new democracy, august 2015

Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML)

August, 2015August, 2015

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Foreign Policy of ModiGovt. Isolates India,Increases Tensions

Coming of Modi led RSS-BJP dispensation to power to advance theagenda of foreign and domestic corporate was tragic enough for the peopleof India. Making foreign policy as his special niche and restructuring Indiasinternational relations especially with imperialist powers since coming topower in May 2014 has been a further catastrophe.

His predecessor, Manmohan Singh, had earned accolades as aneconomist from the imperialist powers, MNCs and Indian corporate andthe big media controlled by them for simply following the World Bank-IMFprescriptions for India.

Modi is blowing his trumpet and RSS-BJP and their accomplices areapplauding imaginary foreign policy feats while all he has done is to tieIndia closer to US's strategic bandwagon. He has done so at a time whenthe influence of US imperialism has declined and the world is no longerunipolar. US imperialism is seeking to pursue its hegemonic strategy throughother means and is enlisting Indian Govt. in furtherance of its strategicinterests. US Govt. in particular wishes to use India as a part of its strategyto contain China.

Even Manmohan Singh Govt. was pursuing this agenda. Like in thefield of economic policies, Modi Govt. is brazenly, speedily and shamelesslypursuing his predecessors policies in international relations. Immediatelyafter coming to power, Modi went to Japan and Australia and hosted theirPremiers in India. This was aimed at forging a closer alliance aimed againstChina. A few years back, US, Japan, Australia and India had forged analliance called Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) ostensibly to preventtransfer of sensitive nuclear material through sea route. The real target ofthis initiative was China, whose major imports of oil and important part ofexports traverse this route. Alarmed, China adopted a counter strategywhich is termed as String of Pearls aimed at developing sea ports aroundIndian Ocean to counter this offensive strategy of PSI countries.

Modi Govt. has drawn particularly close to Israel. In fact Indianestablishment had been maintaining relations with Israel for decades andthe same have been pursued more openly since advent of unipolar worldi.e. since 1991. RSS-BJP have been close to Israel and the earlier NDAGovt. led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee had hosted Israeli Prime Minister, butcherof Palestinians, Ariel Sharon. Modi Govt. has drawn particularly close toIsrael and Indian Prime Minister is going to pay a state visit to Israel. Likein other aspects, in foreign policy too, Modi represents the most reactionarysections of Indian ruling establishment which aligns itself with the mostreactionary sections of ruling classes in US and other imperialist countries.

Modi like his predecessor is selling the dream of India emerging as asuperpower obviously with US support. Leaders of western imperialistcountries have been making appropriate noises of Indias rise to gain greatermarket access and control over natural resources of India while using Indiafor their strategic purposes. They have been supporting Indias bid forpermanent membership of UN Security Council with veto power. Howeverthis support was limited to Indian soil only. India has repeatedly votedagainst Iran in the international fora despite close ties with that country ineconomic and political fields. India scrapped Iran Pakistan India pipelineat the behest of western powers. India voted against Syria to please USand other western imperialist powers. Indian Govt. abstained on a resolutionsupported by vast majority of countries authorizing investigation of warcrimes by Israeli Govt. Indian rulers rejected even the remnants of non-aligned foreign policy over the last decades since the advent of unipolarworld. US imperialism has egged on and Indian Govt. has followed withgreater involvement of India in Afghanistan where US led coalition hadbeen waging a war since October 2001. It suited US imperialism to enlistIndia in development work along with security matters including trainingAfghanistan Army and also use India as a scarecrow to make Pakistaniestablishment fall in line. India Govt. sold it to Indian people as a measureto deprive Pakistan of strategic depth and propping up of anti-PakistanGovt. in Afghanistan. Indian Govt. invested nearly 70 thousand crore rupeesin such developmental works to serve the strategic interests of USimperialism. Indian ruling classes supported foreign aggression andoccupation of Afghanistan and squandered such a huge amount of moneyto pursue imaginary gains vis a vis Pakistan.

Modi Govt. has sought to utilize its increasing proximity to US and its



NEW DEMOCRACYallies to intensify its aggressive rhetoric against Pakistan. During 2014election campaign, Modi had sought to project that all problems with Pakistanare due to weak response of the Indian Govt. which he had promised toaddress. Since coming to power Modi Govt. has sought to aggravatetensions against Pakistan. Modi and his ministers have projected that withthis tough govt. in power, all problems with Pakistan will be sorted outwith demonstration of force. Modi Govt. has sought to solve Kashmirproblem with its muscular response, refusing to accept that people ofJammu & Kashmir have any stake in the dispute between India and Kashmirover Kashmir on the one hand and on the other, refusing to discuss theissue of Jammu & Kashmir with Pakistan. Ceasefire violations across LOChave increased and both India and Pakistan Army are blaming the other forthese violations. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief had raised theissue in Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Ufa andPakistan has also written to UN Security Council over these violations. Bigmedia in both India and Pakistan are giving a lot of space to accusationsof incidents of firing across LOC and these incidents have been used inboth the countries to whip up war hysteria targeted against each other.

In the process of relentless pursuit of this foreign policy, Modi Govt.has isolated India in the international arena. Two developments in ourneighbourhood demonstrate this vividly. Recently talks started betweenAfghanistan Govt. and Talibaan (since interrupted after announcement ofthe death of Talibaan leader Mullah Omar). These talks, held in Pakistan,were mediated by the Govt. of Pakistan. What is even more important wasthe presence of the representatives of America and China in these talks.India was nowhere in this initiative. US Admn. has called an end toparticipation of its troops in combat operations but retains its forces inAfghanistan, wishes to continue its influence and military bases inAfghanistan. To this end, US Admn. is depending on and pressurizingPakistan to help in hammering a deal with Talibaan and Afghanistan Govt.This change in stance of US Admn. has unnerved Indian Govt. who waslooking for anti-Pakistan dispensation in Kabul.

The second development which has caught Indian Govt. on the wrongfoot was the deal reached between Iran and Six Powers (P5+1) on IransNuclear Programme. There is an attempt by US Admn. to accomodate Iranin the middle east power architecture under its own domination. Alreadythere is overt and covert cooperation between Iran and US in fighting

advance of Islamic State in Iraq. Indian Govt. which, as noted above, hadtoed US line on Iran, suddenly finds itself faced with a new situation whensanctions against Iran are going to be lifted. Indian Govt. which had spurnedIranian offer of gas and oil supplies at concessional rates, now faces theprospect of having to buy them at international prices and commercial terms.

These developments are only a demonstration of the rise of multipolarworld where US, despite being economically and militarily the most powerfulimperialist country, is not able to decide the question of war and peacearound the world. These developments also demonstrate that relationshipbetween US Admn. and Indian Govt. is a relationship among unequals. Itis a relationship between an imperialist patron and a third world client, it isa relationship of subservience with Indian rulers serving the interests ofUS imperialism. Whatever Indian ruling leaders pretend, US Admn. tries touse India for its strategic purposes and does not think twice about sideliningthem when their interests demand.

These developments signaled Indias isolation from its westernneighbours. More significantly it signaled Indias isolation from Central Asiaand the Caspian rim region about which much was being talked in India. Itwas in this situation that Mr. Narendra Modi travelled to Ufa near Moscowfor SCO summit. Modi Govt. approached Pakistan Govt. for a meetingbetween the Prime Ministers of the two countries during SCO summit. OnIndian Govt.s request such a meeting was held. In the meeting betweenNarendra Modi and Nawaz Sharief, the two Prime Ministers issued a jointstatement in which, among other things, they agreed, that India andPakistan have a collective responsibility to ensure peace and promotedevelopment. To do so, they are prepared to discuss all outstanding issues.With this statement it was hoped that bilateral discussion between Indiaand Pakistan would be resumed since they had got stalled after NarendraModi Govt. cancelled Foreign Secretary level talks in 2014. However, suchexpectations were short lived. Bilateral discussions between NationalSecurity Advisors (NSAs) of the two countries was cancelled. Again theIndian Govt. made the issue of discussion between representatives ofPakistan Govt. and leaders of Hurriyat Conference the excuse for cancellingthe talks. Though such discussions have been routinely held for over twodecades including six years of rule of Vajpayee led NDA Govt., Modi Govt.has made its absence a condition for holding bilateral discussions withPakistan. This is in line with the much propagated make believe "strong"

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NEW DEMOCRACYapproach of Modi Govt. which is going to 'solve' the Kashmir problemaccording to proponents and apologists of this Govt. They totally deny anyrole of the people of Jammu & Kashmir in deciding the destiny of their ownland. Moreover they feel and propagate that as India is stronger thanPakistan, the issue should be taken as resolved and there is no need ofany further talk on this issue. They think that they are in a position toimpose their will on Pakistan on this issue. This is in essence closing thedoors on discussions to resolve Kashmir issue and generally all outstandingissues with Pakistan. It is obvious that this approach would not decreasetensions with Pakistan. Rather it would lead to increasing these tensionsfurther.

Modi Govt.'s stance of no dialogue with Pakistan except on the termsdictated by it, has already raised eye brows regarding its belligerent postures.Modi Govt. is coming under increasing pressure from imperialist countriesto resume dialogue with Pakistan. RSS in its recent conclave has alreadyvoiced its support for a dialogue with Pakistan but the domestic constituencybuilt by Modi Govt. around its belligerence will take time to come to termswith this.

Besides escalating tensions with Pakistan, the foreign policy beingpursued by Modi Govt. has resulted in increasing isolation of Indiaparticularly among third world countries. Indian Govt. under Modi leadershipis openly adopting a big brotherly attitude towards neighbouring countries.The thrust of Modi Govt.'s foreign policy however, is aimed at making Indiaa partner of US imperialism in its attempts at containing China and attrying to extract US acquiescence in dominating Pakistan and the wholeregion. However, the decline of US imperialism is forcing it to strike dealswith other powers. Modi Govt., having put all its eggs in one basket, isclueless in handling this emerging situation. Even as Obama Admn. isnegotiating with several countries, Modi Govt. is increasingly aligning itselfwith more reactionary sections of the US establishment. Modi Govt. isdesperate to accelerate implementation of neo-liberal economic policieseven as these policies are facing increasing opposition from the people ofadvanced capitalist countries. Modi Govt. has embarked on this journey ata time when these policies have run a full circle.

Intensification of Attackon Working Class Rights

by Comprador RulersAparna

Carrying forward pro-imperialist pro big business policies with avengeance, Modi Govt. is going all out to push through several types ofanti worker changes in the labour laws themselves. These, of course, arepart and parcel of the anti worker policies pushed through more thoroughlyin the years of globalization, starting from 1990. The theory advanced wasthat labour flexibility would allow flourishing of industry which washandcuffed by labour laws, by inspector raj and the need to bribe govt.officials to get around all this. In reality, the labour law implementatonmachinery was servile to industry unless its hand was forced by workingclass struggles of whatever nature. The real motive was and is to extractmaximum profits and super profits with minimum expenditure on wages.

The current assault on labour laws encompasses a wide variety ofattacks. Large sections of workers will be taken out from under the umbrellaof labour laws. In the name of simplification, the laws themselves arebeing changed and protection to workers being removed or modified. Thirdly,amendments are being introduced to certain labour laws to bring about antiworker changes. It is a broad based assault of breathtaking width. In additionare a host of other policies which are removing support systems of thepoor including working class, like dismantling of PDS, privtatization ofeffective health and education facilities and the rising burden of prices.

Modis policies of make in India chiefly held out the promise of lowlabour costs and open right to loot natural resources. As it is policies allowalmost full repatriation of profits. Tax on corporate has been reduced in theBudget, the PPP mode will see Govt. play the major role and absorb risks,enhancing private profit and social deficit. Loans advanced to big businessby state banks are written off as bad debts without serious attempts at

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NEW DEMOCRACYrecovery. The whole strategy is to get FDI in any and every sector to show'growth' in the statistical arena while the people are impoverished.

Attacks Fail to Invigorate Industry

The talk of labour flexibility to allow flourishing of industry has beenon since 1990. There have also been a great variety of steps to enforce thesame. As will be briefly recounted below, the 2nd Labour Commission in2002 was the effort of the first NDA to change the labour laws. When suchreforms were held at bay by workers protests, other forms emerged.Contractualization broke out in epidemic proportions, along with casualand temporary workers. Such is the situation that today contract and casualworkers are a significant workforce in govt. and public sector institutions,and usually the majority in private sector. Outsourcing has created a newunnamed category of workforce. All this workforce is bereft of workinghours, minimum wages and other statutory rights. But the second step toallow flexibility to owners was to paralyze the labour law enforcementmachinery, depleting the numbers of the staff. Secondly, they were assignedother tasks. The labour law inspector also became the election staff, alsocounted child labour, also was deputed for census work etc.

The third were the Courts who turned a blind eye to the violation oflabour laws. In fact, it was the Judiciary which stepped in to promote thepro-corporate policies in the period of coalition Central govts. when workingclass movements managed to prevent formal changes in the labour laws.The Judiciary simply breached them in judgements. With the cover of thehighest court the labour courts stopped ordering reinstatements whereillegal retrenchments were proved as the owner should not be forced toemploy a workman. The Contract Labour Act was given a go by as allpermanent posts even in Govt. Depts were routinely filled by contractworkers. The provisions of equal pay for equal work was diluted in the garbof 'other factors'. The Supreme Court declined to stay FDI in telecom sectorpaving the way for its entering/increasing in percentage in other sectors.The fourth front was employment of appentices who were so maintainedfor much over acceptable duration as they were actually used as cheapworkforce. And another category were voluntary workers Sulabh workersand later Asha workers whose timings are actually 24 hours as they arevoluntary, who are wage-less with a pittance for a stipend and somecommissions which do not amount to minimum wages. Using these latter

wageless workers, India was made polio free. This was an improvementover anganwadis, midday meal workers etc. who were at least not termedvoluntary.

That all these steps for labour flexibility have yet not had the effect offlourishing of industry despite the large measure of success in attackingworkers rights is somehow not highlighted at all in discussions on thisissue. Rather, if there is any talk, the portrayal is that lack of any flourishingof industry is due to not enough having been done.

There is a severe sense of dissatisfaction in the working class in general.In part icular, there have been outbursts of anger against specificexploitations but the major trade unions refrained from generalizing theseparticulars and knitting all the separate fights into a fightback against thesepolicies. Actions in this regard were sporadic, sectoral. This is due topreponderance of reformist and reactionary trade union centres and the farweaker revolutionary and militant centres who are simply not doing enough.It also stems partially from the gradually altering composition of workingclass over the past quarter century (25 years since 1990). There has beenfailure to organize the emerging sections who are potentially much moreprone to struggles as they are second class in terms of rights.

In fact over the past 25 years, working class has altered in compositiongradually over the period and now stands dramatically changed. As far aspermanency of jobs is concerned it is largely casual, contractual ortemporary or composed of continual apprentices. As far as sectors areconcerned, the service sector has expanded enormously in the privatesector. IT sector has emerged, as also other categories of professionalworkers have gained in numbers like chemists in the expanding pharmaindustry. Construction industry has now become a flourishing sector withthe rise of real estate and this in India has a numerically rising work force.This is found working in large projects of both govt. and private natureapart from a liberal number of self employed. Thus today, the regularindustrial worker who was the mainstay of trade union movements hasbeen squeezed by expanding sections of unorganized sector, mostlyunskilled and irregular on the one hand and by professional workers on theother. Better mechanization has also diluted their role.

Today, the number of workers in India are estimated in 2012 at 487million including agricultural labour (NSSO Report 2010 was 465 million).

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Organized workers those in licensed organizations, public ratedcompanies, govt. sector were 28 million, while 92% were in unorganizedsector. There is 191 million unorganized working class. The number ofconstruction workers is estimated at 45 million.

Brief Overview of Attacks in NEP Years.One of the first events in the 1990s was the visit of a Japanese trade

delegation which demanded revocation of provisions enshrined in ID ActChapter VB (retrenchment and lockout in establishments with over 100workers). Other events were the offering and acceptance on a large scaleof VRS (Voluntary Retirement) by govt. employees reflecting the dwindlingof fightback following ruling class consensus over the New EconomicPolicies promoting LPG. Subsequently came the Second LabourCommission with the agenda of dilution of labour laws, which was held atbay. What eventually did happen was the pratical death of the ContractLabour Act. The incoming of MNCs, chiefly in automobile sector and ledby Japan, led to initial high wages and facilities to beat back criticism.Gradually, they kept a small core of permanent workers with a huge flankof contract workers and apprentices. As mentioned, enforcementmechanisms gradually dwindled in potency. Govts. of all types of rulingclass parties did not allow registration of TUs in MNCs unless they weremanagement unions and this still holds true even as registration of TUs atany level has become an uphill task. While earlier mafia was used againststruggles, the MNCs are now employing goons and bouncers as securityguards and managers to act against workers at the behest of managements.MNCs in India have begun having a typical scenario of prolonged strugglesof their workforce suddenly having an episode in which there are eitherclashes with some managers or workers do some violent action and inthis security staff is also involved, but in which typically an Indian manageris killed and criminal charges of murder slapped on tens or even hundredsof workers. On the other hand in jute sector in Bengal and recently in teagardens in Bengal workers in prolonged struggles against being duped bymanagements, have risen in anger against the mangers who have directlyengaged against them.

Current Barrage of AttacksThe current spate of attacks orchestrated by the Modi Govt. is dizzying

in its scope and width. The overall attack is to throw away as far as possible

all protecting legal provisions from as many sections of workers as possible.So one step stems from the 2nd Labour Commission recommendations,that is, that 44 labour laws in the country will be compressed into fivecodes Code on Wages, Code on Industrial Relations, Code on SocialSecurity and Code on Industrial Safety and Code on Welfare. In the nameof compressing, as many pro worker provisions as possible will be excluded.This will be examined in some detail later.

The second move has been to amend the Factory Act so as to removeall units employing less than 40 workers from under it. This effectivelyexcludes almost 70% of the workforce. The next step is that 14 labourlaws will no longer be applicable on establishments employing less than 40workers, and a separate law will be formulated for such institutions/units.Such a 'Small Factories' Bill' was slated to be brought before the 2015monsoon session of Parliament.

The Apprentice Act has been amended to remove binding on owners toemploy a minimum given percentage of the workmen post apprenticeshipand also provisions for jail for owners violating the Act have been removed.A quarter or half the stipend for apprentices will be paid by Govts., and theperiods of apprenticeship have been prolonged so as to allow owners freeruse of this section as a grossly underpaid workforce. Alongside thesechanges, Modi Govt. calls for 'Skill India'- that youth should come forwardto be apprentices i.e. provide cheap labour in the production process.

ESI provisions are going to be made optional. There is much talk ofsocial security cover, but it needs to be remembered that while ESI andPFprovides cover at collective level ie through employers andestablishments, the social security envisaged works at the level ofindividuals i.e. health cards which work in certain hospitals. The changesin PF will be by 'Compehensive Amendment to EPF and MiscellaneousProvisions Act 1952'. All units employing less than 40 workers will beallowed to give compulsory ESI and PF the go by.

The codefying of labour laws are going to result in loss of many rights.The Labour Code on Industrial Relations compresses the existing TradeUnion Act, the Industrial Disputes Act 1947 and the Industrial Employment(Standing Orders) Act 1946. The Wages Code will compress the MinimumWages Act, the Payment of Wages Act, the Payment of Bonus Act andthe Equal Remuneration Act. The ID Act provides protection to workers



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against retrenchments and lockouts in units employing 100 or above workers(chapter VB).Now this provision will apply only where 300 or more workersare employed. The enforcement mechanism of Minimum Wages will beformally over, and facilitators will replace inspectors. In deciding minimumwage many extra items will be included like 'cost of living allowance' and'cash value of concessions in respect of supply of essntial commodities'(Section 7 of Code). The amount charged as 'challan' for non payment ofminimum wage has not been raised. Anyway by changes in rules, thechecking mechanism for violation of labour laws by law enforcementmachinery is virtually over. However the demand of the working class, thatminimum wages be enforced strictly for all workers, is wholly attacked,forget about it being met. But now Modi has changed his language. Allthese changes being pushed through, he said around the recent IndianLabour Conference, are also for the workers! He said that there is a thinline between helping industry and helping industrialists and it must bekept in mind'. Modi Govt. has kept it in mind, but only with every intentionto breach it. The Equal Remuneration Act has been reduced to just onesentence. The changes in Trade Union Act will restrict the number ofoutsiders who can be office bearers when it is common knowledge thatworking class is integrated into all India movements in this manner. It alsomeans that more leaders will be employees of the same management i.e.open to being harrassed or pressurized. The Bonus Act is reduced to athird of its original size.

These are the overt attacks. The non implementation of any pro workersteps and laws are the series of covert assaults. The ever enlarging numberof construction workers are allowed shelters at labour chowks, residenceat place of work, safety equipment, among other provisions in the law, butnone of these are implemented. Jute workers face perennial closuresbecause the Jute Board which is supposed to purchase the flax does notdo so while jute farmers burn raw material due to lack of purchasers. Indiais a jute producer and jute is an environment friendly product. Syntheticfibres marketed by Ambani are not. There is no strict enforcement forpackaging of materials in Govt. departments in jute bags. In coal sector,coal blocks are being handed over for commercial use, allowing loot of ournatural resources and attacking the wage of coal workers.

In the Electricity sector a privatization spree is on throughout the country.On the one hand, gradually power distribution has been privatized in state

after state. On the other private power generation projects have been allowedto mushroom countrywide. Land acquisition for these thermal power plantswere violently fought back in Sompeta and Kakrapalli (AP) and are beingfought in Uttar Pradesh (Karchana, Meja and Bara). Already the workers ofstate distribution boards have been eased out by VRS and settlements,and the employees of the private boards are maximally contractual. Wagesand jobs are under severe sequeeze and major unions of electricity workershave called for a days strike on the day the Electricity Bill is broughtbefore Parliament.

Call centres flourish on the expertize of young, educated workers whowork all sorts of hours, are given differential rates depending on the workthey do in order to extract the maximum output. They want to be calledemployees and they desperately need unionization. This is also onesection where women return from work or go to work at all hours of thenight and need enforcement of laws to ensure that employees arrangesafe working conditions and safe transport from work gate to home gate.With the lifting on the ban on night shift for women, workers in all sectorsneed this security of transport, including especially also export sector.

Security sevices almost countrywide have been privatized andcontractualized. Today even nurses, journalists, teachers and doctors arereduced to contractual employees. One figure from the Ministry of Labourand Employment Annual Report, 601, 2009-10 shows the number of contractlabour covered by licenses in the Central sphere as:

2006-7 1001947

2008-9 1377610

With this huge rise in rights-less temporary, casual, contract workers;with the rise of construction industry; with all establishments employingless than 40 workers being thrown out of both Factory Act and the umbrellaof 14 labour laws besides, one urgent issue is going to be accidents atwork place. Even with factory inspectors and even with reports there stillcould be Bhopal GasTragedy. With no survelliance allowed of safetyequipment and other precautions (which fall under purview of Factory Act)what is the scenario going to be? Cases in such accidents are lodgedunder 304A accidental death, though such deaths are very much crimesof commission. The life of the workmen has no importance. Recently a



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DLC in Delhi, when confronted with the fifth death in industrial accidents inan area, blurted out to the trade union leaders, Just dont worry. Put theapplication under Workmen Compensation Act and I will clear it in oneday. So that is all that a workers life is worth! The situation demands thatall these deaths be treated as murder, and examined under appropriatesections.

The Attack on UnionizationThe multiple categories of workers- some permanent with some rights,

some temporary,some contractual but re-employed after breaks- and thetemporary nature of jobs as it is are also meant to undercut unionizationdue to fears of dismissal and also due to different demands of each section.Alongside registration of trade unions has been made virtually impossible.The unwritten law for MNCs has already been mentioned and holds steadfastin the face of different ruling class parties (earlier Mayawati and nowSamajwadi Party in UP, earlier Congress and now BJP in Haryana are twoexamples). Thus, recordable strikes have also gone downhill. The GOIsLabour Bureau has recorded that while in the 1970s there were about onelakh strikes a year, in 2008 there were 240, in 2009-167 and in 2010 therewere 199. These figures do not reflect workers unrest in these years at all,because this unrest does not take traditional trade union forms. Rather,gradually, as the labour laws are going to afford less and less protection toworking class, this changed situation is going to have a reflection on howdisputes are tackled between workers, managements and state forces whichinevitably step in for employers. This will increase the challenge beforetrade union centres to build struggles of various sections, to involve asmany sections of workers as possible around struggles of any one sectionor industry and for all this to organize the newer sections. It will be a sortof historical re-run but on an entirely different plane.

Attack On The Right To StrikeThe changes in the labour laws proposed by the Modi Govt also include

extending the clause of a notice period before strike from public utilityservices to all sectors.Secondly, the moment strike notice is givenconciliation process will automatically start rendering any strike illegal.Thirdly, fines for illegal strike and on those who support, help financially or'instigate' such strike have been placed between Rs 20,000 to 50,000. Manyforms of struggle like demonstration before employer's residence have been

included in the definition of strike.

Consensus of Ruling Class PartiesWith the consensus of all ruling class political parties on the pro

liberalization direction and on the pro imperialist, pro big business policies,naturally the response of the major gamut of trade unions the reactionaryand reformist was muted. All India actions were staggered to act aspressure valves to direct and let off the steam of workers anger. They alsocreated a myth of all India actions but were so few and far between, asalso so half hearted, as to not have any effective result and also break thefaith of workers in struggle responses. Where aggressive united actionwas needed, there was sectarianism and lethargic answers dismally out ofproportion to the attack. As already mentioned the revolutionary and militanttrade union movement is weaker though now the situation is that organizedworkforce is on the wane, and the new worker who is on the scene is thetemporary worker in a scenario of nearly absent labour laws.

However on 21st on 22nd Feb 2014 (two day All India strike of virtually alltrade unions), export workers in Noida on the first day and in Okhla on thesecond day stood up and made their anger felt. So have the workers deniedtrade union rights in MNCs, both contractual and otherwise, done so in aspate of struggles in Graziano, Nippon, Hero Honda, Maruti, in Pudicherryetc. So have hard pressed workers in jute industry. So have workers inother sections fought to defend the right to organize , for minimum wagesand implementation of other labour laws. The assault on the working classof India by Modi Govt. is broad based and to push through a host of changesto demolish the legal shield of the workers. These labour laws were enactedworldwide in response to workers'struggles with the The Great OctoberSocialist Revolution in Russia as a backdrop, and they offered reforms tothe working class. In India, big movements of the working class againstcolonial British rulers forced the same and they were no one's grace toIndia's working class. They need to be extended to cover all workers and tobe enriched to furthur safeguard workers rights.

ConclusionThe entire NEP period has seen a change in composition of the working

class based on irregular and insecure nature of employment. Thepredominance of the reactionary and reformist unions among the organized



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working class and the despondence they instilled towards the struggleagainst this change by giving only half hearted and symbolic fight againstthem, ensured that no serious fight was put up against the NEP attacks onworkers in which was also the offering of VRS, an easier way to be rid oforganized workers than retrenchments. Thus denuded in numbers anddisarmed politically, the organized working class put up virtually little fightto all the indirect attacks on jobs and rights in which primarily temporaryworkers were increased and regular workers allowed to retire. Rather itwas the peasantry- the owners of land- who stalled NEP by giving a seriouschallenge to land aquisitions. This phase was inagurated by Kalingnagarand established as a method by Nandigram.As already described , in theNEP years the composition of the working class has changed and nowirregular workers predominate. Revolutionary trade unions must rise to themuch more difficult task of organizing these workers and bringing theminto struggles.

Modi's desperate efforts to bring in FDI have got virtually no where- forwhom would there be production in the face of the world wide economiccrisis? Rajan (RBI Governor) talked about 'make for India' but where is thepurchasing power for most of India? FDI can come for looting mineralresources or for acquiring land-the safest investment. But the peasantryhas put the feasibility of both in question. Now the Modi Govt. is resortingto manipulating the method of calculating GDP in a bid to show'development' but he is not going to change the model of 'development'.The route to expanding India's market is in implementing land reforms,whichthe ruling classes will not take. Thus they will move on the path of depressinglabour costs, looking for foreign investment and selling resources. For thispeople also will be polarized on communal lines especially by jingoismand also along caste lines. The working class must be organized by therevolutionary trade union movement into broad based struggles to play itsrole in this situation.

LAND STRUGGLES IN PUNJABS.S. Mahil

Punjab is said to be the grain bowl of India, though some other stateslike Madhya Pradesh have now emerged as grain surplus states. Still Punjabis the main contributor to the central grain pool followed by Haryana. Punjabis the first state where an imperialist model was put into practice inagriculture, namely green revolution. This development has considerablyimpacted the production system and structure in Punjab. It has generateda sharp debate about the mode of production in the agricultural sector ofPunjab. A general impression is that agriculture in Punjab has beentransformed into capitalist mode of production. Consequently, theimpression is that land question is completely solved in Punjab, land hasbeen distributed to the actual tillers, hence there is no scope of land strugglein this cradle of green revolution. Though they may not say this so openlybut deep in their understanding most of the revolutionary communistorganizations hold this belief. Some have even come out openly to declarethat agriculture in Punjab is capitalist and trying to find land question inPunjab is subjective madness. In this context land struggles were missingfrom the demography of struggles in Punjab. But of late some land struggleshave come up and attracted the attention of people in the state. Thesestruggles are sparsely spread from Gurdaspur district in northern Punjab tothe Sangrur Patiala districts in southern Punjab. How to look at thesestruggles and how to evaluate them? What is their place in the profile ofpeoples struggles in Punjab? But before going into these questions, let ustake a birds eye view of the historical background of this question.

Glorious Tradition of Land StruggleIn the Mughal period peasants were hard pressed. They used to abandon

land when they were unable to pay rent and the Mughal empire used harshmethods to collect rent. In this situation, in Punjab arose the Sikh movementwhich raised its voice against the repressive Mughal rule. Seeing this,peasants started flocking around the Sikh Gurus who started the commonkitchen. This was meant for saving the starving peasants from hunger andalso to give a message of equality. Despite its religious contour, in essenceSikhism was a peasant movement.



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After the death of the tenth guru, Guru Gobind Singh, Banda Bahaduran ardent follower of the guru, took up the reins of the fight against theMughal rulers. At that time there were two provinces covering the presentPunjab area. One was Suba Sirhind and the second was Lahore. WajidKhan, the subedar of Sirhind, was most repressive and brutal. Hence hewas the prime target of Banda Bahadur. Banda Bahadur invaded Sirhind.He established Sikh rule and distributed the lands of feudal landlords amongthe peasants. Thus he became the torch bearer of democratic revolution inthis region. With the passage of time and the weakening of the Mughalempire a strata emerged as feudal landlords from among the Sikhs andbecame the enemy of Banda Bahadur apart from the Mughal feudals. Thoughthe rule of Banda could not sustain for long but this was the first big blow tofeudalism in southeast Punjab.

During British period the land rent was very high and method of collectionvery repressive. This forced the peasantry into indebtedness. In thissituation a militant peasant movement arose under the leadership of SardarAjit Singh, the uncle of Shaheed Bhagat Singh. This struggle was directedat the abrogation of debt and against moneylenders confiscating peasantland, against the repressive land rent and demanding reduction in landrent.

Another important struggle fought during the British period was underthe leadership of Kisan Sabha on the question of land rent i.e. share ofproduce. In Western Punjab, now part of Pakistan, in those days landlordsused to take the whole produce to their homes and give a share of it to thepeasants. This share was not fixed strictly so landlords could manipulatethe peasant share as well as the total volume of produce, leaving peasantsstruggling with hunger and poverty. So, the Kisan Sabha led by ex Gaddarparty veterans organized peasants and launched a movement. The centralslogan of this movement was adho-adh vatt te meaning half-half share inthe produce and to be given in the field itself. Peasants refused to pay therent and took the produce. Thousands of peasants were arrested and putbehind the bars. However, important victories were achieved.

The most important anti feudal struggle in Punjab was in the easternstates of Punjab, popularly known as the PEPSU tenants movement. Thestruggle was mainly in the state of Patiala, but not confined to it. Thismovement was under the leadership of the Red Communist Party, abreakaway from the Communist Party of India and was led by veteran

comrade Teja Singh Swatantar, a Gaddar party fighter. They had separatedfrom the CPI because of differences on the slogan of peoples war givenduring Second World War and also on the issue of policy towards Pakistani.e. party declaring the demand of Pakistan as demand of national selfdetermination. This movement arose almost at the time when Telanganastruggle was going on. Slogan of land to the tiller was given, demandingownership rights. Peasants in large numbers were mobilized. They refusedto pay a share of produce to the landlords. Violent clashes took placewhen peasants boldly and bravely resisted the landlords' offensive. Partyformed squads in secret, those were called tech. squads at that time. Primarytraining was imparted to volunteers. State forces openly came out tosuppress the movement but people did not budge even an inch. The situationreached such a point that military was called in. The village named Kissingerin Bathinda district (now in Mansa district) was surrounded by the militaryto arrest the leaders of the movement and guns were positioned around thevillage but this whole encirclement proved futile as leaders could escapeposing as ordinary peasants. Ultimately the state government led by GianSingh Rarewala was forced to pass a law conferring ownership rights to thetenant peasants. Though many loopholes were kept in the law and manywere involved in the litigation but this movement broke the backbone offeudalism in PEPSU area.

Green Revolution and Changes

All these movements largely undermined feudalism and changed theagrarian relations. Overwhelming majority of peasants became ownerpeasants. But Dalits, who constitute one third of rural population, had noland. According to Govt. data, in mid sixties, at the time of launching ofthe imperialist model of agriculture named green revolution, 84% of thepeasantry was owner peasant, which means that 16% of peasantry and30% dalits (dalit share of population) involved in agriculture as labourerswere landless. But, as 84% of peasantry was owner peasant, this was themain basis for imperialists to select Punjab as their laboratory for the greenrevolution model of agriculture. The owner peasant, who is dependent onagriculture, has interest in development of agriculture and would investlabour and money in it. Neither the feudals, who are divorced from the realproduction in agriculture, nor the landless who have no entitlement to landand produce, can make such investment. The second factor for the selectionof Punjab for implementation of this model was the assured availability of



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irrigation around the year. Though the large canal network remained inPakistan and a small section of it is in Indian Punjab, but it had a verylarge source of underground water as it had a shallow aquifer with quite alarge amount of fresh and sweet water, which could be easily pumped out.These factors were instrumental in making Punjab the first region of socalled green revolution. It must be very clear that the aim was not primarilyfor meeting the food requirements of Indian people or to develop theagriculture here but imperialists' need of a vast market for their chemicalindustry, which was facing a demand crisis in post second world war period.

Though green Revolution was an imperialist venture and was intendedto fulfill their interests but it certainly brought some changes in the agrarianscenario of Punjab. These are few important changes. One, irrigation withground water expanded sharply, tubewells energized with electricity anddiesel spurted on an unprecedented scale. Machinery was employed on abig scale. Those who were unable to afford it started hiring from richpeasants and landlords. Thus mechanized methods came into use inagriculture. Secondly, production of commercial crops took the place oftraditional crops. Paddy, which was never an important crop, became themain crop of one season. As wheat and paddy were the two crops whoseminimum support price was not only fixed but also adhered to, so monoculture agriculture which was going to have serious consequences for bio-diversity in the future began. This also led to expansion of market. Thirdly,it resulted in the inward migration of labour from Uttar Pradesh and Biharcreating glut in the labour market and reduction of wages and large part oflocal labour taking to sundry jobs leading to proliferation of unorganizedsector.

There are changes in agriculture but the issue is how to asses thesechanges? Mostly people run to the conclusion that agriculture in Punjabhas transformed into capitalist agriculture, including some of those whoconsider India to be a semi feudal, semi colonial country. But these friendsfail to grasp some simple facts. Firstly in a semi colonial countrydevelopments cannot be understood properly in isolation from imperialismwhich transforms the agrarian system for its needs, not for developmentof productive forces and changing of production relations, irrespective ofthe objective conditions there. That is why it has led the agrarian sectorinto the web of unsolvable crisis with indebted peasantry, irreparable damageto the soil , very serious crisis of ground water, badly poisoned environmentleading to epidemic scale of cancer, hepatitis and many other diseases,

destroyed bio-diversity by mono culture. Secondly, most basic thing incapitalist transformation is not only the use of machinery, commodity andmarket but that labour itself becomes a commodity. Even the payment inmoney is not a decisive factor. In Punjab, though daily wage is thephenomenon but tied labor too exists in the form of Sanjhi and Seeri. Incase of migrant labour, those who are engaged on contract basis are tiedfor 24 hours and all the year. Money lending and casteism are otherreflections of pre capitalist system.

Many Marxists think that semi feudalism exists only if landlordtenantrelation is there. But they fail to understand that this is a relation of feudalsystem and in semi feudal set up this relation will have many variationsand land question will be in very different and veiled forms. So when westudy the land question in Punjab we will have to go deep into the situationbeyond the rhetoric.

LAND STRUGGLES IN PUNJABThe historic importance of Naxalbari was that it did not simply draw a

line of demarcation with revisionism organizationally but ideologically,politically and strategically. Naxalbari was an agrarian struggle for politicalpower, so when the All India Committee of Communists Revolutionariesgave a call to build Naxalbari type of struggles all over India" it meantbuild agrarian struggle directed towards the capture of political power. Inresponse to this all India call, communist revolutionaries in Punjab tried tobuild agrarian struggles in Punjab too. They decided to concentrate in Hajipurarea of Hoshiarpur district, a geographically strategic area situated betweenriver Beas on one side and Shivalik hills on the other side. Implementingthe mass line they tried to organize the tillers-generally called Abadkars-who made that govt. land cultivable. Ludhiana -Ropar committee ofcommunist revolutionaries decided to work in and around the Birla seedfarm. They were trying to organize labourers working in the farm and thepeasants who were dispossessed from their land in order to establish thisBirla seed farm. In Sangrur district people were mobilized to capture theland of Balwant Singh, an ex-general of the army of Maharaja of Patiala, invillage Kila Hakima. People in large number marched to his land and captured1500 bigha of land by putting red flags on it. Similarly, in Bathinda district(now in Mansa district), in Bhikhi, a small town, the house of a moneylender was raided, documents of debts and documents of the mortgagedland were burnt. But before these efforts could develop and some tangible



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results be achieved, the line of individual annihilation came and line ofland struggle was abandoned. This line of individual annihilation was rectifiedand mass line was adopted but it took quite a long time to pick up thethread of land struggle.

In the late seventies, struggle developed against the efforts by someex-officers and bureaucrats to dispossess the peasants who cultivatedthe barren land for years together in the area of Beas river mand. Strugglesucceeded and ultimately peasants got ownership rights in Kapurthaladistrict. That was the only struggle.

After the All India party congress in 2004 land struggles started comingup. One such struggle came up in Talwandi Sipahi Mal village of Amritsardistrict where people fought against the land mafia which was trying tocapture the land of panchayat. Similarly,in Nrot Jaimal Singh block ofGurdaspur district, in many villages many leaders of ruling Akali party,including a minister, Sucha Singh Langah, were trying to dispossess thetenants from government land which they had been tilling for more thanfifty years. People resisted these efforts, fought back and are tilling it tilldate. Such struggles were fought in village Jasraoor and some other villagesof Amritsar district. Most important was the struggle in village KhannaChamara of Gurdaspur district. This whole village is of tenants, tilling theland of gurdwara Teja vila under SGPC i.e. Shiromani ParbandhakCommittee. SGPC was trying to dispossess them from these 650 acres ofland as an influential Akali leader Nirmal Singh Kahlon, speaker of VidhanSabha, wanted to occupy it. SGPC at the behest of Mr. Kahlon, took alarge number of its goonda force (named task force), raided the village andstarted ploughing the land with tractors. When villagers in large numbercame out and resisted, the task force members fired at the people. Twopeasants were killed and many were injured, but goondas of SGPC wereforced to retreat. This struggle of village Khanna Chamara brought theland question to the fore.

Long back government gave nazul land to the co operative societiesof dalits in those villages where there was a minimum of ten acres of suchland. But in reality, in most of the villages this is under the cultivation oflandlords, rich peasants and other influential people. Struggle for recaptureof such nazul society land came up in village Sekha in Barnala district.Inspired by the success of struggle people from more villages approachedour comrades. 16,423 acres of land in 65 villages of old Sangrur district

were in the illegal possession of rich people. Representatives of 62 villagesgathered at village Badrukkhan and decided to form Zameen PraptiSangharsh Committee (ZPSC). Soon after its formation, struggle startedon the issue of Dalits share in the panchayat land. Dalits are entitled to theone third of panchayat land legally, but in practice landlords and richpeasants take them with benami auction in the name of some Dalits. Butwith the formation ZPSC, Dalits stood up to take their share of panchayatland. Main centres of this struggle were Bald Kalan, Baupur, Matoi, Namoletc villages. In Bald kalan where one third share comes to 130 acres, thestruggle was intense. People were brutally lathicharged and 43 people,including leaders were put behind bars on the charge of attempt to murderand many more charges. After one and half months, Govt. buckled underthe pressure of struggle, released them unconditionally and gave the landto Dalits for one season. This year,in Sangrur Dist., this struggle for Dalitsshare in panchayat land spread to 31 villages, was fought in 22 villagesand won in all villages except one. This struggle was conducted in Jalandhar,one pocket of Kapurthala district and two villages of Patiala district withvictory in some villages, partial victory in some others and was unsuccessfulin a few. Struggle under the leadership of another revolutionary organizationhas come up in some villages in Patiala district against the eviction oftillers from the panchayat land. These land struggles have attracted theattention of the revolutionary camp.

As of now, we could visualize that land question in Punjab is in fourforms. One, ceiling surplus land. In early seventies a committee was formedto study the impact of land reforms. It was called Harchand Singh Committeewhich in its report said that its impact was negligible. Mostly land was keptby landlords in benami in the name of even cattle and trees. We at presentdo not have the data of ownership of land but the data of operational holdingsfairly reflects the concentration of land. According to the data of 2011peasants with operational holdings of up to five acres are 32% but theyoperate only 9.29% of the land, whereas farmers above ten acre holdingsoperate 69.15 % of land. Lowering of ceiling limit is an imperative task.This is one form of land. Second is the panchayat land. Land of panchayatsin Punjab is one lakh and fifty eight thousands acres and share of Dalitscomes to 52,667 acres. We are fighting for the one third lease on cheaperrates for Dalits and the rest to be reserved for peasantry with up to fiveacres. In future, it needs to be developed for the distribution of this land tothe landless (Dalits) and poor peasants. Third is the Dalit society land.



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Fourth one is the Govt. land marked as forest but being cultivated bypeasants and endowment land also being tilled by tenant peasants. Thisforest land is in kandi area, along with Shivalik hills, along the internationalborder in Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Taran Taran districts. Apart from theseare some areas on riversides in the mand of Satluj, Beas and Ravi.Endowment land is quite wide spread in Punjab. SGPC, the body managingthe historic Sikh Gurudwaras, controls vast tracts of land in various districtsin Punjab. Land of Mandirs is in the ownership of priests called mahants.For example there is a temple in village Pandori Mahanta which is theowner of land in 22 villages. Few years back the mahant tried to evict thetenants by force. KKU and Kisan Sabha jointly led the tenants to resist theeviction efforts. Goondas of the mahant had to beat a retreat but the matterwent into litigation and is still pending in the court. Similarly, there aremany Deras which own land and have fairly big holdings though some ofthem cultivate with their followers working on it and some of them give iton lease to tenants.

Land question is in these four forms. In the first phase we are fightingfor Dalits share of panchayat land and demanding the reservation of restof panchayat land for poor peasants and against the eviction of tenants.Then we will fight for the distribution of panchayat land to the Dalits andpoor peasants and for ownership rights for the tenants on govt. land. Withthe development of the movement we can move on to capturing surplusland held by landlords and rich peasants. Though we will continually demandthe lowering of ceiling and distribution of the surplus land but will not moveon to direct action for the time being. Issue of capturing of endowment landwill come at the last and very late, though we will continue to fight againstthe efforts at eviction of tenants.

The issue of land is the basic issue of new democratic revolution and isto be taken only that way but that does not mean that this is the onlyissue. There are many other important issues of agrarian struggle such aswages, MGNREGA, social security, homestead, reduction of input cost ofagriculture and remunerative prices for the agricultural produce, cancellationof debts and specific issues of small peasantry and many others. Onlythen can we advance the agrarian movement and thus advance therevolutionary movement.

Greece : Surrender bySyriza Leadership

Supported by the Opposition parties in Parliament, the Syriza Govt. ofGreece has pushed through measures demanded by the Internationalcreditors, particularly Germany. While the harsh terms imposed by Europeanpowers on Greece have once again exposed the rapacious nature of theimperialist countries, the abject surrender by dominant leadership of rulingSyriza has once again demonstrated that revisionists of different hues fearpeople more; has once again demonstrated that revisionists are therepresentatives of the capitalists within working class movement. Syrizaleadership joined forces with the main conservative party New Democratia,old socialists and some smaller parties to push through the measures whichspell doom for the Greek economy and will bring untold misery and sufferingsto the people of Greece.

While people of Greece were preparing for the rejection of the termsimposed by the European Commission, European Central Bank (ECB) andInternational Monetary Fund (IMF), the troika, in the referendum called byGovt. of Greece, the dominant leadership of ruling Syriza was preparing forsurrender, reducing the whole exercise of referendum to a farce. Syrizaleadership was probably expecting acceptance of the terms of the troika orits narrow rejection in the referendum whereby it could hide behind lack ofpeoples support for its acceptance of the terms. However, with overwhelmingrejection by the people of Greece with 61.31% of electorate rejecting theterms of the troika, the Syriza leadership came out in its true colours. Itdeclared that the will of the people expressed in the referendum was amandate for further negotiations, removed Finance Minister, YanisVaroufakis, for having offended the bosses of the troika and the FinanceMinisters of creditor countries. No sooner were the votes of the referendumcounted, the dominant leadership of Syriza started painting a harrowingpicture of the financial catastrophe for Greece in case the creditors termswere not accepted. They started parroting the propaganda of the older partiesof the ruling classes about the need to accept the creditors terms. It wasclear from the stance of the Syriza leadership that not only European powersand the troika but even the Syriza leadership had no intention of honouring



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the will of the people.

For the European powers, particularly Germany, holding a referendumon creditors terms was an effrontery which could not go unpunished. Theimperialist rulers of Europe aborted the first attempt at holding a referendumon creditors terms by the then ruling PASOK Prime Minister in 2011 forcinghim to resign and rescind the decision. They ensured that the secondattempt at holding the referendum by Syriza Govt. on July 5, 2015 was astill birth and the result of the referendum was declared to be of noconsequence. According to the bosses of the troika, people of Greece hadno right to decide their economic policies. As the German Finance Ministerhad famously remarked on the coming to power of Syriza in Greece,elections changed nothing. The debtor had to follow the dictates of thecreditors. He was also of the opinion that there was no point in holdingelections in indebted countries, except that not doing so was not feasible.

European powers punished Greece for the effrontery of a no vote. Theyimposed on Greece terms which were even harsher than those rejected bythe people of Greece in the referendum. The terms include increase inrates of VAT, reduction in pensions and plans that ensure immediatespending cuts in the event of breaching creditor-mandated budget cuts.Specifically Greece would have to increase VAT rates- the top rate of 23%is to extend to processed food, restaurants etc., 13% to cover fresh food,energy bills, water and hotel stays, 6% for medicines and books. Further,VAT discount of 30% is to be abolished on islands. Corporation tax is to beraised from 26 to 29% for small companies. Farmers tax is to be raisedfrom 13 to 26%. Greece would have to cut expenditure on pensions. Furtherearly retirement is to end and retirement age be raised to 67yrs. Not onlythese measures, Greece has agreed to sell off state assets worth Euro 50billion, with the proceeds earmarked for a trust fund supervised by itscreditors. Half the fund will be used to recapitalize Greek banks, while theremaining Euro 25 billion will pay down the debts.

Obviously these terms are harsher than the ones rejected by Greeks inJuly 5 referendum. These have been described as harsher than the termsof Versailles treaty and going beyond harshness into pure vindictiveness,(leading to the) complete destruction of national sovereignty (with) no signof relief. These have exposed the true nature of European Union as aproject of big capital of Europe. They have also exposed the rapacious

nature of imperialist powers who, like vultures, eat out the vitals of theeconomy of even their own member if it were to fall on bad times. Theylecture on the virtue of having to pay ones debts though all of them in thepast had defaulted on their debts and most of them could maintain theirsolvency and attain high standards of life in their countries thanks to colonialloot and plunder.

A noteworthy aspect has been the near total absence of any noise inthe international media about violation of democracy in Greece. How thewill of a sovereign people was trampled underfoot by the European powers,of course aided by their servitors in Greece- conservatives, socialists andrevisionists dominating Syriza leadership. Big international media controlledby the corporate of USA and Europe did not even utter a word about thisgross subversion of democracy in Greece. These media outlets who preachvirtues of democracy 24X7, did not find anything wrong in this blatantexercise in deception.

But the most important aspect particularly in the context of risingstruggles of workers and toiling people of European countries is the betrayalby Syriza leadership which had committed itself to ending austerity policieswhich have created havoc with the economy of Greece and which hadbeen voted to power in January 2015 to end these humiliating policies. Thedominant Syiza leadership consisting of Euro-communists and reformists,were however, even while promising to end austerity, vehement on remainingin Eurozone at all costs. These contradictory positions of the dominantSyriza leadership had the seed of betrayal in them. Their insistence onremaining in Eurozone was the umbilical cord that connected them toEuropean big capital. So long as they were not in power, they could pretendto be opponents of cuts in Govt. expenditure but once in power, they hadto choose between siding with the people of Greece and siding with Europeanbig capital. They made their choice according to their class character. Inthe process they have insulted the glorious struggle of people of Greece,particularly over the last five years, against policies of austerity. Theyhave once again proved that revisionists are representatives of bourgeoisiewithin working class movement. Whatever their pretensions, they wouldnever decisively go against the interests of bourgeoisie, the ruling class oftheir country. Whenever the movement is in low ebb, they make the excuseof lack of preparedness of the people for their tailing the ruling classes.But when people come forward in struggles, they openly side with ruling



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classes chastising the workers and struggling people for daring to wagestruggle, terming all such struggles as adventurist and anarchist. In factit is possible to have some joint action with revisionists only when thestruggle is in low ebb for when the struggles advance the revisionists sideopenly with ruling classes thereby finishing off all possibilities of jointstruggles. After all, one does not embrace revisionism to make revolution.

In fact signs of impending betrayal could be discerned even during Syrizarule. No measures were planned for the case that troika may not acceptthe demands of the people of Greece. Over 40 billion Euros were allowedto flow out of Greece from April to June 2015, playing havoc with thefinancial system of Greece. These were pointers that Syriza leadershipwas planning to ultimately surrender before the troika after putting up some'fight' to hoodwink the people of Greece.

For some time, it has been clear that people of Greece face a starkchoice of either submitting to the European powers or taking steps towardsreorganizing their economy. It was a choice long ago articulated by RosaLuxembourg as barbarism or socialism. It is not enough to reject austeritybut to embark on the path of reorganizing the economy on socialist lines.For this working class has to clearly comprehend the nature of impendingstruggle and be prepared for this struggle. It is not enough to score electoralvictory, but to prepare the working class and toiling masses to be ready tocombat and subdue the resistance of exploiting classes. Different strugglesshould prepare the working class for this decisive battle. Despite widesupport of the working class and toiling masses, it is this aspect which islacking in Greece. Only revolutionary communists could prepare the workingclass for this decisive battle and they were weak. However, this widespreadstruggle would have offered them ample opportunities to prepare the workingclass and toiling masses for this battle. Night long street battles in capitalAthens and other cities, and total strike by the employees, were a reminderthat people of Greece have not acquiesced in this betrayal by Syrizaleadership. Nor would the recent bail out (of Euro 86 billion) help recoveryof Greek economy.

The capitulation by dominant Syriza leadership has split Syriza, with44 MPS either voting against or abstaining in the bailout vote in theParliament of Greece. A majority of them have set up a new party. TsiprasGovt. has been reduced to a minority Govt. Syriza has become third

important party of Memorandum besides New Democratia and PASOK i.e.committed to implement the terms agreed in the memorandum. Theopposing group in Syriza is campaigning against the bailout terms agreedto by Tsipras Govt. However, the strength of revolutionary communistswould be a decisive factor in taking this movement forward. CommunistOrganization of Greece (KOE) has left Syriza and has not joined the newparty set up by the forces belonging to the Left Platform inside Syriza.

While people in different countries of Europe are protesting against cutsin Govt. expenditure particularly on social security and in Govt. services,the corporate are determined to carry their offensive through. They arebranding all opposition to austerity as radical left or hard left while thisopposition is well within the parameters of this system. However, thisopposition is refusing to die down, betrayal by Syriza leadershipnotwithstanding. Rather it is gaining strength in a number of developedcapitalist countries. While ruling class parties and revisionists would liketo keep this opposition within the framework of the present system i.e.capitalism, the repeated eruption of these mobilizations and struggles provethat people are rising against the neo-liberal policies. In these struggles liethe prospects of developing the movement beyond the framework of thissystem. And in this political preparation of the working class to take theplunge for their own rule, for the socialist system, is going to be a decisivefactor in taking this struggle ahead in European countries.

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NEW DEMOCRACY

Convention on Release ofPolitical Prisoners

In West Bengal, after the sentencing for life of six leaders of Lalgarhmovement, the movement for unconditional release of all political prisonershas intensified. Out of the six, Com. Chhatradhar Mahato, Com. SagenMurmu, Com. Sukhshanti Baske and Com. Shambhu Soren were convictedunder UAPA while Com Raja Sorkhel and Com. Prasun Chatterjee wereconvicted on charge of waging war against the State. All of them werearrested during Left' Front rule and were convicted on 12th May this yearby Midnapore district judge Kaberi Biswas. The conviction and sentencehave been condemned by progressive, democratic and revolutionaryorganizations and by struggling masses.

West Bengal State Committee of CPI(ML)-New Democracy tookinitiative to conduct joint campaign with different communist revolutionaryand other organizations for release of political prisoners including Lalgarhleaders. A day long dharna was held on 27th May in front of renownedCoffee House at College Street in Kolkata. Three main demands were raised- immediate unconditional release of all political leaders including Lalgarhleaders Chhatradhar Mahato and others, repeal of UAPA and other blacklaws and stopping attack on democracy in West Bengal. Those whoaddressed the dharna were Ashish Das Gupta of CPI(ML)- New Democracy,Manab Biswas of Shramik Sangram Committee, Tapan Banerjee of CPI(ML)-Kanu Sanyal, Partha Ghosh of CPI(ML)-Liberation, Santosh Rana of PCC,CPI(ML), Pradeep Singh Thakur of CPI(ML)- Red Star and Ajay Bakshi ofMKP.

On the same issue a convention was organized on 15th July by sixorganizations at Bharat Sabha Hall Kolkata. Nearly 300 people participatedin this programme. Representatives of six organizations, Sushanta Jhafrom CPI(ML) -New Democracy, Avas Munsi from MKP, SarmisthaChowdhuri from CPI(ML)-Red Star, Sumit Sinha from PCC CPI(ML), SailenMisra from CPI(ML)-SOC and Ashish Majumdar from CPI(ML)-Kanu Sanyalwere in the Presidium. In the beginning a draft resolution by the organizersof the convention was placed before the house by Com. Sushanta Jha.The resolution said that six well known leaders of Lalgarh movement have

been sentenced to lifeimprisonment by thecourt under UAPA andon charge of sedition.This is the f i rstsentencing in WestBengal under UAPA.The convictedrevolutionaries wereassociated with a massmovement which wasbuilt on the democraticaspirations of the peopleand in which thousandsof people joined. CPI(M)

was in power at that time and it launched severe repression on themovement, deployed joint forces of centre and state against the movement,tortured and imprisoned many revolutionaries and common villagers andkilled many revolutionaries in the name of encounter. The Resolution wenton to say that Trinamul Congress (TMC), in power now, came to power withthe promise of release of political prisoners. They even promised withdrawalof joint forces. But after coming to power, the same TMC under Ms. MamataBanerjee has done a volte-face, carrying on the same policy as theirpredessesor govt. Rather than freeing them, it is imprisoning and convictingpolitical prisoners, keeping joint force stationed at Jungalmahal and haseven killed Com. Koteswar Rao alias Kishanji in a fake encounter, theresolution said. It further said that attack by Mamata Govt. is not limited torevolutionaries only, it is carrying on persistent attacks against the peopleby curbing their democratic rights. It has denied the right of imprisonedpolitical workers to be treated as political prisoners, amended jail code tothat end, even not allowing visitors other than close blood relatives to meetconvicted political prisoners. The Resolution called upon the people tocondemn the double faced and hypocritic behaviour of TMC under MamataBanerjee and oppose tooth and nail all round attack on democratic rightsby TMC Govt. It hoped that peoples movement cannot be crushed byunleasing state terror. In the end the Resolution demanded immediateunconditional release of all the political prisoners including Lalgarhmovement leader Com. Chhatradhar Mahato and others, repeal of UAPA



NEW DEMOCRACYand stoppage of attack on democratic rights in West Bengal.

Different speakers supported the Resolution enriching it. Com. AlokMukherjee of CPI(ML) (Kanu Sanyal) narrated the background of Lalgarhmovement and mentioned how Left front Govt. under CPI(M) and theirHarmad forces had unleased a reign of terror on the movement. At thattime police, under the guise of a newspaper correspondent, arrested Com.Chhatradhar Mahato. Those who stood by Lalgarh movement i.e. Coms.Sukhshanti Baske, Raja Sorkhel, Prasun Chatterjee and others were alsoarrested. On the charge of association with Maoists thousands of peopleare facing severe repression. Com. Amrit Paira of MKP said that duringLalgarh struggle he took an interview of Com. Chhatradhar Mahato andparticipated with him in different programmes. He sensed how the sentimentand emotions of the people were embodied in him and he was a popularcapable leader. Beside UAPA, notorious 124A which was created by colonialBritish Govt. was slapped on him. Today it is being noticed that those whodeserted to TMC from the same movement are patriots and who did notdo that are anti-national! In Jhargram area no opposition meeting is beingpermitted and protest posters are being torn by the police. Except TMCnobody is allowed to speak. Com. Pradeep Singh Thakur of CPI(ML) -RedStar, supporting the Resolution said that the TMC election manifesto didnot promise release of political prisoners but spoke of setting up of a reviewcommittee for identifying those who are lodged in jail only for politicalvengeance and not for committing any offence or crime. He also asked toinclude withdrawal of joint forces in the demand.

Com. Chandan Pramanik of CPI(ML)-New Democracy said that evenwhile this Convention is on, the Govt. of Mamata Banerjee is conducting100th administrative sabha with much fanfare. When TMC leader MukulRoy and others, inspite of gobbling money of the people, are freely moving,Com Chhatradhar Mahato and others are convicted for life as anti national!About the question raised regarding TMC's election promise on release ofpolitical prisoners he said that in different election meetings and elsewhere,TMC promised so and an impression was created that if TMC comes topower it will release political prisoners. The Resolution, for exposure, hashighlighted the hypocrisy and doublefacedness of TMC on the question ofrelease of political prisoners, he said. He further said that today in WestBengal TMC terror is there on democratic movements. Even when ourcomrades observed Hul Day (day of Santhal rebellion) at Sarenga they

faced threats from TMC. Our AIKMS comrades faced interrogation by themabout the poster of AIKMS on 'Hul Day. Whether in educational field, intrade union field, every where Bengal Govt is trying to impose the controlof TMC. From this convention we should prepare for bigger struggles onthese issues he concluded. Com. Sailen Misra of CPI(ML)-SOC said thatMamata Banerjee has undertaken the responsibility of fulfilling theunfinished task of CPI(M) Govt. CPI(M) arrested Chhatradhar and othersand Trinamul completed the task of convicting them. TMC is following thesame anti people policy as its predecessor and hence we should build upintense joint struggle against them, he said. Com Tushar Bhattacharya ofShramik Sangram Committee said that TMC utilized the movement ofJungalmahal only for their electoral gains. After coming to power theyunleased a reign of terror on the movement because it did not surrender toruling classes. It is not only in Jungalmahal or Lalgarh but in all spheres,including on working class, that a planned attack has been unleashed bythe ruling party. Sumit Sinha of PCC CPI(ML) said that in Jungalmahalthere is a single party autocratic rule of TMC. In Jhargram, Lodhashuli,revolutionary workers are being attacked by TMC or police. They are beingpainted as dacoits or criminals. Revolutionary workers are being summonedto police stations and threatened that CPI(ML) activity will not be allowed.For pasting posters against conviction of Chhatradhar Mahato and others,police picked up Com. Niranjan Bera and others from their house, tookthem to a Govt. rest house and carried on interrogation and torture thewhole night. A strong call to buid widespread movement against attack ondemocratic rights should be raised from this Convention, he appealed.Com Ashish Dasgupta sang a revolutionary song.

In the end, on behalf of the Presidium, Com. Sarmistha Chowdhuri saidthat this convention indicates larger movements in future. The demand forwithdrawal of joint forces would be included in the Resolution. Referenceto promises made in the election propaganda meetings of that time by thepresent ruling party leaders and Mamata Banerjee to release politicalprisoners will also be included. With these additions she appealed to theConvention to approve the Resolution. The Convention concluded withslogan shouting on the demands approved by it.



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WINDOW DRESSING INSTATE MANAGEMENT

Dr. N. BHATTACHARYA

Since 1991, the vast majority of Indian citizens are being used asguinea pigs by multinational corporations to satisfy their ever expandinggreed plus hunger to accumulate more and more wealth. Almost all theGovts., both at the Centre and in the states are repeatedly blamed forhelping criminals in organizing scams in every sphere of social andeconomic activities since liberalisation, privatisation and globalization' orLPG policies were initiated on orders from World Bank and InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF).

Indian Govt. welcomed World Bank and IMF to dictate its economicpolicies. India has the second largest human resources in the world andhuge natural resources in hills,ocean, land and air. Europeans came andexploited, or rather looted, our resources and became rich countries. AfterSecond World War most of these countries lost their position. People ofGreece are openly blaming particularly one partner in European Union Germany- for not following the rules of the Union of Sovereign States. Itshould have strictly followed the rules of trust in business ethics amongunion partners. Germany exploited people of Greece and followed one sideddisastrous favourable balance of payment policies. To keep its ownindustries running and earning surpluses, Germany as big brother virtuallydestroyed not only the economy of Greece but also economies of Italy,Ireland, Spain and Portugal (IISP). Thus entire Europe including Russia isin deep water since 2008 depression. It is surprising that though IMF isheaded by a person from France, a member country of European Union,yet the organization refused to help the people of Greece in this hour ofcrisis and rather sided with Germany to crush people of Greece. We inunderdeveloped countries should be careful about these dangerous anti-people organizations that exclusively help the rich and destroy the poorpeople. The number of poor and unemployed youth in Europe are increasingevery day and are facing extreme hardship just to survive. Senior citizensin that part of the developed world are just cursing their luck! Families who

lost their jobs and are unemployed for over six months and living withoutany form of insurance benefits are handing over children to orphanagesonly for food and shelter!

II

The UPA II Government was defeated in the general elections of 2014as big business houses changed their horse and installed their newrepresentatives at the Centre. Someone called this new Govt. a suit bootki sarkar (a Govt. to please only rich and powerful sections in the country-Mr. Rahul Gandhis speech in Parliament)! Mr. Modis Government feelsthat people of India have no alternative other than to support them. PreviousCongress Govt. was neck deep in various types of scams. However, peopleof the capital of this country refused to support Mr. Modis party. RulingNDA Govt. is gradually sinking deeper and deeper into the muddy watersof scams within a short span of 13/14 months after 2014 election. ChiefMinisters of MP and Rajasthan and even people in Mr. Modis cabinet havebeen exposed as involved in unconstitutional criminal activities andopposition parties are demanding their immediate resignations. Press isbusy condemning these scams and BJP has no place to hide its face.Parliament in Indian democracy is made once again totally irrelevant to itscitizens!

Since NDA Govt. took over power, certain new methods have beenadopted to project its performance through statistical informations. Someof them are (1) Gross Domestic Product (GDP), (2) Consumer Price Index(CPI) and Whole Sale Price Index (WPI), (3) Socio Economic Caste Census(SECC) Report and (4) Farmers Deaths and so on. How are they related toGovt.s policy initiatives on Prime Ministers development' programmesand many other issues affecting lives of vast majority of workers of India?Niti Aayog (new name for old Planning Commission and well known forspending a fabulous amount on repair of two toilets in their New Delhioffice) claimed that GDP growth rate in India will not be linked as waspreviously done to cost of production of goods. Physical production ofgoods may not grow, rather it may fall, but income generated from suchproduction may grow at a higher rate due to double digit inflation in thisunderdeveloped country, now called an emerging economy. New GDPfigures will include income from service sector also and if double digitinflation is encouraged by the state, GDP growth rate will be much higher



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than previous "Hindu Rate of Growth" of sixties and seventies. This isexplained by figures of growth in Industrial Production in 2014 and 2015 inTable I and Wholesale and Retail Prices of 2014 and 2015 in Table II.

TABLE I

GROWTH RATE OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION

INDUSTRIAL GROWTH SECTORAL GROWTH(PERCENTAGES) (PERCENTAGES)

APRIL 2014 APRIL 2015APRIL 2014 3.7 JAN. 2015 2.8 MINING 1.7 0.6MAY 5.6 FEB 5.0 MANUFACTURING 3.0 5.1JUNE 4.3 MAR 2.1 ELECTRICITY 11.9 -0.5JULY 0.9 APRIL 4.1AUG 0.5SEPT 2.6OCT -2.7NOV 5.2DEC 3.2

Source : Times of India 12.06.2015

Table I clearly shows reduced performances in industrial productiondue to the fact of unutilized capacity and lower export orders. So if wefollowed old method of GDP calculations, definitely latest figures lookirrelevant. However, service sector accounting for around 60 percent ofGDP is now adjusted in GDP calculations and the change is before us.Moreover, at what price is this GDP valued-- WPI or CPI; if latter, valuationof GDP will be really attractive. So production of goods is declining, thereis huge shortage, prices are beyond reach of an average citizen, but wemust celebrate because Govt. announces higher and higher GDP growth,our figures are even higher than China. That is the reason why highergrowth rate of GDP is artificially projected to attract more investments byMultinational Corporations (MNCs). Stock exchanges also celebrate suchmanipulated growth figures projected for specific purposes by the Govt.

Simultaneously by changing labour laws to favour both Indian and foreigninvestors to accumulate more and more profit a new kind of slave labourmarket is gradually being created after around six and half decades of'independence'. Thus in 'independent' India our physical resources includinglabour can be fully looted by MNCs.

It is often claimed by Govt. that prices of goods and services are goingdown and this is the achievement of Mr. Modis Govt. During previousGovt. prices were moving up and up and Govt. refused to control it both byfiscal and monetary policies. As soon as NDA Govt. took over, WholesalePrice Index started coming down and the new Govt. started issuing fullpage advertisements that prices are falling. However, Consumer Price Indexwas moving up and prices of essential commodities were going sky high.This is explained in TABLE II. There is no one to regulate the unethicalpractices of brokers and middlemen in vegetables, fruits and in other mandisin the country. They are well versed in hoarding and black marketing ofessential commodities including drugs in India. Public memory isproverbially very short. During previous NDA Govt. in Delhi, prices of onionsreached Rs 60 a kg and that created mass dissatisfaction and it influenced,partly,the result of general election of 2004. The gap between WPI and CPIis widening further, the sufferers are consumers and producers. While GDPis being calculated Govt. must mention at which price structure- CPI orWPI- the GDP is valued.

TABLE II

DIVERGING CPI, WPI (PERCENTAGES) 2014 2015CPI WPI CPI WPI

JAN 8.79 5.11 5.11 -0.95Feb. 8.1 5.03 5.37 -2.17March 8.31 6.0 5.17 -2.33April 8.39 5.5 4.87 -2.43May 8.28 6.18 5.01 -2.36June 7.31 5.66 5.4 -2.4

(Indian Express dated 21.07.15)



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III

SOCIO ECONOMIC AND CASTE CENSUS (SECC)This Report was prepared by the Govt. of India based on country wide

survey undertaken by Centre between 2011 and 2013. Part of the Reportbased on caste information has been withheld from the public and what isgiven to the public is not entirely new. Govt. organization NSSO has allthese informations. However, we are using some of the informations whichmay be useful to understand what is happening in Rural India.

The SECC Report says 73 percent of total households (HHs) in Indiaare in rural India and 74.5 percent of these HHs have to live on a monthlyincome of less than Rs 5000. 30 percent of these HHs had declaredcultivation as their main occupation and around 51 percent of HHs arebracketed as casual and manual workers. However, HHs with no land orproperty of their own were a staggering 56 percent of total HHs. It varieswidely throughout the country. TABLE III gives some details of it.

TABLE III

RURAL HHs WITHOUT ANY OWN LAND (%)AP 73 TAMIL NADU 73

J&K 22 KERALA 72

ODISHA 54 HIMACHAL 22

W.BENGAL 70 MAHARASTRA 53

PUNJAB 65 CHHATISGARH 47

BIHAR 65 KARNATAKA 47

MP 55 UP 45

GUJARAT 55 RAJASTHAN 38

ALL INDIA 56

(Indian Express dated 4.07.2015)In Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, W. Bengal, Punjab, Bihar, MP, Gujarat,

Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Maharastra more than half of the HHs dont have

any land of their own and if they have to cultivate, land is taken on leaseand in most cases these leases are renewable only at the mercy of landowners. Another feature of land holding is that most of the land holders aresmall and marginal and unless they take land on lease, cultivation is notviable. How is it expected that our peasants will produce more and moreat economical prices from uneconomical holdings? Therefore, IndianAgriculture demands more research and innovations and at the same timemore per capita investments have to be made so that purchasing power ofour farm

new democracy, august 2015

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