Election 2009: The ‘Camp' in the Campaign Trail
Our Founder Editor Late Comrade Deepak Roy About Us
This website is intended for those engaged in the work of Reawakening of the International Communist Movement, and also for those endeavouring for building up a true Proletarian Party, i.e., real class party of the working class, in India.
The International Socialist Movement in its first offensive forward march has suffered a great defeat: erstwhile Soviet Union, China, and a number of other countries, the so-called Socialist Countries, which were actually never socialist but were in different stages in the phase of Transition towards Socialism, returned to capitalism. The old parties, be they in those countries or in others, degenerated to become allies of the bourgeoisie and imperialism, as was the case of the CPI, CPI(M) etc in India. Though the advanced elements could smell many things were rotten in those ‘kingdoms of so-called socialism' decades ago, all these things became apparent to everybody with a big bang after the collapse of the Soviet Union. An ideological vacuum, a helplessness spread and the international bourgeoisie joyously yelped ‘end of history'. Confusions, questions, disbeliefs, etc regarding Socialism proliferated. It became the duty of the conscious advanced elements of the working class to find out the reasons of this great defeat and to take proper lessons from them, and thus to strengthen their arsenal of revolutionary theory. But interestingly, after a short break, the working class is again showing signs of restlessness. New struggles, new organisations of struggling, rebel workers are coming up, throwing up new, potential advanced fighters of the class. The fierce assaults of Globalisation are pushing all toiling people towards struggle. Most of such fights are still in the arena of Trade Union struggles, or in other words, practical economic struggles. What are the positive sides, possibilities in these new struggles? What are the constraints? How to work among them and to what end? How to break apart from old practices, prejudices, style of functioning, etc? What is meant by a decisive break from the revisionism, reformism? How to help these struggles and new leaders develop towards the revolutionary socialism? How to analyse the rural toilers' struggles and act in the rural arena so as to win over the rural toilers under working class leadership? ... ... ... Such are among many other extremely important aspects to be pondered by the revolutionary proletariat. And we shall try to place here answers to these questions from proletarian class perspective. The questions of · nature of imperialism today, and the ‘anti-imperialist' struggles; the militant Islamic ‘jihad', how the working class should analyse and act in these matters · rise of fascism of different colours in some countries, and how to combat it, · the agrarian question in India and the strategy and tactics of struggle in this arena, · the question of the role of the Indian ruling classes in dominating this South Asian sub-continent · the national question in countries like India and the caste question, · the ‘Gender' question, the question of ‘Ecology', etc in socialist perspective, and so on are also to be confronted with revolutionary proletarian actions; hence formulation of correct proletarian line in these regards are also necessary. We shall present here our theoretical works on these issues, naturally, from the independent and separate class line of the proletariat; and we shall appreciate discussions and debates, on them. We with our very limited and small resources will try to participate in the international / national fora for a collective effort towards solving the problems posed by history.
Our Founder Editor Late Comrade Deepak Roy
Comrade Dipak Roy, the erstwhile editor of this journal, breathed his last on 22nd November 2005. There ended the life of a revolutionary who was full of vigour till his last day. About two and half years ago, he was operated on at the Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, which curbed the spread of cancer in his body; but, due to some operational mishap he was left with a number of unexpected wounds, which restrained him from going back to his normal working life, and, which eventually necessitated another operation. His extraordinary vivacity ultimately gave way under the strain of the five hour-long operation. He was sixty-eight.
Inspired by the ideal of Socialism, Com. Dipak joined left-politics as a part-time activist of the RSP in West Bengal during the mid sixties of last century. He took this decision at a time when, post Sino-Indian war, anti-socialist and national chauvinistic propaganda coupled with state-terror brought about a temporary lull in the workers' struggle; and the middle class intellectuals fell prey to the game plan of the ruling class. Moreover, it was a time when the signs of degeneration and deviation of the Russian Communist Party was becoming increasingly apparent, though the glorious banner of Socialism was still held high by the Chinese Party which was then devoted to the struggle for it. It was his deep belief in the truth of Marxism and a commitment towards society that led Dipak to join the leftist movement at such a time. To tell the truth, he never aspired for a career even during his college days. However, the first few years of his service life took him outside Kolkata, which hindered the continuity of his political activity to some extent. The Food Movement of 1966 changed the situation in West Bengal. For the first time, the pent-up discontent and resentment of the worker-peasant population burst forth. In 1967, the workers' movement rose in a new tide. It is a fact that Com. Dipak could not keep up a consistency in his political activity during this period. But it was this same time that he began to realise that the times were demanding more and more effort and concentration from a communist activist. And, engaged in an engineering profession, he could not meet it. So, in 1968, he left his job and devoted himself to politics as a whole-timer – a position that he maintained to all intents and purposes till his last day.
He started to work among the workers of the small and medium size factories of Tiljala-Topsia in Kolkata. He began to organise the backward workers of the numerous workshops of the rubber industry and directly participated in their trade union struggles. For this he stayed at the factory gates for days, and no doubt it was a tough job. The owners often organised attacks. But that was trivial. He forsook the easy middle class life he was long accustomed to, and cast off middle class attitude to work in the proletarian areas and at the factory gates. It was no ordinary feat. He proved that communists never fight shy of changing and rebuilding oneself. There is another point. Dipak had a natural proficiency in different spheres in the cultural arena. He wrote poems and plays and had a good hand in literary criticism. Forswearing the allure of a promising career, the scope of which was ample for such a capable person, and which would have established the individual, he dared to choose a political life; and obviously, such strength lay in his deep realisation of Marxism-Leninism, and his commitment towards society. Though he could not allow himself to remain directly attached to the workers struggle for long, the experience he gathered during this short period was of much value to him. Actually his fight for transforming his middle-class self to one thoroughly integrated with the proletariat, started from here.
Continuing with the RSP soon became impossible for him, as he got involved with the “Sandhikshan” (the name of the Bengali journal, predecessor of this journal, which is in publication since 1972) Group . Truly speaking he took the most crucial and difficult decision of his life in 1970-71. Through the late sixties of the last century, it gradually became apparent that the old left parties had already lent heavily towards reformism and opportunism when they participated in the bourgeoisie constitutional government, betrayed the rising workers' movements, and lastly, acted as the agents of the ruling class of India during the so called “freedom struggle” of Bangladesh. Dipak and his associates realised that the time was ripe; they must sever ties with the old party; otherwise it would be a betrayal of the principles of class struggle and dropping down the banner of communism.
But what would they do once they are outside? It was hard to answer. It was that time when a section from the CPI (M) had broken away to form the CPI (ML). That new party had already earned the recognition of Chinese Communist Party – which was internationally the leading light in the struggle for Socialism and to whom the communists the world over looked up with both hope and respect. A broad revolutionary section had then joined the CPI (M-L) from the CPI (M). At such a time it was not easy to determine the correctness or incorrectness of a line before the powerful tide of the CPI (M-L). Naturally Dipak and his comrades were then too young to have a full grip over Marxism-Leninism, their experience too limited. But their level of consciousness was enough to help them realise that by projecting the peasants as the leading class, the CPI (ML) was deviating from the politics of ‘working class hegemony', thereby totally neglecting the task of organising the proletariat to prepare them for assuming the leadership of the movement for Socialism. Com. Dipak and his friends understood this clearly that the new party had neither the potential nor the promise to lead the movement from a correct position vis-à-vis the reformist revisionist line and build itself as the Party of the proletariat, i.e. a true Communist Party. This analysis led Com. Dipak to find the answer to the imposing question: “what is to be done?” To speak the truth, Dipak was one of those very few who could firmly ignore the ‘revolutionary' pull of the CPI (M-L) – blessed by the Chinese Party – in those days of 1970-71, who were courageous enough to fight against the two opposite but powerful trends of reformism-revisionism and left adventurism, and who, based on the working class ideology, upheld the necessity of building a true Proletarian Party in India. Today we must remember that important and determining role Dipak played at that time. It is more so, because after 35 years we are yet to build a new proletarian Party, and hence the fight is still on. Now that Dipak is no more, we vow to take forward the struggle, of which he was a leading fighter.
The publication of the journal ‘Sandhikshan' started at a time when the old Party was already dismissed, but the New was yet to be born. It was really a sandhikshan , meaning the crossroads of times in Bengali. Com. Dipak took a major initiative in publishing the journal, and, as a founder member of its editorial board, he put labour for it till his last days. What is note-worthy is that he not only contributed through his writings, but also applied himself to the tit bits of publication just like an ordinary cadre for a long time. And, during the days of state terror, this job was difficult to perform. By this same time he was released from the practical fieldwork in the interest of the movement and organisation and had to concentrate solely on theoretical work. He played an equal role with the editor of ‘Sandhikshan' during the first few years, unless which perhaps it would have been impossible to continue publishing it.
Later, Com. Dipak took it upon himself the publication of FAPP (For A Proletarian Party) and became its editor. The numerous valuable theoretical-political essays that he penned for ‘Sandhikshan' and FAPP, served to explain clearly various national and international problems in their totality and also pointed at the possible and correct solutions. Not only has that, these essays also firmly established the revolutionary content and the truth of Marxism-Leninism as against the atmosphere of confusion, disorder and perversion that prevail the current time. His writings against right and left trends and deviations always had a sharp and cutting edge. But he was never self contended, on the contrary, he was always unhappy about not getting rid of lifeless, set patterns of writings. In this connection, it will not be exaggeration to state that Dipak had a special talent – he could think and write with a spontaneous ease. But while dealing with ever new theoretical and political questions, the way he put concentration and industry (including wide and thorough study) to make him worthy of newer and higher challenges, should be an ideal instance before all communists. His rare courage of admitting his own errors – which spoke of his self-confidence – was also exemplary.
We know that after the defeat of the first expedition of the International Socialist movement, the working class is retreating in complete disorder and chaos, and confusion reigns supreme the world over. It is needless to say that the main task of the revolutionary proletariat today is to revive the communist movement. In this background, Com. Dipak had repeatedly and vehemently opposed any attempt to say ‘the last word' on any subject – be it the evaluation and analysis of the past of the International Socialist movement or the determination of tactics in the ongoing struggles. On the other hand, he emphasised the need to take a fresh look over some ideas, which are mechanically uttered since the past, in the light of Marxism-Leninism. The work he was doing on a number of some questions remains unfinished with his passing away. The loss is not be made up soon.
He had a deep and unswerving confidence on the working class. Post-defeat, the pitiable condition of the shattered class, dominated by and permeated with bourgeoisie ideology, pained him much; but not for a day did he lose his belief and confidence on the class on that account. He did not see only defeat and retreat, but the signs of the class turning back from the ruin even in this situation never failed to attract his attention. Whenever workers, or even agricultural labourers, had begun an independent struggle, Com. Dipak not only congratulated them, but earnestly tried to stand by them and upheld the scope and direction of the movement. It is for this reason, that in spite of his remaining busy with FAPP and Sandhikshan, he regularly contributed to the bulletin ‘ Shramik Istahar' (almost 30 years in publication, both in Hindi and Bangla) as a member of its editorial board. One has to learn from him how to present a complicated and hard subject in a lucid way so that workers can understand them easily. The pages of Shramik Istahar bore some specimen of such compositions.
Com. Dipak's resourcefulness and his diverse talent were manifest in other ways too. Being active in political programmes, he also played an important role in the cultural movement and was even vigilant about it. His acquaintance with the Arts and Literature was worthy of envy. Some of his critical essays on such subjects, written from a Marxist point of view, were fairly acclaimed. The activists of the cultural movement lost a friend and a guide in Dipak's death. He was such an intelligent and colourful personality! In ordinary conversations, or even during political debates, his wonderful sense of humour amused everybody. The before his last operation someone asked him, “Dipakda, are you tense?” And he replied instantly, “Why should I be tense? It is the doctor who must feel the tension”! Such was he – our dear Dipak -Dipakda. His lively spirit attracted a great number of people outside politics who came in touch with him. In a sense, he was a complete man, loved and respected by one and all.
In Com. Dipak's death, the Communist movement has lost a very able and gifted general. We, on behalf of the editorial board of FAPP, and all his comrades, express our deep and heart-felt sorrow and once again swear our commitment to work for the Communist movement.
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