[Reader-list] reader-list Digest, Vol 52, Issue 64

[TaraPrakash]

Well, the discussion has taken place about that as well, and I guess you are 
free to start or continue the discussion on that.

Good luck
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bain Al Satoor" <bainulsatoor at googlemail.com>
To: <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Friday, November 23, 2007 11:12 AM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] reader-list Digest, Vol 52, Issue 64


> Hello all
>
> I am new to this group. Since the time i have joined this reader-list,
> i am being bombarded with hot discussion (accompanied by long mails)
> on Nandigram, Tasleema Nasreen, M. F. Hussain etc. etc. I must say
> they are all informative and educating mails. But i wonder why there
> is  no discussion on Busharraf's emergency.
>
> i am trying to get to know what's happening there but the only good
> weblinks that i could find are as follows, which are able to to
> provide some updates
>
> http://paki-blogger.blogspot.com
>
> http://dictatorshipwatch.com
>
> http://academicsforfreedom.blogspot.com
>
> anyways... i think pakistan is too far and too troubled state to have
> any discussion on.
>
> Good Luck to the right cause, right protest and right to protest on 
> Nandigram.
>
> Bain
>
> On Nov 23, 2007 9:03 PM,  <reader-list-request at sarai.net> wrote:
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>> Today's Topics:
>>
>>    1. Re: Kunal Chattopadhyay to Tariq Ali on Nandigram (TaraPrakash)
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2007 10:33:42 -0500
>> From: "TaraPrakash" <taraprakash at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Kunal Chattopadhyay to Tariq Ali on
>>         Nandigram
>> To: "Abhishek Hazra" <abhishek.hazra at gmail.com>,        "sarai list"
>>         <reader-list at sarai.net>
>> Message-ID: <00a501c82de6$40e9a0c0$6400a8c0 at taraprakash>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="utf-8";
>>         reply-type=original
>>
>> With due respect to the two American intelectuals, we are concerned with 
>> in
>> this thread, I don't think Chomsky and Zin have as much to do with India,
>> rather Nandi Gram, "a very small corner of a big country" --in the words 
>> of
>> a Forward (read backward) Block MP-- as Labour party had to do with the
>> government of India. Getting a letter signed by Chomsky and Zin can be an
>> achievement as far as the left intellectuals are concerned, but for the
>> people massacred in Nandi Gram and those living under the rule of terror 
>> in
>> West Bengal, Gujarat, J&K and so on, it means nothing. As much as I know,
>> Chomsky and Zin have written nothing that have anything substential to do
>> with the suffering multitude in the developing countries, even if they 
>> had
>> written, the sufferers can't care less.
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Abhishek Hazra" <abhishek.hazra at gmail.com>
>> To: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
>> Sent: Friday, November 23, 2007 2:55 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Kunal Chattopadhyay to Tariq Ali on Nandigram
>>
>>
>> > thanks shuddha for the post,
>> > reading it i was reminded of one of E.P. Thompson's essay (collected i
>> > think in Writing by Candlelight) where he narrates his experience of
>> > visiting india during the emergency and repeatedly facing the same
>> > question from fellow indian communists: "why has the labour party
>> > decided to support mrs. gandhi?"
>> >
>> > On Nov 23, 2007 4:09 AM,  <shuddha at sarai.net> wrote:
>> >> Dear All,
>> >>
>> >> Some of you may have read the letter signed by Chomsky, Zinn and 
>> >> others,
>> >> prevaricating on Nandigram, primarily at the behest of Vijay Prashad.
>> >>
>> >> I am posting below a response, addressed to Tariq Ali by Kunal
>> >> Chattopadhyay (he teaches history at Jadavpur University, Kolkata). 
>> >> Tariq
>> >> Ali and Kunal Chattopadhyay were both comrades in the Fourth
>> >> International.
>> >>
>> >> This informative post may be of interest to those following the
>> >> continuing
>> >> debate on West Bengal
>> >>
>> >> best
>> >>
>> >> Shuddha
>> >>
>> >> ------------------------------
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> An Open Letter to Tariq Ali
>> >> Posted on www.sanhati.com
>> >>
>> >> By Kunal Chattopadhyay, Radicalblogger
>> >> http://kunal-radicalblogger.blogspot.com/
>> >>
>> >> Dear Tariq,
>> >>
>> >> When I was a very young radical, still a Maoist rather than a 
>> >> Trotskyist,
>> >> it was your name, rather than that of Ernest Mandel, or of anyone 
>> >> else,
>> >> that we came across, here in our part of India. There are still older
>> >> comrades in West Bengal, who talk about a certain period of Fourth
>> >> International history, in terms of "in those days of Tariq Ali". This
>> >> is why, a statement, even though signed by Chomsky, Zinn and others,
>> >> along
>> >> with the man who seems to have carried out the coup, a gentleman named
>> >> Vijay Prashad, becomes most painful because you are among the
>> >> signatories.
>> >> As you once wrote in one of your wonderful books, about another 
>> >> comrade
>> >> of
>> >> yours, 'there was fire in his belly in those days'. Perhaps we have 
>> >> all
>> >> grown older, but some of us have refused to grow "wiser".
>> >>
>> >> I read, and re-read, with a growing sense of wonder, shame and above 
>> >> all
>> >> anger, "the statement that some of you have signed. If you are
>> >> uninformed, what gave you the authority to issue a pompous statement
>> >> based
>> >> on that lack of information? I write to you, because I consider you a
>> >> comrade who has committed a mistake in signing this statement.
>> >>
>> >> Right at the beginning, you write:
>> >>
>> >> News travels to us that events in West Bengal have overtaken the 
>> >> optimism
>> >> that some of us have experienced during trips to the state. We are
>> >> concerned about the rancor that has divided the public space, created
>> >> what
>> >> appear to be unbridgeable gaps between people who share similar 
>> >> values.
>> >>
>> >> Who are these people who share similar values? Just what do you know
>> >> about
>> >> the values shared by those in governmental authority in West Bengal? 
>> >> You,
>> >> and those others amongst you, who made trips here, met some of the
>> >> CPI(M)'s intellectuals, who put on a special face for foreign
>> >> delegations. But as someone who has known Marxism for longer than I 
>> >> have,
>> >> you know well that it is never possible to judge people solely by what
>> >> they
>> >> say about themselves. When someone uses words like democracy, even
>> >> socialism, anti-imperialism, unless you know the context, unless you 
>> >> know
>> >> exactly what their political practice is, you cannot assume that they 
>> >> say
>> >> those words in the same way that you, or someone else does.
>> >>
>> >> So let us begin by looking at values. Just a small example of values.
>> >> When
>> >> the Singur –Nandigram issues began blowing up, Medha Patkar, who 
>> >> happens
>> >> to be one of India's most respected social movement activists, someone
>> >> who has therefore been vilified by parties and governments across 
>> >> India,
>> >> extended her solidarity for the militant people. CPI(M) leaders took
>> >> umbrage. CPI(M) State Secretariat member (and Central Committee 
>> >> member)
>> >> Benoy Konar, in a speech, called on women to show Medha Patkar their
>> >> buttocks. When Medha tried to go to Nandigram, her car was blockaded, 
>> >> and
>> >> some people, supporters of the CPI(M), indeed followed Konar's advice 
>> >> and
>> >> showed Medha their buttocks. I could quote dozens of newspaper and
>> >> television reports, but most clippings I have are in Bengali, so I 
>> >> give
>> >> you
>> >> the url of Medha's own report.
>> >>
>> >> I dare you, or any of your co-signatories, with the exception of Mr.
>> >> Vijay
>> >> Prashad, to come forward and assert that you share similar values as
>> >> these
>> >> people.
>> >>
>> >> I am sure, that once this open letter is circulated, it will also be
>> >> trivialized by the murders who are posing as leftists and persuading 
>> >> you
>> >> to
>> >> sign on behalf of them. So let me say that this is not the only issue 
>> >> I
>> >> am
>> >> talking about when we say values. I will be talking about political
>> >> outlook
>> >> and values in other ways. But Tariq, in the most extreme days of the 
>> >> IMT
>> >> line, when talking about guerilla warfare, did you ever call on your
>> >> comrades to do unto political opponents, that which Benoy Konar 
>> >> suggested
>> >> and that which his followers obliged by doing?
>> >>
>> >> If by values you mean left wing values, you would have to define more
>> >> precisely what sort of leftism you are talking about. CPI(M) leaders 
>> >> and
>> >> their government here in West Bengal are deeply wedded to a very
>> >> authoritarian form of bourgeois democracy. I will be able to mention 
>> >> only
>> >> a
>> >> few cases below. But perhaps the clearest evidence is this – despite 
>> >> the
>> >> fact that in the period 1971-1977, the Congress in power used utmost
>> >> brutality, had people illegally arrested, tortured, many actually 
>> >> killed,
>> >> in three decades in power, the CPI(M) led government has failed to 
>> >> carry
>> >> though the prosecution of a single police officer of that era.
>> >>
>> >> In your statement, you present a euphemistic comment, saying that you 
>> >> are
>> >> concerned about the rancor that has divided the public space. The
>> >> "rancor" that you talk about is the result of a long period of
>> >> violation of civil liberties, of brutal repression of political
>> >> opposition
>> >> and massive use of party cadres as thugs. The most respected civil
>> >> liberties organization in West Bengal , the Association for the
>> >> Protection
>> >> of Democratic Rights, has recently been targeted by the chief 
>> >> minister,
>> >> who
>> >> claimed that the APDR is a Maoist outfit. The crime of the APDR was 
>> >> that
>> >> it
>> >> has consistently argued that everyone has political and civil rights, 
>> >> and
>> >> these cannot be circumscribed without threatening all of us.
>> >>
>> >> Let me again give some illustration. Attacks on the Maoists, 
>> >> especially
>> >> the
>> >> organizations CPI(ML) Peoples' War, the Maoist Communist Centre, and
>> >> after they merged, the CPI(Maoist) have been massive. Anyone suspected 
>> >> of
>> >> being a Maoist has been arrested, even without real charges. And why 
>> >> is
>> >> someone suspected? In Medinipur district, an activist of the APDR was
>> >> arrested as a suspected Maoist, on the strength of material found in 
>> >> his
>> >> possession. Such material included a copy of George Thompson's From 
>> >> Marx
>> >> to Mao-tse Tung. I still have a copy at home, and I am wondering when 
>> >> it
>> >> will be my turn to be arrested. In Kolkata, a man was arrested on
>> >> suspicion
>> >> of being a Maoist, and he was so traumatized by police action, that he
>> >> committed suicide. (Ananda Bazar patrika, 9.7.2002). Four days after
>> >> Ananda
>> >> Bazar Patrika wrote about this, the CPI(M) daily newspaper, 
>> >> Ganashakti,
>> >> reported that Benoy Konar told journalists, in reply to a question on
>> >> whether the police had overstepped the boundaries of human rights, 
>> >> that
>> >> it
>> >> is difficult to determine the boundaries of human rights. In addition,
>> >> Konar treated the media to the homily that the baton of the police is
>> >> used
>> >> as a repressive apparatus. (Ganashakti, 11.7,02). In 2002, the Chief
>> >> Minister said that the KLO in North Bengal or the Maoists elsewhere 
>> >> were
>> >> holding up development. So the priority for development was used to
>> >> justify
>> >> violence on them. The Home Minister's budget speech for 2002-2003 
>> >> seeking
>> >> additional funds for the police highlighted the commitment of the 
>> >> state
>> >> to
>> >> modernisation of the police for counter-insurgency; at a time when the
>> >> government's debt burden had risen to 7500 billion rupees. (Amit
>> >> Bhattacharya, 'Duhsomoy: Ganatantra, Manabadhikar O Paschimbanger
>> >> 'Sangbedanshil' Sarkar', in Bartaman Lokayatik, 2002-2003, Nos. 3-4
>> >> and 1-2, pp. 238-270 . See especially pp. 245-7; and also Ananda Bazar
>> >> Patrika, 7.8.2002) .
>> >>
>> >> There has been a long, very long trail of state and party sponsored
>> >> violence. The APDR has regularly listed cases. Two comrades, members 
>> >> of
>> >> the
>> >> Nari Nirjatan Pratirodh Mancha (Forum Against Oppression of Women,
>> >> Kolkata), Mira Roy and Soma Marik, have written a booklet, Women Under
>> >> the
>> >> left Front rule: Expectations Betrayed, where violence on women have 
>> >> been
>> >> discussed extensively. Not all are cases of political violence. In 
>> >> many
>> >> cases, we have seen how rapists have been defended by leaders of the
>> >> ruling
>> >> party. For example, in August 1991, a young woman had been arrested 
>> >> from
>> >> a
>> >> hotel in Kanthi, where she had registered with a male friend. She was
>> >> then
>> >> raped by the police. Virtually defending the police, Acting Chief
>> >> Minister
>> >> Benoy Chowdhury told the West Bengal Assembly that she had registered
>> >> under
>> >> an assumed name with a male friend. In other words, since she was a
>> >> presumably unmarried woman "gone bad" it was fair enough if the police
>> >> had a little fun with her. Values I share with them? No thanks.
>> >>
>> >> Violence over Singur and Nandigram are not unrelated to the foregoing. 
>> >> At
>> >> one level, they reflect the culture of violence supported by the 
>> >> ruling
>> >> party. At another level, they reflect the submission to neo-liberal
>> >> globalization, even while a huge rhetoric is floated abroad for the
>> >> consumption of international left-wing intellectuals. After all, we 
>> >> boast
>> >> of an intellectual chief minister capable of quoting noted poets as 
>> >> part
>> >> of
>> >> his political spiels. So he needs the endorsement of intellectuals.
>> >>
>> >> You write, "We continue to trust that the people of Bengal will not 
>> >> allow
>> >> their differences on some issues to tear apart the important 
>> >> experiments
>> >> undertaken in the state (land reforms, local self-government)." Since 
>> >> the
>> >> signature is mostly of leftwing persons, and since in particular I am
>> >> writing to you, a well-known Marxist, I trust the signatories, and
>> >> especially you, know that there is no unified and homogeneous people. 
>> >> I
>> >> am
>> >> sorry if I have to spell out such truisms. But in these days of 
>> >> triumph
>> >> of
>> >> neo-liberalism, this kind of woolly-woolly, non-class language is 
>> >> being
>> >> resorted to, even by those whom I have always treated as charter 
>> >> members
>> >> of
>> >> the class struggle camp. West Bengal is part of India, and India is a
>> >> bourgeois state with an economy where extremes coexist. From the 
>> >> latest
>> >> in
>> >> Information Technology in Sector V of Salt Lake, it will take you just
>> >> about two and a half hours by car to get to Nandigram, where you have
>> >> plenty of poor peasants eking out a living much as their grandparents
>> >> did.
>> >> Not that there has been no change, no development, but that has been
>> >> limited development in a backward capitalist economy. Since the 
>> >> current
>> >> conflicts seem minor to you, compared to the "important experiments",
>> >> let us look at those experiments briefly. As I am not writing a 
>> >> treatise,
>> >> I
>> >> do not intend to write for long pages, nor to provide extensive
>> >> footnotes.
>> >> It is however necessary to question fundamentally the false claims of 
>> >> the
>> >> West Bengal Government, that you seem to have swallowed hook, line and
>> >> sinker.
>> >>
>> >> Some years back, when the PRC had just started its trek back to class
>> >> collaborationist politics, a comrade in the PRC named Franco Grisolia
>> >> wrote
>> >> to two of us, asking for a note on the CPI(M) led government, as well 
>> >> as
>> >> CPI(M)'s support to the UPA at the center, because this model was 
>> >> being
>> >> held up by supporters of Bertinotti to justify their turn to the 
>> >> right.
>> >> So
>> >> Soma Marik and I wrote a longish essay, The Left Front and the United
>> >> Progressive Alliance, one version of which was published in Italian, 
>> >> and
>> >> another version, in English, was put up in the website of our comrades 
>> >> of
>> >> Socialist Democracy, Irish supporters of the Fourth International.
>> >>
>> >> Just one paragraph from that essay will reveal an interesting story: 
>> >> "The
>> >> key issue of land distribution, in fact, tells an interesting story. 
>> >> In
>> >> 1967, and again in 1969, two short-lived United Front governments had
>> >> been
>> >> formed. There had been a mass upsurge, and huge land seizures and
>> >> distribution. OF ALL the ceiling-surplus land vested with the state 
>> >> since
>> >> 1953 (when the West Bengal Estate Acquisition Act was passed) and the
>> >> year
>> >> 2000, as much as 44 per cent of this land (6 lakh acres) was obtained 
>> >> in
>> >> the five-year period between 1967 and 1972, thanks to the energetic
>> >> initiatives of the two United Fronts; another 26% (3.5 lakh acres) had
>> >> been
>> >> acquired earlier. In the last 20 years of Left Front rule only 1.53 
>> >> lakh
>> >> acres were acquired, which amounts to almost a quarter of what was
>> >> achieved
>> >> during the very short UF regime and almost a half of what was obtained
>> >> during the 14 years (1953-1967) of Congress rule." The two United 
>> >> Front
>> >> governments saw an active left, and one moreover facing a serious
>> >> challenge
>> >> from the emerging Maoist forces who eventually became the CPI (ML). 
>> >> Land
>> >> reform at that time was based on popular initiative, not bureaucratic
>> >> measures. The collapse of the governments clearly taught the CPI (M) a
>> >> lesson – to wit, do not rock the boat of the bourgeoisie and their
>> >> partners if you want a long stint.
>> >>
>> >> As for the important local self government experiments that you talk
>> >> about,
>> >> what, really, is significant? The three tier panchayat system has been 
>> >> in
>> >> operation in other provinces as well. Digvijay Singh, the Congress 
>> >> chief
>> >> minister of Madhya Pradesh, took measures to extend it to the level of
>> >> the
>> >> individual village. Despite much talk about panchayats being organs of
>> >> self-rule of peasants, rich peasants and teachers formed the bulk. And
>> >> given the fact that the poorer classes seldom were able to let their
>> >> children finish secondary education, let alone college, teachers came
>> >> from
>> >> rich peasant families, or from non-agricultural families. A survey in 
>> >> one
>> >> of the districts, Purulia, further showed that real help was received
>> >> from
>> >> the government's developmental projects by a significant part of the
>> >> rural rich, using their positions in the panchayats. (Prabir
>> >> Bhattacharyya,
>> >> ed, Anva Artha 19: Bamfront Sarkar—Ekti Mulyayan, Calcutta, May 1985,
>> >> pp.11-14.)
>> >>
>> >> You next write:
>> >>
>> >> "We send our fullest solidarity to the peasants who have been forcibly
>> >> dispossessed. We understand that the government has promised not to 
>> >> build
>> >> a
>> >> chemical hub in the area around Nandigram. We understand that those 
>> >> who
>> >> had
>> >> been dispossessed by the violence are now being allowed back to their
>> >> homes, without recrimination. We understand that there is now talk of
>> >> reconciliation. This is what we favor."
>> >>
>> >> This paragraph was drafted by/ is based on arguments by someone who is 
>> >> a
>> >> dab hand at creating confusions that eventually aid exploiters, but is 
>> >> at
>> >> the same time able to pull the wool over the eyes of leftists who are 
>> >> a
>> >> little away from the scene. "We send our fullest solidarity to the
>> >> peasants who have been forcibly dispossessed." Exactly which groups 
>> >> are
>> >> you talking about? Evidently not those of Singur, since the next 
>> >> sentence
>> >> clearly talks about Nandigram. In Singur, a colonial era law was used 
>> >> to
>> >> dispossess peasants, to hand over land to one of India's major 
>> >> capitalist
>> >> concerns, the Tatas. Even if we accept, (as I do not, as I hope you 
>> >> still
>> >> do not), the logic of the "free market", why should a supposedly
>> >> progressive government use a colonial law to dispossess peasants for 
>> >> the
>> >> benefit of a capitalist group that is so rich that it can bid for and 
>> >> win
>> >> in a battle to control a First World company? Why did the government 
>> >> not
>> >> tell the Tatas to go and negotiate directly with the peasants so that
>> >> they
>> >> could get whatever benefits they were able to wrest? Moreover, perhaps
>> >> your
>> >> informants forgot to tell you, that there were vast numbers of share
>> >> croppers, agricultural labourers, as well as people in various 
>> >> industries
>> >> and transportation sectors in and around Singur, for whom the rich
>> >> agricultural land of singur mattered. Thus, people in the potato 
>> >> industry
>> >> (for Singur grows potato) lost out. People transporting potato lost 
>> >> out.
>> >> Wage labourers lost out. And these, the proletarian sections, have
>> >> received
>> >> what compensation? The answer, dear Tariq, is zilch.
>> >>
>> >> So let us pass on to Nandigram. There, your statement is 
>> >> extraordinarily
>> >> damaging. If it had come from comparable intellectuals in India, I 
>> >> would
>> >> have used stronger language. I suppose that ignorance lets you 
>> >> partially
>> >> off the hook. What is sad is that you think it perfectly legitimate to
>> >> issue a statement even though you are ignorant about the details.
>> >>
>> >> There have been two charges of being dispossessed. On 6th January, 
>> >> 2007,
>> >> CPI(M) thugs attacked peasants, and the retaliatory violence drove out 
>> >> a
>> >> number of them. A further lot left of their own, fearful of the
>> >> situation.
>> >> They all stayed in a place called Khejuri. The CVPI(M) has claimed 
>> >> high
>> >> figures – sometimes mentioning 1500, sometimes 3000. No independent
>> >> investigation has proved this. Several of us went to Nandigram after 
>> >> the
>> >> CPI(M) attack of 14 March, when 14 persons, at least, were murdered, 
>> >> and
>> >> at
>> >> least four women were raped. At that time, our investigations 
>> >> suggested
>> >> that the total number of CPI(M) supporters forced to leave Nandigram 
>> >> were
>> >> around 300. The APDR twice sent teams to Khejuri, and suggested a 
>> >> figure
>> >> of
>> >> around 350. Out of these, some 35 had clearly been identified by 
>> >> peasants
>> >> in Nandigram as active elements in the so-called cadre force of CPI(M) 
>> >> ,
>> >> i.e., the gun toting criminals who eventually carried out the November
>> >> attacks to "reconquer" Nandigram. Now, in the first days, tens of
>> >> thousands fled. Over the last few days they have trickled back, after
>> >> having pledged loyalty to the CPI(M). So there is no recrimination,
>> >> provided you have the 100% support for the CPI(M).
>> >>
>> >> You write that you understand that the government has promised not to
>> >> build
>> >> a chemical hub around Nandigram. This specific reference comes as a
>> >> surprise. Because it is actually once again a case of your walking 
>> >> into a
>> >> trap. First, the chemical hub, and a number of similar proposals, are 
>> >> all
>> >> of the same type – calls to build SEZs. If SEZs are built, who will 
>> >> they
>> >> benefit? They will not follow even India's far from excellent labour
>> >> laws. Secondly, the chemical hub, wherever built, is going to be an
>> >> environmental disaster. Finally, and most crucially, the West Bengal
>> >> government never formally promised not to build the chemical hub in
>> >> Nandigram. What they said was that it will not be built in Nandigram 
>> >> if
>> >> the
>> >> people do not want it. Now, after the CPI(M) conquest,( for that is 
>> >> what
>> >> it
>> >> was, it was not even the state apparatus going in, but armed forces of
>> >> the
>> >> major party of the Left Front), what if people are compelled to say 
>> >> that
>> >> yes, they do want the chemical hub? Let me remind you, that the CPI(M) 
>> >> is
>> >> among the world's largest surviving parties of Stalinist origin, and
>> >> while the Moscow tie is long gone, the Moscow style has been 
>> >> retained —
>> >> but in the service of capitalism. Today's (21st November) newspapers
>> >> already carry a news about how peasants have been forced to give 
>> >> written
>> >> apologies to the CPI(M) in order to go and work in their fields.
>> >>
>> >> You talk of reconciliation. Between whom do you wish for 
>> >> reconciliation?
>> >> Now that the CPI(M) has actually conquered the territory by force, 
>> >> would
>> >> a
>> >> humble acquiescence, given the inability to do anything else, be 
>> >> treated
>> >> as
>> >> reconciliation? Perhaps a little more detail about who the cadres were
>> >> and
>> >> how they fought the peasants would come in handy. Cadres — local
>> >> criminals mostly involved in robbery cases — for the operation were 
>> >> drawn
>> >> from Chandrakona and Garbeta zonal committees. Also, cadres were sent
>> >> from
>> >> Narayangarh and Keshiary areas. Another group of around 250 armed CPM
>> >> supporters and criminals came from the villages of Punishol at Onda 
>> >> and
>> >> Rajpur, Taldangra in Bankura.
>> >>
>> >> Sources said criminals were given money in advance and given a 
>> >> free-hand
>> >> to
>> >> bring whatever they could from the empty homes once the operation is
>> >> complete. Sources said one such group that has returned to Onda came 
>> >> with
>> >> motorcycles.
>> >>
>> >> The Bankura group reached Nandigram after travelling by train and then
>> >> road. The group boarded trains and allegedly got off at Balichak, four
>> >> stations after Kharagpur, and then headed towards Nandigram via 
>> >> Khejuri
>> >> in
>> >> the guise of daily wage earners. They take the same disguise when they 
>> >> go
>> >> to Bihar and Jharkhand to collect arms, sources said.
>> >>
>> >> Most of these people are suspected to be running arms smuggling 
>> >> rackets.
>> >> The arms used in the recapture operation are believed to have been
>> >> supplied
>> >> from these suppliers.
>> >>
>> >> Another cache of arms came from Purulia where party workers had 
>> >> received
>> >> arms to combat Maoists. It is also suspected that the arms gone 
>> >> missing
>> >> after the Purulia arms drop are with CPM supporters and were smuggled 
>> >> to
>> >> Nandigram.
>> >>
>> >> The coal mafia from Burdwan is also believed to have played a key role 
>> >> in
>> >> the operation. The money from the mafia is believed to have supplied
>> >> funds
>> >> for the operation, helped in procuring ammunition and hire vehicles 
>> >> that
>> >> carried the armed men to the interior areas as the attack progressed.
>> >>
>> >> In your final paragraph, written in bold type in the version I 
>> >> received,
>> >> you write:
>> >>
>> >> "The balance of forces in the world is such that it would be impetuous 
>> >> to
>> >> split the left. We are faced with a world power that has demolished 
>> >> one
>> >> state (Iraq) and is now threatening another (Iran). This is not the 
>> >> time
>> >> for division when the basis of division no longer appears to exist."
>> >>
>> >> So here we get the motivation that led you to write the letter. You do
>> >> not
>> >> wish for a split in the left in the face of resurgent US imperialism. 
>> >> Let
>> >> me go back several years. As you are aware, the Fourth International 
>> >> had
>> >> been great supporters of the Nicaraguan Revolution, and we, here in
>> >> locally, tried our best to campaign for Nicaragua. At one stage, when
>> >> Halima Lopez Sarkar was appointed the Nicaraguan ambassador to India, 
>> >> the
>> >> CPI(M) decided to take up the campaign for Nicaragua. Of c ourse, with
>> >> their incomparably bigger force, they could do much more. But when I 
>> >> had
>> >> a
>> >> talk with a Sandinista comrade who came here, he accused us of being
>> >> sectarian to the CPI(M). I pointed out that our problem was simple – 
>> >> the
>> >> CPI(M) would not even let us do any united front work while retaining 
>> >> our
>> >> independent political stance. So even if we accept, as you obviously 
>> >> do,
>> >> that the CPI(M) is a legitimate part of the left, how would we be able 
>> >> to
>> >> avoid a split? In emails where what passes for debates, CPI(M) 
>> >> supporters
>> >> are not only abusive towards us, but even to RSP or forward Bloc,
>> >> partners
>> >> of the CPI(M) in the Left Front who have been critical about Nandigram 
>> >> as
>> >> well as the CPI(M)'s sudden volte face over the Nuclear Deal.
>> >>
>> >> Yet you are confident, that it is we who are impetuously causing the
>> >> split.
>> >> Tariq, the split is decades old. The CPI(M)'s idea of political 
>> >> hegemony
>> >> is simple – bash everyone on the left till they genuflect before you. 
>> >> But
>> >> according to you and your fellow signatories, the basis of divisions 
>> >> no
>> >> longer appears to exist. If by this you mean that Nandigram's 
>> >> resistance
>> >> has been smashed, that armed terrorists of the CPI(M) have silenced 
>> >> the
>> >> peasants, you are of course right. The basis however exists, because 
>> >> we
>> >> have been unable to accept what was done.
>> >>
>> >> Your argument, that in the face of the US, we must not fight the 
>> >> CPI(M),
>> >> can be extended to every tin pot dictator who takes a formal anti-US
>> >> stand.
>> >> Meanwhile, the CPI(M) led government constantly strives to welcome
>> >> multinationals, it fights tooth and nail in defence of globalization. 
>> >> In
>> >> lieu of several more pages of details, I offer you the URL of Sanhati
>> >> (Solidarity), an anti-globalization website. Here you will find plenty 
>> >> of
>> >> discussions about the Left front government and globalization.
>> >>
>> >> Nonetheless, you will say, what about the Left and its ability to
>> >> influence
>> >> the Government of India, or its ability to bring out millions in
>> >> demonstrations? Once more, even accepting your premise that when you 
>> >> say
>> >> CPI(M) you still say Left (would you make the same concession for the
>> >> right
>> >> wing of the old Italian CP?) , why can we not oppose the CPI(M) on 
>> >> other
>> >> issues? Or are you saying, that in the face of the US war threat, all
>> >> class
>> >> questions inside India disappear? Are you saying that those who are in
>> >> government and are implementing World Bank-IMF dictated economic 
>> >> policies
>> >> are such valiant fighters against imperialism that we must accept the
>> >> loving pats they give us, even through their guns? Would demobilizing
>> >> militant fighters be then the best road to militant anti-imperialism? 
>> >> I
>> >> never learnt that from Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Luxemburg or 
>> >> Mandel.
>> >>
>> >> Long years of defeat and retreat have made many of us cautious. I 
>> >> agree
>> >> that the power of US imperialism is greater than it was. But I firmly
>> >> believe that we can best contribute to the anti-imperialist struggles 
>> >> by
>> >> consistent anti-capitalism at the point of our existence. When I 
>> >> joined
>> >> the
>> >> Trotskyist movement, nearly three decades back, this was clear to me.
>> >> This
>> >> was clear to me even before that, when I understood the meaning of 
>> >> Che's
>> >> call to create two, three, many Vietnams. And yes, on 14th November,
>> >> despite attempts to turn the protest demonstration into an 
>> >> "apolitical"
>> >> show by some high profile figures, there were banners and posters, 
>> >> like
>> >> the
>> >> one that said, Nandigram is Bengal's Vietnam, or the poster where Marx
>> >> says, "Not in My name." Don't, please, call for a cession of the
>> >> struggles of toilers in Marx's name, and don't claim that bourgeois
>> >> reformism, like some land distribution, some registration of
>> >> sharecroppers,
>> >> or panchayat elections, make West Bengal a planet apart. Stand by 
>> >> those
>> >> who
>> >> have been murdered, and their comrades, and don't call for a
>> >> reconciliation between defenders of the ruling class who use
>> >> sophisticated
>> >> Marxist sounding jargon, and the crude, unsophisticated, but militant
>> >> fighters who resist them.
>> >>
>> >> With comradely greetings
>> >>
>> >> Kunal Chattopadhyay
>> >>
>> >> Professor of History
>> >> Jadavpur University
>> >> Fourth Internationalist since 1980
>> >>
>> >> _________________________________________
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>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>> > does the frog know it has a latin name?
>> > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>> > _________________________________________
>> > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
>> > Critiques & Collaborations
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>> > subscribe in the subject header.
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>>
>>
>>
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>> End of reader-list Digest, Vol 52, Issue 64
>> *******************************************
>>
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