The struggle of the peasantry against the attacks of the three agricultural laws of the Modi government has entered in its fifth month. For almost four months now, farmers have been sitting in demonstrations on highways entering the capital, Delhi. Not everything happened peacefully. The peasants had to fight against extensive policing, sticks, tear gas, water cannons to reach the doorsteps of Delhi, traversing hundreds of miles on foot, sometimes on tractors in long processions. It spelled out how intense their protest against the three laws was, making it clear that they would not concede to this catastrophe piled upon them lying down. During this period of at least thirty years of continuing submission to whatever blows that were unleashed by the ruling class, this emergence of ardent fighting spirit of the peasantry and their turnaround to face the situation not only aroused a response among the protesting student youths, it even gave a jolt to the workers in general, especially their militant section who could not stand up against their own oppressive new labour laws. Will they passively digest this jolt even? Let's see. The answer must be left to the future.
The struggle of the peasantry started from Punjab. It quickly spread to vast agricultural areas of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. So we saw that thousands of farmers from these areas joined the blockade of Delhi. It is true that the government sat down for talks with the leaders of the movement, but their real purpose was to create a rift within the struggling peasants. They came up with some such proposals in the name of conciliation so that the rich farmers can be separated out from the struggle. The government's plot failed. The agitating peasants leading the peasant organizations did not allow their militant unity to be broken, they held on to it. The struggle has not stopped, it is going on. They are raising their voice, "We are holding the ground here and will not budge until the three laws are repealed." They have already shown that it is not just their word of mouth. They have shown that through the large assemblage of people not in thousands but in lakhs who have left their homes, with equal participation of men and women. They have shown that by thwarting the government's conspiracy to provoke the struggling peasantry on January 26, by remaining steadfast in the face of the onslaught of Hindutva forces and by maintaining militant unity. Is there anything else needed to reveal their expression of anger and hatred against the pernicious agricultural laws?
Nevertheless, the Modi government is adamant. They will not take back the agricultural laws. As the most loyal and powerful representative of the ruling class, the Modi government is advancing by staging a storm of reforms in the whole economy to meet the demands of the big bourgeoisie. In such a situation, the peasant movement in its present condition could only halt the government for the time being, but it could not stop it. As the struggling peasants are shouting, "Until the law is taken back, we will not go back to home" (“kanoon wapsi nahin to ghar wapsi nahin!”), on the other hand, it seems that the current slogan of the big capitalists is "either now, or never". A stalemate has been created. But, the question is how long will this situation last? The movement is confronted by the question– what next? Where lay the outcome? The five-month-long struggle of the peasantry is really throwing these questions at the most advanced class of the society, the working class. There is no answer.
In such a situation, we saw a number of important organisers and leaders of the ongoing peasant struggle coming to West Bengal in phases to campaign for the defeat of the BJP in the state elections. A front-line leader also told the people of the state that the future or the fate of their struggle depends on the outcome of the West Bengal elections. Even from the stage of blockade, there have been occasional voices saying that we will take revenge in '24 (i.e. in the next Lok Sabha election). The peasants who set out on the road of struggle in millions with tremendous dissent protesting against the agrarian laws, ignoring the freezing cold of Delhi under the open sky, with the pain of losing a number of their comrades-in-arms, and are continuing with their struggle for four long months, did they resort to the bourgeois parliamentary elections as the means to their ultimate outcome for their struggle on the roads? We are unable to think of that. They are still holding on to their fight. They have not given it up. While it is also a fact that the leaders and organisers of the movement came to West Bengal during the election and campaigned openly. There was no secrecy in it. It cannot be that the struggling peasants are unaware of that. But then by this did they not actually convey this message to the struggling peasantry that they must rely on the electoral fight to break the current stalemate?
We do not know if the leadership and struggling farmers really think like this. But even if they think in this way, it is not something unusual in the current situation. It is a fact that the struggle of the farmers against the three agricultural laws, which started from Punjab and came to the western part of Uttar Pradesh through Haryana and got stuck there. The new agricultural law of the Modi government has hit the peasantry across the country - despite their class differences –in different ways for different sections and at the same time as a whole. Despite this, the peasants of other states did not fight. Whatever may be the reason, there is no scope to analyse it here. However, in reality, peasants from a few states that are relatively advanced in agriculture came in groups to the site of sit-down demonstration on the outskirts of Delhi to support the struggle, but continuous struggle of the peasantry with specific programmes in their respective states have not been there. No such struggle could be seen in the rest of the relatively backward states. In fact, the struggle of the peasants of the three states (not the whole of Uttar Pradesh) had to stand almost alone with its limited strength against the aggressive Modi government and the mighty bourgeoisie behind it.
The role of workers is more deplorable. Millions of workers who are constantly being exploited and humiliated by the bourgeoisie stood at a distance and watched only. A handful of (perhaps sometimes a little more in number) relatively advanced workers from different parts of the country discharged their responsibilities by merely applauding the struggling peasantry.
Considering what an unequal fight the peasants have to continue in the face of terrible adversity, they cannot be blamed in any way for resorting to elections. If anyone has to be put up on the dock, it should be the workers and all of us who consider ourselves as representatives of the working class.
It is because only the working class could take this fight forward. If at least a sufficient number of workers across the country were organised and united, if the working class, seasoned through the class struggle, had its own party, then they could organise the agricultural labourers and the poor, middle peasants of other states in a struggle against the exploitation and oppression of the landlords and moneylenders, going on for centuries, with a demand for the repeal of the agricultural laws. That party could only build a struggle centrally by uniting the struggles of the peasantry in one place. Only the organised working class could pose a formidable challenge to the ruling big bourgeoisie and their government, as they alone have the power to put a brake on the employers' wheels of profit-making. Unfortunately, all that can be said at the moment is -'if the working class was organised', 'it could have built a struggle' etc. The workers are disorganised, scattered, there is no party of their own - we don't know how long this will have to be said and how long the workers will have to listen to this and hide their faces in shame. But, they have to understand that the five-month-long peasant struggle of the moment and all those spontaneous struggles of the people that are taking place are conveying and will convey this necessity, 'You get organised, get organised'. Are the advance workers listening?
However, after all this, we hope that the peasantry who are fighting, they will continue to fight. Hopefully they can throw this challenge in the face of the government, 'If you are ready for a year, we are ready for thirteen months'. In this context, a small question for those who came to West Bengal to campaign during the elections--was it necessary in the interest of their struggle?
April, 2021
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