[Marxism] CPI(ML) Observes 'Lebanon Solidarity Day'

["CPI \(ML\) Intl Liaison Office" <cpiml_elo@xxxxxxxxx>]

From:
www.cpiml.org

ML Update
A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine
Vol.  9       No. 31      1 - 7 August 2006

CPI(ML) Observes 'Lebanon Solidarity Day' Across the
Country

The CPI(ML) observed Lebanon Solidarity Day all over
the country on 27 July and organised protest marches
in many state capitals and urban centres. In Patna,
CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya led
hundreds of protesters who marched through the main
streets of the town. Comrade Dipankar strongly
criticized the ongoing war on Lebanon and said that
this war exposes the imperialist designs of US and
Israel. He condemned Govt. of India's silence and
termed it harmful for those aspiring for freedom and
democracy. He also urged all the Asian nations to
unite against this war and appealed to the United
Nations to force Israel to end this war.

In New Delhi, a protest was held at Parliament Street
where protesters vehemently opposed the unjust war on
Lebanon and burnt the effigy of US and Israel. Slogans
like 'Stop the war on Lebanon' and 'US-Israel hands
off West Asia, hands off Gaza and Lebanon' rent the
air. Addressing the protest meeting, the speakers said
that the war on Lebanon was totally unjust and against
the humanity and should be opposed tooth and nail by
the forces of peace and democracy. While calling for
an immediate end to the war on Lebanon, the protesters
also denounced the UPA Govt.'s shameful silence on
this issue. They called for a pan-Asian
anti-imperialist solidarity to defeat the forces of
US-Israel war machine. Out of concern for India's
growing strategic embrace with US and Israel, the UPA
Govt. has failed to express outrage against Israeli
aggression, and against the US attempts to extend the
war to Syria and Iran. CPI(ML) CC members Swapan
Mukherjee and Prabhat Kumar led this protest. Comrade
Swapan demanded from the Govt. of India to cancel all
the strategic weapons' purchases from Israel because
the Israel is using that money to suppress the people
in the middle east. Journalist Javed Naqvi and
Professor in Delhi University Ali Javed also addressed
the protesters.

In Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan, a memorandum was sent
through a joint protest to the Prime Minister of India
demanding that the Indian Govt. must immediately
condemn the inexcusable aggression by Israel,
supported by US, in Gaza and Lebanon, a resolution
should be passed in Parliament condemning the Israeli
aggression and calling for a stop to war, and to
cancel all arms purchases from Israel. It was also
demanded from the Govt. of India to send immediate aid
to the suffering people of Palestine and Lebanon, and
to ask the US and Israel, through United Nations, to
pay compensation to the people of these countries. The
protest was jointly held by CPI(ML), Janata Dal (S),
PUCL, Samajwadi Party, Samagra Seva Sangh, National
Muslim Women's Welfare Society, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind
and Boddh Mahasabha.

In Guwahati, party activists held a sit-in protest,
led by Party Central Committee member and Ex-MP
Jayanta Rongpi. Though it was a peaceful dharna, Assam
Govt. could not tolerate this minimum protest and
arrested protesters including Com. Jayanta Rongpi,
Naren Borah, Pankaj Das, Balindra Saikia and detained
at Panbazar Police Station up to the evening. Assam
State Committee of the party condemned this attack on
the democratic right to protest.

Protest marches were organised in front of the State
Assembly and many district headquarters in UP. A
memorandum was submitted to the Governor of UP in this
regard. In Varanasi, effigies of US and Israel were
burnt outside the Cantt. Railway station. Comrade
Narendra Pandey led this protest. In Allahabad, many
parties and organisations joined CPI(ML)'s call and
held out a march that culminated in a mass meeting as
Subhash Chandra Bose square where the Israeli flag was
burnt in protest. This was also participated by CPI,
Jagrat Samaj, Socialist Front, Azadi Bachao Andolan,
Indian Justice Party, Pagarisheel Lekhak Sangh and Jan
Sanskriti Manch. People here demanded to declare
Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and US President Bush as
war criminals.

Similar protests were held at many places in Tripura,
and effigies were burnt.

In Kolkata CPI(ML) organized a protest demonstration
in front of the Esplanade metro rail station. The
speakers vehemently criticised the US-backed Israel?s
anti-Lebanon policy butchering the common people of
Palestine. Partha Ghosh, CCM, CPI(ML), Nabendu
Dasgupta, State Committee member of CPI(ML) and AICCTU
leader Mukul Kumar address the protest demonstration.
Protests were also held in states like Jharkhand,
Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa,
Chhattisgarh, etc.


______________________________________________

Push back US-Israeli axis from West Asia

The 30 July air strike on the Lebanese village of
Qana, which left some 60 civilians including 37
children dead and many more wounded, marked a new high
point in the Israeli aggression against Lebanon. US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she felt
?sad? over the loss of innocent lives, but stopped
short of calling for an immediate ceasefire.  As if to
echo this cruel joke on humanity, Israel suspended
bombings for about 24 hours, only to re-launch the
same with greater intensity.  Over 750 Lebanese
civilians, mostly children, women and old people, have
so far been killed in the war that started three weeks
ago.  Many among the killed were those fleeing from
south Lebanon in response to leaflets dropped from
Israeli planes calling upon the civilians to evacuate
the area for their own safety.  And the dead children
include those who had sought shelter at a camp of the
UN force, only to be hooted out like stray dogs.  In
two separate incidents, three Indian soldiers of the
United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) have
been injured.  Israel has felt no compunction even
about deliberately targeting a UN observer post in an
arrogant display of confidence that so long as Uncle
Sam is on its side, it can do with impunity whatever
it likes to.

Against this cruel campaign of mass destruction, it is
heartening to note, a small voice of protest is
growing powerful within Israel itself.  A ?refuser
movement? (soldiers and air force pilots refusing to
join the war) is gaining ground there.  A coalition of
?refuser groups? like the Yesh Guvl and left-leaning
parties organised a spirited peace march in Tel Aviv
on July 22.  Israeli newspapers put the number of
participants between 2500 and 5000 (if that sounds
small, please recall that the population of Israel is
approximately 1/40th that of the United States!).
Among the slogans raised, one offered a Hebrew version
of a Vietnam era cry: ?Defence Minister Amir Peretz,
how many kids have you killed so far??

Protest movements in other parts of the world,
including ours, are also mounting.  It seems, however,
that there is a need to make the movement more focused
on two points.  One, the aggression against Lebanon is
not merely ?a disproportionate reaction to Hezbollah
rocket attacks?, as is often made out to be.  It is a
racist war waged against Muslims in West Asia and the
Middle East. So Israel deserves to be punished by the
same kind of sanctions as were once imposed on South
Africa for its policy of apartheid.  Those sanctions,
coupled with popular struggles from within, succeeded
in bringing the racists in South Africa to their
knees.  Why should we then allow this hangover from
the 20th century to be carried into the 21st?  It is
thus not enough to demand immediate end of hostilities
followed by a vaguely conceived ?long term solution?. 
The bedrock of that solution must be a UN resolution
imposing strict sanctions on the rogue state of
Israel.  Secondly, it is necessary to emphasise that
opposition to Israel will remain empty and worthless
unless extended to its principal mentor.  Why does the
US shamelessly support Israel?  Obviously because the
latter acts as a tool in executing its game-plan in
West Asia and the Middle East as part of the imperial
overdrive for world hegemony.  People?s movements
against the current Israeli aggression must therefore
be conducted in close conjunction with the long-term
struggle against US imperialism.

Following the Qana massacre and in the face of growing
anger at home and abroad, the Government of India has
been forced to issue a statement condemning the
continued war on Lebanon.  But this is too little too
late.  Thanks to the pro-US, pro-Israel foreign policy
pursued by both the NDA and the UPA governments, India
is now the world?s second largest customer of Israeli
weapons, buying 1.5 billion dollars worth of arms
every year.  This is a national shame and we cannot
bear with it any longer.  The severity of the Zionist
crime demands that New Delhi not only stops arms
purchase from Israel as a temporary gesture, but
terminates all military relations as well as
intelligence and security cooperation with the killer
regime.  Consistent democrats and peace-loving people
from all walks of life should unite to compel the
government to take this course of action and,
simultaneously, to scrap the anti- nation nuclear deal
with America.

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