#HOKKOLOROB: Song of the Stormy Petrel
It all began on Sept 16, 2014 midnight. Students of Jadavpur University (JU) in Kolkata gheraoed the Executive Council, the highest policymaking body of the University, demanding independent investigation of an alleged sexual molestation case. In fact, students were demonstrating since nearly one month, but the authority did not pay any heed to it. Having no other option, students were forced to take that drastic measure. Even though the gherao was absolutely peaceful, by midnight the Vice Chancellor of the University in collusion with the State Government called the police. The police brutally attacked the students, manhandled the girl students, arrested 33 students & finally been able to release the VC from the gherao.
This is no exceptional incident in JU & other educational institutions in West Bengal. In fact, in 2005 & 2010, while Left Front government led by CPI (M) was in power in West Bengal, police entered JU campus & manhandled the students. But this time something new emerged which did not happen earlier. Immediately on the next day of the police attack, around 10,000 students spontaneously rallied at the campus and around with an unequivocal demand of the resignation of the erring Vice Chancellor. Even though most of the students in the rally were from JU, good number of students from other educational institutions surrounding Kolkata also took part in it. They did not restrain themselves there. On Sept 20, 2015 JU students called for a mass-deputation to the Chancellor, the Governor of West Bengal. But student-leaders of JU, till then a bit disarrayed after the police attack, could not take much initiative to organise the deputation. The information of the programme spread primarily thru' Facebook etc. In addition, the stormy wind at the cloudy morning of Sept 20 also cast an apprehension among the organizers about the feasibility of programme. Throughout the whole day, storm with incessant rain overshadowed the atmosphere. But setting aside all apprehension, about 50,000 students rallied at the deputation with uninterrupted chanting: HOK HOK HOKKOLOROB (Let's make noise). Cutting across all organizational barriers, students from different corners of West Bengal joined the rally in solidarity of the JU students. Students from other institutions outnumbered JU students. A large section among them was from private engineering colleges. Soon, in different parts of not only of Bengal, but of all over India, students rallied under the banner of #HOKKOLOROB in solidarity of JU students.
After a prolonged & sustained battle of four & half months, JU students have finally been able to achieve the demand of the resignation of JU VC. And, behind this win the active role of solidarity of the vast sections of the student community of India cannot be ignored. Prior to this incident these students are commonly perceived as self-centred, careerist & well-cocooned in their make-believe world of social networking sites. The sudden arousal of that section of the society mirrors that something new is trying to emerge slowly from the womb of the old. To understand this ?emergence of the new? from ?the womb of the old?, we need to understand #HOKKOLOROB movement from a historical perspective.
The last heroic struggle of the student community that we have seen in WB as well as in India was in the sixties of the last century. It surfaced in the backdrop of the worldwide student-rebellion going on at that time. Here mass students took part actively not only in the struggles on students? agendas, but also in the series of mass struggles developed at that time like, against hike in Tram Fare in 1964, demand for food & kerosene in 1966, against arrival of McNamara, the mass-killer of Vietnam in Kolkata etc. Left students? organizations were at the forefront of those struggles. However, left political parties led by CPI (M) took all efforts to limit the grievances & struggles of all the affected sections of the society developed at that time within Parliamentarian arena & thus betrayed those struggles ? struggles of the student community was also no exception of it. Formation of government in West Bengal was the culmination of that betrayal. Struggle emerged within the Party against such revisionist deviation & advanced section of the student community became involved in that struggle. Revolutionary students had finally deserted revisionist camp & joined with the revolutionary sections of the Party which finally culminated to the formation of CPI (ML). However, the way the newly formed CPI (ML) immediately deviated to ultra-left lines & swayed the revolutionary students along with the advanced sections of the working class & peasantry with their ultra-left lines is now a history. We can well remember how students were motivated to boycott Students' Union & large sections of the student leaders were sent to villages to organize armed insurrection. Due to the dual effect of the betrayal & ultra-left deviation, student movement emerged then and aspired to advance forward with a revolutionary direction as a whole started to recede downward.
Thereafter we found a short spell of students? action during the JP movement in mid-seventies & finally immediately after withdrawal of Emergency in 1977, students of West Bengal once again tried to strive forward. This time, struggle of the revolutionary students emerged primarily by way of formation of SA-DSA like organizations at different colleges. From the beginning it developed by opposing the revisionist as well as ultra-left trends & hence had the potential to build up a united students? organization by uniting individual college-based organizations with a motive to advance further towards a correct revolutionary direction. But in lieu of being united, soon the SA-DSA organizations got embroiled in ideological battle, sometimes bitter in nature on varied political & ideological questions. In fact, at that time it reflected the diverging ideological differences among the splintered communist revolutionary group organizations emerged by breaking away from erstwhile CPI (ML) & also from revisionist parties since early seventies. Net result, after some time, individual college based SA-DSA organizations & its activists were consolidated into a number of revolutionary students? centres & practically became isolated from mass students. The only exception was very few colleges like Jadavpur University, the then Presidency College (now Presidency University) etc where SA-DSA like organizations have been able to retain the students? Union. In this way, the possibility of the birth of a united revolutionary student organization ushered during late seventies & early eighties thus foiled & student movement took further backward journey, mass students remained aloof from these organizations & they remained organized primarily within Chatra Parishad & SFI.
Meanwhile, two significant incidents occurred in national & international politics. One, during end of eighties of the last century, the effect of the defeat of the 1st forward journey of the international working class towards socialism engulfed the masses at the international level after the fall of erstwhile USSR-China etc, most sensitive sections of the student community along with other petty-bourgeoisie intelligentsia, for whom once socialist ideology was the natural choice, were deeply affected & to them, the pull of socialist ideology, for the time being, largely diminished. The utter degeneration of CPI (M)-like so-called Left parties in our country further strengthened this phenomenon. The revolutionary student centres had also not been able to get united, rather their diverging trends became apparent & remained largely isolated from the student community. And, two, against this backdrop, the ideologies of Neo-liberalism (primarily ?There is no Alternative? to Capitalism) started to get its hold among the petty-bourgeoisie masses. It came along with the economic aspirations created to this section of the society by the economic policies of Globalization started to implement by the Indian ruling classes.
Given this situation, during last two decades, we have not observed much of the turmoil among the student community. However, this situation started to change during last few years. Restless among the student community has started to develop. #HOKKOLOROB for the first time is a major expression of this restlessness of the student community. Thru? #HOKKOLOROB, they have expressed that they want to confront their problems thru? path of struggle & they want to advance their struggle by way of dissociating themselves from all existing established organisations. In fact, after the police attack on JU students, once the banner of #HOKKOLOROB emerged before the student community, they grabbed it sincerely & rallied behind JU students. Primary reason for rallying behind JU students is that JU students have a prolonged history of upholding the banner of independent student organisation & struggle for more than three decades. It shows that the inner content of #HOKKOLOROB is that today?s student community aspires to stand independently & to confront their educational problems thru? united struggles cutting across all the barriers of existing established central students? organisations.
In fact, today?s concrete reality has created a situation which is leaving no option but to barge the student community more & more to the arena of struggle. First of all, the aura created by policies of Globalization among the students during the nineties of last century has almost been faded away. Utter commercialization of education, unemployment/uncertainty of employment even after studying Engineering like courses spending lakhs of rupees, lack of infrastructure in the educational institutions when at the other end overall cost of education has largely been enhanced every alternate day etc are haunting students ? attacks of the policies of globalization is concerning them more & more. To serve the interest of neo-liberalism better, governments of all colours in our country, be it the Central, or the States, have become much more undemocratic & their trusted lieutenants governing the education system are continuing to transform the educational centres into de-facto jails where students are to be handled with utterly undemocratic, high-handed attitude; campus democracy for the students is being curbed every other day; even though the educational institutions are meant for the students, they are the one whose voices are least recognized now ? campus violence & campus democracy are becoming agenda to the mass students. Prolonged pro-establishment, high-handed & bureaurocratic functioning of existing established students? organisations, in particular the organisations controlled by revisionist left parties, have created a major aversion among the students about those organisations, rather to say about all sorts of organisations ? it has gone up to the extent that they have lost faith on the established form & concept of organisation. The problem of the sexual violence & the 2nd class citizenship is haunting the girl students & they have started to come forward with their own agenda. It is also being clear as broad daylight to the students how the corruption is eating out their whole present & future. All these factors are finally breaking the inertia & passivity of the student community, and they are more & more in the process of confronting the problems through struggles.
While we are trying to understand the nature & character of the turmoil going on among today?s student community, we must keep in mind & realize what a devastating legacy of failure of the conscious forces for nearly fifty years is working unconsciously/semi-consciously at the back of the mind of these students when it is trying to stand on their own feet! Specifically ? a) prolonged betrayal of the parliamentary left parties, b) ultra-left position of CPI (ML) regarding student movement, c) failure of the SA-DSA movement to get united & build up a truly revolutionary student organization, d) failure of the Communist Revolutionary groups to get united & build up a truly working class party, & finally last but not the least, e) utter ideological confusions created due to defeat of the first forward journey of the international socialist movement. Its bearing in context to today?s student movement is that it cannot and would not be just a repetition of the past struggles; many new is bound to emerge from the ashes of the past. #HOKKOLOROB, for the first time, is a glaring evidence of it. We need to understand that right now by rallying behind JU students, the student community has perceived to resolve two particular aspects of their problems -- one, as #HOKKOLOROB is such a banner which is truly independent from all established students' organizations, so only it can be their banner for the purpose of developing their own struggles; at the same time, it is such a banner which is free from DADAGIRI of existing students' organizations, rather which can be run democratically by the collective participation of the students and not controlled by any external forces; and, two, against the centralized and united attacks of state-administration & authority, it can act as a united organisation of the students to unfurl their own united struggle & at the same time can act as an umbrella to extend solidarity to the struggle of the individual institutions. In a word, the banner of #HOKKOLOROB had reflected the aspiration of the student community to get united by themselves for building up an independent struggling organization by dissociating themselves from all existing central students organisations. The prospect of transforming this aspiration as expressed thru? #HOKKOLOROB to build up a united organisation of the students as a whole lies in the growth of struggle & organisation of students at the campus level, whereas on the other hand, these campus based organisation will infuse strength & ability of #HOKKOLOROB in its entirety. No doubt, at this stage, #HOKKOLOROB having already in the scene, it must help students to form their own organisation in the respective institutions.
?Stormy petrel? is loosely known as the small marine bird which acts as a carrier of the news of the upcoming storm to the terrestrial animals. After a long period of inaction-passivity-frustration, different sections of the society has slowly started to stand on the own feet & choose the path of struggle against the attacks of the policies of Globalisation. And to advance the struggle, they are trying to alienate themselves from old revisionist parties & build up their own independent organisation. #HOKKOLOROB is part of this process of emergence of the new. In addition, #HOKKOLOROB can be perceived as the stormy petrel, the messenger of forthcoming upheavel in society. And this stormy petrel is showing us that after the defeat of the first forward march of international socialist movement, student community by its very nature of being the most sensitive section of the intelligentsia has once again started to advance.
Student community by its very nature are commonly attracted to progressive ideology, they have a long international history to voice their protest against social injustices & of being the flagbearer of progressive ideology. However, as stated earlier, first of all, the experinces of the betrayal of revisionist politics at the national level and the manifestation of the defeat of the first forward journey of the international socialism as became apparent after the fall of the then USSR & China, and therafter the surfacing of neo-liberalism had created havoc on the student community at the ideological level. At this moment of history, student community, by way of trying to advance towards united struggle against the attacks of Globalisation on the educational sector, is trying to step ahead, although in a preliminary level, against the ideology of Neo-liberalism. And, it is important that they are trying to do it by themselves, being independent from all established central organisation. It is just the beginning of their new journey. And, this phenomenon is surfacing more and more also in the international level. At this point, it is not important whether they are advancing towards a revolutionary ideology or not, rather at this unprecedented juncture of history, it is not possible by themselves. At this particular moment of history, the journey of the student community begins not thru? resolution of their ideological problems, but thru? advancement of united struggle. We are sure, if they can truly continue this journey by their own with all ups & downs, build up their own independent organisation, in the coming days they would definitely be able to confront their ideological issues in the direction of establishment of socialism. At this juncture, task of the communist revolutionary organisations is to help the student community so that they can build up their own independent organisation. It is not practical to perceive that some individual revolutionary political organizations (either by individually, or thru? some united forum, basically temporary in nature), thru? their political campaign activities, will be able to resolve the all-pervading ideological & political confusion prevailing among the intelligentsia, particularly when diverging trends are the predominant phenomenon among the revolutionary communist organizations & they are more or less widely isolated from the masses; on the other hand, student community has another major problem, i.e., the absence of an united organization, particularly when the severe attacks of neo-liberal prorgamme have started to push them more & more towards struggle as a mean to resist these attacks ? it is the area where only the revolutionary students? organizations may play a positive role. And, this role is not by way of floating an organization to the students from above, but to help the students so that they can get organized independently for the sake of developing their own struggles. Right now, organizing students from above cannot be a viable option, primarily because student community has no faith on any of the existing organizations.
Right now, we are passing thru? a peculiar phase of history. Working class of India has also begun their journey of struggle after a prolonged period of lull & inaction. At this moment, they are trying to resist the attacks of the policies of globalisation in an isolated manner thru? factory level trade union struggles. And, for the sake of advancing their own struggle, they are dissociating themselves from all established central trade unions & trying to build up their own independent organisation. Not only that, they are trying to retain their control over the organisation. At the same time, the centralised attacks of the capitalist class is pushing the workers towards united struggle & united organisation. Objective necessity of the class struggle is pushing the working class towards this direction. We believe that in the coming days, they will be able to develop their own class party in which will only be able to guide the student community to take a correct ideological position. We are waiting for that day. Jan 15, 2015
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