CPI(M) Treachery in India

(letter)

31 January 2009

Dear Friends,

Though I missed the Spartacist Canada (No. 159), I have seen your article on Nandigram reprinted in the Workers Hammer no. 205. The article is informative and well-written.

The CPI(M) [Communist Party of India (Marxist)] and its allies support the UPA [United Progressive Alliance] government led by Manmohan Singh on the ground that it is secular. But they moved in hand in glove with the Muslim fanatics to drive out Taslima Nasrin first from Kolkata and finally from India. They have promoted the growth of madrasas and set up a new Islamic University to provide religious education to the Muslims. Thus they are trying to keep the Muslim minority permanently in the middle age darkness instead of enlightening them with scientific, secular quality education.

At a time when capitalist industrialization has become capital intensive and depriving millions of their livelihood and the motor car enterprises like Hind Motors are already in crisis, they promise jobs and expect miracles from SEZs. To what extent can they go is shown by Singur where two of their leaders convicted for the rape and murder of Tapasi Malik, a teenager activist who opposed the forcible acquisition of agricultural land for Tata’s car factory. The Tatas were forced to leave Singur on October 4, 2007 but they issued a paid ad published in all major dailies in West Bengal on October 17, 2007 asking the electorate to vote for the CPI(M) in the next elections. That reveals the class interests the Left Front serves.

The hollowness of all their anti-feudal and anti-colonial rhetoric is evident from the fact they have not departed from a single nasty practice of the feudo-colonial rulers or attempted to annul even a single repressive law of the past. Instead they have added new ones on some pretext or other.

Thus they resemble Her Majesty’s loyal opposition in Britain. We need a Trotskyist party in India to end unemployment, illiteracy, starvation and repression which are inseparable from the capitalist exploitation. Trotskyism had a promising start in 1940s but entryism destroyed it in 1948. Ever since then, the Pabloites, the Healyites and their heirs misled the newcomers and hindered the revival of a real Trotskyist movement in India. It is relevant for the revolutionaries of the subcontinent to re-examine the experiences of the past six decades and to draw necessary conclusions to rebuild it anew.

Upendranath Roy