Terrorism: A Proletarian Perspective
The terrorist strike in Mumbai on 26 November last year had naturally generated an intense reaction among the Indian people. Though the nature of attack this time mostly affected elite society, the im?pression on the lower masses was no less. Everywhere discussions are on about how to combat terrorism. All the parties representing the ruling class, along with the bourgeois media, are busy putting forth all sorts of proposals in this respect. The central government has already enacted two intimidating black laws in the name of fighting terrorism. The proletariat therefore is compelled to take a stand on terrorism under these circumstances.
Internationally, the propaganda about terrorism is at its height. There is certainly a play behind this and the main contriver is the US imperialist power. Under the pretext of "war against terror", it pounded on Iraq and Afghanistan solely with the aim of establishing total control over the "liquid gold" of the middle east. For the next turn, it is eyeing Iran. US imperialism has to establish that terrorism is invariably linked with Islam or that all terrorists are Muslims so that masquerading as a fighter against terrorism it can continue with its dirty business of occupying one country after another and garner support for the same from its own people and that of some other countries.
Though for somewhat different reasons, such a line is also useful to the Indian ruling class; for, it becomes easier to deepen the communal divide among the people here and to gain from that division. The fact that there were and there are many terrorist groups in India who are not at all Muslim organisations is thrown into the shade. The Naga or Mizo groups of the North East which existed from the 1950s, or the ULFA, the Bodo Liberation Tigers, the Khalistani Groups ... ... was any of them a Muslim outfit? Looking abroad, can we forget the LTTE or the Irish Republican Army? It is not that the representatives of the ruling class are ignorant about these facts, but they bury the truth to utilise the communal division.
Anyway, some more important questions await answers, and they are: Who are responsible for terrorist activities? What is the way for putting an end to such activities? Big bourgeois parties representing the ruling class and other bourgeois parties give simplistic and half-truth (and hence untrue) answers to such questions. They just put the blame on some organisations or groups, as if these outfits carry out their activities in isolation from people. They therefore advocate more effective intelligence network, stringent laws, more power in the hands of the police and the military - in short, honing the teeth of the state to curb terrorism. We will discuss the ruling class's design behind these propositions later. But the question is, had terrorism been ever suppressed or erased by such measures? The experience of the past fifty or sixty years has proved otherwise. History has shown us that terrorist activities of a particular outfit might have waned for some time, but it reappeared with renewed vigour again and again. It is true that activists of terrorist organisations number a few, but they certainly reflect in a roundabout way the anger accrued in people's mind. It is for this reason that a terrorist organisation can collect its men and provision from among the populace.
What are the causes of such accumulated discontent? Who are responsible for this? Take the case of Muslim terrorist groups. The American imperialists have a long history of going that extra mile to lay hold on a country. They have once supported and used the Taliban against Russia; have boosted the conflict between Iraq and Iran, and have acted to prolong the war between the two countries. From the beginning of the 1990s, the imperialists identified some states as rogue states and started to batter them on many a pretext so that no one can dare to challenge their hegemony in this belt. After 11 September, 2001, they found a new slogan in "war against terrorism". The continuous attack on this far spread region by the US and other imperialist powers, their repeated attempt to undermine the sovereignty of these states and rob the people of their basic democratic rights ? all these have led to an intensification of the abhorrence towards the imperialists in the minds of the people of the Middle East. Since the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants are Muslims, their hatred finds natural expression in the terrorist activities of the Islamic fundamentalist groups in the absence of progressive revolutionary anti-imperialist struggle in the society. Thus, on the one hand, the role of the imperialists has given rise to terrorism and they, on the other have used it in their own interest in various ways. In their insatiable greed to occupy one country after another through fierce aggression, denying the population even their right to life, the imperialists generate worldwide discontent against them.
At the same time, the native ruling class also contribute to accumulate the people's disgruntlement against them by tyrannizing the toiling masses, the backward and oppressed nations and religious minorities. In India we see that every terrorist organisation expresses, through its activities, the discontent simmering in the hearts of men of a oppressed nation or religious community against the exploitation and repression perpetrated unto them. A case by case study of the NSC, NSC(N), Mizo National Front, ULFA of the North East, the Khalistani groups of Punjab and all the Kashmiri groups will prove the point. It is amply clear that the imperialists and the native ruling class are the creators of terrorism. They themselves perpetrate ruthless, reckless, cruel terror on the people, while a number of terrorist groups are born in reaction to it.
If we track the history of any terrorist organisation, we will find that it did not come into being overnight. Rather, almost in every case, we see a long period when the oppressed people first filed petitions to the authorities and when these fell on deaf ears, they resorted to mass movements; and only when the mass movement was crushed under the iron heels of the state, a small section of the struggling people took recourse to terrorism feeling it the only way to take on the ferocity of the giant state machinery. The root of terrorism therefore, is to be found deep within the undemocratic governing system where people from different sections of society face harassment, deprivation and oppression everyday, where their demand for equal rights are repressed with state terror.
It is thus this exploitative and undemocratic system which procreate, sustain and fosters terrorism, and the ruling classes who maintain this system are responsible for it. It is impossible to combat terrorism by perfecting intelligence networks and the state machinery. The solution lies in the establishment of true democracy. Even in the event of an external attack, it is always the people and not the intelligence department or the police and the military who defend the country in the ultimate sense. And people are ready to sacrifice for their homeland when they feel that it is really their own.
There is another aspect to the growth of terrorist activities during the last few years. We must note that the international proletariat now lies in a confused and scattered state after the defeat of the first expedition towards socialism. It is only the international proletariat who has the power to challenge the imperialist onslaught by consolidating the toiling people of the world in a great and united struggle against imperialism. In absence of such an organised international army of the proletariat, the leadership of the struggles of the oppressed people in different countries are taken by various bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie parties or the religious fundamentalist organisations. The bourgeois nature of these struggles and their isolation from each other render it impossible for any one of them to put up a fight against the tremendous might of imperialism. This unequal battle constantly engenders terrorism.
At the national level, too, the occurrence of terrorist organisations and terrorist activities presuppose the absence of a proletarian party and a revolutionary movement under its leadership. In most of the cases, the underlying discontent which brews such activities has the only solution in democratising of the present governing system and the establishment of the fullest democracy. But this can only be achieved through the people's democratic revolution led by the proletariat. The absence of such a revolutionary movement induce a sense of helplessness which gives birth to terrorist trends.
The situation that evolved after the defeat of the international proletariat's first expedition towards socialism, offered a favourable ground for proliferation of terrorist activities. The attraction of the working class and the working people to socialism has been vastly diminished due to this defeat and it has created a void in the ideological sphere. Various bourgeoisie and petty bourgeois ideology and religious fundamentalism rush to fill up this void. The toiling masses of the oppressed nations and religious communities are, therefore, drawn towards these narrow national or religious ideologies instead of the socialist idea of emancipation. Undoubtedly, this is one of the main reasons behind the growth of the fundamentalist and terrorist groups.
We see that, the imperialists themselves and the native bourgeoisie are to blame for aggravating the problem of terrorism. For, the terrorism inflicted by them is the most atrocious and extensive of all which, together with their exploitation and oppression, engenders strong detestation against them among the people, culminating in terrorism. Notwithstanding this, they proceed to utilise the incidents of terrorism in their own interest. The Mumbai incident is one example. Since Pakistanis were involved in this attack, overzealous, chauvinistic national sentiments are fanned up and constant war mongering is on. The intention is clear. War mongering is an wonderful tool for the ruling class of any country to divert the people's attention from domestic exploitation and deprivation. In this case the religion and nativity of the attackers also present the perfect occasion to boost communal division and a covert campaign is going on in this direction. However, perhaps the most important step for the ruling class is the enactment of two black laws ? namely the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Amendments 2008 and the National Investigative Agency Act ? modelled after TADA and POTA and furthered in this chance.
After the Mumbai incident, the civil society of the city burst out against the bourgeois political parties and their leaders. Apparently, they were expressing their wrath against the politics of these parties, which, however, was not actually the case. Their very class position limits them to look at terrorism from the bourgeois and petty bourgeois viewpoint which these parties promulgate and they cannot cross that boundary. Thus, they too relied on the military and the intelligence departments to combat terrorism and advocated sharpening of the state apparatus by empowering the police and the military more and more.
While we strongly oppose the politics of the parties representing the ruling class, we must also be conscious that such kinds of terrorist activities hamper the development of class struggle. Any terrorist activity not only expose the unprepared mass to fierce assault of the state machinery, but give the state the chance to sharpen its teeth and gain more strength thereby. And terrorist activities by religious fundamentalist or even nationalist groups help to deepen division among the people.
Therefore, the class conscious proletariat must bring the truth before the workers and the toiling mass that the imperialists and the native big bourgeoisie are the one responsible for terrorism, both directly and indirectly. So bracing up the state machinery is no way to encounter terrorism. We must convince the working class and all the working people that until we can put an end to imperialism by uprooting it, the terror perpetrated by it and terrorism born in reaction to it will not come to a stop. Secondly, it is possible to combat the influence of these fundamentalist and bourgeois, petty bourgeois outfits through the development of anti-imperialist struggle of all the working people of the world led by the proletariat. At the national level, the fight against terrorism must progress through the revolutionary movement for overthrowing the present system and establishing true democracy. The vanguard of the proletariat must be rid of the influence of the wrong bourgeois and petty bourgeois politics. And we must tirelessly strive for that.
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