Volume 3, No. 10, October 2002

The CPM long-back left Marxism and turned into a revisionist Party. Naxalbari had already proved this. The history of the CPM is the history of reform on the one hand and suppression of peoples struggles on the other. Donning the Social-democratic attire, it shows its real face of social fascism in the villages. Since the peasant struggle has been taking roots in Midnapore, the CPM came out in its true colours and unleashed a reign of terror to suppress the movement in the rudimentary stage itself.

The State’s iron heel has shown its claws in Midnapore since July 5th. The West Bengal’s high-level police officials, assisted by Midnapore’s district police machinery, the EFR, RAF and BAF, carried out extensive raids in Kolkata city and its sub-urban areas. There was widespread condemnation from all sections for this brutal attack. Seeing this unexpected democratic voice, unheard of since the 1970s, the CPM’s leadership, sitting at its official building in Alamuddin Street, felt the ground below their feet shaking. For the first time the CPM government felt threatened. Closely following this entire process through TV channels, print media and leaflets taken out by various parties and organisations on these developments, the people of West Bengal started to decide which side they should take.

Between 8th to 28th July the CPM state secretariat issued two important circulars, which attracted people’s attention and exposed the CPM’s class character. After seeing that all parties and organisations including its partners in the LF like the RSP, FB and CPI began condemning the CPM’s leadership and the police machinery under it, saying that these indiscriminate attacks and midnight raids remind them of the 1970s, a section of the CPM opened its voice and condemned the attacks. And immediately after this the CPM issued an order through a circular saying that any open statement criticising the policies adopted by the Chief Minister, by his government and the official policies of the CPM should be stopped. They also issued another circular as part of its tactics to fight the CPI(ML)People’s War and MCC activities in the state. The important aspects in this circular were:

* Keep Vigilance on People’s War’ cadre and sympathiser’s movements

* Inform the police immediately about any information they get about People’s War

* Keep the police in front and guide them from behind.

These orders would clearly expose the role of CPM cadre as police informers. Buddhadeb avowedly declared to intensify the repression. In the name of developmental activities, he has taken up expansion of roads to facilitate fast mobilization of his forces into the struggle areas. A bridge sanctioned on the Kashavati river in the first five-year plan has not been constructed in the past fifty years. But now Buddhadeb sanctioned funds for this bridge’s construction. Work is being taken up on a war footing. This bridge will reduce the distance by 22 KMs for the police forces in reaching PW areas. This clearly reflects the anti-people policies and forms of suppression implemented by the state.

After the indiscriminate arrests of people in Kolkata alleging them to have links with the People’s War’s agrarian movement in Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia districts, the CPM got isolated. To create illusions in the people about its democratic character, as the governments at AP and various other states including the central government, the West Bengal government tried to use the card of dialogue. On the one hand, while describing the People’s War sans any political ideology which believes only in the politics of individual violence, on the other hand the CPM government offered talks with the People’s War. The PW immediately responded to this and laid down four conditions as part of creating a conducive atmosphere for talks. With this the CPM was thrown onto the defensive and started making statements that their cadre and leadership are not carrying any weapons and no weapons are stored in its party offices. The Bengal people, political parties — both parliamentary and non-parliamentary — who are aware of the facts laughed at their statements. The media clearly ridiculed this. In the mean time the West Bengal State Committee of the PW issued another statement declaring that talks would be possible only when the false cases on the arrested people are withdrawn, police raids are stopped and police camps are lifted from villages. In an interview to the press on 22nd August the secretary once again made the party stand on talks clear. He categorically said that there is no question of talks without the prisoners being released, cases against them withdrawn and the combined attacks of police and CPM stopped.

In fact the drama of talks is not a new one. For West Bengal people, it is the second time. In March 1971, the then President while addressing the joint session of Parliament said "The government is determined to root out lawlessness and eliminate political murders." And referring to the elections recently held in West Bengal, he said that people have once again reposed their faith in democracy. Later on 21st July, Mr K C Pant, who was the then Minister of State for Home talking in the Lok Sabha said "…the government is willing to have a dialogue with Naxalites." He further added "It is the responsibility of all of us to carry on such dialogue and help them to see the path of reason and restore their belief in the democratic process".

The offer for talks is nothing but a part of the tactics adopted by imperialism throughout the world. These tactics are part of the Low Intensity Conflict (LIC) strategy. And West Bengal Marxists are no exception to this and more over they are more cunning opportunists and capable of using it more effectively by staying behind the garb of "progressiveness" and "Marxism".

Naxalbari had drawn a demarcating line between the CPI (M) and CPI (ML). It separated the two lines. Until now the CPI (M) is managing its time by taking the name of revolution. It condemned the Naxalbari line as extremism and individual terrorism and described it as a struggle without any mass base. Since its formation in 1965 the CPM has been saying that the situation is not ripe enough for revolution. In their party program they still maintain that revolution can’t come through the parliamentary line and revolt is the only path for revolution. But they are directly ruling West Bengal for the past 25 years. And prior to this they were part of the United Front government. Starting with revisionism they gradually matured into ruling class elements degenerating into social fascists. In the past 25 years, their administration, their political line, their practice and policies became anti-people and turned West Bengal into an erupting volcano. Now a spark is enough to create wild fire in the state. That is why the CPM is afraid of even its shadow. They are unable to digest the fact that the words like revolution, Naxalbari, People’s War, which are synonyms in West Bengal have come onto the agenda once again. They can’t escape from falling into the grave they themselves dug.

After the setback of Naxalbari, especially in the post-Emergency period, struggles have been advanced in the AP, Bihar and Dandakaranya areas. New tactics were developed in the light of the general policy evolved in Naxalbari. But in West Bengal a rightist trend developed saying that these tactics were not applicable for the concrete conditions prevailing in Bengal and revolutionary struggle can’t be advanced here. Due to a lack of confidence in the leadership, an attitude of not making independent study based on Marxism, Leninism and Maoism, hesitation to break the limitations imposed by the leadership in methods and policies, and preparations required for a revolutionary party to advance the revolution were completely absent. These weaknesses were conveniently exploited by the CPM. So, without breaking this rightist political practice prevailing for such a long period, without keeping away from sectarianism and ultra-leftism and without facing the CPM’s politics and muscle power, the movement can’t be advanced in West Bengal.

There is a significant change in the political situation since the late 1960s and the present. Now the class character of the two parties is different. — on both the people’s side and the ruling classes side. One is practicing Marxism, while the other is standing with imperialism and suppressing and exploiting the people in the name of Marxism. These two can’t resolve their contradiction without fighting each other. Antagonistic contradiction is the primary aspect between the two. However, the CPM still has the capability to deceive people in the name of Marxism. Even now it has a sizable base in the working class. Hence one can advance the movement in West Bengal only by not losing the initiative in both political and military fields. The CPM and BJP are more armed than the other political parliamentary parties in the state. They have large numbers of lumpen characters in their cadre. But there is a section amongst the CPM, which sincerely believe in their party politics and are not associated with power. Hence the forces waging People’s War would have to make efforts to win over the sincere sections through political and mass struggles. In a region where active armed struggle was dropped under the influence of three decades of rightist deviation, and where the armed struggle has been discarded for all these years, the movement can’t be advanced without making the required preparations, without preparing for all sacrifices while fighting with the fascist forces and without making relentless efforts in all the three fields of ideological, political and military preparations.

During the May 2002 elections the CPM-TMC fought bitterly for power. First in 1998, the TMC-BJP combine started their fight with the CPM not through elections but with muscle power and gained at the beginning, forcing the CPM to run away. In this situation, the May elections became prestigious for the CPM and posed a serious challenge to its 25 year- rule. So, the CPM made all efforts and succeeded in converting the election results in its favour. First it was Siddhartha Ray, later it was Jyoti Basu and now it is Buddhadeb that consolidated their rule with the help of their unchallenged hold on the administrative and police machinery. The dictatorship of the Congress led to its fall in 1977. And now the CPM’s 25 year’s (1977-2002) rule has brought the people into struggles.

However the ML movement, which split into a number of factions couldn’t utilize the situation in 1977. Utilizing the peoples’ anger against the Congress, the CPM came to power. But now the movement under the leadership of the CPI(ML)(People’s War), MCC and other revolutionary forces has changed the scene.

Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia are backward districts. Though the movement was started in this region as early as the 1970s under the leadership of the CPI(ML), it couldn’t be advanced due to wrong tactics adopted by the leadership. The MCC Party initially kept these three districts under the leadership of the Bihar movement and made some basic work in these areas. But the Bengal leadership of that party couldn’t make any efforts in building the movement as, like the other ML parties, their political line went in a right deviation, and they finally separated from the MCC in 2001 and formed their own group. From 1995, the erstwhile People’s War started preparatory work in the border areas of the three states to develop it into a guerrilla zone and after that into a base area. It faced many obstacles and limitations in the beginning but it overcame them and made progress in the area. In this process the MCC also increased its concentration in this area and organised some mass struggles. Until now these two parties are working in this area independently. But the struggle in Midnapore, under the leadership of CPI(ML)(People’s War), has particularly attracted the people’s attention.

The forest regions are strategically very important especially when contradictions are sharp, and the vanguard forces would have to take the initiative by deploying revolutionary forces there. According to this principle the People’s War concentrated in Gorbeta since the latter part of 1998 and took the initiative in organising people. In this region the TMC-BJP combine on the one hand, and the CPM on the other have created an explosive-like situation, where there was no value for people’s lives and no protection for their properties. In such a situation the People’s War stood by the people and diffused the tension in the area by weakening the TMC-BJP combine. The CPM forces which couldn’t withstand the attacks from TMC-BJP forces ran away from the scene. Utilising the advantage of the People’s War’s efforts to weaken the TMC-BJP combine, the CPM reorganised its forces and started attacking the TMC-BJP. Starting from Gorbeta, they regained all their earlier position in Keshavapur, Hooghly and Bankura. This was the situation in 2000.

With the objective of the complete elimination of all its enemies, the CPM concentrated its armed forces (Vahinis) on the CPI(ML)(People’s War) and other revolutionary organizations. Anticipating opposition from the People’s War during the elections it planned to eliminate the People’s War from that area before the elections and created white terror in the area. During this period, on 4th January 2001, as part of this white terror, the CPM burnt alive five People’s War squad members while the remaining comrades, who were also in the house, managed to escape. During this period the CPM’s armed vahinis were in the forefront in all the attacks.

Determined to resist, the People’s War repulsed these attacks. One such resistance took place in Jaipur village. The CPM’s motor cycle vahini lead this attack. Fierce firing took place between the two forces and the CPM’s forces suffered serious injuries. They ran away from the scene and were soon replaced by a 500 strong contingent of the EFR, RAF and Bengal Special Armed Forces. They cordoned off the entire area and started combing throughout the night. But, the squad safely retreated from the area breaking the enemy’s net. And in this way the orders from Alamuddin street to the Midnapore district CPM office for eliminating the squad were foiled by people’s co-operation and the swiftness of the guerrillas.

After this incident, the CPM’s armed gangs made similar attacks 3-4 times in the Salbani area, but had to retreat because of people’s resistance. In all these incidents the people strongly stood with the People’s War. With their support, the People’s War carried out a few attacks in Gorbeta and Salbani areas in July 2001 and punished some key CPM leaders. During this period the CPM deployed police forces on a large scale and carried out indiscriminate raids on PW villagers and their opponent parliamentary parties. As a result, the election results went in favour of the CPM.

Starting with this, the deployment of police and paramilitary forces continued to rise in this area. However, large scale attacks did not directly target the people and was, as yet, only confined to a demonstration of strength and of threatening the people. And during this period i.e. from July 2001 to November 2001, the people in Salbani, Belpahad, Gualapur, Sareys, Panchamur, Ramgarh, Rayapur, Sarenga and other places moved and fought on various issues. During this period, they defied police repression. They questioned the CPM leadership in the presence of the police. However, struggles were organised in one village after the other, and continued against the anti-people policies of the CPM. And simultaneously, propaganda and people’s mobilisation was also done, to some extent, on political issues. But, the time available for the PW was only 2 to 3 months. The Party utilized this period for consolidating the mass organisation and armed forces. And succeeded in rallying the people behind it.

With the intention of not allowing the situation to continue in this direction, and shake their bases, the CPM turned to suppression utilising its armed gangs (Vahini) during the December 2000-June 2001 period. As these efforts failed, it deployed the state and central armed forces, and carried out two campaigns between October 2001 and April 2002.

1. The police which earlier used 15-20 vehicles at a time, suddenly increased them to 105. They surrounded particular areas from all sides to carry out combing operations.

2. From June 2001 more than 400 persons belonging to various fields, particularly peasants, were arrested and false cases were put on them. The Marxists have been planning to implicate them under POCA and keep them in prison for a long time and destroy their families.

3. After carrying out propaganda that the threat from the PW has increased, the government deployed large number of forces in many areas, and provided them with automatic weapons, fortified police stations, and modernised equipment. Centralisation too was increased:

* Now they even started coming on foot

* Use of CPM cadres as informers increased.

* Directions from Alamuddin Street and other district and local CPM offices to the police considerably increased.

* The attack which was so far confined to Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia was now extended to Kolkata and its surrounding areas and Birbhum and Burdwan districts.

4. They dispersed the state’s special police force 5th Battalion at Durgapur and sent 300 police to each of the three districts. And by using the infrastructure available at Durgapur, the government started fresh recruitment for an Indian Reserve battalion from locals. They concentrated their long-term preparations on the training and mobilisation of forces recruited here, to send to the struggle areas by the middle of 2003.

5. All the propaganda material and literature relating to the PW and MCC parties and their mass organisations became banned literature. Arrests increased on this pretext. In the "Marxist" rule even Marx’s Capital became, defacto, banned literature. In the past two months whenever leaflets or posters were seen in the name of PW, raids were increased.

6. Harassing the relatives and women in the houses. The objective of these raids on houses was to terrorise them and pressurise them not to cooperate with the PW.

7. We have already mentioned the circular issued by the CPM. Their method of using their cadres as police informers and attacking the democratic rights of the people by keeping vigil on them reminds us of the centuries old feudal forms of repression. This method is not new. It is a very old technique of the CPM to scuttle its opposition.

8. The CPMs armed gangs (Sayudha Vahini), including Local committee members and Zonal committee members, are involved in unprecedented massacres conducted openly with arms. And the CPM offices in the struggle areas became centres of strategic planning and arms mobilization. In the prevailing situation it was impossible to distinguish between the plans of the state forces and the CPM forces. Now the Marxists require police bodyguards for moving amongst the people.

9.Continuing mid-night raids, taking people by tying their hands and legs and applying third degree methods on the arrested people. Extending this repression to TMC and BJP members branding them as People’s War activists became a common tactic. This is being done to ensure the victory of the CPM in the forth coming village panchayat elections.

10. Regular raids on about 200 villages where People’s War and MCC are actively working and occasional raids on a number of other villages.

11. High level police officials of Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia and Hoogley districts and West Bengal, Jharkhand and Orissa state officials are regularly meeting. Their frequency has further increased in the past six months. Apart from the meetings of 9 states in the JOC, West Bengal police officials are in regular contact with AP police officials.

12. Verifying the records and maintaining vigil on the present and past activists and sympathisers of the ML movement and now also maintaining records of those who are suspected to be in touch with the People’s War.

13, Forces with anti-insurgency training and special training from the AP Greyhound forces are deployed in the strategic areas. It was also decided to use helicopters as a support to the combing operations.

14. Com.Subhash fought heroically after falling into the hands of police, who shot him. This is the beginning of false encounters.

15. When all the parties in the LF – CPI, RSB, FB etc, and also the TMC, Congress and ML parties, individuals, progressive people have been conde-mning the CPM in one voice, saying that the present repression reminds them of the repression of the1970s, the Marxist government has intensified its all out war against the People’s War.

In Nadia and Malda areas of North Bengal, the erstwhile PU has been working for a very long time. Since the beginning of July 2002 up to the end of August the nature of indiscriminate terror by government forces has increased. The Iron heel was extended from Midnapore to the Nadia Murshidabad- Malda area, covering Kolkata in between.

Since July 2002, police repression started to increase in Nadia-Murshirabad and Malda areas. They call the mass organisational leaders and activists to the police stations and threaten them to stop their activities. They started maintaining vigil on the movements of activists and leaders of the mass organisations. The Nadia police openly declared they are watching the movements of 32 persons belonging to the People’s War. After posters were printed in the name of the party – supporting the movement in MDP and other districts, deployment in every village began.

During the second week of August 2002 in Bochadanga village in Murshidabad district under Navda police station the police arrested one RSF female comrade, Shampa, and another two mass organisation activists Shankar and Ajit and severely tortured them. The lecturers and students of Gurudas college where Shampa was studying vehemently condemned this arrest. Shampa’s parents have been actively associated with revolutionary politics. They courageously declared that there is nothing wrong in believing in revolutionary politics and their daughter should not be treated as a criminal just because she was associated with revolutionary politics. These arrests were condemned by every one right from the RSP district leadership to the APDR. The LF partners, RSP, openly declared that not allowing the mass organisations to function, even though the party is not banned, is no different from the repression of the 1970s.

Apart from these arrests about 25 more people were arrested in Nakashipur of Nadia district and Navada of Murshidabad on August 26th. At the time of writing this report TV channels have been extensively showing these arrests. And the interesting point here is that objectionable material found with the arrested activists are not the pamphlets and literature of mass organisations but the literature and pamphlets of mass organisations of other parties. This is the nature of "socialism" implemented by the Bengal Marxists in the name of Marxism.

The people of Nadia, Murshidabad and Malda, who have a long experience of struggle, will not only withstand this repression but will, no doubt, defeat it. This region has densely populated plain areas. Only when the revolutionaries comprehensively take-up the task of raising people’s political consciousness and organise the people to resist the enemy, the People’s War in the plain areas can advance. Then only can it effectively fight the enemy’s iron heel and help people retain the political and military initiative. Now, there is need to concentrate in preparing the people politically and making preparations for the struggle in the midst of repression. While intensifying the People’s War in South and North Bengal there is need to study the differences in the objective conditions in the background of the geographical conditions. From the very beginning there is need to make long term preparations without drifting into either right deviation or left adventurism.

From the time that the erstwhile People’s War started its political activity in West Bengal the demarcation and polarisation of political parties started in West Bengal. First, this polaristion took place within the ML parties to some extent. Those who wanted to be on the side of struggle have joined the People’s War party. This has led to the establisment of the People’s War party political line in Bengal and the BOB border areas.

Later, the armed squads got some opportunity, in the early days, to carry out political propaganda in the people and in mobilising them in the backward areas, in those areas where the CPM is relatively week, like Belpahari, Gwalatore, Lalgarh, Ramgarh etc. In the Gorbeta region there was significant change in the situation within two months.

It is a fact that struggle cannot be started in all areas in Bengal in the traditional manner. And, similarly it is also a fact that the CPM, TMC, BJP and Congress will intensify their attack whenever any revolutionary party tries to create a mass base for itself. And as the social priests of the CPM are in power it was necessary to prepare the revolutionary forces theoretically, politically, organizationally and militarily from the very beginning.

In this background, the People’s War party has made a clear brake with the prevailing rightist understanding, realising the necessity of arming the people only in the process of the anti-feudal struggles, while building the mass organisations and carring on the political struggles. In the ripened political conditions, the PW had to enter each village only by fighting the TMC-BJP-CPM parties. The CPM party which is now shouting from the roof tops that it is the only political party which has done political struggle in the past 25 years; the question arises as to, with what political interest did it consolidate its base and how much Marxism did they give the people. Besides the people, even the CPM party activists are not provided with basic Marxism. What all they received from the party were knives, guns and mafia agents. Their role has been like pawns in the internal fights of leaders and grabbing whatever is available. They have nothing to do with the fight against exploitation.

Until now the land problem is a major issue. There is no sufficient land and the available land is fragmented into small holdings. About the land reforms in West Bengal, which are greatly boasted about by the LF, the Times of India has published a report on 18.8.2002 under the heading – "Land reforms is a myth in Bengal". It wrote "After 25 years in power, the LF in West Bengal has managed to redistribute only about 15% of the net arable land in the state". Moreover a substantial section has lost land due to eviction and "other reasons".

According to the information received from the state government land reforms department, recently — 3.02% of Bargadars lost land and 13% patta holders in the state had been disposed of patta land "due to various reasons".

Leaving this aside, in total Bengal except for a few backward regions, land was distributed on a party basis. This division was not on a class basis, but on that of muscle-power. Shifting of loyalty from one party to the other, depending on their relative muscle power, has been taking place since the past few years. The TMC grew in this way. And hence there is no change in the character of these parties. All of them are experts in piling up of arms, and to maintain supremacy through bloodshed, violence and murdering members of other parties has become a regular habit for them. However, the CPM is ahead of all others. The CPM has this habit of killing not only the opposite party activists but even activists of its allies like the CPI, RSP, FB and the SUCI, and also ML party activists and People’s War and MCC members.

According to an estimate between 1999-2001, 1013 people were killed in the conflicts between the CPM-TMC. These include their sympathisers.

All the parties in Bengal have condemned the police raids in Kolkata. And the attacks in MDP (Midnapore), Purelia- Bankura have been condemned by all — Jharkhand parties, ML parties, civil liberties organisations and intellectuals. Left front partners RSP, FB have condemned the raids carried out in Nadia- Mushidabad from August2nd week. However one should not forget that it becomes necessary for the parliamentary parties to condemn these police raids in view of the forth coming panchayat elections. These parties are not prepared to make the demands like withdrawal of forces from the villages and release of prisoners (though they are all aware that the CPM has framed false cases on them). As they are facing attacks from the CPM they are condemning the police repression to some extent. But, in the prevailing situation it is not sufficient. What is required now is a strong united struggle. This struggle should be centered around the issues of the release of prisoners, withdrawal of police forces and political struggles. And people’s basic problems should become primary.

Leaving this aside, the incidents of July-August 2002 have shaken the Bengali people. The fact that People’s War has brought armed struggle once again onto the agenda in Bengal has been accepted by the general masses. People throughout the state are gradually accepting and owning the 4-5 years of struggle in Midnapore and the People’s War party politics. This has clearly accelerated the process of political polarisation in the state. It tore away the CPM’s mask of "Marxism" and its "democratic character".

This polarisation though, would have to continue more seriously and that too, strictly on class lines. For this, one would have to take the scientific principles of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism extensively into the masses, particularly amongst those who are active in politics. The CPI, CPM, RSP, FB, SUCI and various ML groups have interpreted Marxism in their own subjective way. The LF partners have completely distorted Marxism and confined the fighting spirit of the working classes and restricted it to Trade Union politics. And the ML parties have brought forward many excuses and different interpretations in applying MLM and for not intensifying the People’s War. The CPI, RSP and FB etc by remaining part of the left government are, in effect, supporting the oppressive and anti-people policies of the social fascist CPM. These parties can maintain their existence by coming out of the LF and standing on the people’s side. Just by expressing some dissent when some cruel incidents takes place, it is not possible for them to really fight the CPM. Though the RSP now and then make some statements to protect its self-esteem its leadership is not prepared to come out of the left front. And the anti-CPM front is not strong enough.

In the meanwhile it is natural that lower-level cadre of various parties are joining or supporting the People’s War and MCC parties. Without breaking the mobilisation by the various parties it is not possible for proper class mobilisation. For this the genuine Maoist Parties, like the PW and the MCC, would have to show the path of strengthening the Maoist movement, through extensive propaganda of revolutionary politics and consolidating the new forces into the party, army and united front.

Seeing the mistakes of the past 25 years of left front rule a section of intellectuals adjusted with them and a section opposed them. Yet, all intellectuals have condemned the developments in July-August with one voice. And the CPM leadership, instead of accepting their criticism, began a counter attack. The CPM secretary openly threatened intellectuals. Budhadeb tried to suppress this opposition at any cost.

Instead of accepting its mistake in the arrest and torture of Professor Ganguly and release him, the CPM framed more false cases and harassed him. With this incident the CPM got completely isolated in academic circles and faced opposition from all sides. Here are some incidents which show the opposition to the CPM (see August issue for earlier details):

The University academic staff unions in more than 15 colleges have been continuing their agitation since July 2nd week.

In the West Bengal CUTA (West Bengal College and University Teacher’s Association) the CPM became isolated and its leadership had to leave one of its meetings. But it some how managed to manipulate the resolutions in its favour in the subsequent meeting.

Large number of left intellectuals in Bengal (writers, artists and from various other fields) have condemned the CPM.

Every year the CPM conducts a memorial meeting for the victims of the Barangar, Kashipur massacre of the 1970s. This year this meeting was held on August 12th. All the speakers in the meeting (except CPM) condemned the CPM attacks saying that the present attacks are no different from the Congress activities of the 1970s. The leadership of the CPM could not digest the fact that well known intellectuals condemned its actions from its own forum. Anil Biswas described this as a conspiracy to spoil the image of the Chief Minister, Budhadeb, and declared that his Party will not participate in any forum which criticises the government’s actions. How was the massacre at Angaria, carried out by the CPM, different from the Kashipur-Baranagar massacre of the 1970s? This year’s memorial meeting proved that the CPM, which is going in the same direction as the then Congress government has no right to hold such memorial meetings, commemorating the naxalite martyrs of the 1970s. .

Various revolutionary and other mass organisations, ML parties, other parties and organisations, which have formed the Bandi Mukthi Committee carried out extensive propaganda by organising meetings and publishing literature. After a long time, ML and non-ML parties both formed a common platform and their respective forums organised various programs for the same objective. This time, the CPI (ML) Liberation instead of describing CPM and MCC as Anarchists and terrorists has condemned the police repression both from the common platforms and from its own forum. One should welcome the response from all these parties. But it is also required to make a critical analysis of the situation.

As the brutalities were so glaring, it was not possible for any party not to condemn the CPM actions of July/August. When the people are seriously considering to decide on which side they stand, and also when their own cadres are carefully observing the stand of their leadership, it became compulsory for these parties to condemn the CPM’s actions. Meanwhile many efforts were made from Alamuddin Street to weaken their opposition. They are:

*They forced the left front partners to tone down their criticism

*Indirectly threatened the press and intellectuals

*Realising that if the conditions laid down by the People’s War for talks are accepted the result will not be in its favour. The CPM started propaganda that People’s War believes only in the politics of violence. And it imposed counter conditions for talks.

*Continuous anti-People’s War propaganda from Ganashakti (CPM’s official daily) and other CPM papers.

*Almost regular attacks on People’s War by Anil Biswas and Binam Konar in their press briefings

*Efforts were made to split the ML parties and the joint programs. As part of this effort Anil Biswas met Liberation leaders and then came the joint statement of Anil Biswas and Kartik pal condemning People’s War as anarchist and terrorist organisation

*The Alamuddin Street leadership increased the frequency of their tour for mobilising CPM cadre and strengthening the armed gangs and for finalising the plans at local and zonal level for a campaign of combined attacks (CPM and police).

In fact today the ML parties would have to reorganise their activities in the light of the struggle insisted on by the CPM. Elections and people’s war are two different paths. The incidents from North Bengal to South Bengal are proving that the present objective conditions in Bengal are ripe enough for armed struggle. The important question before all is whether their ML partners which have participated in condemning the CPM are going to encash the advantage gained for the on-coming panchayat elections, or for building the Maoist movement. The Liberation party turned into a revisionist party and joined the parliamentary left. Even now there is a significant number of basic masses who are under its leadership in the Bihar – Jharkhand states. So also in Bengal, to some extent. Though, in the prevailing situation it was impossible to remain silent on the CPM’s atrocities, its leadership cleverly condemned the Kolkata arrests but did not talk about the attacks on villagers. And at the same time when Anil Biswas came to their office in Kolkata, it issued a joint statement with the CPM criticising the People’s War Party. Their party cadre should note this. Mao said "It is impossible to eliminate errors without experience and we must travel from inexperience to experience in a process". The Liberation cadre should observe the present Bengal conditions and their Party’s revisionism and join hands in the struggle. And similarly all the ML Parties need to review the weaknesses in their practice. In fact in today’s conditions, the movement can’t advance without fighting against the CPM. However, this shouldn’t become the single agenda. People’s War would have to be intensified for the seizure of political power and various ML Parties should build armed struggles in their respective areas, and support the movement of MDP, Bankura, Purulia, Birbhum, Nadia, Murshidabad and Malda. Only when the Bengal units of these parties make active preparations for armed struggle, a strong unified revolutionary movement will be built in Bengal, which will advance together with the Maoist movements going on in the country.

For this, as part of the above preparations, there is urgent need for intensifying the People’s War and building the People’s Army to fight the CPM and other reactionary forces, as, without this it is not possible to advance even a single step forward. There is need to initiate armed struggle immediately without wasting any time. This is inconceivable without building a secret party, as it is only an underground leadership that can provide direct guidance to the armed struggle and intensify the People’s War.

By continuing the above program, there would be a simultaneous need for uniting the genuine ML groups, and in that process building a united party, which could lead to a qualitative change.

Activists in the revolutionary camp, including the PW, need a concrete study of Maoism, and how to apply it to intensify the peoples’ war, in order to take the revolutionary movement forward. As told by Mao, Communists must question every aspect, use their own brain, and think carefully whether it will fit into the reality or not.

In the present Bengal situation, the task of organising the people in strategic areas and move unitedly for building the guerrilla zones and base areas, is as important as fighting the suppression campaign continued by the CPM. One should be careful not to ignore this objective situation. Simultaneously, there is need for widespread mobilization of the revolutionary forces in the plain areas and even in the developed rural areas.

The CPM and its police machinery have decided to crush the PW and MCC on a war footing. In the name of checking the infiltration of Maoists from Nepal, and the supposed ISI, Al Quida terrorists from the North-East and Bangladesh, additional forces are being deployed in the state. In the name of supposed intelligence reports the "Marxist" government is whipping up a fear psychosis in the state. The CPM is openly saying that they can not reply to the armed struggle of the PW, MCC and KLO with Rasagullas and are going to fight this with arms to protect their cadres. In this way the CPM seeks to legitimise the combined attack of  the CPM and police machinery.

The CPM is making all efforts to defame the PW and using any and every incident in its anti-PW propaganda. In one incident in Jomirgot village of Salbani area of Midnapur district a house wife, and an old woman were killed and a small girl seriously injured. The CPM attributed this incident to the PW and organised a huge procession with its armed squads and police forces. But the truth was, the husband himself planned to kill his wife with the help of CPM cadre. When the incident took place an old woman in the neighboring house and his daughter saw the killers. Afraid that they will reveal their names the killers attacked them. But, the small girl who survived, later revealed the names of the killer.

The 27th August newspapers reported the formation of the KLOKS (Kamatipuri Liberation organisation Kill squad) which would kill 5 KLO activists for every killing carried out by them. This vigilante organisation is nothing but a CPM creation. The CPM has formed armed gangs in the name of village volunteers in all villages where the revolutionary parties, SUCI and other parties are strong. All these gangs exist only to attack revolutionary movements and other democratic movements. These gangs are an important resource for social fascism. To continue the white terror amongst the people it is making serious efforts to legitimise its attacks.

In the 1970s black gangs of the Congress and police carried out mass killings in Kolkata and other areas and destroyed their families. But the movement and party which had considerably weakened by that time could not resist them effectively. By drawing lessons from the attacks at that time one can effectively resist the new attacks.

Revolutionary intellectuals and activists in Kolkata city can play an important role by going to the struggle areas and expose the true situation prevailing there, stand on the side of the people in their struggle, and thereby further strengthen peasant, workers, student and intellectual unity. It is only then that they would be able to fully understand peoples’ sufferings and the ruling class methods responsible for it. It is primarily their responsibility to tare away the democratic garb of the CPM and expose its social fascist character to the people and the world.

In fact, it is important to understand the class essence of the CPM, as a ruling-class party, representing comprador/semi-feudal interests. That is why they have been allowed in power for 25 years. Its ‘progressive’ demagogy is only a mask. When class contradictions sharpen, as they have recently in West Bengal, their true class essence comes out nakedly. Of late it is reported that the West Bengal CM has been cozying up with that worst fascist demagogue, Advani! In the present situation prevailing in West Bengal and the country, there is urgent need for all revolutionary, democratic and progressive forces to strongly condemn the CPM’s anti-PW, anti-democratic and anti-people actions in West Bengal and also expose their political opportunism in the country at large.

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