CHARU MAZUMDAR
From Liberation, Vol. III, No. 3 (January 1970). The translation has been revised
The people of India, exploited by the reactionaries, both foreign and native, have been living for ages under the rule of darkness. No ray of light illumined their path to liberation. Driven to exasperation by insufferable misery, they have repeatedly risen up in futile bursts of anger and resentment. But ruthless repression by the state apparatus forced them to accept bitter defeat every time. And then, like a crash of spring thunder exploded the Naxalbari struggle in 1967. people all over India listened to its reverberations and tried to understand its significance, its message. The revisionist leadership of the Party had repeatedly asked them to believe that the Thought of Chairman Mao Tsetung was unsuitable for India, that armed struggle could not be waged in India, and that any talk of armed struggle would lead to the destruction of the people’s fighting organizations. And then, the people, who were being harangued like this, saw for the first time the application of Mao Tsetung Thought in Naxalbari. This helped them to understand that invincible Mao Tsetung Thought can not only be applied in India but is the only road to their liberation.
The year 1969 has ended. It has been a year of victorious advance of the exploited and oppressed masses of India. It was during this year that the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) was formed, the Party that represents their hope and their trust. They refuse to be mute victims of oppression any longer. They are relying on Mao Tsetung Thought and have organized their own guerrilla forces in order to retaliate against every act of oppression. To kill men has so long been an exclusive privilege of the ruling classes. The exploited and oppressed masses of India have now deprived them of this monopoly and become active in avenging every attack of the enemy.
During 1969 the peasant masses of India have won big victories, spread their struggle to extensive areas and thus brought confidence among the masses. They have spread their struggle to almost every state of India, from Assam to Punjab, to Andhra and Orissa. In this revolutionary war the masses had to sacrifice the lives of a number of heroes. The death of every hero has, however, served to fan the flames of hatred in the hearts of the oppressed masses, and hundreds of youths have come forward to join the struggle vying with one another to lay down their lives for the cause, and the peasant masses have repeatedly pleaded with the CPI(M-L), the Party which is dear to them, to carry on the struggle and not to stop it. This instruction, given by the masses, has filled the minds of revolutionary workers with confidence in the inevitability of victory and given them the strength to march onward more resolutely. This, in turn, has enabled more and more masses of peasants to adhere still more firmly to the path of armed struggle, and the struggle has spread to still wider areas.
The lessons of 1969 are : rely on the poor and landless peasants; educate them in Mao Tsetung Thought; adhere firmly to the path of armed struggle; build guerrilla forces and march on along the path of liquidating the class enemies; only thus can the tide of struggle advance irresistibly.
Today, the militant peasant comrades in every area are studying Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung and trying to apply the same. We must raise the level of such study and application and carry the fight against revisionism to the masses. Only thus will the revolutionary tide engulf wide areas; and our struggle will spread wave upon wave.
The year 1970 holds the promise of still bigger victories. We can translate that promise into reality if the members and cadres of our Party give prominence to politics, raise their political consciousness, carry on a ruthless struggle against all wrong and revisionist thinking, strengthen their faith in the revolutionary masses and in the Party, undertake to make still more sacrifices to serve the people, and take upon themselves the responsibility of spreading the flames of revolution to every state of India. Do not forget even for a moment the unendurable sorrows and miseries the people of India have to suffer. You must take upon yourselves the task of ridding them of the sufferings, and the only way to fulfil this task is to make revolution. Study Mao Tsetung Thought and try to apply it creatively; make war on revisionist thinking and learn to hate all thinking that overestimates the strength of the enemy.
Chairman Mao is today the helmsman of world revolution. The brilliance of his correct guidance illuminates also the path along which we must advance. No matter how arduous the struggle is, every revolutionary must be firm today in the conviction that we possess the weapon with which to make the impossible possible, and that victory will certainly be ours.
Long Live the Indian Revolution!
Long Live Chairman Mao ! A long, long life to Chairman Mao!
December 29, 1969.
