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Rural Bengal Blazing Again
In this October 2007, we can say that the mentioned “trend” surfaced again and the occasion now is the same: corruption in ration distribution. In 2004 the events took place in a time span a couple of weeks in Sept – Oct and in 2007 the first explosion occurred on 16th Sept, Sunday, and after 4 weeks, till this day in November [5th] there is no sign of abating of either the spread or the heat of revolts. The incidents 3 years back also occurred in the same months — Bhadra & Ashwin, the cruellest months for the village poor folks as described in a more than four-century-old literature, and the festive season of Durgapuja of the Bengali Babu-s! 60 years of ‘Independence', 30 years of ‘Left Govt' didn't change the harshness of Bhadra-Ashwin for the rural poor of Bengal!! In 2004, the spread of the revolts was just some villages in two blocks in a single district, Bardhaman. In 2007, revolts did spread like more rapid wildfire in south Bengal — from Bankura, then Birbhum, then Musrshidabad, and then Bardhaman, Nadia, 24-Parganas, then the revolt even penetrated Malda in North Bengal…. Perhaps rebellions will expand more in coming few days and till the arrival of busy harvest season.
Everyone already knows events, however, to see some salient points of mass ‘spontaneity' two events may be re-visited. On 16th Sept near Sonamukhi, Bankura, villagers went to voice their complaint to the Panchayat leader who happens to be a CPIM leader too about corruption of Ration-dealer and unavailability of food grains in Public Distribution System for months. But the CPIM Babu had no time, not a minute, for those rustic poor. They have more important task — their party conference was going on…. The CPIM men tried to chuck them out humiliatingly. The villagers already knew by their hard experiences that the rural moneybags are flourishing under the patronage of CPIM; a Party-Panchayat-Administration-Rich folk evil nexus is ruling Bengal villages. They met much maltreatment from the party bosses and rich folks since years. But this time this neglect, this utter disdain for the rural poor, made the mob infuriated. They attacked the CPIM conference, smashed and burnt down everything there, had the leader-babu-s beaten. The police came to rescue the CPIM leaders and battle between police and villagers followed. Canning, Tear-Gassing, even Firing… what not the police did! Two persons got bullet injuries. The news of the revolt at noon reached villages after villages, courtesy the Media, within afternoon. And in the afternoon in a village in Barjora block of Bankura, thousands assembled to teach the corrupt dealers a tough lesson. They knew what police would do. But they were not frightened. The dealer closed down his steel shutter gates and from inside his house opened fire on the mob. Five persons got injured, but the mob didn't retreat an inch! As an activist who was later reporting telephonically commented: …you can guess who are rebelling and which section is rebelling, standing in forefront just from the surnames of those injured: Bagdi, Ruidas, Das, all Dalits, all Labourers! Police came, and seeing the mood of the masses, smelt danger. By persuasion through tender requests and arresting the culprit dealer on spot the police boss could calm the villagers. Then onwards the revolts started spreading to newer places and on the other hand police atrocities claimed two lives, the first martyr was poor toiler and flood victim Sheikh Ayub who just came to see whether any relief materials for flood-victims were being distributed from the Block-Office, a police bullet pierced his head. CPIM cried foul: ‘conspiracy of opposition parties'! But the police bosses admitted: the poor villagers are rebelling themselves, not by any instigation of any party whatsoever, plus, things are going out of their hands! Yes, the masses while revolting didn't need a ‘party', didn't wait for a ‘party' of the toiling classes; in a condition of party-less-ness as far as a true proletarian party is concerned, after decades of forced-slumber courtesy the revisionists like CPIM, the masses are spontaneously deciding to rebel in their own way by shedding off their old party loyalties, because they cannot bear anymore the hellish ‘life' with which the system has provided them.
Revolutionary proletariat know that they need not ‘ignite', need not ‘hatch up' or ‘plan' “peoples' movement” from above, ‘design a movement' or something like that. People, by their own, have perhaps taught the ‘revolutionary' organisations working in rural areas that very simple truth, that they can do their protest movements by themselves; and those CR organisations need not bother about ‘building up united movement against ration corruption' etc. Rather their task should be to concentrate on revolutionary agitation-propaganda among the rural poor. They should not think derive that the sole ‘cause' of people's unrest is corruption only in Public distribution System, because that was not the ‘cause' but rather the ‘occasion' or ‘juncture' that provided the flashpoint, that led to outbursts of rebellion; in other words, corruption in Public distribution System acted as an effective spark-plug that ignited the inflammable minds of the masses; the village poor are not just unhappy with the corruption in ration distribution, they are unhappy with ‘everything going on', the hell-of-a-life which is turning harder and harder each day. The govt is just playing with the poor, it is evident from their BPL scheme that excluded many poor from the governments' ‘BPL list of poor', that have placed a sizeable section of the poor in APL category as if they are poor no more, rampant corruption of govt and party officialdom is eating up the paltry govt ‘alms' or subsidies. [A topical report in Times Of India presented alarming revelations: # WB is second only after UP in PDS scam; # ration-scam in WB alone is in the tune of Rs 19,000 million (about $ half billion), and so on! A startled reader exclaimed, ‘If they pay just 1% of that to the party as protection money, that will mean $50 million ‘donation' a year for Bengal CPIM from this sphere only!' ] The governments are depriving the poor of basic amenities of civilisation. On the other hand the wealth of the prosperous people is increasing, vulgar show of affluence is blatantly demonstrating the ever-widening social cleavage. For this the toiling poor are getting alienated from the party, for which, in the past, they have done so much! This doesn't, of course, mean an alienation from parliamentary politics as such. For gyrating, gravitating the consciousness of the rural poor towards revolutionary politics, the revolutionaries, particularly revolutionary workers' teams, need to conduct intensive and extensive revolutionary agitation-propaganda in rural areas. This is becoming extremely important, more so because the masses of toilers have started throwing off the shackles of submissiveness.
People have taken up whips in their own hand — and that should be congratulated, encouraged. Fights and fighting unity, organisation of rural toiling people can only come up from below; people should take control over their destiny, which in the ultimate sense means not only taking up whips in their own hands, but also taking up the rein, the ‘control', in their hands. This theme should be taken to the rural toiling poor with utmost urgency.
It should be utter foolishness and also betrayal to the cause of revolution if any revolutionary group jumps on the situation with the narrow interest of increasing own organisation ‘utilising' this rebelling mood of the masses by putting up slogans ‘to fight corruption' under its own banner or under a so-called ‘all-party' assembly, slogans for ‘monitoring committees', etc. And it should also be treacherous if few ‘super-active' cadres take things in their own hands keeping the villagers as ‘admiring [but passive] onlookers' and distribute stocks confiscated from dealers!
Rural poor, i.e., agricultural labourers and toiling peasants, will have mainly two types of opposition in this fight of theirs. (1) The ruling party, CPIM and its govt and armed machineries of party and govt will start a two-pronged effort: (A) starting to ‘regularise' ration supply a little, giving ‘token' punishments to some topmost corrupt dealers, perhaps a couple of petty govt officials too, starting to distribute few more breadcrumbs through ‘relief', ‘100-days-work' type programs, some token helps for poor households if they can, etc to placate the rural poor; (B) with vengeance let loose their ‘terror machine' on some troubled villages to ‘spread' their lesson. (2) The opposition parties, particularly the TMC led by Ms Mamata Banerjee, will jump on with eyes fixed to their main target: cash-in the mood of the masses in the next panchayat election, then next snap poll that might come. Repeated demands of CBI enquiries is a way to dissuade the masses from taking up the cudgel in their own hands, instead sit idle putting faith on some tiny machinery of the present state-power. In the final analysis all of those parliamentary parties will target first to ‘disarm' the masses.
But what are the ‘arms' or weapons that the rebel rural poor have at their disposal and are using too? Those weapons are (A) their unity cutting across their ‘old' party-allegiance and shedding, throwing off their old party loyalties , (B) their resolve to fight back, their unwillingness to tolerate this hell like life of theirs, the arrogance, highhandedness of the party-panchayat-govt-babus, the utter contempt these latter show to the poor in everyday experiences, and (C) their effort to take the whips in their own hands. This is the ‘new' trend in which further lies their urge to have the “rein”, the “steering wheel” too in their own hands. Revolutionary activists must spread this message that the rural poor should never abandon these weapons — If the rural poor put faith on some party or other, give up their whips to the leaders, that will mean surrendering their weapons, and they will again be deceived, cheated. Haven't they been cheated enough by the CPIM by putting faith on this party for so long!
Perhaps this spate of revolts will subside within next month [Aghran] or so by the arrival of the busy harvesting season. But the spirit will not die. The people have shown their trend, taught lessons to all concerned in the society including revolutionary groups; the rebel people are also learning lessons — how different parties are behaving, how the CPIM is guarding the ration-dealers, even defending ‘corruption' on the plea of ‘very small commissions' [!] that dealers get, and so on; and what is more, they will remember how they ‘enjoyed' this taking up of whips in their own hand, how the village bosses were frightened and also yielded at some places, how ration regularised only by pressure from below. Even if rebel villagers seem to ‘go back to the fold' of CPIM in terms of ‘voting' or by not joining any opposition party/group, everything will not be the same. That's true and sure!
However, working class activists and organisers should keep in mind that the rural toiling masses, particularly the agricultural labourers and poor peasants have some extra difficulties in building their own organisations; because unlike workers, who intrinsically has the tradition of TU organisation and struggle, the village poor have no such tradition; neither they constitute a homogeneous class, nor they are objectively ‘organised' by the production process itself. In the internationally revolutionary days after the Soviet Revolution, during the early days of 3rd International, the extreme difficulty of forming agricultural labourers' organisation even in highly developed capitalist country like Great Britain [which had ‘no peasantry', only capitalist farmers and labourers] was observed. But then, the people have almost a century's experience more at present; they saw rise and fall of the peoples' powers, rise and fall of parties that led revolutions, they suffered the great Defeat. Now, in a party-less condition they have started to rebel. They are showing unconsciously what they have in store inside their own ‘sum-up' of the past. It will be imprudent to chalk out innovatively some organisational form subjectively. We need to study the objectivity of the new movements. If the masses are able to form some sort of organisation of their own independently, that will provide lessons too. Let us emphasise again — all these rebellions are taking place in the period of defeat and in the condition of party-less-ness. Therefore, the old, habitual ‘pattern' of thinking of providing the people with the “peasants' mass organisation under the party”, the percept of trying to ‘fit' the rebellions and rural rebel-toilers in the so-called ‘mass organisation' framework of the revolutionary groups, etc will not only be non-functional and unworkable but also disastrous for the whole development of struggles of the people and more importantly the organisations coming up from below.
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