Classes and Other Sections: Their Role
8.1 With the changes that are taking place the hitherto existing classes are undergoing changes in their composition, in the relative strength of sections within them, in their equations and mutual relations. The co-relation of forces is changing.
8.2 The relentless pursuit of neo-liberal economic reforms has brought up a strata of powerful corporates within the bourgeois class. The bourgeois state pursues policies of pampering this section. The corporate houses have accumulated unprecedented wealth and come to wield tremendous economic power. They are emerging as private monopolies in several vital sectors, such as oil, power, mines, telecommunications and pose serious challenge to the public sector in these spheres. This section of the bourgeoisie in its ruthless quest for super-profits aims to spread its tentacles to other spheres of the economy and also extend operations abroad.
8.3 The policy of liberalization and globalisation has provided facilities for the multinational corporations to set up bases in India. Indian corporate houses are entering into a number of partnerships with these MNCs. Some corporates have acquired the strength to buy up a few foreign businesses and are going for mergers and acquisitions. With their economic and financial clout they are able to influence government policies not only in the economic but also in the political and other spheres.
8.4 Corporate capitalism in league with the MNCs has created conditions for large-scale corruption and the play of money power in national life. The corporates pirate experienced executives, talented experts in various fields and experienced officials from the public sector with fabulous salaries, allowances, perks, share options and so forth, there by putting the public sector undertakings in difficulties.
8.5 Through advertisements in media and their financial hold over the media as a whole, the corporates and the MNCs have choked the voice of criticism, and fostered a consumer culture which has lured the elites and sections of the middle class. In turn this has built up a huge consumer market for domestic and foreign business houses. Consumerism is not denoted by expanding consumption of the necessities of life and culture with better incomes, but with the growing desire to acquire luxury goods, luxury brands flowing from the urge for a 'good life'.
8.6 Bourgeois sections engaged in small-scale industries find it hard to withstand the offensive and competition from the big bourgeoisie. The small-scale industries play an important role in our economy. They contribute 40% of industrial output and have about 35% share in exports. With the clout that the big industrialists wield over the economy, the small-scale sector finds it difficult to hold on to its own: This is the source of the contradiction between the different sections of the bourgeoisie. In the prevailing economic atmosphere, banks also discriminate against the small-scale sector. The share of credit flow to small-scale industries from public sector banks has been steadily declining. With nearly 40% of the industrial output their share in bank credit is a mere 6 to 7%.
8.7 While the main contradiction is between the bourgeoisie led by the big bourgeoisie, the corporate houses and the MNCs with whom they collaborate on the one hand and the working class on the other, several contradictions raise their heads between different sections. In the course of struggle for the democratic revolution the working class and its allies have to take into account all the contradictions and decide their tactics accordingly.
8.8 Following independence bourgeois class rule had led to the adoption of the capitalist path of development which has resulted In gross economic inequalities, and backwardness and the total neglect of vast sections of people and regions. Neo-liberalism pursued since the beginning of the nineties further aggravated the problems of poverty, unemployment and disparities. The much-hyped fast economic growth has not solved or even mitigated these basic problems. Rather it has aggravated them further. Never has there been such shocking disparity between the rich and the poor, between one region and-another. The increasing exploitation of labour is shown by the fact that while during the 1991 to 2002 two decades profits surged by over 13 times, the wage bill rpse by only 2.24 times." An ILO report shows that between 1990 and 2002 labour productivity went up by 84%, but real wages In the manufacturing sector declined by 22%. The rate of unemployment has also gone up. The total number of people in India belonging to the poor and vulnerable group having a per capita consumption of less than Rs. 20 in 2004-2005 is 8.36 million; constituting about 78% of our population. About 88% of India's SCs/STs belong to this group of poor and vulnerable. Similarly about 85% of all Muslims and 80% of all OBCs (except Muslims) are poor and vulnerable. The World Bank in its latest country overview on India has this observation to make: "disparities in income and human development are or the rise. A large section of the population - especially the poor, scheduled caste, scheduled tribes, other backward classes, minorities and women - lack access to the resources and opportunities needed to reap the benefits of economic growth".
8.9 The bourgeoisie has all along been engaged in strengthening its class position at the expense of the people. It has been engaged in bargaining with the trans- national corporations and international financial and trade agencies dominated by imperialism.
Even when the economic base of a moribund social system is no longer there, its ideological and cultural legacy continues to influence the social system that follows. The ideological and social mores of feudalism continue to influence the minds of large sections of the people. It is reflected in the conservative, obscurantist thinking and behaviour of large sections especially in relation to women and family This is mixed up with the consumer and cosmopolitan culture that it preached by neo-liberal socio-economic way of thinking. The present Indian Society is a peculiar mixture of caste, communal, semi-feudal patriarchal and tribal institutions which act as a drag on its democratic social progress.
8.10 And yet, India has a tremendous potential for forging ahead with all round development. It has vast agricultural cultivable land, and a variety of climatic zones, water resources for irrigation and power generation and abundant variety of crops. It is richly endowed with forests and mineral wealth. Above all it has a talented mass of people, and a reservoir of skilled scientific and technical personnel second to none It has a great legacy of art and culture which is the envy of the world such a country is destined to rise to the top of the comity of nations. But the big bourgeoisie whose narrow class interest guides it towards corporate greed is incapable of leading this country to its full potential What is called for is a new class combination which can truly emancipate this country and lead it towards full democracy, progress and social justice and then on to socialism.
8.11 Arrayed against the exploiting classes are the working masses of the country, first and foremost the working class. Enemies of social transformation are engaged in the propaganda that the working class is "declining". The truth is that ever-new forces are joining the ranks of those who are engaged in wage labour. There is a most unwarranted assumption that only industrial workers, belong to the working class proper. The assumption itself is totally wrong. The changing composition of the working class under the impact of the technological revolution has brought to the fore, engineers, scientists and technicians with high qualifications and skill. They directly participate in the production process, while at the same time some of them perform certain supervisory and even managerial functions. From the ranks of the workers at shop-floor level, there have come up highly skilled functionaries and operators, - 'a special kind of wage labour' who are elements of the rising working class technical intelligentsia. The gulf dividing the engineers and technicians from the workers proper is becoming narrow, and increasingly they are adopting forms of organisation and struggles which are peculiar to the working class movement. There are of course opposing pulls and tendencies in the social psychology of the engineering strata. But in the mass they are driven to the path of struggle against the capitalist management and state. Lenin had referred to them as the 'engineering proletariat'. That way even the working class is 'divided into more developed and less developed strata', and under conditions of capitalism, it is "surrounded by a large number of exceedingly motley types". This is quite true of India.
Under the impact of globalisation and liberalisation changes are taking place in the employment profile in the country. Outsourcing, downsizing, contracting-out, home-working, casualisation etc. have seriously cut into regular employment at work places. In addition there are the workers and employees in the unorganised sector, and informal workers within the organised sector. The present policies are only adding to the latter number. Even with growing industrialization regular wage employment is not increasing. This is an indication of 'jobless growth' and also 'profit without production' which are aspects of neo- liberalism. This has only sharpened the edge of struggle by these sections against the big bourgeoisie and corporate houses who are pursuing these policies.
8.12 The STR and the growth in service and communication industries and commerce has also thrown up a mass of so-called 'white collar employees' as against the blue collar workers'. In our own Indian experience any barrier between them was demolished long back, thanks to the powerful organisational and movement of bank and insurance employees, central and state government employees, commercial employees etc. the newly inducted huge mass of female employees such as anganwadi, asha, mid-day meal scheme workers, whom the state had conspired to brand as less than government employees, have by their militant actions, strikes, demonstrations and so on have already 'declared' as it were that they are a part of the working class. In brief, although the working class composition has changed in several respects, its essence has not, nor has it declined. Leading this mass are the organised industrial workers. The Scientific and Technological Revolution (STR) has been making great strides all over the world, and in India too. STR should cater to the needs of our people and to the betterment of their lives and environment. The capitalist path of development has however meant Science and Technology being basically put to the aim of maximizing profits and to the selective task of space programme, Information Technology and Communication, Defence Production and in certain limited sectors. The competence of STR personnel remains unutilized for the benefits of entire people. Its impact on raising the general agricultural and industrial productivity remains low. STR generally is labour saving and capital intensive. It is necessary to safeguard employment and not allow such technology which makes workers redundant and unemployed. Introduction of up-to-date technology into sectors of our national economy should take into account the need and priority for the same, and the issue of job displacement that this may involve. It has to happen in a planned and phased manner so as to ensure that we are not dependent for imported technology for a long time, nor depend on repetitive technology. In order to avoid this, a base has to be created for absorption of imported technology and for developing our own within a specified time frame. Development of our own science and technology infrastructure is a must for advance of our country. For this, and for accomplishing the massive task of rebuilding and utilizing our national resources on the basis of self-reliance, the Party will fight for allocation of adequate funds for research and development. STR has brought about changes in the composition of the working class. There is a relative rise in the workers in service and communication industries as compared to those directly engaged in material production. The increase in the number of white collar workers, technicians, engineers, scientists and specialists indicate their direct participation in the sphere of material production. On the other side is the increase of unskilled workers performing the most routine and monotonous jobs. This calls for suitable trade union approach and tactics so as to draw all of them into a common movement of the class.
8.14 The working class and its organisations are the most consistent social force playing a major role in the struggle for social progress and social transformation. This derives from the place they occupy in social production and socio-economic life, their organised numbers and strength, their consciousness and activity, which gives it great political and moral prestige in society. Events have proved the dictum that 'Unity is infinitely precious, and infinitely important for the working class. Disunited, the workers are nothing. United, they are everything'. (Lenin) Along with its allies from the mass of the working people, the working class would surely be able to assert its leading and revolutionary role in the coming days. Assertions that with new development and advances, the complexities of economic life and administration now call for the leadership of an 'elite corps', of 'technocrats' are not correct. The upsurge in mass struggles by different sections of workers, peasants and working people as a whole, is creating a real basis for forging the worker - peasant alliance, with other sections rallying round them. The ranks of the workers' allies are growing, the vista of struggle is expanding, and the task of winning over and consolidating new sections of fighting people, of evolving suitable approach and tactics oriented towards them is assuming great importance. With the intensification of the crisis and the decline of capitalism huge sections of the unorganized workers who were lying dormant for decades are now rallying behind the organised workers and taking to the path of organisation and militant action themselves, overcoming diversities and divisive factors like caste, region, language, gender and so on.
8.14 The agricultural proletariat, the mass of landless labour is the natural ally of the working class .. They are class brothers. The advance of capitalism in agriculture is driving more and more peasant mass towards landlessness. The small and marginal farmer has also to rely on labour himself for his livelihood. The crisis in agriculture is making life difficult for the several types of artisans and handicrafts men who depend on agriculture and the farmers for their livelihood. These sections together with the mass of self-employed constitute what can be termed as the rural poor. They are all fighting against government policies which are leading to high prices and deprivation.
8.15 The rural bourgeoisie, the capitalist landlords, the rich peasants do not join the landless labour in their struggle for land reforms and distribution of land. But in certain other aspects e.g. the struggle against high cost of inputs, infrastructural facilities, remunerative prices and measures to make agriculture viable, and on the question of opposing all attempts by the state to forcibly acquire and grab agricultural land one can expect all of them to join together.
8.16 The fast economic growth brought about by the neo-liberal economic policies is responsible for a huge expansion of the middle classes in society. They have sprung up in every field. The expansion of IT and communication, the growth of the service sector, the fattening of the administrative apparatus have each contributed to an exponential growth of people manning these sectors. This is in addition to the old sections of the middle class who consisted of government, public and private sector employees, persons engaged in trade and commercial activities, in the health and educational spheres and so on. Their numbers too have multiplied considerably. All of them constitute what has come to be termed as the Great Indian Middle Class. They cannot be ignored in carrying out transformative and revolutionary politics. Sections among them play significant role.
8.17 The middle class is not a homogeneous mass. The top layers are upwardly mobile, hoping to join the ranks of the affluent and the entrepreneurs. Most of them have come to earn big salaries which puts them apart from the sections at the lower levels. The rest of the middle class is however affected the same way by policies of liberalization, privatization and globalisation as the working people. They are affected by price rise, unemployment and unfulfilled aspirations which are the byproduct of neo-liberal policies. The large-scale dimensions of corruption and harassment in everyday life fuels their sensitivities and eggs them on to express indignant discontent. They find themselves associated with the working class and other sections of working people. In their fight against such conditions they borrow and adopt tactics of organisation and struggle from the working people. This section of the middle class comes from employees of government, semi- government, public and private sector, from the financial sector, from teachers and professionals. Among them are writers, poets, artistes, journalists. The sensitive among them are affected by the sight of grinding poverty and deprivation. They respond to the fight and the resistance of different sections and communities against their miserable conditions, against exploitation and oppression. Most of them play progressive, democratic and secular role and have high expectations from the political Left. In general they constitute vital components of the left and democratic movement. Some among them who get disoriented and alienated from the exploited and oppressed mass are capable of joining the ranks of the reactionary, communal and divisive elements. There is thus a social and ideological battle within the ranks of the middle class. This is all the more important because the middle-class is a great moulder of public opinion which affects those below them.
It is necessary to interact with the sections of the middle class, and develop organisations of employees, professionals and the self- employed. Cultural, social and literary organisations have an important role to play in winning them over to left positions and rallying them in the struggle against reactionary, communal and divisive forces at home and against the machination of imperialism and globalisation.
8.18 In India, student youths have played a glorious role in the Freedom struggle. That tradition continues in the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal and anti-monopolist struggle in the course of the democratic revolution. They are the purveyors of progressive, democratic and modern scientific ideas among the people. That is why deliberate attempts are being made to poison their minds by planting among them communal, chauvinist ideas and diverting their energies towards careerism, consumerism and so forth. The Party and the Left have to pay special attention to win them over for the cause of democracy progress and socialism. The students and youth constitute a big reserve in the struggle for revolutionary transformation.
8.19 Tribal People:
The tribal people constitute a substantial part of our population, (over 8 per cent). They are among the most poor and neglected sections, and one that is most affected by bourgeois development-oriented poli- cies. Most mega-projects have led to large-scale displacement of tribals without any hope for adequate or.proper rehabilitation. They inhabit territories which are richly endowed with minerals and forest resources. But this bounty from. Nature instead of being a boon has become the cause of their misery. Big Business have a greedy eye over these resources.
8.20 No justice can be done to the tribal people, no proper appreciation can be made of their role in shaping India's destiny, without recalling the fact that the tribals were amongst the earliest contingents in the struggle against alien rulers and had made some of the greatest scarifies.
Actually, tribal uprisings can be traced from as early as the starting point of British rule in India, and continued throughout the subsequent centuries. Whenever the foreigners (Dikku) tried to enter their habitat, and this included the British and in their train the land grabbers, the mahajans, the sahukars, the forest officials etc. they had to meet fierce resistance from the tribal people, which could be put down only by armed forces and leonine repression. They are displaced from the native habitat of their forefathers, deprived of their land, water and other natural resources, and chased out of their forest dwellings. The so-called high growth economy has totally excluded them. The ruling class has adopted the sinister design of making adivasis fight, which has the support of both parties of the bourgeoisie. The notorious 'Salwa Judum' was the weapon. Even military camps and so-called training centres in jungle warfare are being set up in the most affected area (viz, the Bastar region of Chattisgarh).
8.21 The tribals are today one of the most inflammable material in Indian politics. They have tremendous revolutionary potentialities. Among nearly 2 crore people displaced from land, 40 per cent are tribals. This is upsetting the tribal community life, besides depriving them of their sources of livelihood.
8.22. Tribals have a distinct culture and way of life. This is being destroyed so that they are losing the old world without finding a new. Reactionary communal Hindutva forces are seeking to assimilate them though most of them have a faith of their own. The bourgeois leadership from the time of the national movement has ignored and even denied their separate identity and distinctive culture and even held that the adivasi languages are nothing more than local dialectics and are in any case dying out, dissolving into the languages of their surrounding environment. It will be wrong however to think that the various tribal languages are dying out, even though they do not have a script of their own. The biggest difficulty in the way of spreading education among tribal sections is that the children have to learn everything in a language which is not their mother tongue. In recent times with growing awareness some big adivasi sections have struggled for a script in which their language could be written. Such is the case for instance with the Olchiki script for the Santhali language. Elsewhere the Devnagri or Roman script has been introduced.
8.23. The tribal question must not be identified with the Maoist question. The two are different.
8.24. The Party opposes the forcible assimilation of tribals and subsuming their tribal culture into the prevailing dominant culture. While helping them to adapt to modern life and to raise their living conditions, the party will fight for their Constitutional safeguards and special provisions of the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996. Their right to forests, forest produce, water resources and land under cultivation must be assured.
8.25. 'Jal, Jangal, Jamin' is their battle cry. They are organizing themselves everywhere. The Party must fight along with them.
8.1 With the changes that are taking place the hitherto existing classes are undergoing changes in their composition, in the relative strength of sections within them, in their equations and mutual relations. The co-relation of forces is changing.
8.2 The relentless pursuit of neo-liberal economic reforms has brought up a strata of powerful corporates within the bourgeois class. The bourgeois state pursues policies of pampering this section. The corporate houses have accumulated unprecedented wealth and come to wield tremendous economic power. They are emerging as private monopolies in several vital sectors, such as oil, power, mines, telecommunications and pose serious challenge to the public sector in these spheres. This section of the bourgeoisie in its ruthless quest for super-profits aims to spread its tentacles to other spheres of the economy and also extend operations abroad.
8.3 The policy of liberalization and globalisation has provided facilities for the multinational corporations to set up bases in India. Indian corporate houses are entering into a number of partnerships with these MNCs. Some corporates have acquired the strength to buy up a few foreign businesses and are going for mergers and acquisitions. With their economic and financial clout they are able to influence government policies not only in the economic but also in the political and other spheres.
8.4 Corporate capitalism in league with the MNCs has created conditions for large-scale corruption and the play of money power in national life. The corporates pirate experienced executives, talented experts in various fields and experienced officials from the public sector with fabulous salaries, allowances, perks, share options and so forth, there by putting the public sector undertakings in difficulties.
8.5 Through advertisements in media and their financial hold over the media as a whole, the corporates and the MNCs have choked the voice of criticism, and fostered a consumer culture which has lured the elites and sections of the middle class. In turn this has built up a huge consumer market for domestic and foreign business houses. Consumerism is not denoted by expanding consumption of the necessities of life and culture with better incomes, but with the growing desire to acquire luxury goods, luxury brands flowing from the urge for a 'good life'.
8.6 Bourgeois sections engaged in small-scale industries find it hard to withstand the offensive and competition from the big bourgeoisie. The small-scale industries play an important role in our economy. They contribute 40% of industrial output and have about 35% share in exports. With the clout that the big industrialists wield over the economy, the small-scale sector finds it difficult to hold on to its own: This is the source of the contradiction between the different sections of the bourgeoisie. In the prevailing economic atmosphere, banks also discriminate against the small-scale sector. The share of credit flow to small-scale industries from public sector banks has been steadily declining. With nearly 40% of the industrial output their share in bank credit is a mere 6 to 7%.
8.7 While the main contradiction is between the bourgeoisie led by the big bourgeoisie, the corporate houses and the MNCs with whom they collaborate on the one hand and the working class on the other, several contradictions raise their heads between different sections. In the course of struggle for the democratic revolution the working class and its allies have to take into account all the contradictions and decide their tactics accordingly.
8.8 Following independence bourgeois class rule had led to the adoption of the capitalist path of development which has resulted In gross economic inequalities, and backwardness and the total neglect of vast sections of people and regions. Neo-liberalism pursued since the beginning of the nineties further aggravated the problems of poverty, unemployment and disparities. The much-hyped fast economic growth has not solved or even mitigated these basic problems. Rather it has aggravated them further. Never has there been such shocking disparity between the rich and the poor, between one region and-another. The increasing exploitation of labour is shown by the fact that while during the 1991 to 2002 two decades profits surged by over 13 times, the wage bill rpse by only 2.24 times." An ILO report shows that between 1990 and 2002 labour productivity went up by 84%, but real wages In the manufacturing sector declined by 22%. The rate of unemployment has also gone up. The total number of people in India belonging to the poor and vulnerable group having a per capita consumption of less than Rs. 20 in 2004-2005 is 8.36 million; constituting about 78% of our population. About 88% of India's SCs/STs belong to this group of poor and vulnerable. Similarly about 85% of all Muslims and 80% of all OBCs (except Muslims) are poor and vulnerable. The World Bank in its latest country overview on India has this observation to make: "disparities in income and human development are or the rise. A large section of the population - especially the poor, scheduled caste, scheduled tribes, other backward classes, minorities and women - lack access to the resources and opportunities needed to reap the benefits of economic growth".
8.9 The bourgeoisie has all along been engaged in strengthening its class position at the expense of the people. It has been engaged in bargaining with the trans- national corporations and international financial and trade agencies dominated by imperialism.
Even when the economic base of a moribund social system is no longer there, its ideological and cultural legacy continues to influence the social system that follows. The ideological and social mores of feudalism continue to influence the minds of large sections of the people. It is reflected in the conservative, obscurantist thinking and behaviour of large sections especially in relation to women and family This is mixed up with the consumer and cosmopolitan culture that it preached by neo-liberal socio-economic way of thinking. The present Indian Society is a peculiar mixture of caste, communal, semi-feudal patriarchal and tribal institutions which act as a drag on its democratic social progress.
8.10 And yet, India has a tremendous potential for forging ahead with all round development. It has vast agricultural cultivable land, and a variety of climatic zones, water resources for irrigation and power generation and abundant variety of crops. It is richly endowed with forests and mineral wealth. Above all it has a talented mass of people, and a reservoir of skilled scientific and technical personnel second to none It has a great legacy of art and culture which is the envy of the world such a country is destined to rise to the top of the comity of nations. But the big bourgeoisie whose narrow class interest guides it towards corporate greed is incapable of leading this country to its full potential What is called for is a new class combination which can truly emancipate this country and lead it towards full democracy, progress and social justice and then on to socialism.
8.11 Arrayed against the exploiting classes are the working masses of the country, first and foremost the working class. Enemies of social transformation are engaged in the propaganda that the working class is "declining". The truth is that ever-new forces are joining the ranks of those who are engaged in wage labour. There is a most unwarranted assumption that only industrial workers, belong to the working class proper. The assumption itself is totally wrong. The changing composition of the working class under the impact of the technological revolution has brought to the fore, engineers, scientists and technicians with high qualifications and skill. They directly participate in the production process, while at the same time some of them perform certain supervisory and even managerial functions. From the ranks of the workers at shop-floor level, there have come up highly skilled functionaries and operators, - 'a special kind of wage labour' who are elements of the rising working class technical intelligentsia. The gulf dividing the engineers and technicians from the workers proper is becoming narrow, and increasingly they are adopting forms of organisation and struggles which are peculiar to the working class movement. There are of course opposing pulls and tendencies in the social psychology of the engineering strata. But in the mass they are driven to the path of struggle against the capitalist management and state. Lenin had referred to them as the 'engineering proletariat'. That way even the working class is 'divided into more developed and less developed strata', and under conditions of capitalism, it is "surrounded by a large number of exceedingly motley types". This is quite true of India.
Under the impact of globalisation and liberalisation changes are taking place in the employment profile in the country. Outsourcing, downsizing, contracting-out, home-working, casualisation etc. have seriously cut into regular employment at work places. In addition there are the workers and employees in the unorganised sector, and informal workers within the organised sector. The present policies are only adding to the latter number. Even with growing industrialization regular wage employment is not increasing. This is an indication of 'jobless growth' and also 'profit without production' which are aspects of neo- liberalism. This has only sharpened the edge of struggle by these sections against the big bourgeoisie and corporate houses who are pursuing these policies.
8.12 The STR and the growth in service and communication industries and commerce has also thrown up a mass of so-called 'white collar employees' as against the blue collar workers'. In our own Indian experience any barrier between them was demolished long back, thanks to the powerful organisational and movement of bank and insurance employees, central and state government employees, commercial employees etc. the newly inducted huge mass of female employees such as anganwadi, asha, mid-day meal scheme workers, whom the state had conspired to brand as less than government employees, have by their militant actions, strikes, demonstrations and so on have already 'declared' as it were that they are a part of the working class. In brief, although the working class composition has changed in several respects, its essence has not, nor has it declined. Leading this mass are the organised industrial workers. The Scientific and Technological Revolution (STR) has been making great strides all over the world, and in India too. STR should cater to the needs of our people and to the betterment of their lives and environment. The capitalist path of development has however meant Science and Technology being basically put to the aim of maximizing profits and to the selective task of space programme, Information Technology and Communication, Defence Production and in certain limited sectors. The competence of STR personnel remains unutilized for the benefits of entire people. Its impact on raising the general agricultural and industrial productivity remains low. STR generally is labour saving and capital intensive. It is necessary to safeguard employment and not allow such technology which makes workers redundant and unemployed. Introduction of up-to-date technology into sectors of our national economy should take into account the need and priority for the same, and the issue of job displacement that this may involve. It has to happen in a planned and phased manner so as to ensure that we are not dependent for imported technology for a long time, nor depend on repetitive technology. In order to avoid this, a base has to be created for absorption of imported technology and for developing our own within a specified time frame. Development of our own science and technology infrastructure is a must for advance of our country. For this, and for accomplishing the massive task of rebuilding and utilizing our national resources on the basis of self-reliance, the Party will fight for allocation of adequate funds for research and development. STR has brought about changes in the composition of the working class. There is a relative rise in the workers in service and communication industries as compared to those directly engaged in material production. The increase in the number of white collar workers, technicians, engineers, scientists and specialists indicate their direct participation in the sphere of material production. On the other side is the increase of unskilled workers performing the most routine and monotonous jobs. This calls for suitable trade union approach and tactics so as to draw all of them into a common movement of the class.
8.14 The working class and its organisations are the most consistent social force playing a major role in the struggle for social progress and social transformation. This derives from the place they occupy in social production and socio-economic life, their organised numbers and strength, their consciousness and activity, which gives it great political and moral prestige in society. Events have proved the dictum that 'Unity is infinitely precious, and infinitely important for the working class. Disunited, the workers are nothing. United, they are everything'. (Lenin) Along with its allies from the mass of the working people, the working class would surely be able to assert its leading and revolutionary role in the coming days. Assertions that with new development and advances, the complexities of economic life and administration now call for the leadership of an 'elite corps', of 'technocrats' are not correct. The upsurge in mass struggles by different sections of workers, peasants and working people as a whole, is creating a real basis for forging the worker - peasant alliance, with other sections rallying round them. The ranks of the workers' allies are growing, the vista of struggle is expanding, and the task of winning over and consolidating new sections of fighting people, of evolving suitable approach and tactics oriented towards them is assuming great importance. With the intensification of the crisis and the decline of capitalism huge sections of the unorganized workers who were lying dormant for decades are now rallying behind the organised workers and taking to the path of organisation and militant action themselves, overcoming diversities and divisive factors like caste, region, language, gender and so on.
8.14 The agricultural proletariat, the mass of landless labour is the natural ally of the working class .. They are class brothers. The advance of capitalism in agriculture is driving more and more peasant mass towards landlessness. The small and marginal farmer has also to rely on labour himself for his livelihood. The crisis in agriculture is making life difficult for the several types of artisans and handicrafts men who depend on agriculture and the farmers for their livelihood. These sections together with the mass of self-employed constitute what can be termed as the rural poor. They are all fighting against government policies which are leading to high prices and deprivation.
8.15 The rural bourgeoisie, the capitalist landlords, the rich peasants do not join the landless labour in their struggle for land reforms and distribution of land. But in certain other aspects e.g. the struggle against high cost of inputs, infrastructural facilities, remunerative prices and measures to make agriculture viable, and on the question of opposing all attempts by the state to forcibly acquire and grab agricultural land one can expect all of them to join together.
8.16 The fast economic growth brought about by the neo-liberal economic policies is responsible for a huge expansion of the middle classes in society. They have sprung up in every field. The expansion of IT and communication, the growth of the service sector, the fattening of the administrative apparatus have each contributed to an exponential growth of people manning these sectors. This is in addition to the old sections of the middle class who consisted of government, public and private sector employees, persons engaged in trade and commercial activities, in the health and educational spheres and so on. Their numbers too have multiplied considerably. All of them constitute what has come to be termed as the Great Indian Middle Class. They cannot be ignored in carrying out transformative and revolutionary politics. Sections among them play significant role.
8.17 The middle class is not a homogeneous mass. The top layers are upwardly mobile, hoping to join the ranks of the affluent and the entrepreneurs. Most of them have come to earn big salaries which puts them apart from the sections at the lower levels. The rest of the middle class is however affected the same way by policies of liberalization, privatization and globalisation as the working people. They are affected by price rise, unemployment and unfulfilled aspirations which are the byproduct of neo-liberal policies. The large-scale dimensions of corruption and harassment in everyday life fuels their sensitivities and eggs them on to express indignant discontent. They find themselves associated with the working class and other sections of working people. In their fight against such conditions they borrow and adopt tactics of organisation and struggle from the working people. This section of the middle class comes from employees of government, semi- government, public and private sector, from the financial sector, from teachers and professionals. Among them are writers, poets, artistes, journalists. The sensitive among them are affected by the sight of grinding poverty and deprivation. They respond to the fight and the resistance of different sections and communities against their miserable conditions, against exploitation and oppression. Most of them play progressive, democratic and secular role and have high expectations from the political Left. In general they constitute vital components of the left and democratic movement. Some among them who get disoriented and alienated from the exploited and oppressed mass are capable of joining the ranks of the reactionary, communal and divisive elements. There is thus a social and ideological battle within the ranks of the middle class. This is all the more important because the middle-class is a great moulder of public opinion which affects those below them.
It is necessary to interact with the sections of the middle class, and develop organisations of employees, professionals and the self- employed. Cultural, social and literary organisations have an important role to play in winning them over to left positions and rallying them in the struggle against reactionary, communal and divisive forces at home and against the machination of imperialism and globalisation.
8.18 In India, student youths have played a glorious role in the Freedom struggle. That tradition continues in the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal and anti-monopolist struggle in the course of the democratic revolution. They are the purveyors of progressive, democratic and modern scientific ideas among the people. That is why deliberate attempts are being made to poison their minds by planting among them communal, chauvinist ideas and diverting their energies towards careerism, consumerism and so forth. The Party and the Left have to pay special attention to win them over for the cause of democracy progress and socialism. The students and youth constitute a big reserve in the struggle for revolutionary transformation.
8.19 Tribal People:
The tribal people constitute a substantial part of our population, (over 8 per cent). They are among the most poor and neglected sections, and one that is most affected by bourgeois development-oriented poli- cies. Most mega-projects have led to large-scale displacement of tribals without any hope for adequate or.proper rehabilitation. They inhabit territories which are richly endowed with minerals and forest resources. But this bounty from. Nature instead of being a boon has become the cause of their misery. Big Business have a greedy eye over these resources.
8.20 No justice can be done to the tribal people, no proper appreciation can be made of their role in shaping India's destiny, without recalling the fact that the tribals were amongst the earliest contingents in the struggle against alien rulers and had made some of the greatest scarifies.
Actually, tribal uprisings can be traced from as early as the starting point of British rule in India, and continued throughout the subsequent centuries. Whenever the foreigners (Dikku) tried to enter their habitat, and this included the British and in their train the land grabbers, the mahajans, the sahukars, the forest officials etc. they had to meet fierce resistance from the tribal people, which could be put down only by armed forces and leonine repression. They are displaced from the native habitat of their forefathers, deprived of their land, water and other natural resources, and chased out of their forest dwellings. The so-called high growth economy has totally excluded them. The ruling class has adopted the sinister design of making adivasis fight, which has the support of both parties of the bourgeoisie. The notorious 'Salwa Judum' was the weapon. Even military camps and so-called training centres in jungle warfare are being set up in the most affected area (viz, the Bastar region of Chattisgarh).
8.21 The tribals are today one of the most inflammable material in Indian politics. They have tremendous revolutionary potentialities. Among nearly 2 crore people displaced from land, 40 per cent are tribals. This is upsetting the tribal community life, besides depriving them of their sources of livelihood.
8.22. Tribals have a distinct culture and way of life. This is being destroyed so that they are losing the old world without finding a new. Reactionary communal Hindutva forces are seeking to assimilate them though most of them have a faith of their own. The bourgeois leadership from the time of the national movement has ignored and even denied their separate identity and distinctive culture and even held that the adivasi languages are nothing more than local dialectics and are in any case dying out, dissolving into the languages of their surrounding environment. It will be wrong however to think that the various tribal languages are dying out, even though they do not have a script of their own. The biggest difficulty in the way of spreading education among tribal sections is that the children have to learn everything in a language which is not their mother tongue. In recent times with growing awareness some big adivasi sections have struggled for a script in which their language could be written. Such is the case for instance with the Olchiki script for the Santhali language. Elsewhere the Devnagri or Roman script has been introduced.
8.23. The tribal question must not be identified with the Maoist question. The two are different.
8.24. The Party opposes the forcible assimilation of tribals and subsuming their tribal culture into the prevailing dominant culture. While helping them to adapt to modern life and to raise their living conditions, the party will fight for their Constitutional safeguards and special provisions of the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996. Their right to forests, forest produce, water resources and land under cultivation must be assured.
8.25. 'Jal, Jangal, Jamin' is their battle cry. They are organizing themselves everywhere. The Party must fight along with them.
No comments:
Post a Comment