[page 22]
Revolutionary Crisis in India Every year 22 million people are born in India and 9 million die. For the vast majority of India's 537 millions life is still an elemental in the West and Japan in the last twenty-five years cannot conceal the inability of the system to develop the rest of the world in the imperialist The first great population "explosion" in world history came with the iron plough and the agricultural revolution of the eighth millenium Another was brought about by steam power and the industrial revolbrought with them the means of feeding greatly increased populations, the industrial revolution bringing an unprecedented acceleration in the growth In this century, however, the population explosion in India (and the colonial world generally) is the result not of social transformation but starvation, from disease, from intolerable poverty and from the social violence that goes with them - means that there is none of the conditions exploited the toiling millions of the Indian sub-continent, has been incapable of developing the productive forces necessary to achieve social The "population explosion" is not the result of an abnormal propensity to propagate innate in the Indian people, but the consequence of capitalism's failure to secure even a minimum rise in per capita output, in agriculture or in industry. Per capita production of food grains (which provide 75% of the calory intake in India) has declined Between 1945 and 1952 per capita food supply declined substantially. Although there were periods of increase there was not qualitative advance. Taking 1957-59 as 100, per capita food production declined from 104 in Taking the economy as a whole, India remains one of the poorer of the "developing" countries, with a per capita income of under U.S. $100 struggle for existence and survival.
orbit.
B.C.
ution of the late 18th and early 19th Centuries.
in output per head of population.
of social collapse.
necessary for a stable population.
advance.
continuously in this century.
able per head was about 20 ounces..
1964 to 92 in 1965 and 88 in 1966.
(compared with, e•g• Ghana 22.
by LYNN WALSH The exceptional growth of capitalism Both these transformations The absence of all civilised norms - freedom from The capitalist system, which has In 1918, the average daily quantity avail- In 1945, it had fallen to 15 ounces.
P230 and Britain approaching $2, 000).
[page 23]
The production of new rice strains, developed in the Phillipines, five times as productive as ordinary rice, which is now spreading in the rice producing areas of India, while it may turn India from a deficit area to a rice exporting country in a few years, will not solve the land even more the process of dispossession of the lower layers of the peasantry rich farmers and the penetration of barristers and business men into capitalist farming, culminating in the increasing impoverishment for the peasantry! Given this organic social crisis, it seems surprising that, politically, India has been relatively stable compared with other colonial There have been wars, inter-State clashes, communial riots, terrorist struggles, but in spite of these the regime have held India up as an example of the superiority of British democracy. On the other hand, they can hardly believe it themselves, and have to confess with the Foreign Editor of the Financial Times, that they find it "astonishing•..that the appalling conditions of the masses have not already general reason is the massive, heterogeneous, and stagnant character of the country. Except under exceptional conditions of political upheaval, the peasantry, with its grinding poverty, cultural backwardness, and all its narrow local, petty divisions, is a semi-inert mass acting as a brake centralisation, the threshold over which localised struggles and tensions have a general effect on society is relatively very high. In addition, the expansion of world trade since 1948 has to some extent cushioned India from the most extreme consequences of economic back- More specific reasons for relative political stability in the past period, however, must be sought in political developments. In the first place, capitalist elements received a strong impulse colonial countries, the Indian bourgeoisie was too closely tied to Imperialism, too afraid of the masses, to lead a revolutionary struggle. The capitalist elements grasped Gandhi's "theory" that India's position would gradually improve and that through reforms, with the help of Britain as an "equal partner", India would advance along the road of political and economic independence. Gandhi's philosophy of nonvoilence ideally suited the ruling class. In any case it was by no hunger in the rural areas.
and the concentration of the land.
countries.
Independence has survived.
produced a strong revolutionary movement".
The explanation for this lies in a number of factors. on social and political change.
wardness.
from the Independence movement itself.
On the contrary it will help to accelerate The process involved the growth of set up after On the one hand, the capitalist spokesmen The most With the lack of modern concentration and Independence and Congress Like the bourgeoisie of other 23.
[page 24]
means unconditional: Mountbatten quotes Gandhi as saying he "was not against soldiers and sailors because controlled force, as used by armies and navies was at least preferable to the uncontrollable voilence of the In an article in the Times (13.10.69) Mountbatten gives an example of how, in Calcutta in 1947, Gandhi used his influence to reconcile the masses to the partition of Bengal into West Bengal and East Pakistan: "with their passions roused and knives poised, hundreds of thousands were diverted from seeking release through blood and revenge and were brought to recognition of their brotherhood through the love For imperialism, acceptance of class domination is "brotherhood" and attempts to oppose domination nothing more than "blood and revenge". Is it any wonder that Mountbatten, custodian of Imperial interests, To maintain their hold over the mass movement the Congress leaders radical agrarian reform was the main plank in Congress' programme. In 1942, Congress passed a resolution calling for British imperialism to get out of India, proclaiming that "All power should belong to the workers in the factories and peasants in the fields". was made to mobilise the masses to implement a programme for power. The Communist Party of India followed the line of Stalin's Comintern. At a time when Congress Leaders were going to jail, they passed C.P. leaders To propagate pro-imperialist policies, the "Communist" Party was actually subsidised by the British imperialist government in India to put forward pro-war policies among the masses. In the interests of the Russian bureaucracy's foreign policy, the C.P.I. adopted a pro- Manuilski, Bukharin's successor to the leadership of the Comintern, proclaimed that Communists "subordinate the realisation of this right (of the colonial people) to secede (from the Empire) to the purpose of "demand of the imperialist governments of the so-called bourgeois democratic states the immediate, drastic improvement of the living standards of the toiling masses in the colonies and the granting of broad democratic rights and liberties to the colonies." (Pravda, 12th March, 1939). How hollow, how cynical, these humble supplications for concessions seem in As a result of this treacherous "Popular Front" policy, with no attempt to mobilise the workers and peasants independently behind a class programme, the leadership of the national struggle passed decisively into the hands of capitalist leaders. It provided a basis for the reactionery mob".
that Gandhi was able to instill in them."
should lead the celebrations on Gandhi's centenary? adopted a "socialist" stance.
being released.
gramme of support for imperialism.
defeating fascism".
the light of subsequent events.
24.
Throughout the 1930s the demand for But no effort At the same time (of course) Communists should
[page 25]
Moslem League to split the peasants on religious lines. Using the promise of land reform, Congress was still able to gain a strong hold over a majority of the peasantry, and in the absence of any independent initiative from the working class, over the independence movement as a whole. The timely concession of independence by Britain further strengthened It was not Attlee, the "socialist" Prime Minister, but Mountbatten who insisted that Britain must relinquish direct rule at any He understood that to delay handing over to the national bourgeoisie would turn the independence movement into a revolutionary struggle which could flow over to the social issues. By handing over promptly Britain made it possible for Congress to maintain its position and put on the mantle In addition, the partition of the sub-continent into India and Pakistan on religious lines provided the ruling class with an extra lever with which Congress was now transformed from a national movement into a political party which maintained a near-monopoly of political office until 1967. Congress represented Big Business and thus withdrew at each successive climax of the struggle because it would have required the revolutionary mobilisation of the masses, which they feared more than imperialism. Hence the tactic of "non-violence" which suited them perfectly. Immediately after Independence, politicians of all shades jumped onto element in the stabilisation of Indian capitalism. On the one hand, India's capitalist class achieved a unity that it would not otherwise have Economically, the big capitalists, the landowners, the small capitalists, the rich and rising peasant farmers, all divided by narrow, recognised the success of the Congress Party and in the national ideal which the party embodied they saw the conditions of their future prosperity. Congress continued, after 1947, to issue radical calls for Socialist policies, land reforms in the countryside and socialisation of the commanding pressure mainly from the intermediate layers in the large urban centres who saw the image of their future in the advanced countries and felt the need for a "more up-to-date, left-wing answer to India's problems". (Richard Harris This suited the national capitalist and big landlord interests very well. On the one hand, socialist proclamations helped maintain popular support and provided an excuse for the "Communist" Party's Congress' hold.
of victory.
to maintain their hold.
the Congress bandwagon:
attained.
of the economy.
heights in the Times) • continued tail-ending of Congress.
party's opponents joined to take it over".
Radical Demagogy "bogus members joined by tens of thousands, the This radicalism of Congress at the centre reflected On the other hand, it coincided with The party became an important But they 25.
[page 26]
their desire for the state to run and subsidise the basic heavy industries in the interests of the private sector (this is what the "Socialist" Five- Year Plans amounted to). National leaders like Nehru used socialist language, but implemented capitalist policies, and had little power over that the rank-and-file could say what they liked, pass whatever resolutions they pleased, so long as big capital took the decisions. Thus resolution after resolution on land reform were passed and laws • actually put on to the statute books in most states, but they either remained unimplemented or were implemented in such a manner that they increased the concentration of land into the hands of the landlords and Nehru, like Mrs. Gandhi, now blamed the failure of land reform policies on the fact that this was the responsibility of the State governments and attempted to implement Congress' land reform programme in 1957, the central government stepped in and replaced the elected government by President's The National Congress represented an extremely tenuous unity, with the party in the states representing different sections of the ruling class not machine in a number of important states, and based on this, the national apparatus, became increasingly dominated by the representatives of the big with the very amorphousness of the other interests, it was simple enough reflected the outlook of the handful of monopolies which dominate the such as Reddy, Patil and Nijalingappa, came increasingly to take the has sharply isolated the "Syndicate" from the other interests and This isolation of the monopoly interests flows ultimately from the inability of the capitalist class as a whole to translate its national ideal into economic reality. The small local capitalists, provincial landlords and the intermediary layers of "middle-men" are abandoning hope of a modern, national development and reverting to their own narrow, provincial interests, turning to their own drastic "solutions". able to use the uneven and unequal distribution of scarcity - of food, land, jobs - to whip up the racial, tribal, religious hysteria fed by extremes of poverty to divert the workers and poor peasants to their own the party machines in the States.
rich peasants.
he could not intervene.
rule.
under the control of the centre.
national monopolies.
for them to buy control in decisive areas.
industrial sector, became known as the "Syndicate". decisive policy decisions..
especially the rank-and-file of the party.
ends.
26.
Democracy. in the Congress Party meant However, when the C.P.I. government in Kerala"
In the past period, however, the party Given the endemic corruption in India, together This group, whose policies These "strong men", The splitting apart of Congress, however, They are
[page 27]
The petty job-hunters and politicians are only too willing to struggle for linguistic or ethnic states which, in the name of the preservation of culture, would create for them exclusive preserves of jobs and offices, autonomous linguistic states to be linked on socialist lines in an Indian Unitary Federation, they recognise the reactionary features of the States which result from the policies of Congress and the incapacity of the Sikh or Muslim states, although taking the form of extreme religion, are in fact demands to secure to the various capitalist and landlord elements concerned a monopoly right to exploit their own ethnic or religious group. They want "provincial protectionism" instead of "national free trade", in à futile and regressive attempt to insulate themselves from the dominsation of the world market on which only the big monopolies can compete success- The defeat of Congress in six states in the 1967 General Elections (and in another three soon afterwards when dissident factions deserted Congress governments) and the spread of shaky coalitions from one state to another, clearly indicated that the Congress party, the empty shell of national unity, was breaking down into its component parts. three years this process has been brought to a head with Mrs. Gandhi's clash with the Syndicate and the split of the Party into two. "The divisions in Indian society may (will inevitably!) become progressively sharper with the collapse of the Congress umbrella under which ideological opponents have co-existed for so many years". Economist 16.8.69) The split in Congress flowed from the growth isolation of the Syndicate, on the one hand, and growing pressure for action on the as leader of the party, Mrs. Gandhi was forced to break the stranglehold The bank nationalisation was essentially a manoeuvre. This move, which was immediately seen as a blow against the monopolies, quickly drew a response, re-inforcing the radical mood of her intentions, was forced forward, and the logic of events carried the split to its conclusion in the formal division of Congress. That this action was forced on Mrs. Gandhi and her faction of the leadership is shown by the complete opportunism with which she moved. To nationalise the banks, she had to remove Desai, the finance minister who was "greatly respected in the west for his integrity and economic orthodoxy" (his dedication to imperialism) and who represented the shutting out competitors.
C.P. to provide a revolutionary solution.
fully.
economic and social issues last two or three years, on the other hand.
of the Syndicate.
to rally support.
the rank-and-file and The Split that have become particularly acute in the wider layers also.
While Marxists would support the creation of The demands for strong Hindu, Within To maintain her position • limited Mrs. Gandhi, however 27•
[page 28]
But Desai had been Mrs. Gandhi's deputy for several years: presidential elections Mrs. Gandhi had previously supported Reddy, the Syndicate's candidate, and only switched her support to the "left's "independent" candidate (under the cover of supporting a "free vote") "sinister monopoly interests" who were "conspiring behind the scene to gain political control" - i.e. the clique of which she had been a part. herself, for instance, had installed Mr. Nijalingappa, now her leading popular support, with big demonstrations in many areas, and carried large majorities in both the parliamentary and national Congress parties. support that the Syndicate avoided attacking her openly, concentrating their criticisms on her "disregard for party discipline" and her "left" Congress MPs, attempting to reach a compromise with Mrs. Gandhi, and only later expelling her and a majority from the party. As a matter of why, if there was such massive support, did Mrs. Gandhi not move against the monopoly interests and attempt to carry out reforms before the end of 1969? Mrs. Gandhi's hesitant movements in the last few months reflect the contradictory position of the political elements who, on the basis of the smal1 business and intermediary layers of society, attempt to advance along small producers they want "Socialist" measures against the big monopolies. But they hesitate to make a fundamental attack on big property for fear that once the masses were called into action against private interests they would not be satisfied with the overthrow of big property and they, the small property owners, might lose their own into the bargain. This shows itself in the growing discrepancy between the radical "Socialist" policies proclaimed by Mrs. Gandhi (and especially by the Congress "Left") and the real content of the government's actions. Compelled to mobilise the middle layers against the Syndicate, Mrs. Gandhi announced new advances towards "socialism" in her Bangalore Programme. measures she has taken have been extremely limited. isation measure was timid in the extreme. It is intended to increase the availability of credit to the credit-starved small businessmen and Under private ownership the banks were linked with the big enterprises, and agriculture, for instance, which accounts for half the national product, got only about 10% of all commercial bank credit. But nationalisation will make little difference as far as a rational distribution of credit is concerned, since the banks will retain their separate identities; Syndicate.
his policies had been her policies.
when the party struggle made it expedient.
opponent, as Congress "failure in foreign policy".
fact, it was the Syndicate which was thrown out.
a precarious and "middle" way.
farmers.
28.
Party boss in 1967• Similarly, on the issue of the Then she began to denounce the She Mrs. Gandhi received massive Such In the first instance, they moved against the This begs the question:
In order to advance the interests of the • Compe 12 cd In fact the The bank national-
[page 29]
safeguarded with no loans to small business men and farmers on an "uneconomic" basis; and not even the privacy of accounts, which conceals tax evasion on a vast scale, will be invaded. Far from solving any problems, these measures may even lead to an expansion of the extensive network of unofficial, unorganised moneylenders who charge rates of interest At the Bombay conference of the Congress majority following the split, the delegates voted for a whole number of resolutions calling for the nationalisation of foreign trade, insurance, other important industries, for limits on incomes from property and the immediate implementation of strengthened support for Mrs. Gandhi; but speaking to western correspondcould be introduced only as circumstances allowed over a period of time, the limitation of incomes was a matter for the future, land reform was urgent but the responsibility of the state governments........ and so on So far, her measures affect the interests of an extremely small land reform, increases in progressive taxation and a ceiling on incomes, Which would cut into the interests of the middle layers, who at the moment Anybody with the slightest understanding of Marxism can see the are in practice no better: they suffer from the same limitations and simply have more freedom to say whatever they please. promising new heights of radicalism contain no indication of how or when their "Socialist" aims can be achieved and they make no serious efforts At the same time, the opportunist "Communist" Parties grasp hold of Congress' "left" manifestos as an excuse for supporting the "progressive national and democratic elements" against imperialism. they do not advocate critical support of Congress in the Mrs. Gandhian form while mobilising the workers round a programme of transitional demands by using the excuse of their own weakness and the "danger of reaction" to support Congress' armchair socialism, are allowing millions of workers limited improvements, in the long run they will open the way to reaction. The Syndicate is biding its time waiting for the enthusiastic upsurge of the workers and peasants in support for Mrs. Gandhi to subside in all the executives will be kept on; much higher than the big banks.
land reform.
ents the Prime Minister expressed "reservations".
and so on.
proportion of the population.
are being recruited into the party by the thousand. bankruptcy of Mrs. Gandhi's policies.
to mobilise the poor peasants and workers.
linked with the question of fighting for power.
and peasants to be drawn into a trap.
"socialist" followers have any solution.
the interests of depositors will be This out-pouring of "Socialist" phrases undoubtedly Further nationalisation She has stopped short of measures such as And the loquacious Congress "lefts"
Their resolutions At the same time, The Communist Parties, Neither Mrs. Gandhi nor her While her reforms may bring 29.
[page 30]
for some sort of agreement with the Jan Sang and the reactionary parties Of Hindu Communalism and landlord-capitalist reaction. The bank nationalisation, even combined with the subsequent measures to allow the state to turn loans to private industry into equity shares and to license production, will not break the domination of big capital In the last decade concentration has rapidly accelerated; it is estimated that 75 families effectively control 80% of industry. In these ten years the expansion of the industrial sector has been almost exclusively in the area of service industries based on existing industries. ease in the production of manufactures has been largely on the field of capital goods which have little effect on spreading the diffision of industry. Mrs. Gandhi recently demanded that foreign-owned firms should "export more to help India's balance of payments problem". But foreign corporations invest in India precisely because of the large profits they can make, not solve India's problems. A recent survey of some of the main British companies in India found that between 1955 and 1964 they increased their assets from £62m by £70.8m to £132. 8m, making average annual gross At the same time, Britain's trade with India has been steadily capitalism begins to turn its back on a potential market of over 500 Meanwhile, India's indebtedness grows steadily; about 3 of all foreign aid and credit goes straight back in interest. other extreme from the handful of monopolies, small enterprises, employing, less than 50 persons with power (100 without power) account for outs, they are incapable of expanding their output to keep up with the Because of the vast reservoir of cheap labour, techmuch of the national product as factories, but use four times as much Feudal land relations with millions of amilies living on plots too small to support them and the interlocking network of old fashioned handicrafts and back yard workshops, create a vicious circle of stagnation. This places a block on the development of a market which would allow capitalism to develop on a scale sufficient for it to survive on the world market, and, instead, produces multiplying layers of parasitic "middle-men" money-lenders and land agents, with a powerful vested disillusionment and prepare the way for reaction.
organically connected with foreign capital.
profits of £28.2m.
declining in relative terms:
millions.
50%70% of all industrial businesses.
population growth.
nological innovation is an exception; labour• 30.
They are preparing The incrit is a real indication of the impasse when And at the Despite massive government handsmall enterprises account for as
[page 31]
revolution" has raised crop-yields in some areas, but it has actually increased social differentiation in the countryside. Only farmers who can afford credit and costly irrigation can use modern methods, and so the introduction of new techniques strengthens their position at the expense of the poorer farmers living on uneconomic, fragmented plots. Capitalism has long passed the point of exhaustion as far as the underdeveloped countries are concerned. The experience of the last fifty years has shown that the only way in which society can advance is through the intervention of the masses in support of the liquidation of the feudal and capitalist elements to make it possible to develop production on the basis of a centralised planned economy. The examples of Russia and China, in spite of the bureaucratic distortions, have demonstrated this beyond doubt. The rotten Indian bourgeoisie is incapable of fulfilling a progressive Nor will it be accomplished by the intermediary layers led by isation of the millions of workers and poor people in the countryside under the leadership of a working class vanguard organised around a socialist The Communist Party of India, however, has failed completely to live steadily gained support, tripling its share of the votes nationally. Its main support was, and continued to be, in Kerala, with its exceptionally high educational level by Indian standards, and in Andhra and West Bengal At the same time, thé Moscow-orientated leadership became increasingly divorced from the rank and file. The border dispute and war with China continued its support for Nehru, but such was the prostration of the pro- Moscow leaders, that a majority broke away in support of the pro-Chinese "It was staggering", writes Ronald Segal in Crisis in India, "how much closer to Nehru's policies the senior leaders of the Communist Party seemed to be than most spokesmen of Congress itself". Using the excuse that Nehru alone prevented the government from using the war as an excuse to snash the C.P.I. and that the only hope of progressive policies lay in strengthening Nehru, the CP "leaders" avoided any suggestion of an independent stand. Led by Namboodiripad, leader of the Kerala CP, a majority of the party in West Bengal, Kerala and other important areas, came out interest in maintaining existing conditions.
task.
politicians such as Mrs. Gandhi.
programme • up to its pretended historic responsibilities.
with their large industrial concentrations.
in 1959-62 split the party down the middle.
despite wing, Kerala and West Bengal the general unpopularity of China's actions.
The so-called "green It will be achieved only by the mobil- Throughout the 1950s it The Russian bureaucracy 31.
[page 32]
criticisms of the Moscow leadership made by the Chinese Party, of their opportunism, their reformist approach, their lack of internationalism, etc., many of them correct in themselves but applying equally to the actual policies of the Chinese Party. Its support for Ayub Khan in Pakistan, and the policies pursued by the pro-Chinese parties in Indonesia, Pakistan and elsewhere, showed that their policies reflected the narrow interests of a national bureaucracy no less than those of the Russian Party. In reality, the split in the C.P.I. reflected the conflicting interests of different groups within the party apparatus, not a return to internationfaction, had until the split been General Secretary of the C.P.I. indicates Undoubtedly, support for the slogans of the Chinese wing did reflect rank-and-file pressure for more militant policies but its leadership represented the opposition of functionaries whose position was being endangered by the national leadership's increasing divorce from mass support in the The old guard was mainly middle class in origin, western in it education, had been imbued with the slavish parliamentary outlook of the Nehru period, and depended more on Moscow's favour than its support from below. While there was widespread hostility towards China, sections of the working class and the peasantry saw China as an impressive material success "left" leaders, which still viewed politics primarily from a parliamentary position, the "theories" of Maoism which lay emphasis on the peasantry as the main revolutionary force, provided a convenient justification for opportunist appeals to the peasantry whose support, in a country of 80 million peasant families, is essential for electoral success. understand the need for peasant support if the bourgeois-democratic revolution is to be carried through to a conclusion. But it is necessary to explain that only revolutionary measures leading to workers power and the establishment of a workers and peasants democracy can really serve the needs and interests of the peasantry. Only thus can landlordism and capitalism be It will not be done with alliances and conditions suiting "national" capitalists and "national" landlordism. Events since the split have proved that the C.P.I. (M) is no more able to play a revolutionary role When the C.P.I. (M) came into office in West Bengal last February as the main party in the United Front, the "Times" commented: ist success might make for a more stable government.... it does not follow that the revolutionary party elected to power in a revolutionary state will plunge into revolutionary activity...... The example of the communists in Kerala has not been one of extremism" (14.2.69). It is in the interests of the ruling class to use the "communist" Leaders to contain mass opposition to the system. The C.P.I. (M) returned to office in Kerala in 1967 but "nothing has happened, nothing attempted, nothing achieved (F.T.) alist perspectives.
this.
localities.
overthrown.
than the C.P.I. from which it broke.
32.
in opposition to the old guard led by S.A. Dange.
in sharp contrast to conditions in India.
The fact that Namboodiripad, who led the pro-Chinese They repeated all the From the point of view of the Of course, Marxist "the commun-
[page 33]
It is not our fault, says C.P.I. (M) leader Gopalan, it's the In the meanwhile, Gopalan assures investors through the columns of the Financial Times that they will "find a genuine welcome for their investment" - until the time for revolution should come. bankruptcy: they provide a prop for capitalism until such time as the ruling class will turn to use disillusionment with the "communist government" to discredit the ideas of socialism and attempt to smash the left. In West Bengal, the action of the Central Government in ousting the United Front government a few months after it had been elected (in 1967) news of the U.F. 's victory was received "amid unprecedented scenes of jubilation, reminiscent of the days when Congress came to power after But the indications that the C.P. Leaders saw parliamentary power as an end in itself were already there when they formed a "United Front" with the C.P.I., the Bangala Congress Party and various other "left" parties on the basis of a 32 point "minimum programme". This was nothing if not a new variation of the Popular Front. Popular Front is a coalition with "liberal" sections of the exploiters. Lenin all his life fought the Mensheviks who put forward similar policies and carried them out in the coalition Kerensky Government of 1917 to which policy was vindicated in the revolution of October, 1917. Agreements diametrically opposed as are the workers and peasants with the landlords and capitalists always ends disastrously for the exploit- The capitalists only agree when they are threatened with collapse, only to use such governments to paralyse the initiative of the masses and with their subsequent demoralisation turning to reaction. The "United Front's" programme, while containing reforms which would be in the workers' interests, is based on a contradiction. prevent unemployment by resisting the introduction of automation. opposes lay-offs and aims at fixing wages on the basis of need rather than productivity. It stands for the non-intervention of the police in of society. The problems of West Bengal - "land problems, irrigation problems, food production problems, rural electrification and water supply problems, education problems, and so many other fields...."(A.B.P.) - and the condition of Calcutta, the "nightmare city", are incapable of piecemean solution. In fact, insofar as the U.F. 's reforms are implemented, the immediate problems will be accentuated. There has been a steady decline of investment in West Bengal for a whole period and "the recession-bound industries....... are not expected to recover if the mandate of the U.F. is implemented" (Financial Times, 14.2.69). On a capitalist basis, industries such as engineering and jute will go to the wall unless they are able to solve their problems at the workers' expense. leaders are faced with a clear choice: either link up the immediate system and at the change it• rebounded on it last February.
Independence".
between classes ed classes.
trade union struggles.
moment we the Bolsheviks offered implacable opposition.
have insufficient support to The Amrita Bazar Patrika reported that But it avoids the basic problems: the structure Such is their The The correctness of this It aims to It The "Communist"
33•
[page 34]
demands with a programme for the socialist transformation of society or Writing in the Times recently, Joyti Basu, the C.P.I. (M) Deputy Chief Minister of West Bengal, tried to explain to its readers "Why Marxism yet, there was insufficient support for Marxist policies, the people (i.e. the electorate) is not yet ready. The classical excuse of reformists! If the leaders have to wait until the workers and peasants are 'ready" they nothing to do with building amovement to change society - they wait until But the tremendous enthusiasm for the U.F. victory shows that large sections are already impatient for a lead, are ready to move. election of the U.F. as the signal to stage a series of "gheraos", to use the police to protect the employers - who are frequently locked in until they agree to concessions - against the workers, and they take this But in the absence of a campaign of a campaign of action to organise the workers behind a socialist programme this is far from revolutionary in As in the pastand on an increasing scale, these unorganised struggles will lead to conter-attacks and increasing violence which can be used by the ruling class to discredit the ideas of socialism, confuse the people, and panic the middle layers in the direction of reaction. inevitable outcome will be that sooner or later, the U.F. will collapse or be ousted, and this will be followed by attacks on the workers. The logic of events is such that, in the first place, the C.P.I. (M), like the Popular Front governments in the past may even attempt to use the police and the army against the workers to show that they can keep "order"attempting to implement Mao's ideas of guerrilla struggle amongst the provide not way out, the fact that they are getting a certain support for these policies in a state that contains a strong working class underlines again the utter bankruptcy of the C.P.I. (M) Leaders. However sincere the attempt of the Naxalites to find a revolutionary basis for Bonapartism, capable under certain conditions of directing social change, but cannot provide the leadership for a socialist revolution make way for defeat.
makes slow progress" in India.
will wait until - the counter-revolution.
it comes.
waiting for the "leaders".
occupations of factories for wage increases.
to be very "revolutionary".
itself.
"in the interests of socialism", of course.
implicated in the emergency landless peasants.
path, their perspectives are mistaken.
34.
While the Naxalite's turn towards the peasantry can The main reason he adduced was that, These leaders apparently have Hundreds of thousands of workers took the The U.F. Government refuses Already, they have been laws directed against the Naxalites, who are The peasantry can provide the
[page 35]
However corrupt the present leaders of the workers' movement, it is the working class that much provide the leadership for the socialist revolution. Great events and splits in the Stalinist parties will provide the forces: the task of Marxists is to arm these forces with perspectives be said with certainty: nassive upheavals are being prepared. The process of the polarisation of forces is being rapidly accentuated. For a period Mrs. Gandhi's Congress will undoubtedly continue to gain The Congress politicians were surprised that the party's taken for the first time in more than twenty years - that was the mood intermediary elements on the basis of "socialist policies". But this will not last indefinitely, only for as long as Congress appears to be capable of Even promises of action, however, will have consequences beyond to wider layers of the people under the resulting pressure Mrs. Gandhi will either be compelled to make further moves against the landlords and monopolies or to stall, retreat and open the way for a new alignment of political atives of the ruling class would prefer, in the first instance, to use radical phrases and lean on the "Communist" and other "left" parties, possibly entering into coalitions, in order to head off the mass movement. Understanding the dangers of an immediate clash, they would attempt to post for instance, are accompanied by insistent denials of any association with "Communism". "Socialisn" will be introduced by parliamentary-democratic means, and she rejects the demands of the Congress "Left" to abolish the article in the constitution guaranteeing the right of private property• While making use of the C.P.s, which pledge their support for her against the Syndicate, Mrs. Gandhi hotly denies any alliance. increasing aid from the Russian bureaucracy, she rigorously upholds the many small property owners which have been fed by the example of the Stalinist bureaucracies and which the two C.P.s have done nothing to dispel. Such fears are proof that while these middle layers are prepared to embrace socialism when it benefits them against big capital, their fear of the propertyless provides a basis for their return, in the future, to the camp and a programme.
support.
of many thousands.
action.
the intentions of the politicians.
forces.
What way out is there for capitalism?
pone it until a time more advantageous to them.
fiction of India's neutrality.
Perspectives What is the mostly likely course of developments now? struggle gave it a new lease of life in many areas. Mrs. Gandhi's supporters at once began to recruit the Mrs. Gandhi's class limitations are already there.
see and when ene One thing can Action was being Demands for action will be transmitted The more far-sighted represent- All the indications of Her radical promises, Despite This undoubtedly reflects the fears of 35•
[page 36]
big capital, for the preservation of law, order and property against Again, this underlies the criminal role of the CPI and CPI(M) worked out programme which would provide an alternative in the form of clear social gains and Socialist Democracy. hand, Mrs. Gandhi's statements of her intentions cannot be taken at face Already she has backed up the nationalisation of the banks with the nationalisation of certain imports of industrial raw materials, already understood that she will most probably adopt further measures, in the first place to outbid the Communist Parties and maintain her indepen- Although the giant corporations of the West continue to plunder India for profits, the world market has been increasingly concentrated in the advanced countries themselves and away from the under-developed world. This has been reflected by the gravitation of India towards the Stalinist block, which, for its own reasons, has steadily increased military and aid appears as a more viable basis for their future development than. In spite of Mrs. Gandhi's "neutralist" stand, her government has become increasingly dominated by politicians with a strong hostility to the West, and this has shown itself in India's diplomacy. Since the wars with Pakistan and China, moreover, the Indian army has increased in size and military strength, creating another condition for a possible i India is not a country without a working class of any significance. About 30% of the working population of over 100 millions are employed in industry and services and the working class makes up a force with a weight in society out of proportion to its numerical strength. The working class alone can provide the drive to carry through a reconstruction of society on socialist lines which, for India particularly, would pre-suppose a linking up on an internationalist basis with the rest of The existence of a powerful working class, which, despite its present conservative leadership, would inevitably take independent action, and on the other hand, the existence of relatively powerful, deeply entrenched compradore and other capitalist interests sets the basis for Already the regional, religious and other differences are elections ultra-reactionary groups, such as Swatantra, Jan Sang and the para-military RSS, which draw on the demoralised middle layers, using religious antagonisms as a powerful whip, have made significant gains. "anarchy".
in not advancing a value.
dence of their support.
economic aid to India.
connections with the West.
bourgeois Bonapartist development.
Asia.
the struggle.
being used to prepare the conditions 36.
measures she had previously opposed.
For certain sections of the middle layers this for reaction.
On the other The capitalist press in Britain has In the recent
[page 37]
In the Punjab, Jan Sang (representing Hindu extremism) has formed a ruling coalition with Akali Dal (representing Sikh extremism) on the cominon basis Swatantra, formed by a number of princely families and backed by business sections, attacked Mrs. Gandhi for her failure to implement Congress' "socialist policies" and called for more radical policies of nationalisation! What this means is, not that Swantantra is moving towards socialism, but that, on the basis of anti-monopoly slogans, it is attempting to mobilise mass support from the impoverished middle layers in order, at a later date, to be able to use them as a battering ram against the workers' movement. Under these conditions, it cannot be ruled out, moreover, that the army will not attempt to step in directly as the agent of reaction at a certain stage, and establish a bourgeois Bonapartist dictatorship through military rule. The existence of a strong working class makes it impossible for Big Parties to give a lead creates deadlock which the army leaders, their "patience exhausted", may attempt to resolve. But if the military Junta in Pakistan, after a period of dictatorship, has not been able to solve its contradictions, the chances of such a solution in India are even more remote. Such a move from the army could only provoke even greater upheavals in the Because of the postponement of the revolution in the advanced countries in a period when capitalism on a world scale is no longer capable of developing society, the contradictions in a country such as India have been carried analysis, arose from the weakness of the world working class, became in turn (together with the reformist labour "leaders") the main factor in the holding resulting from the October Revolution and the gains that were preserved, the way would already be open to a World Socialist Federation of States through which alone the backward countries can be delivered from the prolonged Only now, after twenty-five years of political retreat, is the process of revolutionary struggle being taken up in the West where it was broken off in But the workers and peasants of India (or other colonial countries) banner of the "Socialist United States of Asia", elaborated and explained in a manner comprehensible to the oppressed millions, can they achieve the internationalist collaboration with the workers of the west and the world working class as a whole on which the future development of society depends. of reactionary policies.
Business to find any easy solutions.
long run.
to grotesque extremes.
back of the socialist revolution.
Russian leaders after Lenin used agony of capitalist development.
During the struggle within the Congress the But the failure of the Communist The Stalinist bureacracy which, in the final This is the case in India.
the political influence and economic power Only by their own struggle under the 37.
[page 38]