emerging as
important agenda as big land-holding
class is numerically not significant in
proportion to small peasant
Class Struggle
32-13-26/1, M.R.Puram,
Vijayawada, pin-520 010.
Contribution :
Single Copy - Rs. 15/-
Yearly - Rs. 150/-
23
community. If this question of
characterization of Indian society
cannot be settled through debate and
discussion, how can this be the basis
for the unity of communist
revolutionaries? One who argues that
the unity is fragile without settling this
debate actually puts the question of
revolutionary seizure of power in
backburner and cannot be considered
as revolutionary. The revolutionary
party formulates a programme for
revolution in a given social condition,
but the implementation of programme
itself is always in a flux as the given
situation is always in a flux and in
constant motion. The theory and
practice is a dialectical relation, and
it is very difficult to justify one’s praxis
in consonance with theoretical
formulations in a mechanistic format.
If there is always a mismatch between
the theory and practice, why the
question of unity should not be
addressed from practical situation?
Before dwelling briefly on what
practical situation actually means, I
would like to mention that
revolutionary praxis based on Marxism
as a guide to action is not like natural
science where we can wait decades
after decades for laboratory
experiments to validate the once
formulated theory for being
compatible with observations or wait
for a moment of paradigm shift when
the large number of observations
becomes incompatible with the theory.
In Marxian sense, we have an agenda
for revolution or seizure of power
which is not determined by theory and
praxis alone, but by the society in
change and in motion. This places us
in a position where concrete analysis
of concrete situation, unlike natural
science, becomes a continuous
process for formulating the concrete
task. The task of achieving the
revolutionary unity is dictated by such
concrete analysis of concrete
situation, otherwise apparently moral
standpoint of achieving programmatic
unity is actually a reformist
standpoint. I designate this as a
practical question.
24
What Lenin said about revolution crisis and by the upper classes
in ‘State and Revolution’ is true, themselves into independent historical
though in its entirety, the content of action”. Any keen social observer can
the book should not be considered as observe the deepening restlessness
Gospel and Lenin himself changed his hitherto absent within the north Indian
position at a later stage on various society which has always been the
issues. Lenin said, “Revolution can pivot of hegemonic control of Indian
never be forecast; it cannot be system by the Indian ruling classes.
foretold, it comes of itself. Revolution Is not the policy shift of Indian
is brewing and is bound to flare up”. Government towards aggressive pan-
He further said, “To the Marxist it is Indian statist drive of evacuating and
indisputable that a revolution is displacing the people from prime land
impossible without a revolutionary and installations to support both the
situation; furthermore, it is not every corporate market forces with property
revolutionary situation that leads to and cheap labour and simultaneously
revolution.” promoting rentier neo-feudalist class
It won’t be wrong if I dogmatically are marked by the crisis situation and
adhere to Lenin’s definition of upper class action?
revolutionary situation. Lenin As Gramsci underlined the
emphasized three criteria for importance of “Southern Question” in
assessment of revolutionary situation. Italy, the great legacy of Naxalbari
Let us examine the criteria one by one. peasant uprising should not be a
One, “when it is impossible for the barrier for the communist
ruling classes to maintain their rule revolutionaries to take stock of the
without any change, when there is a pan- Indian situation as well as the
crisis, in one form or another, among changes in northern heartland of
the upper classes, a crisis in the policy
Indian ruling system. The emphasis
of the ruling class, leading to a fissure
on programmatic unity evades the real
through which the discontent and
question of concrete analysis of
indignation of the classes burst forth”.
concrete situation and becomes a
Almost all the revolutionary formations
reformist standpoint at its core. In the
agree that Indian ruling class is
backdrop of deepening systemic
treading the path to change the
crisis and people’s rising anger, the
character of the Indian state to
revolutionaries should and must rise
fascism or authoritarianism. What
above all small or big party
else does it mean if it is not the
sectarianism and narrow vision from
indication that both upper and lower
the experience gathered from a limited
classes are unable to rule and willing
to be ruled in old way. Can we not space, and take genuine, sincere and
see the fissures emerging within the visible effort for unity which will give
ruling dispensation? a boost to the morale of workers-
Two, “when the suffering and want peasants and section of disillusioned
of the oppressed classes have grown middle class. ™
more acute than usual”. Is there
anyone in Communist camp who We request financial
denies this fact? The answer is in contributions for “Class Struggle”
the negative. bulletin.
Three, “when, as a
consequence of the above causes A/c Holder : SUNKARA SESHAMMA
there is a considerable increase A/c Number: 50100399862852
in the activity of the masses, when IFSC : HDFC0004188
uncomplainingly allow themselves
to be robbed in “peace time”, but Branch : MADHURAWADA
in turbulent times, are drawn both Account Type : SAVING
by all the circumstances of the
Class Struggle
World :
Hands off to the Communists and the Working Class
Venezuela
In Venezuela for the past few
months there are demonstrations and
protests against the neo liberal policies
and criminalisation of trade unions by
the PSUV Government. In the Capital
city of Venezuela, Caracas, protest
call was given by the trade union
platforms. Mainly the protests were
aimed at the instructions given by the
National Budget Agency (ONAPRE) of
the Finance Ministry to cut down on
salaries across many public sector
organizations. The workers were
outraged and came to streets to
protest for the repeal of the anti worker
instructions in the ONAPRE.
Public sector pensioners,
teachers, nurses, university workers,
waste management company workers
were some of the strong presence at
the Protest sites. The Govt. in the name
of confronting the US sanctions started
taking all liberal measures to improve
the country’s economy which
included tax breaks, Lifting of Forex
controls and allowing the private
sector participation in the state owned
corporations. These are pro-
imperialist and anti people measures
being taken by the PSUV government.
By implementing the ONAPRE
instructions there would be 40-70%
cuts to the actual wages. The workers
are completely against it as it seriously
affects their day to day life. The health
care workers unions are protesting
that the government is not providing
access to health care for the citizens
and the health staff. Even a number
of private sector unions also joined the
protests which were facing the similar
issues by the introduction of ONEPRE
directives.
On July 21st, a massive protest in
Caracas by the unitary trade union
platform demanding the repeal of the
ONEPRE instructions took place. The
August - 2022
government tried to violate the
democratic rights of the workers to
protest by threatening and physically
attacking several workers and the
comrades of the CC of Communist
party of Venezuela PCV by the state
police. After the protest when the PCV
comrades were returning many
comrades were attacked brutally
outside their party office and Com.
Angel Castillo, coordinator of the
health care workers collective and PCV
member was taken hostage by the
police. She was released the next day
after a mounting pressure and
solidarity from the workers and the
international community.
These acts are aimed for
harassment, intimidation and
repression on the workers and the
Communists. In the name of anti-
imperialism the Govt. is actually
exercising repression on workers and
the people’s movements that are rising
in the country against the pro-
imperialist and anti worker policies of
the Government.
Italy
Italy has many multi-national
companies which are dependent on
logistics like Amazon, Fedex etc.
There are many migrant workers
working under brutal exploitation and
with systemic violation of human
rights. Trade unions have been
organizing protests against the
exploitation and protection of their jobs.
On July 19th, in the city of Piacenza,
Italy, 8 trade union leaders were house
arrested by the order of the Piacenza
prosecutor’s office accusing them of
organising strikes in the logistics
sector which caters to majority of
migrant workers. Many trade unions,
Si cobas, USB along with other unions
who were organizing struggles against
the brutally exploitative conditions in
the sector have come together and
denouncing the house arrests and
demanding the immediate release of
the unionists.
In April the police raided the USB
union office in search of weapons.
This came after the workers protested
against the transport of the war
amputation and arms from Italian ports
and air strips for the imperialist wars.
There is a 350 page indictment by the
police on the trade unionists of Si
cobas and USB trade unions. The
charges are associated with protests
from 2014 to 2021 by the workers
demanding their just rights. The major
attack by the state is against growing
grass root trade union activity which
is a threat to the State and the
Imperialists. Many demonstrations
were organised in many countries in
solidarity to the trade unionists.
Communist parties of other countries
have also extended their solidarity to
the unionists and workers of Italy and
Communist party of Greece (KKE)
has filed a complaint in the European
commission against the criminalisation
of the trade unions in Italy.
CPI(ML) condemns the anti-
people policies of the Venezuela
Government and repression on the
communists and the workers. We
stand in solidarity with the Communist
Party of Venezuela and the working
class of Venezuela who are fighting
against the pro-imperialist and anti
people policies of the Government
which is surrendering the wealth
(mainly Oil) of the country to the
Imperialists. We condemn the attack
on trade unionists and stand in
solidarity with working class of Italy
and progressive platforms
participating strongly in the protests
undeterred by the repression of the
Govt demanding the immediate release
of the unionists and fighting against
the brutal exploitation and for their just
rights. ™
25
 The Struggles of Himachal Pradesh
Apple Orchard Growers
On Wednesday, 20 July 2022,
apple orchard growers in upper
Shimla towns of Lonu, Rohru,
Theog, Rampur, Kotkhai, Narkanda,
Nirmand and Kinnaur etc. staged
a massive protest against the
government. Various growers’
organisations came under the
banner of “Sayukta Kisan Manch”
to hold demonstrations and seek
redressal for their problems. The
leaders said that this time more
farmers have joined the movement
than previously and that the
movement has spread to new
areas. They made the following
demands
i) Withdrawal hike in the GST on
cartons from 12 to 18%.
ii) Subsidize Fertilizers and
packing materials.
iii) Introduce Market Intervention
Scheme (MIS) similar to that in
Kashmir.
iv) Clear dues by HPMC and Himfed.
v) Implement APMC Act strictly.
vi) Stop collecting charges at
Shoghi barrier.
The leaders of Apple Farmers’
Federation of India (AFFI) mainly
comprising of growers across three
states of J&K, Himachal and
Uttarakhand, explained the reasons
that led to this movement in a press
conference held in Delhi on July
26, 2022. The leadership of this
federation, which was formed in
Srinagar in June, came to Delhi to
meet the Union Agriculture Minister
to discuss the solution to the
problems. They informed that as
per last year statistics, out of the
marketable produce of 18MT apple
valued at Rs. 14000 crore, farmers
get only Rs. 4000 crore and the
remaining 10,000 crores is stolen
by middlemen and big corporate
companies. Quality Apples are sold
at Rs. 290 per kg to the consumer
while the producer is receiving only
26
24 rupees per kg, and all this is
happening under the eye of
government. The prices of fertilizers,
pesticides and equipment used for
apple orchards have doubled in
these two years. A bag of potassium
available for 800 rupees has
become 1700 rupees. In this
situation, the farmers are very
worried that the crop yield will fall
this season. Hence farmers are
agitating for the government to
support them. In the press
conference, the federation leaders
told that they will put forward a
charter of demands:
The government should provide
affordable prices, waive off loans,
announce special financial assistance,
restore subsidies, and impose 100
percent excise duty on apples
imported from abroad, support the
formation of producers cooperatives,
provide research results to the
growers, provide complete insurance
facility and bring apple cultivation
under the MGMRGEA scheme.
After meeting the farmers on
28 th July, the Himachal CM has
ordered to constitute a committee
to look into their grievances and
check the ‘exploitation’ of
horticulturalists by traders, private
CA store owners and others at
various levels. He also said that 6%
subsidy would be given instead of
removing the newly added 6% GST
but only on the purchase of cartons
from HPMC. HPMC sells less than
one per cent of the total cartons
sold in a season. So farmers want
this benefit to be extended to all.
TARIMELA NAGIREDDY MEMORIAL TRUST PUBLICATIONS
HISTORICAL AND POLEMICAL DOCUMENTS
OF THE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT IN INDIA
VOL.I 1943-51- RS. 300/-
VOL.II 1963-72- RS. 500/- M.R.Puram, Vijayawada, pin-520 010.
Even though they welcomed the
decision to constitute the committee
they have decided to carry on their
planned huge demonstration on 5th
August 2022 in front of the Secretariat
in Shimla as the committee has one
week time.
Across the country we see
farmers up in arms against the
vicious corporate and comprador
policies of the ruling parties. These
policies deprived farmers the
support price for their produce
discouraging them from doing
cultivation. They are lured with
subsidies initially to take up
horticultural crops as alternative to
water intensive food crops, paddy
and wheat, but they found themselves
ended up producing profits for the
corporates. 5 to 10 percent GST
is levied on many staple food items
including rice and wheat. There is
only one reason why taxes are not
reduced on petrol and GST is also
imposed on rice: to reduce the
domestic production of food items
and fruits and make us a dependent
food importing nation. Governments
are hiding the fact that all these
policies and measures are the
dictates of foreign financial institutions
for providing loans. Understanding
these facts, farmers, workers and
people of different classes whose
living standards are degrading day
by day while exploitation is increasing,
are rising in anger. In the coming
days these struggles will intense
further and lead to a united
formidable force of workers and
peasants. ™
For Details:
T.N.Memorial Trust, 32-13-26/1,
Class Struggle
 Oh! These Kisans!!
- Ra Sh
These kisans are an ungracious lot.
What a bunch of ignorant fools!
We give them concessions.
They say they need rights.
We offer Ambani’s bazaar.
They prefer mandis.
We offer Adani warehouses.
They prefer MSP.
We pass bills without asking.
They pass resolutions that jolt us.
We praise Kisans are good for country.
They troll us in wedding songs.
We say your home is in villages.
They pitch tents in the capital.
We torpedo them with foul water.
They hit back with Gurvani.
We spray communal hatred.
They spout the unity of tractors.
We set up barbed wire barricades.
They throw them in the Jamuna.
We call them Khalistanis.
They call us Hindu fascists.
We let loose barking Kanganas.
They invite her to eat Makki ki roti.
We plan to call Jawans to beat them down.
They say they have a Jawan in each house.
We say your shit is all over the border.
They say best place to shit is your Parliament.
We say Jai Jawan.
They say Jai kisan.
We fight with batons, tear gas, lathi charges.
They fight with gehun, sarson, aloo, pyaaz.
Oh! These kisans, what a hindrance to modernity!
What an uncouth loud mouth crowd,
Such a spanner in the corruption wheel!
(Ra Sh is a poet based in Kerala)
August - 2022
We, the Farmers of this Country....
- Smitha M
You shove us, you beat us,
you bury us alive.
Yet we, the farmers of this country
are reborn like that
one resolute corn plant.
You cringe, you grin, you plead
for our votes and notes.
If WE made you win,
WE can make you fall too!
We’re the fields, we, the crops,
then why are we the prisoners
of your whims that cross?
You in snazzy cars chew
peanuts of our sweat,
as your journals dish out rubbish.
Still we feed upon justice
to those geared up cops who
play the second fiddle.
The thicker your water cannons are,
the braver our voices,
our tears…
You flex, you vex, you conspire next,
theatrics and tactics of your lust.
As we go for protests peaceful,
You unleash your vicious violence on us.
As Haryanvi -Punjabi fields merge
to weed out your poisonous play of power,
you forge our farmer finger(foot)prints
as “Separatists”! Fie on you, power!
We, the soil under this country’s feet,
sing songs of peaceful rebellion.
Dictators! Stop playing possum!
Remember. As you bootlick your corporates,
we congregate, we create, we germinate,
fresh seeds of revolution,
Never dare to muffle us, bend us, or trap us,
in your treacherous trenches.
Don’t you see the soil swelling in our palms?
We need no alms, but for our rights
our unified voices rise.
Don’t you hear our hoarse calls, don’t you hear,
Democracy whimpering “REVOLUTION?”
(This poem was written in solidarity with the
farmers’ protests in Delhi. This reflects the farmers’
many voices who called this agitation as a political
‘revolution.’)
Smitha M, working as an Assistant Professor
in English in Government Victoria college,
Palakkad, is a poet and film enthusiast whose
works have been published in various online
journals.)
27
 MeMorial Meetings
Comrade Tarimela Nagi Reddy
On the occasion of the commemoration of Com
T.N, speakers emphasized to unite the people against
the increasing attacks and feudal oppression on Dalits
and paid their revolutionary homage to him. As Com
TN said that the country’s economy has been always
in crisis due to the policies followed by the central
government and it is an absolute truth. Explaining the
political conditions of the country, the developments
in Sri Lanka, the fall in the rupee value etc the
speakers said that the analysis made by TN with a lot
of foresight is clearly proving today. The central
government and the state governments under the
leadership of Modi are rapidly implementing the
policies of globalization while giving impetus to the
imperialists for further looting the country’s wealth, as
a result of which lives of people are trapped in a severe
crisis. And it is the duty of the communist
revolutionaries to build united peoples’ movements
against all this.
Com. Tarimela Nagireddy’s 46th commemoration
meeting was held on 28-7-22 under the aegis of
CPI(M-L) Anantapur District Committee. Before the
meeting, hundreds of people marched with red flags
from Krishna Kalamandir to the meeting hall at Lalitha
Kala Parishad Hall. CPI(M-L) District Secretary
Comrade C.Peddanna, human rights forum state
leader S.M.Basha, Manavatha Blood Donors
Association Chairman Tarimela Amaranatha Reddy,
Rythu Cooli Sangam District President Com
Chandrasekhar, AIFTU(New) District Leader Com
Rahamtullah and others addressed the meeting. Ten
days prior to the meeting, the party ranks conducted
campaign with pamphlets in many parts of the district.
Com T.N’s literature was widely taken into the masses
and intellectuals.
The 46th commemoration meeting of revolutionary
communist Com T.N. was held under the auspices of
CPI(M-L) on 28-7-22 at the reading room, Nellore. The
meeting was presided by trade union leader Com
P.Yanadaiah.
On 31-7-22, a meeting in memory of Com. TN was
organised at R.M. High School in Venkatagiri under
the auspices of the party. Rythu Cooli Sangham Com.
V.V.Ramanayya presided the meeting and state level
leader of the party Com. Kishore Babu was the
keynote speaker.
On 31-7-22, party ranks and file paid tributes to Com
TN at TN Bhavan, Giripuram, Vijayawada. On July 31st
28
Comrade Charu Majumdar
Siliguri :
On 28 July CPI(ML), CPI-ML(ND), PCC-CPI(ML)
jointly observed the 50th death anniversary of martyr
Comrade Charu Majumdar. Comrade Suniti
Bishwakarmakar, Comrade Amal Ray, Comrade Kabiraj
Rai, Comrade Amulya Das and Comrade Nathuram
Bishwas presided over the meeting. After garlanding
the portrait of the great martyr, Comrade Sushanta
Jha of CPIML(ND), Comrade Amal Ray of PCC-
CPI(ML) and Comrade Nathuram Bishwas of CPIML
and others spoke on the contribution of Com. Charu
Majumdar to the communist revolutionary movement
of India. While speaking on behalf of the presidium
Com. Suniti Bishwakarmakar reminisced her
experience with Com Charu Majumdar and his wife late
Com. Leela Majumdar. ™
under the auspices of the CPI(M-L) Krishna district,
meeting was held at the freedom fighters’ building presided
by Com Veera Babu. In this meeting Member of the T.N.
Memorial Trust Com Panduranga Varaprasad, Janasahithi
State President Com Divi Kumar, State President of Stree
Vimukthi Sanghatana Com C.Vijaya and others
participated.
CPI (M-L) Prakasam District Committee, held a
meeting on 31-7-22 at Mallayalingam Bhavan, Ongole.
Karumanchi Subbarao, member of TN Memorial Trust
presided over the meeting. CPI (M-L) district secretary
Com DVN Swamy, Rythu Cooli Sangam (A.P.) district
Secretary Com S.Lalithakumari, AIFTU (New) leader
M.S.Sai and Convener of Progressive Intellectuals
Forum, Panguluri Govindaiah addressed the meeting.
Party rank and file, intellectuals, progressive
persons and people participated actively in the
commemoration meetings. Peoples’ artistes sang
songs. ™
Class Struggle