The New Wave (Bolshevik-Leninist) is a revolutionary Socialist organization committed to rebuilding the BLPI in South Asia and the 4th International Globally December 2013
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Contents : 1) Editorial
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2) Contractorization and the fight against it
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3) Perspective on the anti-rape agitation
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4) Statement against the murder of Sardar Arif from NSF(M) Kashmir
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5) Marx on free trade and protectionism
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6) Rank and File Movement – Bill Hunter from the ISL UK
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7) Feedback form
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Editorial We regret to inform you that for the moment this newsletter will not be featuring an editorial . The
editorial will discuss the public sector in general, in its historical and social context where social interests are pitted against private interests. We will discuss how the conflict between these two interests have evolved over time till today where it has become the very heart of today's class struggle.
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Neyvelli Lignite Corporation contract workers on strike.
Contractorization of labour and the fight against it : Contractorization of work has fallen like a curse upon the Indian proletariat. The trend in Indian capitalism has been to make work more and more precarious in order to more thoroughly exploit the working class. Contractorization is being more and more preferred as a medium of employment as it blurs the lines of employment responsibility and helps capitalists escape legal compulsions towards their workforce. It promotes abuses like arbitrary retrenchments, non-payment of minimum wages, and denial of welfare measures which are the right of the workers. But this has not been unanswered and without opposition. With the spread of contractorization of work, there has been has given rise to a movement against this. A trend of struggle against contractorization has emerged emerged which has seen more and more trade unions playing a proactive role in regularizing contract workers. The aim being fought for is for the total abolition of the contract worker system. It is important to note that despite the existence of a legal framework in force, in the form of the Contract workers, (regulation and abolition) Act 1970, and the Contract Labour (regulation and abolition) Central 3
Rules 1971, abuses on contract workers still persist. As in many similar cases, legislation of this kind serves more as a fig leaf than any real protection.
A brief overview struggles :
of
some
important
Contract workers throughout the country are mobilizing against unfair and exploitative treatment at the hands of their employers. Some have achieved notable victories, as was the case with the BSNL contract workers at Kerala. An indefinite strike was started by contract and temporary workers in Kerala from 12th of August with demands for wage revisions and implementation of ESIEmployees Social Insurance (ESI) and EPFEmployees Provident Fund (EPF) which resulted in a comprehensive agreement. The agreement guarantees : 1. The employees engaged for Cable/Line maintenance will be paid @ Rs.258/- + DA 2. All other workers will be paid @ Rs.236/+DA
the point of is precisely the job security of contract 3. EPF and ESI will be implemented. workers. And as always, throughout the struggle the state machinery has shown itself to be 4. Work less than 4 hours will be treated as part decisively in favor of corporate interests over time and ESI & EPF will be implemented. worker's interests. 5.
Payment of bonus will be considered and provision will be included in the tender.
6.
ID card certified by BSNL officer will be issued.
7. The system of Work Contract will not be implemented at present. This was a notable victory of contract workers in BSNL's Kerela SSA and a model which can be followed in other circles. Similar struggles had been initiated out in Goa last year where around 350 contract workers went on strike for regularization of jobs. This was after the local management had assured the workers of guaranteeing they would guarantee them statutory welfare measures like leave, weekly off, holidays, overtime, bonus and a wage revision. Reports from Karnataka show similar mass mobilizations, with a 1,000 contract and casual workers agitating for regularization. The demands include payment of minimum wage, implementation of social security measures like EPF and ESI, and reinstatement of retrenched workers. While the treatment of contract workers fares is better in public sector companies owing to better accountability, abuses do take place even here. The scene in the private sector however, is decidedly worse, where even token regard to labor laws is absent. This difference in public and democratic political accountability is a huge benefit of nationalization even under capitalist conditions with a bourgeois ruling class.
The bourgeoisie aims to pauperize, fragment and weaken the working class everywhere, and contractorization has been among one of the best ways to achieved this. The ambition of Indian capital to attain global standing has only exacerbated this in the name of 'growth and development'. But this is not without there is, as always, resistance. The struggles occurring both in the private and public sector shows show us this. However, in most cases these are piecemeal efforts aimed with very defensively aims and with a very empirical perspective in place. Good as they may be, they do not overturn the system of pauperization in place which puts systematic pressure to pauperize the working class in the whole nation. However, past struggles of workers have given us a good foundation to fight on. This is best reflected in the welfare measures which the different governments in power have been forced to make concede. And the struggles have led to a legal framework for regulating and abolishing contract work.
The legal framework in place :
The key piece of legislation on the question of contract workers is the Contract Labour regulation and abolition Act of 1970. The Act was instituted in a period of heightened class struggle and in a time when contractorization of work was only a nascent phenomenon. Though this act, as well as the central rules framed in 1971, were meant to provide relief against arbitrary and exploitative practices of employers against contract workers, and to this effect regulate (and in some cases abolish) the One of the most intense struggles involving contract system of contract work, in reality, this has proven workers, thus far has been seen in Maruti Suzuki to be a red herring. The good intentions have where a major portion large number of arbitrarily proved to be a mirage. retrenched workers have been contract workers. What began as a strike against unjust and unfair The continuing exploitation of contract workers as labor practices in Maruti has transformed into a seen from examples above, show that the laws in movement which has shaken shaking the confidence force are not only inadequate but are poorly of the bourgeoisie everywhere in the country. An implemented. Among the most glaring unprecedented rolling strike took place and the inadequacies present in of both the aAct and the protest movement continues. Among the major Rules, is the ambiguity on responsibility of issues in this mobilization has presented before us is payments and the the non-admission of liability of 4
the principal employer. A huge loophole has been left out which has encouraged the worst abuses of contract work, in the ambiguity on responsibility for ensuring wages and facilities for contract workers. As per Sections 20 and 21 of the Act, the first responsibility for ensuring payment of wages is given to the contractor rather than the principal employer. The Principal Employer assumes responsibility only in the event that the contractor fails to meet his obligations. More often than not, the principal employer jettisons responsibility for the contract worker entirely. The Act also provides for a regulating mechanism in the appointment of duly authorized representatives. This is sorely inadequate in achieving its target, in the objective of ensuring due payment at the hands by the contractor. In absence of a strong mechanism to compel the payment of wages to contract workers, the abuses remain unchecked. Among the biggest inadequacies however, and possibly its greatest weakness is that it doesn't apply to workers of the unorganized sector. The act has explicitly stated that it only applies to establishments employing more than 20 workers. This provides a very easy loophole has been left out where the employer and contractor can avoid the obligations imposed by this enactment their legal obligations by simply dividing the factory or office establishment. However, as a welcome respite the judiciary has occasionally stepped in to provide some relief and bring about clarity in the laws. Notably, the Supreme Court in the cases of Standard Vacuum vs their workmen (1960IILJ) wherein, contract labor was forbidden in four areas of work were debarred from employment of contract workers : Where work is of a perennial nature and goes on from day to day.; The work is incidental to and necessary to the work of the factory.: Where it is sufficient to employ a number of permanent workmen.; Where most of the work is being done through regular workmen.
Gujarat State Electricity Board vs Union of India and Air india Statutory Corporation Ltd vs. United Labour Union & others. These however, deal with the question of absorption of contract workers in cases where contract work is abolished. The first judgment held that the Act should be amended by incorporating a suitable provision for an industrial arbitrator in cases where contract work is abolished, while the second deals with an employer's liability for absorbing contract workers. The former decision was never acted upon by the government and no such amendment has been made till date, while the latter judgment was prospectively was overruled. The employer, it was held, could not be automatically compelled to absorb the contract workers. If anything these The fate of these judgments in favor of the workers' interests plainly show the limitations of the judiciary when it comes to guaranteeing and enforcing laws intended to help the workers. All in all however, the long term aim of abolishing contract work and bringing about a full regularization of workforce remains untouched by the legal framework in place. Even in its aims of providing relief to contract workers from the prolific abuses the legislations in place fall shorts on many grounds. The Judiciary is bound in by its own institutional framework has in the bourgeois system, and has very limited scope to go beyond the legislative frameworks in place advance the interests of the workers in their contradictions with the capitalists. Despite the occasional respite given, the scenario on the whole remains dire and shows that a long and concerted struggle is needed to ensure even the most basic needs of the workers.
The direction of struggle, towards campaign for abolition of contract work :
a
As is the case with most labor laws and welfare measures in place, they are paid scant regard by capitalists and are often reduced to mere letters. The case with laws on contract labour is no different. While we must take advantage of every opportunity these concessions have given give us, empowering us in the task of organizing contract Thus far, this has been among the most significant workers, we must not have any illusions. Our aim judgments dealing with contract workers and has is the full abolition of contract work and a expanded the ambit of exclusion of contract work. framework ensuring job security and a guarantee of welfare for all. This To achieve this aim requires a Similarly important judgments include the case of united struggle embracing all contract workers 5
across the nation. What is more, the solidarity ground for expanding fighting to expand the between contract workers and regular workers is welfare that can be accorded of the working class indispensable for a strong movement to emerge. by improving its living conditions and share of the national wealth is the crucial dialectic of our The position of the contract worker is one facing approach to the everyday struggle for a decent life double exploitation. On the one hand the worker is under capitalism. This in turn must aim at the exploited as insecure and easily exploitable complete abolition of the contractorization system workforce coerced labour by the principal employer while making the conditions of work for contract while on the other hand he is exploited by a workers in the present situation as good as possible. parasitical middle man in the form of the contractor. The contractor controls an important supply of labor Our ultimate goal, it goes without saying, is to within his enterprise and pockets the surplus through abolish the economic system which thrives on these both from the literal sale of the laborer to the injustices and takes advantage of unemployment company as well as from the denial of statutory and insecurity to damage people's lives. A modern guarantees to the worker. society based on human values and mutually beneficial relations between all its members has But it must not be forgotten that in a bourgeois nothing in common with our present-day capitalist democracy exploitation is accompanied by societies. These are shot through with greed, concessions whose scale depends very much on the corruption, brutality and a callous disregard for vigor of working class action and the vision of its human life and well-being. They are reaching the leadership. The Labour legislation, though end of their historical tether, and we are only too inadequate, gives enough scope to mount a legal and willing to cut it for them and put them out to open challenge against the worst aspects of the pasture, like retired wild beasts who have spent a contractorization system. Demanding all those lifetime breaking the bones and eating the flesh of benefits guaranteed by law while preparing the gladiators.
protestor at Delhi during the protests in January earlier this year
Perspective on the anti-rape agitations : The anti-rape mobilizations in December last year and early January this year marked a high point of mobilizations in the preceding year. It also brought the question of gender rights and the persecution of women in India to the fore. The epicentre of the 6
mobilizations was New Delhi, which saw the most vigorous protests and the largest mobilizations, and the most repressive policing. After the initial waves however, the movement quickly ebbed following the same trajectory as another massive popular
democratic mobilization before, the anti-corruption movement. The one significant difference however, was the complete absence of any organized leadership. The significance of the mobilization is twofold, firstly in terms of its strength and magnitude shown in the frantic and defensive response of the ruling government in placating the protestor's demands. Secondly, in the spontaneous and unorganized nature of the whole
marital rape and amendments to the AFSPA so as to make soldiers accountable for acts of rape, but they were not accepted in the final amendments passed by the parliament. While not a complete defeat, the government and the media ensured that the victory would be botched up and plenty of loopholes were left to allow continued abuse against women. No wonder, as parliament and the legislature generally are themselves cursed with MPs and MLAs who are tainted with rape charges and charges of violence against women.
What was achieved and what was not ? The immediate achievement of the mobilization was twofold. Firstly, the mobilizations resulted in pressurizing the government into action in passing a stronger law against rape in the form of the AntiRape Ordinance. Secondly, in bringing the question of gender rights and violence against women to the fore and creating public awareness to this effect. The power of the mobilizations can be gauged in the way that the state was made to cave in to the interests of the people at large, to the extent that a local MLA from Assam belonging to the Congress party had to step down from his position. What is remarkable was that this was achieved without any definitive organized leadership guiding the mobilizations. Despite the apparent lack of direction, the movement achieved notable successes and showed the raw power of people mobilized in action. However, it was precisely this anarchic nature of the protests which made it weak in the face of the bourgeois democratic state's maneuvers. The first reactionary victory against the mobilization was successfully presenting the death penalty as the chief demand of the protests. The media played a leading role in manufacturing consent around this with rightwing political parties and organizations (chiefly the RSS and BJP) playing a decisive supporting role. The demand for the death penalty blotted out any progressive social demands which were being put forward. Ultimately the state forces, especially the judiciary, assumed a leading position in the mobilization with the creation of the Verma Commission and the passage of the anti-rape bill in parliament. Despite the bill having been passed under pressure with the masses' anger behind them, the bourgeoisie in power managed to successfully dilute some of the most important and most radical proposals. These included significant advances like the recognition of 7
It is by no means too late for the embers of the mobilization to be stirred up and set ablaze again. The questions that were raised are still unanswered, and the radicalization which set in has not been entirely lost, despite the mobilization having ebbed. What the mobilizations in January 2013 and December 2012 showed was the impact which can be had when the masses start to move. The need is but to channel the massive energy and give it leadership. An agenda for gender equality Despite superficial appearances, the mobilizations did not merely target one incident of rape, but brought the entire question of gender equality to the fore. Under capitalism, it is impossible to imagine equality of sexes except in their 'equality' as wage slaves. Ultimately, even this minimal equality is reduced to a fiction where capitalism desires to create a layer of more easily exploited wage slaves. If it can split men from women by forcing them to endure different material conditions of life and work, leading them to focus on different immediate problems and needs, then the bourgeoisie will have succeeded in dividing the working class in yet another dimension, all the better to rule it. Religion, ethnic origin, skin colour, caste, administrative status (legal/illegal), residential status – all these factors are used by the ruling class to divide workers against each other and if possible get them to attack each other. Sexuality and gender are additional explosive additions to the mix of potential prejudice and deliberately fostered misunderstanding. So every time working women and men stand side by side and demand decent working and living conditions for themselves and their families, and spit on capitalist liars who try to split them and sow hostility between them – each time this happens the bourgeoisie is forced to step
back, and its power to exploit and brutalize is all women of all ages, both in relation to society in diminished. general (reactionary traditions and public prejudice) and to the hidden (and not so hidden) This condition of more easily exploited wage slaves abuse and exploitation of girls and women at home is exactly how the bourgeoisie sees the role of and in families. And working class women and women under capitalism. The situation becomes poor peasant women will be fully aware of the need both more complicated and more cruel in those to demand all kinds of improvements in the countries where capitalism emerged belatedly. India conditions to which they are subjected at work, is the leading example in our times. Where the whether in factories, offices, shops, kitchens or bourgeoisie is compelled to share its power with fields. Not least an end to sexual harassment and vestiges of the earlier ruling classes, the worst abuse by employers and overseers. elements of casteism and monarchism survive into the present day, it becomes a political necessity for The Socialist proletarian alternative to the the new ruling capitalists to keep women trapped in capitalist solution : the rigid old social hierarchy to please this antediluvian layer of support. The bourgeois feminist solution is restricted within the inherently inequal and sexist framework of To build a struggle for gender equality, we must first capitalism. Its foundation is wage slavery and acknowledge that the source of women's oppression unjust exploitation. The bourgeois feminists ignore is the prevailing social order under capitalism itself. the fact that all social inequalities and enslavement The wealth and splendour of the rich capitalists existing today are in one way or another tied into depend entirely on the poverty and oppression of the this supreme enslavement. For this reason, their people whose labour creates this very wealth and solutions often come up as superficial and splendour. The produce of our work is stolen from us piecemeal and more often than not end up as and appropriated as their exclusive property by those failures. The socialist alternative strikes at the root who do no work at all. The more we work, the richer of the cause ! they become (and "India", too, which for them is just the same thing) but the poorer we are in comparison. While bourgeois feminists seek to preserve the rule This means that saying that a solution to the abuse of capital and aim only for according a section of and brutalization of women exists within the existing women the right to enrich themselves to the level framework is sowing illusions in the ability of the of their male bourgeois counterparts, we seek to bourgeoisie to bring about a just and free society. abolish the entire system of enrichment ! For This is the great weakness of all reformists political socialists, the aim is for all gender inequalities must tendencies, and especially feminism as it exists today stand abolished ! The first step towards this is the (dominated by bourgeois feminism). It has no abolition of inequality in the workplace and for an concrete solution to this most urgent of social end to discriminatory treatment of women. Every questions, as it has no programme or stomach for political and social institution in our time is fighting against the depredations of capitalism, let plagued with sexism, and our attack is on them all ! alone trying to abolish it. As a result we have seen it fail in providing the right kind of leadership to the In the indian context the police and polity are protestors during the anti-rape agitation. especially rotten in this regard. Against the police institution we must fight for the strictest of actions The leadership that is needed will first of all set up against indiscipline and insensitivity from the lasting centres for continuing the fight for equality, police as well as pushing for greater participation since it will understand that only persistent and of women in the police force. Against the polity, we conscious political work and social pressure will have the strictest scrutiny against concessions to drive those in power to a) do anything at all, b) give patriarchic forces and for expulsion of delinquent any measures passed real teeth, and c) give the issue parliamentarians. A first attack could be focussed of women's status and security permanently high on MPs and MLAs charged with rape and sexual priority in the media and public opinion. Further it assault. We must call for their dismissal and set a will draw up a simple but powerful set of demands precedent therein. that are capable of bringing about real change in relation to the health and education and welfare of In the workplace, sexual harassment and 8
exploitation of women workers is rampant. Yet the bourgeois feminists, care a fig for them ! A perfect example of capitalism and patriarchy working in symphony is the treatment of women workers in textile industries in Coimbatore where mills mostly controlled by upper caste Kammas deliberately prefer lower caste women workers. The reason ? They are made to sign contracts for short periods of time during which they are worked more and paid less than their male counterparts. The duration of the
contract in turn is tied in to dowry for their marriage. The biggest advantage to the textile capitalist here is to prevent the workers from getting organized. The condition of the mostly female workforce in Bangladesh's garment industry tells us the same tale and poses the most stark question to all those who want to fight for gender equality and women's emancipation. Either to challenge capitalism or to forsake the struggle !
Statement against the murder of Sardar Arif in Kashmir. - National Socialist Federation (Marxist) Kashmir [The following article was published earlier in the new wave website. We are republishing it as it shows us a glimpse of the struggle for self-determination on the Pakistan-occupied side of Kashmir.]
map of Kashmir with comparison of pre 1947 borders
Protesters have taken to the streets in various parts of administered Kashmir. He also criticized Pakistan’s Pakistan and Pakistan administered Kashmir, angry policy of treating Kashmir as its “colony”. Sardar at the killing of a pro-independence Kashmiri leader. Arif Shahid was an outspoken critic of Pakistan’s Kashmir policy. Sardar Arif Shahid was shot dead by unidentified men near his home in Rawalpindi on 13-05-2013 The Pakistani government banned him from (Monday night.)Mr Shahid led the All Parties travelling abroad in 2009, and later confiscated his National Alliance (APNA), which advocates passport and other identification documents. The independence from India and Pakistan, as well as Ministry of Interior told a court in December 2012 being the president of National Liberation that his documents had been confiscated due to his Conference (NLC). Both countries claim the region, “anti-state activities and on the recommendation of which is divided between them across a ceasefire the director-general of the ISI intelligence service”. line known as the Line of Control. Demonstrations Three months ago, police in Rawalpindi registered were also held in other cities and towns in Pakistan- a case against him for publishing a monthly occupied Kashmir.Protesters carried banners with magazine which it is alleged contained antislogans against the Pakistani army and the ISI Pakistan material. Mr Shahid was “the victim of intelligence service, which they blamed for the targeted killing by some state actors”. killing. Glimpse on Line of Control ‘Pool of blood‘ The two countries fought wars over Kashmir in Sardar Arif Shahid was taken to a military hospital 1947-48, 1965 and 1984. They formalised the where he was pronounced dead.Mr Shahid was a present existing ceasefire line as the Line of vocal critic of Pakistan’s role in sending militants to Control in the Simla Agreement, but this did not fight a “proxy war” against India in Indian- prevent further clashes in 1999 in Kargill, which is 9
beyond the Line of Control. India and Pakistan came Conference, a pro-Indian party led by the Abdullah close to war again in 2002. political dynasty. Pakistan runs Azad Jammu and Kashmir as a self-governing state, in which the The situation was further complicated by an Muslim Conference,PPP,PML(N) NAWAZ Islamist-led insurgency that broke out in 1989. India SHARIF are playing a prominent role . gave the army additional authority to end the insurgency under the controversial Armed Forces The National Conference moved from a proSpecial Powers Act (AFSPA). Despite occasional independence stance in the 1950s to accepting the reviews of the AFSPA, it still remains in force in status of a union state within India, albeit with Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. During the more autonomy than other states. The newly period of “operation brasstracks” in which India formed National Conference government in initiated military action against insurgents, the Kashmir had to eventually deal with an intransigent limited autonomy to Indian-occupied kashmir under Indian state which would often resort to article 370 of the constitution was also abolished. manipulating elections to curb the autonomy of the state of Kashmir. In the summer of 2010, more than 20 years after the AFSPA was imposed in Jammu and Kashmir, pro- Jammu and Kashmir is diverse in religion and independence public protests erupted, and clashes culture. It consists of the heavily-populated and with Indian security forces left more than 100 people overwhelmingly Muslim Kashmir Valley, the dead. When taking into consideration the fact that mainly Hindu Jammu district, and Ladakh, which both India and Pakistan have a large nuclear arsenal, has a roughly even number of Buddhists and Shia the stakes seem quite high. Muslims. This region is divided again between India and China with China occupying a vast An improvement in relations occurred after 2002, portion of Aksai Chin as a result of the 1962 war which saw some road and rail communications into with India. Pakistan reopened, but this ended abruptly with the The Hindus of Jammu and the Ladakhis back India 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai. India blamed in the dispute, although there is a campaign in the Pakistani and Kashmiri Islamists, in particular the Leh District of Ladakh to be upgraded into a Lashkar-e-Toiba group, for the attacks. separate union territory in order to reflect its For two years dialogue was stalled between both predominantly Buddhist identity. India gave the countries till Talks resumed in 2010, and relations two districts of Ladakh some additional autonomy slowly started to improve again. within Jammu and Kashmir in 1995. By 2012, with India promising an amnesty to those who took part in the violent protests of 2010 and Pakistan gradually withdrawing financial support from insurgents fighting Indian rule in the Kashmir Valley, many former militants had become convinced of the futility of the armed struggle against the Indian authorities. Division of Kashmir The population of historic Kashmir is divided into about 10 million people in Indian-administrated Jammu and Kashmir and 4.5 million in Pakistani-run Azad Kashmir. There are a further 1.8 million people in the Gilgit-Baltistan autonomous territory, which Pakistan created from northern Kashmir and the two small princely states of Hunza and Nagar in 1970.
Kashmir’s economy is predominantly agrarian. The important tourism sector in Indian-administered Kashmir was hard hit by the post-1989 insurgency, but has recently bounced back and in 2011 a record 1.1m tourists visited, mainly from India itself. Nevertheless, due to the backward nature of industrialization there remains a very high number of unemployed youth who are the bulwark of discontent in Kashmir today.
Now the ruling classes of India and Pakistan long to strengthen the peace process by the introduction of various trade and transit measures. America’s broker role in India-Pakistan relations have revived in importance following india’s entry into Afghanistan as a major investor and America’s concern over Pakistani cooperation in it’s Afghan war. This entry has only served to complicate the The government of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir situation and give it an international Kashmir has often been led by the National dimension. 10
While violent demonstrations and curfews no How dangerous is the Kashmir dispute? longer take place on a daily basis, this “tinder box effect” on the streets of Srinagar and other towns in From potentially being one of the most dangerous Indian-administered Kashmir – in which angry disputes in the world – which in the worst-case crowds take to the streets often without much scenario could trigger a nuclear conflict – the recent notice – is still a feature of life. warming of relations between Delhi and Islamabad has led to less sabre-rattling over the Kashmir What’s changing now? dispute. For much of the 1990s, separatist militancy and In 1998 India and Pakistan both declared themselves cross-border firing between the Indian and to be nuclear powers with a string of nuclear tests. Pakistani armies left a death toll running into tens of thousands and a population traumatised by In 2002 there was a huge deployment of troops on fighting and fear. both sides of the border as India reacted to an armed attack on the national parliament in Delhi the Jammu and Kashmir is the only state in India previous December. where Muslims are in the majority While relations in general warmed from 2000 India said the attack was carried out by Pakistani- onwards, tension again resurfaced with theMumbai based militants assisted by the Pakistan government (Bombay) attacks of November 2008- in which – a charge always denied by Pakistan. gunmen from Pakistan killed 165 people. But there have been signs over the past decade that Why has there been so much violence been in things are improving: Indian-administered Kashmir? In 2003, the two countries agreed to a ceasefire Although in recent years violence in Indian- across the Line of Control (LoC) that divides administered Kashmir has abated, the causes of the Indian and Pakistani-administered Kashmir insurgency have not gone away. In 2006, Pakistan said it stopped all funding for Demonstrations still take place regularly in the militant operations in Kashmir, ignoring protests by Kashmir valley some of the more influential groups Put simply, many people in the territory – especially in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley – do not want it to be governed by India. They would prefer to be either independent or part of Pakistan. The population of the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir is over 60% Muslim, making it the only state within India where Muslims are in the majority. The sense of alienation from Delhi is especially to be found among young people in the Kashmir valley, a problem which has been made worse by high unemployment and what many see as heavy-handed tactics from Indian paramilitary forces in stifling their protests. Although the insurgency today may not be so vigorously fought as it was in the 1990s, the scope for violence to re-surface - as happened in 2010- is never far away.
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In February 2010 India announced an amnesty for fighters from Indian-administered Kashmir, saying they could return from Pakistani territory Early in 2012, Islamabad cut by half the administrative funds it issues to groups that still maintain offices in Pakistani-administered Kashmir At the same time it offered a cash rehabilitation package to former fighters to abandon militancy One thing that has not changed, however, is the Line of Control (LoC) which divides Kashmir on an almost two-to-one basis: Indian-administered Kashmir to the east and south (population about nine million), known by India as Jammu and Kashmir state; and Pakistani-administered Kashmir to the north and west (population about three million), which is labelled by Pakistan as “Azad” (Free) Kashmir. China also controls a small portion of North Kashmir and the bulk of Ladakh province in Aksai Chin.
Many later disputes put to the United Nations have Our political stance not been resolved either. Two hundred and eighteen resolutions have been passed against the atrocities We condemn the assassination of pro-independence and the occupation of Palestinian land by the state and liberal leader and absolutely involve in of Israel. Not one of these resolutions has been arrangement of protest in all over regions of Pakistan implemented. and Pakistan occupied Kashmir with our program that socialist Federation of Kashmir then south Asia The recent imperialist invasion of Iraq is a glaring is solution of liberation and independence. example of the impotence of the UN. The problem is that most conflicts around the world cannot be The capitalist state is the weapon in bourgeoisie resolved on a capitalist basis. Hence, as a deviation hand which they utilize against freedom Fighters, or a delaying tactic, these politically decadent Human Rights Activists and Leftists. leaders refer them to the UN. Such is the case with Kashmir. The United Nations is financed by We condemn the vicious Murder of Arif shahid and imperialist and reactionary bourgeois states. How chant slogan, go back Pakistan and Indian Forces. could it dare confront them or impose any decision against their vested interests? The UN is simply the Stop the killing of Kashmiris, balochis and deprived gossip club of the rulers of oppressive regimes that all over the world rule through an exploitative system. The UN was a rotten compromise between Imperialism and We appeal to all Trade unions, Youth organization, Stalinism in the past, now it is an instrument for Human Rights Activists, Shopkeepers to be the part justifying and legalising the economic and military of these protests. aggression of imperialism, especially that of the United States. India and Pakistan both contribute We appeal all national and international pro- immensely to UN military programs and India in independence Liberals and Leftists to condemn this particular has controlling role in the campaign in assassination, the Congo in addition to being one of the top 10 funders of the UN. It is folly in this, to hope for justice from bourgeois law. This is all the more true for bourgeois The liberation of Kashmir will not come from UN international law and the character of the so-called resolutions or the charity of the imperialist masters. United Nations. It is a symbol of legalistic and It will come through the revolutionary struggle of diplomatic hypocrisy. Lenin once called the League the Kashmiri masses, which they have carried on of Nations a “thieves’ kitchen�. The United Nations, with such courage and bravery for so long. With all if anything, is the greatest deceiver of all. these sacrifices they have a huge treasure of experience of struggle. From this will emerge the Kashmir is the oldest unresolved dispute on the exact path to take, in order to achieve their agenda of the United Nations. It is still unresolved. freedom.
Marx on free trade and protectionism : -Karl Marx (written. 1847) The protectionists have never protected small industry, handicraft proper. Have Dr. List and his school in Germany by any chance demanded protective tariffs for the small linen industry, for hand loom-weaving, for handicraft production? No, when they demanded protective tariffs they did so only in order to oust handicraft production with 12
machines and patriarchal industry with modern industry. In a word, they wish to extend the dominion of the bourgeoisie, and in particular of the big industrial capitalists. They went so far as to proclaim aloud the decline and fall of small industry and the petty bourgeoisie, of small farming and the small peasants, as a sad but inevitable, and as far as the indus-trial development of Germany is concerned, necessary occurrence. Besides the school of Dr. List there exists in Germany, the land of schools, yet another school, which demands not merely a system of protective tariffs, but a system of import prohibition proper. The leader of this school, Herr v. Gülich, has written a very scholarly history of industry and trade, which has also been translated into French. Herr v. Gülich is a sincere philanthropist; he is in earnest with regard to protecting handicraft production and national labour. Well now! What did he do? He began by refuting Dr. List, proved that in List’s system the welfare of the working class is only a sham and a pretence, a ringing piece of hollow rhetoric, and then, for his part, he made the following proposals:
Let us return to the protectionists proper, who do not share the illusions of Herr v. Gülich. If they speak consciously and openly to the working class, then they summarise their philanthropy in the following words: it is better to be exploited by one’s fellow-countrymen than by foreigners. I do not think the working class will be for ever satisfied with this solution, which, it must be confessed, is indeed very patriotic, but nonetheless a little too ascetic and spiritual for people whose only occupation consists in the production of riches, of material wealth. But the protectionists will say: “So when all is said and done we at least preserve the pre-sent state of society. Good or bad, we guarantee the labourer work for his hands, and prevent his being thrown on to the street by foreign competition.” I shall not dispute this statement, I accept it. The preservation, the conservation of the present state of affairs is accordingly the best result the protectionists can achieve in the most favourable circumstances. Good, but the problem for the working class is not to preserve the present state of affairs, but to transform it into its opposite.
1. To prohibit the importation of foreign The protectionists have one last refuge. They say manufactured products; that their system makes no claim to be a means of social reform, but that it is nonetheless necessary to 2. to place very heavy import duties on raw begin with social reforms in one’s own country, materials originating abroad, like cotton, silk etc., before one embarks on economic reforms etc., in order to protect wool and nationally produced internationally. After the protective system has linen; been at first reactionary, then conservative, it finally becomes conservative-progressive. It will 3. likewise on colonial products, in order to suffice to point out the contradiction lurking in this replace sugar, coffee, indigo cochineal, valuable theory, which at first sight appears to have timbers etc., etc., with national products; something seductive, practical and rational to it. A strange contradiction! The system of protective 4. to place high taxes on nationally produced tariffs places in the hands of the capital of one machines, in order to protect handicraft production country the weapons which enable it to defy the against the machine. capital of other countries, it increases the strength of this capital in opposition to foreign capital, and It is evident that Herr v. Gülich is a man who accepts at the same time it deludes itself that the very same the system with all its consequences. And what does means will make that same capital small and weak this lead to? Not merely preventing the entry of in opposition to the working class. In the last foreign indus-trial products, but also hindering the analysis that would mean appealing to the progress of national industry. philanthropy of capital, as though capital as such could be a philanthropist. In general, social reforms Herr List and Herr v. Gülich form the limits between can never be brought about the the weakness of the which the system moves. If it wishes to protect strong; they must and will be called to life by the industrial progress, then it at once sacrifices strength of the weak. handicraft production, labour; if it wishes to protect labour, then industrial progress is sacrificed. Incidentally, we have no need to detain ourselves 13
with this matter. From the moment the protectionists concede that social reforms have no place in their system and are not a result of it, and that they form a special question – from this moment on they have
already abandoned the social question. I shall accordingly leave the protectionists aside and speak of Free Trade in its relationship to the condition of the working class.
Rank-and-file Movement in World War II - Bill Hunter The phrase “the spirit of 1945” has inspired many activists this year. Ken Loach’s film of the same name led to discussions of what that spirit was.But what is less known are the deep processes taking place in the working class during the Second War World. There was a determined effort by militant workers to break Labour from the coalition national government and to use strikes to fight for their conditions against the Labour Party, the Communist Party and the trade union leadership whose line was: don’t strike support the war, we are all in it together against fascism. Meanwhile the capitalists continued to get fat on war profits.
there is a brutal social war taking place. Rank and file struggle is vital today as the TUC majority back the Labour Party just as they did then. Today we must fight to place decision making into the hands of mass meetings of the rank and file. ________________
In Marxists in the Second World War, Labour Review, December 1958, Bill explains about the rising movement of the class, “Working days lost by strikes, which fell to 940,000 in 1940, rose to 1,530,000 in 1942, 1,810,000 in 1943 and 3,710,000 in 1944. By the beginning of 1944 the government was faced with the prospect of a general strike throughout the coalfields. In the last Then, as today new rank and file organisations months of 1943 there had been a wave of strikes, needed to develop if workers were going to fight and most of them in defence of young workers who had win against the employers and government. It been conscripted for underground work”. continued an old tradition of rank and file actions. This story is from a chapter of Bill Post-war history is shaped in part by rank and file Hunter’s Lifelong Apprenticeship: Life and Times committees expressing independent struggle against of a Revolutionary, Volume 1: 1920–1959. It is union leaderships who would not fight, who were about the struggle of young engineering workers opposed for example to calling a general strike and against conscription to the coal mines and the way in the Second World War any strike! the State tried to prepare an attack on militant Here we re-publish Bill Hunter on the 1944 workers by blaming the strikes on Trotskyists. “Apprentices’ strike”. We are not in a World War but 14
Strikes in war challenged union leaderships The Labour and trade union bureaucracy was extremely worried at the biggest wave of industrial action since the 1926 General Strike, and at the growing political movement of hostility to the political truce. As we have seen, at the beginning of 1944 no fewer than 44 resolutions were tabled for the Whitsun Labour Party conference demanding the end of the coalition government. The following year this movement in the Labour Party was to eject the party’s leaders from the Cabinet. At the end of March 1944, 50,000 engineering apprentices went on strike. Their rank-and-file organisation, the ‘Apprentices’ Guild’, which had begun on the Tyne, was demanding that Bevin, the Minister of Labour, withdraw the new legislation that would conscript engineering apprentices into the mines, their names being chosen by ballot.
The capitalist press had conducted a campaign against Trotskyists from time to time, but at the end of 1943 and the beginning of 1944 the campaign became more rabid and widespread when the government prepared further anti-working class legislation to curb industrial and political unrest. Bevin was about to introduce a new regulation, 1A(a), which further increased the curbs on strikes and made illegal any proposal of strike action outside of an officially and legally constituted trade union meeting. In the press campaign, Trotskyists were accused of being responsible for the growing number of strikes. It was said they were the ‘hidden hand’ behind the big wave of industrial struggle. TheDaily Mail of 7 October 1943 declared that the Trotskyists:
“...play on the weariness of workers who have had four years of war and exaggerate grievances into a campaign to suppress the workers after the war. Why they have been allowed to have so much The Tyne Apprentices’ Guild expressed the deep success is incomprehensible”. feelings of young workers who, living in a coalmining area, had the common opinion that they would rather go into the army than down the pits. Trotskyists arrested One of their leaflets declared: Four Trotskyists, Jock Haston, Roy Tearse, Heaton “The Government has adopted, and is now Lee and Ann Keen, were arrested and charged with enforcing, the so-called Ballot Scheme. By this conspiracy under the Trades Disputes Act (1927) scheme, which was introduced without consulting and with furthering an illegal strike. Under the the lads who will be driven down the pits, they claim Trades Disputes Act, a punitive measure against the they will solve the coal crisis. But this dictatorial trade unions passed after the General Strike, an measure has been taken against lads 18 to 21 years illegal strike was one which “is not a trade dispute of age, who cannot legally demonstrate their hostility within the trade and is designed to coerce the to, and lack of confidence in, the infamous pit government”. compulsion scheme, because we lack the elementary These four Trotskyists were the first victims of this rights of the Parliamentary vote. Act, which had originally been denounced as an “We apprentices declare that it is the greedy coal- infamous attack on workers’ rights by the very owners who are responsible for the present coal Labour and trade union leaders in the Cabinet crisis. They have soaked the miners for generations, which used it in 1944. The Newcastle jury flung out grown fat on the sweat, tears, blood and broken the conspiracy and incitement charges, even bones of the miners. They have allowed the though, in a summing up hostile to the four machinery in their pits to become antiquated, accused, the judge directed them to support the outdated and unproductive in their lust for profit. But charges. The Trotskyists were however found guilty the government has consistently refused to take real of ‘furthering an illegal strike’, even though, in a compulsory measures against the coal-owners. It is previous judgement in the House of Lords it had against the mass of unprotected youth that further been ruled that a strike could only be ‘furthered’ if it was already taking place and not before it had dictatorial measures are taken. begun. “The government must nationalise the pits and operate them under the control of the trade unions”. Letters to jail Government blames Trotskyists for strikes 15
Letters sent by Rachel Ryan, who then wrote daily
to her sister, Ann Keen, in Durham Jail. In a letter dated 18 April, the news is about Regulation 1A(a) and how it appears to be directed against the whole of the workers:
All the sentences were later quashed on appeal. The state and press propaganda did not arouse a great deal of hostility to Trotskyism among the working class in the industrial areas. There was wide support “Anyone who speaks for strike action, however among trade unionists for the campaign against the peaceably, except at a TU branch meeting, is liable arrests... to £500 fine and/or five years penal servitude. This is To be sure, the state was worried about the increase really vicious and will shake the whole of the labour of struggle, particularly among the miners, and movement. nervous that the circulation and influence of The letter ends by saying that the TUC ‘have Trotskyist propaganda could rapidly advance. But apparently’ accepted Regulation 1A(a). The next the state’s main attack was directed against the letter, dated 24 April, reports bus workers’ strikes workers’ increasing combativity, mainly in and the solidarity shown by soldiers who were being engineering and mining, and the aim of the witch hunt against Trotskyists and of the arrests was to compelled to drive and conduct buses: split and push back those who were struggling. The “The London busmen have gone back to work today, propaganda about subversives and the ‘hidden but the Manchester busmen are still out. They are all hand’ was meant to build up the atmosphere for giving a magnificent answer to Bevin. I don’t know further drastic measures against strike action, which whether you saw the item in the Herald to say that Ernest Bevin as Minister of Labour was preparing [with] the fares which the soldiers had collected on to introduce. the buses, amounting to about four pounds at one garage, they had taken the drivers and conductresses Before I leave the 1944 arrests there is a story to out to the local pub and treated them and had a good relate of a significant victory against our Stalinist old sing-song together. Real fraternisation all right. branch president, Len Hines, who was a leading Communist Party member in the area. He was “I expect you have seen the Daily Worker, although convenor of Lincoln Cars factory, which became coming out mildly against the new legislation as not part of Ford’s and was at the Chiswick end of the necessary, since the Defence Regulations and the Great West Road. Essential Works Orders] could be strengthened, have lost no time in trying to incite the Government to use Members had to attend the Amalgamated the new legislation against us in their article on the Engineering Union branch meetings in order to pay their subscriptions. There would be 60 or 70 bus strike.” workers seated in the room with a queue at the back There was a great deal of support from activists in paying subscriptions. Hines dominated the meeting the trade union movement and in the left of the until we began to win support and eventually Labour Party in the campaign against the arrests. defeated him on a number of resolutions, including backing for the four Trotskyists who were arrested. Feedback form :
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