People's Democracy

(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)


Vol. XXXV

No. 29

July 17, 2011

Solidarity Actions with West Bengal Continue

                                                                                     

THOUGH the TMC-Congress regime in West Bengal is trying to strangulate democracy and the voice of dissent in the state, those who think that communists can be eliminated politically by brute force of terror and murder shall be proved wrong. Overcoming this semi-fascist terror tactic, the Left and democratic movement of West Bengal shall reconsolidate itself. The democratic masses of Tripura shall always stand in solidarity with the masses and the Left movement of West Bengal in their struggle for democratic rights. This was the call emanating from the week long programme, all over Tripura, of solidarity with the Left in West Bengal. The programme also reflected the anguish of the people against the undemocratic and anarchical designs of the Congress party in Tripura aimed at disturbing the atmosphere of peace, tranquillity and development in the state.

 

The week long West Bengal solidarity programme received spontaneous response from all sections of the people. Jathas, processions and mass meetings were organised in all the subdivisions of the state. Apart from the CPI(M), different mass organisations including the DYFI, SFI and AIDWA took to the streets to condemn the reign of terror unleashed against the Left and democratic movement in West Bengal. The solidarity actions were not confined to the subdivision headquarters alone, but organised by different local committees also. From the northern border town of Dharmanagar to Sabroom at the southern tip of the state, people from all walks of life came out in unequivocal protest against the semi-fascist terror by the TMC- Congress goons in west Bengal.

 

The booklet released by the CPI(M) Central Committee about the attacks in West Bengal was translated in Bengali and widely distributed throughout the state.

 

On July 6, as a part of the solidarity programme, an impressive rally was organised in Agartala, the state capital. Responding to the call of the Left Front, thousands of people from the eight local committee areas of the city participated in the rally, followed by a mass meeting at the Paradise Chowmohoni. The mass meeting was addressed by CPI(M) Sadar district secretary Samar Adhya, DC secretariat member SankarDutta, CPI state secretary Prashanta Kapali, RSP leader Kalipada Bhattacharya and AIFB state president Brajagopal Ray. The meeting was presided over by veteran CPI(M) leader Chitta Chanda and the party’s state committee member Chhaya Bal. The leaders said the current spell of post-election terror campaign in Bengal reminds one of the semi-fascist reign of terror which Tripura had witnessed during the Congress-TUJS regime of 1988-1992. The ruling classes of the country, with active support from the imperialist forces, have succeeding in their design to unseat the Left Front government in Bengal and are now conspiring to annihilate the communists. This assault on the democratic rights of the people, murders, capturing of party offices etc won’t be confined to the communists alone; no section of the society would be spared of this attack, just like what had happened in Nazi Germany. The leaders expressed confidence that the people of West Bengal would not bow down before these attacks. The glorious Left movement of the state shall rejuvenate and reconsolidate itself, win back the people and resist this terror. As the opposition led by the Congress in Tripura is overjoyed at the electoral defeat of the Left in West Bengal and is conspiring to unseat the elected Left Front government in the state, the leaders called upon the people to resist the attempts by the Congress to destroy the atmosphere of peace, harmony and development in the state.

 

The solidarity programmes continued even up to the 9th of July. A huge rally of students and youth in Dukli walked a stretch of 10 kilometres on Saturday, July 9, to condemn the attacks on democracy in West Bengal and to protest against the attempts to create terror and anarchy in the state by the Congress party. Braving the scorching heat, a youthful slogan shouting rally of thousands of students and youth walked from the University campus to the Nagerjala motor stand. When the front end of the rally reached Nagerjala, the tail was still moving out from the University campus at Suryamani Nagar. The tableaux in front of the rally depicted the semi-fascist terror being unleashed in West Bengal. The youth and the students warned the opposition against its heinous plot to disturb the admission test to the Tripura Medical College as part of its anarchical designs to disturb and hamper the atmosphere of peace, stability and development of the state. (Rahul Sinha)

 

TAMILNADU: HEART-

FELT SOLIDARITY

THOUSANDS of cadre and sympathisers of the Left parties, including the Communist Party of India (Marxist), in Tamilnadu expressed their solidarity with the Left in West Bengal through street level meetings and across the state.

 

The CPI (M) organised meetings in more than 500 centres including the major cities like Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Tiruchi, Thirunelveli, Salem, Erode, Tiruppur and Thoothukudi, to protest against the politically sponsored violence being perpetrated by the Trinamul Congress-led forces on the leaders and workers of the Left Front in West Bengal.

 

The solidarity movement was launched in response to the nationwide call given by the Central Committee of the party to conduct a week-long campaign from July 1 for restoration of peace and democracy and the rule of law in Bengal.

 

But the one week campaign programme did not come to an end on July 7. It is still continuing in the state as the Tamilnadu cadre have intense feelings regarding the members and sympathisers of the Bengal Left Front parties.

 

An example of this deep-seated  sense of solidarity comes from Virudhunagar district in south Tamilnadu. In this district, the campaign was organised at 100 centres, most of which are villages.

 

The solidarity campaign was kickstarted by Basudeb Acharia, leader of the CPI(M) group in Lok Sabha, at Chennai on July 1. Here he inaugurated on the role of the Mamata Banerjee government behind the current spate of violence in West Bengal. The seminar as organised by the North and South Chennai district committees of the CPI(M). Its Central Committee member A K Padmanaban, assembly group leader A Soundararajan, CPI state executive committee member M Veerapandian and AIFB state general secretary P V Kathiravan, MLA, also spoke at the seminar.

 

Speaking on the occasion, Basudeb Acharia recalled that Ms Mamata Banerjee founded the Trinamul Congress (TMC) with the very purpose of perpetrating violence against the Left. Immediately on its creation in 1998, the TMC unleashed violence against the Left Front in Hoogly, Bankura and Midnapore districts.

 

Acharia charged that, clearly, the current attacks on the Left Front have the backing of the chief minister Ms Mamata Banerjee. “This is not a mere state issue, but a tremendous attack on the whole working class of the nation,” he opined.

 

“The real solidarity with the comrades who are facing a tough situation in Bengal is to organise more and more people under the banner of the Left forces and build the party in other states like Tamilnadu,” A Soundararajan impressed upon the party units through this meeting.

 

Apart from organising solidarity meetings, CPI(M) units all over the state are engaging in fund collection to support the families of those killed, injured and displaced by the attacks of TMC-led goons. Lakhs of rupees have been collected so far from the public and supporters of the Left. Party members too made their individual contributions to the fund.

 

On July 12, at a special meeting in Coimbatore, CPI(M) district secretary U K Vellingiri handed over Rs 1.5 lakh to N Varadharajan, Central Committee member, on behalf of the district unit. The CPI(M) MLA from Tiruppur North, K Thangavel, Lok Sabha member P R Natarajan and others participated in this meeting.

 

Most of the CPI(M) district committees in the state have collected over one lakh rupees each for the solidarity fund.

 

Earlier, special regional meetings were organised by the state committee of the CPI(M) to explain the ongoing trend in West Bengal to the district committee level cadre. CPI(M) state secretary G Ramakrishnan, N Varadharajan, T K Rangarajan, U Vasuki, other Central Committee members and state secretariat members attended these meetings.

 

More than 1.25 lakh pamphlets about the violence being perpetrated by the TMC were published in Tamil and English. (S P Rajendran)

 

BHUBANESWAR RALLY

CONDEMNS BENGAL ATTACKS

BRAVING incessant rain, the Bhubaneswar district committee of the CPI(M) organised on July 7, a rally in front of the Orissa governor’s house, voicing its protest against the TMC attacks against the Left in general and the CPI(M) in particular. In spite of continuous rain from the midnight of July 6, leaders and cadres of the CPI(M) and various mass organisations attended joined the action, expressing their strong resentment against the TMC’s conspiratorial attack on the Left and expressing solidarity with the latter in its heroic fight.

 

Addressing the rally, the CPI(M)’s state secretary and Central Committee member Janardan Pati said that more than 400 party cadres and supporters have been killed in West Bengal since the parliamentary elections in 2009. Moreover, the attacks have become all the more severe after the declaration of the assembly election results on May 13, when the TMC led combine came to power in the state. Aided by US imperialism and encouraged by the Congress led central government, the Trinamul Congress is resorting to newer methods to suppress the Left movement in West Bengal. He told that more than 40,000 Left supporters have been forced to leave their hearth and home. More than 400 party offices have been attacked; 147 offices have been locked; 445 offices of the trade unions and other mass organisations have been captured. Even the offices of the Left led college unions are not spread. Party supporters as ell as members and leaders of mass organisations are being threatened to switch over their allegiance to the TMC. Even women, children and people of the minority community are not spared. Heavy and unbearable fines are being imposed on Left supporters as a precondition of continue living in their areas. Properties of the Left supporters are also being looted. This tactic is particularly being resorted to in constituencies where TMC candidates have won but did not get sizeable votes from the concerned areas. This tactic is also being followed where the Left candidates have won. It is being done with the sole purpose of weakening the Left, creating fear psychosis and fostering an environment where the democratic people do not dare to oppose even if anti-democratic and anti-people measures are taken either by the TMC led government in West Bengal or by the UPA government in the country to appease the imperialists, Indian monopolist and rural feudal rich.

 

Pati characterised the West Bengal attacks as attacks on the democratic fabric of our country. He urged upon the democratic people of Orissa to come forward to defeat this heinous conspiracy hatched and attacks being perpetrated by the TMC and its mentors.

 

Others who addressed the meeting included the CPI(M) party state secretariat member Dusmanta Das, its Bhubaneswar district committee secretary Suresh Panigarahi, state AIKS president Abhiram Behera, state SFI secretary Sarat Das and state AIAWU secretary Nityananda Parida, among others.

 

This rally and demonstration were preceded by five local level meetings in Bhubaneswar as a part of the state level programme. Protest meeting were also held at Brahmpaur, Jajpur Road and other places. Other district committees have chalked out plans to organise similar solidarity actions in support of the Left Front of West Bengal against the dastardly attacks of the TMC. (Dusmanta Das)

 

DELHI: PROTEST MEETING

DEMANDS END TO TERROR

ON July 7, the CPI(M), CPI, AIFB and RSP jointly organised a public meeting in Mavalankar Hall in New Delhi to register their strong protest against the barbaric attacks being unleashed against leaders and activists of the Left Front in West Bengal by goondas belonging to the Trinamul Congress and its allies like the Maoists and the Congress, and to demand an immediate halt to these attacks. This meeting also expressed solidarity with the comrades in West Bengal who are bravely fighting back these attacks. Over a thousand people, women, students, youth, workers, teachers and intellectuals participated in the meeting.

 

The CPI(M)’s Delhi state committee secretary P M S Grewal, who presided over the meeting, said that these attacks were nothing new. Between 1977 and 2011, i.e. the period in which there was a Left Front government in West Bengal, over 4000 comrades belonging to different constituents of the Left Front were martyred at the hands of our class enemies. However, the fact remains that these attacks have intensified especially since 2009, when the Left suffered a setback in the Lok Sabha elections. Thus the period between the Lok Sabha and assembly elections saw 388 comrades being killed by the Trinamul, Maoists and the Congress.

 

CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, while addressing the public meeting, said that this pattern of attacks has continued and become more widespread since the declaration of the assembly election results in May 2011;  24 leaders and activists of the Left Front have been killed since the assembly election results. Many more have been injured in these attacks. Women have been molested. Thousands of Left Front supporters have had to leave their homes. Scores of offices of Left Front parties, trade unions and student unions have been attacked and ransacked. Some of them have been captured. Some incidents of forcibly occupying peasants’ land and looting or destruction of crops have also taken place. The purpose, clearly, is to politically browbeat the Left Front into submission and to destroy its base. 

 

Through this public meeting Karat demanded that the West Bengal government immediately intervene to put an end to the barbaric attacks unleashed against leaders and activists of the Left Front and the general democratic rights in the state. He appealed to all the democratic minded sections of the people to raise their powerful voice in defence of the democratic rights in West Bengal.

 

The public meeting was also addressed by CPI general secretary A B. Bardhan, AIFB general secretary Debabrata Biswas and Abani Rai of the RSP. Vijender Sharma, a member of the Delhi state secretariat of the CPI(M), moved a resolution in the meeting which was passed amidst loud cheers and slogans.

 

Through the resolution, the public meeting strongly condemned the dastardly attacks being unleashed on Left Front activists in West Bengal and demanded an immediate halt to them. It said the goons belonging to the Trinamul Congress and their allies, the Maoists and the Congress, are squarely responsible for these attacks and terror regime. The meeting demanded that the West Bengal government immediately intervene to put an end to the barbaric attacks unleashed against leaders and activists of the Left Front and the general democratic rights in the state, and also appealed to all democratic minded sections of the people to raise their powerful voice in for defence of democratic rights in West Bengal.   

 

ON July 13, Delhi state committees of the CITU, DYFI, AIDWA, SFI and JANAM organised a demonstration at Jantar Mantar against the police firing at Haora in West Bengal. The demonstration was addressed by Nurool Huda (AIKS), Pushpendra Tyagi (DYFI), K M Tiwari (CITU), Shashwati Mazumdar (DTF), Robert (SFI) and Asha Sharma (AIDWA). Puran Chand, secretary of the Delhi unit of DYFI, presided over the meeting.

 

On this occasion, the speakers said the TMC-lead government of West Bengal has started showing its true colours. Attacks on the peasantry and the working class of Bengal have intensified, though not even two months have passed, since Ms Mamata Banerjee took over as the chief minister of West Bengal. In the latest incident in Haroa of North 24 Parganas, police firing on the farmers and bargadars, who were agitating against the land grab by the TMC supporters as a part of conspiracy to reverse the land reforms done by the Left Front government, has injured four poor farmers.

 

The speakers also highlighted the gains that the working class and peasantry of West Bengal had made during the 34 year rule of the Left Front. Land reforms in Bengal had benefited lakhs of agricultural families and provided opportunities of livelihoods for the agricultural labourers and marginal farmers. The new government has already started reversing the gains made by the rural poor.

 

Protestors expressed their anger against the TMC government in West Bengal and the UPA government at the centre. Further, they resolved to intensify the movement in solidarity with the struggling masses of Bengal, as well as against the neo-liberal policies pursued by the ruling classes of the country.

 

RALLIES, DEMOS

ALL OVER PUNJAB

AT the call of the CPI(M) Centre Committee, rallies, demonstrations and seminars were organised all over the state of Punjab against the attacks on democratic rights of the people and against the politically sponsored violent and barbarous attacks on the leaders, activists and sympathisers of the Left Front in West Bengal.

 

In district Hoshiarpur, public rallies and demonstrations were organized in Mahilpur and Garhdiwala. Over 500 activists and supporters participated in these rallies.

 

In district Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, a seminar was organised in Nawa Shehar to express solidarity with the West Bengal Left Front that is facing politically sponsored violence in West Bengal and has to sacrifice more than 25 precious comrades in the post- election violence. Over 300 party workers and supporters attended this seminar. On the spot, Rs 10,000 were collected as relief for the victims of violence in West Bengal unleashed by TMC and Congress goons.

 

In district Ropar, a seminar was organised at Ropar; it was attended by some 350 party members and CITU activists. A demonstration too took place in protest against violent attacks on the Left Front in West Bengal.

 

The seminar in Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna Bhawan at Chandigarh was was attended by about 200 party members, supporters and intellectuals. The seminar was addressed, among others, by the former vice chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala. In his address at the seminar, he told that to extend solidarity with the Left Front in West Bengal, which is the advanced outpost of the Left in the country, is the duty of all the peace and justice loving people of the country. He strongly condemned violent attacks on the Left Front activists by TMC-Congress sponsored anti-social elements. 

 

In district Jalandhar, a seminar was organized at Shahkot. About 200 party workers as well as supporters and activists of mass organisation tooks part in this seminar.

 

In district Sangrur, seminars were organised at Sangrur and Malerkotla. About 200 party workers participate in Sangrur and 250 in Malerkotla.

 

At Ludhiana, over 200 workers participated in a public meeting and took out a procession against the TMC and Congress attacks on the Left Front.

 

Seminars and demonstrations were organised in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Bathinda and Patiala districts as well.

 

Addressing these rallies and seminars, party leaders said West Bengal has been and continues to be a bastion of the Left movement in the country and that is why enemies of the Left want to weaken the Left movement in West Bengal. This is why all kinds of anti-Left forces from Maoists to the TMC have joined hands to attack the Left Front in its bastion. Supporting the Left Front of West Bengal, they said that any attack to dismantle the gains achieved under the Left Front government would be given a befitting reply by the working class and justice loving people of our country. The people of Punjab have always stood and will stand by the Left Front of West Bengal. The speakers warned the West Bengal government led by Ms Mamata Banerjee and the UPA government at the centre to take immediate steps to stop the attacks on democratic rights of the people of West Bengal and the violent attacks on the leaders and workers of CPI(M) and other Left Front partners. They urged the people of Punjab to contribute liberally to the West Bengal relief fund.

 

‘PM Must Intervene to Restore

Democratic Rights in Bengal’

Solidarity Meeting in Hyderabad

Condemning the big assault on democratic rights in Bengal ever since the advent of Trinamool Congress regime, a meeting organised in Hyderabad on July 13 called upon the people to protect democracy by resisting this assault. The meeting appealed to all democratic forces in the country to condemn the brutal attacks against the Left Front activists in Bengal. It also demanded prime minister Manmohan Singh and Bengal chief minister Mamata Banarjee to immediately intervene and stop these brutal attacks on Left activists.

 

State units of CPI(M), CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc organised a meeting at Basheerbagh Press Club in Hyderabad condemning the ongoing attacks on Left workers in Bengal and expressing solidarity with the people of Bengal. The secretaries of Hyderabad city committees of these parties acted as presidium for the meeting.

 

Addressing the meeting, CPI(M) central committee member P Madhu charged that the ongoing violence is being actively abetted by the Trinamool Congress regime. Since the assembly election results, over 14 Left activists have been killed while the figure since last Lok Sabha would cross over 388, he said. Around 7351 Left supporters had to leave their homes and seek refuge elsewhere due to these attacks. There is an atmosphere of terror in the rural areas of Bengal today, he said. He criticised the corporate media for downplaying these attacks. The CPI(M) leader asserted that the Left will not be cowed down by such dastardly attacks and would continue to stand by the poor in Bengal.

 

CPI deputy general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy in his address called upon all democratic forces to strongly condemn these attacks, which he termed as an assault on the democratic structure itself. He reminded that despite the defeat in terms of seats, the Left continues to enjoy the support of over 41 per cent of the electorate and expressed confidence that it will rebound in Bengal shortly.

 

State secretary of RSP, Janakiram, and state secretary of Forward Bloc Muralidharan also addressed the gathering which turned out in good numbers despite incessant rains right from morning in the city.

(INN)