The Central Committee of the CGPI extends warmest revolutionary greetings to all the members and sympathizers of our party, to all communists of our country and internationally, and to the revolutionary workers, peasants and intelligentsia on the occasion of the New Year 2011.
The Central Committee of the CGPI extends warmest revolutionary greetings to all the members and sympathizers of our party, to all communists of our country and internationally, and to the revolutionary workers, peasants and intelligentsia on the occasion of the New Year 2011.
As 2010 comes to a close, the ruling class of our country is caught in the throes of an extremely severe crisis. It is a crisis of credibility of the capitalist system and its democracy. In front of the eyes of our entire working masses, the biggest capitalist monopolies, driven by their ambitions to become global players, are fighting it out for the biggest share of the loot and plunder of our society. The workers, peasants and intelligentsia of our country are seething with anger and disgust at the capitalist class and their political representatives, officials and judges, who are openly and cynically enriching themselves at the cost of the whole of society. The communists and progressive forces are on the streets condemning this capitalist democracy in which those who fight for their rights and the rights of the exploited and oppressed are murdered by the state forces or incarcerated in the jails as “terrorists”, “anti nationals”, “fundamentalists” etc.
All talk of India’s growth cannot hide the stark reality that the economic and political system is geared solely to enrich the biggest capitalists —native and foreign. These capitalist houses are enriching themselves by using their control over the state machinery to plunder the whole of society. The workers, peasants and tribal peoples are forced to eke out a miserable livelihood in the face of all round insecurity and skyrocketing food prices.
All across the length and breadth of the country, the working masses are discussing amongst themselves that the system we have is nothing but the dictatorship of the capitalist class. It is their dictate that runs over society. We need to replace this with a system and state, a new constitution and rule of law, in which those who work will decide the course of our society, not the parasites. The working masses will then be able to deploy state power to reorient the economy to provide for all.
World over, the capitalist imperialist system is caught in a very deep crisis. The governments of US, Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal and other capitalist countries have been clearly exposed as working solely to defend and expand the profits of the financial oligarchy at the expense of the toiling people. The attacks on pension funds, on wages, on working conditions, cutbacks on health care and education, are facing powerful resistance from the workers, youth and the students. World over, the working masses are looking for an alternative.
Comrades
Twelve years ago, at our Second Congress, our Party proudly unfurled the program of Navnirman of India as part of preparing for the coming revolutionary storms. We faced the opening of the 21st century by presenting this revolutionary alternative to the people, at a time when the bourgeoisie was declaring there was no alternative to capitalism, to the “free market reforms”, and to multi party representative democracy. We gave the call for Navnirman when various forces in our country had besmirched the name of communism by participating in running the central government of the capitalists, in the name of keeping the BJP out of power. This was the time when the BJP was coming to power and announced the militarist plans of the bourgeoisie through the Pokhran explosions.
Twelve years ago, the capitalist economic system was in crisis. There were powerful worldwide protests against the leading imperialist states, as at Seattle. World imperialism, led by US imperialism, tried to come out of the crisis by resorting to fascism and war. In the name of “war against terrorism”, world imperialism launched unprecedented attacks on the rights of the people and on all those fighting for these rights, particularly communists. However, all this has not lifted society out of crisis, but in fact plunged it into an even deeper one. The danger of further attacks on the rights of the working masses, the danger of the imperialists embroiling ever more regions in aggressive wars, is very real.
Twelve year ago, the ruling class was in the throes of a severe crisis. It could no longer rule effectively through its trusted war horse, the Congress party. It was preparing the BJP to come to power on an aggressive chauvinist war mongering and imperialist platform. The bourgeoisie launched the so-called second generation reforms in our country, involving the sale of public assets to private profiteers, the opening up of the plunder of our mineral wealth by Indian and foreign multinationals, and accelerated liberalisation of agricultural trade.
As the workers and peasants came to the streets in struggle in defence of their rights, the bourgeoisie organized the Gujarat genocide and whipped up anti-Muslim, anti-Pakistan chauvinism. Persecution of people of the Muslim faith, persecution of other minorities, fascist laws like POTA, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, Chattisgarh Public Safety Act — all this has accompanied the Second generation reforms of the bourgeoisie.
In the face of the economic offensive, accompanied by the slogan that “there is no alternative”, our Party has put forth the plan to reorient the economy to provide prosperity and protection for all. We are fighting to ensure as a first step that the procurement and distribution of food be brought under the control of workers and peasants. No capitalist company or private wholesaler must be allowed to trade in food. The modern public distribution system must be subsequently extended to cover other non-food commodities of mass consumption as well.
The banner of Navnirmnan we have unfurled is the banner of reconstituting India so that the human, democratic and national rights of all our people are guaranteed and enforceable by law. The right to conscience, the right to work and to secure livelihood, as well as the right to national self-determination for Kashmiris, Manipuris and others, are inviolable. The state is duty bound to respect and defend them.
Navnirman means replacing the present political system and process in which it is the capitalist class that exercises its dictate with one in which working masses will exercise their dictate. Such a political system is necessary in order to ensure that we can reorient the economy from its present orientation of maximum plunder to enrich the monopolies, into the orientatation of ensuring prosperity and protection for all.
Navnirman means replacing the imperialist big power policy of India towards its neighbours and other countries with relations based on uncompromising opposition to imperialist domination and war, equality of political rights and mutual benefit from economic interactions. It means to defend the sovereignty of Pakistan and all other states in the interest of peace in South Asia.
The revolutionary alternative has begun to capture the hearts and minds of our workers, peasants and progressive intelligentsia. However, the past decade has also exposed the erroneous and harmful activities of various parties that have weakened the resistance movement.
In the name of “defending national unity and territorial integrity”, parties that wave the red flag have justified state terrorism and the violation of national and human rights in Kashmir and the Northeast. In the name of “defending the secular foundations of the Indian state”, they have reduced the struggle against communal violence into a campaign to replace BJP rule by Congress Party rule. In the name of implementing a ‘common minimum program’, they have reconciled workers and peasants to the capitalist offensive.
Comrades
Today, the globalization, liberalization and privatization program that Manmohan Singh unveiled as Finance Minister 20 years ago has become completely exposed. It is a program meant to transform Indian capitalists into a world class imperialist power, at the cost of the exploitation and immiseration of workers, peasants and the tribal peoples. The economy is unable to guarantee even the most fundamental of human needs — food. Every social need, including food, education, health care, and so on has been converted into source of maximum capitalist profit in the pockets of monopolies and speculators.
As the old year comes to an end, and a new year begins, the big capitalist houses are engaged in a no holds barred war which has spilled over into the public domain. It is a war over control over the state and the resources of the people. This open battle amongst the biggest capitalist groups is also reflected in the battle between the ruling and opposition camps in parliament. The working masses can see that it is the biggest capitalists who decide which party or coalition comes to power, who should be minister, and what policies should be pursued. They can see that the Parliament does not represent the interests of workers and peasants, but only the interests of the capitalist class.
Comrades,
The work to build the political unity of our people against the capitalist offensive, and around the Navnirman of India has taken root. The crisis of the ruling class offers us opportunity to greatly escalate this work in the coming period. The bourgeoisie is worried about the workers, peasants and progressive intelligentsia of our country taking up the program of replacing the discredited system of representative democracy, with a political system and process in which working masses will rule.
The task facing our party is to relentlessly expose the status quo and unite the working masses around the alternative economic and political system. In the course of this work, we must unrelentingly expose and isolate those who wave the red flag of communism, but create illusions about capitalism, about the present system of representative democracy, and about the Indian Union. We must also expose and isolate those who promote individual terrorism and provide ammunition to the ruling class to discredit communism.
As we usher in the New year, let us communists step up the work to mobilize the working masses to establish the rule of workers and peasants, and step up the struggle to restore communist unity by defeating the class conciliators within the movement.