Contribution of CP of India [En]

Speech of Com. K. Narayana, Secretary, National Council, CPI

Dear Comrades,

At the outset let me express our sincere greetings and gratitude to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam for hosting this important international meeting of the Communist and Workers Parties of the world. This is the first time that the international meeting of the Communist and Workers Parties is taking place in a Socialist Country which has a revolutionary history of defeating three imperialist powers to liberate their country. We salute the people of Vietnam for their achievements.

Dear Comrades,

When we are meeting in Vietnam the international situation is getting more complex and in this context the theme of our meeting “Capitalist crisis and imperialist Offensive-Strategy and tactics of the Communist and Workers Parties, in struggle for peace, workers’ and people rights, socialism” is very timely and we hope the outcome of this meeting will be very meaningful in our common resolve to fight against the twin attacks of neo-liberal offensive and imperialist aggressions.

Dear comrades,

The XXI century entered its second decade with an unprecedented economic crisis that is the specific crisis of finance capital in the very citadel of imperialism, the United States of America, that resulted in deep crises in the national economies of developed and developing countries. India is no exception. The present regime in India also is step by step surrendering to the dictates of International finance capital.

In the wake of disintegration of the erstwhile Soviet Union and collapse of socialist countries in eastern Europe it was proclaimed that history has come to end and the only path of development is capitalist path. They propounded the theory of globalization, privatization, and liberalization. What actually meant by this mantra was a total freedom for maximization of profits by all means and a license to loot natural resources in any part of the world. As finance capital has neither national character nor grooming in industrial activity, it was bound to be brutal and inhuman in all its endeavours. We witness it in its manipulation for pliable regimes by means of war, fratricide, civil war and ethnic and sectarian clashes and ruthless promotion of right wing political forces and dictatorial regimes.

We are witnessing rightward shift in the policies of most of the countries, particularly the member countries of European Union. Rightist forces have ascended to power in most of these countries. The new rightist ruling cliques are taking measures to suppress the rising protest movements against neo-liberalism. In the crisis-ridden countries, the trends of fascism and racism are on rise. Rightist parties in almost all EU countries have adopted racist slogans and hate campaign against migrants as the main electoral plank.

To keep their control on natural resources, USA and its allies are militarily intervening in regions and countries by sparking conflict among neighbours are propping up disruptive movements that lead to civil strife. The nascent Arab Spring movement has been totally thwarted.

Dear Comrades,

Capitalism, has been striving hard in vain to convert the entire world into a society where material and spiritual production is governed by the market laws of deriving maximum profits and accumulation of capital. Attempts are consistently being made to turn everything into a commodity, money being the main criterion in the relationships among people. With such moves, the International Finance Capital has been assigned an enhanced role to exploit and subjugate others for the very survival of capitalism. Unbridled exploitation of human and natural resources has become the order of the day ignoring the harmful consequences for the life of future generations and for the environment. As finance capital tries to strive and establish its monopoly in all segments of society, it is promoting consumerism and a concept of debt based economy. Debt based economy is the main stay of the finance capital.

As the neo-liberal crisis deepened the whole system has increasingly depending on the ‘Super exploitation” of impoverished workers in the developing countries including India. The exploitation generates massive surplus value for MNC and domestic big businesses. Outsourcing, contractlualisation and casualization, which help deployment of cheap labour to maximize profits have grown enormously, and neoliberal capitalism depends upon them for its existence and survival. Neoliberal globalization in practice is imperialism without colonies.

In its bid for monopoly and to overcome the present crisis of finance capital, conflicts, wars, aggressions and rivalry among nations are being promoted. In Middle East, In Iraq, Libya and Syria. As a result of the direct and indirect intervention of the imperialist powers, these countries are suffering the horror of civil war. Like Al Qaeda, the ISIS was also initially groomed by the American intelligence agencies and that has turned into a monster. It has occupied certain parts of territories in Iraq and Syria. With oil fields under their control, they pose a serious threat to the entire region. Saudi Arabia and Qatar that had actually financed and helped ISIS on behalf of USA are now facing the threat from their own progeny.

In Latin America US and their allies are doing their best to destabilize the elected progressive governments there. The recent developments in Venezuela and Brazil are the example of their aggressions.

In Europe to the atmosphere of Cold War is looming large due to the aggressive policies of NATO and EU towards assertive Russia.

The development in Asia-Pacific region is becoming more complex. Unprecedented imperialist military build-up, plan for building up NATO like alliance in Asia with the increasing presence of US army, the stationing of nuclear weapons in South Korea, the build-up of these forces in South East Asia, the South Pacific, the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, along with this a number of regional conflicts are persistently exacerbating the situation in the region. Present tension between India and Pakistan is one such example.

Another negative development is growing influence of the religious fundamentalist and terrorist groups. The imperialist agencies already have successfully used religious fundamentalism and terror as a tool, to divide the communities on religious line and destabilized normal and friendly relations among the countries. The people of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India too are the victim of such policies.

Dear Comrades,

History shows that imperialism has always been thriving on arms race which is not a war-deterrent. It only leads to war. Only a handful of monopolies and war mongers are interested in the arms race. In the capitalist countries, the people constantly demand that military expenditures be reduced and the funds thus released be used to improve the living conditions of the masses. In each country, it is necessary to promote a broad mass movement, against growing threats of war.

At present attempts are being made to isolate the labour, mounting fierce inhuman attacks on the rights of workers, youth, students and women. New stooping lows in exploitation are being created by imperialism to dominate over the nations and exploit natural resources and human labour. Thus while on one hand capitalism has ensured a high level of consumption for a small group of countries, it has consciously created new contradictions between peoples and nations. The contradictions are growing everywhere in the world with the passing of every single day and has been deepening the economic crisis all over.

In today’s world the gulf between the rich and the poor is widening. Working people have been deprived of most of their social, economic and civil rights. As the systemic crisis deepens there is a growing popular indignation and resentment against capitalism and imperialist meddling into the affairs of independent nations. Hence the present-day need is to mobilise the widest possible sections of population including trade unions, workers, peasants, women, youth, students and all other activists who accept an anti-imperialist programme into a single popular front against imperils atrocities, often spearheaded by rightwing forces in developing countries including India.

Dear Comrades,

Indian communists and especially the Communist Party of India are in the forefront unleashing mass struggles to defeat the designs of imperialist circles and their henchmen in our country. The general public and the working masses no doubt have created history in the developing countries including ours to arrest though not fully the accelerated onward march of those anti-people, anti-democratic forces. In our country the ruling clique is using all divisive tactics so that the people’s attention from the real socio-economic issues can be diverted.

Our Party congress has described that the present government as “The new government represents the combination of corporate capital, right wing ideology and rabid form of communalism”. For the first time, a rightwing communal government with fascistic tendencies has come to power, posing serious threat to the secular-democratic set-up of our country.

The CPI in coordination with other left and democratic forces is conducting the campaigns to counter the ideological offensive of the ruling clique of corporate capital and religious communalism, the party is also engaged in widespread struggles, working class, the peasantry, the rural workers, women, youth and students. On 2^nd September, 2016 a countrywide general strike was organized by all the major trade union organisations unitedly. Over 180 million workers, both organized and unorganized took part in the strike. An essential part of the economic policies of Narendra Modi government is to deprive the working class of all its hard-won trade union rights. The prime minister and finance minister are repeatedly assuring that their government is committed to “industry friendly” and “investment friendly” labour law reforms.

Our universities have become the battle ground of ideological struggle, as the governmental is trying to impose its fascistic ideology there.

All these struggles have opened new vistas for a much bigger alliance of Left and Secular democratic forces in the country.

As the right wing forces devise covert and overt means to win over the masses and thereafter implement their anti-democratic and anti-people hidden agenda, the ideological issues become more significant. A determined offensive on the ideological front needs to be re-launched with added vigour against the pernicious influence of reformism making earnest attempts to disseminate among the masses the dynamic laws of social advancement, democratic freedom and scientific socialism.

As has been established by now unchallenged, Marxism-Leninism is a great integral revolutionary doctrine, the lodestar of the working class and working people of the whole world at all stages of their great battle for peace, freedom and a better life, for the establishment of the most just society. Its great creative, revolutionizing power lies in its unbreakable link with life, in its continuous enrichment through a comprehensive analysis of reality. It must be noted here the ideology of Marxism-Leninism alone has helped the accomplishment of every success in the socialist countries and by the international Communist, working-class and liberation movements.

Dear Comrades,

I wish to draw your attention to the necessity of joint struggles of the communist and workers parties. Last few years we could organize some joint actions but that is not enough. We have to coordinate more in this regard.

In this context the broadening and strengthening of the international democratic mass organisations like WFTU, WPC, WFDY, WIDF is becoming issue of paramount importance. We do believe that these organisations can play very important role against the twin attacks of neo-liberalism and imperialism. We can promise that our Party will do its best to strengthen these organisations.

Dear Comrades,

Within few days the whole world is going to commemorate the 100 years of Great October Revolution. We believe that the relevance of the great October revolution and its lessons are still valid in 21^st Century. This historic occasion in our opinion, will provide us ample opportunity to strengthen our resolve to develop science of Marxism-Leninism for charting the path to Socialism based on specific historical conditions, its history, tradition, culture, social composition and level of development, as well as the particular characteristics and features of our respective countries.

With this wish, let me allow once again to express our greetings and gratitude to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam for hosting of the 18^th meeting of the Communist and Workers Parties in Hanoi and providing wonderful hospitalities to the delegates.

Long live the fraternal relations of Communist and Workers Parties.

Thank you for your kind attention.