People's Democracy

WEST BENGAL

Left Front Govt And State's Industrialisation - II

Benoy Konar

THOSE opposing the Left Front government’s policies preach: if you have to build capitalism, why not build State capitalism? Well, everyone would agree that the financial condition of the states are far more fragile and are gradually on the decline. The critics also admit it. Then, how will the government build factories? Their reply to this is that we should approach the central government financial institutions for monetary help. Why would the central government open its coffers for us when the central government itself is divesting its profit-making industries? The critics satirically say that the central government will be compelled to oblige us as we are holding the 'life-capsule' of the UPA government. So if sufficiently threatened of its existence, the government will surrender! Maybe, these people believe that the fall of the Congress-led UPA government would herald the downfall of capitalist feudal state power and in its place the State of the working class! Sounds more like a children’s fairy tale.

What is required is laying much more stress on small and medium scale industries and that is exactly what the Left Front government has been doing. Between 1991 and 2005, it has established 1218 such units, where Rs 29,195 crore have been invested. It is evident that all of these are either small or medium industries, each with an investment between Rs 1 crore to Rs 1000 crore. These include chemicals, petrochemicals, gas, iron and steel, engineering, cement, agricultural and IT industries. They are well distributed in all the districts of the state. The government had no need to acquire much land for any of these industries. Most of the land was bought directly from the farmers. Small and medium scale industries generate more employment and experience tells us that the indirect employment that is generated through these industries is five times more than the direct employment.

Bengal also needs big industries. It might be a matter of debate, whether the investment required for generating employment for one person in a large scale industry is Rs 1 crore or Rs 5 crore. But there can be no debate or doubt that the amount of working days generated per acre of land in such an industry has to be many times more than the amount of working days generated in agriculture. We are planning to acquire about 1000 acres of land in Singur, most of which is single crop and some double crop land, for industrial use. Just for the sake of an argument, even if we assume all of that land to be of double crop, the amount of working days on an acre of land is not more than 120 days. If we calculate that 300 days employment in a year would be full employment for a person, not more than 400 people could get employment on 1000 acres of land. On the contrary, factories could employ much more people directly and also even more indirectly. With the establishment of one big industry, many ancillary industries come up providing employment to many. It was seen that with the establishment of Haldia petrochemicals, more than 705 ancillary industries came up all across the state. In Singur, 700 acres of land being taken would be utilised for Tata’s own small car factory and the remaining 300 acres is designated for all its ancillary units. Several thousands will get employment here.

The final production of any commodity requires series of successive operations. Small capitalists cannot afford to arrange all the machineries required for these various operations. Understanding this need, we are in the process of establishing many industrial complexes like leather complex, Manikanchan, light engineering, garments, foundry, rubber, plastosteel, jute etc. These will give rise to various small enterprises, generating more employment opportunities. Salim group will provide the necessary infrastructure to build such enterprises. There is no reason to suspect any misuse of land.

NO INDUSTRY, NO WORKER!

Serious concerns have often been raised that industries are being promoted at the cost of the welfare of the workers. But the most bizarre thing about this contention is that if there is no industry, there will be no worker! Then whose interests are we supposed to safeguard? Are the closed-down factories doing any good to the workers? That is why the first priority are industries. Under capitalism, the main motto of capital is to make profit and exploit the labour as much as possible. Well, the welfare of the labour does not depend on the owner, it depends on the state of the enterprise, unity of the labour force, their ability to struggle, their level of consciousness and democratic public opinion. Let us take the example of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) being developed for export oriented industries. These are extremely tax friendly zones for the capitalists. The central government had announced that labour laws would not be applicable in these zones. But after facing opposition in the parliament, it washed its hands off the whole issue and very cleverly passed the buck on to the state governments. 

We shall go on protesting against the SEZs here in Bengal and all over India according to our capacities. But if the other states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamilnadu etc, announce that they will not follow labour laws in their SEZs and if the working class there cannot stop them, what should our state do? Then how do we safeguard the interests of the labour? The working class must understand that movements cannot be organised by mere laws. The Supreme Court had banned all strikes. Strikes were banned in Tamilnadu. Did it stop the labour movement in anyway? Gurgaon does not have a SEZ; then what caused the bloodshed there? It must be remembered that if we do not allow the setting up of industries in Bengal, the question of protecting the interest of the workers becomes an absurdity.

MERE UTOPIA 

To imagine that West Bengal would bring about an industrial revolution, remove all unemployment and poverty in spite of being trapped in a capitalist-feudal State, which is surrendering to imperialist globalisation, is nothing but mere utopia. The common man knows and understands this. But they just desire that the Left Front government should continue to endeavour honestly towards industrial development. There are many hurdles. There had been two proposals for establishing steel plants at Medinipore, which would have resulted in a lot of economic activity. Because Jharkhand government refused to give iron ore, these proposals could not fructify. The central government also remained silent. But we are still making efforts. This is no revolutionary work, actually reformist. But, where there is no revolutionary possibility, reformist works are indication of advancement. Let us recall Lenin again. He said, “True revolutionaries have mostly come a cropper when they began to write ‘revolution’ with a capital R, to elevate ‘revolution’ to something almost divine, to lose their heads, to lose the ability to reflect, weigh and ascertain in the coolest and most dispassionate manner at what moment, under what circumstances and in which sphere of action you must act in a revolutionary manner, and at what moment, under what circumstances and in which sphere of action you must turn to reformist action.” (Vol 33, p 111) He had also said, “Before the victory of the proletariat, reforms are a by-product of revolutionary class struggle. After the victory (while still remaining a ‘by-product’ on an international scale) they are, in addition, for the country in which victory has been achieved, a necessary and legitimate breathing space when, after the utmost exertion of effort, it becomes obvious that sufficient strength is lacking for the revolutionary accomplishment of some transition or another.” (Vol 33, p 116)

Whereas losing faith in Marxism after the debacle of socialism is a deviation, similarly taking no lesson from that is also a deviation. Socialism is a philosophy of plenty, not of poverty. Keeping pace with the development of productive forces, production relations have to be changed. Socialism or communism cannot be achieved by wilfully shortening the period of change. Coming to conclusions taking into consideration the concrete circumstances and correlation of class forces is Marxism. Revolutionary urge is good, but not impetuosity. What is painful is that some times even persons known to be honest and tested Marxists forget this.

(Concluded)