CPIM's Comical & Farcical 'Anti-imperialism'

For many a year the CPIM has been striving hard to maintain its ‘anti-imperialist' stance; and its theoretical wing had troubled days too proving their anti-imperialist position in spite of its governmental collaboration with the imperialist agencies, banks, corporate entities, and etcetera. But as days rolled on, they had less and less to worry about ‘theoretical' cover due to emerging twin facts: 1 – They sided with and are proud to proclaim their ‘pragmatism', and dragged on to an extreme the Leninist slogan “Marxism is not a dogma, it is a guide to action” far beyond Marxism; and 2 – their fellow travellers, all the party members, and particularly the newly joining thousands and hundreds of thousands are more bothered about more attractive and lucrative ‘concrete' things including the very abstract entity – money than theory . We all know Marx liked to quote Mephistopheles from Goethe's Faust, “Theories are grey, my friend / Green is the eternal tree of life” to draw attention to really happening things or ‘Facts' rather than imagined, subjective reasoning. The problem with CPIM is that they have to get relieved from fighting an impossible battle to prove that they are still Marxists despite all their sins; and certainly they would like to cite the above-mentioned quotation, so loved by Marx himself, to show their freedom-from-theory at this point of time!

Let us see a couple of facts in the very recent history. ? The US president Bush visited our country in the first three days of March. The CPIM performed their road shows of ‘anti-imperialism'. Certainly the Bush Administration was ‘impressed'. So impressed it was that just after that visit-and-protest events their much ill-famed Ambassador, who quite recently crossed the boundary of diplomatic etiquettes by sending the West Bengal CM a protest letter against the latter's anti-Bush speech, raised his arms with gestures of ‘friendship' and ‘forget what happened' and labelled the CPIM led state govt as foreign-investment-friendly! And the Bengal CM also eagerly told the newspersons that they are not at all against US capital investments in Bengal or India . ? With much fanfare they started their anti-imperialist show against the Indo-US joint Air Force exercise in Calcutta and few other places in WB, including the village adjoining Kalaikunda Air Base. But what magnanimity the govt of WB and the state CPIM showed! ‘We shall protest against the joint exercise, but shall not obstruct it.' Having a long standing career as what an English would say “ Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition ” in the Indian Parliament, the CPIM knows that obstructing a Central Govt sponsored Military Exercise in real terms will create a ‘law and order' problem, and being the party in command of a state govt they certainly cannot afford such an illegal practice. So they had their peaceful protest done with thousands of ‘supporters' brought by their affluent part machinery, thousand times more peaceful and non-harmful than a Gandhian Asahayog (non-cooperation) movement. Moreover, the Indian brand of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition , the CPIM, is top-grade pragmatic; they know their business. So, during their anti-imperialist demo, yes, during that , their top brasses of their WB state committee were quick to add enough loudly to be heard by ‘those who hath ears': US Investment Is Welcome, Not US Imperialism!!!

As their WB govt is hitting hard their Brand Image as ‘Emerging Bengal', ‘The Destination Of Investment' etc, their ministers are touring the globe to attract foreign big industrial houses to invest in Bengal, and as they believe that this is the only way to develop Bengal, they were much eager and anxious; no move of theirs should project them as investor-unfriendly. Therefore they added hurriedly after all their recent anti -imperialist moves: US Capital Investment Is Welcome, Not US Imperialism!!!

We definitely do not know whether they hurried too much in formulating such a comic phrase, or knowingly buried Lenin's theory regarding Imperialism. Imperialism is the latest stage of Capitalism, Lenin teaches us, and it is the stage of capitalism where monopoly capital dominates. He explains it in detail and lucidly in his famous pamphlet on Imperialism. What he describes as ‘Trusts' there in the process of formation of monopoly capital, Cartel ? Syndicate ? Trust, those ‘Trusts' in today's fashionable parlance are called MNC or TNC or simply corporate houses. The aggressive policies of those corporate giants in acquiring natural ‘resources', markets, cheaper inputs, etc are persuaded in the political-diplomatic field by the governments where they are based. Monopoly Capital is the Foundation on which stands Imperialism. Imperialist governments and their martial hands obey the principles chalked out by political brain of the MNC/TNC organizations. You cannot dissociate the economic hand from the military hand, calling one clean and welcome and the other ugly and unwanted. That would be ridiculously absurd. The Iraq war showed it amply clear that the US-Anglo invasion was the prelude to the loot by the MNC/TNC oil giants of the USA and UK , from which the Indian capitalists were also given a few breadcrumbs for their abhorrent surrender to Imperialism. Lenin explained the heinous First World War as an Imperialist war of aggression, fought to the well being of those corporate capitalists. From the WTO, the Patent Regime, the Kyoto Protocol and etcetera to the Ford or Carnegie or Oxfam, etc Foundations, DFID-UK (much praised by the West Bengal CM for its development aids), Asian Development Bank, Foreign Aids and ‘Development' Agencies, etc are all meant for the general interests of the MNC/TNC or corporate capitalists. As in wars, in the diplomatic as well as in the economic front the tussles that happen are tussles among giant capital. To greet capital investment from abroad, from imperialist countries, while pretending to oppose Imperialism through road shows, is really a farce; and what's more, it is an utter betrayal to the cause of the working class. The CPIM cannot avoid the punishment for such a sin.

 

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