Polemics on 'Fractured Freedom': C Sekhar responds to Kobad Ghandy's views

Response to Kobad Ghandy 

C Sekhar

Communist Activist

I welcome and congratulate Kobad Ghandy for posing the central questions being faced by the communist movement now, as they provoke us to join hands with him to find out a path forward by nurturing a collective vision. I could not read his book, Fractured Freedom. But I have gone through his interviews, responses from K N Ramachandran and Manish Azad and his replies to them, and his replies to the questions from W. Bengal activists. I am an activist working in a communist organisation.

Central Issues : 1. What are the reasons for the setbacks in world wide revolutions / socialism? 2. Reasons for stagnation and retrogression in the Indian communist movement.

Let us discuss these as a layman's observation of the past history of the growth of revolution and the later strengthening of organised counter revolution.

1. The first round of the working class revolution faced a setback when laissez-faire capitalism got transformed to a monopoly based imperialist global system, by struggling against the working class movement and to solve the economic crisis. The finance capital integrated the world political economy by allying with all other non-capitalist exploitative and oppressive forces.

After 1900 , the struggles and movements of the common masses and the working class strengthened. They struggled against all  FORMS of exploitation and oppression, and for democracy, freedom, liberation , equality and socialism. These global movements were demanding a comprehensive concrete vision to lead them. Thus the central slogan of  'Workers of the world, unite' got transformed to 'workers, oppressed nations and people of the world unite', to mobilize a united movement under labour, to build up a liberated new world. These global upheavals continued up to about the 1960s and it changed and democratised the world to a great extent. 

October Socialist Revolution and communist movement emerged as the de facto leadership of this world wide revolutionary process. A strong socialist camp and National and other Liberation Movements were collectively attacking the world imperialist system.

After the emergence of Soviet Union and  the all round strengthening of global people's movements, imperialism started adopting many social welfare measures and inclusive approaches to counter the socialist-democratic movements. Imperialist camp never allowed socialism to freely grow. It always strangulated socialist construction with external and internal subversion of all kinds, to pre- empt the blossoming of a sustainable and viable alternative. Still , the socialist camp grew as a sustainable and viable alternative model attracting the global masses. Gradually, the counter revolution matured as a well planned cold war vision.

After the Great Depression from 1929 , the mass struggles and welfare measures intensified. New Deal, Keynesian welfare economics, welfare state, state capitalism, de-colonisation, affirmative action, reservation, land reforms, enhanced labour rights  etc grew into a global reformist package  by 1945 to win over the struggling masses back. World people and socialist camp forced the imperialist camp to behave. Thus the change of imperialism from liberalism to welfarism was a big victory for the socialist camp of global revolution process.

As the hard won rights and the welfare  measures reformed the society, the class and social antagonism got blunted. As the imperialism and the ruling classes provided a reformist atmosphere to attract masses and to  isolate the revolution from masses,  reformism spread among people. This strengthened revisionism in the communist movement. This revisionism spread through out the world as Browderism, Titoism, Khrushchevism, Liu-Dengism, Dangeism etc. Revolution, led by CPC and Mao  tried to defend itself from this world wide revisionist take over. But left deviation, sectarianism and adventurism hijacked even CPC very soon, due to the prevailing reformist strategy of imperialism then. CPC also failed to  see the global roots of Liu-Dengism and did not mobilize Marxist-Leninist forces at global level AGAINST imperialism. ML forces soon degenerated to sectarianism by struggling against revisionism alone, instead of focusing against imperialism which was strengthening  revisionism every where.

By 1960s, the global revolution started facing stagnation and the socialist camp facing splits and reverses. Socialist forces got divided into two opposite  camps of revisionist and sectarian deviations. Both are two models of our failure , due to the reformistic objective situation. When people are enjoying some minimum facilities, rights and better status, revolution goes to the back seat of peoples agendas. This is the basic reason for the setback we faced. Secondary reason is our deviations. Imperialist camp is capturing back socialist countries in a long drawn manner. Each countries and parties have their own immediate local  reasons too, for the setbacks. Thus, second round of revolution started with October Revolution in 1917 is ending in a global setback. There are some socialist  countries still withstanding the imperialist onslaught, even though with some / many   compromises.

From 1989-90 period, socialist block disappeared and Soviet Union and East European countries got totally integrated with capitalist world. Anti-communist rhetoric with declarations of end of history, post modernism, There Is No Alternative etc reached it's zenith. This was only a preface to launch a global enslavement process of neoliberal globalisation. Welfare state and reformism are disappearing due to their crises. Neo- liberalism is intensifying exploitation of all forms and unleashing fascist oppression on the  common people of the world. The class, national and social contradictions are sharpening now  and the revolution and communist and  progressive unity are growing again. Thus, imperialist  reformism  gave us setback and splits. The present economic reforms are strengthening revolution and unity.

All global contradictions are sharpening again and the imperialist chain can break first at the weak Indian link in 2 decades, to complete the worldwide revolution in about 5 decades!! Leninist global slogan can unite and liberate masses from all forms of exploitation and oppression . We can apply Marxism-Leninism creatively as a scientific guidance to unite the global masses, led by organised working class, Bolshevik parties and socialist dream, to build up a united socialist world. So, we are mobilizing our forces and re-organising ourselves to launch the third and final round of international revolution process.

2. Indian revolution grew till about 1960s. But Nehruvian welfare state became a drag in it's further growth. Land reforms, labour rights, public sector, reservation, social welfare measures, educational and health rights etc. were hard won partial victories of  the mass struggles, but they reduced the sharpness of class and social contradictions, and people were attracted towards economism and reformist struggles. This atmosphere stagnated and split the communist movement into right and left deviations, even though Marxist- Leninist trend struggled against both deviations unsuccessfully. Favorable objective and subjective conditions can promote revolution and adverse objective and subjective situations can give us setbacks.

All gains from the past struggles and movements for freedom, democracy and socialism are being demolished under counter slogans of  globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation by the  MNCs-corporate-fascist gang now. This is the  anti-national process of converting India into a  neocolonial hindurashtra, for hiding which the narrow nationalism of sangh parivar is unleashed against similarly enslaved neighbours. This neocolonisation is given a fillip now with a catch word of building up a  '5 trillion Dollar economy' by attracting more investment from MNCs. Modi govt. has enacted 4 Labour Codes, enacted 3 anti- farmer laws and trying to change environmental laws [EIA], for improving 'ease of doing business' for these MNCs and allied crony corporates.

Caste, gender, religious, racial [adivasis], national, regional and environmental issues should be championed by working class and it's party. Ruling classes are promoting identity politics to divide the revolutionary classes. We should struggle for social equality, along with class struggle,  to unite the revolutionary classes, against identity separatists.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE , now?: 

This is a question asked by W. Bengal activists to Kobad Ghandy. He pointedly replied this question that the neoliberal reforms and fascism are the central challenges against which a countrywide massive movement and communist- socialist unity are necessary. He further clarified that a United  Platform with a broad common program and with parliamentary and non-parliamentary communist parties as it's constituents will be very effective. We should fully agree with him.

Indian working class is already in the forefront of emerging massive revolt against neoliberal policy from 1991 itself. It organised 20 All India strikes against this policy and now supporting  the farmers struggle.  Peasants and farmers have now  joined the anti-neoliberal movement in an innovative, inspiring democratic model. Trade Unions and Farmers united forums have formed a Co-ordination  bureau to support each other. Tomorrow, united youth, students, women, cultural, environmental protection movements too will join hands with the worker-farmer core. Dalits and religious minorities are already struggling. All these streams of movements will converge into a countrywide peoples uprising in the coming days, to build up a new egalitarian India. Left unity, Left Alternative and Left Minimum Program, Left platform can function as a core for mobilizing all other patriotic democratic forces into a very broad Front, to isolate the ruling axis.

We can unite various classes, social sections and progressive forces only under a broad democratic vision. Such a revolutionary vision should go on growing with more and more sections contributing to it. We are building up a new India and world by direct participation of oppressed masses.

Socialist values, culture and scientific temperament should be promoted among party and masses, as part of the general vision for building up a united future.

Hitler won due to the compromising social democracy and divisive sectarian communists. Both failed to mobilize a social change in a crisis ridden favorable  Germany. So, thinking of keeping CPI-M out of Left Platform is suicidal as it will nip the left unity in the bud. At the same time we cannot allow any dictates from big brother to hinder a democratic process of communist unification. United class mass movements and united left platform will struggle against all compromising, divisive, careerist, corrupt and deviating tendencies in a long drawn healthy ideological struggle to strengthen unity to gain ultimate victory . Let us take a calculated risk, by learning from united farmers movement in which AIKS is also a valuable partner. 

I conclude that the communist movement faced setback due to the imperialist reformism and welfare state, primarily,  and the right and left  deviations in the  movement.

..........

Kobad responds to Manish Azad: http://thediligent2018.blogspot.com/2021/04/polemics-on-fractured-freedom-kobad.html?m=1

Kobad responds to KN Ramachandran: http://thediligent2018.blogspot.com/2021/05/polemics-on-interview-with-hindu-kobad.html?m=1

Kobad responds to WB Activists: http://thediligent2018.blogspot.com/2021/04/kobad-gandhi-responds-to-activists.html?m=1

[The views expressed from both ends are the sole responsibility of the corresponding activists.]