Written/Delivered: December 8, 1966 (6th document)
The Party leaders after long imprisonment, after the Party Congress, for the first time had a session of the full Central Committee. The central leadership of the party which was formed through struggles against revisionism, adopted an ideological resolution and declared bluntly that all the criticisms made against the Indian government by the great Chinese Party were wrong. At the same time they have stated in the resolution that criticism of Soviet revisionist leadership should not be made public now, as otherwise the people’s faith in socialism will decrease. That is, the mask must not be torn off the attempt that is being made by the Soviet revisionist leadership in collaboration with the US imperialism to establish world hegemony.
The leader of the Great Chinese Revolution, the Communist Party of China, and its leader Com. Mao Tsetung, are leading today the proletariat and revolutionary struggles of the world. After Lenin, Comrade Mao Tsetung has today filled Lenin’s position. So the struggle against revisionism cannot be carried out by opposing the Chinese Party and Com. Mao Tsetung. The purity of Marxism-Leninism cannot be maintained. By opposing the Chinese Party, the Indian Party leadership has forsaken the revolutionary path of Marxism-Leninism. They are trying to pass off revisionism by putting it into a new bottle. So Party members should understand this clearly today that in the struggle against revisionism, this Party leadership is not at all our comrade-in-arms, not even an associate.
Soviet revisionist leadership in collaboration with the US imperialism is today trying for world hegemony. They are acting as enemies of every national liberation movement today. They are trying to establish the revisionist leadership by splitting the revolutionary parties and are shamelessly acting as agents of the US imperialism. They are today the enemies of the people’s liberation struggles in every country, enemies of the revolutionary struggles, enemies of revolutionary China, even the enemies of the Soviet people. So, no struggles against American imperialism can be made without carrying out an open struggle against this Soviet revisionist leadership. It is impossible to lead the anti-imperialist struggle if it is not realized that the Soviet revisionist leadership is not a partner in the anti-imperialist struggle. The party leadership, far from following this path is rather trying to convince the people through different writings that the Soviet leadership, in spite of a few mistakes, is basically opposing the policies of the Indian government, and is still moving along the path of socialism. That is, they are trying to conceal in a cunning manner the fact that the Soviet leadership is transforming the Soviet Socialist State into a capitalist state gradually and that the Soviet-American collaboration itself is because of that.
So, in the political and organizational analysis of India during the last two years, there has been no mention of imperialist, particularly American imperialist interference, although from Johnson to Humphrey, all the representatives of US imperialism have repeatedly declared that they will use India as a base against China. Such an important question did not come to the notice of the Central Committee at all. So in the political and organizational resolution, no word of caution has been uttered for party members against the imperialist counter-offensive. On the contrary, after reading the entire resolution it appears that there has been no particular change in the situation; that in some cases rigours have increased and they can be fought through ordinary movements. The Party leadership is absolutely silent about the new feature in the struggles during the last two years — the expression of revolutionary violence against counter-revolutionary violence — this new emerging trend of mass movements. They posed the questions of mass movement in such a way that the simple conclusion that follows from it is that our main aim during the coming elections will be to establish a non-congress democratic government. In no part of their resolution it was mentioned that this election was being held to hide the exploitation and indirect rule by imperialism. The reactionary government of India through this election wants to spread constitutional illusion and behind that, under imperialist instructions wants to build up our country as a counter-revolutionary base of South East Asia, and wants to stem the resistance of the people by violent attacks on the revolutionary sections of the masses. The experience of Indonesia has taught us how violent today dying imperialism can become. It was the responsibility of the Party leadership to prepare the Party members to face this situation and to hold up clearly that the only way was revolutionary violence and to organize the entire Party on that basis. The leadership of the Indian Party not only did not do this work, but it has also made any talk about revolutionary resistance illegal within the party.
The party leadership is raising the hue and cry of adventurism whenever it hears about “revolutionary resistance” or “armed struggle”. But at the same time they indiscriminately use the words “dehoarding of stocks,” “gherao,” “continuous strike,” etc. But whenever there is any talk about resisting the repression that invariably follows these struggling tactics, they regard it as adventurism. The slogan of “State-wide continuous strike” is nothing else but a petty-bourgeois like ultra-Leftist slogan. On the one hand this ultra-Leftist slogan and on the other, in regard to the political question, a desperate desire to forge unity in the electoral field which means acting as an appendage of the bourgeoisie.
So this Party leadership is refusing to take the responsibility of the democratic revolution of India and as a result of that they are resorting to the cunning tactics of modern revisionism, that is, the path of being revolutionaries in words and an appendage of the bourgeosie in deeds. So the revolutionary party can come up only through the destruction of the present party system and its democratic framework. So to abide by the so called ‘form’ or “constitutional frame work” of this party, means to render Marxist-Leninists ineffective and to co-operate with the revisionist leadership.
So from the party leadership to the ordinary workers, all those who believe in Marxism-Leninism, must come forward before the party members with the revolutionary views of Marxism-Leninism. Only then we can start work on building the revolutionary Party. The Indian government has been forced to retreat in the face of the India-wide mass outburst. As a result, the scope of democratic movement has increased in the period preceding the elections. The government is organizing the counter-revolutionary forces in this period. The revolutionary forces also will have to take full advantage of this apparently democratic atmosphere. The fighting tactics adopted by the masses during the recent mass movements, were nothing but “partisan” struggles of an initial stage. So the revolutionary forces must lead in an organized manner those “partisan” struggles and before the massive counter-revolutionary offensive starts, Party members must be well-trained in the tactics of these struggles through theories and concrete application.
The meaning of the Party Activist Groups today is that they will be “combat units”. Their main duty will be political propaganda campaign and to strike against counter-revolutionary forces. We should always keep in mind Mao Tsetung’s teaching — “Attacks are not for the sake of attacking merely, attacks are for annihilating only”. Those who should be attacked are mainly: (1) the representatives of the state machinery like police, military officers; (2) the hated bureaucracy; (3) class enemies. The aim of these attacks should also be the collection of arms. In the present age these attacks can be launched everywhere, in cities and in the countryside. Our special attention should be paid especially to peasant areas.
In the post-election period, when the counter revolutionary offensive will assume a massive character, our main base will have to be established in the peasant areas. So immediately now, we shall have to clearly put up before our organization this view that with the development of sense of responsibility among working class and revolutionary petti-bourgeois cadres, they will have to go to the villages immediately. So with the development of the sense of responsibility among the working class and petty bourgeois cadres, they will have to be sent to the villages. In the period of counter-revolutionary offensive, our main tactics of struggle will be that of Great China, the tactics of encircling the cities with villages. How fast we can silence the counter-revolutionary offensive depends on how soon we can build up the people’s armed forces. It is true that in the beginning, we can achieve some success, but in the face of massive counter-revolutionary offensive, we shall have to retaliate in the interest of self-preservation alone. Through this long-drawn difficult struggle, the People’s Revolutionary Army will grow up — the army which is inspired by political consciousness, and made firm through political campaign movements and encounters. Without this type of an army, it is not possible to make the revolution successful, it is not possible to protect the interests of the masses.
Comrades, instead of running behind spontaneous movements, partisan struggles will have to be developed in an organized manner today. Not even six months are left. If we cannot begin this struggle within this period, we shall have to confront the difficult task of organizing in the face of imperialist attacks.
