September 5th this year marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Hindustani Ghadar Party - Organisation of Indian Marxist-Leninists Abroad. Just like the old Hindustani Ghadar Party, the HGP-OIMLA wrote out a brilliant chapter in the history of the struggle for the liberation of India and of the patriotic Indian working people and intelligentsia abroad. On the occasion of this important anniversary, the Communist Ghadar Party of India vows to carry forward with redoubled energy the struggle for which so many patriotic and progressive Indians in India and abroad have made the greatest sacrifice.
The old Ghadar Party, founded on the basis of patriotism and uncompromising opposition to colonial rule over India, had gone out of being after India became independent in 1947. However, formal independence and the transfer of power into the hands of the traitorous Indian big bourgeoisie did not put an end to imperialist enslavement and capitalist exploitation of Indian workers, in India and abroad. It did not put an end to the colonial legacy, nor to racism and racist attacks against Indians in the "civilised" western countries. The working class and people of India needed revolutionary leadership more then ever before. Different varieties of modern revisionism were playing their counter-revolutionary disruptive role by adhering to parliamentary democracy and justifying state repression of any challenge to the status quo. It was in such conditions that Indian revolutionaries and patriots resident in the US, Canada and Britain decided to renew the Ghadar Party on the firm foundations of modern social science, the theory of scientific socialism.
Under the leadership of Comrade Hardial Bains, Indian revolutionaries gave birth to the HGP-OIMLA in September 1970. This was at the time of the revolutionary upsurge taking place in India under the banner of the Naxalbari way. Upholding the courageous example of Naxalbari, the Indian Marxist-Leninists abroad vowed to organise the Indian workers, youth and students, women and intellectuals resident abroad as a conscious political force, defending their own rights and the rights of all, and contributing spiritually and materially to the Indian revolution. They organised the HGP-OIMLA as the instrument of the Indian working class and communist movement to organise the Indian diaspora to be a reserve of the proletarian revolution rather than allowing it to become the reserve of imperialism and world reaction. The HGP(OIMLA) carried out its work in close collaboration with the CPC(ML) in Canada, with the RCPB(ML) in Britain, and with other organisations of the working class and people, firmly upholding Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. The leadership of CPI(M-L) in India hailed this work at that time, considering the HGP-OIMLA as the external wing of the party of Indian revolution.
The Indian working class, peasantry, women, youth and intelligentsia share a common aspiration -- an India where everybody leads a human existence and all the peoples and their rich cultures flourish, where the right to sukh and raksha is universal and inviolable. In order to realise this aspiration, it is essential that sovereignty, or the power to decide and effect changes in social conditions to their benefit, comes into the hands of the working people. All patriotic and revolutionary Indians, irrespective of where they live, share this political aim of empowering the working people of India.
As long as the majority of Indians remain powerless, India will be enslaved. And as long as India remains enslaved, and the world remains dominated by imperialism and reaction, Indians will face discrimination wherever they live. It was with this conviction that the old Ghadar Party as well as the HGP-OIMLA, at different times, led the struggle of Indians in defence of their dignity and their rights, and for the liberation of India. And it is with the same conviction that the Communist Ghadar Party of India organises the working class and people today, in India and among the people of Indian origin abroad.
In September 1977, the HGP-OIMLA held its First Congress in Toronto, Canada. The First Congress took stock of the situation prevailing in the Indian communist movement at that time. It noted that capitalism was flourishing in India and protecting the feudal remnants, colonial legacy and imperialist penetration. A variety of modern revisionism hailed such capitalist growth and called it "non capitalist development". The revisionists conciliated and collaborated with the Congress Party at home and with the Soviet social-imperialists internationally. The attempt of revolutionary communists to break out of the revisionist stranglehold had been disrupted and the CPI (M-L), the party of Naxalbari, was split into many factions. Noting these developments, the First Congress of HGP-OIMLA came to the conclusion that the most urgent and crucial necessity of the time was the reconstitution of the revolutionary party in Indian soil. It decided to take up along with other communists the task of establishing a vanguard party of the Indian working class in which all the Indian communists would militate.
During the period 1977-1980, the HGP-OIMLA organised to send many of its most dedicated and politically trained comrades to India, to carry out preparatory work for the reconstitution of the revolutionary vanguard party in India. These comrades contacted a wide range of parties and individuals in the Indian communist movement, and organised the publication of People's Voice as a monthly starting in December 1978. People's Voice circulated widely in Marxist-Leninist circles all over the country. It waged a stern ideological struggle against all varieties of revisionism and opportunism, in defence of the purity of Marxism-Leninism and the science of revolution. It established the ideological foundation for the reconstitution of the revolutionary party in India. And on December 25, 1980, the Communist Ghadar Party of India was born.
Today, the Indian working class and people face an unprecedented all-round bourgeois offensive that goes by the name of globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation. The Indian big bourgeoisie is pursuing an adventurist course to become a big imperialist power. It is collaborating with imperialism to convert the Indians living abroad into a reserve of imperialism and world reaction. In order to foil these plans of the bourgeoisie, it is essential for all Indian communists to redouble their efforts to build organisations of class struggle in the midst of the workers, peasants, women, youth and intelligentsia, in all parts of India and among people of Indian origin in all parts of the world.
The Communist Ghadar Party of India has adopted an immediate program for the democratic renewal of India, a program called "Hum hai Iske Malik! Hum hai Hindustan! Mazdoor, Kisan, Aurat aur Jawan!" The main content of this program is to fight for an immediate end to the bourgeoisie's anti-worker, anti-people, anti-national and anti-social program of privatisation and liberalisation; the democratic renewal of India on the basis of vesting sovereignty in the hands of the people; reconstitution of the Indian Union as a voluntary union of consenting nations, nationalities and tribal peoples; the overthrow of capitalism as the condition for the completion of the democratic, anti-colonial, anti-feudal and anti-imperialist struggle; and the building of socialism.
On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the HGP-OIMLA, the Communist Ghadar Party of India calls on all patriotic and progressive Indians, young and old, men, women and youth, to come forward and take their place in the struggle for the thoroughgoing democratic renewal of India. It calls on all Indian communists, wherever they may reside, to come forward to build the organisations of class struggle in the midst of the class and its natural allies.
Glory to the tradition of the Ghadar Party! Inquilab Zindabad!
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