The CPI(ML) organized a people’s convention on 2 June at Ranchi. Speaking at the convention General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said that the tendency currently prevalent in the country to call Marxist ideology a foreign ideology is not correct. The truth is that 4 years before the first freedom struggle in 1857 Marx had spoken in 1853 about freedom from oppression for the Indian people and said that there were only two ways to free the Indian people from the oppression of British colonization: either the working class of England will throw out British capitalism, or the Indian freedom struggle will throw out British imperialism. And just 4 years later the Indian freedom struggle began with the decisive 1857 struggle. Therefore, Marxism is the Indian working class’ own ideology and certainly not a foreign ideology. Our country is going through a decisive period of change. The people are facing ruin after 4 years of Modi rule and are greatly troubled. A full majority government elected by 31% of the people has completely stopped regular and secure employment. Demonetization and rising prices have looted the people and corporate companies have been facilitated to loot the banks. All legal and constitutional rights of the working class are being snatched away. Farmers and agriculture are being destroyed.
People from all sections of life are coming out on the streets in protest against the BJP’s loot Raj. The entire country is standing at the crossroads of change. The recent Karnataka election results and other bye election results indicate the people’s eagerness to change this fascist rule. The biggest message comes from Uttar Pradesh where Adityanath is spreading communal venom, the people of Kairana rejected the anti-Muslim hate being spread by the BJP-RSS and elected a Muslim woman in the bye-election to the Lok Sabha. But we must remember that the opposition alliance which was formed in 1977 against Indira Gandhi’s dictatorial government did not last long. The Congress came back to power and this was the beginning of the rise of the BJP and its fascism. We must remember that the Vedanta Group (at whose behest dozens of peaceful protesters at Sterlite were shot and killed in Tamil Nadu recently) was fed and nurtured during Congress rule. The BJP and Congress are both pro-corporate parties and are run on money given by corporate houses. The solution to this problem is given in the Communist Manifesto. “The seeds of future struggles are inherent in today’s struggle”. Therefore it is necessary to strengthen the Left movement and unity of Left parties and organizations. The two significant works of Marx are ‘Communist Manifesto’ and ‘Capital’. He has shown in ‘Capital’ that capital is produced through the oppression of workers. In the Communist Manifesto he says that the greatest organized productive force the working class is a dynamic force for the development of society and the representative force for future struggles. This force can be realized through the unity of Left organizations and movements. The caste system in India is a feudal system to divide the work force, i.e the working class. Marx had given two slogans to unite the Left movements: ‘Workers of the world unite!’ and ‘The working class has nothing to lose but its chains, and the whole world to win!’
Thus the caste system is a great obstacle to people’s unity. The Left must fight with determination against Manuvad and Brahmanvad. Marxism is thus more relevant today than ever before. People are evincing a new interest in the study of Marxism and it is becoming more popular than ever before.
The convention was also addressed by Shubhendu Sen, Vinod Singh, Prof Ravi Bhushan, GK Bakshi, Geeta Mandal, Saroj Choube and other leaders.
