The Struggle Continues

Harsh Thakor

Today one must salute the CPI (Maoist) for shimmering its flame in Dandkaranya to create a new model of power of people's power and sow the seeds of revolution in other regions.

The most significant progress has been made in Dandkaranya, Jharkhand, Orissa where the torch of the CPl (Maoist) is blazing. Its red flame is shimmering like in those parts like never before with alternative people's structures built in Dandkaranya. The wave has even spread in regions of Kerala and the Maharashtra border revealing a fire that it is inextinguishable. Critiques like Sutnanta Banerjee and K N Ramchan-dran (CPI-ML-Red Star) openly condemn the Maoist party as a terrorist force or consisting of armed squads of roving bands. There is an erroneous tendency that equates the Maoist party line with 'Che Guevarism or foco-ism'. True at times there are deviations but the party strives to implement Maoist protracted people's war strategy.

Major open critiques of the CPI (Maoist) are the K N Ramchandran led CPI (ML) Red Star group, the CPl (ML) Liberation and to an extent formally the Rahul foundation group. Red star openly calls the Maoist party terrorist, 'Lin Biaoist' for 'anarchist' who carry out money extortions. Although opposing state attacks on the Maoists they class them as dangerous as the CPM. It openly condemned Jan Myradal's 'Red Star over India' as distorting facts.

Basically all revolutionary sympathisers must realise that by terming CPI (Maoist) actions or movement as 'Left Adventurist', 'Lin Biaoist' and 'Che Guevarist' they are attacking the very people of India. The Communist Party Re-Organization Centre of India (ML) endorses this view even with important differences. This is a healthy development as earlier erstwhile UCCRI-ML forces from which the CPRCI group originated very strongly condemned armed actions of CPI (ML) People's War group.

The most positive aspect of today is the unity that has emerged amongst different trends within the revolutionary camp and the determination of cadres from so many trends to unitedly fight the ongoing fascist assault of the state represented by the ruling BJP. Some of the most outstanding united protests have taken place in cities like Delhi, Kolkata and towns of Punajb like Moga and Barnala.

Today trends that evolved from Chundra Pulla Reddy like New Democracy group or from T Nagi Reddy -D V Rao like CPRCI (ML) never openly criticise the Maoist armed actions. Two decades ago the N D group in public condemned the armed squad actions of People's War group and similarly sections of UCCRI (ML). Morally today the CPRCI (ML) displays significantly more admiration for the Maoist party than its erstwhile constituent which CCRI showed towards the People's War group.

The general polarisation of Unity has reduced confusion amongst cadres with the unity of the CPI (Maoist) a major landmark. Other mergers like CPI (ML) Kanu Sanyal with Janshakti into CPI (ML) also reflected this phenomenon. Splits in past decades caused immense confusion.

Today the movement is striving to integrate the caste question with Maoism which was earlier ignored. A really sustained effort was made by the Maoist party leaders and ranks to facilitate this like Anuradha Gandhy. The Maoist movement cannot progress by neglecting caste question and not integrating it with class struggle. Here Anand Teltumbde also made a significant contribution. In Tata Institute of Social Sciences a bi-monthly magazine is brought out highlighting revolutionary democracy and state repression on campuses in relation to Dalit and Ambedkarite movement.

The major weakness in the movement is the delayed re-organisation of the proletarian party, the weakness of agrarian revolutionary movement and movement for self-defence, the economist trend pervading the working class movement, Hindu Communal and Imperialist influence on student and youth, lack of strong mass organsations, not enough democratic functioning within mass organisation and weakness of sound theoretical analysis.

For one thing with the formation of the CPI (Maoist) the proletarian party has not been rerorganised. Groups are still components of the eventual party to be organised. Even if a major force with a strength of all other groups united would not equal : the CPI (Maoist) is a component or a precursor of the final party. No party today can claim to be the re-organised vanguard morally, whatever the achievements in Dandka-ranya. Look at the scene in the plain areas, small towns, big cities etc where it hardly has significant influence. Apart from forest regions there is hardly any influence of armed struggle in other areas. There is a tendency of the CPI (Maoist) to project the idea that it is the re-organised party itself and feel other groups are mere auxiliaries. However there is a great improvement from the past with unity at different levels.

However the major weakness is on the question of the re-organisation of the party. It underestimates the extent of Communist Revolutionary forces that need to be unified. It also underestimates the effort which is required to refute effectively the right opportunist and Left Opportunist lines, to establish the supremacy of the proletarian revolutionary line with the Communist Revolutionary Camp in India and to accomplish the re-organisation of the Party. It is also unwilling to draw proper lessons from the historical experience of the course of Party-Re-organisation in India since the late sixties.

Due to massive state repression and consolidation of fascism mass organisations in many areas cannot function openly and it is very hard to give life to them from underground. It has virtually pushed the revolutionaries to do secret work in many regions. One of the defects of the earlier times was the direct linking of party politics with mass organisations and not giving them sufficient independent identity.

The main fascistic features of the Indian state today are the banning of the CPI (Maoist) and their mass organisations, the attack on Indian websites giving solidarity to Maoist movement, the unofficial ban and suppression of genuine peasant and worker protests, the patronage of administration towards the Hindu Saffron attacks on Muslims and Dalits, the suppression of Kashmiri people, the languishing in prison and assassination of Maoist and pro-Kashmir leaders and cadres.

What is lacking is a clear cut mass revolutionary platform to offer democratic revolutionary secular resistance against all communal fascist forces .Special fronts have to be formed independent of any sectional mass organisation that creates anti-riot self defence committees particularly against the Hindu communal variety.

Frontier
Vol. 50, No.6, Aug 13 - 19, 2017