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Volume 54 No. 6 Organ of the SOCIALIST UNITY CENTRE OF INDIA (COMMUNIST) Subscription Free
November 1, 2020 Founder Editor-in-Chief : COMRADE SHIBDAS GHOSH Distributed via Internet
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Contd on page 4
“The liberals have always said that bourgeois parliamentarism
destroys classes and class divisions, since the right to vote and
the right to participate in the government of the country are shared
by all citizens without distinction. The whole history of Europe in
the second half of the nineteenth century, and the whole history of
the Russian revolution in the early twentieth, clearly show how
absurd such views are. Economic distinctions are not mitigated
but aggravated and intensified under the freedom of “democratic”
capitalism. Parliamentarism does not eliminate, but lays bare the
innate character even of the most democratic, bourgeois republics
as organs of class oppression.”
(V I Lenin, ‘Marxism and Revisionism’, p 36)
“The liberals have always said that bourgeois parliamentarism
destroys classes and class divisions, since the right to vote and
the right to participate in the government of the country are shared
by all citizens without distinction. The whole history of Europe in
the second half of the nineteenth century, and the whole history of
the Russian revolution in the early twentieth, clearly show how
absurd such views are. Economic distinctions are not mitigated
but aggravated and intensified under the freedom of “democratic”
capitalism. Parliamentarism does not eliminate, but lays bare the
innate character even of the most democratic, bourgeois republics
as organs of class oppression.”
(V I Lenin, ‘Marxism and Revisionism’, p 36)
Long Live Epoch-Making November RevolutionAnd Its Architect Great Comrade Lenin
Long Live Epoch-Making November RevolutionAnd Its Architect Great Comrade Lenin
Call of General Secretary Comrade Provash Ghosh on theeve of 103rd anniversary of Great November Revolution
Dear Comrades You are quite aware that the 103rd
anniversary of the Great November Revolution isapproaching at a time when, on the one hand, notonly people of our country but the entire worldpopulation are still in the grip of the unendingdanger of Covid-19, which has already claimedlives of the lakhs of people and, on the otherhand, further intensification of unprecedentedrecession has made almost more than half of theworld population retrenched, unemployed pushinglakhs of people to starvation and death.
In a word, entire mankind is faced with anunprecedented crisis. It is evidently clear thatwide spread of this dangerous virus and loss ofso large a number of human lives could have beenchecked if imperialist-capitalist rulers had actedpromptly going beyond their profit- makingeconomic interest and provided adequatehealthcare by curtailing ever increasing militarybudget.
It is also known that economic recession andits associated problems are inevitable outcome ofthe imperialist-capitalist economy, wherecapitalists, monopolists, multinationals, in their bid
to earn maximum profit, perpetuate maximumexploitation of the laboring people by running theirgrinding wheel of oppressive machine crushingthe lives of billions.
Scientifically analyzing long back, Great Marx
economically, politically and culturally that it couldprovide jobs to all, abolish unemployment-hunger-begging, nationality and ethnic conflicts, removeinequality between men and women and providecheap essential articles, freedom and democratic
Make Success
26 November All India StrikeCalled by Ten Central Trade Unions including AIUTUC and Various Employees’
Federations against anti-working class, anti-peasant policies of Modi government
and Engels hadforewarned theinevitability of thisdisastrous outcome ofcapitalist economy andcalled upon the workersof the world to unite toorganize revolution, andreplace capitalism by firstphase of communism, i.e.socialism.
Great Lenin andStalin got this missionmaterialized by organizingNovember Revolutionand build up, for the firsttime in human history, a society free from all classexploitation and oppression, a socialist societybased on concrete application of Marxism-Leninism which became so much developed
rights to working people, free education andmedical care for all etc. Further, this socialistcountry proposed to abandon arms production and
PAGE TWO NOVEMBER 1, 2020 PROLETARIAN ERA
Contd on page 5
The all-out crisis of capitalism furtheraggravated by the Covid-19 Pandemic haspushed the advocates and admirers of capitalisminto a still more severe crisis. They are in a fix.They can neither deny the truth, nor admit it.They can neither ignore Marxism-Leninism, nordare to accept it. What they end up doing, oftenturns out to be a funny and pathetic mix-up ofcontradictory scribbles.
For instance, one noted columnist starts fromAdam Smith regarded as founder of bourgeoiseconomics in the 18th century. From Smith, helays down ‘simple tenets’ of capitalism, namelypursuit of self-interest, division of labour and freetrade and asserts that pursuit of and furtheringself-interest is a basic human instinct (Capitalismand Ethics by G Bhattacharjee in The StatesmanKolkata, 20 September 2020). And then thosesubscribing to the same view proceed to say thatprofit, or ‘call it greed’ emanates from this basicinstinct. It is the primary driver of all economicactivities ( italics added). In capitalism, economicactivities are motivated by the ‘yearning for moreprofit’, because capitalism thrives on ‘profit’. Itis in capitalism that ‘higher greed begets higherprofits’. And then comes the conclusion that incapitalism that ‘yearning for more profit is nota vice’. So, greed is not a vice then.
Material base of ethics and moralityHistory teaches us that inexorably nature and
society are law-governed. Naturally, it is true inthe case of capitalism as well. Here the verymotive of production or the basic law is to earnmaximum profit. This profit accrues by way ofappropriation of surplus labour power by thecapitalists owning the means of production. Thisprofit hunt generates inequality and deprivation.And as we know, spiritual production isdetermined, shaped and patterned by materialproduction so, the inherent inequality anddeprivation in the economic base of capitalism isalso manifested in its superstructure or sphere ofmental production including the concepts ofethics and morality. It means that capitalismthrives upon the unjust appropriation of surpluslabour of workers, rather the entire toilingmasses, it lives its lavish life based on deprivingand discriminating the working people andusurping what is due to them. That is why, Marxonce elaborated that the struggles of the workingclass are never fight for some wage increase, orcomfort or some such things. The kernel of allthose struggles lives in the fight for regaining theself-esteem, for fighting against the injustice, forstanding up against any deprivation anddiscrimination. The question of ethics and moralityneed be judged on the anvil of this understanding.
Inability to grasp the basics leads to riddle The Statesman columnist referred above
recognizes capitalism and also agrees that it thriveson profit. But he fails to or avoids recognizing howprofit is generated. And thus creeps in the ideas ofbasic instinct, greed etc. to explain profit. Thefailure or non-recognition of the very origin of profitleads such writers to a riddle.
Reality draws him to say that capitalism
Ethics and capitalism
Truth Eludes the Bourgeois Liberaliststhrives on ‘profit without responsibility’ and ‘themarket does not provide protection againstexploitation, it has no ethics or soul.’ Capitalistgreed has killed millions with cold indifference. Isgreed in capitalism not a vice then? Picking upinstances from other walks of life, some expertsallege that during the present Covid-19 pandemic,corporate hospitals are now ‘perceived by manyas businesses that are only interested in cashflow’ where ‘chances of surviving a viral attackare directly proportionate to the size’ of thepatient’s bank balance. (Free market is great butnot when a patient’s survival depends on it inThe Times of India, Kolkata 27 September 2020).Is it not greed then a vice?
Greedy or not, vicious or virtuous, thecapitalist world was overjoyed with the debacle ofthe socialist countries. Their advocates noted“After the collapse of the Soviet Union, FrancisFukuyama triumphantly proclaimed .... humanityhas reached the end of history .... Western liberaldemocracy ...the final form of humangovernment”. (Bhattacharjee , ibid) But againthe reality stands in their way. So they had toadmit that the utopia of Western liberaldemocracy, meaning bourgeois democracy incapitalist countries, has turned into ‘acannibalizing dystopia of unfettered greed andspiralling inequality’. Even Pope Francis in hislatest encyclical, that is in his letter to theBishops, had to admit that the Catholic Churchdoctrine which justifies ‘war as a means oflegitimate defence’ was no longer viable. Hefurther criticized the ‘perverse global economicsystem’ because it enhances discrimination. Butsuch denigration of capitalism throws their ownexistence at stake. So, some of these criticstried to compensate by saying that capitalismis capable of generating ‘mass prosperity’. Thatmeans, inequality or discrimination couldengender and be balanced by mass prosperity. Aqueer proposition indeed! What is the reality? Weshall come to that later.
Reference to history without recognition ofhistorical reality
In course of these twists and turns, the flag-bearers of capitalism decide to refer selectively tohistory. They could not ignore the GreatDepression of the 1930s and hold the ‘failure’ oflaissez faire capitalism as a cause. But was itnot the reality that by the time capitalism had gotinto the Great Depression, it had crossed thestage of laissez faire long back and had beenentrenched into the stage of monopoly and evenits highest and moribund stage of imperialism?Monopoly, market crisis, finance capital,international trusts and cartels, imperialism andimperialist greed for global supremacy haddeveloped long before that.
The experts or columnists had to again admitthat ‘Keynesian welfarism’, a new post-warpanacea, was evolved to save capitalism in theface of challenging achievements of socialism. Asadvocates of capitalism, they also elaborated thatKeynesian theory had emerged strongly,emphasising social democratic principles ofregulating the market, which was held and is still
held as the only reliable agency for generatingwealth. Between 1945 and 1970, West Europeancountries going by Keynesian ideas, apparentlyexperienced prolonged periods of economicgrowth with a so-called welfare system forcitizens to be sustained by taxes.
But during the 1970s, even those apparentlywelfare-oriented Keynesian prescriptions startedto crumble. The experts could not but admit thisend, which was inevitable, but they accepted it witha heavy heart. The results were: declining growthrate, stagflation, shoddy nationalisation andascendance of unscrupulous global financialintermediaries, that is preponderance of usurercapital playing havoc in the stock markets etc. Allthese continued and aggravated, despite much-trumpetted austerity measures, pushing the massesinto more and more privation, on the one hand, andprivatisation as well as swelling the monopolists’wealth, on the other hand. Capitalism has become‘morally bankrupt’: so do the experts andadvocates say, obviously admitting another reality.
To come out of that bankruptcy, to get rid ofthe tax-barriers which they had once createdthemselves for the sake of development ofcapitalism and which had subsequently becomethorns in the necks of the capitalists by that time,capitalism floated the doctrine of globalisation asthe catchword by the end of the 1980s. It shiftedthe focus from ‘unsustainable’ state welfarism toderegulation, accompanied by ‘disruptiveeconomic reforms’, ‘restraining theGovernment’s role to only a facilitator’, that ispushing the governments to the back-seat, and‘relinquishing control of production’ back to theprivate sector, even handing over crucial serviceand public welfare sectors, like education, healthand such other vital ingredients of human life andsociety, to the private operators as newly openedfavourable ground of profit-hunting. But evenby piggybacking on technological revolution andglobalisation of the markets to satisfy unendinggreed, the nemesis of the economic meltdown of2007-09 could not be prevented. This once againpointed to the ‘inherent flaw of capitalism sansethics’. This was what the experts couldconclude. The globally integrated economic ordersoon started collapsing on itself.
Turn of events during Covid 19 provebaffling for ‘balancing’ columnists
It was during this collapse that the Covid 19pandemic came. Even the columnists who hithertoeulogized free market as great could not butallege that during this pandemic, survival andbank balance were directly coupled. As apologistsof free market, such columnists had to put forththe argument that ‘when you call a hospital‘corporate’... it is a business... a good businesswill always look after the interests of itsshareholders’. So ‘the hospital is doing nothingimmoral in providing beds to only those who canafford to pay’. But then they infer that in a‘global medical emergency over which one has nocontrol’, no ‘one should be made to choosebetween possible death and seeing his or her life’ssavings vanish in days’. Once they say free
PROLETARIAN ERA NOVEMBER 1, 2020 PAGE THREE
In a parliamentary debate in1787, on the opening up of pressreporting of the House of Commonsof Great Britain, Edmund Burke, amember of that House, attributedthe term ‘Fourth Estate’ to the press(news media). The three wings ofany capitalist state with aparliamentary democracy in placeare the legislature, executive andjudiciary with their respectivedelineated jurisdictions. The term‘Fourth Estate’ was used to view thestatus of news media or press as afourth branch of parliamentarydemocracy. The concept stemmedfrom a belief that the media’sresponsibility to keep commonpeople informed of the ongoinghappenings and developments in thevarious fields was essential to thehealthy functioning of democracy.Since information is the key, theinformed citizens, consideredsovereign in the founding principlesof parliamentary democracy orbourgeois democracy were expectedto play their due role in governanceof a republic by voicing their desiresand opinions based on facts. Butthose were the days of risingcapitalism and period of putting inplace adequate ‘check andbalance’in governance inparliamentary democracy, thepolitical superstructure of capitalism.The role of the press or news mediawas thus perceived to be a part ofthe process of this ‘check andbalance’. With passage of time,following the inexorable law ofsocial development, degeneration ofcapitalism premised on exploitationof man by man and hence theinherent inequality in it became moreand more pronounced. Obviously,systemic erosion of democraticvalues and subversion of theproclaimed codes of parliamentarydemocracy also began to take placein tandem. When capitalism reachedthe stage of imperialism, the higheststage of development in thebeginning of the twentieth century, itlost all its progressive role, turnedutter reactionary and corrupt andposed a stumbling block beforesocial progress. From then onwards,the barest precepts of parliamentarydemocracy are being trampledunderfoot. Now, the very termdemocracy in dying capitalism hasbecome a mockery— with merelyits facade stripped of all its essence,remaining.
Assault on freedom of mediaThis brief introduction has been
considered necessary to understandthe socio-historic cause behindsystematic curtailment of the
In ‘Democratic’ India, Honest Journalism is under Attackautonomy of the media, more andmore control of moneybags over notonly mainstream media, both printand electronic, but newly emergedsocial media networks as well.Alongside, driven by its sinister classnecessity to misrepresent facts andsuppress truth so that the murkyface of dying capitalist system, thevarious misdeeds of those at thehelm of power and the surfeit ofaberrations, deprivations, deceptions,injustice, and repression, do notsurface. So, the ruling monopolistshave been trying in every possibleway to gag the voice of truthfuljournalism which seeks to unraveltruth, promote transparency, exposereckless abuse of power by themembers of the ruling dispensationas well as aforesaid three wings ofthe bourgeois state machineryand protect fundamental civil anddemocratic rights of the commontoiling people.That is the reason thatin capitalist India, attack on freemedia, which once was viewed as astaple of democracy, is so glaringlymanifest.
First of all, with most of themedia houses now being owned bythe monopoly houses, they havebecome an instrument of theideological apparatus of theruthlessly oppressive rulingcapitalism. Hence, an unwrittencensorship on news reporting isgetting in-built in the system. Withdominance of corporate barons overmedia houses, journalism, consideredto be an ethical communicativepractice in a healthy democracy, aswell as the freedom of press soeulogized once as the “FourthEstate”, is now in thraldom ofmoney power. Secondly, many newsagencies known for authenticcirculation of updates of happeningsin the real world are either beingdwarfed or banned. Just the otherday, Prasar Bharati, the PublicService Broadcaster of the country,decided to end its presentsubscription with Press Trust ofIndia (PTI) and United NewsofIndia (UNI), two reputed newsagencies whose feeds are valued asauthentic not only in the country butalso abroad. Sources in the PrasarBharati board are reported to havetold that the decision was taken torationalise the Doordarshan (DD),the government Television network,and All India Radio’s (AIR’s)“expenditure on news agencies”.But a section of the media is of theopinion that PTI has incurreddispleasure of the Prasar Bharati,or for that matter, the centralgovernment, because of some of the“discomforting” news covered and
reported by it in the recent period.The Editors Guild of India said itwas dismayed and concerned overthe “vindictive manner” in whichgovernment and its administrativeagencies have acted against truthfuljournalism recently. In anotherincident, Jammu and Kashmirauthorities have sealed the Srinagaroffice of The Kashmir Times, oneof the region’s oldest and mostprominent English-languagenewspapers, on 19 October last.“Today, Estates Department lockedour office without any due processof cancellation and eviction…Vendetta for speaking out! …Howpeevish!,” twitted Anuradha Bhasin,executive editor of the newspaper.Regretting the incident, TheKashmir Editors Guild (KEG) said ina statement that “In the last 10years, successive regimes havecreated a very unpleasant history asfar as operations of the media inKashmir is concerned. Preventingcirculation of newspapers,blacklisting the newspapers fromgetting government advertisementsin Srinagar and Delhi, andinterrupting negatively in the routineoperations have adversely impactedthe media. These are in addition tothe issues that reporters face on adaily basis while gatheringinformation.” Many other TVchannels as well as news magazineslike NDTV, the Quint, Citizen andCaravan have been cuffed withfrivolous cases reportedly filed justto embroil the targeted media inendless litigation that they could illafford or to enable the lawenforcement officials to turn up inpursuit of obscure cases with a viewto harassing and intimidating theconcerned media houses. “We arefacing a dozen defamation casesfrom some of India’s most powerfulbusinessmen in which they areseeking Rs 11,450 crore, or $1.5billion worth of damages! Read thelist, it’s a who’s who of thegovernment’s backers: Industrialbarons like Gautam Adani, AnilAmbani and Subhash Chandra, BJPMP Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Hinduspiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankarand BJP president Amit Shah’s son,Jay Amit Shah”, said SiddharthVaradarajan of The Wire in hisReuters Memorial Lecture inFebruary 2019. In fact, growingresort to legal means – sedition law,the Official Secrets Act, Strategiclawsuit against public participation(SLAPP) suits etc. – as well asmany other extra-judicial means arereported to be used as a way ofpenalising individuals and media whorefuse to fall in line with the power
that be. While delivering the 2020BG Verghese Memorial Lecture on‘Preserving and Protectingour Fundamental Right to Protest’organised by the Media Foundation,Former SC Judge Madan B Lokursaid that one of the worst forms ofcurtailment of the freedom ofspeech is charging a person withsedition. “Authorities found variousways of ‘weaponizing’ it to curb freepress as well”, he added. It is alsopertinent to recall that the MadrasHigh Court had in October 2018made a strong case in favour offreedom of the press and media,observing that “India is a vibrantdemocracy and the Fourth Estateis indubitably an indispensablepart of it. If the voice of theFourth Estate is stifled in thismanner, India will become a NaziState, and the hard labour of ourfreedom fighters and makers ofour Constitution will go down thedrain.”
Arm-twisting tactics to bullymedia into submission
Next is the rising attack on thejournalists and camera persons ofthe media houses. A few days back,Sidhique Kappan, a contributor for apopular Kerala-based website, andthree others who had gone toHathras, UP, to cover the horrificrape and murder incident of a 19year poor dalit girl were arrested inUttar Pradesh’s Mathura overalleged links with an organizationwhich the Yogi Adityanath-led BJPgovernment of UP wants to bebanned. KN Ashokan, editor of apopular Malayalam websiteAzhimukham, who worked with MrKappan told: “He is a contributorwith our website. As far as myknowledge goes, he does not haveany such links …He informed usyesterday (Monday) morning thathe was going to Hathras. After thatwe were trying to reach out to him,but we could not. We got to knowabout the detention from reports.”The Kerala Union of WorkingJournalists (KUWJ) has filed ahabeas corpus petition in theSupreme Court against the arrest ofSidhique Kappan. In Manipur, ajournalist has been sent to prison fora year under an administrative orderfor allegedly using harsh language ina Facebook video that was criticalof the prime minister and the statechief minister. A TV journalist wasrecently arrested in Odisha oncharges of circulating an obscenevideo, which OTV, his employer, hasalleged to be a ploy to target thejournalist for his work exposing
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PAGE FOUR NOVEMBER 1, 2020 PROLETARIAN ERA
Journalism
Legal and extra-legal overkill being used to intimidatejournalists and subvert autonomy of media
Contd. from page 3
end all colonial occupation and wars.It helped freedom movements andliberation struggles of all coloniesand semi-colonies. It played a heroicrole in defeating the menacingfascist forces in the Second WorldWar to save the mankind.
In fact, when entire Westerncapitalist civilization was engulfed bycomplete darkness, this newsocialist civilization emerged as adawn in the Eastern horizon whichnot only became a hope of alloppressed people of the world butwas also hailed by all great humanistpersonalities of the Western andcolonial countries.
It is a matter of great tragedy inhistory that after serving humanityfor few decades this new civilizationwas destroyed and again capitalismwas restored there by counter-revolution engineered by internalhidden enemies in connivance withexternal imperialism which took theadvantage of certain seriousmistakes and deviations of the post-Stalin leadership. But as the fall ofParis Commune providedexperiences enriching Marxism andguided November Revolution,
similarly this counter revolutionalso provided more richexperiences, as shown by GreatMarxist thinker Comrade ShibdasGhosh, to guide future working classrevolution.
Now, world situation is veryhorrifying and pathetic. Worldimperialism-capitalism is in deathbed, but not yet dead as no socialsystem dies automatically. It isalmost like a rotten, putrefied,decomposed carcass spreadingstench in every walks of life.
Thus, economically, ideologically,politically and morally, capitalism ispushing the entire humanity towardscomplete ruination. Defenders ofcapitalism, hired bourgeois politiciansand economists, being afraid ofanother socialist revolution, labouringday and night to find a remedy tosave the dying patient. But they aregroping in darkness in vain.
On the other hand, there aresurging waves of mass protestswhich are being ruthlessly crushedby fascist capitalist regimeseverywhere. More they are ruthlessand ferocious in suppression, moreare outbursts of mass discontentsdefying all onslaughts. Oppressed
people are undaunting, brave,struggling. They desire change, butthey do not have any revolutionaryideology, higher culture, organizationand leadership. So, crying need ofthe hour is to develop and strengthenrevolutionary working class partyarmed with Marxism-Leninism-Shibdas Ghosh Thought in allcountries to implement the historicmessage of Great NovemberRevolution.
In this backdrop, it is our historicduty, as revolutionary fighters of theSUCI (Communist), the partyfounded by Great Marxist thinkerComrade Shibdas Ghosh, toconsolidate and expand our Party inthe country, organize and intensifyclass and mass struggles based onhigher revolutionary ideology andproletarian culture and therebyinspire, educate and help proletariatof other countries. This is the call ofthe 103rd anniversary of the GreatNovember Revolution to us.
With Revolutionary GreetingsProvash Ghosh
General Secretary,SUCI (Communist)
48 Lenin SaraniKolkata 700013
Call of Comrade Provash GhoshContd. from page 1
some wrongdoings of the BJD-ledstate government. The Editors’Guild believes that such actionsthreaten, as well as undermine theindependent functioning of the mediaorganisations. This kind of legal andextra-legal overkill has also beenused across the country to arrestand intimidate ordinary citizen-critics– individuals who would otherwisebe celebrated as ‘citizen journalists’and who use social media to voicesharply critical, or satirical, viewsagainst the rulingestablishment. Two English dailieswith their ground-level investigativereporting (one of which is known forits investigative news stories)covered the plight of the migrantlabourers in suddenly clamped Covid19-induced lockdown with moreempathy. Many others alsoattempted to show the disastrousreality following the abrupt decisionto impose lockdown. But they allfaced the wrath of the government.Many journalists are denied accessto specific information or simplybarred from entering certain officesin the pursuit of their professionalduties. Many media managements
are threatened with legal notices andother forms of bullying the momentthere is an ‘uncomfortable’ report.Extra-legal pressure on mediaagencies and journalists who try toremain out of the clutches ofregimentation perpetrated by thecapitalist state and its servitors is onthe rise. It bears recall that WorldAssociation of Newspapers andNews Publishers, the globalorganisation of the world’s press, ina detailed report some years agoslammed the pernicious practice of“abusive allocation of governmentadvertising to reward positivecoverage, and punish criticalcoverage is doubly pernicious, astaxpayer money and public wealth isused and abused to promote partisanor personal interests”. This, it said, isnothing but “soft censorship”. Indiais no exception to this malevolentpractice.
The governments are found tobe not ready to listen to any rationalcriticism. In fact, the centralgovernment sought a direction fromthe Supreme Court on 31 Marchthat “No electronic/print media /webportal or social media shall print/publish or telecast anything without
first ascertaining the true factualposition from the separatemechanism provided by the centralgovernment”. Also, just before theannouncement of the nationwidelockdown, the prime ministerreportedly called upon the ownersand editors of the mainstream printand electronic media of the country,who control most of the newscoverages at the national andregional levels, and asked them tosupport government efforts tocombat the pandemic and alsoadvised them to present “positivenews” related to COVID-19. Plainlyput, they were advised to abide bythe official narrative and presentinformation as provided to them bythe government about COVID-19.Which media houses would followgovernment diktat rather thaninvestigating the real state of affairs,unless they have associatedbusiness interests? This reveals howthe “Fourth Estate” is “honoured” incapitalist India. Likewise, it is oftenseen that a large section ofmainstream media gives inexplicablepriority to and extensive coverage oftrivial issues while important newsconcerning people’s interest are
relegated to the back, if not droppedaltogether. Also, sometimes artificialsensation is created over someinconsequential incidents or topics sothat people’s attention could divertedfrom the real issues. These all aredone to comply with class dictatesand class desires of the rulingmonopolists thereby militate againstthe very ethics of journalism.
Victimizing the journalistsIt is not uncommon for individual
reporters and columnists to besubject to death threats either. Eventhe journalists who dare to honestlybring out the truth are also wiped outby the establishment and itshirelings. Gauri Lankesh, acourageous editor in Karnataka whowas a staunch critic of the doctrineof Hindutva and communal politicswas gunned down two years agoallegedly by a Hindu fanaticgroup.”I was told in May 2017 Ihad to kill someone to save myreligion. I agreed”, confessed theaccused who pumped in four bulletsinto Gauri. Shujaat Bukhari, editor-in-chief of Rising Kashmir, whowrote in 2018 that prime ministerModi’s “emphasis on developmentalone goes against the past andpresent reality of Jammu andKashmir, and does not hold anypromise unless the political nature ofthe conflict is accepted”, wasassassinated in busy Lal Chowkarea of Srinagar in 2018. CitingBukhari’s killing as a sign of ‘fallinglaw and order’, the BJP withdrewitself from the Jammu and Kashmircoalition government with PDP ofMehbooba Mufti. The onus of killingwas passed on by the ruling quartersto three members of ‘militant outfits’who straightaway denied anyinvolvement. Then the police killedone alleged culprit and the case wasclosed. But the question still remainsas to how could three militantsarmed with assault rifles manage togo undetected in the busy area,which was bubbling with Eidfestivities? How is it that policesecurity cameras and CCTVs hadeither been moved or were notfunctional? The police itself arrivedat the scene after more than 20minutes. Who was the personseen in footage recorded byonlookers stealing the pistol of Shujaat’s bodyguard? Many suchquestions remain unanswered eventoday.
A new study in the last five
Contd on page 7
PROLETARIAN ERA NOVEMBER 1, 2020 PAGE FIVE
Contd on page 6
Contd. from page 2
market is ‘still one of the best ways to organiseproduction and distribution’ while again they hold‘it is a completely different story if thebusinessman has a better chance at surviving thepandemic because he has financial resources’.See how one is baffled if unaware of the truth.
Pope Francis in his encyclical, referred toabove, wrote : “The fragility of world systems inthe face of the pandemic has demonstrated thatnot everything can be resolved by marketfreedom.” He even suggested reforms to theextent of rejecting the concept of an absoluteright to property for individuals.
There were others, too, suggesting reforms,such as the British economist Paul Collier whoconcluded : ‘Capitalism needs to be managed,not defeated’ by integrating it with an ‘ethicalstate’, ‘ethical firm’, ‘ethical family’ in an‘ethical world’. Neglect of their duties towardssociety and even their employees has earneduniversal contempt for capitalism as a synonymfor greed, selfishness and corruption. Thecorrosive force of the market has progressivelyundermined the family, the business firm and thestate — ‘the organising structures of collectivelife’. So Collier inferred, ‘We need an activestate, (playing) a more modest role; we need themarket, but harnessed by a sense of purposesecurely grounded in ethics’. The ethical boundsof society will be determined by the alignment ofour personal needs to societal needs. Elsewheresome other author concluded, ‘It is wrong tocreate a situation where a pandemic hitseveryone, but some have a better chance atsurviving it.’ With excerpts from the parable ofthe Good Samaritan, Pope Francis highlights itslessons of charity, kindness and looking out forstrangers as ‘the basic decision we need tomake in order to rebuild our wounded world’.There were other variants. Pronouncing that the‘process of creative destruction’ is ‘the veryprocess that gives capitalism its astonishingdynamic’ and thus equating destruction withdynamism, the same author comes down toconclude : The active state must support thevictims to this process. A just society must bebased on ‘reciprocal obligations’ betweenmembers of the family, the larger society,between business firms and their employees andalso between nations. It must restore its ethicalfoundations to prevent corrosion from inside. TheCovid19 crisis has given the state anoverarching, almost dictatorial authority. It‘needs to be restrained’. But it is a mere piouswish! The decadent capitalism of these days, ifwe use their term, lives on the ‘process ofcreative destruction’. Yes, it is the destruction ofall human creativity, machine, science, values,society, even destruction of nature upon whichthe capitalism boastfully claims ‘creation’ oftheir new world order, their haven of wastefulwealth, lavishness and consumerism. But theirprocess takes its toll.
The authors have to admit that capitalismtoday is making people lead ‘anxious lives’ individed societies. Yet they cherish hopes that
capitalism is ‘the only economic system that hasproved to be capable of generating massprosperity.’ As said before, Pope Francis heldmarket freedom as the villain. Others suggest amore radical redistribution of wealth and incomeappear necessary for capitalism to survive. Theywish businesses will continue to make profits butwould share a substantial part of it for the welfareof society, enabling us to reconcile the individualobjective of living with little with the socialobjective of moving towards a higher goal basedon ethics, morality, trust and justice.
Referring to Marx but not givingrecognition to Marxism
In this vortex of arguments and contradictorycounter-arguments, the authors even had to takerecourse to Marx. They say : Capitalistproduction demands continuous expansion ofcapital in order to produce more and make evermore profits, we recall the earlier comment‘higher greed begets higher profits’, leading towhat Marx had called “the epidemic of over-production”. To prevent recession and otherdisastrous consequences that would followinevitably, artificial demands are created in crisis-torn market, for products we do not actually need,by promoting consumerism. True, but is it thewhole truth? Let us withhold elaboration for thepresent. Only we add that the same writer bringsout his ingenious suggestion. He thinks, if theenforced lockdown has taught us one thing, it isthat we need very little to survive and to addsubstance and quality to our lives, in consequencethe environment becomes more sustainable andNature rejuvenates. In our suffering and feelingof helplessness before a tiny virus, we have learntthe importance of empathy: this is what the writerrealizes. And he reiterates: Despite all itscorrosiveness, capitalism’s power to create massprosperity remains undisputed. So he calls for anew social contract, for ushering in a world wherehappiness, joy and harmony, climate, environmentand Nature will be reckoned as more fulfillingobjectives of life.
Whirlpool of confusions and contradictionsSo this is how the advocates-admirers of
capitalism wade through arguments and counter-arguments, presenting, as said before, bluntcontradictions. Or, at best, they miss the pointthat they may sincerely be searching for truth,but they see the world with a particular ‘inertial’world outlook, an outlook they have inheritedfrom the system which is causing them pain andurging them to seek the truth. So they wish tosuggest changes or reforms within the ambit ofthe existing system itself. They call forrestraining the over-arching state. Do they notsee how the governments of different capitalistcountries, for instance of India, are bringingtotally and shamelessly anti-people measuresincluding legislations and policies takingadvantage of the pandemic? Who will restrainwhom? They express anxiety at thediscrimination and disparity in the society. At thesame time, they hold that capitalism brings mass
prosperity. Knowledgeable as they must be, arethey not acquainted with the enormous statisticaldata, global or of any imperialist-capitalistcountry, including India, which show how thestaggering bulk of national wealth isaccumulated in the hands of a miniscule ofpopulation, the monopolists? There are alsoglobal data on hunger index. Do those indicatemass prosperity? Or, is capitalism, in reality,generating the most disturbing inequality andmass poverty? The columnists suggest a moreradical redistribution of wealth and income andeven rejection of absolute right to property forsocial purpose and common good. If it be so,would it remain capitalism? And whom do theyaddress for more radical distribution of wealth?Who listens to it? Are they not aware thatduring this lockdown, when people have beenlosing life and livelihood, when a blank futurehas been staring at their face with unimaginablejob-losses and consequent suffering, the leadingmonopolists of this country and elsewhere havenot failed to increase their wealth manifold? Dothey expect that the monopolists, the super-rich,would be ready to pay any heed to their ‘pious’suggestion of living on little? Are they askingthe devils to listen to scriptures? On thecontrary, will not their suggestions turn out to besalt rubbed into the wounds of the alreadybruised and battered masses? Will those whobuild helipads on the roof of their palatialresidence be content with as little as needed forsurvival? Marx could find mention with the issueof ‘over-production’, which, according to thesecolumnists, leads to recession and then remedialcourse suggested is artificial stimulation throughconsumerism. Partial truth! The main artificialdemand and market, as well as consumption tokeep the market moving, is created by themilitary-industry complex which fosters moreand more militarization of economy that hasbecome the trademark of all capitalist countriesnowadays, big or small. That is why capitalism,in this stage of imperialism, inevitably generateswar, local, partial, regional or on a bigger scale.The wars consume stockpiles of arms, clean themarket to make it artificially ready for moreinvestment and production in defence production.Industry produces new arsenals that soonaccumulate into over-produced stockpiles. Thecycle thus goes on. And so the authors find that‘capitalist greed has killed millions with coldindifference’! Let us recall what great Leninhad observed a hundred year back:“Imperialism, on the other hand, i.e.,monopoly capitalism, which finally maturedonly in the twentieth century, is, by virtue ofits fundamental economic traits, distinguishedby a minimum fondness for peace andfreedom, and by a maximum and universaldevelopment of militarism.”1
Marxism-Leninism provides the worldoutlook to know truth
So the honest advocates and admirers ofcapitalism, liberal bourgeois humanists in political
Ethics and capitalism
Queer proposition of inequality or discriminationbeing balanced by mass prosperity in capitalism
PAGE SIX NOVEMBER 1, 2020 PROLETARIAN ERA
Contd. from page 5
parlance, hover around the truth, but cannot locateit or do not acknowledge it. They do not have thevision, the world outlook to ferret out the truth.Had they possessed it, they would have seen :“...greed, meanness or the mentality to exploitdid not grow in society because the inherentgood in man had been eclipsed by satan. ... itwas only after the emergence of anexploitative social system, that is, only after theappearance of the material condition insociety necessary for exploitation, that satandid appear in man’s mind. It was not greed thatcreated the exploitative social system, rather, itwas the exploitative social system which begotgreed in man.”
“.... In spite of the primitive stage of mentaldevelopment and behaviour and constant tusslesand fights, the mentality to exploit or the mentalityto extort profit by exploiting the labour of othersdid not grow in the primitive clan society. Humansociety did not witness such mentality till stableproperty, which could be preserved and increased,was created, or so long as the method ofengaging man’s labour for continuousdevelopment of production and extorting profit outof it was not found out.”
“With the creation of stable property andintroduction of cattle breeding and agriculturein society, which for the first time couldengage human labour for production — at theearly stage of development of such production— there was constant contradiction betweenscarcity of production and constantly growinghuman necessity which, in fact, led to the ideaof exploitation.”
“... Whereas the savages of the clancommunist society despite tremendous want didnot know how to exploit, yet today’s civilizedmen, the humanists ... are failing to freethemselves from this mentality to exploit, fromgreed and meanness – their pious wishes,ideals and exhortations for the samenotwithstanding. Why ? The very capitalistsocial system – the capitalist mode ofproduction and production relation is the rootcause of all sorts of oppression, tyranny,social injustice ... continually giving birth to
these mentalities and attitudes in society.” 2
These are not mere words from ComradeShibdas Ghosh, one of the eminent Marxistthinkers of the day and the founder GeneralSecretary of SUCI(Communist), the revolutionaryparty of India. These are the products of acomprehensive world outlook based on scienceand history. This is Marxism- Leninism. Itprovides answers where liberal bourgeois thinkersand columnists grope in the dark.
Right now, overwhelmed by the abjectannihilation of ethics-morality, the sincerest ofsincere persons cry for ethics, for social good.And way back, in 1848, Karl Marx andFrederick Engels wrote in the “Manifesto of theCommunist Party”: “It (The bourgeoisie- P Era))has resolved personal worth into exchangevalue, and in place of the numberlessindefeasible chartered freedoms, has set upthat single, unconscionable freedom — FreeTrade. In one word, for exploitation, veiledby religious and political illusions, it hassubstituted naked, shameless, direct, brutalexploitation. The bourgeoisie has stripped ofits halo every occupation hitherto honouredand looked up to with reverent awe. It hasconverted the physician, the lawyer, thepriest, the poet, the man of science, into itspaid wage labourers. The bourgeoisie hastorn away from the family its sentimental veil,and has reduced the family relation into amere money relation.” This is what ethicsmeans to capitalism. The liberals may rest! Andthis should provide a lead to their question “...we need to ask ourselves what kind of societywe want to build in the future. Do we want tobuild a society where we value human life onlyin terms of bank balance?” There is no questionof building such a society in future. Their freemarket society, that is, capitalism has alreadyprovided mankind with such a society whichthey tend to abhor.
Coming forward into history when capitalismhad entered its decadent imperialist stage, thegreat leader Lenin said : “Even in the mostdemocratic bourgeois state the oppressedmasses at every step encounter the cryingcontradiction between the formal equality
Ethics and capitalism
proclaimed by the “democracy” of thecapitalists and the thousands of reallimitations and subterfuges which turn theproletarians into wage slaves. It is preciselythis contradiction that is opening the eyes ofthe masses to the rottenness, mendacity andhypocrisy of capitalism.” 1
Reality corroborates analysis of greatMarxist authorities
Today, nearly two centuries after Marx andEngels wrote those words, the same bourgeoisiehas turned totally reactionary. A century afterLenin spoke of how its ‘rottenness, mendacityand hypocrisy’ is exposed to the masses, thesystem the bourgeoisie runs, that is capitalism,has not only got into the imperialist stage, it hasreached total decadence. So what the greatauthorities of Marxism had to say about that classand its system have run further into rot. Today thesystem stinks. As Comrade Shibdas Ghosh,elaborated, “…whatever be the political theory,if its practice does not infuse moral strengthand if it does not reflect a higher culturalstandard then in whatever lofty words itstheoretical essence may be couched, it ismerely an empty facade, a lifeless body. Justas a corpse has inevitably to be disposed of,so also if one clings to it out of attachment, itwill, in its putrefied state, spread stench andbe harmful for all people in society. ...Remember, if a political ideology or amovement cannot rouse moral strength orelevate the cultural standard of the people,then that is surely harmful and has becomeabsolutely obsolete.” 2
The earlier the advocates and admirers ofcapitalism turn to these simple truths, the easier itwill be for them to realize why after wanderingabout in search of truth, they come down to somesuch baseless conclusions which they themselveswould never have wished for.
[Quotation references- 1. The ProletarianRevolution and Renegade Kautsky, 2. TheCultural Movement in India and Our Tasks :speech by Comrade Shibdas Ghosh on 26 May1969 in Bengali, first published in May 1970 andin English version in August 1982.]
SC ex-judge Lokur : Sedition law being ‘weaponisedNEW DELHI: Former SC Judge Madan B
Lokur on Monday lamented that laws are beingmisused to curb free speech and cited“weaponization’ of the sedition law, “abuse” ofprohibitory orders and “blanket” shutdown of theInternet, which impacted individual liberty.
Delivering the 2020 BG Verghese MemorialLecture on ‘Preserving and Protectingour Fundamental Right to Protest’ organised bythe Media Foundation, Lokur said, “One of theworst forms of curtailment of the freedom ofspeech is charging a person with sedition.” Hesaid the SC had laid down the sedition law clearlyand cogently in 1962, yet authorities found variousways of “weaponizing” it.
Observing that law is being misused to curbfree press and speech, the retired judge said “a
lethal cocktail” of use and misuse of law is beingused to impact adversely the liberty of all thosewho dare to speak up. He said the law is alwaysto be interpreted objectively, but but of late,subjective satisfaction has taken over and the and the consequences are unpalatable. Theformer apex court judge was especially critical of“weaponizing” the sedition law, “abuse” ofprohibitory orders and blanket shutdown of theInternet.
Justice(Retd) Lokur was delivering the 2020B G Verghese Memorial n “Preserving andProtecting our Fundamental Rights—Freedom ofSpeech, Expression and the Right to Protest”,
At a webinar on ‘Freedom of Speech andJudiciary’ last month, Lokur had said suddenlythere are a lot of cases where people are charged
with sedition. “A common citizen who sayssomething is charged with sedition. Already 70cases of sedition have been seen this year,” hesaid.
“Fundamental right to free speech isextremely important for any civilised democracy,”Lokur said adding that authorities are obliged toensure that the that the laws are not twisted,misused or abused in such a manner that citizensget deprived of their liberties.
He advised the “establishment” to understandtbat “the people of this country mean well and asin any democracy, there are bound to be differentpoints of view”.
“These must be respected, otherwise, thefabric of our society might disintegrate...,” hesaid. (Times of India 13 October 2020)
Dying capitalism trying to stave off endemic crisisthrough increasing militarization of economy
PROLETARIAN ERA NOVEMBER 1, 2020 PAGE SEVEN
Contd. from page 4
years has revealed that there havebeen more than 200 serious attackson journalists in the country in theperiod between 2014 and 2019. Italso reveals that attacks on womenjournalists reporting from the fieldhave increased over a period oftime.The targeted attacks on womenjournalists covering the Sabarimalatemple entry were sustained andvicious. As many as 19 womenjournalists were attacked as per thestudy. Conclusion of the study was:“The perpetrators for the killing ofjournalists and the attacks on themhave got away with their attacks,aided by poor or indifferent policeinvestigation. Often, law enforcersdisbelieve the claim of the journalist,families or colleagues of killedjournalists that the reason for theattack was not due to somepersonal dispute or corrupt practiceon the part of the journalist.”
With journalism and journalistsnow being attacked moreaggressively than ever before, Indiahas fallen to 138th place in the PressFreedom Index put out by ReportersWithout Borders. In 2019, TheCommittee to Protect Journalists hadplaced India, for the 12th time, on itslist of countries with worst recordsof bringing to book the killers ofjournalists. That showed howimpunity for violence against thefearless media-persons has becomedeeply ‘entrenched’ in the system.
Other trickeries to promotemedia pliant to theestablishment
As we have said above, bothcommercial interestas well aspressure of compliance withdirectives of the ruling party and thestate, has made the media sectorbeing dominated by the giantcorporate houses in the countrynow. Besides moulding publicopinion in favour of the rulingdispensation, the corporate media isalso after reaping hefty financialgains even if that necessitatesdispensing with all scruples. Latestexample of that is the ‘TRP’ scam.TRPs (Television Rating Points) areviewed as measure of acceptanceof a TV show or channel by theaudience. If TRP is found to be high,it is construed to be a mark of largerviewership. More viewership meansmore inflow of advertisementrevenue. Naturally, many mediahouses owned by the monopolyhouses in connivance with thebourgeois governments want toanyhow jack up TRPs of theirchannels and programmes. Now the
Mumbai police have claimed tohave busted a mega TRP scam inthe city. It has come to the fore thatthree media houses weremanipulating TRPs by bribingowners of the buildings or houseswhere ‘TRP’ barometers (a specifictechnology to capture viewership ofa channel or programme, similar tocell phone towers on many rooftops)were installed. Among the threenetworks involved in the scam, thebig name is Republic TV, a mediahouse founded in 2017, which isknown for its pro-BJP pro-SanghParivar leaning and airing TV showsconstricted with open loud partisansparring and theatrics to establishthat anyone who “breaks Hindutraditions” and criticizes the presentruling dispensation is “anti-national”.Nationwide Broadcasters Affiliation(NBA), in the last six months alone,is reported to have sent over 20letters to the Telecom RegulatoryAuthority of India (TRAI) chairmanin opposition to Republic TV’soccupying a number of ‘logicalchannel numbers (LCNs)’ inviolation of the TRAI laws thatrestrict a TV channel to just oneLCN or slot on a cable or DTHplatform. By giving a slip to law,Republic TV thus considerablyenhanced its TV score factors.NBA President has even gone to theextent of alleging that “thecorrupted, compromised, irrationallyfluctuating data is creating a falsenarrative on ‘What India Watches’and has been putting pressure on ourmembers to take editorial calls thatrun counter to journalistic values andideals.” But what actions have beentaken by TRAI on such complaintsare not known.
Another phenomenondominating media coverages for longis “Paid News”. Last year,Cobrapost, a small portal, ranfootage of a sting operation itconducted on a range of large andsmall media companies where itsreporter posed as a “godman” whowanted ostensibly programmeswhich sing paeans for a particularreligion to be used to build supportfor the ruling BJP and polarisevoters on the basis of religion. Thecamouflaged sting operator alsoshowed willingness to pay cash forthis. Only two of the two dozenmedia houses approached showedhim the door. The rest were only toohappy to engage with him. Sincesuch ‘paid news’ is subject to threatof regulation of, cross-mediaholdings etc., one cannot rule outtacit approval of the ruling party andgovernment behind such unethical
and illegal acts.If a vested interest in creating
artificial social polarisation isallowed to prevail in mainstreammedia, the negative effects onsociety could be as broad as that ofmisinformation spread through socialmedia. Many wild claims ormotivated feeds either on TV newsor in print media cause immenseharm to society as people at largegulp such distortions and twists astruth. More broadly, hate-riddenprogramming which are on the risein recent period endangers socialharmony, especially in a diverse,multicultural country such as India.But regrettably, one powerful andinfluential section of the media hasalready crossed over to the darkside, and is actually complicit in theruling establishment’s design with aview to scoring both in earningdominance in the industry andmaking fabulous financial gains.
What could be silver-lining inthis all-pervading gloom anddoom
This is in a nutshell the spectacleof the “free Press’ in India thatmany political leaders sickeninglysubservient to ruling capitalism,often boast of. If journalistic ethicsis to be upheld, the honour of beingcalled “Fourth Estate” is to betreasured and fast waningdemocratic values and practices areto be rescued and restored, themedia fraternity ought to overcomeall lure of the lucre, of spruced upprominence, and fight forestablishing truth. Today, whencapitalism is enmeshed in a growinginsolvable crisis endemic of thesystem, it is on a mission to corruptand pollute every walk of lifepending which it cannot prolong itsdecadent moribund existence.Alongside, it is determined todestroy rational thoughts and ananalytical bent of mind and insteadanchor itself in distortion of factsand travesty of truth. At such a time,governments servile to rulingcapitalism are seen to discarddemocracy and freedom andembrace autocracy and despotism.In such a situation, honest fearlessjournalism has a historic role to playas a platform for objectiveinformation and critical-rationaldiscourse that would enable peopleto know the truth and be in pursuitof correct remedial action againstthe ills and evils tearing their life andlivelihood into pieces day in and dayout.
In India, the checks andbalances on the exercise of
vindictive power by the executiveare dwindling rapidly. Given thesystematic manner in which oneinstitution after the other has beenundermined in India over the pastfive years – the CBI, the RBI, theElection Commission, the CAG, theUGC, even the judiciary – it ispossible that the system of checksand balances will see furthererosion. If journalism, instead oftaking up cudgels against this rottensystem opts to capitulate to thepower that be, it will be hard tothink of a silver lining when an all-pervading gloom and doom is castingits ominous shadow. It is the creationof strong bondage between readers-viewers-right-thinking citizens-truthful journalists and conscientiousanalysts which alone can work asbulwark against vicious attacks andattempt to subvert autonomy ofmedia and impede circulation ofproper information. It is hearteningthat disdaining all threats,intimidation, life risks as well asoffer of material incentives inexchange of showing undue favourto the ruling quarters, that a sectionof media houses, reporters,cameramen, news editors andbloggers are making a laudableeffort to keep the countrymenabreast of the correct news,necessary informations and truthfulrepresentation of facts. Ascrusaders against all guile attemptsto convert the esteemed professionof journalism into a greedy privilege-seeking business, and committed touphold the cause of people andsociety they are the torchbearers of“Fourth Estate”. Our appeal tothese torchbearers is that they givemaximum coverage to the news ofmass movements against variousanti-people policies of thegovernment and consciousideological-political-cultural strugglesinitiated to rouse people alongcorrect line against the capitalistorder which, along with other things,are trying to smother journalisticethics.
[References:prsindia 16-11-2011, law.yel.edu 22-
11-16, medium.com@ubuntuFm 02-12-17, Times of India 16-06-18, 03-12-18, 18-10-20, 19-10-20, 20-10-20, The Diplomat23-01-19, thesun.co.uk 30-07-19, TheWire 07-03-19, 13-06-19, 14-06-19, 02-08-19, 29-10-19, 26-12-19, Quartz India 12-03-19, Economic and Political WeeklyVol. 55, Issue No. 16, 18 April 2020, TheNew Indian Express 06-10-20, NDTV 06-10-20, 09-10-20, newslaundry 16-10-20,Hindustan Times 16-10-20, 21-10-20, ThePrint 15-10-20, 19-10-20, Indian Express17-10-20, enewsexpress 20-10-20,Livelaw News Network 2020.]
Journalism
If voice of Fourth Estate is stifled, democracy is mocked
PAGE EIGHT NOVEMBER 1, 2020 PROLETARIAN ERA
Latin America — A Huge Surge of People’s ProtestsLatin America is seething with
anger. Problems of people, in allaspects of their lives, are increasingmanifold. These problems are notarising due to Covid 19 pandemicalone. Even before the arrival of thisdeadly virus, this region was facingslowdown in economy affectingmillions of common people. Theseproblems in fact led to mass protestslast year which shook the entireLatin America. This year theproblems are even graver and inreaction to it, larger number ofsuffering people are hitting thestreets.
Though protests are taking placecantering round this or that issue, thefact is that it is an outcome ofpeople’s accumulated discontentagainst the mounting problemswreaking havoc in their life.Unemployment, price rise, social andeconomic inequality, rape andmurder of women, corruption,scandals, high handedness of police-administration, human rightsviolation etc. are prompting thepeople to take to the streets.
Through devious methods,different bourgeois governments inthe region are trying to curb the rightof people to protest. Using coronapandemic as an excuse, they aretrying to stifle democratic institutionsand prevent social movements.Police are unleashing a spate ofviolence in the name of protectinglaw and order. Some of the LatinAmerican countries have the highestrates of police killings in the world.The levels of violence and extra-judicial killings are shocking to saythe least. Levels of crime againstwomen in Latin American countriesare also among the highest in theworld. Instead of criminal courts,
military tribunals deal with the casesof crimes by police.
Amidst all these odds the silverlining in the dark clouds of vitiatingsocio-political atmosphere has beenthe spurt in people’s protests.Students and youth are playingcommendable role in the streetbattles. Another matter of immensesignificance is the ever-increasingnumber of women participating inthese movements.
In Chile, lockdown protestsescalated to street demonstrations indefiance of quarantine in mid-July.There were multiple grievances:poor administration of the “Food forChile” initiative, a buckling healthcare system, and demands thatpeople be allowed to withdraw partof their pensions (to which thegovernment had formally agreed).The Chilean security forces areagain being criticized for humanrights violations. They raped,tortured, blinded and run over peopleand threw a protestor off the bridgeinto a river. These were the samepolice force responsible for humanrights violations following massprotests in 2019, which left 30people dead and more than 100blinded by rubber bullets. Chile andColumbia, which are confronted withthe problem of increasing economicinequality, are raising the demand,which range from pension reformsto health care reforms.
In Brazil, over 3000 reportedlydied in police operations during thefirst half of 2020. A metro fare hike,which has since been cancelled,sparked nationwide protests lastweek which have left hundredsinjured. More than 1,400 peoplehave been arrested — 614 inSantiago and 848 in the rest of the
country. This protest snowballed intoa greater movement againstgovernment austerity drive to cutdown spending for people’s welfare.The government’s dismissiveattitude toward Covid-19 hassharpened already polarizedenvironment. A survey showed thatprotests were up by one third in thefirst three months of the pandemiccompared to the preceding quarter.
In Colombia, similar policebrutality leading to death of severalprotestors sparked outrage. Studentsat the National PedagogicalUniversity in Bogotá had occupieduniversity campus demandingcancellation of university fees. Mostused to work in the informaleconomy to make ends meet.
In Mexico, hundreds of womenhit the streets on InternationalWomen’s Day protesting violenceagainst women and demanding rightto life without being abused anddecriminalization of abortion. InMexico around 10 women are layingdown their life every day on anaverage confronting police brutality.Systemic killing of women ishappening since several decadesand it has been so severe that it ledto the coining of the wordfeminicide as a socio-legal term forthe deliberate killing of women, andits codification as a serious crime.
Panama saw a wave of protestsfew months ago, largely by the poorand jobless complaining that incomesupport promised by the governmentwas not reaching them. Medicalworkers there protested shortages ofstaff and equipment, as they did inMexico.
The deep recession in Argentinawith a debt of more than 100 billiondollars foreign debt has sparked
peoples uproar. In October 2019,thousands of people rallied inMexico, Peru, Guatemala, ElSalvador, France, Spain, Chile,Brazil, Bolivia, Honduras, Colombia,Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay andCosta Rica in solidarity with thestreet protests in Argentinademanding an end to the killing ofwomen, misogyny and sexualviolence.
In Ecuador last year, left-leaningstudents and common peoplesuccessively pressurized theirgovernment to restore gasolinesubsidies. Recently, defyinglockdown, people marched in protestagainst government’s cut to jobs andsalaries. Last year, 4 out of 10people had a full employment. Nowwith the pandemic the job markethas collapsed.
Last month, the UN EconomicCommission for Latin America andthe Caribbean and the World HealthOrganization projected the regionaleconomy would contract by 9% thisyear — adding 18 million people tounemployment rolls.
“The fallout from the pandemicis going to worsen basic inequalitiesand act as a catalyst for furtherunrest,” the group’s Latin Americananalysts wrote in June. “Anescalation of unrest is inevitable,while the question over its intensitylingers on.”
It is a positive sign that peopleare realizing that their governmentsare not trustworthy when it comes toprotecting their interest. But at thesame time they should also realizethat these protests can be taken toits logical culmination only whenthese are led on the anti-capitalistlines by a correct revolutionaryleadership.
TMC-led miscreants vandalize Party bookstall in Moipith, West BengalOvercoming all odds posed by Covid 19
pandemic and strictly maintaining healthprotocols, our Party took initiative to carryout ideological campaign by organizingbookstalls throughout the state during the festiveseason.
But regrettably, on 23 October, the book-stallat Nagenabad in Moipith, South 24 Parganasdistrict, was vandalized by a group of miscreantsbelong to ruling TMC who had earlier brutallykilled Comrade Sudhangshu Jana, DistrictSecretariat Member of the Party two monthback. But the local comrades and poor commonpeople of the area stood up courageously andrebuilt the stall and resumed selling books.Similarly, a bookstall at Budge Budge Bawaliarea in the same district, the TMC-led ruffiansthreatened that no stall would allowed. Theyeven went to the house of the Party LocalSecretary, a veteran comrade, and warned thatthe stall should be closed after 5.30pm. But therealso, the comrades with the help of enraged
local people continued the stall upto 9 pm. Thesecowardly acts on the part of the ruling partyhave been widely condemned by one to all andthe revolutionary audacity of our comradesreceived praise and appreciation from right-
thinking masses at large.Comrade Chandidas Bhattacharjee, West
Bengal State Secretary, SUCI(C), in a statementissued on 24 October vehemently condemned theattacks and threats.
Vandalized stall at Moipith, South 24 Parganas Re-built stall at Moipith
PROLETARIAN ERA NOVEMBER 1, 2020 PAGE MIME
A Glimpse of the Latest Position of Horrific Hunger,Starvation and Malnutrition in India
“India has ranked 94 among 107nations in the Global Hunger Index2020 and is in the ‘serious’ hungercategory. Experts have blamed poorimplementation processes, lack ofeffective monitoring, a siloedapproach in tackling malnutrition andpoor performance by large states.Latest paper, titled Affordability ofnutritious diets in rural India,arrives at the conclusion that‘malnutrition is endemic in India,’based on information on rural foodprice and wages gleaned fromthe 2011 National Sample Survey.The writers use this data to arriveat “the least cost means ofsatisfying India-specific dietaryrecommendations…and assess theaffordability of this diet relative tomale and female wages for unskilledlabourers.” In spite of the fact that,“in 2015-16 some 38% of preschoolchildren were stunted and 21%were wasted, while more than halfof Indian mothers and children wereanaemic,” the paper finds that“surprisingly few” discuss the roleof diets, particularly the affordabilityof nutritious diets in India.
Among stiff problems that lend
themselves to the appalling dietscenario in rural India are lowwages and the significant structuralproblems facing India’s agriculturalsector, the paper posits. In spite ofcosts of diet increasing in the periodbetween 2001 and 2011, the authorsof the paper write that rural wageshave also increased in that time.“However, in absolute termsnutritious diets in 2011 were stillexpensive relative to unskilledwages, constituting approximately50-60% of male and about 70-80%of female daily wages” ofMGNREGA workers.
The paper finds that consideringthe number of dependents inaverage rural household and othernon-food expenses, “45-64% of therural poor cannot afford a nutritiousdiet that meets India’s national food-based dietary guidelines.” (Quotedfrom The Wire dated 18-10-20 andThe Hindu dated 18-10-20)
“In the past, the beneficialimpact of food subsidy has beenfrequently overestimated. There isno doubt that providing wheat at Rs2 per kg instead of the market rateof around Rs 30 per kg involves a
very substantial subsidy, but what isoften missed in the discussion is thatthe amount of subsidised wheat (orrice) which is provided lasts only forabout 12 days in a month and for theremaining 18 days, wheat has to bepurchased at the market rate. If it ispoor quality, contaminated wheat, asoften happens in ration shops, thenafter cleaning subsidised wheat mylast for only 9-10 days in a monthand for remaining days (over two-third) wheat (or rice) has to bepurchased at the market rate.Hence we have to carefullyconsider the actual impact ofschemes involving subsidised andfree food on hunger andmalnutrition. Here various aspectsof this issue are examined.
The food budget is only part ofthe total budget of all essentialneeds. The total budget for allessential needs maybe twice thefood budget in a village or thrice thebudget in a slum. It can be more orless, depending on severalcircumstances and how we defineessential needs. However, theimportant point to note here is that asignificant percentage of people in
our villages and slums are notassured of a daily wage or incomewhich can be sufficient for just thefood budget.
A farmworker too would earnless than this in many states. Aconstruction worker may get a littleless or a little more, but employmentwill be available for only 15 days orless in a month on average. For thisreason, it is not the wage rate butthe average income per day whichmatters and this is generally lessthan the household food budget.When both husband and wifetogether then, of course, householdincome increases but often wages offemale workers are lower withoutany rational basis.
Keeping in view the low andrecently decreased incomes ofworking-class people and also thelarge numbers of people affected byadverse weather conditions, weshould not lower our guard againsthunger and malnutrition. Widerefforts to reduce these issues shouldstill continue to get high priority”.(Quoted from an article by BharatDogra in The Wire dated 10-07-20)
North-East in the vortex of movement against anti-people policies
AIDSO, Ttripura protesting against MBBS fee hike
Agartala, Ttripura
Sonitpur, Assam
Darrang, Assam
Cachar, Assam
RNI No. 13932/67P. R. No. KOL / RMS /145 / 2019-2021PAGE TEN NOVEMBER 1, 2020
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF : PROVASH GHOSH
Edited & Published by Asit Bhattacharyya from 48 Lenin Sarani, Kolkata 700 013 and printed by him at Ganadabi Printers and Publishers Private Limited, 52B, IndianMirror Street, Kolkata 700013. Phone : 2249-1828, 2265-3234 E-mail : [email protected], [email protected], Website : www.sucicommunist.org
Party Book Stalls in various parts ofWest Bengal during the Autumn festival
Kolkata
Shyamanagar, North 24 Parganas
Budge Budge Bawali, South 24 Parganas
Movements across the states against anti-people,anti-worker, anti-peasant policies and price rise,
fee hike, crime against women etc.
North Bengal Medical College, Siliguri
Bhopal - AIDSO and AIMMS protest against growing crime on women
Sonipat, Haryana, signature campaign by AIDSO against anti-education policy
Delhi against various anti-people policies, price rise, New Education policy etc.
Observance of Martyr Pritilata Day in Agartala, Tripura
All India Kisan Khetmazdoor Sangathan (AIKKMS)
in a statement issued on 26 October 2020 extended
whole-hearted support to the All India Strike call on
26 November by the ten central unions and different
employees’ federations against anti-working class anti-
peasant policies of Modi government