Maoist martyr in India

[Maoist Internationalist Movement <mim3@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Here is another sample of material in the Maoist Sojourner.
FYI, mim3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Red determination glowed in the eyes of the people:
Homage to martyr comrade Ayodhya Singh

INDIA--On the 16th of December, 1995, in Semralal, the native
village of Ayodhya Singh, was full of red flags and banners. Since the
morning, peasants, workers and youth had started assembling in the
Middle School premises of the village. In this condolence meeting,
organized by the Party, landless peasants and poor peasants and
women were coming to participate from all corners of the Rohtas
district. By 2:00 p.m., the whole ground was crowded with people
and slogans of thousands of people assembled there were renting the
air. People of the village and nearby area were surprised as they
have never seen such a large gathering of people in the village.

Terror had gripped the landless peasants and gripped the area after
the murder of Ayodhya Singh. The murderer Cahtulal had committed
six murders before killing Ayodhya Singh.

Emboldened by seeing people coming from far off areas, the fear of
local people also vanished and they too collected in the ground in
large numbers.

On the 31st of October, 1995, while on his way to attend the state
conference of Bihar Kisan Samiti, Comrade Ayodhya Singh was shot
by Chatulal, a hired assassin of Mahant of Muralipur Math. Muralipur
Math has land in Muthia village of Dinara Block Hasanadih and in
Satwan village of Nokha block besides that in Murali Pur. Landless
peasants of Muthia, Satwan and Hasanadih villages were prepared to
capture the surplus declared land under the leadership of Comrade
Ayodhya Singh. To crush this land capture movement, Comrade
Ayodhya Singh was murdered in a deliberate pre-planned move.

"People die in Revolution. You don't worry."

Comrade Ayodhya Singh was a lecturer of Public Administration in
Badri Narayan Degree College of Dinara. He was Vice President of
Karagahar Dinara Block Committee and a member of its district
committee. He was mainly involved in peasant organization in Dinara
block. In the small duration of his work he built peasant organization
in adjacent villages of Dinara and built peasant struggle in several
villages. Due to growing land struggle, his links with his job in the
college were becoming irregular. He used to tell his teacher friends
that right now he is studying in the school of the people and hence
teaching work has stopped. He was getting real education by living
among the people, he used to say. Though he was the lone son of Shri
Ram Prasad Yadav but he never cared for that. Thus the brave
fighter of the revolutionary peasant movement died in Sir Sunderlal
Hospital at Varanasi. On the 22nd of November, 1995 a few minutes
before his death, he consoled his aged father and comrades that
people die in revolution, you don't worry.

Every person participating in the condolence meeting was full of
anger. Red determination was glowing in the eyes of thousands of the
people assembled there. Revolutionary songs were lighting the spark
in the hearts of the revolutionary people. A wave of enthusiasm
swept the people when the State Secretary of the Party Comrade
Srikant Madhukar, State Vice-President of Bihar Kisan Samiti
Comrade Arjun Singh and State Secretary of Bihar Kisan Samiti
Comrade Ashok Kumar reached the venue.

A picture  of Comrade Ayodhya Singh was placed on an altar built in
front of the house of Comrade Ayodhya Singh. The Party has decided
to construct a martyr memorial at the venue of the altar. Comrade
Arjun Singh unfurled the Party flag and two minutes silence was
observed in the revolutionary memory of the martyr comrade.
Thereafter thousands of people gathered there offered floral tribute
at the altar.

Comrade Arjun Singh said that the martyrdom of our comrades for
agrarian revolution will not go to waste. History shows that people
have not spared murderers of Party Comrades and will not spare the
murderer of Comrade Ayodhya Singh. Comrade Arjun Singh further
said that as the people's movement under the leadership is growing
in Rohtas now challenging feudalism and the ruling class, hundreds
of youths like Comrade Ayodhya Singh will have to sacrifice
themselves.

State Secretary of Bihar Kisan Samiti, Comrade Ashok Kumar termed
the martyrdom of his colleague  Comrade Ayodhya Singh as a
'milestone' in the peasant movement in Rohtas. He said on the one
hand our movement will face increasing attacks of the feudals and on
the other hand our movement will advance resisting these attacks.
Comrade Ayodhya Singh has been murdered by the enemy of the
people and Party, in panic and fear. And the activists should not fear,
rather they have to intensify land struggle and the anti-feudal
movement with a renewed vigor. This is the only true homage to the
martyred comrade.

"Sorrow transformed into revolutionary anger"

At the end, state Secretary of the Party Comrade Srikant Madhurkar
addressed the people Comrade Srikant Madhukar saluted the
martyrs of the naxalite peasant movement including martyr
Ayodhya Singh. Quoting Comrade Mao he said deaths of the people
engrossed in self interest and personal work are light like feathers
and the deaths of those who die for the people, society and country is
heavier than mountains. The death of Comrade Ayodhya Singh and
other revolutionaries will live in the memory of revolutionary
people.

He said, with the death of Comrade Ayodhya Singh, a fine, matured,
determined and courageous comrade of our area has departed from
us but his martyrdom has advanced the poor and landless peasants
of the area. This was neither the first nor the last martyrdom of our
revolutionary peoples movement. Tyrant landlords of the area are
seeing the murderer of Comrade Ayodhya Singh as their hero, but
the revolutionary and fighting people here compelled many such
feudal heroes to die like dogs. People would definitely punish the
murderer Chatulal and the terror of the feudal gang. The homage
paid by Comrade Srikant Madhukhar filled the people with
revolutionary vigor. The sorrows in their eyes had transformed to
anger against class enemies. A red determination was glowing in the
eyes of the people.

Revival of Enron project

Enron is a corporation based in the united states.
Our Indian comrades are exposing its dirty environmental past and
its ability to corrupt the U.S. government and get its way with
comprador leaders in India.

Maharashtra, INDIA--On January 8, 1996, the Maharashtra
government gave final approval to both phases of Enron's Dabhol
Power Project. Revival came as a surprise only to those who chose to
take the ruling party's anti-Enron rhetoric rather too seriously and
had given credence to the 'swadeshi' propaganda of the Sangh
combine.

It was obvious from the beginning, including from the choice of
'repudiation clause,' that Enron was no more than an election
gimmick of the BJP-Shiv Sena combine which remained steadfast in
their service of multinational corporations. It was significant that
while BJP-Shiv Sena was waxing eloquent against Enron in
Maharashtra, BJP ruled Rajasthan was giving the red carpet welcome
to the same Enron. The BJP leadership consistently held that it was
not opposed to multinational corporations' (MNCs) entry in India
including in the power sector.

In fact the BJP has all along been supporting the 'new' economic
policies of the Narasimha Rao Government even claiming that BJP's
long-standing economic policies have been adopted by the
Government. They have not only remained away from any mass
programmes against these policies only raising feeble voices against
this or that aspect, but their state Governments have energetically
implemented these policies. The controlled opposition was thus
orchestrated to keep intact their 'nationalist' credentials rather than
reflecting any commitment to the opposition of MNC entry.

The revival of the Dabhol power project is being projected as a
victory by the Shiv Sena-BJP Government of Maharashtra. They are
saying that they have been, in the interest of the people of
Maharashtra, able to secure reduction in the project cost as well as
power tariff. As we shall see this is more a result of the jugglery with
figures than any serious revision of the project. It is obvious that the
Shiv Sena-BJP Government has gone back on the pre-poll promise of
canceling the Enron project.

Dr. V.K. Patole, 3/247, Govindpuri, New Delhi 110019

Red Flag editorial excerpt, Kerala, INDIA--The U.S imperialist chiefs
still persist in their economic sanctions against Cuba dubbing it
socialist and communist, and so as a natural enemy which should be
compelled to total subordination. On the other hand, the revisionists
of all brands all over the world also depict it as socialist along with
China, Vietnam and North Korea. Even while more and more details
are coming out daily concerning the fallacy of this imperialist
depiction and revisionist propaganda of the latter three as socialist,
because of open hostility by U.S. imperialism to it many get confused
about Cuba. They consider U.S. opposition alone as sufficient proof to
depict it as socialist. What they forget is that even without being
called socialist Iraq, Libya and some other countries were attacked or
threatened, [MIM points out that Panama was invaded by U.S. forces
removing Noriega without much of a peep from the pro-Cuba forces.]
and subjected to severe economic sanctions. Naturally this U.S.
imperialist actions calls for outright condemnation and solidarity
actions by revolutionary and democratic forces all over the world in
the case of Cuba as well as other countries. But this should not lead
one to the evaluation that Cuba is still a socialist country. A glance
through the present economic policies pursued by Cuba's Castro
government will prove this.

A country can be evaluated as pursuing socialist transformation only
when its means of production are progressively brought under social
control, influence of private property continuously brought down,
differences in the wage system is more and more reduced, and
market/commodity relations increasingly eliminated. In short it
should break away from the capitalist-imperialist system and should
steadily contribute towards building up a basically different
alternate socialist system within the country as well as at the global
level. Compared too this how much socialist is the Cuban counterpart
of special period model to China's socialist market economy,
Vietnam's Doi Moi or N. Korea's Juche.

Contrary to what is propagated by the revisionists and their
intellectual fellow travelers foreign investment is pouring in to Cuba
except direct U.S. investments. Foreign direct investment has reached
an accumulated total of $2.1 billions. Cuba is considered a safe haven
by European, Canadian and Latin American investors. It is considered
as a western Singapore now. It offers stable returns and a stable
bureaucratic political milieu. It also offers an educated disciplined
low-waged labour force, freely convertible currency with the dollar
as legal tender and investment laws that permit repatriation of
profits to the foreign investors. In these circumstances Cuba is
expected to attract $30 billion within this decade. Like the so-called
Asian Tigers it may be supplemented by a GDP saving rate of 25
percent.

Non-U.S. giant petroleum multinational corporations (MNCs) have
found Cuba a new haven for oil. Within a short time petroleum is
expected to be exported. The whole sector is under control of non-
U.S. MNCs. Even Israeli capitalists are investing in the agro-industrial
complexes, even when Israel was the only country to support U.S.
sanctions in the UN. To 'help' to overcome its underutilization of farm
resources and inadequate marketing infrastructure the giant MNC,
Unilever, has entered Cuba in a big way. If once Jose Marti remarked
"Cuba is sugar and sugar is Cuba," the whole sugar sector is coming
under the sway of Unilever. While the United States and under its
dictates the International Monetary Fund-World Bank (IMF-WB) still
refuse to give any loans--Anglo, Dutch, Canadian, Spanish, French and
Latin American capital and loans are now available in a big way. The
market system--globalization structural adjustment policy (SAP) is
being taken up in a big way under the bureaucratic state capitalist
system which is paraded as socialism.

Tourism as an industry is the first sector extensively opened up to
foreign direct investments. Spain and Mexico are the spearheads
with the Spanish MNC Sol Melia carving out a dominant share in
hotel construction. It is reported that the growth of the tourism
sector has been phenomenal in the last two years. It is expected that
soon tourism will overtake sugar as the leading foreign exchange
earning sector. Earnings from this sector which was $850 million in
1994  jumped to over $1 billion in 1995. The revolutionary armed
forces (!) (RAF) are employed in a big way in the tourism sector also.
It runs the huge tourist agency, the Gaviota (the sea gull). It runs
luxury hotels, hunting reserves, marinas, spas, a large taxi-cab fleet
and airplane flights. It also runs a chain of department stores, TRD
Caribe, where transactions are done in foreign currencies only.

Before the Cuban revolution, Havana was one of the most popular
sex-industry centers in the Caribbean with tens of thousands of
brothels and health resorts. It may take time to reach that level
again. But already prostitution is mushrooming, though sex-tourism
measures as practiced in Thailand are still not promoted openly.
Another aspect of this fast-growing tourism and the show of wealth
by tourists is the craze for dollars and dollar-earning jobs. Though
employees in the tourist sector are paid in pesos, this base wage is
lavishly supplemented by tips in dollars, which is untaxed. So a
privileged service sector aristocracy is growing. As a result even
>from the ranks of highly skilled professionals there is a sectoral
exodus to the tourism sector.

Thus unlike what is depicted by revisionists of all hues and their
intellectual fellow-travelers, and repeated by U.S. imperialists, Cuba
has changed fast. If it degenerated from the socialist path under
Khruschevian revisionism in the sixties itself, today nothing much of
socialism is left except Castro's rhetoric and the remnants of the
socialist decade. Recently Castro made an extensive tour of China and
Vietnam to study how they are implementing the market system
with the so-called socialist characteristics.

These sweeping changes in Cuba making it an ideal neocolony for
easy plunder and the failure of the U.S. administration to utilize it
have annoyed many U.S. businessmen. As the chairman of the big
U.S. grain conglomerate, Archer Daniels Midland, told CNN: "Our
embargo has been a total failure for over 30 years. We ought to have
all the Americans in Cuba doing all the business they can. It is time
for a change." A Mexican entrepreneur puts it like this: "I don't want
the American in Cuba. If they come here, as I suppose they
inevitably will, they will have too big a leverage on Cuba's fragile
economy. To be honest with you, I don't want their competition and
nobody else does." A Canadian oil MNC spokesperson said: "The U.S. is
losing out in every way. In the oil business Cuba is on the threshold
of major breakthroughs. The geological finds are beyond dispute. In
about three years at the most the country will not only become self-
sufficient--it is well on the way now--but will also become a major
exporter."

But the Yankees are adamant that like in eastern Europe and the
Soviet Union there should be a total cleansing of even the so-called
socialism in China, Vietnam, N. Korea and Cuba also, especially in the
last two. They want even an end to Castro's socialist rhetorics. So
while already engaged in entering Cuba through their Latin
American clients, they want to break down Castro to his knees as
they are doing with Saddam Hussein of Iraq. As many U.S. analysts
themselves say, the U.S. administration has well understood the
changes in Cuba. But they want to reduce it to the status of the pre-
1959 neocolony when it was under their total sway like other Latin
American states, not only in deeds, but also in words. In short they
do not want to permit Castro even the luxury of his socialist
rhetorics, however hollow these may be.

Today socialism in words and compradorism in deeds are the
hallmark of the rulers in China, Vietnam, N. Korea and Cuba. They are
at different levels of neocolonization with market economy-
globalization prescriptions in the new world order dominating every
field. To depict them as socialist countries even now, like depicting
the Soviet Union and eastern European countries as socialists even
after the mid-fifties coup by Khruschevian revisionists, is nothing
but a revisionist pastgame calculated to preempt the possibilities of
strengthening of revolutionary Marxism in the world. This revisionist
game well supported by imperialism should be exposed ruthlessly.
Supporting Cuban people against U.S. sanctions should not be
confused with depicting present Cuba as socialist.

Judiciary rescues rapists

Red Flag, INDIA--The Indian judiciary is notorious for its upper-
caste, upper-class bias. Once when 45 dalits/agricultural workers
were burnt to death brutally by landlords in KizhVenmani,
Tamilnadu, the judiciary refused to punish the accused stating that it
cannot believe how gentlemen from such respected upper caste-
upper-class families can commit such a crime. There are numerous
such overt and covert instances in Indian judicial history.

Now the District and Sessions Judge, Jaipur, Rajastan has released the
rapists in the Bhanwari Devi rape case saying that: "Rape is usually
committed by teenagers. The alleged rapists here are middle-aged
and therefore respectable citizens. Since the offenders are upper
caste men and included a Brahmin, the rape could not have taken
place because Bhanwari is from a lower caste"!

Working with the Women's Development Programme (WDP) of the
Rajastan government, Bhanwari was gang-raped by the village elders
for preventing a child-marriage. It was after sustained efforts by
progressive forces the case itself was charged by the police. Now the
judge has gone a step ahead of the police in saving the rapists. But
Bhanwari and the progressive forces supporting her have decided to
continue to struggle to book the rapists, and to expose the
reactionary police and judicial systems.

Eleventh anniversary of Bhopal massacre

New Flag, INDIA--What is in store if we rely on the MNCs with mad
profit motives was experienced in a most bitter way eleven years
back when the killer Union Carbide  massacred more than 10,000
and inured for life more than a lakh. It angered the people and the
war-cry of 'Union Carbide quit India' was heard all over India.

But the comprador rulers allowed the Union Carbide chieftains to
escape unhurt and allowed the MNC to continue its plunder here. The
funded agencies who reached Bhopal soon succeeded in replacing the
militant slogan with the demand for mere compensation. In this
compromising atmosphere, the Supreme Court favored the MNC by
limiting the total claims to a mere Rs 750 crores. (1 crore = 10 million
rupees. $1 = approx. 35 rupees.) Though eleven years have passed,
even this paltry amount is not paid fully by Union Carbide and the
vast majority of the victims are not provided relief. Meanwhile Union
Carbide has expanded its activities further making thousands of
crores of rupees more every year.

The Bhopal massacre and the reaction to it by the MNCs, imperialists,
as well as the comprador regime should be an eye-opener for the
people. Without kicking out all the MNCs from the soil of this
country, people can never gain a better future. On the anniversary
day in Bhopal as well as at different places in the country,
progressive forces came out condemning Union Carbide and other
MNCs engaged in perpetuating neocolonial slavery and devastation.

Red Flag, INDIA--Fish workers organizations have called for an all
India strike on January 18 demanding an immediate end to
surrendering India's fishing wealth to multinational corporations.
Even the assurance given by the Rao government a year ago that no
more fishing licenses will be issued to foreign agencies is flouted
again and again. Already 213 foreign ships are engaged in fishing in
Indian seas. In this situation, lakhs (1 lakh=100,000 or a "great
number") of Indian workers engaged in the Indian fishing sector are
rendered unemployed. So fish workers associations have called for
solidarity actions by other working class organizations also. Port
workers and many other organizations have declared their support
this struggle already.




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