People's Democracy

Sitaram Yechury

THE anniversary of the great October Socialist Revolution this year falls at a time when the world is grappling with the menace of terrorism and the US imperialist attempts to counter such attacks through state-sponsored terrorism. The horrendous attacks in the USA in September killing thousands of innocent people brought this menace to US soil. This is an act that has been universally condemned. Consuming innocent lives is no way to express condemnation or protest.

However, as many commentators have correctly pointed out, such an expression of violence describes the "wickedness and awesome cruelty" of a humiliated people. The suicide bombers or the kamikaze are the products, mainly, of the policies pursued by imperialism during the last decade of the 20th century.

It was precisely in this decade that was the first, in the post-world war-II 20th century, following the collapse of the socialist Soviet Union, in which the USA sought to impose its "new world order". In addition to the monstrous crimes that the US imperialist military interventions mounted on the people the world over in the decades after the second world war, came the brazen acts of military intervention against sovereign countries in the 1990s.

The Gulf war against Iraq had claimed the lives of over one and a half lakh innocent people. Over 50,000 children had perished. US imperialism's inhuman arrogance was reflected in the then Secretary of the State Madeline Albright's statement that this was a "small price" to pay. Subsequently, due to US-imposed sanctions, at least half a million children have reportedly died. The attacks in Kosovo, Yugoslavia, Somalia were emboldened by a new NATO doctrine which gave itself the right, under US leadership, to militarily intervene anywhere in the world to advance imperialist interests.

All national liberation struggles suffered setbacks and faced intensified repression during this decade. The US-backed Israeli intransigence denies the Palestinians their elementary right to a homeland. The struggle of the Polisario in Western Sahara continues to be thwarted, and likewise the struggles of peoples of many countries in Central and Latin America.

It is only natural that a large number of people have begun to pose the question whether such unhindered imperialist arrogance would have been possible if the might of the socialist Soviet Union was still existing? The answer is a simple `NO'. As the political and military bulwark against American imperialism, the USSR played the crucial role of containing and at times pushing back US imperialism's aggressive moves. This permitted the people of many countries to legitimately carry forward their struggle for social transformation.

In other words, the very existence of the socialist Soviet Union created and advanced a democratic space for people's struggles and anti-imperialist movements to be sustained and march forward. In its absence US imperialism has been emboldened to pursue its hegemonic designs unhindered. And during the last decade, in many parts of the world, this democratic space was sought to be snuffed out and people's struggles stifled.

The "awesome cruelty" of the humiliated people arises in this context. So also does the birth of the kamikaze.

It is, indeed, ironic that the American citizens, fed for decades on the propaganda of "evil Communism" were the ones who had to pay the price for American aggressiveness in the absence of the socialist Soviet Union. It is as ironic as the bewildered Afghan being bombed by high-tech missiles and not knowing why all of it is happening. They are probably the only people on this planet who have not seen the destruction of the World Trade Center because of the ban on television decreed, some years ago, by the Taliban as being anti-Islam!

At the expense of repetition, we must again emphasis that the Taliban was in the first place the creation of US imperialism in its fight against the then Soviet presence in Afghanistan. The USA has all along nurtured, sustained and used Islamic fundamentalism to further its interests. The Taliban is US imperialism's Frankenstein. But at the same time, it must be recognised that just like imperialism, Islamic fundamentalism also restricts democratic space. The latter has been the consistent rabid anti-Communist force in many countries, blocking progressive advance and imposing theocratic and autocratic regimes.

In the aftermath of the September attacks, US imperialism, far from recognising that its aggressive policies are the contributing factor giving birth to such organisations like the Taliban and the consequent terrorist activities, deliberately ignoring that the shrinking space for legitimate democratic protests leads to the growth of such activities, has today embarked on a path of intensifying its hegemonic control over the world. Utilising this opportunity, it has not only stepped up its military interventions but has had the confidence to formally notify the United Nations that the war against Afghanistan is only the beginning and the USA reserves the right to attack any other country which it believes is either harbouring or encouraging terrorists. Such State-sponsored terrorism on the one hand, and kamikaze terrorist attacks on the other, only feed each other. In the process, it is the innocent people of this world that have to pay.

Through seeking to create an atmosphere in the world where the people would feel forced to choose between US imperialism and terrorism, the USA is seeking to strengthen its economic stranglehold. It is already well-known that the US oil multinationals have smelt trillions of dollars of profits in the oil and gas reserves in the Caspian Sea region. To reap these profits, they require a pipeline to pass through Afghanistan and that is their primary objective today. They are seeking the establishment of a pliant government in Afghanistan, that would protect its economic interests.

Parallel with this, it should be noted that while many international events have either been cancelled or postponed, the one event that is not concelled and which the USA is insisting be held, is the WTO Ministerial meeting scheduled from November 9. Because it wants to utilise the current situation where many countries dare not oppose the USA, to push through an agenda that will strengthen the process of the economic recolonialisation of the third world.

Domestically, it is right-wing jingoism that is getting the upper hand in the USA and many other countries, including India. In the name of fighting terrorism, while the Vajpayee government has issued the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance, the Bush Administration, with the approval of US Congress, has piloted a Bill called, Uniting And Strengthening America By Providing Appropriate Tools Required To Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act.

A political commentator, in the American media hasa commented: "Rare are the moments in American history when a Congress has surrendered so many cherished freedoms in a single trip to the altar of immediate fear."

The draconian authoritarianism at home will be used by right-wing reactionary forces to consolidate their political power.

Such a reactionary offensive is being mounted by imperialism the world over. While it is true that the absence of the mighty socialist Soviet Union created the international conditions for this renewed US imperialist aggression, it is also true that the protests against this aggression have been growing through the last decade and will continue to grow under changed circumstances.

The series of protests from Seattle in 1998, to Genoa in 2001, show that the global protest against imperialist policies of economic hegemony had been on the rise. The anti-war demonstrations, today not only in the third world countries, but in the capitals of the advanced countries, have been unprecedented both in their size and intensity. The recent victories of the Communists in Japan's Osaka city, or in Germany's Berlin, indicate not only opposition but resistance to capitalist policies of globalisation.

Newer forms of resistance are being created by the people under newer circumstances of global capitalism. Many had thought that in the present world of information technology and e-commerce, protests and resistance would surely vanish. But as Marx had famously prophesised,

Capitalism being an inherently exploitative system, the human yearning for liberation from such exploitation will not merely remain but intensify till the system is overthrown.

The exploitation of the computer users, giving super monopoly profits, through the patent regime, to companies like Microsoft, is today being challenged by millions who have joined the international movement for free computer software -- the Linnux/GNU movement. Alternative software has not only been created, but is currently being used by millions who do not pay any charges for the use of this software. Newer forms of exploitation accompanying newer technologic advances, are being met by newer forms of resistance.

Similarly, in another sphere, one can see the growth of such novel protests. Capitalism has reached the stage where its immediate concern is no longer the production of a commodity but the marketing of its product. Once brand names are established, the products are being produced in sweat shops in the third world. The intense exploitation of the working class in these countries generates the super-profits of the famous brand names today.

Noami Klein in her familiar book "No Logo" has detailed the emergence of the resistance against brand names and global capitalism associated with it.

The path blazed by the October Revolution, far from losing its way and relevance, is being vindicated in changed circumstances. The resistance to the intensified exploitation of global capitalism against the renewed aggression by imperialism, is not only finding new forms of expression but is growing in strength. The untenability of capitalism as a system capable of providing for universal welfare and well-being is being proved by the day.

History cannot deny but may delay the inevitability of the overthrow of this exploitative order. It depends on us, through strengthening our struggles against this exploitative order, to ensure that history is not allowed to delay this transformation for long.