Election 2009: The Camp in the Campaign Trail: From Futile Boycott to Not-Well-Considered Participation
It will perhaps inexpedient for us to discuss some well known ML concepts like why bourgeois parliamentary elections are hoax as the masses can only choose which gang of the bourgeois will flog them and direct the affairs of the bourgeois state for the next 5 years, why the communists take part in legal struggles including participation in election, what are the tasks of the communist parliamentary deputies elected and etcetera, and also in which condition of class struggle or on what consideration(s) communists call for a boycott of parliamentary election - because all these had been so much discussed that repeating those at this moment will only unduly demand valuable time from our readers, moreover so belatedly, because most of our readers will perhaps read this after completion of their election campaign. Rather let us examine some aspects which have not been much discussed among comrades of the camp in their agitation-propaganda during this 2009 parliamentary election.
It is a well established fact that communists use the election campaign or agitation-propaganda as because at this time the masses of workers and then the masses of other toiling people become interested in hearing about political discourses, a condition which is created the very bourgeois parliamentary tradition or system and the bourgeoisie for their own interest. In other words, as there are many ears ready to hear at this time the communists simply use this condition. Anyway, the election time gives the communists much larger audience, gives a scope to the party to educate and organize the proletariat and there is also a possibility to create a primary ground work for future expansion of its ranks. But, there is a big 'but'. This 'but' has to be resolved if above scope of campaign is to be truly availed, and of course if the task of educating and organizing the masses is to be approached or achieved. The party, particularly if it is contesting election, is at that particular time standing on its past; the party is standing on a solid footing of its past activities; the masses of listeners know it, heard about it; there is a 'tradition' of struggle that the party has set up in the society - in whatever small extent they are. In brief - there is a continuity of class struggle in the society that makes the foundation of a revolutionary election platform, standing on which the party contests election. What are those past activities and/or tradition etc? Are those the party's own actions, deeds, struggles? Definitely NO. These are of The Working Class what the party leads or represent. What is the difference? Why should be differentiate between party or group activities and actual struggle of the working class? Let us start discuss.
This time we see that those who identify themselves as revolutionary communists (irrespective of what any other section of the same camp says about them) are contesting, perhaps, roughly in more than one hundred and fifty seats in total, i.e. we shall find CR candidates in more than 30% constituencies. In other words, their candidates, their propaganda are facing nearly 12-15 lakhs voters X 200 constituencies ? more than 18-20 crores or 180-200 million adult persons - an astounding big figure!! What large numbers those are considering the spread and strength of the class struggle in India now! Can it be that the extent of election agitprop, election participation and filing candidature, number of candidates participating ... etc will have no bearing with, no correlation with the then condition of class struggle and vice versa?
We are not focusing on what the CR groups write and speak of the precarious existence of the toiling masses, the classes, forces and parties responsible for that, the prospect of emergence of militant mass struggles in near future and so on. Rather, let us see the struggles that in reality are taking place now or have taken place recently. If we are to list them from what those CR groups say or said in common we shall definitely find Singur, Dadri, Nandigram, Raigarh and such struggles against land-grab of govt at the behest of capitalists and these are the struggles that are described as big peoples struggles. Some went so far as to compare Nandigram with Naxalbari. Some regretted that due to errors of such and such group(s) or such person(s) Singur and Nandigram struggles were 'highjacked' by a ruling-class party Trinamool Congress ... etc!! Fortunately (for the 'communist revolutionary' tag), the CR-s did not enlist Janadesh Yatra or Chengara land struggle as big, glorious struggles, and anyway we are not going to discuss those two last named struggles and their character here, we have done so in a past issue of this journal. Rural people in places like Singur, Nandigram, etc fought bravely to against land acquisition, of course we hailed their resistance struggles against brute govt forces, but still they were by no means revolutionary struggle or precisely agrarian revolutionary struggle of peasants for seizing landlords' land as it had been in the case of Naxalbari. Furthermore, none of these struggles took place under the leadership of those CR groups. These struggles can in no way serve in forming revolutionary election platform.
There were also a number of workers struggles, not many, and some of which got media attention though most of the cases were overlooked by the bourgeois media. We wrote in our pages about those workers' struggles that happened in recent past, their inner dynamics, their prospect and limitation etc. So we are not discussing the same thing again. Only one point that we shall mention here, that is - all these struggles are yet in the Trade Union plane or were practical-economic struggles against the increasing attacks of the capitalists, they are not in political plane; besides, those struggles took place unconnected with the CR-s in almost all cases. These struggles also did not serve in forming revolutionary election platform for the groups.
And without such platform the CR-s are found to contest the present election!
Undoubtedly the CR groups do conduct their 'political' 'struggles' as they claim. Those were reported in their magazines. They conducted rallies, marches and in many of those hundreds of toiling people participated, those toiling people who were connected to those groups or their 'mass organisations', of which some were members, some were active supporters-sympathizers, and some more were brought by the organiser-members - and these occurred several times per year in one or more state(s) and in each such occasion several 'demands', one or several issue(s) were focused on. Additionally, and these were more common and more in occurrence, there were public address (to a limited audience) that are carried out or executed by members of groups and 'mass organisations', small squads marching shouting slogans, sit-in (dharna) and demonstration programmes with small number of activists with or without submitting memoranda to govt offices ...and so on, and even hunger-strike programmes. In many or most of the cases these later type of programmes voice some day-to-day, economic demands, demands of betterment of, say, govt health care in those localities, electricity-irrigation, maintenance and adding PWD type facilities and so on. Can they be labelled as political struggles since the term political struggle actually mean political struggle of the basic masses, i.e. working class and peasantry, and not programmes solely or almost exclusively carried out by member-activists-supporters of a group? Those are, really speaking, political activities meant for political propaganda. And if the CR-s introspect without prejudice, they will see that even a rally of thousands serve as a political propaganda at best, nothing more. Therefore, the groups of the camp are actually doing political activities of them with the aim of 'educating and organising' the masses, be those tasks performed are politically-theoretically correct or not which is a separate discussion. With this 'strength' of political activity those groups are confronting 18-20 crores or 180-200 million persons in their political propaganda for parliamentary election! Do these commensurate with their political activity, let alone the 'strength of class struggle' carried on 'under their leadership'??
The Maoists spoke of their peoples' revolutionary government functioning in some remote places in Dandakaranya in their propaganda for Boycott; but that is also not at all 'noteworthy', as, even if that be a fact then also that failed to create any ripples among the working class in Chattisgarh, let alone revolutionise them. Had the Maoists self critically did objective analysis of advancement and retrogression of their peoples war, boycott movement etc all through the last two decades they could have seen their limits, their stagnation, their irrelevance with respect to the preparation of the working class and development of class struggle in our country!
Whereas, almost all of such groups failed to notice an undercurrent that is going on in society - an undercurrent of rebellion that was manifested in some of the struggles of workers and peasants stated above and also in Kalinganagar struggle (that sparked a militant protest of peasants and workers in a wide zone), WB 'Ration Revolt' (that spread from one district to another), Lalgarh (by Lalgarh struggle we mean not the happenings solely or primarily in Lalgarh, rather the rebellion of toiling Adivasi people of West Bengal that surfaced on the outbreak of Lalgarh flare-up and continued for more than a month) etc struggles. In these rebellions masses of toiling poor masses, workers and peasants, expressed their wrath against the established political parties, and what is more important, in some of those struggles they tried to take their own destiny in their own hand, they tried to take up the steering wheel, the control over the struggle even if they could not sustain for long, even if in many places they succumbed to the old tradition of relying on some 'external force' - these were marked in many places including Nandigram where those unnamed thousands and thousands took the rein in the first weeks of January 07 and then again remarkably in 16th March. This phenomenon can be seen also in some of the workers struggles even in the TU plane. This is important particularly at this juncture of history of prolonged party-less-ness, defeat of international socialist movement. Through this, though it is yet small or tiny, though it is yet to be fully conscious in true Marxist sense, society is showing its restlessness, signs of reawakening before the dawn of rise of the class struggle at this juncture of history. How can we help them? How can we help the workers so that they be politically conscious so that they can emerge as makers of history, so that workers contribute actively towards making their own class party? - these are some very vital questions which need to be considered in our political propaganda during election campaign, our propaganda should reflect our concern in these questions.
Alas, the CR-s are working in such a way that we may miss the bus next time!
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