Our Revolution (Apropos of N. Sukhanov's Notes) - V. I. Lenin

I have lately been glancing through Sukhanov's notes on the revolution. What strikes one most is the pedantry of all our petty-bourgeois Democrats and of all heroes of the Second International. Apart from the fact that they are all extremely fainthearted, that when it comes to the minutest deviation from the German model [of Socialism] even the best of them fortified themselves with reservations — apart from this characteristic, which is common to all petty-bourgeois Democrats and has been abundantly manifested by them throughout the revolution, what strikes one is their slavish imitation of the past.

They all call themselves Marxists, but their conception of Marxism is impossibly pedantic. They have completely failed to understand what is decisive in Marxism, namely, its revolutionary dialectics. They have even absolutely failed to understand Marx's plain statements that in times of revolution the utmost flexibility is demanded,[A] and have even failed to notice, for instance, the statements Marx made in his letters — I think it was in 1856 — expressing the hope of combining the peasant war in Germany, which might create a revolutionary situation, with the working-class movement[B] — they avoid even this plain statement and walk around and about it like a cat around a bowl of hot porridge.

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US Bombing of Pakistani Villages

CMKP Condemns US Bombing of Pakistani VillagesIn a flagrant display of imperial arrogance the US army has openlyviolated the sovereignty of Pakistan by bombing Pakistani villagestwice in the last week. The Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party condemnsthese brutal acts and extends its heartfelt condolences to thefamilies of the innocent people who were murdered by these brutalattacks. The incredibly mild and weak objections raised by thegovernment to this clear violation of our national sovereigntyreveals to the people the utter spinelessness of the illegitimatemilitary dictatorship imposed by imperialism on the people ofPakistan. Right-wing parties, the former fiercest allies ofimperialism, have acted as great pressure valves in order only toallow people to let off steam. They have always acted as a loyalopposition to the military regime. The people need real change.

Real change can come about only with the recognition that this act ofviolation of the national sovereignty of our country is a product ofthe imperialist war system. Therefore, the only way the people cancreate meaningful national sovereignty is by opposing the imperialistsystem that in turn is a product of the monopoly stage of capitalism.Communists are the only political force in the last century to haveconsistently opposed imperialism and won significant victories. Thisis because only communists recognize the intricate connection betweenthe class system and the system of imperialist war. Whether we lookat Vietnam, Cuba, Korea, or China, societies that have successfullychallenged imperialism and liberated themselves have done so onlyunder the leadership of scientific socialism and Marxist-Leninistparties.

We appeal to the people of Pakistan to channel their anger into theformation of an organized progressive anti-imperialist liberationmovement. That is the only way forward towards real and meaningfulchange.

Balochistan on fire

Balochistan is once again going through an intense civil war as Baloch population is fighting for their rights against pro-Punjab Pakistan government. We damand the right of self-determinaton of Baloch nation including succession.

Down with national oppression!!!

For more information, please follow following links:

Marxism and National Question - J. V. Stalin
Gwader and China angle
Communists and Baloch Nationalism
Balochvoice.com

Cuba to the rescue

I am posting an article that was written by Kamila Hyat for the DAWN Magazine and was published by them on January 15, 2006. My remarks are present in brackets.

Visitors from across the divide

AT present, some 900 Cuban medical personnel, including over 500 doctors and 400 paramedics, continue to offer their services to quake victims in Azad Kashmir and affected areas of the North West Frontier Province. The Cubans, known around the world for their expertise in emergency situations and in trauma care, had volunteered 500 doctors within hours of the October 8 quake. The offer from Havana, according to reports from Islamabad, created something akin to panic in the corridors of decision-making, and Pakistan eventually agreed to accept only 200. The number was raised to 500 several weeks later, as the true scale of the crisis became known, and President Pervez Musharraf held a 30-minute telephonic conversation with President Fidel Castro, who was apparently able to persuade him to accept the Cuban medics.

[Henry Reeve Interanational Madical Contingent is a brigade of doctors ready to participate in relief work of humanitarian crises. Moreover, Cuban doctors are serving in more than 67 countries around the globe.]

While the work of the Cuban teams, who swiftly established field hospitals after arriving, has been widely praised by the locals, the presence of the 900-plus Cubans has also exposed the extent to which communism still strikes terror in the heart of the State. The Cubans, whose presence on the ground was reportedly opposed by Washington, have in many cases been closely monitored by literally dozens of intelligence operatives. Some report being closely scrutinized almost round the clock by personnel, who apparently feared they could incite a revolution despite their difficulties in communicating with the locals.

[These doctors, in their true professional spirit, said that they are in Pakistan to serve the earth-quake victims and have no political motives.]

In places, such as Balakot, where interaction between English-speaking locals and volunteers, and the Cubans, apparently increased after the frenetic initial days of the quake, the Cubans were in some cases forced by authorities to pack their camps and move to more remote, mountain areas, where, perhaps, it was thought there was less potential for an exchange of views.

The almost farcical situation reflects the plight of a State which is well aware that it has done little for its people, and terrified at the prospect that they may become more conscious of this through dialogue with the citizens of a State that has done a great deal more.

While Cuba’s healthcare system has suffered in recent years from resource shortages, it remains the envy of the developing world. Even developed countries such as Britain have studied the system as part of attempts to improve their own. With 5.3 doctors available per every 1,000 people — compared to 2.7 per 1,000 in the US — Cuba’s health statistics, especially in preventing diseases, rank as some of the best on the globe. Its literacy rate of 96 per cent is only one point lower than that of the US. The infant mortality rate, at seven per 1,000 births, is equal to that of the US, while on all other health indicators, Cuba finishes either ahead of the US or equal to it. This is no mean achievement for a country that has for decades faced harsh economic sanctions from the US and its allies.

[Some inaccuracies in the data: infant mortality rate in Cuba is 5 per children, even lesser than that of USA; there is one doctor for every 177 people; the literacy rate, I will have to check, is also higher than 96 percent.]

Crucially, 50 per cent of the Cuban medics in Pakistan are women, and as such have been able to offer treatment to female patients in a society where traditionally male doctors do not attend to women. Local people have described the Cubans as being sympathetic, good humoured, extremely efficient and willing to work in the most arduous conditions. In some places, such as the village of Danna, 40km from Muzaffarabad, the 50 or so Cubans running a field hospital gained quite a fan following amongst the people they treated.

[There are very interesting news from the earth-quake hit areas. Many people are naming their babies on the name of the Cuban doctor who helped in delivery of the baby. More interestingly, one baby was named 'Cuba']

The young NGO volunteers who have interacted with Cubans have also found the experience eye-opening, in more ways than one. Some of the young Cuban doctors have quite openly been dismayed at the conditions of life for ordinary Pakistani people — the lack of proper housing, sanitation, healthcare or schooling — even in ordinary times. In turn, the accounts given by the Cubans regarding services available in their country has forced Pakistanis to think longer and deeper as to why similar facilities are not available to them, given the fact that the tiny Caribbean island of Cuba is by no means a rich country.

It is as such no surprise that the State of Pakistan is anxious to prevent this information being disseminated, and has as such made every possible effort to restrict contact between the Cuban visitors and those they have come to assist in a time of crisis.

[UNICEF's director of operations in Pakistan, Indiana Gonzalez Mairena, told the Cuban newspaper Vanguardia, "I recognize this as valuable humanitarian aid which we would not expect from other countries possessing much more resources than Cuba. It's just a matter of will"]

History of Communist Movement in Pakistan

Please visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cmkp_pk/message/3971, to read an article about the history of communist movement of Pakistan.

This article was presented to Socialist Labour Party public meeting on 27/09/01.

APTUF Appeal

All Pakistan Trade Union Federation

Appeal

“APTUF call upon for the cancellation of the foreign debt of Pakistan which in fiscal year 2005 rose 23 047 billion dollars (8 times more than the total of new loans and grants which have been decided by the donors conference) the servicing of the debt was up to 2716 billion dollars for the same year (4 times the amount which the United Nations regard as necessary for immediate assistance). Today, in most the earthquake affected areas, cold, hunger, lack of childcare and health facilities, diseases are taking their toll. People are dying.

That’s why the APTUF calls for the cancellation of the foreign debt of Pakistan and for an immediate stop in the servicing of that debt. All the available money, instead of being absorbed by international speculation, should now be used to help the people, to save them, to start rebuilding the destroyed areas.

That campaign we regard as an international campaign concerning all the labour movement.

We specially call upon the trade union organisations in the creditors’ countries, the members of the so-called Paris Club: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Russian federation, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States of America.

In the last year only, Pakistan paid back 563 millions worth of the Paris Club loan.

We call upon you to associate with the APTUF to demand:

• The cancellation of the foreign debt which is not the debt of the people of Pakistan
• The immediate halt to the servicing of the debt.

To prevent the earthquake consequences from killing thousands and thousands of people, to save those who have lost their home and jobs, to rebuild the country needs a lot of money. That money exists: it is in the hands of the IMF, the World Bank and the world powers. It must go the people of Pakistan.”

Gulzar Ahmed Chaudhary

General Secretary

All Pakistan Trade Union Federation

14-N, Industrial Area, Gulberg, Lahore, Pakistan

Tel: 92-42-5755078/5755079

Fax: 92-42-6686382/6686519

Crimes of Capitalists

"When capital and the ruling classes apologise for: Colonialism, the 14 hour day, Class Privilege, the 7 day working week, children in coalmines, the opium wars, the massacre of the paris commune, slavery, the spanish-american war, the boer war, starvation, apartheid, anti-union laws, the first world war, flanders, trench warfare, mustard gas, aerial bombing, the soviet intervention, the armenian genocide, chemical weapons, fascism, the great depression, hunger marches, nazism, the spanish civil war, militarism, asbestosis, radiation death, the massacre of Nanking, the second world war, belsen, dresden, hiroshima, racism, the mafia, nuclear weapons, the korean war, DDT, McCarthyism, production lines, blacklists, thalidomide, the rape of the third world, poverty, the arms race, plastic surgery, the electric chair, environmental degradation, the vietnam war, the military suppression of greece, india, malaya, indonesia, chile, el salvador, nicaragua, panama and turkey, the gulf war, trade in human body parts, malnutrition, exxon valdez, deforestation, organised crime, the heroin and cocaine trade, tuberculosis, the destruction of the ozone layer, cancer, exploitation of labour and the deaths of 50,000,000 communists and trade unionists in this century alone, then - and only then - will I consider apologising for the errors of socialism." - J. V. Stalin

The Red Flag

The Red Flag - Joe Hill

The people's flag is deepest red,
It shrouded oft our martyred dead,
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,
Their hearts' blood dyed its every fold.

Then raise the scarlet standard high!
Within its shade we'll live or die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

It waved above out infant might,
When all ahead seemed dark as night;
It witnessed many a deed and vow
We must not change its colour now.

It well recalls the triumphs past,
It gives the hope of peace at last;
The banner bright, the symbol plain,
Of human right and human gain.

It suits today the weak and base,
Whose minds are fixed on self and place;
To cringe before the rich man's frown,
And haul the sacred emblem down.

With heads uncovered swear we all,
To bear it onward till we fall;
Come dungeon dark or gallows grim,
This song shall be out parting hymn.

Then raise the scarlet standard high!
Within its shade we'll live or die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

Evo Morales

In Bolivia a yearning of the peoples for change has triumphed

Editorial Board of En Marcha

Central Organ of the Marxist Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador (PCMLE)

(December 21, 2005)

The electoral victory of Evo Morales in the last elections is a political phenomenon that one could see coming, but the final results notably surpassed the predictions and polls that said that the candidate of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) would obtain 38% of the electorate.

This victory is part of the democratic, progressive and left-wing current that is taking shape in the Latin American countries, shown in various electoral processes and in the development of the struggle of the workers and peoples fighting for change; it is the answer to three decades of structural adjustment policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund and by governments submissive to U.S. policies that have notably affected the conditions of life of the Bolivians.

Morales knows how to concentrate popular feeling and he has raised a political proposal that contradicts the one defined by the United States for the region. He proposes to defend national sovereignty, to oppose endorsing the Free Trade Agreement and the presence of Yankee military bases in the continent, he promises to nationalize the oil and gas resources; he demands the political and material rights of the indigenous peoples and of the working classes; this has led him to gain the support of a people that is mobilized, as has been shown in these last years through the popular uprisings that have put an end to two anti-popular and pro-imperialist governments.

Morales has not only won due to the support of the indigenous peoples (Aymaras, Kichwas, Guaranis and others), but due to the support of sectors of the workers, miners, peasants, small traders, youths and unemployed who voted against neo-liberalism and for social change. Now he has a great commitment and an enormous responsibility towards a people that expects the new government to attend to their needs disregarded for years. Some social sectors (such as those organized in the Bolivian Trade Union Federation, COB) have set a time limit for Morales to meet certain demands and apply determined political measures. The level of mobilization of the masses will be a determining factor for the political program to be applied. But Evo Morales will also face a series of boycott actions from inside and outside the country promoted by U.S. imperialism and the pro-imperialist bourgeoisie. Certainly the oligarchy from Santa Cruz and that of other regions will persist in their plans for autonomy to break up Bolivia; and the demand to legalize the cultivation of coca will be taken as a pretext to call that country of the high plateau an emporium for drug trafficking, to justify interventionist actions.

We revolutionaries look with sympathy on this political victory gained by the workers and peoples of Bolivia, which is also a harsh blow to imperialism and the local bourgeoisie. The Bolivian people and their new government count on our solidarity and support in all those measures directed at striking a blow against the privileges of the ruling classes and at foreign domination; in all those actions that demand the sovereign right of that people to live with liberty and in equity.

Some facts about Bolivian reality

The last two decades of the application of neo-liberal policies in Bolivia have meant that, in the countryside, the number of wage workers has diminished from 73 thousand to 64 thousand. The number of households that work for themselves – basically with subsistence economies – went from 43 thousand to 447 thousand. In the cities, the so-called informal sector, composed of household units, artisans, based on family labor and not wage labor, grew from the 60% to 68% of the total working population. Thus, the number of people with work contracts fell from 40% to 32% of the total labor force.

Bolivia has very bad indices of income distribution, only exceeded – negatively – by Brazil. The richest 20% dispose of an income 30 times greater that the poorest 20%. Sixty percent of the population lives in poverty in the whole country, but that index reaches 90% in the rural areas. Official unemployment figures tripled in the last 17 years, since the monetary stabilization plans began to be applied, reaching 13.9%, while the proportion of persons in the "informal" sector – that is, those with precarious jobs – grew from 58% to 68% in 15 years. Infant mortality is 60 for every thousand live births, while the average for the continent is 28. Life expectancy at birth is 63 years, while the average for Latin America and the Caribbean is 70 years.

Two and a half million peasants have as their main instrument of labor the Egyptian plow, which is 3,000 years old. Modern technology is only utilized in the extraction of oil and gas, in telecommunications, the banks and in 10% of mining extraction and industrial production.

Detention of Com. Vijay

Press Statement

Central Committee 30-12-2005
Communist Party Of India (Maoist)

Condemn the detention of Com. Vijay alias Prasad, CC member CPI (Maoist)
Demand the unconditional release immediately!!

The Chattisgarh police arrested Com. Vijay alias Prasad on 27th of December night at Raipur City (Chattisgarh state). 48 hours elapsed so far. They are denying his arrest and refusing to produce him before court. The intelligence officials of Chattisgarh are interrogating in an undisclosed location and waiting for the arrival of the notorious and nefarious Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) officials from AP.
Com. Vijay alias Prasad has a glorious history of participating in the revolutionary movement. Following the call of Com. Charu Majumdar, he jumped into Naxalbari movement leaving his bank job in West Bengal, and continued his journey till date. He went to Bihar to become part of the movement there in 70's and was arrested in 1973. He was kept in various prisons in west Bengal and Bihar till 1978. Inside the jail he led several struggles for the rights of the political prisoners. He stood steadfast for the unity of communist revolutionaries. The post-emergency movement to release the political prisoners forced the Bihar government to release him. Immediately he jumped into revolutionary movement and his efforts paved way to form CPI (ML) (Unity Organisation). Later it was metamorphosed into CPI (ML) (Party Unity) which led many heroic struggles in (the then) Central Bihar. He became the Secretary of the Central Committee of CPI (ML) (Party Unity) in 1987. When CPI (ML) (Party Unity) and CPI (ML) (PW) merged into CPI (ML) (PW) in 1998, Com. Vijay became its CC Member. He played an important role in the unity process between CPI (ML) (PW) and MCCI, which merged into CPI (Maoist) in September 2004. He became CC Member of the CPI (Maoist).
He reached Raipur a few days back before his arrest on 28th for medical treatment. The Chattisgarh police has notorious history of fake encounters. It is not even sparing ordinary tribal people. In the name of Salwa Judum it has raged 40 villages to ground, killed around 100 people, and raped women since August. The genocide is still continuing.
In this background it is but natural to suspect danger to Com. Vijay's life.
We appeal to all sections of people, human rights organizations in India and abroad to press for the immediate and unconditional release of Com. Vijay.

AZAD
Communist Party Of India (Maoist) 30-12-2005
All India Spokesperson