Volume 4
Issue 10
26th April -2015
22nd April observed as
CPI (ML) Formation Day
22nd April was
observed at a
number of places
in various states by
party committees
with different
programmes with
the central slogan:
Intensify struggle
against reformism
and anarchism,
Strive for building
unified revolutionary
communist party.
2 6 th A p r i l - 2 0 1 5
May Day:
Organise to fight
imperialist neoliberal policies
Another May Day is upon us when ever-mounting
challenges confronting the working class in every
field call for new analyses of problems confronting
them and new solutions to resolve them. We are still
in a phase marked by the crisis of the world economy.
The world imperialist system needs to devour natural
and labour resources at a rapid pace to generate
enough surplus to keep it out of a general crisis.
There have been diverse trends all over the world over
this past year. In UK, France and Germany there was
a marked tendency to the right. The UK Independent
party won the most number of seats in the European
Parliament elections. In France Le Pen’s party is
resurgent. In Germany, Merkel has become wellentrenched and is making her presence felt with antipeople policies. On the other hand, Greece saw a
Government led by Syriza. Spain and Italy are also
witnessing upheavals which are bringing more liberal
and progressive forces to the front. But this is not
really a divergence of trends. People everywhere
are fed up with the ruling powers and are throwing
out such ruling powers all over the world with a
vengeance. On the other hand, the powers that are
being voted in with much hope and illusion are unable
to deliver the basic demands of the people. That is
because they are unable (or unwilling) to fight the
policies of neo-liberalism. They are unable to resist
the onslaught of imperialism which is voraciously
gobbling up the human and natural resources of the
whole world.
The same situation also marks out Africa, Asia
and Latin America, with differences in degree.
While the governments in Latin America are more
comprehensively anti-US in their policies, they are
still committed to the neo-liberal globalized world
economy and are not even attempting a different
revolutionary system. In Africa, the general rush to
loot its natural resources has led, in the absence
of any serious leftist opposition, to Islamist forces
coming to the fore in various countries (Nigeria-Boko
Haram, North Sudan, Egypt, Mali, etc.). The recent
CONTENTS
22nd April observed as CPI (ML) Formation Day
May Day: Organise to fight imperialist neo-liberal policies
Gajendra Singh – a murder most foul
Bhubaneswar: 11th City Conference of Mool Pravah Akhil
Bharat Nepali Ekta Samaj
New investigation reveals 3.4million displaced by World Bank
Angela Sontakke’s hunger strike kills CCTV plan for women’s
prison
Bhopal: Joint appeal against state-sponsored communalism
Tamil Nadu: Workers and peasants to march against Land
Acquisition Bill
Kanhar Dam: State resorts to brute force to quell protests
Tata Steel stares at biggest industrial strike in 30 years in UK
West Bengal: Government indifferent to potato farmers’ suicide
w w w. c p i m l . i n
C-141, Sainik Nagar,
New Delhi – 110059, Phone – (011) 25332343
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Website: www.cpiml.in
RED STAR Online Weekly
Volume – 4
Issue – 10
26th April 2015
2 6 th A p r i l - 2 0 1 5
02
elections in the mineral rich countries of Southern
Africa (Namibia, Lesotho, Mozambique and Zambia)
seem to have thrown up people poised to allow
large MNCs even greater access to the abundant
natural riches. In Asia, the situation in West Asia with
the Islamic State is part of the general malaise. In
Thailand, like in Egypt, the contradictions among the
ruling classes have had to be solved with a military
takeover.
In Nepal and Bangladesh, the situation is such that
the very existence of even bourgeois democracy
is at stake. The situation in Sri Lanka is not very
different. Pakistan is already in the convulsions of
the contradictions between the Islamists, the pro-US
forces and the military.
It is in this world situation that Modi came to power
in India soon after last year’s May Day. Immediately
after assuming power, the first attacks of the Modi
Government were on the laws protecting workers
and on the laws protecting the environment. The
Modi Government has moved to change the labour
laws with a speed that has left the tentative moves
of the earlier UPA Government far behind. Coming
up with the changes in the Factories Act soon after
coming to power, (including removing the constraints
on women doing work at night), they immediately
amended basic laws like the Industrial Disputes Act,
the Contract Labour Act and the Minimum Wages
Act in the states where they were in power. The latest
is the attempt to introdue a ‘Labour Code on Wages’.
All this has been done with the professed aim of
attracting the big international corporates under the
slogan of ‘make in India’. Seen in this context, ‘make
in India’ means nothing more or less than ‘we will
allow you the best conditions to exploit the human
and natural resources of India’.
At the same time, there is resurgence in the fight of
the working class. There have been many big strikes
and movements all over the country, like the coal
miners’ strike, the rural postal workers’ strike, the
Delhi sanitation workers’ strike, etc. The continuing
struggle of the Maruti workers has seen the workers
getting bail at last.
We are now in a time where we have to face constant
and brutal attacks on the working class. The Modi
Government has shown its commitment to change
labour laws to enable large corporates to broaden
their exploitation. Further, the ruling class along
with its agents is working overtime to de-politicize
the working class, to hamper their unionization and
relegate May Day to a mere ritual. In this situation
it is imperative to build up a truly powerful working
class unity to fight against the neo-liberal policies in
India. We have to bring together all the struggling left
forces among the working class to build up a massive
front against the neo-liberal attack. This is the main
task before us in the coming year. On this May Day,
let us pledge to take all steps to unite the working
class, whose number is increasing manifold day by
day, intensify its struggle for economic and social
justice, and prepare it to overthrow the exploitative
ruling system.
Workers of the World Unite!
Unite to fight imperialism, globalisation and neoliberalism!
Long Live May Day, the International Working
Class Day!
Bhubaneswar: 11th City Conference of
Mool Pravah Akhil Bharat Nepali Ekta Samaj
Mool Pravah Akhil Bharat Nepali Ekta Samaj (an
organisation of Nepalis residing in India) concluded
its 11th city conference at Bhubaneswar on April
19. The city conference of the organisation held at
Lohia Academy Unit 9 was attended by over 150
delegates and observers. It was presided over by
Comrade Parsuram Thapa and coordinated by
Comrade Rekam G.C. Central committee member
of the organization, Comrade Thomon G.C, delivered
the welcome speech. Central committee advisor of
the organisation, Comrade Durga Bahadur K.C from
Delhi, participated as central observer. He spoke
about the problems of Nepal and Nepalis residing
in India. Speakers raised the demand of immediate
formation of a democratic constitution in Nepal
and voting right for Nepalis residing in India in their
country’s constitution. They also spoke about the
problems faced by Nepalis living in India and their
protest movements. CPI (ML) Red Star politburo
member Comrade Sivaram and central committee
member Comrade Pramila participated as fraternal
delegates and expressed solidarity in their speeches.
The conference elected a 13-member new city
committee with Comrade Thomon G.C as President,
Meena Sunar as Vice-President, Keshar Kshatri
as Secretary, Ramesh Kumar Parihar as Deputy
Secretary and Parsuram Thapa as Treasurer. Cultural
performances by ‘Raktim Sanskrutik Abhiyan’
enlivened the proceedings.
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03
Gajendra Singh
– a murder most foul
Even as one single state of Maharashtra reported 601
farmer suicides in the three months between January
and March this year, the suicide of Rajasthan farmer
Gajendra Singh Rajput at an Aam Admi Party rally
in Delhi on April 22 sent shockwaves throughout the
nation. The debate over whether Gajendra Singh’s
death was by intent or accident – whether he really
wanted to kill himself or simply draw attention to the
plight of farmers through a gesture that backfired
– continues, as does the blame game inside and
outside Parliament. But what can be neither denied
nor overlooked is the fact that Gajendra Singh’s
suicide, recorded and broadcast live, has thrown
the spotlight on the distress of debt-ridden peasants
across the countryside in a manner that millions of
farmer suicides over the past few years could not.
In fact, he is just one of the 8,000-odd farmers who
have killed themselves since the Modi government
came to power last summer with its promise of
Acche Din, and one of the more than three-and-ahalf lakh farmers who have ended their lives owing
to the apathy and inaction of different governments.
Despite attempts by sections of the media and
various ruling class parties to portray Gajendra Singh
as a rich farmer who had no (farming-related) reason
to be driven to suicide, the farmer from Dausa district
of Rajasthan, whose crops were destroyed drowning
him in debt, has become a martyr, a symbol of
protest, for millions of distressed farmers across
the country. Indeed, Gajendra Singh’s suicide –
like thousands other, though eminently less visible,
farmer suicides before his – can be squarely labeled
as murder: murder by a callous, inept state that
has no policy to protect the hand that feeds it and
is forever conspiring to bring in measures that will
further devastate peasants while filling the coffers of
the insatiable corporates.
New investigation reveals 3.4 million
displaced by World Bank
A new investigation by the International Consortium
of Investigative Journalists, The Huffington Post and
more than 20 other media partners including The
Guardian, El Pais, Fusion, the GroundTruth Project,
the Investigative Fund, Brazil’s Agência Pública,
BalkanInsight.com and others has brought to the fore
what activists around the globe have been claiming
for decades – that World Bank projects regularly
devastate some of the poorest and most vulnerable
people on the planet. Dams, power plants and other
projects sponsored by the World Bank have pushed
millions of people out of their homes or off their lands
or threatened their livelihoods, the investigation
found. A team of more than 50 journalists from 21
countries spent 11 months documenting the Bank’s
failure to protect people moved aside in the name of
progress. The reporting partners analyzed thousands
of World Bank records, interviewed hundreds of
people and reported on the ground in 14 countries
including India.
Some of the key findings are:
• Over the last decade, projects funded by the World
Bank have physically or economically displaced
an estimated 3.4 million people, forcing them from
their homes, taking their land or damaging their
livelihoods.
• The World Bank has regularly failed to live up to
its own policies for protecting people harmed by
projects it finances.
• The World Bank and its private-sector lending
arm, the International Finance Corp., have financed
governments and companies accused of human
rights violations such as rape, murder and torture. In
some cases the lenders have continued to bankroll
these borrowers after evidence of abuses emerged.
• From 2009 to 2013, World Bank Group lenders
pumped $50 billion into projects graded the highest
risk for “irreversible or unprecedented” social or
environmental impacts — more than twice as much
as the previous five-year span.
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04
Angela Sontakke’s hunger strike kills
CCTV plan for women’s prison
A deplorable move to install CCTV cameras inside
the women’s barracks of Byculla Jail in Mumbai
was scrapped after political prisoner Angela Harish
Sontakke went on a hunger strike against the plan.
Obviously, CCTV cameras inside the women’s
barracks would amount to a gross violation of
privacy of women prisoners and subject them to
voyeurism and other forms of sexual assault. On
April 1, when Angela – an undertrial prisoner – and
her inmates learned that CCTV cameras were going
to be installed inside their barracks, they protested
that this would be a clear invasion of their privacy
since women inmates change their clothes, apply
medicines (as skin infections are rampant in the
overcrowded condition of the jail) and in the height of
summer without any fans, use minimum clothes while
sleeping in the barracks. Angela also asked to be
shown the notice allowing CCTVs inside the barracks.
In response, the jail superintendent Chandramani
Indurkar accused Angela of inciting her inmates and
threatened to put her in an isolated cell and also slap
a case on her for not allowing jail officials to perform
their duties. Angela and the other inmates refused to
be provoked and patiently explained that they had
no objection to CCTV cameras at the entrance of
the barracks, corridors, courtyard, gate, steps and
offices, and were only insisting that such cameras
should not be installed inside the barracks. On April
2, Angela was put in an isolated cell – obviously as
punishment for opposing the CCTV installation. It
was then that Angela undertook the hunger strike
and informed the chief medical officer about it. On
April 5, she also submitted a letter to a prison officer,
alerting him to the fact that she was on a hunger
strike. She demanded that she should be sent
back to her barrack, and the plan to install CCTV
cameras in the barrack should be scrapped. Angela
Sontakke’s hunger strike put the prison authorities in
an uncomfortable position and finally the CCTV plan
was shelved on April 7. Angela called off her strike
immediately.
Although Angela Sontakke’s determined protest
did indeed put paid to the CCTV installation, at
least for the time being, the incident has once more
brought into focus the brutality women prisoners
are subjected to in jails across the country. Further,
when a prisoner protested the violation of her right to
privacy and dignity, she was isolated and threatened
with action and the jail superintendent glibly justified
his deeds saying that he had full rights to decide
where to install CCTV cameras and that the prisoner
in question was put in an isolated cell because she
was a ‘Maoist’! The situation demands a concerted
protest across the country against the continued and
arbitrary violation of rights of prisoners.
Bhopal: Joint appeal against
state-sponsored communalism
A delegation comprising representatives of various
political parties and organisations including CPI (ML)
Red Star met the Madhya Pradesh chief minister
Shivraj Singh Chauhan to draw his attention to the
fast deteriorating communal situation in the state.
The delegation handed over a memorandum listing
the incidents of communal violence which have taken
place in various towns of the state in recent days.
The memorandum in particular mentioned the cases
of arson and looting of shops owned by Muslims
in Rahatgarh of Sagar district, Jawad of Neemach
district, Alirajpur and Khargone. In Rahatgarh alone
about 70 shops were first looted and then set on
fire. The communal hooligans did not spare even
the poor families. The memorandum also demanded
action against those who had attacked Christians in
Jabalpur. The delegation informed the Chief Minister
that the local police generally refused to record
FIRs mentioning the names of culprits related to
extremist Hindu organisations. Not a single individual
involved in these incidents has been arrested. The
delegation comprised Vijaykumar of CPI (ML) Red
Star, L.S. Herdenia of Rashtriya Secular Manch,
Ibrahim Qureshi of Congress, Pushan Bhattacharya
of the CPM, Shailendra Shailly of the CPI, and John
Anthony of Isai Mahasangh. Haroon Bhai and Munna
Chaudhary represented the victims of Rahatgarh.
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05
Tamil Nadu: Workers and peasants
to march against Land Acquisition Bill
The Tamil Nadu state committee of CPI (ML) Red
Star has given the call for a Workers’ and Peasants’
Rally at Madurai on May Day demanding scrapping
of the Land Acquisition Bill. Workers and peasants
from Chennai, Madurai, Kovai, Dindigul, Theni and
Kanniyakumari will participate in the protest march.
Kanhar Dam:
State resorts to brute force
to quell protests
Last week we reported that furious anti-dam protests
had compelled the administration at Sonbhadra,
Uttar Pradesh, to seek talks with activists in order
to resolve the conflict. However, even as this journal
went to press, the police cracked down on protestors,
mostly tribal people, at the dam site on the morning
of April 18. The police attacked the protestors with
rubber bullets, tear gas and batons. On April 20, a
fact-finding team from the Chhattisgarh Bachao
Andolan released a report stating that the district
police and around 500 to 1,000 Provincial Armed
Constabulary surrounded the site of the protest and
beat and chased the villagers right up to their homes.
The PAC forced entry into Sundari and Bhisur villages
and vandalised many of the tribal houses and their
other belongings. It is not yet clear how many people
were injured in this round of attacks, but at least 14
people from four villages have been admitted to a
block hospital in nearby Duddhi. Many women were
beaten on their thighs and buttocks. The entire area
is now under a reign of state terror. Formerly, the
April 14 attack had left 39 people injured, of whom
12 suffered serious injuries.
Villagers have been protesting at the site of the
proposed Kanhar Dam since December 23, following
an order by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to stay
construction until it could hear the case. However, the
administration chose to violate the order and went
ahead with construction, which triggered the mass
protests. Despite the NGT stay order, the proposed
height of the dam has been increased from 39.9
metres to 52.9 metres, expanding the submergence
area and intensifying fears. Shockingly, affected
villages in Chhattisgarh have not been informed that
any part of their land will be submerged. After the
April 14 protests and police attack made front-page
news in Uttar Pradesh papers, the district magistrate
visited residents of Sundari village, one of several
affected, and asked them to make a list of demands,
promising to send their demands to the government.
However, the state revealed its real intention soon
after by launching a massive armed attack on
protestors on April 18. Police action was followed
with direct threats, both to villagers and to activists
who came to the area after the initial news of police
firing on April 14 and the police atrocities on April 18.
On April 21, Gambhira Prasad, an activist leading the
protests, was arrested from Allahabad where he had
gone to prepare for the court hearing on the Kanhar
matter. The police have filed cases against around
956 people in all in the Kanhar issue, clearly revealing
the intention of the state to browbeat the protestors
into submission. Meanwhile, the state has also taken
into confidence caste-class leaders of the villages,
who are now busy trying to force people’s consent.
These leaders are quoting the DM Sanjay Kumar who
declare that all protest and movements should stop,
or else he would foist so many cases that protestors
would rot in jail for the rest of their lives and use up
all the compensation in paying lawyers.
The Asian Human Rights Commission has
unambiguously said that the Kanhar construction is
a clear violation of the guidelines laid by the National
Green Tribunal, as the project lacks mandatory
clearances from the Ministry of Environment. It
also lacks mandatory clearances from the Central
Pollution Control Board, a fresh ‘Environment
Clearance’ under the EIA Notification, 2006, and
also a Forest Clearance under the provisions of
Forests Rights Act, 2006. The proposed project
further violates provisions of the Land Acquisition,
Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
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06
Tata Steel stares at biggest industrial strike in
30 years in UK
As the Indian corporate Tatas refused to provide
the British Pension Scheme to its workers in Britain,
members of UK unions Community, GMB, UCATT
and Unite are determined to stand up for their
pension. It said it has no other option but to proceed
to an industrial action ballot in May, general secretary
of Community, a major British trade union. Tata Steel
has failed to reach a deal with UK unions about its
proposal to change the British pension scheme. So the
union will start balloting some 17,000 members over
strike action from May 6, one day before the country’s
general election, they said in a joint statement earlier
this week. Should the strike go ahead, it would be
one of the biggest industrial actions in the country
in some 30 years. The unions have accused Tata of
not taking up their offer to re-enter discussions about
the pension scheme. So its members are determined
to stand up for their pension. As they have no other
option, they are proceeding to an industrial action
ballot in May.
West Bengal: Government indifferent to
potato farmers’ suicide
On the very day that Rajasthan farmer Gajendra
Singh hanged himself to death at an AAP rally in
Delhi, yet another potato farmer in West Midnapore
district of West Bengal – Ajit Das (48) – committed
suicide by consuming pesticide, bringing the death
toll of potato farmers in the state this year to 25.
Just as the Trinamool Congress government of the
state had attributed the previous suicides to ‘family
disturbances’ and refused to accept that they were
a cause of the looming agricultural crisis in the state,
so also in the case of Ajit Das’s suicide was put down
to ‘family disagreements’. The agricultural minister
Purnendu Basu, who had earlier earned notoriety
as an arrogantly anti-worker labour minister, has
declared that the state government has no intention
of paying compensation to families of potato farmers
who have committed suicide. This year has seen
a golden harvest of potatoes – 1,20,00,000 metric
tonnes, which is almost double the amount needed
by the state. Rather than think of ways to make use of
this superb harvest, the state government continues
to push potato farmers plagued by ‘overproduction’
to despair and suicide.
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07