EDITORIAL

The era of nefarious Narendra Modi had continued to reign even after the genocide in Gujarat. But after the Nandigram genocide, the picture is opposite in West Bengal, as we follow the people’s verdict in recent Panchayat election . The flight named 'Industrialization' crashed down in this State. The pseudo lefts are now found saying to give importance to the public opinion, instead of boasting for their electoral majority and intimidating the dissidents to make their 'life a hell'. Like the Nandigram incident, protests stormed down
throughout the country for the Gujarat genocide, too. Artistes, intellectuals, human rights activists came down to streets to raise voice against the new st violent face of fascism in this 21 century. But somehow these protests failed to build up resistance against the fascist repression in grassroots level, where as the people of Nandigram succeeded to defy the incessant steamroller of Investment Capital. Not only the SEZ projects were cancelled in the post Nandigram period, the intrepid struggle had also changed the old thoughts, inspired the toiling and struggling people to opt more radical resistance, all over India. The strategy of the Government depends upon the characteristics of the resistance of the mass and rulers want to build up its social legitimacy based on its ideology. So, it has to take the shelter of fake promises—sometimes in the name of religion, sometimes in the name of employment. Much before the building of concentration camps, State power used to seclude the Jewish from the society in Germany. And Hitler used the chemistry of 'Aryan' blood to socially legitimise this law. By seeing the successful implementation of this chemistry, Bertrand Russell said that when fascism knocks the door of th democracy, it can't be combated with only democratic means. After 14 March 2007, all mass movements, whether be the Rizwanur case or the ration scam, were influenced by the Nandigram movement. Movements against land acquisition gained remarkable pace everywhere. The voice of dissent heard loud. To cope up with the burgeoning resistance, Globalisation is changing her demonical face, negotiating for compensations, asking for consent.Globalisation only wants to secure industrialization and profit. And if necessary, they will unmask their human face, opt for fascism, the most dependable weapon of investment capital both politically and culturally. In this era of new colonialism, that is Globalisation we can clearly distinct ‘two’ India –one is of hunger, malnutrition and unemployment of millions, where per capita income of 77% people is less than Rs.20 and in a stark contrast, the ‘Shining India’, bragging on Shopping Malls, Flyovers, enticing on national and multinational companies for investment, whose whole economy is depending on the share market and profit centric investment capital. If the fate of the Government lies in the hand of fascism or direct imperialism, then the question of organising broad-based anti-imperialist struggle will be the most important task in near future. Our country is the land of hundreds of 'East India Companies' today. And to save the land, water, forest, minerals and all natural and human resources, the resistance like the Nandigram may be the only mission and vision to challenge this imperialism aggression in future.

“Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was
in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners.”
Vladimir Lenin

A Greeting for Nepal

The election results in Nepal have proved once again the overwhelming anger of the masses against the outdated feudal monarchic rule in Nepal, against the Indian expansionist's bullying and domination of Nepal,against US domination and repression, and are a reflection of the growing aspirations of the Nepali masses for democracy, land, livelihood and genuine freedom from imperialist and feudal exploitation. It is these aspirations of the overwhelming majority of the masses that had completely rounded the parties that had either supported the King and/or the Indian ruling classes or hesitated to come out strongly against feudal, imperialist oppression and Indian intervention in Nepal. Hence, when an alternative like the CPN(M) came to the fore, with its open commitment to abolish the feudal monarchy once for all, abrogate all unequal treaties signed with India by the former ruling classes of Nepal, and ensure democracy and equality for the oppressed sections of society such as Dalits, adivasis, national minorities and women, the masses enthusiastically veered towards Maoists. We hail the Nepali masses for routing the feudal, pro-imperialist, pro-Indian comprador parties and voting for a genuine change in the rotten feudal system in Nepal. It sends the fraternal revolutionary greetings for their victory in the electoral struggle against the reactionary forces. The election results have not only sounded the death-knell for the 239-year-old absolutist monarchy but also to the continuous domination, interference, and bullying by the Indian reactionary expansionist ruling classes. Moreover, they have also sealed the fate of all the comprador feudal electoral Parties which had proved themselves to be the most corrupt, country-selling, anti-people, loyal stooges of imperialists, feudal forces and Indian expansionists. In the eyes of the broad masses, these parties are narrow self-seeking robber gangsters who are out to fatten themselves at the expense of the vast masses of poor and the destitute. The results are a telling indictment against forces which had proved themselves to be a party to the oppression, suppression and exploitation of women, dalits, national minorities and adivasis.

The real test, however, begins now after the CPN(M) taking over the reins of power. It is a fundamental tenet of Marxism that no radical restructuring of the system is possible without the militant mobilization of the vast masses. It is impossible to make genuine changes in the system through measures initiated “from above”, i.e through state decrees and laws. Whichever Party may be in power, not excluding the most radical Maoists, one cal only make laws at best, but to implement these it is imperative to mobilize the masses and advance class struggle against exploiters and oppressors and for radical changes for the liberation of the vast majority of poor. No ruling class will give up power without putting up a bitter struggle and carrying out sabotage and subterfuge against the oppressed class. Hence the real, bitter and
most cruel struggle for power will now unfold soon after the elections. In fact, drafting Nepal's Constitution in favor of the poor and oppressed masses is itself a very arduous and bitter struggle. The reactionaries will oppose every change tooth and nail. Lacking a majority in the Constituent Assembly, the Maoists will be powerless to affect radical changes in the Constitution. Either they have to compromise and adjust with a section of the reactionary forces thereby sacrificing the class interests of the oppressed in whose interests they ha come to power, or, they have to mobilize the people and intensify the struggle through all means, including armed insurrection, in order to implement genuine democracy and establish people's power. There is no other alternative.

We warn the CPN(M) to beware of the conspiracies of he imperialists led by the US imperialists, the Indian reactionary ruling classes, and the feudal comprador forces of Nepal to engineer coups, political assassinations, creation of artificial scarcity through economic blockades and sabotage, and subversion of democratic process, and calls upon it to be fully prepared to confront these reactionaries by armed means. The one and only guarantee for carrying through the radical revolutionary programme is to raise the political class consciousness of the vast masses, mobilize them into class struggle, arm and train them to fight the exploiters and all reactionary forces and defend the gains they had derives through long period of class and mass struggle. Nothing could be more dangerous at the present juncture than to become dizzy with success and underestimate the prospects of a reactionary backlash. One must keep in mind that the gains that can be achieved through a government that has come to power by means of elections are very much limited. Survival of such a regime depends on taking a conciliatory stand on several crucial matters. Hence to overestimate the prospects of radical restructuring of the society or economy by a Maoist government would be illusory and will dilute the possibility as well as the ability of the Party to continue the class struggle.

We see immense possibilities in present-day Nepal to carry forward the revolutionary programme by firmly relying on the masses and carrying out class struggle while utilizing the state to further this process. This is possible if the main leadership of the Maoist party does not become part of the government but concentrates on the principal task of continuing the class struggle by mobilizing the masses. Otherwise there is every danger of unprincipled compromises with the reactionary parties and imperialists, degeneration of the party leadership and cadres, and emergence of strong bureaucratic class. In such a scenario, all the gains made would go down the drain and the reactionary parties would once again come to power by crashing in on the frustration of the masses.

BILLIONS MADE MAKE BILLIONS HUNGRY

Sumit Chowdhury

An acute food crisis, the severity of which has hitherto been unseen in these prosperously prevailing times of triumphant capitalism, has seized the world.Billions, mostly those wretched of the earth living in the poorest enclaves of the global economy, are having to bear the brunt. As food prices skyrocket putting bare survival at stake, hungry multitudes across the accursed continents of Asia, Africa and Latin America are riotously taking to the streets. The flare-ups, it is feared, are likely to turn into bigger blowups, if something drastic is not done at once to stem the tide. An unprecedented upheaval may sweep through the world prising open the very entrails of the existing exploitative and profit-raking world-system. Great hunger, if history is to be believed, always fuels great anger. It happened in France in the hungry autumn of 1789 and it happened in Russia in the hungry winter of 1917. Sure enough, the current worldwide food crisis is not, as we are usually made to believe, the upshot of any major shortage in supply or a dreadful decline in agricultural output. In fact, if official statistics is to be trusted, farmers the world over have been producing more food in their farmlands than ever before. According to a World Bank study in April 2008, global cereal production has gone up to an all-time record of 2,164mt (wheat 679mt, rice 423mt, both all-time records), an increase of more than three percent over the previous year, and is expected to rise by 2.6 percent in the current year. A report of the Agricultural Department of the USA says that global wheat production had increased from 564mt (21.54bn bushels) in 1997 to 627mt (22.29bn bushels) in 2007. And yet, grain supplies reached the lowest since 1985 and the world food inventory touched rock bottom (143mt) in 25 years, resulting in the eruption of food riots in as many as 33 countries in just the first quarter of this year.

Hunger amidst plenty
Such paradox may baffle but hunger amidst plenty had been the defining feature of all the famines in the past, particularly in the colonial times and the areas under colonial domination. People went hungry not because of inadequate yield or supply of food but the inability of the poorest of the poor to
gain access to or avail of it. Food there was aplenty but remained out of reach for those who didn't have the means to purchase it at the soaring, sky-kissing price at which it was sold. The causes of famines were structural, rooted as they were in the unequal and the unfair nature of the social arrangements. No other place illustrates better this fundamental fact than Kalahandi, the most vivid symbol of famine in India. Paddy production in this wildly beautiful land across the Indravati river basin in west Orissa has always been higher than the national average for districts and yet it has forever remained the heart of darkness. Because ruthless rice merchants-cum-mahajans have wrecked the self-sustaining agricultural practice of the indigenous Kondhs and replaced it with commercial farming (including all the Green Revolution ingredients such as tractors and power-tillers, HYV seeds and chemical fertilisers), thereby alienating the local communities from their land and driving them into desperate indebtedness from which there was never any escape.

Agriculture on the roulette wheel

In fact, it is this kind of commercial farming and the consequent demise of traditional agriculture that is overtly responsible for the chronic food insecurity most parts of the underdeveloped world perpetually suffer from. The advent of unbridled capitalism in agriculture dramatically transformed the rural scenarios in these areas, altering not only farming methods and techniques, but also changing forever the way land and production relations were constituted. Both land and the produce of the land became commodities, something that could be bought and sold in the marketplace; peasants who lost their lands to farming ventures, sold their labour to work the lands that once belonged to them and were subjected to the vagaries of a market mechanism about which they knew next to nothing; hundreds of thousands, displaced from their land, would migrate to other areas in search of alternative
livelihoods, filling up the already choking slums in the cities and strengthening the army of the unemployed; in the meanwhile, omnipresent markets controlled by mafia-like cartels came to dominate every aspect of life in the countryside. More often than not, in keeping with the logic of capitalism, markets would fluctuate, rising to great heights if the going was good and collapsing if things took a different turn. A glut here and a slump there would bring forth a crisis; prices of food products would then be raised or lowered, as the requirement might be, to cope with the situation. Speculative trading would, thus, gain ground, becoming the norm over time. Agriculture would be placed on the roulette wheel and food-stocks stashed away in cold storages till the wheel turned distinctly in favour. The demands of agribusiness would lend itself to all-out gambling and unscrupulous traders would rule the roost.

Prices of speculative trading

The severe food crisis that has at present hit the world can be traced to a similar casino culture that permeates agriculture in these globalising times. Agribusiness is big business and today's casino kings are the giant multinationals like Cargill, Monsanto, Mosaic, Archer Daniels Midlands and so on who exercise iron control in both supply and demand in agricultural trading and stocks through opaque pricing and other financial instruments. Many of these corporations – having dubious track records – have started investing in a big way in futures trading in agro-products and food commodities. They are not buying or selling but betting on price movements in the stock exchanges. The funds have grown exponentially in the aftermath of the collapse of the mortgage market – termed the 'sub-prime crisis' – in the USA since end- 2007. Desperate for swift returns, investors are withdrawing trillions of dollars from the equity and mortgage bonds to invest in futures trading on food products. According to a Citibank report, funds invested in commodity futures in wheat alone increased from $5 billion in 2000 to $175bn in 2007 and investment in
commodity indices increased by $40bn to $180bn in the first quarter of 2007. Global speculation on foodstuff can be seen best in the Chicago Stock Exchange (CHX) where a number of hedge funds, investment banks and pension funds are investing enormous amounts in agro-inputs. In the first quarter of 2008, the investment on agriculture at CHX increased by more than 25 percent while according to the Chicago firm, Coal Partners, the participation of hedge funds in raw materials increased threefold to $55bn in the past couple of years. The trading frenzy has sent food prices soaring across the world. True, prices of
primary commodities like cereals, edible oils and milk have been rising since the turn of the millennium but since the onset of the credit crisis in the USA prices of food in the global market have been climbing at an astounding pace. In a series of caveats in January this year, New York Times reported that prices of 60 agricultural commodities traded on the world market increased by 37 percent in 2007 and 14 percent the year before. Corn prices began their ascent in the early fall of 2006 and within months climbed by some 70 percent. According to a Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report, global food prices have increased by 83 percent in the last two years of which the price of rice itself has gone up by 141 percent. And according to another study by the Agricultural Department of the USA, the global market price of rice has gone up by 217 percent since 2006, that of wheat by 136 percent and soybean by 107 percent. CHX predicts that future prices of wheat are likely to go up by 73 percent, soybean by 52 percent and soybean oil by 44 percent. It is difficult to estimate how many people across the world will be affected by this phenomenal rise in food prices. It, however, goes without saying that it would badly affect the poorer and marginalised sections of the underdeveloped world. More than 900 million poor in Asia earn less than $2 a day – they would certainly be the worst-hit. And among them, it is the women and children who will be distressed the most. The World Food Programme (WFP) announced on April 22 that it had begun cutting provisions for school meals to the world's poorest children, that the price of basic food was rising so rapidly that shortfall for its financing for food relief programmes had grown from $500m to $755m in less than two months. A programme providing 450,000 Cambodian children has been suspended and a similar programme in Kenya serving 1.2 million children is facing cuts of nearly 50 percent.

Prices of capitalist consumption

Spiralling prices, which is endemic to capitalism, is also intrinsically triggered by the prohibitive energy needs of a growth-driven, growth-obsessed, growth-isthe- be-all-and-end-all system and the unrestrained, never-flagging consumerism it breeds. Both of these, typically, have had a major role in the unfolding drama about the global food catastrophe. The capitalist world, it may be emphasised, has a gargantuan appetite for fossil fuels and today its main source of energy is petroleum. With oil stocks constantly depleting and crude oil prices going up by more than 500 percent in the last decade or so, the capitalist countries of Europe and the USA, with mighty automobile industries, opted for bio-fuels like corn oil, also known as ethanol. Attracted by ethanol's potential as an alternative to petroleum and to meet the ever-growing demands of an automobile-crazy society, the government of USA handed massive subsidies to corn-growers; and, in a span of less than five years, huge tracts of prime agricultural lands cultivating wheat or soybean were taken over to grow corn – that, too, is being used for conversion to ethanol and not for satisfying basic human needs; it may be worthwhile to note that 240kg corn, enough to feed a family for a year, produces a mere 100 litres of ethanol, just enough to fill an SUV car. A survey of the Agricultural Department of the USA points out that the use of food crops required for producing bio-fuels in that country have gone up from 11mt in 1995 to 50mt in 2007. Primary agriculture is evidently being sacrificed at the altar of the energy needs of the capitalist world. The price of ethanol, however, is tied to that of crude oil which, in turn, is tied to the US dollar: the higher the fall of the dollar's value in the international currency market, the more the price of crude oil, and that of ethanol. With dollar value steadily declining on account of the ongoing recession in the USA and crude oil prices rising inexorably in leaps and bounds, dragging ethanol in its wake, prices of foodstuff are automatically soaring. Similar impact on the nature of agricultural production has arisen from the burgeoning consumerism of the prospering middle classes in the fast-growing economies of the underdeveloped territories, particularly China and India, the two most populous countries of the world. With the cash-rich middle classes wanting more protein food, the demand for meat has risen dramatically in these areas and the use of maize and soy to feed cattle, pigs and poultry has gone up sharply to satisfy this demand. One of the caveats in the New York Times mentioned earlier, reports that the world's meat supply, which was 71mt in 1961, rose to 284mt in 2007. Per capita consumption, too, has doubled in this period. Consumerism born of capitalist development inevitably rings the death knell for agriculture.

A death warrant for agriculture

Experience of the past two decades show that the so-called neoliberal therapy – prescribed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the wake of the Washington Consensus in 1990 and zealously implemented by most of the crony aspiring-to-be-developed countries – and the so-called free trade regimen, advocated and imposed on the lesser economies by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), have together destroyed or debilitated the once-thriving agriculture in the vast hinterlands of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Neoliberalism has, in particular, ruined the small farmers and paved the way for agribusiness multinationals to come in and make hay. With subsidies taken off and almost all expenditure on agricultural infrastructures virtually stopped, the subsistence farmers have en masse been pushed to the margins even as the multinational marauders laid siege to the rural economies with their seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and genetic engineering know how. Egged on by these multinationals, farmers switched from self-consuming or rotational cropping to cultivating cash crops; and when invariably crops failed, repeatedly in many cases, the multinationals, now acting as their saviors, did brisker business. The horrible experience of the cotton growers in Andhra Pradesh, many of whom through the 90s and till recent years committed suicide, is a case in point. Free trade lured many of these small and now-capitalist farmers from the peripheries into the hub of the world market. They perish soon enough, unable, as they were to cope with the intricacies of the market operations and stand up to the might of the oligopolistic agro-cartels who have complete control over pricing. Till the 70s, the sub-Saharan economies were frugal on providing food to the people. They didn't have oranges but bread and milk to sustain themselves. When the World Bank prescribed these economies to orient towards the market, they started producing oranges for export in lieu of wheat imports. After a time, the price of wheat shot up and that of oranges went down, plunging these African countries into a quagmire. Profit out of crisis The food crisis is not just a tale of misery and despair. These may be the worst of times for the world's hungry billions, but these are the best of times for the giant agribusinesses whose earnings and profits have already begun to reach astronomical figures. Monsanto reported last month that its net income for three months up to the end of February this year has more than doubled to $1.12bn from $543m over the same period last year, and its profits went up from $1.44bn to $2.22bn. Cargill's net earnings soared by 86 percent from $553m to $1.03bn over the same three months' period. And, Archer Daniels Midland, one of world's largest processor of soya, corn and wheat, increased its earnings by 42 percent, from $363m to $517m, in the first quarter of 2008. The operating profits of its grains merchandising and handling jumped 16-fold from $21m to $341m. Similarly, Mosaic Company, one of the world's largest fertiliser companies, saw its income in three months up to the end of February this year rise more than 12- fold, from $42m to $520.8m, on the back of a major shortage in fertiliser. As billions go hungry, the agribusiness tycoons, cashboxes ringing loudly on their backs, are laughing their way to the bank.

The last laugh

Soon the tears of the hungry billions will dry up. The angry billions will then ....


Writer’s e-mail address: sumit_chowdhury@yahoo.com

Democracy “Reserved” for upper castes in Tamilnadu

Dalits in 20 districts of the state were facing serious caste-related disparities, including non-entry into temples, inaccessibility to drinking water and other facilities, a recent survey [February 2008] by Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front has found.The survey initiated in the villages of these districts last month has been completed and the findings would be submitted to respective District Collectors soon, the front's State Convenor B Sampath told reporters here today.Dalits were denied entry into hair-cutting saloons in many villages. They could not use community halls for functions and not even decorate their homes during domestic ceremonies.They were prohibited from fetching drinking water from street taps and were not allowed to enter local temples, the survey said.In Uthapuram village of Madurai district, the dalit residential colony was segregated by a half-km-long wall. Similar disparities and untouchability existed in all the 47 villages in the district, the survey said.In a school at Kottampatti in Maduraidistrict, Plus-one and Plus-two students were not even admitted to Dalit hostels.Almost 80 lakh Dalit households in these districts lacked proper toilets and the human faeces was removed and carried as headload by manual scavengers, the survey said.

CRZ TO CMZ-THE CAPITALIST GRASP ON THE COASTAL REGIONS

The picture that generally comes to mind when we talk about coastal lands is that of the numerous tourist destinations along the coast line. Every day or the other, a new coastal tourist destination is cropping up in India, for example, a lot of people from Bengal, enchanted by the picturesque photographs, visit Mandarmoni , regardless of the fact that the Court has ordered the demolition of these coast line constructions. It is also evident from the sight of hoards of fishermen at tourist destinations like Digha, Puri, Shankarpur, Bak Khali, that a lot of people actually depend on the sea for their livelihood. All of them are either fishermen or are engaged in some other peripheral activities related to fishing. These people not only catch fish for their living, but also preserve the natural resources of these coastal regions. Coastal Regulation Zone act or CRZ was established in 1986 to protect India's coastal regions. And the court has ordered the demolition of all coastline constructions at Mandanrmoni because these constructions do not conform to the CRZ. Till date, the CRZ has been amended 19 times, but still aims to preserve the natural resources at the coastal regions and to restrict the Capitalist commercialization of these areas. And that's the actual reason for the establishment of the Coastal Management Zone or CMZ in 2007. Although CMZ has not been implemented till date, but once we delve deep into its intricacies, the conspiracies to rob us of our natural resources like forest, land and water becomes apparent. There were 18 large fishing grounds in the world. At present, only 6 are left, amongst which, the Indian Ocean is an eminent figure. During 2nd World War, many mines were planted at the sea bed, aimed to destroy enemy Battleships and Submarines. Mine Sweepers were engaged to search and destroy the unused mines. The Mine Sweepers not only destroyed the mines, but also destroyed precious Coral, Sea Weed and species of Fish.The Fishing Trawler is loosely based on the idea of the Mine Sweeper. Before the tourist destinations cropped up, the coastal areas were solely belonged to the fishermen and other inhabitants of the coastal regions. But as is the way with the World nowadays, the sons of soil are being evicted from their homeland to make way for the Capitalists. The coastline studded with fishing trawlers and fishnets apparently look dirty and obnoxious to the 'civilized' citizen and so have to make way for construction of bridges and hotels. Mangrove forests, which are natural breeding grounds for fishes, are being destroyed to facilitate the construction of Chemical and Petro chemical factories , leaving thousands of fishermen jobless and homeless and also causing severe damage to the coastal ecosystem. In Mumbai alone, the count of evicted fishermen has crossed 50,000. The Indian coastline spreads for about 8200 km. By official records of 2005, India has about 3200 villages predominantly resided by fishermen. Every day, about 30 lakh fishermen go about their job and other 30 lakh people are engaged in related activities. The figure crosses 2 crores considering the coast as well as the rivers. By the record of Asian Development Bank, the total number of fishermen in India are 1 crore 46 lakh 60 thousand and the number of boats is 2 lakh 20 thousand. The total count of fish caught was about 65 lakh tonnes in 2006 and the total income from export was about 8000 crores , which was 3% of the total foreign exchange and the revenue generated was 2nd highest, after Information Technology. The fishermen are not just catching fish, they are providing us with the protein rich food and are also protecting the eco system of the coastal regions. The Indian coastline has no end to its varieties, the main features being the coast, sea shore, deltas, lagoons, estuaries, coral reefs, salt water lakes ,backwaters , coastal grasslands and mangrove forests. But unrestricted tourism, overuse, polluting factories, sand mining etc. are joining hands to destroy the eco system, for purely commercial purposes. The CRZ - 91 was
established in 1986 as a result of unmitigated protests by the fishermen unions and other organizations, to restrict the consistent erosion of coastal regions and resources, funded by the capitalists. According to CRZ-91, the coastal regions are marked as Ecologically Sensitive areas. Development in these areas should not adversely affect the ecosystem at any cost. According to CRZ, the entire coastal region is divided into 4 types, namely CRZ –I, CRZ-II, CRZ-III and CRZ-IV. A few points to be noted in this respect:-

The sea region, extending from the coast line and up to 12 nautical mi l e s i n t o t h e s e a i s c a l l e d t h e l o c a l wa t e r l e v e l High tide line is the level up to which the high tide reaches during the spring time. Low tide line is the level to which the w a t e r r e a c h e s d u r i n g t h e l o w t i d e .
The area in between is called the Inter Tidal Zone. Now, let's take a look at the CRZ notification. CRZ - I – These regions are classified as “High Risk” and are to be protected by all means. Classified as Ecologically Sensitive Area, all coral reefs, mangrove forests, natural habitats of crabs and turtles, reserve forests on coastal regions as well as estuaries and deltas and associated lakes come under its purview. These are strictly “no development zone” i.e. no commercial constructions like hotels, factories or beach mining are permitted here. All delta islands in southern Bengal are classified as CRZ-I. So how come a chemical hub is being set up at Nayachar, that comes under CRZ-I ? We will come to that later CRZ - II - These are regions that have seen some development and which have constructions within 5 meters of the High tide line. No constructions are permitted within the area between the road and the high tide line. These regions come under various Municipal Corporations , for example, Puri, Digha. CRZ – III - These regions have seen no development, but development is permitted here. 200 meters from the high tide line is declared as “no development zone”, however, constructions are permitted after 200 meters. CRZ – IV - Andaman, Nicobar, Lakshwadeep etc. come under this. The CRZ act has been amended quite a few times, on the basis of recommendation of certain committees, to facilitate commercialization of the coastline, funded by capitalists. Of all the 19 times CRZ has been amended, the decisive committee has cared to consult the local people for only 3 times, and in no cases, has that opinion been included in their recommendation. Construction of Amusement Parks, factories along the coastline and dumping of poisonous chemicals into the sea is causing adverse effects. As a result, the mangrove forests have been obliterated from Mumbai and fishes have moved 20 km inside the sea. Numerous lobster farms have cropped up ignoring the CRZ. Hindustan Lever, Larsen & Toubro, ITC, IFB, AKG are some large companies that have fully operational Lobster farms in restricted areas, defying the laws that were meant to protect the ecosystem. Chandan Basu, son of former chief minister of Bengal, Jyoti Basu owns a huge lobster farm in Shankarpur. Bijan Nag, another relative of Jyoti Basu, owns a similar farm in Bakkhali. Chandrababu Naidu and P. Chidambaram, two of the most loyal supporters of the american capitalists, own two illegal lobster farms of size 80000 acres and 18000 acres. In 1996, an appeal was made to Supreme Court to stop these illegal farms. Following are the extracts from the decision of Supreme Court : 1. All lobster farms within 500 meters from the high tide line are to be demolished. It is pretty evident that these illegal farms are in CRZ – I. 2. The damage to the ecosystem caused by the operation of such lobster farms are to be quantified. 3. All workers who work in those farms are to be paid a salary of 72 months, after the closure of the farm. None of the state governments has implemented these decisions except the Orissa State Govt. The central as well as the state governments are reluctant to implement the CRZ act. Each and every amendment to the CRZ has consistently decreased its effectiveness. Just like all other laws are being 'doctored' to satisfy the sadistic needs of World's Capitalist powers, the CRZ was also destined to the same fate. And the fishermen had to pay the price. In spite of the amendments, the CRZ didn't pose any threat to fishermen. So it made way for a new act, and to gain the credibility for the establishment of the new act, a committee was set up to discuss the effectiveness of the CRZ. In July, 2004, under scientist
M.S. Swaminathan ( the plann er of “Green Revolution” under Indira Gandhi ) a committee was set up to review the CRZ, and it was on the basis of their recommendation, that Coastal Zone Management or CMZ came into play. The notification was published in 2007, and the part of recommendation that dealt with protecting the ecosystem and the fishermen, was very carefully left out. Like CRZ, CMZ has also been divided into 4 parts, namely CMZ –I, CMZ-II, CMZ-III and CMZ –IV. Like CRZ -I, CMZ –I has been classified as Ecologically Sensitive Area in the 2007 notification. CMZ – I : The “no Development Zone” extending till 500 meters from the high tide line was henceforth abolished. But development is to be carried out according to the Integrated Coastal Zone Mangement Plan or ICZMP, which enables the commercialization of the restricted areas which previously belonged solely to the fishermen according to CRZ-I. As a result, the fishermen from these areas are bound to be evicted. This is because under ICZMP, these areas come under the direct control of the State/ Central government authorized Coastal Activity Regulatory body, to make way for the capitalist powers to
set up their hotels and factories. CMZ – II : Densely populated areas that include coastal municipalities, panchayats having population density of and above 400/sq. km, ports, notified tourist destinations, notified mines and industrial regions, SEZ or Special Economic Zone, Heritage Zones, notified archeological areas, military areas and coastal power plants, all come under this. In CRZ –II , no constructions were permitted within the area between the road and the coastline. CMZ –II saw the establishment of a new idea called the “set back line”. This set back line is to be decided keeping in mind the natural as well as artificial or manmade disasters. The development of the coastal regions, natural features gathered from satellite images, weather changes and consequent change of sea level, erosion of coastline etc. all go hand in hand to decide the set back line. But all this rubbish is nothing but a veil that hides the true intentions, because the CMZ –II is virtually free from all r e g u l a t i o n s o f w e a t h e r a n d p o l l u t i o n c o n t r o l . Fishermen are strictly prohibited from residing in the area between the set back line and the sea, but no restrictions are imposed on development of tourism infrastructure, mining or oil drilling, setting up of ports and fuelling platform for ships, construction of lighthouse and light towers, construction of public toilets, construction of private fisheries, shipyards and coastal defense infrastructure, setting up of railway lines, roads, electrical towers etc. Not only the coast line, but also underwater resources are being offered for extraction to national and foreign capitalists. The most astounding fact is that the permission for such constructions need to be issued only through the local authorities, namely, the gram panchatyats or the municipal corporations. This fact alone clearly shows the policy of the state/central governments. In a country, where the highest authorities are loyal servants of the capitalist powers, the futile resistance, if any, of the panchayats or municipal corporations, would s i n k w i t h o u t a t r a c e In fact, CMZ –II has no resemblance with CRZ-II, and the CRZ-III regions are now being reclassified as CMZ-II. The provision of “no development zone” within 200 meters from the high tide line in CRZ –II is being abolished and not only the coastline, but areas up to 12 nautical mile into the sea as well as the seabed are slated for the construction of Special Economic Zone, to satisfy foreign/ national capitalists, leaving thousands of fisherman not only homeless, but also without a job. CMZ – III : All coastal areas except CMZ - I, II and IV come under CMZ – III. Tourism Infrastructure development as well as mining, SEZ and other activities listed in CMZ – II is permitted on both sides of the set back
line. And above all the area up to 12 nautical miles into the sea as well as the sea bed is slated to be handed over to capitalist funds, depriving the fishermen who had been fishing here for ages. CMZ –IV : This consists of Andaman, Nicobar, Lakhswadeep and all islands of Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. The coastal backwaters that has not been classified as CMZ – I or II can come under CMZ – IV. Else it will come under CMZ – III. By comparing CRZ and CMZ, it is quite clear, that in spite of the amendments, the CRZ act was able to put a leash on the unrestricted development in coastal regions that destroys the ecosystem along with the lives of thousands of fishermen. This fact is again established in the report of the Swaminathan committee which states that the majority of fishermen organizations were satisfied with the CRZ act, because the CRZ was meant to protect the ecosystem by prohibiting major constructions or development along the coast. Inevitably, the CRZ went into the bad books of the capitalists and made way for CMZ. Under the CMZ, the fishermen are not only rendered homeless, but at the same time are prohibited to carry on fishing within 12 nautical miles from the coast. And since, most of them lack the advanced equipment and facilities to support fishing deep into the sea, they would be without a living. In fact, deep sea fishing would inevitably come under capitalist grasp in future. And since CMZ is virtually free of all restrictions, mindless rape of the natural resources would continue. There is a special type of seaweed that is required for manufacture of Nail polish, lipsticks and other cosmetic products. L'oreal, the Cosmetic giant, has already applied for a SEZ for setting up a cosmetic factory. Unrestricted sand mining would eventually obliterate natural breeding grounds for turtles and fishes , already evident from the decreasing number of mangrove forests . Till date, CRZ -91 is in place. But the moment the ICZMP and the set back line under CMZ would be established, CRZ would cease to exist. Not a single established political party has raised voice against CMZ – 2007. The CPI (M), self proclaimed “protector of the interests of the hard-working class” has, instead, asked for the implementation of CMZ. But, after Singur and Nandigram, this was expected of them. The states under CPI(M) control, Bengal and Kerala have
extensive coastal regions. Unrestricted tourism and commercialization has gravely affected the Kerala coast and adjacent mangrove forests. The 700 sq. km of mangrove forests present in Kerala about 40 years ago has now been reduced to 17 sq. km, slowly destroying the coastal ecosystems. Little imagination is needed to visualize the plight of fishermen once CMZ-2007 comes into play. In West Bengal, a total of 4571.49 sq. km comes under CRZ, 392.4 sq.km under CRZ – III and 14.25 sq. km under CRZ – II. However, hotels in Mandarmoni, illegal lobster farms in Bakkhali, Fraserganj and Shankarpur have cropped up, completely ignoring the CRZ regulation, and not without help from the state government. Now, let's talk about Nayachar. Nayachar is one of the most prominent islands in the delta of Ganga – Brahmaputra, the largest of its kind in the world. According to CRZ, this is an Ecologically Sensitive Area, and hence a “no development zone”. And, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the “hon'able” chief minister of Bengal, had once proposed a golf course and other eco-friendly industrial
zone in Nayachar. But this is only one instance, among a series of proposals, which aim to hand over the Sunderbans and the entire Bengal coastline to national/foreign capitalists, under the thin veil of “Eco - Tourism”. Sunderban was once almost handed over to the Sahara Group. The people from MarichJhapi was evicted by Jyoti Basu's goons, who somehow happen to be CPI(M) cadres, in order
to facilitate the establishment of factories by Hindustan Lever and ITC. Over the years, the CPI(M) has simply handed over huge plots of land to national/foreign capitalists and evicted thousands of
people, by falsely claiming that these factories, once set up will provide livelihood to them, and where these false promises have not worked, by sheer brute force. And in order to facilitate the Chemical Hub at Nayachar, they have recommended the State Coastal Regulation Zone Authority to reclassify Nayachar as CRZ- III from CRZ – I. Although, a few members present at the meeting opposed the idea of reclassification on the basis of several reasons , they were never taken seriously.

The CPI(M) is preaching that Nayachar is completely uninhabited. That is not actually true. It is home to 2500 fishermen, who quite naturally, do not have any legal documents supporting their claim of Nayachar as their home. And hence they are destined to be evicted. And after their eviction, Nayachar would boast a Chemical Hub, which, in the developed countries like U.S.A. and Europe, is widely known as “dirty industry” because of the severe damage to the ecosystem caused by toxic chemical wastes. This chemical Hub, by Salem would be under the supervision of notorious American MNC Dow Chemicals. All major American rivers are polluted due to the release of toxic chemicals into their waters , and now this dirty industry is being encouraged in Ecologically Sensitive Areas in India. The strict laws regulating pollution levels in developed countries considerably reduce the profit earned from this chemical business, and hence Dow Chemicals is forced to set foot in India, where the laws, although present, can always be overlooked in lieu of some cash. Dow Chemical also owns the Union Carbide. A chemical hub in Nayachar would destroy numerous species of fishes, crabs and turtles. It would also destroy the Sunderbans. No matter what the CPI(M) say, the rate of employment in chemical factory is very less, as can be seen from the Haldia Petrochemicals. The stunning bridge on sea in Mumbai is slowly poisoning the adjacent sea and rendering it unfit for fishing purposes, the effort to construct a bridge over Amazon is destroying the world's largest rain forest in Brazil. The setting up of the chemical hub will similarly affect the Sunderbans. Our duty, at this moment, is to stop this at any cost, by any means necessary.


Booklet by Forum against SEZ

Social movements in West Bengal & Little Magazines

Premanshu Dasgupta

‘It is the best of times. It is the worst of times'. I beg apology for taking the liberty of changing the verbs of the two famous lines of Dickens from past to present. In the present context of West Bengal quoting these sentences is too great a temptation to ignore. Strange! The lines though written centuries ago have not yet lost their poignant relevance. In west Bengal the first decade of 21st century possibly could well be either the best of times or the worst of times. History repeats, they say. But repetition happens not in the events but in the autocratic behavior of the rulers and the consequent resistance of the people who are ruled. Did not Karl Marx tell us that history was all about class struggle alone?

2006 election to the Assembly of West Bengal has become a turning point to the history of the state and possibly of India as a whole. We see in this a possibility of emergence of a state either with a pro people ideology and idealism in a new form or with a diehard reactionary rules and rulers. Why do we mark 2006 so special of all the 31 years for which the left front or CPI (M), in particular, has been ruling the state? Because the reactionary traits of the party or the front never lay so strongly and violently open as they did after the 2006 election. This has exposed CPI (M)'s true face and politics to such an extent that it is becoming extremely difficult for the party to hold on its leftist mask. This was of utmost importance for the people of the state to look for an alternative. 2006 has set the ball rolling for search of an alternative. If this search becomes successful the future may be better if not the best or in other words if this search is not successful the future may be worse if not the worst. The formation of 'Little Magazine Samonnoy Mnacha' in West Bengal has taken place in this critical juncture of the state's history. This can be explained as a part of the search which we are discussing about.It is not only the little magazines those have come together to form an organisation to voice their protest against what is being forced on the people of the state in the name of development and industrialisation. The situation in the state is so highly charged with emotions and debates on many political and economic issues that many such organisations from various cross sections of the mass have formed since 2006 May. All these organisations have one common objective. That is, to send the message to the rulers, 'In the name of development and industrialization stop violation of democracy' Yes, the democracy has become the focal point of all the issues those are creating waves of movement in the state. After the election of 2006 the ruling front secured 235 seats in assembly.

In terms of seats it is an overwhelming majority. But if we go deeper into the analysis of polled
vote we shall see that the eft front enjoys support of only 35% of the population of the state and to be more precise, only 25 to 27% of population has lent their 'support' to CPI (M). Also there are questions about the capturing of votes by a dubious manner which is defined as 'scientific rigging' by the opposition. But the parliamentary democracy in India has its own flaw. Even after enjoying the support of a very minority section of the population a party can claim, they are the true representative of the entire population of state or county. They would never lend their ears to what the rest of the population has to say. West Bengal and CPI (M) was no exception.

The West Bengal Government started loosing its direction from around late eighties in the last century. Suddenly they realized that the development and industrialization are synonymous. The governance of the state has been too poor to build its own fund to finance industries. Therefore in search of fund and industries they opened the doors to the industrial houses and laid red carpets for them. Immediately before the 2006 election the slogan of development and industrialization reached its peak. And when after the election the front found that their share of seats in assembly was more than 75% they denied all other aspects of the results of the election, like they enjoy support of only 35% of the population, and trumpeted their victory as the victory of their industrial policies. The policies were to donate land to the big industries at the cost of exchequer, the public money, to evict people from their farm land and livelihood, allowing the industries to use the nature to their own will and whim, not to take consent of the people who would suffer most from these actions, leave alone to discuss with them, to use colonial rules to implement the land grabbing program, to allow to set up Special Economic Zone, a colonial design, inside West Bengal and lastly to follow a diehard capitalist path and that too in the name of communistic ideology and theory. The CPI (M) has its own interpretation of the role of he communist party in an underdeveloped country. According to them it is theoretically correct for a communist party to throw their full weight in support of the development of capitalism in a capitalist way.

So it was inevitable that all kind of hells would break loose in West Bengal after the election. Singur, considered to be one of the most fertile lands of the country, was handed over to Tata without taking consent of the people, not even the consent of the local Panchayet. People of Singur rose in protest. The unique feature of the protest was that it was not sponsored or led by any political party. Genuinely people, particularly, women's voice was first heard in the state. Possibly the seeds of true democracy was thus sowed in the context of Singur movement. Nandigram followed. Again the people from grass root rose in protest`with arms in arms. No political party can claim that Nandigram movement is the result of their sustained work or propaganda or campaign. People took the initiative; they decided the nature of resistance; they decided the course that the movement would follow. Political parties joined the fray but not before the movement gained momentum. With the conviction of a fascist that they understood what was right and needed for the people and that the majority of the people were with them, the CPI (M) party brought out all their fangs and let the steam roller of oppression loose on the protesting masses. The result was well known because it happened elsewhere so many times before. It culminated into death, murder, arson, looting, massacre, injuries and rape. History repeated itself.

West Bengal government in its 31years rule has tried to spread its wings of influence to almost all parts of human lives. They organize many cultural festivals where the control of the government is very strong. No such festivals or functions can be successfully held without the government's interference. All such functions are bureaucratically organized by few henchmen of the party. People's initiative here is totally absent. The reason is simple. In this way they can project themselves as the champions of cultural activities and at the same time by sponsoring these events and introducing award giving system in almost all sphere of culture they can keep the criticizing mouth shut. This was the reason why West Bengal in spite of seeing so many cruel incidents where the party or the Government had hands either in killing people or in perpetrating atrocities has not heard the protesting voices of the otherwise political urban middleclass. There was protest but it was never loud enough to be heard because the number of protesting people was not very significant. Little Magazines were a part of this small group. We can't say that all the Little Magazines had an anti establishment stand but there were a good number of magazines that continuously tried to write against the ill sides of the CPI (M) regime. They paid the price. They were threatened, intimidated, harassed, and vilified.

The government organizes a Little Magazine fair every year inside Nandan and Rabindra Sadan premise. The land of Singur was forcefully acquired on 2nd December of 2006 and the fare was scheduled to commence on 11th January, 2007. There was thought among the activists of few little magazine of boycotting the fair. The editors of the magazines considered that non cooperation with the Government would be the best way to register their protest against the Singur incident. Meanwhile the number of people participating in protest was swelling. Initiatives from different corners were being taken to organize united protest against what was happening in Singur. The day was 18th December, 2006. Editors and workers of 18 little Magazines assembled that day in the evening to discuss the stand to be taken regarding the ensuing Little Magazine fair.
The discussion was inconclusive but it was decided that they would sit again soon with more number of workers of Little magazines. Incidentally 18th December, 2006 struck with a tumultuous tragedy. In Singur the charred body of Tapasi Malik, a 17 year old girl from a land less peasant family was discovered inside the car manufacturing project site which was forcefully occupied by the state few days before. Tapasi was an activist and was leading the Singur movement from the front. It was clear from the beginning that Tapasi was a victim of the terror that CPI (M) wanted to unleash to demoralize the movement. Later the CBI enquiry into her death is also hinting at the same theory. She was raped and burnt alive. Kolkata was fuming with anger and protest. In the evening of 18th December the students brought out a procession in College Street area to condemn the heinous crime. The Little Magazine workers and editors after the meeting joined the procession to express their anguish over the murder of Tapasi Malik. Little Magazines in an organized way came out in the street to become a part of the ongoing agitation against the autocratic rulers.

Later more and more Little Magazine workers and editors joined the discussion to decide the stand with respect to the fair. Finally there was a convention of the Little Magazine on17th January, 2007 at Tripura Hitosadhoni Sabha Ghar. In the first week of January of 2007 few workers of Little Magazine were arrested from inside Nandan area when they were sticking posters on the walls. The posters were about the call of a meeting of protest against the Singur incident. If anyone has seen the walls we are talking about one would know that all kinds of posters in the world are glowing there. But no! Posters of protest won't be allowed. Democracy is at the mercy of the rulers of West Bengal. The same test of treatment we received again in January when we were demonstrating during the fair in Nandan area. The convention of the Little Magazines decided on 17th January that it would be better for the same minded Magazines to participate in the fair and campaign and collect signatures in favour of the Mancha. In the evening
of 29th January few young workers of various Magazines were wearing posters which condemned the undemocratic policies of the Government. Police interfered and tried to chase the demonstrators away from the area. The young boys would not budge. The police now threatened to arrest them. Immediately a great numbers of Little Magazine workers came to the aid of the demonstrators. All of them strongly protested against the police behavior. We were able to wrest the initiative out of the police hand and within few minutes we organized a procession inside the area with the same posters hanging in our chest. Our decision of participating in the fair proved to be right. We got tremendous support from the participants of the fair. The number of signatories rose from 30 to 150.

14th March., 2007. One of the bloodiest days in the history of India. A blatant GENOCIDE made the atmosphere too heavy to bear. Entire West Bengal burst out into protest. Procession, demonstration, hartal became the order of the day in the state. The Little Magazine Mancha and its supporters took active parts in all these agitations. Our Mancha met and submitted a memorandum to the Governor of the state. Our demand was to restore piece in Nandigram and elsewhere and punish the culprits who were responsible for the killing. Our organization gradually got the recognition of an active agitator. Flood gate of publication opened for the Little Magazines. Little Magazines, may not be all, have always played the role of iconoclasts. Now the time was ripe for them to bring out issues which questioned the policies of the Government. Many articles and issues of innumerable Little Magazines brought the land acquisition program and the consequent eviction of peasantry from their land and livelihood before clinical incision. The decision of the Government of setting up Special Economic Zones which allows an independent state within the state was vehemently opposed in many writings and publications. In the little Magazines information flowed, statistics flourished, arguments became sharp, left trait of CPI (M) was seriously challenged.

Writing of Marx, Lenin, Gramsci were being discussed to the depth in the context of the present scenario. The idea of development and industrialization that CPI (M) was projecting was put to surgery. A new paradigm of idea on development and industrialization was being sought. The role of civil society was being examined. In all, a tremendous surge of original essays enriched the issues of little Magazines. The Little Magazine became one of the tools in the hands of the agitators. The time for the little Magazines was critical but their effort matched with the demand of the time. Many little Magazines bring issues on poetry and stories. They also did not lag behind. Poetry of protest was in abundance. The effort of the Little Magazines was commendable in this respect. Stories and plays which portrayed the time were published with equal enthusiasm. Even the well known writers like Amit Bhaduri, Asoke Mitra and many others contributed to the Little Magazines during this period. Possibly this was the most exiting time in the history of Little Magazine. The sales and circulation of the Little Magazines reached an encouraging figure. They felt rewarded.

14th April was the first day of Bengali New Year. We called a meeting of the editors and workers of all the Little Magazines who supported our signature campaign. The meeting was a great success with nearly 100 participants. The number of conveners was increased to make room for more representation. We wanted ourselves to exercise democracy for which we have joined the movement. The 9th May of 2007 was important to the people of Bengal for two reasons. It was the birth day of Tagore and 9th May is observed internationally as an antifascism day every year. Little magazine decided to see this day to discover Tagore as a poet of protest. Tagore was equally relevant to the antifascist movement. At the present fascist backdrop of the state Tagore bears a different meaning for the Little Magazines. There was, like us, one recently formed forum popularly known as Forum for Artists Cultural Activists and Intellectuals. We joined hands with them to observe 9th May to put emphasis on 'Other Tagore'. Tagore is generally worshipped by the Indians for his songs and poetries without keeping in mind about the other sides of his activities which encompass protest, iconoclasm. We wanted to perform those plays of Tagore which underline his other self. We decided to recite those poetries and to sing those songs those speaks about his other sides. A fair of Little Magazines was also organized on this occasion and the entire program was a grand success.

The death of Rizwanur Rahman highlighted another case of gross violation of democratic rights in West Bengal. The police, at the behest of a rich man interfered in the marriage of a Muslim boy to a girl of a rich Marwari family. Mystery shrouded the conditions in which Rizwanur Rahman was found dead. There are reasons to believe that it was a case of murder. Again the police, the CPI (M) party and the rich man, the father of the girl spoke in the same voice. The nexus was obvious. The CPI (M) party was further exposed. Almost entire West Bengal was moved and again there was barrage of protest and agitation. It was imminent that under the popular pressure the administration was trying to divert the attention of the people.

Immediately a press conference was arranged jointly by our Mancha and Association for Protection of Democratic Rights, a human right organization. Later few other organizations joined us. All of us strongly demanded an impartial enquiry into the death. We stressed that the police, party and rich man nexus should be broken. The conference received wide publicity and it was telecast live by almost all the local TV channels. Gradually our Mancha became an integral part of the social movement that was sweeping the state.
The annual Book fair of West Bengal is a very major event in the life of middleclass educated community of the state. Again debates among the Little Magazine workers and editors regarding the participation in the fair came to the fore. There was decision on the part of Mancha participation of Magazines in the fair is optional. There is no directive either for participation or for non participation. It would be the Magazines own discretion. Democratically looking, this could be the best decision under the circumstances. But we grabbed the opportunity to campaign for the Mancha and another good number of magazines joined us during the fair. We organized procession in support of the social movements in the fair ground on two consecutive days. For those who are interested in chronology we inform that it happened in February, 2008. Like elsewhere the movements in West Bengal are also having low and high tides. When we found time for little respite we concentrated on

stabilizing our organization. We convened one meeting of the members in September, 2007 to discuss the direction the Mancha to follow. The discussion, though inconclusive, was very lively with the participation of great number of representatives of various Magazines. There we took one very important decision that we would hold our own Little Magazine fair. When CPI (M) in early November, 2007 launched vicious armed campaign to gain control over Nandigram there was a permanent Mancha at Metro Channel, Kolkata what was named NANDIGRAM MANCHA by Mahasweta Devi. Relayed hunger strike by different organizations followed for about 30 days. Our Mancha members participated in the movement and 4 members observed fast on 4th December, 2007. We also had organized cultural program on the day which was attended by a large number of people.

Then came the red letter day for our Mancha. Between 4th and 6th January, 2008 we had our own Little Magazine fair in Presidency college maidan. We all waited for this. We said earlier that all the fairs in West Bengal are bureaucratically managed under the guidance of few persons who are in the good book of the party. These affairs never become the product of joint initiatives of all quarters. The editors of Little Magazines also felt the pinch of the autocratic management of the annual Little Magazine fair. Now Mancha has become the centre of initiatives of the magazine workers. We tried our best to listen to all suggestions so that democratic values get honour. About 135 Little Magazines participated in the fair. With discussions, cultural functions and good presence of crowd every day the fair assumed the highest order of spontaneity. We have reasons to feel the satisfaction of traveling a considerable distance in the context of the people movement which is seeking for alternatives.

We are aware that many more miles we shall have to travel to make a meaningful contribution to the people's upsurge that is sweeping the state. Our Mancha has come to existence in a particular objective condition. As long as we shall be able to satisfy the conditions, our presence would be strong and relevant. We are conscious about the demand of the time and people. We shall not shrug off our responsibility. We were iconoclast, we shall remain iconoclast. Probably that is the primary condition of our existence.

-Writer is the conveynor of Little Magazine Samannoy (Prastuti) Mancha

FACE TO FACE

An interview with Pranab Nayak, the Secretary of 'Forum
Against State Terrorism'


Q 1. Why have you formed an organization by the name of Forum Against State Terrorism even there are organizations like APDR and Bandi Mukti Committee (organization for the release of political prisoners) to fight for the protection of human rights?

Ans. We are well aware that there are such mass organizations like Bandi Mukti Committee and Association for the Protection of Human Rights to defend the constitutional rights of the citizens of India and resist the violation of human rights by the Central and State governments. Many of us are associated with these organizations. These two organizations have rendered immense service in defending the fundamental rights of the people. But we have felt that the task of the first organization is limited to the release of political prisoners and the exposure of the government's cruel treatment with the political prisoners and harassment of political activists, and some such activities. The second organization has a wider range of activities and, as its name indicates, it tries hard to fight against any violation of democratic rights of the people –rights which are guaranteed in the constitution of India, and to establish democratic values in the country. But very recently people of India are witnessing with grave concern the most gruesome
manifestation of the terror which are perpetrated by the State on the innocent people and the workers and leaders of mass movement and opposition parties and even on its own employees. Not only that, State is also organizing or helping the formation of private armies to repress the growing mass movements and mass protests against the anti-people policies of Central and State governments. Both the Central government and the State governments of various hues are equally to blame. These terrorist activities of the governments and their sponsored hoodlums are producing fear psychosis in the country. The problem is of such a vast dimension and the challenge is so great that response on the part of the organizations like APDR and BMC seem to be inadequate. It is in such a circumstance that many well-intentioned people of West Bengal and
other states have come forward to condemn deter repression on the part of the state machinery and to help their hapless victims, with that end in view, we have formed Forum Against State Terrorism (FAST) with the active participation of some eminent citizens.

Q 2. Will you give us a recent picture of State terrorism in West Bengal ?

Ans. West Bengal as one of the states of India implementing the policies of Central Government at the behest of foreign imperialist powers and native big capitalists and big landlords is not lagging behind in resorting to repressive measures to suppress the people's movement. The practice of arbitrary arrest, detention and torture including extra judicial killings was rampant during the Naxalite unrest in the 1960s and 1070s have been repeated during the three decades of uninterrupted Left Front rule. Here unrestrained politicization of the police and administration and criminalization of policies have replaced the rule of law which is the basis of democracy, by the rule of one Party. Acting in the party, police is perpetrating high crimes with impunity in the name of maintaining law and order, unlawful arrest, detention and torture of individuals in false cases have surpassed all previous records. The police CPM brutalities perpetrated on unarmed men and women and children in Nandigram on 14th March and 6-12 November under the instigation of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and other CPM top hats have surpassed all previous records. Quite recently during and after the Panchayet elections CPM cadres with the backing of police and State administration have created bloodbath by killing and wounding hundreds of workers and supporters of the opposite party. As in other states, West Bengal government is raising the bogey of Maoist insurgency in Nandigram, Singur and other places to suppress people's movement there against the eviction of peasants from land in the name of industrialization. The picture will be all the more horrible in near future if well-meaning people face to resist the onslaught of the fascist government. In West Bengal, SP of Birbhum has circulated leaflets announcing award of Rs.5000 for information leading to arrest of a Maoist rebel.

Q 3.What are the activities you are going to organize to focus on state terror?

Ans. Organization have drawn up a programme to visit the affected places , investigate all forms of abuse and violation of human rights in West Bengal, offer material and legal help to the victims and apprise the human rights commission. We have also decided to organize seminars, workshops and public meetings within and outside West Bengal from time to time to raise the level of public consciousness regarding the growing danger of police excesses and atrocities we are also trying to build up a network with other national and international bodies interested on protecting human rights.

Q 4. How do you look upon the Salwa Judum? Manipur Government is also trying to organize a similar private army there. Have you taken up any programme to resist all these fascist organizations?

Ans. Salwa Judum is formed in Chhattisgarh on the pattern of Ranabir Sena in Bihar. Recently, another such organization called Nagarik Suraksha Samiti has been formed in Jharakhand. A so called Ganatantrik Suraksha Samity has lately surfaced in West Medinipur district. All these are organized by the governments and ruling parties with the declared objective to tackle headlong on Maoist rebels. It is also heard that a terroristic private army is going to be formed in Manipur. Such fascist organizations are bound to crop up as the people increasingly come forward to resist the attack of the ruling class on their life and property. Our Forum is thinking of forming similar organizations in other states on a war-footing to fight against state repression. You have to give us some time to develop a strong organization on an all-India basis.

Can the whole world be fed? By Elizabeth Schulte

Source: Socialist Worker

We live in a world that has the capacity to feed everyone in it. And yet, each day, hundreds of millions of people around the globe go to bed without enough to eat. THE DEPTH of the global food crisis is best expressed by what poor people are eating to survive. In Burundi, it is farine noir, a mixture of black flour and moldy cassava. In Somalia, a thin gruel made from mashed thorntree branches called jerrin. In Haiti, it is a biscuit made of yellow dirt. Food inflation has sparked protests in Egypt, Haiti, Mexico and elsewhere. Tens of thousands protested earlier this month [MAY2008]in Mogadishu, as the price of a corn meal rose twofold in four months. And while the crisis seemed to come out of nowhere, the reality of hunger is a regular feature of life for millions of people. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 854 million people worldwide are undernourished. Hunger isn't simply the result of unpredictable incidents like the cyclone that struck Myanmar. In most cases, millions teeter on the edge of survival long before the natural disasters hit. According to UN Millennium Project Web site, of the 300 million children who go to bed hungry every day, only "8 percent are victims of famine or other emergency situations. More than 90 percent are suffering long-term malnourishment and micronutrient deficiency."

The technology and know-how exist to make our capacity to produce food even greater--if this were made a priority. As part of a recent series on the global food crisis, the Washington Post described the damage being done by gnat-sized insects called "brown plant hoppers." Billions of
them are destroying rice crops in East Asia and putting millions of poor people at risk of going hungry. The threat could easily be eliminated with the creation of rice strains resistant to this pest, but that hasn't happened--because funding for research projects has been cut. The International Rice Research Institute used to have five entomologists, or insect experts, overseeing a staff of 200 in the 1980s.Now it has one entomologist, with a staff of eight. The world's wealthiest countries and their international loan organizations, like the World Bank, have cut money for agricultural research programs. According to the Post, "Adjusting for inflation and exchange rates, the wealthy countries, as a group, cut such donations roughly in half from 1980 to 2006, to $2.8 billion a year from $6 billion. The United States cut its support for agriculture in poor countries to $624 million from $2.3 billion in that period."

SEARCHING FOR answers to the crisis, some people argue that "there simply isn't enough to go around," or that there are "too many" people to feed in a world of limited resources. This argument has been around for many decades. In effect, it tries to blame starvation on the starving
themselves. And it simply isn't true. "The food crisis appeared to explode overnight, reinforcing fears that there are just too many people in the world," wrote Eric Holt-Giménez and Loren Peabody of Food First. "But according to the FAO, with record grain harvests in 2007, there is more than enough food in the world to feed everyone--at least 1.5 times current demand. In fact, over the last 20 years, food production has risen steadily at over 2.0 percent a year, while the rate of population growth has dropped to 1.14 percent a year. Population is not outstripping food supply." The problem isn't that there isn't enough food. The problem is that the people who need it are too poor to buy it. This is the case around the globe, including some of the wealthiest countries in the world. In the U.S., food pantries report being stretched to the breaking point because more working people are turning to them when their paycheck doesn't make it. Demand is up 15 to 20 percent over last year, and the pantries are serving "folks who get up and go to work every day," Bill Bolling, founder of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, told USA Today. "That's remarkably different than the profile of who we've served through the years." This flies in the face of the commonly held idea that average Americans and a culture of overconsumption and waste are eating up the world's resources. Of course, examples abound of people who get much more than their fill, in elite hotels and restaurants around the globe--but they are a small fraction of the population. And when these parasites gorge themselves, they steal from the mouths of poor people everywhere--in less developed countries, but also in wealthy nations like the U.S. THE POTENTIAL exists to eliminate hunger and malnutrition anywhere in the world. What stands in the way of our ability to feed each and every person is really the system we live under--capitalism. The drive for profit at the heart of the system--where things like food, which should be viewed as a fundamental right, are seen as commodities to be bought and sold--is really the source of the problem. No amount of technology can overcome this fundamental fact.

Thus, during the Great Depression, while millions of poor and unemployed Americans went hungry, U.S. farmers were facing the exact opposite problem: They were producing too much food to keep prices from falling. So at the same time that millions of poor and unemployed people
stood in breadlines for fo od assistance, food crops were being destroyed, because no profit could be made from giving it away. As the author John Steinbeck wrote in the Grapes of Wrath: The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at 20 cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? …… million people hungry, needing the fruitand kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains... There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that
topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate--died of malnutrition--because the food must rot, must be forced to rot.

Capitalism is a chaotic system, where starvation can exist amid plenty, and where a disaster seems to loom around every corner. In Mexico, for example, the price of tortillas went up 60 percent last year. Increased demand for American farmers to divert corn for use in ethanol as opposed to corn for food was largely to blame for the skyrocketing prices of this Mexican staple. But Walden Bello of Focus on the Global South asked an important question in a recent article: "How on earth did Mexicans, who live in the land where corn was domesticated, become dependent on U.S. imports in the first place?"

During the 1980s, in return for bailouts from the IMF and World Bank, Mexico was forced "liberalize" its trade policies, and this accelerated under the North American Free Trade Agreement. U.S. farm products flooded the Mexican market, and agribusiness giants like Cargill reaped huge profits. Mexican farmers couldn't possibly compete. International "aid" is organized around the principle not of solving poverty but of making profits--and in the process, it usually leads to more suffering. In Ethiopia, the poverty "experts" at the World Bank forced the country to devote good land not to food crops, but to export crops to sell on the world market. As a result,
the famine of the 1980s were made even worse. These crises aren't aberrations, but are built into the system. A recent Time magazine article grudgingly commented, "The social theories of Karl
Marx were long ago discarded as of little value, even to revolutionaries. But he did warn that capitalism had a tendency to generate its own crises." The Time article was titled "How Hunger Could Topple Regimes." The current system and its warped priorities can't possibly accomplish something as important as feeding the world's people. It will take a society organized on a completely different basis to achieve this. If we could harness the resources wasted on the pursuit of profit--including the wars that our government funds around the globe--we could feed the
world many times over.

PRESENT SCENARIO OF RETAIL BUSINESS IN INDIA

Ashrujit Nandy

There are around 15 million retail center in India. •According to 2001 census, near about 30 million people were in retail business; among them, 19million in rural area, and 11million in cities. 17million of them were non-matric. At present, the number of people involved in retail business has been increased to almost 40 million, which is approximately 7- 8% of total number of employed Indians. Only agricultural area involves more man power than retail business. •Total transaction in retail business is 90 billion Rs/year. •Only 4% of this sector is organized •Number of retail center per 1000 people is highest in India, 11 retail centers / 1000 people. •14% of GDP comes from retail business. •Total 160million of Indians, directly or indirectly depends on retail business. Why the domestic and multinational investors are interested in Indian retail market?

The aim of the capitalists is to search and gain more profit. Because of unimaginable economic stagnancy in the western capitalist countries, they are forced to adapt globalization, privatization and open market policy, in order to sustain there capital. Now it is not possible for them to invest in their own product based sectors. They are looking for new areas of investment and their new target is the large retail market of India. At present big capital controls only 4% of Indian retail market. They want to reach 20% in next 4 -5 years, i.e. near about 200,000 crore rupees. Walmart, Costco of USA, Metro, Aldi, Rewi of Germany, Carifore of France, Ahold of Netherlands, Tesco of Britain, Reliance, RPG, Spinach, Subhiksha, Tata, Pantaloons, Birla, Bharati and others are trying to capture the retail market. Walmart : World's largest retail organization. Annual turn over is about 350 billion USD, which is more than that of entire retail market of India. Presently they are interested in joint venture with Bharti group. Pantaloons: Largest group in essential commodities sector of India. They are planning to build 2500 outlets, investing 30,000 crore rupees, by 2010. Reliance: Planned to have few thousands of outlets in 784 cities of India. By 2010, aimed annual turn over is 90,000 crore rupees with present investment of 30,000 crore. Big investors want to have 25-30 thousands outlets in next 4-5 years. They are trying to capture the retail market by investing crores of money. According to the supporters of large investors in retail market:

Generate employment.

Due to complete abolition of middleman system, price will be low. Growers and producers will gain more. Using this logic, the big political parties like Congress, BJP, CPM as well as, the regional ruling parties are welcoming the domestic and foreign investors in retail business. Some of them are campaigning for domestic capital only. Some are protesting just to secure their vote bank.

Why are we opposing?

At present only 4% of retail business is dominated by organized sector and the aim is to control 20% of retail business, in next 4-5 years. One survey says, if Walmart has only one outlet, in each of 35 Indian cities, with more than 1 million populations, then the turn over will be of 8033 crore rupees and 10,195 people will be employed. At the same time, 432,000 persons, related to Indian retail market will be jobless. That means, every Walmart employee will be responsible for unemployment of 42 person related to Indian retail market. It negates the view of employment generation.

So the middlemen, who play an important role between producers and consumers, will be thrown out from the scenario. It is already noticed from the western capitalist countries, that, initially the
farmers and small scale producers get more profit due to removal of middlemen. But, later, as they completely depend on the big investors, they have no choice other than selling their product to investors, and finally the farmers are forced to sell in the price set by the investors, compromise with the conditions, and the labors related to small scale production are forced to work more and get less paid. On the other hand, initially the big investors sell the product in lesser price, only to capture the market. But when the market is completely monopolized, they force the customers to pay high price for their product. Just to increase the profit, they compel the farmers to sign contracts and grow only the profitable crops. Use of high-tech seeds, excessive amount of pesticides and fertilizers, preservatives to store the huge production finally affects the farmers and farm lands. In the vicinity of the large outlets, the small scale retail business is decreased by 40-50%, resulting in unemployment, poverty, social problems like drug addiction, domestic violence, criminal and suicidal tendencies. In last 15 years, though the GDP has increased, there is no significant employment generation.

Today for many Indian, small scale retailing is the only way to earn bread. Hawker eviction, implementation of VAT, all is to help the big investors. Just within 10 years of business, Walmart has captured 20% of the Mexican retail market. Now Mexican government is looking for ways to protect their small scale business sector. Even in USA, many business houses had to close their business because of Walmart. Germany and South Korea has banned walmart for selling products in less than the production cost. In Thailand, due to big investors, 60,000 shops are closed. A survey, done by prof. Anuradha Kalhan of Mumbai, Joy Hindu College, says that there is a 71% decrease in small scale business due to two shopping malls in Mulund. Around 87% grocery shops admit loss in their business. 63% of the small scale retailer has fear of losing their business. In 92% families next generation is not interested in this business anymore. 72 % hawkers are humiliated by the shopping mall agents. 17% businessmen are reported pay more bribes and illegal weekly fees to these agents. In another survey it is observed that in delhi , within one km radius of reliance fresh, there is 88% decrease of business of shop owners and hawkers. 45% have reported that their business has gone down by 50%. 59% are thinking of leaving the business because of excessive losses. Already many vegetable vendors have left the business in Lakshminagar and Paharganj area.

So our appeal is to unite against these big investors and the political parties who are just resourses to provide food, health and education to all the Indians, it's the time to raise the question why 80% people are deprived from the basic needs. So mass movement is the only solution to protect ourselves from the brutal aggression of the state and big capital.

Already people are retaliating.

In Chennai, Ranchi, Bhubaneshwar, Indore and Patna, organized movement has forced Reliance Fresh and Spencer's to close their outlets.

PANCHAYET SYSTEM: OPPRESSION AND SUPPRESSION IN THE NAME OF POLITICAL DECENTRALIZATION

Abhijnan Sarkar

Alongside the economic policy of centralization by the British Government in India, the parallel policy of de-centralization of political power was rather remarkable, with the proposals made in 1882 by Lord Rippon which projected the local self-governance as the school of political awareness. And likewise in 1885 The Bengal Regional self-governance Act was passed and was later transformed to The Bengal Village self-governance Act passed in 1909. Later in 1957, according to West Bengal panchayet act, the terms 'union board', 'district board' were changed to 'gram panchayet', 'panchayet region' etc. More reforms like West Bengal District Act was introduced in 1963 and in 1973 during the fascist rule of Siddhartha Sankar Ray was introduced the West Bengal Panchayet Act. It was in this act that the three stage panchayet system was introduced and is today the base of the 'Left' Front Government panchayet system with minor
changes.

The Indian government had set up several committees to review the efficiency of this system, so that the state control over the masses can penetrate to the most marginal and grass root level and at the same time becomes acceptable to the masses as 'self-governance'. Most debated in this respect is the 1957 Mohit Committee (the committee famous for advocating 'panchayet raj' in the whole country) Report which pointed out that “the current system works in favor of a minor section of the society i.e. the ruling class and fails to address the needs of the weaker class. Even the 1977 Ashok Meheta report mentioned that the system was failing and “the dissent of the masses against the neglect is increasing” and the recommendation was direct and deeper relation between the villages and the parliament. The present advocacy of decentralized self governance is nothing more than the design to bring everyone under the state control and amongst the several ruling class parties; the CPI (M) has grasped it most profoundly as is evident from the rigidly successful implementation of the system in West Bengal. Within this system are the inseparable presence of corruption, regional rise of bureaucracy and the generous patronage of the new class – comprising of non-peasant landowners, traders of seeds, fertilizers etc. who have in terms preserved the se mi-feudal framework of the system – that has emerged holding the hand of the 'Left'. The central congress government along with the World Bank and the DFDI has praised the 'Left' front in no uncertain terms for this successful implementation of the system, a system which helps preserve the interests of the semi-feudal structure, the imperialist capital and the national corporate. With the implementation of neo-liberal policies, the congress implemented the 73rd constitutional amendment where it was mentioned in the 243B that “it is the responsibility of the State government to implement the panchayet system in the village level, the intermediate level and the district level.”


In the 1978 elections, the CPM's party strength was 30,000 most of whom were city based, they hardly had much organizational strength in villages. However in the panchayet elections they managed to nominate almost 70,000 candidates. This was made possible by the overnight decision by the ruling class of the villages to join CPM. This was important for the CPM to develop presence in villages and the ruling class took this opportunity to maintain their dominance. This class had clearly understood in 1977 that the CPM will not grab and distribute land from them and remarkably in the panchayet elections only 7% were landless peasants or bargadar, whereas 93% were the village upper class. In 1992 the panchayet minister of state Suryakanta Mishra asked the g o v e r n o r o f P u n j a b a n d I C S N i r m a l


Mukherjee to review the work of the panchayet. Later Mukherjee and the director of Asian Development Bank Debabrata Mukherjee jointly reviewed the system and published 'The New Horizon of west Bengal Panchayet' in 1993. Some sections are remarkable: “the initial interest of the panchayet system was declining from 1983 onwards. Finally after the third panchayet in 1988 no more interest was there. The dependence on the Johar income plan was so high that if the system is abolished, the panchayet will have no more work at hand, to the extent that the only way will be to abolish the panchayet system as a whole. The removal of land distribution system from under the panchayet supervision has also led to feeling that there is nothing left to achieve in that respect….the land reform was this much important an issue at the grass root level, however it is wrongly been stated as exhausted. Without bringing into consideration the several cases pending with court, it is being stated that very little land is left to be distributed and that fewer bargadars are left to be enlisted.” Thus the campaign that is continuously being carried out by CPM about their successful implementation of land reform has been exposed by a committee appointed by them. The committee further stated that the villages have more than 555 of the population living below poverty line however seldom their representation has been found in any post of panchayet in any level.

In few words the initiative to do away with the distance between the MP, MLAs and the village commoners failed miserably and the entire panchayet system became a centre for political individuals, feudal lords, party appointed school teachers, lumpens and so on.

The CPM has repeatedly mentioned their pioneering effort in implementing panchayet system by which democratic practice was supposedly percolated to the grass root. However nothing can be further from the truth! If only participation in elections by the masses is considered to be a measure of the democratization of the system then we cannot deny that America is democratic just because a high percentage of its population comes out to vote. Without initiating any alteration of the class structure of the villages, simply talking of democracy is not just a lie but is a design of the state machinery to spread out. Even Gandhi's consideration of decentralized power of panchayet, implementation of Ram's kingdom was utopian as it bypassed the fundamental question of feudalistic oppression. Not just the parliamentary 'Left' but even the ex-Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi painted a glorious picture of future after implementation of panchayet. He remarked “owing to the failure to make the people at the grass root level to participate in democracy, some politicians are able to misuse power. When 100-500 people stat to elect their representatives, then the representative will be under the surveillance of the village and his power and practice will be limited to the boundary of the village, and not the state capital or national capital.” Even the 73 and 77th amendment also speaks similarly in favor of ensuring and establishing the presence of the eyes and ears of state at the grass root level. And by involving the farmers to participate in this form of democracy, it is attempted to distract them from the any course of rural revolution.


In the much propagated panchayet election in West Bengal, where the 'Left' Front claims to have established model panchayet system, it is usual to find that opposition are forced not to take part. In 1978 'Left' Front won 338 seats uncontested. Similarly in 1983, the number was 332, however in 1988 it became 4,200, in 1993 1,916, it decreased somewhat in 1998 to 600 but then in the bloody election of 2003 it leaped to 6,800. In 2003, not just the opposition but the Front partners complained of their candidates being forced to withdraw. The 2008 elections were bloodiest by far with opposition as well as partner candidates being killed and villagers threatened, killed, houses burnt and looted. Even after this when the results were devastating for the CPM, it is worth noticing how the party won uncontested seats in Keshpur, Garbeta and many other places.
The myth of Land reform by the CPM government:

In the 1950s, the feudal lords and the remaining kings had their traditional power somewhat cut to size, further in and around 1955 the massive national and international socialist movements and peasant uprisings to an extent forced the national government to bring about the land reform acts. Then in 1960s faced with the Naxalbari uprising and its national spread out, the CPM was forced to act by organizing protests and demanding the program of grabbing lands from the landlords above a specific ceiling and redistributing them. The Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and American experts all agreed to the proposal of the CPM peasant leader and Minister Harakrishna Konar. They all agreed to the fact that this might succeed in containing the red revolution. Many peasants across the country succeeded in keeping the lands forcefully grabbed from their feudal landlords since the 1967 movements.

Mr. Debabrata Bandopahayay (whose contribution was recognized then by Harakrishna Konar as well as today by Binoy Konar) was closely related to the land reform in Bengal during the time of United Front and 'Left” Front. He wrote in Economic and Political Weekly (15th November 2003 issue) that the major amount of land above ceiling had already been grabbed by peasants or distributed during the United Front Government (1969-1970). Moreover the 'operation barga' was completed from 1972-82. The 2004 human Resource development report of the West Bengal government states that the number of enlisted bargadar as on 2000 was 16.8 lakhs i.e. 20.2% of the families living of agriculture. The net land recovered during 'operation barga' was 11 lakhs acre i.e. a mere 8.2% of arable land, however almost 20% barga were entitled to be enlisted. This
even if some hope was seen by the peasants at the beginning of the panchayet system, much of it was lost after less than half of the sharecroppers were enlisted. The same report mentions that the 11 lakhs acre land was distributed amongst 27.5 lakhs landless peasants. However it is well recognized that more than half of that land was already in the hands of the peasants as a result of the peasant movements of 1960s-70s. Further some 3 lakhs of the land was never distributed by the government at all, strangely some 13.23% patta owners lost their lands and 14.37 percent of
bargadars were evicted during this 'Left' rule when the panchayets were involved in this redistribution. In this situation, when these peasants had to depend on the money lenders, and forced to buy seeds and fertilizers from MNCs, resulting in fall in productivity some people were reaping the fruits of profits. Whether this was made possible by the village upper class, who had their interest in the semi-feudal and crony-capitalist social structure, by changing of parties from Congress to CPM, or otherwise is being felt by the poor and landless peasants of the villages. They are getting the answers every day.

Deciding Land Ceiling & Distributing Fragments of Land or Enlisting Bargadars cannot be the Only Face of Land Reform: By distributing small segments of land and imposing seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides manufactured by MNCs, the production initially improved, then they stagnated, more importantly these crops drained so much out of the lands that the traditional seeds could not be used any more. The fertilizers and pesticides became mandatory. With the increasing cost of production the farmers resorted to moneylenders who in terms gradually entered into unholy nexus with the MNC distributors and started lending out production equipments rather than money. Gradually the distributed lands slipped away from the peasants and passed on to medium and large landowners. The gainers have been the same upper class of villages who overnight turned towards CPM from Congress in 1977. Other gainers were MNCs and their distributors, most of who had links to local party leaders. These new landlords do not have the same character as the feudal landlords of the 1950s; they are modern and keep contact with the
cities, deals with instr uments of agriculture, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides. These people who have high influences in the local CPM party are the deciders of who gets '100 days of jobs', they contract out the building of village roads, they are directly involved in the misappropriation of the ration goods. These people control virtually all the panchayet projects and have amassed huge wealth. These people who never till lands are the biggest gainers of the agricultural economy and the protector of this semi-feudal structure. However they never prevent the intrusion of national or foreign capital into the economy. This entire system is well implemented and controlled by the CPM by means of the panchayet. The people who are the biggest losers are the marginal peasants and land laborers. The water levels have gone down by excessive usage of underground water, as the new crops demand massive watering and irrigation expansion has remained just a theory. The entire environment is been adversely affected. The CPM has made no effort to prevent the entry of capital in the agrarian economy; rather it has supported it as the distorted system is in term helping their local leaders. After Punjab's failure in green revolution, west Bengal is also treading the same path.

Accumulation of Land:

The 2003 convention of the Agriculture wing of CPM has accepted that within the land ceiling system a minor section has emerged who owns lands, as well as agricultural equipments, access to irrigation water, business of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and yet they do not till the land but carry out business by employing people. By 1982 the government grabbed 29 thousand acres of land and again during the third 'Left' front government further11 thousand acres were acquired. After that the land reform department took no more initiatives. But the department in its latest report has clearly mentioned that 2.5 lakhs acres of agricultural land have remained undistributed and some few thousands more were not acquired due to legal deadlocks. Another anomaly in the report with previous documents points to the obvious conclusion that some 80 thousand acres have disappeared. This extraordinarily large share of arable land has remained under the ownership of CPM leaders of the villages. And in spite of this huge amount of undistributed land the CPM claims “land reform work is practically finished.” (21st party congress of CPM, February 2005) This naked misuse of power has blunted the weapon of peasant movement in many aspects. Today any such initiatives of peasant movement have to go headlong into conflict
with the party machinery of CPM, their police, virtually the state power.


While the land is getting accumulated in the hands of few and the upper class is flourishing, the 20th Party Congress of CPM (2002) attacked those who held the view that “to strengthen the peasant movement, land ceiling must be lowered further.” Economist Sachidananda Dutta Ray had written in 2005, backed by statistics, that according to the recommendation of planning commission, if 2400 calories is taken to be the minimum requirement of an individual then 77% of rural population is below that (Anandabazar Patrika, 22-12-2005). As the economic condition of the rural population further declines, the inseparable ruling class and the CPM together are protecting and promoting the semi-feudalistic social structure based on the market, capital and other exploiting agents. CPM Government, peasant eviction and food crisis: Just before the panchayet elections 2008, Ashim Dasgupta pretended to be granting all wishes of the poor. In the previous budgets as well there was no dearth of promises, just last year he had declared to buy 30,000 acres of land and re-distribute among the peasants. Previously CPM shouted of distributing land above ceiling among peasants, but today it has resorted to land grabbing from poor peasants and passing it on to the hands of a newly rich landlord class. After this it had kept quiet about the land above ceiling for quite long until it declared the social democratic line of buying land for distribution, but even this won't be easy or even possible. The party that is ever active for grabbing lands for big projects by Tata, Salem, Jindal, Dow Chemicals and other international big capitals can only shed false tears for the poor peasants that too only looking at the votes. Looking into the promise of buying land for the poor brings forth an even darker picture. During the budget session Ashim Dasgupta mentioned that till date only 198 acres of land have been bought. While the troubles escalated in Nandigram and Singur, Ganashakti started propaganda about the plans of land distribution, and then came the drama of giving away patta-s just before the panchayet. Those who could not distribute 1% of the land promised in an entire year are hyper active when it comes to grabbing thousands of acres of land for the Tata and Salem by evicting poor unwilling peasants. The government has further plans of acquiring 1 lakh 40 thousand acres of land, Mr. Debabrata Bandopadhyay, former commissioner for land reforms have clearly stated that this will mean 1 lakh 50 thousand tones of less food grain directly impacting 25 lakhs of people.

Today we are witnessing a two step policy been implemented by this pseudo-Left government. On one hand it is carrying out efforts to centralizing lands into the hand of few in the villages, on the other, it is acquiring large tracts of land for assembling industries, housing complexes, shopping malls, SEZ to be built on the money of big capital and speculators. A new class of land owners is emerging, who are not the conventional feudal class, and they have their interests embedded in the international capital. Even the national bourgeois have adapted too well to this new flight of idle western capital, and are sharing a small but sizeable part of the pie. The capitalist control over the village economy has surpassed the conventional means like seeds, fertilizers etc. it is now controlling the village 'development', industrialization, contract farming and other aspects and is growing aggressive and intolerant. Nandigram is just another expression of this new development. Panchayet governance:

In the words of state general secretary of UTUC, leader of 'Left' Front partner RSP, Ashok Ghosh “In accordance to Indian constitution, the head of panchayet is probably the only person endowed wit the right to use and distribute money according to necessity. Whatever is necessary of basic survival i.e. direct financial support, distribution of seeds and saplings, 100 days of work per year, BPL certificate, temporary shelter in case of damaged houses, family disputes(even if uninvited), land issues, operation 'Barga' etc. panchayet has the right to give the final word. It is almost compulsory to obey the decision of the panchayet and even if there remains logical oppositions, on one can express that.” (Statesman 4-3-08) this system rather than decentralizing power gives rise to a fascist tendency even in grassroots level. The entire panchayet system has in terms consolidated the hegemony of Writers controlled from Alimuddin. This system has also helped strongly establish a new class that is a by-product of the neo-feudalism and imperialist capitalism in the villages. The power has greatly been centralized in the hands of this new class which has helped propagate the control of state machinery to every corner of the villages. Thus the minor capitalist development that occurs inside this is crony capitalism. In the same context Ashok Ghosh wrote “Today a different situation has arisen where people have started denying the Party, Panchayet head.”

Self-Help Groups:

In the relentless attack of imperialist capital where a high percentage of people are jobless or are loosing job, this concept of 'self-help' was introduced to get into people's head the politics of 'securing myself'. This on one hand can rid the government of its responsibilities and on the other will make village people more dependant on the party CPM. By 2007-08 there were some 7.34 lakhs of self-help groups with members amounting to 70 lakhs. Here also the self-help projects are implemented by the village panchayets and the rural development department. Here also the money-management takes central role. It was during the 7th 'Left' Front government that initiative was taken to develop a corporation for the same purpose, the 2008-09 budget has allocated 100 crores for the purpose. Moreover the self-help group department's budget has been
increased from 30 crores to 160 crores. Here also the CPM party has taken lead role in distribution of the money at the village level. The self-help groups have so far failed to solve any problem, the only thing it does is give corrupt and false hopes of a bright future. It will only implement the design of decentralized state power.

New-Agriculture policy:

As an effect of imperial global capital every single component necessary for agriculture is priced sky high. The high yielding seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and instruments have come completely under the domain of big capital and are beyond the reach of poor peasants. This has resulted in forced flight of peasants from their land. This phenomenon is twisted and presented as agriculture
becoming less profitable and the best resort being selling off the land. To counter this problem the CPM is following a new agro policy similar to what is being dictated by international big Capital and this is nothing less than dangerously fatal. This is appreciated by M.S. Swaminathan who was largely responsible for the green revolution policy of Punjab, which initially generated much hope by increasing yield but gradually destroyed the fertility of the topsoil. The new policy which the 'Left' Front is trying to forcefully implement via the panchayet is being already adopted by the Indian government. It involves large scale use of high yielding seeds (often genetically modified) and inorganic fertilizers and pesticides; it further advocates the implementation of contract farming and corporate farming. Thus in fewer words the policy is to bring farming more and more under the domain of global big Capital, which has caused the suicide of millions of farmers. And this is being projected by the CPM as ever green revolution as a propaganda before panchayet elections. The Panchayet is hiding incidents of starvation and Suicide: Many economists have tried to prove how the people below poverty line has gradually advanced economically during the term of NDA or UPA government in the centre or Left Front government in the state. However even if we consider the figure of 24000 calorie intake per head as minimum as stated by the Planning Commission, we find that by the 1983 national sample survey, almost 77% of population of Bengal fall below this.

The 21st State convention of the CPM in 2005 acknowledged in spite of gross under estimation that “4612 villages are in the category of the most backward in the State” and “considering employment and women education as indicators, 46 lakhs people are forced to live under conditions of extreme poverty. The state of unemployment is deep rooted and massive. The number of landless peasants is on the rise in villages. Compared to the 80s the rate of increase of agriculture has fallen in the 90s. The real wage and employment in agriculture has almost stagnated. Malnutrition is still a major problem in the villages, especially among women and children the issue of malnutrition, anemia is widespread. Amongst the poor, major section is Scheduled cast and tribe and their villages are amongst the most backward.” The national sample survey (Reserved Bank of India CENSUS 2004-05) indicates that West Bengal has maximum number of families starving (or under feeding) for almost for half the year.10.6% of population of Bengal partially or fully starves for quite a few months every year. This is the result of three decades of left rule and the result of de centralizing the State power to the grass root level. The glaring effects of poverty have been maximized many times further by the intrusion of global imperialist capital which has only aggravated the problems of the agrarian economy. The poor peasants, marginal peasants and share croppers have been most adversely affected; they are running to the local lenders for money and paying hefty interests as long as they can and ultimately choosing death over this life. Like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra, Chattisgarh here also the cases of farmer suicide are on the rise. To cover this up the Buddhadeb led government has on one had carried on propaganda of 'Agricultural development', 'Success of Panchayet System', 'Success of Land Reform' on one hand and on the other it says 'Agriculture is no more profitable', 'it is no longer possible to carry on land reform further', 'people are loosing interest in the Panchayet', 'the keens of Panchayet members have benefited', 'minimum number of people required are not participating in most panchayet meetings' etc. are being uttered (Marxist Path, 2003). But just before the elections the CPM party organ Ganashakti is busy propagating the stories of the Panchayet success. The picture of the tribal dominated regions of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia is grimmer. In the Belpahari block of West Midnapore, Amlashole village witnessed the starvation death of five tribal people in 2004. Then again another case came up on 29-12-2007 that of Kuna Sabar (Belpahari, Binpur-2), several others are awaiting the same fate. To cover up these incidents the CPM appointed BDO Sukumar Baidya carried out a survey and reported that “Belpahari does not have any crisis of food; every person living below poverty line is able to have at least three sufficient meals a day.”

Immersed neck deep in corruption, this is the true character of the bureaucrats appointed by CPM.
Corruption in several projects: The projects that are implemented via Panchayet are victims of massive corruption; the project fails to benefit any ordinary poor peasant. The money is mostly usurped by the CPM leaders. They also throw some of it to a few in the villages and have managed to prepare a class which entirely depends on the CPM leaders. These people in greed of this money bully the villagers on behalf of the party. Especially where the CPI (Maoist) is active, these people act as police and CPM informers.

In the 2003 issue of the CPM published “Marxist Path” the party has proudly declared “due to the recommendation of the State Finance Commission, some 1000 million rupees are being given to the panchayets.” It further mentions that “the State government wishes to carry out its decentralization policy in villages with more vigour. And the International Development Department of the British Government has shown interest in helping us.” To promote the corruption in the grass root level millions of rupees are being spent; now let us look at some results of this initiative.

In the Belpahari block alone, the 100 days of assured work has turned into a complete farce. The official record in spite of severe cover up notes that the 10 panchayet blocks of the area has given away some 33,470 job cards of which only 15,920 families have got on an average 7 days of job in the past 21 days. Moreover the total number of families in the block is 40,500 of which 16,551 are below poverty line. The BPL list has also been in the centre of corruption. Many families under the BPL category have not received any job cards and many outside BPL have received many. Those who did not get a job were not given any unemployment grant. In 2006-07 10 panchayets have even failed to spend the allocated amount. In the current financial year 1 crore 47 lakhs were allocated. People have not been given jobs and yet the expenditure has been shown as 1 crore 38 lakhs. Other projects as financial help for building house, child education have suffered the same fate. The block has failed to utilize even 1% of the development fund of 5 crores allocated. These examples are widespread in the Panchayets of Bengal; every single village has a list of such corruptions. The incidents mentioned are not even the tip of the iceberg. In fewer words the Panchayet system is the distribution of corruption to the grass root level.

The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.
Vladimir Lenin