awtw 23 mazumdar

7/30/2019 AWTW 23 Mazumdar

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From thePioneer ofMaoism

in IndiaSelections from Eight Documentsby Charu Mazumdar

D O C U M E N T F I V EW H A T P O S S I B I L I T Y I S T H EY E A R 1 9 6 5 I N D I C A T I N G ?

There are some comrades w ho get scared at the mentioning o f armed struggles,and go on seeing the spectre of adventurism. They think that the work ofbuilding a revolutionary party has ended w i t h the very adoption of theprogramme; in other words w i t h the adoption o f the programme, that is thestrategic documents at Ihe S eventhCongress o f theParty. Merely from some resolutionson movements adopted at the Party Congress, they arrived at the decision as i f besidesthe present stage o f revolution and the class composition, the tactics of the present erahad also been decided at the Seventh Congress. From their words, it appears as ifpeaceful mass movement itself is themain tactics o f struggle of the present era Althoughthey do not openly state Khrushchev's tactics o f peaceful transition to socialism,whatthey want to say almost amounts to the same thing. They want to say that there is nopossibility of revolution in India in the near future. So at present, we shall have tomove along the peaceful path. In the era of worldwide struggle against revisionism,they cannot openly state the revisionist decisions. B u t they are abusing as adventuristand police spies anyone who is speaking of armed struggle. Yet, even i f we leave outthe mass movement o f Kashmir, the government has killed at least 300 people duringthe last eightmonths, the number o f prisoners have risen to several thousands and, oneafter another, the states have been shaken by mass movements. What programmes arewe placing before these agitators? Nothing! On the other hand we are dreaming under our leadership organized peaceful mass movements w i l l grow up. This itself isa shameless instance of revisionism. We are still unable to realize that in the presentera w e cannot bui ld up peaceful mass movements. For the ruling class is not giving usandw i l l not giveus such an opportunity. We should have drawn this very lesson fromthe tramfare resistance movement. B u t w e are not takingthat lesson. W e have becomeanxious to organize satyagrahamovements, we areno t realizing that in the present era


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C o m r a d e C h a r u Mazumdar

this satyagraha movement is bound to fail. Itdoes not mean that satyagraha movementsare altogether outmoded today. A l l types ofmovements have to be carried on at all ages but the form of the main movementdepends on the ruling class. The presentfeature of our age is that the government isfighting every movement byviolent attacks.So for the people, the armed resistancemovement has appeared as the mostimportantnecessity. So in the interest ofmassmovements, the call should be given to theworking class, the fighting peasantry andevery fighting people: (1) Take to arms; (2)Form armed units for confrontation; (3)Politically educate every armed unit. Not togive this call means pushing without anyconsideration the unarmed masses to death.The. ruling class wants that, for in this waythey can break the strength of mind of thefighting masses. The agitated masses todayattack railway stations, police stations, etc.Innumerable agitations are bursting forthupon government buildings, or on buses,trams and trains.

D O C U M E N T SI X iCO

" T H E M A I N T A S K T O D A Y I S T H E S T R U G G L ET O B U I L D U P T H E T R U E R E V O L U T I O N A R Y P A R T Y

T H R O U G H U N C O M P R O M I S I N G S T R U G G L EA G A I N S T R E V I S I O N I S M '

1 2 A U G U S T 1 9 6 6

TheParty leaders, after long imprisonment, after the Party Congress, for the first timehad a session of the full Central Committee. The central leadership of the partywhichwas formed through struggles against revisionism, adopted an ideological resolutionand declared bluntlythat all the criticisms made against the Indian government by thegreat Chinese party were wrong. A t the same time they have stated in the resolutionthat criticism of the Soviet revisionist leadership should not be made public now, asotherwise the people's faith in socialismw i l l decrease. That is, the mask must not betorn of f the attempt that is beingmadebythe Sovietrevisionist leadership in collaborationwi th the US imperialism to establish w orld hegemony.The leader of the great Chinese revolution, the Communist Parry of China, and itsleader comrade Mao Tsetung, are leading today the proletariat and revolutionarystruggles of hew orld . Comrade Mao Tsetung has today filled Lenin's position. So thestruggle against revisionismcannot be carried out and thepurity ofMarxism-Leninismcannot be maintained by opposing the Chinese party and comrade Mao Tsetung. Byopposing the Chinese party, the Indianparty leadership has forsaken the revolutionarypath of Marxism-Leninism. They are trying to pass of f revisionismbyputting i t into anew bottle. So Party members should understand this clearly todaythat in the struggleagainst revisionism, this Party leadership is not at all our comrade-in-arms, not evenan associate. . ,Continued topage 40


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Choru Mazumdar"And then, like a crash of spring thunder exploded the Naxalbari struggle in 1967.People all over India listened to its reverberations and tried to understand itssignificance, itsmessage. The revisionist leadership 'o fthe party had repeatedly askedthemto believe that the Thought o f Chairman Mao Tsetung was unsuitable for India,that armed struggle could not be waged in India, and that any talk of armed strugglewould lead to the destruction of the people's fighting organizations. And then, thepeople, who were being harangued like this, saw for the first time the application ofMao Tsetung Thought in Naxalbari. This helped them to understand that all-conquering Mao Tsetung Thought cannot only be applied in India but is the only

S N road to their liberation." The New YearHolds Promise of Still Bigger Victories, 29 December 1969-~g "Naxalbari has taught us that revisionism can be opposed only by propagating Mao^ Thought, that it is possible to arouse the peasantry to grasp Mao Thought, and that8 Mao Thought w i l l firmly grip the minds o f the peasant masses."9 Indian Revolution in Marxist-Leninist Perspective, October 1969O^ "And what constitutes our 'material'? Dynamite, explosives andfire-arms?Certainly


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Mao Tsetung"A t the time o f World War JJ Chiang Kai-shek got the support o f the Soviet Unionand on the pretext o f that support, he and his associates repeatedly sought to havethe Chinese Party tied to Chiang Kai-shek. As Chairman understood the need forunity, so also he realized the necessity of independent work and initiative and didnot make compromise in any sphere. That is why, after 1945, when communists allover the wor ld laid emphasis on unitywith the bourgeoisie and decided to surrender arms, Chairman Mao, even after having admitted the necessity o f unity, gave acall for taking up arms wi th a f i rm hand. That is why we see that after World WarI I communists of almost all countries took to the path of revisionism but, underChairman Mao's leadership, the Chinese Communist Party could, through asuccessful revolution, raise the banner o f Marxism-Leninism higher still and reach ^the stage o f Mao Tsetung Thought." JS Letter to a Comrade from Liberation, July 1971 - January 1972 3"Today the leader o f the great Chinese revolution, the Communist Party of Chinaand its leader Com. Mao Tsetung, is leading the wor ld proletariat and wor ld ^revolutionary struggles. Today Com. Mao Tsetung is playing the role of Com. ^Lenin'in the wor ld revolution." .J*Build upa Genuine Revolutionary Party by Struggling Against Revisionism; That tois the Main Task Today, 3 0 August 1966"The politics o f .agrarian revolution must be brought to the proletariat from without,from outside the trade union struggle. For this we require revolutionary worker cadres,equipped politically, that is equipped with the Thought of Chairman Mao." On Some CurrentPolitical and Organizational Problems, July 1969"...The Thought of Chairman Mao has emerged as the only Marxism-Leninism,Marxism-Leninism which he has greatly developed and enriched through theGreat Proletarian Cultural Revolution....So the political task o f the student andyouthworkers is to study this new and developedMarxism, the Thought of Chairman Mao, and put it into' practice. He who shuns thistask can never acquire knowledge about the principles of Marxism." To the Youths and the Students, Apri l 1969Selected Quotations from Charu Mazumdar's writings contributed by Maoist UnityCentre, CPI(ML)


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Continued rompage 37Soviet revisionist leadership in collaboration with the US imperialism is today tryingfo r wor ld hegemony. They are acting as enemies o f every national liberation movementtoday. They are trying to establish the revisionist leadership by sphtting the revolutionaryparties and are shamelessly acting as agents o f the US imperialism. They are today theenemies o f thepeople's Hberation struggles in every country, enemies o f the revolutionarystruggles, enemies of revolutionary China, even the enemies o f the Soviet people. Sono struggles against American imperialism can be made without carrying out an openstruggle against this Soviet revisionist leadership. It is impossible to lead the anti-imperialist struggle i f i t is not realized that the Soviet revisionist leadership is not apartner in the anti-imperialist struggle. The party leadership, far f rom fo l lowing thispath, is rather trying to convince the people through different writings that the Sovietleadership, in spite of a few mistakes, is basically opposing the policies o f the IndianGovernment, and is still moving along the path o f socialism. That is , they are trying toconceal in a cunning manner the fact that the Soviet leadership is transforming theSoviet socialist state into a capitalist state gradually and that the Soviet-Americancollaboration itself is because o f that.

D O C U M E N T S E V E NT A K E T H I S O P P O R T U N I T YDuring the last two years, the spontaneous struggles of the petit-bourgeoisyouths and students have created a stir f rom one end of India to another.Although at the beginning the demand for food was the main demand,gradually the demand for ousting the Congress government has become


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class andMarxist-Leninist cadres w i l l have to go forward in the face o f peasant strugglesto give active leadership to the peasants' struggles through resistance or "partisan"struggles. The reactionary government o f India has adopted the tactics of ki l l i n g themasses; they are ki l l i n g them through starvation and w i t h bullets. Chairman M ao hassaid: "This is their class character. They launch atttacks on thepeople even at th e riskof being defeated" There are some leaders who, faced w i t h these ^discriminatemurders, get scared and seekprotection. Chairman Mao has said about them: "Theyare cowards and unworthy o f revolutionary leadership." There is another group ofpeople who boldly face death. They try to avenge every murder they alone arerevolutionaries and i t is they w ho can show the masses the path.The government might appear to be powerful, because it has in its hands food andarms. The people do not have food and they are unarmed. But i t is the unity and f i rmspirit of these unarmed masses that w i l l smash all the arrogance of the reaction andmake the revolution successful. So ChairmanM ao has said: "Th e reactionary orce isactually a paper tiger" I n the present era, our main task w i l l be on the basis o f threemain slogans.First ly: Un ity o f workers andpeasants. Thisunitydoes no t mean that the workersand petit-bourgeois masses w i l l give only moral support to the peasantmovement. This slogan means the realization that the peasants are the mainforce o f the revolution in a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country l ike India,the unity o f peasants and workers can grow only on the basis of class struggle. So onthe question of seizure of state power, Chairman Mao has said: "It is the liberatedarea in the countryside which is the concrete application o f workers-peasants unity."So it is the responsibility o f the workers, and particularly o f the petit-bourgeois masses ^to develop peasant movements fo r building liberated areas. So Chairman M ao has t o l d ^petit-bourgeoisstudents andyouthabout movements: "Whether they are revolutionaries gca n be determinedonly by h ow much they become participants of this movement." gThose who w i l l not participate in this movement have the danger of becoming greactionaries. ^Secondly: The revolutionary resistance movement, armed struggle. The reactionarygovernment ofTndiahas declared w ar against every struggle for the democraticdemandso f the masses. Inside India, it has created a playground for imperialist and feudalexploitation, and in its foreign policy it has turned India into a base of reaction in *>collaboration w i t h imperialism and modern revisionists. The people of India havebecome rebellious against this intolerablesituation. I n this situation, the revolutionaryresistance movement or armed partisan struggle o f the revolutionary Marxist-LeninistParty against reaction and the passive resistance movement of the revisionist party,have today become the main part o f the Party's politics. So every Party member andrevolutionary cadre w i l l have to grasp this tactic of struggle. They should learn topractise it and temper the revolutionaryspirit o f the masses throughpropaganda amongthe masses. The success of the struggle depends on how far we can popularise thepolitics o f armed struggle through propaganda of i t among the masses.Thirdly: The building up of a revolutionary Party. In this revolutionary situation inIndia today, our Party organization is not capable o f giving leadership. Without beingf i rm in theory, clear in politics and without amassbase in respect o f organization, i t isimpossible to give leadership in this revolutionary age o f today.(1) On the theoretical question: -It should be remembered that the Party leadershipo f the world's first socialist state, the Soviet Union, has been captured by a revisionist


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clique. As a result, revisionist influence has fallen on the communist parties o f differentcountries of the world. In our country also as this revisionist influence was felt, theneed fo r forming a separate Party was felt. A n d as a result o f that, a separate Party wasformed at the Seventh Congress. The formation o f a separate Party does not mean thatthe fight against revisionism has ended. Revisionism speaks of fighting againstimperialism, feudalism and the reactionary forces, but in deeds it widens the path ofcollaborationwith these forces. Marxism-Leninism firmly opposes these forces, avengestheir every attack, and, mobilizing the masses through long-drawn struggle, alonedestroys these reactionary forces. The old ideas become manifest in (i) not acceptingthe leadership o f the great Chinese party against international revisionists; (ii) in notaccepting the new developing forces; (iii) in not making the working class consciouso f this new realization; (iv) in not aiding the struggle of the peasantry, which is themain ally o f the working class.(2 ) Political: The people's democratic revolution will have to be seen as the task ofthis moment. Chairman Mao has said, "No dying force gives up its power easily;freedom comes ou t only rom he barrel ofa gun" So in our politics the main part willbe the armed struggle for the seizure o f power. The common people have started thisarmed struggle spontaneously. The main aim of our politics will be to establishconsciously this armed struggle on amass base. The basic three points are: ( i) Worker-peasant unity under the leadership o f the wprking class, (ii) consciously establishingarmed struggle on a mass base, and (iii) firmly estabHshing the leadership of thecommunist party. It is imperative not to leave aside any of these three tasks. Thispolitics will have to be propagated extensively among the masses.

i (3) Organizational: The mass base o f the Party will have to be extended. W e have seenduring the last few years, thousands of militant cadres come to j o i n the work of theorganization during different movements and struggles, try to give leadership to thestruggles, but the moment the movement stops, they again become inactive. Today, inthe age of the revolutionary upsurge, people of many backward areas are comingforward on the road of struggles, and it is through those struggles that many youngmilitant cadres are joining the work o f the organization. I f we can educate these cadresin our revolutionary theory and politics, the Party can get its mass base. W e shall haveto begin working boldly on collecting these cadres and on forming secretgroups withthem. These cadre-groups will carry on political propaganda and will act as units ofarmed struggle. The striking power of the Party depends on how far we are able toform these groups in increasing numbers among workers and peasants. W ith whomwe are forming the groups and organizational details, like shelter, dumps, etc., shouldcertainly be kept secret. But our theories, politics and the slogan o f Party formationmust never be kept secret. In the age of armed struggle, every Party unit must beparticipants in the armed struggle and be a self-reliant leader. The general elections arecoining. During these elections the discontented people desire to and will listen topolitics. Before the elections, every party will try to propagate theirpolitics among themasses. We shall have to take advantage o f these elections to propagate our politics.L et us no t be confused by the false slogan o f the non-Congress democratic government.W e shall have to take to the masses courageously thepolitics o f ourpeople's democraticrevolution, that is , the politics o f worker-peasant unity under working class leadership,o f armed struggle, o f estabhshing the leadership o f the Party. I f we fully take advantageo f this it will not be possible for any leftist leader to oppose us. We shall have to takefull advantage o f this opportunity.