In Imperialist globalization is creating devastation on a scale
rarely seen before in India and all countries of the world. The
magnitude of the devastation is horrifying. It is a silent genocide
unleashed by the monarchs of finance and their lackeys throughout
the world. Wars of conquest add to the horrors. And amidst this
devastation a handful have made unimaginable wealth. The recent
visit of the biggest international gangster, Bush, to India was
nothing but a step forward to increase the loot of the country and
scheme with his servile agents in the country to make India a pawn
in its geo-strategic plans in Asia. The fawning servility of the
Indian rulers as they fell at his feet, inspite of being kicked
around, shows to what extent the UPA rulers and their hangers on
have stooped to sell off the country to these wolves of finance
capital.
The extremes in wealth and poverty in India and globally are getting
obscene. Such acute levels of destitution on the one hand, and voluptuous
and vulgar display of wealth on the other, bring the contrasts into
sharp focus. On the one hand we have a devastated Indian countryside
where impoverishment is so acute that suicides have reached epidemic
levels; on the other hand urban pockets are seeing a proliferation
of malls and elite urban enclaves. Internationally it is to be seen
in the ghettoisation at one extreme and glitter of the fabulous
and wealthy on the other.
What exists today is not only obscene, it is brutally unjust, inhuman,
cruel and catastrophic — it is inexcusable to tolerate it for even
a single day. For, each day that it continues means thousands of
more deaths, lakhs suffering the agony of starvation and millions
living life in utter destitution on the brink of life and death.
But not satisfied with this devastation, the fundamentalists of
the market economy are each day seeking greater and greater devastation
and destruction to maximize their profits even further. Removal
of all remaining subsidies to the poor, cutting welfare expenditure,
reducing pensions and Provident Funds, hiking enormously health
and medicine charges, increasing charges of electricity, fuel and
even water by leaps and bounds, etc. etc.— are all on the agenda
of the market megalomaniacs in India and worldwide.
And for those who don’t obey, there is the gun, bombs and all the
latest in WMDs. Iraq is being bombed back to the dark ages. So also
Afghanistan. Iran is the next target, unless they capitulate before
the imperialist vampires on their nuclear programme.
Opposition is tolerated and even encouraged if it is harmless; and
acceptable if one plays by the rules that they lay down. Foreseeing
the likely opposition to their devastation, the rulers press into
service their own stooges to act as ‘safety valves’ for this over-heated
system. From the days of the second international the revisionists
have proved to be the most faithful props of the establishment while
pretending to be in opposition. Of course, with many openly joining
the rulers (as the CPI/CPM in India) and their masks having got
torn off, new elements have been found in the form of the postmodernists
and the NGO crowd. These have been proliferating like mice gnawing
away into the genuine opposition and demobilizing many a genuine
dissident.
The situation can only go from bad to worse unless the masses resist
this offensive in all ways. The reason for the continuing retrogression
in the world economy is that finance capital is today a hundred
times more parasitic and moribund even from the times Lenin spoke
of it. This can be seen from the fact that there has been a massive
leap in financial services compared to actual production. Financial
services no doubt generate huge profits, but its profits not created
through the production process but extracted through speculation
and other such methods, as part of the growing casino economy. This
must necessarily be exceedingly fragile, creating a bubble economy,
and jobless ‘growth’. Such an economic structure brings unbelievable
wealth to the owners of big capital while pushing large sections
of the population outside its ambit. It is this huge, and growing,
world of marginalized masses that is resulting in its alienation
on a scale never seen before. Because of a weak communist alternative
it is tending, in some places, to take a religious (and particularly
Islamic) form.
Some facts show the extent to which the economies of the world have
been distorted by the present so-called globalization. For example,
in the year 2004 the worldwide trade in financial instruments in
a single day was more than exports of goods for the entire year.
In 2004 the trade in derivatives and on foreign exchange markets
was a huge $7.6 trillion per day; while that of merchandise exports
for the whole year of 2003 was $7.3 trillion (one trillion is equal
to 1000 billion). Take another example in the growth of the financial
markets. In the early 1980s the volume of transactions of bonds
and securities between domestic and foreign residents accounted
for about 10% of GDP in the US, Germany and Japan. By 1993 the figure
had risen to 135% for the US, 170% for Germany and 80% for Japan.
By end 2003 the figure rose to massive $15.7 trillion.
On the other hand while such huge sums travel around the world with
the speed of lightening, made possible by the dot.com discoveries,
generating fabulous profits, the marginalized world reels in poverty
and destitution on a scale rarely seen.
Take the case of Africa which has been ravaged by internecine wars
instigated by imperialist lobbies and powers. As per the UN’s own
report from 2000, 1,200 people are dying every day in Congo — since
1997, 4 million have died. In Sudan, 2 million civilians remain
homeless three years after the Dafur conflict ignited. According
to the Red Cross hunger grips entire East Africa with 7 million
people affected by severe drought in Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti,
and Somalia. In 1994, eight lakh Tutsis were massacred in Rwanda
while the UN ‘peacekeepers’ looked on. Many other countries are
ravaged by civil wars backed by different imperialists, like the
Ivory Coast and about ten other countries; and in South Africa a
quarter of the population have AIDS and a decade after the ANC took
power 80% of the land is still owned by whites. And amidst all this
devastation the imperialists continue to extract their fortunes.
According to a 2003 World Bank report the maximum returns on every
dollar invested abroad are got from Africa. The British war industry
has made massive profits from Africa with arms sales rising to record
levels. Over the last four years between 1999 and 2004 it has quadrupled
reaching the $ 1 billion mark. The British imperialists give bullets
not bread to the starving millions of Africa so that they may continue
to kill each other in civil strife. And the US has imposed a ruthlessly
exploitative Act to ravage the African people even more. The US-African
Growth and Opportunity Act (between the US and Africa) forces African
trade ‘partners’ to withdraw subsidies given to local industries
and insists on privatization of social services even in countries
that are prone to drought.
In India the situation is much the same. The entire countryside
is being devastated and yet the government has plans to disband
the PDS and raise the prices of foodgrains further. It is dismantling
the state purchase of food grains, cotton and other agricultural
commodities, destroying the already devastated peasantry even more.
Subsidies are being cut and welfare expenditure reduced. India has
the lowest public spending on health care in the world (except for
four other tiny countries) and today over 20% are not able to afford
the rising costs of medical care and are forced to die agonizing
deaths. Debt has swamped the countryside pushing thousands and thousands
of farmers to suicide each year. The figures only keep mounting
as government policy only acts to destroy them further. With companies
and the government resorting to labour-saving methods unemployment
keeps rising and only the more well-off English-speaking elite can
hope to find decent jobs in the ICE (Info-tech, Communications and
Entert-ainment) and financial sectors. The situation here too is
going from bad to worse.
On the other hand enormous wealth has been amassed by the wealthy.
The 10 rich-est people on earth have a combined net worth of $255
billion — roughly 60% of the income of Sub-Saharan Africa. The world’s
500 richest people have more than the total annual earnings of the
poorest three billion people (i.e. about 60% of the world’s population).
Even from the poorest countr-ies the elite have staked away in foreign
countries a gigantic sum of $ 5 trillion.
The acute impoverishment of the millions is the material basis for
the wealth of the few. As, the greater the poverty the larger is
the surplus value or profits extracted. The two classes today stand
diametrically opposed to each other more than ever before. The ruling
elites are not prepared to allow even a paisa of their profits to
be reduced. In India and worldwide the profits of the big companies
have increased by 50 to 80% and more in the last year.
But the declining market for commodities and the extreme parasitic
nature of finance capital today is pushing it from one crisis to
the next. This has resulted in a new round of bankruptcies taking
the number of acquisitions to record levels in 2005. In that year
M & As (Mergers and Acquisitions) reached a gigantic figure
of $2.7 trillion. The crisis is particularly deep in the US — which
is the largest economy in the world and the sole superpower — with
its gigantic (and rising) trade and budget deficits. This is leading
to greater contention amongst the major imperialist powers, wars
of aggression (particularly by the US), and intensified loot of
the backward countries. As yet the contention is taking the form
of diplomatic maneuvering, trade wars and minor skirmishes of puppet
forces particularly in Africa. All reactionaries throughout the
world, with the US in the lead, are resorting to increased fascist
methods passing off under the signboard of ‘war against terror’.
But, this wave of reaction is not going without a fight, even if
not under communist leadership. Iraq and Afghanistan have become
a hell for the aggressors. Particularly the great Iraqi resistance
refuses to die down even after fake elections and desperate attempts
by the US to pit Shias against Sunnis. The working class movement
in the West continues to revive, even if haltingly. So, also the
anti-globalisation/anti-war movement continues unabated. US Imperia-lism’s
worldwide hegemonic designs face not only problems in the Middle
East but in other parts of the world as well. Its attempts to build
a Free Trade Area in Latin America have failed; not only that in
six countries of South America governments have been voted to power
that are in varying degrees anti-US. In Central Asia a number of
countries have kicked out the US bases and Russian imperialist re-assertion
has put the US on the defensive in these countries. Even in Palestine
after nurturing a total puppet after the Arafat era, they have got
the militant Hamas in power, upsetting their calculations. In the
new flashpoint of Iran threats of sanctions and missile attacks
by the US-Israeli combine (supported by Europe) have created resentment
throughout the world, and further hatred for these gangsters.
In addition the Maoist movements worldwide continue to grow in the
face of the most brutal repression. However weak, wherever they
have some roots in the masses, they continue to act as the vanguard
of the struggle against imperialism and all reaction, in spite of
the attempts by the revisionists and NGOs to isolate them.
In India too there has been a revival of the working class movement
inspite of the domination of the revisionist leadership. The militant
response at Gurgaon, Kalinga Nagar, etc is accompanied by a strike
wave in a number of MNC and comprador companies. In the last six
months there have been 25 cases of industrial action resulting in
a temporary shutdown in manufacturing activities. Major companies
that have witnessed workers actions in the last six months are big
names like Grasim Industries, JCT Ltd, Gujarat Ambuja, ACC, Crompton
Greaves, NRB bearings and Esab. The prolonged agitation at the Toyota
factory in Bangalore continues. In October last year workers at
the Hairhar factory of Grasim brought production to a halt. So also
the Gujarat Ambuja plant and the NRB Bearing Hyderabad plant saw
similar strike activity in January and February this year.
Besides this the peasants are rising against the neo-liberal policies
as in Rajasthan and elsewhere. The tribals, as Kalinga Nagar have
shown, have vowed to fight the mining mafia to the end that threatens
their very existence. There is growing assertion amongst dalits
who refuse to continue living under upper-caste domination under
the horrendous practice of untouchability inculcated over centuries.
Women are more and more coming forward discarding the yoke of patriarchy.
And the minorities, particularly the Muslims, are not taking the
attacks by the Hindu fascists and State lying down. There is a general
discontent throughout the country, but it lacks a cohesive revolutionary
leadership.
But with the genuine Maoists of the country now united (to a large
extent) into a single Party the hopes of all sections are growing.
Though weak, it is the only hope for the oppressed masses. Yet,
with the unity, its striking power has increased, hitting powerful
blows at the enemy/government forces. The arms raid in Giridih and
Madhuban, the continuous actions on the paramilitary forces in the
wake of the State-sponsored terrorist onslaught called SalwaJudum
in Chhathisgarh, and the Jehanabad jail break are just a few of
the indicators of its growing striking capacity. For the first time
in our country the party of the proletariat is equipped with a peoples’
army (however rudimentary) to take on the ruthless and barbaric
force of the state.
On this May Day let us intensify the struggle against all forms
of reaction, against the massive imperialist onslaught, particularly
the US, and against the most degrading sell-out of the interests
of our motherland to the imperialists, particularly the US imperialists,
by the comprador government of UPA led by Manmohan Singh. The Red
Carpet welcome given to the No.1 International terrorist George
Bush by the Manmohan Singh government is a great insult to the billion
plus population of our country. The nefarious Indo-US nuclear deal
concluded by the Congress-led UPA government with the full backing
of the BJP-led NDA coalition during the visit of Bush has placed
even the nominal sovereignty and independence of the country at
the feet of the US. Through this notorious agreement these traitors
have placed the country firmly in the US orbit. In the name of strategic
partnership with the US, the Indian ruling classes have become accomplices
in the innumerable crimes being committed by the warmongering, criminal
Bush. By voting against Iran in the IAEA and strengthening its ties
with the Zionist expansionist Israel, the Indian expansionist ruling
classes have proved themselves to be the tail of US imperialism—the
principal enemy of the world people. Let us resolutely fight against
this sell-out to US imperialism that paves the way for our country
being transformed into a neo-colony. Let us fight against the policy
of appeasement of the revisionist CPI and CPI(M), which have been
sustaining the Manmohan Singh government in the Centre, while making
harmless noises about its neo-liberal agenda and surrender to US
imperialism. These revisionists have placed the interests of the
working class and the oppressed masses at the feet of the comprador
ruling classes despite their radical rhetoric. Let us support the
heroic struggles waged by the people of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestinian
territories, the growing militant protests in Iran, Syria, Libya,
Sudan, Pakistan and all over the world against US aggression, intervention,
blackmail and bullying. In India too let us further intensify the
vast upsurge that developed against the Bush visit into a powerful
anti-imperialist movement. Let us unite the vast masses of our country
and all the patriotic and democratic people against imperialism,
particularly US imperialism, and the comprador Indian ruling classes
that have mortgaged the country’s interests to US imperialism and
have become one more bulwark of reaction against the interests of
the world people. Let us awaken the working class and oppressed
masses for a new upsurge, which draws lessons from the defeats of
the Soviet and Chinese experience, to fire a confidence in its ability
to build a new, just, socialist order.
Long Live May Day!
Down with Imperialism and all their Lackeys!
Beat Back the Aggressive Designs of US imperialism—No. 1 enemy of
mankind!
Intensify struggle, expose revisionists, NGOs and all collaborators!
Unite all progressive forces to fight and destroy all Reaction!
March Towards the Socialist Alternative! Long Live the NDR!
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