CHARU MAZUMDARR
From Liberation, September-December 1970, with minor corrections made in the next issue of the journal (January-March 1971, p. 96).
Today the peasants’ armed struggle has spread to every district of West Bengal and is gaining in strength every day. The peasants of Naxalbari have seized rifles from the police at Magurjan[1] and have thus raised the struggle to a new stage. What has taken place today in Naxalbari will happen tomorrow throughout West Bengal. No force on earth can stop this onward march of history. That is why it can be said emphatically today that the peasants’ armed struggle has struck firm roots in the soil of West Bengal: no force is today strong enough to uproot it. The guerrilla war waged by West Bengal’s peasantry is causing panic not only among the rulers in Delhi but also among the imperialists of the world. It is by snatching rifles at Magurjan that the People’s Liberation Army of West Bengal’s peasantry has emerged. All the guerrilla squads of poor and landless peasants in West Bengal are today contingents of this People’s Liberation Army led by the Party. So, we announce today that the People’s Liberation Army has been formed in West Bengal. For every region and area, commanders should be elected. The commanders should be attached to the respective Party Committees and should implement the decisions of the Party. Everyone should obey the commanders in respect of the Party’s military affairs. Commanders should be elected from among poor and landless peasants. Guerrilla war loses its purpose if people’s political power is not established while guerrilla war is waged. The peasant’s guerrilla struggle is the peasant’s political struggle, the peasants’ struggle for establishing political power. Today when the People’s Liberation Army of the peasantry has been formed in West Bengal, the task of establishing the peasants’ political power has assumed the greatest importance. The poor and landless peasants’ Revolutionary Committee under the leadership of the Party will be the first stage of that new revolutionary government. Without the formation of this Revolutionary Committee, the revolutionary power of the masses cannot develop in the course of the advance of the revolutionary struggle and its setback.
The tasks of the Revolutionary Committee are : to seize the lands of the landlords who have fled away and to redistribute them with the active help and cooperation of the broadest peasant masses; to try to improve the system of production; and to make such arrangements that production is not hampered even during the severest repression. The Revolutionary Committee should also assume the responsibility of defending the peasant masses from the hands of the gangsters belonging to different political parties who enter the area on the plea of restoring peace; that is why the village militia should be formed. Efforts should be made to settle the disputes among the peasantry by means of arbitration. The enemy spies should be found out and proper punishment should be meted out to them. All these tasks are to be carried out with the active help and cooperation of landless, poor and middle peasants. Every member and unit of this Party must obey the directions of this Revolutionary Committee. The work of the Revolutionary Committee must not be interfered with except in the case of a serious deviation. Only thus will the Revolutionary Committee acquire its prestige.
The People’s Liberation Army has been formed in West Bengal: Establish the revolutionary political power. Only then shall we be able to reduce the laws of this reactionary government into waste paper, to establish the people’s political power, to lay the foundations of a New Democratic India. That is why this task is the most sacred task-the most important task—before the Party cadres today.
December 7, 1970
Note:
1. Magurjan, which is in the district of Purnea in Bihar, is close to the Naxalbari area. ‘The North Bengal-Bihar Regional Committee of the Party functioned in the entire area comprising Siliguri and parts of the West Dinajpur and Purnea districts.
