(c) Lok Awaz Publishers 1996. No Part of this Publication may be reproduced without prior written permission of the publisher.
Comrades,
The working class and toilers of India have had great expectations that socialism and communism would be established on the soil of India and that they would be emancipated. This hope and expectation have not disappeared. In spite of the fact that revolution is in retreat on the world scale, in spite of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the change of regimes in the countries that formerly called themselves people's democracies and socialist, and in spite of all the propaganda of the world bourgeoisie and reaction that communism is finished and has failed, the consciousness of the Indian working class and toiling masses continues to give communism pride of place. It is not uncommon to find many among the broad masses of people who call themselves communist, even though they may not be organised in a communist party. There are even some among the propertied classes who are for some kind of socialism.
Tragically for the working class and the toiling masses of India, emancipation has eluded them. This has happened because the propertied classes have bound them hand and foot to capitalism and to the remnants of feudalism. More importantly, the communist and workers' movement has been undermined by social-democracy. The fact is that European social-democracy presents itself in the colours of socialism and communism in India. The aspirations of the propertied classes created by colonialism and imperialism have dug their poisonous claws into the healthy body of the working class movement for emancipation, demanding that real socialism and communism submit itself to social-democracy. The workers are being diverted by the conciliators with social-democracy from achieving their goal. Most importantly, they are deprived of an ideology and theory that comes out of their conditions, with which they could empathise and which they can use as a weapon to wage the class struggle.
It is under these conditions that the CGPI has to conduct the ideological and polemical struggle and defend the cause of the working class. Through this work, we have to win over all the communists to the position that no communist or communist organisation should have any illusion about Congress (I) or any other social democratic formation. We must also carry out the most militant ideological and polemical struggle in defence of the program to lift the society out of the crisis.
India is largely an agrarian society where small property dominates. On this soil, propertied classes have been created-the industrial houses and the capitalist landlords. Colonial privileges and feudal property also still exist. More than seventy percent of the population still lives in the countryside in an economy that is agrarian-industrial. Capitalist relations of production dominate both in the city and in the countryside. Small property is still the main form of land ownership, mixed up and confused with individual property for purposes of subsistence living. Nonetheless, it is the property of the classes created by British colonialism that is growing.
Within these circumstances, it is necessary to occupy the soil on which socialism and communism will grow. In the sphere of ideas, there is tremendous space for communism to occupy by waging the most stern ideological struggle. In the sphere of the restoration of the unity of communists in India and internationally, there is space to be occupied through stern polemical struggle. There is also space to win over the political activists by elaborating and defending what kind of party is needed in modern times. It is through this work that socialism and communism will grow on Indian soil. It will also grow as the theory of the liberation of the working class and the toilers of India begins to take shape and the political unity of the people begins to be established behind the program to lift society out of the crisis. In sum, communism needs to occupy the space of deep-going revolutionary transformation.
The founding resolution of the Communist Party of India (CPI) in 1925 did not make a clean break with social-democracy. Instead there was a tendency to conciliate with it, as reflected in the attitude of the CPI to the Indian National Congress. The chief expression of European social-democracy in India at that time was the Indian National Congress, as is the case today. The main point is not what happened at the founding of the organised vanguard of the Indian working class in 1925. The crucial thing is that this still remains the problem at this time. Furthermore, its significance lies in the fact that the main content of the revolutionary movement in Asia in the 1920s was anti-colonial, just as today the main content is to get rid of the colonial legacy, which appears in the form of the struggle against capitalism. The ideological and polemical battles did not begin in 1925 in accordance with Indian conditions. On the contrary, the struggle which erupted somewhere else began to be artificially fought in India as well. The anti-colonial struggle was raging at that time. The ideological and polemical struggle was crying out to be fought, and fought to its logical conclusion, which called for the victory of socialism and communism. On the contrary, the ideological and polemical struggle never began, and the illusion was created that the propertied classes engendered in the system created by British colonialism would bring about an anti-colonial revolution detached and separate from the struggle for the victory of socialism and communism.
The independence movement was conceived on the premise of the old European model, and as a version of the American war of independence, and not as social revolution born from the loins of the movement of the working class and toilers of the Indian subcontinent for their emancipation. The Indian bourgeoisie cleverly used the anti-colonial struggle against the struggle for socialism and communism, Instead of the anti-colonial struggle passing on to the struggle for socialism and communism, it was used to obstruct the communist and workers' movement. This is what is being done today too. In the name of the struggle against the "communal danger", the cause of the working class has been postponed forever.
The entire history of 70 years of the communist and workers' movement has shown that without communist ideological and polemical work. it is not possible to develop the independent role of the working class. Without vigorous ideological and polemical struggle, it is not even possible to actually identify in concrete terms who are the enemies of the movement and where the movement is and where it is heading, and to clarify the fact that even today, the agrarian question is the main content of the democratic revolution.
Indian communists cannot negate the lessons of the past seventy years. The road of the Great October Revolution is still valid. The numbers of the working class are steadily growing as capitalism continues to grow at an increasingly rapid rate, especially in the countryside, sending millions of people to an early grave, or to the cities, or as emigrants to other countries, Not setting the entire ideological and polemical work within the context of the main tasks of the revolution will divert attention from capitalism being the main culprit. It will also divert attention from the mobilisation of all the classes and strata which have been hurt by the current conditions.
It is not important to establish the ideology and theory that prevailed and was responsible for leading the Communist Party of India down a cul-de-sac, not only in 1947, but again in 1964, in 1975 and, most importantly at the present time. The important thing in the determination of the course of the communist and workers' movement with regard to the question Whither India? is the ideological and polemical struggle which defends this movement and its line of march in the present conditions, while opposing the division of the communists into so many parties and groups.
As we have noted earlier, the main content of the ideological and polemical struggle is against all conciliators with social-democracy and in defence of contemporary Marxist-Leninist thought. The success in this work will not be achieved if we keep the sphere of ideology and polemics beyond the purview of the class struggle as objects of discussion and understanding. This is what social-democracy demands and does. Rather, the success in this work will be achieved by actually differentiating on the basis of this work with all those who conciliate with social-democracy and emasculate Marxism-Leninism. The conciliators do this by denying the revolutionary conclusions of Marxism -Leninism, they do this by denying that Marxism-Leninism must indeed be developed in order to deal with the unfolding phenomenon, and that, in fact, it has developed in the whole historic period since the end of the Cold War. This ideological and polemical struggle is an active force that continually differentiates between friend and foe; it is a cement that binds the working class and people together. This work is integral and crucial to the revolutionary movement as it emerges from the very experience of the communist and workers' movement.
Socialism and communism were brought from without to India. In a sense, the complete break with social -democracy-as it appeared in India-was not made. Communism as it exists in Indian at this time appears more like a policy objective than as the movement of the class and the toiling masses for the creation of a communist society. While the system implanted by the British colonialists-the capitalist system-has been growing by leaps and bounds, raining death and destruction in its wake, socialism and communism have not made the headway that was expected. Far from the movement of the working class and toiling masses battling the bourgeoisie and capitalist system and creating the conditions for its overthrow, it is socialism and communism in India which are marking time. The ills of the capitalist system have grown to a level hitherto unknown , in spite of all the technical and scientific achievements of modern society, but still the communist and workers' movement has not presen! ted a program for its overthrow.
The bourgeoisie reduces the question of ensuring the well-being of the people to one of merely declaring a series of policy objectives. This is expressed in the directive principles contained in the Constitution of India, which is written in the spirit of European social-democracy. It is also conveyed in the manner in which the entire political life of the people has been governed during the period of independence. It is well known, for example, that the Constitution has numerous good policy objectives, which make the Indian system appear as one of the most progressive and democratic in the world. Looking at these objectives as they were formulated 45 years ago, could one not draw the conclusion that India should have no exploitation of women, no caste oppression, no exploitation of child labour, no bounded labour or contract labour, no illiteracy and so on? What explanation does the bourgeoisie provide for the fact that inspite of all kinds of laws and constitutional provisions, no dent has been made in these problems and they are in fact becoming worse?.
The devastation of the countryside is proceeding at a rapid pace, forcing millions of people to early deaths through disease and malnutrition, forcing millions of others to run to the cities in search of a livelihood, forcing millions of people to live off poisonous leaves, roots and pulses, forcing so many into the grip of bloodsucking contractors and middle men as bonded labour, and driving children into hard and dangerous labour at very tender ages. Women and girls are the victims of barbaric medieval oppression, of the Brahmanical and other is discriminatory canons based on religion and custom. They are also the victims of capitalism. Dalit men and women are routinely tormented, tortured and humiliated for daring to lift their heads and demanding to be treated as human beings.
Eliminating the gap between the rich and poor is one of the major policy objectives of the Indian state, However, the rich are growing richer and the poor poorer. Does an answer not have to provided as to why, in spite of the numerous policy objectives, the situation is deteriorating at such a rapid pace? Should the communists not make a break with those who are conciliating with soical-democracy, those who have turned communism, the condition for the emancipation of the working class, into a policy objective? Should the communists not chart a course for taking the people's democratic struggle through to the end on the basis of smashing the system established by the colonialists?
The bourgeoisie, through the Congress (I). is promising milk and honey on the basis of eliminating any vestige of the "socialistic pattern of society". At the same time, there are communist parties that claim they can industrialise their region on the basis of foreign capital and liberalisation. The direct connection between the social democratic Congress(I) and such communists can be seen in the similarity of their policies, bringing home to the communists that an ongoing ideological and polemical struggle must be waged against those who have illusions about social-democracy and are emasculating the principles of Marxism-Leninism.
Such communists join the Congress(I) in swearing by the name of "national unity and territorial integrity", by the name of a "secular" and "democratic" India, holding these up as guiding principles and facts of life, while everything else is reduced to policy objectives. Instead of providing an explanation as to why the plight of the working class and toilers of India keeps on deteriorating, these social-democrats and the communists who persist in their illusions about them are spreading the extremely harmful idea that the situation can be fixed without profound social transformations, The entire populace is diverted by this fantasy created by soical-democracy that solutions to the problems are just over the hill, or dangling on a string, just out of reach, nicely couched in the flowery and seductive language of policy objectives. They are aided and abetted in this fantasy-making by those communists that harbour and spread the same illusions. This illusion-mongering is the main cause of the de-politicisation of the people, of their division behind this or that section of the bourgeoisie, It is the main factor in lining up the people behind various sections who fight it out to determine who will govern the bourgeois state.
These harmful illusions are not just about this or that policy objective, they are mainly about the economic and political system itself. Political power is firmly entrenched in the hands of illusion-makers who even create illusions about the very nature of the state. This fiction is extended to the political process, suggesting that it is the people who determine the kind of government in Delhi and elsewhere, as if political power rests in the hands of the people. IIIusions are also created according to which the problems of the society are determined by the good or bad policies of this or that party in power.
The political arena of our country is filled with parties that loudly proclaim the loftiest policy objectives imaginable, from providing universal employment, education and free health care, to eliminating corruption and enforcing the operation of the polity on the basis of secularism, and many other things, including prosperity for all. The division of the people on the basis of political parties is based on the notion that what is decisive in bringing about change is the policy of the party which is elected to office. This notion of good and bad policies of particular parties flies in the face of the fact that power resides in the bourgeoisie as a class, and that the role of political parties under a bourgeois democracy is to defend that power from being captured by the working class. Waging an irreconcilable ideological and polemical struggle against those who have illusions about soical-democracy and all forms of bourgeois socialism necessarily leads the working class to smash this power and establish its own state and use it to open society's path to progress. The capturing of political power by the working class creates the conditions whereby the claims of all members of society upon it can be satisfied.
An ideological and polemical struggle against the entire system in which the Congress(I) and BJP as well as various communists and leftists collaborate and compete in order to create every kind of illusion must go on without any let-up. By waging the ideological and polemical struggle against this system, all forms of bourgeois ideology can be vanquished from the communist and workers' movement. It is through this work that the block to the advance of communism can be smashed. Communists have to be independent of the "two-timing" behaviour with which every aspect of life in India is imbued: one thing in words and theory; quite another thing in practice. It is the ongoing ideological and polemical work that ensures that the working class is imbued with the ideology of Marxism-Leninism. How can socialism and communism become a real material fighting force if it remains isolated from the workers and toilers? It will never amount to anything if an ongoing ideological and polemical struggle is not waged against illusions about social-democracy, against this entire "two-timing" conduct and against the emasculators of the principles of Marxism-Leninism.
Today, the communists have to avoid falling into the pit of all diversions that the bourgeoisie throws at them. The main one concocted by the bourgeoisie both internationally and within India consists in saying that "civil society" can deal with the problems facing the people. It is postulated that problems can be solved by pressurising governments to exhibit" the political will" to get the job done. This flies in the face of the fact that the creation of a civil society is not the aim of the working class movement. It is not the condition for the emancipation of the working class and toiling masses, The creation of civil society was the basic condition for the rise of the bourgeoisie itself to power, of the suppression of feudal privileges, for the establishment of the supremacy of bourgeois right and for modern colonial conquest and imperialist plunder. It is the basis of neo-colonialism on the world scale. The aim of "political will" within civil society is to assist the bourgeoisie to rid itself of certain aberrations that no longer accord with its current need to streamline society and the nation to serve the globalisation of production and capital.
Civil society, if analysed without prejudice, is the condition of the enslavement of the working class and toiling masses, not the condition for their emancipation. Civil society is what already exists in India . Civil society means the legal guarantee of those institutions through which the bourgeoisie accumulates its capital and consolidates its rule. Such institutions may take on different forms in different countries and times. Civil society may include the form of a constitutional monarchy, a republic, a presidency, and/or a parliament headed by a prime minister, a unitary state or confederacy, an electoral system based on proportional representation or first-past-the post . It may include civil liberties in varying degrees such as the freedom of expression, association, religious belief and habeas corpus, the right to vote in free and fair elections, universal or partial suffrage, etc., as well as the provision of the suspension of such liberties and institutions in the event of a threat to the civil power from within or without, or by decision of a government to reduce rights to within "reasonable limits". Whatever be its form in content, civil society is without exception based on the sanctity of private property and the notion of prosperity and the "Pursuit of happiness" through the accumulation of private property.
In the case of India, the legal sanctification of private property in land and other means of production was the cornerstone of British colonial rule. India's civil society is a colonial legacy, It is the condition both of the ruthless exploitation of the working people in India, and for depriving the people of India of their independence.
If even this much is not appreciated, then the Indian communists and people will never rid themselves of this monkey on their backs, this spectacle of reducing everything to "social policy objectives", which is the greatest obstacle to the growth of socialism and communism on the soil of India,
It must be appreciated that neither the Constitution of India nor the political parties which are scrambling to capture power for themselves address the need to create and implement the kinds of mechanisms required to realise even their limited objectives. There is no questioning of the system itself. The system continues to rain death and destruction on the people and on the life of society while the policy objectives and the so-called good laws remain on paper as if nothing has happened. What does it do to the polity and the psyche of the Indian people to carry on endless discussion on which policy objective of this or that party is good or bad?.
In this light, it can be shown that communism, without waging an ongoing ideological and polemical struggle against these illusions, will itself remain a policy objective, a phrase that is trotted out from time to time, as is the case with many communist parties, without having any content whatsoever, In many ways and in many regions, the Indian communist movement is struck. It has fallen into the pit of illusion from which it refuses to climb out. It recoils from taking an ideological stand against illusions and fails to wage a polemic against all those who harbour them. It is stuck with the old idea that it must organise around what it thinks is the "best" program to administer the bourgeois state in competition with bourgeois parties. As a result, the communist movement is fractured with many factions fighting one another over who has the "best program and policies to administer the bourgeois state. This attitude of organising factions around the "best program is precisely the outlook of the European merchant, industrialist and landowner, who presents his manifesto strictly on the basis of serving his own interests. Many of these mainfestos in essence, are an open defence of the existing system, as is the case with those who are building their "third front".
Communists must develop an ongoing ideological and polemical struggle against all factions of the bourgeoisie, against all those who parade as political parties and groups with this or that policy objective. They must make use of social science and present their arguments consistent with the aspirations of the working class and toilers of India. They must not organise this or that faction around such arguments. On the contrary, they must wage this struggle around which the working class can be organised for the victory of revolution and socialism, They must discuss and debate with the aim of raising the level of the working class. Unless the ideological and polemical battles begin by actually identifying, in concrete terms, that the immediate task of all communists is to fight against all illusions about the existing system, there will be no growth of socialism and communism on the soil of India. Betrayal and liquidation of the communist and workers' movement await those who d! o no t wage ideological and polemical struggle against all illusions about the system and about social-democracy.
We have come to the conclusion that a stern and irreconcilable ideological and polemical struggle must be waged not because of some problem in cognition or for the sake of illumination . It is because material conditions are calling for it, . The objective conditions of capitalist development demand the building of the arsenal of ideas and making it available to the working class. Ideological and polemical struggle will build this arsenal. The workers will be able to use this arsenal against all their class enemies, open or hidden. In waging the ideological and polemical struggle, CGPI keeps in the forefront the aims of the revolution to lift society out of the crisis in the immediate sense, and to create the conditions for the victory of socialism and communism in the strategic sense.
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