1 3 Liberation January 1968

January,

1968

. I, No.3

LIBERATION S Notes pa.ges from Party History

8

Oppose Book Worship

-Mao

57

Tse-tun(}

67

Indonesia Today Civil Disobedience or OounterRevolutionary Manoeuvre?

-Arindam

Mitra

What Should The Peasants

DC)?

-8. R.

74 1:3

Editor-in-Ohief : Sushital Ray Ohoudhury

..

An Appeal Liberation appeals to ho have the

cause

you, comrades and of the Indian Revolution

sympathisers, at heart, for

to the Liberation Fund. Liberation needs your donations as well as your suggestions,

enerous contributions

riticisms and guidance. With more money we intend to bring ut booklets and pllomphlets in order to wage a successful fight gainst 8011 relloctionary ideology, including revisionism and neoevisionism. Your suggestions and help in this regard will be ost welcome. We also invite you to send us articles IIondreports of struggle n your IIorelloS for publication in Liberation.

Liberation is in urgent need of all the help and support that ou ca.n offer.

Editr rial Board Liberation

DECLARATION

NOTES

I, Nimai Ghosh. declare that I am the printer and pubr of the newspaper entitled Liberation to be printed at Katha I ress, 59A. Bechu Chatterjee Street Calcutta-9 a d bl' t 60A " n pu I FRENZIED ATTAOK '. Keshab Chandra Sen Street, Calcutta-9. and that During the last few weeks West Bengal has witnessed an ulars III respect of the said newspaper given hereunder are t o the best of my knowledge and belief. orgy of violence-organized violence let loose by tha bourgoislandlord state.

itle of the newspaper: anguage in which ;it is published: eriodicity of its publication: ublisher's name: ationality :

Liberation English Monthly Nimai Ghosh Indian.

60A, Keshab Chandra Sen Stre Calcutta-9. lace of publication:

60A. Keshab Chandra Sen Stre P.S. Amherst Street, Calcutt

rinter's Name: ationality : ddress :

Nimai Ghosh Indian 60A, Keshab Chandra Sen Stree Calcutta.g Kathamala Press 59A, Bachu Chatterjee Stree Calcutta-9

ditor's name: ationality : ddress : Owner's name

11. 12. 1967.

Nimai Ghosh Indian 60A, Keshab Chandra Sen Stree Calcutta-9 Nimai Ghosh

Sd. Nimai Ghos Printer, Publisher and Owner.

, With the deepening of the economic and political crisis and the ever-increasing isolation of the Congress, the main political party of the ruling classes, their attack on the people is getting more desperate and vicious, at least in West Bengal. It is true that recently the Congress snpporters, mostly anti-social elements, have plastered the Calcutta streets with Congress posters and are holding occasional public meetings in different> towns. But, aware of the depth of hatred with which the toiling. people greet them, they seem to have written off the support. of the people and have unleashed the police and the HomB', Guards to drown people's struggles in blood. In the last one' month and a half several thousands have been arrested; during, the six days from 18th to 23rd December alone, the arrests~numbered fourteen thousand. About five thousand klsan, tradeunion a.nd other political workers have been sent to prison underthe notorious Preventive Detention Act. A large number ofr men and women have been victims of police firing and savage lathi-charge. Policemen in plain clothes were seen attacking _ people indiscriminately, hitting them with lathis till they;fell down unconscious and then throwing th€lir limp bodies intothe waiting prison vans. The torture in the police stationsWas even more sadistic. They did not spare even educa.tional institutions. They perpetrated atrocities even within the ca'mpus of the Universities of J adavpur and Calc.utta. and of the Poly' technic institution in Krishnagar. But all their past performanceswithin educational institutions were surpassed when they entered the R. P. M. College at Uttarpara in the district of Hooghly. A large contingent of them broke open the locks on the College o

NOTES

4

LIBERATIO:N

gate, freely used lathis and rifle-butts on students, teachers and non· teaching employees, inflicted very serious wounds on many. threw a Oollege employee from the first floor on to the gro1JJ.'d below and splashed the w8llls ",nd the floor with the blood of their wictims. Recently journll.lists and press photographers of Calcutta h",d some taste of the kind of treatment that these '''agents of 18lwand order" mete out to peasants, workers and iltudents whenever they refuse to submit to the present regimlf .of unbridled exploit.ation and oppression.

their paddy, raid their houses and arrest them. have even been murdered.

Some pell.sants

Now8.days it seems 'unrevolutionMY' to refer to the role of the "Marxist" leaders and the UF government in this _counterrevolutionary war against the peasantry. Speaking llota meating at Jhargram, the deposed Ohief Minister, Sri Ajoy Mukherjee, declared that he would be the first man to face the bullets of Dr. P. O. Ghosh on December 18. It seems that the bullets of Dr. Ghosh's government are quite different from those with which Ajoy Mukherjee's government killed the peas8.nts, including peasant women and children in NU8.1bari or from those it showered on food demonstrllotors in Nabadweep •.nd elsewhere. Now Ajoy Mukherjee denounces the police bllorbllorities from time to time. but one recalls that when the same police, were shooting down peasants in Naxalbari, he WlloStelling his lloudience at Darjeeling; "Love thou my police I"

This attack on the urb8.n petty-bourgeoisie is only one 8.spect -of the offensive that the ruling classes, faced with llon insoluble ofJrisis, h8.ve launched. It atllorted during the days of the United Front Government / in West Bengal, the m8.in p8.rtner of which was the OPI (M). The pe8.santry WlloSthen their main target and the students who dared support them did not escape their wrlloth ; so, the UF government in the state and the Oongress government at the centre conspired to put out the flame that PHRASES AND FAOTS is Naxalbari; so, the UF government set up police camps Writing in Deshhitaisi of December 22, a Rllonadive man hllo8 wherever the poor pe8.santry threatened to challenge the rule llond Mcused us of betraying the revolutiona.ry struggle now going exploit8.tion of the joteda,rs ; so, the UF government turned the on in ~he country and has described this "betrlloyal" with aU ;' North Bengal University itself into a police camp. They, too, the hypocritical fervour that he can commllond as one of the sent for the military to break up the strike of the State Electrigrossest in history. As Lenin would have said, he has presented city Board workers llondinvoked the hlloted Preventive Detention us with a 'basketful of the most florid republican, revolutionary Act to ll.rrest Oomrade Parimal Dasgupta, Secretary of the . and "socialist" phrlloses'. We would have ignored them if the Workers' Union. entire propagandllo of the "Marxist" leaders did not attempt to At least fifty-eight thousand armed policemen and six represent llocounter-revolutionary manoeuvre as llo revolutionllory !' battalions of Oentr8l1 Reserve Forces h8lve been brought from struggle and thus to dupe the masses. Let us examine the
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LIBERATION

.4.herefore is the demand for restoration of ministerial jobs to " , who ha.ve lost them-in .' IS SM'd , o.I th e ,the leaders the interest. It ileople who must do the fighting. But the. demands. of the 'Working class for jobs, trade union rights, secunty of ~er~ICe etc., the demands of the peasantry for ls.nd, stoppage of eVICtiOns etc., or the demands of the petty bourgeoisie for employment, upwllord revision of pay and dearness allowance, ett'., are not among the (].emands raised by the United Front. "Mr. Gangadhl1r Pramanick, West Bengal's Labour Minister", The Statesman's Staff Reporter wrote on 30.12.67, • «told reporters in Oalcutta on Friday that 49 fll.ctories, employing . about 20,000 people, had reopened since t~e c?ange. of Government on November 21. while over 400 factOrIes, mvolvmg nearly 149,000 workers, had been closed during the few mon~hs prior to the change." "The spokesman [of the Rash,~rI~a Sangram Samityl", added The Statesrnan's Staff Reporter, SMd tha.tafter the Ghosh Ministry's installation only four of the 40 ,big factories were reopened. One of the fom retrenched 650 bands before reopening, wbile in the case of another 350 casual workers had been left out. In all cases union officis.ls had been victimized. Violating provisions of the Industrial Dispute~ Act, agreements had been signed and.. five-member committee~ 'arbitrarily' set up to reopen the factones on ms.nagement terms. May we ask the Marxists why the United Front and the "'Marxist" leaders are so supremely indifferent to the plight. of the working class and allow the capitalists to shi~t .th.e entIre ~burden of the recession on' the workers Ilondto VICtImIze trade union workers? May we ask why the United Front and the ""Marxist" leaders have not organized 8. single solidarity ~ctio.n .ouring the lllostten months to help the working class whICh IS under vicious attack? Frenzied attacks are also being made on the poor pellosantry. The police-camps which the U, F. government set up have n?w .• been strengthened by the Ghosh ministry and the armed pohce -and jotedars are attacking pellosants, looting their paddy, raiding tbeir homes and firing on them. Several peasllonts have already been murdered. Why is not the United Front fighting to defend the poor pellosants and to curb the ls.wl~ssne~s and stop t~e atrocities of the police Ilond the rurllol explOIters In West Bengal s .countryside? The petty bourgeoisie, too, is under attl>Ck.. There i.s incr~as• 'ing unemployment among tbem, their real mcom.e. IS fal~mg, lock-outs threlLten them also. Above all, ever-rlsmg prIC~s, particularly, tbe abnormal incr?ase in pri.ce.s of rice ~~d wheat In the rationing areas, are worsenmg the hv~ng condItiOns of all classes of toiling people. Does the U D1ted F:~nt-3Ponsored ~truggle aim at resisting the attacks of the bourgeOISIe, the land-

NOTES

lordS, tbe blood-thirsty profiteers and black-marketeers? No, these mundane things do not appeal to them. They seem to be interested only in reglloining the pllorllodiseat the Dalhousie Square from which they have been banished by the gods of New Delhi. Once a person, very difficult to please, named Lenin, said:

"To appreciate this, you only have to detach yourself for a moment from the present hubbub of empty phrases, promises and petty doings which fuddles your thinking, and take a look at the main thing, at what determines everything in public life-the class struggle." (Lenin, Constitutional H will Front have

he

Illusions). unjust to think that the gentlemen of the United renounced the class struggle. No, far from

renouncing it, they are fighting it-on the side of the reactionary exploiting classes against the toiling peopleas they did during their spell in office. Their Civil Disobedience programme and every other programme are designed to disrupt the class battles of the peasantry and the working class. S~

L

When, on October 2 last, Ajoy Mukherjee planned his coup J: c' t , in close collaboration with Oongress leaders, he intended tOr I I release a statement to the press after the treacherous act. In- / ) that stllotement, which was later published, he accused the 1-. SOPI (M), among others, of three things which, be said, were forcing bim to tender the resignation of his ministry. These were: (1) The Left Oommunists were responsible for the chaos on the industrial front and the forced idleness af 60,000 to 70,000 men. (2) A section of the Left Oommunists were saying openly that they would seize all the ripe harvest of the jotedars by force and distribute it among themselves. (3) The Left Oommunists were preparing witb the help of Ohina for a bloody revolution in West Bengal, which would engulf all Assam, Manipur, Tripura, some areas of Bihar and Orissa. On December 9, Ganashakti, the OPI (M)-evening daily, approvingly published the full text of another statement by Ajoy Mukherjee. In this statement the deposed Ohief Minister has confessed that be had been unjust to the Marxist Oommunists. "For, I declared that the Marxist Oommunists are not genuinely opposed to those who are inviting Ohina and Pakisban Such a thing happened because I overlooked the facts that the Marxist Oommunists were carrying on an open campaign against those men and that the Ohinese Radio was pouring out its venom against Sri Jyoti Basu and other Marxist leaders." (Translation ours) . "So, instead of resigning", Sri Mukherjee continues, "I decided to preserve the U. F. Government in order to implement the I8-point programme with fresh energy. I am glad to declare [ Oontinued on page 93 1

PAGES FROM PARTY HISTORY

PAG[S ~ROM ~A~TY ~ISTO~Y We presen t to our readers the full texts of three important Party documents of 1950 as, we are afraid, a large number of comrades who hllove joined the Communist Party since that year and now belong either to the Communist Party (Marxist) or to the Dllongeite Party lloreunaware of their existence or know very little of the Titoite-Trotskyite policies which wrecked the Party in 1948-49. It seems that even old comrades have not either gone through them or assume quite a liberal attitude towards these 'deviations'. A more import&nt reallon for publishing these documents is that the same policies, though disguised in apparently innocent phraseology, are now sought to be revived. It is the same old wine only poured into a, new bottle. The General Secretary of the opr during the above period. as is known to everybody, was B. T. Rllonadive, now the leading "theoretician" in the CPI (M) and Editor of its cent~al organ, People's Democracy. He was then ably ~isted by men like Bhowlloni Sen, So~nath Lahiri, Dange an~et~ "Communist" leaders, who, curIOusly enough, are now at the helm of either the CPT (M) or the Dangeite Party. Many of them have been 1eading the Indian Communists since the beginning of the thirties or even earlier dlloYs. For instance, B. T. Ranadive had earned notoriety even before 1933 as the leader of a group of Communists in Bombay for his factional quarrels and left-sectarian policies. It will appear from the second document we are reprinting, Greetings to Oommunist Party of Ohina on its 29th Anniversary, July 1, 1950, that it was the Open Letter of the Chinese Party to the ranks of the Communists in India that enabled the latter to correct the Left-sectarian mistakes of those days and helped the scattered Communist groups to unite and form the AllIndia Communist Party. The Editorial Board of Oommunist, the central organ of the CPI during 1948-50, which was dominated by B. T. Ranllodive~ carried on a vicious campaign of lies and slander against the

9

CPO and its great leader, Comrade Mao Tse-tung, ga.ve a distorted interpretation of 'People's Democracy', sought to rehabilitate the Trotskyite thesis of ': one stage revolution" and sabotaged the agrarian struggle then sweeping through Telengana and parts of West Bengal. In those historic yea.rs when the Chinese Revolution led by Comrade Ma.o Tse-tung and the CPC was changing the face of Asia. and the world and shattering the fond dreams of the US imperialists of domina.ting the world, when the US imperia.lists and their allies were feverishly trying to isolate and encircle revolutionary China, when national liberation wars-armed struggles of the peasants led by the working class--were raging in the whole of South-east Asia, when the first fla.me of such struggle was kindled on the Indian soil by the brave Telengana peasants, the leaders of the CPI, chief of whom was B. T. Ranadive, proved obiectively (we are neither aware of nor concerned with their subjective desires) to be the tools of the imt)erialists and the Indian reactionaries. As. willing or unwilling accomplices of U. S. imperialism a.nd Indian reaction, they succeeded in doing, among others, two things: in destroying the peasant bases by antagonising the middle anrI rich peasantry and in wrecking the Party and working-class organisations by issuing futile .ealls for strikes and engaginq the; brave Party comrades in equally futile clashes with the police and the military in the streets and factories and even in prisons. At: the Sllometime they disbanded elected Party Oommittees, set. up new ones with men of their own choice, expelled Party members and spread all kinds of false slander against many of' them who ventured to differ with them. Were all those crimes unintentional? As it will appear from the Statement of the Fditorial Board [then reconstituted] of' Communist on Anti-Leninist Oriticism of Oomrade Mao Tsetung, the crimes were committed intentionally, deliberately. hen they were on their wrecking spree, Rllonadive and Co. stlfied all inner-Party criticism. refused to listen to the advice of fraternal Parties and dubbed Mao Tse-tung as a renegade from Socialism. Lies, distortions and all kinds of subterfuge became th' elr s t oc k'om-trade. . was only natural for, as theThIS

v.:

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l'AGES

FROM PARTY BISTORY

11

in order to carry out their wrecking activities; in 1967 also, reconstituted Editorial Board of Oommunist pointed out ifrits they find it necessary to denounce the great leaders of the Statement, Ranadive and Co. were determined to pursue Obinese Part!! to fulfil their nefarious plan. Trotskyite-Titoite policies which were basically opposed to Marxism-Leninism. In a period when Titoism, revisionism, had Aware of the fact that open denunciation of the Chinese just raised its head and allied itself with imperialism, chiefly Party is sure to prove the ruin of their leadership, Ranadive and U.S. imporialism, the leadership of the CPT headed by Ranadive Do. have waited for their opportunity for quite some time, became the main agents of Titoism in India. They systethough ~ndarayya (in his letter from Mos~w), Basavapunniah ( (in his open letter to Nanda), Namhoodiripad and others were ffill.tically maligned the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party "lind the Chinese Revolution, which had showed the peoples of .a.iming their shafts of criticism, open or veiled, at the Chinese the colonies and semi-colonies like India how to defeat imperiaParty and Government from time to time, But after Naxalbll.ri lism, feudalism and comprltdor capital and accomplish People's hll.dtorn the mask off them and after the Chinese Party had justly condemned them and their Dangeite counterparts as running Democratic revolution. In their shameful campaign, .6f slander 1\,gainst Comrade M3.o Tse-tung they threw overboard all dogs of US imperialism and Soviet revisionism and as lackeys of the Indian big landlords and big bourgeoisie, the Rll.nadive hunch principles of proletarian internationalism. They repudiated -of traitors realized that their sham support for the Chinese Party "Lenin, accepted M. N. Roy's thesis tbat the big bourgeoisieln ~Fndia was independent and, as faithful followers of Roy and was no longer of any use, So, in the resolution they adopted at Madurai on "Divergent Views Between our Party and the Trotsky, imposed on the Party their dangerous strategy-the O. P. O. etc" they have accused the C.P .0. of gross interference strategy of "one stage revolution", the Socialist revolution, in our Party's affairs violltting the principles of proletarian skipping the democratic stage of the Indian revolution. The internationalism, rejecting "every Marxist-Leninist tenet on the ,consequences were disastrous. ~ueRtion of ltssessing ~ given political situlttion and the tactics Today, when class struggle is getting intenser and intenser to be adopted" and of "providing ample grist to the mill of reac' both within the country and in the world as a whole, when tion ltnd counter-revolution in our country." But to these traitors, Socialist China is in the van of the world-wide struggle fa in veterate haters of China and the Chinese path, discretion is freedom, peace and socialism, when nationltl liberation war ill indeed the better part of valour. So while levelling these very raging in the three continents of Asia, Africa and Latin America, -serious chllorgesaglloinstthe Chinese Party and chiding it, in rather when the spark of Naxalbari peasant uprising threatens to kindle veiled language for supposed dogmatism ltnd sectarianism, it also the fire of revolution in the Indian countryside, when US imperia eulogises the C.P.C. for rendering, among other things, "the lism, enmeshed in insoluble contradictions but aided by Sovie yeoman's service" "to the world working class and the Commurevisionism and native reactionary classes in different c~untries, nist movement in fighting against and exposing the menace of is desperately trying to drown people's struggles in blood, the revisionism and in defence of Marxism-Leninism:' When the Ranadive leadership is at its old game again. In 1948-~9, they O. P. C. lashes at Kosygin or Dange, it renders praise-worthy oCI disrupted revolutionay struggles of the Indian peasantry in the service to the cause of Marxism-Leninism, but its denunciation name of combating Right-reformism; today, they are trying' to of the revisionist policies and character of leaders like Ranadive crush peasant struggles of the Naxalbari type even with the help amounts to gross interference in the affairs of a fra.ternal Party of the police and the military of the bourgeois-landlord state' i ~nd cannot be tolerated 1 the name of fighting left-adventurism. In 1948-49, the saooteud In this notorious Madurai resolution Ranadive, Sundarlloyya, hllod to malign Comrade Mao Tse-tung and the CPC leadershi

12

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Basavapunniah and Co. have expressed their disagreement with the Chinese Party mainly on two issues-the class oharacter 0 the present Indian stllote and Government and appraisal of th Ipresent situation in India.. While the C.P.C. holds that India is t. semi-colonial, semi-feudal country and that the Indian big bourgeoisie represents the comprador, bureaucratio capital i India, Ranadive, Sundarayya, Basavapunniah and Co. in thei infinit~ wisdom decl!lore, "But the fact to be noted here is that it is the industrial big bourgeoisie which, today, has emerged a a powerful force holding the leading position in the new state an government, and not the oomprador element." "Henoe," they oonolude. "we do not find any valid relloSon for the present. India Government, which has a more wider [sic] social base when " compared to most of its counterpart£! in .several oountries anel whioh does not face the imminent threat of olass revolution at> bome, opting to play the role of a 'puppet', 'stooge' an y 'laOke ' of imperialism." Tbis reminds one that R!lonadiv& and his comrades mllode basioally the same appraisal or tbe Indian state and the Indian bourgeoisie in 1949. riting in the July 1949 issue of Communist, they rejeoted th idea that the Con~ress Government and bourgeoisie were puppet of imperialism and described them as "aotive partners and leading in the bourgeois.feudal·imperialist oombine. When. in 1955, Ajoy Ghosh and 'communists' of his ilk tried to sel the same idellos-that India is "a sovereign and independen republic" Ilondthat "the big bourgeoisie is the decisive force" in the bourgeois-landlord government "conciliating and com pro mising with British imperialism", Sundarayya, Basavapunnia and Hanumantha Rlloo wrote (cf. "Note on C. C. Resolution an Com. Ajoy's Explanation Document", FOR UM, FOUl-th Part Congress Document No.2, October, 1955) :

j

--

i

iXl

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"We do hold that the characterisation cf Indian state in au Programme [ of 1951 ] as dependent and semi-colonial country, still holds good, in spite of the recent shifts in N ehrtt Government's foreign policy." Referring of the Indian

to Ajoy Ghosh's formulation state, they observed:

about the characte

t'AGES

FROM PARTY

HISTORY

13

"It means, the big bourgeoisie is deoisi"Q'e foroe in regard to its oonfliots and contradictions with the British imperialism. 'This was enotly the basis for our strategy of 1948 period whioh was rejeoted by our Programme". They argued : "If this is so, then our strategy must be to replaoe the government of bourgeoisie by a government of proletllorillot and Iloor peasantry, neutralising the middle pellosants and entire middle clllosses in opposition to the bourgeoisie and oapitalist.landlord and rich peasants. "It means that our strategy cannot be one of People's Democratic Revolution, against imperialism and feudalism and .collaborating monopolist section, basing on the agricultural labour and poor peasant, allying with middle peasant and winning
14

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of theirs is neither theoretically correct nor tallies experience in our movement in our country".

with

our-

According to them, the present situat.ion may be objectively'revolutionary but the subjective factor, without which the revolutionary situation C!l.nnot m!l.ture, is yet absent. Severlll times, in this resolution, they have bewailed the fact that. "Ours is a very small Party compared to the bigness of the country in which it is operating and the tasks it is confronted •.~ ./ with" that "Our Party is unable to cope with the growing demands 1 of the rising mass movement in the wake of the deepening crisis and it finds itself too weak to shoulder the stupendous political responsibility that history is thrusting on its shoulders", and that "the Oommunist Party is very weak and even non-existent in the greater part of the country". In this connection, they approvingly quote from the thesis, The Revol1ltionary Movement in the Oolonies and Semi-Oolonies, adopted by the Sixth Oongress of the Oommunist International: thereexists an "excessively marked lack of correspondence between the objective revolutionary situation and the weakness of the subjective factors". This was quite "correctly observed" in 1928 ~ but this bunch of s!l.boteurs of the Indian revolution solemnly affirm that this weakness "persists even to-day"-after almost forty years-in 1967! This very admission is a telling indictment of the leadership of the Communist Party and Communist groups of India, a leadership which the Danges, Muzaffar Ahmeds, Joshis and R!l.nadives have usurped for thirty, thirty-five, forty or more years. The perpetu!l.l weakness, for which they themselves are responsible, is cited as an argument torepudiate revolutionary actions by the mllsses! It is the contradiction between the interests of this treacherous leadersbip or, to be more precise, of the different factions of these leaders and the interests of our Party, people and the cause of the Revolution; that has stifled, despite the tremendous sacrifice of Party comrades and others, the growth of our Party. The Party Clln grow, occupy its rightful place among the genuine Oommunist. Parties of the world and can lead the Indian revolution to victory only if the Party frees itself from the shackles imposed by theslt

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PAGES FROM PARTY HISTORY

leaders, proved agents of alien ideologies and interests, and if it is guidedby the thought of Oomrade Mao Tse-tung along the path followed by the Chinese people. Despite all the lIl!l.chinations of the "Marxist" and Dangeite leaders, an 'excellent revolutionary ituation now prevails in India. Even backward sections of thetoiling people are increasingly being drawn into political struggles and signs of a simmering revolt against the present regime of unbridled exploitation and oppression can be seen everywhere. The contradictions between imperialism and our people, between feudalism and the peasant masses, between comprador capital and the working class are growing sharper as days pass. Only courageous leadership by revolutionaries inspired by Comrade Mao Tse-tung's:thought can bring about a transformation in the situation. Naxalbari has blazed a path that Indian revolutionaries elsewhere must tl;Lke. Even today Ranadive and 00. are putting up a sham fight against the ruling classes-to hide their real capitulation to the, reactionary classes as well as to sabotage the revolutionary struggles of the peasantry. Though they have declared in the Party Programme of 1964 that the axis of the People's Democratic' revolution is the agrarian struggle, they have tried by every possible means to crush it in practice, though not in words, and in the name of launching a revolutionary struggle in West Bengal, they are urging the militant youth, longing for change, dreaming of revolution, to take part in city-based adventurist actions. However glibly these traitors may raise the slogan of People's Democratic Revolution ( to hoodwink, nd doubt, the unsuspecting rank and file comrades), they are pursuing the same old strategy and adopting the same old tactics as tho'se of 1948-49-the, Titoite-Trotskyite strategy and tactics which have been eloquently condemned in the Statement of the Editorial Board of Oommunist on Anti-Leninist Oriticism of Oomrade Mao Tse-t1lng. But the "pledge" that was given at the end of the Statement to the Communist Party of China, to its leader Mao Tse-tung snd to the international Communist movement was soon forgotten f . , or It was not meant to be redeemed. It was the most effective

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means of pacifying the angry rll.nk ll.nd file comra.des who rose in revolt agll.inst the stntegy, tll.ctics and organisational methods imposed by the Ranllodive gang. In the name of pursuing !l.n Indi8.n path, Joshis, Dll.nges, Ran8.dives and Nll.mboodiripllods have always tried their h8.rdest to isolll.te the struggle of the Indill.n people from the broad stream of the world-wide struggle for freedom and Socialism, to detll.ch the contingent of Indian revOlution!l.ries from the world fOTces battling against imperialism and reaction 1l.nn thus to serve the, interests of the enemies of the Indillon people. By 8.dopting the notorious Madur8.i resolutions and abusing from time to time the Chinese Communist P8.Tty, by -claiming to be friendly both to Chin8. 8.nd to the revisionist leaders of the Soviet Union and decl8.ring their preference for 8.n Indian path, which is neither Russian nor Chinese, these treacherous le8.ders are ll.t their old game 8.gain. Their old leftopportunism ll.nd present Right-opportunism are two sides of the Sll.me coin-a treacherous political line designed to divert the toiling people of India from the path that led the Chinese lleople to victory, a politiCll.lline designed to sabotage the Indian

1

revolution. The study of present facts ll.nd past history ca.n alone enable us to solve the problems of the Indill.n revolution. At this hour 'Ofcrisis, comrades must 8.nSwer for themselves what strategy 1londtactics will lead our long-delayed, long-baffled revolution to victory, 8.nd who actually serve as the tools of the U. S. and British imperialists, of the C. 1. A. and the Indian reactionary ,clllosses-the Dllonges, Joshis, Ranadives and Namboodiripads or the heroes of Telengana and Naxalbari. We offer these pages from party history to our comrades in the hope that these will help them in finding the correct answers.-Editor, Liberation.

( STATEMENT

)

OF THE EDITORIAL

BOARD

The Editorial B08.rd of COMMUNIST herewith rejects Ilond withdraws the statement on the Editorial a.rticle of the journal For a Lasting Peace, For A People's Democracy dated 27th January, 1950, which was printed in the last issue of COMMUNIST, Vol. III, February-M8.rch, 1950. The Editorial Board h8.s since been conducting detailed -discussions on the above-mentioned editori8.1 article in the 'light ()f the M8.nifesto 8.nd the reports made at the Peking Conference of Trade Unions of Asia 8.nd Austr8.1asia (November, 1949), in the light of the articles and works of Comrade Mao Tse-tung, of the recent articles and speeches of the leaders of the Chinese Communist P8.rty and of the documents of the Soviet academicians on the coloni8.1 revolutions. In the light of these discussions, which have now been eompleted, the Editorial B08.rd h8.s come to the conclusion th8.t its 8.bove-mentioned statemenb did not represent an honest selfcriticism of the utterly Left-Sectari8.n line which it pursued 8.nd which was propounded by it in its various authoritative st8.tements 8.nd articles published in the COMMUNIST since January, 1949. On the other hand, the Editorial Board, under the cover of -a formal acceptance of the editorial article of the journal of the Information Bureau of the Communist IlondWorkers' P8.rties, had actu8.lly taken a self-justificatory position in that statement. In its authoritative statement and articles such 8.S "On People's Democracy" 8.nd "On the Agr8.rian Question in India" published in Vol. II, No. I, J8.nuary, 1949: "Struggle for a People's Democracy and Soci8.lism-Some Questions of Strllotegy .and Tactics" published in Vol. II, No. 4, June-July, 1949: "On Revisionism in the light of Lenin's Teachings" published in Vol. II, No.2, Februllory, 1949, the Editorial Board threw overboard 2

LIBERATION

18

811the te8chings of Lenin and Stalin on imperialism and colonial revolutions, produced a full-fledged Trotskyite thesis of one stage revolution.

I v

GREETINGS

The Editorial Board distorted Zhdanov's report 8nd turned litblind eye to the valuable articles of the brother Pllorti~s and finally threw to the winds the principles of ~lloternal relatIons of the world Communist brotherhood, to the extent of open sillonder of Comrllode Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Communist Party.

The Editorial Board thanks its readers and supporters for the political initiative and vigilance they have shown, for the sharp criticism they have levelled against it.s selfjustificatory statement on the Editorial articl~ of the.Journal For a Lasting Peace, For a People', Democracy and agalOst the Left-Sectarian and Trotskyite line which the Editorial Board pursued in its statements and articles. This criticism has helped the Editorial Board a great deal to mllokea complete turn Ilondto chalk out the broad lines of ~he new strategy and tactics of the present stlloge ~f the. Ind~8on revolution, which Cllon serve as 110 basis for achievlOg umficatlOD of the Oommunist

movement.

The Editorial Board herewith withdraws all the statements Ilond Ilorticles mentioned above and requests the readers of OOMMUNIST not to consider them as authoritllotive any longer. The Editorial BOMd which has been reconstituted in the light of the criticism of its readers 80ndin the light of its own self-criticism, will soon publish 110 detailed criticism of the abovementioned articles and will Boon publish 8 new stllotement and resolution defining the policy of the Editorial Board. In the present number, we are publishing

110 resolution

adopt(:ld

by the new Editorial BOllord on the anti·Leninist criticism ~f Oomrade Mao Tse-tung made in the article "Struggle for People s Democracy Ilond Socillolism, etc." published in OOMMUNIST, Vol. II, No.4,

( 2

June-July,

1949.

CHINA

)

TO COMMUNIST

PARTY OF

ON ITS 29TH ANNIVERSARY,

JULY

I, 1950

The Oentral Commit~ee of the Oommunist Party of India has sent the following message of greetings to the Oommunist Party of Ohina on the 29~h Anniversary of the latter on July 1 : The Oentral Oommittee of the Oommunist Party of India greets the Oommunist Party of Ohina on the 29th anniversll.ry of its foundllotion. This is the first time th80t the entire people of Ohina are joyously celebrating the anniversary of the foundation of the Communist Party of Ohina. They know full well that it was under the wise leadership of their Oommunist Party that the entire mainl80nd of Ohina bas been clea.red of the rule of the Kuomintang, the America.n puppets. They 8o]so know that it is under the same leadership that the liberation of Tibet and Ta.iwan, the implementation of agrarian reforms, the industria.lisa.tion of the country and other measures are going to be carried out, thus transforming semi-coloJ;lial Ohina into an adv80nced industrial country a.nd la.ying the b80sisfor Socialism. The entire democratic world is also 'h8oppy that the 475 million people of Ohina, under the leadership of their Oommunist Party, have become stable members of the international camp of peace, democracy and Socialism. Particularly happy are the peoples of the colonia.l world at this first and greatest victory of People's Democracy in a colonial country. The utter defeat 0f American ltnd other imperialists as well as their Ohinese stooges, by the Ohinese people under the leaderShip of the Oommunist Party of China, is a source of inspiration to all colonial peoples; they all see in the Ohinese ~ution the model for their own revolutions. The peoples of

20

LIBERATION

Viet Nam, Malaya. Burma, Philippines, Indonesia, have already taken to this path and other colonial people are going to take it. The Communist Parties in the colonial world are looking upon the Communist Party of China as their model. The 29 . years long history of the Communist Party of China has shown ;-them how to unite their own people under proletarian hegemony . and how to build a Lenin-Stalin Bolshevik Party in a colonial ...country. ;

"

While associating 01 this anniversary,

itself with the worldwide celebration the Cen,tral Committee recalls with

gratitude the direct ideological assistance rendered by t~e Communist Party of China to the Communist Party of IndIa, 'The Open Letter which it addressed to the ranks of the Communists in India in 1933 was greatly instrumental . correcting the Left-sectarian mistakes of those days and III •. t in uniting the scattered Communist groups in IndIa III 0 an All-India Communist Party. The Central Committee gratefully acknowledges the invaluable aid rendered by t~e leadership of the Communist of China, through theu wl'itings and speeches to our present inner-Party discussions. The Central Committee realises that the best way for it .to celebrate the anniversary of the foundation of the .Communlst - Party of China is to intensify its own struggle agamBt AngloAmerican imperialism and its Indian agents. For, after tha .utter defeat inflicted on it by the Chinese People's Liberation .Army led by the Communist Party of China, the internatio~al mp of reaction is trying to make India its base of aggressIOn ca . S . l' "against the Soviet Union, China and other democratIC OOlaIS . countries and also of intervention against the liberation struggl . waged by the peoples of Burma and countries of South-Eas :Asia. Armed with the lessons of the Chinese Revolution as drawn b the Communist Party of China and its great leader, Comrada '~ao Tse-tung, the Central Committee has pledged to unite th . . . l'Ism and _entire people of India against Anglo- Amencan Impena

PAGES FROM PARTY HISTORY

21'.

its Indian stooges. The brave fighters of Telengana, Andhra,. Mymensingh, etc., have already shown that the Chinese path. is the path for India also ..., The Central Committee is sure that. fcllowing this path, the Indian people can defeat the diabolica~ plans of ,Anglo-American imperialism to make India its base of aggression against the Soviet Union and China as well as of intervention against the peoples of South-East Asia, liberate> their country from the imperialist grip and establish People's. Democracy. The Great Lenin prophesied that when the Indian people taketheir place shoulder to shoulder with the peoples of China, anCf of the Soviet Union in the struggle for emancipation, 'there would; not be the slightest shadow of doubt what the final ·outcome of the world struggle would and absolutely assured'.

be-the

victory

of Socialism is fully.-

A great responsibility now rests on the shoulders of theCommunist Party of India to bring the great Indian people int(). the world front of peace, democracy and Socialism, headed by the Soviet Union, in which the Chinese people led by theirCommunist Party have already taken their rightful place. There is not the slightest doubt that with the fraternal assistance of the Chinese Communist Party and the world' Communist movement, the working class and the people of India, will be able to discharge that responsibility and play theirpart in fulfilling Lenin's prophecy. Long live the Oommunist Oomrade Mao Tse-tung !

Party

of Ohina

and

its

leader

Long live the fraternal solidarity of the working class ana. peoples of Ohina and India, the struggle for lasting peace, People'sDemocracy and Socialism !

I

.L~ng liv~ the .anti-imperialist Democratic· Front led by the· 'oczalzst Sov~et Unzon and the leader and teacher of the working> class and pmgressive humanity-OOMRADE STALIN!

PAGES FROM PARTY HISTORY

( STATEMENT

3 )

OF EDITORIAL

"COMMUNIST"

BOARD OF

ON ANTI-LENINIST

CRITICISM OF COMRADE MAO TSE- TUNG

Made in the article "Struggle for People's Democracy and Socialism", COMMUNIST, Vol. II, No.4 The Editorial Board of Oommunist unreservedly withdraws the entire criticism of Comrade Mao Tse-tung'made in the course of an article entitled "Struggle for a People's Democracy and Socialism-Some Questions of Strategy and Tactics" published in Oommunist, Vol. II, No.4, June-July, 1949. The Editorial Board tenders its deeply felt apologies to Comrade Mao Tse-tung and to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The Editorial Board is fully conscious of the fact that the unworthy attacks against Comrade Mao Tse-tung made in the Oommunist was (sic) wrong not only against the Communist Party of China but against the solidarity of the international Communist front, a criminal violation of the principle of fraternal cooperation among Communists of all countries. This criticism was not only wrong and anti-Leninist, but also a base slander against the leader of the victorious Chinese Revolution and the Communist Party of China. Objectively it only brought grist to the mill of the vilification campaign started by the Anglo-American imperialists with the sole object of maligning Comrade Mao and the Chinese Communist Party in the eyes of the peoples of the colonial countries and of disrupting the solidarity of the anti-imperialist democratic front. The making and accepbance of such criticism alid its publication in the theoretical journals like Oommunist (English), in

23

Bengali, Marathi and Hindi publications is one of the most serious of the many mistakes committed by the Editorial Board. If the Editorial Board had doubts about certain formulations in the writings of Com. Ma.o Tse-tung (if it was unable to understand the meaning of the policies pursued by the Ohinese Communist Party, it was its elementary duty to have got into touch with the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party to get its doubts solved by mutual discussions. This is what the solidarity of the international Communist front and the loyalty to the principle of the fraternal co-operation among Communists of all countries, demands of Communists of every country if they are to remain loyal to the cause of revolution. But the Editorial Board took the harmful COjIrse of making an open, abusive and un comradely attack upon Comrade Mao Tse-tung. It was not an isolated mistake.· It was a necessary part of the Trotskyite-Titoite conceptions which dominated the mind of the Editorial Board,of its effort to pursue Left-opportunist policies. The Editorial Board imagined that its Left-opportunist conceptions of the nature of the People's Democratic revolution in India, of its class alliance and strategy, which it had acquired under the influence of Titoist literature, was the last word in the application of Marxist-Leninist theory tc;the problems of the new stage of the colonial liberation movement. Comrades from Andhra h~d submitted a document to the Editorial Board soon soon after the Second Party Congress (in June, 1948) in. which they very correctly proposed that the concrete formulation of the strategy and tactics to be pursued by the Party in its struggle to realise the programme and objective set forth by the Second Congress, should be made on the basis of the ideas developed by Comrade Mao Tse-tung in his classical work New Democracy. The oomrades from Andhra, who were pioneers in unlell.shing the agrarian revolution and in leading militant struggles of the peasllonts and people of Telengllona, correctly pointed out that 11&o's work Wll.ila. brilliant contribution to the Lenin-Stalin tellochingon the nllotionllolliberllotion revolution in the colonies.

24

LIBERATION

They insisted that the path followed by the Chinese Communist Party in unleashing the national liberation struggle in the face of Kuomintang reaction and its white terror is the path which Indian Communists must adopt in the present phase. The Editorial Board bent upon pushing forward its Trotskyist conception of the present stage· of the Indian revolution, which .denied its national liberationist and colonial character, and its Lett-opportunist policies, rejected the proposal of the Andhra comrades and made a malicious attack upon Comrade Mao Tse-tung. The :{jjditorial Board hypocritically stated that it "accepted Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin ll.S the authoritative 'sourCM of Marxism", and that it has "not disconred new sources of Marxism beyond these." After having declared itself the only'authoritative interpreter of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, the Editorial Boa-rd'then pronounces the following judgement on the leader of the victori. ous Ohinese Revolution :

PAGES FROM PARTY HISTORY

Proclaiming itself as the pontiff of Marxism-Leninism,. the Editorial Board has here' pronounced the classic work on Ohina's New Democracy as revisionist and has shown the' amazing brazen-facedness to suggestively J;DentionTito and Browder in that connection. The Editorial Board knew very well that it could not brush aside the important questions raised by the Andhra comrades and put acrosS its Trotskyite Left·sectarian policies, as long as th~ Party ranks continued to regard Oom. Mao Tse-tung as one of the. outstanding leaders of the international Oommunist movementa creative Marxist and a continuator of the teachings of Lenin. and Stalin on the nat\onalliberation revolution of the colonies.

That is why the Editorial Board dishonestly pitted the authority of the Nine Communist Parties' Conference against Comrade Mao in order to declare his great work as revisionist. That is why the Editorial Board went to the length of suggestively mentioning the names of Tito and Browder in the s~me breath as that of Comrade Mao-and that at a time when the entire imperialist press was slandering him as being an "Eastern Tito".

The Andhra comrades in their document of June 1948· "Noijfor that matter ill there ,any Oommunist Party which correctly pointed out that only the Indian big bourgeoisie had / declares adherence to' the so-called theory of New Democracy struck a deal with imperialism and had passed over to the campalleged tobe propounded by Mao and declares it to be a new of reaction and counter-revolution. Basing themselves on the addition to Marxism. Singularly' enough ' there waS no teachings of Stalin and Mao Tse-tung, the Andhra comrades reference to this new addition to Marxism in the Oonference argued that the middle bourgeoisie continued to be oppressed by of Nine Parties in Europe, (i.e., Oommunist Inforniation Bureau foreign imperialists and Indian monopoly capitalists and that the-E. B.). Under these circumstances it is very wrong for a Oommunists, in forging the Democratic Front against Anglosection of the leadership of the Oentral Oommittee to take upon American imperialists and their Indian s61~vitors,the Indian big itself the task of recommending' new discoveries which one of the most authoritative conferenc
• LIBERATION

26

,

on the reformist oonoeption of oollaboration with seotions of the bourgeoisie, Comrade Mao Tee.tung WlllS falsely acoused of propounding tha.t the New Democratic regime to be oreated by the victorious revolution would be promoting (capitalism" and that he was oompletely negating "the transitional anti-capitalist eha.racter of the economic order under People's Demooracy" and denying the perspective of advanoe to the oonstruction of Socialism, out

The Editorial Boa.rd pioked up isolated phrases and para.graphs of oontext from the writings of Mao "to prove" this lie and

proclaimed

arrogantly

tha.t :

"Some of Mao's formulations are suoh that no Communist "'Party can accept them ; they are in oon tradiction to the world understanding of the Communist Parties," (Oommunist. Vol. II, So

No.4.

p 78)

Once again the international Communist movement is pitted against Comrade Mao. It is slyly suggested that Mao's Mar~ism is of a doubtful brand and has little in common with that of the international Communist movement, thus once again lending a hand to the slander campaign of the imperialists. The Andhra comra.des in their document of June 1948 had drawn pointed attention to the fact that the Anglo-American imperialists had la.unched since March 1948 a furious and armed offensive against the rising national liberation movement in the countries of South-east Asia, and that the brutal repression and white terror launched by the Nehru-Patel Government against the democratic forces headed by the Communist Party of India was a part of this imperialist

offensive.

The Andhra comrades quite correctly proposed that the Indian proletariat and Communists must in this situation folloVl' the path taken by the Chinese Communist Party in leading the liberation struggle of the Chinese people against imperialisIXl .and the Kuomintang reactionaries. They proposed that the Communists must concenrate on the task of unleashing the militant struggles of the peasants for urgently needed agrarian

PAGES FROM PARTY HISTORY

21

yeforms in the rural areas of Bengal. Andhra. and North Malabar. They unfolded the perspective of a. protracted struggle and dogged resistance. But the Editorial Board had alrea.dy adopted an anti-Leninist analysis of the agra.rian question in Indillo. This analysis denied the dominance of feudal relations in India and negated the task of rallying all the peasllontry in the struggle to wipe out feudal .and semi-feudal landlordism. The Editorial Board, therefore, Dot only rejected the proposal to adopt the path followed by the Chinese people, but went - one step further to give a falsified and slanderous interpretation of the history of ihe Communist Party of China. The Editorial Board quoted a long passage from the Colonial Tpesis of the Sixth Congress of the Communist International <July~August, 1928) which drew lessons from some of the mistakes committed by the former lea.dership of the Communist "Party of China. From this passage, the Editorial Board drew the utterly false Trotskyist conclusion: "Why had the Chinese to go through the protracted civil war? Just because the leadership of the Chinese Communist Part'y llottimes failed to fight for the hegemony of the proletariat, for bringing the majority of the masses in alliance and under the leadership of the proletariat. because it followed tactical J;>olicieswhich led to disaster." (Ibid, p. 84) How utterly bankrupt and dishonest is this effort of the Editorial Board to undermine the prestige of the Chinese Communist Party and its leadership in the eyes of the Party ranks, can be seen from the following facts: (a) Already in August 1927, Comrade Stalin had replied to the Trotskyist opposition which had sought to slander the Chinese Communist Pady in a similar way. Stalin said:

"The fact that the Communist Party in China. grew in a very short period fro:n a small group of 2,000 into a mass party of '60,000 members ....the fact that the Chinese Communist Party has succeeded in arousing millions of peasants from their torpor •... the fact that the Chinese Communist Party has succeeded in

• 28

.,

;

LIBERATIOR

so brier a period in gaining Illllthese achievements is due incidentally to the fact that it followed the pll.th outlined by Lenin -the path indicated by the Communist International.. ..only ultra-Left renegades and adventurists can doubt this." (J. V. Stalin, Marxism and the National and Colonial Question. Lawrence and Wishart, London. 1947, pp. 251-2) The Editorial Board suppressed this fact from its readers. (b) The present leadership of the Chinese Communist Party headed by Comrades Mao Tse-tung, Chu Teh and others cam~ to the helm of affairs some twenty years ago. It did so by waging a determined struggle against both Right and Left deviations from Marxism-Leninism, by fighting for the cOrrect Lenin-Stalin strategy and tactics of leading national liberation str~gles. U~er the leadership of Comrade MaG Tse-tung, the Chinese Communist Party mastered the tactics of realising proletarian hegemony in the liberation struggle lionel became a mighty force, rallying the vast masses of the peasantry clllpableof achieving its final historic victory. The Editorial Board sa.id nothing Illboutthis.

(c) Already in 1935, when the Chinese Communist Party under the leadership of Comrade MillOTse-tung had waged the "protracted civil' war" against Chiang Kai-shek for eight long years, the Communist International at its Seventh Congress paid a warm and glowing tribute to the Communist Pary of China and characterised it as a model for all colonial '- countries. Comrade Mao Tse-tung was elected to the Executive Committee of the Communist International. The Editoria Boa.rd suppressed this flllct from its readers. This vilification of the Communist Party of China and the slander of its great leader, Mao Tse-tung, indulged in b the Editorial Board is a serious crime against the Communis movement, against proletarian internationalism. It arose not merely out of the political ignorance an petty bourgeois arrogance of the Editorial Board. It was necessary part of the Editorial Board's Titoist Left-oppor tu~ist policy.

l'AGES FROM PARTY HISTORY

29

It was the outcome of the anti-international trend in the Editorial Board which manifested itself in the slanderous criticism of the brother Communist Parties made in the article on Revisionism
30

LIBERATIO

of its statement on Strategy and Tactics and to draw the lessons on the significance of the invaluable teaching and experience of the great Chinese Revolution for the Indian Communists and for the Indian people, to wage a persistent struggle against bourgeois nationalism which is the source of Left-opportunist deviation and of the "anti-international" trend in the old Editorial Board: to educate the vanguard of the working class in the spirit of proletarian internationalism. The statements on People's Democracy aDd on Strategy and Tactics adopted by the Editorial Board denied, as the Trotskyists did on the Chinese question, the anti-imperialist • character of the Indian revo!ution and the colonial character of India's economy, after the imposition of the Mountbatten . Award. As a result of this Left opportunist understanding, the Editorial Board negated the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal and national liberationist character of the present stage of the revolution in India.

1

PAGES FROM PARTY HISTORY

31

In his New Democracy Oomrade Mao Tse-tung defined the New Democratic,revolution in the colonies and semi-colonies 80S an anti-imperialist anti-feudal revolution, under the leadership of the working olass and the Oommunist Party. The oentral slogan of this revolution was the New Demooratic republio of all anti. imperialist classes, in whioh the leading role belonged to the working olass. This revolution was 80 part of the proletarian Socialist world revolution. The aocomplishment of the first stage of the revolution culminating in the setting up of the People's Democratio Republic and the People's Demooratic dictatorship of the anti· imperialist olasses led by the working olass opens the way to the second stage, building of Sooialist society. In propounding these great ideas whioh have been brilliantly confirmed by the historio victory of the revolution in Ohina, Oomrade Ma.o Tse-tung uttered a sharp warning against mixing the two stages. Oondemning the theory of "a single revolution" which the Ohinese Trotskyists were putting forward, Oomrade Mao said that it was an "entirely subjective thought" whioh purports to "accomplish both the politioal revolution and the social revolution in one stroke" in utter disregard of the development of the revolution, i. e., the necessity of a period of transition between one revolution and another. Such talk by oonfusing the two stages of the revolution tends to injure the cause of revolution by diminishing the importance of the demo~ratic tasks to be oarried out at the present juncture. (New Democracy, PPH, 1950, p. 20)

In its statement on Strategy and Taotios in the oourse of Seotion III, the Editorial Board has made an utterly wrong oritioism of Oomrade Mao Tse-tung's important work New Democracy. The Editorial Board has not only ridiouled the idea. that this book contained a valuable oontribution to the Lenin· Stalin theory of national liberation revolutions in the oolonies and semi-colonies. but has gone to the length of oondemning this great work as "revisionist" and placing it on a par with The Editorial Board in its statements on People's Democracy Browder's reformism and Tito's Trotskyism. This impudent and and on Strategy and Tactics has oommitted this very bankrupt criticism of Oomrade Mao's great work is the besl;. ~rotskYist mistake against which Oomrade Mao warned. This exposure of the 'Left' ·opportunist understanding and line of IS exactly the reason why the Editorial Board belittled the Editorial Board. the importance of Mao's great work on New Demooracy and had Oomrade Mao's New Democracv was the produot of thlt the conceit to suggest that it was not applicable to the present integration of Marxist·Leninst theory with the revolutionary stage of our revolution in India and to suggest in so many words praotice of the Ohinese people's liberation struggle led by the tbat it was no new contribution to the Lenin.Stalin teachings proletariat. That is why it has the most valuable lessons for on the strategy and tactics of colonial revolution (Ref. Communist, the proletariat and the Oommunist Parties in India and the Vol. II, No.4, p. 77). other oolonial countries.

Oomrade Mao Tse-tung's New Democracy,

first published

in

LIBERATIO.

Ohina. ten ~ears ago in J anuar~, 1940, is a brilliant application of the Lenin-Stalin teachings of the strategy and tactics of a. natio~l revolution in the colonies, to the tasks and problems of the Ohinese revolution. Tha.t book inspired hundreds an thousands of Ohinese Oommunists to give correct leadership to the progressive forces of the Ohinese people, who at the tim were passing through difficult times, fighting on the one ha.nd the war of resistance against Japanese aggression, while at the same time they were being subjected to a treacherous assaul

?

PAGES FROM PARTY HISTORY

33

and correctl~ expounded them in his New Democracy written ten years ago. Basing himself on Stalin's article "Internationa.l Bignifica.nce of the October Revolution" written in 1918, Oomrade Mao wrote: "Since the publication of the article, Stalin has a.gain and aga.in developed the theory rega,rding the colonial and semi. colonial revolution, its sepa,ration from the old type, and its transforma,tion into a part of the proletarian Socialist revolution." {Ohina's New Democracy, PPH, Bomhay, 1950, p. 7). In this book written in the beginning of the Second World by the Kuomintang reactionaries. The basic ideas about the N~w Democratic revolution i War, Oomrade Ma.o emphasised the fact that with all imperialist Ohina developed in this book have not only stood the test 0 ,countries as her enemies Ohina cannot attain her independence time but have been fully confirmed by the subsequent develop. without the aid of the one Socialist country (USSR) and the ment and the victorious outcome of the revolution in Ohina. internationa.l proletariat. Ohina. must join the anti-imperialist The ideas developed by Oomrade Mao in his New Democracy iront and take part in the world revolution. He very correctly have been further developed and concretised by him in hi .characterised the People's Democratic rev~lution in Ohina as later articles, especially in the article "Dictatorship of People' '180 new type of revolution, wholly or partly led b~ the proletariat, Democracy," (For a Lasting Peace, For a People's Democracy, thc first stage of which aims at setting up a New Democratic No. 14 (41), July 15, 1949). He sums-up the iessoDs a,nd .gociety, a new state of the combined dictatorship of all revoluexperience of the Ohinese revolution in the following words. tionary classes." (Ibid, p. 6) "We ha.ve a,cqnired invaluable experience and the essen Already ten years ago he foresaw the perspective of the of this experience consists· of the following three factors: Ohinese revolution-a People's Democratic revolution led by the disciplined part~ equipped with the theory of Ma,rx, Engel 1>roleta.riat directly passing over into Socialist revolution, without Lenin and Stalin, using the method of self-criticism and closel having to pass through a capitalist development, in alliance linked with the masses; an army led by this Party; a unite with and with the fraternal assistance of the Socialist Soviet front of different revolutionary sections of society and groups 1 Union-a perspective which is today not a dista.nt goal but an by this Party. Basing ourselves on these factors we won th objective of practicable achievement especially with the signing main victor~". (For a Lasting Peace, For a People's Democracy of the treaty of friendship and mutual assistance between the No. 14 (41) July 15,1949). .People's Republic of Ohina and the Soviet Union. The editorial article of the organ of the Information Burea In his New Democracy, Oomrade Mao wrote: which outlined the ta.sks of the Indian Oommunists a,nd th "The first stage of Ohina.'s revolution (which again is divided threw a sha,rp light on our Left-sectarian mistakes, has em ph into many sub-stages according to its social character, is a new .gised exactly these main IllS sons of the rich experience of th bourgeois democra.tic revolution, not the newest proletarian Ohinese revolution. Socialist revolution, though it long ago in the past became a III part of the latter, and is a magnificent part, a magnificent llolly .of it at the present. The first step or stage of this revolution Oomrade Mao Tse-tung diligently assimilated the teachin is certa.inly not to, and certainly cannot, establish a capitalist .of the great Stalin on the perspectives of the Ohinese Revoluti 3

LIBERATION

84

society dictated by the bourgeoisie, but to esta.b1ish a New Democracy ruled by the alliance of several revolutiona.ry classes, After the accomplishment of this first stage, it will be developed into the second stage-to establish the Socia.list society of China."

(Ibid, p. 9).

I n h'IS article on "The Dictatorship of Peop Ie, s D emocracy ," written on the eve of the formation of the People's Democr~tlc Government of China., Oomrade Mao Tse-tung further concre~lsed these ideas, He emphasised the fact that the victory ~f the Ohmese revolution would not have been possible nor would It. have bee.n possible to consolidllote victory llofterit had been ~ch16~ed, had It ~~ t been for the Soviet Union, for its epoch-mllokmg VlCtory over no PI' German and Japanese fascism, for the emergence of the eop e s Democracies in Europe and for the growing struggle of ~he proletariat in the capitalist countries, and for the growmg struggle of the opperssed peoples in the East, He summed up : "Internationally we belong to the anti-imperialist front, headed by the Soviet Union and for genuine friendly aid we must I ok to this front and not to the imperialist front." o Internationally, it is the alliance with the Soviet Union and the People's Democracies-the fact that China is now an integral part of the anti-imperialist democratic front h~aded by. t~e Socialist Soviet Union-that secures and consolidates Ohma s na.tional independence and facilitates her transition towards Socialism. . Internllolly, it is the leadership of the working cbss hea.ded by the Oommunist Party which follows the course indicated in the teachings of Lenin and Stalin, and the alliance with the peasantry, which forms the ba.sic condition for the successf~l development of the dictatorship of the People's Democracy Jll Ohina and for its transition through People's Democra.cy to Socialism and Oommunism. Oomrade Mlloo has laid the greatest stress on this in the article mentioned above: "Alliance of the working class, the peasantry and the urban petty bourgeoisie, and chiefly the alliance of the working clasS with the peasantry, for it comprises 80 to 90 per cent of Ohina'S

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population, constitutes the basis of the dictatorship ai fliEr' People's Democracy, Imperialism and the Kuomintang reactionary clique were overthrown primarily by the force of the working class and the peasantry. The transition from the New Democracy to Socialism depends, in the main, on the allia.nce of these two classes, The working class must lead the dictatorship of the People's Democracy, for only the working class ie the most far-sighted, just, unselfish and consistently revolutionary class. The history of all revolutions shows that without the leadership of the working class the revolution is doomed to failure. But under the leadership of the working class the revolution will be victorious", (For a Lasting Peace, For a People's Democracy, No. 14 (41), July 15,1949.). All this shows how Oomrade Mao has developed and concretised in the true spirit of Lenin-Stalin teachings the ideas about the transition of People's Democracy to Socialism in Ohina. which he formulated ten years ago in his New Democracy,

IV The Editorial Board completely ignored this brilliant exposition given by Oomrade Mao of the perspective of the People's, Democratic revolution in Ohina., and of the course of its transition to Socialism under the leadership of the working class, In the course of the article "Struggle for People's Democracy and, Socialism", the Editorial Board has made an utterl.y d~est criticism of the exposition given by Oomrade Mao Tse-tung OF the transitional measures which the People's Democratic state will have to ta.ke to consolidate its victory and to prepare the pre-requisites for the' transition to building of Socialism. (Ref. Communist, Vol. II, No.4, p. 78). The Editorial Board wrongly attributed to Oomrade Mao the view that he stood for the promotion of capitalism as the. dominant economy in the period immediately following the victory of the People's Democratic revolution. A distorted interpretation, was given of the fOllowing quotation from Mao Tse-tung's Political Report to the Seventh Oongress of the Oommunist Party of Ohina (April 24, 1945)

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which the Andhra.' Secretariat had quoted in their document to refute the a.rgument of those who sa.id tba.t at this stage of the revolution itself we have to fight against the entire bourgeoisie, against the entire capital: "Some people cannot understand why the Communists, far from being anti-pathetic to capitalism, actually promote its -development, ., What China does not want is foreign capitalism $nd native feudalism, it does not oppose native capitalism." {Mao Tse-tung, (The Fight For A New China, New Century Publishers, New York, 1945, p. 38). The Editorial Board, without bothering to see what this formulation of Comrade Mao actually meant, and in which context it was made and quoted by the Andhra Secretariat, at once proceeded to deliver the following tirade: "Is it not elementary Marxism that. if you undertake to promote capitalism you will be inevitably promoting the dictatorship of the capitalist class ... It is obvious that this promoting capitalism would mellon promoting the rule of a fascist clique like Chiang's clique, for capita.lism can only exist as fascism in China in present-da.y conditions." (Communist, Vol. II, No.4, p. 79). This is not honest criticism, but the cheapest demagogy - and slander, which only proves that the Editorial Board consists of complete ignoramuses who know nothing of the teaching of Lenin and Stalin on the transitional measures which the proletariat, having come to power, must take in order to create conditions for the transition from capitalism

.'

to Socialism. Comra.de Mao h80dnowhere spoken of the necessity of absolute development of capitalism in China. He spoke of the development of capita.lis~ in the same restricted sense in which Lenin also spel!,ks of in the following pl!,ssage for instance:

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"Without changing its essence, the proletarian state ml!,y permit free trade 80ndthe development of c80pitalism only within cerbin bounds and only on the condition tha.t the state regulates (supervises, controls, determines the forms and

methods of, etc.) private trade and private capitalism," (Lenin -Selected Works, Moscow, Two-Vol. Ed., Vol. 2, p. 761). The Editorial Board by making this ba.nkrupt criticism only proved its complete ignorance and repudiation of Lenin's and Stalin's teaching on the NEP, on the transitional economic measures which the proletariat in power must take in order to create conditions for the tr8onsition from ca.pitalism to Socialism. Stalin h80s pointed out that Lenin's teachings on the New Economic Policy are universally applicable !lond"will be absolutely indispensa.ble for every capitalist country in the period of dictatorship of the proletariat." This prophecy is today being fulfilled in the countries of People's Democracy, where the economic policy pursued today conforms to all the ba.sic principles of NEP. Comrade Mao Tee-tung was making a brilli80nt application of these teachings of Lenin and Stalin when he was defining how the People's Democratic state' will have to adopt 80correct policy towards middle industrial and trading bourgeoisie, in order to consolidate its power against the forces of foreign and native' rea.ction a.nd create the pre-requisites for the transition towards the building of Socialism. Not to see this but to t80lk of "horrifying" and "loose formulations" of Comrace Mao is nothing but the ,blind arrogance of dogmatists who refuse to learn from creative Marxism of the great leaders of international Oommunism. The Editorial Board had before it the whole report in the course of which Oomrade Mao had explained how the stage of the New Democr8otic, revolution is distinct from the stage of the Socialist revolution and how the tasks of the former wnich are in the main anti-imperialist, anti-feudal and national liberationist cannot be mixed with those of the latter which are the final liquidation of capitalism and the establishment of Socialism and Oommunism. In the same report Comrade Mao had also explained how the successful People'J Democratic revolution would prepare the pre· requisites for the establishment of Socialism by "restricting c8opital"-by ensuring that "all native or foreign enterprises that are either of tbe nature of monopolies ....for instance, banking, railways, shipping, etc ... should be managed by the state (i.e., People's Democratic state) so that private capital may not control the livelihood of the people."

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Predicting the future course of the Ohinese revolution, J. V. Stalin had pointed out years ago that •• h w en the working class wins hegemony in the Ohinese Tevolution and consolidates its alliance with the peasantry and with the working people of the town and country it will be able to OV9rcome resistance of the national bourgeoisie to achieve the complete victory of the hourgeois democratic revolution and later to shift it gradually to the course of Socialist revolution with all the consequences arising therefrom." (J. V. Stalin, Collected Works, Russ. Ed, Vol. ix, p. 222.) The revolutionary regime formed under the leadership proletariat, pointed out J. V. Stalin, will be

character of the economic order under People's Democracy-a policy which is of the utmost importance for the consolidation of the victory of the People's Democratic revolution, for tbecomplete gmashing up of the aggressive plans of American imperialism and its agents, which are by no means ended." This is what Oomrade Mao s80idin his report to the Oentral Committee of the Oommunist Party of Ohina on Dec. 25,1947 : liThe New Democratic revolution is to eliminate only feudalism snd monopoly capitalism, only the landlord cl80ssand the bureaucratic bourgeoisie (big bourgeoisie)-not capitalism inl general and not the petty and middle bourgeoisie. Owing to the backwardness of Ohina's economy it will still be necessary to permit the existence, for a long period, of the capitalist economy represented by the broad petty bourgeoisie and the middle bourgeoisie even' after the nationwide victory of the revolution.

of the

"a regime of transition to the non-capitalist or to be more precise, Socialist development of Ohina." (J. V. Stalin, Collected Works, Russ. Ed. Vol. viii, p, 366). Oomrade Mao not only asserted in general terms this Stalinist teaching about the 'non-capitalist' development of Ohina after the victory of the People's Democratic revolution, but he also {)osed and solved the concrete problems of such a development. (Jomrad'e Mao, of course, knew that

"Furthermore in accordance with the division of labour in the national economy, the development of all sections among them beneficial to the national economy will still be necessary; they will still be an indispensable part of the entire national economy.

"in a country dominated by small production in agriculture, you cannot decree Sorialism and large scale agriculture the next day-for the simple reason that the means of production for large-scale agriculture are not there and the majority of the -small producers must be won over and convinced." (Communist, -Vol. II, No.4, pp. 79-80). There was no justification whatsoever ~riticism made by the Editorial Board:

for the patronising

"Mao confuses the toleration of commodity production, small-scale production, private production under conditions of people's rule and nationalisation of big industries and banks with promoting capitalism and completely eliminates the transitional anticapitalist character of the economic order under People's Demo.cracy." (Ibid, p. 80.) But in its unseemly effort to discredit Oomrade Mao the Editorial Board has failed to take note of the glaring fact that Comrade Mao has based his policy on just this anti-capitalist

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"The petty bourgeoisie includes small-scale industrial and commercial capitalists who hire workers and employees. But besides these, there !lorethe broad, independent, small industrial and commercial businessmen who do not hire workers or employees. With regard to these small industrial and commercial businessmen, it goes without saying that they should be firmly protected. After the nationwide victory of the revolution the New Democratic state will have in its hands enormous state capital which controls the economic pulse of the entire country, taken over from the bureauratic bourgeoisie. It will also have the agricultural economy emancipated from the feudal system. Although for a quite long time the agricultural economy will ~l be basically scattered and individual, it can be guiden step by step in thc direction of co-operatives in the future. Und~ these conditions the existence and development of small and capitalist elements are not at all dangerous.

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"The same applies to the new rioh peasant eoonomy whiob will necessarily come into being in the rural areas after the agrarian revolution. "Adopting the ultra-Left, erroneous policies toward petty bourgeois and middle bourgeois economic elements as our Party did in the period from 1931 to 1934 must absolutely not be permitted to recur." (Turning Point in Ohina, New Oentury Publishers, New York, 1948, p. 16-17. ) These profound conclusions of Oomrade Mao Tse-tung have now been incorporated in the Oommon Programme of the victorious People's Republic of Ohina. Article 30, Ohapter 4 of the Oommon Programme lays down: "The People's Government shall encourage the active operation of all private economic enterprises beneficial to the national welfare and people's livelihood and foster their long- term development." But this is not promotion of capitalism as a dominant.

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eliminate private-owned capitalist economy, squeezing out of the capitalist elements.

for the

complet&

economy. This is guaranteed by the fact that: "State-owned economy is of 80 socialist nature. All enterprises vital to the economic life of the country and to the people's livelihood shall come under the unified operation of the state. All state-owned resources and enterprises are tha common property of all the people. They are the main material basis of the People's Republic for the development of production and the creation of prosperous economy and are the leading forces of the entire social economy," (Article 28, Ohapter 4 of the Oommon Programme ).

Thus we see that the Editorial Board has utterl:y refused t() ~ understand the rich content of the Lenin-Stalin policy of consolidating the regime of People's Democracy in Ohina, pursued by the Ohinese Oommunist Party and its leader Oomrade Mao. Its conceited and ignorant criticism of Oomrade Mao follows' from its 'Left' -opportunist and anti-Leninist und~rstanding of the stage of the revolution, and the new class align;ent in India, after the crossing over of the big bourgeoisie. 't; the side of imperIalism and counter-revolution. The Editorial Board dogmatically stuck to its 'Left' -opportunist conception that the entire bourgeoisie had gone over to the. camp of imperialism and reaction, It refused to understand that it was the Indian big capital (Birla-Tata-DllIlmia) like the Ohinese big capital (Four Families) that was interlocked with British colonial capital, and now with American monopoly, and was acting as their agent in maintaining India under foreign imperialist domination and 80S their colonial ba.se. It refused to see that this imperialist-big bourgeois-llmdlord combine WIloS not only oppressing workers, peasllonts and the petty bourgeoisie. but also injuring the interests of sections of the middle. bourgeoisie as well. The Editorial BOlllrd did not distinguish between the Indian big bourgeoisie and the other sections of the bourgeoisie and failed to see that it is the former that is placed in the seat of power Ilondis collaborating with imperialists 80S their agents.

It is guaranteed by the fact that the People's Democratic state led by the working class ensures the workers employed in the private-owned enterprises, proper living conditions and the protection of their rights of trade union organisation and collective bargaining as against the employers. Under these conditions the relative expansion of the small capitalist sector of economy only enables the People's Democratic state to consolidate the gains of the revolution, strengthens th& Power of the working class and creates the conditions for th& march towards Socia,list development, for the struggle to \

Thus it is not Mao's formulllltions on the development of capitalism that run counter-revolutionary, but it is the views of the Editorillol Board which repudiated the Lenin-Stalin teachings on NEP and on the restricted development of capitalism which they imply, which advance the slogans of fighting straightaway against the entire bourgeoisie, without reckoning with realities, which are oounter-revolutionary. That. is why the Editorial Board rflfused to see the necessity of adopting a correct attitude towards the middle bourgeoisie and towards the rich peasants. That is why it refused to learn any-

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thing from the great success the Chinese Communist Party achieved in forging a single united front of unprecedented breadth and depth, and which ensured their historic victory over the treacherous Chiang Kai-shek and his imperialist supporters. The significance of this experience is summed up thus: "The Communist Party of China and the People's Liberation Army of China earned the respect, recognition and love of all the people. A single united front, unprecedented in breadth and depth and unifying the workers, the peasants, the urban petty bourgeoisie, the national minorities and certain sections of the middle industrial and trading bourgeoisie was created inside the country. The petty and the middle bourgeoisie in China suffered oppression and persecution at the hands of the reactionary big bourgeoisie, the landlord class and the Kuomintang power (which was in the hands of monopoly capital). The petty and middle bourgeoisie is not or very little connected with imperi&lism. That is why this bourgeoisie, .according to the definition of Mao Tse-tung 'a real national bourgeoisie' enters into a united front of struggle against internal reaction and foreign imperialism. The basis of this united national front is the alliance of the working class and the labouring peasantry under the leading role of the working class." (V. M. Maslennikov, "On Leading Role of the Working Class in the Nationa.l Liberation Movement of tbe Colonial Peoples," Colonial People,' Struggle for Liberation, PPH, Bombay,

1950, p. 28).

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"In areas ruled by Chiang Kai-shek there is a section of the upper petty bourgeoisie and the middle bourgeoisie (i.e., the national bourgeoisie-Yo H.) who, though small in number, have reactionary political tendencies-these are the Rightist elements among these classes. They disseminate illusions about American imperialism and Chiang Kai-shek's l.'eactionary bloc. They appose the People's Democratic revolu. tion. As long a.s their rea.ctionary tendencies ca.n still influence the ma.sses we should carryon the work of exposing such tendencies among the masses who have been under their influence. Blows should be del~vered at their political influence among the masses, so as to liberate the masses from their influence." (Mao Tse-tung, "Present Situation a.nd Our Tasks", quoted by Yu Hua.i in People's China, Vol. I, No.1, Jan. 1, J 950, pp. 9-10). The experience of the Chinese Oommunist Party shows that the task of bringing this section of the bourgeoisie, the middle bourgeoisie, into the common front against internal reaction and foreign imperialism, was very importa.nt for the final victory
At the same time it is necessary to remember that the bringing of the middle bourgeoisie into such a united front cannot be achieved without conducting a correct struggle against this llection of the bourgeoisie, which wavers during the course of the revolution between the reactionary bloc of the big bourgeoisie and imllerialism on the one hand and the camp of democratic revolution on the other, supporting at one time the former and joining at others the latter. This is what Comrade This aspect of the Ohinese experience and of the teaching of Mao Tse-tung said about a section' of this bourgeoisie in his report of the historic to the Centra.l Oommittee of the Oommunist Party of China in Comrade Mao Tse-tung is a concrete application ana.lysis given by Oomrade Stalin, of the role of the national December, 1947 :

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bourgeoisie, of its compromlSlng and revolutionary section in the anti .imperialist liberation struggles of the peoples a colonies and semi-colonies, particularly of India and Cbina (Speech to the Students of the University of the Toiler of the East, 1925). The Editorial Board has dogmatically ignored and repudiated this teaching of Comra.de Stali on the role of the two sections of the national bourgeoisie and on the strategy and tactics of the proletariat in the struggle fa consolidating its hegemony in the national liberation struggle.

v It is of the utmost importance for the Indian Communist to diligently study this experience garnered by the Chinese Communist Party in the course of its historic revolutionary struggle. This is all the more important today when the nationa liberation struggles of the Indian people, which is now being led by the Indian working class. has entered into a new phase, when the resolute struggle of ~orking class, peasantry and other progressive forces for a living W!l.ge, land and democracy, are rising to a higher form of struggle for land and for national liberation. It would be impossible people's liberation struggle

for us to raise the countrywide to a higher level and to lead it to

victory unless we learn to bring the great masses of the peasantry under the leadership of the proletariat, unless we learn to draw them into the revolutionary struggle against feudal landlordism and for land. The vast experience of the Cbinese Communist Party in unleashing the agraria.n revolution, in combining the peasants' struggle for land with the people's liberation struggle againsl; the imperialists and other bourgeois collaborato~sl in consolidalinlt workers' -peasants' alliance under proletarian hegemony through the different sta.ges of this struggle. is of immense importanceto the Indian Oommunists. The Andhra comrades. who have the experience of leading the great Telengana strnggle, had very 'correctly~raised'a pertinent; point:

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"Our revolution in many respects differs from the cla.ssical . revolution • and is to a great extent similar to the 'RusSIan Chinese revolution. The perspective is likely not that of general '!ltrikes and general rising leading to the liberation of the rural '!lide. but the dogged resistance and prolonged struggle in the form .of an agrarian revolution culminating in the coming into power of the democratic front." . But the Editorial Board instead of giving a straight answer to this question rejected the Oninese path outright. They accused the Andhra comrades of reformism, of counterposing the Russian way to the Chinese way and of ignoring the hegemony of the proletariat. Actually it was the Editorial " Board itself which was guily of reformist sabotage and disruption of the struggle for unleashing the agratian revolution. Holding fast to its 'Left' -opportunist analysis of the agrarian Question and talking loud of fighting capitalist elements in the countryside, pursuing Left-adventurist tactics in the cities, the Editorial Board systematically neglected and disrupted the developing of the anti-feudal struggle of the peasantry in certain areas. It completely ignored the central lesson of the revolutionary experience of the Chinese Communist Party and remained deaf to the clarion call of the Peking Conference of Trade Unions of Asian and Australasian Countries until the editorial article of the Information

Bureau's

organ roused it.

The enormous significance of the Chinese revolutionary experience to the working class of all colonial countries was specially emphasised in the Ma.nifesto of the Peking Conference of Trade Unions of Asian and Australasian Countries and in the .editorial article in the organ of the Information Bureau. The latter had drawn pointed atten tion of the Indian Communists to the important formulation made by Comrade Liu Shao-chi in the course of his inaugural address to the Peking Oonference of the Trade Unions of Asia and Australasia: "The path taken by the Chinese people .is the path that should be taken by the people of many colonial and dependent countries in their struggle for national liberation."

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The path taken by the Chinese people is the correc application of the Lenin-Stalin teaching of securing the hegemony of the proletariat in the national liberationist and anti-feudllo revolution in the colonies and semi.colonies, to the concrete conditions of the Chinese revolution. The final victory of the Chinese Revolution, and the experience of the postwar phase of the national liberation struggles in the countries of South. East Asia-Viet Nam, Burma, Indonesia, Malaya, Philippines, etc., has complete_y proved the general applicability of the path taken by the Chinese people. Comrade Mao Tse tung has brilliantly summed up the essence of this Chinese experience. Basing themselves on the well-known generalisation of Com. Stalin namely, that "the characteristic and the advantage of the Chinese rev.)lution is the armed people against the armed counter-revolution", the Chinese Communist Party and Comrade Mao Tse.tung came to the correct conclusion that "in China without armed struggle there will be no place for the proletariat, no place for people, no place for the Communist Party and no victory of the revolution". Tn the early months of 1928, in conditions of nationwide Kuomintang white terror, the Chinese people, led by the Communist Party of China, established a number of small revolutionary bases as the starting point of the strs.tegy to safeguard the revolutionary forces and to combat the counterrevolutionary forces, Comrade Mao has summed up the essence of the path taken by the Chinese people in the following terms: "It is erratic to ignore the principles of armed struggle~t the revolutionary wars, guerilla warfares and political work in tbe army. "Faced with such enemies, questions arise concerning the special revolutionary bases. The great imperialist powers and their reactionary allied armies in China hve alwa.ys indefinitely occupied the important Chinese cities. If the revolutionary force refuses to compromise with foreign imperialism and its servile underlings, but contrarily, to struggle to the very end, and if the revolutionary force is to accumulate and nurture its own

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strength and avoid fighting decisive battles with the powerful enemies when its own strength is not yet ascertained, then it must turn the backward remote rural areas into progressive strong bases, turning them into great military, political, economic and cultural revolutionary strongholds. Then from these strongholds, the revolutionary force can start to drive out the malicious enemies based on the large cities encroaching upon the villages; also from these strongholds, the revolutionary forces may, through prolonged struggles, gradually achieve total success. Under such conditions, and because of the unbalanced condition of the Chinese economic development (the rural economy is not entirely dependent on urban economy), and of the VlLstness of China's territories (there is immense space for the revolutionary forces to fall back to), and of the disunity and conflicts existing in the Chinese anti-revolutionary camp and of the fact that the main force of the Chinese revolution, the Chinese peasantry, is under the leadership of the Communist Party, thus, on the one hand, there is a great possibility for the Chinese revolution to succeed, first and foremost, in the countryside Thus we can understand why these prolonged revolutionary struggles, starting out from such special strongholds, are composed chiefly of peasant guerilla warfares under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. It is erratic to ignore the principles of rural districts as revolutionary bases, the strenuous work amongst the peasll.ntry and guerilla warfa.re. "But in stressing upon the importance of armed struggle, we must not overlook the other form which revolutionary struggles must take, for without the other form of revolutionary struggles, armed struggles alone cannot be victorious. In stressing upon the importance of the work in the rural bases, Wedo uot mellonto give up the work in cities and towns or in other rural districts which have not yet become ba.ses, for without these, the revolutionary strongholds would become isolated, and the revolution would be a failure. Beca.use the ultimate aim of the revolution is to secure the town strongholds from the enemies, and without sufficient work done in the cities and towns, this aim can never be achieved". ("The Chinese

48 revolution and the Communist Vol. V, No. 10, p 16).

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Party

of China",

Ohina Digest,

Summing up the experience of the 22 years of armed struggle of the Chinese Revolution, Comrade Chu Teh writes: "This armed struggle of the Chinese people is not an isolated purely military struggle. It is an armed struggle based on the firm alliance of the workers and peasants, uniting, at the sa.me time, with other people among the broad masses. "This armed struggle is closely linked up with, and i inseparable from, the peasa.nts' agrarian revolution. Had there been no support for the peasants' agrarian revolution, it would have been impossible to organise such an armed struggle. I the proletariat had not united with the peasants and with the other forces in the countryside capable of being won for a broad united front, had it adopted 'Leftist' adventurism in its policies it would not have been possible to direct the armed struggle t victory.......... (For A Lasting Peace, For A People's Democracy, No. 17 (44), Sept. I, 1949). The Editorial Board's rejection of the path taken by th Chinese people led to the advocacy of the reformist sabotag and disruption of the developing anti.feudal struggles 0 the peasantry. It led in practice to refusal to struggle t realise proletarian hegemony, to forge alliance with the vas masses of the peasantry Ilond to lead them in the revolutionar struggle for land, merging the same with the struggle for nation a liberation against imperialism and its lackeys. Chinese experience teaches important lassons as to how th I proletariat and its Party coordinate the struggle for the agraria revolution in the rural areas, with the struggle of the workin class and other democratic forces in the cities, how it secure proletarian hegemony in the struggle for national liberation, an how it gathers together and strengthens the revolutionary forc with which it delivers crushing blows against the imperialis oppressor and its agents till final victory is won. In this connection it is of the utmost importance to ponde . .deeply over the following very important formulations made b

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Comrade Liu Shao-chi in his report to the of Trade Unions of Asia and Australasia:

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"The rule of the imperialists and their lackeys in the colonies -and semi-colonies deprives the people of all democratic rights 80S it had done in Ohina in the past. Persecuted and hounded by the imperialists and their lackeys in the cities where white terror reigned, our revolutionaries were compelled to seek refuge in the countryside and mountains and to defend their lives with -armed force. However, had such armed struggle been confined to defence alone, it would inevitably have been crushed by imperialism and its hirelings. Thus the revolutionaries had to be closely linked with the peasants. as well 80S with all other people who opposed imperialism, to use all ways and means to smash repeated offensives and break through the encirclement organised by imperialism and its hirelings; they could not but organise regular revolutionary armies to smash the armies of the imperialists and their lackeys. However, it was precisely because of this that it was possible to build up a strong revolutionary 1!ormyand ultimately drive out the forces of imperialism a:rad its lackeys and win victory in the national liberation struggle. It is quite clear that without such armed forces to defend themselves, the peoples of the co lonies and semi-colonies will not be able to achieve anything for themselves. The existence and development of working class organisation and the existence and development of a national united front are closely connected with the existence and development of such an armed struggle. This is the inevitable path of many colonial and semi-colonial peoples in the struggle for their independence and national liberation,"

VI The Editorial Board not only rejected the path taken by the Chinese people but sought to give the same dishonest interpretation' of the course of the Chinese revolution which the Trotskyites gave and which Stalin sternly refuted ( ref. : Section I.), The Editorial Board quoted a long extract from the Colonial Thesis of the Sixth World Congress of the 4

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Communist International (1928), distorted its meaning an drew from it the false conclusion that the Chinese peopl had to go through a protracted civil war because the Chines Communist Party committed reformist mistakes, because i was unable to fight correctly for the hegemony of th proletariat. But the Editorial Board hid from the Party ranks how th Seventh Oongress of the Oommunist International which me in 1935 evaluated the achievements of the Ohinese Oommunis Party during the seven long years of civil WIU. Oomrad Wilhelm Pieck in his report on the activities of the Oommunis International said: "The Ohinese Revolution provides the first model of a colonial revolution in which the ideological and also, in itlit initial form, the state hegemony of the proletariat is realised In the Ohinese working class the colonial proletariat has proved in practice its ability to settle great historical problems, t maintain - the ~omplete economic and political independence 0 the country, to completely abolish feudal survivals, to put an end to large landed proprietorship, to excise the cancer of usury, and to undertake revolutionary changes that clear the wa.y for Socialism," (W. Pieck, "The Activities of the EOOI", Report$ of the World Oongre,s$ of the Oommunist International, Workers' Library Publishers, New York, 1935 p, 60). ' Thus the protracted civil war was a model exa.mple and a source of inspiration to the proletariat and the peoples 0 the colonies : "The Oommunist Party of Ohina sets a.n exa.mple for aU Communists of the colonies and dependent countries." (Ibid, p. 96). Oomrade Pieck summed years of civil war which the

up the Ohinese

achievements of the eight Communist Pa.rty fought

between the years of the Sixth and Seventh World Congresse of the Oommunist International: " the great road which the Communist Pa.rty of Chin has traversed in the interval between the Sixth Congress an the Seventh, a roa.d that fills the hearts of the Communists a

51

a.ll the world with pride and joy (Warm applause). The comrades showed us how the Party has grown into a mighty mass organisation, how a Red Army was created and how the new Soviet state was established. They showed us how former workers, peasants, artisans and students have developed into military commanders and statesmen and how under the leadership of the Party, a people of 450,000,000, downtrodden and martyred by the imperialists, is waging a. fight for its, emancipation." (Ibid, p. 96). The great experience of these early years of the civil war during which the Ohinese Oommunists, in the face of Kuomintang's armed might and white terror, created their People's Liberation Army and established people's power in the first liberated areas, has great lessons for the pe'lples of the colonial countries, particularly in the present period, It is particularly important for us to know and understand the source of their strength and the secret of these achievements of theirs. Oomrade Wang Ming has explained it thus in his report: "Our Party is true to the teachings of one who, after the death of Lenin, continued to develoIl further the theory and tactics of Marxism-Leninism in general, and the theory and tactics of Marxism-Leninism as applied to colonial revolutions in particular, who developed the theoretical foundations of the strategy and tac~ics of the Ohinese Revolution-to the teachings of the great Stalin! "The Oommunist Party of Ohina has grown and become strong on the basis of an irreconcilable struggle against counterreVOlutionary Trotskyism and liquidationist Ohen Tu-hsiuism, against the semi-Trotskyist Li Li-hsianist line and counterrevolutionary Lo Ohang-Iunism. It has grown and become strong on the basis of an active particip at ion in the leadership of various forms of mass struggle in the anti-imperialist and agrarian revolution. It is precisely this growth of the forces of the Oomm unist Party of Ohina that permits it boldly and deCiSively to raise in a new manner the question of the anti. imperialist united front." (Wang Ming, "The Revolutionary Movement in the Colonial dountries", Reports of the World

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Congress of the Communist International, Publishers, New York, 1935, p. 33).

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betrayal, remained basically national liberationist in character and directed towards the overthrow of imperialist domination. He ~rmlY kept in, view Stalin's warning uttered in 1927 : . The bourgeOIS democratic revolution in Chinll. is directed not only aga.inst feudal remnants, It ill at the same time directed against imperialism."

7

The relentless struggle a.gainst Right-reformist opportunism, as well as against "Left"-sectaria.n opportunism, which Comrade Mao Tse-tung carried on; while guiding the course of the Chinese revolution through its various stages and zig-zags during two decades and more, has extremely valuable lessons for Indian Communists.

This basic fact created favourable conditions for the Chinese proletariat and its Party to create a broad united people's front

During the first sta.ge of the Chinese revolution (1925-27) Comrade Mao fought th~ Right-reformist opportunism of those who adopting a conciliatory attitude towards Kuominta.ng reactionaries like Chiang Kai-shek or Wang Ching-wei, advoca.ted liquidation of the peasants' revolutionary struggle for la.nd. Comrade Mao firmly upheld the Stalinist line that the proletariat must lead pea.sants' revolutionary struggle against feudll.lism and for land, in order to support the nationa.l liberation struggle aga.inst imperialism, in order to defeat the treachery of the Kuomintang reactionaries, {

1 ,

During the period of anti-Japanese war (1937-45) Comrade Mao again severely condemned the opportunism of those who, adopting a conciliatory attitude towards Kuomintang reactionaries headed by Chiang Kai-shek, wanted to liquidate the peasants' struggle for land by saying that it would break the anti-Japanese united front with Kuomintang. Comrade Mao firmly upheld the Shalinist teaching on the Chinese revolution that the proletariat must lead the peasant war, must develop the armed struggle of the peasantry for land. Comrade Mao kept Stalin's warning given in 1927 firmly in view: "The anti-imperialist united front in China will be all the stronger and more powerful, the sooner and more thoroughly the Chinese peasant is drawn into revolution," During the Chinese movement, opportunism important fact that

the ten-year period of the civil wad1927-37), when proletariat was leading the agrarian revolutionary Comrade Mao sternly opposed the Left-sectarian of those who tended to forget the extrem,ely politica.l factors of anti-imperialism, who ignored the China's revolution, even after Chiang Kai.shek's

53

embracing workers, peasan~s, the petty bourgeoisie, revolutionar; intelligentsia and sections of the bourgeoisie which were prepared to support the struggle against imperialism and its Kuomintang lackeys. Comrade Mao correctly and persistently guided the Party in building such a front under the leadership of the work. ing class and its Communist Party, It was this fight against Right-reformist opportunism as well as against "Left"-sectarian opportunism conducted by Comrade ~ao, which enabled the Chinese Communist Party to correctly wIeld the weapon of Stalinist revolutionary strategy and tlloetics and lead the revolution to victory. It enabled the Chineso Communist Party to go on developing the armed struggle on the one hand, while at the Sll.me time carrying out the mobilisation of the broad masses in the cities and areas which were under the domination of imperialism and Kuomintang reaction on the other, by skilfully combining revolutionary activities and organisation with open legal struggle of the masses in these latter areas and thus muster powerful revolutionary forces to ~aunch a.n offensive on the rea.ctionary rule of imperia.lism and ItS stooges at the ripe moment.

VII Such are the lessons which arise out of Comrade Mao's struggle against Right and Left deviations from M . L " arxlsm_ e~IDlsm. These are of particular importance to the ranks of Indian Communists at the present time, when they have to Conduct a ruthless struggle against all trends of bourg . n t' ems lon.al ,reformism and for the complete liquidation of Leftctariamsm, when they have to wield the weapon of criticism

s:

54

LIBERATION PAGES FROM PARTY HISTORY

1

and self-criticism in order to reunify the movement on the basis of the correct Lenin-Stalin strategy and tactics, so that it can place itself at th-e~head of the risini'iiiJIieaval of ii"iL£ional libera. tion struggle.

The criminal attack on Com. Mao Tse-tung was published just at the time when the great People's Liberation Army of China, led by the Communist Party and its leaders Mao Tee-tung and Chu Teh, had begun its final victorious march for the liberation of the entire Chinese soil from the grip of the Kuomintang clique and its American protectors. It did incalculable harm to our movement. It prevented Communist cadres from leading a pOwerful mass movement of solidarity with the victorious Chinese revolution, from explaining to the masses of our people the significance of the triumph of the popular revolution in China which was one of the most devastating blows delivered against the imperialist system since the Great October Revolution. It prevented them from assimilating and applying to our conditions the teachings of Comrade Mao Tse-tung, the rich revolutionary experience of the great Chinese Communist Party. All this shows very clearly how strong is the influence of bourgeois nationalism in the leadership of our movement, and in the leading Communist cadres and how weakly developed is our loyalty to the prinCiple of proletarian internationalism. The warning voice of the editorial of the organ of the Information Bureau, and the clarion call of the Peking Oonference of Tra.de Unions of Asia and Australasia have awakened us. The leadership and the ranks of our movement are now engaged in a wighty collective effort to correct the past Leftopportunist mistakes, to sharpen and finalise our understanding of the new political line in the light of self-criticism, of the past experience of mass struggle, to regroup our forces and to unify them solidly for the practical execution of the new tactical line. It is the duty of the Editorial Board to wage a consistent ideological struggle against bourgeois nationalism, which is the

common root of our Right-reformist deviations.

55 as well as Left-opportunist

It is necessary for the Editorial Board to initiate a systematic campaign to educate the vanguard of the working class in the spirit of proletarian internationalism. The Editorial

Board, therefore, resolves as follows:

Oorrect Marxist-Leninist exposure of bourgeois nationalist ideologies such as ·liberalism. petty bourgeois anarchism and Gandhism, especially the latter, must form part of the education syllabus for Oommunist cadres. The Editorial Board must concentrate on systematic ideological exposure of Gandhism as practised by the Oongress leaders through propaganda articles. . (a)

(b) The Editorial Board must devote special attention to the exposure of the ideological propaganda and policies of the leaders of the Socialist Party. Exposure of the Gandhian propaganda which these le!loders carryon among the masses to emascul/l,te them and sa,botage their struggle is an important part of the struggle against bourgeois nationalism. It is equa.lly important to expose the cosmopolitanism a.nd "neutrality" of these leaders showing them up as the agents of reactionary British Labour leaders, as the anti-Soviet propa.gandists of the American warmongers, (c) The Editorial Board must ta.ke steps to acquaint the Oommunist ranks with the most important authoritative documents of the struggle against bourgeois nationalism and for proletarian internationalism started by the Information Bureau of the Oommunist and Workers' Pa.rties with its historic resolution on the "Situation in Yugoslavia", (d) To organise and facilitate the systematic study of the authoritative documents !londreports of the Ohinese Oommunist Farty, its history and the writings of its leaders, the Editorial Board must publish all these and make them !loVlloilableto Communist ranks and enable them to assimilate the experience 1\nd lessons of the Chinese revolution. In conclusion, the Editorial Board gives its solemn pledge to the Oommunist Pady of Ohina, to its leader Mao Tse-tung and

54

LIBERATIO:N PAGES FROM PARTY HISTORY

1

and self-criticism in order to reunify the movement on the basis of the correct Lenin-Sta.lin stra.tegy and tactics, so that it can place itself at th"6-head of the risiniUiii1'eival of ~ional libera. tion struggle. The criminal attack on Com. Mao Tse-tung was published just at the time when the great People's Liberation Army of China, led by the Communist Party and its leaders Mao Tse-tung and Chu Teh, had begun its final victorious march for the liberation of the entire Chinese soil from the grip of the Kuomintang clique and its American protectors. It did incalculable harm to our movement. It prevented Communist cadres from leading a pOwerful mass movement of solidarity with the victorious Chinese revolution, from explaining to the masses of our people the significance of the triumph of the popular revolution in China which was one of the most devastating blows delivered against the imperialist system since the Great October Revolution. It prevented them from assimilating and applying to our conditions the teachings of Comrade Mao Tse-tung, the rich revolutionary experience of the great Chinese Communist Party. All this shows very clearly how strong is the influence of bourgeois nationalism in the leadership of our movement, and in the leading Communist cadres and how weakly developed is our loyalty to the prinCiple of proletarian internationalism. The wa.rning voice of the editoria.l of the organ of the Information Burea.u, and the clarion call of the Peking Oonference of Trllode Unions of Asia. and Australasia have awakened us. The leadership and the ranks of our movement are now engaged in a wighty collective effort to correct the pa.st Leftopportunist mista.kes, to sharpen a.nd finalise our understanding of the new political line in the light of self-cl'iticism, of the past experience of ma.ss struggle, to regroup our forces and to unify them solidly for the practical execution of the new tactical line. It is the duty of the Editoria.l Board to wage a consistent ideological struggle against bourgeois nationalism, which is the

common root of our Right-reformist deviations.

55 as well as Left-opportunist

It is necessary for the Editoria.l Board to initiate a systematic campaign to educate the vangua.rd of the working class in the spirit of proletarian internationalism. The Editorial

Board, therefore,

resolves as follows:

(a) Oorrect Ma.rxist-Leninist exposure of bourgeois Dationa.list ideologies such as 'liberalism, petty bourgeois anarchism and Ga.ndhism, Elspecially the latter, must form pa.rt of the education syllabus for Oommunist cadres. The Editorial Board must concentrate on systematic ideological exposure of Gandhism a.s practised by the Oongress leaders through propaga.nda articles. . (b) The Editorial Board must devote special attention to the exposure of the ideological propaganda and policies of the leaders of the Socialist Party. Exposure of the Ga.ndhian propaganda which these lelloders ca.rry on a.mong the masses to emasculll.te them and sa,bota.ge their struggle is an important part of the struggle against bourgeois nationalism. It is equa.lly important to expose the cosmopolitanism a.nd "neutrality" of these leaders showing them up as the agents of reactionary British Labour leaders, as the anti-Soviet propagandists of the American warmongers. (0) The Editorial Board must. tll.ke steps to acquaint the Communist ra.nks with the most important authoritative documents of the struggle a.ga.inst bourgeois nationa.lism and for proletaria.n internationalism started by the Information Bureau of the Oommunist Mid Workers' Parties with its historic resolution on the "Situation in Yugoslavia.". (d) To organise and fa.cilitate the systema.tic study of the authoritative documents a.nd reports of the Ohinese Oommunist Party, its history and the writings of its leaders, the Editorial Board must publish all these and make them ll.vailable to Oommunist ranks and enable them to assimilate the experience 1londlessons of the Ohinese revolution. In conclusion, the Editorial Board gives its solemn pledge to the Oommunist Party of Ohina, to its leader Ma.o Tse-tung Ilond

56

LIBERATI 0

to the international Communist movement, that it will wag a tireless ideological struggle against bourgeois nationalism an to steel the vanguard of the Indian working class in the spiri of Stalinist proletarian internationalism, so that it may b capable of unleashing and heading the mighty nationalliberatio struggle of our people and enable them to take their rightfu place in the great anti-imperialist and democratic camp led b the Soviet Union, in the fight for lasting peace, People' Democracy and Socialism.

QUOTATIONS

FROM COMRADE

Mao Tse-tung

•

•

-Mao

Tse-tung

I. No Investigation,

No Right To Speak

Unless you have investigated a problem, you will be deprivedl of the right to speak on it. Isn't that too harsh? Not in the least. When you have not probed into a. problem, into the present facts and its past history, and know nothing of its essentials, whatever you say about it will undoubtedly be nonsense. Talking nonsense solves no problems, as everyone knows, so why is it unjust to deprive you of the right to speak? Quite a few comrades always keep their eyes shut and talk nonsense, and for a Communist that is disgraceful. How can a Communist keep his eyes shut and talk nonsense? It won't do ! It won't do I You must investigate! You must not talk nonsense I

II. To Investigate A Problem Is To Solve It

Communists must always go into the whys and where fores of anything, use their own heads and carefully think ove whether or not it corresponds to reality and is reu.lly weI founded; on no account should they follow blindly an encourage slavishness.

•

Oppose Book Worship

•

An erroneous leadership that endangers the revolution should not be accepted unconditiona.lly but should be resisted resolutely.

You can't solve a problem? Well, get down and investigate, the present facts and its past history I When you have investi. gated the problem thoroughly, you will know how to solve it. Conclusions invariably come after investigation, and not before. Only a hlockhead cudgels his brains on his own, or togetherwith a group, to "find a solution" or "evolve a:1 idea" without making any investigation. It must be stressed that this cannot possibly lead to aI1Y effective solution or any good idea. In other words, he is bound to arrive "at a wrong solution and a. Wrong idea. There are not a few comrades doing inspection work, as well as guerrilla leaders and cadres newly in office, who like to make political pronouncements the moment they a.rrive at a. place and who. strut about, criticizing this and condemning that when they have only seen the surfa.ce of things or minor deta.ils.

.58 LIBERATI 0

OPPOSE BOOK WORSHIP

Such purely subjective nonsensicsl talk is indeed detestable These people are bound to make a mess of things, lose the con. fidence of the masses and prove incapable of solving any probleD:1 at all. . When they come scross ditncult problems, quite a numbe of people in leading positions simply hea.ve a sigh without being able to solve them. They lose patience and ask to be transferred on the ground that they "have not the ability and cannot do the job". These are cowa.rds' words. Just get moving on your two legs, go the rounds of every section placed under your {lha.rge and "inquire into everything":!. as Confucius did, and then you wiII be able to solve the problems, however, little your ability; for although your head may be empty before you go out of doors, it wiII be empty no longer when you return but wiII contain all sorts of material necessary for the solution of the problems. and that is how problems are solved. Must you go out of doors? Not necessarily. You can ca.ll a fact-finding meeting of people familiar with the situation in order to get at the Source of what you call a difficult problem and come to know how it stands now, and then it will be easy to solve your difficult problem. Investiga.tion may be likened to the long months of pregnancy, and solving a problem to the day of birth. To investigate a problem is, indeed, to solve it. III.

Oppose

Book

Worship

Whatever is written in a book is right·-such is still the mentality of culturally backward Chinese pessants. Strangely enough, within the Communist Party there sre also people who always say in s discussion, "Show me where it's written in the book," When we ssy ~hat s directive of a higher organ of leadership is correct, that is not just because it comes from "a higher organ of leadership" but becaase its contents conform with both the objective and subjective circumstances of the 'iltruggle and meet its requirements. It is quite wrong to take a formalistic attitude and blindly carry out directives without discussing and examining them in the light

1

59

.of actual conditions simply because they come from a higher organ. It is the mischief done by this formalism which explains why the line and tactics of the Party do not take deeper root among the masses. To carry -out a directive of a higher organ blindly, and seemingly without any disagreement, is not really to carry it out ut is the most artful way of opposing or sabotaging it. [Emphasis added]. The method of studying the socia.l sciences exclusively from the book is likewise extremely dangerous and msy even lead orie
I

How can we overcome book worship? dnvestigate the actual situation. IV.

The only way is to

Without Investigating The Actual Situation, There 'Is Bound To Be An Idealist Appraisal Of Class Forces And An Idealist Guidance In Work, Resulting Either In Opportunism Or Putschism.

Do you doubt this conclusion? Facts will force you to Mcept it.. Just try and appraise the political situation or guide the struggle without making any investigation, and yoq will see whether or not such appraisal or guidsnce is groundless and idealist and whether or not it will lead to opportunist or puts-

60

LIBERATIQ

chist errors. Certainly it will. This is not because of failure mll.ke Oll.reful plans before taking Il.ction but becll.use of failure study tbe specific socill.l situation carefully before making th plans, as often bappens in our Red Army guerrilla units. ~ffice of the Li Kuei9 type do not discriminate when they pUnIsh th men for offences. As 80result, the offenders feel they hllove bee unfairly treated, many disputes ensue, and the leaders lose a prestige. Does this not happen frequently in the Red Army? We must wipe out ide8.lism and guard against a.ll opportunis and putschist errors before we can succeed in winning over th masses 8.nd defeating the enemy. The only wayl to wipe ou idealism is to mll.ke the effort and investigate the actua situation.

V.

f

The Aim Of Social And Economic Investigation I To Arrive At A Correct Appraisal Of Class Force And Then To Formulate Correct Tactics Fpr Th Struggle.

This is our answer to the question: Why do we have t investigate social and economic conditions? Accordingly, th object of our investigation is all the social classes a.nd no fragmentary socia.l phenomena. Of late, the comrades in th Fourth Army of tbe Red Army h8.ve gener8.lly given attentio to the work of investig8.tion 8, but the method many of the employ is wrong: The results of their investigation are therefore as trivial as a grocer's accounts, or resemble the man strange tales a country bumpkin hears when he comes to town, or 8.re like 8. distant view of a populous city from a mount8.in top. Tbis kiild of investig8.tion is of little use and C8.nnot achieve our main purpose. Our main purpose is to learn th& political and economic situation of the various social classes. The outcome of our investigation should be a picture of th& present situation of e8.ch class 8.nd the ups and downs of its development. For example, when we investigate the composition of the peasantry, not only must we know the number 0 owner-peasants, semi-owner peasants and tenant-peasants, wh are differentiated according to tenancy relat~onships, but r.n0r \ especially we must kn~w the number of nch pe8.sants. mlddl

61

()PPOSE BOOK WORSHIP

e!losants and poor pessants, who are differentiated according to ~l!losSor stratum. Wben we investigate the composition of the merchants, not only must we know the number in each trade, 1luch as grain, clothing, medicinal herbs. eto., but more especi8.11y we must know tbe number of small merchants, middle merchants find big merchants. We should investigate not only the state of each trade, but more especially the class relations within it. We should investigste the relationships not only between the different trsdes but more especially between the different classes. Our chief method of investigation must be to dissect the different sociaL classes, the ultim8.te purpose being to understand their interrel8.tions, to arrive st a correct apprsis8.1 of class forces and then to formulate the correct t8.ctics for the struggle, defining which classes constitute the main force in the revolutionary struggle, which classes are to be won· over as allies snd which dasses sre to be overthrown. This is our sale purpose. What are the social :are: The The The The The The The The The The The The The

clll.Sses requiring

investig8.tion?

They

industrial proletariat handicraft workers farm lsbourers poor peasants urb8.n poor lumpen-proletariat master handicraftsmen small merchants middle peasants rich peasants lsndlords com mercial bourgeoisie industrial bourgeoisie.

In our investigation we should give attention to the state d all these classes or strats. Only'the industrial proletariat 1l.nd industrial bourgeoisie are absent in the sreas where we are

---

"::ow working, and we constantly Our tactics of struggle are tactics 1l.ndstrata..

-

come across a.ll the others. in rela.tion to all these classes

62

LIBERATION

OPPOSE BOOK WORSHIP

63

Another serious shortcoming in our past investigations. Therefore, we must at all times study social conditions and make has been the undue stress on the countryside to the neglect practical investigations. Those comrades who are inflexible, of the towns, so that many comrades have always been VllogU6 conservative, formalistic and groundlessly optimistic think that about our tactics towards the urban poor and the commercial the present tactics of struggle are perfect, that the "book of . bourgeoisie. The development of the struggle has enabled documents"li of the Party's Sixth National Oongress guarantees us to leave the mountains for the plains.
I

I I

\.

LIBERATIO~

They should be people well acquainted with social and ( economic conditions. As far as age is concerned, older people are best, because they are rich in experience and not only know .41 what is going on but understand the causes and effects. Young people witb experience of struggle should also be included, because they have progressive ideas and sharp eyes. As far as occupation is concerned, there should be workers, peasants, merchants, intellectuals. and or.casionally soldiers, and sometimes even vagrants. Naturally, when a. particular subject is being looked into, those who have nothing to do with it need not "be present. For enmple, workers, peasants and s~udents need not attend when commerce is the subject of investigation. 3. Which is better, ~ la.rge fact-finding meeting or a small one? That depends on the inves~igator's ability to conduct a meeting. If he is good at it, a meeting of as many as a dozen or even twenty or more people can be called. A large meeting has its adva;ntages; from the answers you get fairly accurate statistics (e.g., in finding out the percentage of poor peasants in the total peasant population) and fairly correct conclusions (e.g .• in finding out whether equal or differentiated land redistribution is better). Of course, i~ has its disadvl\ntages too; unless you are skilful in conducting meetings, you will find it difficult to keep order. 80 the number of people attending llo meeting depends on the competence of the investigator. However, the minimum is three, or otherwise the information obtained will be too limited to correspond to the real situation. 4. Prepare a detailed outline for the investigation. A detailed outline should be prepared beforehand, and the investigator should ask questions according to the outline, with those present at the meeting giving their answers. Any points which are unclear or doubtful should be put up for discussion. The dehiled outline should include main subjects and subheadings and also detailed items. For instance, taking commerce as a main subject, it can have such sub-headings as cloth. grain, other necessities and medicinal herbs; again, under cloth, there can be such detailed items as calico, homespun and silk and satin.

()PPOSE BOOK WORSHIP

5.

65

Personal participation

Everyone with responsibility for gIVIng leadership-from the chairman of the township government to ~the chairman of the central government, from the detachment leader to the {Jommander-in-chief, from the secretary of a Party branch to the general secretary-must personally undertake investigation into the specific social and economic conditions, and not merely rely on reading reports. For investigation and reading reports are two entirely different things. 6. Probe deeply Anyone new to investigation work should make one or two thorough investigations in order to gain full knowledge of a particular place (say, a village or a town) or a particular problem (Bay, the problem of grain or currency). Deep probing into a particular place or problem will make future investigation of ·other places or problems easier. 7. Make your own notes The investigator should not only preside at fact-finding meetings and give proper guidance to those present but should 31so make his own notes and record the results himself. To .have others do it for him is no good.

Notes 1. See Oonfucian Analects, Book III, "Pa Yi": "When -Confucius entered the Ancestral Temple, he inquired into every thing." 2. Li Kuei was a hero in the well-known Ohinese novel Shui Hu Ohuan (Heroes of the marshes) which describes the peasant war that occurred toward the end of the Northern Sung "Dynasty (960.1127). He was simple. outspoken and very loy&l to the revolutionary cause of the peasants, but crude and tactless. 3. Oomrade Mao Tse-tung has always laid great stress on investigation, regarding social investigation as the most important task and the basis for defining policy in the work of leadership. The work of investig&tion was gradually developed in the Fourth Army of the Red Army on Oomrade Mao Tse-tung's 5

66

LJBERATIO

initiative. He stipulated that socia.l investigation should be regular pa.rt of the work, and the Political Departme~ t of th • 'Red Army prepared d~tailed forms covering such I~ems. the state of the mass struggle, the condition of the reactIOnarie t h e economIC 'l'f 1 e 0 f the Ileople and the amount of la.nd own . by each class in the rural area.s. Wherever the R~d A:my. wen it first made itself fa.miliar with the cla.ss SItuatIOn In th locality a.nd then formulated sloga.ns suited to the needs of th masses. '. 4. Here "the mounta.ins" are the Ohingkang .mountal area. a 10 nd" the borders of Kiangsi and Hunan ProvInces; k' th "plains" are those in southern Kiangsi and western Fu Ie In January, 1929, Oomrade Mao Tse-tung led the main force the Fourth Army of the Red Army down from the Ohingkan mountains to southern Kia.ngsi and western Fukien in order t set up two large revolutionary ba.se areas. . 5. The "book of documents" consisted of the resolutIOn adopted at the Sixth National Oongress of the Oomm~nist Part of Ohina in July 1928, including the political resolutIOn. a.nd resolutions on the peasant question, the land questIOn, th organization of political power, etc. Early in 1929 the Fron Oommittee of the Fourth Army of the Red Army published t~es to the Pa.rty . orgamz re solutions in book form for distribution tions in the Red Army and to the local Party organizatIOns,

INDONESIA

TODAY

61. Indonesia Today

Indonesian

People Take Up Arms

Even the seanty news which ha.s appell.red in the mltctfonary Indonesian Press shows that, despite the white terror of the 13uharto-N asution fascist regime, the Indonesian Oommunist Party and the Indonesian revolutionary people are now overcoming their difficulties, and are regrouping and putting up a n6W fighl;, in the rural areas where the reactionary rule is weak. News about the activities of the people's armed forces first> came from the Oentral Java countrYRide which has a long revolutionary tradition. When the Suharto-Nasution fascist military clique staged its counter-revolutionary coup d'etat in October, 1965 and massacred revolutionary people, the latter put up. armed resistance in Some parts of Oentral Java. Since then the gathering revolutionary storm there has made the fascist regime panicky. The Right-wing Jogjakarta paper, Pelopor Jogja. said with alarm on September 15 last year that in Oentra.l J a.va, "a. force lurked benea.th the calm surface." Sinar Harapan. revealed at the end of September last year that in July" a. neW" a.rmed force [the people's armed 'force] came into being inKendeng village between Madjena.ng and Wangka.ng" in Oentral Java's Purwokerto area.. The mouthpieces of the reactionary Indonesian army also. reveal that a. unit of the psople's armed forces fought a fierce battle against the reactionary army in Ninggil village, near the. city of BIora, Oentral Java, on March 5 this year, Prior to theengagement, this unit held "a heavily-guarded review" at Ninggil, executed a number of the local reactionary officials and. removed material to the nearby mountains and forests. The. Right-wing papers revealed that the unit ha.s some first-rate"sharpshooters". The Indonesian fascist regime sent about fivebattalions of its crack army commandos to "encircle and annihilate" it. They were trounced and suffered heavy casualties, Berita Indha disclosed on June 3 that the local reactionary Police had never dared to approach a forest area between M:untilan and Bojolali, Oentral Java. where the revolutionary People engaged in armed resistance more than a year ago.

68

LIBERATIO!(

According to a report in the Indonesian Daily News of September 19 l80st yee.r, Dharsono, Commander of the West Java milit80ry district, had disclosed that revolutionaries in West J80va "are trying to est80blish guerrilla ba.ses" 80nd "are collecting arms and eng80ging in other activities." It was recently reported that groups of armed people were active in Kalimant8on, The paper, The Armed Forces, said -that on July 15 this ye80r an armed unit raided the air base of the fascist regime at Singka.wang, West Kalimantan, and killed four officers and men of the reactionary troops guarding it. Alarmed, the Suharto- N asution gang the next day rushed reinforcements by helicopter from Pontian8ok, the seat of the West Ka.limanta.n government, Later, it sent a company and two platoons of army' commandos from Djakarta on a "search and destroy" mission in the neighbourhood of Singkswang. Antara quoted the West Kalim80ntan army commander as saying that a. unit of the Indonesian people's revolutionary armed forces is at present active in the border areas of Indonesia and "M8olaysia". The people's forces have been active also in Sulawesi, 8onother key island. Antara reve80led on may 16 that a people's guerrilla unit fought the reactionary troops in an encounter in the jungle near Menado, North Sul8owesi. Another Antara report disclosed· that sn armed unit of the people attacked an outpost of the 723rd b8ottalion in North Masamba, Boniboni region in South Sulawesi, before dawn on June 9. They wounded three of the reactionary troops and c80ptured 10 rifles from the local reactionary police. In his brilliant work On Ooalition Government, the great leader Chairman Mao, after recalling how Chiang Kai-shek betrayed the revolution in 1927 and launched a. surprise attack on the Ohinese Oommunist Party and the Ohinese people, wrote: "But the Ohinese Oommunist Party and the Chinese people were neither cowed nor conquered nor exterminated. They picked themselves up, wiped off the blood, buried their fallen comrades 80ndwent into battle again." So have the Indonesian Oommunists 80ndrevolution8ory people. They 80reopposing armed counter-revolution with armed revolution. There is no doubt

INDONESIA

69·

T9DAY

that they will hold high the great bsnner of Marxism-Leninism, Mso Tse-tung's thought, rely on 80nd mobilize the pessant masses, develop revolution8ory armed struggle, establish revolutionary base 8ore8osin the countryside and step by step carry the revolution forward to final victory.

A Shattered Economy The Indonesian nation h80s been plunged into unparalleled misery by the Suharto-Nasution fascist regime. Living under a white terror of wholesale sl80ughter and arrests in all parts of the country, the people have been subjected to merciless economic plunder by the regime. Today, this richly endowed country of a thousand islands presents s picture of unrelieved misery with factories closed, fields untilled, skyrocketing prices and Isrge numbers of people forced to leave their homes !l.nd land to rOam the country, only to find starvation awaiting them everywhere. According to Pelopor Baru, all the plants of Indonesi8o's basic industries apart from a.n electric bulb factory, have suspended productIon. Light industry is oper~ting at 30 to 50 per cent of the capacity, and 80 per cent of the textile mills have closed down with half a million textile workers thrown out of their jobs. The output of rubber, petroleum, tin, copra and sugar, the country's staple products, has slumped. The paper Gotong Roiong recently reported that Indonesia, once the world's second lsrgest producer of sugar,· has now become a sugar importer. The production of food crops, and rice in particula.r, also dropped sharply. According to Duta Masiaraicat, output of paddy in West J8ova, Indonesia's granary, was million tons la.st yea.r, 400,000 tons lower th80n in 1965. Paper added that the output of tapioca, sweet potatoes sOYabeans, as well as cucumbers and other vegetables has dropped.

has the 4'5 The and also

The Indonesian Minister of Agriculture, Sutjipto, admitted late last April that the country's acreage under paddy had agll.in

10

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ilhrunk. Tea and other technical crop growers are reported to be in dire straits. Five privately owned tea plantations have
INDONESIA

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71

Right-wing Indonesian press also reported that an army corporal who had four children could only buy three bottles of sauce with his monthly salary of 34 rupiah. A Western news agency reported that the monthly salary of a university professor is 260 rupiah and that of a taxi driver is 150 rupiah, while a small bottle of whisky in a hotel bar costs 110 rupiah. As a result of the economic crisis, great numbers of workers in the cities are out of jobs. Furthermore, large nnmbers of peasants who have lost their land and livelihood are also flooding into the towns. Crowds of destitute people roam and beg in ine cities throughout the country. Djaka.rta papers have reported 'tha.t in ten months beginning from November 1965, 50,000 people out of a million-odd population starved to death in Lombok Island -east of Bali. In one village of 2,000 people, 600 died of hunger. The great leader Chairman Mao has said, 'Lifting a rock only to drop it on one's own feet' is a Chine!le folk saying to describe the behaviour of certain fools. The reactionaries in all countries are fools of this kind. In the final analysis, their persecution of the revolutionary people only serves to accelerate the people's revolutions on a broader and more intense scale". The Suharto ·Nasution fascist military group are such fools, too. 'The vicious course they are following, and their cruel persecution of the Indonesian people, will certainly speed up the movement of the Indonesian masses to make revolution on a broader and more intense scale.

The Suharto-Nasution

Rift

A dog-fight between the U.S. imperialist running dogs 'Suharto and Nasution and the two Right-wing forces they represent has broken out into the open. This is when Indonesia's economy is on the brink of total collapse, when both U.S. imperialism and Soviet revisionism are stepping up their penetration and when the interna.l class contradictions are sharpening as never before.

t· In March

when Suharto became "Acting President" , Nasulon, a dyed-in-the-wool wsriord who has himself wanted the Post for more than ten years, had the effrontery to pick up 'the banne l' 0f" an t'I-mil'l't answ '.. and " democracy" and launch

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repeated attacks on the Suharto faction. He called for th "-separation of military and state power", declaring that lOth two cannot be wielded by one man." In April, Suharto wa compelled to give up his post as commander of the army whil Panggabean, one of Nasution's men, was appointed acting army commander. Seeking the post of president for himself, Nasutio made out that he wanted to "uphold the 1945 Constitution" and he censured Suharto for postponing the "general elections.' He also instigated "the Provisional People's Consultativ Congress" and "the Co- operation Parliament," which are hi willing tools, and Right-wing student organizations and political parties to issue statements and hold demonstrations to attack Suharto for opposing "parliamentary democracy." On June 12, Nasution, through the mouth of Supolo, a spokesman for th "Provisional People's Consultative Congress", threatened Suhart(} with the statement that "without the authorization of the' Provisional People's Consultative Congress, the [Suharto J government cannot postpone the 1968 genera.l elections." In the name of "fighting corruption and smuggling," Nasution egged on the Right-wing student organizations to put pressur& on Suharto, asking him to arrest 22 corrupt officers with whom he had close relations. Nasution also attacked the SuhllortO' military regime for the prevalence of corruption, smuggling. armed holdups, house-breaking and other crimes. On May 20 more than three thousand members of the "Indonesian Students' Action ]'ront", nurtqred by Nasution and financed by the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency, forced their way into a place in Bandung, where Suharto was watc.hing a military pllorade, to' stage a demonstration "against corruption." Their demonstration put 'Suharto in a tight spot. Suharto, however, did not yield an inch. In order to' maintain his power. he in his turn refused to hold the "geners.l elections" in 1963 under the pretext of "technicllol difficulties" and of the country "being unable to afford the expenst'." He stressed the necessity for the armed forces which are under his control to have 25% of the total seats in pllorlilloment. Suharto also took over the "anti-corruption" slogan to shift the attack

INDONESIA.

TODAY

73:

on to Nllosution. He made out a list of corrupt officers in the. :Nasution flloction. and then sub-poena.ed and discharged some of these officers from the army and government. He openly accused the Nasution clique of "attempting to create confusion in the country" and warned that "any effort by any group to wreck tbe cabinet will not be tolerated". In July Suharto sent out a "special directive" to his own Army Strategic Reserve Command for the eliminllotion of hostile elements. Both Suharto and Nasution are U. S. imperialism's faithful lackeys. They are jackals from the same lair as regards their opposition to communism, China and the Indonesian people, yet in their scramble for counter-revolutionary power and position, their contradictions have become irreconcillloble. Just as the grellotleader Chairman Mao has pointed out in his article On Tacties Against Japanese Imperialism, when referring to dogfights within the· Chiang Kai-shek clique: ''It is ... merely a ps.rticularly interesting example of a fight between large and small dogs, between well·fed and ill-fed dogs. It is not a big rift, but neither is it small; it is llotonce an irritating and painful contradiction. But such fights, such rifts, such contradictions are of use to the revolutionary people." The dog-fight within the Suharto-N llosution fascist clique will grow still. fiercer. This internal strife will isolate it still more and hasten its downfall.

«JIV'JL DISOBEDIENCE

CIVIL DISOB~DI~NC~OR

COUNT~~-~~VOLUTlONA~YMANO~UVR~? -Arindam

Mitra

At last the cannon has been fired. The cannon of revolution, tlteered by the world's greatest revolutionaries of the Madurai brand, has released the fiery ball of civil disobedience. The Cl~nnon is made of Marxist jargons while the ball is made of Gandbian practice. And that is creative Marxism! So once convinced of their power of creation, they could not help extending their fertility to grow venomous seeds of dissension with the Ohinese Oommunist Party, which da.red to point out that their creation was nothing but a miscarriage. . After having published their catalogue of abuse and accusation of the O.P.O., the Madurai "Marxists" have of late indulged in recruiting volunteers to execute a revolutionary war-against which class is best known to them only-in the way of civil disobedience movement, the sole object of which is to court arrest by violating the prohibitory laws. But a true Marxist can in no way give up the class question under cover of indiscreet or indiscriminate attack on the established leadership of the world working class. Rather he has to learn something from its rich revolutionary experiences which crowned this leadership with international revolutionary authority. So let the O.P.O., guided by Marxism-Leninism and the thought of Mao Tse-tung, come forward' and imbue us with its rich revolutionary experiences; the genuine Oommunist shallllolways hail such 'interference'. And what has the O.P.O. guided by its gre •.t leader and teacher contributed to the treasury of Marxism? The class question, which was sharply put forward for the first time in the historic Oommtmist Manifesto, is being solved on the Ohinese soil through fierce class struggle. The concept of dictatorship of the proletariat as envisaged by Marx has been put to practice by Mao, the Karl Marx of the llresent era of final decay of capitalism and imperialism.

75

Guided by Marxism-Leminism and inspired by tbe thought <{)fMao Tse-tung, the greatest Marxist practitioner, we should nOW proceed to enmine the line of actio n of the Madurai revolutionaries, supposed to be greater than the greatest. To understand the full implication and import of the civil disobedience movement from the class angle, one should first of all recall some immutable truths of Marxism. What are these basic truths? The class society is based on irreconcilable class antagonism. That is, the interests of the exploiter and the exploited cannot be equal or the same; on the contrary, it is just the reverse, the -two classes having' conflicting. interests. In other words, one class stands as an antithesis of the other and this breeds constant antagonism. This antagonism cannot be reconciled by any means'. So in order to maintain its position one class must suppress this antagonism by way of suppressing the class hostile -to it. But the act of suppression presuppol!les coercion an coercion presupposes the setting up of a mighty machinery. This machinery is the State. In other words, the organisation of the state is nothing but a dictatorial power in the handsof a pa.rticular class, a power unrestricted by any law. A bourgeois landlord state, therefore, means unlimited and unrestricted -power in the hands of the bourgeois-landlord classes to gag the working class, peasantry and other classes of toiling people. Obviously, the olass or classes for whose suppession the state machinery is set up, ca.n have no share in it for any pra.ctical pUrpose. But consistent with the concealed a.nd indirect mode of economic exploitation in capitalist society, the bourgeoisie tries its best to conceal the dictatorial nature of its state machinery by deluding the people with offers of minor democratio rights limited to that extent only, within whose bou'nds the bourgeoisie may face no serious challenge. That is, as long 80S tbe bourgeois property relation is left intact. one can enjoy 80 many democrl!.tic rights. But 80S soon as one ventures to ~trike I!.t the very root of this property relation, democracy turns nto a. dictl!.toril!.l demon. Such is the Marxian truth about he stl!.te and bourgeois demorracy, The second truth logically follows from the first one.

Th~t is,

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without destroying the bourgeois property relation the workin clsss csnnot emsncipate itself from the yoke of exploitation, an without smashing bourgeois stste mschinery the existin relation in bourgeois society cannot be destroyed. Moreover after smashing the old atate machinery the working class ha to set up a new one based on the new property relation. Thi new stste machinery cannot be anything 'short of unrestricte dictatorial power in the hands of the working c1ass. Thus th establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat is th culminating point in the struggle for political power, whe looked at from the working class stand-point. But the politica struggle for supremacy is not an end in itself; on the contrary, ss Marx put it, economic emancipation is the great end to. which all political struggles must subordinate themselves. And wbat is economic ema.ncipation? To free oneself from the bondage of outmoded property or production relation. I csn only be effected by smashing the old production relation and setting up a new one, or in other words, by revolution ising th existing social order. And this is precisely what is called Socia Revolution. Ma,o Tse-tung in his classic Hunan Report pu this essence squarely. He defined Revolution as the overthro of one class by another. But how can a class execute this act of overthrow in actual life? Oan it proceed a.long a line of struggle for preserving therestricted, truncated and shsm rights it is permitted to enjoy under bourgeois democracy, or should it proceed along a line 0 struggle. that strikes at the root of class relation, i.e., property relation? The Oommunist Manifesto teaches us that theOommunists everywhere should bring to the fore the question ot property relation no matter what the degree of develop~ent is. at a particular place or time. So, at least to a OommuDlst, ~h& working class and the allied classes should proceed along a hneof fierce clsss struggle the sole object of which is to strike by degrees at the root of all existing relations of production. In order to do this he should org1l.nise the working class into a clas8~ i.e., he should make the working clsss stand as an antagoni~tio - class force agsinst the bourgeoisie. When in a specific historICS

<JIVIL OBEDIENCE

77

-period in a particular country, the question of agrarian revolu-. tion stands as the main item on the agenda, s Oommunist roust organise the peasltntry into a rock-like force against the lltodlord clsss, and the peasantry can be best organised thus with only one slogan, the slogan of 'land to the tillers'. But uoiler the existing social c~nditions nobody is going to mske a free gift of land to the lltndless. The land must be seized by the -peltsan try itself. This act of seizure is not permissible under the prevailing bourgeois laws, the seizure of land is tantamount to breltking the laws preserving a particular clltss rellttion. So tbe entire organisation of coercion in the hsnds of the bourgeoislandlord clltss shall come down on the revolutionary peasantry to c'rush any attempt by this class to encroach upon the legal. prOVISIOnsin vogue. The act of seizure of land therefore calls for such preparation on the part of the peasantry as to combat the coercive machinery and eventually to crush it. To be precise, to execute an agrarian revolution, the indispensability of armed peasant uprising cannot be subject to any dispute. It is also evident from the a.bove that only such mass line of action can ena.ble a. cln.ss to overthrow its adversaries. Without s class war class rela.tion cannot be chsnged a.nd without the a.ctive pllrticipation of an entire class no cha.nge can be effected in its favour. The reaRon is amply clea.r from the a.bove. Only a. petty bourgeois who renounces revolution can deny these simple truths. But renouncing revolution does not necessarily make one discard revolutionary pretensions. In that case the pseudo-revolutiona.ry, in spite of endless revolutionary phrsse-mongering, a.dopts such a line of action thst conceals the a.lready co~cesled class '!lssenae of the bourgeois state and democracy. Pa.rticipstion in ~be civil disobedience movement chalked. out by the United Front in West Benga.l is such lion act of subservience to the bourgeois democrstic state, i.e., to the cause of the bourgeoislandlord class. The sponsors of the movement ha.ve given the call for 'Violating law. But what kind of law they are going to viola.te? Is it thst sort of la.w which directly protects the class interests of the bourgeois-landlord class? Is it a law the violation of

18

LIBERATI CIVIL OBEDIENCE

which can strike at the very basis of existing class relation thus helping the exploited classes to consolidate themselves a class force against the bourgeois-landlord CIlloSS? In sbo is it 80 law the violation of which can become a part and pare of the fierce class struggle which results in the overthrow one class by another? Let us examine. It is proposed that Sec. 144 of the Or. P.O. prohibiting th assembly of five or more persons be violated by select voluntee of the 14 constituent Parties of the U. F. That is. more tha four persons will assemble at a place, proceed along a stre and enter into 80 waiting prison van. What will be the sloga of these 'revolutionary' lllow-breakers? "Remove Dharam Yira' "Restore the U. F. Ministry in place of the Ghosh Ministry restoring thereby the purity of democracy. The whol show staged by the "Marxists" among otbers implies tha democracy in a class society can he a pure democrac sta.nding over and above class interests and class antagonism ~nd so the Oonstitution. the legal prOVlSIOns. the entir bureaucratic military machine protecting this pure democrac are also pure and supra-class institutions. That is, th entire political set-up is an entity independent of and standin over and above the socio-economic class structure, which ca be used by anybody as a ready-made machinery to alleviat the misery of the class to which he belongs. So. in case thi llolemn and independent entity controlling and regulating th class society falls into the hands of any person or persons, the case should at once be taken up and the people should b iJirected to save anc defend it by trying to remove the person or persons from office. But who can be the person or person in such 80 case? Not a representative of any particular clas but only reactionaries. Reactionaries not for defending tb interest of the reactionary bourgeois-feudal class but for vioilloting some Oonstitutional provisions which have nothing to do wit property relations. The whole argument boils down to this who can best defend the Oonstitution and its provisions-Aio Mukherji-Jyoti Basu or Dr. Ghose and Oo.? If Ajoy-Jyot
79>

then why shoulEl Dharam Vira remove t.hem from office, and still enjoy the confidence of the centre? So, raise your voice, of protest against this preposterous game. Bow? By viola ting laws. What laws? Laws concerning rent and taxes, laws, concerning the land problem and laud reactions, or laws concerning labour-capital relation? Northing of the sort. These are only laws governing economic relations and have nothing to do with politics or political power I The business should be purely political. So laws to be violated should be concerning political rights. As we should have the right to raise our voice together with like-minded people in the street or on the maidan and 80S we are being debarred from doing so by the promulglttion of Some prohibitory order, so we should break this order. But even then, we should not act in such a manner that we may prove to be radical law-breakers and. -makers. because in thltt case, all shouts about sacred allegiance to the Oonstitution will sound empty. So, the selection of the target law for violation must be linked with the selection of discreet volunteers who understand well that politics andl political movements have nothing to do with laws governing the economic life of society, That is why, no class demand, such as, no rent, no tax or 'land to the tiller', should be brought in ~o m~r the purely political civil disobedience movement by the mfusIOn of narrow economic interest I That is why, no definite cla~ses have been asked to rise in revolt against any such 'lawWhlOh can be the protector of existing elass relations Th . , e meanmg of all these is more than clear, Anyattempt to strike at the class relations must be carefully avoided, or in other words, the path of social revolution must he aban~oned, But the history of social development has its own course depending on no body's sweet will: The wheel of history d onl b h oes ~ move y t e impact of class struggle which is inevitable in SOCIety so long as classes are there. As this inevitable class struggle intensifies and the Volcltno of social revolution approaches more and more the erupting point, it becomes necessary f !'t' . or po 1 lClans, representing the cla.!!s interests of th b ' e OurgeOls-landlord class to divert the working class, the peasants,

:so

LIBERATIO~

1l.nd the revolutionary petty bourgeoisie from the path of social Tevolution. They pretend to fight for the cause of revolution -and try, with a tactful manoeuvre, to fetter the revolutionary wrath of the exploited classes witbin the bounds of tbe existin class relations. An effective, class collaborationist manoeuvr in this direction is this civil disobedience movement sponsored by the fourteen-party United Front in West Bengal.

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

81

nate use of the word 'people' leads most effectively to the muddling of the class question, without which Marxism loses its partisan character and becomes acceptable to the bourgeoisie 80S well. A Marxist should recall the warning pronounced by Lenin in his noted work Lett-Wing Communi$m, An Infantile Disorder. There he said, "Masses are divided into classes and cla.sses are led by politica.l pa.rties..... It must be noted therefore, tbat tbe word 'people' cannot be a substitute synonym of the word 'class·... This truth led Mao Tse-tung to analyse the class content of 'the people' still further in his famous treatise The Correct Handling of Contradictions Am~n(J The People. Analysing the role of various classes at a ptlortlCularstage of revolution he showed how to find out the princ.ipal contradiction in effecting the revolution and how in the lIght of this contradiction some classes fall l'n t 0 th e ca t egory of people and Some into the category of anti-people.

0;

A Communist does not bother when parties like Bangl Congress, P.S.P. or S.S.P. organise such 80movement. It is in ful accord with the cla.ss cha.ra.cter of these parties. But one cannot but think seriously when a party of the working cla.ss is made to plunge into the depth of this movement by a leadership which -swears all the time by Marxism. A thoughtful study at once reveals the sa.d fact that this leadership is only a bunch 0 Tenegades. But these renegades are not confining themselve within the limits of mere renunciation of revolution. Havin -done this sha.meless act, they are still trying to pose as genuine So it will be a sheer mockery of Marxism to make categories revolutionaries using all sorts of Marxist jargons, and herein of people in the light of contradiction between Congress and lies the danger before the working cltloss,beca.use the only intentio l'lOn-Congres elements ending the paramount question of class behind this act can be nothing else than to delude the revolu o()o~tradiction. And this is exactly what the C.P.I.(M) leader'tionary class forces with the help of revolutionary phrase-mon -ShIP has been doing systematically at a time when class .gering. This, therefore, is not only a line of simple citloSScollaboraoContradictions are becoming more and more acute da.ily. Evidentl ~h' . y. tion but a.lso a line of deliberately planned subservience to th u IS pOSIng of Congress-non-Congress contradiction is intended bourgeois-landlord class. This knavery, this heinous betrayal, to divert the revolutionary cla.ss force from the genuine revolucan be hidden under the mask of Marxism until bitter class tionary pa.th. struggles tear it off. So, as soon as a sha.rp class struggle broke It would, therefore, be a pity for a genuine Marxist sincere out in the Terai region in the Darjeeling district, they began to shower all sorts of abuse on the beroic fighters there. Not only to the cause of revolution to be duped by the illusive slogans meant for organising counter-revolution by a ga.ng of renegades. that, when tbe C. P. C. came forward to fulfil its Communis duty and responsibility by extending moral support to the Comrades should hmnch an open attack on these disguised counterfighting peasantry, it immediatly became the target of veiled bu revolutiona.ries with true revolutionary ardour and the best way of d' . to organise Olng th at IS revolutionary cla.ss struggles a.t vile attack by this neo-revisionist. gang of a.gents of counteral~ levels and in every sphere. Let the genuine fight for the revolution. SeIZUreof political power be fought to the end through fierce One may not accept the above analysis. One may argue tha DncomprOm1SIng " Iass struggle. c Let the fight for politica.l power 'the CPl(M) leadership should express the people's will an c~lmina.te in the smashing of the existing state power. 80 thereby try hard to maintain the unity of the Front. But i dlctat . I . arIa power In the hands of the bourgeois-Ia.ndlord class. he is a Marxist, he should be aware of the fact that indiscrimi 6 I

•

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and let a new power b e se t u,p a democratic dictatorial of the exploited people led by the working class.

powe

. d in the Communist Milonifesto that th The truth laId own .. . t r of class strugg history of hitherto existing 80Clety IS the h~: ~ Yt th not only t sha.ll prevail. Revolutiona.ries a.d~ere to t' lSI r : changing i interpret society but to pa.rtlclpllote ac Ive y i qualita.ti vely.

WHAT SHOULD THE PEASANTS DO ? s. R. [This is an English version of an article which appeared in the Bengali weekly DESHABRATI of December 7, 1967.] The Congress Party wa.s defeated in our State of West Bengllol in the last general elections. Fourteen anti-Congress parties together secured a majority in the State Legislative Assembly. After the elections they formed a united front a.nd a government led by Sri Ajoy Mukberjee, the BangIa Congress leader. For about nine montbs since tbe elections, tbis united front cabinet was in control of tbe administration in West Bengal. The peasants must bave known by tbis time tbat the Governor of this State dismissed the united front (U.F.) ministry on the 21st of November last. A new ministry led by Dr. PrafullaCh. Ghosh was appointed and sworn in by the Governor.

LIBERATION Single Copy ( Ordinary number)

Dr. Prafulla Ghosh Was a member of the united front and food minister in the U.F. cabinet till November 2, when he resigned from both the front and its cabinet. With seventeen otbers, who, like him, had also. resigned from tbe front, be formed anotber new party nllomed the People's Democratic Front (P.D.F.). Tbe P.D.F. has Come to a.n understanding with tbe Congress Party whicb bas promised to support the new ministry of Dr. Gbosh. It is only because of this support from the Congross Party tbat Dr. Ghosh could venture to form his ministry. The Ghosh ministry depends entirely on the Congress Party's SUIlport for its existence.

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The united front has, on the other hand, called upon the people of the State for carrying on a movement to protest against this unjust action of the Governor Ilondfor the dismissal of the Ghosh ministry and restoration of the U.F. ministry.

What Should The Peasants Do ? It is naturllol that the peasant masses must decide whom they should Support and what they should do in this squabbling Over ministry-making.

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Before they can do this, the peasants must thoroughly grasp the realities of the present situation, and must a.sk themselves-

what is the meaning of all this 1

?

The U .F. ministry ruled for about nine months. Leaders of the West Bengal C.P.I. (M) as well as of 13 other Left pa.rties of West Benga.l participated in the ministry. These parties are called '~' pa.rties because all of them cla.im that their a.im is to establish socialism in this country; they further claim that they conduct and direct mass movements towards this objective and especially in the interests of workers, peasants, employees and all other toiling people. The peasants on their part are aware that these Left parties have set up organisations of peasants like Kisan Samitis. The biggest among such pea.sant o!'ga~isations is the West Bengal Krishak Sabha wbich is led by the C.P.I. (M) and the Dangeites. Its General Secretary is Sri Harekrishna Kona.r, a leader of the C.P.I. (M), who was also the minister for Land and Land Revenue in the dismissed U.F. ministry. Sri Biswanath Mukherjee, a leader of the Dangeites, is the President of this Sabha. He was the Irrigation minister in the dismissed U .F. ministry.

'Achievements' of the UF ministry in 'protecting' the interests of the peasantry The basic interest of the peasantry is in land. Their occupation is to grow crops etc., which provides sustenance for them. As a result of many'" struggle the zamindari system wa.s formally abolished by the Congress regime. This, however, did not restore the ownership of land to the peasants. The erstwhile zllmindars and big jotedars, taking advantage of various lacunae in the Congress land reform legislation, retained their control over huge stretches of land through benamdari transfers. By using their power, money and socia.l connections they secured tbe help of government officials in these illegal transactions. So the peasants who cultivated such benamdari lands remained shara-croppers as before. They are required to make a gift of the major portion of the crops, which they pr?duce every year by hard labour, to the jotedars after every harvest.

WHAT SHOULD

THE PEASANTS

DO

?

85

The jotedars on their part hoard the ill-gotten crops in order to crea.te artificial scarcity and push the prices up, and then sell the hoa.rded food-crops at the black. market price. Like most of our countrymen, the peasants also have to purchase rice-the same rice that they themselves produced and were forced to part with-at the exorbitant black-market price. But the overwhelming majority of the peasants simply does not have, for most of the year, enough money to purchase food at such high price. Thus, they--who produce food for the country-have to starve themselves.

.

For this reason, the Left parties, in course of their agitations \ for food durmg the Congress regime, repeatedly demanded: -all benamdari transfers of land be at once declared null and void; -the share-croppers cultiVllote.

be made the

owners

of the

land

they

This is one aspect of the la.nd problem. The other aspect is that, whatever la.nd was left in the ha.nd of' the government after the. za.minda.rs a.nd jotedars had been allowed to spirit away· thousands of acres of la.nd, thanks to the 18.Cun~e in the land legisla.tions, (for instance, owners of big fisheries in the district of 2~ Parga.na.s gobbled up thousands of acres of land by falsely gettIDg these la.nds registered a.s fishery-tanks)-wa.s not distributed among the landless peasa.nts on ~ permanent ba.sis. In Some cases the peasants are allowed to cultivate such lands &gainst licenses issued on a.n annual basis. These licenses are distributed by government officials styled as Junior Land Reforms Officers (JLRO). Instances are there when the JLRO's have been found to have used their power to sow discord among the peasants. When a peasant, who has toiled for one year on the land allotted to him against licenle, approaches the JLRO for renewal of his licen,e for another year, often finds that the office¥ has, in exchange of some graft-money, alrell.dy issued Q... licen,e fer that year to another peasant. In many other cases it ha.s been found that the government has not even taken possession of the vested land with the result that the land <# Continues to be in the hands of the jotedars as before. Thus, it

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happens that year after year these jotedars have continued to allot lands among the I!lhare-croppers and to receive crop shares , therefrom, la.llds against which they ha.ve already received compensation. All our peasants must ha.ve heard about Naxal. bari by this time, Sucu instances are not uncommon there. . Along with their demands for abolition of a.ll benllomdafl transfers and for rllodica.lla.nd reforms, the Left parties also ra.ised demands for the redress of various unjust practices like the one mentioned

above.

But nothing wa.s done about all this during the Oongress regime. As a result, thc peasa.nts IIolsohelped the anti-Oongress pa.rtiea dislodge the Oongress ministry by casting their votes in fa.vour of those parties in the last elections.

But What Did The U. F. Ministry Do For The Peasants? The united front, composed of the leaders of the Left parties which carried on agitllotions during the Oongress rule, WIloSin power for !l.bout 9 months. And what did this U. F. ministry do for the pea.sa.nts? Precisely nothing. *LlIost yea.r almost a.ll the rice crop hllodbeen grabbed by the joteda.rs, the rice-mill owners and the dishonest traders before the U. F. ministry took over cha.rge. But the U. F. ministry took no initillotive to recover the hidden stocks of rice with the help of the people IIondthrough a.nti-hollording movement and to ensure supply of chellopfood to the people. As a result, the price of rice began to soar higher and higher until it touched the a.ll-time high ma.rk IIotRs. 4/- per kg. during the U.F. rule. *T he U .F. ministry showed no desire also to take mea.sures to nullify the benllomdari transfers of la.nd or to redress other injustices a.nd malpractices regarding land. *The U. F. ministry did not even care to do issue an ordina.nce prohibiting all kinds of eviction As a result, the U. F. rule proved no obsta.cle to continued as before to evict pellosants at will or else them to the position of hond-slaves by having

so little as to ef pellosllonts. jotedars. who to condemn them to sig

WHAT SHOULD

THE PEASANTS

documents which. hired labourers.

in the

DO

?

87

eyes of law, turn share-croppers

into

*The U. F. ministry's crime does not, however. consist merely in their reluctllonce to improve the land reform legislations in the interest of the peasants. No, it is much more serious.

The U. F. Ministry's Crime Against Naxalbari In spite ef the fact thllot the leaders of the Left parties were in the ministry and Sri Harekrishna Konar. a lea.der of the West Benga.l O.P.I.(M) and general secretary of the Stllote Kishan Sabha. was the La.nd Revenue minister and Sri Biswanath Mukherjee, president of the State Kishan SllobhlloWIloSalso 110 minister in the U. F. cabinet, it remained tota.ll~(:pdifferent to the peasants' demands for land etc. Seeing tha.t nothing was to be expected from this ministry, e,ighty thousllond pellosants, men and women. under the three police stations-Na.xalba.ri, Fansidewa a.nd Kharibari in the Darjeeling district, led by the Darjeeling district Oommunist PlIorty and the Kishan Samity, resolved in the district pea.sant conference to establish on their own initiative a.nd through organised action, the peasa,nts' rights over the benamdari la.nds stolen by the jotedllors and by the tea.-garden owners. This is, in brief, the background of what is known as the pellosant strugglc of Na.xa.lbari which begllonin April ~ last. But the U. F. government did not come out in Support of the just struggle of the Naxalbari peasants. On the contrllory, they requisitioned parllo-miIita.ry forces from the Oongress government IIotthe centre a.nd with their coopera.tion la.uncb.ed 110 bruta.l lluppression cllompaign a.gainst the peasant folks of N axalbllori. -The repressive policy pursued by the U. F. government ••• took the lives of 17 pellosa.nts including eight pellosant women and two babies. -Arrest people.

wa.rrants

were

issued

IIogainst nearly

a thousand

-MlIony pea.sa.nts were a.rrested and harassed. But the U. F. government did not stop only at this. In a.ddition to their repressive policy against the peasllonts, the U. F. ministers and leaders launched a. powerful camllaign of lies and slanders, backed by the bourgeois press and by various reac-

88

LIBERATIOM wHAT

tionary parties including the Congress P!l.rty, ag!l.inst the pe!l.s!l.nt struggle in N!l.ulb!l.ri !l.nd IIoglloinst the v!l.li!l.ntle!l.ders who lead th!l.t struggle, with a view to confusing IIonddemoralising the pe!l.sants and other sections of the people in other pI!l.ces of the State. The most shameful thing !l.bout this is that the le!l.ders of the Left p!l.rties the very people who so loudly procl8.im that they fight for the int'erests of the workers and the peasllonts, took the initiative d pilloyed 110 major role in carrying on this hateful campaign of an slander and calumny. Whllot is still more shame fl'u IS th a t 1't W!l.S the top leaders of the CPI (M) and of the State Kishan Sabhllo, and, especially, the two general secretaries of their Statebranches Sri Promode Dasgupta and Sri Harekrishna Konar, who too~ the m'ost prominent part in !l.nd carried out most; enthusillostically this slander campaign. What then should the peasants do? Are they to IIoccept the new ministry of Sri Prafulla Ghosh without a murmur and leave the path of struggle? Certainly, the peasants can never do

anything like this. As h!l.S already been stated, the ministry led by Prafulla Ghosh depends entirely upon the support of the Congr~s.s for its existence. So, it is clellor that the Prafulla Ghosh mInlstry will merely serve as a signboard, a facade, while the Congr~ss Party will wield the real power from behind that facade. LIke all other democratIC. forces of t h'IS Sta t e, the peasants also , • f orce among th em, can never allow who constitute the maJor

the Congress Party to regain control of the gonrnment and to come back to power in this State. What then should the peasants do?

Should

they

res-

pond to the call of the United Front and join them in their ement for the removal of the Ghosh ministry and for restormov 11 . d .mg th e U . F. bllockto power? The peasants ., must cllorefu Y]U ge '. . the light of the experience they have gamed about the actlvl ~:s of the U. F. government whllot benefits can possibly accrue to tbe landless peasants IIondehllore-croppers, who together form the bulk of the peas!l.ntry, if the U. F.is restored back to power. Clearly, they will not be benefitted in the least.

SHOULD

THE PEASANTS

DO

?

89>

In order to find an answer to the question-wh!l.t should thc pellosllontsdo ?-the peasants themselves must be able:

to grasp fully the politics behind this toppling U. F. ministry and forming of the Ghosh ministry.

of the

It is a f!l.ct that the U.F. ministry and the leaders of the Left pllorties failed, in spite of the brutal and fierce campaign of suppression unleashed by them aglloinst the peasants in Naxalbari, which was supplemented by a violent campagin of slander and lies, to crush' the pe!l.sant strugglo of N axalbari. They failed to get hold of the top lelloders of N axalbllori (except Com. J a.ng!l.l San.thaI) like Comrades KlIonu S!l.nY!l.I, Khokan Majumdar !l.nd Kall-am Mallik. On the one hand, the peasants in NlIoXalbllori!l.re. preparing, under the leadership of these le!l.ders. to carry their. struggle into the next phase IIondon the other hand, the glorious. example and the revolutionary politics of the fighting peasllonts. of Naxlltlbari have begun to spread beyond the boundaries of West Bengal and over all parts of India-among the vast. millions of our peasllonts. In West Bengal itself the peasants, inspired by the struggle in N axalbari, are preparing themselves for the struggle for IImd in the Sonarpur police station lIrea and other pilloces of the 24-P,trganas district, and in otherdistricts like Midnapore, JalplLiguri, Maldah, West Dinajpore. They fully realise thllot it is no use waiting for this or th!l.t. ministry to give them land through legisillotions-and that they must rely on their own strength and organisation if they IIore. to carry the crops they will harvest this ye!l.r to their own homes and to take full possession of the benllomdari lands anG deny any share of crops thereof to the jotedars. Only when the pe!l.Sants are able to do this successfully, the land will belong to them and moreover the country will be saved from the, rampage of the racketeers and hoarders of food. Further, the peasants are grllodually coming to realise that. the existing bureaucracy, police a.~d army, which work against and oppress the people, will ceaselessly try to suppress the just. struggle of the pe!l.sants for land and against feudal exploitation brutally and violently. So the peasants must organise theiroWn -volunteer foroe to resist these bloody attacks by the police.

'90

llond the military. Only by doing this they ca.n liberate the villages from the yoke of the oppression of jotedars a.nd sma.sh the feudal -system of share-cropping and bargllodari. On the one ha.nd, we find that the revolutionary politics of the Na.xa.lbari struggle is rousing the pee.sa.nts to a new consci. .~ ousness and, on the other, the realisation that the agrarian revolu. tion is an indispensable necessity for the complete victory of our anti-imperialist, anti-feude,l a.nd anti-big bourgeois revolution, ior developing our present independence into a genuine freedom for the people, is growing among various other democratic forces like the working class and the toiling petty bourgeoisie, the vigorous youth and the students, the socially-conscious progre. 'ssi,ve intelligentsia. This is clea.rly evident from the fact that about one hundred thousa.nd people came to the meeting -organised by the Naxa.lba.ri llond Krishak SangramSahaya.k 'Ba.mity on November 11 at the monument maida.n in Ca.lcuttllo a.nd listened eagerly to the politics of a.grlloria Tevolution in spite of the fact tha.t the Leftist leaders a.nd, specially, the lelloders of the CPI(M) tried by va.rious means t .oppose the holding of the meeting. People are increasiIlgl realising that the benamdari transfers of land have enabled th feuda.l jotedars to continue their unrestricted domination in th -countryside and constitute the rea.l basis of the power of th big jotedars, who are the enemy of all sections of the people. Thi is also the root Cllouseof the untold miseries of our peasants an of tbe food sca.rcity in our country. This has made peopl -increa.singly sympathetic and co-operative towards the pea.san -struggle in Na.nlbari.

~

As the events in the cities a.nd the villages of West Beng bega.n to develop like this, the comprador big bourgeoisie an the big joteda,rs and landlords, the cillosses which actually rul -our country, could not depend upon the U. F. minist .any more. They have got tbe U. F. ministry dismissed wit ·the help of the Congress government at the centre and install -the puppet ministry of Pra.fullllo Ghosh in power wit4 a view imposing a naked military rule in West Bengal. One fact mak it quite elear. Recently fifty-eight thousand armed ,policem

"WIIAT SHOULD

THE

PEASANTS

DO

?

91

bllovebeen mobilised in West Bengal, most of whom have been requisitioned from the Central Government, in order to suppress the popular struggles. Of these, forty thousand have been 1lent to various districts and have alrea.dy been posted in police ca.mps set up in villages. While carrying out a bloody repression in Cllolcutta. and its suburbs, the Prafulla G!::osh rninietry is now sbouting a.bout "maintaining peace in the rice· fields", wbich, in other werds. means that they are determined to forcibly take away the rice crops from the peasants a.nd hand it over to the jotedars for hoarding. This is the real politics underlying the recent making and

unmaking

of

ministries

in our State.

It is evident,

therefore, that the peasants will . gain absolutely nothing by joining the movement started by the united front for restoring the U ,F ,'ministry. This is so beca.use, as has been shown a.bove, the U.F. ministry and the U.F. leaders tried by every means to suppress the peasants' struggle for land and rice in Naxalbari by brutal and bloody repression. To this it must be a~ded tbat a large portion of the police force ~which the Ghosh ministry is now sending to the villages was \ requisitioned llondposted in this State by the LJ.F. ministry l\fwhile it was in power. Frustrated, the united front leaders are now calling upon the "people to join their movement. Frustrlloted, because the ruling (Jlass has dispensed with their service in spite of the fact that they served its interests so well by murdering peasant men, Women and children in Nualbllori. But the peasa.nts ca.nnot forget even for llomoment that they must fight not for this or that ministry but for lllond. Relying on their own fighting ~trength t~ey must elimin~te tbe feud.al jo.tedar-landlord vested Interests III the countrysIde and ullIte WIth the workers in the cities to smash the power of the big capitalists. Only thus can the genuine freedom for the people be established and the pea • pIe's power llondthe peasants' possession of land can be securely guaranteed.

l

What

should

the peasants

do ?

The pes.sants must now organise themselves

and seize in an

lI"

#"

93 92 organised manner the crops they will harvest. They m organise themselves under the slogan-in order to save t country from famine. to sa.ve the peasants from starva.tion-' even a grain of the crops harvested from the benamdari Ian should go to the jotedars' ; they must boldly advance to seize t land and establish their own right over it and thereafter try produce as much as possible on their own lands so as to feed t country. Any attempt to obstruct the peasants from doing th patriotic duty of theirs must be resisted firmly. And when t Leftist gentlemen approach them to join the U .F. movement f restoring the U.F. to power, they must be asked to declare u equivocally if they are with the peasants in their struggle f land and crops-and it would not do to assure the peasants words only. these gentlemen must join the struggle which t peasants have already begun on their own. These gentlem must be told-the path you ha.ve taken is one of higgling a. ha.ggling. as they do in a market-place. over getting back yo lost gudClis. What has revolution to do with it? Clea.rly t path you ha.ve taken is not the path of revolution. On t other hand, the path we have taken is the genuine path-the pa of revolution.

(Oontinued from page 7) that within a very short time the results were encouraging. Let me cite instances: (1) The situation on the industrial front b c~me quiet. The ministers discussed matters separately with {)~ners and tra.de union leaders. The prospects of bettlement becll.lDe bright. (2) Cases of disorder, especially. disappeared. All the parties a.greed to prevent unrest on the agricultural front 80S far as possible. Elaborate arrangements were made to settle quickly all disputes. Very encouraging results could be observed. The pro-Ohinese neoule were brought under control and the B~ in Naxa.lbari became peaceful and normal. All the pll.rties and ministers of the United Front were Qo-operating wboleheartedlYI to solve the problems". (Translation ours). This statement appearing in Ganashakti, endorsed by the "Marxist" leaders. is Ii revea.ling document. It clearly reveals ho, despite their revolutionary phrase-mongering, are the mitors. It reveals that the "Marxists" have stabbed the ~orkers and peasants in the back when they are faced

with fierce attacks from the capitalists and landlords by paralysing all their revolutionary activities. It reveals that Sri Ajoy Mukherjee is satisfied that the opposition of the "Marltist" leaders to China and to those who have faith in the thought of Mao Tse·tung is genuine. The bofley f the Chinese threat or invitation to the Chines~ as every Marxist should know, is a weapon in the hands of all counter-revolutionaries for disrupting the struggles of the masses. Today, opposition to China is opposition o Communism, opposition to the world-wide struggle or national liberation, peace and socialism, opposL ion to the cause of the Indian revolution. This bunch of counter-revolutionaries, called "Marxists", themselves dmit by endorsing Ajoy Mukherjee's statement that heir opposition to China is genuine! Another imDortant cla.im of the "Marxist" leaders is that hey a.re defending democracy by waging this struggle for a ~ange of ministry. Let us contra.st those opportunists' prlloctice lth their professions. In a. bourgeois-landlord state, democracy eans the dictatorship of the bourgeois-landlord classes. By !fering certa.in minor democratic rights, so long a.s they do not hreaten this dictatorial rule. it seeks to conceal its real character. India., these rights are more formal than real on Mcount of e P. D. Act, the D. 1. R. etc. During the last one month nd 1Io half about 5000 persons have been arrested under the P. D. ct and hundreds of warrants of arrest under the same Act av~ been issued. Is the United Front building up a.ny campa.ign galnst the P. D. Act, whi$h means complete negation of ell:l.nocracy? No, it is not doing that. for it itself invoked the . . Act during its brief spell in office.

h

,#

I

l' _ •

95

94 f}

dJ

Recently, the Unlll.wful Activities (Prevention) Bill has been. passed by Parliament. When this black Act was being considered. in Parliament, "Mr. A. Nambiar (CPI-M) wanted to kno categorically whether the Bill would be used against his pa.rty. "He was somewhat unnerved by Mr. Ohavan's responS This was in the form of a counter-question. Does the plloft intend inviting Ohina into India? No, no, said a flustered Mr Nambiar. In that ca.se, the BIll would not be used against th OPI (M), replied Mr. Oha.van with a brollodsmile" (The Statesma December 20,- 1967). Next dlloY,in the Lok Sabha, "Mr. P. Rama.murti (OPIsaid the Bill was aimed a.t his party because it presented t main challenge to the Oongress. "He pointed out that Naxalbari had frequently been referre to during the debate, and he quoted from a resolution passed b his pa.rty's politburo dissociating itself from the extremist group' activities .....The member pleaded that his pa.rty's views on neg tiations with Ohina were being misrepresented. If then, h argued, some groups held meetings, and acted under the nam of the OPI (M), 'how are we responsible?'" Paraphrased,th would rel\d: "Spare us, 0 Lord, we are innocent; but stri them down who, inspired by Mao Tse-tung's thought, are crelloti trouble in Naxllolba.riand elsewhere." This is the kind of struggl tha.t these crusaders for the cause of democracy are putting u •. Do they intend to start a powerful camplloign against' this bill. Act? No, tha.t would be extremely foolish, for these black act would prove very handy to them when their paradise, now lost, regained. These mighty champions of democracy do not rai the demand for withdrawllol of police camps from the villages, f that would be indicting themselves. Whose democracy are th fighting for? The U F-sponsored struggle for a change of ministr fresh elections etc. is, therefore, no better than a counte revolutionary manouevre to divert the toiling peop from the truly revolutionary path towards which they a moving slowly but surely. Any talk of providing rell to the basic classes without changing the property rei tions, at a time, when the semi-colonial, semi-feud economy of the country is cracking, is simply deceptiV fraudu Ient. The "Marxist" leaders who are raising such bop are acting as conscious agents of reaction. A greater legislati majority will be of little use to the toiling people in West Ben as in Kerala today. Lenin pointed out: "If political power in the state is in the ha.nds of a class wh interests coincide with those of the majority, that state can governed truly in line with the will of the majority. But political power is in the hands of a class whose intere

./erge from those of the m' . y rule Is bound to become de~~op~~~; oarn form o! majority s ajority. E . uppresslon of the. ro d f very bourgeOiS republic provides hundreds and d H ence, from a materialist housan d Marxis 0t exa.mples 0 f th' IS k'10.... Dustexpo:e' not f~?m a formally juridica.l point of view, we people. s con lct and combat bourgeois deception of the

~~f

Revolutionaries and M ens h eVl'k s, on thet"Our hSocialistf ~ ~:rt~ baeve.nu!.lYtdemonstrated and proved that their true •• ms rument of th b .. f .. ople (the 'majority') t b th e .ourgeolsle or dec61vmg the ontribute to it." (C;ns~it~tion~l ~!l~:l:ns)~ that deception and Our "Marxist"

leaders

and Da

.

I'

ociali.s~-Revolutionariesand Men~~:~~~s~ ~~~~~fn~u~sian

,~r~~:~~f~~:

lr:i:hal:~~:

~~~hf~re:~;ng such politica~ i:!:~ or deception of th g petty-bour~eols self• • e masses (the 'majority') b b e ourgeol~le, which is the same thing." y h The tactics of t~e "Marxists" only match t . trategy. These remmd one of the ci b d heir urist actions into which the Ranad' ty- ase d advenhe Part~ in 1948-49 and almos~ve d~~~;oy::gg~td' e do beheve that sporadic clashes with the s ttl. owever valiant, in cities and towns will instead af e hPf,:"er. e ~r.m the cause of revolution. While in' the 'f 0 d t p1Og, Ihtant s f the k"Cl les an owns, ust be fought, and the m:~: ers 0 ai~b;:de wi~t~evboolurt'emsia I lCS at th ey, espeCla . 11y, III • d ustnal . u IOnar workers p ysically I d asant struggles, the main strategy will be t~ de 1 ell. ~uggles and revol.utionary pe.asant bases in thevec~~::ras~~; ere the enemy IS comparatIvely weak The fight i rotracted and difficult one and demands' hard s st . s ad ong, oman 1 ' U alne unc a o~r, grea sacn ce, an rm al ere' heroad to revolutwn is long and tortuous. vo u IOn. eception

r

ESPONSE

TO THE CALL

ek~ur re~ders will. surely be interested in knowing that tbe. g RadIO has halled the formation of the All I d' 0 Inatio 0 'tt f' n Ill. 0dhist .n. omml ee 0 revolutIOnary comrades as an event B lonc Importance. The Declaration iasued by the 0 'tt a so been broadcast over the Peking Radio. omml ea. d eV~t~pments 1 eEnco call ;/~fm8 have taken place in India since re u' e omml ee went out to all revolutionary comrades d c; d~~te open~y tb.e. t.reacherous leadersbip of the OPI (M) •.....or. mate theIr actiVItIes so as to lay the basis f . '
ntion

'0,o••,tb.•.aD.,L",.ti•• , .na i"uoo an apPo,I to ••U "vol •• 01 Bib'" to ,i" up ••na a••".t tb. noo·"v'.'on ••

poli.i•• 01 tb. ,,,a.,,b'p of tb. p.M ana lulfil th••• ".a to unt,u. • b, bi.t"'. (Th.fuU",t 01 tb. App••Lwill.ppea> on t ai"u' of Li'''o''''')' ~b. n"t ASt••t. Oo·"din••ti 00••••'1 b" •.100 b"n "t up in Bib". Tb. S.".t ••" •.t of tb. ahm ~t.t. O,g•• i,'ng oo••••i".. of tho oPI (M) b•• a op ••olution"puai,ting th. noo·"vi.ioni•t I"a."b'pt of tb. p ••na b" ••nt it. g,••ting. to tb. M"xi.t.L •• ini. • wbo,"Iu o ,ub•• to th••• Movi,ioni.t I••.a".bip, ." ••naucting nnt .t",ggl"it in N.xalb••" •• a otb.,pla ••' 'n tb. co ,.,.. Ro nd ution•."" cc••,ad•• 1,0" Andb,a,Tdva "'''' Oocbinana 0 pI"" baVOw.I•••••a tb. D",lMotiC' of tb. AU Inai• • ,aina oo••••i"... Mo" .nd ••". co••"a ••, w. I tion ~" •• tbu.i"tiC'Uy , ••ponaingto tb. c.U of tb. oo••••i" ••· TEER

AND UTPAL

DUTT

We greet the comrades and friends of the "Who s.re presenting a drama, -perh\\Ps the first Inai••, on th' " ••g. 01 tb. Min"V" Tb•••t". It i, Arrow'), written and directed by Utpa.l Dutt. The

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Tb"'" ••oa. bi,t'" wbonit .t.g.a KoUcl,but T"', tb. t of wb,.b i. oo.ial"volution, i••• oven bold", ., ••t" "hi ••ont. lnopi"a b, tb. cou"goou, figbt of tb. N"" p••••nt., it p"t"" tb. \if••• na .t",gol. of Inai••n p'" .t,'ving to b" ••k tb•• b&okl" of ••bou,gooi,.I ••nal"a .t ••t•. p,•••• ting tbi' a" ••a, tb. ontot••nainga" •••.ti't ••na tb. a tb. Lit". Tb•••t" baVO folfiU.a••"volutiona,.,.t •••k ana ,bould" to .boula" witb tb. "volution",,' p•••••n" ofI

0'

Their art serves the CllaUSe of life. the cause of revolution. It is no wonder tha.t the bourgeois-bndlord governm6

pupp.t cont
n

(I)

'Vf

.f ",t ••g.inot th. Inai•.n ",ling ol••,'"' D. S. i••p", ••li,t "vi.ion'a • 01 ••Ubu'" W. app,,1 to aU lov'" of ••,t, I t p,ol." tbe id•••l of a•••••"c', tb,ougbontIn tbo" who join witb u, in a••••• a'ng tb. "I ••••• of TItpal Dutt an

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