FRESH LOOK TO PARAMETERS - Reasons and Rhymes

In lieu of introduction The unmistakable message of all relevant social indicators is that the upward movement of social forces worldwide has entered low ebb for over last three decades of twentieth century. The regressive forces are on the offensive. Those who once worked for progress are in disarray. The saga of heroic struggle by Vietnamese against US marauders was the last pitched battle of this series against colonial possession, injustice, oppression and indignity that gave hope for a sustained struggle against injustice and aggression. Fidels Cuba was another. Thereafter, the formal collapse of former soviet camp and its structures formalised in 1991 provided a much needed ground for capitalist-imperialist countries to reassert their hegemony and seek by other means what they tried through two world wars earlier. The alignment of forces has changed drastically in their favour, at least for the time being. The forces inimical to a just social-cultural, political-economic, administrative, ethical and moral order are in a hurry to consolidate. Wasting no time, they have taken steps to spread their web in favour of finance capital to dominate both by military and non-military means and secondly to de-steam commoners by making the capital and technology charming and invincible, again by heavy dose of cosmetics. Regimentation of thought in favour of their design is on the increase with the active help of the state, academics and the media. The two-pronged strategy adopted during the last decade by financial oligarchies to stamp out social movements working in favour of radical change in social relations worked smooth and did not encounter any tangible resistance so far. Unipolar world in politics helped this process. The minority ruling classes in every country now feel confident to overawe the heavy majority of disinherited humanity with technological refinement and subjugate them with regulatory mechanism duly buttressed by sophisticated military hardware. This ebb has set in, not because capitalist-imperialist forces have grown younger or invincible. It is a haggard entity. The present dispensation has not gathered steam for a better future either. It cannot. Capitalism is too dehumanising to retain vitality. For this aspect alone it must be thrown away. The present stage, however merely signifies a state of disintegration and conceptual confusion among the leading forces of the struggling humanity for change. These have to get on the path again with fresh parameters to guide where necessary. The world is sought at present to be under the spell of capital. Its champions are out to claim victory for capital as a commanding factor of social production as well as human management. Human labour is at discount, much less than even inert labour. Efforts are afoot to portray human labour as inconsequential. Machine is posed as the new saviour. Those who prided once to champion for human labour as central to human civilisation and progress have by and large gone mute and dumb at present. They are now for labour-less production. In India, the situation is no better, despite potentialities of a bright future. The country had gained freedom after a prolonged struggle against a shameful chapter in its history, bearing humiliation of degrading slavery and dehumanising expropriation for two hundred years at the hands of British rulers. The aroused aspirations of the masses during freedom/ liberation struggle were an excellent force for execution. But it was not to be. The opportunity went squandered.

Two contending forces among those fighting for freedom from foreign rule were emphatic about their professions in the interest of people. Gandhi represented one with various strands, while communists were claimants to the other, favouring a fundamental change in social relations. The forces led by Gandhi could manage grabbing power when Britishers left the shores in 1947. Those who professed in Gandhian trail of thoughts ruled India uninterrupted for almost 45 years consolidating the base for capitalist rule. After spending over half a century thus to consolidate the base for capitalist growth, these native rulers are now openly in the camp opposite to the people. They are desperately courting all those imperialist forces to come back and collaborate for external and internal expropriation, forgetting conveniently the shame country had gone through in slavery. This turnabout was nothing surprising for those who understood the inherent logic of capitalist path of development. It needs per force external expropriation at a stage, as it needs loot of native resources and labour-power all through. Both arenas are their pastures to grab. The rulers are now asking the nation to forget the pain and anguish it had gone through at the hands of these imperialist forces for over last three centuries. The plea is not to open the wounds of the past, lest foreign money get scared to come in! It is clear by now that coming days are much more difficult for the masses to contend. The native rulers have turned out to be as ferocious in expropriation as the Britishers had been, which gave cause for liberation struggle. We are in the communist movement for a long time. We took it as yet the best alternate possible in thought and concern. No other variant appealed to us ever since. Some of us have spent three-four decades or so, while one came to be associated with it when a student in 1952 at the age of 17 years. None of us was an arms-chair student or a lazy peasant. Neither luxurious sentiments, nor hunger drove us to the movement. It was sheer logic of the times. Appalling misery despite honest labour, injustice and indignity all around pushed us to seek reasonable answers for such absurdities in this iniquitous world, while dishonesty, treachery and manipulations pay unbound with no reason or rhyme. The situation basically has not changed for the better in this regard as yet. So, there is no material ground to shift our stand, despite of what have happened in the meantime to the experiment of building a new society and new man in countries of the so-called socialist camp by the end of twentieth century or the sad experiences we ourselves had at the hands of leadership while working in the movement for so long. These sad experiences do not change the nature of queries we had at the beginning. So, our adherence to the cause is relentless. Very Reasonable Cause We assert that we adhere to a very reasonable cause in the society. We stand for the man in communion (fellowship); a man in constant struggle to flower as a social being, in context of his or her environment of a family and their local community, primarily against its principal adversary in the form of state, while facing the basic contradiction with individualism and ruthlessness of the capital. But, the present state structure everywhere is being helped by political parties of all hues without exception to keep going the rule of capital as its focal point of socio-economic life, keeping the initiative and creativity of the masses checked in the interest of status quo. This is what had happened in erstwhile Socialist Camp too. It is true even for those who claim to be parties of non-parliamentarian faith. The status quo is the danger that has made the people helpless and gasping. We may be categorical in saying that communism for us is a blueprint of a society free from want and exploitation of any sort, violence, oppression and strife; a

society endowed with a culture of high compassion for fellow citizens without any discrimination and organised under self-management free from all the trappings of a modern state. We take Marxism as nothing but a capability to see things in their true perspectives to arrive at un-tainted truth with sound reasons and a logical course to achieve social harmony with human dignity intact and none to expropriate. No other ism charms us extra-ordinarily at this juncture even if it is tagged to the names of teachers like Lenin, Mao or any Shibdas Ghose. Neither any formulation, nor logic advanced by any authority binds us, unless it satisfies the realties today and potentialities tomorrow for the workingmen against the idlers. We are communists and proud to be one. We had not joined the communist ranks for the sake of Soviet Union or Peoples Republic of China or Vietnam, nor were any genius ever a point of devotion as such, though we accept that teachers are needed in the society. We also searched for teachers to show the path. Indeed, we are indebted to all the teachers we had, those who taught us to walk, love the people, believe in their power and potentialities to face the realities of social life. Since we detest the institution of state for good reason, so, as good persons of faith in the masses, we detest the very concept of authority as such that represents class division, though we are not easy anarchists too. We believe in the wisdom of people to direct and guide their own fate best, functioning as collective body of fellow beings to manage their life well. We do not believe in the institution of deliverers divine, dexterous or diabolic! We had learned our first lessons in Marxist philosophy, as taught by communist Party leadership in India and came to know of its practice initially. Later, with SUCI it was a hectic period of deep insight of things within the movement. But, we learned much more about life in the struggles while keeping the mind open to reason all along. The study and practice even outside the concerned party periphery continued unabated. That probably saved us from much dirt and sloth on the way. None could recruit us to the lap-strings of a math. Nevertheless, we cannot claim immunity from Pavlovian conditioning that has been developed as an art in many of Indian communist organisations by the leadership. The unbound submission to leadership and uncouth discipline of the organisation took its own toll of freshness, initiative and creativity. This must have wasted much of our valuable time, energy and sheen. That is the price we paid. However, we could save much of the grit and basic honesty of the purpose. Nothing could tilt us aside from the path. So, what we say today is from inner ring of communist movement to the core, though tonsured ones may decry our fidelity to save their own blindness to the faith of dogmas and discipline of respective math. By the time communist movement suffered its current debacle, more so with the collapse of Soviet experiment and disintegration of communist Party of the Soviet Union with ease, in late 1991, the inertia had already set in. The very vitals of its organism stood paralysed. Foes and friends now decry the experiment roundly though friends lament more in grief. This experiment of building socialism nevertheless was on a grand scale. Neither the CPSU was an ordinary party. It had the privilege of being geared and led by such genius in organisation and honesty of purpose as Lenin, and then Stalin. The communist movement was not short of energy either; at least till the Vietnamese war against American aggression concluded in victory. Thus, the questions remains: what went wrong and where? At a juncture when this collapse of Soviet camp came around and was formally acknowledged, incidentally we were engaged in a fierce inner-struggle for almost a year inside the self

proclaimed only genuine communist party on Indian soil, namely SUC, for reasons that some were common in almost all the communist formations. We were in this particular party for over two decades of dedicated zeal and a longer concern for the communist movement. The timing of the collapse at the international level and the nature of our struggle inside this formation led us to a serious analysis of various formulations both on theory and practice as a whole. On a few questions of principle, our efforts to question the credentials of fidelity put this party to a severe test by 1991. As a result of this test it came out sharply that its leadership too proved as slippery and cunning as any other set in the movement world over. Now, we may not be that loyal to this concept of leadership or authority. But we are honest to people as against the state as well the political formations in first instance. We stand firm against injustice and indignity to man. The movement for social change is a common endeavour and honesty of purpose, as also clear-headed approach to questions of practice has a place of honour in these efforts. Here, we communists in general have not been much steadfast, after an initial period of grit and valour. In such a situation, we cannot blame anyone but ourselves for the present. Dispassionate assessment concludes: the communist leadership, which professes the cause of working people for upward march of society has proved quite imbecile in practice all around. They did not fare equal to the task. With disinherited mass of people as a definite reference frame, we respect their wisdom for the future. It is time to refurbish. The moss has to be erased and shed away for the tide again to arise with new vigour. Sorry, the utterances of one genius or another, who once led the movement, do not charm us any more as a sure guide for the future. We know that practically in all formations communist leadership is self-perpetuating, conceited and unaccountable to the core. Hence, it is unbridled and unreliable. In this background, events during 1991 worldwide as also in SUC here put us on toes to dissect the whole gamut of issues being faced by communist movement currently with a fresh vision and without any blinkers, except honesty to the cause. One task is to take stock of the present and derive due lessons for future course, while remaining as objective as possible. So, we propose to take up issues without quotations. As is said, theory is not merely past experiences summed up. It is much more. Theory is also a projection for future, while philosophy entails worldview of things. Marxist philosophy and theory cannot afford to be sterile. Its practice must be fertile and full of vigour. Still there may be failures with honest efforts. Honest minds too suffer failures. There cannot be chest-beatings over failures in history. The case however is different with those who seek to make the philosophy and theory as their handmade. If they do, they cannot but indulge in dubious practices of questionable rationale. Their place then is in the dustpans of history, sooner or later. None can escape it. We do not subscribe to this course. We know that fools too suffer, as obdurate do. Stupids can console themselves, while blind followers hardly have escape routes. True, honest elements too suffer many times but for wrong reasons. Few of them have the consolation that they are not dishonest to any one, except that honesty is betrayed many times these days. Still, caravan goes on to catch the moon.