On 20 May, an international action day took place on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Naxalbari insurrection.
In May 1967, in the village of Naxalbari in the Indian West Bengal Valley, inspired by the Chinese communist fight under Mao Tse-Tung, an armed peasant uprising spread and intensified rapidly like a steppe firing. This insurrection is the beginning of the Maoist movement in India and the root of what is today the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and the oppressed masses of India in the new democratic revolution, in the People’s War against the old semi-colonial state. Important Communist leaders such as Charu Mazumdar emerged in this uprising and were forged and shaped in it, even in the bitter ideological and practical struggle against revisionism and betrayal.
The struggle of the Indian masses, under the leadership of their Communist Party, is now progressing always more, and has also an immense radiance far beyond India. For us as proletarian internationalists, the moral support of comrades is an absolute duty in addition to the fulfillment of our own tasks here in the country. Victory of the Indian Revolution! – Long live Naxalbari! – Long live the People’s War!
And many other important anniversary for our movement in this month. In addition to the beginning of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, on May 16, 51 years ago – the greatest mass movement in human history – we want to especially highlight two dates: On May 17, 1980, under the leadership of President Gonzalo, the Peruvian Communist Party initiated the People’s War in Peru to free the country from imperialism and its lackeys. With the combustion of the ballot boxes, they began the armed struggle and the ideological acuity developed in this heroic struggle is today a central component of our ideology, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Glory and honor to the Peruvian people! – Long live the beginning of the armed struggle! – Long live the People’s War! On May 18, 1973, after several months of imprisonment, the Communist leader of Turkey – Ibrahim Kaypakkaya – was murdered under heavy torture and thus became the immortal martyr of our movement and the international proletariat. He had founded the Communist Party of Turkey (Marxist-Leninist) and carried out armed actions. His constancy and his militant devotion to the revolution still inspire revolutionaries far beyond Turkey and Kurdistan. Halk savasi ölümsüzdür / People’s war is immortal! – Go ahead on Ibrahim Kaypakkaya’s way! – Long live the People’s War!
COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST) CENTRAL COMMITTEE – CELEBRATE THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE HISTORIC NAXALBARI ARMED UPRISING – IN INDIA THESE NAXALBARI’S CELEBRATIONS ARE FROM 23 TO 29 MAY 2017, – INTERNATIONAL DAY IN THE WORLD STARTS THE 20TH MAY2017 – ICSPWI – INFO CSGPINDIA@GMAIL.COM –
In India, the great Naxalbari peasant revolutionary armed uprising – which is going to complete its fiftieth anniversary – was influenced and inspired by the GPCR. Naxalbari was a path-breaking event under the leadership of comrade Charu Majumdar – one of the two great leaders, teachers and fore-founders of CPI (Maoist) comrades CM and KC – which marked a new beginning in the history of the country’s democratic revolution.
this call is contained in the general Call of the Central Committee of CPI (Maoist) 16 March 2016
Thirty years ago, the armed rebellion of the peasants of Naxalbari, a village in the State of West Bengal, sparked off a revolutionary conflagration in India. Centuries-old shackles of oppression and exploitation were attacked. Revisionist appeals to continue living as obedient slaves were scornfully ignored. The poor and downtrodden peasants dared to seize political power and expropriate the fruits of their toil from the hated feudal landlords.
Naxalbari literally shook up the whole country. The pent-up fury of the lowest of the low in Indian society, of Adivasis and Dalits (tribals and “untouchables” of caste society) besides other poor and landless peasants, burst out as raging storms of revolution in numerous places all over the country. The gusty winds of Naxalbari blew away a decades-old revisionist stench and stirred up hundreds of cadres trapped in parties like the CPI and CPM 1 into rebellion. In Calcutta and a number of smaller industrial centres whole sections of workers and the urban poor broke away from trade unionist hacks. A large number threw themselves into battle, fighting in the van of armed agrarian revolution as class-conscious proletarians. People from all walks of life, professionals, academics and others, joined the revolutionary festival of the masses. Naxalbari swept across a whole generation of youth and students and channelled the revolutionary vigour of thousands of youth fired by communist ideals of serving the people and self-sacrifice for the cause of revolution.
Despite long spells of revisionist domination before Naxalbari, the communist movement in India also had an inspiring history of revolutionary struggle. Notable was the five-year-long Telengana armed struggle of the late ̓40s which succeeded in establishing red power in hundreds of villages during its high tide but was later betrayed by the CPI leadership. Groups of revolutionaries had sided with Mao Tsetung in the struggle against Soviet revisionism. But Naxalbari marked a leap. It was the product of a conscious grasp of Mao Tsetung Thought as a qualitatively new stage of Marxism-Leninism and its application to Indian conditions in initiating the revolutionary armed struggle of the masses. This is the distinct and key element which catapulted Naxalbari into centre stage. Led by Charu Mazumdar, a group of revolutionary cadre within the CPM organization in Darjeeling district had consciously fought to deepen te struggle against revisionism and centrism. Drawing valuable lessons from the ideological struggle led by Mao Tsetung against Khrushchevite revisionism and further from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China, Charu Mazumdar succeeded in making a thorough rupture with revisionism (including recognizing the then-existing Soviet Union under revisionist leadership as an enemy) and launching the armed agrarian revolution aimed at the seizure of political power bit by bit through the path of protracted People̓s War. Naxalbari was seen as part of the world proletarian revolution. It fuelled revolutionary struggle in other countries in the region and received enthusiastic support from the Communist Party of China and other proletarian revolutionaries the world over.
Naxalbari raised the process of rupturing from the revisionists and forging a genuine communist vanguard to a new and higher level. In 1969 the bold step was taken of forming the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) under the leadership of Charu Mazumdar. The founding congress of the CPI (ML), held in 1970 amidst the advance of the armed struggle, adopted a program which characterized Indian society as semi-feudal, semi-colonial and identified the targets of revolution as feudalism, comprador-bureaucrat capitalism, imperialism and social-imperialism (as represented by the then-existent Soviet bloc). It laid down the tasks in the stage of New Democratic revolution and the path of protracted People̓s War.
Revolution is not a dinner party but, as Mao put it, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another. The new vanguard had to be forged in and through the intense revolutionary upheaval unfolding in large parts of India. Deeply entrenched revisionist thinking and styles of work had to be continuously fought out, thousands of youth had to be remoulded and trained as proletarian fighters and leaders, the wealth of experience gained at the cost of blood had to be synthesized to develop the line and raise the level of the party̓s work — and all of this had to be done while making bold advances in the armed struggle and fighting off the murderous suppression of the enemy. The loss of a number of experienced cadres in the early days of the new party evidently put a big strain on its capacity to tackle these tasks. Serious difficulties caused by setbacks were further compounded by a rightist wind which tried to reverse the correct orientation of the party, seizing on some real weaknesses in its line and practice.
Much has been said about the so-called “sectarianism” and “adventurism” of Charu Mazumdar which supposedly “isolated” the party from the masses and caused setbacks. Yes, elements of one-sidedness, spontaneity and subjectivism which run counter to Charu Mazumdar̓s overall Marxist-Leninist-Maoist stand, viewpoint and method are evident in his works. But what strikes one most forcefully while reading them now is the resolute clarity in his criticism of revisionism, a keen grasp of the key question of seizing power, deep faith in the masses and robust revolutionary optimism. Far from isolation, his leadership deeply entrenched the party among the masses and created a vast reservoir of support which is still being tapped by genuine revolutionaries. His name continues to haunt the ruling classes and inspires revolutionaries.
Following the dastardly murder of Charu Mazumdar in 1972 by the Indian rulers abetted by the CPI-CPM revisionists, the CPI(ML) failed to continue as a single, united party. Since then there has been a lot of struggle over the summation of experiences and attempts to unite. The 1976 capitalist roaders̓ coup in China caused new divisions, greatly strengthened the rightist tendencies in the CPI(ML) and added complexities. But it also created important and new obligations and opportunities to deepen the grasp of ideology which in turn could give a new thrust to the struggle for a correct summation and unity. Unfortunately these opportunities were either missed, or ended up misused in cases where they were initially begun. Over the past years the genuine revolutionary forces have developed a better understanding of the significance of the internationalist struggle to defed Mao Tsetung̓s qualitative development of Marxism-Leninism to a whole new stage and to fight the capitalist usurpers in China initially led by Hua Kuo-feng and Deng Xiao-ping as well as Hoxhaite revisionist attacks on it. Yet this issue, which has direct implications for successfully completing the task of uniting Maoist revolutionary forces into a single centre, still remains to be fully resolved.
During this whole period, revolutionary forces who were part of the united CPI(ML) as well as others have heroically continued to hold high the red banner of Naxalbari. In Andhra, Bihar and Dandakaranya 2 armed revolutionary struggle has made significant advances, won wide-spread support from the masses of people and accumulated important experience.
Over the past 30 years the conditions which made the armed agrarian rebellion of Naxalbari possible and necessary have ripened even more. Aggressive imperialist penetration in all sectors of the economy coupled with the exploitation and oppression of the Indian ruling classes is causing an all-round intensification of the misery of the masses. Most importantly, it is calling forth resistance and struggle, including armed struggle, in diverse regions and sectors of society. Divisions among the ruling classes are increasing. Moreover, the initiation of People̓s War in neighbouring Nepal by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) gives a direct and intensifying impetus to revolutionary ferment within India.
This situation clearly demands a daring and mighty push to unite the communist revolutionaries into a single centre based on a correct Marxist-Leninist-Maoist line capable of uniting and leading all the streams of revolt and struggle into a mighty People̓s War. In the struggle to achieve this goal, which necessarily implies a synthesis of the rich experiences of the past 30 years, the revolutionary communist forces in India can and must draw strength from the experience of the whole class internationally, especially the higher understanding concentrated in Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Concretely this means fighting to forge a single vanguard party united in the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement.
Proletarian revolutionaries throughout the world cannot afford the slightest indifference to the advances and difficulties of our comrades in India. In the first issue of this journal we pointed out that: “If you are talking about world revolution, you are talking about India.” In the diverse languages of India, “Naxalbari Zindabad!” means “Long Live Naxalbari!”. But, for the oppressed in India and beyond, it also means “It̓s Right to Rebel!”
————————————————- 1 Communist Party of India, CPI, the pro-Soviet revisionist party in India. Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) is a centrist split-off from the CPI in 1963 which criticized the CPI and Khrushchev as revisionist but which never adopted a genuine revolutionary program. 2 A vast forest region comprised of parts of four states in central India.
The revolutionary tactics for developing peasant movements in the rural areas can never be the same as the revisionist tactics. The manner in which we have tried to develop peasant movements for all these years can be called nothing but revisionist tactics. Revisionism works in peasant movements with a view to keeping the Party’s activities open and relies for the movements on the Party leaders who belong to the intelligentsia. Consequently, they begin their movements with speeches by top leaders, by organizing peasant squads and through open propaganda campaigns. Naturally, such movements are wholly dependent upon the big leaders and, as a result, they end whenever those leaders belonging to the intelligentsia choose to withdraw them. Moreover, as the entire agitation and movement are carried out openly, the entire organization becomes helpless in the face of repression.
The tactics of the revolutionaries for organizing peasant struggles must be entirely different from the revisionist tactics. The foremost duty of the revolutionaries is to spread and propagate the thought of Chairman Mao and to try to intensify the peasants’ class struggle. Consequently, the Party organization must organize propaganda by means of secret meetings. It may be that the peasants, acting under the influence of their old method of working, will ask for meetings and demonstrations. In such cases, the Party organization may help organize one or two such meetings or demonstrations.
But meetings and demonstrations can at no time become our main instrument of struggle. To master this revolutionary method is indeed very difficult. But this can be done if the revolutionary intellectuals start working in the underground from the very beginning. Only then will they be compelled to become dependent on the peasant revolutionaries. It must be realized that the people are not yet ready so long as the peasant revolutionaries do not take the initiative themselves. And naturally, we are not to impose our views on the peasant masses. The second deviation occurs when the peasant cadres want to do something, but the intellectual comrade attaches greater importance to the view of the most backward comrade and would have it accepted as the general opinion. This gives rise to a Right deviation.
So, the first principle is that we must not impose anything at all against the will of the masses. If we forget this, we shall commit many deviations which may be variously termed as sectarianism, Castroism etc. To avoid this we must ceaselessly carry on political propaganda among the peasants. As a result of such propaganda, we shall be able to raise political cadres able to carry on political propaganda. The secret organization of such cadres will become the Party of the future. In building this organization, we must follow the principles on which Party committees are run. Every such Party committee must have a definite area in which it will work, and must learn how to make a class analysis in that area and how to assess the wishes and thinking of each section of the population by means of investigation and study. This method of investigation and study can be learnt only through long practice. So, it is evident that in the beginning these committees will commit many deviations. But we need not be afraid of this, for Chairman Mao has taught us that we should learn warfare through warfare. The Party committees will learn how to take correct decisions from these deviations if they follow democratic principles.
There are both an advanced section and a backward section among the revolutionary classes also. The advanced section can quickly grasp the revolutionary principles while the backward section naturally requires more time to assimilate political propaganda.
That is why economic struggles against the feudal class are necessary, not only in the present, but in the future also. That is why the movement to seize the crops is necessary. The political consciousness and organization in a given area will determine the form that this struggle will assume. This struggle will naturally be directed against the feudal class, that is, against the non-cultivating landowners, that is, against the zamindar class and never against the middle peasants.
If we do not try to develop a broad movement of the peasants and to draw the broad masses into the movement, the politics of seizure of power will naturally take a longer time to get firmly rooted in the consciousness of the peasant masses. As a result, the struggle will be dominated less and less by politics, and the tendency to rely more and more on arms alone is likely to grow. Guerrilla warfare is a higher form of the peasants’ class struggle under political leadership. Consequently, only by the successful application of the four weapons-class analysis, investigation, study and class struggle can we create areas of peasants’ armed struggle.
Rich peasants in our country rely mainly on feudal exploitation. So, our relation with them will be mainly one of struggle. But as they are subjected also to the exploitation of the imperialist market, it is possible to unite with them at certain stages of the struggle. Apart from these rich peasants, all other peasants can be mobilized not merely as supporters but also as participants in the struggle. The poor and landless peasants, under the leadership of the working class, can build up the fighting unity of the broad peasant masses. The more rapid such unity is achieved, the quicker will the struggle assume a revolutionary character. We must bear in mind the teaching of Chairman Mao: “Revolutionary war is a war of the masses. It can be waged only by mobilizing the masses and relying on them.”
U.S. imperialism and Soviet revisionism are intensifying their oppression and exploitation in India and the burden of their exploitation ultimately falls upon the shoulders of the broad peasant masses. Poverty and starvation have made the life of the peasants absolutely unbearable and it is natural that spontaneous outbursts of discontent are taking place. Similarly, the oppression by U.S. imperialism and Soviet revisionism has given rise to discontent among other classes also, which, in turn, influences the peasant masses. On the other hand, all the existing political parties in India have today turned into parties of the ruling classes, and each one of them is presently trying to keep the masses quiet by means of various tricks and devices. The Dangeite traitorous clique and the neo-revisionist clique are the most skilled in doing this. They are trying to confuse the masses by wearing the mask of Marxism-Leninism and indulging in all sorts of pseudo-revolutionary talks. But the Soviet revisionists’ fascist aggression against Czechoslovakia has torn off their mask and with each passing day they will be clearly shown up as mere lackeys of the Soviet Union, which is today a pedlar of neo-colonialism and one of the aggressive powers of the world. The more these people are exposed, the more will the flood-tide of the resistance struggle of the masses be unleashed and the possibility of a broad mass movement of the peasants be turned into reality. So, the working class and the revolutionary intelligentsia are today faced with the task of making the peasants class-conscious and of organizing broad class struggles. The day is not far off when the creative powers of the millions of Indian peasants will build wide areas of armed struggle in the countryside and the revolutionary masses of India will take their rightful place in the ranks of all the revolutionary liberation fighters of the world. All revolutionaries must without delay plunge into the work of translating into reality Great Lenin’s dream-the dream that the unity of the fighting peoples of Great China and India will dig the grave of world imperialism.
On the occasion of the International Day of Action for the 50th Anniversary of the Naxalbari Uprising, different activities were done in various cities of different federal states in the north, east, south and west of the FRG. So the international campaign became a truly nationwide campaign. A lot of new comrades were engaged in the campaign. The effect of the campaign is highlighted by the fact that several groups of the revolutionary movement published statements on the issue, e.g. the Rote Ruhr Crew, PerspektiveOnline and Revolutionärer Aufbau BRD (Revolutionary Construction FRG). Therein the necessity of the reconstitution of the Communist Party in this country, the People`s War in India – as a weapon of combat against revisionism – and proletarian internationalism were highlighted. At the end of this article you find some quotes.
In Bremen, an impressive campaign of wall paintings in various parts of the city was carried out.
In Rostock, wall paintings were carried out.
In Hamburg and Nuremberg, information events on the Naxalbari Uprising and the People’s War in India were held on 19th of May. In Hamburg, many participants were new to the topic and an interesting discussions developed. The question of political prisoners was also raised and attention was drawn to the situation of the comrades Ajith, Saibaba and Kobad Ghandy. In Nuremberg, the international solidarity campaign was carried out for the first time. The discussion following the lecture was very vivid, especially through the contributions of a comrade, who herself had been in India for some time, and was able to make important observations on the situation there and the mass work of comrades.
Various wall paintings were made in Weimar.
In Berlin wall paintings were carried out in Berlin-Britz and leaflets were distributed in working class neighbourhoods.
On 20 May a rally was held in Hamburg to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Naxalbari uprising. Here mainly revolutionary youth gathered. Speeches were held, calling for the support of the People’s War. On a banner, the release of Professor Saibaba, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in India this year, and all political prisoners in India, was demanded. Following the rally, the participants participated in a demonstration of sympathizers of the People’s Front from Turkey for the freedom of political prisoners. Thus, in the spirit of proletarian internationalism, the struggles of the peoples of the world were united.
In addition, a graffiti appeared on a tall building in a working class neighbourhood and a wall painting was done in another working class neighbourhood in Hamburg.
In the Ruhr-Area wall paintings were carried out, too.
In other cities actions were done too but we did not received reports about them yet.
We think it is important to highlight that this Day of Action shows a clear broadening of the campaign, a rise not just in quantity but also in quality of the actions, imposed by the eager of the revolutionary youth who knows to close the ranks with the comrades struggling for the reconstitution for the Communist Party, and show in their practice a decisive, combative proletarian internationalist spirit.
Red Germany cries: Naxalbari Zindabad! It is right to rebel!
We received also a few pictures from Austria, as far we got some more we will publish it in an article.
The Internationalist Collective Berlin writes:
“… This Uprising is a milestone in the development of the armed struggle in whole India and encouraged peasants all over the country to develop the struggle against the local big landlords. […] The blood feeds the revolution instead of drowning it and push more and more angry masses in its ranks. The People`s War in India is a part of the new wave of world proletarian revolution, which will sweep away imperialism from the face of the earth once and for all.”
PerspektiveOnline writes:
“The Naxalbari Uprising is the beginning of the Naxalite-movement which struggles actively against plunder by international big corporations and oppression by caste-system until today. The Movement […] is supported especially by the lowest castes and oppressed minorities like the Adivasi. It counts around 10,000 militants in arms in the ranks of the Peoples Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA) – one of the largest left guerilla-movements in the world.”
The Red Ruhr Crew writes:
“What started 50 years ago in the village of Naxalbari and is carried on every second today is the concrete struggle and daily prove that the war against the imperialist order is possible and correct. […] It is even more important on those days to remember the own responsibility and duties to march along the path of the comrades and to it alike. In an imperialist country like the FRG it is our first duty to construct a truly revolutionary Communist Party of new type. […] which in end declares armed opposition against this state and mobilises the oppressed people and therefore is a militarised party to serve the people, like in India.”
Posters surface in Bhadrachalam in the run up to 50th anniversary of the ‘Naxalbari armed uprising’
In the run up to the 50th anniversary of the ‘Naxalbari armed uprising’, Maoists have intensified a poster campaign against ‘Operation Green Hunt’ which they describe as a “fascist offensive” against people in Dandakaranya forest region.
Posters purportedly written by Maoists have surfaced at the busy Ambedkar Centre in Bhadrachalam, the tribal heartland of Telangana, in the small hours of Friday,
In the posters written in red ink, the Sabari-Charla Area Committee of the CPI (Maoist) urged people to fight against “sand and mining mafia” to protect the interests of Adivasis in the Agency areas. The committee has demanded that the Land Transfer Regulation (1 of 70–LTR) Act should be implemented in tribal areas and pattas for ‘podu lands’ be distributed among tribal people. Bhadradri-Kothagudem district committee of the CPI (Maoist) urging people to observe 50th anniversary celebrations of the ‘Naxalbari movement’ from May 23 to 29 this year.
Maoist spokesperson ‘Vikalp’ in a 9.35 minute youtube audiorefuted police’s claim alleging security forces of beating and looting the villagers and later setting their houses on fire, during the operations conducted between May 13-15. The female voice of Vikalp, secretary South Bastar Divisional Committee in the audio alleged that during the joint operation of CRPF, CoBRA, STF and DRG between May 13 and 15, houses of at least a dozen villagers were put on fire at Rayagundam and neighbouring villages.
“Group of more than 150 security personnel rounded up the villages late at night and started indiscriminate firing towards the houses. Before setting their houses ablaze, they brutally beat up the villagers and looted their ornaments, cash and stuff used in daily chores leaving them only upon clothes. Most of the village has been gutted,” Vikalp said. She added that there were many villagers collecting tendupatta leaves in forests, who were beaten and taken away by the forces. Vikalp also alleged that former sarpanch of Chintagufa, Podiyam Panda was forcibly picked from his village and many like him were shoved into jails. “We condemn the way government is killing innocent tribals, creating terror among local population and to provide security to corporate companies indulged in illegal acquisition of ‘jal, jungle and jameen’.
