The New Wave (Bolshevik-Leninist) is a revolutionary Socialist organization committed to rebuilding the BLPI in South Asia and the 4th International Globally
January 2014
www.newwavemaha.wordpress.com
www.litci.org/en
Contents : 1) Editorial
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2) Understanding the verdict of the 2014 elections
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3) Interview with Dilip Pawar of the VKKS of Bajaj Motors
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4) Our position on the present situation in Ukraine
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5) Interview of LPS of Senegal (IWL-FI)
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Editorial
This edition of our newsletter comes at a very special time. Internationally we have tremendous events unfolding in Ukraine, while at home, we have had an unprecedented electoral verdict which will entail significant changes in Indian life. These are challenging times which pose the questions of the working class and its destiny more sharply than ever. Beneath the mystification and chaotic complexities on the surface, the true picture of capitalist society lies concealed. The truth of the struggle unfolding in Ukraine, or the real forces which are moving history in India today, are being buried alive by the ruling bourgeoisie under truckloads of media manure. Thus, a vote for Modi has been translated into a 'victory for development' - and the majority of Indians want development, of course. The class struggles in Ukraine have been translated into either a 'conspiracy by the west' or 'Russian hegemony in action', if not 'Putin's conspiracy' or 'US hegemony in action'. The working class however, understands its problems better, Revolutionary Bolsheviks striving to build leadership for the working class explain their interests better. In writing this newsletter we aim to cut through the deceptive propaganda which has muddled the thought of many across the world on the two most significant events in the world today at the moment. Underneath it all, we emphasize the indomitable nature of the working class and its fighting energy. Examples of pivotal struggles like what is now being waged in Bajaj Motors in Pune, India, shed light on this. We must never forget this inherent strength of the proletariat. It was the working class that won the revolution in Russia in 1917, against unsurmountable odds. The crushing weight of Tsardom and backwardness was thrown off, and despite enormous challenges and setbacks, the non-capitalist Soviet Union emerged as a world power with tremendous strides in all fields of science and economics. In China the working class and peasantry fought and won a revolution which was even more difficult than the one in Russia, liberating the largest mass of humanity from crushing medieval backwardness, starvation and imperialism. Today China is a rising power and its people enjoy conditions much better than its rival India. Our task must be to harness this power and channel it, and lead the proletariat to realize its own strength, so it can fight successfully for its best interests against the class enemy. That is where we place our theoretical and practical work.
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On the verdict of the 2014 Indian elections
An electoral graphics showing seat share across constituencies in India
The Indian elections of 2014 were the largest the country has witnessed in its history, with around 816 million voters involved in the process. The elections were divided into 9 phases, making it the longest elections as well. The verdict was given on the 16th of May with the right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Narendra Modi winning a majority on its own. The NDA (National Democratic Alliance) alliance which it leads garnered 337 seats. Thus, after 25 years we are witnessing a government founded on a solid singular majority.
smaller regional and national parties. The regional parties like the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Jayalalitha's party the AIDMK (All India Dravida Munetra Khazagham) won around 3.6%-3.8% of votes polled. In West Bengal and elsewhere, the Stalinist parties of the Left Front won around 3.2% of votes polled in its worst ever performance. However, what this reality reflects is that with this system even a small share in votes translates to a huge difference in seats won. Thus, over 65% of the voters who did not vote for the BJP or NDA alliance partners will go unrepresented. This is a telling feature on just how The verdict however, isn't as simple as it seems on the 'representative' India's bourgeois 'democracy' is. surface. While the NDA did win more than 3/5th of the seats in parliament, it won only 33.7% of the total The implications of this result will be profound and votes polled. The second and third largest parties by will affect the country's working poor as now a party vote share were the Congress with 22% and the of the bourgeoisie literally has absolute majority in Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) with around 4% of votes . parliament. It can wield enormous power and push In total, around 45% of votes were scattered among through any parliamentary amendment it would like.
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The dynamics of the indian elections : As we shall see, neither of these alternatives was any good against the Congress and the people unsurprisingly rejected both. On the Left Front led third front coalition, the core of this popular front alliance, the Stalinist CPM and CPIM lost in an unprecedented fashion in West Bengal winning hardly 8 seats. While the main reason was the almost military efficiency with which rigging was conducted by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) party government, it was also due to the failure of the Stalinists to wage an effective fight against the fascistic violence conducted by the TMC party. This has not only confused and demoralized the people in West Bengal but is having its impact on the Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, addressing a rally party cadre as well. The only state where the CPM is holding out is Tripura which seems to be acting like a We have earlier commented that this election gives no mountain refuge for an ailing political force whose option to the working masses of India. On the one future is uncertain. hand was the possibility of dynastic rule which would instill a ruthlessly pro-bourgeois rule in parliament, on The other regional parties have obviously the other hand was the possibility of a rule by a party degenerated a long way since their lohiite roots. They under the influence of obscurantist reactionary forces are no longer seen with the halo of a party which running with a ruthlessly pro-bourgeois and anti- fought against the corruption and bonapartist attitudes working class government in parliament. Between of the Congress in the 60s and 70s, but as a corrupt these two choices there would only be a mist of bourgeois party no different than that of the Congress. anarchy. Indeed for all their 'secular' posturing the regional Till at least 2012, the verdict seemed unclear as to which party could win the elections. After the state elections in five major states, in which the BJP won all but one state election, the tide seemed clearer. The people had had enough of the misrule under the Congress, with constant attacks on the poor, mammoth corruption scams and complete failure to deliver any concrete benefit to the poor. Its promise of dynasty was hardly of any use in endearing the masses to it. As a party of the bourgeoisie, it failed to appease the interests of any sector of the bourgeoisie to any satisfying degree, and its strategy of concession and coercion was unable to pacify the masses' anger. To this party of flagrant misrule the people had two alternatives, broadly speaking. One was the traditional regional parties and their front known as the third front led by the Stalinist coalition called the left front. The other was the new and rising force of the Aam Admi Party, which was forged in the heat of the anticorruption mobilization which shook the foundations of Congress rule and aroused the petty-bourgeoisie, particularly in Delhi.
bourgeois alternatives like the Samajwadi Party or even the BSP have become little more than parties for the enrichment of their respective political leaders. No doubt these parties have been sidelined as well. In the midst of this sea of corruption and betrayal, the Aam Admi Party (AAP) seemed to stand as a real political alternative of the people. Whatever illusions people had in it were dashed soon after its formation and meteoric rise. The AAP recently won the elections in New Delhi and briefly took power, before relinquishing its position due to its failure to push for the appointment of a Lokpal. In course of their tenure in Delhi, they promised a lot and delivered little. Its politics of conciliation with capitalism and combining seemingly opposing social forces in its party (exemplified by its recruitment of millionaire capitalist robber barons like the Vice President of Bajaj along with anti-capitalist social activists like Medha Patkar ) only confused its supporters. Ultimately, neither the urban working class nor the urban elite supported this party. It achieved nothing but to confuse its supporters and detractors alike. After failing in Delhi, the AAP could not recover its 4
credibility a a party of the people, unsurprisingly it comes, the Congress must first go. At the same time, only garnered a couple of seats. with hardly any national alternative in sight, the only party which could guarantee such a verdict was the With such pathetic alternatives to the Congress party, BJP, the other big national party of the Indian one would be tempted to think that the BJP won almost bourgeoisie. At the same time we see both a situation by default. It wouldn't be entirely mistaken to say so. of social tension as well as a massive lack of class More than anything else the people wanted to consciousness among the Indian working class and overthrow the Congress government. No matter who poor.
Narendra Modi giving a speech during campaigning
How the BJP won the elections : Long before the 2014 election campaign set in, the mood of the people had already turned against the Congress. The first decisive break was the anticorruption movement in 2011. During the same period, a series of general strikes had been conducted in India mobilizing a historic number of workers across the country. The largest general strike in the world had occurred in February of 2013. In this period, the BJP was a peripheral force, even though it made its presence felt during the anti-corruption movement. It would not have been possible for any bourgeois force to hijack and finish off the whole movement if it wasn't for the conciliatory and reformist approach of its leadership. However, the seeds of the BJP as a populist force were sown at that time.
both the Congress and the BJP. In addition to this, a concerted media campaign created a personality cult around Modi. The biggest impact of this media campaign was to win over the majority of India's urban educated middle class who have access to TV and are more susceptible to media propaganda. Furthermore, the BJP and its linked organization the RSS mobilized their cadre to conduct a massive propaganda on social media. Not to forget is the massive presence of the RSS through its thousands of branches and almost 8 million strong cadre force spread throughout the country. This was the organizational foundation of the BJP's strength which allowed it to take full advantage of the anti-Congress mood in the country.
During the elections, money power and propaganda were in full display. Supporting the BJP was large funding by the leading capitalists of india, in particular the Birla family which leads the Birla group of companies which was the main source of funding for
In the run up to the elections, the BJP succeeded in mobilizing the RSS cadre and actively promoted a divisive communal agenda focused around the Muzaffarnagar riots. Modi's “right hand man� Amit Shah was active in the region playing on the 5
communalist Hindu sentiments of the Jat community and turning them against the Muslim community of the region. The riots of Muzaffarnagar were the fruits of a sustained covert propaganda campaign by the RSS in the region. Even so, it would never have been successful if it wasn't for the inconsistent response of the state led by the supposedly secular Samajwadi Party. Traditionally, communalist forces have been tolerated by the liberal bourgeoisie so that they can implement a divide and rule policy. However, in Uttar Pradesh, they seem to have overplayed their hand, for it was not the Samajwadi Party which took advantage of the situation, but the BJP.
the population. This constituted the constructive part of his campaign. The other was the negative/destructive part of the campaign. This involved breaking the opposition of the Muslim voters. First of all, it must be said, that if secularism has died in India, the Congress and other bourgeois parties must be the first to blame. The continuous deprivation and marginalization of the Muslim community in India has occurred under the rule of the Congress over 60 years. The regional parties and Stalinists purporting to be secular have no better a record to show. Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal show the worst conditions of backwardness among the community in India. In a popular talk show on CNNIBN one Muslim citizen from Delhi when asked about whether he fears Modi said: “We have nothing to fear from Modi, because in truth the Congress has left Muslims with nothing that Modi would take away from us”. This statement summarizes the wretched conditions of Muslims in India.
When the elections did come, the Muslims were just as fed up with the Congress as they were with every other party. The result of this was that their votes ended up being divided among many smaller regional parties. The advantage fell to the BJP having Riot victims of Muzaffarnagar. Over 50 children had died destroyed the idea of a “Muslim votebank”. As if this owing to the poor conditions of state aided relief camps weren't enough, to consolidate its advantage the BJP undertook a “Muslim outreach” programme which Throughout the election they cemented a reactionary confused sections of the Muslim community, whose consensus emboldened by the developments in political consciousness had in any case been Muzaffarnagar. Modi himself seems to have replicated destroyed by decades of Congress rule and polarity. his success in Gujarat, where he successfully cemented his power through the Gujarat riots of 2002, which Thus, we must conclude that Modi's victory is in fact remain one of the bloodiest riots in India. Throughout a combination of various factors which worked to his the elections, Modi was liberal in the use of hindutva advantage. Most important of them, is the failure of symbols like choosing to campaign in Varanasi, the working class leadership, which failed to build a holiest city of Hinduism. By using symbols which fit political alternative to the bourgeoisie and assert the into a hindutva schema, he succeeded in galvanizing position of the working class as the leading political the support of upper caste reactionary segments of force in the country despite having arguably the best society. This however, explains only the success of the political opportunity in the history of the country. The BJP in Uttar Pradesh. Elsewhere, he was aided much energy that was unleashed by the pre-revolutionary more by the negative perception of the Congress than situation in India, and the mobilizations which occurred, were thus dissipated, first by misleaders like anything else. Thus, through a cleverly constructed campaign the AAP and then by the BJP which used the rage and strategy, the BJP was able to win over the young urban discontent of the petty-bourgeoisie to propel itself to middle class as well as the more traditional sectors of an unprecedented position of power.
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What are the consequences of Modi's victory ? A preview of the future of India may be seen not only in Modi's Gujarat but in TMC ruled West Bengal as well. Both nationally and worldwide there appears to be a reactionary wave underway. The revolutions in Middle East and North Africa all appear to be fading. Europe after a rise of worker's struggles too has calmed down, while in the Americas, the forces of counterrevolution are re-emerging with a vengeance. India too is witnessing a reactionary wave symbolized by Modi's rise to power, and other reactionary forces like the RSS re-emerging after being dormant for almost a decade. A popular saying goes that “What India thinks tomorrow Bengal thinks today” . This seems to have come true for the worse rather than for the better. The failure of Stalinism is what has resulted in the victory of the TMC in West Bengal today and it was the failure of Stalinism and bourgeois and petty bourgeois alternatives which has resulted in the victory of Modi. Ironically, just like in the case of the TMC the BJP too won a massive majority in these elections. The TMC dominates the seats from West Bengal in the lower house of the parliament having won 31 out of 42 seats.
marginalization of muslims starting from the great purge in 2002 has gone on unabated. His state functions on the dual pillars of communalism and brutally neo-liberal economic policies. The former is the source of his political power and the latter the outcome of his economic power. While it is much more difficult to implement such policies on a national scale, we can expect him to try and implement it. This will cause tremendous tension from those resisting his policies. Even within Gujarat, where Modi rules with impunity, his rule is not unchallenged. A great example of this is in Mithi Virdi where thousands are protesting against a nuclear power plant project. This is being touted as Gujarat's “nandigram”. For those of us who may have forgotten, the peasant's protests at Nandigram, and the subsequent reaction of the Left Front led state government is what brought down the government from power. There have also been encouraging examples of worker's strikes in Gujarat like the recent one in the textile sector. This led to the government increasing worker's daily wages.
Yet if West bengal is any indicator, the immediate future will see a period of great chaos and conflict. The TMC when it came to power in the state elections engaged in violently consolidating its political power within the state. It didn't hesitate in turning on the Maoists who had hitherto acted in helping it fight the Left Front. Neither did it hesitate to turn on the Gorkha National Front which were allies to the TMC till now. Today, West Bengal is in a state of chaos with the bands of lumpen goons under the command of the TMC wreaking havoc across the bengali countryside and in the cities. The TMC oligarchs rule with impunity Thousands of villagers protest against acquisition of land taking the law into their own hands and brutally for a nuke plant at Mithi Virdi crushing any opposition. The party functions in a way that borders on outright fascism with harsh laws against The rest of the country is even more volatile. For organization and dissent. Gujarat has had a similar Modi to reign in on the entirety of class struggle story. would require a herculean effort. Even Thatcher couldn't survive the fight against the class conscious Upon coming to power in Gujarat, Modi first British working class. Her government fell after ten eliminated his political opponents, both from within the years of fighting the British working class and no party and from without. Consolidating political power Tory government could come to power till the present was the first thing Modi did when in power a part of one in alliance with the liberals. The Indian working which was to conduct riots and use that to propel him class is on the move, and it will be just as difficult to to power. Once entrenched, he went about re-creating curb it. This does not mean, we take things for Gujarat in the image of a special economic zone where granted. it is notoriously difficult to organize and agitate. The 7
How must we prepare ? What this election shows is the bankruptcy of the traditional leaderships of the working class. We must fight for a new radical leadership for the working class, one which can fight on a war footing with the new reactionary government in power. It is not that class struggle has ended, or that people actually 'prefer' a reactionary and autocratic leadership at the helm. It is a fact that they saw no alternative in the feeble traditional leaderships around them. The result has been the election of a reactionary government in an unprecedented position of power. The present situation will bring new challenges in organizing the working class and poor for struggle. The attacks against them will not stop, rather it will grow sharper. Like Modi has shown in Gujarat, and how Mamta has shown the way in Bengal, the state will grow more aggressive. Building a revolutionary Bolshevik Leninist party becomes the need of the hour ! For those of us who are in the process of building this party, must prepare for the worst possible scenario. State owned companies will be privatized, labor laws will become more adverse, they will attempt to crush unions, curb free speech and increase militarization of the state. To counter this, we must organize more aggressively, for their every attack, we must prepare a massive counter. To every attempt at privatization, we must mobilize the workers of state enterprises. Here again, we state that it is time to shed the bureaucratic fragmentation of the workers by the sector they work with. ALL state sector workers must unite in their
Long live working class unity !
struggles against privatization. When they attempt at changing labor laws or curbing militant unions, we must ready the workers for an indefinite general strike ! When they attempt to curb free speech, we must mobilize activists across the country to challenge it. It has been done before, when Binayak Sen was unlawfully imprisoned or Shaheen Dhada was being harassed, everyone showed their support. Such must be our fervor. There are those who are pessimistic and think that Modi and the forces which support him are unchallengeable. To them we have only to show the brave textile workers in Gujarat or the thousands of peasants at Mithi Virdi who are on struggle. Modi's british precursor, the autocratic and megalomaniac Margaret Thatcher, couldn't withstand the working class on the move. Not to forget, Modi and the RSS' ideological mentor, Benito Mussolini. was ignominiously lynched on a lamp post. No matter how overbearing or ruthless the class enemy may seem, they are no match for the power of the working class in struggle ! The new government is going to make life difficult for the masses and for those fighting for their interests. But it will also get rid of any illusion that they may have on bourgeois democracy. The Congress and the Stalinists have been one huge smoke screen. That has now disappeared. This is a time to fight, and we must fight hard !
Struggle until Victory !
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Bajaj workers on strike
Interview with Dilip Pawar of the VKKS On the 13th of May, comrade Adhiraj Bose had conducted an interview with Dilip Pawar of the VKKS (Vishwa Kalyan Kamgar Sangathana) which led the previous 50 day work stoppage at Bajaj and is leading the present work stoppage for an indefinite period to pressurize the management of Bajaj Auto Ltd to concede to the major demands of wage revision in Bajaj. Q1. We have been interested in the developments around Bajaj Auto Ltd since the 50 day work stoppage you had undertaken last year, as this was a landmark in industrial worker struggles in Pune. We would like to know more about your union. What is the origin of the VKKS and how was it founded ? The VKKS was founded in 2003. Before the VKKS the main union representing the workers in Bajaj's Akurdi plant was the Bharatiya Kamgar Sanghathan or BKS which is affiliated to the Shiv Sena. They were a corrupted union and catered to the interests of the management. Often they would just pretend to act for the interests of workers taking token actions now and then, but nothing would result from this. In their 10 years of existence they could get only two very meagre pay rises. The workers in general there were very discontented with this union.
made our own new union independent of any political party. This was how the VKKS came into being in 2003. Our aim was to create a militant trade union independent of the bosses which could properly represent the interests of the workers. With our formation most of the workforce at Bajaj joined our new union. Our first action was to stage a hunger strike to get an urgent wage revision which had been pending for years that the previous union did nothing to achieve. We achieved it. The management still decided to suspend all striking workers for 4 days just to 'save their pride'. During this time we also built a coalition of trade unions across the industrial belt. The Shramik Ekta Mahasangh, was built out of militant company based unions throughout the belt. At present 112 unions are part of this coalition.
Our success had strengthened the union. Almost immediately the management's heavy handed tactics Together we decided that enough was enough, and and harassment started. Now that they had lost their 9
pet union, they felt threatened by our existence. We thus, had to start a struggle for recognition. A court application was made at the tribunal. The rival union, BKS tried underhanded tactics like giving false affidavits to show a bloated union membership. We insisted on a physical check up to counter this. It was settled that the majority of the workforce were with us and that we had a separate existence. The management hadn't stopped harassing us though, the worker's cooperative society premises within the factory was made a target. They cut off electricity and necessary infrastructure to try and break us. We had to move our office out of the factory premises to the present office building. We never stopped the struggle for recognition and finally achieved it in 2007. Towards this time our union membership within the company had increased to around 2200. In 2007, Bajaj had just established their new factory at Pantnagar and desired to move production over there as labor costs are much lower over there. They were also planning to close down the factory at Akurdi in Pune, which had been their main factory thus far. We were told to leave work and would go unemployed the next day. We were told “we would get paid at home�. We started a protest against this arbitrary shift of the plant. For 65 days we had gherraoed the plant with hundreds of workers sitting at the factory gates in strike. It was a massive show and a great success, we had support from all unions across the belt as well as from across the nation. 200 unions in the industrial belt alone joined our action at Bajaj as well as several social activist groups throughout the city. The result of this action was that the plant was not shifted. We made sure that none of our workers on strike were victimized.
At present most of the production has been shifted away from Akurdi to other plants, most notably to Chakan. At Akurdi most of the workforce was old and aging and took voluntary retirement. The present factory workers there wouldn't number more than 120. The majority of those who work there are company staff workers, they number around 2000. At Chakan we have around 850 permanent workers as well as 700 contract workers. The main concern we face over there is that the wage revision has not happened in a long time. That is the core of our demand for which we are striking. The other core concern is the harassment at the hands of the management which continues. The workforce at Akurdi gets an average wage rate of around Rs. 38,000/- while the equivalent worker at Chakan gets around Rs. 14,000/- as starting salary which rises up to Rs. 24,000/- at the third level of promotion, i.e. After 10 years' work. The difficulties at work however, started when the total productivity methods were implemented in the factory which has led to straining the workforce with extended work hours, harsh shift timings and very little benefits.
The situation for contract worker is far worse than the permanent workers however. They are not given more than the minimum wage and their situation at the plant remain precarious due to the flexible scope of hire and fire at the plant. The same goes for socalled trainee workers who are basically students but made to work for nothing under a traineeship program from their respective colleges/institutions. The company makes liberal use of these trainee workers and contract workers as part of strike busting tactics, hiring extra workers to make up for the shortfall of permanent workers and keep production levels intact. More often than not, the police who Later on we were joined in by the Chakan unit of would be called in would force them to work. Bajaj as well with its 850 permanent workers who are mostly young. Now most of the production has shifted However, our union focusses only on permanent away from Akurdi to Chakan and Aurangabad. workers. It is very difficult to organize contract and However, Pune remains their main production centre temporary workers due to their temporary and with Chakan being their best factory. precarious nature. An isolated struggle of such a workforce is bound to fail as the management can simply resort to firing them when they agitate. What Q2. Can you tell us something about the condition of can be gained then ? work for the workers at Bajaj factories in Pune ? What is the composition of work force in the factory However, we are concerned with the issues of like and what are the condition of work for different contract workers and trainee workers. We have categories of workers like contract workers and launched a legal action for this in the industrial permanent workers. tribunal. The issues facing the contract workers include absence of basic facilities like canteen, 10
transportation and pathetically small wages (Rs. 150 to 200 per day, just bordering on minimum wages) . Q4. What are your expectations in terms of outside support and solidarity ? How can we help ? What has been the role of Central Trade unions in this struggle ? Have they been proactive in supporting your struggles ?
An important point to note, is that Bajaj hires most of its workforce from out of state. There are workers from Bengal, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra etc. There are hardly any workers from Maharashtra now. The purpose is to sow divisions among the workers. One of our biggest success I believe, was to overcome At present we have international solidarity from the this and preserve the unity of our organization. IndustriAll union based in Switzerland. They have been helping us with finance and raising awareness nationally and internationally on our struggle here. Q3. Tell us about the upcoming action you're taking and the background behind it. The issues are the We have solidarity from the industrial workers in same as the work stoppage last year isn't it ? Pune as well. We welcome as much support as can be had nationally and internationally. What we would The present action is being drawn along the lines of appreciate most is to raise awareness on the coercion the last one. Again, it will be a work stoppage and not a tactics the management uses against us. 'strike' as such. It was supposed to start on the 28 th of April but we deliberately delayed it and welcomed the We would really appreciate proactive support and management to negotiations. This was a deliberate solidarity from Central Trade unions like the CITU action on our part, as the management had made and AITUC etc, but most of them don't understand preparations to curb our strike in advance. our struggle. They are taken aback by the demand for shares and just sit on the sidelines confused. They By delaying the strike we are basically harassing them don't seem to understand or appreciate the core of this since they will have to pay for the contract and trainee struggle or the energetic support from the workers. workers which they will employ to curb our absence in addition to the permanent workers. Basically, this was We need all the support we can get here as we are a harassment tactic on our part. It will also give us fighting alone against a very well funded and well more time to organize better for when the day does entrenched enemy. Bajaj is getting all manner of come to stop work. We will now begin our action on support from the government and political parties the 15th of May. who are beneficiaries of Bajaj. Of late there was a report of the villages supporting Bajaj as well. I Like in the last work stoppage, this time too the entire would like to point out, this is only half true. It is not industrial belt is in support of our cause. The Shramik the whole village or ordinary village folk who are Ekta Mahasangh is active this time as well. We are supporting the management against us in any way, it again gearing up for an indefinite strike in the same is only the elite of the village, the sarpanch in vein as the one last year. particular who are supporting the company, as they get benefits from the company by way of labor The issues are again the same. The demand for shares contracts and land rents. This is not a new tactics for it should be known is only a cover for the real demands the management, at Mahindra and Mahindra they for a wage revision and an end to management used this tactic to break a strike there. I feel this was harassment of workers. We have no illusions on what due mostly to the lack of leadership there. This won't to expect from the management, even during work here, because there is a solid organized negotiations they don't talk seriously and just waste leadership uniting the workers. time leading every negotiation to a dead end. The management which isn't willing to give our legitimate We are a union which believes in solidarity actions. wage revisions won't ever give us shares in the In the recent strike actions like in Godrej and Bharat company. We must fight to coerce our just demands Forge we were there supporting them. We from them. participated in their rallies and meetings.
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Our position on the present situation in Ukraine Maidan protests and the overthrow of Yanukovich a) What were the causes behind this ? The Maidan protests between January to February this year was a high point of class struggle in the postsoviet history of Ukraine. If there was ever needed a proof that the working class was still a living force, despite over 70 years of Stalinist counter-revolution, it was there on the Maidan square. The protests were aimed at the pro-Russian oligarch Yanukovich. Upon taking power he went about shaping Ukraine in the image of modern Russia, a bonapartist run gangster state which zealously (and more often than not violently) guards the interests of its corrupt leadership. While this was not new to Ukraine, which has only seen the transfer of power from one bonapartist ruler to another . The only difference was one had a pro-russia another had a pro-EU outlook.
medical reform which will eventually lead to closure of many medical institutions and to introducing the universal medical insurance instead of the unconditional coverage; they pushed through extremely unpopular pension reform (raising pension age for women) against the will of more than 90% of population; there was an attempt at passing the new Labour Code which would seriously affect workers’ rights; the railway is being corporatized; finally, they passed a new Tax Code which hit small business. Most of these measures failed only because of the pressure of the masses prevented it.
It was nearly 5 years of this corrupt and autocratic rule that proved to be the last straw for the people. The sheer force of the popular mobilization in the Maidan square and other cities around Ukraine brought down the corrupt and incompetent rule of Yanukovich. This was achieved despite some of the Upon taking power Yanukovich started a series of worst repressive measures like ordering snipers to fire unpopular policy measures aimed at placating both on protestors, killing dozens. foreign power blocs (Russia and the EU).The natural gas tariffs were growing; the government launched However, what was and still stands as a progressive 12
process has been hijacked and turned against the which are the agrarian centres of the country. interests of the people, by right wing reactionary forces, backed openly by the likes of US imperialism. This in particular was to have devastating consequences for the whole democratic movement b) What were the social and political forces at play ? which emerged around the Maidan square. The protests at the Maidan began with its occupation by a relatively small crowd of 400 students who came out in protest against Yanukovich's failure to sign the agreement with the EU at Brussels. However, this did not draw mass sympathy nor did it prove to affect the regime. What changed the scene was Yanukovich's violent reaction. The attacks by the police on the Maidan proved to be his undoing as it incited the populace across the country against him. The centre of the mobilizations of course was Kiev itself.
c) Conclusion of the Maidan protests – What is the character of the regime now in place
The Maidan protests achieved their first overarching objective, the ouster of president Yanukovich. This was a high mark of the movement. Thereafter, the movement was tasked with reconstructing a new regime which ought to have been founded on the democratic aspirations of the people. However, the new regime composed of a hodge-podge of pro-EU The composition of the protests right from the liberals and far right chauvinists was patently beginning was overwhelmingly petty-bourgeois with incapable of achieving this. significant participation from the youth. Overall, the perspectives raised were oriented towards Ukrainian Among the first measures taken by the new nationalism and anti-Russian sentiments. Under the government was the enforcing of Ukrainian as the guidance of reactionary leaderships like the far-right only national language in Ukraine. This together with Svoboda Party, this expressed itself through the a fear among Russian speakers of possible language of nationalism rather than socialist class victimization (like the long-time resident Russian struggle. The people had very real and legitimate nationals in Latvia, Estonia and other post-soviet grievances against the regime in power. states had to face) led to counter-protests in the South and East. Some provinces with a Russian majority Ultimately however, the reactionary elements held started separatist movements, chief among them was sway over the power of the popular democratic Crimea. Seeing the opportunity in the ensuing chaos mobilizations. This was the reason why after the Russia decided to intervene to defend its strategic removal of Yanukovich, the new regime was unable to interests in Ukraine. The result was the successful build a progressive democratic structure. Not only did secession of Crimea and joining the Russian it incorporate Ukrainian chauvinist forces in the federation after a referendum. government, one of the first steps that the new government took was to declare Ukrainian as the only The smooth and bloodless secession of Crimea from official language in Ukraine. This was an extremely Ukraine showed just how precarious the hold of the provocative measure deliberately attacking the Kiev-based government was over the RussianRussian-speaking population. It is not the kind of speaking provinces. After Crimea, other provinces measure any government takes if it is serious about with a Russian majority witnessed mass mobilizations running a unified state. as well. Among the most striking features of the mobilizations was the utter impotence of the The developments after Yanukovich's ouster showed government's repressive machinery. The police and clearly what were the worst weaknesses of the the military found themselves outgunned and Ukrainian movement. Firstly, it was started as a surrounded every time. Reports still come out of 'leaderless' movement with multiple nationalistic desertions from the Ukrainian army and of garrisons political forces involved in it. This is a feature typical being overrun, most recently in the city of Mariupol. among most petty-bourgeois uprisings be it the anticorruption movement in India or the mass protests in Meanwhile in Odessa, a Russian-speaking city in the Turkey against Erdogan. Secondly, the movement south-west of Ukraine on the Black Sea coast, profailed to overcome the ethnic and cultural division Ukraine demonstrators torched the trade union within Ukraine between the Russian-speaking East and building in which both pro-Russia demonstrators and South, which are the industrial centres of Ukraine, and "non-combatants" had taken shelter, killing dozens of the Ukrainian speaking West and Central regions, people. This show of murderous violence alienated 13
the people of Odessa from the Kiev government and its militant (often extreme rightists or active Nazis) supporters in the same way as Yanukovich's snipers created revulsion in Kiev.
parts of Ukraine it now stares at the collapse of its state power in the face of overwhelming pressure from within and without. From within from the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine and from without from the sub-imperialist great power of Not only has the new regime failed to win over the Russia, its military economic and political machinery broad masses of Ukraine, but in the Russian-speaking at work. Imperialist interests and their impact a) The interests of Russian sub-imperialism (Putin's plan) The most dominant foreign power in Ukraine is undoubtedly Russia. Russia has multiple strategic interests in Ukraine, not in the least its massive naval base in the Crimea. First, is its geo-strategic importance owing to its access to the Black Sea and its standing as the second largest European country. Thus, for Russia, a pliable and subservient Ukraine can provide open access to the Black Sea and the European heartland. Second is its economic importance as a transit country. Several of Russia's oil pipelines to Europe pass through Ukraine. Ukraine as such is dependent on Russian oil and gas for its energy needs. Likewise it also serves as a transit country for the supply of oil and gas to the rest of mainland Europe. Thus, Ukraine is surrounded by Russia militarily in the East at the border and in the South in the Crimea, and it is dominated economically by Russian capital. This was shown very clearly when Russia didn't hesitate to cut off the supply of oil and gas during the winter to pressurize the then Tymoshenko government to pay its debts to the Russians. This domination must be seen in the context of Ukraine's history which has since the time of the Tsarist empire been treated as a strategic province of the Russian Empire. The conquest of Crimea in the late 18th century from the Ottomans increased the importance of the region for the Russians that much more, due to the access to warm water ports on the Black Sea. Russian ambitions in the Ukraine culminated in the Crimean war of 1854 which brought in the leading powers of Europe to intervene on the side of the Turks against the Russians. As a result Russia lost the major strategic holding of Sevastopol. In the long run however, Russia continued its hold of Ukraine and deepened its influence in Eastern Europe. After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Ukraine along with other former colonies of the Russian empire joined the Soviet Union.
Political cartoon depicting Russo-EU rivarly over Ukraine
After the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine was affected in much the same ways as other former Soviet republics. There was rampant corruption, deindustrialization, the annihilation of life-time savings and a general collapse of living standards. Among other things, one of the consequences was the formation of a highly bureaucratized oligarchy, formed from members of the old ruling bureaucratic clique which has since dominated Ukrainian politics. However, Ukraine's ethnic diversity and social complexity made it impossible for this bureaucracy to develop the same level of bonapartism as in Russia or Belarus. The oligarchy in Ukraine thus became divided between a more “conservative� pro-Russia clique and a pro-EU clique with support from the Central and Western regions. Another important element of Soviet society carried over to the post-Soviet republics after 1991 along with the bureaucratic elite (the Nomenklatura) was the pulverization of working class consciousness and organization that had been accomplished by Stalinism's murderous bureaucratic counterrevolution. No independent workers' parties or 14
socialist movements were able to arise like some red Phoenix from the ashes of anti-communist “Communist” Russia. First the working class would need to raise its political and social consciousness from zero, and take the first halting steps of selforganization. None of the legacy “communist” “proSoviet” parties or movements did any of this. In fact they did just the opposite, prolonging the antiBolshevik, anti-Marxist traditions of the Stalinist regime, often attempting to use the same thuggery and arrogance in the process. With Russia re-emerging as an imperialist power, old historic trajectories of contest between a hegemonic Russia and the established powers of European imperialism seem to be returning. Russia is zealously protecting its strategic interests in Crimea while manipulating the downfall of its anti-Russian rivals. Here what is most to the advantage of Russia is the substantial Russian-speaking and ethnically Russian population within Ukraine (a legacy of the prolonged domination of the Russian empire and thereafter, of the forced russification policies under Stalin and his successors). This gives Russian sub-imperialism a powerful lever to influence the affairs of Ukraine.
imperialists are posed now against the resurgent might of Russia which is clawing back its influence over Eastern Europe. Thus, the EU poses itself as the chief imperialist rival against Russian hegemony over Ukraine. This is reflected in the politics of the oligarchs of Ukraine with one segment vying openly for European and another vying for Russian favours. In course of the Maidan protests, it was the former wing of the oligarchical interests which triumphed over the interests of the people at large. The new regime has thus been hard at work begging to get the EU to intervene on its side, seeing the EU as its protector. The pact signed with the IMF which brings with it stringent austerity measures should be seen in this context.
However, this plan is proving itself to be a complete failure. European imperialism today is in truth a declining power. Its passivity over Russian actions in Ukraine has proven on the one hand its military incapability in facing a great power as well as its economic dependence on Russian oil and gas, without which most of Europe would come to a standstill. Gone are the days when France and Britain could Russia has the edge where military power and send their navies to bombard Sevastopol and drive the political clout is concerned. The West, however, in Russians out. Europe meekly stands by as Russia eats particular the EU, has the edge where economic Ukraine. This leaves only US imperialism with both strength is concerned. the military might and political will to challenge Russia. b) The interests of EU imperialism c) Role of US imperialism European imperialism today is beleaguered. It is being challenged in its own turf with crisis threatening it all The role of US imperialism in Ukraine, should be across Southern Europe. The European bourgeoisie is seen against the background of the fall of the Soviet finding itself besieged by the working class as the Union. The US had given the Soviet Union an continent witnesses an upsurge in class struggle. Be it assurance that NATO would not expand. However, the Britain, France, Spain, Italy or Germany, all the major US has progressively expanded NATO and its own powers of Europe are faced with the ire of the working military pressure in East Europe, the countries of the class on the move. former Warsaw Pact, in an effort to surround Russia. This is in addition to the situation of impending financial doom. The EU imperialists like blood-thirsty vampires need fresh new blood to feast on. This is why they have set their sights on the 'untapped potential' of Europe's underdeveloped East. Ukraine here would be the juiciest slice of meat for the EU. Since the crisis set in, we have seen Europe becoming far more aggressive and belligerent than before worldwide. France in particular is focusing on increasing its otherwise diminishing military and political clout over Africa, while Germany shows its ruthlessness in dealing with Greece. However, the interests of the Europe's
This trend is continuing with the US preparing to build a missile defence system over Russia, on the pretext of defending Europe against Iran. While the US is in no way the dominant economic force in the EU or even in Ukraine itself, its role as de facto protector of capitalist Europe after the second world war continues to give it tremendous influence over European affairs. Notably, US influence is deepest in Poland. The forces of US imperialism were present and active in the course of the Maidan protests preparing well in 15
advance all means to hijack the process and place parties favorable to its interests in a leading position. The notorious phone conversation between the US ambassador and the far right Svoboda party reveals the connections between the chauvinist forces and US imperialism.
simply too well entrenched and too large an economy to successfully impose sanctions against. Most European powers would shudder at the thought of Russian reprisals should they commit to these US sanctions. The US has also refrained from taking any overt military action to dislodge the Russians from Ukraine, notwithstanding the sabre rattling from its When the Russians intervened in Crimea, the US was crazed right wing loons. quick to move in with economic sanctions. However, these have proven themselves to be toothless. Russia is The Crimean question and the situation of Russian speakers
a) The nature of the protests in South-East Ukraine – popular democratic mobilizations We declare first of all that the movement to oust Yanukovich was a progressive movement. At the same time, we declare that the movement against the regime it created is also a democratic movement. The apparently contradictory movements are in fact fundamentally identical. The protests of the Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine are the result of the aggressively divisive policies of the new Kiev regime which is refusing to acknowledge the equal official status of the Russian language. This is a disturbing parallel to the right wing government in Sri Lanka which came to power after the expulsion of the British, which started pursuing chauvinist monopoly Sinhala policies and instituted an apartheid regime against the island's Tamil minority. The Russian population of Ukraine has the full right of self-determination against such a regime. They are currently mobilizing to defend their interests. In addition, we must consider the threat posed by the agreement with the IMF which seeks to impose vicious austerity measures. The more proletarian population of East and South Ukraine, who have already suffered considerably from the deindustrialization after the fall of the Soviet Union, are liable to be more affected than people in other regions.
The Crimean peninsula was annexed to the Russian empire in the 1780s from the Crimean khanate. From then on Crimea was subjected to colonial policies at the hands of the Russian empire which saw Russian settlers coming in large numbers and the development of Crimea as a strategic military naval base for the Russian Empire with its warm water ports. In the Soviet Union after Stalin's counterrevolutionary take-over in the mid-1920s, the Crimean Tatars were subjected to the oppressive policies of deportation. The mass deportations which had been initiated under the Tsar's rule were revived. Hundreds of thousands were deported to Central Asia and many died. The Tatar population was practically wiped out after the second world war. Russian settlers had already come in their hundreds of thousands under the Russian empire, and kept coming in large numbers as part of a russification drive under the Stalinist bureaucracy.
The questions facing the Russian-speaking population and ethnic Russians are posed most sharply in the Crimea, which is also home to a sizeable Tatar The result was a demographic shift in the population of Crimea and in general of Ukraine with a very large minority. Russian population and an even larger share of native b) The historical background of the Crimean peninsula Russian speakers. For generations this Russian
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population has lived in Ukraine and made it their home, and this is where the bulk of the present Russian population has its roots. Incidentally, this pattern is not exclusive to Russia but is common among most East European states which belonged to the Soviet Union before 1991.
protection. Thus, what was a democratic process took on the appearance of a military occupation.
This was sub-imperialist Russia's move to hijack and ultimately undermine the democratic movement evolving in Ukraine's East and South. It is the same story in Ukraine's East which is seeing the most When the republic of Ukraine was created after the fall intense of the protests, and where the armed forces of of the USSR in 1991, Crimea became an autonomous the state are on the verge of a complete collapse region under its rule. reminiscent of the crisis in Albania in the late 1990s. c) The dynamics of the Crimean referendum The Crimean referendum has been explained by most western sources as an act of annexation. However, there are more complex dynamics at play which cannot be ignored. Firstly, the Crimean peninsula is a region with a Russian majority, where even the majority of Ukrainians speak Russian as their first language. The other major minority were the Tatars who largely speak their own language. The protests in Crimea like elsewhere in Eastern and Southern Ukraine paralyzed the infant regime in Kiev with the armed forces of the state failing at every turn. Russia already had a sizeable naval military presence in Crimea which was mobilized in support of the Crimean protestors. The referendum which was conducted eventually was done so under Russian military
Here we must view Russia's action in the context of a developing revolutionary situation where the masses are in full mobilization. The movement to oust Yanukovich which put the new regime in power was a democratic movement, as is the movement against its arbitrary and chauvinistic policies which favour Western imperialism. The nature of this movement is being seen in its relation to the state and the reaction it's provoking in the armed forces. We have a people's movement that is openly challenging the state forces to the point where they are deserting their barracks. Ukraine has been left with little or no power on its eastern and southern borders. In response to this the fascistic elements in Kiev's ruling regime has resorted to violent attacks on Communists and leftist activists exemplified in the burning of the trade union building in Odessa which killed nearly 50 activists.
The stand we must take In Ukraine, the forces of revolutionary bolshevism are faced with a very contradictory situation. On the one hand there was the movement to oust Yanukovich, which was essentially progressive. On the other hand, the movement against the chauvinism of the new regime is also essentially progressive. We do not have the luxury to pick and choose which democratic struggle to support and which not to. In the tradition of revolutionary bolshevism, we support every democratic struggle with the aim of clearing the way for the socialist struggle. This is the essence of tactics based on the theory of permanent revolution. Where the bourgeoisie is incapable of fulfilling the democratic aspirations of the masses it falls to the the proletariat to resolve the questions of the democratic revolution. The proletariat does not tackle these democratic tasks as separate from the socialist struggle, but as part of it.
Thus, we supported the movement to oust Yanukovich, and we also support the movement for autonomy for Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine. We do this despite the persistent weakness of the consciousness and organization of the proletariat. Independent working-class political consciousness and organization are still hardly even embryonic, so crushingly effective was the annihilation of revolutionary socialism by the Stalinist counterrevolution. This means that the working class in its present condition is completely incapable of leading the people of Ukraine (or any other people in a similar situation) in resolving the contradictions of the democratic revolution in the direction of socialism. As in the Middle East and North Africa the proletariat will need to preserve and build on the democratic conquests that have been achieved in order to consign the bourgeois capitalist society – the root cause of all its problems - to the garbage dump of history ! 17
Our slogans : a) For the right of self-determination! No to chauvinist policies of any kind! b) Unconditional support to struggles of the Russians in Ukraine! c) No to imperialism! Neither Russia nor the West!
Interviewing LPS of Senegal (Section of the IWL-FI) [We are republishing this interview of a comrade from the LPS in Senegal, which has recently become a section of the International Worker's League – Fourth International. This interview reveals social and political dynamics in Africa which bear similarity to the conditions prevailing in India today and provides important insights into struggles there.]
What happened two years ago that caused the fall of drafted this constitution, did not favour him, Wade did the government? not hesitate to bring experts in constitutional law from abroad, especially from France to defend his illegal candidature, and he paid them for their service. After 12 years on the summit of the State of Senegal, Me Abdoulaye Wade fell as an outcome of a In spite of this almost unanimous opposition, combination of several factors (unfulfilled electoral Abdoulaye Wade he insisted blindly on the same promises, corruption, nepotism, misappropriation of policy, and went as far as to backtrack on his own public money, nepotism, police brutality when interpretation of the law. A few years later he revisited repressing the population, accruing social divisions…), his famous phrase, “if I said so, now I withdraw what but it was his controversial candidacy for a third term I said” and the media had broadly broadcasted in what actually triggered the protest was his those days. "Monarchical succession." To everybody’s surprise, at the moment of announcing For over two years, Wade fought a legal and media the final list of candidates, the Constitutional Council, battle for his candidature for a third term regarded as supreme juridical of the country, validated this illegal anti-constitutional by the very same fundamental law candidacy, and of course, this affected the entire that, in 2001, he himself had forced through by means electoral campaign. Instead of reporting on proposals of a referendum. When the opinion of specialists in and programmes, the candidates spent their time constitutional law of the country, with whom he had exposing President Wade´s candidature. 18
President Wade has always wanted his son to take over after him and he has never concealed this. What is more, this project has been patiently built up throughout the years and Karim Wade was successively appointed as head of the agency, minister and finally minister of several strategic departments. But the straw that broke the camel’s back was when Wade wanted to have a law passed that would permit him to be elected together with his vice president with barely 25% of the ballots in the first shift. This was known as the “presidential ticket”. While the members of parliament belonging to his electoral majority were willing to validate this “ticket”, Abdoulaye Wade ran into steady opposition of the entire Senegalese population protesting in front of National Assembly and threatening the representatives for their cooperation with the tyrant. It was a spontaneous insurrection of the population, fed up with the deceitfulness of their political elite. This episode installed an atmosphere of permanent strain in the country during the electoral campaign, with often demonstrations, often very violent ones, in the capital city, Dakar and also further inland. As usual, the police played an anti-democratic role of repression against a vulnerable and defenceless population, which rendered the highest tribute with 11 people killed, injured, arrested and arbitrary arrests as well as important material damage. Abdoulaye Wade managed to get practically everybody against him. At first he aroused hope and sympathy of the population sore for the 40 years of catastrophic rule of an allegedly socialist regime. The wound was deep in the population that lacked everything and the repeated financial scandals. Finally, Macky Sall won. He was one of Wade’s victims, whom Wade withdrew him from the Presidency of the National Assembly for having dared to summon his son – a minister at that time – to give explanations on the management of funds that he had been administering for the preparations of the organisation of the Islamic Conference (OCI) How do they asses the Macky Sall administration and his economic policy? When Mr Macky Sall took over the presidency of Senegal, people were hopeful. Everybody said that he had plenty of experience within the State as he had previously been Minister of local authorities, as Home Minister, as Prime minister and finally as Chairman of the National Assembly under the Wade rule- He was the most voted Senegalese President: he achieved 65%
of the ballots and he took over with the support of a broad coalition of several parties of assorted ideology (parties of the right, of the left, of ecologists and civil associations). By the end of the first year in the office, the first ascertainment was that his permanent scoring, because the President’s programme meaning the Yonnu Yokuuté – meaning “the voice of progress” is not what one might expect from what is expected to push the country towards greater development. Actually, the programme the programme was restricted to a list of recommendations and measures to redirect the state operating mode. For example, measures to reduce (as far as the size is concerned) of the government, creation of the creation of a Commission for repression for illicit enrichment, which is a tribunal against the personalities of the old regime Wade accused of swindling of public funds). Consequently, after a year and a half in the office, people began to perceive the difficulties that this government had to lead the country and saw their expectations melting into thin air due to lack of a real programme to stimulate national economy. Right now, the head of the state has just re-oriented his programme with a new plan known as “Strategic Plan of Emerging Senegal” (PSE), copied from “PSE Gabon” of the neighbouring country. The current coalition hinging round Macky Sall symbolises the sharing out of the spoils. In the February 2012, Macky Sall got there second after the first shift and the other 14 candidates for president as well as the movements of civil society supported him in the second shift against Wade. Bur in consideration of their services all those parties and movements had to receive posts of responsibility on the presidential carriage. In this coalition, we can see the APR(Alliance for the Republic) President Sal’s liberal party; the SP (socialist Party) founded by the first president of Senegal, Senghor; (Independent Labour Party); LDMPT (Democratic League – Movement for a Workers’ party) also obedient to the communist mandate; AFP (Alliance of Forces for Progress), progressive socialists; AJ-PADS (also communist party) apart from independent representatives of civil associations. As these left parties, are at present in presidential coalition, they have now lost all their identity. They became yearning for wealth and having tasted the delicacies of power, they are losing all credibility as their main cadres have shifted towards capitalist parties and now they defend different ideologies. This is also the case of Macky Sall’s party because its 19
cadres and even he himself stemmed out of communist a highway in the north of the country, the head of the parties. State said, “It is useless to have lands that cannot be We must bear in mid that it was the same coalition that exploited. We must summon foreign capitals to come in the year 2000 had led president Wade to power, to invest in farming so that the country can achieve except for the socialist party that was by that time 40 food self-sufficiency that can be envisaged on the years in power and it was against them that Wade stood horizon of 2018. as a first alternative. The false awareness regarding the communist countries, regarded as ruled by dictatorial and bloodthirsty parties helped these parties, – instead of helping the real awareness to emerge among workers – opted for the easy solution of allying themselves to the capitalist parties in elections, in quest of personal benefits and betraying the people.
This means that further expropriations of poor peasants’ lands to benefit multinationals. And that is valid for other economic sectors that the country has not yet been able to develop. Instead of providing the peasants with appropriate means and credits to allow them to develop their capacity of exploiting lands, the president obeys the imperialist policy and benefits the If we have a look at the history of Senegal before and multinationals. immediately after the independences, we shall see great, very strong and dynamic communist parties - What is the trade union panorama? such as the PAI (African Party for the Independence), the RND (National Democratic Regrouping), which were the first communist parties for independence. But Ever since the year 2000, with the arrival of the first these communist parties no longer play the same role. modifications in Senegal, trade union centrals have Today left parties are in the service of capitalist parties been making efforts to allow the new political that manipulate them against the interests of the people. authorities and entrepreneurs obtain the greatest If we observe the political map of Senegal before and possible benefits “so as to boost strong and lasting immediately after independence was achieved, they are economic growth.” no more a believable option and let alone a In the current trade union panorama, in spite of all the revolutionary left opposition. problems, trade union centrals – above all those of For his new strategic plan of “Emerging Senegal”, education and health – keep up the endless struggle to Macky Sall requests funds from the World Bank, the have the agreements signed years ago under the International Monetary Fund, and the Paris Club for liberal Wade regime respected. They achieved some 2954 million French franks. Further more a credit from small partial victories against the attempts at creating China has already been ensured for 5000 000 million divisions, of corruption and the parallel negotiations franks already deposited in the banks. On top of the that became increasingly long hoping for a socially sum that the head of state was negotiating with the calmer atmosphere. We must say that at present there Paris Club (24 and 25 of February 2014) he will are no united trade unions centrals (integrating request further 1853 million CFA from financial different sectors) what can boost a more important institutions and 1111 000 million from private background of struggles capable of forcing the State international financial to finance his project. All this is to improve labour conditions and living conditions of bound to drive the country into surplus indebtedness of the toiling masses. Such centrals that do exist are all the country that has already been badly indebted corrupt, appointed to post in councils of between 2000 and 2014, and will also lead to an administrations in the greatest firms in the country invasion by multinational companies that will grab hold and postulated as members of parliament on electoral of whatever is left of important resources of the lists for legislative posts. country. Ever since the independence up to now, all the leaders As part of this plan, the construction of a toll highway of trade union centrals have been courted by from Dakar through to the inland provinces of the politicians. As an outcome of this, such leaders, in country and the construction of railways from the collusion with the existing power, remained at the mining areas to the port terminal for minerals that is to head of the centrals for over 15 years and became be built in the peripheries of Dakar have an outstanding unmovable and anti-democratic. These leaders mind position together with the distribution of lands further their own private business and privileges and pay inland near the rivers an undertaking meant to favour more attention to their political leaders who are in the investment in agribusiness. As if trying to confirm all ruling coalition. On the other hand, the head of the this, on the 13 of February 2014, during the opening of 20
state compels the parties to control the trade unions so bear in mind that France is considering of having as to contribute towards pacification of social these agreements signed with 8 Francophone African atmosphere. countries (among them Barmako, capital of Mali) so The policy of dividing the trade unions responds to the as to justify the permanent presence of 3000 French tactics known as “"Divide and rule". Ever since the soldiers in the region. socialist days after the independence and up to the liberal period of Macky Sall, the heart of the matter has been that the trade union policies have not changed or evolved and the strategy of personal and individual careers of the leaders should not be concerned by promotion of jobs or social progress or employment. Today being a trade union leader is a means for personal ascent over the backs of the workers who had elected them. That explains the tremendous amount of trade unions that we can see today and that the leaders have different political orientation and that this causes conflicts of interest and internal splits and block all industrial action fight.
That is the tenor of the military agreements that prove the great return of France onto the continent so as to safeguard their interests and the Mali case is a clear example of the French intervention, in this case to defend their exploitation of uranium by AREVA society.
France has several multinationals that control the strategic points of the country’s economy in different sectors such as telecommunications, with Telecom company a majority shareholder of Sonatel, that is the greatest telephone company in Senegal and it administers telephony in neighbouring countries, such as Guinea Bissau, Mali, and Mauritania. We must also mention Bollore that administers ports of Dakar Which is currently the role of French imperialism in (Senegal), Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Conakry (Guinea), Lomé (Togo) and Nouakchott (Mauritania), etc. Senegal? As for the military agreements signed between France and Senegal, we must remember some of the postindependence history of the country. In 1974, President Senghor had signed a defence agreement between Senegal and France against an eventual internal or external aggression of both countries; France installed military bases in order to keep on administering their interest in the country and in the sub-region. We must know that such agreements also exist in several African countries, such as Ivory Coast, Gabon, Central Africa, and others. When President Wade took over in 2008, he wanted to break these agreements and in 2010 he went as far as closing French military bases in the country; this was also the case of Ivory Coast. When Macky Sall took over on 23rs March 2012, his first trip abroad after being sworn in on the 3rd was to France. At that time, Sarkozy was the President of France. Sall returned home with new agreements that allowed for French military bases. At that time France was on the campaign trail and finally Hollande won.
As for the fishing agreements between Senegal and European Union, concessions of fishing permits for European ships were handed out for ridiculous sums considerably below the value of the value of the catch and this leads to the surplus exploitation of the resources and that spawns lack of fish and also leaves young Senegalese fishermen unemployed and that in turn drives many young men to risk their lives migration to Spain on fortune boats. French interests in the sub-region are plentiful and varied connected to exploitation of mineral resources in several countries, such as Mali, Mauritania, Gabon, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast and many others. Colonisation is still thriving under different shapes thanks to the complicity of our heads of states. What about the social struggles in the country?
There are social struggles in education and in health. These sectors demand that the agreements they signed with the former President Wade, ancestor of Macky On the 25th January 2014, new agreements were signed Sall, should be respected. by both states. These are agreements of association and In the education sector, claims focus on appreciation military cooperation, agreements for the installation of of the profession, so they demand improvements in new military bases but also exchange of information on labour conditions and pedagogic issues (teachers’ terrorist threats, on the development of sub-regional training) o social problems, such as the handing out of and collective cooperation, on eventual support that plots of land for teachers’ housing and on the financial France might contribute to regional and collective plane recovery of two thirds of the year out of work. security where Senegal might be involved. We must In the sector of health service, after several episodes if 21
negotiations, the SUTSAS, an inter-union of nurses and community agents of health, finally signed an agreement with the state based of a 57-point platform of demands. But even though the State managed to disable the social bomb by signing the protocols of agreement with the trade unions of education and of health, putting that into practice is proving difficult. Actually, in the health sector protocol refers only to nurses not to doctors and the nursery was not for the doctors. There is also the question of equality of rights of those who work for private contractors with those on steady payroll and the community agents within the framework of act 3 of the decentralisation. But doctors are still on the warpath demanding better working conditions, respect of the agreements signed and the handing out of plots of land for housing. SAMES, doctors’ trade union also demands securitization of medics in the civil service at the age of 40 and the relay of the pension age to 65 years due to the long time that their studies take. We may conclude saying that in spite of the fact that the government has managed to disable the social bomb by signing in mere 24 hours the afore mentioned agreements with the most visible trade unions, there is nothing that can guarantee social peace. Only the effective implementation of the agreements may cool down the social front, knowing that the Macky Sall administration has already benefitted from a two-year "State of grace" and now trade unions are once more on the warpath and just waiting to see the concretization to "bury the hatchet".
However, in many cases, when the situation demands some steps to be taken, the State may concede a few minor points and so stick to the essentials and then they manage to divide the inter-union with internal splits (corruption). For example, this happened in the case of CNTS that used to be a very strong central and has now been torn to pieces and the same goes for the inter-union of education. In Senegal the popular saying is heard very often. •To conclude, we reassert that we are totally against the decisions and doings of Macky Sall as they are aimed directly against the interests of our class, the proletarian class. •We reject the public debt and its payment for it increases capital flight to benefit international bourgeoisie. •We reject the expropriation of the land peasants to be redistributed to agribusiness and multinationals who only come here to export the production and not to feed local population. •Against the privatisation of strategic sectors of economy; these companies must remain in the hands of the State; nationalisation of all the great companies.
•Against the corruption in the union milieu for when all is said and done, instead of serving If Macky Sall and his administration manage to put the workers, it benefits only the government. agreements into practice, a leap forward towards the pacification of the social front will have been made •Against the privatisation of health and education. before the forthcoming presidential elections seeing that health and education have been the two hottest •Put an end to the fishing agreements with sectors for years. European Union and valorise local fisheries.
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