1. Communists generally participate in bourgeois parliamentary election when the class struggle is at low ebb. This participation however is entirely different in tactics from the reformists. The communists utilise the general political atmosphere which emerges during elections with an aim to bring forth the necessity of the revolutionary change of the society within the working class and general masses by exposing the bourgeois class nature of the parliamentary system. The communists also strive to send their working class representatives to the parliament to reflect the interests of the class struggle going on outside the parliamentary arena and free the backward masses from illusions of the parliamentary system by exposing the parliamentary system through concrete experiences within it. Today, in absence of a working class party, it is impossible to participate in the election by putting up candidates. Thus the present day task of the communist revolutionaries in view of the forthcoming assembly election in West Bengal is to launch a revolutionary campaign exposing the class character of the bourgeois parliamentary system and at the same time, to make the advanced sections of workers and toiling masses conscious and organised on the basis of the independent, revolutionary politics of the working class with the aim of building a revolutionary class party of the working class. Although this is widely known, the necessity has arisen to reiterate it as parliamentary illusions have become deep-rooted within the working-class and the larger masses and the groups known as communist revolutionaries are helping to strengthen this instead of freeing the masses from such illusions on the contrary. The line separating their way of participation in the electoral struggle from that of the revisionists is increasingly getting blurred. Hence the revolutionary tactics of participating in the elections has become a question of utmost importance.
2. Communists do not put forward any separate statement at the time of election. Therefore what will constitute the campaign in the upcoming elections in West Bengal will be decided on the basis of the revolutionary pronouncements determined generally by the communists on the basis of assessment of the then present situation. The immediate aim of the revolutionary campaign of the communists in this election will be to awaken and organise the advanced sections of the working class and toiling masses, particularly the rural proletariat among the latter, keeping in mind the aim of building a class party of the working class.
3. In the past few years the assault of the ruling class on the working class, the agricultural labourers, poor peasants and various other toiling masses has intensified. The most crafty, loyal representative of the ruling class, the Narendra Modi led Central Government has played the main role in unleashing this assault. In 2014, in order to unleash the aggressive mission of 'economic reforms' in their own interests, a large section of the big bourgeoisie of this country backed Narendra Modi and the BJP. From the very beginning of their coming to power, the Modi led BJP government has proved amply clearly through their aggressive 'reforms programme', that unmistakably they have been the right choice of the big bourgeois ruling class. Especially after returning to power with an overwhelming majority in 2019, the central government of the BJP is intensifying one offensive after another with so much haste, which, despite being on the agenda of the big bourgeoisie for a long time, they had not been able to prepare for implementation in reality. Ultimately the root cause of all the fundamental problems in the lives of the workers and poor, toiling masses is the exploitation and oppression of imperialism and the big bourgeois, big landlord ruling classes of this country dependent on imperialism, which is presently escalating continually mainly due to this 'reforms programme'.
4. Of course it will be misleading to identify the BJP as the sole agent that has unleashed this attack in the interest of the ruling class, while being in the government. This campaign of globalisation-liberalisation began in 1991 at the hands of the then Congress-led central government. Subsequently the Congress party along with other big bourgeois and regional parties holding power in either central or state governments have adhered to the same policies for more than two decades and have boosted the attacks of the national and international big bourgeois on the workers, and the poor peasants and agricultural labourers of the villages and other toiling masses. Not only the Congress, the old loyalist party of the big bourgeoisie, this holds true for all the so-called left parties including the CPI, CPI (M), and the regional parties like Trinamool Congress. From all these experiences this truth must be brought forth before the workers and the toiling masses that the main cause of the problems concerning their lives and livelihood is the exploitation and oppression of the ruling class. All the established parties are serving the interests of the ruling class and BJP is the most adept and loyal representative among them.
5. In order to suppress the growing discontent resulting as a consequence of the unbridled exploitation and oppression of the working class and the toiling masses, all the governments are shrinking the space of democratic rights by further reinforcing the state machinery. Of course the ruling class and the governments are trying to mitigate the discontent of the people in another way too. They are trying to mitigate the discontent of the poor masses through meagre relief measures like guarantee for 100 days work in rural areas, food security, Ujjwala scheme, Swach Bharat, KhadyaSathi-SwasthyaSathi and so on and so forth. In absence of class struggle the general awareness about the rights among the workers and poor, toiling masses have become blunted and consequently they and more particularly the backward section among them are hankering for this paltry and insignificant relief as if it's their full due, many a times to the extent of competing with one another in the race for these. The immediate aim of these relief measures for the mainstream parliamentary parties is to garner votes so that they can remain in power. But the real aim of the ruling class is to protect this socio-economic structure founded on blatant exploitation and oppression from the ire of the exploited, oppressed masses and divert them from their path of struggle for a society free from exploitation.
The advanced sections of the workers and poor toiling masses cannot be made conscious and organised in class politics without liberating them from the influence of the relief programme by exposing its class character. Therefore it is the task of the revolutionaries to bring forth this truth before them that whatever meagre relief the ruling class is throwing out to the poor masses, a thousand times more wealth is being appropriated by them through unbridled exploitation. The workers and the poor masses cannot remain confined within such relief. The aim of their struggle is abolition of this very system of exploitation.
6. The BJP does not constitute a danger merely because of unleashing the assaults of the 'reform programme', serving the interests of the imperialist forces and the big bourgeoisie ruling class of this country dependent on them. The BJP and the Sangh Parivar are drawing the country towards the creation of a fascist Hindu Rashtra on the basis of an aggressively reactionary Hindutva ideology. Starting from the later part of the 80s of the last century, this mission of the aggressive Hindutva forces gathered momentum under the leadership of the Sangh Parivar and gradually became intense and widespread. These forces have increasingly communalized the majority Hindu masses during the last three decades through aggressive communal campaign and activities. Combined with that, there has been a campaign of a particular variety of aggressive nationalism also, which in essence is aggressive Hindu communalism in the garb of nationalism. The Sangh Parivar, by way of arousing the Hindu fundamentalist forces through its vicious communal campaign and activities, have not only been successful to deepen the chasm between Hindus and Muslims but at the same time have also alarmingly escalated the oppression of the religious minorities, particularly the people of the Muslim community, de facto pushing them to the position of second-class citizens.
But the real target of Sangh Parivar's mission to identify the minority Muslim population as the enemy of the citizens of the country is to establish a fascist rule, abolishing the stunted, fragmented democracy that prevail. Since the birth of the Indian state, democracy in this country has been limited and truncated and moreover, during the previous decades it has further been truncated by almost all governments by bringing forth one after another draconian anti-people laws for serving the interests of the ruling classes. Apart from using those laws to serve its own fascist agenda, the BJP-Sangh Parivar is taking preparation to further a bigger, more comprehensive attack on the democracy in the coming days. The working class and the toiling masses will be the worst affected as a result. This is because as a consequence of the fascist aggression, they will be completely deprived of the paltry rights to organize and struggle that still prevail and finally will become the victim of tremendous exploitation of the imperialists, the big bourgeois and all other exploiters.
7. The fascist aggression will also preserve and further strengthen the dominance of the upper-caste Hindus on the Dalits and tribal people. Over and above this, these forces are propagating unscientific thoughts, superstitions and blind beliefs, orthodoxies, demolishing rationality through their campaigns and trying to drag the society into medieval darkness. Of paramount importance is the fact that they are hell bent on stifling the freedom of expression of progressive, democratic people and blot out whatever little democratic rights prevail in the country.
8. The rise which the BJP and the Sangh Parivar has achieved is because of the fact that they have been able to extend their influence over a large section of the workers and the other exploited, oppressed toiling masses. However this influence can't be solely assigned to its aggressive Hindutva communal politics. Without comprehending the reasons of influence of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar on the toiling masses, and more specially the backward sections among them, the path of combating these forces cannot be determined. Firstly, one of the main reasons for the growing influence of the Sangh Parivar and the BJP is the prevalence of all-pervading frustration within the working class and the toiling masses. Due to the colossal defeat of the international proletariat in the first campaign of world socialist movement during the last few decades, the working class and toiling masses have faced unilaterally the brunt of the attacks unleashed by the ruling class. The impact of this defeat is so extensive and comprehensive that the working class is still lying in a fragmented condition; it has failed to get organised into a class party of its own even after so many years. Being unable to resist the attacks, an all-out frustration has spread within the working class and toiling masses. The self-confidence that they themselves can confront this situation on their own strength is generally missing. Secondly, after the start of the attacks of globalisation and liberalisation, the working class and toiling masses took recourse to changing governments frequently through elections in an attempt to stave off the attacks of the governments. But it has become clear to the masses from the experience of change in governments that all the established parties are equally anti-people, corrupt and unprincipled. Being disillusioned with the established political parties as well as being unable to keep faith on their own capacity, there has arisen among the workers and toiling masses an urge to get out from their problem-ridden lives by depending on forces alien to their own class. Narendra Modi could present himself as the messiah of the common man by means of exploiting such aspiration among the backward poor toiling masses by selling the dreams of 'Achhey Din' thus spreading his influence. Though in the last few years this image of Modi has been tarnished to a certain extent after the experience the masses have had with the BJP government, but largely he still retains the appeal among the toiling masses.
9. There is one more reason for the support given to the BJP and the Sangh Parivar by the masses, particularly the Hindu masses. As a result of the colossal defeat of the international socialist movement and the bitter experience of betrayal by the Left parties, including the CPI (M) in the case of West Bengal in particular, not only has passivity and hopelessness gripped the working class and toiling masses, a void has also developed in the ideological sphere. The appeal for socialism, for a world free from all exploitation which prevailed, has ceased to exist. A favourable environment has been created for the growth of reactionary ideologies like communalism, blind religious faith etc. among the working class and toiling masses just as filth collects in stagnant water. The Sangh Parivar has been able to draw ideologically a large section of Hindu masses towards them through their aggressive Hindu communal campaign and activities taking full advantage of this favourable atmosphere. There is no scope of doubt that the Sangh Parivar is acquiring its real strength for fascist campaign through the influence of their aggressive Hindutva ideology upon a substantial section of toiling people of the Hindu community. In order to combat and defeat the fascist campaign of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, the backward toiling masses need to be freed from the influence of the fascist politics of aggressive Hindutva of the BJP and Sangh Parivar and that can be accomplished only through the advancement of the revolutionary politics of the working class.
10. There is no doubt that in the forthcoming Assembly election in West Bengal, BJP is the one of the contesting bourgeois political parties which poses the main danger for the working class, the agricultural labourers, the poor peasants and the lot of the toiling masses of not only West Bengal but the country as a whole. They have already been able to extend their influence from the northern and central Indian states to some states in the east and northeast and also to some states in the south. Due to this influence, they have won the last two parliament elections with overwhelming majority. In addition, they have been able to form governments in many states where they previously had no organization. Although the BJP is weak as a political force in West Bengal, it has gained considerable strength in the last few years and has come much closer to seizing power than before. There is no doubt that if they come to government power through the elections in West Bengal, it will be an additional danger to the workers and toiling mass of West Bengal.
11. Other major political parties in the West Bengal Assembly elections, namely the ruling Trinamool Congress, the Left Front-Congress alliance, etc. have all been in power in the state government and / or the central government in the past. No matter which government they are in, they have served the interests of the big bourgeoisie of this country while staying in the government and have helped to intensify the burden of exploitation and oppression on the workers and toiling masses by adhering to the same 'reform programme' adopted in the interest of the big bourgeois. Every government has taken proactive role in suppressing the struggles of the workers and poor toiling masses whenever they resorted to fight for the demands of their livelihood. There is no doubt that if they come to power, they too will use the oppressive state apparatus to maintain the exploitation of the big bourgeoisie and the landlords-absentee landlords.
12. Although the political parties like Trinamool Congress, Congress or Left Front, are not aggressively Hindu communal and fascist like the BJP-Sangh Parivar, but still they are not secular and democratic forces in true sense. At different times they have compromised with religious and communal ideologies and even with different communal forces to get votes from the backward people. The more the aggressive Hindutva ideology of the BJP-Sangh Parivar is spreading its tentacles within the society the more the parties like Congress and Trinamool Congress are tilting towards a kind of politics of soft Hindutva. In fact, they have no power to combat ideologically with the Sangh Parivar and the BJP. Rather, it would not be wrong to say that their anti-people, corrupt and above all unprincipled, power-hungry politics have turned the people against them and the breach of people's trust on them is an important factor behind the rise of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. As a result, even though they are less dangerous than the BJP, in the final analysis, it is not possible for them to stop the BJP from coming to power by means of their ascendency to power.
13. The cardinal point which needs comprehension is – the rise of BJP-Sangh Parivar is occurring mainly through the extra-parliamentary arena. Since the goal of fascism is to establish a fascist state by demolishing the present bourgeois-democratic parliamentary structure, they are not only following the constitutional path, they are also not hesitating to follow the extra-constitutional path as and when necessary. Hence it would be absolutely meaningless to think of resisting the rise of fascism merely through parliamentary struggle.
14. The one and only path to combat the rise of BJP-Sangh Parivar is the path of advancement of class struggle. The real strength of Sangh Parivar lies not in the state power, but their real power resides within the support of a substantial backward section among the majority Hindu masses. Only the advancement of the class struggle can weaken this base of Sangh Parivar and can give birth to the force capable of combating the fascist aggression of Sangh Parivar. A few indications of this have been seen in the recent past, first, the anti CAA-NRC movement and now the present peasant movement. In both the cases the BJP was able to get the laws passed in parliament quite easily by dint of its majority. The opposition parties could not or did not resist this conspiracy of BJP. The ability or the will to arouse the people against this conspiracy of BJP in the field of struggle outside the parliamentary arena was not noticed. However in both the cases, the conspiracy of the Sangh Parivar and the BJP has met with spontaneous and strong resistance from a section of the people. These spontaneous struggles of the masses did not only take place without the leadership and even participation of the bourgeois political parties, but in both the cases, the agitating masses consciously avoided them. This clearly shows that the power to resist the onslaught of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar does not lie with the bourgeois parties but with the masses, and the revolutionaries should endeavour to awaken them.
15. However, the limitations of these struggles are that, firstly, these struggles are confined within the boundaries of opposition to certain particular measures of the BJP government. Second, although these struggles are not led by any established bourgeois-petty bourgeois party but the leadership is in the hands of different sections of petty bourgeois and bourgeois class. That is why they do not have the ability to unite and mobilize the whole of the toiling masses for struggle with a goal for establishing real democracy. The fascist onslaught of the Sangh Parivar can be combated only with real democracy and that can only be possible by a united revolutionary struggle of the peasants, agricultural labourers and all other toiling masses under the leadership of the working class. Unfortunately the most resolute force in the struggle for democracy, the working class, is still absent in the arena of struggle. Despite the continuous attacks on their class, they have not yet joined the resistance struggle, let alone stand in solidarity with the other oppressed sections of the society against the attacks on them and lead them in their struggle. As long as the advanced sections of the working class fail to build up a party of its own, on the basis of the independent politics of the working class, it can neither play the leading role in society nor can it move ahead in the direction of its own emancipation. The task of the communists is to steadfastly endeavour for the awakening of this potential strength of the working class. Hence in the forthcoming assembly election of West Bengal, it is necessary to address the working class along with other toiling masses of the society, bringing to the fore the danger of the rise of the fascism at present and the need to organise in order to build a struggle against it and also bringing forth the need to build an independent working class party for the struggle to build a society free from exploitation through revolutionary transformation of this social structure without being confined within parliamentary arena. This constitutes the principal task of the representatives of the advanced section of the working class in this election
16. No representative of the working class is contesting in this election. Mainly the representatives of various bourgeois political parties are present as contestants in the electoral arena. Since the aggressive Hindu communal and fascist BJP is one of the main contestants of the upcoming West Bengal election, hence the question of voting against BJP has arisen among the communist revolutionary groups. The communist revolutionaries should judge this question from the standpoint of class politics of the working class.
We have already seen that the rise of the fascist politics of Sangh Parivar have occurred primarily from the extra-parliamentary arena. The Sangh Parivar has gained its strength from the masses, especially from a substantial section of the Hindu community, who are supporting the BJP and Sangh Parivar due to their backward mindset. Hence the idea that fascism can be foiled by defeating BJP in the election is not valid. Secondly, it is not becoming possible to arrest the rise of BJP through the ascension of the opposing bourgeois parties to power. Instead, the anti-people, corrupt and above all unprincipled politics of these parties is pushing a large section of the masses towards the BJP. Apart from this we have also seen earlier that neither are these political parties opposing the fascist politics of BJP and Sangh Parivar in true sense and nor are they in a position to really oppose them. How the difference between the politics of these parties and that of the BJP is narrowing and to what extent the leaders and cadres of these parties have become power-hungry that has become amply clear by the way in which they are involved in changing camps on the brink of elections. Hence the idea of bringing these parties to power to combat the rise of BJP-Sangh Parivar has got no material basis.
It is true that in the event of BJP coming to power in West Bengal in the upcoming election, a more adverse situation will be precipitated for the class struggle of the working class and the toiling masses. The communal divide and hatred in the society will be further deepened. The influence of the bigoted, aggressive communal politics of Sangh Parivar will increase which will further vitiate the class consciousness of the working class and the toiling masses. Above all, the democratic space will be shrunk. But by arresting the ascent of BJP to power (although it is not possible to influence the outcome of the election with the effort of any one or even with the collective effort of all the communist revolutionary groups), can the campaign of the Sangh Parivar be stopped? The only path of combating the progress of Sangh Parivar is the path of class struggle.
To propose to restrain BJP by voting against them which is to solicit for a vote to any other bourgeois party is to negate the above truth. The more important question for the advanced section of the working class is that the struggle against fascism and revolutionary struggle is not different from one another. Fascism can be defeated through the revolutionary class struggle only and the revolutionary struggle cannot be advanced without fighting against and defeating the fascist politics. In order to start this, working class must stand as an independent class, build its class party. The advanced section of the working class and toiling masses has to be prepared for such endeavour. This is the principal task of the communist revolutionaries in this election also. Today, if a call is given to vote for other bourgeois parties to combat fascism either directly or indirectly it would mean asking the leading section of the working people to rely on those parties, to confine them within the parliamentary labyrinth, which will be contrary to the task of organising the working class in its own independent class position breaking away from the ideology and politics of all bourgeois parties. Canvassing for votes to these anti-BJP bourgeois parties just to secure a marginally favourable situation that will result with the ascension of opposing bourgeois parties to power, instead of the BJP, will in effect lead to abandonment of the principal task of the communists regarding parliamentary election and any organisation claiming to be a representative of the working class should never commit that.
17. The revolutionaries should strive to bring their campaign to the working class and toiling masses in conformity with their present level of consciousness so as to be able to connect with them. Election is such a political struggle in which all sections of society participate. Hence this provides, even to the revolutionaries, a scope to present their independent and revolutionary views before the masses at large. It is true that in the absence of a communist party and class struggle, the consciousness of the workers and toiling masses has remained confined within the limits of reforms. In such a situation it is very difficult indeed to make the workers and toiling masses think about the revolutionary transformation of society. But on the other hand the very experiences of their own lives is pushing and prodding them towards liberation from this existence of abject poverty, monstrous exploitation and oppression. In a way, they are getting disillusioned about the bourgeois parties also. Hence depending on their real life experiences, it is possible to present before them the possibility of a different path, a path for emancipation, and that is the task of the revolutionaries. Above all, the attempt to raise an independent voice of the working class is also an important task of the revolutionaries on this occasion of the election.
February 10, 2021. Editorial board of --for a proletarian party
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